“Sonically if your sh*t is wack, why am I gonna listen to what you gotta say?” says Mero during an interview with Hot 97. But music, like most of everything in life, is fluid which means clever wordplay isn’t required in order for a song to be dope-an opinion supported by VICELAND hosts and podcast sensations Desus & Mero. Respected lyricists Pete Rock and Joe Budden have been vocal opponents of the new lazy style flow that has the clubs going crazy yet leaves much to be desired where “skill” is concerned. The self-proclaimed “old heads” of hip-hop like to point to the complex wordplay and introspective subject matter of Nas, A Tribe Called Quest and Kendrick Lamar as the gold standard of excellence. Getty Images “You’re Not Mumbling, You Just Suck.” -Ebro Darden, Hot 97 So all these new age mumble rappers are doing, whether they know it or not, is borrowing from their hip-hop forefathers. But either way, it points to the old adage that there’s nothing new under the sun. Make no mistake, rapping at this speed while staying in the pocket is no easy feat. Very few of these lyrics are recognizable in the English lexicon, yet it worked. Take the former’s popular breakout single, “True Fushnick.” They actually dedicated whole bars to lines like, “The super the cola the fraja the listic expialadope Chip/When the mic is gripped in ridobidobip bip da be bong de dang, bo!” Still not convinced? Take a closer look at their otherworldly lyrics on Genius. The boom-bap instrumentals they used are worlds apart from the synthesized and irresistibly catchy trap beats of today, but it cannot be denied that those cats were literally mumbling on their songs. Ask real hip-hop heads about the rhymes of Fu-Schnickens and Das Efx. Ironically, mumble rap’s earliest origins can be traced back to hip-hop’s golden age of the 90s. Getty Images Is Mumble Rap Really A New Phenomenon? History Would Suggest Not Let’s really delve into this mumble rap phenomenon and consider what’s at the core of rap’s most hated, yet undeniable, subgenre. And just because a rapper is a lyrical beast or superconscious doesn’t mean they don’t, at times, mumble (Busta Rhymes and Eminem, anyone?). But here’s an unpopular opinion: Just because a rapper isn’t as lyrical as you’d want them to be doesn’t mean they’re mumbling. When you piece it all together, it seems everyone has drawn a hard line on what qualifies as mumble rap. When I listened back to it the next day, I was like man, what the f**k is this? But I loved it. “I remember being so f**kin’ high on this song, I couldn’t even open my mouth. In a conversation with Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg for Complex, the Atlanta rapper recalls the night he made the track… sort of. But the mumble rap conversation seems to always come back to Future and one song in particular: his 2011 trap banger “Tony Montana,” produced by Will-A-Fool. Some think the era’s Godfather is Gucci Mane, while others have even thrown Chief Keef’s name into the mix. There are several theories floating around about who actually created mumble rap.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |