Mumble rap sucks

I think the issue is not mumbling though. Can you really say that desiigner's panda is less deep than wiz khalifa's black & yellow or roll up? Or that anything by pitbull is actually hip hop? Or that anyone is less hip hop than kreayshawn?

There has always been shitty pop rap, and there probably always will be. Within that, mumbling is a new trend, but mumbling doesn't make them bad, they're bad to start with.

Before mumble rap, a couple years ago, it was autotune. That was a huge deal in hip hop. Autotune was cool for 2 minutes and then everyone was shitting on it just as hard as they are on mumble rap right now. It was the end of real music, etc. Most of those autotune rappers were making the same crappy unlyrical shit. Now I can't name any of those guys. don't even remember. and it was less than 10 years ago.

The thing is, nowadays if you throw some autotune on a track, nobody cares. The fad is over, and decent rappers can get away with using a bit of it as a stylistic choice and nobody minds because we all know they have other talents and won't use this shit on every song, and the track is deeper than some fad.

Mumble is going to be like that. 5-10 years from now, nobody will give a shit if you mumble your way through a verse. J Cole or Kendrick will drop a couple mumbley tracks on their 10th album that are kinda nostalgic of the mumbledays, but still full of lyricism, and we'll all love it.

TL;DR: we hate mumble because it's the current fad among the shit rappers, who will always exist. In a few years good artists will be able to use a bit of mumble as a stylistic choice and it won't be a big deal.

Great lyricism should always be important in hip hop, while with most mumble rap (all mumble rap I've heard atleast) talk about the same shit: drugs, money and hoes.

And all those old songs about killing gangsters and cops? Drugs? I guess all those weed-loving rappers aren't real Hip-Hop either, since all they talk about is weed, weed, and weed.

that no one understands anyways

First off, somebody understands it. I can't, but there are people that do. Second, how many old rappers were shut down by Classic-Rock loving parents who belittled the genre by saying "I can't even understand what they're saying!"

Straight up, you sound like the people who shit on Hip-Hop to begin with. You complain that you can't understand it and it's only about glorifying negative topics.

I don't like mumble rap. Not my thing. Still not gonna call it trash. I'm just gonna go find some shit I do like.

I don't understand how people can enjoy mumble rap. And I'm not talking about the beat, rather how people enjoy some dude rambling on about some stupid shit that no one understands anyways.

The first thing to understand is that lyricism isn't the primary draw for a lot of listeners. It's all about the sound for many people. Now you've already noted here that you get how people might like the beat, but don't understand why they'd want to listen to stupid lyrics on top of a good beat.

What I think you may be missing is that a vocalist doesn't just contribute lyrics -- their voice is part of the sound. This is less obvious with rap than it is with traditional singing, but it's still there. To take a non-mumble example, Kendrick Lamar is known for using a variety of different vocal styles: nasal, growling, cracking, etc. Each of these contributes something different to the track.

Now take this track by Young Thug. The lyrics are hard to understand, and I'm pretty sure they're dumb anyway. But that's not the point. The point is the sound of his voice and how that complements the instrumental. You may not like how it sounds -- it's definitely not for everyone -- but you have to admit that it would be a totally different song if you took the same instrumental and put a more traditional rapper like, say, Jay Z over it.

I always thought of mumble rap as the early Punk of hip hop. It's loud, it's about partying and doing drugs, it doesn't make much sense, and the fashion is WILD crazy.

You gotta remember that it's hype music. It's not much different from the Crunk music of the 2000s. It's meant to be played, blasting from a big car or in a club or at a party.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QeI_aHM3Xuw

A song like this isn't supposed to be that deep or meaningful. It's just a banger. And as you said, it should be a different genre? Well it mostly is. These guys aren't the same as Kendrick or Cole.

"Mumble Rap", or "Fast Rap", or just rap where the person is rapping way beyond the standard speed of normal speech is often considered more as a showing of talent via exhibition than it is to be taken via the "standard" criteria of well-made/performed rap music. Eminem's Rap God is arguably the most famous example of this; about 4 and a half minutes in (I'm on mobile so I can't link anything at the moment), you can see/hear him rapping at a point where the average person generally would find him unintelligible.

That being said, he's not trying to show his lyrical talent as much as his physical talent, which is currently a large part of the "rap game", with artists like Bustah Rhymes, Busdriver, and Tech N9ne becoming quite famous for their abilities. If you're trying to get into the genre, Exhibition Rap is not a good place to start; its designed to be the metaphorical fentanyl to the "rap addict"; the next paradigm-shifting thing.

For me personally, the mumbling is more about the artists using their voice as more of an instrument that can synergize with a great beat. It's more about the cadences and rhythms of the mumble, rather than the lyricism. Just my 2 cents.

Do you like listening to "fast rappers" like Tech n9ne? The same case could be made for them. That no one can understand what they're saying so it's trash.

Perhaps to people who don't listen to rap, mumble rap can be hard to understand. I don't listen to much mumble rap but when a new Young Thug song comes out I'll check it and can make out most of it.

I didn't want to bust out the whole "music is subjective hurr durr" but that's what it is. Some people prefer melody rather than lyricism. As long as it's not destroying "lyrical" rap (which it's not) there doesn't seem to be a problem.

Did you that most operas sing in Latin, and most people to listen to opera can't understand Latin. The human voice is just another instrument. You don't have to understand what they're saying to appreciate it.

Great lyricism should always be important in hip hop

Should it really? Always?

Considering how much of rap seems to be complete nonsense with words chosen not because they make any real sense, but purely because they rhyme, I really don't think rap/hip hop can really make a serious argument that "lyricism" has ever been paramount.

Yes, it's important to some of them to say things that actually make sense, but in the vast majority of cases, the sound of the words is actually what they are aiming for, not the content.

And, having just listened to several mumble rap songs for the first time, I have to say: some of them (i.e. the most famous ones that end up at the top of a youtube search) have successfully created lyrics which, though unintelligible, actually sound pretty cool.

It might not have deep meaning, but lots of music doesn't have deep meaning. It's just meant to sound good, and trigger emotional responses based on the sound. It's primarily linguistic rhythm.

Basically: rap is about using words as a music instrument. Anyone who thinks that "real rap" must only have words that make sense, as opposed to using voice as a musical instrument that sounds good doesn't seem, to me, to have been listening to the genre at all.

i have never even heard of mumble rap, can you link an example please.

Please give an example?

I think the context of when you're hearing it is a big part of the popularity of mumble rap tbh. Personally, when I'm at home or just hanging out, I prefer hip hop with more lyricism, or even R&B or Soul (where you can enjoy the artist's musicality through the singing talent, instrumentation, etc).

On the other hand, when you're at a club/bar, people aren't really 'singing along' with the tracks as much as they're just trying to dance to something that's easy to dance to. 99% of mumble rap fills that niche pretty well, since as you mentioned, the beats are really catchy, and you don't need to understand what they're saying to dance to it.

I guess this probably won't change your view that mumble rap sucks, but since lyricism is obviously an important aspect of your enjoying hip hop, it's hard to imagine that any argument will make you suddenly love it. Just trying to point out that even if it's not the genre for you, it still plays a pretty important role in the broader scope of modern hip hop.

Great lyricism should always be important in hip hop

No it shouldn't, and that's extremely subjective. With rappers like Young Thug (who I can only assume you're mainly addressing) the point of their music is anything BUT the actual lyrics. It carries the rest of the music with its other great aesthetic qualities. Namely, flow, the sound itself, silliness, etc.

What you're arguing for is basically like complaining that a Jackson Pollock sucks because a photorealistic painting is much more realistic. Both have the same goals in the sense that they're art, they just do them in different ways. One is more abstract than the other and requires you to view it from a different perspective, if you go in with the same perspective for both obviously you are going to end up being disappointed with one or the other.

The thing with mumble rap and other mainstream rap is that no its not even trying to be lyrical. It has one goal: to bang in the club. Everyone can rap along cuz you don't need to actually know the words. It's kinda fun and just sorta works for the simple goal it's trying to achieve.

Rap has been around for a while and its only a matter of time before people try to break rules and push boundaries, for better or worse. We still have our Kendricks, Danny's and Joey's. There's no use getting mad at mainstream hip hop, we are still in good hands and lyricism ain't dead

Only example of what I think you mean by "mumble rap" that I fuck with is Future, so i'll explain why I like him in specific.

A friend of mine says all the time that you could literally use a program to randomly generate words and then have future spit them over a trap beat and it'd sound good. Now thats obviously a bit much, but it relates to the point im about to make: I don't enjoy Future because of his lyrics almost ever, and I rarely fall in love with the instrumentals/beats of his music. Lyrics and beats aren't the only reason to like a rapper.

The way he rides a fucking beat is awesome. His delivery and voice just sound so good on a track, part of why I enjoy his music so much is because it doesnt really matter what hes saying. I value lyricism probably more than any other aspect in a hip hop artist, and despite not being lyrical Future can still make music I enjoy.

I literally dont give a fuck about what he's saying. He sounds good on a track, I like his flow, his voice, his delivery, and just his whole persona on general. Just the way he speaks can be mesmerizing. Something about Futures music just clicks for me, I can't really say one specific thing is why I enjoy it. I assume thats why fans of other "mumble rappers" enjoy their music too, it clicks for them. I wouldnt say Future is particularly impressive, he just knows what he does, is really fucking good at it, and does it better than anyone else.

In the immortal words of Jay-Z,

Rap critics that say he's "Money Cash Hoes" I'm from the hood, stupid? What type of facts are those?

Who do you consider mumble rap? Give like 3-5 examples for me so I can find a good angle to attack this question.

I think you, and most of the people in the thread are looking at this the wrong way. It's not for dumb people, it's not for high people, it's not the new wave of pop music. With the exception of future and one Migos song mumble rap is not very popular with the general public. The music is a rebellion. I'm not very articulate myself but Anthony Fantano has a video about this.

I've started to listen to and like to listen to reggae and I'd compare the two to being able to understand what they are saying the whole time. Everybody has tastes, art is art, blank canvas sells for millions of dollars as modern art and I don't get t but someone somewhere at least pretends to.

Rap, in general, even going back to the 80s and 90s where I think there was a bit more integrity, had garbage lyrics. I agree with OP.