mumble rap
nounEtymology From mumble + rap. First coined by hip hop artist Wiz Khalifa in 2016 during an interview.
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Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A microgenre of hip hop with mumbling or unclear vocal delivery by artists, and may generally refer to rappers who do not share the genre's typical emphasis on lyricism.
- Derided by some, artists such as Future and Migos have been wildly successful mumble rap artists.2018, Nick J. Sciullo, Communicating Hip-Hop: How Hip-Hop Culture Shapes Popular Culture, page 40:
- "Mumble rap" is the most active and vigorous scapegoat rap has had in years, in part because the internet — particularly social media — has created a landscape for it to thrive and be a hotly debated topic, engaging in the ideas of language and whether or not rappers should have to adhere to them, or whether or not this so-called mumble rap is actually pushing the genre forward, past some of its bowing to establishments.2019, Hanif Abdurraqib, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, page 201:
2 more examples
- The logical culmination of this tendency is today's mumble rap, featuring rhythmically monotonous phrasal and verbal repetition, strongly auto-tuned and, in some cases, literally mumbled.2020, Macklin Smith, Aurko Joshi, Rhymes in the Flow: How Rappers Flip the Beat, page 256:
- There was an exciting proliferation of punk rap, mumble rap, emo rap and trap-influenced SoundCloud artists.2020, Adrian Besley, Billie Eilish: From e-girl to Icon, Michael O'Mara Books, →ISBN: