Mumble rappers find themselves constantly being accused of destroying rap. Whether Lil Yachty is fending off Pete Rock and Anderson .Paak, or Lil Uzi Vert attempting to stay in good terms with Ab-Soul, the conflicts mumble rappers are finding themselves in are providing social media entertainment for everyone to enjoy. There are many who absolutely despise mumble rap. Arguments are made that it doesn’t belong in the culture; it needs to stay far away from hip hop. Mumble rap is accused of being unintelligible, producing “unintelligent” fans where artists are perceived to be solely capitalizing on a trend and not taking their craft seriously. Lil Yachty certainly didn’t help the discussion of mumble rap belonging in hip hop with his statement that he couldn’t name 5 Biggie or 2pac songs – which only further fueled the discussion of the unimportance of mumble rappers. With all this hate, one has to question if hip hop has a space for these mumble rappers. It’s hard to just dismiss mumble rap. Rap has always been transformative; every couple years there are new trends that emerge. The truth is rap has become such a large genre with many different subgenres. From gangster rap, swag rap, conscious, auto tune, and even the westernized dancehall that rappers and R&B artists seem to be propagating this summer, rap finds its artists reinvigorating the genre from time to time, creating and adapting to new trends in sound. Sometimes these new trends create conflicts, especially when the new trend conflicts with preconceived notions on how the culture is supposed to be. What we witness is the reoccurring old school vs. new school debate of hip hop, where the elders of hip hop press the new school regarding the culture. This has been seen numerous of times: KRS-One vs. Nelly, Ice-T vs. Soulja Boy, David Banner vs. Lil B, among others. Mumble rap is one of the latest trends in hip hop that has been recently criticized by the hip hop community, with Pete Rock leading the charge.
These conflicts go beyond just the “old vs. new” in which seems to be the exterior of these beefs. Many are quick to point out that these are just OGs who are not accepting of the new school. One of the main arguments against mumble rap is that it is of a lower quality of music. As Pete Rock states in his Instagram post, “im a lil tired of people taking this culture for a joke”. In my opinion, people should just enjoy what they want to enjoy. If mumble rap speaks to you, then by all means enjoy it. It is hard to label something bad for the culture because music speaks to different tastes – and even if it is bad to you, your good artists will always exist. When Ice-T claimed Soulja Boy single handedly killed hip hop, it did not stop Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole from shining. The good and bad will always be there, just listen to what you want.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
September 2016
|