'Mumble Rap'

[ceb420]

I've seen a few people criticize Funeral for being "mumble rap."

To me, "mumble rap" is what certain people (usually people not from the south) call southern rappers when they rap in their natural dialect.

In the mid 2000s, Wayne incorporated a lot of east coast hip hop into his style with the way he spit and enunciated words. My theory is that a lot of people that discovered and liked Wayne during that time couldn't or didn't adjust when he switched his style up.

Thoughts?

[ym9191]

I wouldnt say Its mumble rap...

[KnockMeOut]

I think this is true. I also think people are exaggerating the amount of "mumbling" on Funeral. I can see why people might want him to enunciate more but it's not a big deal to me. I find it more interesting than the no effort style in 2012, for example.

[Dr.Carter 23]

I call it moan rap

[jsharma17]

It's not mumble rap because there is substance to what he's saying. Munble rap has grown to encompass artists like nle choppa where you can understand what they are saying but have no substance.

[ceb420]

I think this is true. I also think people are exaggerating the amount of "mumbling" on Funeral. I can see why people might want him to enunciate more but it's not a big deal to me. I find it more interesting than the no effort style in 2012, for example.

Yeah 2011-2013 was definitely my least favorite era for wayne.

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It's not mumble rap because there is substance to what he's saying. Munble rap has grown to encompass artists like nle choppa where you can understand what they are saying but have no substance.

If you're from where they're from it's easier to understand what they're saying though.

[Tha Mobb]

Funeral definitely not mumble rap. A lot of songs have that mumble rap flow so that's why ppl might be calling it that but as someone already mentioned, there's substance to what he's saying even in those "mumbling" songs.

Honestly when listening with good speakers I can hear most lyrics lol ppl be complaining for no reason

[Shake]

I call it moan rap

I take it you dont like Funeral then

[fuckregistering]

mumble rap?

first step you need to take is stop associating with complete drop kicks.
second step is to think for yourself

[Nuper Nocte]

If you're from where they're from it's easier to understand what they're saying though.

I live in the South and I understand about 80-85% of the words of "mumble rap" songs when I hear them. It's partly a dialect, started in the South, and it shanks me when people hate on Southerners because of how we talk. I know other people "mumble rap" these days, but it mostly came from the South. Sometimes it feels like back when Outkast won the best new artist award and they were in New York and they got booed because they were Southern.

"At the Source Awards, in 1995 Outkast was honored with the award of Best New Artist and was booed by a region-hating New York crowd as they accepted their award. Dre famously said “the South got somethin' to say” grabbed the award and walked offstage."

[fuckregistering]

I live in the South and I understand about 80-85% of the words of "mumble rap" songs when I hear them. It's partly a dialect, started in the South, and it shanks me when people hate on Southerners because of how we talk. I know other people "mumble rap" these days, but it mostly came from the South. Sometimes it feels like back when Outkast won the best new artist award and they were in New York and they got booed because they were Southern.

"At the Source Awards, in 1995 Outkast was honored with the award of Best New Artist and was booed by a region-hating New York crowd as they accepted their award. Dre famously said “the South got somethin' to say” grabbed the award and walked offstage."

Boo'd for being southern?
They was boo'd because it was in the heat of east vs west and on that night alot of shit went down.
Anyone who won wouldve been boo'd somewhat.
If west won. East Boo'd
If east won. West Boo'd
If anyone else won then they all Boo'd

It wasnt at them for being Southern.
It was at them for not being East Or West.

[Nuper Nocte]

Boo'd for being southern?
They was boo'd because it was in the heat of east vs west and on that night alot of shit went down.
Anyone who won wouldve been boo'd somewhat.
If west won. East Boo'd
If east won. West Boo'd
If anyone else won then they all Boo'd

It wasnt at them for being Southern.
It was at them for not being East Or West.

OK, whatever. We saw it WELL different in the South and so did almost all the journalists and musicians who were there or who covered it.



But it's OK - we then took over the music business for the next 15 years or so and made a Godzoodle of money, so it all turned out cool.



The Source:
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Hip Hop market was primarily dominated by artists from the East Coast and West Coast, with Los Angeles and New York City generating major artists and receiving most of the attention. In the 1980s, cities down south began to pop up on the Hip Hop map, with artists like The Geto Boys being the first from the south to gain widespread popularity. Houston became the epicenter for Southern Hip Hop, but states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee also delivered successful acts like 2 Live Crew and rising rap groups such UGK and 8 Ball & MJG.
By the 1990s, Atlanta had become a powerhouse in southern Hip Hop, with OutKast being the first Southern artists to sell albums like the major acts on the East and West coasts. But when the group was honored with the ‘Best New Rap Group’ Award at the 1995 show in the middle of an ongoing West Coast-East Coast rivalry, the crowd proceeded to boo them. Three Stacks wasn’t having it, saying: “But it’s like this though, I’m tired of them closed minded folks, it’s like we gotta demo tape but don’t nobody want to hear it. But it’s like this: the South got something to say, that’s all I got to say.”
The group then went on to dominate, and let everyone know Hip Hop was alive everywhere, and still is.

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Sounding Out!:
A recap of that night, in which Christopher “Kid” Reid and Salt-N-Pepa presented OutKast their award. Upbeat and playful, Kid says “ladies help me out” to announce the winner, but there is a distinctive drop in their enthusiasm when naming OutKast the winner of the category. The inflection in their voices signifies shock and even disappointment, with Kid quickly trying to be diplomatic by shouting out OutKast’s frequent collaborators and label mates Goodie Mob. The negative reaction from the crowd was immediate, with sharp and continuous booing. Big Boi starts his acceptance speech, dropping a few colloquial words immediately recognizable as proper hip hop – “word” and “what’s up?” Over a growingly irritated crowd, Big Boi acknowledges that he is in New York, “y’alls city,” and tries to show respect to the New York rappers by crediting them as “original emcees.” Big Boi recognizes he is an outsider, his southern drawl long and clear in his pronunciation of “south” as “souf,” yet attempts to be diplomatic and respectful of New York. There is also a recognition that where he is from, Atlanta, is also a city: his statement, “y’alls city,” is not only a recognition of his being an outsider but a proclamation that he, too, comes from a city—except it’s a different city.
Big Boi’s embrace of Atlanta as urban challenges previous cultural narratives of southerners as incapable of maneuvering within an urban setting. Because of a long-standing and comfortable assumption that the American south was incapable of anything urban (i.e. mass transit, tall buildings, bustling neighborhoods and other forms of communities), beliefs about southerners’ perspectives remained aligned with rural – read ‘country’ and ‘backward’ – sensibilities incapable of functioning within an urban cultural setting. These sensibilities often played out in longhand form via literature or in popular black music, with focus on dialect and language standing in as a signifier of regional and cultural distinction.

It is important to note that André’s rally called to the entire south, not just Atlanta. This is significant in thinking about southern experiences as non-monolithic, the aural-cultural possibilities of multiple Souths and their various intersections using hip hop aesthetics. OutKast moves past their rejection at the Source Awards via their second album ATLiens (Atlanta aliens), which offered an equal rejection of hip hop culture’s binaries. The album’s use of ‘otherworldly’ sonic signifiers i.e. synthesizers and pockets of silence that sounded like space travel – embodied their deliberate isolation from mainstream hip hop culture. Still, OutKast didn’t forget their rejection, sampling their acceptance speech in the final track from their third album Aquemini titled “Chonkyfire.” The brazen and hazy riffs of an electric guitar guide the song, with the recording from the source appearing at the end of the track. There is a deliberate slowing down of the track, with both the accompaniment and the recording becoming increasingly muddled. After André’s declaration “the south got something to say,” the track begins to crawl to its end, a sonic signifier of not only the end of the album but also the end of OutKast’s concern with bi-coastal hip hop expectations. Sampling their denial at the Source Awards was a full-circle moment for their music and identities. It was a reminder that the South was a legitimate hip hop cultural space.

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HipHip DX:

Much like Kanye’s bullshit GRAMMY tirade about artistry (as if our Lord and Savior Beyonce needs someone to lobby on her behalf…twice), it’s easy to let the temperamental outbursts of the 1995 Source Awards fool you into missing the show’s real highlight. Yes, Suge Knight walked on stage and took an obvious shot at Puffy by saying, “Any artists out there wanna be an artist, and wanna stay a star—Don’t have to worry about the executive producer trying to be all in the videos…all in the records, dancing—come to Death Row.” Since Knight seems to be continuing his history of what could generously be called poor decision making some 20 years later, I can’t say we learned anything from his statements. No, the highlight was a brief statement by Andre 3000 made under a cascade of boos after OutKast won the New Artist Of The Year award:


“But it’s like this, though… I’m tired of folks—you know what I’m sayin’—closed minded folks. It’s like we got a demo tape and don’t nobody wanna hear it. But it’s like this. The South got somethin’ to say. That’s all I got to say.”


I think Andre’s statement forced a large portion of Hip Hop to look in the mirror and acknowledge sleeping on an entire region. Groundbreaking music was being made below the Mason-Dixon Line, but much like the GRAMMY committee has done, various critics and fans overlooked innovative material in favor of more popular or commercially successful fare. You don’t need a history lesson to know how things turned out from there. ‘Kast sold tens of millions of albums and inserted themselves into the conversation for the greatest Rap group ever. Today, Southern Rap is still as dominant as ever, and the rearview mirror of history paints ‘Dre’s dignified diatribe as a jumping off point.

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