Did Black Thought invent mumble rap?
Black Thought is known as one of the greatest MCs of all time. The Philly rapper has cemented himself as one of the best lyricists through classic Roots albums such as Do You Want More?!!!??!, Illadelph Halflife, and Things Fall Apart, to name a few. He’s also branched off as a solo artist, releasing projects like Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane & Able and collaborations with Danger Mouse and Salaam Remi.
Despite being beloved by “real rap” fans, Thought has claimed he invented mumble rap, the type of music his core fans would typically discredit. Migos and Playboi Carti have often been slapped with this title based on their sometimes unidentifiable lyrics. Still, the Roots rapper believes he started the trend many years ago.
“Lots of people are saying that I shut down mumble rap in one ten-minute setting,” he told Rolling Stone about his viral 2017 freestyle. “But that wasn’t my intention, because mumble rap – if we go back – that’s something I invented.
“I invented rapping without actually using the words. With songs like ‘Don’t Say Nuthin’, freestyles like ‘New Year’s @ Jay Dee’s‘, I essentially invented mumble rap, where you go for many bars without saying any words. And when I did it, it came from a place of being inspired by scatting.”
‘New Years @ Jay Dee’s’ was released in 1999 and appeared on the group’s Things Fall Apart album. ‘Don’t Say Nuthin’ was released five years later and featured on The Tipping Point. According to Thought, both songs exemplify how he created the hip-hop subgenre that took the industry by storm.
“I think hip-hop, the culture, is at a crossroads right now, and there’s not very much that people who are older than millennials have to identify with,” he said. “There isn’t much that’s reaching the mainstream that is hip-hop in the sense that people my age know it as, if that makes any sense. The game has changed. It’s different.
“The standards are different, the criteria that’s taken into consideration in determining validity is different. We’re at a point in history where lyricism almost comes last in very many regards. So for someone from my school, who has come from the ilk of lyricism being held in far higher regard, it brings a different sort of urgency to every performance.”
Many artists have taken offence to the mumble rap labelling, claiming it’s a cheap term that attacks their art form. Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg are among those to criticise the type of music, with Snoop saying, “I don’t know who created it, if it was Future or Migos, but all them n*ggas sound the same. N*gga had me in the studio one night tryna do that shit. I’m like, ‘Man cut this shit off.’ Fuck I’m out here doing, n*gga. I don’t rap like that.”
Despite his negative comments, he admitted, “That shit addictive, this shit it’ll get you.” And that’s precisely why the sound has been one of the most prominent since the 2010s. No matter who started mumble rap, the sound shook the system and changed hip-hop forever.