Emo Rap: How The Subgenre Transcends its Origins

Emo was once a burgeoning subgenre of rock, on the forefront of mainstream culture. The genre left its mark on the early 2000s, as its artists’ expressed emotions in a new way. Nearly two decades later, the genre has reemerged in an unlikely form: rap music.

Written by Jayden Guzman

Lil Uzi Vert. Photo courtesy of Ralph Arvesen

Rappers have been expressing emotional sensitivity in their music since the beginning of the genre. It wasn’t until recently, however, that rappers began taking elements — both sonic and lyrical — from the emo genre, expressing emotions and feelings in a fashion that rappers never had before. This recent trend has led to the emergence of a surprising new subgenre: emo rap.

The artists that have pioneered and developed this new genre — Lil Uzi Vert, Juice Wrld, and Trippie Redd, just to name a few — are all young rappers, their careers born from the era of Soundcloud. Arguably most responsible for emo rap’s emergence into mainstream culture is late rapper XXXTentacion, whose single “SAD!” was the first “emo rap” song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. His music was characterized by lyrics marked with themes of mental health, depression, emotional pain, and at times, suicide.

Focusing on production, many of his songs featured elements of rock, most significantly the use of guitar. Some of his songs－including nearly half of the tracks on his debut studio album, 17－even featured full-fledged rock instrumentation, completely void of the digital drum patterns that define modern rap music. His vocal performances were often harsher than most rappers as well, as some songs were characterized by cathartic belting and screaming reminiscent of screamo, a style of emo rock.

Rap often depends just as much on the persona of the rapper as the raps themselves. Despite the sensitivity present in his music, XXXTentacion was aggressive and apathetic in character, found to be continually abusive of both women and gay men. While he may have done work that brought emo rap into the spotlight of mainstream culture, other rappers have used that momentum more ethically, making music that reflects their real emotions on a day-today basis.

The late Lil Peep’s music was characterized by similar themes of depression, heartbreak, and suicide. His influences included iconic figures of emo culture, such as the bands My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco, who he turned to for comfort during a lonely childhood.

Sonically, his revolutionary approach to music combined production elements of rock and rap, incorporating trap drums with heavy guitar riffs and various samples of rock songs. Dubbed “the future of emo” by Pitchfork, Lil Peep’s lyrics often combined the nihilistic themes of rap music — sex, money, and drug use — with the emotional themes of emo. Many of his songs discuss his use of drugs as a coping mechanism for his issues with relationships and the depression that plagued him with suicidal thoughts.

The sound that resulted from Lil Peep’s approach to music transcended both emo and rap, as it blended the two in a way that neither world had ever seen. While not as commercially successful as some of the other artists that have emerged from the new rap-incarnation of emo, Lil Peep’s approach to music, cut short by his tragic death, still serves as a groundbreaking precedent for the currently blossoming genre.

Photo courtesy of Lil Peep

Not only has rap music revived emo and given way to the emergence of a new, distinct compound of the two, but it has transcended both genres as well.

The influence of emo on rap — and rap’s acceptance of it — has resulted in the expression of a range of themes broader than either genre has ever possessed. The successful bridging of rap’s popular nihilistic and ego-fueled themes of money, sex, and drugs, with the seemingly contradictory themes of emo, has allowed artists to surpass the boundaries of either genre.

Stylistically, young rappers who emerge from this new blend are able to express emotionally dark themes in a way that rappers never could before, and likewise, they are able to give emo the type of sheen that makes rap so widely appealing. Furthermore, the amalgamation of the two genres’ themes, which were previously distinct from one another, now allows for the expression of emotions in a way that is fitting to the current evolution of popular culture, offering today’s youth art that appeals to many different sides of their consciousness, all at once.