from Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap “Crisis”
Theorizing African American Music Series | Oxford University Press | August 2025
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“I need to drop my album before ‘they’ start singing & mumbling again. #inspiration . . . #InspiredByTheGreats #TheClothImCutFromIsDisContinued #MakeRappersRapAgain.”
—Remy Ma, X (2019)
Through a series of “notes to self” and “notes to the reader,” the introduction of Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap “Crisis” narrates my journey from noticing mumble rapper Young Thug in 2013 to deciding to write this manuscript five years later. Subsequently, I introduce the primary argument, Mumble Rap is real Hip Hop, then delineate the significance of my methodology, discourse analysis. In conversation with additional “notes to self” and “notes to the reader,” I necessitate the study in my examination of the beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, as well as recent albums released by 21 Savage, Future and Metro Boomin, and Young Thug. Last, I call for a reconsideration of Hip Hop’s commitment to situated analyses, as well as more precise attention to the ways scholars understand and name themselves in Hip Hop Studies.
The Songs
The Videos
The Images
Dr. Heidi R. Lewis 