Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band which brought listeners a creative experience that revealed the artistic potential of their genre, Young Thug is introducing a new art to the world of wordless rap. Similar to The Beatles’s introduction of art to rock ‘n’ roll with their inventive and all-encompassing production of Sgt. Not only is Young Thug a cut above other mumble rappers with his high-quality beats and captivating melodies, but he is also transforming mumble rap into a creative and progressive genre. It’s that simple.” Comprehensible lyrics or not, Young Thug elicits emotion in his music, a feat that 21 and Yachty simply can’t pull off with their unrefined deliveries. His whole thing is how do I feel? How am I connected to this verse? He’s just trying to generate this feeling, and the feeling is the meaning. Grantland contributor Shea Serrano describes this ability perfectly: “In a lot of instances, Young Thug isn’t making music that you have to unravel in terms of meaning. The Atlanta mumbler has the power to make his listeners feel, so much so that his words become irrelevant. The sounds he can produce are certainly unique, but Thug’s real talent lies in what he can do with those sounds. Some love it, some hate it, but regardless, it’s unmistakable. No one can mistake the blend of pleasantly strained falsetto and eerily warbled baritone for any other rapper. The track is not your typical trap rap, and Young Thug is not your typical trap rapper. Listen to his track “Kanye West” and you can hear the difference: Thug incorporates a dynamic, syncopated beat into a song with real chord progressions and engaging instrumentation. The difference between these rappers and Young Thug, however, is that Thug supplements his lack of lyricism with artistic substance, whereas 21 and Yachty leave their listeners with a lackluster and chordless beat void of any creative inspiration. Stars like 21 Savage and Lil Yachty have made names for themselves by ditching lyricism for a more laid-back sound. Today’s mainstream rap is dominated by warbling and mumbling. Young Thug is the melody master of mumble rap, but also much more he is the saving grace of the fledgling genre. On paper, the hodgepodge of vowels and consonants reads like absolute nonsense, but on the track, Thug is able to string these relatively nonsensical sounds together to develop a melody so interesting that his voice essentially becomes an instrument. The gibberish above is my interpretation of a melody in the song “Feel It” by Young Thug.
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