Emo Rap Is Back. Here We Go Again.

"TopOppGen, a buzzing 20-year-old from Asheville, North Carolina, has his fingernails painted black, dermal piercings in, and locs almost covering his eyes. He's doing "21 Club," a song that nods to Lil Peep, XXXTentacion, and Juice WRLD, the pillars of emo rap who each died at 21 or younger in the late 2010s. The song is a paint-by-numbers pastiche of the cursed subgenre."

"You know, a sampled guitar beat that sounds straight out of Nedarb and Smokeasac's archives. Wounded, whiny melodies. Unhealthy relationships. Possessiveness. Hypermasculinity. Lyrics that directly reference depression, suicide, and drug overdose: "I do drugs and blackout/My bitch gotta make sure that I'm breathing." The uneasy feeling that it is more about the fucked-up vibes than delivering a quality song."

TopOppGen performs a derivative emo-rap track that visually and sonically invokes Lil Peep, XXXTentacion, and Juice WRLD. The song relies on sampled guitar beats, wounded melodies, themes of unhealthy relationships, possessiveness, hypermasculinity, and explicit references to depression, suicide, and overdose. The performance emphasizes aestheticized vibes over songwriting craft. Emo rap's roots span varied hip-hop expressions: Mobb Deep nihilism, Chicago drill, Three 6 Mafia eeriness, Raider Klan and Sadboys internet collectives, Future's mixtape loneliness, Kid Cudi's early wanderlust, and Deep South blues-inflected pain music. Kevin Gates' Luca Brasi 2 lyric captures misunderstood rage and isolation within that lineage.

Read at Pitchfork