Hip-hop studies have historically centred on issues of the ‘street’ or virtuosic lyricism and flow, foregrounded as evidence of the ‘seriousness’ of the genre. While these have undoubtedly been valuable theoretical approaches, the prominence of social networking in the 2010s (with its vast implications for communication and identity politics) has sculpted a generation of rappers whose vocal style and self-representation disintegrate prior assumptions about hip-hop identity. These artists, who have flourished in tandem with the rise of streaming services, have been disparagingly dubbed ‘mumble rap’ by traditionalists owing to the apparent indecipherability of their vocals and a lack of emphasis on observational or poetic lyricism. In this article I argue that this myopic label undervalues the groundbreakingly post-verbal nature of the music being created by these rappers, and highlights the innovations of mumble rap, exploring the centrality of social media, memes and streaming to its existence while critically examining its protagonists’ unconventionally stylised vocals. After analysing the impact of streaming, information overload and audience participation (through social media hype and memes) on contemporary hip-hop, I survey the growth of melodic Auto-Tuned vocals and repetitive lyricism in the work of pioneering mumble rappers such as Future, before turning to an extended examination of Atlanta's Young Thug, whose controversially malleable vocal style, which prioritises experimentation with vocal textures while confounding the rules of hip-hop flow, is mirrored by his impulsive exploitation of social media and androgynous fashion sense, establishing him as the most revolutionary archetype of so-called mumble rap.

中文翻译：

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“每次我自己穿衣服，它都他妈的像病毒一样传播开来”：Young Thug 喃喃自语中的后言语流和模因炒作

嘻哈研究历来集中在“街头”或艺术大师的抒情和流动问题上，作为该流派“严肃性”的证据。虽然这些无疑是有价值的理论方法，但 2010 年代社交网络的突出地位（其对沟通和身份政治的巨大影响）塑造了一代说唱歌手，他们的声音风格和自我表现打破了先前关于嘻哈身份的假设。这些随着流媒体服务的兴起而蓬勃发展的艺术家，由于他们的声音明显难以辨认以及缺乏对观察性或诗意的抒情性的重视，被传统主义者轻蔑地称为“喃喃说唱”。在这篇文章中，我认为这个短视的标签低估了这些说唱歌手所创造的音乐的开创性后语言性质，并强调了 Mumble rap 的创新，探索了社交媒体、模因和流媒体对其存在的中心地位，同时批判性地审视了它的存在。主角的非常规风格的歌声。在分析了流媒体、信息过载和观众参与（通过社交媒体炒作和模因）对当代嘻哈音乐的影响之后，我调查了在诸如 Future、在转向对亚特兰大的 Young Thug 进行扩展检查之前，他有争议的可塑声乐风格，优先考虑人声纹理的实验，同时混淆嘻哈流的规则，