Melodic rap is a subgenre of hip-hop (specifically of Pop Rap) where, as the name implies, a rapper's flow is infused with a singing-like melody. While this style's been around in some form since at least the 1990s, it became wildly popular in the latter half of the 2000s and into The New '10s, thanks largely to T-Pain and Drake, as well as Kanye West's wildly-influential 2008 release, 808s & Heartbreak. According to the Recording Academy, melodic rap is defined as "a strong and clear presence of melody combined with rap cadence, and is inclusive of dialects, lyrics or performance elements from non-rap genres including R&B, rock, country, electronic or more." While other rap-adjacent sub-genres like New Jack Swing and Hip Hop Soul saw singers dipping their toes into rapping and/or singing over rap-styled beats, melodic rap is done almost exclusively by rappers.
The origin of melodic flows in hip-hop is actually pretty circular in origin. In the 1950s Jamaican Reggae deejay Count Matchuki pioneered reggae toasting
by listening to black American radio DJs talking jive and imitated it while playing and selecting R&B music with sound systems. He and other reggae deejays would go around with travelling sound systems playing the latest hits, and toast over them. Many of those toasts consisted of boasting, humor, and half-sung rhymes and chants, among other things. Toasting would soon spread to other Caribbean genres like ska and dancehall, and it would be a major influence on both hip-hop and electronic music later on.
Many of the most famous and earliest examples of true melodic rap came from the West Coast, particularly through the sound of Californian G-Funk and mobb music, as well as parts of Midwestern America. Artists began tinging their flows with sing-song melodies to go with the groove of G-Funk; particularly Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Domino; the latter being the first rapper to top the rap charts with an entirely melodic rap song. Nate Dogg, Snoop's cousin, is sometimes counted among them, but he's considered to be more of an actual singer than rapper. Outside of G-Funk, alternative rap group The Pharcyde combined their quirky lyrics and flow with smooth vocal melodies and Jazz Rap overtones, while the Cleveland-based quartet Bone Thugs-n-Harmony combined melodic rap harmonies with high-speed flows.
Of course, a major point of contention with melodic rap, aside from some purists considering it to be too poppy, is where the line is drawn between it and straight-up R&B. While said line has been increasingly blurred since the late eighties, thanks to new jack swing and its later spinoffs, it only became blurrier with the success of Drake from 2011 onward, whose melodic, R&B-drenched style challenged the boundary between rap and R&B music. Another point of criticism in recent times is the overuse of Auto-Tune by many melodic rappers. While T-Pain usually gets a pass, due to being the originator, as well as being a good singer who simply uses it for artistic effect, countless others who've copied him have been criticized for simply throwing Auto-Tune on their voices haphazardly, and barely singing in key or rhythm, if at all. This led to melodic rap becoming a derided component of the "mumble rap" trend in the mid-2010s and onward, but the criticism did little to stop the commercial success of Auto-Tuned melodic rappers, particularly Future and Young Thug.
In recognition of melodic rap's increased influence in the industry, the Grammys introduced the "Best Melodic Rap Performance" award in 2020; replacing the original "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" award in an effort to better recognize solo artists who perform melodic rap, instead of just rapper/singer collaborations.
See also the Patter Song, in which a light melody is combined with comedically fast and intricate lyrics. Patter songs come from the music hall tradition rather than hip-hop, but a handful of rappers (most obviously, Eminem) have made melodic rap songs inspired by patter songs.
Artists who are commonly associated with melodic rap:
- 50 Cent
- Anderson .Paak
- Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (Trope Codifier)
- BROCKHAMPTON
- Domino (Trope Maker)
- Drake (Genre Popularizer)
- Eminem explored an Ironic Nursery Rhyme version of this in the mid-2000s to fit the Subverted Kids' Show aesthetic he had at the time. His 2018 album Kamikaze and 2020 double album Music To Be Murdered By feature various melodic rap songs, though the irony level ranges between straight attempts to stay relevant, friendly satire and mean-spirited Diss Tracks.
- Encore! (2004)
- Kamikaze (2018)
- Music To Be Murdered By (2020)
- Future
- Juice WRLD
- Kanye West - Most prominent during his 808s & Heartbreak era.
- Lil Mosey
- Lil Nas X
- Lil Pump
- MC Solaar − One of the first French rappers to use that style in the ’90s and even moreso in the ’00s.
- Nelly
- The Pharcyde
- Post Malone
- Snoop Dogg (Trope Maker and popularizer), along with his crew, the Dogg Pound:
- Warren G (Trope Maker and popularizer)
- Nate Dogg - Mainly considered to be a singer, but is usually cited as a progenitor of the style nonetheless.
- Butch Cassidy - Like his cousin Nate Dogg above, is more of a singer.
- T-Pain - Like Nate Dogg, he's more of a singer, but he was responsible for kicking off the current Auto-Tuned style of melodic rap.
- Tory Lanez
- Travis Scott
- Young Thug
- Young Boy Never Broke Again
