Emo Rap

Combining singsongy melodicism, narcotized beats, and a kind of tell-all ugliness that takes share culture to unsettling extremes, emo rap represents a shift in hip-hop values—an attitude in some ways more in tune with the self-effacing nihilism of Kurt Cobain than the street machismo of 50 Cent. The songs here can be intense, bleak, even morbid. But it's hard to talk about what emo rap is without imagining what it could’ve been: Within a few years of the sound’s passage from the underground to the mainstream, three of its most prominent faces—Lil Peep, XXXTENTACION, and Juice WRLD—were gone. Still, as dark as the music can sound, it’s also a place for soul-searching and cathartic honesty, where hip-hop’s biggest artists and its vanguard alike can wear their hearts on their sleeves. Our editors update these selections regularly, so if you hear a track you like, add it to your library.