Mumble rap has grown on me as a over the years with artists such as 21 Savage and Desiigner stumbling their way both into relative coherence and into my heart.

These artists may not be deep or insightful, but the men can make songs, and damn catchy ones at that. But you see, there’s a slight flaw in my praises, they stop there.

Take Kodak Black for instance. His songs are consistently solid due to the fact that they aren’t all that different. Utilizing extremely similar beats and essentially the same wheezing flow, his songs never truly disappoint, but they also never really jump of the page.

At lyrical rock bottom, the Floridian rapper warbles out lines such as: “I’m the shit I’m fartin. I know how to potty.” I’ll let that one speak for itself. At its upper echelons, Kodak’s lyricism is significantly better, because, well, if it wasn’t, I would be slightly concerned about where our society is at.

Ultimately, truly good music has a duality, it is both great in its’ sound and lyrically impactful. Although rappers such as Kodak Black have thoroughly achieved one of these categories, they are desperately lacking in the other. This has produced a genre that may be great to throw on during a car ride with some friends today, but that has a treacherous path towards any historical significance.

David Bix ‘20 reflects these ideas stating, “Kodak is able to consistently master a certain sound but simply is not a great rapper due to subpar lyricism. He makes very popular and hype music. While, many can’t relate to his lyrics, many will recognize, listen to him, and enjoy.”