History
Among the immediate precursors of rage are beats made by Mike Will Made-It, beats made by Dun Deal and C4 for 1017 Thug by Young Thug and beats by Metro Boomin and Southside from the mid-2010s. Metro produced Future's 2015 song "I Serve the Base", which has been described as an early rage track. [10] Abo Kado, writing for Mikiki, suggested that rage beats primarily evolved from the production styles of Pierre Bourne, Maaly Raw and F1lthy, all of whom integrated trap music and synthesizer melodies in their beats, derived strong influence from video game music, and also worked closely with rappers Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert. The production style of Pierre Bourne and music of Lil Uzi Vert were, in turn, influenced by the music of Wiz Khalifa and producer Sledgren, who sometimes incorporated video game samples in their music and were, in turn, influenced by early attempts to fuse European synthesizer-based music with hip-hop and contemporary R&B during the 2000s by Polow Da Don and others. [11]
Playboi Carti has often been suggested as either an originator or primary popularizer of rage, [12] [2] [1] laying the foundation of the genre on his 2018 album Die Lit , [1] [7] mostly produced by Pierre Bourne. [13] It's also often suggested that the foundation of rage has been laid with Playboi Carti's Whole Lotta Red album, released in late 2020 [14] [15] [16] [17] [6] and mostly produced by F1lthy. [11] Despite its initially mixed reception by fans, the album would come to largely define the genre, with much of what came after either heavily influenced by or trying to directly replicate the album's style. [1] [18]
The genre's popularity and breakthrough is also attributed to the 2021 single "Miss The Rage" by Trippie Redd featuring Playboi Carti. [7] [11] Along with "Whole Lotta Red", "Miss The Rage" was influential in the rage subgenre, with multiple producers and rappers adopting the style after the single was released. [4] Rapper Mario Judah went on to release his re-produced version of "Miss The Rage", since the main loop for the instrumental of "Miss The Rage" was based on a royalty-free melody loop. [4] Trippie Redd later went to on to solidify the subgenres popularity from "Miss The Rage", releasing the primarily rage album, Trip At Knight and expressed his fascination with rage rap. [14] [8] [19] [11] Popular rapper Drake, who's tactic is often to showcase little known subgenres and styles in his albums, [20] released the rage-influenced track "What's Next", in early 2021 on his EP Scary Hours 2 . [7] The instrumental from "What's Next", produced by Maneesh and Supah Mario, has been repeatedly likened to tracks from "Whole Lotta Red". [20] [21] [22] "What's Next" reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Playboi Carti's record label Opium has been an influential force in the genre, with artists such as Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, & Homixide Gang signed to the label in addition to Carti himself. [1] The label has had several notable rage releases, such as Ken Carson's 2021 album Project X and Destroy Lonely's 2022 mixtape No Stylist , which have had commercial success and have received a positive reception from fans, as they continue to push the genre to the mainstream. [14]
SoFaygo is another early adopter of the rage sound. [12] His late 2020 single "Off the Map" has been described as either closely resembling rage rap or being a proper rage song. [4] [8] [11] After releasing "Off the Map", SoFaygo went to collaborate with Trippie Red on "MP5", a track from Trip At Knight, and with Lil Yachty on "Solid". [11]
Later in 2021, thanks to TikTok, [23] underground rapper Yeat started releasing a more chaotic and dark version of rage rap, noted for abundant use of bell samples, after multiple of his songs ("Sorry About That" and "Mad About That" among them) became popular on the platform. [7] [14] [12] [3] After becoming popular on TikTok, Yeat's music was noticed by the likes of Lil Yachty and Drake. [14] [12] After that, Yeat went on to release two rage albums in 2021 and 2022, titled Up 2 Me and 2 Alive , showcasing his signature darker rage sound. [7]
Although rage has been referred to as "formulaic" and been deemed a "probable dead-end subgenre" by some critics, [14] [7] many lesser-known rappers emerged, using rage in their music, sometimes in experimental fashion, among them artists like SSGKobe, [24] Ken Carson, TyFontaine, Snot, [25] Cochise, [26] KayCyy, [26] Ka$hdami, [12] and others. [7] KayCyy performed his rage-influenced "OKAY" single to a mere chiptune-influenced synth loop, disregarding trap beat altogether. [7] Matt Ox, an experimental rapper, has also been described as a "rager" for releasing rage tracks such as "Live It Up". [27] Rapper KanKan's RR album from the late 2021 has been described as heavily influenced by the rage sound, [24] Yung Kayo, Young Thug's protege, was noted for mixing rage with hyperpop and pluggnb, along with other influences, on his 2022 DFTK album. [28] [29] [25]
Rage has also made its way to Europe. Lancey Foux, a British rapper partly influenced by Playboi Carti, [30] [5] released the album Live.Evil in late 2021, which contained rage elements mixed with UK hip hop. [31] [5] Foux' earlier mixtape, FIRST DEGREE, was also described as containing rage elements. [32]
