Released

Emo was never a genre that could coexist with hip-hop, and in the 2000s, the two seemed diametrically opposed. But once Drake and Kanye helped popularize a singing-rap hybrid vocal style and lyrics full of sensitivity and doubt, emo and rap inched closer together. Finally, a new wave of mid-10s rappers congregating on SoundCloud reached a singularity of the two aesthetics, and emo rappers emerged. XXXTentacion lived out the self-destructive misogynistic impulse beyond the likes of Taking Back Sunday’s wildest dreams, and he was dead before he was 21. His music wasn’t perfect, but it was borderline revolutionary, channeling ugly, raw self-pity into zonked-out hip hop. “Hope” and the number one single “SAD!” have a quiet, if dubious, power and showcased the improbable trajectory of emo to some unexpected places.

Joshua Levine