Melodic Rap

Melodic rap is the dominant commercial hip-hop mode of the streaming era, in which rappers sing their verses in Auto-Tuned melodic lines over trap production, dissolving the boundary between rapping and R&B singing. Early landmarks run from *Nelly*'s sing-rap hits through *Drake*'s confessional crooning on "Take Care" to the emo-inflected generation of *Juice WRLD*, *Lil Baby*, *Polo G*, and *Rod Wave*, whose gospel-soul melodicism carried the style into the 2020s. Melodic rap favors hooks, emotional directness, and piano- or guitar-led beats, and it defines the sound of mainstream rap after 2015.