Rage (music genre)

Rage (also known as rage music, rage rap, or rage beats) is a microgenre of trap music. Distinguishing features of rage include short looping stereo-widened future bass-influenced synthesizer lead hooks and basic, energetic trap rhythms. Among the pioneers of rage are rappers Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, and Trippie Redd.
The name of the subgenre comes from "Miss the Rage", a genre-pioneering track made in 2021 by Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti whose name references moshpits during rap concerts that Trippie Redd longed for during COVID-19 lockdowns.
In the context of the title, "rage" means "moshpit". The concept of "rages" at rap concerts and the use of the term "rage" in hip hop music predate the rage subgenre itself: the first person to use the term "rage" in context of hip-hop is said to be Kid Cudi, with his "Mr. Rager" alter-ego, which influenced Travis Scott who later adopted the term "rage" and made it an important part of his own aesthetic. During the 2010s, multiple artists and critics used the word "rage" in context of hip-hop, mostly either referring to overdriven energetic sound, or the moshpits happening at rap concerts, examples being Lil Uzi Vert's Luv Is Rage and Luv Is Rage 2 releases.
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. Abo Kado, writing for Mikiki, suggested that rage beats primarily evolved from the production styles of Pi'erre 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 Pi'erre 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.
Playboi Carti has often been suggested as either an originator or primary popularizer of rage, laying the foundation of the genre on his 2018 album Die Lit, mostly produced by Pi'erre Bourne. 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 and mostly produced by F1lthy. 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.
The genre's popularity and breakthrough is also attributed to the 2021 single "Miss the Rage" by Trippie Redd and Playboi Carti. Without an established term for its specific musical style, “Miss the Rage” was initially described as trap metal and, by Trippie Redd himself, hyperpop. Along with Whole Lotta Red, "Miss the Rage" was influential in defining the rage subgenre, with multiple producers and rappers adopting the style after the single was released. 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. 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. Popular rapper Drake, whose tactic is often to showcase little known subgenres and styles in his albums, released the rage-influenced track "What's Next", in early 2021 on his EP Scary Hours 2. The instrumental from "What's Next", produced by Maneesh and Supah Mario, has been repeatedly likened to tracks from Whole Lotta Red. "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, and Homixide Gang signed to the label. 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.
SoFaygo is another early adopter of the rage sound. His late 2020 single "Off the Map" has been described as either closely resembling rage rap or being a proper rage song. After releasing "Off the Map", SoFaygo went to collaborate with Trippie Redd on "MP5", a track from Trip At Knight, and with Lil Yachty on "Solid".
Later in 2021, thanks to TikTok, 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. After becoming popular on TikTok, Yeat's music was noticed by the likes of Lil Yachty and Drake. 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.
Although rage has been referred to as "formulaic" and been deemed a "probable dead-end subgenre" by some critics, many lesser-known rappers emerged, using rage in their music, sometimes in experimental fashion, among them artists like SSGKobe, Ken Carson, TyFontaine, Snot, Cochise, KayCyy, Ka$hdami, and others. KayCyy performed his rage-influenced "Okay" single to a mere chiptune-influenced synth loop, disregarding trap beat altogether. Matt Ox, an experimental rapper, has also been described as a "rager" for releasing rage tracks such as "Live It Up". Rapper KanKan's RR album from the late 2021 has been described as heavily influenced by the rage sound, Yung Kayo, Young Thug's protege, was noted for mixing rage with hyperpop and pluggnb, along with other influences, on his 2022 Dftk album.
Rage has also made its way to Europe. Lancey Foux, a British rapper influenced by Playboi Carti, released the album Live.Evil in late 2021, which contained rage elements mixed with UK hip hop. Foux' earlier mixtape, First Degree, was also described as containing rage elements.
Rage has been characterized as futuristic, electric and synth-driven. Vivian Medithi of HipHopDx described rage as a sound rooting in plugg music legacy with more electronic influences. Tom Breihan of Stereogum described rage beats as glitchy and as "a cheap, functional type of beat — the type of beat that seems to spring almost entirely from the "type beats" that have proliferated on YouTube in the past few years — but its cheapness is disorienting and sometimes even psychedelic". Rage is mainly characterized by the use stereo-widened EDM-influenced lead synthesizer patches, reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s game soundtracks and of trance music, used to play short, often emotional, melodies arranged in short loops which repeat throughout the song, and a basic, "dull", trap beat, accompanying these melodies, with bouncy, often overdriven, heavy and elastic 808s bass notes. These synth hooks play such a role in rage that the whole sound has been described as a "hybrid genre of trap music and EDM". Synth leads have said to be influenced by a number of EDM and electronic musicians, such as The Chainsmokers, Skrillex, Diplo, Zedd, Rustie and others. It has also been noticed, that oftentimes EDM synth hooks in rage come from pre-packaged EDM melody packs, for instance, a guitar-driven "high-octane" EDM loop from "Miss The Rage" came from the royalty-free EDM sample pack by Cymatics, called Cymatics Odyssey EDM Sample Pack. Yeat has also made it popular to use chiming bell sounds, once popular in earlier trap and drill music, in rage beats.
In terms of vocal delivery, many rappers in rage style oftentimes imitate vocal styles of Playboi Carti, although the subgenre is mainly centered around beat production style.