THE BEYONCÉ EFFECT — PART 1 ⚡️ RAP-SINGING (Listen to the evolution of her rap-singing here)
Music critics have often credited Beyoncé with the invention of the staccato rap-singing style that has since dominated pop, R&B and rap music. Lakin Starling of The Fader wrote that Beyoncé’s innovative implementation of the delivery style on Destiny’s Child’s 1999 album The Writing’s on the Wall invented a new form of R&B.
Beyoncé’s new style subsequently changed the nature of music, revolutionizing both singing in urban music and rapping in pop music, and becoming the dominant sound of both genres. The style helped to redefine both the breadth of commercial R&B and the sound of hip hop, with artists such as Kanye West and Drake implementing Beyoncé’s cadence in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The staccato rap-singing style continued to be used in the music industry in the late 2010s and early 2020s; Aaron Williams of Uproxx described Beyoncé as the “primary pioneer” of the rapping style that dominates the music industry today, with many contemporary rappers implementing Beyoncé’s rap-singing.
Michael Eric Dyson agrees, saying that Beyoncé “changed the whole genre” and has become the “godmother” of mumble rappers, who use the staccato rap-singing cadence. Dyson added: “She doesn’t get credit for the remarkable way in which she changed the musical vocabulary of contemporary art.”
(Beyoncé is a great rapper and always has been) (What genre is Beyoncé, anyways?)
