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63. Mumble Rap - Belly (2017)

Hip Hop

A skewering indictment of Mumble Rap’s rise to prominence, Belly’s 2017 mixtape finds him avoiding the tired tropes of the new pseudo-sub-genre, and instead reverting to a hyper-enunciated style of rap, chock full of clever word play and a hypnotic fluidity. With an accomplished team of producers behind him, Belly settles into a comfortable and confident groove, ruminating on his journey from obscurity to the forefront of hip hop, where he’s recently found himself in high demand. The past several years have been bountiful, featuring frequent collaborations with Juicy J and fellow Canadian The Weeknd and a guest spot on the remix to G-Eazy’s triple-platinum hit “No Limit”.

With over ten mixtapes under his belt, Belly is no stranger to the intricacies of the rap game. His experience has lent him a wise and decidedly grown-up outlook amidst a sea of childish cartoon characters inundating the internet with lazy xanax- and codeine-induced sloppiness. Already a highly respected, if under recognized contributor to the modern rap canon, Mumble Rap confirms what Jay-Z and others have known for years: Belly is a gifted lyricist with an effortless stand-alone delivery that’s not reliant upon outside contributors in order to achieve marketability. With one lone (and ultimately forgettable) feature from Pusha-T on “Alcantara”, the mixtape is a well-composed self-portrait, expertly painted by an artists that knows just how to wield the brush.

*image; cover art for the album Mumble Rap by the artist Belly