Emo rap took shape in the mid-2010s, taking the tortured anguish of the former and fusing it with the rhythm of the latter. The hybrid marked a dramatic shift in hip-hop, moving away from its signature bravado and toward a place of bare-bones honesty, where stories of depression, addiction, and heartbreak resonated more deeply. Using SoundCloud as a launching pad, emo rappers gathered massive followings online before they were called up to the majors. These artists also referenced songs that were once considered uncool to like in their music. Lil Peep sampled Pierce the Veil, Death Cab for Cutie, and Underoath, whereas Horse Head paid homage to Mineral. With this in mind, we asked our readers to list off the best emo rappers. Their answers reflected the genre’s wide pool, and you can find the top fan picks ranked below.
Read more: What does emo really mean? The story of the genre in 11 songs
5. NF
Coming from Michigan, NF unsurprisingly takes huge influence from Eminem, mirroring his rapid-fire flow, but that’s where the comparisons end. Our readers gravitate toward his dark, emotional style, which expresses more angst than burning rage. In the years since his arrival, he’s released a series of vulnerable albums — you may remember 2019’s The Search upstaging Chance the Rapper’s The Big Day, snagging the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 — that are guided by his unwavering faith. “I think we all have a purpose: As human beings, we need one; a reason to exist,” he said in a 2023 interview. “I think my purpose on this planet is to make music.”
4. Sueco
Early on, Sueco intrigued listeners by melding trap-influenced beats and a love of pop punk with angsty, vulnerable lyrics. They could sense that the emotional core of his music came from a real place. Years later, Sueco still sees the songs as a way to help people — just as he used music to soothe himself through heavy times. “When I was younger, there was a lot of fucked-up shit going on,” he explained in 2022. “One of the ways that I was able to deal with everything, besides creating music, was obviously listening to it and finding solace in it. When I say I want to help people, I want to help people through this, through music, the way that I felt like I was helped… Everything that I’m doing moving forward, that’s what it’s designed to do.”
3. Juice WRLD
The soundtrack of 2017 can be boiled down to a handful of rappers who built their careers on SoundCloud, particularly Juice WRLD. That year’s “Lucid Dreams” infused 2000s pop-punk heartache into trap beats, introducing a rapper who was just as influenced by Lil Wayne as Panic! at the Disco. The song simultaneously propelled him to emo-rap stardom and brought the genre into the mainstream, played endlessly on radio and on his late-night TV debut the following year. From there, he hopped on a European tour with Nicki Minaj and several stops at Rolling Loud before his passing in December 2019. His career was short, but Juice WRLD was in the very bones of emo rap — ultimately endearing him to an entire generation.
2. Lil Peep
Lil Peep, aka Gustav Elijah Åhr, was one of emo rap’s brightest stars, being called “his generation’s Kurt Cobain” by Billy Corgan. He wrote vividly about mental health, addiction, and heartbreak, overtop an intoxicating blend of emo and trap that resonated with a generation of outcasts hunting for new sounds on the internet. At the same time, Peep also expressed a deep interest in fashion, walking for Vlone at Paris Fashion Week 2017 and attending the Balmain Spring/Summer show the following year. It’s sad that we’ll never know where he was headed next, but the rapper left a legacy of thoughtful melancholy that still attracts thousands.
1. nothing,nowhere.
Back in the late 2010s, Fueled By Ramen offshoot DCD2 signed nothing,nowhere. on the strength of his grief-ridden, razor-sharp storytelling, which gained him a cult following. That came alive on 2017’s Reaper, where he merged potent vulnerability with a thumping low end. Over the next several albums, nothing,nowhere. traversed emo-rap with even more curiosity, bringing in guests like Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and KennyHoopla to show his love for the genre’s past and future. Though he now embraces a sound that lives somewhere between alt-rock, nü metal, and pop punk, emo-rap was the foundation that led to everything else.
