Sad Rap is a thing: who is the most despondent emcee of all?

“Part of hip-hop’s allure is its expression of extremes of human emotions, balls out, with no thought of consequences or social appropriateness,” writes Kimberly Bright at Dangerous Minds. “But this year there is a new manifestation of rap, embracing the vulnerable, lonely, despondent, sad side of the psyche.” A new genre of hip-hop artists are “basing their entire image and songs around sadness,” and “boasting about being the saddest thug of all… in time-honored bombastic rap tradition they are trying to one-up each other as the master of melancholy.” Read: Tears of a Thug: ‘Sad Rap’ is a real thing.