The same is true of many of this year’s most important breakout rappers — DaBaby, Blueface, Megan Thee Stallion, NLE Choppa and others — who understand that in an era in which social media and streaming are interwoven amplifiers, playing a character is as important as making great music. Being loved (and sometimes laughed at) on social media — see 6ix9ine, Lil Pump and other anime characters of the SoundCloud era — is just as important as any song. Creating micro-moments that fans can organize around may be the most robust currency of all.

This is true even of the most technically skilled rappers of the current generation, DaBaby and Megan Thee Stallion. DaBaby’s impressive new album “Kirk” just debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart. But just a couple of years ago, he appeared at South by Southwest wearing a diaper, planning to go viral. When he performed his breakout hit, “Suge,” at the BET Awards this summer, he appeared onstage in a muscle shirt, looking like a pumped-up Popeye. His compact toughness is a frequent subject of memes: There’s one that likens the shape of his head to a PT Cruiser, another that shows a furiously stomping Topsy Cat and reads “DaBaby on his way to beat somebody” up .

Megan Thee Stallion’s entry into the meme slipstream has been slightly less direct, but no less effective. Her catchphrase “hot girl summer” birthed endless tweets, Instagram captions and memes. And Megan leaned into the phrase, releasing a song with that title in August, and successfully applying for trademark protection for the phrase.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles rapper Blueface helped structure this pathway during the supernova that was “Thotiana,” one of 2019’s biggest yet most evanescent rap songs. As he was becoming a rap star, he was becoming a bigger viral sensation, nailing a few signature gestures — mopping the floor, slicking his eyebrows — that became easy memes. And he’s proven adept at maintaining a spot in the social-media conversation, even if he’s been less present on hip-hop radio, as seen in his recent public discussion about his throuple home life.