I feel hip hop has never been the same since post covid. I remember in the 2010s especially leading up to covid there was so much diversity in music. You had playlist and parties going through so many different artists and styles of hip hop. The "lils" and XXL artists all were "carrying" the wave while the A list artists like the Drakes/Kendricks/Travis'/Futures, etc. still were the foundation to fall back on. Every week felt like there was some sort of new song or project that was coming out from this bucket of new artists as well as each year being sprinkled plenty with these A list artists. Now these new XXL artists are nobodies, the ones before are still holding onto some relevance and the industry is being supported by a few releases a year from these A list artists. Is hip hop really dead in terms of out reach and diversity?

Curious as to why you think Covid specifically was the catalyst? I honestly think Covid brought a lot of good to hip hop as we got a lot of good projects, revisited older projects, had versus events etc

With regards to post covid, the music landscape is not the same. Covid was interesting during the time, but since things have come back to normal the industry has changed. Artists don't feel inspired to drop like they used to

I see what you’re saying. I feel like it’s hard to pinpoint the shift in my opinion at least. It almost seems like it’s one of those things that happened so gradually that it became a new norm almost arbitrarily. I do think it’s different and although personally I am not a fan of the landscape these days I understand music goes through phases of evolution (or devolution) and ultimately it’s the youth that dictates that

A lot of the things you're talking about started before the pandemic. Particularly the loss of diversity. Non-trap beats basically disappeared from the mainstream after 2018.

I would point to sample clearance laws or regulations or whatever before just Covid happening

To me it feels like there’s not that much opportunity right now in the industry and no one takes it seriously.

But I’m probably just washed

Hip hop started going downhill mid 2010s. Everyone started sounding the same. Went from a genre of originality to a genre of copycats

I think the main discovery platform for HipHop changing did more damage than Covid

SoundCloud used to be a way to discover music and people had to listen to the whole song to find out if it was good or not

Now that TikTok replaced SC, people don’t know faces, just snippets of a song that they add to their playlist regardless if they like the whole song or not

This is more age related than strictly COVID tbh. It's been 5 years since 2020. It's a new generation and they are more interested in music primarily through the lens of other medias (tiktok, streamers) than just by itself

not really

covid,tour money drying up,tiktok,young stars of soundcloud era dying

all added up

Oh most definitely, the spotlight isn't on hip hop like what it used to be I feel

You find TikTok makes it harder for new artists to make their songs go viral? Imagine if an artist used TikTok like how Soundcloud was used, is it more or less accessible to blow up now than it was before?

SoundCloud era definitely felt like the last organic internet music discovery experience

The first 5 years of the 20’s hasn’t given us classics unlike the first 5 years of the 10’s

‘Not Like Us’ is pretty much the only classic song of the 20’s.

Well I was trying to understand specifically whether it was the catalyst. To me that’s just correlation without causation

Streaming

I think it does make it harder for Artists songs to go viral because you basically have to bait people in with content and throw your song on top of it, hoping people will listen

Like theirs this one TikTok rapper I found with a big following but his most viral videos are women dancing to his songs rather the songs themselves

Covid changed many industries.

But yeah, Rap has been down to 40% in total revenue this decade compared to 2010s and labels have been moving away from creating major Rappers. There are also way less hits and top 40 entries after Covid. It is not just a generational thing, the general audience feels overall the same.

Rap would literally not be profitable in the 2020s if it wasnt for Kendrick, Drake, Travis, Future & Tyler. They are legitimately holding the entire industry up on a mainstream and profit level.

Algorithms are shifting from Rap to a degree too. And labels have switched to supporting and finding Country, Electronic and Dancehall artists (n of course Pop but that was always aside Rap). It is not the main priority anymore, but I also don't think HipHop will fully die anytime soon. Although I do think it's going through it's last lap this decade before it fizzles out, like what happened to Rock in the 2000s. If something doesn't change.

On a personal note without all the statistics and label exec interviews jargon - I hate how not caring about the genre and not trying became popular. Before it was only like Uzi saying it to piss people off, but now it's a legit thought literally said out the mouths of most Rappers trying to be purposely mainstream.

And a sidenote: I haven't looked closely at it like with Rap, but RnB seem to be even in a sadder state atm, unfortunately.

Well said, R&B deserves more attention, what it was in the 90s was special

The hip hop industry already started to change in 2019. The pandemic just made the process faster imo

It changed everything

A lottttt of things changed the industry

Rise of conservatism being a big one for starters

Migos were both the glue and blueprint for hood music to go pop in the last 10 years. With them splitting up and Takeoff’s unfortunate death, it opened up a void that will likely not be filled for a long time. This corresponds with my last point because the timing was perfect for people “growing out of rap” to jump ship once the Migos dynasty crumbled

kinda off topic but your profile picture reminded me that Ice Spice is a post covid artist right... she got some classics fr

anyways Covid changed a lot of things but I agree with others there are other factors like streaming/tiktok/rise of right-wing politics blah blah that REALLY changed things for hiphop.