Jim Halpert

7mo

will not be another peak until streaming is no longer the main form of music listening

Emotion

7mo

The drake vs Kendrick beef was so forced and polarizing rap was pretty much exposed as nothing more than grown men cosplaying as characters or "entertainers"

I don't think anyone in hip hop/rap cares about anything other than money. There is no more love for the music or the craft just egos and greed

During the 2000s yeah you had mfs who just were bag chasing but there were also some genuinely creative artists that could also make hits

ICEMAN KIR

7mo

people still keeping the x juice and pop smoke narrative going in almost 2026

man we gotta stop acting like these 3 were the only talents produced in the last 7 years or that they were way far above other rappers of their generation

TheFader

7mo

Lil Baby fan

shimmy

7mo

Not true however Lil baby can cook on a verse, but he lacks the ability to make a cohesive album. His best album is the collab he did with durk

shimmy

7mo

Future, Drake, Kendrick, J Cole, Chance, Mac Miller, A$ap Rocky, Schoolboy Q, Young Thug etc.

So many artists spawned or peaked around this era

Quas

7mo

Cause Kanye fell off & Kendrick drops once every 20 eons.

Abyss

7mo

Its funny how 2017 and 18 are considered great years now because for me they were already start of the slow decline

ICEMAN KIR

7mo

i don't really agree, i don't see how their (non-posthumous) albums were far ahead of their contemporaries. like if i take a juice wrld album and a trippie redd album, they feel like a similar level production and writing wise to me (though i do give credit to juice for having a better pop sensibility). i don't see those 3 making albums that were sonically, lyrically, or content-wise on par with previous generations' stars. i don't doubt that they could still be relevant but i can also imagine a world where they follow a polo g type of path.

also i know its a generic thing to say but juice and xxx music does not hit the same way once you're past your teens/early 20s.

shimmy

7mo

There was a time when mainstream rappers use to be good (2012-2018). Now everyone sounds like a yeat clone wtf is this mane

Leftside

7mo

Honestly the title should be 80% of rap

DaeHan

7mo

This will never happen lol

WRU

7mo

labels treat rap as a jump pad for their new artists to transition into the mainstream american culture as soon as possible and start bringing in dividends via business and more growth-oriented capitalist ventures, or via participation in media that is one pillar of this entire ecosystem and a market of its own

on the other hand, because the mainstream algorithm culture has entirely integrated into hip hop (or rather the other way around), there is no way to hold musicians and media people accountable for their negative cultural impact (most recently post malone) or lack of positive cultural impact (jay z). you can spark 'backlash' towards a single person but even that is an entirely mastered and harnessed aspect of the industry that wont ensure a single change

shimmy

7mo

It was a mixture of both tbh because even back when Kendrick dropped TPAB many were saying he's not top 10 because he doesn't have a catalogue etc.

Platinum

7mo

Which rappers are you referring to as mainstream now? I wouldn't say Yeat is mainstream

LordPrettyFlackoJR

7mo

Cause we allowed every other race to treat us like gimmicks, like an amused park ride
The respect is gone
The self respect is gone
The black pride is gone

Cause when u see when someone's like Kendrick drops, who takes himself and the culture very serious, u still get that real hip hop feeling and response

But we don't have many of those
If any

Everyone just like a little kid, doing antics with f***ing streamers of all people to get engagement from suburb white kids

Emotion

7mo

The drake vs Kendrick beef was so forced and polarizing rap was pretty much exposed as nothing more than grown men cosplaying as characters or "entertainers"

I don't think anyone in hip hop/rap cares about anything other than money. There is no more love for the music or the craft just egos and greed

During the 2000s yeah you had mfs who just were bag chasing but there were also some genuinely creative artists that could also make hits

Bobby_96

7mo

I personally didn't like the sudden narrative about Drake not being in "the culture."

Drake grinded from underground mixtapes and doing songs with Phonte to getting mentored by Wayne/Baby not much differently from Kendrick and Cole when they signed to Aftermath and Roc Nation. And he did more than enough to be deemed a figurehead in hip hop.

It just was a forced narrative to make him losing the beef out to be bigger than it actually was. Drake, from day one, always paid homage to hip hop legends and still does today. Even if you don't f*** with his recent output, there's no need to create revisionist history about Drake not being hip hop.