Dec 9, 2025Kendrick and Drake to a lesser extent are easily both top 5 artists (not rappers) in the genre
- Dec 10, 2025·2 replies
I don’t think it’s just one thing.
I think the whole “scaring the hoes” narrative on any introspective or lyrical/wordplay rapper that started in the 2000s discouraged a lot of serious content and moved everyone towards making “bangers” and “party music”. And not that those songs are bad but you need some balance. Hip hop always lended itself to more introspective topics over other genres because the words were bigger part of the song. You can really expand on topics and thoughts more than other genres and a lot of that got stripped out.
People really started mocking that whole “real hip hop” idea hard as the genre started to get more mainstream and discouraged people from making that type of music. You got called “corny” for it.
I think the loss of regional sounds is another big factor. I think it took a lot of the culture out of the music. Everything is so homogenized now.
When labels started advanced huge sums of money to these artists a lot of them lose perspective. It used to be yeah you could make some money rapping but you weren’t just totally brought into the world of millionaires where you could just stunt all the time. That watered down some subject matter.
Streaming turned music into pure fast food consumption too.
There’s so many different things that have happened. You could write a book on it.
OPDec 10, 2025bigmike0123I don’t think it’s just one thing.
I think the whole “scaring the hoes” narrative on any introspective or lyrical/wordplay rapper that started in the 2000s discouraged a lot of serious content and moved everyone towards making “bangers” and “party music”. And not that those songs are bad but you need some balance. Hip hop always lended itself to more introspective topics over other genres because the words were bigger part of the song. You can really expand on topics and thoughts more than other genres and a lot of that got stripped out.
People really started mocking that whole “real hip hop” idea hard as the genre started to get more mainstream and discouraged people from making that type of music. You got called “corny” for it.
I think the loss of regional sounds is another big factor. I think it took a lot of the culture out of the music. Everything is so homogenized now.
When labels started advanced huge sums of money to these artists a lot of them lose perspective. It used to be yeah you could make some money rapping but you weren’t just totally brought into the world of millionaires where you could just stunt all the time. That watered down some subject matter.
Streaming turned music into pure fast food consumption too.
There’s so many different things that have happened. You could write a book on it.
We need that book ASAP.
But yeah, what’s surprised me is I thought back then there would be more Coles and Kendricks coming through, and there just isn’t. Rappers who can actually spit bars, innovate sonically, and have mainstream appeal. I believe if a new rapper were to come through with those skills, they would still get a lot of attention.
If I take myself back to when Cole and Kendrick were coming up, people were really looking for someone who fit that mold, and there was a lot of excitement for them. I believe that’s why Wale was receiving attention, because he came up before Cole and Dot. After Cole and Dot went mainstream, Wale was barely in the conversation and lost his buzz.
Dec 10, 2025cus kanye left
Dec 10, 2025Time to call up the doctor for the diagnosis.
Dec 10, 2025bigmike0123I don’t think it’s just one thing.
I think the whole “scaring the hoes” narrative on any introspective or lyrical/wordplay rapper that started in the 2000s discouraged a lot of serious content and moved everyone towards making “bangers” and “party music”. And not that those songs are bad but you need some balance. Hip hop always lended itself to more introspective topics over other genres because the words were bigger part of the song. You can really expand on topics and thoughts more than other genres and a lot of that got stripped out.
People really started mocking that whole “real hip hop” idea hard as the genre started to get more mainstream and discouraged people from making that type of music. You got called “corny” for it.
I think the loss of regional sounds is another big factor. I think it took a lot of the culture out of the music. Everything is so homogenized now.
When labels started advanced huge sums of money to these artists a lot of them lose perspective. It used to be yeah you could make some money rapping but you weren’t just totally brought into the world of millionaires where you could just stunt all the time. That watered down some subject matter.
Streaming turned music into pure fast food consumption too.
There’s so many different things that have happened. You could write a book on it.
Mainly streaming yes
