I don’t think there’s ever been a time when it was as quantifiable as it is now though

Who are the rising stars of rap talent that have a significant level of both quality and commercial success that stack up next to the next-up crop at literally any other point in the genre’s history?

In the past the argument was just “this new rap sucks rap was better when I was in high school” but at least the new rappers were finding large fanbases and connecting with a big number of people, whether it be Wayne/Kanye in the mid-2000s, Drake/Kendrick/Cole in the early 2010s, or Uzi/XXX/21/Juice in the late 2010s.

Who are the more recent artists that have debuted within the past five years that we can say that about?

The most recent one I can say is probably Pop Smoke but he unfortunately passed away

New generation was raised by iPads. Hip Hop is cooked.

Put it this way:

The biggest rap album of 2021 was by a guy that debuted in 2009

The biggest rap album of 2022 was by the same guy

The biggest rap album of 2023 was by a guy that debuted in 2013

The biggest rap album of 2024 was buy a guy that debuted in 2010

The biggest rap album of 2025 was by a guy that debuted in 2017

Compared to the 2010s, where every single year the biggest rap album was by an artist who debuted during the 2010s, except for 2010 and 2013 (Eminem)

Are we gonna have a year this decade in rap music where the biggest rap album of the calendar year is by an artist who debuted during this decade?

You mean 80s-early 2010s

Spitting

None of these guys at the top have any interest in taking cues from the younger generation besides Drake who's like annoying about it. Trav is stuck making stale Astroworld derivatives. Uzi scared to drop. Carti beats women. Labels have moved on. UK is the only place doing something exciting rn.

the only niggas from that era that were mainstream at their first tapes were Cole and Drake from that era bruh, let’s cut the s*** lmfao. niggas was getting BET pushed before having albums out. everyone else went mainstream leading into they debut albums

yes but by then Tyler had been active 6 years and went fully independent to finally break mainstream radio when he stopped doing the Loiter Squad/OF s*** post CB

Streaming , TikTok. Their Label heavily affects how most rap/rnb artist’s output music now. They don’t focus on making an “album” that’s cohesive, instead, they make songs for playlist potential, they bundle that up then re bundle it into a deluxe 2-3 weeks later

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.

we really let OP get off the yeat clones comment?
nigga really said yeat clones

this a narrow minded perspective because those same years had newer artists debut atop billboard in both song and album. Kanye and them were still the biggest in 2008-2013

Carti is a Future clone now. Yeat inherited his sons

Not saying they weren’t, but they weren’t the only dominant forces in the mainstream in the same way they are now.

Biggest rap album of 2011 was Take Care

Biggest rap album of 2012 was GKMC

Em got 2010 and 2013 but there were still big albums from the younger class coming out in those years

Where are the big rap albums by rappers that debuted in the 2020s?

because the industry went against drake

no it was Carter 4 then Take Care but it was surrounded by Watch The Throne, Jeezy, Lupe and Bad Meets Evil

…and the rest of the top list in 2012 was Nas, an almost 40 year old 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, GOOD Music

if I took enough time, I could easily make a list of every big album to drop by an artist who debuted >2018 in the last 7 years, it’s really not hard, I’ve done it before. such stats, like I said, are narrow a perspective on what’s going on lol. it’s much of the same, rap was on a down trend, pop heavy s*** 2013 into 2014 before everything pivoted again with the new class of artist late 2015. even Drake pivoted his whole persona/sound to what it is today thanks to New ATL trap and the dark s*** Travis was doing. rap just experienced another great run 2019-2023 with new artists, sounds, movements and capped it off with the biggest moment in music last year. We’re in a transition period lol, this always happens

and My Turn is literally one of the biggest rap albums of the decade if we don’t narrow our perspective to artists who blew up in the 2020s who debuted 2018/2019

and the names that are always mentioned, don’t seem to matter. Roddy has a big album. Doja has a big album. f***ing Jack Harlow has a big album lmaoo. Yeat broke through. Gunna outsold The Weeknd. Rod Wave got 4 #1s albums at big numbers. I just don’t get the hyper fixation on the numbers, s*** still moving today. we’ve literally had like 5 female rappers go top 10 billboard in song/album this decade! that’s amazing!

Plaqueboymax

Not sure what you mean by "mid-late 2000's" but this was what we got in hip hop from 2004-2009.

Outside of the ringtone slop hits, we were loaded with great projects in that era. And I don't even think the quality of the 2010's picked up until 2011 cause there were mad disappointing mainstream rap album drops in 2010 outside of MBDTF.

mainstream rap sucks ass now because it's all about the money

YB is making magic bro

You doomers been saying this for 30 years

(Fly song tho)

Literally no one was saying this in the 2010's, it was a pretty common take that there were plenty of new talented artists leading the culture

In the 2000s there was that whole thing with Nas saying "Hip-Hop is dead" but even he said he didn't think that, he just used it as a concept since he saw the divide between generations and regions starting to spark that conversation. There were a s*** ton of talented and commercially successful artists at that time though

This time its wayyyyyy different. Its literally to the point that we cant name anyone that is both an elite talent and commercially dominant and in their 20s. That has never been the case.