Who gives a fukk about the top 40 chart outside of artists trying to chart ?? I listen to what i like. Idgaf if its not charting on the top 40. Hell idgaf if its not charting on the top 1000.
For the first time since 1990, there are no hip hop songs in the Billboard top 40
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K.O.N.Y
Superstar
Did a rapper not just do the Super Bowl and launch a STADIUM tour
It’s not that serious
It’s not that serious
Kiyoshi-Dono
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zerorequiem
All Star
There’s a difference between hip hop and rap. Most of our greats have never won any kind of Grammy or other accolade. Ever since the rap game was co-opted it was downhill. Mfs these days like rappers that you have to read their lyrics to understand what they’re saying.
The War Report
NewNewYork
Look at the music that the rappers of the golden age listened to and look at what these new generation rappers grew up listening to and you tell me what stands out.
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murksiderock
Superstar
Hip hop isn't dead, bit its stagnant and white people, as a whole, are losing their taste for it. Which matters if the conversation is about "charting" or "sales", because white people are the majority of the paying consumers, and white people are the ones that control all these entities that funnel black artists mainstream (ie, Billboard, record labels, etc).
So if the conversation is about sales or charts then it is relevant to bring up how White America is beginning to distance themselves.
Hip hop isn't "dead" though, because NBA Youngboy, a guy squarely of the modern era of hip hop, is selling out arenas on a 42-show tour at present. This is also a guy who had lulls in his output several times due to legal issues, yet people still want to see him. So he's a clear example of how hip hop isnt dead, but he also has an "it" factor....most people don't have that, regardless of era.
I think it could be a net positive if hip hop continues to lose "market share", for lack of a better word, in the mainstream.
So if the conversation is about sales or charts then it is relevant to bring up how White America is beginning to distance themselves.
Hip hop isn't "dead" though, because NBA Youngboy, a guy squarely of the modern era of hip hop, is selling out arenas on a 42-show tour at present. This is also a guy who had lulls in his output several times due to legal issues, yet people still want to see him. So he's a clear example of how hip hop isnt dead, but he also has an "it" factor....most people don't have that, regardless of era.
I think it could be a net positive if hip hop continues to lose "market share", for lack of a better word, in the mainstream.
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
Problem is is that I don't see anything else out there on the musical landscape (basically a brand new musical genre and movement ) that will come after hip hop or will regenerate hip hop with a refreshing boost. I don’t see a sense of cultural purpose, and any type or kind of collective effervescence, passion, energy, Creativity, innovation, imagination and ambition among many new artists/rappers in the modern era. The love of fame and Money really triumphed over the love of the culture and music. Slop, vibes, mediocrity, copy/paste songs, and clout over culture, authenticity, originality, credibility and tradition. Many rappers in in the industry are literally walking stereotypical characters and memes now.
They don’t care about the legends of hip-hop, they don’t care about the genre’s past, present and future. They will dumb down their lyrics in order to double down their dollars (words to Jay-Z)
And anyway I don’t think it’s possible for hip hop or any musical genre in general to regain the same cultural and social preeminence it had among the public before Covid anymore . There are too many distractions and entertainment options available now. People’s attention span has been reduced, so many people got ADD now. They struggle to focus on things now. And it’s also not even possible with the death of musical scenes, monoculture and the hyper fragmentation of music now. I feel social atomization, individualism, the internet, the social media allows people to select their own cultural spaces now and create their own curated playlists tailored to their personal musical tastes.
Popular music overall, regardless of musical genre, is not as mainstream and widespread as before and is now more niche and avoidable than ever. Since 2014 or so, and especially since 2020, Social media influencers like YouTubers, Tik Tokers and Twitch streamers are more culturally relevant to the youth than music artists. Young people don’t need to perform music to get clout and fans anymore.You don't need to have an opinion of any popular music now - if you don’t care about modern popular and mainstream artists Drake, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, The Weekend, etc you can easily ignore their music, their songs and their albums because they are less in your face than they used to unlike before, since internet and social media destroyed the old monoculture created by mass media in the mid-20th century that was common and accessible to the masses through the television, radio and movie industry. That monoculture was shared by most people regardless of class, ethnic/cultural background, social circle etc. The erosion of mass monoculture began in 2010 but by the time Covid hit it was already destroyed.
I also see a parallel between the decline in popularity of hip-hop and the decline of nightlife(bars, nightclubs). Nightlife peaked in the late 1980s to late 2000s, remained fairly strong until the early 2010s but it declined in the mid to late 2010s. And by the time covid hit it was dead. Nightlife was more or less another space to promote rap music. Many new rappers and new rap songs/albums back then were heard in the club first. The DJs put rap music in constant rotation. You went to any bar/club, it was guaranteed that you would hear rap music. It was expected. The black clubs/bars, the mainstream white top 40 music clubs , the Asian bars, the Latino bars etc. The cultural presence of Hip hop was ubiquitous and everywhere in most places. @Malcolmxxx_23 @Ahadi @IsThatBrothaMouzone? @ThrobbingHood @murksiderock @Premeditated @Iverson_64 @Ohene @getmoney310cpt @Finesse @Piff Perkins @Patrick Kane @Belize King @re'up @010101 @King Static X @skyrunner1 @Apollo Creed @VertigoKnight @WIA20XX
@ReasonableMatic @TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY @Dave24 @SNG @Lavish @Marc Spector @Premeditated @3rdWorld @Wiseborn
But Already then, between 2012 and 2016, there were many bars and nightclubs who were permanently closing everywhere in most cities. And at the same time, the rise in popularity of Outdoor music Festivals began to be more and more obvious since people realized that social media and smartphones made the club or bar experience unbearable in real time. People still wanted to socialize, meet new people and enjoy live music performed by artists in live shows. And for some reason, many rappers are not at their best during live shows/ performances on stage. Most rappers perform better in smaller and more intimate club /bar shows because rap is better suited for these type of venues . And since many young people after COVID, in 2025 lost their taste for alcohol, socializing, and nightlife because of many cultural, social and generational reasons….
Or maybe it’s that simply cultural and musical tastes have changed among people? Maybe a Social/cultural shift happened. Maybe a New cultural zeitgeist has come ? Things don’t remain the same forever. Change is always around the corner. To use an example, Remember when baseball, horse racing and boxing were the top three sport in the US? Now the top sports in the US are football and basketball. Moral of the story is that People should never take things for granted.
I also noticed that internationally hip hop definitely has had a steep decline in popularity and relevance compared to pop (which had a big resurgence during the pandemic) and K-Pop. Hip-hop/rap is Still popular, but nowhere near the cultural and musical juggernaut it was in the mid-to-late-2010s. But you still hear the influence of hip hop and trap elements/beats in terms of production/stylings for a lot of pop music, country music, reggaeton/latin music and K-pop music .
They don’t care about the legends of hip-hop, they don’t care about the genre’s past, present and future. They will dumb down their lyrics in order to double down their dollars (words to Jay-Z)
And anyway I don’t think it’s possible for hip hop or any musical genre in general to regain the same cultural and social preeminence it had among the public before Covid anymore . There are too many distractions and entertainment options available now. People’s attention span has been reduced, so many people got ADD now. They struggle to focus on things now. And it’s also not even possible with the death of musical scenes, monoculture and the hyper fragmentation of music now. I feel social atomization, individualism, the internet, the social media allows people to select their own cultural spaces now and create their own curated playlists tailored to their personal musical tastes.
Popular music overall, regardless of musical genre, is not as mainstream and widespread as before and is now more niche and avoidable than ever. Since 2014 or so, and especially since 2020, Social media influencers like YouTubers, Tik Tokers and Twitch streamers are more culturally relevant to the youth than music artists. Young people don’t need to perform music to get clout and fans anymore.You don't need to have an opinion of any popular music now - if you don’t care about modern popular and mainstream artists Drake, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, The Weekend, etc you can easily ignore their music, their songs and their albums because they are less in your face than they used to unlike before, since internet and social media destroyed the old monoculture created by mass media in the mid-20th century that was common and accessible to the masses through the television, radio and movie industry. That monoculture was shared by most people regardless of class, ethnic/cultural background, social circle etc. The erosion of mass monoculture began in 2010 but by the time Covid hit it was already destroyed.
I also see a parallel between the decline in popularity of hip-hop and the decline of nightlife(bars, nightclubs). Nightlife peaked in the late 1980s to late 2000s, remained fairly strong until the early 2010s but it declined in the mid to late 2010s. And by the time covid hit it was dead. Nightlife was more or less another space to promote rap music. Many new rappers and new rap songs/albums back then were heard in the club first. The DJs put rap music in constant rotation. You went to any bar/club, it was guaranteed that you would hear rap music. It was expected. The black clubs/bars, the mainstream white top 40 music clubs , the Asian bars, the Latino bars etc. The cultural presence of Hip hop was ubiquitous and everywhere in most places. @Malcolmxxx_23 @Ahadi @IsThatBrothaMouzone? @ThrobbingHood @murksiderock @Premeditated @Iverson_64 @Ohene @getmoney310cpt @Finesse @Piff Perkins @Patrick Kane @Belize King @re'up @010101 @King Static X @skyrunner1 @Apollo Creed @VertigoKnight @WIA20XX
@ReasonableMatic @TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY @Dave24 @SNG @Lavish @Marc Spector @Premeditated @3rdWorld @Wiseborn
But Already then, between 2012 and 2016, there were many bars and nightclubs who were permanently closing everywhere in most cities. And at the same time, the rise in popularity of Outdoor music Festivals began to be more and more obvious since people realized that social media and smartphones made the club or bar experience unbearable in real time. People still wanted to socialize, meet new people and enjoy live music performed by artists in live shows. And for some reason, many rappers are not at their best during live shows/ performances on stage. Most rappers perform better in smaller and more intimate club /bar shows because rap is better suited for these type of venues . And since many young people after COVID, in 2025 lost their taste for alcohol, socializing, and nightlife because of many cultural, social and generational reasons….
Or maybe it’s that simply cultural and musical tastes have changed among people? Maybe a Social/cultural shift happened. Maybe a New cultural zeitgeist has come ? Things don’t remain the same forever. Change is always around the corner. To use an example, Remember when baseball, horse racing and boxing were the top three sport in the US? Now the top sports in the US are football and basketball. Moral of the story is that People should never take things for granted.
I also noticed that internationally hip hop definitely has had a steep decline in popularity and relevance compared to pop (which had a big resurgence during the pandemic) and K-Pop. Hip-hop/rap is Still popular, but nowhere near the cultural and musical juggernaut it was in the mid-to-late-2010s. But you still hear the influence of hip hop and trap elements/beats in terms of production/stylings for a lot of pop music, country music, reggaeton/latin music and K-pop music .
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Mission249
All Star
Yeah. Most of the other genres, from Country to K-Pop, stripped Hip Hop for parts and left its corpse to rot.
That's fine. But the charts are indicative of a loss of soft power that Black American culture has both nationally and internationally.
If you zoom out and look at history, you'd be shocked at how much popular Black music at the time influenced the Civil Rights movement and therefore had indirect impact on the human rights of all kinds of people around the world.
The culture being relevant matters.
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
True. Music has a direct influence on culture and indirectly influences politics, history, social customs/attitudes, society etc
We can’t ignore the power , impact and importance of music in human relations. Sports has also the same effect on people and society.
Music, sports, movies, television, Netflix, social media are powerful and effective of soft power for people.
They been making excuses about how that trash doesn't influence the youth but you can see it everywhere.
If it has a negative impact on Black people no need to kill it, and that's been the story so far.
Drake did a whole rollout and... nothing.
She and the label did EVERYTHING and she had one week as number one and it was over. The Back and forth with Nikki was the bigger news shyt was a flop and a hit at the same time.That Cardi B shyt came and went huh?
Drake's not done unless the Machine uses him as a symbol and pulls the plug but at the end of the day Drake's like 40 How long is the gangsta simp supposed to hold on?This is the side effect of the drake kendrick beef. Drake is corny, and he was a plant, and he definitely got what he deserved from Kendrick but that motherfukker was the golden goose for a whole lot of rap artist and all of them "ganging up" on him was the dumbest shyt possible. That fight wasn't their fight. They should have sat back in the cut and kept getting features. Too many motherfukkers on one hand got paid with Drake and on the other hand was like fukk Drake.
Drake was Kendrick's target alone, he didn't need any of them other rappers' help. Ironically enough cause it's bird related but Drake was the Hip Hop golden goose and there aint no artist in the wings. Drill rap isn't commercial enough.
Drake is the more successful Future and like Future he's super relevant and washed at the same time.
The problem is like Nikki with the women Drake tried to make himself indispensible. Technically Youngboy is oon fire but he's not marketable at all outside of the YN market and he can't really smack anyone now The FBI kinda broke the "Real nikka" Rappers.
Yeah it's the rebuild phase just like Black Music as a whole kinda got watered down after the 70's. You'll get a couple years of cac dominance on the charts and either rap will evolve or something new will emerge. AfroBeats could completely take over or something bubbling under that we're not hearing yet.
However regional sounds usually developed independent of the majors and grew organically now nikkas just stich something on Tik Tok make a dance or a challenge and call it good.
The Ice man project should've been out Drake went at the industry direct and when his suit got thrown out everything went iwith it. Dude basically made a visual album and nothing happened.
Drake is still the guy but Republic probaly really sent no marketing dollars to this so it would sell maybe half of what he normally does.
They might fukk around and got the suit thrown out and do what Drake said they were doing just to spite is ass.
If Dot Drops something by second quarter and it goes super crazy Drake might be right.
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