"Rap is DONE. Aint no more money in rap. Only .1% gettin money. The Drake's....YBs...." - Akademiks

[Kiyoshi-Dono]

Brehs won't wanna hear it, but Not like us is a contributing factor to this. Drake kept rap hot culturally because whether you like him or not, whenever he dropped there was always a buzz that reverberated.

Wishful thinking

 

[lib123]

Brehs won't wanna hear it, but Not like us is a contributing factor to this. Drake kept rap hot culturally because whether you like him or not, whenever he dropped there was always a buzz that reverberated.

Wishful thinking

There's a disconnect on this site as far as brehs on here not interacting with the masses (cacs) who are the primary consumers of Hip Hop. Drake being a rapper and a pop star helped the entire genre eat and bring in waves of consistent listeners who listened to other rappers because Drake collaborated and/or co-signed them. It's not the early 2000s anymore where young cacs were going out of there way to find and listen to new rappers or they came across them on MTV and the radio. They don't listen to the radio anymore and don't watch MTV or music videos. Drake filled that void. They act like the co-signs only benefitted Drake when in reality they were mutually beneficial. Drake got access to Black culture and the rappers he co-signed or collaborated with got access to hundreds of millions of new listeners.

 

[Spliff]

Writing been on the wall for atleast a decade.

We’ve been in the stage that feels like when private equity descends on a failing business, stripping it for every last ounce of profit before moving on and leaving nothing but a hollow shell behind.

Low effort across the genre.

 

[Donny]

Brehs won't wanna hear it, but Not like us is a contributing factor to this. Drake kept rap hot culturally because whether you like him or not, whenever he dropped there was always a buzz that reverberated.

Wishful thinking

Rap was already on a steep decline commercially before Kendrick and Drakes beef brought some light to it

 

[Capital Steez]

 

[Stone]

Brehs won't wanna hear it, but Not like us is a contributing factor to this. Drake kept rap hot culturally because whether you like him or not, whenever he dropped there was always a buzz that reverberated.

Wishful thinking

This feels like a 2018 type of take

 

[Ski Mask]

Theres no talent in rap anymore, the min I heard someone say lyrics didnt matter, I knew the genre was head for trouble. We let guilty pleasures take over and be the face of it.

Im all for creative flows and beats like carti, but where is the substance, when I heard clipse last album it shown me how much I've tuned out lyrics. I havent researched a song since lupes "murals".

We need melodic lyricists who know how to craft songs. It shouldnt be either great creative beats/flows and shyt lyrics or great lyrics and boring flows/beats

 

[Finesse]

These corporate entities are trying to ice out rap

 

[O.Red]

These corporate entities are trying to ice out rap

They're not trying to they're just moving on

 

[RhymesWell]

Good tbh. The genre will be better off qualitywise and also it's time the kids made their own rebel music. Hip Hop is 50 years old now. The kids need to make something else and upset the system again much like how it was done with rap.

 

[Premeditated]

Raps share in the US market has dropped to 20%

in 2020 , it was something like 29%
not one rap song in the top 40 hot singles
meanwhile there are 4 r&b songs on there

 

[Awesome Wells]

Raps share in the US market has dropped to 20%

in 2020 , it was something like 29%
not one rap song in the top 40 hot singles
meanwhile there are 4 r&b songs on there

This here.

Because it's all trash now. When we get back to seeing good music made again, that'll change.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Guess we're about to get a bunch of 45+ year old so-called influencers saying wild shyt like "when is the last time a rap song was a smash hit" as if 2024 (or the first half of 2025) didn't happen.


The dominant rap/label process over the last decade plus has been to wait for established rappers with imprints (Gucci, Gotti, Thug, etc) to bring you a young rapper with a marketable look and "the song" to push. Labels have been very hands off with rap for awhile because of this. There is no artist development, there are no real executive producers involved, there is no nurturing. It was just "bring me the next lil nikka with a song I get get on all the playlists." Well all of a sudden Atlanta is bone dry and the plugs are fukking up. Thug was in jail, Gucci got mental issues. Gotti has Glorilla at least, I guess. Now all the random, bullshyt trends the industry forced onto rap are suddenly biting people in the ass. They said nobody wants to hear a song more than 3 minutes long. Then 2 minutes long. And suddenly you don't have good hooks anymore and everyone is "rapping" over the same downtempo piano beats. You can pull up 50 Rod Wave or Youngboy songs and you'll hear the exact same piano notes lol.

It'll turn around eventually. But I hope people are watching this VS how pop is being handled right now. Labels finally got multiple bonified young superstars (Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan). All of whom have been carefully crafted in studios with great producers. Often Jack Antonoff lol. And btw, none of them are playing power struggle games with the label, like Taylor Swift. They are putting these chicks in position to dominate, they have hit songs (including ones more than 3 minutes long...). They have legit music videos. They have carefully crafted albums and "eras." What rappers are putting any thought into anything they're doing right now? Not counting Drake/Kendrick/Cole/Future/Travis, I'm talking about younger acts. None.

 

[O.Red]

Guess we're about to get a bunch of 45+ year old so-called influencers saying wild shyt like "when is the last time a rap song was a smash hit" as if 2024 (or the first half of 2025) didn't happen.


The dominant rap/label process over the last decade plus has been to wait for established rappers with imprints (Gucci, Gotti, Thug, etc) to bring you a young rapper with a marketable look and "the song" to push. Labels have been very hands off with rap for awhile because of this. There is no artist development, there are no real executive producers involved, there is no nurturing. It was just "bring me the next lil nikka with a song I get get on all the playlists." Well all of a sudden Atlanta is bone dry and the plugs are fukking up. Thug was in jail, Gucci got mental issues. Gotti has Glorilla at least, I guess. Now all the random, bullshyt trends the industry forced onto rap are suddenly biting people in the ass. They said nobody wants to hear a song more than 3 minutes long. Then 2 minutes long. And suddenly you don't have good hooks anymore and everyone is "rapping" over the same downtempo piano beats. You can pull up 50 Rod Wave or Youngboy songs and you'll hear the exact same piano notes lol.

It'll turn around eventually. But I hope people are watching this VS how pop is being handled right now. Labels finally got multiple bonified young superstars (Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan). All of whom have been carefully crafted in studios with great producers. Often Jack Antonoff lol. And btw, none of them are playing power struggle games with the label, like Taylor Swift. They are putting these chicks in position to dominate, they have hit songs (including ones more than 3 minutes long...). They have legit music videos. They have carefully crafted albums and "eras." What rappers are putting any thought into anything they're doing right now? Not counting Drake/Kendrick/Cole/Future/Travis, I'm talking about younger acts. None.

This touches on another point that I may speak on in depth later because I don't have time right now.

One of the reasons rap fell off is nikkas got too cool A lot of these nikkas have no personality, and no artistic ambition, and they think they're too cool and above it all to care. But in the age of AI, and homogeneous low effort slop content ruined by corporate greed, people crave artistry and effort. This is one of the main reasons people love Kendrick

All of those pop stars you named have developed characters, and aesthetics

 

[steadyrighteous]

This touches on another point that I may speak on in depth later because I don't have time right now.

One of the reasons rap fell off is nikkas got too cool A lot of these nikkas have no personality, and no artistic ambition, and they think they're too cool and above it all to care. But in the age of AI, and homogeneous low effort slop content ruined by corporate greed, people crave artistry and effort. This is one of the main reasons people love Kendrick

This goes beyond rap, it's a cultural and systemic issue with the younger people of our demographic.

Effort, personality, and generally appearing to be active or present is looked at as being corny, so much so that we got little nyggas literally slurring and dragging their words when they talk as if they have learning disabilities. Some of these younger dudes talk and sound as if they're on the spectrum, but then you'll see them when they hit 20-25, and they sound like actual people, proving that their low-effort mush-mouthed phase what just that - a phase.

And all of that trickles down to things like school, social development, and like you say - artistic ambition.

The years when they're supposed to be with their peers, discovering who they are and building individual or collective taste, style and goals, they're spending most of it copying perc'd out sociopaths or ADD streamers leaving us with a generation of "YNs" who basically behave as if they're developmentally challenged when they really aren't.

There's a lot to unpack, and honestly I'd rather just fall back and let others debate (fight) over it.

But rep - both you, and @Piff Perkins made good points.