This board won't remember it, but there was a time in the early 1990s when Craig Mack was the hottest thing in hip hop.
Same thing with Kwame, Chubb Rock, Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, Steady B etc. etc. etc. Even some of the greatest rappers of all time were only really hot for a year or two (i.e. Big Daddy Kane was hot in 88-89’, Rakim 87-88’). After that, people paid less attention to their music and the quality dipped even if it was slight. Even Jay Z was really only hot from 98-03’, before 98’ Hov was just another slept on NY rapper with classic material like AZ, and after the Black Album, Jay didn’t have another classic or as much cultural sway. Artists who been around for decades like E-40, Too $hort or Snoop could drop a video tomorrow and get 10 million views in a month, but nobody is saying they are the hottest in the game this year like DaBaby or Lil Baby.