Rocky Travis and Carti really is the unholy trinity of jock ass nerds. They wish they were artistic so bad. I would rather they form a group and make D4L type music or something than continue with this faux art rap s***

Rocky don’t have a Rodeo, he dont have a Die Lit, he don’t even have an Astroworld, he arguably doesn’t even have a WLR

This is false. Yes, he doesn’t have a project as popular as any of those, but quality wise Live.Love and At.Long.Last are both up to par.

Sure, Rocky hasn’t reached the same commercial heights in music as some of his peers, but you’re forgetting the main two reasons for that:

1. He hasn’t released an album in 8 years, neither Travis or Carti ever went on hiatus for that long

2. He has the fashion and acting world that he’s heavily involved in, music is not his main focus. Carti & Travis primarily just make music

I’m not giving anyone a pass, I don’t expect every musician I like to make deep, thought-provoking music. That’s also not even mentioning that Rocky has gone beyond the surface-level emotionally a few times over the course of his career, much more than artists like Travis or Carti have

Valid points. I would disagree that the quality on those Rocky albums is up to par, I think there’s a reason they didn’t resonate with people on any real level. Rocky has just never been able to stick the landing with an album

As far as the hiatus and commercial success, and you bringing up the fashion stuff, I feel like that just makes my point more. How can an artist with no classic albums take 8 years off and still be considered a big part of the hip hop conversation and landscape with new fans? And where has that interest been coming from?

It’s unearned imo and shows what’s wrong with music discourse and the online hip hop scene. And I think there’s also a disconnect where the new generation assumes because Rocky is put in their face all the time that he accomplished something in music. The fact that he didn’t but gets treated like he did is just wild

meh he doesn’t appear to have enough die hard fans anymore to hype his music (online?) is what it comes down to & most heavy hitters have a contingency of people propping up anything they release as classic, his discog is better than a whole of people’s lol

I think Rocky fans just genuinely enjoy his music and have been anticipating his next album for almost a decade

Not to make everything about numbers, but he had his highest streaming year ever on Spotify in 2025, and he released only three singles all year. That’s not easy to do when you haven’t released a new album in 8 years.

Plus, his two highest-streamed albums on the platform (Long.Live and At.Long.Last) both have roughly around the same amount of streams as albums like Rodeo, Playboi Carti, and Die Lit, despite the two Rocky albums releasing before streaming took over. His core fanbase is still there for sure they’re just not as vocal and present as the other guys’s

I feel like I agree with everything you’re saying but just draw different conclusions

I think the fact he’s able to have such a huge streaming year now after 8 years off suggests that it’s more than just a core fanbase. I know that exists but what I seem to see is a new generation embracing him in a different way, and imo boosting him to a level that he never earned in real time

These 8 years where he hasn’t made music is probably the most successful time for his music. He has blown tf up since then. That’s what’s been crazy to me. And his boost in popularity seemed to coincide with the new fans, the Tyler Kendrick fans, coming into rap

They're so pretentious

Does anyone know when this was shot? Feels like a 2023 track.

Part of it is because of how streaming has ballooned in userbase over the past decade. Basically every prominent artist’s stream count has gone dramatically up compared to 2018

Yeah but I think with Rocky there’s something else at play

The first thing that surprised me was seeing how much Rocky content would get shared on “rap twitter” when that was becoming a thing. Like it just seemed disproportionate. And I’m convinced it was the Tyler connection that locked him in with that new gen of fans as one of the cool artsy ones that they’re supposed to like. I think it was a big thing at that time to post pictures of them together and romanticize their relationship

I can kind of back this up with real life experience because I met a few nerd Radiohead fans around 2019 that were just getting into hip hop, and you could tell that proximity to certain figures really mattered to them. They held Rocky on this really high level and felt like Testing was this high art masterpiece. But the only reason they even listened to it was because he was hanging with Tyler

Y'all really replying to 2words as if he isn't a known Drake stan and troll that just be saying dumbass s*** for any kinda response

The different artwork would look great hung up in a CD display frame

Bruh

This is just bad faith lol there’s no way someone could read my posts in here and think I’m just baiting. I believe this s*** with all my heart

Any chance this album lives up to the wait

Listening to the album w/o and expectations is probably the best & safest way to enjoy it

Also, staying far away from this thread when it drops is also highly recommended for maximum enjoyment

20%

what the fuck does wishing you were artistic mean cooked ass music fans

Use context

What do Rocky Travis and Carti have in common

They make lowbrow music about nothing draped in the aesthetics that present it as high art

This shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. These dudes are jock meatheads who listened to too much Kanye so they pretend to be artsy

100%

I’m curious as to what you perceive as something that’s actually “highbrow” or “high art” if such a thing even exists

Ah. 2words’d again.

Quoting 2words in our new 2026

Last thing about that: saying Carti is pretentious is absolutely hilarious, that nigga barely even speaks at length about his own projects