I've been thinking a lot about the "nepo baby" discourse and I feel like the conversation in music is a lot different than in TV/film. In the film industry there are a finite number of roles and so when Johnny Depp's daughter gets one of them it is genuine nepotism

But in music there's no limit to how much music comes out every day. Where the real advantage comes from is MONEY. Nobody cares that JJ Abrams's daughter is singing, but the fact she has JJ's money to turbo boost her career is obviously a gigantic advantage. You can basically buy your way to the top in music these days as long as your work is decent enough to have listenership with good branding

It made me think of artists like Robb Bank$ or Destroy Lonely who either kept a distance from their famous musician parent or had a parent who was in the game but not necessarily super huge (Lone's dad is I-20 from Ludacris's DTP label)

I actually think it can be cool when someone's kid goes on to make music and continues the family lineage. The issue is the money—whether or not your parent is famous is kind of irrelevant. nobody would recognize Stella Lefty's dad on the street but being the founder of Groupon surely helped her have a billboard top 10 hit in under 2 years of releasing music

So as a listener—let's say you find out an artist you're into has a famous parent. Does that affect how you listen?

What about an obscenely rich one?

If you already liked their music could it affect how you feel about it?

No

Not really but the artists' upbringing often comes through in the music, at least in the early days

I just listen to the music and can hear if something phony is going on

Only if it suits my agenda

the Smith kids are the only ones who it bothered me for

Google who hadji uncle is

i think it takes away from the music as there is no social connection once you find out this niggas uncle he sees every year since he started making music is f***ing Ludacris

cause where is the trial and error and growth through your peers and surroundings going to top notch studios from the time you could read?

they better make some good f***ing music with all that money

Gracie Adams:

you either have it or you don't, a lot of both trash and genius nepo babies

If they white yes

yep! cant be out here just doing whatever with all those resources & time put into you to just be mid that I have to scrape every corner of my life for.

Maya Hawke is chopped outside of one song
Clairo mid
Buzzy Lee at least has some great jpeg feats
Quadeca mid
Gracie Abrams garbage
2hollis garbage

I feel like if your nepotism is coming from people that are musicians it's not bad. Growing up around music might make you better at music down the line

But if you have motion because your family is just super rich then

Nepo promo is as valuable as the social capital and literal capital part. I'm not listening to Will Ferrell's son's AI R&B for one second without that headline. Even this video is part of that cycle. Nepo outrage gets your name on people's lips. The brand awareness gets someone that much closer to clicking their song instead of someone else's.

The attention economy is a scourge. Making people mad is easily monetized. Fenix Flexin's s***ty song gets more popular as people disqualify it for being AI. You can't have a meritocracy in that ecosystem.

State subsidized culture is a great answer. Didn't expect that to come up in the video. America is full of problems that other countries have long mitigated. Unfortunately, that is what the Medici family spends their money on now. Eroding state capacity so we live in a world directed by an easily manipulated algorithm. It is a class war, and the nepo surge is a symptom of that disease.

I simply haven’t looked at Mitski the same since it came out her father was a CIA operative that helped overthrow the government in the Congo

No but it just so happens nepo babies have no talent

i love gracie abrams because she is hot

In the society we've built, it's really f***ing difficult to get anywhere in any public field without having money and connections. Music, film, politics, most sports, etc. It's a flaw in the system itself.

no but I'm vehemently researching who their uncles are

Dave Chapelle's mom too

only care about their uncles