Water was *three years ago, and she hasn't released her sophomore album yet, yes she is still "soon"

See this what I mean lmao

If you don't know who Olivia Dean is right now that's on you, her album is outselling Taylor Swift's in 2026 despite releasing before it

Billie eilish is the premier industry darling and she is one of the only artists other than Sabrina Carpenter who can be compared to the commercial titans of the 2010’s.

Why are we asking rap, which as I explained, exists in a totally different commercial dynamic, to do the same thing

Kids listen to drake

They don’t

Because rap has had global superstars consistently going all the way back to the year 2000 and the past 5-6 years is the first time in a long time we haven't seen a new crop of rising stars in the genre

And again, there are numerous artists that can be compares to the commercial titans of the 2010s, it's not just Billie and Sabrina

Olivia is absolutely massive

Morgan Wallen sells out stadiums in his sleep

Bad Bunny is self-explanatory

SZA is the biggest R&B star in 20 years

Rap is the only genre without a recent equivalent right now

5-7 years earlier, ppl like smino or saba would be outta here imo.

Because rap exists in a completely different dynamic in relation to the industry since 2020 as I said last page

Industry politics are supremely uninteresting and cringe to rap fans and rappers, and handling a rapper is incredibly unwieldy for major labels

I don't think its due to a lack of trying, go back two decades ago and the acts that had buzz then disappeared after two years, three years, etc. Another aspect to it is artists that fall off from the casual listener have their niche fanbases. Currensy is a prime example of a guy who was never that guy, but he's had a long career, he has his lane and makes what he likes to make.

Most importantly you need hits to last that long, guys like Vince Staples or Isaiah Rashad, love them, but they were never in that bag to unlock that next level

Which brings us back to the original question

Where are these underground artists with mainstream appeal that the labels are turning a blind eye to?

Being mainstream doesn’t mean just being playlisted, it means participating in label/industry politics that are antithetical to their personalities

Happy fans

Happy artist

Happy label

You can pick 2 of 3, you won’t find all a situation where you’ll get all 3 in the 2020’s and make good money.

Damn Olivia dean sucks

You're dodging the question man

Forget their personalities

Forget why they won't engage with a label

Who are these artists that are massively talented and also have huge crossover appeal?

Just name them

What does mainstream even look like in 2026, what will it look like next year

You think someone in 2013 would believe you if they said Travis Scott was the second highest selling rap artist of 2018? F*** no! Playboi Carti in 2016? Absolutely not!

I gave you a name and you said f*** no. I didn’t dodge s***, you’re just swearing by your hindsight

Pretty much every artist falls off eventually, The Kanye, Drake and Kendrick types are extremely rare in any genre

Look at everyone Kendrick named on Control. They all had a ton of hype/hits/unique styles. Obviously a good handful did eventually fall off but the problem is that you couldn’t even do something like Control today

There’s legit zero new rappers trying to get it like that

“But this is hip hop and they should know what time it is
And that goes for fakemink and esdeekid”

This is a totally different, and far more valid, conversation than everyone pining for rappers to be label puppets dropping chart-toppers again

I’m talking specifically in the context of rappers having the ability to be crossover mainstream artists, not competitive MC’s in rap’s culture

They were pretty much inseparable in that era

Like Danny Brown and Action Bronson had mainstream hype in that era

That’s also because you had Dre, Wayne, and HOV moving heaven and earth to build the big 3 around their individual proclivities using a label’s backing instead of label execs picking and choosing

Cole fell off, drake chose himself, Kendrick put his cousin on

That’s actually a very solid point I’ve never really thought about before

Hip hop is really in a “blame the parents” situation

To my fellow pop heads itt; we all remember earlier this decade/the end of the 2010s where we were asking the same question about new main pop girls right? S*** looked dead af (still is for new male pop btw) and then outta nowhere we get a crop of new main pop girls? Wasn’t some elusive thing or some shadow puppet hand of the industry deciding to give us new main pop girls, they just came with star power and catchy ass songs and good performing skills. It was that simple. A few even had years and years of flops or just not catching on despite already being in the industry

For some reason with these new rappers ppl wanna act like it’s some mysterious force preventing this from happening with new rappers

There’s a reason Don Toliver and Ken Carson have legs