The point is that all of the superstar guys are guys who debuted 10+ years ago.

There are zero rap stars or superstars that debuted or blew up within the past 4-5 years.

We’re halfway through a decade and still have no idea who the next generation of rap superstars is or will be.

Chromakopia is not a sign that people wanna hear rap, Chromakopia is a sign that Tyler, the Creator has a very rabid fanbase

so are you saying Sabrina/Olivia/Chappel are already superstars? I mean I guess maybe Olivia is, the other 2 kinda eh??

I don't think ur last point is true considering Tyler's streaming numbers over doubled w this album, it wasn't just his fanbase jumping on this album, the whole scene did. it was something you only see when the guys at the top drop

Whatever you think they are, the fact is that they already have top 10 hits to their names and albums moving millions of units, while they're amassing billions of streams and selling out arenas. Olivia is established at this point. She has 2 successful album eras and tours to her name and did a lot to consolidate her fanbase with her latest era. I won't be shocked if she plays stadiums after dropping her next album. Sabrina scored 3 consecutive massive top 10 hits with her latest album and is on a sold out arena tour. Her next album will have a lot of anticipation and will likely be successful as well. She also has a great team around her so except they completely fumble, I can see her having an Ariana Grande-esque career with 3-5 consecutive successful album eras to her name. Chappell is only on her debut album but is definitely going to play arenas whenever she drops her next album and she's primed to make a massive jump commercially with that next album. How many rappers from this decade can you say that about?

I agree there's basically no new stars from rap this decade, i just think fader is greatly overestimating the gap between rap/pop, i'd honestly say theyre on the same level, at least for now, perhaps that'll change.

but everything people are saying about rap, is what people were saying about pop 12 months ago, so I don't think there's much to worry about. Pop went like 3/4 years without a new star popping up, then 3 came out of nowhere within a year or so

I also used to say rap's dead etc, and it has definitely dropped off since 2018~ but a LOT of that is simply that rappers are dropping farrr less often than they used to. also look how common random features were around 2018, now it's weirdly rare

Future/Lil Baby/Tyler/even Durk have all got a lot bigger this decade. Drake/Kendrick/Travis are all still bigger than any popstar that isn't Taylor etc, so at least for now, I think people are overthinking this s***

tldr my point is there's a huge difference between the mainstream not caring about rap anymore vs simply that rappers aren't dropping anymore

i mean yeah, it factually is compared to like 10 of his other hits

Those tweets are always so cringe, US Rhythmic radio? lol. I think I'll scream if this starts applying to streaming too where people start celebrating the "top US Rhythmic streamed song" lmao

It's currently #29 on overall radio charts, #11 on US Spotify, both of which are low for his norm

Timeless is apparently a successful hit when it's 19th on hot 100 after 6 weeks

whilst LNCL apparently wasn't a successful hit when it was 4th after 6 weeks lol

Rich Flex was 7th after 6 weeks (taking away xmas songs)
way 2 sexy 5th after 6 weeks

but yeah drake no hits this decade meanwhile timeless is a hit success

The Weeknds management is f***ing HORRIBLE

Dawn FM would never have flopped if they had released the right song as the first single

Same thing is happening with his current rollout now. Open Hearts would've been a certified mega hit if this would've been the first single

sao paulo show being in september is so weird man, they must have originally planned to drop the album in oct/nov, but now they're f***ed by the christmas period

january is an awful time to release music too, at this point he should wait till feb

Absolutely, they delayed the release because DITF wasn't performing that well. I'm pretty sure about that

Feels like they lost the sauce after AH. They always released the right and perfect singles for BBTM, Starboy, MDM and AH

Dawn FM and HUT definitely both had the worst singles lol most people in the comments f***ing love Open Hearts and they expected something like this as the first single

Instead we got DITF, Timeless and Sao Paulo

I don't think Rap is dead but it is in a much worse position than Country and Pop and no, it's not because some rappers didn't drop albums this year.

We'll see what happens next year but I think the gap widens even more.

Diamond!

Yoo she outta here

Perhaps but I'll worry when chromokopia type moments aren't happening anymore, or when Drake/Trav etc fall off numbers wise

I think popstars being able to tour faaaar easier than rapartists is making pop look a lot bigger than it really is honestly

How will the gap widen though? every popstar dropped this year, they rarely drop 2 years in a row

I'm actually focusing less on the touring success of popstars to make my argument. Their singles and albums are performing better.

Sao Paolo was an odd pick for a single, clearly appealing to global listeners. Maybe he is writing off US charts?

Biggest mistake of the Dawn FM era was not delaying the album release another six months. The After Hours era was massive and Blinding Lights & Save Your Tears were still charting when they released Take My Breath. A longer break between the albums would have been better and had the fans wanting more.

I never said LNCL and Rich Flex weren’t hits

I never said Drake had no hits this decade

I said LNCL was not the biggest rap song of the decade, but it was obviously a hit. And I said Drake had no smash hits this decade, which he does not.

Timeless is not a smash hit, but it is a hit.

Y’all either can’t read or have selective hearing

You keep naming people that have either been making music for 10+ years or already had a large, well established fanbase at the start of this decade.

The reason we are saying that mainstream rap is in a terrible spot is because there are absolutely no new stars in rap music this decade.

If all of the 2010s guys collectively decided to stop dropping music, there would be zero rap at the top of the charts whatsoever

Yeah people can blame the single choices all they want for Dawn, but that album was DOA regardless because of when and how they decided to drop it

If people had liked Take My Breath, they woulda streamed it.

We did