SWAN

7mo

Kendrick's era btw

vingu

7mo

in all seriousness though this would be fine were it not for the current state of actual monetization in music. you have an industry where it's incontrovertibly harder than ever to get on, get attention and develop a fanbase no matter how unique you are and in fact the more unique you are harder it is. you gotta be a walking gimmick, you gotta post on TikTok, you gotta pander to nostalgia and be hella derivative, whereas most of your favorite "middle class" or underground rappers came out before the pandemic when, even though a lot of of this was the same, a lot was different. tiktok didn't exist, the monoculture while on its last legs was still alive, and the consolidation of everything by spotify and labels etc was only at its beginning. it's what allowed for s*** like the golden age of soundcloud from 2011-2018~. It was a small window and if you didn't get in then... well let's just say you're almost completely SOL through no fault of your own.

and even then people aren't making money in this music s***. only way i see it is if you had a fanbase big enough to sustain yourself pre-tiktok and you're completely independent or you get a huge cosign from someone who got in pre all this BS, and then maybe you're making enough to eat off an album release assuming your fanbase buys your albums because the streaming percentages are below garbage. the funny thing is it doesn't even have to be this way. a lot more artists could make a lot more off streaming alone if the system was not actually designed in favor of capitalists and giving fractions of pennies with the lion's share going to AI weapons to murder people of color across the world. but this the world we live in and until there's serious change in an overall way don't expect s*** to get any better for hip hop or music or art overall for that matter.

so yeah im not really worried for hip-hop as an artform, people are always gonna make hip hop. but it's people actually being able to eat off of it being what im actually concerned about. if hip hop ain't financially mainstream and it's borderline impossible for artists to make anything off it even if it isn't, we get even less quality music than we get now and so many artists that maybe in a better climate would've been heard and appreciated go unheard and unsung now. s*** is beyond over in that sense and only way things are gonna meaningfully change is overall socioeconomic change

DaeHan

7mo

Yachty
Carti
Uzi
Yung Thug to an extent

None of these dudes are real “superstars”

The kids love em, but that’s only because they’re relatable to the extent of not having to have “real” talent to be popular.

The kids see the way they dress and act and want to be them. The music comes secondary. It’s just part of their image.

I seriously doubt if these kids even really like Yachty/Uzi/Carti or if they go along with it because it’s “vibes”

GodzillaMinusOne

7mo

Yeah this just highlights what I said. Imagine if streaming existed when rap records were actually being sold. Number 1 records is a huge difference between eras. You'd think the greatest hits in rap history came out in the last 10 years

Andre Jaquet

7mo

First part that’s true of course no doubt I don’t mean it in that way, I mean those are the artists that dominated in its commercial peak. 2016-2022 damn outsold luv is rage 2 sure but Uzi dropped what 5 incredibly successful projects and that was the prime of the sc wave and migos were killing it… Kendrick wasn’t around for more than one year. That commercial peak of hip hop was the era of people like Uzi, Drake, and Travis Scott more than any of those guys

DaeHan

7mo

Yachty
Carti
Uzi
Yung Thug to an extent

None of these dudes are real “superstars”

The kids love em, but that’s only because they’re relatable to the extent of not having to have “real” talent to be popular.

The kids see the way they dress and act and want to be them. The music comes secondary. It’s just part of their image.

I seriously doubt if these kids even really like Yachty/Uzi/Carti or if they go along with it because it’s “vibes”

DaeHan

7mo

Yachty
Carti
Uzi
Yung Thug to an extent

None of these dudes are real “superstars”

The kids love em, but that’s only because they’re relatable to the extent of not having to have “real” talent to be popular.

The kids see the way they dress and act and want to be them. The music comes secondary. It’s just part of their image.

I seriously doubt if these kids even really like Yachty/Uzi/Carti or if they go along with it because it’s “vibes”

good boy

7mo

the kids love these artists and their music it just doesn’t translate to billboard

also, these guys don’t get the package that rap artists used to get

osamason had the biggest album on spotify the week psykotic dropped but he only sold like 20k

I swear if the label pulled their dababy tactics, they could’ve made that mf sell 70-90k

Jim Halpert

7mo

For sure probably the best year and a half for rap this decade so far.

TheFader

7mo

osamason had the biggest album on spotify the week psykotic dropped but he only sold like 20k

No he didn’t.

psykotic did not chart at all on the Spotify Global 200 during its first week of release. It charted at #48 on the USA Chart. It was nowhere close to being the biggest album on the platform the week that it released. He only sold 20K because barely anyone listened to the album

ThuggaBe

7mo

Kanye West still on fire, people trippin about Ye

Bro got a number 1 hit in 2024 as INDIE ARTIST, but this year the industry blackballed him and crackers leaked his s***, that still fire

Heil Simphony is catch AF

People talkin about Drake can save industry, but he probably is a billionaire RN with gamble deals and dont care about rap cause he got easy money for lifes. Ye is the one that industry needs, but everybody turned against.

BM_

7mo

Oh no poor Kanye everyone turned on him for being a batshit insane nazi :(
Shut up dude

ThuggaBe

7mo

· edited

The same niggas that praises about songs of niggas killin niggas and f***in nigga b****es.

Bro just say s*** to front the bankers who frozen his accounts

ThuggaBe

7mo

Literally, the last number 1 hit from rap is a Kanye West song, and this happened last year

deleteduser579

7mo

Blows my mind that just because Kendrick won a rap battle he's expected to water down his music and to start dumping slop and hoeing himself out for "hits" to "run the game"

Really shows how some of them view this rap s***

Harlem

7mo

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Drake said he’s done carrying the genre. That’s what yall wanted.

Who will step up now

ThuggaBe

7mo

Literally, the last number 1 hit from rap is a Kanye West song, and this happened last year

Black Smoke

7mo

Why does the current king of rap need to make sure there are hip hop songs on the billboard c***100 chart? I ain’t never seen this rule before

Black Smoke

7mo

Why does the current king of rap need to make sure there are hip hop songs on the billboard c***100 chart? I ain’t never seen this rule before