Replace hip hop with rock and pretend you're on BowieToThe in 2016

Strong disagree

This is a v measured take ur real

I want yall to rly grasp something here for the commercial aspect

Geese only has 1.5 million monthly listeners
Black county new road has 740k

Denzel curry has 7.3m

These are the biggest new rock acts, a majority of rock’s streams is catalogue

Charli xcx has been in the game since 2008,
Taylor since like 06,
Beyoncé since the 90s
Ariana since 2012
FKA twigs since 2014
Bruno 2010
Weeknd 2011
Billie 2018

The big country artists almost all use rap drums

In 2025 hip hop took up 24% of all music market share aka 1 in 4 streams overall

Catalogue and legacy acts having more pull isn’t exclusive to hip-hop and a “decline” commercially is only significant relative to the fact hip hop had a iron grip commercially that barely let other genres breath since like 2017 it’s simply becoming less overwhelmingly dominant that’s not the same as something dying

More audiences are being better represented by streaming and genre representation is becoming more broad to represent dif types of audiences because ur not having every gated community white kid bumping Travis Scott and unable to listen to something if it don’t have an 808. Hip hop historically is just really exceptional in turns of having high turnover rates. Hip hop also is letting its legends age and treating them with respect now and there’s more lanes for older and younger folks so naturally that means more of a split pie commercially.

Ragebait list?

If you're getting rap news from algorithm built from the ideals of 16 year old kids..yeah you would probably think rappers with "carti clone music" are the only ones "blowing up"..but thats a pretty slim view of the entire scope of things. And people don't even clone Carti anymore bro its 2026 not 2020 so im just going to assume you mean "underground rappers"

and

For 1.) That's not even true..they might be the most visible ones..but not the only ones.

For 2.) Even if it was, at one point in time it was "Oh if you arent from the streets/gangster you won't blow up"...So is that not evolution? lol

But on another note.

3.) Female Rap is huge and Yung Miami pretty much has song of the Summer. Monaleo is also on fire. Sexyy Redd makes a hit a year. It's hard to deny that space.

4.) Bossman Dlow has managed to get on the charts consistently. Basically makes 1-2 hits a year.

5.) Babychiefdoit made an entry on Bilboard like 5 days ago.

6.) Rubberz might be weird bc of the A.I but that was a top 100 song.

7.) You can't watch TV for an entired day and not see Big X Tha Plug at least once.

Its been up and down for awhile but Rap isn't in a bad place like everybody makes it seem.

rubberz (which AI aside isnt even a hip hop songI) blowing up over the hip hop music fenix flexin has made for a decade is not a good thing

Yup.

The days of rappers like Lloyd Banks, Jadakiss, and Fabolous being able to go Plat and score hits are over.

People now only expect that from the biggest rappers in the world while other spitters remain underground/indie.

Deader than dead

Not necessarily true but the audience is so suburban now that they dont give af about the story behind the artist

We got chance the rapper and Vic Mensa

Four pages? Come on we can do better. I might even watch the video and offer my opinion if I have to

Need a TLDW tbh

"Rap isn't actually dying" - Anthony Fantano

Yall are not rap fans.

drake is better than kendrick lamar

I’d say the same exact thing. If the music is good the music is good. Hip hop dialogue has been consumed by metrics. It’s about the art over all, even at the smallest of scales. Maybe instead of one kanye, we have 10 JIDs.

A lower concentration of power may be beneficial to the art form for a while. Maybe we will get superstars again, maybe not.

I couldn’t care less tbh as long as the music is good.

If hip hop is no longer the big money maker (for f***ed up capitalist industry reasons) maybe we can start to see more genuine counter culture movements within the scene rather than fake punk personalities. If big money isn’t on the line, it’s much easier to separate yourself from the big wigs and say what you really mean.

Am I off base?

I wanted Vince to make an album that was more overtly about the industry. He threw subtle jabs but I wanted to see him spell it all out. But he can’t because of who he’s signed to.

Idk maybe we’ll see more independent artists with extremely slow come ups rather than rocket ships propelled by major labels.

Dontai doesn’t even really enjoy reacting to music nowadays he usually chilling on Patreon doing shows and movies nowadays

Who is the next Kanye Drake Jay Wayne Kendrick or even Cole or TI tier star lol

If you grew up in the 2000’s you know what I mean. Original, versatile, can rap on trendy s*** or foundational s***, and doesn’t primarily rely on melody

This. But also Don Toliver barely raps if we bein fr.

there are so many people who review and discuss music.

Exactly.

People pretty much only expect lyrical mainstream albums from the 35+ crowd now.

You still have younger spitters out there but they're relegated to the underground/indie market.

Gone are the days when spitters like Styles P, Jadakiss, Banks, Fab, Game, Cassidy, Kurupt, Lupe, and Wale were able to get hits and achieve some mainstream success despite not having the biggest crossover appeal.

this is off topic, but a lot of the general trends towards simpler songs and the fear of "trying too hard" in your music is a direct result of this idiot's influence

how?

Hard to blame him solely for this

Like ultimately there has always been this sentiment especially on the Internet that hip hop isn’t “real rap” if you ain’t flowing over 90s boom bap instrumentals. No genre has more conservative fans than rap fans

And ultimately Fantano has been a lot more accepting of outsider sounds in hip hop like a JPEG or Danny Brown than most hip hop fans who are still stuck in the 90s or 00s