Facts

Whole lotta dust in this thread

If Jay, Wayne, Eminem, and Kanye had all debuted in 1993 and were still the most important names in rap in 2009, then yes niggas would have complained

Also nobody is even just saying this is a 2025 issue

The genre has been at a standstill at the top since 2019, we’ve been saying this for years

I think that all the issue is about narrative and immediacy

Explain?

Hip-hop is not dead like people trying portrait because the Billboard issue.

New Big L album dropped friday, Conway Machine too.

Who checked?

We lost a lot of talents in last years like Young Dolph, Takeoff, YNW Melly, XXXTentacion, Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD, artists like that dont poppin overnight

We need gave time to the new cats mastered they craft

I don’t hold any other genre or medium to this standard so idk why I’d do this with rap

I like Akademiks, the number 1 influencer about hip-hop, but is a sucka move overrate numbers on charts and Billboard like he do

Hes one of main reasons that people run with this narrative that hip-hop is dying.

but this just such a narrow perspective to have

Doechii just won best rap album, is on tour, center of a lot of media/collabs and a headliner

Roddy Rich is only 27 and accomplished a lot

NBA Youngboy is only 26, just got outside for the first time, and been going #1 since 17

Rod Wave has 3 #1 albums, a big sophomore album, and a big single on his debut album

Lil Baby is cold, but I don’t think I need to talk about his career

Gunna just became solo after contributing massively to YSL and his own career

if Polo G stops being depressed, the nigga was probably the biggest pandemic rapper at 21 which says a lot considering what was around him and he’s only 26 with a #1 album

Pooh Shiesty just got outside of jail with a focused Gucci now

like @ThuggaBe said, it’s all narratives and immediacy. look what all these young artists already accomplished by the debut age of goats in their field. and I didn’t even name the Yeat, Carson type of artist or even BigX or DaBaby, or Harlow (hate these 2 dudes but they made noise) it’s cool tho

A lot of people try push the "Hip Hop Is Dead" narrative since the 90s, even in 2006 Nas droped a album with this title.

People dont remember, but a lot of old heads was hating NWA and 2pac back in the day

People dont see the bigger picture about people just trying run a narrative

None of these guys are innovative

None of them are moving the needle

Half of them are already irrelevant

Almost all of them debuted in the mid-2010s

Do they all make bad music? Of course not. But that has absolutely nothing to do with what’s being discussed

Do any of these new guys sound like they have the potential, drive, or aspiration to master their craft?

JAY-Z wasnt innovative when he came to the game

I think that is too early to make the statement "hip-hop is dead and we dont have hope"

bruh, across the last few pages, I have posted 25 new age artists all from 2020-2025 who are either actively on tour, have made impact on Billboard, or have big eras around their music all before they all even reached 27. this is with the biggest rap beef of all time dominating for a year within that

like I said, you niggas just complaining to complain lmfao

Are you comparing Roddy Ricch, NBA YoungBoy, and Lil Baby to Jay Z?

“Big eras”

I’m crying man

Some of y’all too far gone

Who thought that JAY-Z was became JAY-Z when this dropped?

Jay Z’s first album is better than any project any of the guys y’all named have ever dropped

Can be, but dont make BIG NUMBERS ON BILLBOARD.

And people saying that hip-hop is dead because rap dont poppin on Billboard this week

Conway The Machine got dope albuns, that dont make big numbers on Billboard

The Nipsey Hussle debut album is hard AF if you want look in the JAY-Z lane, tooked years to Nipsey peaked his style.

Sadly, we lost him.

New artists need time to make dope s*** at JAY-Z level, even JAY-Z needed time to peak his style

Jay Z released 8 straight #1 albums from 1998 to 2004, at least one every single year

From 1999 to 2002, he had the (at the time) record for the most consecutive weeks charting on the Hot 100 for a rapper, a record that wasn’t broken until 2011 by Wayne