I was talking about a broad range of things, but yeah this is primarily with regard to elements of rap fandom that are tainting the health of hip hop culture/music because they were brought into listening to hip hop in spite of its musical roots, not because of them.

Thats why this whole discussion is so stupid

He kinda is from the streets he just soft( Jay’s words not mine) and he bought that sensitivity to his music opening the door for artist like Drake. It’s a blessing and curse like gentrification

yea

like those Em stans were always on the outside looking in, nobody ever saw them as real fans of the genre

whereas the modern equivalent of that type of person now pretends to be part of the community while vulturing

Bro there is no blessing/curse dynamic to gentrification lmao

Renovation can happen without gentrification, it just requires socialism or at least competent government leadership to pull that off.

Nail on the head

I’ve seen gentrification first hand and on one quality of life goes up with new businesses and opportunities but with the increase in property value natives get pushed out

Reddit's favorite rappers nowadays are Kendrick, Tyler, Doechii, Eminem, Carti, JPEGMafia, Death Grips, Andre 3000, and Nas.

The most divisive rappers on there are Drake, Kanye, Nicki, Jay-Z, and Travis.

Yes and displacing people from their homes to clean up neighborhoods and make them more palatable to yuppie transplants is not good. We can make these renovations without kicking out the existing residents. At most it requires socialism, at the least it requires competent governance.

I feel like it wouldve been even more gentrified without Kanye

Even Outkast didn't manage to shift the trajectory like he did

I agree since the hood is purposefully neglected.

i said this earlier in the thread:

gentrification itself isn’t bad

gentrification + capitalism is bad because it’s typically affluent white people pushing low income minorities out of their communities

gentrification is good when it forces stagnant, traditional, conservative communities to accept other people’s lifestyles

S/o West End
Let’s see how it goes

Yep, that's the difference.

I've seen renovation projects and they are almost entirely positive influences on underserviced communities. Nobody has to move out or is driven out, opportunities are just created and dilapidated infrastructure is upgraded. Didn't take any crazy revolutionary stuff, just a concerted community effort and competent local politicians.

Gentrification implies driving people out of the community, that's why it's bad.

“Death Grips” mention in 2026 lol

at least get your reddit stereotypes up to date

they love Destroy Lonely & s*** now

sitting around a table like "to what extent did orange gentrify citrus"

Yeah gentrification is leaving things up to market which is the American way unfortunately

That's not gentrification though. Gentrification explicitly requires displacing people from their communities. It's inherently colonial at a minimum, if not inherently capitalistic. And honestly, it's probably also inherently capitalistic, but I just don't have the time to really pour over that rn.

Renovation does what gentrification does regarding material development, but does so in service to the residents on the community, not in spite of them.

so are you NIMBY or YIMBY

im ngl theres a contingent of kanye fans that rly do think his s*** transcends rap and have no respect for hip-hop but that isnt representative of all kanye fans.

i think there’s a lot of people who got into casually listening to hiphop around 2000-2010 as it was peaking in popularity, and these people, bring casual listeners, stopped listening when hiphop was past its peak. i mean times change. genres swim in and out of the mainstream. this is just how it goes. things get popular, they get gentrified, and then it’s over.

Kanye just happened to be the face of hiphop during that peak. He made good music, and even casual listeners enjoy good music. No surprise that there are groups of people who like kanye but don’t really know much else about rap.

Rap music ran its course through pop culture. that portion of his fanbase that gives all kanye fans a bad rep just came along naturally with his position as one of the biggest acts in a genre that was nearing the end of its popular lifespan. I mean if 50 cent had become the dominant figure in rap instead, I don’t think much would have changed. We’d be on G-Unit forums talking about how 50 cent fans suck and how he’s responsible for gentrifying rap.

YIMBY til the casket drops playboy let's get people into homes

okay then yea that’s what i’m trying to argue for, i’m just poor with words sometimes

you good we just online

I still think this is too ambiguous of a claim though.

Kanye worked with Chief Keef on GOOD's version of Don't Like and shouted out the Southside of Chicago on "All Day."

Can't Tell Me Nothin was meant to be a Jeezy song before Ye flipped it and kept it sounding hard.

In fact, Ye always had zero issues working with "street" rappers. He was never on that "I'm too good for these niggas" schtick like Tyler used to be on pre-Flower Boy.

Like I get the argument about MBDTF and Yeezus drawing in hipsters. KSG to a lesser extent too.

But I just don't see Ye actively s***ting on gangster rap or old school rap at all. He has called Jay or Nas his GOATs for the longest time just like other rappers. And he's a fan of 50 Cent too and flipped the "Banks told me go head and switch your style up" line off of In Da Club on Good Life.

Like I feel a lot of your argument is projection and not actually based on what Kanye has said or expressed.

Even Yeezus had conscious messages on New Slaves and Blood On The Leaves and that's supposed to be Ye's "whitest" album.

I dunno....I think you're going somewhere with this but it's just not a consistent argument at all. Even Fantano didn't f*** with Ye like that early on despite being a (former) mild fan.