the whole "overproducing/loudness" gimmick. The whole "everything has to be grandiose or bust" mentality. It can become a bit overwhelming a bit.

Yeezus is even guiltier of this too

Graduation lowkey slightly guilty of this as well

Honestly everything besides his first 2 albums is pretty guilty of this

that being said, that era did give us one of my fav kanye beats ever tho

Was going to happen with or without Ye

i mean kanye did basically bring hipster/indie kids who were listening to modest mouse arcade fire etc into rap along with clipse, cudi, travis etc. kanye probably the biggest culprit for this due to him working with jon brion (fiona apple’s producer/critical darling) or sampling daft punk (music nerds messiahs). he did a lot that meant rap became more gentrified but that was always going to be the result. rap before him was shaping up to be this when def jam etc pushed rap into a money making machine

Power is one of Kanye’s best songs

It doesn't singularly rely on Kanye, nor is it singularly his fault. It didn't even start with him. But he did play a notable role.

This does sound like a Will.I.Am production tbf
Fair play to him for being recognisable

Not seeing how Clipse has anything to do with this lmao

Damn, let's talk about it.

his first 2 albums he definitely still was very much viewed in the "urban backpacker" realm. Working with slum village and those type of feats that were known in that field and producing the "backpacker" rappers like Common.

Graduation was the album that "kilt" gangster rap which on one hand, great message to alt-black kids that didn't grow up with that background and influenced a new gen of black kids that could express their artistry through hip hop.

But a LOT of those new gen black kids (e.g. Tyler) also brought a LOOOOOOOOT of white people that don't really love hip hop wit em. (e.g. some fans thinking Tyler "ironically" liked Waka Flocka when...he just really liked that nigga music cause...well he's still a nigga.)

Greatest hip hop album in my opinion but i agree

nah this the 1st good thread of 2026, whether you agree or disagree

you’re a stupid c*** how is baltimore club drums thë same as stomp clap music when the drums for that genre is in the name (stomps and claps) f***ing moron

Also Trav did help "gentrify" hip hop but he's always couched his artistry in being fun and splendorous entertainment. I don't think it did too much to "soften" or weaken hip hop because hip hop has always had a fun-loving side.

Kanye takes himself so seriously and measures success by western, eurocentric cultural metrics all the time, and in his own music. It's not quite as offputting even if Trav is certainly not a "hardcore" rapper by any extent.

The last track dont even got majority rapping on it bruh we can't do that.

That still goes to like ready to die or gkmc or matw or blueprint or somethin.

“stomp clap hey” implies a certain audience will resonate with it more than usual

that “certain audience” can be found in Portland and gentrified parts of Brooklyn such as Buschwick

It started with diddy and mase making hits out of the samples and the shiny suit s*** but kanye took it further than anyone did

clipse made very weird music compared to a lot of mainstream rappers. they’ve even talked about the clipsters being white fans who are into thëm but also the indie music out at that time during the 00s indie boom.

MBDTF and TPAB probably the most I don’t like rap, but… albums oat

Loved Graduation's influence on not needing to be gangster anymore. That was a very good thing for rap.

Annoying that a lack of wanting to portray a gangster lifestyle in your music became conflated with making hip hop music sound less like hip hop music. It honestly in a lot of ways paved the way for the "street rap"/soundcloud rap reaction that followed and is still pervasive today, and is presently destroying hip hop even as a commercial institution.

hey
woah oh

hey
woah oh

heeeEEEeeeEEEy woah

Diddy did it all first

if we’re keeping it a buck hov is the one who gentrified rap the most

ehhhhhhhhhhhhh except TPAB had way more rapping and was way more "blacker" than MBDTF

Annoying that a lack of wanting to portray a gangster lifestyle in your music became conflated with making hip hop music sound less like hip hop music.

DAYUM ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !