He's materialistic af but I feel like this kind of rap these days is basically valee's 2 projects within the last year, egonomics with harry fraud connects better but his ep last December kind of fits (after skipping thru some songs it fits for sure)

Dude sounds happy but numb I guess but the last actual project like op is talking about I can think of is honestly just kaytramine which is almost 3 years old at this point

Sometimes rxk nephew and rx papi drop stuff like this. A year or two ago neph did a tape with harry fraud that was kinda close. Maybe just follow harry fraud releases? Lol

Does anyone remember that ktt1 cs rapper whose thing was being “friendly” lol

Crazy

Xelpmoca very friendly vibes

corny

Their coolness is based off their nihilistic image (especially for YB) which is in direct opposition to a positive vibe

Tisakorean is happy music

454

Tbqh, me

Imma pull a Danny Brown and drop my XXX on October 31, 2027

listening to public enemy made me realize how corn niggas is, beyond even just the message, the bomb squad was just ahead of their time in their beats. even in 2025 some of these beats feel absolutely insane. now i hear 70% of rap, even people i like and the vocal mix is all the same, the sound is the same, even kendrick SOMETIMES seems plagued by the constraints the genre has been shackled in

i love hip hop i love love hip hop

Also we desperately need artist to make music we can dance to again

Chane

i feel like it’s even more complicated than just this

i feel like happy by pharrell and the insane conjoined success the song had with despicable me

alongside peakobama era

i’m afraid to over simplify and say that the song commodified happiness itself lol but i do believe that the song was a big milestone for the commercialization of hip hop / rap / urban music. a process that has been happening for more than half of if’s 50+ year history.

i think overtime it slowly became a joke in of itself, and made artists wary of creating genuinely happy music. afraid that it would get pigeonholed into popular commercial music.

there’s a lot more reasons for this, a lot of it being late stage capitalism being a hell of its own creation. i think black music needs more happy music right now. there’s been a surge of dance music, beyoncé arguably kicking it off for the mainstream, maybe responding to the underbelly of queer / trans electronic artist communities in major cities. looking towards the past and the future for a new form of community organizing, helping each other find sanctuary in dance parties.

tyler played with it heavily in his last album. but other then that, it does seem like rappers specifically are scared of making positive music. it’s not in the direct fear of commercialization though (what is more commercial in music than sicko mode atp) i think it’s (to echo others itt) a fear of being corny. anything positive is seen as corny or maybe even more importantly for our discussion, as inauthentic.

as if happiness implies a sense of artifice. it’s interesting to observe and i wonder deeply if there’s any room for a happy rapper to authentically appeal to rap audiences right now.

it begs the question what is there to be happy for right now, what is there to be positive? SCOTUS is trying to overturn decades old voting rights. i don’t know. i’m just rambling here

Idk op J. Cole makes me love myself. Maybe you should stop being so negative.

Someone should tag Dee 1's alt in this thread.

Nothing to be happy about

Also ATCQ and De La Soul were lowk INCREDIBLY h**** in some of these songs yo lolol.

School Trilogy Ye.

op asked where the positive rappers at then shat on dreamville and cole and that’s exactly why nobody wanna make positive rap. i mean look how niggas did chance. also the biggest rapper in the world said a nigga talking about real life s*** raps like he tryna free slaves. whole industry is cooked rn

Chance s***ted on himself/his positive image by being negative before that album dropped.

Also it was just a bad album lol.

Aight hol on truth bomb in caps cause this annoying:

UNLESS YALL WANNA GIVE PM DAWN OR ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT FLOWERS PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE YALL WANT OR MISS POSITIVE RAPPERS.

NIGGAS ALWAYS LOOKED AT THEM KIND OF NIGGAS LIKE THEY WAS CORNY. THE RAPPERS YALL CLAIM POSITIVE WASNT POSITIVE THEY JUST READ BOOKS AND KNEW HOW TO ARTICULATE THEY WORDS SO YOU CALL THAT A “POSITIVE” RAPPER. TRIBE CALLED QUEST ALMOST ENDED THEIR CAREER WITH THE #1 MOST HOMOPHOBIC SONG NEVER HEARD + RELEASED A SONG ON SAME ALBUM SAYING A GIRL YELLING RAPE WAS ONLY DUE TO HER BEING ON HER PERIOD.

NOSTALGIA GOT YALL TWEAKING.

P.S. All the "positive" modern rappers yall are naming make some of the most depressing introspective music ever btw.

Navy Blue
Action Bronson
Larry June
Tha God Fahim
YL
Willie The Kid
Loji
Wiki
Evidence
Jah-Monte
Theravada
J Cole
Kendrick Lamar
Mick Jenkins
Chance The Rapper
Common
Cavalier