The title of the thread is “why does mainstream rap suck now?”

I don’t get why y’all insert yourselves into the conversation and then say “well actually I don’t care about the topic of this conversation”

fakemink i’ll give you but every single weekend in LA i’m hearing esdeekid at clubs and parties and he has over 10m monthly listeners what’s the bar for mainstream if that’s not it

Now you say it like that damn

I’m sorry bruh but nobody who is not chronically online knows who that is. He’s not a mainstream rapper whatsoever

@Nikedufflebag @Valentine

If mainstream rap is in such a healthy place right now, who are the young up-and-comers that would be name-dropped in a 2026 version of the Control verse?

so the DJs and people throwing house parties are chronically online?

Need more Mexikodro’s but better bars

niggas saying fakemink itt?

we gotta wrap it up mods. Yall could fool us 5 year ago with the lil pumps and 69 bc they had billboard but enough is enough

We’re in a different era. Yall keep tryna loop s*** back to what it was when yall were in middle school/high school

Everyday dudes not those d*** addict characters we got now

Yes, actually. To be a DJ you have to be extremely tapped in to everything lmao

Mainstream s*** is s*** that the average everyday person would know

You’re missing the point.

If a verse came out that called out other up-and-comers in a competitive fashion, which up-and-comers would be named?

It’s a simple question, it has nothing to do with nostalgia

the conversation we were having was about chart toppers, not the underground gang (not saying Yeat, Cench and Dave are underground). I had to withhold a lot lmfao, niggas are tripping

I feel you.

But I don't even think it's an "in hindsight" thing because that would imply that albums like College Dropout, Donuts, Hell Hath No Fury, Carter 3, MOTM, Documentary, Below The Heavens, Madvillainy, Relapse, etc. only received retroactive praise which is not remotely true. They were mainly acclaimed on arrival(barring Relapse which was divisive).

I think the era mostly gets downplayed because of MBDTF and the type of crowd it attracted to hip hop discussions online. But that's another topic by itself.

Then you know the genre in a bad place

Rocky
Kendrick
Joey
Action
Yelawolf
Danny
KRIT

we REALLY gotta stop glazing this song lmfao, 4 of these dudes peaked right there (respect to KRIT)

The only rappers that are battling consistently are drill rappers. Thats the era we live in. Rappers aren’t competing to see who is the best lyrical talent anymore. A modern control verse won’t exist in this era because that’s not what anyone’s trying to do.

You thinking about 1Train

The rappers named in Control were:

J. Cole
Big KRIT
Wale
Pusha T
Meek Mill
Rocky
Drake
Big Sean
Jay Electronica
Tyler
Mac Miller

All of whom were up-and-coming talents in 2013, besides Pusha

Who would be named in a 2026 version?

Pusha T was a weird one tbh

You’re avoiding the question by moving the goalposts to make it about how rap lost its competitive edge. While that may be true, that’s not the point.

I’m simply asking which rappers would named as up-and-coming prominent talents in the year 2026

It was just because he was basically “new” as a solo act around that time, his debut solo album dropped the same year

We’re essentially saying the same thing but for different reasons. You’re saying it because you feel the talent is lacking. I’m saying it because the nature of hip hop changed

Drop some recommendations for the out of touch millennials

Is your belief that fakemink and esdeekid will have the longevity of Cole and Kendrick?

Idk tde is known as legends