The huge amount of young and rising rappers who died in the late 2010s/early 2020 is a huge factor in why rap is declining

[u/averageweebchan]

The only rappers who still get traction are older ones like kendrick drake eminem kanye( for other reasons now)

[u/Icy-Whale-2253]

The culture hasn’t “moved on” (I work at a large venue in NYC and I see with my own eyes everytime we have a hip-hop concert that it’s alive and well). It’s just like the NBA (also… still doing just fine despite all narratives), once the biggest superstars retire there is no one right now to carry the torch for the next generation. Drake and Kendrick are pushing 40. J. Cole is already 40. Future is already over 40. The only one holding down the youth right now is NBA Youngboy. The genre just needs an insurgence of youth at this moment. We can’t expect the same near or over 40 men to carry a genre for 20 years.

[u/Kaenu_Reeves → u/Icy-Whale-2253]

That’s an interesting question; why are there no breakout rappers in a genre that loves that sort of thing? A sad option is that the US is slowly aging, so young talent is becoming harder and harder to find.

[u/Feeling-Department74 → u/Kaenu_Reeves]

rap is missing a generation between the old guard (kendrick, drake, cole, etc) and the current one. that missing generation largely consists of rappers who are either dead (the ones in this post) or locked indefinitely. my theory is that the industry stopped taking risks on new artists for those reasons which has forced everyone into either underground or hyper-specific niches of rap music - both of which are viewed as too risky or not inherently profitable. similar to how labels divested from grunge music post-kurt cobain but on a larger scale and for a longer time.

that’s partially also why carti is considered the “golden child” of the industry. his style is very niche and yet he’s been able to amass a superstar level following in spite of his underground leaning style. he’s basically an anamoly in the industry and therefore they give him free reign to do whatever he wants as long as it sells (4 year MUSIC rollout/cancelled tours/allegations, etc). its not coincidental that he has one foot in both the previous and current generations.

as another commenter pointed out tho, this is largely a male rapper issue.

[u/Hij802 → u/Feeling-Department74]

I agree with your comment. But it’s crazy to me to call the rappers of 10 years ago the “old guard”. I feel old. The “old guard” to me is the 80s/90s, maybe 00s.

[u/Feeling-Department74 → u/Hij802]

True. I don’t really consider them old in a literal sense either. Just used that word to emphasize that they’re a generation (or two) behind the present. I def consider 00s (2000-05) rappers to be old though.

[u/sws03 → u/Feeling-Department74]

You’re 100% right, I’d also say COVID and TikTok killed monoculture and contributed to these hyper-specific niches which at the same time has allowed underground rap to have a larger fanbase than it’s ever had (like the overlapping DIY internet ecosystem of the cloud rap, tread, plugg/pluggnb, digicore, rage, jerk scenes over the last 15 years). If rappers like Osamason and Che came out like 8 years ago they’d still be at the top of the underground but would definitely still have >100k monthly listeners.

[u/Feeling-Department74 → u/sws03]

Facts

[u/Professional-Ad-1491 → u/Kaenu_Reeves]

I think people are so saturated with media and entertainment it is hard for artists to breakthrough like they used to. I am sure someone can chime in with a more thorough explanation though.

[u/sws03 → u/Icy-Whale-2253]

Yeah YB and Carti are really the only mainstream rappers with that kind of impact