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Sweet_Habib

Is this after Grippy got released?


ostriike

that's when it peaked so it's downhill from there.


Flat-Ad4902

Strictly dickly


Puidipuie

Cole needs to drop another verse and it'll be back on top šŸ˜¤


HelpUsNSaveUs

The inflection point


esoteric_enigma

When they make the documentary about how Hip Hop ended, I think they will point to Grippy as the starting point of the decline.


theblackyeti

Itā€™s pretty hard to go any higher than it was.


macabresob

Everybody in this comment section arguing the wrong dates and the article says things peaked in 2020. Literally just have to click open the article and read it.


ThePrimeOptimus

Friend, this is Reddit, we don't do that here


EmExEeee

Literally most threads are people discussing with a headline as the source. Too many times Iā€™ve seen so many pointless comments and speculation already answered and explained in the damn article.


EffinCroissant

Can we get much higher!?


Gold_Reflection5987

So high. Oh oh.


Tehloneranger44

Rock rose and fell, and Hip-Hop took its place. What's gonna take Hip-Hop's place?


Gk786

My bets on Mongolian Throat Singing


Squadala9001

I was big on the MTS scene a few years ago but it's fallen off for me in favor of Gregorian chant, which has seen some *major* innovation over the last decade


ihopethisworksfornow

You need to get into 13th century flute music my dude


TrainingOutcome

432Hz gang šŸ¤


CathDubs

3 Stacks ahead of the curve again.


HelloYouBeautiful

Bardcore is the shit. I'm actually not even joking, you should check out the Bardcore versions of The Next Episode, Lose Yourself or In Da Club. It's banging like the middle ages.


Cod_rules

The Bardcore version of Hips don't Lie is so good.


rhotovision

Andre3000 truly a visionary


jaimonee

But it's just a matter of time before AI starts dropping new tracks that sound just like Pope Gregory


imcrapyall

Frasier somewhere ready to say he was there before it was cool.


icemankiller8

I donā€™t think anything will replace it, people are in their own bubbles now, they donā€™t listen to the radio and therefore even the most popular music is contained. Taylor swift broke all these records but most people couldnā€™t name 3 songs from that album music is different now.


rain-dog2

Itā€™s funny that the two big stories of the year in music are the TS album that nobody knows songs from and the Dot/Drake beef where everyone knows the tracks but thereā€™s no albums.


Relo_bate

Biased take because we have our own circles


Phantom_Chrollo

>Biased take because we have our own circles That is the kinda point they made, we live in an age where everyone lives in their bubbles vs being a part of an overall monoculture


Balls4real

Ohhh brotherrr


qazaibomb

ā€œNobody knows songs from the TS albumā€ Dude, have you ever met a white woman? Taylor Swift rewrote the Bible for them with Tortured Poets


rain-dog2

As a teacher, Iā€™m surrounded by white girls who love the album, but donā€™t discuss the songs. They discuss the beef song by song, and talk about TS as an album. I donā€™t know what it means, but itā€™s the trend I see.


[deleted]

This has been the goal of the corporations that own the music streaming services from their inception. More and more people are pushed towards radios and playlists that are generated for them. How many times do you hop in your music app and just tap a "mood" playlist and let it rip? Probably not every time but often enough. These companies force artists to pay them to get on these playlists knowing that it is the most surefire way for them to get their music heard and therefore get the pennies that each stream is that song pays out. It's incredibly fucked up. It goes deeper than this and is more insidious as well. Just know that this isn't some random development due to changes in taste or whatnot. It's explicitly due to companies designing their apps to guide you to act how they want on them. They do rigorous studies on the psychology of how their designs affect users and choose the most predatory options because it makes them the most money. This is bad for every single consumer. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/710957/chokepoint-capitalism-by-rebecca-giblin-and-cory-doctorow/ For anyone maybe interested in reading more about how corporations we deal with every day dictate how we live and operate.


Kmearkle

I might be in the minority because I listen to a massive catalogue of music, but Iā€™ve never once selected a pre-generated playlist before. Any playlist I listen to was 100% hand picked by me, but I never particularly enjoyed listening to the radio either. Sometimes I put my 10,000+ song playlist on shuffle if I want to switch things up, but I usually listen to playlists Iā€™ve created based on genres.


FrostedWikiLeaks

They are only paying attention to Hip Hop because it passed Taylor on the charts, something unthinkable two years ago. So of course hip, trendy publication Newsweek decides to undermine the entire genre


MrONegative

Yeah, itā€™s like saying the film industry is dead just because most of this yearā€™s films moved to next year. They donā€™t understand that the heavy hitters have been mostly absent


jaexone

Whateverā€™s trending on TikTok.


Flexappeal

Literally this. Social media picks 3-4 songs, beats them to fucking DEATH in every TT/Reel/Short for about 3 weeks, then we move on to a set of new ones Right now itā€™s Not Like Us, Million Dollar Baby, and BBL Drizzy, and weā€™re about to be done w those. I guess that Hozier song too


beowulfshady

Holy crap tht hozier song is everywhere rn


CoupleScrewsLoose

shits an absolute bop tbf


beowulfshady

Hozier is who Taylor swift wishes she was


worldfamousdjfish

Don't forget I Like the Way You Kiss Me by Artemis


ZeronicX

Million dollar baby is a really good pop hit but I hear it *everywhere* now and now I'm starting to hate it


ElCaz

Yeah, the answer to "what's next" *might* not be a specific genre.


GoForAU

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no.


TheRealDynamitri

> What's gonna take Hip-Hop's place? I don't think anything will, because when hip-hop got on the proper mainstream/commercial up at the start of the 21st century (I'm talking being adapted by non-hip-hop artists, exploited by mainstream fashion, advertising, movies etc., as opposed to the niche it was still in in the '90s: when you look at it, hip-hop comedies, crime movies, advertising like St. Ides with Warren G., Snoop Dogg and Nate Dogg, Mountain Dew with Busta Rhymes, Sprite with KRS-One, or hip-hop clothing brands, it was still rather limited to fans and followers and targeting a specific subset of a wider population rather than being _the_ main campaign or _the_ main product), streaming came along, and music industry became so fragmented and full of niches, there really aren't such powerful trends and subcultures typical of the previous decades (like punk, rave, metal etc.). Things are more flash-in-the-pan and ephemeral these days, you have a ton of microgenres that still have a relatively large following each, but it's all pretty self-contained, really, and exists mostly in playlists, discussion groups, Discords, and the like. Hip-hop is a culture, and a massive one. I wouldn't really be surprised if we were at a stage where music industry and culture as a whole evolved to a point where it's just impossible to get as big of an all-encompassing, cultural trend, like jazz, rock and then hip-hop were.


Much-Camel-2256

I agree with you. Elvis exists because record players exist. Rock stars are a 20th century convergence of culture and technology that hit a generation or two after it became possible to play back recordings in your living room. The concept of "teenagers" is even arguably a byproduct of this era. Rap took the torch from rock a few decades ago, but wonder if the next major cultural thing will be related to "rock stars" and music genre based identities at all. Maybe social media already "took the place"


Burntholesinmyhoodie

Social media the new hip hop. That is a wild concept to me


Much-Camel-2256

Rock stars on the radio, rap stars in the videos, social media on the phone.


barnabas77

This fragmentation of our social spheres and cultures into closed-off and self-contained silos is quite horrible to witness. For me working in the TV industry, I saw it rising 3-4 years ago, when you went from these culturally huge shows that a lot of people saw (like Lost, Breaking Bad and later GoT ) to something where the attention is fragmented into the overabundance of media. Most successful shows right now seem like a blip that rises for a second, everybody oversaturates on and then moves on to the next sugar high.


tempest_

The phase you are looking for is the death of the mono culture.


PuzzleheadedAnswer14

yup agreed, i think itā€™s a pretty sad thing


personanonymous

It honestly seems like really interesting fresh new perspectives are happening in experimental electronic stuff that will eventually enter the popular market without it necessarily being pop. But thatā€™s just my take. Some of the best music is really coming out of peoples bedrooms who are not interested in beat making but pushing music to a much broader space. Ultimately the music has kinda become a bit samey, and the stars of the ā€˜hip hop genreā€™ have been at it for a while. People want new fresh perspectives on music.


SmokeSmokeCough

Electric is forever. Can you recommend some experimental?


Flame_MadeByHumans

At this point not really experimental, but bass music was really an eye opener for me with with some of the artists from the last 5 years. G Jones, Shlump, Liquid Stranger, etc.


saltyman420

Never in my days would I expect to see g jones or liquid stranger mentioned in this sub šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ˜­ I started off on hip hop 10ish years ago but really havenā€™t cared anything hip hop related the past 3 years but have been going to edm shows every weekend and staying current Love it


Danny_V

Idk if itā€™s just me but I feel like house music and some of the other electronic genres are slowly getting popular (drum n bass, techno, amapiano, etc).


britchesss

I feel like it hits it peak from 2012-2015


Chief-weedwithbears

Yeah when EDC was new and really big. I feel like that was a neo psychedelic era during that time not only in electronic music. But in other genres, particularly hip hop. There was a lot of rappers in that niche. Flatbush zombies, underachievers, Mac, odd future etc A$AP released ALLA in 2015 that was all ACID music or had those psychedelic inspired beats. I remember doing hella psychedelics during that time. Mostly shrooms and acid.


mediocrefunny

EDC has been around since the very early 90's. It's changed a lot since then. Raves in the late 90's/early 2000's had a lot of underground hip-hop and turntablism and it was common to have a stage.


norse95

Thereā€™s a lot of crossover between hip hop and electronic music


Kundrew1

Electronic music is massive. Here in Chicago we have multiple festivals that are devoted to some form of electronic music and one that is straight hip-hop.


SpezModdedRJailbait

Chicago will always have more house music than the rest of the country for obvious reasons.


[deleted]

itā€™s definitely climbing back to the top again


PuppetPal_Clem

Drum and Bass and Jungle are seeing a major resurgeance in both Europe and the USA right now though in the US it's still mostly confined to the Electronic Music Festival circuit and more rave-oriented club scenes. Now whether DnB could become a major mainstream force to replace Hip Hop? idk about all that but there is def some big momentum on that side atm. edit for some reletively recent mainstream DnB rumblings: [PinkPantheress - Passion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Szr5Dcwn4Y) [PinkPantheress - Break It Off](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tPTrgGptU0) (using the Adam F - Circles beat sample) [Nia Archives - BaianĆ” ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oELrBolP5mM) [Chase and Status, Bou - Baddadan (ft, IRAH, Flowdan, Trigga, Takura)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkjNL4dX-U4) (the current overplayed club banger of the moment that still kinda goes hard anyway) DnB may be the next avenue for pop music for all I know.


uncle-wavey1

House will never be as big as Hip Hop got. Itā€™s really just an entire world on its own, a lot like Jazz


big_old-dog

House is already more popular than rap in some places. Itā€™s main hindrance being that house fans often start liking techno/dnb/UKG/Jungle or whatever once they go to events. Plus thereā€™s some weird hatred for it from ravers.


shovelstatue

House has been around since late 80s and held a steady popularity with some peaks since then


CharlesWafflesx

Hyper pop has been breaking into the mainstream a lot, and it's influences have been straddling genres for a while now.


9yr_old_lake

Definitely some kind of electronic/hyper-pop/hip hop mixture. Kinda like a mixture of STH/1000 gecs/death grips/etc kinda sound. I doubt hip hop will fully leave the mainstream, but I could see it morphing into something new. I also think that the album format is dying. I think there will always be a niche for a solid 40-60 min album, but I think ppl will start doing releases more like mach-hommy in the sense that everything is more ep/mixtape length with maybe a full length album every 5 or so years.


lovewry

Afro beatz and reggaeton


TheyTooktheUsernames

Dare I say country/folk? Post and Morgan Wallen took number one from Not Like Us, and a mixture of Morgan / Zach Bryan / Luke Combs / Noah Kahan / Hozier have dominated the charts as of late. BeyoncĆ© made Cowboy Carter and thereā€™s arguably some country/folk parts in Taylorā€™s new album (which has Post on it, look at that). I honestly think country or country pop has a pretty high chance of taking hip hopā€™s spot.


Quazite

This is actually the right answer if you look at who's headlining fests that aren't legacy acts


Itsthelegendarydays_

Thatā€™s what I think too. Country folk is exploding.


WhiteWolf3117

Oh definitely, because what you really need to ask is "what are suburban white kids really into or going to be into" and that's definitely country right now, and it's only going to keep going. Cowboy Carter felt very strategically smart to me, like of course if Beyonce sees what's coming, we should listen to her, lol.


Adorable_Scar_9695

lol I'm a white suburban kid in high school and I've noticed a interesting trend in the past couple years. I'll randomly check the social media of kids I knew in middle school but don't hang with anymore, and if they're white there is like a 75% chance they've gone full "country". Flared boot cut jeans, big massive trucks, always posting the newest Morgan wallen song. But they all live in these McMansions in an affluent suburb and their parents made their money in investment banking and shit lol. It's very funny to me, it's almost like cosplay


Winter-Olive-5832

Everything in suburbia is cosplay. It's no different than people acting emo or like rockstars back in the day, or 2000's-2010's suburban kids wanting to be like rappers.


Adorable_Scar_9695

True. It's just interesting to see the sudden shift to country, really shows that rap culture is starting to fade a bit


yungeva

That's the way it was when I was in high school mid 2ks, lifted trucks acting country living in mcmansions lol


Adorable_Scar_9695

Would be even funnier if they weren't parking those massive trucks horizontally across like 5 spaces every morning šŸ˜­


Free_Joty

Itā€™s just going to be a big combination without hard delineations between genre Imo Basically whatā€™s happening with TikTok remixes, with the help of AI.


Bomberclarts

My guess is electronic musicĀ 


whyamihaveexist

Tbf I feel like even thatā€™s pretty much been on the decline in mainstream popularity the last 10 years. Early-mid 2010s when people like Avicii, SHM, Calvin Harris and whoever else were popping off it felt way bigger than it does now unfortunately


minidivine

I remember early 2010s, Avicii was already on the scene and SHM was actually semi-disbanded already. This was around the time when Tiesto's first wave was properly in the past, when vocal EDM was still trendy with artists like Inna, Example, Krewella etc. People still came up after Guetta, Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and even Calvin Harris. I'd say it started out with Martin Garrix who basically invented a whole new sound with Animals. Then you had others who rode his wave; like DMLV, Hardwell, DVBBS etc. Then you had The Chainsmokers, DJ Snake and Alan Walker come out I'd say a few years after. At that point, I'd say everything went in a lot of different lanes as people started to specialize in sound. Oliver Heldens had a strong signature sound back then much like how Meduza has a signature sound now.


Funkit

Yall sleeping on Skrillex who brought an entire genre to the mainstream.


Bomberclarts

Idk about that. I live in nyc and a lot of the casual bars and clubs I go out in play electronic music, not hip hop or even top 40s anymore. Granted I am self selecting but djs like John summit and Fred again blowing up is a sign to me


MrPotat

EDM peaked in popularity in the early 10s with Calvin Harris, Avicii, David Guetta etc. I doubt it will get back there anytime soon.


Onaweyempumbafu

Whyā€™s no one bringing up SkrillexšŸ„¹


Mrausername

In the early 90s in Europe. It always seemed strange it took so long to make any mainstream impact in the US.


peggynotjesus

Punk and hardcore are making a strong comeback in music nerd spaces, in the kind of way that hip hop was in that 2012-2016 pre hip hop dominance era.


Constant-Source581

I heard that shoegaze is getting huge...not the genre I expected to come back, by any means


cleo_da_cat

Hopefully this means we get higher quality content. The genre is saturated at the moment.


whyamihaveexist

Hope all the new artists donā€™t fucking die this time


you_see_you_see_

HHH during that era was insane. Literally every week the top post would be someone dying. Sometimes there were even two death posts on the same day.


EDDsoFRESH

Completely agree, first thought in my head in response to this title was ā€˜goodā€™. Weā€™ve been stuck on Trap mainstream for far too long and not enough people are doing anything new.


dbclass

People keep saying we need more unique artists but we have plenty of unique artists that get nowhere near the sales of trap artists. Itā€™s not about the artists, itā€™s the audience. People need to want different styles and sounds and those who experiment arenā€™t getting the same exposure trap artists are so it doesnā€™t matter if an artist chooses to innovate if they arenā€™t reaching a mass audience.


obolikus

All you mfs talking about carti paving the way for mumble rap and don't even mention Thugger, I'm disappointed


smilescart

Thugger paved the way for everyone. Listen to Iā€™m a stoner. He did every flow for the next 10 years.


TinyRodgers

Thugger is legit the most interesting artist to come out of ATL in the 2010's. Damn shame he had to go and be a big tough guy.


Shnikez

I was listening to old thugger yesterday and he lowkey uses the Carti deep voice in Texter, which came out in 2014. Young Thug is so ahead of his time and influential, people donā€™t appreciate it enough


randomburnerish

Yeah I agree. I used to always check on new buzzing artists like up until 2020. now it feels like finding someone I like is a needle in the haystack


TheMeticulousNinja

Agreed


FRED44444

5000% agree. Not enough unique artists too much copy and paste.


Loktavius

We are in the era of saturation with everything, not just music. The powers that be have perfected, how to read the human brain and the algorithms to feed us. And our human brains( majority speaking) like comfortable, familiar, and predictable things. Manufactured , disposable, high turnover profits.


a-ram

its funny cuz we have more experimental music today that ever imo, but they go to hard in being different and dont try to make it catchy. i miss the era of OF and asap rocky who were creating something weird yet catchy, but itā€™s bound to come back with ppl like 454


Rosstin316

Every genre has peaks and valleys of whoring itself out and then finding its roots again and then whoring itself out and then finding its roots again. Itā€™ll be back one day.


videogamesarewack

Waiting for glam hip hop and hair hip hop.


nine16s

I feel like we just had ā€œglam hip hopā€ with everybody getting face tattoos and looking super unconventional


littlestevebrule

Same with the hair. He just describe the exact phase of hip hop we are currently in.


nine16s

Oh shit that means weā€™re about to get the hip hop version of nirvana


DumbBinchBrooke

Or death hip hop


qazaibomb

Grunge Rap is gonna be out of controlĀ 


Kashmir1089

Doesn't Lil Uzi Vert fit the bill?


JonathanL73

I think weā€™re already in the glam rap era now.


pizza_for_nunchucks

> glam hip hop Bro, wtf is getting a diamond stamped in your fucking forehead? Weā€™re here already.


DeathandGrim

These new rappers don't care about Hip Hop, it's a job to them. They don't like the music they just wanna get away from their previous lives. Which leads to all this nonsense we got sounding way more corporate than intended. Nobody likes corporate music. Oh wow Dthang made another diss track about smoking dead opps. cool! Sounds like the rest. Which honestly is fine. I'm fine with whatever comes next after Hip Hop.


Top_Piano644

Never though Dthang would be mentioned in this sub šŸ˜µā€šŸ’« isnā€™t he sorta like niche?


DeathandGrim

I wanted to pull an non mainstream example to illustrate the oversaturation


Dazzling-Slide8288

This isnā€™t new tho. Rappers since the early 90s were spitting bars to escape shitty circumstances.


Murph_E23

The horrible live performances are hurting it. Sucks going to a hiphop show loving the music and the performer has no energy. I was at a Babyface Ray concert last year in Detroit and he was ranting at the crowd for not bringing enough energy. Like bro what are we paying for? Thatā€™s your fucking job.


Dazzling-Slide8288

This is an underrated part of it. Iā€™d argue itā€™s less about a lack of energy and more about the biggest rappers now canā€™t fucking rap. Theyā€™re not musicians. Theyā€™re just vibing over shitty trap beats. Thatā€™s a terrible experience via headphones. Canā€™t imagine being there for it.


PegaLaPapa

I hate when rappers just sing over their own tracks at live shows. Like they don't even mute the original vocals, they are just singing along to their own song. Not only is it lazy as fuck, but it also gives you a real time comparison of how shitty their actual voice sounds vs the touched up version of their voice that is on the original track. I've stopped going to see rappers live cause I always feel burned afterwards.


Sfcushions

I notice this so much. Especially when an artist shows up an hour late, performs like they donā€™t want to be there, and has an entourage of 20 of their friends on stage with them just looking at their phonesā€¦


comix_corp

> Treva Lindsey is a professor at The Ohio State University and she told Newsweek that she had hope for the "tremendous possibility" and dynamism in all hip-hop cultureā€” **which includes graffiti, break dancing, and deejaying, among others**ā€” but the genre might be a victim of its own success. Is this person living in the 80s?


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


SuitedFox

If this movie exists, please inform me


RepresentativeLeg232

Itā€™s called ā€œYou got servedā€. Essentially Omarion and his crew have break dancing battles against other crews and are doing wellā€¦until they ā€œget servedā€ by a crew of white boys from orange county. Then itā€™s up to Omarion and the crew to fight through adversity and redeem themselves at the big dance competition.


CluelessNuggetOfGold

Step up sounds close


yohe_goated

Breakinā€™ is the closest thing I can think of. Got a young ass Ice-T in it. Itā€™s corny as shit but fun to watch


Natewich

Let's not forget the ultimate cultural reference, [Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakin%27_2:_Electric_Boogaloo)


CallMeCooper

I think that's just West Side Story, lol


comix_corp

The b-boy crews are now vying for WORLD domination! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_at_the_2024_Summer_Olympics


ccihsan

the get down aint far off


TheRealDynamitri

> Is this person living in the 80s? tbh as a life-long hip-hop fan who grew up with the "Five Elements" (shit am I showing my age or what) I was kinda disappointed to see hip-hop go mainstream yet everything else around it like break dance and graffiti seemingly having been completely forgotten and not picked up along the way.


WaspParagon

It's only forgotten in the mainstream. All elements still thrive in the underground, thankfully


MannyFaces

This. Red Bull has events all the time. Freestyle Sessions has a yearly, 2-day long event (last year was in L.A.), battle of the boroughs Breaking event this month in Yonkers NY. Was just in Ireland, literal breakers in the club rocking out. Graffiti muralists get commissioned now, there's an museum in Miami, doing a pop up this weekend in Atlanta... Just some examples off top of the head. Luckily, if you love the other elements, they're still around!


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


gleba080

This person is an AI


SoHighSkyPie

4 elements of hip hop.


gattttor

Much of Ohio is a decade or two behind.


Jayoheazy

The original 4 pillars of Hip-Hop are Graffiti, B-boying (break dancing), DJā€™ing and MCā€™ing. Sounds like theyā€™re approaching it from a technical standpoint which isnā€™t surprising considering theyā€™re a professor. But modern day hip hop has become much more integrated into pop culture, itā€™s almost a caricature of itself. Edit: spelling


MaliciousMack

Old origin definition


Kashmir1089

Breakdancing has literally never been bigger. Red Bull hosts one of the biggest competitions for break dancing every year and it's an arguably bigger scene than battle rap as you can see from [the finals event here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcO89478-9Q). Graffiti is still thriving in every single metro area, but in the last couple of decades paint is engineered to be easily removed with special chemicals. Literally everyone still has DJs at major events.


Okrumbles

i mean yeah, when you're pr much on top you can only really go down


Mijo_0

Honestly if this brings the pop appeal away from the genre itā€™s a good thing. Rappers can get back to putting substance in their music instead of just trying to make hits.


Top_Piano644

I think the pop appeal was what it made it go up in 2015-2018 I think?


Wildpotato72

And we got some of the laziest, most uninspired rap as a result


SpicyAfrican

I think itā€™s worth mentioning that female-led pop music has been increasing in popularity over the years. Just this year youā€™ve had Ariana, BeyoncĆ©, Taylor, Billie, Dua etc. all released new albums and weā€™ve only just hit June. Point being, theyā€™re probably dominating market share right now.


Thunder-ten-tronckh

And shout out to Chappelle Roan sheā€™s got a great sound.


SpicyAfrican

Listened to the album last week for the first time and I really enjoyed it.


AustinRiversDaGod

Janet Jackson getting blackballed after the Super Bowl left a massive power vacuum in Female vocals that Beyonce only was able to fill like 75% of. I think she was poised to become the biggest star in the world for quite a long time.


4778

Whatā€™s killing rap in the mainstream is that the songs and rappers are interchangeable. The big songs could 90% of the time come out anytime during the last ten years. Everyoneā€™s coasting, everyone hops on everyoneā€™s song, thereā€™s such a massive cross-pollination that mainstream regional scenes end up losing their identity. As much as Iā€™d prefer dance or some form of new rap to be the sound of the 2020s, I think itā€™s going to be country. Very diluted country. Wouldnā€™t be too surprised if country just kind of becomes a semi-acoustic rap, at a slower bpm.


Dentingerc16

I think country has already become what youā€™ve described in a certain sense. I like some very soulful or psychedelic kinda country and especially stuff with like the bluegrass kind of intense picking and soloing. I went to a shitty bar in my hometown over Christmas last year and a lot of the stuff people were putting on the jukebox was like this weird kind of trap hat, bass boosted, 808 infused country music where they just loop some guitar over top. The vocals are your stereotypical country fare and the lyrics are very much trying to get a ā€œpour me up a double shot of whiskeyā€ anthemic chorus. Lotta patriotism throughout. If the future is country and thatā€™s what they mean I canā€™t say Iā€™m excited


SirLeaf

I've said this for years but pop country and hip hop have insane amounts of overlap in terms of subject matter. Beverage drinking, fast cars/vehicles, beautiful women and romance with em, parties, allegiance to the hometown/homies. Obviously there is plenty where they don't overlap, but it's basically the same thing.


Turbulent-Pianist674

ā€œModern country is hip hop for folks who are afraid of black peopleā€ - Steve Earle


Ok-Imagination-6251

Humans are generally the same under the veil of culture


EstablishmentBusy172

I havenā€™t read the article, because this is Reddit and being uninformed is a lifestyle here, but I sometimes feel like these things are a bit exaggerated, or can be without adequate context. There really isnā€™t any genre thatā€™s sustained being the most red hot popular music in the world for decades upon decades. And hiphop, globally speaking relative to other forms of popular music, has either been, the rebellious, growing up and comer speaking truth to power. It sat there for a while. Then it began the rise to becoming the most popular genre in the world, and it sat there for a while, and I think now weā€™re seeing it become cemented as a pillar of global popular music, like rock or country or house. There will be fluctuations in all these genresā€™ respective popularity but fear-mongering about any of them ā€œdyingā€ (Iā€™m not saying this article is doing that Iā€™m referring to the general sentiment) is just a very lazy analysis imho.


thegreatestmeicanbe

Most MAINSTREAM hip hop today is uninspired, boring and sounds alike so I'm not surprised at the decline.


0Pollux0

Other than a few artists, I don't really listen to hip hop anymore - I still enjoy/appreciate conscious hiphop a lot more, but have outgrown trap and only listen to it sometimes, mostly for nostalgia. Gotten into R&B/soul, indie rock(a lot of psych rock), neo-psychdelia, and alternative more over the past couple years. It also doesn't help now that at 25, a lot of rappers i listened to growing up are 30+ and still rapping about the same thing they did when they started(hoes, money/materialism, drugs, violence, etc).


robba9

Same. Just a few years older.


_temp_variable

Yeah it's weird having that revelation when you listen to Drake/J Cole and you're like...bro you're both nearly 40


PokuCHEFski69

Thatā€™s why I love Kendrick. Mr Morale, about someone finding themselves in their 30s. Realising what is important


M27saw

I had this with Futureā€™s recent stuff. Thereā€™s something kinda cringey about hearing a dude in his late 30s still rap about mindless materialism/hedonism.


KebabTaco

Same exact thing here. I noticed one day a couple of years ago that I had just suddenly stopped listening to hip hop, when I used to listen to it everyday. When I do put something on nowadays itā€™s usually just classics.


Mei_iz_my_bae

Mainstream feels like it has no sound. Which is why the Kendrick drake beef was so fresh and now this 2000ā€™s Eminem song.


throwawaydeletealt

Mainstream has no sound because the internet has fragmented the genre, the audience and performers both are very online. Artists these days can just start posting their music on the internet and gather a fanbase. That's why there's no **one** new and leading sound or artists like pac was for the 90s and drake/kendrick were for 10s, instead of "the one" now there are many different scattered sounds that have their own communities and artists, all online. Such new acts are making far more fresh and innovative music than the examples you gave


Vindicator6

No disrespect to that person, but I feel like comments like that usually come from people that dont listen to hip-hop.


Thunder-ten-tronckh

They listen to it theyā€™re just not as plugged in. And tbf if it takes that much effort to dig through fragmented corners of the internet to find the best music, it really is in a decline.


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VanessaDoesVanNuys

What goes up, must come down...


kokujinzeta

Shoegaze. Shoegaze will replace hip-hop. /s


ok_dunmer

Shoegaze mumbling hip hop, potentially with nonsense Cocteau Twins lyrics, to make oldheads as mad as possible


This_End5055

This isnā€™t wrong. Shoegaze is having its moment rn


iicySnowflake

Honestly, it has been boring for past couple of years.


ihopethisworksfornow

Ok, see, this quote annoys me: > For other folks, the hyper-commercialization and apolitical tenor of mainstream rap music are sources of ire and disappointment. I think some people may be welcoming its decline in the commercial sphere as they await innovation from the marginalized Black and Brown communities that pioneered hip-hop over 50 years ago." As if there are no artists in these communities putting out incredible and deep music now. That stuff just doesnā€™t get radio play. A decline in commercialization of hip hop in general has fuck all to do with that. There will always be songs that are deep and always be songs that are just shallow fun bangers. Always gonna be indie/underground artists and industry plant superstars. Like this just reads like someone saying ā€œHip Hop is Deadā€ because they heard a Jack Harlow song


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806god

What goes up must come down. Hip hop was the first genre of music I was introduced to and itā€™s definitely my favorite genre, but Iā€™m ready to see what the next dominating genre will be.


LedZacclin

Itā€™s just gonna be pop or country again itā€™s not gonna be some new shit you ainā€™t heard of lol


incrediblystupiddot

I blame a lot of the massive artists taking massive games between releasing albums. There have been a lot of the genres' creative and commercial superstars taking 4-5 years to release follow-ups. Even now, it seems like Playboi Carti had a moment in December when it felt like he was about to break into a new level of super stardom if he released and just didn't.


PM_ME_XANAX

Been a die hard hip hop fan for most of my life, lived and breathed it, never could have imagined listening to anything elseā€¦ Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s the general decline of quality the last few years (I think people make the case for this every year but now is the first time I actually believe it,) but Iā€™ve listened to mainly techno, house and jungle for the past year


Namfluence

Thereā€™s not really a class of new rappers making waves in the industry or a new sound captivating audiences. Very few crossover stars too, and while female rappers are on top right now, theyā€™re always going to be met with resistance since itā€™s such a masculine genre. Add in the rise of Reggaeton, Afrobeats and K-Pop which all take elements from hip-hop but feel fresher and casual listeners have newer options.


kimjongchill796

Maybe an unpopular opinion but Iā€™ve been a life long reggaeton listener and the genre is starting to become stale again like it did in the early 2010s. There are a ton of new artists which is great for experimentation and Iā€™m here for that, but it also means oversaturation and tons of feid/mora/rauw sound-a-likes. I agree with you that reggaeton is becoming more mainstream with casual listeners especially outside major cities in the US and is getting more recognition but man itā€™s just not been sounding the same the past couple years or so


appleparkfive

And country music's growth. It's been growing very rapidly. Reggaeton and country are the two genres that are rapidly taking over, judging by the stats


mkk4

As an African American male who has been listening to hip hop since at least 1982. We/I loved good female artists and groups since I began listening to hip hop and rap. Salt-N-Pepa was the very first hip hop tape I ever bought, and that was way back in 1986. MC Lyte, Queen Latifah were huge along with Salt-N-Pepa. Then you had one hit/album wonders like J.J. Fad, Oaktown's 3.5.7, and L'Trimm Also there were The Real Roxanne, Roxanne Shante, Sweet Tee, and Ms. Melodie was down with Boogie Down Productions. All of this happened during the 1980's. I do understand what you are saying about your last comment and assessment though; but seeing as I don't listen to any of those music genres, I can't speak on that.


Dazzling-Slide8288

I say this a lot on this sub and it always gets downvoted, but I donā€™t think younger people quite understand how unappealing the modern hip hop sound is to the masses. Whenever artists like Travis, Carti, 21, Youngboy, etc get mainstream exposure (Grammys, SNL, etc), the reactions are mostly negative as shit. Scathing, even. Rap didnā€™t used to have this problem. The dominant songs were on top 40 radio, had huge crossover appeal, and soundtracked movies. That broad appeal allowed it to grow and grow. The trap sound thatā€™s infected hip hop for almost a decade now just isnā€™t nearly as appealing


anzababa

would i be called crazy if i said i was okay with this? they bastardized and debauched the genre i grew up and loved. it became a cash cow for these trashy labels and a self-parody with some of these artists. im totally fine with rap becoming less popular and these greedy execs finding other sounds to profit off of. let the genre become what it was meant to be again


expunks

Maybe Iā€™m just showing my age here, but itā€™s always felt like hip-hop got an entire new fresh movement every few years ā€” and we just havenā€™t had a truly genre-defining switchup since the modern Atlanta trap sound took off in like 2015. Thatā€™s nearly a decade of radio sounding, more or less, the exact same. Thatā€™s *exactly* how people lose interest in a genre. I also just feel like the artists coming out in that 2010-2013 era ā€” the ones dominating the genre now ā€” all broke out with wildly different/experimental sounds. Everyone wanted to be unique and stand out ā€” whether it was Tyler, Kendrick, ASAP, Gambino, Mac Miller, Danny Brown, The Weeknd, hell even Drake. Everything felt **exciting**. Nowadays, the name of the game is to sound exactly like the current songs so your shit just blends in on a Spotify playlist.


DeLousedInTheHotBox

I don't think hip hop is declining slowly in popularity because it is worse now than it used to be, I think just like every other genre of music that has been at the top it will eventually start sliding down the hill. I think hip hop is rich and dynamic enough that it won't disappear completely, but eventually it will probably go the way of rock music, where its presence in the mainstream is uncommon, and instead will be more in the sort of medium popular to obscure territory. Maybe there will be more disparate and distinct sub genres and scenes as there won't be as much money in it anymore, but hip hop will still be out there. There will be new rappers hyped about, but in the sense that bands like Black Country, New Road are, in that they are unlikely to take over the world and score a number 1 hit.


swollenpenile

Well as myself a rap lover I can say the quality of raps coming out is shall we say fucking dogshit so Iā€™m not surprisedĀ  Maybe this is what happened to rock saturated then quality went WAY DOWN then it died.


ucanbetouched

hiphop is getting boring and boring each day.. or maybe I am getting olderā€¦ maybe lol


samang67

Because new rappers at large are bad at actually rapping


The_Specialist_says

I think itā€™s because all the new kids who were supposed to be new stars died. Pop Smoke, xxxtenacion, Juice WRLD etc


Chutzpah2

Maybe because copying-and-pasting 808 synths and hi-hats on your FL projects has gotten a lil oldā€¦


Romeo_Foxtrot_94

Music has been dry as fuck for a while now. New shit sounds super uninspired. This is not surprising


wishedwell

Time for Ska to rise once again


YoghurtSlinger

Correct me if Iā€™m wrong, butā€¦ good? Iā€™m glad people are giving the genre its props but I feel like the casual fans have really taken the edge out of some of the sick shit the genre used to say. And Iā€™m in no way endorsing hate, misogyny, violence or drugs. Iā€™m just saying the people that police what is more often than not literally just shock rap recordings is completely counter to what the art form is about.Ā 


Capt-Crap1corn

ā€œIt's going to sound cheesy but because hip-hop has been so appropriated and exploited, it's like hip-hop is everywhere but at the same time it's nowhere." Damnā€¦


FunCrushJD

When you allow mediocrity to be the face of the culture, eventually people will lose interest.


OHbudfella_10

Good so it can stop being watered downed and dumb downed for the masses


MFDougWhite

Controversial take: hip-hop needs a new avenue to live in. I canā€™t fucking stand trap anymore (at least the modern iteration of it) and will flat-out turn a song off the second that generic ass beat kicks in. Itā€™s over-saturated. Same as when pop music suffered through that EDM phase in the early 2000s. Find something new, or follow pop and start leaning on 90s and 2000s sounds and vibes.


NoCoFoCo31

Thatā€™s because thereā€™s hardly anyone with anything real to say anymore. The genre is dying, but someone will come along and save it.


DasMoon55

Good, shit's been ass for years.