2022 had to be the worst year for rap on so many levels including quantity and quality. This past year had to the by far the least amount of music dropped by major rap artists compared to prior years. This past year had months without major noise in the rap game and when there was, it seemed to be another person dying or getting locked up. I now am forced to consider myself an old head looking at the rap game and I'm not even old, which is truly sad. Some examples of what is contributing to the death of rap are the lack of new (good) rappers, death of great rappers, wait times between albums, just mediocre beats and so much more.
Let me explain something, I am a huge fan of hip-hop and writing this it puts me in pain. I dont want to say raps been declining for years now, but, it really has and the large amount of evidence is stacking. As a fan I started listening to Wayne and dont consider myself to be an actual "old-head". I dont regularly listen to Jayz, Nas, Biggie, Tupac but it doesnt mean I dont respect what they did to create what I consider to be the best era of hip-hop.
Drake and Lil Wayne really started it off which just lead into Future then Young Thug. These people are the curators (with many others) of the golden era of rap music. Drake dropping the song Over in 2010 is what I really consider the beginning of what would be over a decade long run for rap music. Of course Im failing to mention some (a lot) of people such as Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi which many people seem to forget and Kanye too but I focus on the others due to my bias. Kanye could even be the beginning but for the sake of "new age" only im leaving him out. Kanye transends multiple eras and could even be considered part of the "old head" generatuon alongside Jay-Z buts thats a whole other debate. So this era starts with drake, peaks in 2015-2016 and has now declining... for years.
In order for rap to have not see the decline it has had, there had to have been many factors changed. One factor being just the sheer level of new talent. Soundcloud provided a platform that caused an insane surge in new artists giving the ability for someone to become an artist overnight. It seems like today there is really not many people that are joining the mainstream rap scene. I can think of some people like Polo G and Lil T Jay who I never really liked. Or, maybe, Sheff G and Sleepy who I can fuck with. Or, Ken Carson and destroy lonely who I feel have contributed to the death of rap. All Im saying is theres wayyy less new people and thats even before soundcloud was a thing...
The amount of people that have fallen off, gone to jail, dont drop out of choice or have completely changed for the worse is insane. Im not going to start naming people that I think are washed but I can assure you the list of dead, in jail, or fallen off rappers is substantial. The people that still have pull just drop way less often which I cant decide to attribute to getting rich, old, or both.
The albums we did see in 2022 were mostly underwhelming and artists like Lil Baby missed in many peoples eyes including mine. The Drake and 21 I consider a meme, Lil Babys album was lazy, A Boogie went unplayed, Gunna and Thug sat in Jail, takeoff died and there wasnt many positives besides the metro album which still cant feed the hunger. Anything dropped from now on will only give glimers of what the past had provided. The amount of albums dropped in 2022 has to be the lowest that I can remember in years, or at least it appears that way. It seems like people are okay with releasing completely mediocre albums such as Lil Baby's or Roddy Ricch's recent bodies of work.
Beats are a major factor and are not only the first thing you hear on a song but what dictate the way that the rapper will rap due to BPM and just the mood of the beat. Metro Boomin cannot go without mention due to his ability to make beats that have the right sound the majority of the time. Without metro this era would most definitely be different, not to say he was the sole contributor. Once metro left it did seem like rap took a turn for the worse. Da Baby came on to the seen and so did Jetson which redirected beats from the dark metro trap beats to more of his style beats throughout the rap game. Then wheezy with Hot and those trumpets. And cant forget pierre bourne, lord do I hate his beats.
So by "raps dying" it really just means the era im talking about is dead. There will most likely always be another era in some way of rap and the next one just being one I cant rock with sadly. Maybe old heads had these same thoughts. Rap has been becoming a joke that isnt funny and to know it will never return just hurts. Leaves me salty sitting here writing a full blown essay on why 2022 was wack.
There was a lot I wanted to say, and did, but also a lot I didnt. Very hard to articulate every point and detail that I wanted to include into a nicely flowing piece of writing without it jumping all over. My opinions, thank you for reading if you did.
Edit: I know that I left a lot of people out of the beginning of rap and this era where I was talking about Drake and Wayne. The only change I added above was Kid Cudi's name to the writing because I somehow forgot him. Tyler the Creater was in this era, logic was in this era, mac miller was in this era and even Childish Gambino. I didnt include them because I dont listen to them. I chose not to include many others that were part of this era as well: Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Uzi, Denzel Curry, Yachty and so on until it looks like a Rolling Loud setlist. Anyways, like who you like Im just happy I got to see the era that I did.
Let me explain something, I am a huge fan of hip-hop and writing this it puts me in pain. I dont want to say raps been declining for years now, but, it really has and the large amount of evidence is stacking. As a fan I started listening to Wayne and dont consider myself to be an actual "old-head". I dont regularly listen to Jayz, Nas, Biggie, Tupac but it doesnt mean I dont respect what they did to create what I consider to be the best era of hip-hop.
Drake and Lil Wayne really started it off which just lead into Future then Young Thug. These people are the curators (with many others) of the golden era of rap music. Drake dropping the song Over in 2010 is what I really consider the beginning of what would be over a decade long run for rap music. Of course Im failing to mention some (a lot) of people such as Wiz Khalifa and Kid Cudi which many people seem to forget and Kanye too but I focus on the others due to my bias. Kanye could even be the beginning but for the sake of "new age" only im leaving him out. Kanye transends multiple eras and could even be considered part of the "old head" generatuon alongside Jay-Z buts thats a whole other debate. So this era starts with drake, peaks in 2015-2016 and has now declining... for years.
In order for rap to have not see the decline it has had, there had to have been many factors changed. One factor being just the sheer level of new talent. Soundcloud provided a platform that caused an insane surge in new artists giving the ability for someone to become an artist overnight. It seems like today there is really not many people that are joining the mainstream rap scene. I can think of some people like Polo G and Lil T Jay who I never really liked. Or, maybe, Sheff G and Sleepy who I can fuck with. Or, Ken Carson and destroy lonely who I feel have contributed to the death of rap. All Im saying is theres wayyy less new people and thats even before soundcloud was a thing...
The amount of people that have fallen off, gone to jail, dont drop out of choice or have completely changed for the worse is insane. Im not going to start naming people that I think are washed but I can assure you the list of dead, in jail, or fallen off rappers is substantial. The people that still have pull just drop way less often which I cant decide to attribute to getting rich, old, or both.
The albums we did see in 2022 were mostly underwhelming and artists like Lil Baby missed in many peoples eyes including mine. The Drake and 21 I consider a meme, Lil Babys album was lazy, A Boogie went unplayed, Gunna and Thug sat in Jail, takeoff died and there wasnt many positives besides the metro album which still cant feed the hunger. Anything dropped from now on will only give glimers of what the past had provided. The amount of albums dropped in 2022 has to be the lowest that I can remember in years, or at least it appears that way. It seems like people are okay with releasing completely mediocre albums such as Lil Baby's or Roddy Ricch's recent bodies of work.
Beats are a major factor and are not only the first thing you hear on a song but what dictate the way that the rapper will rap due to BPM and just the mood of the beat. Metro Boomin cannot go without mention due to his ability to make beats that have the right sound the majority of the time. Without metro this era would most definitely be different, not to say he was the sole contributor. Once metro left it did seem like rap took a turn for the worse. Da Baby came on to the seen and so did Jetson which redirected beats from the dark metro trap beats to more of his style beats throughout the rap game. Then wheezy with Hot and those trumpets. And cant forget pierre bourne, lord do I hate his beats.
So by "raps dying" it really just means the era im talking about is dead. There will most likely always be another era in some way of rap and the next one just being one I cant rock with sadly. Maybe old heads had these same thoughts. Rap has been becoming a joke that isnt funny and to know it will never return just hurts. Leaves me salty sitting here writing a full blown essay on why 2022 was wack.
There was a lot I wanted to say, and did, but also a lot I didnt. Very hard to articulate every point and detail that I wanted to include into a nicely flowing piece of writing without it jumping all over. My opinions, thank you for reading if you did.
Edit: I know that I left a lot of people out of the beginning of rap and this era where I was talking about Drake and Wayne. The only change I added above was Kid Cudi's name to the writing because I somehow forgot him. Tyler the Creater was in this era, logic was in this era, mac miller was in this era and even Childish Gambino. I didnt include them because I dont listen to them. I chose not to include many others that were part of this era as well: Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Uzi, Denzel Curry, Yachty and so on until it looks like a Rolling Loud setlist. Anyways, like who you like Im just happy I got to see the era that I did.
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