It’s pretty simple. TikTok is destroying hip hop as we speak. Rappers used to make music for the car/radio now they tryna make the “next tiktok dance”

Honestly something i think is really wrong about todays hip hop is that its just a popularity contest. People are being forced to like certain rappers just cause so many people talk about them. But then if you ask those people what they like about that artist they have no clue what to even say

What is missing is soul and passion.

This makes a lot of sense. Lately I’ve been finding myself listening to way more metal and country music and fading away from hip hop. I thought it was just a me thing. Just waiting for something to bring me back to the genre of my people lol

People are tired of being told they aren't shit because they're broke. It's extremely oppressive especially in these hard economic times. They need music that's not only going to entertain them but also help to HEAL them. Everything is for a season. Time to move on to better music.

Hip Hop isn’t dying.. the artist selection portrayed by the media is. There’s plenty of quality artists that stick to the roots of what hip hop is supposed to be. Main stream media just doesn’t market them the same way they market Ice Spice or Gang Rap because it won’t make them as much money.

The lack of creativity ain't just in rap, it's happening in all media. Why do you think all the movies we get are either part of a series or a remake?

The problem is that mainstream rappers care more about prioritising their image by flexing their material possessions instead of focusing on the music itself. Making money is definitely a priority but the art should be put first as that is what will be remembered for future generations. Innovation should be a number 1 priority however the Labels only care about doing what is accessible and easy instead of allowing artists to take risks.

I think it’s a bit complex. The art of celebrity is dying, prior to social media, celebs felt larger than life, hence the obsessive fanfare. Once social media and streaming grew in prominence, the lines blurred between who was a star and who wasn’t. While Social Media has a great marketing tool for artists (just look at the recent success of Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Ice Spice, and Lil Nas) it has also made what once a difficult market to enter (you had to have the talent, looks, and star quality to even be considered back then) far more accessible which in turn has made the entertainment industry as a whole over saturated. This has unfortunately bleed into rap as well. Apart from this, hip hop has gotten boring. No offense but everyone looks and sounds the same. Not an ounce of creativity or originality (bar a few). Growing up Jay, Em, Kanye, Wayne, Nelly, Ja, 50, T.I. etc. all had their own unique styles and flows that set them apart despite some similarities (all rappers that emerged post Biggie/Pac) even Drake, Cole, Kendrick, Sean, A$AP, and Wiz could be distinguished from one another. Nowadays there’s no one stepping outside of the box.

The creativity in the underground is amazing, and the new sounds exist but the industry is refusing to acknowledge it

One of the reasons why Hip-Hop is failing in this generation is because everyone now sounds the same everyone looks the same and everyone is rapping about the same thing there's no type of individuality anymore in this generation compared to 20-30 years ago rappers back then had their own style and they weren't trying to be like other rappers that were out.

Ive been feeling this way for a while and its super depressing. I was born in 2000, so I grew up hearing Drake and Wayne and Eminem. Then I started REALLY getting into music right at the peak, in 2015. I grew up thinking it was normal to have like 10 really good rap albums from a huge variety of artists and subgenres come out every year. It was just an assumption to me that rap was the best and most dominant genre in music. Now it feels so empty and wrong to see that not being the case. Think about the 2010s. You start off with Kanye dropping his magnum opus and one of the best hip hop albums ever made. Then by the early-mid 2010s you had the “big three” establishing themselves at the top with Cole Drake and Kendrick and all three were in their prime. You had older guys like Kanye adapting to the new sound and still dominating the culture. Then you had guys like Future, Young Thug, Tyler the Creator, Asap Rocky, Travis Scott, Migos, Mac Miller, etc. All asserting their dominance and dropping classics. Up and coming young soundcloud artists like Kodak Black and Playboi Carti becoming stars. All of this was happening at the same time. You had classic hip hop, a new melodic wave that carried over from 808s, trap at its peak, everything felt new and exciting. I mean shit look at 2015-2018 by itself. To Pimp a Butterfly, Rodeo, At Long Last Asap, DS2, IYRTITL, Views, The Life of Pablo, Barter 6, Culture, DAMN., Astroworld, that iconic XXL freshman class coming up and growing as artists with kodak and yachty and 21 savage… Nowadays we feel lucky to get the Pink Tape and Utopia in a single year. Future Drake Kendrick and Cole are pushing 40. Where are the new leaders of hip hop? Yachty and Uzi seem disinterested in rap and want to make alternative punk rock. Carti is the same but he doesn’t even drop music anymore he just trolls his fans. Rocky and Travis have been MIA for five years. It was supposed to be X… he got killed. It was suppose to be Pop Smoke… he got killed. Takeoff… Nipsey? Mac? Juice? Its just depressing. I dont see any substantial future for rap once the Drake era of artists decide to hang it up and it looks like thats already close. Rap right now is in the era of stagnation that the rock genre hit in the 90s and 2000s… and the timelines kind of make sense. 40-50 years later.

The industry has successfully destroyed hip hop like they always intended to.

We've also lost a lot of artists who would be in their prime right now (eg x, juice, pop smoke). With how much influence they had while they were alive, it's really sad we never saw their full potential.

honestly im glad this is happening. people are finally getting bored

Hip hop/Rap has been in decline for over a decade now. Passion, energy, drive and talent just isnt there anymore. All we have is tiktok and youtube wannabe rap artists.

Hiphop ain’t dead, it’s just certain artists that are pushed to the mainstream media outlets with a certain repetitive sound. Underground is where you’ll find a lot of the hidden gems.

The biggest problem is we all pretended mumble rappers were decent rappers for too long and audiences now have them as paradigms. Their commercial success was 95% merit of beatmakers and producers, not skills. Basically marketing acts instead of real rappers. Most people nowadays let social media and clout define what a good rapper is.

“Hip-hop has invented nothing. Hip-hop has reinvented everything.” One of the best lines I’ve heard to describe the genre. Seems like hip-hop is doing neither today.

Thats wild, 1993 was one of the best years for hip hop in its entirety.

Hip hop will never die. But I’ll be relieved when it’s put back into the hands that have real messages to relay.

Still such a shame for Mac Miller’s passing. The man was so creative and talented, having by far the best visible rise in quality and maturity per album in hip hop

Dying?😂 it died the minute “trap music” was invented

This is one of the best videos I have ever seen on the current state of Hip-Hop. So well thought out and put together

Unpopular opinion but this might actually be great for hip hop. Hip hop was always about the voice of the people, I think it’s success steered it away from that. And as it resets I think it’ll find it again.

people who only listen to mainstream hip hop and pop rap will constantly say hip hop is dying or stagnating but obviously don’t have enough interest in the genre to try to dig for the most creative parts of it in the current underground. they just want more coles, more drakes, and more kendricks.

It's Quite ironic since to the rest of the Planet the genre is flourishing

Oh thank God, I hope Metal comes back, it’s already popular in the underground.

Yes the main problem with hiphop right now is that no one knows what type of music to make. No one knows what the next style or trend is. Hiphop got so big from 2016 onwards with the trap sound that artists are still stuck on it and dont know how to outdo it or evolve the genre to something new. For hiphopto florish again someone needs to do something extremely different and create a new sound.

I think hip hop is stagnant for the time being, because when it comes to chart topping hits people still rely on Drake, Kendrick, Cole, Nicki, Jay, and Em.

There's always good music being made, but it's not often that the good music is the most popular. This is true across genres.

To quote Nino Brown "there are more rappers than fans" ...

not just music, movies, and entertainment in general have hit a plateau.

Hip-Hop has so many subgenres so many talented musicians so much young talent... TikTok just makes it harder than ever (short attention span, etc..) we just need to push smaller artists more into the spotlight and move on from the boring "frozen", same sounding sound

This is why I spend my time rediscovering old music and part of why I like r&b and similar genres better.

This is not surprising. Hip Hop is currently going through what Disco went through in the late 70s. Due to oversaturation, and over commercialization of hip hop; there is both problems as it relates to the quality of music coming out, but also the growing overall disdain for the genre. Just as Disco ended up having a huge hate market towards it in 79 due to its oversaturation; it won't be long until we see that happening to Hip Hop (at least as far as the mainstream rap artist/music is concerned). The question now is, what genre of music will take over to take Hip Hop's place in the cultural zeitgeist? Will we have another re-emergence of Rock taking over the music scene? Or a 4th wave Ska? Only time will tell.

As long as record labels value virility over talent the genre will remain stagnant. 💯

The problem with hip hop is that we are facing too much content, nowadays things arent about quality, but quantity. Also tiktok has ruined the taste of people, it makes us only to focus on few singles but not albums

Hip Hop is stagnant, and there's a real simple reason, there's a lack of creativity and genuine talent in the mainstream, and when creativity stagnates, the art stagnates and it end up being nothing but a business, because the most important aspect is thrown out the window.

Hiphop is like that one guy in the friend group that doesnt have anything special about them but they’re the most popular.

The problem with hip hop and other genres of music is that they are so focused on the money. People don’t make albums anymore. They make hit songs. They don’t have artists development like they had at the record labels I mean, at the record labels back then, they use to take time to “develop” an artist. But now they just pick an artist that has the most followers on instagram. That person doesn’t even have to be really talented. They just pick them based on that. And then they pick artists that are copycats of artists that are popular. Like when X had died, they were getting these guys that were trying to look like him. And sound like him. It’s just like those guys couldn’t even come up with their own ideas and style of music

This is exactly what I've been thinking for a while now about how the artists who were at the top 5-10 years ago are still the same with no one taking their spot. The 2020s so far has just felt like a shell of what the 2010s was. Mainstream hip hop is so watered down and formulaic now with the biggest artists releasing uninspired, lacklustre albums or just not releasing music at all. But thankfully the underground has provided us with some fantastic albums these past few years.

And all of those pictured are industry plants. They dont even love the art, they love the clout.

None of them are hip hop artists. They're hybrid pop rappers.

My opinion is people are too afraid to take risks with their art anymore. It’s easier to stick to the formula that “works”

generic trap instrumentals, repetitive vocals, nostalgia bait samples and people just not moving forward from these things thanks for making a video of this topic!

As a very casual hip hop listener who stumbled upon this video, I find the instrumentals of the early to mid 2010s largely more interesting and unique than most stuff I’ve heard lately.

Love this conversation, excellent video. There's lots to think about here, the previous eras you talk about had some really creative producers who played with rhythms and samples: arthur baker, premier, storch and dre, timbaland to name a few. Nowadays there's millions of sounds to choose from yet we hear the same 808s and hi hats getting chosen, like people are afraid to experiment and want that quick success on the latest trend as you mentioned. It could also be that hip hop simply creatively peaked in the 90s/00s (boom bap being my perfect form) in the way that genres such as blues and classical have and it's simply time for a new style, if there's anything left to create! A good starting point could be to play with different drum/bass samples, rather than 808s etc.

I have hope for the experimental sub genre opening up a new era Especially with albums like Scaring the Hoes

A part of hip hop decline is the resurgence of pop music due to tiktok. Tiktok definitely has had a negative effect on hip-hop and rap. Trap slowly died out because of tiktok and that generation prior ( 2015-2020) growing out of it

Hip hop been oversaturated for a long time now. Take me back to the early 90's. Hip hop was an option back then it wasn't as prevalent as today.

I feel like an underdiscussed reason why mainstream rap feels so stagnant right now is that a lot of the people who were pushing the genre forward and were 100% gonna be the leaders of the genre in the 2020s died tragically young at the end of the 2010s. Losing Lil Peep, X, Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke within a 2 year span left a void in mainstream rap that hasn't really been filled yet

its also a very toxic community, so many streamers and youtubers will clown you saying you fell off if you didnt push sales number than your previous lucky break and the comments will rush in like flies on a rotten meat like the artist owed them money or sth. the upkeep cost for fame and releasing a project is getting crazier by the year.

I would have to disagree with your statement on Trap being the number one sound. I would argue that the rise of Drill and Afrobeats have been slowly changing the HipHop landscape these past few years.

They say they want hip hop to go back to rappin. If that was true killer mike would've gone platinum.

Damn i should just hop in the studio and revive hiphop

This is why I respect uzi for trying a new rap album and expeirementing because he just helped to push hip hop to evolve into the next stage, while all these other rappers are keeping it stuck in the same 2015-2017 trap sound that is starting to get old.

Hip hop isn't dead. Most of the real artists just aren't mainstream

I can't speak for everyone, but to me yes there is a creativity issue. Labels just want the next club banger/radio hit. Artists have been talking about the same topics for decades - money, cars, clothes, drugs, murder, women, etc. to the point where it's not a facet of rap, but what all artists are expected to embody and if not they don't push you to the masses. I started realizing long ago that as time went on, I'm more in love with the beats than most of the messages these rappers endorse. When I was in my early 20s yeah I'd listen to certain types of songs, but 20 years down to line I'm not the same man, so I don't want to hear the same messages. Imagine you're 45 in your car with your whole family rapping along about popping pills and "I'll take your b!tch"...it's stupid right? They've made everyone a clone of everyone else and the pillars that separated great artists (lyricism, wordplay, message, etc.) aren't as valued anymore - not by the label and not by many of the artists. For example I used to listen to Lil' Wayne religiously (The Dedication, Tha Carter(s), etc) but even now I realize that as dope as his wordplay and metaphors are, most of the time he's not talking about sht. Just stringing random ideas and concepts together. Some of these new artists you can't even get the wordplay from. Just a good beat and a hook.

A lot of things attributing to hip hops decline but I think a couple of main things are the stale content, the lack of Channels like MTV and BET pushing music video content, the audience shorter attention span and the lack of variety of hip hop. The new stuff isn’t for me but hopefully Hip Hop comes back around because society needs it. I’ve just been relistening to 90/2000 music.

Hip-hop is dying for a lot of reasons: lack of talent from new gen artists, lack of innovation (same type of beats, same flows...), worshipping bad topics: sex, drugs, money, violence, gang culture... People need vibes & escape today, that's why Afrobeats & Latin Music grow up everyday, and why House music is coming back.

The commercialism and materialism has taken over. Its not about art just about money and we know why!

Agreed that there’s a need for more emphasis on creativity at the top. There always was. Too many people focused on what’s winning, not enough focus on creativity. And correct me if I’m wrong but you can definitely experiment with different sounds, push the genre forward in your own way, do numbers and still make mainstream-friendly music, right? But all that being said, I also agree that it’s a lot to enjoy from the top to the bottom. It’s just that you gotta be looking closer to the bottom to find the creativity

I think the problem is the creativity. People like Cole and Kendrick are poets as much as they are rappers. We need more poets who can rap not people who can rap. People like Cole, Kendrick, and Em all pushed boundaries and redefined the rap world. We need someone else like that and you mentioned 2 great prospects, JID and Baby Keem. Rap was born out of struggle in The Bronx and an inspiration for change. The new rap is all about flexing which the average consumer of rap can’t do anything but imagine about. I think that’s been lost in this new era starting in like 2015-16 is that rap has slowly lost all relatability in the eyes of their average consumer. They focus too much on the success and not enough on what got them there. Largely why people like Cole and Kendrick are still prevalent today despite not releasing very much each year

Watching this made me realize, i don't even listen rap anymore. I have no idea who the new top artist is or what's been trending in recent years. All the rap songs i listen to are old.

This is good work overall this was just a good vid good topic💯

1993 was a GREAT year in hiphop...this was before hiphop was mainstream and popular....the audience was smaller but the music was at its absolute best

The problem is all the innovators keep dying. Like literally.

Because all the songs sound the same, most of the younger rappers can’t actually rap, and most rappers rap about the same things….it’s BORING

Real connection with fans is essential. You have to connect so that people actually care deeply.

HipHop was born out of struggle, HipHop was about staying real, gradually it ain’t real no more

I can't wait to shift the tides of hip-hop in the coming years. Personally, I think what's missing from hip-hop are 1) the love for the craft and 2) the love of the sport. Artists seem more focused on reaching for a hit than being good artists point blank and the competitive nature that made me fall in love with the genre, doesn't seem to exist as widely as it once did.

Every rap song sounds exactly the same now!! It’s SO bad! There’s no novelty like bustha rhymes or bone thugs anymore!

The industry is oversaturated and there’s too much money flowing around to be experimental. The industry wants to see a return as soon as possible so rappers are basically forced to talk about the same things, since historically, it does well. In other words, it makes money reliably in the minds of industry heads. This is what’s killing the entire genre.

u forgot to add that 3 of the next potential superstars died if X,Juice and Pop Smoke were here it would be totally different imo. They had the hype,the fanbase,the respect from the industry and they all left a huge impact on music with only 2 albums each

I agree. I think many artists are too focused on going viral and not for the sake of the art, whether it’s pressure from the label or their own doing. Hip hop isn’t dying and I don’t think it will anytime soon but if this keeps up in the future I think there will eventually just be another genre that replaces hip hop.

People always said that HipHop was dying some decades ago and I think that's why some of us from other generations don't relate to the HipHop of today

kendrick: lyricism, song writing, artistic vision drake: lyricism, song writing, artistic vision j-cole: lyricism, song writing, artistic vision hmmm... seems like a pattern that the new "rappers" might want to learn from 😂

In 2019 I said if a group like migos can’t tour in 20 years and sell out stadiums, this number 1 genre in the world thing doesn’t matter. Sadly, it’s only as big as it is because things like TikTok makes a song trend and people forget about it two weeks later. And so many artists have caught on to this that they’re making songs specifically for them to trend on that app instead of making quality bodies of work. It’s kinda their fault. It’s trash, but it falls back on newer artists not developing anything to make themselves distinct from what’s trendy. They just follow and multiply. Also, real stars in hip hop don’t exist right now in abundance like they used to. We really lived through a time where DMX, 50, Nas, Wayne, and Jay coexisted and were all successful at once. Which means that even when the biggest artists dropped, there was still others to listen to who were also these larger than life figures. And as of now, that’s kind of scarce in the genre. Drake, Kendrick, Cole, sure. But everybody who can be big “stars” like them either aren’t doing what they should (Schoolboy, Rocky), or have passed sadly.

Another big issue to me is hip hop and it’s audiences have gotten so segregated. A lot of hip hop listeners hyper focus on whatever sub genre they like and don’t want to branch out

My boyfriend and I just watched the 50 years of Hip Hop for all 6 hours and we were pumped! We miss older hip hop SO much. The last ten years of hip hop has been a snooze-fest. I can barely tell one artist from another. The songs sound so much the same. Definitely need some more creativity and some more positive lyrics!

The most important thing are the producers.

I feel like hip hop is in a drought rn because no one in the mainstream is making quality music that is different and won’t just push numbers. Mainstream guys now just make simple music that casual listeners will eat up. But it won’t hit the same for serious listeners and won’t make memories. Kanye, Rihanna, Michael Jackson, etc were main stream and everyone ate it up. But they were creative, changed shit up, and had “it”. Let’s just say Graduation and Thriller made more memories and will live longer than First Class and Munch

The music has been reduced to a formula, and that's why it doesn't hit anymore.

Honestly, I thought drill music was the next big thing for this generation but unfortunately it died along with pop smoke. Pop Smoke was def going to be a top 3 of this new generation. RIP Pop Smoke

I still think the soundcloud rap era of 2015-2019 coulda been the next change but everybody literally died and it really demoralized the rest of the wave

I genuinely think that Utopia could alter the course of hip hop if it is as experimental and groundbreaking as people who’ve heard it are hyping it up to be

literally perfectly said. however, this is for music as a whole right now and not just hip-hop/rap in my opinion.

Hip hop, as it currently is, deserves to die. Unfortunately too many artists that have real talent and care about their craft don't get the recognition they deserve. It's the lazy, uninspired, and those focused on image over music that get the shine. Couple that with lazy live performances and you have people realizing there are better options for music.

Thanks much for this video.

Gang culture kills hiphop like it kills children in the streets. There is an evil of murder, sex, and drugs that has hindered the genre. The better a human being a rapper tries to be, the deeper he will reach in his soul and deliver what is good. These thugs we see on the internet can't do this because they don't care about the conscious stuff. I just listened to Common's "retrospect for life" ft. Lauryn Hill. A song like that can change young men's minds about abortion and being a deadbeat dad. Simply put, morality has a lot of issues that can be discussed lyrically but immorality is just a sex, money, drug, and ultimately death. It stagnates creativity. Older rappers had some sense and still, some moral standpoint. These kids don't reflect an ounce of that nowadays.

You nailed it man, thanks so much for this. Hip hop has been so dry for me lately, hopefully a change with some new rhythm comes soon

I still have my hip hop from the Golden Age and as I get closer to the age of 50, I am content with that.

Lack of creativity, lack of understanding and most of all lack of care and education…The single MOST pressing thing youngers said to me “ WE don’t GAF about lyrics; you old heads care about what is said…”

i’ve completely switched my genre of music to metal core/ rock music, i find myself relating to it more since i dont have opps

This has always been the cycle of trends and popular music, it’s just been accelerated by the new online landscape. It sucks now but hopefully we’ll something fresher and better pop up in its place.

Mumble rap, history of bed contracts, no more music videos, tick-tock/low bar to enter. I could go on 😂

We have to look beyond the big three (Lamar, Drake, Cole) and look at artist outside what the mainstream media are pushing in America. We have three phenomenal rappers that are part of the global k-pop group BTS. Suga, RM AND Jhope. All three have different styles but blend well in the group and all three also have strong solo careers. Suga just finished a world solo tour of the US and Asia. He sold out every arena (Ave 18k) within minutes of his ticket sales. I saw him perform back in May in Chicago. He raps as fast as Eminem , all his raps have meaning and a message. They are not talking about killing and sexualizing women. RM - makes you think (philosophical & analytical, cross-language wordplays, questions more about abstract things, power in voice, delivers catharsis thru comfort) SUGA - makes you feel (emotional & critical, raw & direct with bits of analogy, questions abt happenings, speed, delivers catharsis thru angst) JHOPE - makes you vibe (optimistic, not too raw not too philosophic, positive outlook, melodic rap, delivers catharsis thru fun). They all practice introspection. All three rappers can sell out arena’s and stadiums on their own. As a group they sell out stadiums that seat 50k-90k people. Jhope headlined Lollapolossa last year to a group of 100k. Jhope also had a collaboration with J Cole earlier this year. They also put out some phenomenal, high quality, high production videos to go with their rap songs. They are a Korean group, but include a lot of English in their raps and songs. They also have English songs. I urge you to check out their work. Especially, their early group work and their recent solo work. Turn on the closed captions…you will not be disappointed. Mic Drop, Cypher1-4, Ugh. Daechwita, Haegeum, On the Street (jhope and JCole), Still Life (RM and Anderson Pak), BTS Room Live-Look Here:RM Rap, Born Singer, Dope Fire No Dream N.O Danger Black Swan Blood Sweat and Tears and there are 100s of songs they have put out over the past 10 years. They have a discography of over 300 songs. They have over 1000 awards to include Billboards, American Music Awards, MTV, i heart radio, 5 Grammy nominations and all the major Asian awards. I am a black women who absolutely loves their music. It is so inspiring, deep, introspective, fun and more.

We're trapped within Trap. 😅

Thanks for making a video about this topic. It goes both ways - consumers are continuing to mostly listen to trap rap, and rappers don't see the need to deviate from what's successful. Personally, I've been over it all since the end of 2018 but it's clear that this type of music isn't going anywhere for quite a long time. Just need to keep digging for innovative new sounds I guess