This is a better list (though sometime it still only means black people when it says hip hop.)
Whew. Being that I am a hip hop fan in a sea of hip hop haters, and thus rarely get any feedback about new artists or trends, I’m glad to know that I’m not the only hip hop fan that finds trap to be really boring.
Not anymore. Coloring book was a full fledged LP.
I swear if I hear one more song which an off kilter closed high hat tapped in arythmic triplets (that trap beat yo!) I am going to scream.
I recently put on Kanye MBDTF for the first time in forever and it’s like it was music from a different world. The album is only 10 years old, how did so much go so wrong so fast?
Not that there isn’t a bunch of good stuff, but dude, trap and mumble rap… Yikes.
Kids today can’t go harder than we did, so they are going boring to piss us off. It’s working!
See, I’m actively trying not to be one of those ‘90’s rap was the best rap’ guys in their 40’s who turns his nose up at everything the kids like. I’ve come to appreciate trap music in theory. I enjoy the production. I can appreciate the triplet flow. Like… I get it and even enjoy some of it in small doses. But the mediocre lyricism is where I can’t fully be on board.
That said, some of the newer artists are pretty clever if you manage to decipher what they’re saying through their mushmouths. But today’s ‘clever’ is still yesterday’s ‘meh.’ The bar is definitely lower than times past. Or maybe they’re using a different bar entirely.
I pretty much have heard of the same folk on that list of 50 - with the addition of Chance and Nicki Minaj.
It is just interesting, when aspects of popular culture go in a direction in which I have little interest. Yeah, I acknowledge that in many ways it is “a good thing” that more diverse art is readily available. And part of what I’m “nostalgic” for is a time that as a middleclass white American I was at the center of so much of popular culture.
It has been decades since I was really into popular music. We’ve discussed this in the past. I think like many folk, my musical tastes developed when I was in college.
Since then, I’ve been getting way more interested in older “Americana.” On a bit of a Johnny Cash binge right now. And I’m making music, far more than listening to it.
Nope.
I have 4 teenage boys living under my roof aged 17 - 19 (long story), and they have recently become obsessed with the stuff. I … don’t like what I’ve heard. I suppose there is an art to it, but it’s not aimed at me and therefore fails to please me. Rock n Roll was at least passively intended to offend the sensibilities of Howard and Marion Cunningham, so I have to allow HipHop has similar considerations. I try not to worry about it, but I do have to tell them to turn it down when I’m trying to get any thinking done.
I am not a huge current hip hop fan but I like it better than current pop, much of which is overlapping. I have heard of every artist in the OP except for Kevin Gates, and know I’ve heard songs by about half of them. Travis Scott is only a name I first heard the other day though. The rest I’ve probably heard, but didn’t know it at the time.
The quality ranges. Eminem and Kendrick are very talented, as is Kanye and doesn’t he know it? Others might be good but not my taste (the Weeknd is zzzzzz). If you want to see incredibly shitty current popular rap, Lil Pump is your man.
I’m only really familiar with Eminem from that list, from the rest I know a handful of songs. 99% of current hiphop I listen to is grime (British hiphop).
I like a lot of new artists is the thing. I dig on YG and Joey Bada$$, Kendrick and Vince Staples and Earl Sweatshirt. Heck, I can even get down with the whole A$AP crew when I’m in the mood. But that’s not the stuff that’s on top.
I can kinda, almost, get Migos. Bad and Boujee is catchy. What TI was doing back in the day isn’t for me but I get. But this new 21 savage single I hear all the time? Garbage. Future? All his stuff is garbage. It’s just depressing how samey it a is.
As a white guy in his mid 30s I know it’s not meant for me. But damn.
Yea, it’s alright.
I can’t drink it straight, though. I need it cut with a little… something. Anything, really. Then, its full flavor shines!
Oh, i recognize some of those words/artists on your list, but I’d have trouble picking them out of a line-up.
Here’s my knowledge about any of them:
Drake (3.7B) - Heard of him but don’t know any of his music. Looks like that magician David Blaine.
Future (2.6B) - Never heard of him (them)?
Kendrick Lamar (2.3B) - Thought he was an NBA player. Don’t know him.
Migos (1.9B) - Never heard of him/her (them)?
The Weeknd (1.8B) - Only know his one song Star Boy
Bruno Mars (1.4B) - Only know his one song Uptown Funk
Kodak Black (1.2B) - Never heard of them
Rihanna (1.18B) - Only know her one song “shines bright like a diamond” which i find annoying
Eminem (1.15B) - Didn’t know Slim Shady was still making music
J. Cole (1.13B) - Don’t know them
Big Sean (1.13B) - Don’t know him
Kanye West (990M) - Married to one of those Kardashian girls. Only know his Golddigger song.
Rae Sremmurd (981M) - Never heard of them.
Beyonce (925M) - I know she’s super popular but I only know her “All The single Ladies” song.
DJ Khaled (864M) - Never heard of him.
Chris Brown (847M) - Don’t know any of his songs. Just know he beat up Rhianna.
Last year we got a spiffy new cable remote that you could speak into for things you wanted to see/hear. Around July 4 my dog was getting kind of stressed and somewhere I read that a good plan was to put on some music for the dog to drown out the firecrackers etc. and sooth the savage. So I spoke into the remote and said, “music for dogs” to see what Comcast would recommend. And the results were all hip-hop, including the show “Love & Hip Hop.”
I think it’s because some of the artists’ names have “Dog” because that was far from what I, or even my dog, consider soothing. He likes smooth jazz.
In answer to the OP, I’ve heard of the same ones. I like some of it, but not much of it. If it has a good beat. If you can dance to it. It’s mostly too much trouble to try to figure out what they’re saying.
Fair. It is interesting to see music diverge from where what you like is what’s popular to something else entirely.
If ever you decide you want to listen to some hip hop I’m happy to put together a handful of links.
I generally agree, but I kinda like 21 Savage. It was a difficult admission for me to make to myself. I guess in an era where there’s so little originality, I can appreciate that he has a unique voice/flow/style.
Nooooooo.
Ok, I’ll give something other than that single a listen.
Most of the names listed that I even recognize, I absolutely loathe. Chris Brown and his fans, for instance, can go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
I know most of them, but not necessarily very in-depth. Hip-hop is not my main genre of music, but I do enjoy it. Of the ones listed, I only have multiple albums by Kanye West. Yeah, we all love to hate him, but dude has got fucking talent.
^^This.
…and I’d say that’s across genres, not just rap, R&B, or urban contemporary.
According to OPs list I’m not into current hiphop. I almost gave myself points for Future, before realizing I was thinking of Tyler, The Creator from Odd Future. (Lil Yachty? Lil Uzi Vert? Lil Pump? Which is the one that ODed again?) Looking at the the nominees for the upcoming 60th Grammys there’s not much I recognize in all popular music either (Body Count made a record in 2017?), which made me feel bad until I looked at the wiki for the 30th Grammys which wasn’t much more recognizable.
Not entirely convinced it’s a growing old thing, rather than an indifference to manufactured pop, in whatever genre the particular beast of pop gets associated with. What makes me worry I’m old and out of touch is that I can’t name much amazing music being made today that I’m certain will become the classics of tomorrow. I believe it still exists, somewhere, though, whereas music from the radio (or, you know, top streams) still has never turned my crank.
Lil Peep.
Yeah, I’m no huge expert, but Future and Odd Future are very very different
My favorite artist of the last 5 or so years is Danny Brown. He might not be everyone’s first impression winner but get past the bipolar crackhead persona which is both an act and reality.
Most of the Top Dawg Entertainment stuff is pretty good. Childish Gambino too, though last I heard he was going to stop music indefinitely.