It seems like most rappers in recent years are either taking the Griselda route of focusing on lyricism over traditional hip hop beats or the Carti route of focusing more on flows, cadence, and delivery, even if they have a clever bar from time to time

Compared to the early to mid 2010s, there was so much more of a balance. Artists like Drake, Kendrick, Cole, Tyler, Mac, Gambino, Rocky, etc. knew how to create great songs AND focus on lyricism, often times simultaneously.

There’s nothing wrong with either/or but it feels like rappers are deciding to take one of the two extremes and running the style into the ground

It’s the opposite cus there’s less gatekeepers & anyone can transcend into the mainstream over night

You’re talking about sound though which is also the most varied it’s ever been there’s just an abundance so you’re only hip to what your algorithm gives U probably

I’m talking more about rappers that are relevant and people are paying attention to. I don’t think there’s a lack in innovation, there are plenty of rappers experimenting with different sounds and doing a lot of cool things, but most Hip Hop fans don’t dig for the music like that, so it feels like the only two avenues of success right now is to cater to a nostalgic niche of 90s Hip Hop or copy whatever the current sound is.

Online mixtape era was the most free & less gatekeeped while being able to be discovered fairly well

S*** is now buried by algorithms & playlist placements

But also idk what is really underground or mainstream anymore since everything is basically in one place & split

read the post again fam noone consciously thinks they're being spoonfed by an algorithm when they listen to music but look at what ur saying

Tbh, I feel the exact opposite.

In the past, the divide between the underground and the mainstream was really vast.

That's why when Kanye blew up while still doing songs with Talib, Dilated Peoples, Slum Village, etc. it was a huge deal.

And rappers in the underground like Little Brother, Company Flow, Aesop Rock, Murs, Deltron 3030, MF DOOM, Atmosphere, etc. operated in their own space completely devoid of overlaps with the mainstream.

Nowadays, due to the Internet, streaming, and social media, the lines have been blurred.

Yeat went from being relatively underground from inception to having a top 5 album with heavy streams once he dropped he debut.

And you have NBA Youngboy having all sorts of limitations being placed on him by the music industry in terms of promotion but he's still doing big numbers through his fanbase and Youtube streams.

With the right buzz or following, an "underground" rapper can become mainstream very fast today whereas that wasn't true in the past.

I think that this is not true because rap has so many subgenres they probably do not get as much attention as they did in the 2010s. Even though most of the s*** that comes out underground or mainstream isn't that good, it is still ver diverse.