I remember watching a YT video explaining how art can be divided into 3 categories and making this thread has been on my mind. This isn’t a cut and dry thing it’s just an idea I’ve been working on. And I think you can apply a combination of these categories to some artists/albums.

Classic Rap I’d describe as the the blueprint, the foundation. From the inception of rap music up until I’d say 2009 you can categorize as classic rap. It’s not gonna sound all the same of course, but the core values of what it meant to rap and how the industry worked for the most part had been the same. You can see the tides starting to change like when Soulja Boy gets famous off YouTube, and blogs posting about rappers.
Classical architecture:

Modern Rap has dominated since then and it’s kinda crazy how quickly the music shifted. Our lives became so codependent with the internet and it became a different game on how to get your music out there. You can find a rapper around every corner because everything became so within reach. As for the music itself, autotune and 808 drums have played a huge factor. Melodies became forefront which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Lyrics took a backseat in general though.
Modern architecture:

I think we’re transitioning towards Postmodern Rap this decade. The immediate example of postmodern is Lil B (more specifically classic post modern) Postmodern takes modern/classic and flips it upside down. A more modern example I’d say is like Xaviersobased or whatever new artist you guys are s***ting on for being abrasive to the ears. These guys almost try to sound bad but sometimes it can sound so bad that it sounds good. Maybe an example of a more lyrical rapper for this could be Billy woods. His rapping can be really jarring but he’s very technical and his production can do the same thing. They go all the way against the grain and create something uniquely weird. I don’t think postmodern can be a mainstream thing but who knows. When we’re all gone the future generations will create their own thing.
Postmodern architecture:

Yes

Normal Music: Posthyperpop, posthypernormalization, posttrap and getting to 00

Id say classic is up until like 2001

Modern: post Blueprint/Hov created the modern rapper archtype until…

postmodern: Wayne and Kanye. I could expound but id be writing a nigga complex or pitchfork article for free

If u think lil b is post modern i think ud love soundcloud rap. I think b is sorta outside those categories, like meta rap

Not here to talk about music. Post gossip or a***yze this 🖕

Id say post modern is like summrs, yeat, izaya tiji etc

Ken carson, che, lazer dim

Yeah that’s what I’m trying to describe in one part

What makes the 2001/Blueprint the divide? I think they are definitely monumental albums but the culture as a whole is still the same before and after. Although you have the south coming up and creating the prototype to modern rap music, which imo starts when Lex Luger comes into play

Wayne literally using it as his Blueprint and overall he was the model for first rap mogul that Ross and other rap labels tried to follow

A few other things but someone could come in here and write article with our insights lmao

i think this time that we are in is the first generation where genres and other sorts of classification of art is meaningless. There's so many aesthetics and influences to pull from thru the internet, why would an artist stick to just one.

This generation of music (and art in general) is in what I would call the amalgamation era. The lack of boundaries is what makes it post modern.

i don't know about this, since they still follow an obvious blueprint of other artists. Not to say that they cant be influenced, but their influence is too clear cut from "modern" artists to call them post modern like @op is describing to me.

but the music is hard so who cares

Idk pluggnb evolved into something pretty unique and thats summrs specialty, in general i dont think those artists influences are that obvious

I would say they are the new modern
Everything before them is classic

I think theyre all post modern because they push the tropes of the "modern" (future, migos, wayne) artists to extremes, they sorta break the rules like summrs high pitched squealing or yeat being completely incoherent, its taking all of the previous rules and exaggerating them, as a sort of expression of rebellion towards the mainstream, which is the embodiment of post modernism

in the case of pluggnb, yeah i get you. but the others follow a blueprint of a thug or chief keef adjacent most of the the time.

guys like xavier and pluggnb era summrs are making entirely different music to what would be labeled the status quo, regardless of influences. guys like ken and che (up until recently) were making music very similar to their "modern" peers to meh

Normal Music: Posthyperpop, posthypernormalization, posttrap and getting to 00

I was gonna say that I think Post Modern would be a return to the traditional style of rap with experimental beats. I think even LL and Q-Tip coined that new album as just that

Yea thats fair especially ken, i feel like che is pretty unique

i was an art history nerd in college and i think applyin any of this european bullshit to f***ing hip hop is dumb as s***

like aggressively dumb as s***

che is really unique, but the keef aesthetic and influence was clear in his earlier stuff. at least a tape or 2. but now its a totally different lane. Only time will tell if he keeps it up.

This is a good take. Everything from 1998 till 2018 just started blending together lol like how people call anything from 99-2009 “Y2K”