People love to point to the one hit wonders and say "that song is just so much better than the rest of their music" but what about the exact opposite? Artists putting out consistently great music, getting more and more traction and the "hit" isn't even a huge jump in quality or even better than the other music they were putting out at the time. For me, two easy examples are XO Tour Lllif3 and Magnolia. Both Carti and Uzi were bound to blow even without dropping those songs. People just gravitate and overrate those songs since that is when there was a critical mass of new attention and the moment was right. Both would have had extremely successful careers without the "hits"

Who are other artists who fall in that category where the "hit" really isnt special but was just the right drop at the right time.

From CLE and can agree he was def gonna blow w/o Day N Night

Only real music.

Brent Faiyaz / Sonder is a great example of that. the quality of the music was so high and so consistent it was just a matter of gaining attention.

Too Fast, their first song to really do big numbers, was FIVE MINUTES

The Weeknd

what do you think it was that gave you that impression? not hating, i love cudi but just asking

I mean I had heard of him through DJ-EV and he'd play his songs on our local rap station and it sounded so different from the rap that was blowing up at the time. Way more minimal and moody than focused on a hard beat or crazy lyrics. It was like a breathe of fresh air (especially since I was heavy into listening to Wayne x Gucci x 50 at the time)