Was thinking about this in light of all the think pieces being made after the YSL thing, where people are implying that street rap will eventually no longer be supported by labels and mass media if artists are getting locked up left and right?

But do you feel like it is possible to replace street rap or is it one of those things that is a mainstay no matter what the consequences are?

We had the blog rap and happy rap era for a lil bit but ultimately those felt more like a temporary deviation before things went right back to Street/Trap/Drill?

What do you guys think will happen if say someone like lil baby eventually gets picked up?

Do you foresee labels backing away? Or will they always risk the investment as long as fans stream?

absolutely not

I tend the feel the same way, I suppose the question is geared more towards: It cost money to develop and cultivate these artists, will labels look at the potential risk and back away? Causing that subgenre to lose steam?

As long as they get streams, labels will never back away.

That’s a fair point, I know it cost money to break an artist and it can be a gamble. You think labels might try to dictate the soundscape towards artists who have a longer lifespan?

idk when we were growing up rap wasn’t the most popular s*** while white ppl listened to it it wasn’t number one and they parents for SURE didn’t unlike ours. . now the s*** is number one white kids born today will from the jump listen to rap and they will dictate to the sound

but then again street niggas always gonna rap and they do like looking at niggas as entertainment

gangster rap has been an outlet for many young youth since the late 80s as a means to get out of the rapper's situation that they find themselves in, and is seen as entertainment for the consumer to experience it vicariously

the labels will exploit it to death, pimping out their artists to benefit it them, regardless of the longevity of their career. it's a quick buck, and it seems like people feed into it

Not unless gangsta rap dies down they won't. Plus I think they still make money from the music that the locked up rappers made.

did this site crash lol

Sloppy developers. S need to hire me

That’s true, I suppose they don’t care as long as they can cash out.

I mean im sure 100K track is still making money off of YNW Melly and he’s been locked up for 3 or 4 years

this is why we have so many generic "gangster rap" artists out rn that flood Rap Caviar and whatever big playlists are on streaming services

nobody is looking for them to build bodies of work that help develop the artists. they take a gamble by releasing 20+ track albums that are clearly derivative and hoping that at least 1, 2, or 3 songs go viral as a result

Nah, rap been intertwined w the streets since its conception, the relationship b/n the two has only increased throughout the years with temporary moments where it wasn't the most popular thing.

And I feel like the labels won't care as long as they can collect profit

i wanna double down on this too

since Billboard rules have changed as a result of the rise in streaming services, now it's so much easier for albums to go gold and platinum off a couple hits. you're guaranteed to go gold or platinum, even if the overall album doesn't have much to offer. you just need 1 or 2 hits, and it's a wrap. this benefits the labels majorly at the end of the day, so they can pump out 1 or 2 more albums for the artist within the same year

which also contributes to why a lot of artists come and go so fast. they don't have enough time to develop their own sound because the label is breathing down their necks that they have to meet a deadline in order to not breach their contract

it is a very disgusting and exploitative industry

I think you hit the nail on the head. not to sound like a boomer but the relatively reductive and derivative sound right now probably has a huge return on investment

Most of these dudes are blowing up off their rough drafts that go gold

Plus limited marketing needed if they’ve already cultivated an image in the “streets”

street rap won't die, but dance music + street rap will create hybrid genres that will begin to gain strong bases with commercial appeal

which is why we get 4 remixes of Beat Box or some s***. people eat it up like chewing gum and spit it out because the appeal of that artist is no more

start up entrepreneur rap

dont see it falling out of favour this time around unless a group of artists that come off as authentic and are actually masters at their craft like cole/dot/drake come out

This is the main issue, the bar is so low that I don’t even expect street dudes to release albums anymore they just release songs individually and the label puts them together on a project and calls it an album smh

so we pretending waka, gucci, yg, 2 chainz, frddie gibbs etc. didnt exist in "blog era"

we pretending just because niggas get locked up that means a style is dead even tho its been prevalent since the 80s and niggas been getting locked up over lyrics since the 90s

we pretending