Yeah one could say It's Been Awful...

been an amazing year outside of hip-hop being rather stale. alternative/r&b/rock has been up.

RT

Not my favorite hip hop year honestly, but I really liked Elucid, IDK and Open Mike Eagle's projects. Of the bigger mainstream releases, I liked It's Been Awful more than I expected to after being whatever about THIB.

what would u recommend from other genres

Wack

ransom just released a crazy project

Fewtch and Drake really the only artists that dropped something worth listening to as a whole album

Don’t think it’s this family, respectfully

The labels are off hip hop. Lowkey think that’s been the case all decade. Theres dope artists but for whatever reason no one wants to invest in making anyone a star anymore. It is what it is. The genre has its moment in the spotlight but it’s over. The only thing anyone cares about are artists who got put on 10-20+ years ago

The fact that Drake hasn’t been replaced by a younger bigger artist and we’re still talking about a Drake release like it’s a thing you need to duck 20 years into his career is a sign

GENA, The Pleasure Is Yours

Devin Morrison, Sakura

Charli xcx, Music, Fashion, & Film

Nick Hakim, I Can See

Rayvn Lenae, Blue Island

Syd, Beard

Steve Lacy, oh yeah?

Underscores, U

I feel like ppl say this every year but truth be told, every genre has bangers every year. Might just not be your top acts

Agreed on xperiment. The Real Me is probably the weakest Future album ever to me.

Also adding Nia Archives and Ella Mai albums to the list

The Kanye and Drake albums were events

And yeah sure if any of those bad rappers were instead good rappers then yeah they could make stuff more people would care about

Bashfortheworld and Sk8star both dropped underrated albums

Worst decade for hip hop by a gigantic margin

Truthfully there ain’t been one project this decade that will last

gena - the pleasure is yours
thundercat - distracted
kelela - new avatar
jack white - frozen charlotte

how is that nick hakim? haven't tapped in

Everyone streams music

There isn’t a market for music that’ll last

Background content is what makes money.

Just wanted to say I consistently like most of your posts

Likewise

Hope I can convince some people to change habits for the better

Rocky was ok but lacking a lot lyrically.
Cole was decent but he didn’t rap enough for me and I just don’t find his plight on the album that engaging.
Ye was like a shell of his former self but a step in the right direction.
Baby Keem had my interest for a bit but fell out of rotation. It’s solid though.
Future’s is dangerously close to just being bad.
Earl/MIKE was kind of whatever (Earl’s half faired better).
slayr is refreshing in some ways but maybe too vapid lyrically to keep my interest beyond background music.
Ken Carson was actually ok for me but the bar was in absolute hell and I’ll probably never listen again.
JPEGMafia was a disappointment.
Game as a person just zaps all the enjoyment out of his album.
Don Toliver had its moments when I can look past some of the stupid lyrics but not something I’m going back to minus the biggest tracks.
Yeat’s last mixtape I really enjoyed and then he threw all that out the window and released a bad album imo.
Isaiah Rashad was coo I’m just not rushing to play it again.
Nettspend was awful.
Fakemink was awful.
Drake (Iceman) I really enjoyed from a production standpoint but any time I focus too hard on what he’s saying it just brings the album down for me.
Denzel and Kenny Beats new project is great and probably my rap AOTY.
Rico Nasty’s was produced well but homegirl is pretty bad lyrically.
Sexyy Redd can always pick some good beats but her gimmick has run way thin.
Vince Staples new hit was pretty good I just don't feel like running it back for some reason... not sure why.

The rest either I haven’t heard or doesn’t stand out in my mind. I guess in summary I only really enjoyed Drake, Denzel, Ye, and maybe Keem for an extended period of time but only the Denzel is “great” to me personally.

With songs like Dead Fresh blowing up we're so close to realizing that we need to escape the stale trap sounds in the mainstream. But ngl it's mainly up to the artists and audience to course correct. After that the labels will follow. I don't really see it happening tho