There’s plenty of low-stakes aspirational rap available, I don’t get Chuck’s point.

Chuck’s point is that Larry June aint going 4x platinum or selling 441k in the 1st week.

Jazz isn't a mainstream genre. Hip hop is

Mainstream just means a top 40 prominent artist Its literally defined to stop these arguments

So what are they then

Yeah that’s even more reason Smino isn’t mainstream looooool

I'm not talking about present day street rappers, but yeah most street rappers these days fall into that sheltered category too.

I notice that gangsters and street dudes back then actually had principles and moved on respect. I think a lot had to do with a lot of gangsters converting to Muslim too, but yeah, a lot of street kids these days are also just crash out nerds, which is probably why most the music also sucks balls

garbage

I mean we all know Ice Spice but BigX only got a few less listeners than her and doing shows I think it’s hard to determine what’s mainstream nowadays cause the people we think are mainstream really ain’t that far removed from people most don’t even know

narrator voice: by the time X dropped 17 most X fans were saying he fell off

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

What? This is straight up false, but even if it were true, it's okay because I don't base my opinions on the feelings of others tbh

…but them niggas getting all the algorithms vro

Its a wide spread sentiment his best music was on soundcloud dawg.

I don't know what you are trying to argue here as it seems like we're both in agreement on this

Yeah man, that's the problem really

It falls on both the artist, labels, and consumers

We all seem to want and encourage trash

It's also a widespread sentiment that he was nowhere near realizing his full potential yet...

You mean 17?

Nah if anything that album made his fans love him more

f***ing fire man. Kendrick knew

Yea I think these days technically there's not that many mainstream rappers, to me mainstream jus means the average hip hop fan knows of u (mainstream in hip hop not mainstream in general)

17 is a classic!

They are just rappers. They have gun talk and s***, but so did juice wrld (RIP) and I wouldn’t call him a street rapper

So it’s not because these lyrical rappers arent seen as “cool”

Like my nigga they killed 3000 for YEARS for going to the headwrap and thinking he was on d****. That’s a sentiment known through the city to the point he had to address that on the hardest verse from return of the ‘g’

It aint s*** about looking cool, that was still an era where locs wasnt looked at as a cool thing (ask a dreadhead nigga living in Atlanta through the late 90s to late 00s how I know)

Where would you say people like Eminem or Kanye or MF Doom fall

Not really nerdy dudes but not really street

I also think of people like Lupe who nobody really wanted to be but 05-08/09 ish he still was a mainstream adjacent lyrical rapper

what youre saying about sheltered rappers/doing laundry is an unfortunate truth about the situation though. Many of the people skilled enough just dont have the perspective or life experience necessary to be a captivating rapper

it would be like calling fake migo era yachty a street rapper lol

looking cool

Nigga the biggest rapper out is swagger jacking a backpack nigga’s style from The Lou.

Cool got nothing to do wit it.