Is it a sad reality that creativity is limited? Obviously it’s endless in the sense that you can ALWAYS create, no matter what. But it’s almost unavoidable that there’s a peak, and then an inevitable decline after that.

It stands to reason that if somebody were to make music their entire life and kept practicing and kept honing their craft, then they would make better music when they’re 30 than when they were 20. Then better music at 40 than when they were 30. But this is almost never the case. In almost every single instance, an artist/band’s best album is either right at the start, (This happened wit Weeknd. His first 4 right off bat were his best and he hasn’t hit that kind of peak since. Although After Hours MIGHT tie somewhere up there at the very least.) or somewhere in the middle, (Kanye wit My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.) but almost NEVER later in their careers. You’d be hard pressed to name any artist or band that dropped their best project at 40 years old.

And this kind of fall off happens to even all time greats and legends. What causes it? Too many songs created over the years causing eventual creative fatigue? A peak album that was created early in the career due to stars aligning and happening at the perfect place and time that no amount of talent or practice will ever be able to match or top? Or maybe a combination. But nobody has avoided it. Some worse than others.

You have someone like Kanye who is now making extremely bland average music. Which isn’t as bad as the music being completely TERRIBLE, but it’s still sad to see coming from the man who singlehandedly has the most impressive 4 album run in Hip Hop history. (808s->MBDTF->Watch The Throne->Yeezus) After Yeezus it was all steadily downhill. (Although Kids See Ghosts was a legitimate high note!)

On the other hand, you have artists who are affected by this so badly that they become literal shells of their former selves and instead begin embarrassing themselves and tarnishing their careers. Prime number one example is Eminem. To be clear, I don’t like his old music and albums either. But I do understand and acknowledge their gigantic impact and influence on Hip Hop in general and they will always be critically acclaimed as some of the best Hip Hop albums of all time. So then how does someone who made records of THAT caliber get reduced to making s*** like Revival, which is not only one of, if not THEE worst Hip Hop album of all time, but it’s one of the worst albums ever made period and it permanently tarnished his legacy and embarrassed him as an artist. How is there that severe of a drop off? How does a “GOAT” fall all the way down to sounding like somebody who jus started making music 6 months ago?

So wit that said, I fully believe that TRUE creativity is limited and you only have a certain window to take advantage of it until it closes. Because it’s been shown time and time again that simply practicing day in and day out and sticking to it year after year does NOT make you better wit time. Not in that way. So it’s bittersweet, but it also gives artists all the more incentive to be as urgent as they possibly can when they’re young. At least there’s that driving force.

Not reading any of this but the answer is no

You have 20 years to come up with your first album and 2 years to come up with your second

actually read op. s*** is sad but true
artists run out of subject matter and innovative ideas ... u have an entire youth filled w experience to draw on for the first album.

thats not the case with your 10th

thats a lot to read

but at the same time, it feels like artists can draw on rly controversial/impactful moments and make some magic happen.

u can think of kanye going from VMAs --> dark fantasy, or going from fashion industry f***ery --> yeezus

so u can say that artists that experiment with other parts of their lives and drum up a lot of controversy and s*** are more likely to keep pumping out classics

Lol you kids only read insta captions?

Anyway

Dangelo made another classic late in his career. I think artists need to give themselves more time in the creation process like he did. This 2 year album cycle isnt working

This is very true, but it’s not even strictly down to the lyrics and subject matter or losing things to talk about, but the music itself drops in quality as well.

Less creative flows, less creative melodies, less outside the box ideas, etc.

To put in perspective, Yeezus is my favorite Ye album, (Controversial statement I know.) and a lot of that album was straight ignorance lyrically lmao. I’m In It, On Sight, Send It Up. There was no real substance but the music and sonic ideas presented were so f***ing good and creative that it didn’t matter. That album could be 10 I’m In Its and I would still hold it in the same regard. But then after that, the actual music itself started sounding less and less like it was coming from the creative genius we were accustomed to, regardless of actual lyrical content.

Kanye been stealing younger artists ideas, production and songwritting, nothing new

This thing happened with David Bowie he dropped mid before his lasts The Next Day and Blackstar

And David Bowie made Blackstar which is amazing and his what 25th album.

There are tons of examples of artists making great music later in life.

Maybe if OP is talking strictly hip hop music because as the great Andre 3k said the first word in hip hop is hip and to be hip is to be young.

Blackstar is amazing

Im saying next day and blackstar are both good

A man misread before he posted

its just a matter of how well you can grow and branch out to do other things. if you stay in the same sound your whole career obv your newer s*** is gonna suck ass since you are burned out in it. Experimenting is key to keeping that fresh energy imo

Primarily I suppose, but that’s why I also said “artists/bands”, because even if you look at classic 80s and 90s Metal and Rock bands that kept it going and were still dropping albums at 40+ years old, what were their best and classic albums? Still them albums from the 80s and 90s. It applies to music in general imo.

It's because artists aren't able to live lives to write about

Kendrick only has so many stories he can tell about Compton he can tell

i read it cool a***ysis

lmao at THOSE 4 albums being the run for kanye

but kanye is kinda the antithesis to this theory. if he wasn't doing shoes he prolly would have still been making 8-10/10 classics and his albums being a little more than decent at worst since is a testament to how he kinda defies that theory

even now if he just had ghostwriters and secular topics, all those leaks and s*** woulda been up to par with everything he was doing and maybe even better. he just personally had a lot of s*** going on which is usually the case for most artists once they're out of their 20's to mid 30's...u been living for 20 or 30 years with the promise of potential and now youre firmly an adult with kids or no kids or w/e and all that s***...creativity and personal s*** are separate but usually personal s*** dictates how the creativity is delivered

andre 3000 could have delivered an album at any time over the past 15 years about fatherhood, getting older, being an older bachelor, rap passing him, etc. but he still gotta live that s*** and dig for those lyrics. s*** may be too much

and then there's david bowie

This is valid. D'Angelo prob wouldn't have a near flawless discog if he dropped every year.

Some people do better with 0-2 year release cycles than others, but you also have situations where Nicki took 4 years to drop and she lost her spot bc of it.
People are more accepting of you going on long breaks if you left on a high note (Frank, D'Angelo, Rihanna, Maxwell, Andre 3000).

But I do think the less quality albums you generally drop, the quicker you have to re-up with an equal or better album or else you'll lose your momentum to those who can fill that void quicker.