Hip hop was brought up on people using the gear they had at disposal and making great music with it. Most came and still come from less fortunate areas.

That culture was special because it was a pathway and avenue for less fortunate kids to make a name for themselves and come up without the best gear and or money for the best camera to shoot their videos and record their video.

Mainstream hip hop these days seem to me like fortunate pop stars who somehow got money from the label or were born into it and they buy the best gear possible, best camera and director to shoot the videos, and buy expensive cars and clothes all to flex in the music video. Repeat.

That is all mainstream hip hop is nowadays and it's honestly sad

How do you think a less fortunate kid in new york, new orleans, dallas, etc.. feels when he sees a music video like for example the drake video that just came out like this. Saying hey this, hey that. Stealing the culture of hip hop and using his money to flex and spit in their faces.

What I got after watching the music video below is "hey I am drake and I have more money than you." He just didn't say that in the song.

This is the biggest artist in the world I must remind you. What happened to putting the ego aside and creating awareness about situations bigger than you. Especially in a culture he is using where the people who made it are going through serious hardships. Is this what we are going to accept just because the beat makes us nod our head?

Say what you want. It is a dope song but is this the direction you want hip hop to head? We should create a competitive environment but not one that is impossible for the people under us to come up. People should feel good after listening your music. Not feel like crap or feel like they must now have to chop off their damn arm and sell it or sell d**** to compete. That is what separates old artist like MJ compared to today. A great artist does need to brag about materialistic items to create a vibe. A great artist is bigger than just them. Because it is not about you.

A great artist is living for something greater than just them. Because it is not about you. You are creating a pathway for people behind you. Older generations seemed to understand this. Narcissism is embedded in this new generation. Everything is about them and their new car, body count on females they have slept with, jewlrery etc.....It's toxic.

Crazy how they actually tried comparing drake to MJ. The hell is Fat Joe smoking?

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Could see hip-hop culture slowly become overwhelmingly non white Hispanic

Famous antimaterialist TI

Newsflash;
Been Gentrified for like a decade

Mainstream hiphop has always been materialist and capitalistic to some extent since the 1990’s

It was eventually going to gear itself to market towards the biggest demographic in America: suburban white people

The culture and the self determination of the culture itself still hasn’t been gentrified at all but external perceptions and market incentives remain directed towards the biggest target demographic that has potential

Not reading all that but to answer your question no its not

A lot of non black people hopped on rap in the last decade but they are strictly consumers, they dont dictate trends or introduce anything new.

The core of rap is still with young black men from poor-lower middle class backgrounds

been gentrified the moment yall gassed up the marshall mathers lp

Remember Beast Boyz, Vanilla Ice and Feminem? Yeah it’s been gentrified

That’s a good answer

!

been gentrified since Vanilla Ice days

There are only like 2 popping white rappers at any given time.

Ain't reading all that

read Tricia rose

Thank you lol

It's been gentrified for quite some time OP

I’m no industry guy but the hip-hip market feels like pop rn not plants but artist being selected and invested in

Kanye great obv but when Grad outsold Curtis rap’s fate was sealed

Came in here thinking Op was on some bullshit but you definitely said something real and that’s what is effecting the mental these days especially in this social media age sure we always has stunners and rich niggas but now it’s all about what got it’s no love here anymore

Is hip-hop as a culture even real, or is it just a construct invented by record labels and people who have money in the game (both black and white upper-class) to make the consumerist cycling sound better, and to justify the f***ed up labor conditions artists have to go through as “trials and tribulations” for the art?

Hip-hip isn’t a monolith