I was discussing with my friend if the esscence of hip hop is dead, and I can't really bring myself to say no, we had a great year in terms of beef, people stepping up their game rapping, a bunch of great projects for whatever you like....though I noticed, more often than not, it's due to the heavy hitters in the game, the Big 3 all dropped a lot of music this year, the rap girlies had a really good run with Doechii/Meg/Latto, and street rap like Bossman D-Low is really resonating, even if you aren't out there like that.

I'm not gonna be a dead-horse or try to be unc about it (even though, yea at this point I am unc), yea we can complain about artists like Ian, Netspend, Autumn/Summrs (if that's your style, power to you), but idk....it seems like they're the only one's producing mediocre content that cant break through to the real mainstream, despite their cult like following. Idk, I don't have a thesis, just a thought I had because I love hip-hop and it's more alive than ever.

It’s because of woke

if they dont have under 100 monthly spotify listeners theyre not underground

Autumn and Summrs are a different generation than Ian and Nettspend.

Yea

People said “let the kids have fun” and now they’re just older and still ass with another sprouting wave of ass following behind.

Its bc niggas is clout obsessed and care more about being cool than making good music

I get it cus thats how u get a fanbase but a lot of talented artists get overlooked

Doesnt help that half the talent got allegations an cases

ignoring the nett, osama, che side, even tho i do like their music, I guess it depends on what is considered underground, like I cant call the scene weak when theres artists like 454, eem triplin, and hardrock out there

When I was young, underground rap meant you were white and said homophobic things but the long way

Ive seen so many incredible artists just disappear

Why isnt devstacks famous

The state that the scene is in right now is the most exciting it's been since 2014-16 with artists like Carti, Uzi, and Yachty brewing

You have Untiljapan, OsamaSon, Nettspend, Prettifun, Ian, Fakemink, Cece Natalie, Bassvictim, Snow Strippers, Molly Santana, Nate Sib, Che, Hardrock, etc all coming up right now and have shots at longevity -- they also have the most diehard fanbases since that iconic mid 2010s crop of artists

I'd argue that the underground hasn't been this diverse in ages -- it's sick to me that there's been this sort of genre bridge in the last 3 years with underground rap becoming aligned with an electronic / pop revival scene due to 2hollis and Snow Strippers

To see underground rap fans / fashion heads and Opium edgelords all sort of share the same music taste feels like a beam of hope for the space in my opinion...the future is bright for music. Not to mention pretty much all these new artists have a lot more interesting aesthetics and are more keen on building worlds to match with their music, which is something a lot of underground artists didn't care about in the 2010s

its better than the 2018-2021/2 era

sofaygo up next

Also with TikTok the underground has become so much more diversified

Looking at the DMV scene blowing up with SlimeGetEm, its crazy to me because acts like Goonew and Lil Dude never had this amount of visibility when they were coming up

The spotlight for the underground has widened so much over the past couple of years

i kinda feel this, i agree theres like more attention on the underground now than ever, but 2020-2022 was peak, u had dudes like devstacks, armani, rip zodiak, ame, sgpwes, iayze, slayworld, yeat, etc. like musically that was the best era ive seen and most them niggas vanished

ig thats my point, like these dudes didnt get any attention before, now everyone can go up, its dope but also like damn imagine being a fire artist from the 2019-2022 era and not getting s*** outta building a incredible catalog like guys like rewindraps, cashbently, k suave etc. probably feel

S*** always been mid
Great rappers from "the underground" always been the exception not the norm

Goonew was way bigger than slimegetem. His s*** one dimensional asf there way better rappers from the DMV rn

what a question to ask this site

im so lost on where the redundancy standpoint comes from bc there’s something genuinely for everyone but it gets dismissed just off of impression

It's the underground and it is usually filled with a lot of trash, feel like that comes with the territory. I would say I have found more that I enjoy listening to than previous years as of late.

In general I think there's only a handful of underground artists at all that the average person would actually like and continue to listen to