Post Malone is lame for pulling away a massive chunk of rap fans

DJ drama is lame for kneecapping uzi

Coach K is lame for letting his label artists beef

Even Baby Keem tbh

Cole treated JID like he was a victim of abuse from Hov and didn’t wanna repeat the cycle but that’s lowkey what gave Cole his position

Reinforces my backing of Fakemink as someone in the crop of hip hop artists who can build mainstream appeal

He has a lot of ethos backing him, he is talented, and he has the intention of being in a place of influence and pole position in hip hop culture

“All” he’s missing is the makings of an MC but I still find him to be a coherent and engaging writer and I don’t think he’s going to leave rapping behind

Niggas keep dancing around this simple problem and the answer is that in the mid 2010’s the lyrical prowess and general effort/skill/brainpower it takes to be one of these type artists for rap became “uncool” in favor of Carti Kodak Uzi etc Rockstar/wild card persona lol

He cool but I just can’t see him being that big

Bingo

Nobody created pinkpantheress

Exactly what ppl said about Travis and Carti in 2016

What lmao

I can pull up posts from the Carti and Travis threads on the old site and you can find ppl who will say that they would never be that big

Mink is the exact same age as when rodeo and s/t came out and is sitting in roughly the same position other than a billboard hit (because he doesn’t have a major label servicing him to radio)

He’s got hits, he’s catchy, he’s marketable, theres immense potential to grow and develop, it’s there

Spot on

@NiGHTS this is what I was referring to when I said that pop struggled a bit in the 2010s outside of the heavy hitters

Eh those ppl legit had their head in the sand. Anecdotal but my five year old niece was singing the hook to Antidote all year long in 2016

I think one of the defining characteristics of rap is that you could say “more” than in other genres. It’s just way more of a wordy style of music. That lets you expand on topics and thoughts more. And it doesn’t have to be serious topic or anything, but whatever the topic is you can add more color to it by using more words. The newer generations moved away from that to emphasizing melody more and to be flat out honest most of them just don’t have s*** to say really. So what is this new style of rap providing that other genres don’t anymore? And those genres usually have better vocalists and melodies. Rap just isn’t as wide appealing as a genre if people aren’t actually really rapping anymore.

Travis in 2013-14 is what I meant regarding him

Artists on their breakout projects

The people who were saying that though were kind of right in why they were saying that. Obviously they were wrong in that Carti and Travis became “big” sure

But they were saying that because Carti and Travis didn’t have Drake Kenrick Jay Wayne Kanye etc level of rapping skill and because of that even though they have the fortnite deals and happy meals and big first weeks we are still asking why doesn’t rap have any new superstars for the past 5 years lol. You can’t beat the fundamentals

Travis is like artsy MC Hammer lol

Travis had a ton of hype from his mixtapes, Way more than fakemink. Antidote was a hit and Rodeo did 85k fw

You could maybe make this argument for pre self titled Carti but once that dropped he absolutely took over

You could basically make this argument for any artist who has a following but hasn’t blown up yet

You could see the pop sensibilities & crossover appeal with Travis very early on, littered throughout DBR and Rodeo

With Carti, it was moreso that he was of the sound that was popular in the mid-2010s so it wasn't a shock to suggest he would be big one day. However, I do think he is one of if not the most niche artist ever to ever sell 300K+ units first week

I like Fakemink but I really just don't see that yet in him

You don’t see pop sensibilities and congruency with the current soundscape in fakemink?

People that were “pulled away” by Post Malone were never hip hop fans in the first place

I’ll give you that but once again, different landscape where people aren’t doing 85k on a debut album no matter what.

I just think he’s the exact artist within the scene that can pop out and build something and it’s a matter of overcoming people not buying into him because they’re misreading the way the game works rn

I mean I guess?

Honestly man you’re coming off more as a fan of fakemink then someone trying to have a real discussion about this

I think they could’ve been made such but I don’t disagree

And even if fakemink does blow up… ok?

That’s 1 guy lmao

I mean I’m just speaking on his name because I think he’s a case study of someone with the potential to fulfill at least part of what’s missing which is mainstream appeal

He’s no MC and that’s for sure and I have no intention of bigging him up as one. That’s a whole other issue that’s been going on since the decade began

I mean look anyone with the ability to do what Drake/Kendrick/Ye/50 did knows better than going into a major label

As such, they wont immediately on the major legacy platforms that are needed to do what those legends did to market themselves in a way that built crossover appeal. Live performances, talk shows, radio service, pop collaborations, brand deals

It’s a feedback loop

i feel like the push megan was getting earlier in the decade was similar to the push doechii got in 2024-2025. obviously some of this was because of the desire to pursue a girl power/"women dominating hip-hop" narrative, but i think a lot of it was her being one of the only new-ish rappers who was semi-competent at rapping and songwriting.

they were also really eager to push dababy until his homophobia controversy for the same reason. there were complaints about him being repetitive, but he was at least like...a guy who could write songs and occasionally put out a hit. you can slot him in as the rap feature on a pop song and expect a passable verse out of him, nobody is gonna bother trying with these rage/opium rappers.