I noticed a lot of people were complaining that this era of the underground rap scene isn't as good as the 2016-2018 era. Mainly because they aren't as unique or interesting.

I somewhat agree with this. Almost all these niggas are ripping from carti. Stylistically and with their aesthetics. Like the old soundcloud underground had such a variety of rappers. They all had unique looks and sounds.

One thing i've also noticed is sales have dropped significantly for these new niggas. Ken carson who gets so much hype on social media couldn't even sell over 5k copies first week. S*** even smokepurpp sold bout 10k first week. Sofaygo will likely flop too after he dropped 2 tapes that people forgot about. Even lower teir rappers like Lil xan and lil pump sold over 30k on their debuts. Seems this new wave isn't touching the mainstream the way that the old soundcloud wave did. We havn't seen any superstars like juice wrld or X pop up yet. Yeat is completely carrying this new wave. he's the only one that can sell over 5k copies.
What yall think

UPDATE:

Popular underground rapper, Summrs has shown the streams that the underground is putting up. Yeat is carrying these niggas

SoundCloud era was the start of the fall off let’s be honest here

Read back those names you listed and tell me why you’re surprised

I’ll say ur last part about juice and x they didn’t reach really superstar status until post death although I think they former was getting close. Also again it’s too early to tell because ppl didn’t think much of those two either until post death evaluation when discussing them

X sold 80k on his debut and 130k on his last album before his death. His posthumous albums have actually sold less then his albums when he was alive. He was a superstar. Juice also was selling 160k before he died and had huge hits

That doesn’t have anything to do with what I said, in 2018 ppl were absolutely not calling him a superstar, maybe one of the hottest/trending rappers atm but he was in no one’s superstar topic. All that came post death, you have to give these artist time too or maybe they are undiscovered still. Same with Juice

Juice could easily fall off like Roddy Ricch did tbh

1. sales / streams are down for the entire industry and have been since around 2020 / 21.
2. The TikTok era is just beginning. I think there will be MORE talents coming out of the tiktok era than the soundcloud era just because TikTok is a mainstream app that so many more people use
I think you might just be stuck in nostalgia a bit

I think you weren't around cause X and juice were 100% hyped to be the best in the new class. After X's last album and the weeknd cosigning him everyone was looking at him like he was gonna be the biggest.

you're out of ur goddam mind

The numbers don't lie bro. They aren't making the same splash like they did back in the soundcloud wave. Yeat is the only one making waves and he blew up within a year cause he's actually somewhat unique.

Potentially? Yes same with Juice. They weren’t at that level yet pre death. The next artist will come in their own way

Man I think the older SoundCloud artists just came more thorough and had better music tbh. I love the newer artists dearly but let's be honest where is summrs xo tour life?

Hype in music is nonlinear, u could make a 9/10 song and get 10k plays, or make a 10/10 song and get 5 million plays. These new dudes just need to get in the right zone and make some genre defining music

It's kinda crazy when I play my own s*** for ppl an they say they like it more than the artists I actually listen to....

Youre simply out of touch

Not every artist is gonna have an xo tour lif3 cuz not everyone is Uzi.

Even the worst popping artist from the current SoundCloud wave is 10x better than

Icy Narco
Lil Pump
Smokepurpp
Lil Skies
Russ
Lil Xan
6ix9ine
Kid Buu
YBN Nahmir

Even uzi will never release anything like XOTL

Yea but doesn't that explain everything? Like these new dudes aren't putting up Uzi numbers cus they just not on the same level

This would imply that the music industry and the cultural landscape we’re in is the same as 2015

It is not.

The way music is consumed and discussed and viewed as a whole has changed more in the last 8 years than ever before and people on KTT will never understand that when they wonder why these new artists “just aren’t like they used to be”

And its not for better or worse, its just different. How it relates to you is entirely subjective and the result of your own experiences and you can cry about it by yourself instead of pretending like these artists aren’t creative in their own ways.

NO STYLIST OUT NOW

Yeat is up next

Yea the more I think about it I can think of like 10 songs from underground artists that are on the same level as xo tour life and they're not pushing millions of streams

Perhaps the marketing of the industry has changed and these new guys aren't being pushed the same, or maybe people aren't engaging with music as much anymore, maybe we r using the wrong metrics to quantify popularity

it’s over rover for the oldheads

Pop Culture as a whole has become fragmented as a result of internet culture essentially maturing and being overtaken by larger market forces

Technofeudalism. We’ve been in it since 2014-2015

most soundcloud rappers werent even that good its only a few that were great