rollingstone.com/music/music-news/top-40-radio-has-a-rap-problem-630658

Article is from summer of 2018 but explains why black artists (Like Kendrick, Cole, and Migos) make mainstream-appealing music but doesn't get the same airtime as some generic melodic white rappers. Brings a good point, everytime I listen to the radio early in the morning I rarely hear any of those popular black rappers and instead mainly hear these white rappers ive never heard of.

One paragraph from the article:

“If you’re an artist and you’re signed to a major label, you want to be on the radio, especially if you’re popular,” Kanye West told Power 105.1’s Charlamagne tha God in May. West has enjoyed the support of mainstream R&B/hip-hop radio for most of his 15-year recording career: “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1,” for example, was top five in the format in the fall of 2016. But pop radio has all but abandoned him. Although West once romped through Top 40 with songs like 2007’s “Stronger,” none of his last three albums have produced a major pop radio hit, though each went platinum. “To put that same amount – if not more – work into a record, and you’re used to it coming out like Graduation, where everything is everywhere … it’s frustrating,” West said.

Discuss

it’s 2020 DaBaby, 6ix9ine and roddy rich are at the top of the charts

white rappers don't get airplay lol

I’ll take Post Malone for 2000 Alex

Kanye's a bad example tbh. Nothing he's done has been as pop-friendly as Graduation

post malone is not a rapper
he may have hip hop influences but it's pop music and he's not marketed as a rapper at all

That’s what they see him as and that’s why he do the numbers he does

We need BoB back

he does the numbers he does because he isn't a rapper

his whole thing is versatility across multiple genres

Some of his popular songs since then still had big mainstream appeal and were extremely popular even between regular music fans. FSMH Pt1 feels catchy enough to be on the radio, yet they don’t really push it

If he wasn’t making hip hop sounding music he’d be a nobody

F*** them yakubs

Top 40/Pop radio plays a bunch of crossover Hip-Hop inspired music from white people though. Literally these are the songs spammed there 24/7:

Corny ass white programmers. They all even got more radio play than The Box did despite the fact that is the biggest hit of the entire year

nah, if he didn't make hip hop music at the beginning of his career he'd be a nobody but he's so far past the need for hip hop when it comes to popularity

Radio is losing popularity anyways.

man from the thumbnails I can tell that s*** trashhhhh

His biggest hits are pop songs. Dont spin this angle he been shedding that

yikes

He accordingly used Hip-Hop to build his fanbase and appeal as one of the most likable artists among today's youth. He's now got to the point where he can make Pop music off that.

Circles sounds like a f***ing Maroon 5 demo. If he debuted with that nobody would've paid him mind.

FSMH is decidedly not pop radio friendly. Not in style, composition, or subject.

Rockstar a pop song?

i mean big playlists are basically the new radio. So its the same.

Yeah, that dude posting is confused.

He's operating under the mindset of corny Eminem style rappers. These white rappers have leveled up off that corny bar s***.

Now they're spitting about foreigns and APs at parties. They evolved and are hitting that melodic sing rap lame till it dies.

fwiw, there's three black rappers in the top 10 of the billboard radio chart. Megan, Drake, and Roddy. Doja too but Say So is really pop more than anything. And Weeknd is #1

Kanye has nobody to blame but himself. He says he wants radio play and all the commercial s*** but his actions show the complete opposite