Curious to hear other people's opinions on this situation.

Rap has gotten very toxic the last few years in my opinion

I think it's hit an all time low lately when there are songs about praising people's deaths.. It's pure hatred and awful

When did this become normalized in the mainstream?

Obviously it was always toxic but it seems to have gotten worse and worse..

@BigDckBandit (who's a GOAT) had a great point yesterday that when it crossed over to pop music in the last few years was when it got worse.

He said that the general population and people who have no idea about the history behind the genre or care are the ones fueling the fire

Do yall think people like DJ Akademiks obsessively commentating on the Chiraq drill era and going viral for it has created an odd crossover? so that suburban kids now are informed on social media and can pretty much create a fire to fuel by essentially making drama even worse for those who are actually 'in the streets'?

It's a real shame to be honest; because IMO this used to be a genre even up to a few years ago where the artists (even though now deemed as corny) were creating positive music, while that seems to have been left behind?

A reflection of our society? or just pop culture drama being lit up by media outlets for controversy?

Obviously not all subgenres are like this as @localblaccmane told me yesterday, but alot of the mainstream ones have gotten toxic

Are better days ahead? Will we get over the division?

The stereotyping of "fanbases" that have ruined the image of one artist?

Let's hope for the best for the future. I miss being able to get hyped about releases even if I wasn't a fan of a specific artist and at least saying "hey, it's not my cup of tea but it's still good music".

All the clout chasing/memehead/gimmick artists like Mario Judah relying more on social media presence and controversy than their actual music? Is that truly what people want nowadays?

Just my thoughts and a few questions to those who aren't as sheltered as I have been the last year.

Thanks

shut up

Rap has always been toxic, I hate this narrative that it’s only recently became this way.

Did you read this entire post?

Said that it was always toxic

Always has been

Imma be honest with you, No i did not and will not read all of that

describe what you mean more. do you mean the obsession with the streets or the fact that more and more rappers are getting caught being criminals?

Then your response doesn't make sense.

You didn't read what I wrote.

Probably around the Chicago drill scene era tho idk

Both tbh.

When Control dropped

I will ALWAYS blame AK for the current state of rap fans. He made outsiders see black men dying as some form of entertainment. I don’t care what anyone say, he’s part to blame for this mess.

Delete this, very problematic thread

As always, it’s not rap that’s toxic, it’s reflecting a toxic country and culture and set of circumstances dipshit

This

Before that we had number of rappers dropping posse cuts and collaborating with each other liberally. After Control, they became more competitive and closed in, which sucks cuz the number of collabs after that reduced

When niggas in Detroit and every major city in the South wanted to be Chicago niggas and gloat about packs and smoking on each other. Ops was never even a word in Detroit rap lingo even when drill was around, wasn’t until the younger generation started rapping that all of a sudden every hood rapper was yelling about ops, sliding, and packs. That s*** got teenage death numbers up in my city like a MF cause uneducated teens and s*** look up to these rappers and wanna be like them. Call me an Uncle Tom if you want. I’m a social worker so I see this s*** first hand and it’s opened my eyes to how important it is to teach kids at a young age rap is just entertainment.

I’ve gone to homes when the child has everything he needs, two parents, a house, nice clothes and etc but niggas wanna be like Peezy so bad and other scam rappers they end up doing dumb s*** or hang with criminals who they don’t even have to be around because they think the s*** is fun or “that’s how life is supposed to be”. It’s sad.

This is proving the thread true

Why are you coming in here with extreme negativity?

It's a good discussion to have. Stuff needs to be said; can you just ignore problems until they "go away"?

It’s probably less toxic than it ever was. There was always that element of degenerate hood s*** in rap, and there used to be a lot more emphasis on artists being “authentic” to that. Nowadays, a lot of the big names are basically just pop stars that are being pushed by labels.

Real

You've had a negative outlook on everything lately

This is so sad to hear. Much respect for what you do, you're doing good work and seem like a great person.

Back in the day I knew rap would never die I used to listen to Awesome 2, on WHBI