Why is rap music declining in popularity ?

[The Hardest R]

It's simple. As blacks are given more opportunities, they are tending more towards classical music. In the coming years, we can expect more young blacks to follow in the footsteps the great black composers; Beethoven, Mozart, John Williams etc.

Niggers have already claimed classical music. Beethoven be black and sheeit: https://beethovenscholar.com/index.php/2023/03/22/was-beethoven-black/

 

[French Dip]

I think a lot of people are probably just over it. Mumble rap is hated by everyone I know to the point that they thunk its comically bad. Also as BLM riots and plain old black crime have skyrocketed, I think some people have realized the lyrics about drugs, crime, money, violence, and sex weren't actually ironic. Black people knew this but a lot of younger whites probably didn't until recently. Though I am also biased in that regard. Sometimes tastes also just change. Like OP pointed out country was way bigger in the 90s. Marvel movies used the be the biggest thing and they're dying a pathetic death. It happens. People get sick and move on. Look at all the wacky stuff the zoomers are propping up, like phonk.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

15 years of the scene descending into little more than triplet flow trap turned most people off of the concept
It's not a great sound and for a little bit there that was 99% of rap music.

I love that clip of Snoop Dogg mocking triplet trap.

Even the shittiest emo poetry written by a teenager has better flow than that.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Old school hip-hop > modern day “hip-hop”

Plus now that Diddy is still in jail and Kendrick Lamar is praised for calling Drake a kid diddler, the genre has been reduced to gossip and jealousy that would make country musicians blush.

 

[Paper Machete]

Different cultural zeitgeists lend themselves to making a wider audience than there otherwise would be. I think that zeitgeist is waning for rap. It will always have its place and there will always be people into it but they'll be "true believers" and not general listeners. Aside from some generic pop stuff and easy to listen to rock if you listen to other genres it tends to be because you genuinely like it and fit more or less into the mindset or lifestyle that genre embodies.

 

[Buck Broken Chimp]

I think a lot of people are probably just over it. Mumble rap is hated by everyone I know to the point that they thunk its comically bad. Also as BLM riots and plain old black crime have skyrocketed, I think some people have realized the lyrics about drugs, crime, money, violence, and sex weren't actually ironic. Black people knew this but a lot of younger whites probably didn't until recently. Though I am also biased in that regard. Sometimes tastes also just change. Like OP pointed out country was way bigger in the 90s. Marvel movies used the be the biggest thing and they're dying a pathetic death. It happens. People get sick and move on. Look at all the wacky stuff the zoomers are propping up, like phonk.

This is true, there was a small drop in rap popularity after Bigge and Tupac were shot because at that moment it became real. With crime skyrocketing the lyrics glorifying crime aren't as fun not that you may have been mugged or had your car stolen. The lyrics glorifying drug use and dealing hit different now that you most likely know someone who overdosed from some fucking nigger dealer spiking their crack with fentanyl. A lot of the casual sex lyrics don't feel right for gen Z who more and more is almost asexual resenting hookup culture, leftist zoomers talking about the 4B movement and rightist zoomers being more rightwing and culturally conservative, fun fact church attendance is increasing among gen Z men.

 

[Nikes_JustDoIt]

the genre has been reduced to gossip and jealousy that would make country musicians blush.

Isn't what happens with all rap disses, to own them they will tell embarrassing stories or poking that the facade.
No Vaseline talked about the behind the scenes of NWA, real muthaphukkin g talks about how much a fake Dr.Dre is, Hit 'em up with Biggie wife cheating on him with Pac.

 

[Phalanges Mycologist]

I hope it's dieing I really do but I think it's just slipping from mainstream rather than truely shuffling off an being dead.

In the UK once you leave the mainstream rap you quickly encounter "Drill" that's just mostly London youth gangs doing Diss Tracs at one another inbetween stabbing each other, selling the shitest weed you'll ever encounter an mugging old ladies for there pension - it has a pecking order of 1st Gen immigrants, 2nd Gen an then everyone else, and if you post public videos of your "Hardware" or some violence your engaged in and bonus points awarded for getting pinched an then let off an how many times.

That's a genera that seems to be growing, the Sub reaches the front page of reddit fairly regularly.

As for "Rap" that you encounter in the mainstream it's getting less popular as the genera is now just worn out, it's had a long steady life in pop culture, but now the crimes the big players are mostly getting arrested for crimes that can't be sold as "Gangsta" an a lot of them are also not from the background they claimed, music execs are realising they have a Hot Potato on there hands an are devesting themselfs from it as fast as they possibly can, this started a few years ago when lots of stories started cropping up of "X artist managed to buy there masters from Y at a massive discount" an started doing re-releases of older songs.

People just don't want it any more, an arguably never really did without a hell of a lot of astroturfing and when that's removed it kinda just goes away or at least shrinks back to it's realistic market size. An with the advent of streaming people are more likely to find music they do like and will chose that, there is also a few other things creeping into it and a lot of it is very indirect but one of the main ones is the increasing association with Criminals an Criminal activity putting more normal people off "Why do I want to listen to this song about a guy smoking bowls, shooting shit up an being a wanker" because they are closer to the millstone of life than these guys, they work a shit job for shit money an shit hours doing a legal job and they have some barely pubescent kid cosplaying a thug living the high life it puts them off so they stop listening because they can't relate to it.

The best music of any era an any genera is stuff that resonates with people or inspires them, and Rap is no longer that - we're in a post aspiration / fantasy age and have gone back to the world being more directly experianced and people want media that reflects that so - Rap, Capeshit films, Romance, manufactured dreams are selling less and the markets adjusting to that, after society started that shit 5 - 6 years ago.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Somehow Ive never listened to Kendrick. Didn't even know what his voice was like. Then I watched an analysis on his Drake hit piece and while it was good, literally every sentence was a callback to some niche scandal 6 years ago and I'm just like "this shit is a public school novel analysis".

No "I fuck yo mama, nigga". No rhymes and punches that have you go "oh damn" every two bars. Nah, hope you know your 2000s rap lore.

 

[Silence of the Troons]

People have finally discovered that rap isn't music

 

[Cats]

I do not care much for rap but 50 cent is one of my favorites. Dude got shot 9 fuckin times and lived. Many Men was featured on my alltime favorite WoW pvp video back in the day so I listened to it a lot. I listened to a lot of NWA growing up too, those are about the only ones I can stand. Snoop Dogg had it right they all sound the same nowadays.

 

[Troon_Patrol]

The entire genre has been lacking in any creativity for over 20 years. It's all repetitive crap, they've literally run out of ideas. The last good Rap songs I could actually enjoy were mid 2000's.
In example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CL6n0FJZpk

I am afraid we as a culture have peaked in terms of creativity in all things. The last movie I actually wanted to see was "Romulus", a film based on previous series of films from 1979. My wife dragged me to see "Wicked" a movie she was ecstatic over, a film based on characters from a film made in 1939. Have we just run out of concepts? original songs? Rap was just the lowest hanging fruit of media artwork, it was going to go bad faster than all other forms of media artwork first.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

The only good place to find rap is from independent artists.

 

[huesofmercury]

oversaturation and overreliance of it imo.

 

[DoomsdayElite]

Because it's autotune dogshit.

 

[Fucker Carlson]

a lot of it just fucking sucks now

 

[CornBogFitz]

As much as I have always hated rap I must admit it is likely because getting money and getting bitches and doing crime is something I do not relate to. Rap was a unique type of poetry I feel held on from the sterilization the music industry performed for a longer time than other genres. I attribute this largely because the rapper is focused primarily on lyricism rather than making the sound of the music. While they definitely have input. It’s largely left to the beat master or mixer. But now it’s all mumbling bullshit. Why rhyme when you could just mumble and pretend u did something. It could also be because more rap is being classified as pop these days. It’s all monkey music now.

 

[Bonedome]

I've been having fun browsing through this man's channel. Ariathome. He's a beat maker that roams the streets and lets people sing/rap on top of beats he makes up on the spot. He does livestreams but does a lot of good clips.

 

[Powerhouse of the Cell]

What is happening to rap is the same thing that happened to the rock genre.

It became so popular that it hit ultra mainstream in the media that it phased out into the cultural background and not it is no longer a real thing anymore as in being a genuine cultural musical genre driven by a community of people into that music.

And like an earlier comment, said, the biggest rap stars like Drake and Kendrick Lamar who are now in their late 30s and early 40s signals stagnation. It's the same how the biggest rockstars nowadays are still people like Ozzy Ozbourne. In
In movies, when you hear rock music, it's always the same old songs playing because of the fact that rock has past its peak.

Rap is going through this process right now, and much like how the only famous rockstars right now are people like Ozzy Osabourne, Drake and Kendrick Lamar will continue slowly being the only relevant people in rap before it completely drizzles out in to the cultural background like rock did.

 

[BigBadBastich]

What is happening to rap is the same thing that happened to the rock genre.

It became so popular that it hit ultra mainstream in the media that it phased out into the cultural background and not it is no longer a real thing anymore as in being a genuine cultural musical genre driven by a community of people into that music.

And like an earlier comment, said, the biggest rap stars like Drake and Kendrick Lamar who are now in their late 30s and early 40s signals stagnation. It's the same how the biggest rockstars nowadays are still people like Ozzy Ozbourne. In
In movies, when you hear rock music, it's always the same old songs playing because of the fact that rock has past its peak.

Rap is going through this process right now, and much like how the only famous rockstars right now are people like Ozzy Osabourne, Drake and Kendrick Lamar will continue slowly being the only relevant people in rap before it completely drizzles out in to the cultural background like rock did.

Yeah I think this hits the issue right on the money. The genre had its time in the sun but now its just going through what so many others have had to experience.