He never really had that one big single to push him over the top. Think Meek before Iβm a Boss, J Cole before Work Out, Kendrick before Swimming Pools. He never had his breakout hit. He did have a solid career though, he could still do club shows and tour small venues and drop projects and he was on the Wu Tang show.
That's not his problem, that's the symptom. Dave East's song with Chris Brown had a big buzz and introduced him to a lot of new fans. Between 2017 and 2019 his buzz was huge and other bigger rappers, outlets and celebrities were talking about him. All his tapes or albums between 2016 and 2020 charted too.
He simply underperformed. Dave East was expected to be mainstream but he didn't see the writing on the wall and kept making the same type of music he always made. It got boring and most of his fans left. He has a lot of videos with millions but look at all of Dave's highest-viewed music videos on YT and they all date to 2020 or
earlier.
Dave also had some other problems that kept annoying people. He stole artwork from fans and put it on merch. Just because someone drew or edited a picture of Dave doesn't make Dave the copyright holder. Whoever produced or commissioned the artwork is the IP owner. Dave also blocked people on social media randomly. All that shyt added up.
Many people in the industry really expected or hoped Dave East would either join the likes of Drake, J Cole and Kendrick, or at least get to a Fabolous and YG level. He disappointed everyone, myself included. I stopped checking too.