Like it or not, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole are the Rakim and BDK/Nas and Jay-Z of this era

[onelastdeath]

At the moment, you can't really argue with Drakes statement right now because for the most part it's come to pass. But I wouldn't be surprised if both of them peak in their early 30's given the fickleness of the mainstream landscape at the moment. And because there is pressure to keep putting out music to keep your name relevant, it water's down the quality and starts to become monotonous. If only artists were given enough license to take their time in between albums to experience life and experiment with new sounds, then we could possibly have fresher lyrics and not recycled topics themes. One artist that is renowned for doing this is Maxwell. Dude drops a classic album and waits few years to make another one to get more inspiration for new topics, and he has nothing but classics in his stable. Unfortunately the game nowadays is about stockpiling money moreso than it is about growth.

I'm someone who thinks that Drake has peaked. I can't really see him getting any better or having more success than he already has. I just feel like with him, he could be putting out WAY better music. As someone who's been fukking with him since 07, the way he's dropped off substance wise is disappointing. Some of the tracks he's been dropping, I could have never imagined him dropping before. Some of them are just low quality. And that stems from the belief that everything that he puts out his hot. Drake right now is more hype than quality. And I honestly think he's going to suffer the same fate 50 and Nelly did. Someone hotter is going to come along and he's not going to know how to react when people aren't drooling over every release anymore. Same thing that's happening to Nicki Minaj with Iggy right now. She spent so many years dropping trash tracks. shyt like "Stupid Hoe" and "Starships", and then Iggy comes along and at the moment is the hottest female rapper, and Nicki is struggling for airplay. No one gives a fukk about that Anaconda shyt. Same thing is going to happen to Drake in my opinion. He has like 4 tones in which he can use his voice. There's no reason why all his shyt should sound the same. He hasn't taken too many steps forward as an artist since he's dropped and that's because he hasn't needed to. This coming from one of his OG supporters.

 

[Zero]

...which emphasises how much of a struggle era we are in.

Exactly

 

[Fmju]

It's only so long y'all can pretend to not want to put wale in the conversation.

Lyricism: Check
Great Album: Ambition
Sales/Popularity: Check

That's really all that needs to be said about that from a rap tip. Without all the non rap related BS, Wale is a top notch MC in this era

 

[Foxmulder]

it's an insult to compare talented nikkas like kednrick & cole to a mediocre artist like Camel

I'm ok with that, they make me forget the 90s tbh, too much struggle in that era. You know theres a problem when jay-z is considered as one of the standout guys

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Wale is a better lyricist than j.cole actually. Wale just can put together material like Cole could. Wale can't avoid those fillers

Nah Whale mostly sucks. He's only good when he's making radio songs about chicks...which is weird because it's the opposite for most rappers.

 

[JermaineTR]

What u smokin? gimme some so that way i can be delusional like that

 

[J-Nice]

I'm someone who thinks that Drake has peaked. I can't really see him getting any better or having more success than he already has. I just feel like with him, he could be putting out WAY better music. As someone who's been fukking with him since 07, the way he's dropped off substance wise is disappointing. Some of the tracks he's been dropping, I could have never imagined him dropping before. Some of them are just low quality. And that stems from the belief that everything that he puts out his hot. Drake right now is more hype than quality. And I honestly think he's going to suffer the same fate 50 and Nelly did. Someone hotter is going to come along and he's not going to know how to react when people aren't drooling over every release anymore. Same thing that's happening to Nicki Minaj with Iggy right now. She spent so many years dropping trash tracks. shyt like "Stupid Hoe" and "Starships", and then Iggy comes along and at the moment is the hottest female rapper, and Nicki is struggling for airplay. No one gives a fukk about that Anaconda shyt. Same thing is going to happen to Drake in my opinion. He has like 4 tones in which he can use his voice. There's no reason why all his shyt should sound the same. He hasn't taken too many steps forward as an artist since he's dropped and that's because he hasn't needed to. This coming from one of his OG supporters.

That's been one of my biggest gripes with the genre lately. The culture at the moment doesn't allow for artists to grow with their fan bases. If you're hot, you have to put out music all the time to keep your name relevant and it ends up being the same shyt. At the moment, Hiphop in the mainstream has recycled the same old topics for the last 15 years. There is no balance at the moment. I've never been a fan of Drake of like that, but I've seen the notable difference in the kind of music he was making when he had artists like phonte on his tracks to the artists he works with now. The one thing he has going for him when his career in hiphop bottoms out is that he is likeable dude who can transition back to television and film. I honestly see this cat in a few years really getting serious into acting again. He's already hosting ESPY's and making guest appearances on SNL. It's only a matter of time. But right now, he's riding the wave and he may very well bottom out from the culture around 30-32.

As for Nicki, there really isn't anywhere to go from here as far as hiphop is concerned. She's already pigeonholed herself into this Barbie character shyt and in doing that she's stifled her growth. It's become more about her act than it has about her music. People hate on Kim alot, but at least Kim had some bars and could go back and forth between the hoe shyt and the grimey shyt. Nicki will never be able to do that. And once the people are tired of her Barbie act, she's also gonna flame out.

Longevity in hiphop is a hard thing to achieve. It will be that much harder going forward.

 

[onelastdeath]

That's been one of my biggest gripes with the genre lately. The culture at the moment doesn't allow for artists to grow with their fan bases. If you're hot, you have to put out music all the time to keep your name relevant and it ends up being the same shyt. At the moment, Hiphop in the mainstream has recycled the same old topics for the last 15 years. There is no balance at the moment. I've never been a fan of Drake of like that, but I've seen the notable difference in the kind of music he was making when he had artists like phonte on his tracks to the artists he works with now. The one thing he has going for him when his career in hiphop bottoms out is that he is likeable dude who can transition back to television and film. I honestly see this cat in a few years really getting serious into acting again. He's already hosting ESPY's and making guest appearances on SNL. It's only a matter of time. But right now, he's riding the wave and he may very well bottom out from the culture around 30-32.

As for Nicki, there really isn't anywhere to go from here as far as hiphop is concerned. She's already pigeonholed herself into this Barbie character shyt and in doing that she's stifled her growth. It's become more about her act than it has about her music. People hate on Kim alot, but at least Kim had some bars and could go back and forth between the hoe shyt and the grimey shyt. Nicki will never be able to do that. And once the people are tired of her Barbie act, she's also gonna flame out.

Longevity in hiphop is a hard thing to achieve. It will be that much harder going forward.

Insightful post breh. Really good stuff.

What do you think is the key to longevity in Hip-Hop? Mapping out a 10+ plus career at a high level like Em, Jay and Ye? And what do you think will be key moving forward for whoever's next to lead the generation from 2015-2030?

 

[ManBearPig]

I'm someone who thinks that Drake has peaked. I can't really see him getting any better or having more success than he already has. I just feel like with him, he could be putting out WAY better music. As someone who's been fukking with him since 07, the way he's dropped off substance wise is disappointing. Some of the tracks he's been dropping, I could have never imagined him dropping before. Some of them are just low quality. And that stems from the belief that everything that he puts out his hot. Drake right now is more hype than quality. And I honestly think he's going to suffer the same fate 50 and Nelly did. Someone hotter is going to come along and he's not going to know how to react when people aren't drooling over every release anymore. Same thing that's happening to Nicki Minaj with Iggy right now. She spent so many years dropping trash tracks. shyt like "Stupid Hoe" and "Starships", and then Iggy comes along and at the moment is the hottest female rapper, and Nicki is struggling for airplay. No one gives a fukk about that Anaconda shyt. Same thing is going to happen to Drake in my opinion. He has like 4 tones in which he can use his voice. There's no reason why all his shyt should sound the same. He hasn't taken too many steps forward as an artist since he's dropped and that's because he hasn't needed to. This coming from one of his OG supporters.

Drake has a core audience. Think about

Nah Whale mostly sucks. He's only good when he's making radio songs about chicks...which is weird because it's the opposite for most rappers.

I'm saying that he has bars. His music aint all that.

 

[onelastdeath]

Drake has a core audience. Think about

So did 50. Drake isn't bigger now than 50 was back then. 10 years ago, would you have ever thought 50 would only see stadium status when someone else brings him out at their show? No

 

[ManBearPig]

So did 50. Drake isn't bigger now than 50 was back then. 10 years ago, would you have ever thought 50 would only see stadium status when someone else brings him out at their show? No

50 was just in the right situation.

 

[onelastdeath]

50 was just in the right situation.

Besides 50 being bigger and having a classic, how is Drake any different than what 50 had?

They both had huge #s their first 3 albums, and then the fourth one is where things went south.

 

[J-Nice]

Insightful post breh. Really good stuff.

What do you think is the key to longevity in Hip-Hop? Mapping out a 10+ plus career at a high level like Em, Jay and Ye? And what do you think will be key moving forward for whoever's next to lead the generation from 2015-2030?

Breh, I'm gonna be real with you and tell you that I don't have a concrete answer for you. It seems as though the rules have changed and I think alot of it has to do with the growth and commercialization of the culture now. You aren't going to see many people tagging or break dancing anymore unless you go overseas or happen to stumble onto it within small pockets in the states. Hiphop doesn't solely belong to the streets anymore. It's a worldwide brand now. Hell, hiphop is even corporate now. Back then, an artist got respect on how well he could rap and how he moved the crowd. Obviously that's changed over the years to encompass alot of things. But I think longevity can be achieved by any MC who spend time refining their lyrical prowess as well as their content and message. Too many artists now don't control what they put out there anymore. Also I think someone who embraces the culture and isn't afraid to be themselves and think outside of the box can also have some success. Now will that translate into dollars? Who knows?

But that's why I've liked artists like J Cole and Kendrick because they have great lyricism, great messages in their music, and they have good production. They bring a semblance of balance to the saturated market of turn up music hiphop right now. People forget that hiphop's most famous eras had a little bit of everything. You had your flashy cats, your grimey cats, your make love not war cats, and your conscious cats as well. There was a variety to choose from because no one's message was being drowned out like it is now because of popularity. Hiphop now has become a popularity contest that's being controlled by corporate interest that don't give a shyt about the culture. But at the moment they have the money and resources and thats hard for alot of artists to turn down. Any MC coming up in 2015 and beyond is gonna be fighting the cultural and business shifts of the culture. He/she just has to stay to true to themselves and don't let anyone change their message.

This is much deeper than what I could sum up in one post. I'm gonna have to gather my thoughts and really think about it.

 

[TheSickness]

Compared to what? The 80's and 90's, yeah. But Cole and Kendrick make better music than most of the G-Unit/Dipset/Lil Jon/Ja Rule/Game/Jeezy, etc. bullshyt that was dominating most of the last 10+ years.

Tell you what, you can have half so i can agree with them having better albums than Ja Rule, Lil Jon and Jeezy but 50's debut, Game's debut and The Diplomats debut run circles around J. Cole and Cacdric's discographys, thats my word, make a coli poll about it

 

[onelastdeath]

Tell you what, you can have half so i can agree with them having better albums than Ja Rule, Lil Jon and Jeezy but 50's debut, Game's debut and The Diplomats debut run circles around J. Cole and Cacdric's discographys, thats my word, make a coli poll about it

gkmc > diplomatic immunity, the documentary and GRDT.