Talib Kweli, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Black Thought, Lupe Fiasco, Elzhi, Ab-Soul, Killer Mike, Brother Ali, Wale, Joey Badass, and Mos Def are doing well mentally. Only Blu and Hamilton fell off. And neither of them was particularly woke.
They might be doing well mentally, but you just named most of what should be the biggest names in hip hop today, and none of them (besides Tribe, who doesn’t belong with the others) lived up to their true potential musically, because the industry didn’t support them as music artists.
Just imagine if 80% of those artists were given the financial backing, along with the creative freedom, to truly create the great hip hop music they were capable of making at their artistic peaks...
We missed out on a lot of great albums.