To everyone that says rap is dead, here’s a challenge for you: name 10 rappers that aren’t “mainstream”… I’ll wait.
In my honest opinion, the overall rap scene is in as good of a place as it’s ever been. Now if you’re only talking about mainstream rap, that’s a completely different story. When you peel back that mainstream layer; you’ll see there are artists that put their versatility on display in every single project or track they put out. You can almost break rap into different sub-genres at this point. Trap, melodic, conscious; the list goes on and on.
The stars today are not necessarily the most talented. This obviously does not include people like Kendrick, J Cole, or Drake. Chris Patrick, Dende, Saba, Kota the Friend, JID (still not sure I’d call him mainstream just yet) Lute, & Westside Boogie dropped some of the best projects over the past couple of years yet they have not received the notoriety they truly deserve. Mainstream doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We just need to get the right people there. We have to stop glorifying violence. Trap is cool, but it seems as though all you have to do to blow up is rap about robbing, killing, or selling drugs, which doesn’t really help the black or African American image… but let’s save that conversation for another day. If the artists named above (and many more not mentioned) received more attention and took over that upper echelon, I think you’d see the overall reception/perception of rap music change drastically for the better.
Below is a short 'Rap Pack' playlist that serves to give you a taste of what you can expect from THR1VE Music. But first, drop a comment and let us know which factors make a rapper or an artist “mainstream”? Is it followers on social media, stream count, radio plays, or something else? Also, let us know which artist you think we need to look out for.
Rap Pack playlist on: Apple Music | Spotify
