The Pop Corporation

We’re only halfway through the year, but it’s been noted that hip hop hasn’t had a number one in this calendar year (at least Stateside). This time last year, Gunna, Pusha, Tyler, Future and Kendrick had all landed at the summit, but this year feels leaner. It goes without saying that there’s time yet, and number ones don’t mean that the scene isn’t filled with talent, but it’s worth looking at all the same.

It’s over 30 years since this stat was applicable, which is slap bang in the middle of the Golden Era of hip hop, so obviously, the charts not taking notice of hip hop is not new, and not necessarily troubling. However, hip hop in the present day is not the same as hip hop in the ’90s. Now, it’s an all-encompassing juggernaut, whereas in the early to mid ’90s, it was still considered relatively new in terms of radio play and press coverage. In 2023, there’s dedicated radio stations, press, social media accounts and all the rest, to push rap music where it didn’t exist before. It’s a crowded market too, so it is notable that hip hop in the first half of 2023 feels like it’s fallen off somewhat.

While the health of hip hop is not up for debate, regardless of what the Old Heads have been saying in YouTube comment sections and whatnot – it’s interesting to look at hip hop’s place in a world that’s as turbulent as it currently is.

We’re going to think out loud and write some stuff down, because that’s the right thing to do, whether we’re incorrect or not.

A KICK AGAINST CAPITALISM

To paint hip hop as a purely materialistic genre is of course, a stupid thing to say. However, perception counts for a lot in a music climate that’s so snapshot. And for every Noname trying to talk about real things and lift every voice, there’s a hundred MCs on the come up with bricks of bills and hired Italian sports cars. It’s a thing. It’s stupid to pretend it isn’t a thing. And sure, other genres can be guilty of private-jetisms, but hip hop has been on the consumerist front foot for a while now. Kendrick might wear clothes with no label, but his peers are labels to the fore.

And obviously, rappers aren’t the only obscenely wealthy artists out here – Harry Styles isn’t a demure dresser – but one piece of Pop PR that hip hop has missed is faux-humility. The braggadocious element of hip hop is steeped in overcoming foul attitudes toward Black Americans who are trying to climb out of a situation that has been foisted on them at various governments’ insistence, so criticisms of it can often be tough to stomach. However, regardless, the flex could be responsible for why scores of kids have been switched off.

In the 90s, successful rappers did a great job of looking just like you, but more recently, it’s definitely been more about short haul flights, diamonds on wrists, designer clothes, watches that cost more than an average family home, luxury brands and sports cars, and post pandemic and the rampant evils of Late Stage Capitalism has seen rappers looking out of touch.

If you’re on a zero hour contract, living in a house share, stressing out about increasing energy bills and the price of everything and your worth being slowly eroded by bastard landlords – it’s tough to watch your favourite rapper standing on a yacht talking about how lonely they are, or imploring that you can do it too, only if you try hard enough. That’s what the right wingers have been saying too, and they’re grossly out of touch with the world’s youth at large.

The bleakness of the post pandemic world is one thing, but when the future isn’t looking any better, music fans seem to be gravitation toward light fun and escapism, or someone who will go after the baddies. This is why Megan Thee Stallion and Ice Spice (fun, escapism) are a hot ticket, and so too Kendrick (realism, looking at the future). Club hits can provide the kind of escapism that, say, house and disco used to, but of late, big show hip hop doesn’t have the DIY, underground bubble that is being seen in Latin music, dance music and queer-friendly disco spaces.

RED PILL MEDIA

The alt-right and troll media channels are grabbing headlines and worryingly popular. If doe-eyed singer-songwriter indie pop is suffering from a case of the Wellness Podcastisms, then hip hop can fallen foul of being appropriated by alt right and conspiracy theory social media. The young people who go to shows, support artists with Stan accounts and the like aren’t likely to be fans of the shows that attack women’s rights, support Trump and live in a maelstrom of whataboutery and straw man arguments to prove a spurious point for clout.

And sadly for hip hop, a lot of the schtick it has employed has been appropriated by the likes of Andrew Tate – notably a life of fast cars, ruthless ambition and bullet point success advice with some throwaway sex and misogyny thrown in for good measure. Hip hop has always been right on the edge when it comes to freedoms of speech, which in turn, can easily fall into ‘you can’t say anything anymore’ thinking, which of course, is the grey area which has been exploited by the Red Pilled.

If hip hop had a point that there was a conspiracy against the Black youth and PoC, Red Pill media has exploited that with its mistrust of mainstream media. Of course, no-one should blindly follow MSM thinking, no-one should trust a politician, no-one should wait for a handout or whatever, but the way the Red Pilled have co-opted hip hop speak could be one of the reasons that people have eased off on what MCs are saying. It’s not hip hop’s fault, but by osmosis, it’s all a bit exhausting and you need a break from people yelling at you.

Empty platitudes about how to become a success while shilling terrible faux medicine and thoroughly debunked philosophies from dubious writers isn’t something that’s plaguing hip hop (Kanye aside), but the knock-on effect is real.

Many of these podcasters have appropriated the Rags To Riches tropes of hip hop and these bleak white dudes with their hypertension, bad advice, and conspiratorial rants and grievances is an unwelcome noise, and if rappers are similarly ruthlessly unkind, you’re going to need a breather, and that’s what the first half of 2023 may well be. It’s not terminal for rap, but it’s a reality it needs to look at while the hip hop playbook is once again gerrymandered by bad actors and their grift.

While rappers have used their platform to tell you about the harsh realities of their lives, the police cover ups, the brutality, be it from a first person reportage or broader points, there’s no hiding from the fact that it’s now become schtick for lazy brain podcasters and YouTubers who are effectively victims by design.

HIP HOP IS PIVOTING

If you’ve been into hip hop for a while, you won’t be worried, because there’s been frequent fallow periods in chart terms. Hip hop will regroup and reimagine itself, and it never showed its working out in the Top 100, but rather, the clubs.

It’s important to recognise that. A lack of number one singles doesn’t mean it’s been a bad year for rap music. There’s always great music in any given year, but hip hop has been stuck in a small rut commercially, and every time this happens, we wait a couple of years before someone comes charging out of nowhere with a fresh take on the genre.

From electro to Golden Era breaks, to the rise of the South, to crunk, to Trap, there’s always something waiting in the wings for those who got too complacent.

Do we really need another Drake LP? Maybe. Maybe not. Young Thug is in prison and frankly, Future is looking a little lost stylistically. Latin music continues to dominate Hip Hop in the charts while having a very obviously lineage from it, but somewhere, there’s someone or a group, who just might turn everything on its head and save us from a fate worse than J Cole features. YoungBoy Never Broke Again has bagsied themselves 15 top 10 albums in just five years, so it’s not like there aren’t hugely popular young artists out there. They’re just not crossover big, like Jay Z was, and that’s fine.

And while hip hop is still the most popular style of music on earth, lately, it hasn’t gone unchallenged. The return of country music (in part spearheaded by Taylor Swift reworking old LPs, Miley and more) has eaten away at some of hip hop’s lead, as has K-Pop. This might just be curious music fans utilising the streaming era to venture a little more further afield. It might be because the saturation of hip hop has given the scene pause and time to breathe and rethink.

Such chart dominance means that hip hop has neglected the thing that matters most to it – the dancefloor. SNL spots and chart hits are one thing, but where hip hop always mattered most is sweaty windowless rooms and the strip joints. And you can hear it in the more popular songs – nods to Miami Bass and Jersey style wallopers. Hip hop certainly isn’t dying, it’s just waiting to reemerge.

Fuck the market share – we want to hear what’s next. And besides, Travis Scott is about to drop something, so all eyes on him to see where he’s at. Ice Spice and Pinkpantheress don’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon. Like disco before it, it transformed into Italo and House Music – hip hop will come back, and there’s zero need to worry.