T-Pain says popularity is dictating streams, not the state of Hip Hop

They say men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t — so what happens when those digits seem to be dictating the trajectory Hip Hop? For starters, there is no denying that art is subjective, but there is also no dismissing that album sales, radio spins, video views and more are massive contributors that motivate record labels to promote one act over another.

Those facts beg fans to question if the genre is dead — something that Nas declared on his eighth studio album aptly named Hip Hop is Dead in 2006 — or does real lyricism still have a place in the pool of catchy tracks that sometimes offer little to no substance? Music enthusiasts and casual listeners will never see the end of that debate. But according to T-Pain, diagnosing the state of Hip Hop is simple.

“I think it’s been the same, and it’s gonna be the same regardless. It’s about what people consume,” he told Shaquille O’Neal when he appeared on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” on March 6. The Rappa Ternt Sanga further explained, “It’s about — everybody’s saying how wack Hip Hop is, and it’s just like, they’ve [artists and executives] figured out the popularity contest. They know that people will just listen to whoever is the most popular, and once people figure out how to get more popular than what you think you want to listen to, then you think that’s all there is, you know what I mean? But that’s with everything.”

Moreover, he added, “The state of Hip Hop … there’s always gonna be a Nas, there’s always gonna be Tyler, the Creators, there’s always going to be these things, but you gotta look past that feature page. You gotta hit a damn search bar, and you’ll be fine.”

Who is dominating DSPs?

According to Spotify, the most streamed rapper is still Drake. The company’s current ranking lists the Certified Lover Boy, Eminem and Kanye West as the top three hitmakers that listeners are pressing play on. The OVO head honcho became the platform’s most-streamed artist in 2018 and has shown no real signs of falling off — from the looks of things, not even the hotly debated feud with Kendrick Lamar can completely derail the meters.

Who put out the top Hip hop album?

According to Rolling Stone, the top five projects of 2024 were Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal, Lamar’s GNX, ScHoolboy Q’s Blue Lips, Mavi’s shadowbox and Tyler’s CHROMAKOPIA. But, based on the outcome of the Grammys in February, Compton’s finest did a clean sweep across five categories — Best Music Video, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performances, Song of the Year and Record of the Year — with “Not Like Us.”

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