Drake and Kid Cudi’s emotion-filled reign of mainstream rap has come to an end.
Not to take anything away from the success these artists have maintained, but the approach to music that made them household names might be heading out the door.
Drake and Cudi’s freshman albums “Thank Me Later” and “Man On The Moon: The End Of Day” reached platinum and gold status, respectively.
During their reign, spacey beats laced with therapy-session verses dominated mainstream attention.
Rolled up into melodramatic raps, the tell-all of an artist’s deepest, darkest secrets became a phenomenon that captivated the masses.
The sad-sap rap pioneers have reemerged with a burst of new energy that would make the likes of Young Jeezy and Cam’ron proud.
Escorting us forward while bringing trap rap back, we see artists from all around the hip-hop spectrum contributing their influence to the subgenre.
From “808s & Heartbreak” to “Mercy,” a new age hip-hop mogul has seen his musical emphasis shifted completely.
Though he maintains his reign with heavy drums and superb sampling, Kanye West has nearly abandoned the sentimental music that composed “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and shifted to heavy-production trap rap on his G.O.O.D. Music compilation “Cruel Summer.”
Trap-styled artists 2 Chainz and Rick Ross have been comfortably sitting atop the Billboard hip-hop charts.
T.I. is fresh out of the slammer and dropping monster versus, both with up-and-comers like Future on “Magic,” and old friends like Trey Songz on “2 Reasons.”
For those sappy spitters, not all is lost.
As Drake has gone on to show, one rapper can have many faces.
This might be the key to survival until the excitement of this decade’s trapathon fades away and people once again long for something they can connect to emotionally.
But in 2012, being ratchet is the cat’s pajamas, and the pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Expect to hear the trend continue for the time being with upcoming music from DJ Drama’s “Quality Street Music,” Meek Mill’s “Dreams & Nightmares” and A$AP Rocky’s Long Live A$AP.”
Not to take anything away from the success these artists have maintained, but the approach to music that made them household names might be heading out the door.
Drake and Cudi’s freshman albums “Thank Me Later” and “Man On The Moon: The End Of Day” reached platinum and gold status, respectively.
During their reign, spacey beats laced with therapy-session verses dominated mainstream attention.
Rolled up into melodramatic raps, the tell-all of an artist’s deepest, darkest secrets became a phenomenon that captivated the masses.
The sad-sap rap pioneers have reemerged with a burst of new energy that would make the likes of Young Jeezy and Cam’ron proud.
Escorting us forward while bringing trap rap back, we see artists from all around the hip-hop spectrum contributing their influence to the subgenre.
From “808s & Heartbreak” to “Mercy,” a new age hip-hop mogul has seen his musical emphasis shifted completely.
Though he maintains his reign with heavy drums and superb sampling, Kanye West has nearly abandoned the sentimental music that composed “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and shifted to heavy-production trap rap on his G.O.O.D. Music compilation “Cruel Summer.”
Trap-styled artists 2 Chainz and Rick Ross have been comfortably sitting atop the Billboard hip-hop charts.
T.I. is fresh out of the slammer and dropping monster versus, both with up-and-comers like Future on “Magic,” and old friends like Trey Songz on “2 Reasons.”
For those sappy spitters, not all is lost.
As Drake has gone on to show, one rapper can have many faces.
This might be the key to survival until the excitement of this decade’s trapathon fades away and people once again long for something they can connect to emotionally.
But in 2012, being ratchet is the cat’s pajamas, and the pace doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Expect to hear the trend continue for the time being with upcoming music from DJ Drama’s “Quality Street Music,” Meek Mill’s “Dreams & Nightmares” and A$AP Rocky’s Long Live A$AP.”
