does hiphop have something missing right now? twitter has seemingly thought so, and has brought up some discourse lately that’s gone really viral. the conversation centers around what seemingly is a hole that we haven’t seen filled in the same way in recent years: the one for a true young “mainstream” star when you look at recent years’ rolling loud and summer smash headliners, you see the same names: playboi carti, nba youngboy, lil uzi vert, don toliver, yeat, baby keem, artists that have been around for a while. it’s arguable the last true “rise to the top of the mainstream” we saw was with yeat, and that at this point has been essentially four years ago some folks have brought up names such as baby keem, kenny mason, jid, doechii, etc., but again, these are all names that have been around in the spotlight for quite a while (with the exception of doechii) xxxtentacion, juice wrld, and pop smoke were listed as a few of the names folks thought could’ve made the leap to the top if they were still around for today. tragically, we aren’t able to see their stories unfold there are a few variables people have brought up in this discussion. first is the influx of fans being younger than ever, essentially bringing a divided taste between what younger fans and older fans who were brought up on the likes of kendrick lamar, drake, j cole, enjoy. you have younger fans who typically aren’t going to rave over lyricism in the same way making c*lt fanbases for nettspend, osamason, che, and then older fans wondering “where are the lyricists?” another interesting thing to bring up is how labels and executives nowadays seem to prefer legacy acts over artist development. the money is something that’s undeniable whenever you see someone like kanye west or future or drake go on tour, but the question is begged… what happens when these acts retire? hiphop fans being “quick to judge” and move on has been another glaring thing people have spoken on is there someone we can reasonably see taking the spot as the “true” young mainstream star as we’ve seen in years past? is it impossible? what do y’all think? lmk… — #playboicarti #undergroundrap #nbayoungboy #osamason #babykeem