It’s a ‘massive’ genre, but all of our most talented and most likely to be ‘next up’ are all caught in slave deals and/or being shelved by their labels in favor of easily-controlled, easily-watered down puppets. That’s not even getting into predatory artists who establish their own artist labels specifically to take people who WOULD be up-and-coming and cut them off at the knees by making them a writer or producer instead of a main attraction themselves. (See also: Aubrey Graham’s “OVO Sound”, also known as the “OVO Sweatshop” from how many talented Toronto artists got made into ghostwriters and had they sounds stolen and amalgamated into Aubrey’s own after signing.)

There are no Tupacs, Biggies, or Nases anymore, and it’s that way by design. The people currently running the show are all either settlers or misleaders, leading to yet another genre that we pioneered and advanced getting Elvis’d by the white man and all of the sell-outs bearing their water.

Like, Aubrey Graham was on top of the game for years; if that’s not an absolute indictment of what today’s hip-hop was prior to the Kendrick beef, I don’t know what is.