Project 3: Introduction: How has the rap genre changed from the 90's to modern day?

Old Generation Rap Compared To Modern Generation Rap

The 90’s rap game was run by huge names like Andre 3000, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Ice Cube. Modern Day rap is run by famous rappers like Drake, Future, Kanye, and Kendrick Lamar. If you've ever listened to their music you can tell that it's very different. Overall the beats have evolved, the rapping has changed going from a more slow lyrical flow to more of a mumble to melodical fast paced flow.

Andre 3000

Dr.Dre

Eminem

Ice Cube

Are 90’s Rappers Still Being Streamed By A Lot of People?

While the artists of the 90’s still post music to this day, most of them have not lived up to the expectations of modern day rap. They are slowly drifting away from the top charts to modern day rappers getting crazy album sales, and monthly listeners. Drake, one of the biggest rappers today has been dominating the rap game for years like Kanye, Future, and Kendrick Lamar. Everytime these artists drop, they do crazy numbers. They are certified “Hit Makers,” with every song and feature they do shooting to the top of the charts.

Drake

Kanye West

Future

Kendrick Lamar

Spotify Monthly Listeners For Old and New Gen Rap Music

Drake has an astounding 62,042,293 monthly listeners on Spotify, compared to someone like Andre 3000 who only has 806,675 monthly listeners on Spotify. Kanye is also doing really well on Spotify having 50,672,772 monthly listeners, as compared to Ice Cube who has 12,216,102 monthly listeners. Kendrick Lamar has 36,997,648 monthly listeners, while Dr. Dre has only 17,383,417 monthly listeners. The only outlier who still is pretty big in the rap industry is Eminem who has over 50,000,00 monthly listeners which is pretty impressive, because he's been popular since the 90’s, and is still doing pretty well in the 2020’s.

The Evolution Of Rap Through 30 Years

The rap genre just isn't what it used to be, now instead of having good lyricism being valued, we valued artists who use autotune and mumble. In the modern era, every rapper is using auto tune and if they don't do it regularly they have at least done it a few times, which is to mumble the lyrics. Popular artists who only mumble are artists like Lil Uzi Vert, PlayBoi Carti, and Yeat. These rappers have built their fame and following from rapping things you can't understand, and have had successful music careers, and are still continuing to get bigger. Overall the rap game has changed having moved from lyricism and slow beats to more uptempo beats and mumble rap. Also the rappers that are big at the time, don't always end up keeping their fame and fortune, popular artists are always flowing in and out of the top charts.