After a Wild Year in Hip-Hop, What Comes Next?
As 2024 enters its final months, hip-hop remains in the midst of a seismic shift. What comes next is anyone’s guess. Winter saw a veteran rapper sweeping all of his Grammy categories, beating out his younger colleagues and sparking yet another conversation about the divide between popularity and critical acclaim, and the youth versus OGs. Spring ushered in what was perhaps the biggest beef the genre has ever seen, leading to a diss track becoming the Song of the Summer. Future dropped three number one albums in one year. Kanye returned to the charts. LL Cool J got back in the booth. Playboi Carti’s influence loomed over both the mainstream and the underground like a paradigm-shifting vampire. Young Thug is still on trial. And rising stars like Cash Cobain, Doechii, and GloRilla are making their marks. It’s a lot to parse, much less prognosticate about. Which is why GQ reached out to industry tastemakers, writers, media personalities, and more for their takes on everything that’s going on, and where it’s all headed. Read a preview below, and check out the full State of Rap poll results at GQ.com. —Frazier Tharpe
Jeff Rosenthal, podcaster, on whether 2024’s been a good year for rap:
“I think the reliance on festivals has been bad for rap. I think the reliance on streaming has been bad for rap. I think Elon Musk letting his platform go to shit has been bad for rappers. But none of those downturns affect the quality of the music being created. I think it’s probably been a pretty good year for art and a terrible year for getting it heard.”
Killer Mike on the revenge of the fiftysomething rapper:
“I think that there’s room in rap for all of us. LL Cool J dropped an amazing record. Fucking Ice-T and Big Daddy Kane dropped some freestyles this year that made my brain flip. I don’t know why the Black community acts like old men aren’t the best shit talkers in the world.”
Alphonse Pierre, journalist, on the “Big Three” conversation that sparked the year’s biggest beef:
“The whole idea of the Big Three is pretty archaic—that’s why the whole Drake and Kendrick squabble was dumb from the jump. It’s a conversation that tends to lean so heavily on numbers and relevance, things that I do think about but that don’t really mean that much to me. I’m not saying rap should be uncompetitive, but there has to be a way cooler way to think about these things, right? The gambling companies are probably trying to figure out a way to monetize these convos as I write this.”
Nadeska Alexis, journalist, on what Drake should do next:
“Shut the gates. Stop all the collaborations and features. Don’t put out a damn R&B album. Leave Sexyy Red alone. Vanish and come back with the undisputed best rap album of your career. You still have it in you. You’ve been a little bored and looking for motivation. This year was it.”
Angel Diaz, journalist, same question:
“Log off and start rapping. We don’t wanna hear that weak shit no more.”
Read the whole survey.
