Rapper and husband to Cardi B, Offset, has stated that the decline in the Hip-Hop genre is a result of a lack of originality by rappers these days.
The Open It Up crooner made his opinion heard during an interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden for Apple Music.
When asked whether he had observed a transition in the hip-hop game, the Clout rapper responded by indicating that every rapper sounded the same these days.
I’m noticing that ‘no content music’ ain’t catching nobody’s ear. I’m noticing that the numbers are down in our genre, specifically, because I feel like everything is so the same. The next new shit was another nigga that was just here. There’s nothing new being brought to the game.”
Reports by Rolling Stone in July revealed that only three hip-hop albums released in 2023 up to that point – Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains, Lil Durk’s Almost Healed, and NF’s Hope – were positioned in the top 25 most-consumed hip-hop albums of the year.
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Back in 2018, 13 rap albums released that year were in the genre’s top 25. Rolling Stone asserted that the fall in the genre was due to a lack of music from major stars like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion.
“Not just on the sound side but just all the way around. Creatively, too,” the Pure Water rapper continued to express his concern. “Most videos be, like, a Rolls Royce in the background, two chains on. That shit [is] getting boring, fellas. There’s no real entertainment. You got these pop and these country artists smoking shit because they coming with the full round, the full package. … Everything ain’t flexin’,” Offset noted.
Offset’s concerns are legitimate as Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape became the first hip-hop album of 2023 to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and it did so in July.
Prior to that, R&B (SZA’s SOS), pop (Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito, Stray Kids’ 5-Star, Taylor Swift’s Midnights) and country (Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time) occupied the top spot.
However, hip-hop giants like Drake (For All The Dogs), Travis Scott (Utopia) and Rod Wave (Nostalgia) have shown that hip-hop can find its feet again by being counted as part of top trending music on the Billboard charts.
The publication also posited a theory of changing tastes of most music fans from hip-hop to embracing new progressing genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano.
The 31-year-old rapper who released Set It Off, his second solo album, on October 13 debuted at No. 5 behind Zach Bryan’s self-titled album, TOMORROW x TOMORROW’s new LP, Drake’s For All The Dogs, and Bad Bunny’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Manana on the Billboard charts.
Offset also stated his assessment about the lack of quality in rappers’ presentations during live performances. Some rap artistes, he said wanted to charge “$200 a ticket” to see them live while failing to bring production value to what they’re doing.
“That’s why if you look at the lineups, it’s getting thinner and thinner on them lineups. They not trying to pay you $600,000 to come just walk the stage, brother. It’s that time for me to change this shit, man.”
One of Offset’s biggest fans – his wife – was pretty excited over the success of his new album. Cardi B commended Set It Off as being Grammy-worthy before it was even released and fans seem to have backed up her hype. She was quick to congratulate her husband on the success of his new album.