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Really though, I think I struggle with who is and isn’t famous in hip-hop too.
Maybe because by the time Madvillainy came out, that was probably the poppiest album I bought that year. In the early-‘00s I was just scooping up Black Dice and Wolf Eyes and Tarantula Hawk records and looking for the next Sonic Youth. So my perspective is probably skewed.
Since we’re all Sonic Youth/indie/underground/whatever-the-fuck fans here — noisenicks and weirdos — I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
Like, it was WEIRD when I got so into Kanye because the last time I got THAT into someon THAT big was fucking Nirvana. Ever since then, I’ve been more open to more popular artists, and I think that’s a really good thing. But my whole perspective on what is and isn’t popular is probably a little jacked
I used to think Wu-Tang was the Beatles of hip-hop. Or ATCQ. But as “big” as either of those groups were, they were nothing like Kanye, Drake, Kendrick (circa 2017, Kendrick is unfathomably popular to me... so popular that people like guest just don’t listen to his music because they think it will be boring... how weird is that?), and I’m not sure when the era of pop-level hip-hop stars really started.
Don’t say 2pac or Biggie because they both had to die before their albums went diamond.
Maybe Eminem? Eminem and Jay-Z? Those two kind of kicked it into a new gear, making hip-hop something white girls wanted to listen to.
Anyway. Not sure what my point it, but I think if Drake as a failure and he’s huge. Just loathed by a lot of critics (and myself). I consider DRAM fleetingly, insignificantly popular, but how many SoundCloud followers does he have?
I don’t know man.
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