If i haven't talked much about hiphop yet on this blog, there's a good reason for that. But it's not because i don't like it or don't listen to it. it's basically the title. lemme explain
When it comes to rock, a large portion of my favorite acts and songs are relatively obscure to the point where most people will never have heard of them. It's lonely sure, but i'm also kinda used to it. And at the very least i know what i like and i like it well.
When it comes to the hiphop/rap sphere, i just don't have that deep underground knowledge.
if i had to guess, probably the most hidden-gem of an artist i know of in the rap/hiphop/r&b sphere is NNAMDÏ, with around 78k monthly listeners on Spotify as of right now. i love his music and he's one of my favorite artists ever, but that 78k is actually a whole lot compared to some rock artists i listen to semi-regularly like Grammatics (~500 monthly listeners) or even just my beloved Johnny Foreigner (~12.5k). This isn't even going into how i only found NNAMDÏ in the first place because he was featured on a jf track.
the fact of the matter is that everyone and their mom has heard good kid mAAd city (and for good reason, it's a masterpiece). But i'm not really adding to the conversation at all by saying that.
none of this is to mention the other obvious fact that alot of the subject matter in rap is just isn't stuff i can relate to personally. i don't think this makes it bad, actually quite the opposite. but i do feel kinda phony listening to songs like norf norf by Vince Staples. and i think he has great songs but it's all just so entirely removed from what my life is like in the day-to-day that i can't help but feel like the white family at the end of the Señorita video when i listen to his music. and i'm not even white.
Ethnicity is another can of worms that i don't feel qualified to speak on but certainly plays a role too. again, i'm not white, but i'm not black either. And i know not every rapper is black, but rap/hiphop is an art form that clearly originated in the black community, and most of the big names in the rap scene are black artists. For some reason, i feel like an intuder to these spaces sometimes, especially when an artist like Noname (whose music i also love) will come out saying that she doesn't appreciate performing for mostly white fans (and once again, i'm not white).
and it's so damn hypocritical of me because i don't feel like an intruder when i listen to rock genres