Hip-Hop's

Hip Hop's Newer Sub-Genres

Trap music became a mainstream sensation in the 2000s, and started topping the charts in the 2010s. It is typified by double or triple-time sub-divided hi-hats, heavy kick drums from the Roland TR-808 drum machine, layered synthesizers and an overall dark, ominous or bleak atmosphere.

Major trap artists include Lil Nas X, Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Chief Keef, Migos, Young Thug, Travis Scott, and Fetty Wap. Major trap producers included Metro Boomin, Pi'erre Bourne, London on da Track, and Mike Will Made-It.

Trap has been dismissed as "mumble rap" because of its often garbled diction. Snoop Dogg noted that he could not tell artists apart, and Black Thought lamented trap's lack of lyricism.

How The Internet Affected Hip Hop

Social media led to the decline of fans purchasing physical media like CDs and vinyl. Starting in 2005, hip-hop sales plummeted, prompting concerns that the genre might be dying. While all music sales declined, hip-hop's losses were greater, totaling a 21% decrease from 2005 to 2006. 2006 was the first time in five years that the top ten albums did not include hip-hop.

Peer-to-peer file sharing also wreaked havoc with record sales. Digital downloads returned singles to the forefront of music sales. Downloads of individual tracks from Flo Rida's 2009 album R.O.O.T.S. totaled in the millions, while the album itself did not even go gold.

Despite the fall in record sales throughout the music industry, hip-hop artists still regularly topped the Billboard 200 charts. In 2009, Rick Ross, Black Eyed Peas, and Fabolous all had No. 1 albums. Eminem's album Relapse was one of the fastest selling albums of 2009.

The internet corroded music sales but democratized distribution. Audiences started to find artists directly through music blogs and social media. Emerging artists like Wale, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco, the Cool Kids, Jay Electronica, and B.o.B also possessed a sensitivity and vulnerability that was taboo in the bling era.

Hip Hops Modern Distribution

Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music became the dominant music distributors in the 2010s. The 2017 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album went to a streaming album for the first time, Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book. Artists like Kanye West and Drake started to eschew physical releases as well.

Many hip-hop artists relied on SoundCloud to freely distribute their music without a record label. Post Malone, Lil Uzi Vert, XXXTentacion and many others started their careers on SoundCloud. In 2021, the most streamed rappers were Doja Cat and Lil Nas X. The most streamed rap album of all time on Spotify is XXXTentacion's second album, ? (2018).

Hip Hop Goes Worldwide

Hip-hop spread from the Bronx to the world. It is constantly being reinvented in nearly every country on the planet. The one thing virtually all hip-hop artists worldwide have in common is that they acknowledge their debt to the Black and Latino people in New York who launched the global movement.

In many Latin American countries, as in the U.S., hip-hop has been a tool with which marginalized people can articulate their struggle. Cuban hip-hop grew steadily during the Special Period that came with the fall of the Soviet Union.

Brazilian hip-hop is heavily associated with racial and economic issues in the country, where a lot of Afro-Brazilians live in economically disadvantaged favelas.

Venezuelan rappers generally modeled their music after gangsta rap, embracing and attempting to redefine negative stereotypes about poor and black youth as dangerous and materialistic and incorporating socially conscious critique of Venezuela's criminalization of young, poor, Afro-descended people into their music.

Haitian hip-hop developed in the early 1980s. Master Dji and his songs "Vakans" and "Politik Pa m" popularized the style. What later became known as "Rap Kreyòl" grew in popularity in the late 1990s with King Posse and Original Rap Stuff. Due to cheaper recording technology and flows of equipment to Haiti, more Rap Kreyòl is growing.

Nigerian hip-hop gained popularity in the 80s, 90s and 2000s through artists like The Remedies, JJC Skillz, M.I Abaga and Sound Sultan, encompassing the incorporation of local languages and traditional hip-hop beats. In the 2010s and 2020s it developed further with rappers like Naeto C, Reminisce, Olamide, Phyno, Blaqbonez and Odumodublvck.