In the wake of everything, rap reunited and revitalized old partnerships, revisited and critiqued old haunts, unearthed powerful new voices and even helped plug a new Minions movie. Some rappers chose to stay the course this year, growing bolder within their signature styles, and others chose to detonate the monuments built in their image and reimagine their messages. The rap of 2022 found veterans setting new career benchmarks, breakout rappers rising to meet a fractured monoculture, and rising rappers making bold, position-redefining statements. In reality, rap's influence has never been stronger, and its selection has rarely been more compelling. That's an industry concern, not an artistic one. Some observers have been looking at the tea leaves (streaming metrics) and wondering if the genre's dominance is waning. What does a genre built on words do when those words can, and almost certainly will, be held against its artists in court?īest Music of 2022 The Best Music of 2022īut hip-hop's story is one of surviving adversity, of creating under disadvantageous circumstances, and so the culture has persisted, as it always does, and rappers continued to raise the bar for bars. Thug's lyrics are being weaponized against him. Its reverberations have been quietly felt throughout the rap world. 26 YSL associates were arrested on criminal conspiracy charges in May, and 25 remain in jail, despite the absurdity of those charges. It feels like the Atlanta rap scene, the epicenter of hip-hop, is still recovering. There has been no shortage of abuses, including New York City getting drill rappers removed from the Rolling Loud bill, but one in particular has reverberated across the rap landscape: Young Thug, Gunna, and the members of YSL record label being rounded up and charged in a RICO case. The genre has faced over-policing and sensationalism before, dating back to the NYPD's rap intelligence unit in 1999, but the scope of the crusade has expanded: lyrics continue to be treated like transcripts by the law, rappers are painted as crime lords and their imprints are characterized as mob outfits. Photo Illustration: Jackie Lay/NPR/Derek White/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyĪ pall has been hanging over hip-hop this year: the ongoing criminalization of being a rapper looms large. Because she knew that - in being herself 1,000% - she would have an effect on future artists and give them the ability to do what they want to do without being side eyed or being skipped in a playlist.Pusha T's It's Almost Dry is one of NPR Music's top 20 hip-hop albums of 2022. "Nicki Minaj knew that not everybody would immediately understand her, and she still swung for the fences. Artists like Megan Thee Stallion and Ice Spice show their individuality and range of emotion with confidence. Kiana Fitzgerald hears Minaj's influence all over modern hip-hop. "She may want to sing and then rap immediately after, or she may want to make strange noises that don't really make sense, but then when you hear it in totality, it's like, Oh, I'm glad she did this! That makes a lot of sense." "If you listen to Pink Friday from front to back, you won't hear her use her voice in the same way," says Fitzgerald. Nicki Minaj also brought a shape-shifting quality to her vocals. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Ode To Hip-Hop Author Kiana Fitzgerald
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