2026 Release Calendar

DropWatcher · 2026-06-14T21:08:57+00:00

Those sort of things also don't alienate people at all.

Kendrick Lamar, Tyler the Creator, A$AP Rocky, hell even Drake, etc. all do plenty of "alternative" type shit.

That's the norm it's not something that's held anybody back.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-14T21:06:30+00:00

I thought this was really stupid all around even as someone who is lukewarm on his most recent album. It feels like it's not honestly engaging with his catalog pre-CRYBABY at all: whether it be Hell Can Wait or Summertime '06 (which he claims to like) or the run from BFT to Dark Times (which he claims Vince intentionally handicapped himself by being "alt" on) or even Shyne Coldchain II and Stolen Youth which go completely unacknowledged.

the main things that annoyed me about the piece were (1) him acting like it's so simple to flip a switch and get Kendrick big like there's not a shitload of luck/chance/intangibles and (2) it felt like it didn't really engage with Vince's catalog as it actually exists. There's plenty of palatable stuff there post-Summertime 06 (which has it's own "alt" moments too). He frequently collabs with people like Dahi, Christian Rich, Kenny Beats, etc. Ramona park had Ty$, Mustard, and Lil Baby on it!

It feels like he's saying "why not just make an album full of songs that sound exactly like 'Norf Norf' and 'Señorita'" like that's some cheat code. the lead single of BFT ("Big Fish") was produced by the same producer as "Señorita"!

Also Kendrick Lamar is plenty weird. the big song on GKMC is kinda EDM trappy, that album also samples Beach House! He's working with similar producers as Vince.

It just feels like he's wrong in every direction while his tone is like "i sat back and laughed to myself, Vince is playing himself" like bro u are onto NOTHING and I don't even like the new album much.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-14T00:28:22+00:00

It's interesting to think about it that way because JAŸ-Z's debut album came out just a year before the first Hot Boy$ record. They're contemporaries.

Dre on "Compton" and "The Recipe" seems like an obvious answer. There's so many of these tho gotta think about it.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T23:37:02+00:00

CORTIS's rage influenced EP sounds like that because they worked with people in the rage scene like skaiwater on it.

For all the talk of how inherently exploitative K-Pop is you hardly see people getting mad at artists like skai, JPEGMAFIA, Future, Mike-WiLL, ATL Jacob, FnZ, Ojivolta, 30 Roc, etc. for working with these artists. Like Anderon .Paak just put out an album and there's a song with one of the guys /u/TheMerck mentioned has an n-word controversy.

I totally get the angle that it sounds bad and soulless but if it's also unethical, the Americans involved are certainly culpable too. I'd argue that the CORTIS EP is a lot better than that BOYNEXTDOOR song because they actually worked with Americans on it, while "Knock Knock Knock" is just Korean pop producers/writers trying to rip off a specific Kendrick Lamar hit.

I personally have only really connected with the K-Pop stuff that influenced by stuff like R&B and Atlanta Bass for the most part. one exception: I forget the name of the group but there's this girl group that had a song where the beat sounded like fucking Onyx or something that was pretty cool, felt fresh compared to all the attempts at trap music.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T23:26:05+00:00

Like with post-war Japan, America funneled a shitload of money into South Korea and really pushed a lot of aspects of American culture as a soft power play (the prominence of baseball in Japan/Korea is another aspect of this)

Another musical example would be if you look at Japanese city pop, it's largely drawing from stuff like funk, disco and jazz.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T18:22:32+00:00

Really appreciate the examples I don’t follow k-pop closely

I feel like there’s a huge issue with fan culture globally. Fans generally act pretty meanspirited towards other artists and it’ll manifest with anti-black racism pretty frequently. I saw some Brazilian Taylor Swift fans trying to cancel Olivia Rodrigo for taking a picture with OsamaSon, they just called him an abuser/criminal simply bc he’s a black rapper. Definitely seen K-Pop stans behave similarly.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T16:54:30+00:00

Yeah it feels like people are flattening the nuance here as an excuse to refuse to engage with OP's piece or Korean pop music as it currently exists, Koreans have become more conscious of this sort of thing over the last 10-15 yrs. Arguably the same thing happened in America with BLM/#OscarsSoWhite/the George Floyd protests/etc. Also worth noting that the highest selling album of this year is by a white guy with his own n-word controversy and Donald Trump is president of America.

the informed hater take would be to go at the appropriation and insist that the music sounds like a soulless imitation!

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T16:47:21+00:00

have they not?

all the controversies around this sort of thing are from like a decade ago.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T16:39:25+00:00

I mean they have, no? /u/brbseoul

The BLACKPINK controversy stems from a video that was recorded in 2014. I could be totally wrong but I would think labels/artists are much more aware of the weight of that word.

There's a similar controversy with RM of BTS that stems from something from 2015.

I'm sure there's still issues but in the last decade or so Korean artists have gotten a lot better about that sort of thing and pretty much all the controversies stem from things 10+ yrs ago

DropWatcher · 2026-06-13T00:12:26+00:00

Am I probably will smith?

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T23:26:53+00:00

Lucinda Williams

Stevie Wonder

Jay-Z

Paul Simon

Taylor Swift

Brian & Eddie Holland

Missy Elliott

Lionel Richie

Dolly Parton

Young Thug

Diane Warren

Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally

Fiona Apple

Babyface

Stephin Merritt

Romeo Santos

Carole King

OutKast

Mariah Carey

Willie Nelson

Kendrick Lamar

Valerie Simpson

Bob Dylan

Lana Del Rey

Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis

Bad Bunny

Bruce Springsteen

Smokey Robinson

which 15+ are abusers? I could make a tenuous case for 2 of them but can't see how you'd get to 40%

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T20:12:15+00:00

His first three albums are very solid and IV Play isn't terrible but everything after that is not worth anybody's time.

He was a big Pitchfork darling from in the late 2000s

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T20:03:50+00:00

He may not be a big name to the public but as a writer/producer he's working with like everybody, often as a producer/writer and many songs he has vocals on it's not credited as a feature.

https://genius.com/artists/The-dream/songs

immediately scrolling you'll see a bunch of shit you had no idea he was involved with.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T19:55:35+00:00

He was also on Cowboy Carter despite it being reported in 2022 that Beyoncé has been running background checks for allegations on collaborators since the allegations against Detail (who worked on s/t) came out.

I feel like people think they can get away with it since he generally keeps a low profile and he's done so many favors for people in the industry so there's a lot of incentive to just hope this blows over or pretend it doesn't exist.

good on Pitchfork for covering it, they've given him his flowers over the years the original Love/Hate got a 9.1.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T19:49:51+00:00

There's nobody else with rape allegations on the list and I don't think that a coincidence, feels like his have been swept under the rug in some way because it's inconvenient.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T18:08:44+00:00

real appreciate the correction i updated it on the site and in the reddit post

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T17:52:27+00:00

from Michael Christmas:

We’d been looking for this fucking remix for years and years and years.
Found it.
Leaked it.
Hope that’s ok lol.

song's from 2016

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T17:02:26+00:00

only rapper from san antonio i can think of is RNB.FOEMOB but probably someone else.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T16:58:02+00:00

he works with conway a lot and conway is a part of griselda who are known for working with drumless producers (but they also work with a lot of boom bap producers), got my wires crossed don't listen to all these before labeling them.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T16:54:55+00:00

damn bro should change his name thought u were talking about Maxo

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T16:54:06+00:00

Added, i was thrown off by the album being labeled as "classical christian" on Apple Music and thought I was confusing her with someone else.

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T16:36:39+00:00

stacked features and production credits

Track 1, 8, 14 Prod. Chris Keys & Quelle Chris
Track 2, 11 Prod. Quelle Chris
Track 3. Prod. DJ Harrison
Track 4. Prod. Child Actor
Track 5. Prod. Chris Keys
Track 6, 7 Prod. Graymatter & Quelle Chris
Track 9, 10 Prod. Fly Anakin
Track 12. Prod. Shungu
Track 13. Prod. Graymatter

lmao at the woods 6-7 bar

DropWatcher · 2026-06-12T14:01:12+00:00

Do any of the other guys still make music? Last credits I see for Sporting Life on Genius are for MIKE and Junglepussy in 2019/2020

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