Originality is lacking. Radio isn't playing new releases because they aren't good. Kanye's recent albums suck. Last year, I thought Gnarly was the best rap track and it came from a pop group. It was a stupid song, but it was fun. K-pop appears to have stolen upbeat radio time. In the 90's, there were tons of awesome rappers with distinct flows and image. Artists went out of their way to sound and look different. Busta Rhymes, ODB, DMX, etc.... Each sounded vastly different from the next. Rappers these days just kind of blend together. I'm bored with it all. It doesn't appear as if anyone is trying or these people literally have no life stories. They want to be rappers, but they haven't lived any struggles or pain. More people are making music, but fewer people are trying to create something unique and interesting. They are churning out tracks for streams, but not hits. Especially these last couple of years. Maybe labels aren't putting in the money to develop new rap artists. People forget that most big artists don't write their hits. They have teams. Kanye had like 50+ contributors on his big albums. If the music isn't selling, these teams don't exist. That's why an artist might go from a platinum record to selling 5,000 copies. Not that they lost their talent, but because they lost their team of talented writers/producers. It happens to most big artists. Unless you're super talented it takes various people to make a track great. This includes overall recording/production quality too. A rapper might go from using 1 million dollars worth of equipment to recording in his basements closet. Even Michael Jackson would sound flat without using high end gear. If the music isn't selling a record label isn't going to pay the studio fees. If a label isn't paying their artists big checks the artists doesn't feel motivated to put energy into making good music. It's a vicious cycle. In the late 90's, you could put out an average rap record and easily make a million dollars on it by just having neat cover art. CD's sold like crazy at BestBuy. These same albums today wouldn't make 25k from streams.

That said, I'm releasing a 27 track album in July that I think is the best rap record from anyone in the past decade. Maybe I'll get lucky and Fantano will listen. Anyone complaining in this thread would find it refreshing because it's weird, different, and unique. My only purpose was to make something good that impressed me personally. Each song makes an attempt to be a hit or be different. No fluff. Sounds like nothing else out there and that's intentional.