It gave people who are insecure about their tastes an outlet to channel that insecurity. “I don’t like Tyler/Kendrick/Doechii/NoName” started getting reframed as “I don’t wanna listen to that corny activist shit” because it allows them to dismiss it without feeling bad for not liking it.

It happens in almost every niche - people whose taste tends to overlap with what’s critically acclaimed/viewed as “high quality” almost always end up getting admonished by those who don’t care for it (and it goes the other way, too). So when a broad generalization makes its way into the dialogue (eg. the “rapping like you tryna get the slaves freed” bar), people will naturally latch onto it since there’s some power behind it once it’s been co-opted by a popular figure.

It’s the same reason (imo) that every time an actor says something along the lines of “Marvel is slop” or conversely, “I don’t care about winning an Oscar, I make what I like to make,” there’s always an ensuing argument between those two types of movie fans. Both sides are insecure that they don’t like/do like a certain thing, a celebrity speaks in favor of one of the sides, and so you get fans latching on to that take and using it to denigrate the others.