Although there has been a genre-wide celebration of its 50th anniversary, it would probably be fair to say that hip-hop has had quite a down year in 2023. If you don’t believe us, take Juicy J’s word for it.
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On Sunday (October 8), the former member of legendary Memphis-bred rap group Three 6 Mafia took to social media to air out his grievances regarding rap’s tumultuous state. After tweeting “Rap music is down 40% in sales this year this is a fact,” Juicy then took to his Instagram story to elaborate. In a two-minute rant, he explained that lower sales overall mean less money in artists’ pockets, which he feels is a major concern.
“I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this but… rap music is down 40% this year,” he said. “Check the charts. Check the math… What are we, as rappers, producers, composers, going to do about this shit?
“Let’s have a conversation. What are we gonna do? We gotta figure some shit out. We gotta sit down and talk. Let’s have a meeting, let’s meet up somewhere and have a big ass fucking meeting… Let’s talk about this shit, how we can turn this shit around. Because this is how we eat. This is how we make money.”
Though it’s unclear where Juicy got the 40% number from, his claims about hip-hop’s 2023 decline certainly have some element of truth to them. For example, it took half a year for hip-hop to earn its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 this year, when Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape finally ended the slump. Then, after Pink Tape‘s 1-week run atop the chart ended, Travis Scott’s UTOPIA would be the first project for the genre to stay at No. 1 for multiple weeks, which took place in August.
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When it comes to singles, though, the genre might even be in worse shape. In September, Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” became the first song this year with a rapper as the primary artist to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. That means hip-hop practically had zero No. 1 hits for the first seven months of 2023. Not to mention that Doja only recently labeled herself as a rapper, as she was widely known as a pop singer before her recent September album Scarlet.
However, with the release of Drake’s new album For All The Dogs last Friday, as well as Juicy J bringing heightened visibility to the issue, hip-hop could certainly get back on track to end the year. But, that would likely take more high-profile acts like Drake putting out music. We’re looking at you, Kanye West and J. Cole.
(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
