what makes a rapper "relevant or irelevant" these days?

[championhood]

lately alot of ya been poppin off at da mouth it seems with da term "___ is not relevant".....especially when it comes to people who are literallydropping albums currently and having media cover them...

so exactly on what criteria do you consider a rapper(s) "relevant" or "not relevant" these days....?

 

[grittyman20]

U ain't gonna get a straight answer for this one dog....

I guarantee that Fat Joe will get brought up in this thread so might as well do it now..

IMO when it comes to a career everyone has a peak and then a decline...so if you need a gimmick (like beef or reinventing yourself as something you're not)or if you gotta ride the coat tails of someone who is hot then I guess you can say that person is irrelevant.

I say Joe isn't relevant because he's guilty of both. He said a long time ago that he was done with the beef yet he's still a part of it, and Ithink he's a little too influenced by Lil Wayne right now.

 

[championhood]

my problem is with da whole fat joe argument is duke is still comin out with albums and his career has been pretty much successful....

people get irrelevant and "rappers i don't like" confused...cuz god knows i HATE lil wayne and soulja boy, but i'd be dead wrong to call emirelevant to today's music...they may be irelevant to me but they sure as hell not irelevant to rap music as a whole...

there has to be a consensus that a certain measure of current success can't make you irelevant, there also has to be a overall aspect of it....like howjordan hasn't been in a bulls uniform since 1998 but it doesn't make his career "irelevant" in today's sports world.

 

[jdm free]

i think fat joe might be irrelevant now...have ya heard dudes album...pretty terrible. he might be able to add to someone elses song but he isnt reallyrelevant to todays hip hop.

the only real relevant people in hip hop right now are the ones that are hot and the ones that have always had an impression on it.

 

[championhood]

Originally Posted by jdm free

i think fat joe might be irrelevant now...have ya heard dudes album...pretty terrible. he might be able to add to someone elses song but he isnt really relevant to todays hip hop.

the only real relevant people in hip hop right now are the ones that are hot and the ones that have always had an impression on it.

^^thats my point....soulja boy is "hot" and god knows his music is having a impression on today's hiphop...and his album is waaay worse thenlet's say sheek louch's album...but soulja boy's is almost platinum and sheek louch sold about 17k copies.....but tell anyone hiphop head that daLOX are irelevant and you'll get a bunch of

 

[andown goes frasier]

well what I think about this is that rappers who are relevant have A song playing in radio rotation or some type of contraversey ... if you don't then urnot.

 

[bonafide hustla]

a rapper is relevant if people are still checking for them. notice I say people as in the general body not deep hip hop heads because the list of relevant andirrelevant TO ME is almost opposite what I think is relevant. record sales aren't always a great way to measure relevancy, but nobody is checking for fatjoe's album. I hardly seen any promo. Nobody is checking for Nas when he drops,

relevant: lupe, wayne, jay, rick ross, jeezy, ye, fif.......then insert all your run of the mill artists who are just young and new

irrelevant (as much as it hurts me to say for some): nasir, even tho he's a tweener imo in this regard, fat joe, Mr. top 5 dead alive and that's justoff one 2 LPs aka jadakiss

, styles

it's hard to give a 100% definition, but a lot of times I like to think that dudes that are relevant can still do something to strengthen or weaken theirstance whereas dudes who aren't relevant prob can't do anything to strengthen or weaken what people feel about them. I hate to say it..again, but jadais probably a good example

 

[All Ready]

hot lyrics = irrelevant

"swag" = relevant

appealing to mature adults = irrelevant

16 and under x new dance = relevant

Being good enough to be on a major = irrelevant

Barely selling independent = relevant

 

[bklyn style baby]

Let me give it a try, Its kinda hard to define relevant in todays hiphop world, but sales has nothing to do with relevancy. Most artist that people say areirrelevant still hold weight. Like every time a Prodigy post pops up & you got 40 cats typing up "punching bag P" "he fell off""he's irrelevant" If you gotta take the time to say that person is irrelevant your foolish. If a post pops up about lets say-special ed forexample. if only 2 people respond that would make him irrelevant (because no one cares) but when a post about Fat joe pops up & you have 50 different catssaying "he's garbage" "his albums wack" guess what, that makes him relevant. If you took the time to listen to someones album andcritique it, the artist is still popping (like the album or not).
If your on blogs & message boards everytime a "irrelevant artist" name pops up then you dont know the meaning of irrelevant.

hot lyrics = irrelevant

"swag" = relevant

appealing to mature adults = irrelevant

16 and under x new dance = relevant

Being good enough to be on a major = irrelevant

Barely selling independent = relevant
100% agreed.

 

[uptown roamer]

Originally Posted by All Ready

hot lyrics = irrelevant

"swag" = relevant

appealing to mature adults = irrelevant

16 and under x new dance = relevant

Being good enough to be on a major = irrelevant

Barely selling independent = relevant

Basicly.

It annoys me to no end that THIS is what hip-hop has turned into.

 

[golfalphabravoecho]

Relevency has nothing to do with exposure and everything to do with presence. If you're talking about somebody then they're "relevent". Whyare we checking for Joe Budden, but not Papoos-a? Because JB put out some good music and Papoos-a got into a fight with Fat Joe. Fat Joe is putting outaccessable music, it keeps his name around so he's relevent, people want more music from him. Nas is NOT making accessable music so while people may haveenjoyed HHID for what it was, not many people really felt that joint. (However I still stand by my stance that HHID is a better albumthan Thug Moto: 102) so while the new album is stirring up some controversy, nobody's really checking for it right now thus making Nas irrelivant.Robin Thicke is irrellivant right now, I mean really, when's the last time you thought about Robin Thicke? AZ is irrelivant because he's putting outmusic all the time but nobody's checking for him, you heard that new Royce Da 5'9? No? I know you havent, nobody has. The Game teetered on irrelivancybecause his last album was weak. Lil Jon is irrelivant now.

If you're putting wack music out then you're just wack, but if you're putting out good/decent music but nobody's listening then you'reirrelivant.

We can test Sheik Looch's relevancy right now, that joint he has out is a heater, we'll see how it do.

Most Relevant Emcees Today

Lupe Fiasco - I think that Superstar is going to lead the game into a different direction.


T-Pain - Do I really need to explain this one?

Lil Wayne - Won't the real Weezy, please stand up..

Honorable Mention:

T.I. - T.I. did a "concept" album, (I'm not saying they're following T.I. nor am I saying his was an album worth following, but his was thefirst heavily marketed concept album in a long time.) now Jay-Z, Lupe, and Fabolous have em.

 

[mossman75]

Some of y'all are saying Nas is irrelevant but he is still able to sell records. True is indeed he doesn't sell like he use to(nobody does) Nas been inthe game 14 years, doesn't get that much radio play, and still able to put up decent numbers, not many artists can say that.


A list of artist that are irrelevant

DMX
Jermaine Dupri(As a artist himself)
Lil Kim
Young Joc

 

[mace40]

Whether or not they suck at music.

Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.

 

[championhood]

Just because they suck don't mean they aren't relevant......

 

[championhood]

Just because they suck don't mean they aren't relevant......

 

[championhood]

Just because they suck don't mean they aren't relevant......

 

[championhood]

Just because they suck don't mean they aren't relevant......

 

[golfalphabravoecho]

Quadruple post? Wow.


But oddly enough, I had to read all four of them to get what you were saying.

 

[rudygay22uconn]

as much as they are disliked on NT, weezy & 50 are the epitome of relevant they have both been consistent for the past 4-5 years...on the other hand asgood a artist he is jadakiss is not relevant right now for example.

 

[mrxdaboss]

i see an artist relevances based on one thing only is their name in people mouth no matter if hate or love. example fat boys is not relevant cause ihaven't heard their name in years. fat joe is relevant cause he seems to pop up in ever topic about music

 

[lex rockhead]

If you can't snap to it, it ain't relevant.