IN MY LAST NEWSLETTER OF 2025, I WANTED TO REFLECT ON THE LATEST IDEA TO BREAK RAP’S INTERNET. BUCKLE UP CUZ THIS ESSAY IS A LONG ONE 😏

ALSO, I HAVE A SHOW I’M CO-HOSTING THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS HERE IN CHICAGO. ENJOY!

21 Savage, the ATL-bred, UK-born, murder-gang-repping rapper really stirred the pot, innit? Time will tell if his viral “Fuck the Streets” crusade is more than a hashtag/marketing plan to bring attention to his latest album, but it’s been polarizing nonetheless. 

It’s important to note that “What Happened to the Streets?” is one of Savage’s lowest-performing major label releases and just a few days ago was rumored to be botted, with Billboard allegedly removing sales. 

Fellow Atlanta rapper Young Thug was just seen on livestream lamenting the culture, saying “rap is in a weird place.” He says this on the heels of his latest album UY SCUTI selling significantly less than his previous offerings. Not to mention a recent release from a long stint in jail. It’s been awhile since Thug was on top of the game. It’s also been awhile since him and hit-making Gunna have been collaborators. Quite frankly, he could use a hit with Gunna. Times are very different now. 

While shitting on hip hop/rap is something many artists do when they’re switching genres (*cough cough* Post Malone), Savage and Thug are glorified, celebrated STREET rappers. Their whole foundation is savagery; keeping it real, standing on business even if it means murdering someone, and never snitching. Staying true to the code. All that gangsta shit. 

Street rap is essentially a subgenre of rap and hip hop as a whole. It was born of the streets, but that’s not all hip hop is. Hip hop is a culture, a powerhouse of a musical genre and a lifestyle. Rapping is a verb for a lot of folks. It’s a costume some people put on for many different reasons. Mostly money and clout. 

Unfortunately, people confuse these things all the time. They conflate the streets, hip hop, rap, the industry, metrics like sales, Billboard, what’s real, who’s fake…all of it. But people exercising discernment understand the layers of culture here. 

For those outside this thing of ours, it looks like the genre is floundering. It’s not. 2025 was an insanely good year for hip hop if you don’t care about record sales and Billboard charts. And for artists, if they’re not truly in love with this culture, their music will reflect that. 

Within the scope of all this, I’m also acknowledging the obvious fascist, alt-right agenda that’s at a rolling simmer in this country. While hip-hop is a culture I deeply love, mainstream rap has an agenda. Historically, the powers that be would blow the budget on rappers like 21 Savage. But there’s not so many marketing dollars available for these types of rappers anymore. If you’ve been paying attention, this shift has been happening for awhile now…

But the game-changing Drake/Kendrick battle moved the needle even more. It also revealed how rich hip hop is as a culture and literary tool. When it’s intentional and thoughtful, you can get your message across and win big even in this evil industry. 

Quite frankly, rap fans have been thirsty for substance for a very long time. How many opps can we kill, strippers can we fuck or blocks can we bend? It’s been an uphill battle for the genre to mature and evolve, and everyone isn’t going willingly. It’s been fascinating to read some of the think pieces surrounding the battle while thinking about the current social climate. Because it is, quite frankly, bigger than rap. 

As much as some folks don’t wanna admit how monumental, biblical and Shakespearean that contest was, it’s evident in the fallout. Don’t even get me started on Drake’s defamation lawsuit against UMG, which was dismissed by a federal judge in October 2025, following his loss to Kendrick. Mans lost so bad he took it to the courtroom lmaoooo. What part of the game is that? 

Well, Kendrick is an otherworldly generational talent as far as hip hop is concerned. He’s anointed. He’s tapped in. He was never gonna lose to Drake, who’s admittedly great in his own right. But numbers don’t mean shit when it comes to this thing of ours. Some of our greatest artists didn’t chart well. Drake was underprepared and Kendrick was a calculated mastermind. 

It’s also important to note that Kendrick beat Drake by his own metrics and shifted the game in the process. And keep in mind, 21 Savage and Drake are besties, with a very public creative and personal relationship. Savage even stood ten toes publicly about Drake while he was getting molliwhopped by Kendrick and shunned by the industry. 

Another thing Drake and Savage have in common is they’re not from the USA! They both absorbed our culture while being embraced by it. They knew how impactful and influential our culture was, then they participated. However, everything is all good when you’re eating off the culture.  

If you’re aware of the timeline of the Drake/Kendrick conflict, and you understand music trends at all, you’ll know Drake was poking the bear. If Drake ignored Kendrick’s “big 3” slap on the wrist on Metro and Future’s song “Like That,” we would have never gotten into this battle. I really believe that. Kendrick wouldn’t have pushed it if Drake didn’t. Drake was drunk off his own kool-aid and got his ass kicked. Oh well. 

And timing is everything, right? Kendrick is like the Octavia Butler of rap when you speak on his battle and GNX-era output. Prophetic is an understatement. Most specifically, I’m speaking about his song “Watch the Party Die.” 

All this coincides with Trump’s cultish, fascist America. Like I mentioned before, the music business was already pulling back on giving big budgets to gangsta rappers. Thug was in jail. Durk is in jail. Gunna “ratted” and came home, lost weight, started running and training like a D1 athlete, minded his non-street ass business and still made hits that charted well. 

This goes against everything Savage and artists like him preach. The streets. Not snitching. Keeping it real. Keeping it gangsta. 

And Kendrick predicted all this shit. As a genre and culture, we always need to look inward and reflect on our impact because it’s fucked up out here. Music is so powerful; it’s revolutionary, protest and gospel all rolled into one. But it’s been infiltrated and diluted. It’s been colonized.

If hip hop and rap goes back underground and doesn’t live on the charts, so be it. I’m all for it. I’ve been preaching against the evils of streaming and the need for true independence for years now. We’re cultivating micro-communities and these big bad mainstream rappers are crying about the streets when what they’re really crying about is record sales. 

The metrics everyone loves to mention don’t truly matter. But some artists wouldn’t even be rapping if they didn’t make a bunch of money. And because 21 Savage isn’t making as much money as he used to off music, he’s saying “fuck this shit.” The irony is, while the sentiment “fuck the streets” has merit, Savage’s intention is bullshit. 

Saying “fuck the street mentality” or “raising my kids in a war zone isn’t feasible for my family” or “I don’t wanna preach death for monetary gain anymore” is admirable and worth celebrating, that’s not what these folks are saying. And it loses even more steam when you say “fuck the streets” as a blanket statement when you’re not selling as well anymore. Hell, even Nicki Minaj is pandering to MAGA right now. The climate is ripe for this shit!

Because if homicides, mind-numbing self-indulgence and garden-variety brutality don’t chart the same, some rappers won’t know what to talk about. The costume they’ve donned is rooted in the streets. But ICE is on the streets and people can’t afford to eat. Kids are cutting their locs and ditching Nike Techs for quarter zips. Our administration is openly racist and pumping big dollars into white supremacy and Christian nationalism. What will you “street rappers” talk about at such a time? I could think of many things to rap about from a street perspective, but I won’t hold my breath. 

America is in peril. I can just picture Drake and Savage, on FaceTime with their feet kicked up in the air, giggling and thanking their lucky stars they’re not really from here. But that’s just my imagination though. Savage had the nerve to go on a podcast and talk about Kendrick in a derogatory way, saying he was “holy” and a “rapper rapper” who “writes” and “knows how to say things.” He said these things to describe Kendrick! The anti-intellectualism was stinking up the whole conversation. 

Savage was making excuses as to why Drake lost the battle, contradicting himself the whole time. And now this - fuck the streets. But Savage was right about Kendrick being holy. I know what he means. Kendrick is anointed. He’s prophetic. He’s for the most part straight edge. He runs his own production company and is thriving in this climate. He’s also looking at social and historical trends and literal music industry ideologies. 

Kendrick is more than a street rapper, even though he’s FROM these so-called streets Savage and these other folks glorify! Compton, California, to be exact. What’s not street about that? Lol…just contradictions all around. And we’re watching the party die in real time. In society, in music, in humanity. Buckle up.  

Within this party death there’s a birth, a reclamation of what’s true about this music we love so much. In some ways, 21 Savage is a cosplayer. So is Drake. But Kendrick? Never. Rappers who aren’t artists, but who are in fact opportunists, are showing their true colors. And they’re gonna go where the money is. You’re gonna have to really love hip hop to survive in this era. 

You’re gonna have to say something with merit and be super creative. Not being embraced by the mainstream is part of what made hip hop cool in the first place. It was underground. It was niche. It wasn’t contaminated with capitalism. It was authentic. If you don’t know how to make it in this game without a big corporate machine behind you, we’ll see you. 

And coming from Englewood myself, I too say “fuck the streets.” Fuck the mentality, fuck the exploitation and fuck the glorification of the negative aspects of it. And more importantly, fuck the conditions that allow a “the streets” to happen. But somehow, I don’t think that’s what 21 Savage is saying. 

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, because the streets aren’t going anywhere. And neither is hip hop.  

COME OUT AND CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS ENDING WITH MYSELF, OPEN BEATS AND FILTHĒ RECORDS!!!

We’ll be at Dorian’s Through the Record Shop this Friday, December 26th bringing immaculate vibes! Beat sets by some amazing producers and a few special guests. Come through when you’re done with the fam!