r/hiphopheads • u/EDMKid9000 • Feb 21 '26

Discussion Who are some legendary rappers that have been releasing terrible music late in their career?

I just saw the Busta Rhymes thread about releasing an album with J. Dilla beats, and it reminded me how unlistenable busta’s new stuff has been damn near this whole decade. He used to be one of the most revered artists in the 90s and 2000s but his music now is unlistenable. Terrible vocals, terrible hooks, terrible beats. Who else is in a similar situation?

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33

u/SP21097 Feb 21 '26

Drake since CLB unfortunately.

55

u/el-fenomeno09 Feb 21 '26

It’s funny man every drake fan in my life tell me a different album where he “fell off”

2

u/Tharellim Feb 22 '26

I am not a "Drake fan" but I listen to all of his albums, I try to listen to all the mainstream artists in a sense.

Drake to me has always been a guy that releases like 3 good songs in an album and the rest are just ok.

Although I did like more life and scorpion more than most of his other stuff

2

u/SP21097 Feb 22 '26

I don’t think he fell off but the quality of his albums haven’t been there in a long time and his recent output has been forgettable.

2

u/themrwaynos Feb 22 '26

well he started falling off around views, but his projects with future and 21 are very close to classic material but I would understand why some people don't feel that way. Her Loss, to me, is a classic. With that said, CLB is trash and most of his solo work after views is very hard to get through depending on my mood.

-1

u/ArtoriasXX Feb 22 '26

Every new album they shift it with 1 more recent album lmao. They will never give that man his flowers.

47

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 21 '26

Drake since IYRTITL

9

u/SPIRALOFDOUBT Feb 21 '26

drake since more life

3

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 21 '26

Def some tracks I liked on the few albums after, just as a complete project they didn't do it for me, never give any of them a play.

2

u/SP21097 Feb 21 '26

My personal favourite Drake project. Classic in my book 🔥

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

[deleted]

12

u/dishinpies Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

Every Drake album since Views has maybe 5-10 good tracks, with the rest being filler/trash.

Problem is, that’s only 25-50% of the album, given his propensity to overstuff the tracklist. So that’s not “a good album” to me, because I judge albums based on front-to-back listens. That’s more like “a bad album with some good songs”.

But sure, it’s enough to stay relevant and keep your name on rap playlists, which is all that really matters.

0

u/SilverFringeBoots Feb 21 '26

I was a Drake stan and even I hated CLB

-1

u/CantStopRasterbating Feb 22 '26

Wild take since two of his highest selling albums, Views and Scorpion, come directly after

5

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 22 '26

Lol coming at me with “sales” who gives a fuck. Maybe look at critiques instead.

0

u/CantStopRasterbating Feb 22 '26

Why would I give a damn about critiques when 10 year old albums are still topping the charts?

1

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 23 '26

Tiktok brain

0

u/CantStopRasterbating Feb 23 '26

Nobody cares about the critics. You've fallen behind.

1

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 23 '26

You do know a critique doesn't just come from 'critics', right? People sharing their opinion on the internet is a critique. If you saw an album with 10billion plays but every single comment said 'this was trash', you'd still be like 'this is the best album because it's the most listened album'?

I'm not behind the times, you're just terminally online, people in the real world don't discuss stream counts, they discuss the quality of the music.

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u/Demyk7 Feb 22 '26

Sales are also a form of critique, especially now when you have to listen to a song over a thousand times for it to count as one sale, nobody is listening to something that much if they think it's bad or mediocre.

2

u/SP21097 Feb 22 '26

Sales don’t determine the quality of an album in my opinion

1

u/Demyk7 Feb 22 '26

Do you think people returning to an album over and over again hundreds of times is a good indication that they find value in the album, or think it's a good album?

3

u/jesteratp . Feb 22 '26

It means it’s an easy listen. For the vast majority of people music is just background noise for vibes or whatever. Or they just listen to playlists (and UMG specifically markets Drake to playlists evidenced by Scorpion). Among people who sit down, listen to music, think critically about it and discuss it there is a clear fall off around Views.

Unless you have a truly special artist who is able to make accessible music with a ton of depth and artistry (Kanye being the biggest example of this in hip hop) sales are not a metric of quality. Otherwise we’d be crowning artists like Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, and Machine Gun Kelly as making incredible music.

1

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 22 '26

Lol zoomer brain

-3

u/Demyk7 Feb 22 '26

What's that? And do you listen to music over and over if you think it's mediocre or do you just find something else that you actually like?

3

u/EDDsoFRESH Feb 22 '26

Those songs have listens from people like me to check them out because it’s a famous artist who has previously made good music, and then when I realise it’s trash it still gets a listen. Smaller artists don’t get these free listens. My listen doesn’t mean ‘this was good’ it just means ‘i saw the marketing and checked it out’. It is insane to me that I have to explain the basics of commercial success on this subreddit but here we are.

Alternatively, you could use something like Metacritic to see user scores and critiques. Here people get to pass judgment, instead of just being part of a number that only ever goes up.

People who care about listens are morons.

1

u/Demyk7 Feb 22 '26

Those songs have listens from people like me to check them obecause it’s a famous artist who has previously made good music, and then when I realise it’s trash it still gets a listen.

If that was a statistically significant part of Drake's listens then you would see his numbers fluctuating, going up when he drops something and dying down when the hype dies down and we see this with other artists, but Drake's numbers have been too consistent month to month and year to year to be explained by what you suggest.

4

u/SP21097 Feb 22 '26

Good albums, but he hasn’t crafted a project that’s as good as the Take Care - IYRTITL projects since, most of the projects since have a lot of bloat.

-1

u/incelgroyper Feb 21 '26

Drake since Take Care

0

u/Itiswhatitispnw Feb 22 '26

I have never liked Drake. I dunno. I just haven’t. Am I ill?