Drake might have dropped the most divisive album for a hip-hop artist since Kanye dropped Yeezus in 2013. Both albums signaled a musical shift in the artist’s career and public reaction was split upon both albums’ release. However, over time, Yeezus has grown on many people, with the sound of hip-hop music having changed so drastically in the last decade. Only time will tell with Honestly, Nevermind.
Drizzy’s shift in sound is nothing new as he’s released songs like the ones found on his recent album in the past with “Passionfruit” off of More Life, and “One Dance” off of Views. However, this shift in sound has sparked conversations about the future of rap music.
On a recent episode of the Joe Budden Podcast, Joe called Long Beach MC, Vince Staples where the two discussed if Drake’s newest album “pushes us closer to the elimination of rap music.”
“You think Drake putting out a dance album gets us closer to the elimination of rap music as a whole?” Budden asked.
Vince responded, talking about how his 2017 album, Big Fish Theory, received backlash from a lot of fans because of its experimental sound, and how eventually, rap will eventually fade away “because the internet pushes everything into the same bubble.’
“Music has always been very visual,” Staples responded. “When I think about artists, visual things pop up… Michael Jackson it’s the moonwalk and 2Pac it’s a lot of aesthetic things. Of course, it’s the music, but the thing is we’re visual people”
Vince added, “When you think about where music is headed, everything is Instagram, everything looks the same, moves the same, dresses the same and talks the same. The genre sh*t is going to have to go out the window eventually. It’s too hard to separate culture because the internet has kinda pushed everything into the same little bubble.”
You can watch the full episode below. Their conversation starts around the 1:57:00 mark.