Illusion of Variety

There are alot of Hiphop hits on the charts since the explosion of this genre onto the mainstream and pop circuit. Compared to earlier years you could say that the charts are all dominated in some way by the new rappers. Every jam has a house remix and every pop artist wants the latest face tatooed purp sippin’ wonder thug on their joint. Exploding into so many directions gives the genre a huge expansion and opportunities to experiment and expose so much more than before. With all the venues, radio stations, and press now more open and hungry for Hiophop music and artists ,it should follow that there would be such a larger variety of artists to choose from. One quick look at the most popular jams or any Vevo playlist and you would even believe this to happening. Wrong! If you give a closer look you will find that the hit club is a pretty exclusive one. Every track you find is pretty much the same group of artists. Young Thug feat. YG, Drake feat.Future, Future feat.Young Thug, YG feat. Drake, Wiz Khalifa feat.Young Thug YG and Drake, Drake feat…well you get the picture by now. As entertainment and preferred listening goes this really isn’t an issue. Sure it’s lacking in variety but what u wanna chill to or drive to is your business. When it gets to the club or party it’s a different story. Back in the day the Dj would get booed out the booth doubling up on an artist. Playing a Biggie track then trying to play a track featuring Biggie was a no-no. Nowadays it’s literally unavoidable to double up and even triple or quadruple up on an artist  in the mix. Since they are all on the biggest hits which are the demand for the jam, you’re gonna hear the same man’s voice again and again, which is ironic because there were so many less records out in the previous years of Hiphop, yet so much more variety in the Dj mix. The solution? Maybe put more trust in the Dj to break and discover new music. Dj’s? Maybe stand up to the radio playlist and take some more risks. Radio? Chill on imposing corporate interests and demographic strategies and let the culture build. Hiphop thrives on variety!