r/rap

By “skills,” I mean things like rhyme patterns, crazy structure, wordplay and the way they play with words and syllables.

Who do you think has the craziest combination of technical skill and ingenuity?

Songs that mention Hungary or Budapest in the lyrics or title pls

Just my opinion

There are so many on YouTube but yet they aren’t going mainstream…

That era was the TikTok era and in that era we got ice spice, coi leray, bossman dlow, Steve Lacey, babytron, rob 49, docheii, etc for some reason ever since 2025 it seems like we haven’t gotten a new mainstream rappers and it doesn’t feel like nothing really new is going on in mainstream anyone agree with my take ?

I'm not a barb at all. I don't like both of them but Cardi B is not better than Nicki, let's be honest

Everyone has their top 10 rappers for GOAT, me included. But who are some that would cause significant debate/have people asking you “why that rapper(s)?

Edit: My 10 includes Biggie, Pac, Kdot, Cole, Andre 3k/Outkast, Weezy, Em, Nas, Hov, and Juice Wrld (not necessarily in this order). For example, I’ve gotten shit for including Juice WRLD on top 10 (also ready to include my reasons if asked)

I see her in every track list and each time she'd ruin the song, I personally find nothing appealing about her

I was thinking about how much posthumous hype shapes the way we talk about certain rappers. Honestly, would some of these artists be as critically acclaimed as they are if they hadn’t passed away so young or so tragically?

That’s not to say these people were whack or anything, because a lot of them were great but the way folks tend to romanticize their potential and/or elevate their “legacy” even though they never got the chance to evolve is wild sometimes.

It’s almost like an early death guarantees you a legendary status amongst certain listeners.

How do y’all see it? Does dying young amplify someone’s legacy in a way that wouldn’t have happened otherwise?

Marshall Mathers LP was pretty dark imo

Or is Apple Music and Spotify’s curated new rap playlists are filled with annoying passionless garbage. Even If the lyrics were trash but the production was a little interesting, at least that would be something. I’m getting tired of everything either being cliche uninteresting flows, or high pitch auto tune screaming.
Anyway. Anybody have any new artists they’re into that are interesting?

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Then stop calling it a classic….it’s no way in the world the same 6 albums get brought up as classics in every conversation when we know good and well a lot of people partaking only know 1-2 popular songs from it. If you don’t know an album well enough to name half the songs, calling it a classic is simply repeating the opinion of what you heard and not what you truly believe.

I remember listening to it while doing cardio on the treadmill.
During that part, I literally had to stop, step off the treadmill and just pull myself together.
It was so bizarre and unexpected. I don’t think I’d ever had a song affect me that physically before. I was genuinely a mess for a few days afterward.

I’m a 23-year-old guy and I’ve always been really into Rap/Hip-hop, especially the classics. It has always been a genre and culture that I genuinely enjoy, but over the last couple of months I’ve gotten much more involved with it, especially by learning and practicing freestyle/improvised rapping. I’ve been practicing almost every day, and honestly, I feel like I’m getting pretty good at it. Obviously I still have a lot to learn, but it’s something I’ve been genuinely enjoying.

Yesterday at work, I was quietly freestyling to myself while doing my job. I was speaking so quietly that basically only I could hear it because I didn’t want to bother anyone. At some point, one of my coworkers heard me and started commenting on it. She told me that I “don’t have a rap look.” She said I’m white, I have the face of a nice/nerdy guy, I wear round glasses, and that my appearance basically has nothing to do with rap. She even said that wearing hoodies, streetwear or a backwards cap might fit the style, but that my actual face just doesn’t.

At the time I kind of brushed it off, but afterwards it stayed in my head much more than I expected.

I think it hit me even harder because I had literally bought a new pair of glasses that same day. The frames are more rounded, and I chose them because I genuinely liked how they looked on me. Before she made that comment, it had never even crossed my mind that they could make me look “nerdy” or somehow less connected to the style of music I like. Now I’m in this stupid situation where something I used to do purely because I enjoyed it suddenly comes with her voice in the back of my mind. Every time I start freestyling, I remember her saying that I don’t look like someone who listens to rap, that I look like a “good boy,” and that my appearance doesn’t match it.

The thing is, I never got into rap or freestyle because I wanted to look tough, dangerous, or fit some stereotype. I just genuinely love Hip-hop. I love rhymes, wordplay and the challenge of improvising, and I’ve been having a lot of fun learning it. Still, her comment somehow got to me enough that I’ve even started questioning things about my appearance that I genuinely liked before, including the glasses I had just bought.

I know I’m probably giving one person’s opinion way too much power, but I’m curious about what other people think. Is there really such a thing as having the “right look” for Rap/Hip-hop? Has anyone here ever dealt with something similar?

Just joined a TikTok live stream and it was a ‘request me songs’ stream. He claimed to be a music fan and loved rap.

I requested my favourite rap song. That being Belize by Danger mouse and Black thought featuring MF DOOM.

He got about 30 seconds into it and paused. He asked who requested this song so I said “me” obviously.

He proceeded to call the song boring and ass, and said it wasn’t for him and isn’t a good song.

He then switched over to Che 💔

IDK but It's hot af outside.