To conclude Black History Month, Dylan Cherry reflects on contemporary Black artists who are pioneering rap's sound for the new decade.

Music is always in a constant state of change and growth, evolving and venturing into new forms and aesthetics, with new artists constantly coming along with their own inspirations to bring into their music. It can be, at times, hard to decipher where one genre starts and another ends. As we enter into the mid-20s, the contrast between music that was enjoyed in the last decade and this decade becomes more and more apparent. This change would not at all be happening if it wasn’t for the incredible number of talented Black artists pushing music forward. While it is evident across various genres, this focuses on one of the most popular genres of the last decades, rap. 

Before we dive into the music now, we need to look at the context of rap music’s history to get a better understanding of the techniques and sounds used today. Jamaican-American, Clive Campbell, famously known as DJ Kool Herc is considered one of the founders of rap. Campbell was a prominent DJ during the 1970s in the Bronx, New York City, hosting parties organized by his sister Cindy. Campbell began experimenting with switching between the breaks of old funk records on his turntables. He began to communicate to the dancers at his party over these breaks in a rhythmic fashion, which ended up becoming the earliest form of rapping. As the technology progressed and rap steadily gained influence, these central ideas of rhythm, use of drum samples, and of course, rapping stay at the core of the genre today.

Forwarding to the beginning of the 21st century, this genre with humble beginnings exploded into a monolith. Its impact was constantly felt within popular music of the first two decades. Trap drums were found everywhere from pop music to underground artists, and rap began to successfully venture into essentially every genre that had come before it. Many of the most popular rap artists from this period, such as Drake, Jay-Z, J Cole, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West, began to reach their commercial and critical peaks ,  getting to heights unseen before within rap music.

 Despite how monumental a moment like this is, it can also end up being very bittersweet for a musical genre. Throughout musical history, we’ve seen similar things happen within like jazz, rock, and disco. Often, these genres reach a peak and then taper off, evolving into new genres, and continuing the cycle. Currently see similar things happening within rap, as it goes through a transitional period.

Throughout the 20s, many of those artists listed above still hold a lot of relevance and significance within current rap culture . Yet, overall we have started to slowly shift towards a new generation of Black artists each with their various takes on rap. One of the most prominent breakout stars of the 20s so far is the infinitely charming Ice Spice, a 24 year-old from the Bronx who has had a phenomenal year in her music career. Like many artists of the current era, Ice Spice finds a lot of influence from dance music. Some of her most popular songs like “Deli”, “In Ha Mood'', and her collaboration with PinkPantheress “Boys a Liar Pt. 2”, feature prominent Jersey Club beats, a dance genre created in the early 2000s characterized by its explosive four on the floor-esque kick rhythm. Her latest release “Think U The Shit” also features this same Jersey Club pattern, in tandem with playful and plucky melodic elements very reminiscent of musical styles in niche underground circles. 

While Ice Spice may be one of the most prominent new artists meshing the lines between dance and rap, she is not alone. Artists like Vayda, and CLIP maintain a similar high energy within a lot of their music while at the same time incorporating more floaty, experimental, and dreamlike sounds. Dance elements are not always necessary to make a high-impact fun track though. Take Sexyy Red’s latest release Hood Hottest Princess where Sexyy is unapologetically nasty, sexual, and comedic. Each song off the record exudes a type of confidence that is electric, giving something that feels more raw and unsanitized in relation to other popular artists, while also maintaining that charged-up quality.

But high-energy music is not the only thing found within the large amount of talented rap artists that are popping up today. Take artists like Veeze, a Detroit artist who released his album Ganger in 2023, to large critical success. In this breakout album Veeze maintains an extremely laid back almost mumbling flow on many of the songs. Cheap and glittery sounding rhodes, horns, and synths make up a majority of the melodic elements harkening back to the days of Pharrell and Timbaland, and their use of the Korg Triton, and other keyboard synthesizers. On top of these melodic elements, the beats are polished by a lot of light and snappy percussion, very reminiscent of other prominent Michigan and Atlanta artists. Within the same vein of this smoother softer sound musicians, Anycia, Karrahbooo, and Luh Tyler also maintain the same laidback confidence over their tracks, with their own variations on these glossy light beats.

So far we have mainly gone over artist’s whose come up has been relatively recent. Yet, there are also a significant number of rap artists that gained recognition within the late 2010s, but really started reaching new heights within the 20s. Lil Yacthy, someone who many had previously considered to have “fallen off," being resigned to the likes of many other onenote SoundCloud rappers within the previous era. The release of his critically successful album last year entitled Let's Start Here, is essentially not even a rap album but a rock album. Ever since this release, Yacthy has returned to rap, and we now see him experimenting with very different types of sampled and synthy beats. He’s even been expanding his horizons within his features, appearing on Veeze’s aforementioned Ganger, indie artist Faye Webster’s new single “Lego Ring”, a remix of Flo Milli’s “Never Lose Me”, as well as his own Concrete Boyz label featuring artists like the previously mentioned Karrahbooo, Draft Day, and many others.

I would be remiss to not also mention Playboi Carti. Carti has not only been shown to be a force within music, but a tastemaker. You can find his influence wherever you look all over modern rap. So many artists of today, including ones mentioned throughout this article, experiment with similar exaggerated and repetitive vocal inflections regardless of the type of rap they make. Initially upon release his 2020 album Whole Lotta Red, received a lukewarm reaction. Since then it’s gone on to receive wide praise, and even inspired its own rap subgenre “Rage.” Prominent artists like Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Rich Amiri and even Lil Uzi Vert all have a wide variety of songs inspired by this subgenre, created with the use of a lot of harsh synth noises and sometimes even guitar sounds reminiscent of something that may have appeared on a nu-metal record 20 years prior.

If traditional rapping ability is more your speed, there are many prominent Black artists making more lyrically driven rap. Megan Thee Stallion is currently competing for a number 1 debut on the Billboard Hot 100, her highest billboard debut since the smash hit of 2019’s “W.A.P”. Her latest song “Hiss” is full of witty lines and quotables, showing just how much time she has dedicated to her craft over the years. JID, an artist still feeling the success of his 2022 critically acclaimed album The Forever Story, has a lyrical ability and ear for beats that rivals even some of the most prominent artists from previous generations. We see artists like 21 Savage, who came up in the late half of last decade, soaring to become one of the top streamed artists in the world in 2024, collaborating with a variety of different musicians who have reached somewhat “legendary” status in their careers.

There are such an insane amount of talented Black artists within rap that are putting out new and exciting things that it would be impossible to cover them all. Currently, Ecco2k is creating floaty cloud rap and helping to lead the charge in Drain gang’s recent success; Doja Cat recently made an album entirely focused on rap entitled Scarlet; even the recent come up of underground artists like xaviersobased, and Yhapojj with their modernized take on jerk/dance music, and many, many others. 

Along with artists,many different producers are leading the fold on the rap scene. Producers like evilgiane, with his quick paced metallic and percussive beats for artists like Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky, and Earl Sweatshirt, to BNYX with his wild wahhh bass sound, and experimental beats that appear on many different albums of the last couple years, from Drake to Zach Fox to Pinkpantheress. It would be impossible to fully grasp and articulate the amount of talented Black artists that have contributed to the rap music of today. There's an endless pool of fantastic forward-thinking Black artists within rap, suited to all different kinds of taste, putting amazing art out, and pushing the genre forward into the new decade.