Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' is Proof 'Lazy' Rappers Are Losing Out to Pop Artists?

According to Eminem's artist Westside Boogie, Billboard's piece on hip-"magic" hop's dwindling is spot-on. He implied that the huge success of Taylor Swift's "Midnights" is a good evidence.

Westside Boogie claims that rappers have been losing their craft.

TMZ Hip Hop saw the Compton-born MC at LAX over the weekend and questioned him about the recent discussion regarding rap's declining popularity.

Boogie affirmed that he can connect to Billboard's assertion, stating that he has been paying close attention to pop music and believes that contemporary pop artists pay more attention to detail than rappers.

Not that he's arguing that rap is devoid of talent; in fact, he noted that there are lots of talented rappers, but they're not doing much to distinguish themselves in terms of verses, beat selection, or lyrical delivery.

Boogie has been spitting for a decade and is familiar with the operation of the roulette wheel. He believes that the enchantment will return when today's hip-hop artists devote more effort to their craft.

Case in point is Taylor Swift's "Midnights" album. Its release broke Spotify and is expected to be certified platinum within a week. That would be more than the first-week production of Drake, Lil Baby, and Kendrick Lamar in 2022, together!!

This year, WSB released his critically acclaimed album "More Black Superheroes" on Eminem's Shady Records, and he believes his label boss needs more respect from the younger generation on the occasion of his 50th birthday. It was before his time, he says, so children like his 13-year-old son do not comprehend the entire significance of Eminem's career.

Therefore, according to Boogie, it is the responsibility of elder generations to preserve history and give credit where credit is due, particularly if they sample or borrow from the greats who came before you.

This week's No. 1 album is "It's Only Me" by Lil Baby, an Atlanta rapper who turned to music after a spell in prison and became one of his hometown's biggest new stars. But it might not even hold against Taylor Swift's album.

According to the monitoring firm Luminate, "It's Only Me," which features guest appearances by Young Thug, Future, Jeremih, and EST Gee, garnered the equivalent of 216,000 sales in the United States.

The album earned 289 million streams in its first week, which is the third-highest streaming total for a No. 1 album this year, following Bad Bunny (357 million) and Kendrick Lamar (212 million). Swift's "Midnights" was published on Friday and, after only one day, has already become the year's best-selling album. There is a good probability that it might be the first album to debut with more than one million equivalent sales in five years.

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Taylor Swift