Juicy J is concerned about the state of hip-hop.
The Three 6 Mafia rapper took to his Instagram Story on Sunday to issue a PSA.
“I know a lot of people don’t want to hear this but … rap music is down 40% this year,” he said. “Check the charts. Check the math. … What are we, as rappers, producers, composers, going to do about this shit?”
“Let’s have a conversation. What are we gonna do?” he continued. "We gotta figure some shit out. We gotta sit down and talk. Let’s have a meeting, let’s meet up somewhere and have a big ass fucking meeting. … Let’s talk about this shit, how we can turn this shit around. Because this is how we eat. This is how we make money.”
Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast cohost Wallo also echoed similar sentiments in an IG post, writing that fans are looking for music that resonates with them rather than raps about murder, jewelry, and cash.
It’s unclear where Juicy J got this statistic from, or what prompted Wallo’s post, but they might not be wrong. Rap didn’t see a No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 until late July when Latto appeared on BTS member Jung Kook’s song “Seven.” Rap saw a comparable drought on the Billboard 200: in July, Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape became the first rap album to sit atop the chart all year.
In June, Billboard surmised that the reason hip-hop was struggling this year was due to a dearth in releases from high-profile MCs like Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Future, and Kanye West. New offerings also failed to crack the Billboard 200, with only five new albums topping the chart.
Following Uzi, Travis Scott’s Utopia debuted at No. 1 in August, and as of this writing, it’s speculated that Drake’s For All the Dogs will also open at No. 1.
