Today, So Many Shrimp asked why the hell Gucci Mane isn’t getting more burn via the mainstream rap media. It’s a good question.
I like Gucci as I liked Tip, Jeezy, Pusha and Malice and pretty much anyone who’s ever tried to rhyme anything with the word Barksdale, but maybe it’s time to put that narrative on ice. Maybe Gucci’s failure to catch on with the kids who two years ago were repping the, “I am not a rapper,” outlook is indicative of something larger. We could be seeing the death of the trap star. These things run their course.
Of course, we’re probably just seeing the temporary chilling of the trap star. People have rhymed about that triple beam for more than 20 years. I’m not suggesting that anyone who ever rapped about putting in work is going to trade their white tees for skinny jeans and make a Euro-trance breakup album (though Gorilla Zoe could be an interesting case study). Drug rap probably won’t ever cease to exist entirely, but it could conceivably stop selling magazines with the fervor it has for the past six years or so. What do they transfer your subscription to if Don Diva folds?
But, if by some terrible confluence of cultural conditions, the crack rap void is filled by an uptick in the popularity of dudes who acoustic guitar freestyle in house party bedrooms about how rad it is to be freestyling in house party bedrooms, I want out of this cold, dead world.
