I agree in terms of sheer lyrical ability, UK rappers are a cut above.
What's interesting though is that the popularity of the Lil Pumps, the Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty etc, is the culmination of a punk and rock aesthetic that has allowed hip hop to have another extended lease of life in the US.
There was a time around 2008/2009 when hip hop felt a little tired and old, a bit like when the excesses of 70s rock was about to be destroyed by the punk revolution.
The whole Kanye vs 50 Cent album launch, the fact that the most successful albums were tired rehashes of past glories by veteran MCs like Jay-Z and Raekwon..it was still a billion dollar business but it felt old.
Kanye then makes his surprise Autotune album 808s and Heartbreak after the death of his mother, and tha Carter III by Lil Wayne becomes the biggest record on the planet
For me these two moments are why we have the hip hop we have today. 808s and Heartbreak was the "Never Mind the Bollocks" of it's time - it smashed a wall through staid and crafted hip hop and said "it's ok to be angry and emotional."Drake wouldn't have a career without it.
As for Lil Wayne, just look at the first part of all those new rappers names. His slurry stream of consciousness style has influenced everyone in the game.
Basically if TLDR, US rap isn't Wu Tang and Nas anymore, and thank god it isn't. Music evolves.
Agreed. It's slightly odd for me, however, to see these rainbow haired youths who would've been seen as a bit fancy a decade ago but who still seem to be posturing with guns and hanging out with Bloods/Crips etc. But as you say times change.
I'm not too keen on the whole drill thing tbh though. Violence has always been part of that life, but it seems to me that with drill a lot of them actually seek out beef with the opps as a means of qualification rather than it being a byproduct. Not that beefs and turf wars never happened before, but with drill you pretty much have to be talking about the opps to be considered real, whereas with gangster rap you could just be rapping about the streets and dealing etc.
But maybe I'm a bit biased as had to deal with the police the other week due to one of our drivers being at a car park minutes before a double shooting occurred. They turned up and wanted the footage from all the truck cams etc in order to look for the suspects' cars, which was really not what I needed on that particular day.
There defo seem to increasing numbers of increasingly younger kids involved. A young rapper used to be say 18, but that's a pretty standard age for a drill artist with many being like 15-16 and already stabbing people up. I'd say 25 would be pretty old. I see loads of these types of kids about when I go out with the night drivers to places like Handsworth, Smethwick, Aston, Lozells, etc. I'd hate to be working alone at night making deliveries to shops in those areas.