The Current Music Drought Can Benefit Bubbling Artists
In order to be successful within the music industry, there are three things that an artist and their team need to have. The first two, good music and consistent growth throughout an artist’s career are obvious, however, the third component, timing, consistently flies under the radar. There’s nothing worse for a rising artist than to put out the best work of their career, only for it to be overshadowed by music from everyone’s favorite megastar. This mere possibility has a lot of artists shaking in their boots, anxious to get out of the way for the 500k+ first-week sales machine to wreck the industry. However, with 2021 already off to a slow start and the current 500k+ first-week sales machine in question, Drake pushing back his album “Certified Lover Boy” again to an ominous date of 2021, it doesn’t look like the Hip-Hop scene will pick up anytime soon. But the real question is, with other tier A artists like Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Cardi B, Lil Uzi Vert, J. Cole, and more teasing 2021 drops, will the Hip-Hop scene pick up at all this year?
To be blunt 2021 looks like a minefield for up and coming artists looking to grow their fanbase. The best-case scenario for an up and coming artist is simply a 2020 repeat that forces tier A artists to push back their release dates until fans can hop off the couch and enjoy their legendary new music without fear of Covid-19. However, with a new administration pledging to get most of the country vaccinated by August it appears that time is running out and the tier A famine may turn into a tier A feast in a matter of a week. We are already in February and the highlight of the year to date by far is Lil Durk’s deluxe for his album “The Voice.” Aside from Lil Durk, the Hip-Hop scene has been drier than an overcooked turkey, with week after week being backpacked by singles from artists teasing an album drop.
Like I said, time is running out and with every week a bubbling artist doesn’t drop comes a missed opportunity. There’s something to be said for an artist who can properly identify when a music famine is on the horizon then targets a date around that time to drop. Recently we can point to Roddy Ricch in 2019 and 21 Savage in 2018 as two artists who benefitted from dropping around infamous December dates. It’s not a secret that the music industry starts to wind down every year around Thanksgiving to make way for the holiday songs that dominate the Billboard charts every year (shoutout Mariah Carey). However, both artists released their albums, “Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial” for Roddy and “i am > i was'' for 21 Savage in December to massive critical praise. In fact, both artists earned Grammy nominations for songs on their albums which have now propelled them to the forefront of Hip-Hop minds everywhere.
The reality of the situation for rising artists is simple, drop music at a time where you can capture the whole genre’s attention. It’s clear that there’s a negative correlation between how saturated a weekend is with new music to the probability of a song or album being launched to the top of every Hip-Hop lover’s thoughts. In other words, the more music released, the lesser the chance of standing out. With uniqueness in sound and aesthetic being one of the key catalysts for success, it is crucial that rising artists seek out every opportunity they can to increase their chances of separating themselves from their peers. Because of this, the music desert that has been 2021 thus far is concerning because with the clock ticking and the likelihood of hearing from tier A artists increasing, the next big Hip-Hop star is missing their window of opportunity to pop.
Now isn’t the time for bubbling artists to cower in fear over the concept of being overshadowed by a tier A artist dropping a week later. The time to release new music that can potentially propel them to superstardom is now! Every week they don’t drop their new music increases the probability of their worst fear, being overshadowed by one of Hip-Hop’s megastars coming to fruition. And I’m not saying that because I’m bored and desperately need new music, that’s just math. And in the words of 21 Savage, “In science I was sleep ayy, I fell in love with math.” I’m sure a lot of rappers agree with that sentiment, ostensibly it’s the reason why they’re holding on to their music, but perhaps the math that advises them to withhold their potentially chart topping new music is wrong.
