Affect is like DNA: imperceptible to the untrained eye, however unmistakably important when you actually dig into what one is product of. The tradition of right this moment’s hip-hop could also be vastly completely different if it weren’t for the contributions of three rap titans: Nicki Minaj, Gucci Mane, and Kendrick Lamar.
Nicki Minaj placing the boys on discover to observe the queen conquer confirmed the Megan Thee Stallion’s, GloRilla’s, and Doja Cat’s how to reach a male-dominated area. Gucci Mane epitomized ATL cool whereas being the career-defining cosign artists like Migos, Younger Thug, and Future wanted to jumpstart a brand new period of Southern hip-hop dominance. Kendrick Lamar redefined the business viability of lyricism whereas concurrently shining a limelight on West Coast artists with extra issues to rap about than gangbanging and weed.
These are three of probably the most influential rappers of the final 15 years, and that is how every modified the sport.
Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Type” at Metropolitan Museum of Artwork on Could 05, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Photograph by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Pictures for The Met Museum/Vogue.
Maximalism is the lifeblood of a hip-hop style the place bragging is tantamount to respiratory. Just a few rappers have reached a stage of cultural ubiquity over an extended sufficient interval that your guarantees turn into prophecies and ego turns into inspiration. On her “Did It On Em,” from her 2010 debut album Pink Friday, earlier than she actually started carving her personal lane with razor-sharp lyrics, Nicki Minaj famously proclaimed, “All these b*tches is my sons.” In hindsight, she was getting ready us; the domineering femininity that made her bars sound like one Louboutin heel pressed on the heart beat of the tradition and one other on a rapper’s neck birthed the present technology of lovely bar bosses.
GloRilla is striving to obtain Nicki Minaj’s longevity, (at one level) Megan Thee Stallion mentioned that she’s her GOAT, and Doja Cat noticed a confidence in her that was alien to her youthful self however would turn into the usual as an grownup. Simply between these three alone, they’ve notched almost 30 High 10 hits on the Billboard charts, and are a number of the driving forces of arguably one of the impactful renaissances ever for ladies who rap. Though her legacy has issues as she’s gone from idol to rival with some who had been impressed by her work, in a copycat music business the place labels need to be as risk-averse as doable, Onika Tanya Maraj has confirmed for a decade-plus that ladies in rap are certainly a worthwhile funding.
Gucci Mane
Gucci Mane attends 4th Annual Luv Me Sum U Celebrating 2 Chainz’s Birthday on September 14, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Photograph by Prince Williams/WireImage.
If Atlanta has owned a deed to the hip-hop panorama for the final 20 years, Gucci Mane is the chief architect of the dominion it’s reigned from. The person cool sufficient to make an ice cream face tattoo gangsta constructed a throne atop greater than 75 mixtapes and 15 albums of Rooster Speak linguistics, low-toned braggadocio as candy as “Lemonade,” and sufficient icy tutorials on paper chasing to provide a whole technology the coordinates of the bag. After placing on the likes of OJ Da Juiceman and Waka Flocka Flame within the tail finish of the aughts, he would uncover Younger Thug in 2013 and mentor a younger trio often known as the Migos earlier than their Drake cosign. Then there’s Younger Dolph, Peewee Longway, Metro Boomin, Zaytoven, Southside, Pooh Shiesty, and the numerous different rappers and producers who’ve both labored with or obtained assist from Gucci.
If one takes a take a look at the soundscape of the final decade of Southern rap, it’s not exhausting to see his blueprints.
It’s no shock that he was Latto’s favourite rapper rising up, given how she embodies the rugged raunchiness of Guwop classics like “Freaky Gurl,” which she flipped for her “Muwop” collaboration with the ATL legend. His deluge of music within the face of authorized points is what made YoungBoy By no means Broke Once more “really feel like Gucci Mane in 2006” on his 2020 hit “Make No Sense.” 21 Savage’s deadpan but lethal supply of probably the most villainous lure nightmares is quintessential Gucci, a rapper 21 has mentioned he idolized a lot that he hated Younger Jeezy — Gucci’s erstwhile rival — due to it.
His return from jail in 2016, following a sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, was handled like a hip-hop vacation, and his ad-libs are a part of how folks talk with each other. Gucci Mane is an undisputed forefather of lure rap.
Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar performs onstage throughout Apple Music Tremendous Bowl LIX Halftime Present at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Photograph by Jamie Squire/Getty Pictures.
For a decade-plus, Kendrick Lamar has disproven one of many truest statements in all of hip-hop: bars don’t promote. After Lil Wayne’s prime was prematurely stunted by an eight-month jail sentence in 2010, the brand new technology on the time wasn’t promoting information with the kind of deep lyricism exhibited by forefathers like Nas, Eminem, and Jay-Z. Then, Okay. Dot adopted up his acclaimed undertaking Part.80 with the paradigm-shifting main label debut album good child, m.A.A.d. Metropolis, a sprawling and impressive storytelling rap album that shot as much as #2 on the Billboard 200 album charts. Since then, each album he’s put out has sustained the identical stage of barwork whereas additionally debuting atop the charts. Regardless of if he’s rapping concerning the ills of alcohol abuse whereas sounding like E.T. (“Swimming Swimming pools”), delivering the definitive protest anthem (“Alright”), or knocking the crown off a king’s head onto his personal (“Not Like Us”), he’s proven a technology of rappers that business success doesn’t have to come back from compromised lyrical high quality.
It will be exhausting to listen to Doechii’s success along with her supersonic move and penchant for introspective lyricism and never hear Lamar’s affect on his former TDE labelmate. We actually haven’t seen a run this lengthy and dominant from a solo L.A. rapper since prime Snoop Dogg, a person who publicly handed him the West Coast torch. Kung Fu Kenny helped the world get acclimated to a extra brutally sincere depiction of L.A. past the picture of a perpetual trip with dispensaries, sunny climate, and seashores. That is what allowed for rappers like Vince Staples and his cousin Child Keem to shine whereas telling their darkest tales.
He’s gained a Pulitzer Prize, earned a number of Emmy nods for his Tremendous Bowl LIX Apple Music halftime present, and helped a brand new technology of West Coast artists get their first Billboard placement by that includes on his GNX album in 2024. It’s secure to say Kendrick Lamar is the King of the West.
