It's May 21, 2024, 07:28:12 AM
Nas drops the second best album of his career, with help from Premier and Jay-Z. It gets labelled a classic even before it's dropped.Common... Doesn't do shit. Things get silent around him for a while.Redman makes a half-ass comeback with Red Gone Wild. Yes, the album is better than Malpractice. No, it doesn't come anywhere near what he used to be like.Busta Rhymes goes platinum with his Big Bang, which gets released in April 2006. Just platinum with a small buzz. No amazing hype or anything.Big Daddy Kane dies and suddenly gets labelled the GOAT. I already think he is one of the GOAT.Detox drops in november 2006 and everyone is amazed by how good it ended up being. Dre won't start creating a hype until 4 weeks before the actual release date, when all of a sudden we hear "Detox will be out in 4 weeks". It ends up being the most bootlegged album of all time.Xzibit drops a new album out of nowhere. It's actually a masterpiece. However, most people will still sleep on it.The Game drops his new album in August. He changes the title and there's less Dre influences on it. The album as a whole has less of a mainstream sound to it and he actually puts some of his friends on. Game makes an attempt to really resurrect the westcoast with this. None of that G-Unit pop sound. Game actually has something to say here; he addresses some real issues. We will like the album, however, it will sell less than The Documentary.Snoop Dogg drops his blue carpet treatment. We were all expecting something like the resurrection of Snoop the way he was. What we get is R&G part 2.Another Wu-Tang member dies.Raekwon's Cuban Linx 2 album drops and it gets shown mad love. That's the Raekwon we've been anticipating for years!Underground hiphop as a whole is on a rise. Even "Detox is coming" aka Meho aka str8westcoast will agree. MF Doom records some amazing collabo's with the Wu.Commercial hiphop still only concerns drugs and bitches.Reggaeton was only temporary, like crunk and cnb. Yes, we will see a new trend in hiphop evolving throughout 2006.However, when Detox drops, things will all get different, production-wise.
I actually think that 2006 is probably going to be the year that hip-hop starts losing a significant part of its mainstream dominance. Or at least, hip-hop of the thug/gangsta style will. We've already seen a lot of major label thugs flop this year (Tony Yayo, Slim Thug, Chamillionaire, Boyz N Da Hood, etc.), plus we've seen Common hit #2 on the pop charts and Kanye essentially replacing 50 as hip-hop's biggest star. I've got a feeling that the white kids may finally be getting tired of all the thug shit, plus it seems pretty clear that reggaeton and power pop (as well as anything done with "indie" sensibilities) are steadily rising. This may be a good thing because we'll finally see hip-hop stabilize and balance out the ratio of thugs to poets.
What hip hop needs is consistant production on albums. That is the reason people love Kanye. That's the reason people anticipate Detox. Noone is waiting for 16 different producers on an 18 track album.
REggeaton is gonna take over