DO THE CHARTS DETERMINE WETHER OR NOT HIP HOP IS DYING?

The other day I heard a pretty wild take online. Someone on twitter was claiming that since all year this year there hasn’t been a single album or song in hip hop that’s reached the top spot on the top 200 chart, then that suddenly means that hip hop is on a decline. And like…no? That’s definitely not what that means, and this idea in specific is one that I’ve seen pushed around in various ways lately and, it’s kind of annoying in all honesty. Rap music, just like every other genre, is first and foremost, art, and yes, art often brings in money and makes for great competition, but at what point are we ignoring the humanity in the raps, in exchange of a “hit”. Don’t get me wrong, recognition is great, popularity is amazing, but we really gotta stop putting such importance in numbers so often. Oh and we gotta stop pushing negative headlines like that too by the way, because if enough people start believing that rap is dead, it’s going to die for real, and that’s when we’ll actually start feeling worried.