That is, you know who they are and are often in the news, but you really can't name many of their songs.

I am told Kid Cudi is super creative, very influential, a muse to Kanye, but I really only know his song Day N' Nite.

I see Asap Rocky's name all the time, know he pulled the Baddest, and has some features on some cool records, but I can't really name an ASAP Rocky song.

Who else?


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Lol

name just throws me off..

never heard him rap before or sing, or whatever he does..

and I’m baffled why he’s got a Nike shoe.

>and I’m baffled why he’s got a Nike shoe.

I don't even think I know what he looks like


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I'm old and out of touch though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F93FdbWZiQ

and this joint with Musiq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BqbvyRKHW4

made me check out his stuff and I became a fan


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i'm like, "who likes this music?"

he's moreso famous for being a "cool kid" and kanye collaborator than his own music i guess.

Blu, Wale, Wiz, etc.

which is a legit classic album IMO.

But yeah, I see what you mean about that era.

I know none of her songs.

in the 2019 XXL class, same here.

I think the header conveys a different criteria than than the explanation in the body. Not a knock, just an observation.

I think a good candidate that fits the header, is someone like Joe Budden. His discography, a fair amount of which I enjoy, doesn't quite explain his overall stature. His overall name recognition owes far more to his podcast, dating life, various beefs, and the things he says off wax, than his discography.

I don't think the body of the post, nor the responses, fit the header criteria, and is much more what the body describes: artists I know of, but don't really know, or just don't quite get.

For me, the most notable name I can think of is Drake.

I can name... Forever, Duppy, Hotline Bling, and.... that's about it. There's She Will, but that's a Lil Wayne joint. I struggle to name Drake songs after that. I just never conencted with him or 40's production, which often sounds like I'm listening while wearing earmuffs, while sitting in a submarine, which is somehow both underwater, and outside the club where the song is playing.

Thing is, that's no a knock on either of them. It's just a generational divide. I'm still stuck on in the 90's and early 00's.

and lol at the Joe Budden...spot on... the ONLY Joe Budden song I've probably actively every listened to by choice is Special Delivery.. I thought dude had been fell off and then he started surfacing at some point in the mid-aughts. I don't think I realized until the past year or two that he'd become some sort of reality TV personality.

Pump it Up is Joe budden

so i've basically never actively even listened to a Joe Budden song...

I did intend the former. "Artists I Am Unfamiliar With" isn't really that interesting because their are tons of great artists that we are all unfamiliar with. The idea was artists whose name recognition far surpasses their discography.

Joe Buddens, Travis Scott are good additional names.

SOmeone said Lil Baby but I think that's someone we old heads just aren't familiar with. I ended up at a Lil Baby concert and it was sold out and their was a whole arena singing along to every song. Made me feel Old AF.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

you should probably check for them.
Might not be chart toppers...but they both have robust catalogs of quality material.

James Blake jawn with the Aaliyah sample
Bon Iver - into the woods
Literally couldn’t name another song by either.

If you haven't really listened to her, you should start there.

but LDR has a solid 6-7 tracks that I fuck with HEAVILY.

I hear folks comparing his influence to Tupac? nah, if most people don't know who you are until you die you're not an icon.

I had heard of him, I had seen him in Meek Mill's video, I knew he was married to Lauren London. I'm sure I had heard some of his stuff but I couldn't name one song or album off the top off my head at the time of his death.

didn't know before they died but learned they had a super passionate following and bangers and great albums after they died.

The music world is huge, and YOU don't have to know them in order for them to be icons.



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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

the point of this post is artists whose music feels niche but their names ring off in the public.

i think both Nipsey and Mac fit that bill.

neither of them have huge discogs, or the widespread commercial success that would typically put their names in the minds and mouths of the general public, yet they are quite well known.

in the We Are The World video back in late 2000's and early 2010's.

for all intents and purposes, he's only got 2 albums. He's definitely never had a "hit" radio song

but he's collaborated with Hov, Kanye, Beyonce, Tyler...

he has probably the 2 most consensus well-received albums of the last 10 years...

and he may just be the most influential pop musician living today (you obviously can't measure influence, but I'm just going off how everyone else borrows from him)

Frank's one-of-one. He's kind of the mascot for all things cool in the eyes of millenials and Gen-Zers. But he's also, oddly, not mainstream in the conventional sense.

at least knows what his voice sounds like and remembers his big features from 10 years ago, plus his performance on SNL and when he came out.

I'm with everyone else who doesn't know one note of an A$AP Rocky song. Not even sure what his rapping voice sounds like. I do remember him from the movie Dope, but that's it.

why would that be a moment?

of that album. Then he appeared on SNL a week or two later. There was alot of fanfare around the whole situation.

I just looked it up, two weeks ago made 10 years.

>for all intents and purposes, he's only got 2 albums. He's
>definitely never had a "hit" radio song

2? He's got 4 and if we want to be picky about Endless 3

>
>but he's collaborated with Hov, Kanye, Beyonce, Tyler...
>
>he has probably the 2 most consensus well-received albums of
>the last 10 years...

>
>and he may just be the most influential pop musician living
>today (you obviously can't measure influence, but I'm just
>going off how everyone else borrows from him)

He was a paradigm shift in how R&B was even created. Both The Weeknd and Frank Ocean dropping within a month of each other reformatted the entire R&B landscape.

Until then R&B's difficulty was how expensive it was. It had become a bi-product of the Major label system and NEEDED the big budgets to survive.

In 2 mixtapes the entire game changed. It reframed how an R&B artist could scale and made it extremely cheap (indie rapper cheap) to do so.

>
>Frank's one-of-one. He's kind of the mascot for all things
>cool in the eyes of millenials and Gen-Zers. But he's also,
>oddly, not mainstream in the conventional sense.

Looking back, Odd Future might be as strong a cultural force in rap & r&b as Bad Boy in the 90s

Lil Wayne
Future
Travis Scott
Asap Rocky
Da Baby
Lil Baby
Migos
Favio Foreign
J Cole
Griselda
Nipsey Hussle
Pop Smoke
Mac Miller
etc.

Wayne has one of the most extensive rap catalogs out there.

Griselda puts out like an album a week.

And Ill let the J Cole fans have a word with you.


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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

.

Migos - Trap Queen

Aside from his death, catching a DV case and having a glorified XBox Live name, I didn't actually pay him much mind.

I have no idea how she became so famous, nor could i name a single song of hers. Shes a "musician" but shes known for everything but music i guess.

I can't name one song she's sung. I don't even know how her voice sounds.

I just realized i have zero clue what singing voice is hers if someone played it for me. I always assumed she sounded like Rihanna or something.

There are certainly artists who scaled during the mid-aughts early 2010s in the UK that we know because of instagram but had hits in their country

She never transitioned to being a hit, music wise, in America. Id say most Americans still have no clue she had any hits in the UK or Ireland.

I know far too many women who went to see him perform at a bigger venue (by my city's standards) to make any sense of it. Like... I can see him having fans, but... not that many damn fans.

"Prisonhouse rules in effect..."

Some of these are wild. Rocky is just not prolific and often raps like he's freestyling at a BBQ. But At Long Last ASAP is great.

Ray J is a better example. He has One wish and the banger Wait a Minute.

I don’t really disagree with the rest.

But LLA was a thing of beauty for me, and gave me faith in a newer generation of artists

Modern artists... I just don't listen to that type of music so I won't be exposed to any of their songs.

Magic is dope and I loved Norf Norf. But that's all I got.

Dude is a talented and funny dude though.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"