In the world of Rap/Hip Hop the historic 2026 Grammy awards are showing us once again, the genre is relying heavily on older artists and creatives to carry it. The 68th Annual Grammy Awards were held on Feb. 1st, in Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and the popular genres were represented by potent male figures.
Clipse
The “Godfathers of rap” and Virginia natives, Clipse, the joint group of brothers of Malice and Pusha T, came back to drop a long awaited album produced by Pharrell Williams called “Let God Sort Em Out.” The album gave them six Grammy nominations, winning one for Best Rap Performance for “Chains and Whips” featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Tyler the Creator
After being named Apple Music’s 2025 Artist of the Year, Tyler Okonma, best known for his stage name Tyler the Creator, had a great night as well. He received six grammy nominations for two different albums, “Chromakopia” and “Don’t Tap The Glass.” He won one Grammy for Best Album Cover.
Kendrick Lamar
The historical night was made by Kendrick Lamar. Following the 2025 Grammy Awards where he took home five, he was nominated for nine in 2026, the highest number out of any artist in attendance. Lamar took home another five Grammys during the night, making him the first artist to win that amount in consecutive Grammy Awards since Stevie Wonder. His work served as a clean sweep by winning every rap category and breaking the record for most Grammy’s held by a rapper, with 26.
“I’m not good at talking about myself but I express [it] through the music, it’s an honor to be here with Tyler, the Clipse…these are my brothers to be in this category,” Lamar said after receiving his award for rap album of the year. “Every time I tell you this, Hip Hop is going to always be right here.”
The rap/hip hop gap
Contrary to Lamar’s belief, I don’t believe rap/hip hop will stay right here, based on its trajectory. Lamar and the rest of the artists he mentioned range from 34-53 years old, starting their careers in the 2000s and 2010s. Where dominance could be seen, I see stagnancy and a lack of progress.
According to Spotify, in 2023, nearly a quarter of all their streams globally are Hip-Hop music and more than 400 million users are streaming it, with RapCaviar ranking the second most-followed playlist on the app. For the past three years, almost half of the top 50 most streamed artists globally have been hip-hop and rap artists.
Contributions to the gap
In the last 10 years there have been numerous deaths of well known rappers: Takeoff (2022), Pop Smoke (2020), King Von (2020), Nipsey Hussle (2019), Juice Wrld (2019), Mac Miller (2018).
These deaths were either from shootings or drug overdoses, with many of them talking about those subject matters within their music. That’s not to say any rapper/hip hop artist who talks about those subjects aren’t accomplished and awarded, with Hussle having two Grammys post his high profile death. However, in many cases their added articulation on substantive and artistic views aren’t present.
Artists are celebrated for authenticity when it mirrors trauma. Recycling narratives of pain, survival and destruction usually aimed at the communities they’re from. These stories are real, but they’re dominant and only subjects to play over the digital sound waves for listeners.
Juice Wrld has an album called “Fighting Demons,” and an album called “Future & Juice WRLD Present… WRLD ON DRUGS,” collaborated with well known artist, Future. Their album cover consists of an image of a cup of purple liquid poured onto a circular object, resembling the planet Earth, with many different shapes of colored pills and flowers around it.
“Picked up the drugs, so I’ll let my brain go,” Wrld said on their song “Fine China,” the highest streamed on the album. “Would’ve fried yours too, but I’m selfish about my Percs.”
Great Things Come with Time Invested
According to Spotify user statistics, hip hop continues to dominate music consumption, accounting for 30.7% of all Spotify streams as of 2025, leading all genres.
This influence should demand intentional care and responsibility for the genre. Not just as a means to entertain and grow personal brands, but an integrity to build a cultural art form that ensures reflective storytelling.
50-year-old rapper and Atlanta native, Killer Mike, said it the best in his remarks on behalf of his album “Michael,” that was released in 2023. An album that he states is an “auto-biography” and “story of a boy in Atlanta.” The 66th Grammy awards in 2024 saw Mike win three Grammys: Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for “Scientists & Engineers,” featuring Future, Andre 3000 and Eryn Allen Kane.
“I thank everyone who dares to believe art can change the world, everyone in this room it is our responsibility to keep using our imagination to shape and inform the world,” Mike said as he received his award for Best Rap Performance. “For all the people out there that think you get too old to rap … BULLSHIT, make sure we keep hip-hop alive, there’s no gift as precious as the one they put inside you.”
Imagination is something that makes the genre original, opposed to being used for exploitation for short-term gain. Not just relevance, but care and responsibility are the underlying elements that allow it to grow across generations.
With the reliance of older artists, it begs the question: Who in the younger generation is going to usher the genre into a new era of top artists?
