Over the past year, Hip Hop fans have been introduced to scores of new artists primed to take over the genre. Emerging perspectives and voices have broken through rap’s hierarchy, shaking up an already tumultuous industry. But with the rise of the new comes the fall of the old. Whether their music oversaturated the ears of listeners with mind-numbing repetition, they released a slew of mediocre tunes or perhaps poor choices in their personal lives tarnished their reputations, a handful of rappers in 2020 have lost our attention.
On this list, readers will find veteran rappers in a steady career decline, youngsters who burned too brightly and too quickly and some of rap’s most notorious agitators and trolls. Some of them, we never want to hear again. Others just require some amicable space.
There’s no shortage of artist with such a deep sea of talent in the Hip Hop universe, so we’re not pressed waiting for these fallen-off rappers to get their shit together. Sometimes a break can be healthy and when it comes to these 10 artists, a break is needed.
6ix9ine
The rainbow-haired, wannabe gangster-turned-snitch, controversial rapper with a mind-boggling ability to crank out millions of streams and views has served as rap’s most hated for nearly two years now. But after his early release from jail last summer, 6ix9ine is seemingly on a personal mission to prove he’s worse than previously thought. To absolutely no one’s surprise, the “FEFE” rapper doubled down on his snitch persona and branded himself as an unlovable troll. But his greatest sin in 2020 was the album’s worth of terrible music he forced upon the world. Luckily, after TattleTales commercial flop, he’s stayed relatively invisible unless triggered by any rapper who happened to be born in Chicago. Let’s keep it that way.
Photo:Instagram/6ix9ine
Tory Lanez
Tory Lanez is good at ruining his own career. After allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion for apparently no reason, he’s embraced the hatred, refused to take responsibility for his alleged actions. In what might be the most toxic move of the entire year, he dropped the DAYSTAR album, which attempted to paint himself as the victim. But let’s get this straight — not only was releasing the project a horrible decision, it’s also terrible music. But really, we shouldn’t be too mean to the Canadian rapper — who’s currently facing felony assault charges — he’s still on the floor like Nate Robinson, recovering from Megan’s scorching diss track, “Shot’s Fired” and whining about songs getting taken off Spotify.
Photo:Lorne Thomson/Redferns
Kanye West
Even the hardiest Kanye West fans are growing tired of his agitating antics and ignorant comments. Many believed running for president was a selfish, poorly-masked attempt to support Donald Trump, who Kanye has so vigorously and controversially supported. Along with his short-lived political tenure, Ye has several active lawsuits for his failed Christmas Opera, as well as reports of mistreating his crew. No longer can his music can redeem his lurid behavior — JESUS IS KING and all its subsequent offerings are boring stabs at gospel music with very little replay value. We miss the old Kanye, the Kanye who attempted to unify, not divide. But that guy seems long gone.
Photo:ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images.
French Montana
Can you name one good French Montana song in recent years without a feature? Neither can we. Lately, the veteran Moroccan-American rapper has taken on a DJ Khaled role — except Khaled was smart enough to stop rapping on his tracks. True, Montana has hits on hits, but he’s increasingly become a less important part of his own songs and has been unable to produce a noteworthy track without a feature from an important artist. Even with an incredible list of features, Montana’s 2020 effort, CB5 made minimal impact.
Photo:Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Lil Pump
Not too many people have wanted to hear from Lil Pump in a while, but 2020 solidified the fact he might be the most annoying person on earth. Lil Pump (or Lil Pimp, as his bosom buddy Donald Trump affectionately calls him), is a petulant, attention-seeking 20-year-old infant who’s desperately clinging to any ounce of fame he still has (Lil Pump: “petulant” means childish and bad-tempered). His cringe-worthy and random support of Trump (arguably the only person who can rival Pump’s tantrums) ended in the young man not even voting in the 2020 election. Pump, go to a studio-less corner — you’re in timeout.
Photo:Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images
Blueface
At this point, Blueface is closer to a reality TV star than a rapper (and a pretty good one at that). When he’s not filming women fighting in his Los Angeles mansion, he’s dropping forgettable albums of questionable quality. 2020 brought two new full-length projects from the 23-year-old California rapper, Famous Cryp (Reloaded) and Find The Beat. The latter should have served as an instructional message to Blueface, a rapper who raps miles off every beat he’s presented. We’d be more interested in keeping up with Blueface if all his verses were as complete as the surprisingly good feature on DDG’s “Moonwalking In Calabasas (Remix)” and that would spare us all the solo effort.
Photo:Johnny Nunez/WireImage
Joyner Lucas
Our collective eyes rolled when Eminem named Joyner Lucas on his list of G.O.A.T rappers. Then we laughed at that notion upon hearing ADHD and Evolution, Lucas’s two full-length offerings of 2020. Fans deserve a medal if they managed to trudge through the nearly two hours of unfocused, redundant and sloppy music Lucas released this year. Ideas are only as good as their execution, so we need the Worcester rapper to take a year and collect his thoughts and rid his brain of the “I’m slept-on” narrative.
Photo:Paras Griffin/Getty Images
YoungBoy Never Broke Again
When YoungBoy Never Broke Again isn’t on Instagram Live making threats at anyone who looks in his general direction, the artist kinda formally known as NBA Youngboy is releasing music at a breakneck pace. He was the highest viewed rap artist on YouTube, but his songs have lost focus and purpose over 2020. Top brought forth some good tracks in “My Window” featuring Lil Wayne and “Drug Addiction,” but these tracks were overshadowed by the repetitive slew of average songs. An artist as culturally important as NBA YoungBoy requires a level of intentionality with which the Baton Rouge youngster is struggling.
Photo:Erika Goldring/Getty Images
Smokepurpp
With its only redeeming moments coming from guest performances by Denzel Curry and Rick Ross, Smokepurpp’s 2020 release Florida Jit may be the gold standard of mediocrity. We couldn’t be prouder of the Miami-based rapper’s decision to set aside the lean and pills, but selling less than 5,000 copies in the quarantined streaming era may suggest some audience disconnect on his end. We wish nothing but the best for the former SoundCloud rapper but instead of Googling fake data to bury this album’s narrative, maybe he should cool-it-out for the next year and refocus his talents — because he has plenty of it.
Photo:Getty Images for Coachella/ Scott Dudelson
Chance The Rapper
Welcome to familiar territory. Chance — this is far from your first time needing to be on this list. Mr. Chancelor Johnathan Bennett has ONE JOB: to release new, good music as a means to recover from the massive failure of The Big Day — but it’s been over a year and we are still waiting. With news breaking of Chance’s now ex-manager Pat Corcoran filing lawsuits for over $2.5 million regarding withheld pay, The Big Day continues to haunt him. The 2020 Twitter rants and ridiculously bad takes only proves Chance isn’t ready for redemption yet.
Photo:Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
Fuck off soy boy, kanye should definitely drop an album or three this year.
Kanye is a cuck like you Gplz Also your mom liked the soy form Deez nuts bitch
Kanye been irrelevant for years now, all his headlines are cuz his crazy antics.. nobody checking on that clown.. Joyner Lucas is dope tho.. I fuk with that Evolution
Joyner Lucas can rap, and rap well… he just sucks at making songs.
Joyner Lucas!!! …. The dope %fokur lil website writers then know nuffin
this list is coldass
Y’all tripping Jesus is King was fire and has at least 5 songs to listen to any day. Wash us in the blood was also very good. Not liking his antics and comments doesnt take from his music which is still better than 95% of what gets released each week.
“He refuses to take responsibility for his alleged actions…” do they ever re-read what they write?
You are joking, Lucas Joyner.stay listen to mumble rappers
Joyner lucas is fxckin dope af and chance hasnt been good since acid rap/10 day
Joyner projects were
Weak as and disappointing. I was heavily waiting on those and they were a big let down. I’m not even a big Tory fan but I thought daystar was his best album yet. I def agree if he indeed shoot Meg than he is a weirdo lame for making those songs…
Take Joyner off there, the album was wack, but the man is poet
Lmao when people had a bad album they shouldn’t make a comeback? Its always dope to see if how they come back. Looking forward to Joyner, Chance, and Kanye! Will all be dope for sure
First of all we don’t know shit about Tory/Meg really but that doesn’t even matter. Y’all said the music was wack? The music was great even if he is a punk bitch
And Joyner does need to collect his thoughts. He’s such an amazing rapper and can’t seem to put an album together to save his life cause he’s trying to hard to go commercial
Ok this is the pro meg site. SCORCHING DISS HAHAHA.. WETHER YOU LIKE TORY OR NOT THERE WAS NOTHING SCORCHING ABOUT THIS DISS.. BUT THATS WHAT YALL FOOLS ARE PAID TO DO . IS STIR UP SHIT SO IDIOTS LIKE US ALL RESPOND TO NONSENSE. SO YALL WIN. BUT NOTHING ABOUT THAT DISS WAS SCORCHING NOTHING. WHERE IS HERE DEEP TRACKS SINCE SHE IS SUCH A GOOD ARTIST ??? EXACTLY … NOBODY EXCEPT THE PEOPLE IN THAT VECHICLE TRULY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?? BUT BECAUSE SHE SAID IT HAPPENED IT HAPPENED… JUST LIKE THAT FEMALE RAPPER THAT SHOT HER BF IN THE HEAD… YALL DONT KEEP THAT SAME ENERGY … LET THIS ALL PLAY OUT AND WE WILL SEE THE OUTCOME. SO THAT IS NOT FOR US TO JUDGE WITH NOTHING PROVEN YET . BUT SHOTS FIRED IS NOT A SCORCHING DISS ..IT IS A BENZINO LEVEL WEAK ATTEMPT …SHE EVEN SAID IN THE OPENING THAT SHE MADE IT THE DAY AFTER HE SHOT HER ( IN HER WORDS ) BUT THAT ISNT OLD …BUT HIM WORKING WITH DABABY IS OLD.. THIS IS 2 WWE … I DONT CONDONE VIOLENCE OF ANY SORT SO LETS LEAVE THAT ALONE ….. BUT AGAIN SCORCHING DISS HELL NAH … .HITEM UP SECOND ROUND KO EITHER TAKEOVER NAIL IN THE COFFIN KILLSHOT RAP DEVIL BITCH IN YOO COMMON STAY SCHEMING FREESTYLE THOSE ARE A FEW … NOW WITH THAT SAID EVERY 1 HAVE A BLESSED DAY
You sound like a lame ass bitch too ?
Yoo this is bullshit
Lol yo who runs this site now. All yall do is post bullshit articles nowadays. And this article here just sounds like some hater shit. Not a good look
Warner bros or another major I think brought the site that’s why it’s tripe
This list on some bullshit
I’d like to see French If Max gets out but that’s it. Kanye could probably drop some heat. Tory ehh he’s usually pretty consistent. Rest of the list is cool with me
How come trippy red ain’t on this list
Who tf is David Aaron Brake to tell rappers not to drop music?!?
The audacity of unqualified people that think they run shit. I know hes white too lol
Youngboy shouldn’t be on this list. Everybody else can go tho. Tory still makes good music he just did some dumb shit like every other human in the world at some point in their life
Tory didnt do nun megan lied.
Yea I mean who hasn’t shot a girl in the foot from behind? Am I right?
The Big Day wasn’t a bad album at all it was pretty dope and I can’t wait for Chances next effort. Kanye going gospel was the reinvention he needed and anyone hating on that can go straight to hell. NBA YoungBoy is the most prolific artist of this generation and yes he needs to be more intentional in his efforts but to say he doesn’t need to drop for a year his super hate. Tory Lanez Most High Video was the best music video I saw in 2020 and it it’s proven he shoots women he needs to suffer the consequences but musically he is and always has been an artist to watch. If anything we want another project of him updating us on his legal status. Overall this list is biased and not to be taken seriously.
puts Kanye West on the list and has the audacity to call themselves a hiphop website
They had every right to put Kanye on this list, he’s canceled??
I love kanye (old kanye) but people who make music with lil pump definitely deserve to be on this list
This list is telling no lies. It’s raw honest
This list is telling no lies. It’s raw and honest. I can’t be mad at this.
mane delete your entire website
The only rapper i disagree with is NBA Young Boy i think hes getting back up there
I have no qualms with this list. Migos should definitely be on the list.
Bro remove Tory and ye Megan a liar
Your opinion sucks, and that’s just my opinion. Joyner’s albums were not album of the year material, but they sure as hell were worth multiple listens.
This dude prob slow dances to Drake…
JOURNALISTS THAT SHOULDN’T WRITE AN ARTICLE IN 2021:
David Aaron Brake
;D
I approve this list
Tory , blueface, Joyner, shouldn’t be on this list… Furthermore how do you take responsibility for a an ‘AllEGED’ assault?… Your words not anyone else’s
This guy is a fucking troll with a platform ?♂️
Love the writing style of this article. I think French was a good addition ngl.
Amen to this list of turds, who you happen to cover ALL the time.
ALL THE TIME
Personal opinion Joyner taken off the list. Unfair to judge his entire career on two albums. + he actually has meaning or message behind most of his bars, unlike the mumble we hear a lot of. Eminem said it for a reason, definitely a GOAT.
No.
No to you bih
This list needs to have a hundred more names ,rap music has turned into a circus ,no good song writers anymore ,no good music anymore just weirdos wearing skinny ass jeans
Putting Joyner Lucas on the list makes me question the validity of this page ? who did you actually consider a good rapper then. Let me guess Eminem right
Frfr
Of course it is eminem. Who else do u expect
Must be a white boys list
Not this white boy. Must be a soy boy list.
Who are any of us to say who shouldn’t release an album? I don’t believe in censorship of art. If it’s wack, don’t listen!
Once I got to Joyner I stopped… that just annoyed me. So, I scroll down to leave a comment and then see Chance? GTFOH
Definitely a white boy list. We need someone else to rewrite this. Thanks.
Yeah Chance got put on time out for that garbage record — but it’s about time we heard him again. Coloring Book was so damn good the boy deserves another shot. Damn I’m going play that record right now!
Lmao
The unknown, create no history writer of this piece has the guts to put down people that have a mountain of great music out there! Bro if you want the old Kanye, go on Spotify an listen to his old stuff. Its right there! If you dont like his new stuff its not made for you, there’s people who love it! Yo! Look at the names on this list.. French Montana?? Yo ! I know how hard it is to make a hit.. and its not for kids, but kids wanna sit down and talk about people they never gonna come close to. Jeez man, why do we even let people with absolutely no hits criticise music. Only those with real hits and achievements should be allowed to criticise man.
Wack ass list. Whoever wrote this is a strait hater.
Now that’s a good list! All pussy rappers! And dick suckers!
I agree with 95% of the “artists” on this list, but Joyner Lucas??!!! Come on man, that dude is one of the best new age MC’s out right now!
Corny ass site, same site that derides legends like Nas as “antivaxx” is one calling kanye west someone who “divides” nah you fucking remedial propagandist douche bags, he IS unifying and has been attempting to do so by refusing to bend over for massa like so many of your beloved celebs do and gladly and fully embrace the two party system. Clown ass site like most every major site anymore ???
I don’t know Lucas is nasty as fughh.
get the joyner out the list
…. You did not put joyner lucas on this list…… He’s the best artist out rn and u sayin he should take a YEAR off??? Gtfo
I ain’t never heard of him before your comment. I only checked him out cuz of your comment. I thought I was gonna be disappointed. I’ve been sleepin on him. Good look on putting me up on him.
Worst article EVER. my opinion.
Ok y’all wanna know how dumb this dude is? I’ma show you, joyner lucas album is called ADHD, ADHD is attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, meaning the person suffering from it has problems FOCUSING or concentrating. The whole album was a social experiment, joyner himself said it in his remix of suge with Tory Lanez, so that means the album is a reflection of said ADHD soooo with that being the whole purpose of the way thr album was made, how you gonna complain about the album ADHD being unfocused….. Stupid ?
This list is absolutely dog shit and politically biased and no consistency at all, so many shitty rappers out there and you are gonna put Joyner on here? NBA young boy? KANYE???? Fire whoever wrote this shit!
??
Lol, (ig emojis dont work ^^^)
I agree on most of them, but you’re trippin’ about Youngboy and Joyner Lucas…
“When YoungBoy Never Broke Again isn’t on Instagram Live making threats at anyone who looks in his general direction…” …he’s impregnating bitches.
Ye, Joyner, and Chance should be taken off this list. Your reasoning was honestly terrible….
Yeah y’all tried it with Joyner Lucas…are you serious???…he’s so under rated and is DEF a bomb ass rapper!!!
Bruh this post is so sad it’s not even funny…. while some of your picks were ok…. your explanations were straight ass and politicaly motivated…. very disappointed…. was expecting a much better article
Yea this article was trash. Write ups like this are part of the reason why music is how it is today. I cant stand the need for instant gratification. Ye, Chance and Youngboy shouldn’t be on this list. Blueface either. Those artists have such core fans they could make spits sounds for an hour straight and their fans will love it. Simply because they support them.
This list is complete trash. This why I stopped following y’all in the first place.
OK after seeing Joyner Lucas on this list I’m officially done with this stupid website. You have no cred whatsoever in the hip hop world in my opinion
Didn’t age well with the Kanye one, did it?
Thank you for not bringing up 6ix9ine even though people hate him to me his amazing and I love his music
Bro I was baffled Joyner was in this lost, not even in the same league as the others listed