Is Social Media effecting hip hop in a negative way?

Despite all of the money being accumulated through streaming within the past decade  It still seems that the entertainment business as a whole is still struggling to adapt to the weekly changes.  Gone are the days of where you had to hand a demo to a record executive or a rapper to get signed, Gone are the days where you literally had to travel all across the globe The internet emergence with YouTube changed the landscape forever. You can become a star within a viral moment.

The young generation have took advantage of the new digital era because they were raised by the internet. So they know how to become tech savvy. However those whom were born through previous generations(especially these music execs) they are having trouble in the very unpredictable market. Artists like Lupe Fiasco has almost 500k followers on Instagram but yet his critically acclaimed albums Wave’s only sold 5k its first week. Ghostface Killah was one of the first artist to complain about how fanfare not matching sales when he went off on his Myspace fans many years back:

Another issue that I have with the social media impact is that its stripping away the creativity behind these artists. Judging by how Tekashi 69 and Soulja Boy figured out the game, They figured out how to get million dollar press off of “fuckery” and less off music. The industry sees this and force these artists to follow suit thinking its gonna generate revenue and clout. Add this along with streaming, It actually cheapens the culture. In hip hop today, You have actual tracks are being replaced by Instagram posts, Diss Records aren’t no longer surfacing but instead through long twitter rants and Instagram posts.

I also did a video about this so definitely check it out and feel free to comment!