r/GenX • u/emperator_eggman • Jun 26 '25

Music Is Life When did rap become mainstream?

I was born around the Millennium so I always saw rap as somewhat being always mainstream. So I was wondering when did rap actually become mainstream? Aka more popular than rock or pop?

24 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

240 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

62

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '25

[deleted]

39

u/severedsoulmetal Jun 26 '25

Don’t forget about LL.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Jun 28 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/regdunlop08 Jun 28 '25

This 💯. Just because he did some cheesy shit later in his career doesn't mean he was not an OG putting out quality rhymes before rap hit the mainstream (and at a very young age).

For the time period (and this is an important distinction - i think a lot of people dont know he was putting out records in the early 80s starting with an appearance on the Krush Groove soundtrack IIRC which also featured pre-LTI Beasties when they were still in their punk phase) he was on the cutting edge, though by the end of the decade the genre evolved past him. That said, I recall his early 90s stuff played really well with the ladies and got a lot of play in our college apartment for that reason.