And just like that, 2020 is about to be outta here. Hopefully, a few annoying—and, sometimes, even problematic—hip-hop trends are, too. As much as we love hip-hop, the albums rappers have dropped this year and the producers who crafted the beats, some things just got to go.
Faced with a historic global pandemic, plenty of troublesome rap trends have been given new room to breathe, and as a result of boredom, some have even been reinvented. For instance, rappers usually jump onto Instagram Live and interact with their fans, but with the lack of activities like touring and traveling to get involved in, fans have been more willing to do wild things for clout—or money—while talking to their favorite rapper.
In other pandemic-related occurrences this year, some artists have made a habit of saying the world is done with the coronavirus—or that it doesn't exist at all—and things can return to business as usual. With the rates of the virus spreading, that much is clearly not true.
Besides suped-up clout-chasing, which seems to pop up more times than not, most hip-hop trends present this year have been around to varying extents in the past, but because everything is cyclical, some have become more pronounced. Even after rappers faced disastrous results because of it, trolling has been as alive as ever this year. So have things like social media beef.
Whether it's outdated jokes, bad-faith trolling or excess in all the wrong ways, there are more than a few pesky trends the rap world would be better off without. Here's to hoping.
Today, XXL takes a look at hip-hop trends that need to end in 2020. Check out the breakdown for yourself below.
See the Hip-Hop Trends We Want to End in 2020