“How Gossip is Remaking Online Hip-Hop Media”

“Actual music can seem like an afterthought as digital coverage of the genre has tilted toward tabloidsm. Are there other paths forward?”

Original content posted by Popcast for New York Times for on 18 May 20222

In the latest iteration of online hip-hop media, actual music can often seem like an afterthought. The current wave is full of gossip-focused websites, Instagram accounts and podcasts that have lent the online conversation about rap stars (and even more often, those who are proximate to them) the air of tabloidism.

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This phenomenon isn’t solely happening in hip-hop media — it’s true across music media, and in other fields as well — but the scale and rate of growth of these platforms might be unmatched in this space. The changes have been rapid, the product of an ever thirstier internet and a genre that is broader and more successful than ever and has more eyeballs on it than before, too.

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