21 Savage, Nas, & The Question of Relevance
Also, how 2022's breakout rap star GloRilla fits into the conversation.
I’ve been thinking about the question of relevance in rap ever since 21 Savage caught some flak for questioning Nas’ relevance a couple of weeks ago.
It all started when 21 was on a Clubhouse (Clubhouse is still relevant??) titled “Is Nas the Greatest Rapper or What?” The title underscored how it was obviously shaped by the reaction to Nas’ well-received string of albums, including the recent King’s Disease III (It’s pretty good! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).
“What y’all saying relevant, though?” asked 21. “I don’t feel like he’s relevant. I just feel like he got fans…He’s not relevant. He just has a loyal-ass fan base and he still make good-ass music.”
A clip of the exchange made its way to Twitter, where Nas fans went savage mode on 21. Fans claimed Nas’ recent output is better than 21’s entire discography while Nas’ brother Jungle called 21 “trash,” Fivio Foreign chimed in saying Nas had done “too much...to be disrespected like that,” and King’s Disease producer Hit-Boy lamented that only in hip-hop do up-and-comers trash legends.
Even though 21 literally said Nas still makes “good ass music,” he eventually had to cop a plea and tweet he would never disrespect any legend.
It was another chapter in the never ending cycle of a famous person making an offhand comment, fans getting way too upset on social media, and famous person backtracking to almost no avail. All of the top responses to 21’s tweet are people calling him out, including Congressman Jamaal Bowman scolding him.
There were a few things from the ordeal that I found unintentionally revealing.
During the Clubhouse chat (which I’ll admit, I didn’t listen to all of because it’s a hot mess) when 21 made his comments, the conversation shifted into “what is relevance to ya’ll?” This is fault line of many rap debates: We love to use terms that don’t have well drawn parameters. In 21’s definition, from what I gather, relevance means being popular in places like clubs, radio, and on social media. He’s not totally wrong, that’s a fine marker of relevance because club music and social media are especially important to young people, the most vital portion of the rap audience.
Then again, those metrics leave out a ton of other ways an artist can be popular. That’s probably why others may measure relevance by record sales or awards. In fact, the most popular response to 21’s tweet does just that, noting Nas’ lasting commercial prowess and recent Grammy. Either way, relevance shouldn’t be determined by whether or not a person makes good music, not just because that’s subjective but because let’s face it, good music gets ignored all the time and bad music made by super popular artists is often still relevant (until it’s not).
For me, relevance is a mix of all these things but it also speaks to status. Status is what being the Best Rapper Alive is all about, it’s a fleeting feeling, an ephemeral enigma. When 21 teamed up with Drake for Her Loss, it changed his status ever so slightly. 21 has routinely been in the rap conversation for the past few years, and he’s certainly one of the best trap rappers of his era, but Her Loss was the first (and perhaps only) time he’ll sell over 400K his first week. It’s a huge notch on his still growing resume, it puts him in the upper echelon of rappers in 2022 (even if he owes much of it to Drake).
Meanwhile, the King’s Disease albums didn’t change Nas’ status in a significant way. What was Nas the day before KD dropped? A rap legend, a Queens bred MC who took lyricism to new heights, the guy who made Illmatic and It Was Written. What is Nas now that he dropped four quality albums in a row, won a Grammy, and put up some strong sales numbers for a late career artist? Umm..a rap legend who took lyricism to new heights when he made Illmatic and finally won a Grammy when he was past his prime.
All of the people who are ready to call Nas the GOAT because of KD3 were probably willing to call him that before KD3. 21 seemingly noted this himself, alluding to how Nas’ music has to be sought out by fans but he does have a sizable fanbase he’s built up over several decades. Nas’ late career success adds to the argument that there is a graceful way for rappers to age, and I suppose he’s somewhat of a pioneer in that regard. But the truth is, as rap enters its 50th anniversary next year, it’s almost inevitable some artists would gonna figure out how to grow with the culture and, and if it’s not going to be Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap (someone in the Clubhouse can be heard lamenting their projects that were “ass”) why wouldn’t someone who was already a great?
During the Clubhouse, someone else noted that the kids weren’t checking for Nas, they were checking for GloRilla—which they’re probably right about because I just can’t imagine a rap fan under 30 really caring all that much about a Nas album in 2022.
The Memphis rapper is a perfect example of what I mean by status. Last year, GloRilla was largely unknown outside of Memphis rap circles and completely irrelevant to the larger rap audience. Six months ago, as “FNF” took off, she was either a budding star or a buzzing soon to be one-hit wonder—it was anyone’s guess. Once she signed to CMG and “Tomorrow 2” became a Top 10, she proved she wasn’t a fluke (though Cardi B gave her a huge assist) and made a stronger case for having a bright future.
GloRilla’s Anyway Life’s Great EP (which I enjoyed, ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2) showcases she’s got enough charisma and skill that we’ll still be checking for her next year. Does that mean she’ll become a superstar or will we forget about her faster than the ill-fated Nasir EP? I’d bet on the former, but what do I know about knowing stuff. Coincidentally, Anyway Life’s Great dropped the same day as King’s Disease 3 so Nas and GloRilla found themselves in an unexpected sales battle. Nas narrowly won by a 1K units after KD3 sold 30K to GloRilla’s 29K.
So does that mean Nas is actually more relevant than GloRilla? I’d argue it’s quite the opposite. Nas’ GOAT status is set in stone, it’s all gravy for here on out. GloRilla’s status has fluctuated every step of the way. The cement on her future isn’t dry, she’s got room to win us over or disappoint us all. But hey, relevance requires a bit of latency.