Cries of hip hop being “dead” have been around for over ten years, but they’ve never rang more true than in 2026.
Last year, hip hop, for the first time since 1990, had failed to crack the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. That’s not the death-knell some claimed, but it marked a significant shift away from hip hop as the most dominant type of popular music.
As IQ goes down, pop’s popularity goes up. And there’s an unseasonably strong presence from country lately. Hip hop isn’t dead, but it’s been substantially weakened.
Oversaturation was the first to be blamed. Then it was reduced label investment, a lack of new talent, and all sorts of other factors. Truth is, hip hop’s atrophy is due to several things, most of all how the sound has evolved in the past few years. We’ve reached late-stage autotune, where just about every “rapper” now sounds the same, going deeper and deeper into mumble-rap territory, both as a form of rebellion and out of pure naivety.
In trying to appease Tik Tok’s insidious algorithms, hip hop has officially jumped the shark.
And so I’m not surprised when I look around a wall-to-wall Enmore Theatre and see people of all ages turning out to witness the one and only De La Soul.
It’s been forever since the legendary hip hop group toured Australia, but Astral People managed to bring the crew out (minus the late David Jolicoeur) to promote their new album, Cabin in the Sky.
And boy, did they come out swinging. The night offered plenty of value for fans of raw, authentic hip hop. Melbourne’s Miss Kaninna proved why she is one of Australia’s most exciting new voices, and rapper-producer Oddisee, backed by band Good Compny, fit perfectly into the pocket of the night with his jazz-infused hip hop playing like an homage to Jazzmatazz series.
Posdnuous, AKA Plug 1, wasted very little time in his sage green jumpsuit, coming straight out the gate with “The Return of DST” and not letting up until the set closed with “The Magic Number”. It’s been awhile since Sydney has seen that kind of non-stop, stream-of-consciousness rap, where it’s nothing but two emcees on stage completely dominating the mic.
Despite Pos and Maseo pushing sixty, the energy they brought when darting around the stage would easily trump many young rappers. “Stakes is High” was given appropriate heft, “Oooh” helped steady the rhythm of the night, and “My Myself and I” filled the room with nostalgia. Glued together with playful delivery, De La Soul reminded people that hip hop is still very much on the agenda, and its legacy lives on regardless of how much fuel is in the tank.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
