With the Pittsburgh Steelers making it to the Super Bowl in 2011, the Stargate-produced hit became the team’s unofficial anthem and spawned other remixes in the same vein. Wiz Khalifa -"Black and Yellow" (2010)Īfter making his name in the mixtape circuit with classic projects Kush & Orange Juice and Flight School, Wiz Khalifa ’s mainstream breakthrough came in the form of 2010’s "Black and Yellow." The hit song bolstered the Pittsburgh rapper’s profile in time for his debut studio album, Rolling Papers, and put his hometown and Taylor Gang crew on the hip-hop map. And Nicki Minaj fans still reference the star’s verse on "Monster," which saw the Jamaica Queens native rise above rap titans Jay-Z and Rick Ross on the smash-mouth track. The album also set the stage for one of the best collaborations of the year, with West, Rihanna and Kid Cudi merging their creative powers to create the wondrously rhythmic, GRAMMY-winning hit, "All of The Lights. From "Dark Fantasy" to "So Appalled" and "Gorgeous," West was at the peak of his lyrical powers, with the rapper-producer exchanging sharp-tongued lyrics with wordsmiths like Pusha T, CyHi The Prynce and Raekwon. It was a career turn that’s more familiar to rap fans in recent years, but the Chicago rapper snapped back with a glossy, epic-level album that was a culmination of his best work to that point - or maybe ever. Just a year removed from interrupting Taylor Swift on stage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West, now known as Ye, produced arguably the best rap album of the decade, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Ye - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) Read on for 10 of the most consequential releases of the 2010s. Cole and Kendrick Lamar – who carved their legacies with chart-topping hits and groundbreaking albums throughout the 2010s. Their contributions, as well as those from Future, Big Sean, Travis Scott, and Chance the Rapper, set the stage for the decade. The period also saw the emergence of hip-hop’s three horsemen – Drake, J. Legacy acts like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj continued their reign as rap heavyweights, with record sales and award wins showcasing their influence. That’s why artists like Asap Rocky adopted elements of Houston’s chopped-and-screwed sound in his early discography, despite his Harlem origins. The era also marked a sonic turn in the industry, which saw artists merge their styles with those of other regions. The emergence of SoundCloud elevated lesser-known talents including Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, the late Juice Wrld to superstardom at a rapid pace. Canada-born stars PartyNextDoor, The Weeknd and Drake took over rap the same way the Brits took over rock music in the 1960s, and it was made possible by the boundless nature (and unprecedented sonic access) of today’s rap fan. With the expansion of hip-hop’s mediasphere, artists that would’ve been confined by their locale crossed the invisible barriers of rap music to establish themselves as mainstream success. Legendary acts and fresh-faced stars pushed rap’s cultural and musical bounds, opening a pathway for a new class of artists to emerge, and for overlooked regions to gain their deserved recognition. Few genres have evolved as remarkably as hip-hop over the past five decades, and the eerily recent, yet, distant 2010s saw the genre at its most progressive.
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