Akademiks believes that the rap industry's fixation with high streaming numbers has given way to the internet streamer boom.
During a recent stream, the podcaster and hip-hop personality explained why he thinks "rappers are competing with streamers." Among today's most popular streamers are Kai Cenat, Adin Ross and N3on, to name a few, all of whom have featured rap artists on their platforms.
"Rappers made a huge mistake in the last two years," Akademiks said in the clip below. "When they were chasing numbers, they all went to streamers. You've got to understand, the rapper collab with the streamers is what got these guys to record levels of clout."
Akademiks then referenced Tory Lanez popping up on a 2021 livestream with Adin Ross, two years before he was sentenced to a decade in prison.
"These streamers on their way to whatever clout level they get to, they collaborate with rappers, but overall the end result is that it helped the streamers more than they help the rappers," Ak continued.
With young audiences now gravitating towards streamers over rappers with three-minute songs that can be "hit-or-miss," Ak believes that hip-hop artists have "handed their audience over to discover these streamers."
"I do believe that streamers have done a great job to extract attention of potential fans away from the rappers," he continued. "Now to the fact that the rapper have to show up to the streamers' bedroom to try to get the attention back, expect, fans are making a hard choice."
"We're buying into personality over this coolness factor and music that is hit-or-miss," he concluded.
Some rap artists have already developed interest in entering the streaming circuit, like Drake, who occasionally streams on Kick, and Polo G, who's repeatedly spoken about wanting to monetize through live content.
