The first few months of the new year have been hard on Roddy Ricch from a reception standpoint. His recently released Live Life Fast album didn’t exactly live up to the hype that his prior works created. While the project was a bit lackluster in comparison, commonly known as the sophomore slump, the current climate of social media took the criticism to new heights. Roddy attempted to remedy this by posting snippets of new music, but once the machine starts churning, it’s hard to control.
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With many people more interested in gaining notoriety and getting jokes off, rather than understanding the growth period that comes with artistry, people started going out of their way to call every recent effort from Roddy Ricch “mid, “garbage,” or an “L.” The slander was swarm-like in nature, with any and everyone looking to get in on the joke. The sheer volume of responses prompted Roddy Ricch to delete his Twitter.
DJ Akademiks, viral social media reporter, came to his defense in a string of tweets which spoke on the reasons why Roddy’s reception has been so shaky. He cited audience’s need for instant gratification as the pitfall, moreso than Roddy Ricch making “mid” music. He also offered some tough advice instead of coddling him, telling him that he needs to clear up all the slander through his work:
“Yall aint gonna do my boy Roddy Ricch like yall did Chance the Rapper.. yall know he aint mid.. he just took too long to drop… if he dropped more frequently the good shit would rise to the top.. but anticipation followed by a ‘cool’ effort made us feel like WTF did we wait 4.”
The same thing happened to Chance The Rapper, who’s music prior to his The Big Day album was greatly appreciated. His talent never dwindled, but after a very subpar release, social media decided that one project was enough to determine that he was no longer skilled at what he does.
Do you think listeners will gain more awareness of how artists operate and grow? Or will we continue to see artists fall prey to the social media era? Sound off in the comment section below.