It Was All Good: 10 Artists That Were Buzzing Last Year, Not So Much Now

The Hip-Hop generation in 2012 is as gluttonous as any genre in music. Today’s successful MC is one who can stay relevant in all facets including great music, social media awareness, touring, and so on. However, the downside about that is one day you can be on top of the world and the next day we can all ask ourselves, “what happened to that boy?” Don’t think so? Check out ten artists who were literally on the thoughts of every rap fan at one point last year and now, through not much fault of their own, ended up on a milk carton. Hit up the slides to start the story.
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YC

Remember YC? The guy who had one of the most infectious songs of the year with “Racks?” The Decatur, Georgia native brought the term “racks” to the vernacular of mainstream hip-hop fans to mean more than just a women who was anatomically blessed. This one song shot him to the moon and fell back down just as quickly, probably due to lyrics that absolutely nobody could understand. Future seems to be doing well, though.

YG

He is still putting out music, and is getting ready to drop a mixtape with DJ Mustard, but YG’s smash “Toot It And Boot It,” had him riding high in 2011. The bass heavy west coast inspired anthem was a simple record that just asked women a very simple request.

Kreayshawn

Kreayshawn was a true case study of the rise of a hip-hop star in the social media generation. The “Gucci, Gucci” rapper shot to over 1,000,000 YouTube views in less than a week, reportedly signed a million dollar record deal, was on the cover of numerous magazines, nominated for a Best New Artist VMA, and was dubbed the next big thing. Then nothing happened. Well, we will always have one big room full of bad b****es.

Cyhi Da Prynce

Not really sure how to explain how this happened. CyHi Da Prynce is, by all accounts, an extremely skilled rapper. He has been signed to Akon’s Konvict Music and Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, as well as a scene stealing verse alongside ‘Ye, Jay-Z, and Pusha T. on “So Appalled.” However sometime in between that and his Royal Flush mixtapes, nothing really accumulated. While the G.O.O.D. Music album is still on the way and his Def Jam debut is still in the works, CyHi might pop back up in the conversation again. Until then, who knows?

Lil’ B.

Based God never really went anywhere. In fact, by the time you see this post he might have released three more mixtapes and four more music videos. This time last year, Lil’ B might have really been one hit away. He was on a nonstop touring grind, made numerous MTV appearances, and an unforgettable verse on Lil’ Wayne’s Sorry 4 The Wait mixtape. When he announced he was going to name his album I’m Gay, that was controversial enough; but when he tweeted a free hulkshare link to download the album the day after it dropped on iTunes it was noble, yet silly. That’s not how this thing works, Based God. He may never live up to his cult like potential, but we will always have the cooking dance. Swag!

Dirty Money

Remember last year when this was an actual thing? Diddy got back into the lab and he brought former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard and Kalenna to create Dirty Money. Remember how annoying it was when people would announce their name as “Diddy Dirty Money.” Maybe Puff got hip to it as well as the mega mogul dropped the glorified back up singers late last year.

Willow Smith

It’s not cool to make fun of kids. So I’m not going to. But there was a time where a 11 year old girl’s song had strip clubs going ham. The spawn of Will and Jada’s hit “Whip My Hair,” was a song that was everywhere in 2010. The pint size singer followed it up many months later with “21st Century Girl,” but the hysteria that the two songs created died down soon after. “Fireball” featuring Nicki Minaj was also a commercial failure and was her first song to not crack the Billboard Hot 100.

Vado

Before A$AP Rocky, Vado was the next great hype out of Harlem, New York. His affiliation with Cam’Ron only intensified the hype with songs like “Hey Muma” and “Speaking In Tungs.” Although he had a strong following in New York, his collaborative effort with Killa, Gunz & Butta was a commercial flop that debuted at No. 78 on the Billboard 200 with 7,500 copies sold.

Blind Fury

Let’s not shortchange Blind Fury’s accomplishments. For a glorious run in the spring time, Blind Fury resuscitated BET’s “Freestyle Friday” on 106 And Park as a vision impaired white kid with bars for days. Sure he had a million things going against him, but he parlayed all of that into stardom and a spot on the annual BET Hip-Hop Awards cypher. Then again, this is Freestyle Friday we are talking about, so it was good while it lasted.

Pill  

When Pill joined MMG last year, it seemed to be a hand in glove fit. The buzzing MC out of Atlanta who caught the hip-hop world by storm with “Trap Goin’ Ham,” was fresh off of the XXL freshman cover and linking with the hottest group in music. Things just didn’t click as well as was hoped initially, and Pill was eventually granted his freedom from the collective. The rapper seems to be getting his bearings back by releasing more material than ever, but it looks like it is going to be an uphill battle from here.