Growing up I remember mainstream rap videos being filled with big rims, gold chains and black women with monstrous asses. The rappers would usually rap about sophisticated topics such as selling crack, shooting rival drug dealers, strip clubs and having lots of “baby mamas”.

Fast-forward to 2019 and literally every mainstream rap song is fucking weird.

First off, all of the rappers look like literal demons. They have disturbing tattoos all over their face and body, weird piercings, colored hair and strange fashion sense. They no longer look cool or “urban”, they look like serial killers.

Secondly, the music videos. ALL of the music videos, especially from the “mumble rappers”, are filled to the brim with satanic/occult symbolism. I’m not just being some paranoid weirdo seeing things that aren’t there either. Every single popular video is filled with baphomets, inverted crucifixes, occult numerology like 666, third eye symbolism and a theme I’ve noticed lately is rappers literally bathing themselves in what’s supposed to be blood.

Lastly the lyrics. Mainstream rap went from something hype, gritty and cool, to now constantly having themes of depression, isolation, drug dependency, suicide, hardcore misogyny (which for some reason gets a pass from feminists) and murder.

I can’t help but feel like this is more than just art and there is an insidious agenda being pushed by record labels here. I just don’t know what it is.