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So, nuanced music enthusiast-turned YouTuber, Middle 8 has just released his own most recent video: a deep-dive into the ever-changing landscape of hip-hop. How the genre of hip-hop is changing from the punk ethic of rebellious cult-classics dug up from ’70s Bronx to the incentivised commercialism of the noughties, we are now seeing a flurry of experimental hip-hop like never before. It almost certainly didn’t start with the likes of Death Grips and JPEGmafia, but they are certainly laying the groundwork for future artists to grow into an even weirder sound in the world of hip-hop. The brazen contemporaries of raw lyricism, brash instrumentals, inventive sounds has brought a whole dice to hip-hop; an avant-garde clique of being individual.

Hell, look at the likes of Odd Future and their oddball mixtapes of soundscape innovation was baffling to so many at the time back in 2011. Seen as the younger, crazier version of Wu-Tang Clan, the ten-member cult rap collective became rap revolutionary. Now – we see a greater moment in it all; people beginning to embrace the magic of experimentation. With even the head honcho of Tyler and his solo work being one of the stirring pot of goodness. Again, with many other genres, you just have to sift through the surface level mainstream, and plunge a little deeper to find what’s on the seabed. And it’s usually gold.

We’ve since seen Lil Yachty drop his bubblegum trap boiler suit of “traditional” rap caviar, to Let’s Start Here – his most experimental album to date.

The likes of Drake and Post Malone have had away with their commercial drivel of music that can be washed off in the rain and are now entering more avant-garde directions; seeing what they can play with – and hoping to become the first to do it. We should never really say that a genre is dying too. When rock shifted into the psychedelia soundscape with the likes of Pink Floyd lighting the way, everyone said punk music would be dead. Now, here we are; 50 years or so later, with a new invention of punk up our sleeves. Funnily enough, it’s been deemed post-punk; a more moody, experimental expose of his older, louder cousin. So, what goes around – will always come back round again. Like our good Justin has been saying for years.

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Look, it’s a good insight into the future of a genre that is not necessarily dying – but shifting more so in a direction of adventure. No genre dies, it just hibernates for a few, sheds its skin and becomes a modified butterfly. Like Travis’s own Butterfly Effect.