People’s attention spans have been severely impacted by the rise of social media. The musical world is profoundly changed as a result of this. Hence, lengthy rap compositions that went on for four or five minutes or more are largely extinct, with a few notable outliers like DJ Khaled’s “God Done” featuring Jay-Z deciphering the code.
Many of the earliest and most iconic hip-hop recordings were lengthy party cuts, but the genre has always contained some smaller but no less brilliant jewels. Every hip-hop listener has at least one banger (if not more) that they believe the artist shorted them on by cutting shorter than the typical cut.
This used to be the rare case rather than the norm. Three verses and three choruses used to be standard, but now most songs only have two verses and a minute or so total length.
Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang,” which runs 2 minutes and five seconds, became the shortest single to reach the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Oct. 11, 1975, when Dickie Goodman’s “Mr. Jaws” reached No. 4. Their success has helped usher in a new era of standards for radio and streaming services, where shorter is generally preferred.
Artists like YoungBoy Never Broke Again (“Louie V”), Max B and DJ Drama (“Lemonade”), BabyTron (“2 Ea$y”), Real Boston Richey (“Win for Losin”), and others have all released successful singles this year that clock in at under 120 seconds in length, continuing the trend that began last year. Several well-known tracks, like “Just Want Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert and “Gangsta Boo” by Ice Spice featuring Lil Tjay, are barely over two minutes long.
Sources takes a wade into the shallow end and chooses some of the top two-minute hip-hop tracks of 2023.
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“Louie V”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again
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“Lemonade”
Max B and DJ Drama
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“2 Ea$y”
BabyTron
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“Bacc to The Basics”
BigXthaPlug
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“OK Cool”
DC The Don
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“What Would Push Do”
Smoke DZA and The Smokers Club
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“Win For Losin’”
Real Boston Richey
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“Stand Love”
2KBaby
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“How Far”
Oddisee
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“Save It”
Iayze
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“Hype”
03 Greedo
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“Star Power”
J.I.
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“Nuh Uh”
Jay Critch
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“Medula”
Ron Suno featuring C Blu
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“I Can’t Go Back to the Way It Was”
The Kid Laroi
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“Dopey”
Boldy James and RichGains featuring Sir Michael Rocks
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“Skipper”
SleazyWorld Go
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“PSSYONFT”
Bktherula
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“Addy Geek”
Summrs
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“Angel Dust”
Big Scarr featuring Pooh Shiesty