The Rise (& Fall?) of Frat Rap Posted by Alec Zisi on 10/15/13 | Filed under Opinion

Back in 2009, Asher Roth released a pop record unlike any that hip-hop had seen before. In a genre largely dominated by drug references and street artists, the white rapper out of the suburbs of Pennsylvania exploded onto the scene with the song "I Love College", talking about drinking, smoking, and the average life of an American college student. This was really the first time a middle class rapper achieved success talking about nothing but day to day life, and ended up creating a whole wave of up and coming rappers using the same style. Thus, a whole sub-genre of hip-hop, named "Frat Rap", formed seemingly overnight.

"Frat Rap" is music made by middle-class rappers whose target audience tends to be college students. Most of these songs tend to include references to partying, living life to the fullest, hooking up with girls, and smoking weed; with beats that are extremely party-friendly. Usually, people either love, or absolutely hate frat rap with a passion. For example, members of greek-life on college campuses (Frat members for the most part, ironically) tend to bump nothing but frat rap at their parties and pregames, while hip-hop veteran Slaine made sure frat rapper Sammy Adams was no longer welcome in his hometown of Boston, MA. My question is: with the recent trend of hip-hop becoming universal, is there room for frat rap to survive in the long term?

The first rapper to follow Asher Roth's success was Sammy Adams, who garnered his initial buzz with "I Hate College", a remix of Roth's hit record. Adams later (questionably) sold 65,000 units within the first week of his "Boston's Boy" EP and topped the iTunes charts, solidifying frat-rap's place in pop culture. Many college blogs started to form and blossom because of the increasing demand for frat-rap, which then provided a lane for the biggest names in frat rap such as Hoodie Allen, Chris Webby, Mike Posner, and the most famous frat rapper of all time: pre-2012 Mac Miller.

Mac Miller was the first rapper to really make it huge off of frat-rap, churning out party anthem after party anthem in 2010-2011. After continuing to build a buzz through years of quality releases, he had the first independent album to get #1 on Billboard since Snoop back in the '90s. His success literally had EVERY popular college blog rapper mimicking his style - which can be seen in nearly every white rapper who rocks a snapback. Around the release of this album frat-rap was at its peak, and has since lost a bit of ground.

Both Mac Miller and Asher Roth received heavy criticism after their debut albums were released, and have since changed direction. Asher Roth was never really pop-heavy besides "I Love College", and has since done everything in his power to erase it from his past. He has recently displayed an entirely new style, focusing on a unique, slick flow while talking about just about everything besides college parties. Miller has followed a similar path, changing his subject matter to very deep interpersonal subjects and his flows to a complex, Odd Future(ish) sound. This started with the release of 2012's drug-influenced "Macadelic", and continued into his sophomore album, "Watching Movies With The Sound Off".

With two founders of frat rap changing suit, it appears that the popularity of the other big players has dropped as well. Chris Webby is still making a living off of his music, but it hasn't been nearly as pop-heavy, and his videos haven't been as viral as "The White Noise EP". Mike Posner has also seen a sharp decrease in youtube views, not having a video pass 10,000,000 views in over 2 years. Hoodie Allen has done the best out of all of his peers thanks to his extremely likable personality and dedication to fan interaction, but has also seen a slight decline in views from his "All American EP" days.

Today many college blogs are still relevant, but have lost some of the power that they had two years ago. The biggest current frat rappers are Mike Stud and Huey Mack, who rarely garner over a million views on a music video, unlike Miller who has tens of millions on all of his frat-rap releases. There hasn't been a frat-rapper to really break on the scene in a couple years, and it appears that the genre may be fading - as many of its fans have shifted to EDM as their favorite genre. Only time will tell, but I have a feeling that frat-rap will soon be a thing of the past. Let us know what you think in the comments.

By Alec Zisi (@A2ZAlecZisi)