Ever since Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” became the first commercially successful rap song back in 1979, Hip-Hop has been recognized as the voice of the impoverished youth. But in the four decades that have passed, Hip-Hop has grown up, matured, and evolved. Yet the culture still deals with its fair share of ageism, which implies that there is an age cap for artists who want to deploy their craft.

Back in 2015, a then-24-year-old Young Thug stated that he refused to purchase a JAY-Z album because of their difference in age.

“If you’re 30, 40 years old, you’re not getting listened to by minors,” Thugger said in a Billboard interview. “Like, JAY-Z has some of the sickest lyrics ever, but I would never buy his CD, just because of my age and because of his age. By the time I turn that old, I ain’t gonna be doing what he’s doing.”

A similar sentiment was shared by a then-39-year-old André 3000 in a 2014 interview on HardKnockTV, in which he suggested that MCs can age out of Hip-Hop. “First you have to be hip, and the older you get, you get further away from the hipness.”

On the contrary, the so-called “old heads” of the culture have proven that dopeness doesn’t have an expiration date and neither does the audience that grew up listening to them.

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