Whether or not you believe in "the Dot era," you can't deny that Kendrick Lamar has established a dominant position in the game over the past year or so. But most folks think Elliott Wilson took this thought a little too far when he said this dominance is absolute.
On the latest episode of HipHopDX's "The Bigger Picture" podcast, Wilson debated with DJ Hed and Jeremy Hecht about his controversial take: "It's such a Dot era that no one's made a hit record since 'Not Like Us' or f***ing 'luther,'" the media personality argued. While he did change parameters throughout, explaining that he referred to 2025 and emphasizing his criticism of the subsequent rap hits themselves, Hed and Hecht still brought up important counters. So did everyone else on Twitter.
In a clip of the interaction caught by joebuddenclips/fanpage on the social media platform, all three cohosts bring up various tracks that could qualify for hit status. Drake's "NOKIA," Rob49's "WTHELLY," GELO's "Tweaker," and Doechii's "Anxiety" all came up. Also, sticking with Elliott Wilson's original point, we would throw in other 2024 hits like GloRilla's "TGIF" and BigXthaPlug's "The Largest" into that convo.
Kendrick Lamar "Not Like Us"
In addition, DJ Hed brought up how the success of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" is not a fitting standard to set for what a "hit record" should be. After all, that's in another class of hit entirely which very few artists and tracks can reach, whether that's commercially, culturally, or critically.
Also, this conversation around hip-hop's commercial performance has been around for at least a few years in the 2020s, if you don't want to extend it even further beyond that. So to frame this as having anything to do with Kendrick Lamar's run or contextualizing it in that way is not exactly an accurate assessment.
Elliott Wilson's Dot support has landed him in hot water before, but that's the fun of discussions like these. More importantly, don't let this stray you away from finding the amazing hip-hop this year that isn't selling out stadium tours. After all, that's usually where the best material lies.
