What Does The Crystal Ball Say for 2022?
The wild world of hip-hop is full of surprises. In 2018, when Doja Cat released “MOOOO!” and went viral for singing “bitch I’m a cow” – no one expected her to become one of the biggest artists in the world. In 2019, when Old Town Road became an international sensation – it was hard to imagine that Lil Nas X would become one of the most recognizable names in music.
Although I’m sure we’ll be looking back at this article one year from today and laugh at it, I have predictions to make for 2022. Here are some hunches I have for hip-hop this year.
2022 Predictions
Kendrick Lamar will release an album in 2022. On Range Brothers by Baby Keem featuring Kendrick Lamar, K-Dot says “new flows coming be patient brother.” This teaser implies that he’s dropping an album in 2022, it would be his first studio album in nearly five years.
Nas is going to release King’s Disease 3 in 2022. He hinted at KD3 on the track Ugly off his most recent album titled “Magic,” which dropped on Christmas Eve. Nas said “KD3 on the way, this just to feed the buzz.” This would be the third album that Nas has released in two years and likely would be another collaboration with Hit-Boy.
Meek Mill, Bobby Shmurda, and Rowdy Rebel are going to release a song. Bobby Shmurda told this to Hot 97’s TT Torrez in an interview just before the holidays in 2021.
What will happen in 2022?
Drake will drop a #1 single. I don’t think he’ll release a full length album, because the hype around Certified Lover Boy still has momentum and Drake rarely releases full albums in back to back years. If I was a betting man, I’d bet that Drake will release a single that will remain number one on the charts for more than one week.
Three artists I also expect to grab a number top five hit in 2022 are Megan Thee Stallion, Gunna, Future, and Polo G.
Kanye West is going to be much more visible in 2022. Ye has been photographed in clubs, at parties, and is scheduled to headline Coachella. Divorced Ye is going to be in the lime light throughout 2022, however my big prediction is that Donda 2 will not come out in 2022.
In 2022 the people are getting a new Nicki Minaj album. I have no proof of this, but she hasn’t dropped a real full length project in years and I can just feel the Barb-magic in the air. In 2021 Nicki released a slew of new songs along with the formal publication of many of her mixtape hits, I’d like to see a full concise studio album from the Queen in 2022.
Some VERZUZ battles that we could see in 2022 include – J. Cole Vs. Wale, Chris Brown Vs. Usher, Lupe Fiasco Vs. Talib Kweli, Pusha T Vs. The Game, or Lil Kim Vs. Remy Ma.
Artists that I wholly expect to blow up in 2022 include Smino, Blxst, Earthgang, Tierra Whack, Mahalia, and Armani White – it’d be reasonable to expect albums from all of them in 2022.