Hip Hop recently had its '50th birthday' so the genre goes back way further than most people think. Hip hop has been through quite a few re-inventions of itself over the decades, from conscientious boom bap to gangster rap to blog era rap to mumble rap and so on.

I think the reason why it's been the genre that dominates globally for decades is because of the overall feeling that it gives off. Hip hop and rap is both aggressive and empowering. It's rags to riches. It's motivational workout music. It pumps you up. It's storytelling. It's danceable. It offers a lot.

It's very competitive within itself. More than most other genres, the 'come up' is a huge part of hip hop. The early part of any rapper's career is big because that's when they're hungriest to make it. It's their 'freshman' year so to speak. The competitiveness of hip hop ensures that the artists try and push each other throughout the years to stay on top of their game and sharp with the pen. It's a genre one has to prove themselves in, and the veterans and newcomers are pushing each other alike. It's pretty amazing when some of the best rap music coming out in 2022 is from some of the originators of the genre; see Nas and Hit Boy working together on the King's Disease projects.

And ultimately, people resonate with all of this. When you consider around 50% of the world lives on like $5 a day, hip hop has often been a way to give a voice to the voiceless, to empower people to tell their own stories in a way that's meaningful and impactful. It's one of the leading genres when it comes to dance choreography as well. It's often associated with what's hip and trending from a cultural and marketing perspective. It's often used for political protest musically.

It's bold, loud, and full of people speaking truth to power. Sure there's some trash and lazy variants of it, but for the most part, it's to the current generation what rock and roll was for decades before. Also, some of the most interesting things in music come from hip hop and rap because of the combination and fusions of genres and sounds that people would not have tried elsewhere outside of electronic music. Yet both hip hop and electronic music still get lambasted as not 'being real music' by people who are just closed minded.

TL;DR, most people don't live very comfortable lives, and hip hop is a form of music that beautifully captures the struggle and represents individuals who overcame that to see success. People ultimately want to overcome their own struggles, and hip hop is often the soundtrack of people's choosing.