From Young Thug’s comedy to Nicki Minaj's enthusiasm, here are 8 follow-worthy rappers on Twitter.
Young Thug’s car is nicer than yours. Nicki Minaj’s boyfriends are hotter than yours. Common has a bigger house. But, in one of those inadvertently democratic tricks of globalization, you and any rapper out there, no matter how famous they might be, all have had the same exact tools at your disposal since you both first signed up for your own Twitter accounts.
140 characters; no more, no less.
You yourself use it to stay in touch with friends, maybe; but to what uses have these rappers put their own public pulpits?
Are they fan clubs for their die-hards? Microphones for social activist causes? Impromptu confessionals for any on-the-spot thought the artist might have?
The answer is all those, and more, as we find out below. And if you’re trying to increase your own number of followers on Twitter, you might just learn a thing or two on how to do so from these 8 rappers.
Kanye West — @kanyewest
Maximum expression while I have air in my lungs.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) September 23, 2015
For a man like Kanye West—he of the ziggurat-sized onstage pyramids and the motionless, still-life tableaus at his concerts—we really can’t be surprised if something as potentially banal as a Twitter profile simply becomes a further extension of his art. The above artistic musing from West comes only after the extended unraveling of a step-by-step walkthrough of what could be a fashion shoot directed by West himself, as told over the course of 20 tweets. Leave it to the man who has turned skyscrapers into movie theatres to turn Twitter into the newest readymade example of art, one that even Duchamp would be proud of.
Talib Kweli — @talibkweli
(Nothing racist abt BLM. It only exposes racism & apathy. Don't be dumb) RT @_djblasta: your page has BLM and racists all over it??
— Talib Kweli Greene (@TalibKweli) September 29, 2015
Most rappers use Twitter to engage with their fans. Talib Kweli does the opposite.
He uses it to blast his haters.
A majority of extremely popular and acclaimed rappers, with money and success right within their reach, are probably more likely to follow that same Kanye West’s advice on ignoring haters from his song “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”: “I get my money right / Then you can’t tell me nothing, right?”
Well, Kweli gets told a lot of stupid things on Twitter and, to his credit, he doesn’t let these guys slide. This DJ Blasta character was apparently just one person unfortunate enough to catch Kweli when he was feeling off on an off-day, and Kweli let him have it. Unlike most of the other seven rappers here, Kweli uses Twitter to engage with activist causes that this BK MC supports, like the Black Lives Matter movement that he references and praises in his re-tweet.
And so, if only little by little, Kweli is making the Internet world a better place, one flaming troll at a time.
Young Thug — @youngthug
MY PIG LOOKS BETTER THEN SOME OF MY BM'S !!!😭😂😭😂 AND RICHER....
— Young Thug ひ (@youngthug) September 26, 2015
You know that one Twitter-centric friend you have? That one guy or girl who’s all caps, all emojis, all bombastic statement? Well, you’ve got two of them now, because Young Thug might just be the same exact way.
In a world where almost every new piece of information is focus-grouped to death, it’s nice to have at least one artist who’s out there with not so much as a speed bump between his mind and his mouth. It’s been getting him into trouble with people all over the place lately—Game and Lil Wayne, recently, to name just a few. In any event, when you need a bit of a relaxation from how artistically serious Kanye can be, you might want to jump on over to Young Thug’s Twitter for some surefire comedic relief.
Nicki Minaj — @NICKIMINAJ
I'll b writing raps for #YoungNicki to spit on TV 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 omg I can't f'ing wait yall
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) September 29, 2015
If Young Thug is your friend who is the so-called Suicide Texter, than Nicki Minaj is your friend whose happiness is genuinely and unquestionably increased by her ability, through Twitter, to share her feelings so openly with anyone she wants. Out of all the profiles here, ones run by people whose job it is to bare their souls to us, it is Nicki’s profile thats tweets come across as the most authentic and genuine.
It’s almost as if Nicki Minaj is your friend in real life, and so you follow her on Twitter…it’s just that your real-life friend is also a ludicrously talented millionaire who will soon have her own TV show on ABC.
Common — @common
Start your Monday like this. Shoot your shot! It just might go in! #Potus #GoForIt #WishHeCouldRunAgain pic.twitter.com/6lho93vHQy
— COMMON (@common) September 28, 2015
For a rapper whose frequently cited as—or maybe pigeonholed into—playing the role of a “socially conscious” rapper, we can’t be too surprised that Common’s own Twitter messages abound with optimistic sentiments and uplifting, inspirational quotes. There’s much to be inspired about in the life of Barack Obama, so it’s no surprise that our country’s first black president, who incidentally has deep roots in the same Chicago neighborhoods that Common does, is frequently a subject.
Try starting your Twitter schedule with a look at Common’s motivational quotes and images each and every morning, and maybe you too might one day be the rare Renaissance man who wins both a Grammy and an Oscar...
But probably not.
Earl Sweatshirt— @earlsweatshirt
IF YOU'VE LISTENED TO ANY RAP MUSIC THAN YOU KNOW THIS IS NOTHING NEW
— EARL (@earlxsweat) September 29, 2015
We’ve recently reached the year where, from now on, every person who is born will never not have had a time in their life when they don’t remember owning a profile on Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or the-whatever-is-newest-and-coolest web site. Thanks to the Internet’s global proliferation, we now get to watch rap wunderkind, like Earl Sweatshirt, grow up before our very eyes. At first glance, Earl Sweatshirt’s Twitter is basically a mix of everything you’d expect from someone who, until very recently, was a teenager: sarcasm, cynicism, and bored irony.
But, if you read past those superficial dismissals, you’ll actually find a man’s man who manages to display a level of self-knowledge in 140 characters that many people don’t ever get to display over their whole lifetime. What his Twitter shows is that it’s time to look past Earl’s puerile transgressions on old songs like “I’m a hot and bothered astronaut, crashing while jacking off to buffering vids of Asher Roth eating apple sauce” and start focusing on his deep moral inventories, ones like “It’s probably been 12 years since my father left, left me father less / And I just used to say I hate him in dishonest jest / When honestly, I miss this nigga.”
Sorry, Odd Future Stans—maybe it was a good thing for him, as a maturing adult, to go to Samoa?
Big Boi — @BigBoi
Searched 4 music on @Googlephotos & found this gem. @BigGrams studio session w. my brothers. #TBT #EasyThrowback #ad pic.twitter.com/0oQXjrapK3
— Big Boi (@BigBoi) October 1, 2015
While André 3000 has mostly faded from the music scene since OutKast’s last official album Idlewild was released in 2006, Big Boi has accomplished the opposite, but equally unexpected, task of becoming even more ingrained in the rap game. In a world where the top artists sometimes become paralyzingly disillusioned with pop art’s commercialization, unofficially “retiring” as they slyly announce what almost definitely won’t be their last album, it is absolutely refreshing to find one veteran who seems to only gain momentum with time. The fact that a guy who has sold millions of albums could still get amped about collaborations both old and new is pretty inspiring.
At the same time, though, it’s a little depressing because Big Boi’s Throwback Thursday ‘grams will probably always, definitely, absolutely, surely-positively-undoubtedly be cooler than ours.
Pharrell — @pharrell
I've been a @QtipTheAbstract fan since day 1. Honored to have him join #OTHERtone this Sunday 9/27 12pm PT on @Beats1 pic.twitter.com/RnVj0AExUk
— Pharrell Williams (@Pharrell) September 24, 2015
We’ve seen tons of approaches to Twitter so far: Some rappers use it as a news outlet for fans, as a gallery exhibit for extending their art outside of the recording studio, maybe even as a soap box for activist causes. In a fitting end to this article, Pharrell’s Twitter is so perfectly balanced with elements of all of these different media roles that the most polished politicians (Jeb and Hilary included) are almost definitely jealous of what his team has put together. This single tweet captures it all: it 1.) Let’s you know what he’s recently been up to artistically, 2.) Peels back layers of distancing limelight so that you feel like you’re getting to know him as a real person, and 3.) Simultaneously explains what his deepest musical influences are.
At this point, Pharrell might be sitting at home thinking, Man, 140 characters is still excessive, even as he’s releasing dope music at the same exact time.