barty;
I personally feel, as a reflection of how the industry compartmentalizes itself, that class affects how we view music. Streaming has become the current ecology of 'modernity' of music, and likewise artists are encouraged to not only make records that suit streaming (there's a big conspiracy that albums have over 22+ tracks these days to ensure the profits made from streaming to bolster the reputations of albums that will not be purchased) whereas records who sell a lot of units get very little to no recognition. In the US, Kevin Gates sold well in the 6 figure range in rap, and is one of the most popular artists in radio and occasionally in streaming... but in the deep rural south among mostly black listeners, who are not considered a desirable audience. Eminem is likewise as much in the rural west away from urban areas. And those are two rap artists who are mostly looked at with derision by 'young, hip, net savvy' kids on the internet.
I don't think it's entirely unfair that, because of circumstances of their environment that makes them less self-conscious... A lot of those persons don't fall into the expectations of the millenial you outlined. Not to say that it's because they're from parts of america that makes them less of anything than those who do. But these artists have no media power. They exist within the music industry and do significantly well, but have nothing that makes them feel aesthetic value. The active process of that traditional source of income within music, sales, is getting moved past so aggressively thanks to technology that the music industry is literally cutting itself away from turning back. And I don't think it's entirely coincidental that those artists are such codified genre artists as well.
I should actually clarify... I think that rather than establish a financial class, the internet has been establishing classes of technological familiarity that almost work along social class lines. You can be from any educational, social, racial, etc. backgrounds and the connection to yourself and your identity along these 'networked' lines makes it hard to unplug once you've had access to this sense of connectivity. To the point now artists have separate careers outside of traditional media based solely around internet fame where if you're not the person who's plugged in, none of it makes any sense because they don't have that 'real world' fame.
The thing is, for almost a full decade, Road Rap existed outside of the internet's eye. It was there, it racked up huge numbers, it was big but the internet didn't touch it primarily. That changes at a certain point over the last few years with Drill which is in itself a hijacking of a Real World rap culture from America. The reality of the road rap identity dissolves with acts like 67 or Section Boyz, talking about trapping, drillers, stolen catchphrases from Chief Keef and Drake. That isn't an American identity per se, its an internet identity an identity formed by the homogenity. And like that, we're seeing much much more of the media acknowledging and liking Road Rap, especially now that grime's nostalgia value was oversaturated in the wake of grime in the 2010s being less about people mixing mutual genre baggage into conforming into an acceptable identity of an MC.