Why's it embarassing though?
studentification is the triangulation of london's aesthetic values with the rest of the uk’s.
non-londoners will come into contact with london culture at university and will on the one hand be drawn to it due to its cultural cachet, while on the other not possessing the value sey to appreciate it.
having grown up listening to arcade fire there are a number of things they’ll be missing:
1) they won’t be attuned to the rhythmic sophistication of non-american rap
2) they wouldn’t have made their peace with music that is violent, misogynistic and homophobic
3) they would have nme values; music should be political, it should speak to emotional angst, etc.
4) they won’t be up to date with new sounds
so to deal with 1, they turn to very blocky clunky rappers without much rhythmic agility; stormzy, headie one, skepta, jme
to deal with 2, they gravitate towards tongue in cheek stuff. stuff that’s infantile and inoffensive. light entertainment. jme’s rubix cube and songs about business degrees. ‘gun lean’; don’t worry, it’s just a silly dance. etc.
to deal with 3, they gravitate to stormzy calling theresa may a paigon and telling boris to suck his mum. grime 4 corbyn. this truly encapsulates the studentification phenomenon; token, superficial towards the urban while utlimately speaking the language of the suburban.
to deal with 4 they listen to decades old genres; the 2010\s grime revival.
so to capture the student market drill artists are doing a handful of things:
1) not rapping very well
2) being minstrels and ironic. trying to become tongue in cheek memes.
3) stopping the genre evolving waiting for the students to catch up
it's completely understandable, but it's undignified and humiliating nonetheless.