It's not about the variety. But if I want to listen to a Rakim-like record......I pick a Rakim record. If I want to listen to a Run DMC-like record, I pick Run DMC every single time. And if I want some Faithless-dance stuff.....guess what? I pick Faithless. Same goes for 60s rock or jazz.
The "mainstream" is just the purification of the essence of what's the "lowest common denominator", nothing more...........but boom-bap or trap won't be mainstream music. Because they either suck or they are simply a re-mix of what was already there to a degree.........that you simply reach for the BETTER, ORIGINAL stuff.
Like I can listen to Jamiroquai knowing he's heavily influenced by Stevie Wonder, but if he did a Stevie Wonder-copycat record, I wouldn't listen to it......there's STEVIE for that. KnowwhatI'msayin?
And most of that "underground" stuff isn't some out-of-the-leftfield, hail-mary, lets-do-this-even-if-the-world-is-against-us shit. It's BORING and just waiting to reach a certain amount of Youtube clicks, before it has its 15mins of fame.
It's DEAD, because there's no new fresh blood AND AIR coming in. There's enough blood, but it's been in circulation for decades (the ideas/samples/formulas) and no fresh oxygen (new styles/people/topics). The whole movement suffocates.
And yeah, consider releasing INSTRUMENTAL HIP HOP music the way to go, because there are literally 100s of "#1 records" which we will never hear, because Lil Wayne didn't want to have them on his last album, or whatever.