How come A.Z. never blew up.

[herpes]

I was just thinking about it today.  Like most underground rappers if I play them for friends that arent into that type of rap they arent feeling it.  But A.Z. I put it on and they like his music a lot.  And they want to know more of his stuff.  He is one of the most respected rappers in the game among hip hop heads and critics.  He has the ability to make a club/party joint, jus look at the song Hey A.Z.  It never made sense to me.

[WC Iz Active]

He's to intelligent and lyrical for the masses.

[big mat]

charisma. U need to be larger than life to succeed in the rap game. He's to much of a normal dude with talent. Real talent is always underrated, most famous painter were recognize after their death

[jeromechickenbone]

He was def on his way up.  The Firm album could have REALLY set him off but we know how that turned out.  That pretty much ended Foxy's career, damn near ended Nas career.  

And in today's climate, he really stands no chance on a mainstream level because he's refusing to follow the trends of A) Dumbing down his shit and B) Flavor of the week production which has at least kept many mainstream rappers relevent.

But I'm not trippin.  AZ being indie allows him to do the exact music he wants.  Almost all his marketing is on the net, his vids are low budget but they're still better than almost everything on BET/MTV.  So I mean even if he only pushes 50k overall sales he's still living well.  And if he's livin comfortably, he'll not be pushed into doing some bullshit music.  And the fanbase he'll get from making real music is the type of fanbase that sticks with him and outlasts fads anyway.

And with record sales dropping like they are, people are fed up with all this bullshit excuse for music thats being put out.  When the bottom completely falls out, all these wack ass "rappers" will be scrambling for a new hustle (movies, books, shoes, vitamin water, etc.)  and the only people that will still be doing hip hop will be the real artists.  

[Minkaveli]

Because hip hop turned away from lyricism.  AZ has always been dope but some of his tracks on his albums have been lacking.  He is consistent but needs solid production on every album to really get noticed in mainstream.

[Throwback]

i love az.

[ABN]

to blow up you pretty much need to be a boss. and i think a whole lot of people just look at him as that guy that used to run with Nas. and he conducts himself just like a normal person and in rap you pretty much gotta have a presence larger then life to succeed.

[WC Iz Active]

to blow up you pretty much need to be a boss. and i think a whole lot of people just look at him as that guy that used to run with Nas. and he conducts himself just like a normal person and in rap you pretty much gotta have a presence larger then life to succeed.

agreed

[MIAMI4LIFE]

to blow up you pretty much need to be a boss. and i think a whole lot of people just look at him as that guy that used to run with Nas. and he conducts himself just like a normal person and in rap you pretty much gotta have a presence larger then life to succeed.

real talk, you could say that about several rappers in the game

[Narrator]

Because hip hop turned away from lyricism.  AZ has always been dope but some of his tracks on his albums have been lacking.  He is consistent but needs solid production on every album to really get noticed in mainstream.

He's to intelligent and lyrical for the masses.

Nas is far more intelligent and lyrical than AZ, yet he sells Plat with every release while AZ will probably never get another record deal.

10 years ago I would've sworn AZ was on his way up to Nas' level of fame..."Sugar Hill" was a pretty big hit in '95 (it actually went Gold), but for some reason, "Doe Or Die" itself just never really moved many units, even though it was a great album.  Personally, I've never been all that big into AZ...I just can't dig his voice.  It's kinda odd that he's pushing 30 now and his voice hasn't cracked.  And even though he is intelligent and skilled and usually has great production on his records, I still can't shake the feeling that he comes from Nas' book of rhymes, except that anything AZ does, Nas does about 10x better.

[Tanjential]

He was def on his way up.  The Firm album could have REALLY set him off but we know how that turned out.  That pretty much ended Foxy's career, damn near ended Nas career.- I hear people say this but never explain it: 'but we know how that turned out' do you mean it flopped? do you mean it was critically bashed? I heard that shit went platinum, so what went wrong exactly?

nothing az does that nas don't do better. voice makes him sound like an asshole. gotta have a likable mic persona to be succesful, which is why i lose faith in humanity for Jay z's popularity. hes not the worst rapper or anything but his voice and mic persona are among the most assholish ever and i detest his presence yet the world loves him, i cry inside at that shit.

-T

[Tanjential]

does nas still fuck with az now that i mention it?

-T

[Elevz]

And in today's climate, he really stands no chance on a mainstream level because he's refusing to follow the trends of A) Dumbing down his shit and B) Flavor of the week production which has at least kept many mainstream rappers relevent.

Have you heard "Doing That" off The Format? I bet you have.

It's a bit unfair to disarm your whole reasoning because of one song, but it's not like AZ hasn't been trying throughout his career! And in trying so hard, I believe he hasn't been the rapper that he could have been. He has always tried to stay real, yet he was always looking for more than what he had. That's to a degree where I feel like none of his albums have ever been optimized. Each and every one of them has been decent at best, yet never weak. It just doesn't live up to the skill that goes behind it.

I believe he simply lacks the charisma for a serious breakthrough, and that's a hard thing to compensate for. As long as the charisma ain't there, it's hard to grab the attention.

[theformularadioshow]

Charisma. He was always a good MC, but he lacked that certain something to catch the attention of the MASSES. This is REALLY hard to do in this "game".

[Michael]

^^agreed....u could be the worlds greatest rapper but lack charisma! its a killer....look at every good rapper around and only a select few are gettin their props....

AZ is one of my favorite rappers out but no one knows who the fuck he is....Scarface as well to some degree as well....I live in Ireland so the internet is my only real souce of "real" music and hip-hop...I said scarface cause im only basing it really on true mainstream success....ie. blowing up over here as well as the US.....