WHO IS TO BLAME FOR WEST COAST MUSIC FALLING OFF?

[GangstaBoogy]

2Pac. He made people hate us but they were scared of him. Then when he died we didn't have anyone to fill those huge shoes. Well I guess Dre or Snoop could have, just not like Pac.

[NotoriousA.O.D.]

I wouldn't say you could really blame anyone but I think the deaths of Eazy-E & 2 Pac played a major roll in it. . .

[Sanford - V. President of the Dangerous Crew Movement]

sean combs, jay-z, jermaine dupri and lil jon.

[duccc]

RADIO..AND WEST COAST DJZ..ALL THEY DO IS PLAY ALL THE WEST COAST OLD SHIT..AND THE WEST COAST OLD ARTIST DONT PUT NEW NIGGAZ ON..HOW DO U EXPECT PEOPLE TO LIKE SOMETHING IF U DONT PLAY IT U CANT PLAY A RECORD HERE AND THERE AND SAY PEOPLE DONT FEEL IT..BCUZ ALOT OF SHIT THAT GET PLAYED IS TRASH..AND ITS NOT WEST COAST

[Brutus]

Long Beach i see you !

[Oklin]

the stupid fans, who cant make their own opinion and are being brain washed by the media

[Cheese]

idiots like you

[sav-man]

WHAT ARTIST DO U BLAME??,AND WHATS YOUR REASON FOR BLAMING THEM??..THEY NEED TO SEE THIS AND KNOW WHAT THEY DID WRONG!!!..

I don't really blame any one artist per se...I think there were a few things (this is long, but bear w/ me):

(a). In 1995, politicians like C. Delores Tucker, Bob Dole and their ilk started their whole "gangsta rap is evil, it should be banned" schtick, and some major labels got scared and started putting pressure on artists to "clean up" their stuff (the fact that Coolio's 1995 GANGSTA'S PARADISE was mostly poppy interpolations of old R&B songs, whereas his previous CD, 1994's IT TAKES A THIEF, was more street overall, is one example of this).

(b) New York has always had this attitude that anything not from the East Coast sucks, and so their journalists, and a few artists here and there (Jeru, Tribe Called Quest)  jumped on the whole anti-West game as well, acting like NY acts were "superior," etc., and started spreading the whole "gangsta rap is 'dead'" phony baloney, even though it was still selling well in 1996. But like an earlier poster said, a certain % of buyers don't buy music, they buy hype. And many folks believed this particular hype (for example, as I recall, nearly every damn review for The Fugees SCORE CD praised it as a "wonderful, 'healthy', 'positive' alternative to all of that 'horrible' gangsta rap out there," instead of just focusing on whether it was good or bad music. OK, The Fugees weren't from NYC, but you know what I mean).

(c) After Tupac and Biggie died, the major labels in general de-emphasized promoting any rap w/ lyrical content (gangsta, conscious, whatever) and over-emphasized promoting the dance shit and radio crap (Pete Rock talked about this in an interview--he indicated that in 1997, a lot of the rawer indie labels that had been distributed by majors were quickly dropped after Tupac and Biggie died). And when Puffy just happened to have success with his more dance-friendly stuff in 1997, that, in a way, gave the major labels an "excuse" to stop promoting lyrical substance of any kind. And we all know how majors are: once something hits big on one label, regardless of quality, the other major labels play follow-the-leader and copy whatever that "new" big thing is. And that's basically the way things have been since--if you're not a disco duck rapping about being up in the club or appealing to suburbanite soccer moms, you're out.

So, to me, West Coast rap (in its' rawer form) never really "died"...I think it was, in a way, just pushed out of the spotlight in favor of more dance-friendly stuff, until it was sort of forgotten (Dre, Snoop, and The Game notwitstanding). The same thing happened in the early 1990s, when heavy metal was pushed out of the mainstream spotlight by the major labels (and MTV) in favor of grunge. Metal, too, was never really allowed to die a "natural death" commercially--it was just sort of hidden from view after about 1992, and now you have to go to the underground to keep up w/ it. And the way it works w/ a certain % of music buyers is that they can't, and won't, buy something if they don't know it's out there, and that's where promotion comes in. If the record company doesn't promote your CD, no matter how good or bad it is, it just won't sell. Simple as that. Just my view, though. PEACE!

[everlast1986]

Russell Simmons

[Oklin]

Russell Simmons

why`?

[Furor Teutonicus]

the stupid fans, who cant make their own opinion and are being brain washed by the media

[cyence]

Put a good deal of blame on Suge & Pac. Deathrow was the main representer of the west when the hip-hop scene started changing, and they could have carried the west and continue to build the dynasty, but rather they were too gangsta fo they own good. Pac got himself killed, and Suge's bully tactics and pimping his artists lead to everybody leaving, so that force was gone. The EAST top dogs continued to prosper, Bad Boy ran 97-98, Jay-Z became a star, Busta Rhymes had the radio on smash. What happened to the WEST top dogs who all happened to be one unit that coulda counterpunched?

Pac=dead
Dre=left Deathrow to make the weak Aftermath debut, went to work with EAST artists Nas,AZ, Foxy, MIDWEST Eminem, EAST 50 Cent
Snoop= Dre-less Doggfather album, then a couple albums on SOUTH label No Limit
Dogg Pound=beef with each other,beef with DR, lackluster solos
Rage=not her fault, but album just came too late, and not sexy enough to compete with Lil kim & Foxy

with the big dog out, all the new talent had to make their own name by themselves. And they just didnt have enough to carry the west. Xzibit made some noise, but now he's more known for Pimp My Ride than music. Seems Game is the only nigga from West to enter the game after 96 to really be big now. LOL that's gotta be depressing for ya'll

[aintnolove]

The West Coast is too Big to blame One Person but.......

If you got to blame somebody look at it's most active figures and Most anticipated albums.

- DR. DRE- for his inactiveness during a most critical time, for putting out that weak ass AFTERMATH CD, and trying to switch his style up.

SNOOP- I cant' help but say that In 96 through 99, when eyez were still half on the West, The Homie Big Snoop Dogg had a HUGE stable of Talent under him i.e TRAY DEEE, BAD AZZ, MR. MALIK, THE L.B.C CREW, LIL ' C STYLE, O.G. THREAT, CROOKED I, NATE DOGG And the list goes on.....

- I think you could blame Snoop for not making enough room for these cats considering the amount of pull he has, but actually he did put a lot of effort into the EASTSIDAZ, and their first CD got a lot of attention.

- but I guess you could blame record labels like Death Row and others for not providing a home or proper promotion for this talent

-or you could just blame the artists for being young n' dumb, possibly lazy or just not keeping their dumb asses out of jail long enough to stay in the studio.

ICE CUBE- you could deffinately say that WAR N' PEACE was weak, and ICE CUBE also had a gang of homies underneath him that were dope as fuck, but weren't motivated enough i.e KAUSION, K-DEE, LYNCH MOB etc.  though MACK 10 did his best to use the game he got and put out records.

ANd the ALbums that probably pissed off fans the most:

WESTSIDE CONNECTION-talk about a sophmore FLOP.
213- I know some of y'all like this CD, but lets be honest, it aint even close to what it should have been.

You could blame Tupac and Eazy E for dying.

[ai002h]

ANd the ALbums that probably pissed off fans the most:

WESTSIDE CONNECTION-talk about a sophmore FLOP.
213- I know some of y'all like this CD, but lets be honest, it aint even close to what it should have been.

Well, first off TT dropped at the end of 2003, the West Coast scene got weak way before then. Second, I dont think TT was a flop at all...its just that people were all delusional into thinking we'd see Bow Down 2, they were thinkin that album was gonna singlehandedly bring the west back and that was completely unrealistic. But it you listen to TT today its WAAAAAAY better than 99% of what the West Coast is droppin.

And as far as the financial success of the album...it barely missed plat even though Cube and Mack had their beef right after the album dropped, which meant the tour was cancelled and they werent able to drop singles besides Gangsta Nations. It would've definetely gone Plat+ if they were able to do the proper promoting and selling of the album in early '04.

[Fatdodger]

Snoop Dogg is to blame even though he's doin his part know to put is back on place everything that is westcoast goes by snoop some how and its his fault for collaborating with a buncha people that he should of never been workin with like lil jon bow wow dupri pharell justin timberlake etc and then he wants everything to be right where it needs to be from know on everything needs to be westcoast shit you need a producer dont go get pharell go get dre or fredwreck or meech shit you need a hook singer dont go get akon go get nate or kokane or knoc or butch you know and that needs to be for the whole westcoast