Why Hip-Hop aint selling as good

[Tha_Blaq_Sinattra]

It's the labels fault. From bad judgement on what singles to release, to not promoting the artist good enough. It's also lazy artists not wanting to hit up every city with shows and going to each radio station across the country to promote and just having the slave mentality of not wanting to start their own thing and be independent. They just want "massa" to take care of everything. These labels dont care about true Hip-Hop. They wanna come up with new fads and gimmicks instead of really building careers like Berry Gordy. I dont agree that the internet is bad. The potential of the internet is staggering. I have friends all over the world like Brazil and England from the internet. An internet artist has access to everyone with a computer thus eliminating the need for distribution. Look at what Gnarls Barkley did and that's just the tip of the iceberg. About 1/6 of the world have PC's- that's like a billion computers. If you could get 1% of that market you'd go diamond (10 mil sold). The price you would charge for downloading your album should undercut the majors and thats your edge over them and the whole profit is yours. $10 times 10 million buyers= 100 million dollars.

www.myspace.com/thablaqsinattra

[Kalonjii]

Real talk and lol at the "massa" line had me laughing but yeah it's true.

[maudizzle]

Hip hop is the biggest selling music genre. What are you talking about?

[Tha_Blaq_Sinattra]

Hip hop is the biggest selling music genre. What are you talking about?

There's been a lot of flops lately. I dont have to go into detail

[salkku]

hip hop is selling like shit look at kanye west look p diddy look snoop when album is released look jay z.... gangsta rap aint selling thats why snoop turn to r&b

[R-Tistic]

Yeah, there have been a lot of flops lately...but I would never even consider saying "Hip Hop ain't sellin anymore" as many people have said unless 2-3 years from now, there were only 2-3 platinum albums. Every time somebody major comes out, it sells just as much as usual. Busta did somewhat "flop" for Aftermath, but the reasons were obvious. Please believe that when Jay drops, Eminem drops, and Kanye or whoever else, people will be like "oh......well....aside from them, nothing has been selling". But there haven't been many major songs or albums to drop this year like usual, so we can't act like it's been going on for years or whatever...we've seen two of the five biggest first week sales in history within the last year and a half with 50 cent and Kanye.

[Narrator]

Maybe it's just the fact that hip-hop is finally running out of commercial steam?

It's been the dominant genre of mainstream music since 1998 (which was the first year that it outsold rock, country, and all other American genres).  Very few genres ever span more than a decade...disco didn't even last 5 years, heavy metal spanned the 80s, grunge and everything "alternative" spanned most of the 90s, now hip-hop has spanned most of this decade.  Is it really so unreasonable to think that after 8 years of dominance (and plenty of popularity even before that), the attention span-starved mainstream is finally moving on?

[BallinNigga06]

because of Paul Wall

[d-nice]

Yeah, there have been a lot of flops lately...but I would never even consider saying "Hip Hop ain't sellin anymore" as many people have said unless 2-3 years from now, there were only 2-3 platinum albums. Every time somebody major comes out, it sells just as much as usual. Busta did somewhat "flop" for Aftermath, but the reasons were obvious. Please believe that when Jay drops, Eminem drops, and Kanye or whoever else, people will be like "oh......well....aside from them, nothing has been selling". But there haven't been many major songs or albums to drop this year like usual, so we can't act like it's been going on for years or whatever...we've seen two of the five biggest first week sales in history within the last year and a half with 50 cent and Kanye.

The shift in sales in down south. I am not going to name all the artists with plaques down south but it is a growing list. And record labels are catering to that. It seems every year there is 1 artist or group that sells due to the fact their shit is so different than everything else out there. (Gnarls Barkley) But for the most part, the consumer's ear is liking the south right now. It happened to the west but it goes in cycles. You have alot of heavy hitters on the west and the east dropping in the next couple of months so it will be interesting to see what happens.

[Tha_Blaq_Sinattra]

because of Paul Wall

lmao

but nah, I dont think "The south is just what the people want". I think a couple of records from down there blew up and the record companies being the followers that they are only started pushing that one style instead of pushing the diversity that makes up a good music scene. And the west did'nt play out because of lack of intrest, the west was played out by the companies that were scared of the west. They was like "them cats is really gangsters" not just fake rappin about it. And the good ones like Dafari and Souls of mischief dont get heard as a result.

[d-nice]

because of Paul Wall

lmao

but nah, I dont think "The south is just what the people want". I think a couple of records from down there blew up and the record companies being the followers that they are only started pushing that one style instead of pushing the diversity that makes up a good music scene. And the west did'nt play out because of lack of intrest, the west was played out by the companies that were scared of the west. They was like "them cats is really gangsters" not just fake rappin about it. And the good ones like Dafari and Souls of mischief dont get heard as a result.

That is true also, but alot of records execs love gangsta rap. If it comes from Dr. Dre. If not they figure it is not knockin. Dre actually has helped alot of "backpack" rappers when 2001 came out. It helped bridge the different styles and it gave artists like Xzibit a new audience. But lately we are falling back into this separation again. Bay Area, L.A./Gangsta Rap and BackPack Rap & BEP. Labels are feeling the bay again but now if you are not Cube, Dre, Snoop or Game you don't get a listen and backpack rap or lyricists are completely overlooked. Black Eyed Peas is on some other shit but I like how Will.I.Am is not afraid to work with anyone on the production tip.

[Tha_Blaq_Sinattra]

That shit Will produced with Too Short, Snoop and fergie is pretty slappin'.

[Narrator]

And the west did'nt play out because of lack of intrest, the west was played out by the companies that were scared of the west. They was like "them cats is really gangsters" not just fake rappin about it. And the good ones like Dafari and Souls of mischief dont get heard as a result.

LOL, that's some retarded shit, homie.  If the record companies were really afraid that some of them were really gangstas, why did they continue to support Dre, Snoop, posthumous Pac albums, Xzibit, WC at one point (when he was on Def Jam), and more recently Game?  West Coast rap got even MORE gangsta in the late-90s, not less, with cats starting to rep their sets on wax and C-walkin in their videos.  So why support only SOME rappers and not others?  Makes no fuckin sense.  No, the record labels would have kept supporting the other West Coast cats if (unlike the artists I mentioned above) they believed they could still make money off them.

Pac's death definitely gave the West a bad image, but the fact is, people DID get tired of the West.  Everyone in '96 was complaining about how much everything sounded like G-Funk by that point.  But image alone doesn't do shit...record labels could have been happy to keep exploiting the G-Funk sound all the way to today if it lasted that long.

Also, you forget that Souls of Mischief was signed to a major label (Jive) at one point.

[1nce was blind]

I can say that I haven't purchased many albums in the past couple years due 2 a few reasons.........my expectations have become higher and I no longer will purchase an album for only a couple of the songs.........especially since I have a cd burner and blank cd's are cheaper.....I am not feeling much of the music that is being put out nowadays and hope that my choice 2 withhold purchasing some albums will open some artists eyes 2 want 2 put out better music......also, hiphop has become too commercial and everyone is trying it which imo has somewhat ruined the artform.....it used 2 be mostly about lyrics but nowadays beats and fads are dominating what is being listened 2...........and we all have 2 admit that the internet can have an enormous effect on album sales.........a lot of people I know who listen 2 rap nowadays just choose 2 burn all the albums they want..........not too many people will go and spend their money on cd's unless they are a loyal fan 2 certain artists

[d-nice]

That shit Will produced with Too Short, Snoop and fergie is pretty slappin'.

I want to hear this Compton song Game keeps talking about Will did for the DA album. I think now that BEP has made all this money I think Will is going to be dropping some heat like he did back in the day.