so is it illegal downloads killing hiphop?

[Lunatic]

Lil Wayne, TI, Luda, 50 Cent, The Game. Their all boring people with boring stories.
Fuck 50, Kanye, TI, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, the Game. They all suck. They all can't rap, they are all products of the industry. Fake people, with fake stories, with fake lives, releasing mediocre music.

part in colour: those artists sell a lot of records, so that doesn't really matter..it's other artists that should be mentioned
and Kanye don't have a fake story, because he's not a "gangsta" rapper...and it's been proven T.I. ain't no punk, with a made-up story...can't comment on the rest of the artists

[R-Tistic]

Theirs no artistic talent in rap anymore. Like the old Quik, writing, producing and pretty much doing every step of the music process himself. Now, most rappers get mailed beats, get told what to rap about, and have the record execs putting the album together.

VERY true. Something that people don't really pay attention to is the fact that during the 80s and 90s, you didn't really see as many collaborations between companies, cliques, and coasts. That started happening later in the 90s...and with that, albums were promoted more so for the producers and artists featured on it, versus the artist themselves...and that there destroys the chemistry. There are barely any rap albums that are considered to be classics that have a different producer on almost every track, with a guest rapper on half of the tracks. Most of the best music came when camps had their own unique sound, and spent time to perfect their album...versus just getting random beats and throwing them together, hoping that the guest and producer names would sell.

Rap music sales are down because rap music quality is down. The artists with REAL talent like Crooked I, WC, etc can't even get on a major label because their not marketable. The only quality music being released is released by independent labels. Fuck 50, Kanye, TI, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, the Game. They all suck. They all can't rap, they are all products of the industry. Fake people, with fake stories, with fake lives, releasing mediocre music.

I agree to an extent, but that's how it is in every genre. If you talk to a real Jazz head who has been listening since the 60's, he'll tell you the exact same thing about Jazz. Brian Culbertson, Boney James, and especially Kenny G aren't the most talented cats out there..but according to the industry, they are most marketable. Same with R&B...we all know that pretty faces sell more than strong voices. Now to say WC has real talent, but to say Jay-Z sucks is completely biased...and I bump both of them, so I definitely can't agree.

[Styles1]

shit... its death coming from all angles... the industry companies, the media outlets, the artists and the fans...

if Hip Hop were a man in a movie, he would be starring in Final Destination 4....

[You Ain't Shit]

sales from every musci typre are down. record sales have been decreasing year by year becuase of factors like bootleggin ans other shit. there is still good money in touring tho, thats where the artist get alot of their money , also marketing themselves.

[Sikotic™]

Wack ass music is killing hip hop.

[The King]

Now to say WC has real talent, but to say Jay-Z sucks is completely biased...and I bump both of them, so I definitely can't agree.

It's the music making process really. Jay-Z working in some big studio surrounded by Execs and shit, getting people like Dr.Dre to mail him beats, and then he just lays down the pre-written verses.

WC sitting in some studio in LA, listening to beats, sittin with Cube and his hommies, writin lyrics, listening to beats. It's all about the process. When an artist can sit back, listen to hundreds of beats, and pick the ones he wants, and lay down the lyrics he wants, that's a good album. But when your getting beats from people like Dr.Dre, he sends you one beat, take it or leave it.

It's also better when one guy is producing most of your stuff. That way everything has the same vibe. You can go from one song to the next, and it makes sense. Not like Curtis, where your listening to Amusment Park then Come and Go. Their no vibe, no flow to the music.

A good example is that Nelly Furtado album. Timbaland produced like half of it, yet every song is unique, but all good together nicely, in a logical way.

So in a way, over collaboration killed music. Why does every main stream release have 15 different producers on it? Imagine a 15 track 50 album produced by Em, or a 15 track Jay-Z album produced by Just Blaze. How many people anticipate a Storch beat? No one! It's because he gave his stuff to too many people.

Producers should only give their beats to a few different individuals, that way they can create their own sound and identity through their artists.

[Chief]

I haven't read the article yet, but what I do know is that artists make more money with performances than with record sales.

[arthurnelson88]

Downloading isn't killing hip-hop. The simple fact is, mainstream Rap/Hip-Hop is not interesting anymore. The rappers themselves are
BORING people. Lil Wayne, TI, Luda, 50 Cent, The Game. Their all boring people with boring stories.

15 years ago, we had NWA, Quik, Dre, Snoop, Cube, Easy-E, and all the east rappers. All with interesting stories, how they grew up, how they made it in the business, who they are as people.

What interesting about growing up middle class, getting a record deal through an Exec, and releasing music you probably didn't write or produce.

Rappers these days are BORING. Uninteresting people playing uninteresting characters, releasing cookie cutter ghost written albums, with mediocre production.

Theirs no artistic talent in rap anymore. Like the old Quik, writing, producing and pretty much doing every step of the music process himself. Now, most rappers get mailed beats, get told what to rap about, and have the record execs putting the album together.

Rap music sales are down because rap music quality is down. The artists with REAL talent like Crooked I, WC, etc can't even get on a major label because their not marketable. The only quality music being released is released by independent labels. Fuck 50, Kanye, TI, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, the Game. They all suck. They all can't rap, they are all products of the industry. Fake people, with fake stories, with fake lives, releasing mediocre music.

The fans kill hip hop (such as tha poster above) ; reasons why:

- Downloading (dont lie, alot of us have albums upon albums old and new on our computers)

- Bandwagoning (one person says hiphop is dead, and tha second Nas says that EVERYBODY is finally "getting it off their chest"  ) and tha media is helping it too bcuz they got it (hip hop) into a corner so blacks can loose out on more money, its pitiful and ur helping contribute to tha murder of tha game, tha white man is loving every second of it too

- Haterism ("Pop" rappers make millions of dollars a year commercially and nobody likes it bcuz they're not "real" enuff, like EVERYBODY's supposed to have something meaninful to say - yea it sounds ignorant but its true, if everyone came out sounding like Nas/2Pac then tha game would b so boring)

-Hypocrital muthafuckaz (They say support "real" hip hop" but turn around and DOWNLOAD that new WC album or that new Crooked I shit bcuz its got cleaver (violent) rhymes and it sounds good, but tha whole time its still negative and offering no form of knowledge to tha youth which SUPPOSIDLY everyone cares about.)

- Hatersism Part Two - (When people dont like an artist they go out there way to show it and it makes tha culture look bad, so when NEW people git into it, they're either stuck in tha past or wont fuck wit tha real bcuz a few people BANDWAGON and make stupid ass coments about it, this is tha internet not a soap opera)

- Lack of ecceptance (Someone new comes out on a "pop" level and IMMEDIATLY everyone comes out hating bcuz they made a single about tha club/husslin/bitch/money, and someone new on tha underground comes out and raps about tha same thing (*Bishop Lamont*) and everyone loves him- not bcuz he signed wit Dre it's bcuz he hasnt reached "pop" status yet - watch tha haters roll in if he EVER gits out - o and by tha way havnt u ever noticed that once somebody has alot of promotion and no album on Aftermath they never release an album verses somebody with little promotion always does.


songs like Crank Dat Soulja Boy and Watch My Feet are as much hiphop as Paid In Full by Rakim, everyone forgets that dancing is part of hip hop and if we all took tha Nas, Snoop Dogg, and T.I. approach then we'd all be bored 2 our tears and literally killing everybody.  oh yea and to everybody that says Lil' Wayne is wack and isnt better than Big Daddy Kane, then ur lying to urself



.... so much to teach....

[Styles1]

I like a good dance song, but these dudes lately aren't putting any effort in to their songs.... but we had that back in the day with that "everybody dance now" shit... but a cool dance song like the Humpty Dance? hell yeah...