THE WEST HAS FELL OFF, THIS IS WHY!

[LodiDodi]

The small glimmer of hope is if artists would follow Ice Cube's lead he's taking with his upcoming "Raw Footage" album.  He's said in interviews that he's using this album to make music the way he wants, with no record company exec telling him he needs a club-ready single or that he needs to get a hot-artist-of-the-moment to guest on a song, cause he's doing it independently with his own money and is already filthy rich as it is.  There's no guarantee that Raw Footage is going to be a throwback to the west coast sound, but there's a better chance you'll hear an album full of songs that sound like the teaser single "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It".

[MarshColin]

its fell off because people dont buy the music! west coast has got a strong fanbase.. but there broke

It's not that people are broke it's that they're cheap as hell. This board is a PRIME example of that.

[messi19]

its fell off because people dont buy the music! west coast has got a strong fanbase.. but there broke

u cant say that, people download/bootleg everywhere. But the thing with south is they support each other they
buy each others records, which makes BET, MTV and all those mufuckas play the shit cuz they see that thats what people want,
thats what ppl wanna hear. Everybody know Wayne a fake gangster and all that cuz he was signed when he was a youngin' and all that, but no one cares about it, they all support him, buy his albums, the kids vote for him..and the same thing goes for T.I., Soulja Boy, Luda etc etc. Ova here its "u fake, u aint gangsta...u aint gangsta so im not goin to buy your MUSIC, im with this label so im not fuckin wit u" and bullshit like dat. All these lil ass punk beefs and shit...LMAO look at the westcoast. How many cats actually fuck with each other (n/h)? Old cats dont fuck the new cats, this cat dont fuck with that cat but his homie fuck with both of em or sum shit like dat. Niggas just can't get along on the west cuz everybody wanna judje or speak about the next man, and tell ppl how hard they are and bla bla.

Wheneva a new cat blows up on the west, rappers here dont think "thats wazup maybe we can do a track with dude and kick it for the westcoast"..naw fuck that they rather make up 2 diss songs about how that cat aint this aint that, aint the right person to be on top, aint reppin
the streets right or whateva, n im not talkin about Game or anything if u ppl think that, but ive seen it more than once to know.

[sav-man]

2 thoughts:

1) West coast music didn't really fall off, it just stopped being a dominant force in the mainstream and on radio/video.  1992-1998 is a good range of that classic era, probably peaking around 1995-96 like the other poster said.  1998 had albums like Streetz Iz A Mutha and Rhythm-al-ism that maintained the classic sound.  After that came Chronic 2001, which still fit in the west coast category but was obviously trying to change the soundscape.  It had traditional west coat synth/bass/funk elements but only in limited amounts, and shifted towards a more symphonic-type sound.

2) The change in the way tradiional west coast rap sounded was a combination of different things:  2Pac's death, downfall of Death Row, rise in mainstream popularity of Southern rap, west coast artists/producers trying to cash in on current trends (i.e. dirty south, bling era), the list goes on and on.

The bottom line is, the west coast sound doesn't make money anymore.  That's why it's not what it used to be.  Making something danceable for the clubs = radio play = record sales = ITunes sales = profit.   10 years ago, Snoop would've been laughed at for releasing something like Sexual Eruption, but today its one of his biggest hits in years.  The blame doesn't fall on the artist, it falls on the younger listeners and their taste in music.  Basically, their taste in music sucks. 

Agreed and agreed. Good points. Point #1 is especially true.

And another thing that some may have forgotten: Around 1995-96, politicians trying to get elected (Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, William Bennett, etc). and other folks like C. Delores Tucker started the whole "gangsta rap is evil, it's destroying our children, blah blah blah" bullshit movement. Even though gangsta rap was still selling very well around the end of 1996 and the start of 1997, Tupac and Biggie's deaths and the bad publicity that consequently ensued gave these politicians an "excuse" (so to speak) to do a "we-told-you-so" kind of routine. Because of this, I think that the major labels felt that West Coast rap (gangsta rap in particular) was a black eye on the industry, so they dissassociated themselves w/ it. The majors nowadays are thus probably afraid to put out anything too "real," because they don't want any controversy directed their way. Thus, the safer the subject matter, the more likely the majors will put it out, and the more dance-oriented stuff is an example.

So, to me, West Coast rap didn't really "die"--it was just deemphasized by the majors and the media. Some West Coast artists who had signed to major labels still came out, but many of them were not given much promotion or fanfare (RBL Posse's AN EYE FOR AN EYE, the Get Low projects that were distributed by Priority, etc) the way they might have been during the 1992-95 period. People didn't buy a lot of West Coast rap after 1997 (w/ few exceptions) because it wasn't being promoted or given any push. By 1997-98, Puff Daddy, DMX, Jay-Z, Southern rap (No Limit, Cash Money, etc). and stuff like that was being given the huge fanfare that West Coast rap used to receive, but didn't anymore. Thus, fans bought more East and South music and less West music, because that's all that they were aware of, in many cases. You could have the best project, but if it isn't promoted, people won't know that it's out there, and consequently, they won't buy it.  Just my opinion, though.

PEACE!

[Sofa_King_Awesome]

2 thoughts:

1) West coast music didn't really fall off, it just stopped being a dominant force in the mainstream and on radio/video.  1992-1998 is a good range of that classic era, probably peaking around 1995-96 like the other poster said.  1998 had albums like Streetz Iz A Mutha and Rhythm-al-ism that maintained the classic sound.  After that came Chronic 2001, which still fit in the west coast category but was obviously trying to change the soundscape.  It had traditional west coat synth/bass/funk elements but only in limited amounts, and shifted towards a more symphonic-type sound.

2) The change in the way tradiional west coast rap sounded was a combination of different things:  2Pac's death, downfall of Death Row, rise in mainstream popularity of Southern rap, west coast artists/producers trying to cash in on current trends (i.e. dirty south, bling era), the list goes on and on.

The bottom line is, the west coast sound doesn't make money anymore.  That's why it's not what it used to be.  Making something danceable for the clubs = radio play = record sales = ITunes sales = profit.   10 years ago, Snoop would've been laughed at for releasing something like Sexual Eruption, but today its one of his biggest hits in years.  The blame doesn't fall on the artist, it falls on the younger listeners and their taste in music.  Basically, their taste in music sucks. 

Agreed and agreed. Good points. Point #1 is especially true.

And another thing that some may have forgotten: Around 1995-96, politicians trying to get elected (Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, William Bennett, etc). and other folks like C. Delores Tucker started the whole "gangsta rap is evil, it's destroying our children, blah blah blah" bullshit movement. Even though gangsta rap was still selling very well around the end of 1996 and the start of 1997, Tupac and Biggie's deaths and the bad publicity that consequently ensued gave these politicians an "excuse" (so to speak) to do a "we-told-you-so" kind of routine. Because of this, I think that the major labels felt that West Coast rap (gangsta rap in particular) was a black eye on the industry, so they dissassociated themselves w/ it. The majors nowadays are thus probably afraid to put out anything too "real," because they don't want any controversy directed their way. Thus, the safer the subject matter, the more likely the majors will put it out, and the more dance-oriented stuff is an example.

So, to me, West Coast rap didn't really "die"--it was just deemphasized by the majors and the media. Some West Coast artists who had signed to major labels still came out, but many of them were not given much promotion or fanfare (RBL Posse's AN EYE FOR AN EYE, the Get Low projects that were distributed by Priority, etc) the way they might have been during the 1992-95 period. People didn't buy a lot of West Coast rap after 1997 (w/ few exceptions) because it wasn't being promoted or given any push. By 1997-98, Puff Daddy, DMX, Jay-Z, Southern rap (No Limit, Cash Money, etc). and stuff like that was being given the huge fanfare that West Coast rap used to receive, but didn't anymore. Thus, fans bought more East and South music and less West music, because that's all that they were aware of, in many cases. You could have the best project, but if it isn't promoted, people won't know that it's out there, and consequently, they won't buy it.  Just my opinion, though.

PEACE!

Great point sav-man