10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

[jmood88]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

Not only are Hip-Hop sales down, but ALL genres are down. The entire music industry is in the toliet and no one cares to make changes. They just want to ride things out and hope it straightens itself out.

IMO, the biggest reason sales are slow across the board is that no exec at a major wants to take a risk.

And it's because now people don't have to buy a $16 dollar cd if they want the music.

[VanCitySportsGuy]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

IMO, the biggest reason sales are slow across the board is that no exec at a major wants to take a risk.

I'm sure people stealing music online isn't the biggest reason CD sales are down.....

I always hear people say how the music companies are behind the times. What else can they do?

Certain CD's already come out with the chance to win big prizes and there's iTunes where you can buy songs on an individual basis.

If you don't like any mainstream artists, there's lots of "underground" artists out there.

You can't blame the quality of music for lack of sales. Overall, the music that is out today is just as good as the music that came out 40 years ago.

The real problem is that too many people illegally download music now. We have a generation now where paying for music is a foreign concept.

[JiggidyJames]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

The real problem is that too many people illegally download music now.

Nope.

The big stars' albums still sell. It's everyone else that doesn't. When hugely popular acts come out, they sell well.

The downloading age arguement is garbage. You'd be suprised how many people still don't know where to find music for free. And many of them are teenage girls, the most desirable demographic.

Record companies follow the trends to the death. So called Emo Rock is popular now, so they sign those guys and push them. Southern Rap is popular now. How many non-established Hip-Hop acts not from the South get a huge promotional push? They use the trend up until they have to find something else. As far as Hip-Hop goes, they're using the same formula they were using in 2000! And they're content with this because they still get their cut.

Execs can turn things around faster than usual if they take a risk. Jimmy Iovine did and now Interscope has the biggest selling urban division. Yet, Warner signs up cliche ridden Southern act after act and their market share is down. Coincidence? No.

[ODogg]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

I'm sure people stealing music online isn't the biggest reason CD sales are down.....

The real problem is that too many people illegally download music now. We have a generation now where paying for music is a foreign concept.

I think the biggest thing is now people have choice. Personally I *do* download music and listen to it. If I think I'll listen to the whole CD and the artist deserves my $12-$15 then I go buy the CD. If I only find one or two songs that I like then I don't. Chris Daughtry's CD is a great example. I downloaded it from a friend at work, listened to it a few times, liked it and went out and paid for the CD. Chris Daughtry now got his 8% or whatever the artists get from the record companies for my $15 I spent at Best Buy on his cd (and this is a part of the big problem, artists should be getting far more than 8%).

Truth be told most of the music I download is music I already own though, and cannot locate the CD, or the CD is scratched something fierce...ie most of the music from the 80's and 90's. Most of the current music is not even worth wasting my time to download and burn.

And sure there is Itunes and etc where you can buy songs for 99 cents or whatnot but that all goes back to what the artists are getting, their share. If I'm downloading the song and burning it, why am I still paying nearly full price for it? Shouldn't downloaded songs that you get legitimately be much, much cheaper than store bought CDs? Maybe when the music industry gets away from being so greedy, drops the price to 25 cents a song and gives the artists 50% instead of 8% things may change?

And I think that pretty much says it all as to why music sales are down.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

everyone has there own opinion, and so do I, Biggie was the best ever in my eyes.

[kuruption]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

I have felt that Hip-Hop has been going down hill for a while now. Just read this article recently about how Hip-Hop sales are struggling. I think a lot of people are getting tired of the constant negativity it portrays. Back when NWA first came out, it was something different. Loved them and Ice-T.

Now it all (most of it) sounds the same. Not very much originality at all.

http://cbs13.com/entertainment/local...064003911.html

it has more to do with how easy downloading is then the actual music though . sure rap used to be better but that isnt really the reason for the low album sales.4\

[Cebby]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

Nope.

The big stars' albums still sell. It's everyone else that doesn't. When hugely popular acts come out, they sell well.

The downloading age arguement is garbage. You'd be suprised how many people still don't know where to find music for free. And many of them are teenage girls, the most desirable demographic.

Record companies follow the trends to the death. So called Emo Rock is popular now, so they sign those guys and push them. Southern Rap is popular now. How many non-established Hip-Hop acts not from the South get a huge promotional push? They use the trend up until they have to find something else. As far as Hip-Hop goes, they're using the same formula they were using in 2000! And they're content with this because they still get their cut.

Execs can turn things around faster than usual if they take a risk. Jimmy Iovine did and now Interscope has the biggest selling urban division. Yet, Warner signs up cliche ridden Southern act after act and their market share is down. Coincidence? No.

You are dead wrong.

Nobody's albums are selling. Nobodies.

Example 1: 50 Cent

50 Cent's "The Massacre" should be the highest selling rap album ever. Not based on talent or anything, but on sheer popularity. He released the biggest album of the 2000s as his debut, and 2 years later released The Massacre. The album not only had all the mainstream hype, but it followed that with 4 top 5 singles. The album sold 5 million copies. By comparison, 2pac had 3 5+ million selling albums with 1 top 5 hit. With 50's rise in popularity, his sales should not have dropped 3 million.

Example 2: Lil Wayne

He's clearly a lot bigger of a star than he was in 1998-2000, yet his sales got progressively worse until the Carter 2 which is by far his most popular album, yet is barely his second best selling album.

Example 3: 2006

There were/are 4 albums from 2006 that were/will be platinum, with none going multi platinum. By comparison, Roc-A-Fella records from 2000-2002 had 10 albums go platinum, and those included Cam'ron, Dipset, and DJ Clue. No Limit records had 10 platinum records in 4 years. Cash Money had 9 in 3 years.


Eminem and 50 are by far the two hottest rappers out now, and their last albums sold a combined 9 million albums. Eminem had a 5 million album drop from The Eminem Show to Encore. NOBODY is selling, despite rap being bigger than it ever was.

[Kruza]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

Ice-T is one of the pioneers of Gangsta Rap. First 3 albums are great, but you probably were not born then or not old enough to listen. 6' in the morning is a classic.

"6 in the mornin police at my door/
Fresh Adidas squeak across the bathroom floor... "

Ice-T is one of my all time personal favorite MCs. He was a pretty good party rhymer, but what made him great was that he's an awesome storyteller. He specialized in putting together gangster tales that sounded fresh at the time since not many people had done this before him, and -- with all due respect to Just Ice and Schooly D who were doing it alright -- neither one could kick it like the O.G could.

What made Ice-T so great was the way he put stories together. First, his stories sounded real and mostly authentic because he didn't really exaggerate stuff like rappers have done over the years. And second, he kicked his stories in a way that allowed him to get his point and gangster tales across without glorifying the gangster persona, which was a big deal back then since people in general looked down at this kind of rap as "negative" and had it immediately banned just about everywhere. It's a totally different kind of era now that major labels look to capitalize on gangster rap and saturate the market with it -- even if it's average to just plain terrible rappers who are putting out the material.

Three of Ice-T's first four albums are very good, but I have to say O.G. Original Gangster is the timeless classic of the bunch. Just a brilliant album throughout.

No offense but I have no idea how anybody can like Ice-T. That guy was one of the worst rappers I've ever heard. "Cop Killer" was hilarious though.

One of the worst ever? Heh, you've got to be joking. I'll put up the work of pre-Home Invasion era Ice-T up against the catalog of any gangster rapper out there today.

Kruza

[jetsfansiny79]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

Ice-T was little before my time, but I did listen to some of his music. 6 N morning was a great song. There was album that came out about 9 years ago called in the beginning there was rap. It had stars of the 90's rapping over classic 80's rap songs. Wu-tang re did a run Dmc which was pretty good. Master P did Ice-t's 6 n morning which he should of never even tried. Downloading music might have some to do with sales. 5 years ago music downloading was big, but some rapppers still manged to sell alot of albums. 50 cent's get rich or die tryin did extremley well in 03. The thing today is not many rappers albums are worthy of buying or even downloading. Rap is dying and its mostly due to the talent and rappers having the same style. Biggie was also a great story teller. Sucidal thougths and I got a story to tell are 2 great story telling songs. For the people on here who say there are good hip hop artists today, can you please name some.

[JiggidyJames]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

You are dead wrong.

Nobody's albums are selling. Nobodies.

Example 1: 50 Cent

50 Cent's "The Massacre" should be the highest selling rap album ever. Not based on talent or anything, but on sheer popularity. He released the biggest album of the 2000s as his debut, and 2 years later released The Massacre. The album not only had all the mainstream hype, but it followed that with 4 top 5 singles. The album sold 5 million copies. By comparison, 2pac had 3 5+ million selling albums with 1 top 5 hit. With 50's rise in popularity, his sales should not have dropped 3 million.

Example 2: Lil Wayne

He's clearly a lot bigger of a star than he was in 1998-2000, yet his sales got progressively worse until the Carter 2 which is by far his most popular album, yet is barely his second best selling album.

Example 3: 2006

There were/are 4 albums from 2006 that were/will be platinum, with none going multi platinum. By comparison, Roc-A-Fella records from 2000-2002 had 10 albums go platinum, and those included Cam'ron, Dipset, and DJ Clue. No Limit records had 10 platinum records in 4 years. Cash Money had 9 in 3 years.


Eminem and 50 are by far the two hottest rappers out now, and their last albums sold a combined 9 million albums. Eminem had a 5 million album drop from The Eminem Show to Encore. NOBODY is selling, despite rap being bigger than it ever was.

50 Cent still sold 5 million while losing a good chunk of his fan base.

Lil' Wayne doesn't get radio play in the country's biggest market.

Eminem had the big dip in sales because he had a big dip in quality.

The highest selling Rap albums of 2006 were the soundtrack for Idlewild and TI. They are not on the same level as 50 or Eminem. The only "superstar" to put out an album was Jay-Z, and nobody cared.

Most of the people who download aren't going to buy the album anyway so they don't lose sales. How many people would dub stuff back in the day? A weaker economy plus acts not being developed properly on top of the fact that there are more Rap albums being put out than ever leads us into the mess we have. Downloading is NOT the problem. I don't care what anyone says, I don't care what numbers the RIAA throws out there.

[TarHeelMan]

Re: 10 Years already/Miss Ya B.I.G.

LOL... That brings back memories... I was a dubbin' fool back in the late 80s.... I'd get my man's tape, dub it, and I was good to go.... I remember once, on a class weekend trip to Washington DC in our senior year, my man bought a tape from some Hare Krishnas (I don't know why, he just liked the way the stuff sounded)... We got on the bus back to the hotel, popped the tape in, and it turned out it was blank... Those foolz got you for 10 bones, we told him... He asked me if I had my Biz Markie tape (the "Just a Friend" one, which was hot at the time)... I gave it to him, and he dubbed it right there, consoling himself with the thought that he spent 10 bucks and now had a Biz tape.