Friday, March 02, 2007

Is Hip-Hop Dead?

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Sales of rap music are declining as more are critical of its message
"...after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society."

Why? Well initially, I would say sales of all albums are down, largely due to popular music download sites like iTunes, or even Peer to Peer (P2P) sites. Then I would say, American Idol has produced some real good artists over the past five years. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood both are major award winners at all levels. Plus Kelly is hot!!!
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Hip-hop superstar NAS even tried to rebuke the fact Hip-Hop was dying releasing an album titled "Hip Hop Is Dead." Sales are bleak. Sales are down across the board, but Hip-Hop has taken the biggest hit...21% between 2005-06.
Is Hip-Hop on the down because of it's negative message, soft-core music videos, over-indulgent lifestyle, or the latest fashion....the grillz? I say none...I say the true reason for the decline is blamed on VH-1
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This show led my MC Serch from the 80's Hip-Hop group...3rd Bass, brought 12 white would-be rappers to the Bronx, home of Hip-Hop. I smell Emmy! Wait, no, that's not what Emmy smells like, that is trash I smell. The White Rapper Show doesn't get full credit for killing Hip-Hop. This guy started the Trimspa drip back in the 90's.
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I don't think Hip-Hop is dead, dying maybe, but not dead. iTunes now makes it possible to buy only the songs you want, instead of the entire album...this makes great sense. We recently did just that yesterday. Norah Jones is back and better than ever...at least she's better than DAUGHTRY in record sales.
"Not Too Late" by Norah Jones remained atop the Billboard 200 for the third, non-consecutive week.
Jones' release becomes the first album to claim the No. 1 spot for three weeks since the "Now 22" compilation last summer.
Read the rest...

So while Hip-Hop sales are down, ratings for American Idol are up...way up, and iTunes and P2P sites are moving media at a clip similar to Britney's rehab visits.

1 comment:

Righteous said...

Hip hop is dead to me.

I'm tired of defending it. I don't understand it anymore. I don't find it attractive anymore.

I'm no longer returning its calls.

I think acts like Master P and the Cash Money Millionaires are to blame. It all started to go downhill around the time that crap came out.

Ghostface Killah is still alive to me, and all the classics live on in my iPod, (EPMD, Redman, old-school L.L.),but this newfangled stuff is garbage to me.

Maybe I'm getting old, but songs like "This Is Why I'm Hot" make no sense to me.

However, in its defense, I think this particular type of music is probably the most popular among today's tech sect. That is to say, of all the music getting "shared," (read stolen), this is probably on top of the heap.

I mean, at the risk of sounding like a bigot, I doubt too many country music fans are as adept at "obtaining" the latest Trace Adkins tracks as the more tech-savvy Jay-Hova fans were at getting the Jay-Hova's Grey Album.

I guess I can just say it: I think rap fans steal music more, but only 'cause they're smarter.