Okay, I’m not the world’s biggest hip-hop fan, and I figured this whole rivalry between 50 Cent (pictured) and Kanye West was just a stunt to help both men sell more records, but I had no idea that the state of hip-hop was so dire that the genre’s entire future depended on the Fiddy-Kanye stunt. Thank goodness for Reuters, whose article about the contest begins with this sentence (italics mine):
Rapper 50 Cent has pledged to retire if Kanye West’s new album outsells his, generating much-needed publicity for a flagging musical genre that may go the way of disco.
Really? Rap’s been popular for nearly 30 years, but if Kenny Chesney outsells both Fiddy and Kanye this week, the genre is doomed? The article is correct to note that CD sales are down for hip-hop, but isn’t that true across the board? It also notes that the careers of many rappers have a short shelf life, but that doesn’t mean the music as a whole is a flash in the pan, does it?
Finally, we have this observation as to why rap’s appeal is supposedly waning: "You have got 30-year-old millionaires trying to appeal to17- and 18-year-olds who aren’t millionaires." Um, hasn’t that been the situation in the recording industry for close to a century? If the industry no longer knows how to market the music of millionaires to kids who want to be millionaires, then its problems are a lot bigger than a hip-hop slump.
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This ‘feud’ is such a stunt. Why else are they acting all buddy buddy in public and 50 gives half-a**ed answers when ppl ask him to what he meant by why he would retire?
“flagging musical genre that may go the way of disco”…what an offensive and uniformed comment, especially in an article that mentions kayne west’s graduation album (he may have an utterly ridiculous personality, but he is no less than a musical genuis). disco had a reign of about 5-7 years. hip hop is here to stay. what an out of touch idiot.
Record sales are down not because of lack of interest, but lack of funds. Everyone’s downloading for free. Da hip-hoppers are bein’ ripped off.
To be honest, I’d be glad to see it go. I enjoy the music (and even bought Kanye’s disc) but how many songs can be written about bling, babes, and “being bad.” I honestly think it’s added to the dumbing down of America. I’ll be glad to see the tides turn.
hiphop is not dying. the music industry is…actually this rings true for the whole entertainment industry. we’ve reached a point in our society where quality is important…and we’re not gettting it. like disco and heavy metal, labels are only concerned for the next hit. the formula is there, but the product is like a copy of a copy of copy. they want hits…easy money. hiphop used to be the voice of the people but labels use our own desires for excess and wealth to distract us. they are only concerned about their own well being and riches. they want to make sure they never lose any money or resources. to quote a fallen MC – “Sometimes it seems
We’ll touch that dream
But things come slow or not at all
And the ones on top, won’t make it stop
So convinced that they might fall. even if hip hop “dies off” it will never be completely gone. its like hearing the blues when you listen to Mary J Blige or Jazz when you listen to Norah Jones. Its still there…just in a different form.
Rap music ain’t going anywhere. And also, I really wish people would stop referring to 50 Cent as “Fiddy Cent.” It’s corny. Please stop it. Thank you.
quote:
“You have got 30-year-old millionaires trying to appeal to 17- and 18-year-olds who aren’t millionaires.” Um, hasn’t that been the situation in the recording industry for close to a century?”
This may be true, but the rest of the recording industry doesn’t flaunt the fact that they are millionaires in their records. Hip hop and rap not too recently has become self-promotional and it is all about their economic status, their cars and their hoochies. That is the principle the original article drives at.
Rap on the way out? Oh please, God. Please, please, please let it be so.
When one of the most musically talented artists in your genre starts talking about how the genre is dying, hmmm, I think that might be a clue that the genre is in serious trouble. Yes, music sales are down across the board, but rap is being hit the hardest by far, down 33%. I think the moral is simple: rap’s core inner city african american audience will always be there, but the white suburban fan is simply tired of the negativity and is driting away. This of course is the audience that pushes your album from a 200k to a 700k opening week. This latest stunt is yet another in a laughable line of rap stereotypical behavior. Do Dave Matthews Band make up phony feuds with Tom Petty in order to boost the sales of their albums?
The genre will always be around but people are growing tired of it for a variety of reasons pathalogical materialism, violence, hateful lyrics, dosen’t paticularly translate well live. The biggest reason though, I think is that a whole generation that grew up on it is now approaching their 30’s, so from a kids point of view, who wants to listen to music that a bunch of crusty baby boomers like?
grayson
Seen much mtv lately? I think your a little off base.
Good article Gary, the people who dont think hip hop is a genre will always think so, but like you said 30 years has proven them wrong.
And the people who are tired of all the stereotype sin hip hop are buying Kanye’s album. Which is why it went nearly Gold in one day.
Oh yeah and did anyone mention that these two are in the same label group?
The comment by d…..”flagging musical genre that may go the way of disco”…what an offensive and uniformed comment
How is this an offensive comment? It’s just an observation. This genre is going anywhere I agree but it needs to reinvent itself. Too many artists singing about the same thing. Okay we get it, you like fine women and cars and live in a big mansion. Boring. Get back to the Public Enemy roots and social commentary (just don’t sell out like Ice Cube and make horrible family movies)
I think the current “kind” of hip-hop — the one about cars, champagne, jewelry, expensive prostitutes — was a flash in the pan. The overall art form, though, is established and will persist, even if it stops being synonymous with popular. All musical genres have their day when they are the same thing as pop, from Romanticism to operetta to ragtime to showtunes to the various forms of jazz to rock and so forth. As long as an artist is not primariy focused on how much money he or she can make moving product (even if they do sell zillions), their art form will persist.
I’m sorry to say it but, is it me or do all you Entertainment Weekly bloggers just seem like young or middle aged white people who don’t have one sense of what hip hop is…doomed?? what the hell are you talking about..how many artist as hip hop and r&b had number 1 albums this year. And there is still heavy weights coming out including Lil wayne, Cassidy well you probably don’t know who they are. Don’t really know why you were assigned this. Oh and i read your article about Kanye next time don’t cherry pick lines. In a way i just don’t think you can respect the craft of black hip hop artist and you will never will. Oh and tell your partners in crime MTV next time dont open with a trainwreck with no album out and close with someone who opened last year. hmmhhh
That’s the most rediculous thing I’ve ever heard. “The way of disco.” There is no other genre of music that speaks to urban youth. Yes, young white boys are the ones who mostly buy the music, but they couple theirs with My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Ask any young black kid what radio station they listen to the most, and most of them will reply that it’s the urban, hip-hop station. Hip-hop isn’t dying, music sales are.
No one is saying hip hop is “dying”. There will always be a hard core inner city fanbase that will never go away. Hip Hop is just simply ceasing to be relevant to the vast majority of America. Lil Wayne will put out his album, it will go to #1, the only difference is, it will sell 200k the first week instead of 600k. Hip Hop albums will always be #1 because hip hop fans still BUY ALBUMS. Other musical genres are migrating online. That 400k of fans that wont be buying Lil Wayne have moved on, grown up, gotten tired of negativity, and wont be back. Make an actual good album with interesting lyrics that appeal to a broad base, and you can still sell 600k like Kanye. Hip hop only even got popular in the first place because grunge wasnt satisfying the teenage need for songs about sex, girls, partying, fun, and general debauchery. Puffy was more then happy to fill that void. Rap caught a lucky break and ran with it, and now its back to niche status. RIP, you wont be missed.
As a ’senior’ I don’t get this music. Much like my parents didn’t ‘get’ my music (hard rock). If people like it, they’ll buy it, and the cycle continues. But I don’t think it’s on it’s way out any time soon.
Yes, rap won’t truly die out like jazz or the blues like Mar pointed out, but for it to remain relevant, it needs a major reinvention. The genre’s turned into a parody of itself and the new rappers that emerged in this decade are mostly terrible. Listening to my local rap station is a torturous affair these days, since these groups lack any real creativity, or at least decent skills on the mic. Nas did right to call out the rap industry recently in his appropriately titled latest CD ‘Hip Hop Is Dead’ (though Nas isn’t immodest enough to admit he was part of the problem in the earlier portion of his career; same for Master P). When even 57% of rap listeners are dissatisfied with the genre – coming from JET readers, so it’s most likely a black audience rather than suburbanized whites – that’s a tough statistic to swallow. Unlike other musical genres, rap somehow lost its way after its rise to the top.
As for the lack of sales thing, even the most die hard rap fans these days download the albums off the internet these days over purchasing them. I can’t say I’m not guilty of this sin sometimes – but then again, who doesn’t download illegally every now and then? – but I try to at least support the artists by buying their stuff. It would help if labels reduced the price of albums to $10. $14-$15 is kind of pricey for hardcore music fans, since three CDs will cost them around $50 with tax.
“USC is a killer school!” – O.J. Simpson
Rap isn’t going anywhere. Is it in a slump? Sure, but so is rock music.
t3h, the new guys coming up are what Kanye calls “ringtone rappers”. They only want a song with a quick 4 second hook that sounds good on a cellphone, since most rappers these days make more money off of endorsements, ringtones, and commercials then their actual record contract.
Southern rappers are the main reason rap pretty much stink!!!!
I have leearned a couple of ur articles that u do not kno hip hop at all. sTICK WITH WAT U KNO B4 U GIVE JUDGEMENT on something that u dont even listen to
wtf are you saying? have you been hitting the bottle? (Or is your name junior?)
Well i was waiting for someone to play the race card. Just cuz I am white, I don’t know what is going on in hip hop. Now who is being stereotypical?
“a whole generation that grew up on it is now approaching their 30’s, so from a kids point of view, who wants to listen to music that a bunch of crusty baby boomers like?”
- wtf? i just turned 30 yesterday. I’m not a baby boomer…more like the tail end of gen x. nor am I crusty…i bathe every day! i did grow up on hiphop, but i also grew up on a grip of other kinds of music. as i was coming up, the seattle sound came and went, house music creeped in and out of the early 90s, green day revived punk and hiphop was filled with geniuses and one hit wonders.
the truth is hiphop is black music being commodified by white attempting to make it there own. think…justin timberpuss and fergie and gwen stefani. when other forms of black music were approprated by white folks…the genres went into the background. think…jazz, blues, rock & roll, and disco. by the way, disco is not dead. its now house music. u can thank the gay community and th rest of the world for that.
so if enough people buy Kenny Chesney do both 50 and Kanye retire? cause, i mean, i’m not Chesney fan, but that is enough to get me to make an investment on Kenny.
In this biz….everyone with a hit record has their moment in the sun. Then sooner or later the clouds roll in.