Time Magazine Overhyping Rap’s Decline In Sales?
The lesson was Capitalism 101: rap music’s market strength gave its artists permission to say what they pleased. And the rappers themselves exhibited an entrepreneurial bent unlike that of musicians before them. They understood the need to market and the benefits of line extensions. Theirs was capitalism with a beat.
Today that same market is telling rappers to please shut up. While music-industry sales have plummeted, no genre has fallen harder than rap. According to the music trade publication Billboard, rap sales have dropped 44% since 2000 and declined from 13% of all music sales to 10%. Artists who were once the tent poles at rap labels are posting disappointing numbers. Jay-Z’s return album, Kingdom Come, for instance, sold a gaudy 680,000 units in its first week, according to Billboard. But by the second week, its sales had declined some 80%. This year rap sales are down 33% so far.
Got an email from DeMarco Lewis about this Time Magazine article on the decline of Hip Hop music sales. Demarco’s thoughts on the article were:
I just thought this would be something proactive to cover on Real Talk and get some feedback from the readers. I don’t agree with it. I think all music has taken a decline and that’s mainly due to the Internet and how music is bought. Week in and week out RnB and Hip Hop in general dominates the sales charts and heck 50 Cent and Kanye come out next month.
I agree with Demarco, Hip Hop albums have been on top of the charts consistently as of late and Kanye & 50 will move some major units. Sales are down overall but the attention has been put on Hip Hop for some reason.
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August 22nd, 2007 at 7:35 pm
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August 22nd, 2007 at 7:39 pm
mmmmmm interesting
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:45 pm
NAH BUT 4REAL EVERYBODY KNOWS HIP-HOP AINT MOVING UNITS LIKE WE USED TO THATS ONLY CUZ THA INTERNET/LEAKS/MIXTAPES ETX …..HIP HOP WONT DIE CUZ OF FUKD UP SALES ITS 2 LATE WE TOOK OVER EVERYTHING SPORTZ ,BOXING,TV,COMMERCIALS,MOVIES,CLOTHES,DRINKS,RINGTONES LOL THE SPOTLIGHT IS KINDA FALLIN OFF OF RAP BUT WUTZ NEXT????? REAL ARTIST MOVE REAL UNITS TALENT IZ TALENT -100-
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Rap is nearing its crash. Rap is dead, hip hop will live on.
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
CURTIS 9/11 baby You Know what time it is! COP IT
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
It’s to be expected that Hip-Hop would have the highest decline in record sales opposed to other genre’s because it has been moving the most units in recent years. It’s considered good for other artists to have a string of gold records where as in Hip-Hop it’s seen as having lack luster sales, so when Hip-Hop artist album sales fall from the plateau it used to be on to a level comparable to that of an artist from a different genre it’s looked at as extremely disappointing and a rock or pop artists fall from gold records and sometimes a multi platinum albums to just a couple hundred thousand can easily be put off on illegal downloads….maybe
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:39 pm
God,why does whitey always have to make Hiphop and rappers seem like the worst thing on the planet?
Fuck them,I will buy 50 Curtis albums just to shut the rednecks up
CURTIS,SEPT 11TH,KANYE WEST DOESN’T NEED YOUR MONEY,G-G-G-UNIT!!!!!!
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:52 pm
The music business, Hip Hop especially is experiencing a technology shift that is changing sale distribution forever. But what is important to consider is that this article makes many strong points on the mundane messages being represented through the music.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I agree with Jeff’s comments at #9. Hip Hop’s recent lack of creative diversity and refusal to address our own problems has emboldened our detractors and has given even more validity to their claims. We’re an easy target now. fukk it.
Much has been made about mp3’s and bootlegging and while those are are huge issues that have transformed the landscape of the entire music industry, nobody within Hip Hop is really willing to say, “You know what? We sold out. We completely stopped signing acts with any artistic integrity and we gave up on longevity in exchange for the short sale”. That would be the truth.
With so many different ways to access music today, if and when a music fan does purchase an album, they are buying into that particular artist’s lifestyle and brand … now, more than ever, it has to be about more than just a hit song.
Fabolous is a great MC, but his consistent failure to engage his audience resulted in super subpar sales for a semi-veteran act (he’s on his 3rd joint). Likewise, T.I. exhibited strong sales off top because he’s worked hard to stay true to his core audience while gaining exposure to new markets. This isn’t a secret, it’s just that record labels are scared to invest any significant time or money into seriously developing their new acts, they’ve become too accustomed to the quick turn around on the sales that now, when an album performs horribly, they don’t know what to do. Them niggas is shook and we all know that scared money don’t make money.
It’s easy and very convenient to blame the internet and downloading, but the real problem is a lack of artists that excite the market. Hurricaine Chris, Mims and niggas like that will never sell. Artists like Kanye and 50 will. Not only do they have the machines behind them pushing their product, but they are stars … they have talent combined with personality and, whether you are a fan of theirs or not, they each respectively represent something important to their loyal, core audience of fans. Niggas aint wasting their money anymore, record labels have to actually do some homework and grassroots promotion again. It is what it is.
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August 22nd, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Rap sales’ decline has little to do with sales distribution. It has everything to do with the quality thats been put out there. Like Jay said ‘It’s only for so long fake thugs can pretend’. Quit frankly, I’m sick of rap, and so are hundreds of thousands of people out there. U can’t keep selling the same idea forever and think people are gonna keep buying. It doesn’t work that way!
The Hip Hop community needs to stop being so defensive. The only way y’all r gonna change the situation is to take some fuckin responsibility, accept that y’all are beating a dead horse with your ‘Hey Bay Bay’ type nonsensical lyrics and do something that’s ACTUALLY CREATIVE! Now that’s fuckin Real Talk!
50 is real smart tho. He knows how bad the sales climate is so he is creating one sick buzz, and trust, he will move the appropriate units. Him and Kanye.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Don’t act shocked.
Black people made rap, and niggers killed it.
The mixtape market is oversaturated with similar product.
Sampling music cut artist/label revenues into pieces.
File sharing cut retail sales.
Nigger MC’s took their wealth and made diamond producers rich.
The millionaire mc’s never did anything unified with their deposits; they opened 1001 imprint labels under non-Black ownership.
Technolgy has made producing a rap record so cheap, every rapper with a PC has a monthly mixtape.
Most rappers do not understand marketing and a lot of them are just plainly untalented.
Bootlegging is so rampant, in Philly, NYC mixtapes (which are technically bootlegs anyway) are bootlegged and sold downtown.
Cheap rap consumers support bootlegs and get their favorite MC dropped from the majors.
The TIME article is only stating the obvious.
Rap was created by the hands of its murderer- Black Americans.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Rap sales decline IMO has to do with the lack of substance, look at when niggaz was pushing units.
50 was doing his thing, Jay was still going strong, Em was dominating, Nas was still relevant, Kanye had just came around. You had great music.
…now we got Soulja Boy…
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 pm
But to answer the question, yes…they are overhyping it, because soon they’ll be back on the rise. Businesses have their downpoints. Look at the movie industry. Things change, and music is forever.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Rap is the only genre I know that makes a big deal about first week sales and nothing else. Niggas go on to be number one and by next month, aint even on the charts.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 am
One thing I think people overlook when talking about the decline in rap sales is the demographic profile of the listeners. Rap fans tend to be younger and more computer savvy than fans of say, Michael Bubble. Obviously, the more computer literate an artists fans are the more likely they will be to illigally download that artists music.
This obviously isn’t the only problem with raps sales but its part of it. The fact that most new artists are being pushed so the label can cake up off ringtone sales doesn’t help.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:11 am
listen to me good… sales are declining because we’re in an era where u can hear a person’s entire album months before it hits the stores… and everything is instant these days people are ready to move to something new before the first 3 songs are finished… hip hop rap whatever u wanna call it has always had good acts,bad acts,and just plain garbage acts,yet all of a sudden it’s alot of negative things,15 years ago if an artist sold over 100,000 units he/she was certified… hip hop is at it’s highest peak right now believe it or not it is pop culture never has the mainstream embraced hip hop like it does now… not only censored hip hop and safe artist but real gangsta type artist also… every thing marketed these days has a hip hop tie in you dont have alot of trash artists like you did in the late 80’s early nineties…. you have alot of good artists that really cant separate themselves from one another… like if every team was good in any sport people would lose interest same with hip hop… trust from where hip hop was to where it is now is great for me to see and sorry people are buying into the hype but i’m listening to ugk wearing enyce and blowing on hay right now
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:01 am
HIP-HOP IS BIGGER THAN EVER !!! I went to a seminar in Ny where Irv Gotti was speaking . He said dont let them fool you into thinking hip-hop isnt the biggest genre out . People are making millions , literally millions of dollars off ringtones alone . Hip-Hop unlike other genre’s of music is a marketing MONSTER . Music overall took a hit because the mechanical sales of a cd are down . With all these I-pods , zunes and dell jukeboxes nobody buys cds anymore . Im kind of ashamed to walk around with my portable cd player anymore ( ima step it up soon ) . Irv also went on to say that . that hip-hop has a different age demographic than other genres . Example a robin thikce cd would probably have high mechanical sales oppose to Young joc . Being that alot of older people are a custom to going to a record store to buy a cd , as to were a young joc fan probably quite a bit younger is a custom to downloading it . It a whole genration of kids out there that just know how to download . aint that crazy . Where all also hurt by all the illgeal downloading . And just plain old trash albums with hot singles . I cant lie i fall victim to dowlaoding but i think the cd’s hot i go and cop the official to support the artists . Hip-hop aint going anywhere though . We in the movies , fashion , they play our music on espn , during major sporting events . There’s even a rapper in country music now . he’s called the hip-hop cowboy ! i swear to god i seen him on the country music awards ( i was flipping throu the channels ) it was kind of funny . Check out some good music let me know what yal think
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August 23rd, 2007 at 7:20 am
#12 is oh so right!!!!
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:21 am
oh, and #16
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:49 am
CO SIGN 3 N TIME ISNT OVERHYPING IT STIOP IT REAltalk HOW MANY TIMES A DAY DO PEOPLE POST ON THIS WEB SITE N MANY OTHERS ……SO N SO THIS IS THE REASON HIP HOP IS DEAD OR OH I MISS THE OLD DAYS EVERY1 IS SAYING IT N ITS TRUE I FEEL HIP HOP ISNT WAT IT USED TO B I DONT KNOW IF ITS CUZ IM OLDER N SHYT ALWAYS SEMMED BETTER AS A KID OR IS IT REALLY DECLINING I THINK OVERALL NOT JUST RECORD SALES BUT QUALITY HAS DECLINED
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
the reason sales r down is because of the nursery rhymes coming out.. all that down south bs. everyone knws that the majority of people who buy music r white people and girls.. white people r not buying rap music that much anymore because hip hop is basically dead.. the only people nowadays who buy music is little 10-15 yr old kids who like that snap music or whatever u call it.. y do u think that a bay bay song is #1 on 106 park.. only little kids call in to vote.. but his album wont sell shit.. people need to stop wondering y album sales r down.. its right in front of ur face.. hip hop is dead period
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:50 pm
First thing we must admit. Music on the whole has declined from a sales point. Is this necessarily due to the music quality declining? No, I don’t agree with that statement at all.
To me it falls at the heart of technology spanning. Look at the growth of iTunes. I think Music is where it was tangentially 10 years ago. Except now instead of paying 15 bucks for a CD where you only want that one song, you can spend 1-2 bucks and get the song you want. MP3 players have replaced CD players so buying CDs no longer encapsulates the total sales an artist may incur.
When you look at the releases of the past 5 years it shows a grand domination of Hip Hop and RnB.
People have just gotten much smarter with spending money. Why buy an entire album for the 2-3 songs that you really want. Im sorry, I dont see any other genres blowing up the charts.
The Article talks about Jay-Zs sale numbers for Kingdom Come, however it fails to mention that Kingdom Come outsold the same following Albums in the same year from different genres:
Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers
IV – Godsmack
10,000 Days – Tool
Taking the Long Way – The Dixie Chicks
Decemberunderground – AFI
Modern Times – Bob Dylan
The Open Door – Evanescence
Still the Same – Rod Stewart
Light Grenades – Incubus
Heck…only two Albums sold more its first week than Jay-Z did with Kingdom Come (680K): That was Justin Timberlake (684K) and Rascal Flatts (721K) and arguably JT falls in the hip hop influence category with most of his production coming from Timbaland.
Hip Hop is not dead. Technology is alive and it is a challenge for the music companies and the artists to adjust accordingly.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:36 am
agree w/ #22
With technology being alive, we should look at the target demographic for hip hop. Generally speaking those who listen to hip hop compared to other genres of music do not have the same financial stability in my opinion.
Basically the majority of people who listen to hip hop don’t make as much money as those who listen to Rock… generally speaking. And for those who want to dispute it then just look at the parents annual income of both demographics.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
technology was alive when 50 sold 12 million, technology was alive when 50 sold 11 million.. im not saying the sales decline has nothing to do w/technology , but a big part of the decline has to do w/the music thats out. bootlegging has been around for decades.. if good music is being released people will buy it.. if music is not good or only appeals to little kids ,little kids r going to b the only people buying music.. and if technology played a big part in the sales decline , y did jay go gold in the first week… he didnt continue to sell because the album wasnt that great..
August 31st, 2007 at 2:07 am
i agree with #24 wholeheartedly…
you cats act like bootlegging is some kind of new phenomenon…it ain’t!!!!
filesharing has been around a while now but that didn’t stop
rappers from moving units in the past(50 cent,jay-z,etc,etc,etc).it all comes down to this simple fact..if you make a good product,people will buy it.that’s true for any product….why exactly should somebody be willing to spend 15 or 16 dollars on a CD that only has 2 or 3 good tracks on it???
August 31st, 2007 at 2:11 am
if rap wants to bump it’s sales back up,it has to come with something better then “chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side” or”superman dat ho”