Thursday, November 5, 2009

Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye, T.I. and Drake - Where's the Record Sales?

I'm not a huge fan of rap music. I do listen to it occasionally on the radio, but I haven't bought a rap CD since the 90's. On my Ipod, you may find about 20 raps songs out of the thousands on there. The rest of the songs are R&B, Pop, Alternative Rock, Blues, Jazz, Reggae, World Music, and Country (yes, Country).

Despite this, I pay close attention to the world of rap. Ludacris' foundation is a client of mine, and in the past I've worked with So So Def. Also, BET is a huge client of mine - so it's in my best interest to keep up with the latest.

One thing I know is that currently the biggest rap stars are Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T.I., and Drake - all five get the most media coverage and the most airplay on urban radio stations. And arguably, they are the best lyricists.

What I find confusing is this: More than 50 million people in the United States alone listen to hip-hop and rap music. Yet, the albums of the top 5 rappers are barely selling.

Jay-Z's latest CD has barely sold 1 million copies; Lil Wayne (who had the biggest album of 2008) only sold 3 milion copies; Kanye West and T.I. have never had an album that sold more than 2 million copies; and Drake (the newest to the bunch) hasn't even been certified platinum.

I'm no music executive, but the numbers don't add up. Nearly 95% of the people who love rap and hip-hop are not buying their albums.

Now, the average person will say this: "Their sales are lost to pirated music and illegal downloads." I agree this may be a factor, but I don't think that 48 million out of 50 million people are doing this.

Pirating has always been a factor with music sales, and illegal downloading has been a factor for nearly 15 years now. Despite this, Tupac, Biggie, Snoop, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and the early 50 Cent and Jay-Z were all able to release an album and sell 7-12 million copies - not to mention MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Some of these guys have even done it more than once.

So where are the record sales today?

I think rap music, like many other genres, has lost a lot of die hard fans. I think people love to listen to it in their cars and dance to it in the clubs, but they are not motivated to buy it.

Rapper Nas claims that Hip-Hop is dead. I disagree. I don't think it's dead or will ever die, but I do think it's in a valley. To get to the next peak, rappers need to stop creating songs that people like - and start creating songs that people love.

7 comments:

  1. your sales numbers are incorrect and also lack perspective... i agree sales are down, but not much lower than any other point in time or comparably worse than any other genre of music. Selling 1,000,000 has never been an easy feat and the fact that jay-z has done so in under 2 months is big.

    there are only a select few albums ever that have sold more than 3 million so to make the assertion that the top rappers are failure for not doing so (Kanye West has actually sold over 3 million) is wrong.

    -Drake isn't platinum because he hasn't released and album yet. The EP that he put out sold over 100,000 which is amasing because he had released it 6 months prior for free, so to have 100,000 people buy it after it was already readily made available officially for free is huge.

    -lil wayne's last album sold 1,000,000 in a day. thats a record that might not ever be beat.

    i mention all this to say that the buyers are there and the sales are coming through.

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  2. @Nudy Sorry, my friend my facts are right. You can disagree with my perspective, but you can't dispute the facts.

    Maybe Kanye West did eventually drift to 3 million in album sales, but that still leaves more than 90% of his audience who didn't buy his CD.

    Furthermore, iTunes confirms that Drake did in fact release an "album" called "So Far Gone" on September 15, 2009. This CD, as big as Drake is, never even reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

    Also, Lil Wayne did not go platinum in a day - he did it in a week, which is a great accomplishment. Despite this, he too has not convinced more than 90% of his audience to buy his CD.

    Finally, I'm not asserting that any of them are failures. My point is that rappers are not selling what they could and should be - a factor that is affecting other genres of music too.

    The difference is this: Hands down, rap and hip-hop is the most influential music in the world - loved by people of all nationalities who speak all types of languages. That can not be said about country music, rock, blues, or any other genre.

    So where are the rap and hip-hop sales?

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  3. Maybe if they created songs that actually spoke to people instead of songs that talk about:

    *How Rich They are and I'm broker than dirt
    *How you want me to drop it like its hot just cause you bling blinging
    *How I'm (a beautiful black woman) have the wonderful possibility of being your hood chick that just loves to get her knees dirty all the time.
    *How you want me to buy a $15 dollar cd with directions on how to do a dance.

    and all that other bull crap that they sing about now.

    There's nothing social, political or even romantic (i.e.: LL Cool J I need love) about the hip hop songs out now.

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  4. I enjoy your blogs. I do agree that no one is in love with hip hop at this point in time. The artist say they do it for the love of their craft but if they don't feel it the consumer doesn't either. It needs to be stripped down a rebuild to a point where not only the artist but the industry is hungry again, and the love and creativity is there. The music sounds good not great, it's catchy not memorable and it is music you play in your car or listen to in the club. I can't tell you the last time I played a CD in my home and when I do it's the first Mary J, Faith - R&B, not rap.

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  5. Hip Hop needs to die. If the lyrics continue to reflect misogyny, hate, vulgarity, thuggery and displaced priorities, Hip Hop needs to die a sudden death. I read a column just yesterday from Russel Simmons and it was simply stupid. He basically opposed some of the things Bill Cosby was embrassing. It was a cop out. It was on Global Grind and his reasoning may reflect some truths that exist today, but that doesn't make them right. For example, it may be true that Billy Bob killed Susy Q, but killing remains wrong. Just because you didn't create a situation doesn't mean that you are not responsible for the conditions that exist daily. I DO NOT listen to it and quite a few other young folk are turning it off. We need lyrics that reflect a more positive world. Words are alive, words to music are even more living. We need to change the flow like yesterday. Words become destiny!

    Karen

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  6. I spoke on a panel on Wednesday and one of the questions was about how an artist like Drake can flood the radio stations across the country for going on 5 months now, yet he has only reached 200,000 sales. We all agreed that the biggest reason is because hip hop has become so dumbed down and simplistic that anyone can do it. So what was originally a revolutionary way to do music has become an easy way for anyone to become a star.

    So now instead of a person being a fan, they consider other rappers competition. You don't buy your competition's album.

    It is true that here in Atlanta where I live, everyone and their brother, and their girlfriend is trying to be a rapper. I don't know if this is the complete reason, but I'm sure it plays a part.

    friend me at http://www.facebook.com/raresound

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  7. @Dante Lee,

    Hip hop hasn't always been the most popular music genre... when rock was at the top sales figures were similar, when pop was at the top the sales figure were similar.

    I'm sorry but your numbers arent totally correct and your perspective is off. For instance with Drake; "So Far Gone" was initially released digitally for free via his personal blog and countles other blogs sites on 2.13.09 (http://tinyurl.com/bc9x57). The massive popularity of this release is the reason why you hear him on the raido constantly.

    He re-released the album on iTunes for money and 200,000 "dummies" the are completely behind the culture bought it. When his actual album comes out his sales will come in the 1,000,000+ range.

    I understand your point in saying that they are missing out on 90% of potential customers, but thats just how music works... there is no genre where over 10% of it's listeners actually purchase the music.

    Like you I love all types of music, yet in still I haven't purchased more that 10 records in the past 10 years (with only 4 being hip hop records). Music is readily available in too many free forms so why buy it?

    Have you looked at tour figures yet? Tour sales are shooting through the roof. Hip hop tours are grossing record numbers so, people are willing to pay for music, but now it appears to be more so about the experience, not so much about paying to sitting in front of a box to listen.

    Sorry to go on and on, but I just think it's not fair to single out a particular genre and use it as fuel for ignorant "Jack & Jill" Negroes to go on diatribes on how bad rap is when it is a multifaceted music culture with much more to it than what you simply hear on popular radio, BET, and MTV; as those platforms encourage ignorance and suppress real hip hop art.

    *You're right that LW sold 1,000,000 records in a week not a day.

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