Everyone’s complaining that we’re not selling records in hip-hop like we used to. Blame the internet, blame the game, blame whatever, but what about the fact that most of the music is coming from what I like to refer to as “old ass rappers.” Don’t get me wrong, i’m up there myself, but then again, I’m not rappin’. Is it really a young man’s game? Now, I guess if Lil’ Wayne comes out and does well for hip-hop, it might prove my point, since he isn’t as old as others (though some have claimed he’s older than he lets on). But what is to be said about the fact that sales for certain artists have been declining since they hit the 30 mark.
Check out the feature we did on this on BET.com, more politically-correct in its title “Mid Rap Crisis.” Shout out to Carl for pulling it together. Take a look at the album sales we’ve listed for LL, Fat Joe, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, Busta, Eminem and more–all over 35 and declining in sales since. It seems that 30 is not the new 20 after all, when it comes to sales at least.
Hip-Hop is not dead…it’s just wack as hell. As I search for things to write about, I realize that there really isn’t much to say in this over-boring hip-hop climate. The only thing that I’m remotely interested in is Lil’ Wayne and his over-publicized love life. Funny, when I interviewed Lauren London backstage at the Hip Hop Awards back in October, she said she’d been following Wayne’s career since forever…or something like that…and she had an interesting smirk on her face. Duh, I’m so clueless and consumed with watching Karrine Steffan’s blogs confessing her love for Wayne all day on her site, that “LauWeezy”–as I’ll call them–flew right over my head (sandra rose is reporting the two got engaged…no, not Wayne and SuperBREAD as he likes to call her, but Wayne and Lauren London “Lauweezy”).
Anyway, I just want you to know that I’m not going to constantly post every little thing that’s happening from New York to Slovakia (btw-that’s where Ciara was spotted with 50) because this ain’t about breaking news. You can get that everywhere else, so right now I’ll just vent about how boring everything is (except Weezy). I know this much, he must be smart, because all of a sudden there’s all these magazine covers, blog postings, marriage proposals, and hottest MC talk. Wa-la, we have what is called “publicity.” In my recent interest in Wayne (i swear six months ago, I would have never cared), I have fallen victim to the publicity stunt. Guess what? All of a sudden, I wanna hear the album. So my point and question is this: Is Lil’ Wayne really that good, or is everyone else really, really that bad?
