Hip hop isn't dead, and is not dying.
You know what illy? I hate to be so brash, but you're just plain wrong.
It is dying. It is not happening. I know, because I talk to management, label heads, and people DEEP in this industry on a daily basis. You forget that I'm managed by one of the people directly responsible for discovering and building the success of Cypress Hill, The Fugees, Nas and many more, an absolutely pivotal figure in hip-hop, the man knows his shit, and when he tells me it's dying and tells me why, you cannot argue with those facts.
Labels are not even signing hip-hop artists. They are dropping the hip-hop artists they do have. Everyone from the smallest label to the biggest. Even Dr. Dre let go of almost everyone at Aftermath save for his two big-hitters, Eminem and 50. They won't put money into it, and they won't market it properly, because it's not worth their money for the amount of return they get on it. I'd be willing to bet that hip-hop fans illegally download more than any other genre of music. TV shows won't book hip-hop artists any more. Radio stations don't want to play the music.
And it's not about them 'using the internet' to get out there. Sure, that helps a little bit, but like I said to salty, it really only helps to the people that
actively search for the music, and that isn't the way it should be.
1. There is plenty of room for innovation in hip hop. Who expected The Beatles or Elvis to emerge and be stellar successes? Nobody. You cannot predict the future, and to attempt to do so is ignorant. You never know what's around the corner.
Elvis was not an innovator, he was a thief. The Beatles were very much innovators, but they had the backing and full financial support of one of the biggest record labels in the world, and the genre was still new and fresh. Do you think The Beatles could have broken out if rock n roll wasn't supported by the TV and the radio? Not to mention (and this goes back to my earlier point), parents were scared of rock n roll at that time. It was rebellious for the kids to listen to it, so it sold. The rebellion factor lead to it spreading via word of mouth as well as traditional marketing means. That simply isn't the case with hip-hop in 2009, it's not rebellious, it's not supported by the media anymore, and as far as the internet goes, yes you can market yourself well, but how many people are buying your album and how many people are spreading the word COMPARED to the amount of people that download it off a torrent, listen to it a couple of times max, and then forget all about it?
2. Casey mentioned something like Illmatic wouldnt have had the success it had in todays time. Casey - you're pointing to the Internet being a contributing factor in limitings people's success in the industry? Umm helloo.. Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen - both good musicians in their own right, were discovered via MySpace. Not the best examples, but the rise of the Internet has only made the distribution of music simpler. You can now broadcast your music to thousands of people without much difficulty instead of relying on your demo tape to somehow stumble at the feet of someone within the industry. I'm sorry but you got it all wrong on this one.
See above. This is a moot point. I didn't get it all wrong, you're talking to someone that lives this shit daily. I run my own Internet marketing company for artists, I look after a bunch of people including a girl that Timbaland recently signed, so don't assume I don't know what I'm talking about here.
Oh - and Lily Allen and Arctic Monkeys WERE NOT discovered by MySpace. That was a big marketing ploy, and a lie. Evidently it worked since you believed it. Lily Allen is bankrolled by her famous actor father and a couple of guys she was fucking that produced her first few tracks...clearly that wasn't as good of a story as 'look at me I was discovered on MySpace'.....Arctic Monkeys had good timing, claiming to have been found on MySpace at a time when MySpace was all over the news. Where are they now?
Oh, and I know people that work at MySpace, if you're wondering how I knew that it was all bullshit, I knew from the start.
3. Casey brings up the point that in these tough, dark times, people want to hear simplistic, uninspiring music, and points to tracks like Lady Gaga which dominate the charts.
What are you trying to say here exactly? That commercial music exists and that there are poor representations of hip hop? That people like Souljah Boy get their records spun on the airwaves, and people like El-P don't? This has ALWAYS been the case, and to use THIS (of all things) as an indication of hip hop's decline is silly. Just remember, although on the whole the artists on commerical radio are shit, there are always the few which supply decent music- ala Coldplay, Kanye, Amy Winehouse etc etc.
What do you want them to listen to? What do you expect them to listen to? It is a market, and music is made to meet the needs of that market. Simple business and marketing my friend - and like i said earlier, it is nothing new. This has always been the case over the past few decades.
You completely missed my point. Back at the peak of hip-hop in the mid 90's, there was an artistic balance between socio-political/gangsta and pop oriented club music. People like 'Pac and Snoop would recieve heavy club play, because the climate at the time allowed for music that was danceable but also spoke about real issues, real topics.
The world is a much darker place now, and as a result people look for escapism, an alternate reality, through music. Of course, this is not a new phenemenon, and I am not 'blaming' the death of hip-hop on this.....I am simply pointing it out as a contributing factor.
