New York City hip-hop DJ Kayslay has found a new way to swat down Southern rappers: Show ‘em the numbers. From an interview with Tha Formula:
thaFormula.com – It seems like things are changing in Hip-Hop right now. The South had a huge run, but it the way things have been going recently it looks like it’s coming to an end…
DJ Kay Slay – It’s over. On the real check the numbers right. I got good relationships with a lot of brothas from the South, but I don’t wanna name how many of them niggaz albums came out and did not go platinum. Albums that were bricks. Nobody speaks about this shit. Like Ying Yang Twins, I like them dudes. They did some shit like 20 something thousand their first week. This is a group that just went double platinum…
What I am gonna tell you is to check the Soundscan. 8 out of 10 rappers in the South right now didn’t sell no records and their album just dropped within the last 4 months. Ain’t go Gold either….
thaFormula.com – For a minute though it looked like the South would be completely running things forever.
DJ Kay Slay – But the run was on the radio and on TV. Check them numbers man. You know, I knew that the run was pretty much over for the South or was about to come to a halt, when Outkast didn’t go Gold.
He’s got a good point: That Ying Yang Twins album disappeared in a whisper, and Outkast should have gone gold on brand-name alone. So what artist does Kayslay think will “do his numbers” this year? Why, NYC rapper Papoose, who just happens to have been introduced to the world by…DJ Kayslay.
DJ Kay Slay – Trust No One [Thaformula.com]
ying yang didn’t have a hit this year. their lead single was invisible. of course they went wood. you know who also went wood? lloyd banks. and busta. nobody sold this year. papoose is gonna do clipse numbers.
I am both impressed with KaySlay for telling it straight and in total agreement with skinny – this is a hip-hop problem, not a Dirrty South problem.
My theory, and forgive me if this sounds sociologically insensitive: the various audiences for hip-hop are finally getting hip to torrenting. They’ve been filesharing the odd single and buying bootleg CDs for years, but now broadband penetration has reached pockets of the underclass. (And yes, I know white suburbanites listen to hip-hop; we’re talking aggregate figures here.)
This has been the pattern since 2000: the first genres to fall off in sales are those appealing to white, urban collegiates/20somethings – alt-rock, teen-pop (not tween-pop, which still sells). Back in ’02-’03 the two genres that still held up in record stores were R&B/hip-hop and country – the former less white, the latter less urban, and both listened to by people with less access to PCs in the home and cable/DSL. But gradually, those two genres are succumbing. Like I’ve said a thousand times, the only buyers of physical discs left are the very young and the very old.
Remember three years ago, when kids were getting mugged for iPods, because Apple only offered $300+ price points? Now a shuffle can be had for $80, a nano for $150 - and that’s got to mean that some of the kids (of any race) who were listening to $50 drugstore discmen a few years ago now have new iPods to fill – in part, with free, downloaded hip-hop.
soundscan doesn’t report illegal downloads
these numbers are inaccurate
act’s should stick to touring for real income
to agree in theory with denniobell.. last year, the best selling CD of all was the soundtrack to High School Musical, the Disney TV-movie… bought because kids who are young enough to want it are too young to be downloading it, and their parents are too old to be (for the most part, hint, hint..)
So your idea that once it becomes largely available, it’s just gonna be taken, it completely valid.. And while you say this isn’t a South problem, it’s a hip-hop problem, it is certainly a Music Industry problem..
Thing is, Kay Slay gotta realize, moving forward, soundscan #’s won’t mean diddly any more, as downloads will force the money to be made the old fashioned ways.. touring, performing, etc… and my guess is, Ying-Yang sold crap, but performed a hella lot more and got a lot more dough from it than Papoose is gonna be able to do..
yeah this isn’t a dig at papoose. the industry is supported by those who haven’t figured out how to get it for (cheap) free yet. that’s an education and technological adjustment problem, but it’s one that will dissolve pretty fast. those numbers aren’t going back up any time soon for any genre.
robotrock is right though, touring is where the cash is. I’d like to see more rappers go on tours of smaller clubs. especially south rappers in new york, where they have giant fanbases they may not entirely know about. clipse is selling out their shows for obvious reasons, but I’m hoping ugk realizes they can do the same thing.