the historical implications of lil wayne's current popularity

kanye & jay are crossover artists w/ a rock crowd & id argue have lost a hold on a large portion of the rap & pop audiences

yeah, i mean, for real, the last Kanye POP HIT was fucking "Heartless" in 2008.

I mean, dont judge popularity based on a narrative created by bearded white men who cried along to Elvis Costello records in college imo

rap stations are playing otis but it hasnt been burning up the charts all summer like '6'7'

Even when Wayne's not on top of his game he's still got a Berry Gordy-level ear for the hit single. He picks He's all over TV and radio and he's been touring all year. Why is this so hard to understand? That his flow has slackened considerably doesn't make much difference commercially - all most workaday listeners ask is that it sounds good, or at least catchy.

it's ok whiney i never trusted you anyway ;)

idk i think selling 900k in this environment is an amazing feat period

True - I was just on a chart website called UKMix that discusses album sales, Soundscan, etc. There's a thread on the top selling Hip-hop albums in the U.S. year by year, and 2011 YTD is dismal:

JAY-Z & KANYE WEST - Watch The Throne : 612,911
WIZ KHALIFA - Rolling Papers : 549,258
BAD MEETS EVIL - Hell: The Sequel EP : 463,012
LUPE FIASCO - Lasers : 457,560
BEASTIE BOYS - Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 : 308,520
BIG SEAN - Finally Famous : 189,740
PITBULL - Planet Pit : 174,150
LONELY ISLAND - Turtleneck & Chain : 167,517
MAYBACH MUSIC GROUP - Self Made Vol. 1 - 150,668
TECH N9NE - All 6's & 7's : 130,063

Only 2 of these albums have even sold enough copies to go gold. First week really is make-or-break for major label albums these days, and Wayne's shifting nearly a million copies despite a leak, mixed-to-bad reviews, a horrid economy, etc. Pretty impressive, even if the album itself isn't.

P fucking sad that the best albums on that list are the Beastie Boys and Tech N9ne

the beastie boys record is zzz but that list does make tech n9ne look p damn good

i would listen to wiz, maybach, maybe even big sean before tech n9ne

argh before beastie boys i mean

Tech N9ne number is the most interesting imo. Lil B can't break 5k but Tech N9ne can hit 100k? Where is that coming from? Are there similar undie rappers hitting say 50k?

fyi not listened to TN in what seems over 10 years, forgot he existed.

"Where is that coming from?"

Juggalos?

tn came up in an underground that still bought records and still (to some extent) does. lil b is a creature of the internet in every way. his lack of sales is just "web phenom who gives shit away for free by the assload cant turn publicity into actual sales" part whatthefuckever.

Love this thread title.

tech n9ne has been selling mad records for a while now

tech n9ne also tours places that no rapper would ever dream of stepping foot in. like helena, montana

he basically tours constantly, and does it in flyover country

I work in an environment in which I'm constantly exposed to top 40 radio against my will (student common areas, rec centers, pep rallies, etc), and Adele, Wayne, LMFAO, and Katy Perry are played non stop along with recurrents like "Empire State of Mind" and the two big 2010 Eminem singles. The rub is no one is passionate about any of them except Adele and Katy Perry. Last year I couldn't find a single student who admitted to liking the Em singles even a little bit yet there they were -- huge and ubiquitous, like A/C units in South Florida. For most people, depending on where they're exposed, music really is boutique ambience (i.e. gyms are loud, therefore "Love The Way You Lie" is perfect).

with the exception of the shitty santi white 2008 ca$h-in, the Beasties album is basically a fucking Rammellzzee album for old, weird heads dude. You're like 18 so I'll give you a pass tho

Today the student on staff who most likes hip-hop -- a Colombian whose favorite current artists are J. Cole and Lupe and who's cutting his own album lol -- loves "She Will"; thinks it's Wayne's best since the mid nineties mix tape days. On the other hand he despises "How to Love," "A Milli," and "Lollipop." I guess I'm asking -- who's buying this stuff if no one's passionate about it?

your sample size is small

dude sells out like 30 arenas a year (including in south florida!) -- there are plenty of ppl that are passionate about him

30 is prob conservative too

eh 47,000 student university -- it's a bitch to interview everyone.

i dont know anybody who's passionate about two and half men* but it seems to be doing aight

*except for scott seward

ok but are there other undie guys pulling numbers like TN?

you can go to a concert and not be passionate about the performer -- I do it all the time!

if in doubt blame seward

kids i student-taught last year loved wayne; he was the standard/elder statesman figure for good rapping to them.

Tech N9ne is basically in a scene of one. He built his own enormous fan base grass-roots stylee to the point where people like Yelawof and Busta are coming to HIM. He's like the KISS of rap.

mine still love Jay-Z and Kanye; can't convince them that Kanye sucks.

an interesting corollary to this is that wayne really doesn't get enough credit for being the earliest adopters of drake & nicki minaj. you could argue that those three are the biggest stars in rap/r&b right now. it's been such a huge boon to wayne's longevity and career that the other two have been mega successful. and that's aside from getting whatever cut of their earnings.

remember when it was a such a huge deal when jay was made president of def jam? did he have one success on par with either drake or minaj?

Tech N9ne is basically in a scene of one. He built his own enormous fan base grass-roots stylee to the point where people like Yelawof and Busta are coming to HIM. He's like the KISS of rap.

― delmar dillinger (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, September 2, 2011 4:39 PM (17 seconds ago) Bookmark

remember when it was a such a huge deal when jay was made president of def jam? did he have one success on par with either drake or minaj?

lol you idiot

what

how about Rihanna and Kanye West for starters?

he didn't give a shit about kanye!

he was literally the first person to give a shit about kanye

my reading of the situation is that kanye pretty much forced his way into a recording contract w/ the roc & that before then they would continually clown his rapping

yeah i am pretty sure if anyone is responsible for carter its the fake father of beyonces child

carter/kanye

i forgot about rihanna

and there's ross and jeezy, too i guess.

but still

but still?

& anyway from a business standpoint, i'd consider kanye's superstardom an incredible stroke of luck for jay-z

drake & nicki are currently more popular than ross or jeezy have ever been

dude, he was on like four jay-z albums before College Dropout.

you're fucking backpedaling to cover up your dumb statement

Kanye, Ross, Rihanna, Jeezy, Ne-Yo vs like Drake, Nicki and the GUDDA GUDDA grocery bag who gives a shit all-stars

like wayne is 'legit good rapper' + pop appeal, kanye was "thinking man's pop star rapper" which made up for the fact that he wasnt actually thinking rlly, but he wasnt a gangster like 50 ... there was a need for all the ppl for bourgeoise / 'conflicted' rapper contrast to 50 cent

imo

at this point record sales are only an measure of popularity among people who still pay for music, not really a great measure of general popularity.

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, September 2, 2011 7:33 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i don't think this is necessarily true for someone like lil wayne who moved an exorbitant amount of albums in week one -- i'm sure that there are a lot of ppl for whom carter IV is the only album they'll buy this year, maybe even out of brand loyalty. moving 900k in a week in 2011 is a REALLY great measure of popularity imo

once again tho its a measure of 'an artist we are likely to spend money on when we almost never spend money on music' which is v different than the way things used to be

maybe even out of brand loyalty

i'm going to bed now and this isn't really an argument but i just want to pick up on this and lob the whole 2011 stan culture angle into all of this cuz i think it's relevant

Drake had a huge fanbase already when he was signed.

didn't he officially sign after "best i ever had" was already in the top 5

once again tho its a measure of 'an artist we are likely to spend money on when we almost never spend money on music' which is v different than the way things used to be

― D-40, Friday, September 2, 2011 9:30 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'm not sure what your point is? that wayne's number is less impressive? cuz i think it's more. or maybe you're sorta arguing w/ shipley even tho i'm not really making his point

no i think thats totally impressive -- not arguing w you per se

ok

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201111/lil-wayne-gq-music-issue#ixzz1bKdbd3Xd?currentPage=all

the historical implications of lil wayne skateboarding til sun-up in ur town

yeah, idk about this guy

the skateboarding thing is only less embarrassing than the guitar playing cuz it doesn't infiltrate his music, but i guess it's kind of cool that wayne is showing up at random skate parks across the country and hanging out w/ teenagers

I'm still like a kid, because unfortunately my childhood was raped away from me because I became a star

huh

why you rape away lil wayne's childhood like that

birdman did what?

Like, people watch commercials, and they're like, "Who's gonna buy that?" I'm the person they make the commercials for. I watch them, and I'm like, "Oh God, that's awesome."

I'm not a star, somebody raped

http://fashionably-early.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/lil-wayne-face-tattoo.jpg

ever since you got them titties you
talkin bout you thinkin bout some ass shots
takin all these snapshots different backdrops

dedication 6 sounds good

I'm pretty far from a hip hop expert but he is my favorite rapper I've ever heard. Da Drought 3 being his pinnacle.

So is this album, possibly, really good?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWsL43lj5QM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft4UN-Dd8_s