From Rich House to Outhouse

May 14, 2007 by darrell.holmes
Filed under: Blog Entries, Music Reviews, Society & Culture

OK…maybe Hip hop’s decline is THAT marked, but it is significant. According to www.futuremusic.com, rap sales declined from 2005 to 2006 at a clip of 21 percent. For the first time in 12 years, no hip hop album cracked the Top 10 for year. There are more theories on this decline than there are Too Short album releases. Thoughts range from the genre being in a rut to the idea that many of Hip Hop’s founding fathers are growing older and more mature and therefore more conscious of what type of music they produce. All those are great theories but my contention is for D) none of the above.

Fact is, I doubt many hip hoppers have suddenly had “come to Christ” experiences en masse. Also, though rap is suffering artistically from the record label machine pumping out “dough boy” hits, all music genres follow their marketing playbooks in hopes of putting out a winner. You don’t think Justin Timberlake sells so many albums because his falsetto, pale skin, and smooth dance moves are a first for the music industry do you?(See Michael Jackson)

When it all boils down to it, Caucasian youths have financially supported the Hip Hop Movement. While there is no empirical data to support this, artists and promoters estimate as high as 85 to 95% White crowds during concert tours according to www.villagevoice.com. One could conceive that since consumer-friendly hip hop(made for commercials and tv) has become high fashion among marketing and advertising execs, the harder stuff has lost it’s edge. Couple that with a bootleg culture that has ALWAYS existed in minority communities, and you can begin to see why sales have begun to decline.

As much as I love hip hop, I can’t say that I’m at all upset that sales are declining. There are already a lot of great artists who struggle for years upon years just to get a single heard on the radio. It’s time for Hip Hop to reshuffle it’s starting 5 and get rid of some of those “dead money contracts”. Here’s to another 30(or so) years of great music that not only makes us dance, but makes us laugh out loud, gives us pride in one another, makes us think, and challenges us to do greater things.