I was telling one of my brother's friend how hot nas's new album(untitled) is and the next thing he asked me was howmany million copies it has sold. I told him that it had only sold about 500,000 copies, and he felt it would not be worth listening to. His belief is that once an album sells millions of copies, then it is a tight album, and vice versa.
People should know that a lot goes into making a sellable albums, and you cannot say one person has the right formula. 5o cents first album sold 5million copies in the u.s alone, and 11 million worlwide. That was 2003, this is 2009, and he knows he can't do those kind of numbers again. When he dropped the album(get rich or die trying), he was the gangster that had been shot nine times and survived, he was a new rapper co-signed by two rap legends(eminem and dr dre), he had a lot of marketing going on for him at interscope, and also to add that he was dropping some heavy rap bars.
All the factors i mentioned above, helped him greatly to archieve the status he reached with album sales, but you can not ride on the same formula for ever, and also, there is a thin line between love and hate. 5o's third album, "Curtis" sold just 1.2 million compared to the 5 million his first album sold, and the 4.5 million his second one sold.
So you cannot completely place emphasis on album sales to judge how good an album is. The album sales just has to do with the portion of the population that like your element of music, whether it makes them dance, or they like the gangstar persona you showcase in your rap, or they like your videos, or they like the fact that you have a lot of money, and want to assossiate with you. It does not mean your album is flawless, because when those same people get tired of you, then you would sell no more.
I believe if you are solely out to get the money in the rap game, you would surely get it, but your type of music would have a life span. Nelly's first album sold 8 million copies in 2000, 8 years later(2008), his "brass knuckles" album which he dropped last year has only done just above 200,000 copies. That does not imply that nelly was out to get the music, but his style is not just the conventional type, and that is what got people back then, plus the vibe his music had. "Lloyd bank's" first album sold over a million copies, his second album had more promotion and more expensive videos, but barely did 300,000. Right now, i dont think he would get a budget for another album.
Rappers that pay more attention on giving the audience good quality music, irrespective of what the dj's want to bump, or what the kids want to dance to, might not sell that much, but would always be relevant to hiphop. Because, as lil kim said in one of her verses, "you new rappers show up, but like jeans, you'all fade out".
Rappers that stay true to the game like scarface, nas, jadakiss, eminem, ............ this rappers have skill, flow, message and would always be relvant.
Soulja boy made a killing in 2007 with his dance rap song, he dropped his second album last year, and nobody is hearing about it. It has not even sold up to 200,000 copies. Fat joe's album sold just 100,000 copies under an independent label(koch records), and some of my customers did not want to buy the cd, till i played it for them. We did not skip one song. The album should be concidered as one of the best hip hop albums for last.
So i would say, never judge an album by the sales, listen to it and judge it yourself.
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