Time flies, i can't believe we are already in the 2nd quarter of 2012. Anyway, i decided to write on the rap crew that would run 2012. For a while now, it has been YMCMB...Young Money Cash Money Billionaires. I think it is a miracle that they are were they are today. I guess that's the result of perseverance and believe in your dreams. In the late 90s, Cash Money Records had a buzz with Juvinile's 400 Degrees album going 4 times platinum in the U.S and the Hot Boyz (Lil Wayne, Young Turk, B.G, and of cos Juvinile) were also very successful, as a group and individual artists during this time. Wayne was the youngest in the crew, and now he is the biggest name on the label.Early 00s saw the old Cash Money crew becoming shaky; till one by one, the artists left. Wayne stuck around cos basically, Brian "Baby" Williams, the co founder of the label adopted him. In case you don't know, Lil Wayne signed with Cash Money in 1995 when he was 13 years old. Wayne stuck around, and gradually started building his buzz from the first Carter album, to countless features/guest appearances, to Carter 2, to his peak with Carter 3 (2008). The fact that he has managed to stay at the peak since 2008 definitely has to do with the saying- "You Reap What You Sow". All those years when his albums weren't selling as much as he most have wanted, the fact that he didn't quit paid off. If you have passion for something and keep at it everyday, you will eventually become great.
Personally, i prefer the wayne from the first two carter albums, but, what the hell, i guess a majority of people prefer wayne with the retarded flow. Anyway, Cash Money got so big, and then branched out to Young Money. Wayne headed Young Money and signed Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga, Mack Maine, Gudda Gudda, and the rest of the pack in 2009. And from then on till now, they have been unstoppable. Last year (2011), YMCMB crew had the two highest selling albums of the year- Lil Wayne's Carter 4 (2,000,000) and Drake's Take Care (1.500,000 at the time). This is 2012, and Drake's album is still selling, right now at a total of 1.630,000, heading for that double platinum status. I think the only other artists that come close to the commercial success of the YMCMB crew are Eminem and Jay-Z...and yea, Kanye West. But still, Jay-Z wasn't able to go double platinum with his Blueprint 3 album in 2009. It has stalled at 1,909,000 copies sold total. Eminem is another story entirely, with his 2010 album, Recovery currently at 4 million copies sold. But, Eminem doesn't have a crew as successful as he is.
Jay-Z is Roc Nation, but he is also aligned with Kanye West and his G.O.O.D Music label. Pusha T, Big Sean, J.Cole, 2 Chainz, Jay Electronica are the combination's of rappers on both G.O.O.D Music and Roc Nation; although they are great rappers, they still can't go headlong against YMCMB. Big Sean's debut album didn't go platinum; Jay Electronica is yet to drop an official debut album, J.Cole recently went Gold with his Cole World album, but i doubt he will go plat. Jay-Z and Kanye West recently went plat with their collabo album, Watch The Throne, which is now at a total of 1.4 million copies sold. Both artists can sell as much individually, if not more, but they don't have a team as strong as they are.
The highest selling rappers in the game for now are Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and maybe T.I. These are the artist that can sell a million copies on an album at present. Look at the least, and you'd see that there are three artist on the YMCMB Roster. Lil Wayne's Carter 4 was released in 2011, and is now at a total of 2,100,000; Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday (2010) album has sold 1.7 million copies till date; Drake's Take Care album is at a total of 1,630,000 copies sold, and still selling 15k copies a week presently. Please note that all these numbers are just from their domestic sales; sales in the U.S alone.
YMCMB are so huge right now that rappers from other labels are aligning with them. Rick Ross's MMG (consisting of Meek Mill, Wale, Pill, and himself) align with YMCMB consistently. Even Nas has been featured on two of their artists albums- Tyga's Careless World, and Nicki's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. They recently signed a Busta Rhymes to the label on some partnership thing, and Mystikal was signed fully to Cash Money records last year. There is even talks of The Game heading over there after completing his 5th album with Interscope this year.Drake and Tyga's albums are still selling; Nicki's second album just dropped, and regardless of whether people consider it a flop or not, it is still currently the highest selling rap album on billboard chart. Mystikal's album is dropping soon, Bow Wow is dropping his first Cash Money album soon; Busta is also working on dropping an album this year. From all these, it is clear that YMCMB runs 2012.
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