Which Rapper Fell Off The Hardest In The Last 10 Years

A lot of rappers have come and gone in the last 10 years. Trends have come and gone, but this article is not based on rappers that rode trends, or rappers that were a fad for a while. This article is based on rappers that had the whole industry on a lock down, and now have fallen off. I am trying to discover which rapper fell off the hardest in the last 10 years.




I have 4 contestants. lol! I got Game, Nelly, Ja Rule and 50 Cent. Pardon me if your favourite rapper appears on the list; I'm dealing with numbers here, and I am not just being biased or anything. Let me note that I am working on commercial success of the individual rappers while they were on-top. I'm using this as a criteria cos we all like different styles, and and how good a rapper is will be judged differently from one person to another, so I have decided to work with numbers of albums sold.




Let's start with Nelly. He was hottest around the early 00s. His debut album, Country Grammar (2000) sold 10.5 million copies in the U.S; Nellyville (2002) sold 6.5 million copies; Sweat and Suit (2004) were released as separate albums, but on the same day, so I will just add the sales together. Both albums sold a cumulative 4.5 million copoies. Nelly went off the scene for a while, and then came back with Brass Knuckles in 2008, which only sold 230,000 copies till date...not even going Gold. His 5th album was released 2 years later, and sold just 170,000 copies total. I think that is definitely a fall from his debut 10 years ago.











Game came in the game with Documentary in 2005, selling 2.5 million copies in the U.S. Before I go on, let me state that I'm working with sales in the U.S only, and not album worldwide sales. Dr's Advocate (2006) from Game was released a year after his debut, and sold 1 million copies. L.A.X (2008) also sold a million copies. But, his 4th album, R.E.D (2011) has sold just 270,000 copies to date.











50 Cent sold 8 million copies of his Get Rich Or Die Trying album in 2003. In 2005, he sold 1.1 million copies first week with his The Massacre album, and went on to sell 5 million copies total. 2 years later, his 3rd album, Curtis sold 1.3 million copies. And then his 4th album, Before I Self Destruct (2009) struggled to go Gold...and stalled in sales at 436,000 total.









Ja Rule on the other hand sold a million copies of his album, Venni Vetti Vecci, in 1999. His next two albums, Rule 3:36 (2000), and Pain Is Love (2001) both sold 3 million copies individually. But his downfall began with his 4th album, The Last Temptation,  which sold 1 million copies. His fifth album, Blood In My Eyes (2003), was promoted poorly, and took the form of a mixtape (mostly diss tracks going at 50 Cent). It sold 350,000 total. His 6th album, R.U.L.E (2004) sold 500,000 copies. He went into hiatus after his 6th album, and the other albums dropped afterwards were digital release only, or underground albums.







I think, from the figures I have put up, we can let Game and Ja Rule slide...the crown should go to either 50 Cent or Nelly. Nelly went from selling 10.5 million copies with his first album in 2000, to not even going Gold (sales in excess of 500k) with his 5th album (5.0) in 2010. But maybe I am being a bit too harsh on Nelly; that's a 10 year run. Let's turn the scope once again on 50 Cent. 50 went from selling 5 million copies with The Massacre album in 2005, to selling 1.3 million copies with his Curtis album, two years later.







I think what I should do to pick the rapper that fell off the hardest from these two artist, is to check the range of album sales for a 4 year period between both their careers. 50 Cent sold 8 million copies with Get Rich Or Die Trying in 2003, and 4 years later, he sold 1.3 million copies with Curtis- that's a 6.7 million range. Nelly sold 10.5 million copies of his Country Grammar album in 2000, and then 4.5 million copies of his Sweat/Suit album- that's a 6 million range. It's pretty close, but according to the statistics, 50 Cent is the rapper that fell off the hardest in the last 10 years.