In the last couple of years, there has been a continuous decline in album sales by rappers in the music industry. Because of this, artists have implored upon every form of gimmick they can use to stay relevant in the game and sell decent numbers. But even with that, rappers hardly go double platinum this days. The highest selling rap album in the last 5 years is Eminen's
Recovery album (2010), which has sold 4 million copies till date. But we all know Eminem has always been in a lane of his own when it comes to sales. But, it wasn't just his skils that got him those numbers; he definitely had the help of A list features on the album including
Rihanna, and
Pink which we can say got him some pop buzz. I have to point out that he had previously released a comeback album a year before titled
Relapse, which only managed to sell half of what Recovery sold.
The second highest selling rap album in the last 5 years is Lil Wayne's
Tha Carter 3 album (2008) which has sold over 3 million copies till date. And we all know that
Wayne was at his peak when he released that album. He had literaly saturated the airways with features with other artists that the hip hop listening audience couldn't but return the love. Asides from this, we have had rap albums from Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I, Nicki Minaj, Game, Drake and so on, which have sold between 1-2million copies in the last 5 years. The artists i mentioned above can be said to be high selling rappers in the last 5 years, and none of them has had an album that sold over 2 million copies in the last 5 years. Only
Eminem and Lil
Wayne have had rap albums that have sold over 2 million copies in the last 5 years.
I am stressing this point because it shows how bad sales in hip hop are presently. Back in the late 90s and early 00s, you had dozens of rappers selling multi platinum with their albums. Just so it don't seem like i am making this up, i would like to state a few- DMX, Ja Rule, 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Eminem, Dr Dre, Will Smith, Puffy (P.Diddy), Mase, Nas, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef, Ludacris...These were the rappers we knew and heard on radio constantly, and all these rappers did well with their albums. So what happened? Why is it that just a handful of rappers can go platinum these days, and only 2 have sold over 3 million copies in the last 5 years? I would like to point out that no rap album has gone platinum this year. The rap albums that have that platinum status and are still on the chart are rap albums that dropped last year like Watch The Throne (jay and kanye), and Drake's Take Care album. Countless rap albums have dropped this year, and to point out that the highest selling of them, at the middle of the year is from Nicki Minaj is really a sorry case for hip hop. And it took
Pink Friday Roman Reloaded 8 weeks to go Gold; it is now at a total of 534,000 copies sold.
A lot of people say it's illegal downloads that is killing the market, but i think it is more than just illegal downloads. I think the main reason why fewer and fewer rappers are getting to platinum status now is because there so many rappers out. Back in the 90s, i could definitely count the number of rappers on the scene. I would say they were not up to 50 rappers out. But now, you have about 400 rappers or so out. And i am not exergerating. Everyday i come online, i hear about a new rapper. I wont lie, i can't keep up. Everybody and their grandma wants to be a rapper now. So, the way i see it is that the industry is saturated, and the listeners are confused, so what they do is buy just a "song" they like, instead of buying a whole album from a rapper. You can check this by looking at
rap songs digital singles sales, which i can say is still doing real great. You now have Rappers going multi platinum with songs that have never gone platinum with any album through out their career.
T.I- Trouble Man- 4,300 (450,000)
Waka Flocka Flame- Tripple F Life (91,471)
Hundreds of rap albums have dropped since the 70s, but just a few have gotten the Diamond certification by R.I.A.A. As of the time i am writing this article (May 29, 2012), only 5 albums have gotten that certification.If you didn't know, the Diamond Certication is the highest Certication issued by R.I.A.A, and it is issued to albums that sell more than 10 million copies. With that said, MC Hammer's 1990 album, Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em; Eminen's The Marshall Marthers LP; The Notorious B.I.G's Life After Death, Tupac's All Eyez on Me and Outkast Speaker Boxxxx/The Love Below are the only rap albums that have received this certification.
Drake's Take Care album still is the highest selling rap album on the chart for this week. It sold 29,000 copies this week, to now total at 1,350,000. It is heading for 1.5 mill soon. And probably 2 million before the end of second quarter.
