I think a lot of rappers are a flash in the pan nowadays. In short, I think most rappers that have come in the game through the years have had very little staying power. After their first 2 or 3 albums that are successful, they start to fall off into oblivion. So, I have decided to give credit to rappers that have been able to stay relevant enough to have at least 5 platinum albums.
I know people are going to say album sales shouldn't be a criteria for how good a rapper is. But, my theory is that, if you are a gimmick, or just a fad for the moment, there is no way you are going to sell a million copies 5 times...people are always 'on to the next' hottest gimmick out by the 2nd album. So, the people I am going to be listing below deserve an applause.
Ludacris (5)
Back for the First Time (2000)
Word of Mouf (2001)
Chicken-n-Beer (2003)
The Red Light District (2004)
Release Therapy (2006)
TI (5)
Trap Muzik (2003)
Urban Legend (2004)
King (2006)
T.I. vs. T.I.P (2007)
Paper Trail (2008)
Missy (5)
Supa Dupa Fly (1997)
Da Real World (1999)
Miss E...So Addictive (2001)
Under Construction (2002)
This Is Not a Test! (2003)
Ice Cube (5)
AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990)
Death Certificate (1991)
The Predator (1992)
Lethal Injection (1993)
War & Peace Vol. 1- The War Disc (1998)
Busta Rhymes (5)
The Coming (1996)
When Disaster Strikes (1997)
E.L.E- Extinction Level Event- The Final World Front (1998)
Anarchy (2000)
Genesis (2001)
DMX (5)
It's Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998)
Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998)
...And Then There Was X (1999)
The great Depression (2001)
Grand Champ (2003)
Kanye West (5)
The College Dropout (2004)
Late Registration (2005)
Graduation (2007)
808s & Heartbreaks (2008)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
Too Short (6)
Life Is... Too Short (1988)
Short Dog's in the House (1990)
Shorty The Pimp (1992)
Get in Where You Fit In (1993)
Cocktails (1995)
Gettin' It (1996)
Lil Wayne (6)
Tha Block Is Hot (1999)
Lights Out (2000)
Tha Carter (2004)
Tha Carter 2 (2005)
Tha Carter 3 (2008)
Tha Carter 4 (2011)
LL Cool J (6)
Radio (1985)
Bigger and Deffer (1987)
Walking with a Panther (1989)
Mama Said Kcock You Out (1990)
Mr. Smith (1995)
Phenomenon (1997)
Eminem (7)
The Slim Shady LP (1999)
The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)
The Eminem Show (2002)
Encore (2004)
Relapse (2009)
Recovery (2010)
*The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)...This album drops next month, but I don't want to come back and edit this post. We all know Eminem will go platinum within two weeks of the album's release.
Snoop Dogg (7)
Doggystlye (1993)
The Dogfather (1996)
Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told (1998)
No Limit Top Dogg (1999)
The Last Meal (2000)
Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss
R&G- Rhythm &Gangsta: The Masterpiece
Nas (8)
Illmatic (1994)
It Was Written (1996)
I Am (1999)
Nastradamus (1999)
Stillmatic (2001)
Godson (2002)
Street's Disciple (2004)
Hip Hop Is Dead (2006)- This album recently went plat after Life Is Good (2012) was released.
Tupac (9)
2Pacalypse Now (1991)
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z (1993)
Me Against The Wolrd (1995)
All Eyez On Me (1996)
The Don Killuminati (1996)
R U Still Down: Remember Me (1997)
Until the End of Time (2001)
Better Dayz (2002)
Loyal to the Game (2004)
Jay Z (12)
Reasonable Doubt (1996)
In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997)
Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life (1998)
Life and Times of S. Carter (1999)
Dynasty (2000)
The Blueprint (2001)
The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002)
The Black Album (2003)
Kingdom Come (2006)
American Gangster (2007)
The Blueprint 3 (2009)
Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013)
Honorary mentions include
Ja Rule with 4 platinum selling albums.
Whoa! All
Jay Z's albums are platinum. All 12 of them. And it's funny that his first two albums didn't sell much. His second album didn't even go Gold, till he dropped
Vol. 2...and everything started selling afterwards. As
Napoleon Hill said in his the great book, Think and Grow Rich-
'Those who have cultivated the HABIT of persistence seem to enjoy insurance against failure. No matter how many times they are defeated, they finally arrive up toward the top of the ladder." There is nothing like luck here."
Like
Nas said on that 'Classic' track with Kanye, Rakim, and KRS1-
'Oh you went platinum, yeah that's nice/Now let me see you do the same thing twice/Three times, four times, then a couple of mo' times.' A lot of people clown
Rick Ross for never going platinum, but at least all his albums are Gold. He has 5 albums in 7 years, and his sales with all of them are consistent...between 500-800k...every time. I think that is better than someone that sold 10 million copies individually with his first two albums, but couldn't sell one million with his fourth album.
I respect everyone on the list above, cos it takes a lot to go Platinum 5 times in a rap career. For those that don't know what 'platinum' means, it is a certification given to albums that sell more than a million copies. In the last 5 years in Hip Hop, the only rapper close to achieving 5 plat studio albums is
Drake. He has released three albums (
Thank Me Later, Take Care, and
Nothing Was the Same) since 2010, and all of three of them are plat. even in the last 10 years, the only rappers that have come on the scene that have multiple platinum selling albums are
50 Cent with 3,
Young Jeezy with 3, and
Drake with 3.
I guess the Internet is really a gift and a curse, as illegal downloads are really hurting album sales. I thought that Eminem's Shady compilation album (Shady XV) would come and save the day but in two weeks it has only sold 170k...not even up to the first week sales of Rick Ross's "Mastermind" album earlier this week. Iggy Azalea's The New Classic album is the highest selling rap album of 2014, and then Rick Ross's Mastermind comes next with 400k sold. Is it that the easier it is to download songs and albums, the more reluctant people feel about going to the store to actually get the physical copies of albums? I guess that is the problem. Cos downloading music illegally is super easy right now.
