Rap music faces alarming sales decline

[Chief]

Rap music faces alarming sales decline

NEKESA MUMBI MOODY -Associated Press -Feb 28, 2007



NEW YORK ? Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading website Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently ?asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap.A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now.?

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album Hip-Hop is Dead. It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 per cent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year. A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans last year, 50 per cent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap, but says it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book I Am Hip-Hop partly to create something positive about rap for young children, including her four-year-old daughter.

?I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me,? says Duncan-Smith, 33. ?I can't listen to that nonsense.... I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood any more and ghetto revivals.... I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it??

Hip-hop also seems to be increasingly blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls.

Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last week's NBA All-Star
Game was blamed on hip-hoppers. ?(NBA Commissioner) David Stern seriously
needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of
years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to
terrorize,? columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, wrote on AOL.

While rap has been in essence pop music for years, and most rap consumers are white, some worry that the black community is suffering from hip-hop ? from the way America perceives blacks to the attitudes and images being adopted by black youth.

But the rapper David Banner derides the growing criticism as blacks joining
America's attack on young black men who are only reflecting the crushing
problems within their communities. Besides, he says, that's the kind of music
America wants to hear.?Look at the music that gets us popular ? Like a Pimp, Dope Boy Fresh,' he says, naming two of his hits.

?What makes it so difficult is to know that we need to be doing other things.
But the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can
bring certain things to the light,? he says. ?They want (black artists) to
shuck and jive, but they don't want us to tell the real story because they're
connected to it.?

Criticism of hip-hop is certainly nothing new ? it's as much a part of the culture as the beats and rhymes. Among the early accusations were that rap wasn't true music, its lyrics were too raw, its street message too polarizing. But they rarely came from the youthful audience itself, which was enraptured with genre that defined them as none other could.

?As people within the hip-hop generation get older, I think the criticism is
increasing,? says author Bakari Kitwana, who is currently part of a lecture
tour titled ?Does Hip-Hop Hate Women??

?There was a more of a tendency when we were younger to be more defensive of it,? he adds.

During her '90s crusade against rap's habit of degrading women, the late black activist C. Dolores Tucker certainly had few allies within the hip-hop community, or even among young black women. Backed by folks like conservative Republican William Bennett, Tucker was vilified within rap circles.

In retrospect, ?many of us weren't listening,? says Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, a professor at Vanderbilt University and author of the new book Pimps Up, Ho's Down:Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women.

?She was onto something, but most of us said, 'They're not calling me a bitch, they're not talking about me, they're talking about THOSE women.' But then it became clear that, you know what? Those women can be any women.?

One rap fan, Bryan Hunt, made the searing documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which debuted on PBS this month. Hunt addresses the biggest criticisms of rap, from its treatment of women to the glorification of the gangsta lifestyle that has become the default posture for many of today's most popular rappers.

?I love hip-hop,? Hunt, 36, says in the documentary. ?I sometimes feel bad for criticizing hip-hop, but I want to get us men to take a look at ourselves.?

Even dances that may seem innocuous are not above the fray. Last summer,
as the Chicken Noodle Soup song and accompanying dance became a sensation, Baltimore Sun pop critic Rashod D. Ollison mused that the dance demonstrated in the video by young people stomping wildly from side to side ? was part of the growing minstrelization of rap music.

?The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era
when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning
'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged 'bucks,?' he wrote.

And then there's the criminal aspect that has long been a part of rap. In the
'70s, groups may have rapped about drug dealing and street violence, but rap
stars weren't the embodiment of criminals themselves. Today, the most popular and successful rappers boast about who has murdered more foes and rhyme about dealing drugs as breezily as other artists sing about love.

Creekmur says music labels have overfed the public on gangsta rap, obscuring artists who represent more positive and varied aspects of black life, like Talib Kweli, Common and Lupe Fiasco.

?It boils down to a complete lack of balance, and whenever there's a complete lack of balance people are going to reject it, whether it's positive or negative,? Creekmur says. Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell any more. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made ? like Cadillac on 22s, about staying way from street life ? in favour of songs like Like a Pimp.

?The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner,? he says. ?I wish America would just be honest. America is sick.... America loves violence and sex.?

[mrlee]

good, i hope it dies out and never returns (though what comes around goes around), lets hope rock n roll comes back around for another 20 years.

[Robman?]

good, i hope it dies out and never returns (though what comes around goes around), lets hope rock n roll comes back around for another 20 years.

damn right 

Rock will always last, hip-hop is a limited genre.

[chriskon72]

I have nothing against rap, some of it was ok. A few years back I saw the up in Smoke tour DVD and was really impressed it was a good show.

   But Rap is getting old fast. It's all the same, all the rappers look alike (all wearing Basketball or football jerseys), all the videos look alike, the lyrics are the same nowadays, S-N-O-O-P coming to the N-Y-C straight from the C-A-L-I oh for christ's sake. Ride in my Benz with your Chanel and Louis Vuitton PULEEEEEEZE.



Everyones hour is up sometime, a few will survive. C-ya in fifteen years on the reunion tours

[mrlee]

its just boring. same old beats, and silly people making "wooo" noises with "yeah" "yo" in the background too.

then some man rappin bout his ho's n bitches, and how ghetto he is.

BORING.

[EFISH]

That's good news. For shizzle.

All the radio/tv friendly rap is just a joke anyway. One person likes it, and then it catches on, and all of a sudden it's the number one song on all those countdowns and it's the big thing. Then 2 weeks later, another song becomes popular. Like 50-cent. He was the big thing last year, I havent heard his name once this year except when people are making a joke.

[mrlee]

That's good news. For shizzle.

All the radio/tv friendly rap is just a joke anyway. One person likes it, and then it catches on, and all of a sudden it's the number one song on all those countdowns and it's the big thing. Then 2 weeks later, another song becomes popular. Like 50-cent. He was the big thing last year, I havent heard his name once this year except when people are making a joke.

very true words efish! 

They all have stupid ways of marketting themselves too

"phizzle bizzle feat twista mc" its always "featuring" some randomer.

[Bill 213]

Just as rock music did, rap has lost it's edge.  At one point it stood for something and spoke for a whole generation of people that were ingulfed in the middle of the music.  Now, like rock music, it has become contrived, watered down and pussified for the general masses.  Instead of having a person who is living the life they sing about...now it's all about showing off tons of jewelry and cars that you can't afford...and that's EVERY SINGLE RAP VIDEO.

Most of the old school rap artists had to sell themselves out to the new generation or face being left behind. 

When music stopped becoming a vocal platform about reality and in your face life, it became drivel and bland.

[mrlee]

Just as rock music did, rap has lost it's edge.  At one point it stood for something and spoke for a whole generation of people that were ingulfed in the middle of the music.  Now, like rock music, it has become contrived, watered down and pussified for the general masses.  Instead of having a person who is living the life they sing about...now it's all about showing off tons of jewelry and cars that you can't afford...and that's EVERY SINGLE RAP VIDEO.

Most of the old school rap artists had to sell themselves out to the new generation or face being left behind. 

When music stopped becoming a vocal platform about reality and in your face life, it became drivel and bland.

real rock music is slowly coming back, slowly...but surely!

[Danny Top Hat]

Don't talk like that - rock music never left.? It's here still, it just isn't the 60s anymore.? Rock adapted and spread itself out into more specific genres. 

Rap will do the same I imagine.? It'll have to adapt or noone will care anymore.

50 Cent jokes?? I've got none...but this did make me smile:

In a poll of black Americans last year, 50 per cent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

 

[judaskennedy]

most people i know who listen to rap never buy cd's,   they just download and burn cds.

[Alan]

its just boring. same old beats, and silly people making "wooo" noises with "yeah" "yo" in the background too.

then some man rappin bout his ho's n bitches, and how ghetto he is.

BORING.

i suggest stop listening to the rap thats force fed to you and go find some of the lesser known acts. far more interesting and talented.

[stinson4ever]

rock is just as bas as rap IMO.? For every Luipe Fiasco there is 100's of crappy commercial rappers talking about the same things. Another thing that makes me sick is that group little ricky. they are the hip hop equilevant to N'Snc. They took a salt and peppa song(lets talk about sex) which was origanlly about sex awareness, and basically flipped it around.?

the only new rappers i listen too are Luipe Fiasco, busdriver, and the saturday knights. Busdriver especialy is doing things different and thinking outside the bus. Hes got some crazy beats that nobody in the mainstream rap scene would even think about trying, because all they are thinking about is blending in. Check him out if you can

[NicoRourke]

I hope all this rap and rn'b bullshit dies and never comes back.

I've had more than enough of it

[GNR_Green]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Rap is in general (apart from stuff like the Pussycat Dolls etc) the lowest form of 'music' the world will ever know.  It's had its highlights and I even own a rap album (Ice T) but it's just such a muddy, overblown and essentially boring and repetitive genre with virtually no musical significance it has to die sometime.  All this talk about great beats is fine, but when I hear some great music I might sit up and take notice!  Somebody even tried to convince me once that you have to be a good bass player to make hip hop - yeah right.  Let it live underground like metal and maybe something might improve but I wouldn't hold my breath!

[Eazy E]

rock is just as bas as rap IMO.

At least some people in this thread have some sense and realize this...  Rock fans should know better than anyone that you need to dig a little deeper to find the quality music these days.  I highly doubt any of the trash talkers have even listened to a song by Talib, Common or Lupe Fiasco because I hardly see how you could call it "reptitive" or filled with a bunch of "bling and hos".

What's being described in the article happens all the time, it happened with hair metal, it happened with grunge, it happened with nu-metal, and it's happening with gangster rap.  The quality of music in general is declining these days and mainstream rap is the most noticeable because it's been dominating the charts.  I will agree that it's a good thing that the music on the top of the charts is suffering declining sales, but I certainly won't use it as an excuse to bash the whole genre.  Just as Fall Out Boy doesn't represent rock music, Young Joc doesn't represent hip hop.

[Neemo]

yeah all music is tired and old these days...its all shit peopel jsut want a single and dont really make art anymore

i dunno rap isnt really relivant anymore, the fire is gone, there is nothing else to say that already hasnt been covered in the genre...

[Juanjay]

The Roots
Murs
POS
K-OS... who is a modern Prince... sings, raps, plays most of the intruments on his tracks

All those I listed are good rap. 

And for the bass comment up there, the bass player from The Roots is sick, you won't hear it on the albums but live he can rip and their former bass/guitar Ben (he played both) now plays bass in Incubus. As for R&B, groups like the Isley Brothers, The Wailers and stuff have members that are just as and if not more skilled than rock groups. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean its not good. People like Flea and Les Claypool learned how to play bass from 70's funk and R&B.

[mrlee]

The Roots
Murs
POS
K-OS... who is a modern Prince... sings, raps, plays most of the intruments on his tracks

All those I listed are good rap. 

And for the bass comment up there, the bass player from The Roots is sick, you won't hear it on the albums but live he can rip and their former bass/guitar Ben (he played both) now plays bass in Incubus. As for R&B, groups like the Isley Brothers, The Wailers and stuff have members that are just as and if not more skilled than rock groups. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean its not good. People like Flea and Les Claypool learned how to play bass from 70's funk and R&B.

theres a difference between parliament funkadelic and the shitty rap out there today, lol.

parliament rocked...funky style!

[Alan]

Jurassic 5 & Dizzie Rascal

both amazing live acts, and i love the studio cuts as well.