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.

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/music/articles/_a/new-rap-problem-is-criticism-from-within/20070228164809990001

Check out this artical, but first check out a post of mine on my production forum..... I totally saw this coming. And i think its going to get worse soon unfortunately. Rap sales recently decreased more than 20%


http://www.qn5.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9883&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Now I don't mean completely cuz people like qn5 and others who do this for the art will always make hip hop music.... But is hip hop ending as a mainstream popular genre? Every genre of music in history pretty much has its height and then dies out when it starts to become oversaturated.... Or when a new genre comes along that is fresh and cool to the young generation..... I strongly believe hip hop is on its last leg, all its going to take is a half decent new genre of music to come along with a superstar or 2 to be its face(not raggaeton) lol.... Now hip hop will forever be used as inspiration and integrated into new genres just like rock soul and classical before it.... So you might have elements of hip hop living on in new genres but I think the days of rap as we know it are pretty much over.... The southern rap that is thriving now could actually be seperated as a new genre like how u have heavy metal and punk rock.... Its that different imo.... But my point is... Im getting a little worried like damn, are we going tobe able to do this for a living for much longer? Is a day coming soon where major labels stop signing hip hop acts? I fear it may be sooner han later just because the music is soooooo bad and so watered down, diluted and has absolutely no integrity left... All its going 2 take is something halway decent, not even great to take its place.... Just thoughts.. Im drunk btw

I posted that Aug 19, 2006

[Edited by - elite on 03-05-2007 05:09 AM]

It's not just hip hop. All the new music, nowadays, kinda sucks.

i only listen to the old school stuff myself cuz i wouldn't wanna spend any money buying any of the new stuff coming out now... a lot of it is unoriginal & straight copy of other artists... plus, i'm sure all the file sharing on the internet is causing a drop off in album sales too... i don't buy that "negative image" theory, cuz Hip Hop has been linked to thuglife & gangs for the longest & never had any issues selling albums.

Posted by Allanfan20:

It's not just hip hop. All the new music, nowadays, kinda sucks.

Agreed but hip-hop actually has a lot to do with that also, unfortunately.. But i wont get into it

Posted by Elite:

Posted by tomverve:

Music sales in general are down because of mp3s and the like. You'd have to take that into account before you could conclude that hip hop as a genre is declining.

Nah fam, MP3s and such have been around for years. That hit in sales has already beeen felt long ago - this is far more recent

You sure about that? I haven't been following it terribly closely but I'm pretty sure that it's only relatively recently that CD sales have been taking major hits. Even if the hip hop sales decline is more recent, it could just be that the "mp3 effect" is catching up to where it has been for other genres, rather than reflecting a decline in actual interest in the music. It's hard to say. I would just take any conclusions based on actual sales with several grains of salt.

PS: Buy my CD.

It's awful simply put.

You can't exploit hood lifestyle by taking people from those hoods bragging about what they are not and now what they got, displaying it to suburbian kids and ghetto poverty stricken youths and think it will last forever.

Rap officially died when 2-Pac died. Jay-Z did a good job letting that wick burn to the end but the flame was dying a long time ago.

One of the more ridiculous things I've seen on Youtube from a Hip-Hop video being distibuted on the streets is the Rap Battle between 2 dudes in New York in what looked like some kind of Rec Center hallway battle. It was a very long battle about a bunch of nothing, with one guy in particular constantly grabbing at his waist for his Tical/Heater while he's rapping talking about don't make him use it Yada Yada. The other guy got tired of him grabbing there while defacating on him and Five A Clubed him upside his head. I've seen most of the footage and as the guy got Clocked, falling back, he reaches for his Heater but was struggling to pull it out almost in a scared kind of way. This is a small footage of the battle and you can see other scenes possibly longer on the other links






I was thinking to myself

If you are so hard(your rap battle said so) how come you didn't know how to react in that situation without struggling and looking like a scared little one?



I'm comforted by the fact he didn't actually use it because violence under no circumstance, (particularly from Rap) is definitely not needed but come on what is Rap about these days?......Fake Beefs, Wannabes, Ghost Writers behind the scenes of non EMCEES, HOES, CARS, STACKS etc etc etc etc.

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 03-05-2007 12:03 PM]

after you watch that video watch this:

Oh man Elite.. that is hilarious!

Posted by Elite:

Posted by Allanfan20:

It's not just hip hop. All the new music, nowadays, kinda sucks.

Agreed but hip-hop actually has a lot to do with that also, unfortunately.. But i wont get into it

Yea unfortunately hip hop is really dying. I 've been listening to rap for years, but the quality of rap lacks the substance it once did in the mid 90's. But Elite aren't you a producer? Is this situation affecting your bread?

I am not considering Hip-Hop and Rap as music styles.
It's more as a culture and I don't think both can became classics like Rhythm Blues, Rock, or even Country
The musical component as well as lyrics is pretty simplistic and this styles mostly rely on energy and visual effects
Disco and Techno died at a time too.
The things that stand the test of time are for you mind and imagination not for you legs or you pe...is. Sorry...