Does Hip-Hop suck?

[Strider]

From Does Hip-Hop suck?. Is a decline in quality really responsible for the drastic drop in rap's album sales?

Though the entire music industry has suffered a decline in record sales over the past couple of years, new reports show that the genre that has taken the biggest hit in units sold is rap. According to Time, rap sales have dropped by 44% since 2000, while the genre’s total share of all music sales has gone from 13% to 10%. In 2007 alone, rap album sales experienced a 33% drop.

And while there are many fingers pointing in many different directions when it comes to identifying who is responsible for rap’s recession, many music fans argue that it is the quality of hip-hop that is to blame for the decline in demand. Some critics claim that the incessant gangster posturing of many major label artists has left listeners jaded, while others point to a corporate mentality obsessed with sensationalist singles that has stifled creativity within the genre.

I'm not a fan of rap music so I personally don't find this really bad. It can disappear into oblivion for all I care. However, is the decline in sales (44% over the past 7 years) due to the "quality" or is there really a different reason out there?

 

[El_Machinae]

Not House of Pain!

 

[Fifty]

Yeah the crunk stuff kinda killed it.

Rap had a much larger market share back then I think because it was cool back then for rock people to like rap thanks to that dreadful rap-rock stuff that was so popular.

As long as I can listen to old Will Smith stuff, I dont care if rap dies (which it won't)

 

[skadistic]

Most of it does suck.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

i like good hip hop and hate crunk.

i see declining sales as a good thing.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Just for Fifty

Turn it up!

 

[GVBN]

Most rap sucks. Rappers like Rakim do not

 

[Phlegmak]

Does Hip-Hop suck?

Yes. .

 

[Che Guava]

It's just the cycles of music like anything else. Hip hop got popular in the 90's so suddenly every label was out to sign whatever mediocre talent they could find, as long as they could market it as 'urban'. ANd now, big surprise, the market is flooded with crappy music that no-one really wants to buy anymore.

Rap will decline for a few years, then come back in a better form (and then, of course, get crappy again )

 

[Masquerouge]

I would be glad if the whole "I'm a gangsta with beyotches" thing could disappear. That's the only thing that could save hip-hop.

 

[Traitorfish]

It's just the cycles of music like anything else. Hip hop got popular in the 90's so suddenly every label was out to sign whatever mediocre talent they could find, as long as they could market it as 'urban'. ANd now, big surprise, the market is flooded with crappy music that no-one really wants to buy anymore.

Rap will decline for a few years, then come back in a better form (and then, of course, get crappy again )

Exactly- rock/metal has gone through this cycle several times already. When something becomes popular it stagnates, and it's left to the alternative bands to innovate. Then some of them become popular, leading to stagnation, leading to new alternative innovation, and so on and so forth.
If you want to see the future of music, look at the alternative artists, not the mainstream ones. That's always been the case.

 

[Trajan12]

Good, popularity turned Hip hop into the beast that it is today. It should fade away from the mainstream and reclaim what it once was.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Good (c)rap "music" is jus an excuse for making money. Not o mention that no genre of music suport worse values than hiphop.

 

[Yoda Power]

A lot of the hip hop suck, but there are some good ones in between too.

I listen mostly to Danish hip hop though, which is somewhat different than the American stuff.

 

[Yoda Power]

Good (c)rap "music" is jus an excuse for making money. Not o mention that no genre of music suport worse values than hiphop.

You want me to refer to the link in your signature once again, don't you?

edit: whoops, forgot about the double post, sorry

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Public Enemy released one of the best albums of all time with "It would take a nation of millions to hold us back..." in my opinion. "Fear of a Black Planet" is pretty fine as well.

 

[Aramazd]

Most hip hop sucks, very little of it is good.

 

[Mirc]

Does Hip-Hop suck?

Yes, it does.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Good Hip Hop

More good Hip Hop

And yet more ....

 

[Masquerouge]

Good Hip Hop

More good Hip Hop

And yet more ....

It's INCREDIBLE how the first clip looks like an anti-eBay clip, even though it was made at least a decade before the "it" campaign...