Very interesting topic, and and a lot of good points made in this thread, but going back to the first page, to the person that said that Slaughterhouse didn't sell well enough because of the product, I agree, but their first album was very good and it didn't sell. People want popular music. As much as Em hates to admit it, he falls under popular music. When you sell 80 million records, you're popular, doesn't mean you make corny songs, it's popular material. So anyways, I'm not a marketing or advertising major, or employed by a company to be one, but I can tell you that if the product is excellent, it doesn't always necessarily mean that the product will sell very good. You have to be under a name that will market your music and advertise your product well enough that once you release the project, it'll sell like it's supposed to.
Interscope advertises & markets 50 & Em pretty good, but mostly they sell because they came out with popular albums. 50 makes music for women and clubs, Em makes music that females and males can listen to, due to the music being not only lyrical, but popular (mostly due to the lead single being a fun record, which usually doesn't reflect the nature of the album). I bet Interscope doesn't market/advertise their other artists as good, because they know 50 and Em will both individually sell around 10 million per project, and the more records sold via popularity and promotion, the better, & higher paychecks for them.