Has The Internet Killed The HipHop Industry?

[Ticalrecords]

Mac Miller makes absolutely terrible music.

loll, if that's the only thing you disagree with from my post... i guess we're on the same side. smh

[EminemBase]

no

[SliK]

^^^I agree with what you are saying....but....

What are the chances that more people will get into those independent artists?

Example: 2pac, Eminem, Nas, and Jay-Z got me into hip hop when I was between 8 and 10 years of age.

You know what the introduction to hip-hop is for those kids now? Lil Wayne, Drake, 2 Chainz, etc. etc.

Who is to say they will grow an appreciation for complex lyricism and stripped down beats?

It has hurt the quality of music....especially hip-hop...there is no denying that. Even the underground rappers were better in the late 90's and early 2000's.

This is a terrible argument. Anyone who actually likes rap will find other artists than Lil Wayne, Drake & 2 Chainz.

Not to mention the fact that Eminem, Nas and Jay-Z are still active today.

[King Lance]

It's still a terrible argument.

No it isn't. I know plenty of younger teenage kids who don't listen to rap because they see Lil Wayne, Drake, and Kanye and they think it's corny, so they don't bother getting into rap. Sadly, that is what represents rap today. It takes someone like me to show them old hip-hop songs and underground acts such as Atmosphere for them to get into the genre. That doesn't always happen, so no. It is not a terrible argument. The only way you can get into different styles of hip hop is through research on the internet, in order for that to happen, you have to garner some sort of interest in the genre.

Back then you had balance. You heard Back That Azz Up on the radio and right after you heard Hard Knock Life. Or you heard The Real Slim Shady and then the Block is Hot. Even artists like Em and Jay have to collaborate with certain producers and artists to stay relevant. One of my in-laws grew up liking old Em when I showed him to her. She thinks Recovery and Relapse is garbage. If nobody would've ever showed her his old material, her opinion of Em would be that he is garbage.

My argument is that the internet hurt sales, which in turn hurt the quality of music since record execs became interested in ringtone songs and radio singles rather than focusing on creating complete albums (since nobody is buying them anyway). This decrease in quality may turn certain demographics away from the genre.

We are finally seeing some change though. Kendrick's good kid, m.a.a.d city was huge for this internet era (it has already gone gold) but even he had to make a song like Swimming Pools and throw Drake on Poetic Justice to sell.

I don't think he released Swimming pools to sell more and the track wasn't even supposed to be on the album and don't forget that kendrick hasn't released poetic justice as a single yet. (The album was huge with only 1 single)

interview : http://www.thefader.com/2012/02/20/blac ... z20XPvFchP

"Early the next morning Lamar is back in the studio waiting for the other Hippies before a photo shoot. Taking the opportunity to touch up some tracks, he operates as his own engineer, pressing record a few bars early and then sprint hopping back into the vocal booth to lay his own vocals. Produced by Drake affiliate T-Minus, the track sounds a lot like, well, a Drake song with its bluntly emotional fluttering synths. It’s a record that could fit in quite comfortably on current day rap radio and yet Lamar seems a little embarrassed to be playing it in mixed company, perhaps recalling the fourth law of Top’s manifesto: Uniqueness. He emphatically points out that the track is not intended for his forthcoming album. It is, instead, “some freelance ****.”

I think he decided to put SP on the album because of his fans.

For the sales, I just think that ppl buy the albums they really like "asap, kendrick, j cole, etc) and that's cool

[Chet Starr]

I think the positive most definitely outweighs the negative.

It's up to fans to decide what they want to hear now, and when they do, they are generally more satisfied with the decision. Good music cuts through the bullshit, regardless of how saturated the internet is with mediocrity. At the end of the day, touring and doing live shows is what will separate an internet rapper from a marketable artist anyway.

Now, if you're good, you don't need a label for distribution. You can hit all of the online retailers they would get you into, and even some of the physical brick and mortar locations as well. You may not get on MTV, but you can have 1,000,000 YouTube views from people that actually want to hear your music, as opposed to some empty headed idiot just looking for background noise between reality TV shows.

It's made the major record labels more cautious, and less likely to take risks, but fuck the major record labels. For the most part, they haven't been putting out good music for a long time, and they've been fucking the few good artists they had in the first place with their bullshit contracts that were bad before the internet even became the new normal. They can all fucking fall to shit, and it wouldn't bother me at all.

Most of the interesting stuff is coming from independent artists now anyway.

[King Lance]

I think the label told him to put Swimming Pools on the album. I don't know about where you're at, but in Miami they constantly play Poetic Justice on the radio.

poetic justice & bitch don't kill are already in the billboard HOT 100 and they aren't even singles (poetic justice has been in the hot 100 for 12 weeks) =p
In fact, a lot of non singles of any artist are charted...
The song is set to be released as the second single due to the song's positive response but he's still waiting because of Swimming pools's success (the song has been in the top 25 @ billboard hot 100 for months)

[LEVITIKUZ]

Has The Internet Killed The HipHop Industry?

One word; Tech N9ne. Would people really know him with the internet or computers? While he's indie and tours and shit ton, I go to Target or Wal Mart and they don't sell Tech albums. Only place I see Tech albums sold is Best Buy. Internet helps real rappers like Tech, Yela, Macklemore, Kendrick and others get there music out and it ruins dumb rappers like Nicki, Wayne and other due to the fact they are mainstream. People would rather download for free an artist in the mainstearm like Nicki and Wayne then buy an album from Tech or Yela.

[classthe_king]

It's still a terrible argument.

No it isn't. I know plenty of younger teenage kids who don't listen to rap because they see Lil Wayne, Drake, and Kanye and they think it's corny, so they don't bother getting into rap. Sadly, that is what represents rap today. It takes someone like me to show them old hip-hop songs and underground acts such as Atmosphere for them to get into the genre. That doesn't always happen, so no. It is not a terrible argument. The only way you can get into different styles of hip hop is through research on the internet, in order for that to happen, you have to garner some sort of interest in the genre.

And you think if there was no internet that Atmosphere would be on the radio? That's absurd. If there was no internet you wouldn't have heard of Slug either lbh.

Back then you had balance. You heard Back That Azz Up on the radio and right after you heard Hard Knock Life. Or you heard The Real Slim Shady and then the Block is Hot. Even artists like Em and Jay have to collaborate with certain producers and artists to stay relevant. One of my in-laws grew up liking old Em when I showed him to her. She thinks Recovery and Relapse is garbage. If nobody would've ever showed her his old material, her opinion of Em would be that he is garbage.

So what? That's because Em sold out and fell off. Not because of the internet but because of his own choices. You DON"T need radio singles to stay relevant anymore, that's the point. You're acting like Biggie never made Big Poppa or Mo Money Mo Problems. All rappers have always had radio singles and if they didn't then they didn't get heard by the masses. That didn't change because of the internet, that only made it so you could be heard without one.

My argument is that the internet hurt sales, which in turn hurt the quality of music since record execs became interested in ringtone songs and radio singles rather than focusing on creating complete albums (since nobody is buying them anyway). This decrease in quality may turn certain demographics away from the genre.

Well the internet hurts sales but that doesn't hurt the quality of music at all. This isn't 2006. Kendrick just dropped the highest selling record of 2012 with absolutely no sell out radio so there goes your whole argument.

We are finally seeing some change though. Kendrick's good kid, m.a.a.d city was huge for this internet era (it has already gone gold) but even he had to make a song like Swimming Pools and throw Drake on Poetic Justice to sell.

Swimming pools was in no way a poppy radio song and it fit right along with the album. And yeah Drake sucked but he didn't even release that song as a single so that's irrelevant.

[classthe_king]

It hurt sales, that's it. I don't think the quality of music has decreased at all. I think it's been the opposite.

[classthe_king]

It hurt sales, that's it. I don't think the quality of music has decreased at all. I think it's been the opposite.

The quality of music is opinion based. So it has hurt the hip-hop industry, but, a lot of these rappers wouldn't even be selling records if it wasn't for the internet.

I guess the correct answer is that it has hurt mainstream hip-hop music. MTV not playing music videos also sucks. If MTV were to still have shows that were related to music, Kendrick Lamar would've gone platinum already! Shows like TRL and Direct Effect really helped some hip-hop artists get great exposure (including Eminem).

EDIT: Can you imagine how hyped up Eminem's comeback would've been on MTV?????

I don't think MTV and other music shows hype rappers any more than hip-hop websites/blogs/forums/social media.

[classthe_king]

So? Not we get rappers coming onto radio shows and getting interviewed and having that shown on the internet so you can watch it whenever you want. We have way more access to artists now then we ever have.

[Devil'sAdvocate]

you wouldn't of posted this thread

[King Lance]

I'm not against the internet, I really don't care if people sell albums or what people listen to. I'm only stating that it has hurt the hip hop industry (that was the question) in the sense that sales have gone done and that hip-hop isn't as good as it used to be. I'm simply blaming the internet for it. I think it's great that I'm able to discover other artists through the internet. I'm saying that most people aren't going to do that, they rely on radio and mainstream media.

Songs like Big Poppa and Mo Money Mo Problems shit on any single you hear on the radio today. That's exactly the point I'm trying to prove. What was considered mainstream hip-hop back then is far greater than mainstream hip-hop today.

Swimming Pools was definitely a radio friendly song. That hook was your typical overproduced/catchy hook that you hear in hip-hop today. Poetic Justice is going to be the 2nd single. It's already getting radio play like crazy. The track has become popular because Drake is on it, and that's what the general public wants to hear.

Btw, GKMC wasn't the best selling hip-hop album of 2012. It was Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday:Roman Reloaded (it was also the only 2012 release to achieve platinum status).

Platinum ? No lol
Nicki released the first version of pink friday : roman reloaded 7 months before the release of GKMC and she decided to release a second edition the same year to boost her sales... she didn't sell a lot of copies if you look at her sales and that's why ppl/newspapers and critics keep saying that gkmc is the best selling hip hop album of 2012.

NICKI MINAJ - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded : 797,340 (2 albums ; Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded + Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up) (The first was released in APRIL)
KENDRICK LAMAR - Good Kid, m.A.A.d City : 639,227


Swimming pools was in no way a poppy radio song and it wasn't even supposed to be a single !
A catchy chorus =/= radiofriendly and the content of the song isn't what the general public wants to hear tbh.
Poetic justice (still not released as a single) isn't the only non-single song to be charted in the hot 100 @ billboard and it just means that kendrick doesn't need drake to release a popular song.
Money Trees, Bitch don't kill my vibe an cartoon & cereal are the songs praised by critics (pitchfork, rapgenious, fact magazine, etc)

Drake isn't even on the chorus of poetic justice

[Minimii]

i rather give up music than internet yo