BigL187
MOPAO
top dawg running his label like death row
Dangeroo(TDE Boss) bytching about Groovy Tony's poor sales.
steadyrighteous
Veteran
TDE had somewhat of an underdog narrative when they started, but they've since splintered into separate entities as artists, and now they have no collective identity, so it's hard for their fans to ride for them.
Every label or crew had a central identity that their fans could point to, claim, and ride with/for. What's TDE's?
If I asked you to think of 5 words to describe these collectives, crews or labels, we could all think of 5, and after 30/40 answers, the same 3 or 4 words would keep coming up. They had artists who were a little different, but their central themes/identities were the same:
Bad Boy
Roc-A-Fella
Cash Money
Wu-Tang
Death Row
TDE has no real collective identity at the moment, so if I asked you to describe what a TDE fan looked like, you couldn't right now.
Top and Punch would probably say "We got fans from all over and they all different", but from a marketing perspective, if you can't identify your core audience, how are you supposed to sell to them?
Every label or crew had a central identity that their fans could point to, claim, and ride with/for. What's TDE's?
If I asked you to think of 5 words to describe these collectives, crews or labels, we could all think of 5, and after 30/40 answers, the same 3 or 4 words would keep coming up. They had artists who were a little different, but their central themes/identities were the same:
Bad Boy
Roc-A-Fella
Cash Money
Wu-Tang
Death Row
TDE has no real collective identity at the moment, so if I asked you to describe what a TDE fan looked like, you couldn't right now.
Top and Punch would probably say "We got fans from all over and they all different", but from a marketing perspective, if you can't identify your core audience, how are you supposed to sell to them?
Detroit Red
Buy any jeans necessary
GKMC was a MAINSTREAM album and went plat platThey don't hear you though....
Kendrick don't care about sales, he's all about the music.
The only reason why Kendrick stays making this weirdo shyt is because he knows he'd flop if he tried to do anything too mainstream.
He's like that average student who doesn't do shyt and settles for Cs because deep down he knows trying will only get him a B-.
Elaborate. what would you say the "central themes/identities" of these crews were:
Bad Boy
Roc-A-Fella
Cash Money
Wu-Tang
Death Row
steadyrighteous
Veteran
Bad Boy - poppin' bottles, club life, the whole "shiny suit" era thing. They had a bit of street edge, but you can put almost any Bad Boy artist in a suit, hand him a bottle of Mo and he/she won't look out of place
Roc-A-Fella - similar to Bad Boy, but with a little bit more a a street edge. They're the guys in the same club as Bad Boy but they're not the one's standing on the tables, they're the ones in the shadows
Cash Money - obviously "Bling Bling", a term you can attribute them with creating. Gaudy, "new money" types, Hood Rich etc.
Death Row - West Coast, gangbang lifestyle with a partying streak. Monday to Friday putting in work, weekends livin' it up.
You may look at those and call them oversimplifications or one-dimensional concepts, but when you look at the general things that any crew, it's artists and it's messaging puts forth, you can attach products to them, brands etc., and now in reverse you can point to who your consumer is and target/market towards them - build a core.
All of that is what I meant by "narrative" - it's a story that the average fan (us) is being told without explicitly being told it. That's what it does for your fans, but what it does for you as the label is, it helps you know who to sign, what kind of music to make and how to sell that music.
The reason TDE is finding it hard to push the new Q stuff, or why Jay Rock just isn't hitting the way it could/should, is, in a general sense, they're pushing all of their artists as if they were Kendrick.
Kendrick is elusive, eclectic, off-beat, a loner type - he can wait 3 years with no music and no real features then drop something with not as much promo or build up and have built up anticipation.
You can't do that with Q or Rock - maybe Ab - but you can't expect Kendrick fans to treat Q and Rock with the same reverence and rabid anticipation as Kendrick. To put it in a way which may be a little off, but my feeling is:
You can't expect or ride on the belief that all Kendrick fans are TDE fans. At first (Section.80 days) they may have been, but he has somewhat risen above that to become his own thing, so he should be treated as such, and the goalposts and expectations need to be shifted for the rest of the crew.
TDE's narrative has changed, and until you figure out what the new one is, don't get mad when Kendrick goes Gold (500,000), and Ab, Rock and Soul sell 100,000 each. You know what that tells me?
You've got 100,000 TDE fans. Kendrick has 500,000 fans, not TDE.
steadyrighteous
Veteran
But that's all just opinion though. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just my 2 cents.
Hood Critic
The Power Circle
Artist Development, honing and polishing your work.
Listen to how far Q and Rock have come in terms of their song making, lyrics, flow, etc.. Both have shown tremendous growth and both had very solid projects all the way through.
Soulo is still as talented as he's always been but is struggling with the music he wants to make vs what is going to sell. I expect his next project to be very good because he technically has the only dud TDE album out of everyone.
I'm excited for Isiah's project to see his growth.
So the lack of projects just shows me that if it ain't ready, they aren't releasing it and that's how it should be. I think you'll get more efficiently staggered releases when everyone is solid in all aspects of making the kind of music that they make.
You can't even be mad at Top because he's interacting with the fans and trying to give them what they're asking for. What other label boss is doing that? So why shouldn't he question the loyalty of the fans when he's constantly getting asked about music and he gives them some?
Listen to how far Q and Rock have come in terms of their song making, lyrics, flow, etc.. Both have shown tremendous growth and both had very solid projects all the way through.
Soulo is still as talented as he's always been but is struggling with the music he wants to make vs what is going to sell. I expect his next project to be very good because he technically has the only dud TDE album out of everyone.
I'm excited for Isiah's project to see his growth.
So the lack of projects just shows me that if it ain't ready, they aren't releasing it and that's how it should be. I think you'll get more efficiently staggered releases when everyone is solid in all aspects of making the kind of music that they make.
You can't even be mad at Top because he's interacting with the fans and trying to give them what they're asking for. What other label boss is doing that? So why shouldn't he question the loyalty of the fans when he's constantly getting asked about music and he gives them some?
stuff like Section 80 and GKMC, real hip hop. not boring ass Pimp a Butterfly and his Untitled snoozefest shyt
Came in to say this... they probably fukking him over on his publishing.
Hence why when h
Duckworth met with Prince, instead of recording, they were talking.... Prince probably was given him tips about going Indy.
No it didn't. Q has a following of his own. Plus his album had decent singles. Studio probably got played on the radio more times then any Kendrick song. Simple fact is Q isn't releasing anything that sounds good enough to interest people. Groovy Tony sucks. That Part sucks and is very stupid outside production. There is no collard greens or Moty from him right now
And this dude is a straight clown. Didn't he pull the same stunt with J rock? And isn't TDE suppose to be a "real" hip hop label that concerns themselves not with sales and fame but music? nikka really upset because that audio NyQuil groovy Tony wasn't a huge seller?
top dawg running his label like death row
nah, Top Dawg takes out stress on the fans.
Death Row took out stress on its own artists
obviously GKMD Part 2
