Rod wave got the number 1 album 136k/ Diddy 30k/ Nas outside the top 60

[Awesome Wells]

I worked in the industry for a long time too and have friends at all the labels and especially Live Nation and this conflicts with all the conversations I have. They comb streaming data to plan tours, book proper sized venues, festival placement etc but I respect your point of view and very respectfully am not interested in this argument.

Live Nation staff would definitely have line of sight on how mad Hip Hop tours or dates are being canceled lately. It's because it's more expensive to tour now than it used to be. And labels don’t have the surplus of funds to get involved with all of that. And this is despite them telling these artists that they're platinum and popular. If they really were, it wouldn't be so hard for these household names to get asses in seats at these shows. It's not happening like it used to.

Dudes like Lil Baby, for example, supposedly had like the third-highest streams in a week for an album last year. His third "#1" album. They're saying he went platinum, though his first week sales didn't even hit 7,000 pieces. So this is streams, according to QC. But dude had to cancel mad shows on his tour because they couldn't spark up enough interest for the ticket sales. People weren't buying tickets. So the math is the math. And none of it makes sense. I'm on the label side now, so I know what's going on. It's just wack that this is what the business is now.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Word. I don’t know many day one Nas or Hip Hop fans who stream like that. A lot of us prefer to have our music either on vinyl or to just load up our phones with mad music. I've been rolling around with the same million gigs of music for the past two decades, lol. Some I've just downloaded and others digitized from old cassettes and CD's or vinyl. I'll stream every now and then too, but it's still not my first choice. I listen to way too much stuff you can't even find on there.

When you look at sales of legacy acts outside of rap, there's a constant pattern of the physical sales being higher than the streams. Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, Metaliica...all dropped albums within the last 8-12 months and their fans came out to support with purchased copies. Older people aren't streaming music like that. Which is why I constantly found it hilarious that people in Nas' camp would come on the Coli chastising fans for not streaming. There are people on this forum who don't even know how to stream lol. Let your old fans support you how they know how. If you want streams, release music that appeals to people who stream (young people). Which means...features. But we've basically got five albums of Nas making it clear he has no real interest in doing that so...the numbers are what they are.

In terms of DSPs and fake streams, yea it happens. But it has to be acknowledged that the people who are at the top of the charts have fans, sell out shows, etc. I laid it out earlier in the thread but I'm just not sure who is supposed to be the inflated fake artists who nobody fukks with. People made a lot of crow about a couple Baby shows getting cancelled but his tour kept rolling on and selling out most venues. SZA sold out her tour. Rod Wave will sell out his tour (again), Drake is selling out his tour, etc.

I think the better argument on this is there's a difference between attention and support. We know the artists who have support. To me, the artists who have attention are a lot of these gimmick rappers. Lot of the women rappers right now couldn't sell out a 3000 seat venue. Sometimes the attention becomes support though. I think Ice Spice is gonna be around for awhile, for instance. For certain business/management reasons that have been discussed here before lmao, but I also think she genuinely has a wave. But most of these other chicks? Nah.

 

[Awesome Wells]

This is comedy because you were on SOHH 20 years ago claiming fake inside knowledge bout the sales of every artist you didn’t like being fake because the labels were just buying hundreds of thousands of albums to finesse the charts

You still re-rocking that old work for the new era

I've been in music since high school. Yeah.

Sorry that bothers you, but this is what I love doing. Music is my thing. But I appreciate you keeping count on what I've been posting for "20 years". I don’t know who you are, but if you want to know what I'll probably be speaking about in the coming weeks on here, I'll give you a hint...it's gonna be music, lol.

 

[Awesome Wells]

When you look at sales of legacy acts outside of rap, there's a constant pattern of the physical sales being higher than the streams. Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, Metaliica...all dropped albums within the last 8-12 months and their fans came out to support with purchased copies. Older people aren't streaming music like that. Which is why I constantly found it hilarious that people in Nas' camp would come on the Coli chastising fans for not streaming. There are people on this forum who don't even know how to stream lol. Let your old fans support you how they know how. If you want streams, release music that appeals to people who stream (young people). Which means...features. But we've basically got five albums of Nas making it clear he has no real interest in doing that so...the numbers are what they are.

In terms of DSPs and fake streams, yea it happens. But it has to be acknowledged that the people who are at the top of the charts have fans, sell out shows, etc. I laid it out earlier in the thread but I'm just not sure who is supposed to be the inflated fake artists who nobody fukks with. People made a lot of crow about a couple Baby shows getting cancelled but his tour kept rolling on and selling out most venues. SZA sold out her tour. Rod Wave will sell out his tour (again), Drake is selling out his tour, etc.

I think the better argument on this is there's a difference between attention and support. We know the artists who have support. To me, the artists who have attention are a lot of these gimmick rappers. Lot of the women rappers right now couldn't sell out a 3000 seat venue. Sometimes the attention becomes support though. I think Ice Spice is gonna be around for awhile, for instance. For certain business/management reasons that have been discussed here before lmao, but I also think she genuinely has a wave. But most of these other chicks? Nah.

Definitely.

Those bands have fanbases that are way older, which typically means way more money to spend. They've been around for 30-40 years. So they've built up the kind of following that isn't going anywhere. They're not streaming-friendly. I think the opportunity with Nas is in creating NEW fans. That's been a struggle for older Hip Hop artists. It's not easy to bridge that gap when you've been around since the 90's. Hip Hop's ageism thing might have something to do with that, but I said on here last week or whatever, he's not exactly bringing in the younger audience. Which he doesn't have to, but that's gonna factor into how his streaming performs.

One of the things you'll see at labels now that weren't a thing in the past, is this push to analyze metrics and data. Labels are building whole teams to look into ways to get more engagement on DSP's. That's how they're making their money now. You're right about the attention and support thing. Thing is, people don’t want to pay for music anymore. The digital market killed that. So now people almost look at you weird if you asked them if they actually bought an album. The way that we listen to music has changed mad quickly, so there's whole fanbases who don’t even consider that part of being a fan.

And yeah, Ice Spice has the kinda backing that will force her on us as long as she's keeping them paid, lol. They're targeting kids with her sh*t. So her fanbase ranges from middle school to early 30's. Which is wild. But that's the kinda push you get when your manager is well connected to the funding. Most artists can't even get their manager to put cheese on a Whopper for them.

 

[ISO]

Live Nation staff would definitely have line of sight on how mad Hip Hop tours or dates are being canceled lately. It's because it's more expensive to tour now than it used to be. And labels don’t have the surplus of funds to get involved with all of that. And this is despite them telling these artists that they're platinum and popular. If they really were, it wouldn't be so hard for these household names to get asses in seats at these shows. It's not happening like it used to.

Dudes like Lil Baby, for example, supposedly had like the third-highest streams in a week for an album last year. His third "#1" album. They're saying he went platinum, though his first week sales didn't even hit 7,000 pieces. So this is streams, according to QC. But dude had to cancel mad shows on his tour because they couldn't spark up enough interest for the ticket sales. People weren't buying tickets. So the math is the math. And none of it makes sense. I'm on the label side now, so I know what's going on. It's just wack that this is what the business is now.

That’s because it was an over ambitious tour over extending himself to certain markets with high ticket prices and its post pandemic with concert touring and festival demand at an All-Time high.

Lil Baby was that dude though when My Turn dropped and his run leading up to that.

 

[Awesome Wells]

That’s because it was an over ambitious tour over extending himself to certain markets with high ticket prices and its post pandemic with concert touring and festival demand at an All-Time high.

Lil Baby was that dude though when My Turn dropped and his run leading up to that.

I agree.

But it goes back to making the numbers make sense. If you're at Capitol and you're pushing the narrative that he's the "#1 rapper" in terms of popularity and then you start citing his streaming numbers, that's where the issue is. Streaming isn't real support. Last I checked, damn near 60% of the DSP's listeners are free members.

So most people don’t even want to pay for their music anymore. They're definitely not buying no damn show tickets, lol. And that's what I meant by smoke and mirrors. Labels are mad focused on making their artists appear successful, but the majority of them don’t have the fans they want you to believe they do. When the dust settles, this is why so many artists who have big names are in debt and releasing mad music to work their way out of it. The system is basically rigged right now.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

I've been in music since high school. Yeah.

Sorry that bothers you, but this is what I love doing. Music is my thing. But I appreciate you keeping count on what I've been posting for "20 years". I don’t know who you are, but if you want to know what I'll probably be speaking about in the coming weeks on here, I'll give you a hint...it's gonna be music, lol.

You “being in music” doesn’t bother me….i do find it kinda peculiar that you feel the need to constantly lean on appeal to authority fallacies as a crutch to prop up your cliche, often laughably wrong, cliche verifiably false takes…but ultimately this is hip hop, and there’s no shortage of smart dumb nikkas actually in the industry…just that particular post stood out as super contradictory from the shyt you used to post when you were pretending to be Just Blaze on the

 

[Awesome Wells]

You “being in music” doesn’t bother me….i do find it kinda peculiar that you feel the need to constantly lean on appeal to authority fallacies as a crutch to prop up your cliche, often laughably wrong, cliche verifiably false takes…but ultimately this is hip hop, and there’s no shortage of smart dumb nikkas actually in the industry…just that particular post stood out as super contradictory from the shyt you used to post when you were pretending to be Just Blaze on the

Bothers you enough to remember whatever I was posting when I was high school, "20 years" later, as you said. I don’t even know who you are, or how you've paid this much attention to me and what I tend to speak about. But the fact that you feel compelled to comment on what you think you know about me, says that maybe you need to worry less about what other people post for two decades and figure out why you're so invested with me and my opinion.

It's weirdo and loser sh*t, bro. I'm sure you can find better ways to spend your time on here. Get to it.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

Bothers you enough to remember whatever I was posting when I was high school, "20 years" later, as you said. I don’t even know who you are, or how you've paid this much attention to me and what I tend to speak about. But the fact that you feel compelled to comment on what you think you know about me, says that maybe you need to worry less about what other people post for two decades and figure out why you're so invested with me and my opinion.

It's weirdo and loser sh*t, bro. I'm sure you can find better ways to spend your time on here. Get to it.

Yeah aiiight….as long as you know you ain’t low with that bullshyt

 

[Awesome Wells]

Yeah aiiight….as long as you know you ain’t low with that bullshyt

As long as you know the weirdo sh*t doesn't get a pass just because you're online. You should be embarrassed.

Go outside, bro. Make some friends.

 

[JYoung24]

Nas album was a dud. He sounded uninspired & tired

Wtf Nas album was your bugging

 

[Awesome Wells]

Nas album was a dud. He sounded uninspired & tired

I think seeing so many people sh*tting on Magic 2 put the battery in his back to rush something else out quickly. I thought he sounded uninspired on it too.

 

[prophecypro]

I think seeing so many people sh*tting on Magic 2 put the battery in his back to rush something else out quickly. I thought he sounded uninspired on it too.

I don’t know about uninspired cause he had some storytelling joints which he didn’t before but I don’t think it needed to be 15 tracks for a Magic album. These joints are usually under 10 tracks of him spitting and out and at 15 it probably sounds redundant to people. But I didn’t get the impression it was like Nasir

 

[Awesome Wells]

I don’t know about uninspired cause he had some storytelling joints which he didn’t before but I don’t think it needed to be 15 tracks for a Magic album. These joints are usually under 10 tracks of him spitting and out and at 15 it probably sounds redundant to people. But I didn’t get the impression it was like Nasir

Truth.

I think the first Magic was perfect at 9 joints. Same as Illmatic.

15 was way too much. It wasn't like Nasir though. I almost felt bad for him on that one, lol. He sounded like he was being forced to make that. But I think he's sounding less engaged on these last two projects. 6 albums in 3 years is wild.

 

[Heavy_Handz]

I think seeing so many people sh*tting on Magic 2 put the battery in his back to rush something else out quickly. I thought he sounded uninspired on it too.

Yea man. I’m surprised he rushed it so quickly. Definitely sounded tired & uninspired. Really hope he takes a step back for a while.