The Real Question: Why are hip hop artists still making albums?

[NotaPAWG]

Kanye and Wayne already had massive fanbases. Those artists are horrible examples to use here.

The only way you going to come up without backing from a major label is if you find the right producer when he is just starting out and he laces you with hot beats for damn near nothing. A rapper going the indie route is not going to be able to afford beats and features from big artists. Think about it, if random rapper A releases a track with a mediocre beat and featuring some dude from the block nobody is going to hear it. Put Kanye or Wayne on that same mediocre beat and people will listen just to hear what they are bringing to the table.

Spot on. A$AP is a good example of that being true.

I heard now A$AP Yams just Youtubes "ASAP Rocky sounding" beats to find underground producers with good production skills to work with for cheap for a lot of their beats

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

Before you rush and give obvious answers, lets be real coli bredren. What is the point?

We're all downloading their music, left and right... At this point its not even a secret anymore, some artists leak their projects before they drop so we can download them.

Whats the difference between dropping free mixtapes (still shoot videos etc) and touring the music? Industry heads feel free and kick knowledge


Upside to mixtapes as opposed to albums is 100% creative control

Ill try and give a quick answer to a lot of questions.

Cause mix tape and free is small change. Y'all thinking small. Same with Indy.

Majors give promotion. You know how much a billboard costs? They give favors. You know how hard it is to get an Indy artist booked on radio in his state. Let alone nationwide. You know how hard it is to get meek mill on a track. Label gonna do a favor for a favor with him. You know how hard it is to get a Dre beat? Your cd in stores in Guam? Book a tour. Not a show. A whole tour? A magazine cover?

Now while you think world star, datpiff, and 10gs for a whole in the wall club is "being on" ..... It's not. You making money and you known. But ask most people who aren't hardcore fans, they don't know who Danny brown is. They barely know beanie sigel. shyt you seen MTV awards. They was talking bout that Kendrick verse and 99 percent of the crowd didn't know who the fukk he was. And he's buzzing heavy

A label does all that for you. And they do that in exchange for your album. Period. No label signing you to drop mixtapes. Ever. So if you want to go that route, then go right ahead. But at some point you'll hit a ceiling where you can't reach the same places as someone with a million dollar budget and major label connects

 

[Greenhornet]

music is turning into

 

[Easy-E]

*I'm no industry insider and I take a lot of cues from the guys, on here, who claim to be...take this with a grain of salt*

Well, they want to make money.

I don't think ya'll understand, but, the Big 3 (Universal, Warner & Sony) aren't gonna let you get the same exposure without them.

Indy artists ain't booking award shows and these big festivals.

Ya'll actually buying into these industry plants and their "organic movements."

Curren$y ain't independent...he's always, atleast, been messing with someone with ties to the industry. That seems to be the new wave of the lesser recognizable cats--being managed by people in the industry and calling yourself indy.

Macklemore has ties to Warner. He's not setting the world on fire, by myself. Kendrick has the Interscope/Dr. Dre/Eminem machine powering him and they seem to have be since before Section.80 droppin'.

I'm always reading that these (real) indy guys are struggling.

Plus, most of these mixtapes are over other people's beats and you cannot monetize that. If you are; your making pennies. If you start doin' it big, these producers, artists & labels are gonna get their cut. Ain't no free meals. I forget where I read; but, you can get sued for performing your "song" over, let's say, Junior Mafia's Get Money if it doesn't get cleared by the proper channels.

I don't want to make a super long post, because I'm not too informed, but; artists are still signing to majors because there isn't any money in real independent music.

 

[WheresWallace]

Breh...

the majority of these artists aren't getting corporate sponsorships lol.. Lets be real

Jay-Z, Drake, Rick Ross, Diddy, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill

What are you talking about? Troy Ave even has a corporate sponsorship.

 

[JustCKing]

Albums are still viable. People are invested in their favorite artists. I don't think very many people would be interested in their favorite artists just droppin' individual songs here and there without an album. People have grown accustomed to the album format even if they may not like the whole album.

I think Jay Z proved just how significant the album is. He released an album that people could've gotten for free, did get for free, but they still went and copped physical copies.

The difference between a mixtape and an album is that a mixtape isn't an "investment". People already know that it's free music. With an album, that's a fan showing support by buying it even though it was available for free.

 

[JustCKing]

*snorts 36seconds***

Timb aint nothing without Jerome J-roc Harmon, as of lately anyway, anything that has timbaland name on it recently 98% of the time J-roc name is right next to it.

Timb and the Neptunes can eat off of other genres, the one trick ponies will be content, the heavy hitters already got their own lane,and can do stuff outside of rap.

Come on now. Rewind two years ago, and ya'll were saying Timbaland was flabby and sick. Jerome "J. Roc" Harmon was co-producing 98% of the songs on BP3 and Shock Value 2, and pretty much anything people thought was trash by Timbaland. Nobody even acknowledged J-Roc then. Now that Timbaland's back, he's nothing without J-Roc? That's garbage, especially if you can't name anything J-Roc's done on his own. First, he was nothing without Danja. Now that he's back w/o Danja, he's nothing without J-Roc. LOL.

 

[Sad Bunny]