We need to have a conversation about streaming numbers for Hov's classics

[Mike Wins]

fukk this thread tbh.

Your disdain for the numbers ain't gon change em, brother

 

[SunZoo]

Your disdain for the numbers ain't gon change em, brother

I don’t care about the numbers. My disdain is for the nikkas that use said numbers to degrade a legendary MC because people with goldfish like attention spans don’t stream him enough.

 

[Mike Wins]

I don’t care about the numbers. My disdain is for the nikkas that use said numbers to degrade a legendary MC because people with goldfish like attention spans don’t stream him enough.

Let me step out of character for a second since you one of the better posters on here:

This was mostly started to stir shyt up

But the other part is, shyt's weird

I Just Wanna Love U was a smash and a classic party track, how's it doing less streams a day than the Nelly track off Rick Ross second album?

 

[Higher Tech]

Does this change how YOU feel about the music? Yall care about everything except the content.

 

[SunZoo]

Let me step out of character for a second since you one of the better posters on here:

This was mostly started to stir shyt up

But the other part is, shyt's weird

I Just Wanna Love U was a smash and a classic party track, how's it doing less streams a day than the Nelly track off Rick Ross second album?

I was just having this conversation the other day with a friend of mine, she sings and is even trying to rap a little bit and she’s asks me for tips and critiques here and there.

She’s not a bad song writer but she’s from the age of “vibes” where the lyrics have now become the backdrop and we got on the subject of Jay and she told me how she just can’t get into him.

I told her it’s because at his best he is a conversational MC. Even if you see him live, there will be points in the show where people are borderline quiet and hanging into every word, not a lot of flash/bang but still engaging and intimate.

She got what I was saying and agreed. As someone just starting to write raps she's admittedly tuned out the lyrics to most songs and is gaining more appreciation for the actual process of fleshing out rhymes.

These adderall babies don’t know wtf to do with that.

 

[Mike Wins]

Does this change how YOU feel about the music? Yall care about everything except the content.

Really, it don't. A lot of my favorite artists and albums don't do streaming numbers at all.

But Hov fanbase always made such a big deal out of sales and relevance, they should be able to take it when it go the other way.

Like I said shyt is weird. I would expect his past albums especially the hits to be doing bigger numbers than they are.

Best explanation I heard was for him the younger generations go back to BP3 and WTT instead of his 90s material

 

[ahomeplateslugger]

jay has more plats and hits than any of those artists but we talking about streaming smh. ask a real one who had the best run in hip-hop and they will say jay 9/10. you have the rare exceptions like maybe Dre but jay will be the top guy.

 

[Mike Wins]

I was just having this conversation the other day with a friend of mine, she sings and is even trying to rap a little bit and she’s asks me for tips and critiques here and there.

She’s not a bad song writer but she’s from the age of “vibes” where the lyrics have now become the backdrop and we got on the subject of Jay and she told me how she just can’t get into him.

I told her it’s because at his best he is a conversational MC. Even of you see him live, there will be points in the show where people are borderline quiet and hanging into every word, not a lot of flash/bang but still engaging and intimate.

She got what I was saying and agreed. As someone just starting to write raps she's admittedly tuned out the lyrics to most songs and is gaining more appreciation for the actual process of fleshing out rhymes.

These adderall babies don’t know wtf to do with that.

Interesting

I think this, along with dude from earlier who said the younger generation that's interested in older artists just go back to more recent works like BP3 and WTT than they do for Cube or Snoop or Nas really make the most sense, since Hov been "pop culture relevant" more recently than the others.

 

[SunZoo]

Interesting

I think this, along with dude from earlier who said the younger generation that's interested in older artists just go back to more recent works like BP3 and WTT than they do for Cube or Snoop or Nas really make the most sense, since Hov been "pop culture relevant" more recently than the others.

Any sudden interest in Cube is from Tucker Carlson fans lol

 

[Marc Spector]

1. tidal
2. hes a 2000s guy and Em is the only 2000s guy whose stuff is persistent
3. Jay is my GOAT but his projects werent sonically revolutionary like illmatic, 36 chambers , and Ready to Die who have found a whole new audience in zoomers and millennials which leads into another point….
4. Jay doesn’t have the “hip” appeal of Nas, The Wu and biggie and doesn’t have the non black hip hop purist crowd. Cacs/ Asians/Latins who are into East coast shyt love Nas and the Wu. West Coast Mexicans and Asians already stay regional with their hip hop but legends wise stay with Pac, Cube, 40, Death Row, maybe the Wu….Jays early work and persona is seen as derivative of the Bad Boy/ Ruff Ryders sound until he makes BP and TBA.

 

[JustCKing]

1. tidal
2. hes a 2000s guy and Em is the only 2000s guy whose stuff is persistent
3. Jay is my GOAT but his projects werent sonically revolutionary like illmatic, 36 chambers , and Ready to Die who have found a whole new audience in zoomers and millennials which leads into another point….
4. Jay doesn’t have the “hip” appeal of Nas, The Wu and biggie and doesn’t have the non black hip hop purist crowd. Cacs/ Asians/Latins who are into East coast shyt love Nas and the Wu. West Coast Mexicans and Asians already stay regional with their hip hop but legends wise stay with Pac, Cube, 40, Death Row, maybe the Wu….Jays early work and persona is seen as derivative of the Bad Boy/ Ruff Ryders sound until he makes BP and TBA.

Most of this is false.

1) There was nothing sonically revolutionary about Ready To Die. And there are few songs on nearly every Jay album that didn't sound like anything else out there.

2) Jay Z has like four songs that sound anything like Ruff Ryders and that's only because of the songs produced by Swizz. Swizz has like five tracks total between Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.

3) There are a lot of Jay Z songs that are sonically revolutionary:
- "Big Pimpin" sounded like nothing else and this was way before everyone hopped on the Bollywood wave or was sampling songs that were Middle Eastern or Indian.

- "nikka What, nikka Who" was something else that was sonically revolutionary.

- "Hard Knock Life" flipped an Annie sample paired with a hard bassline.

- "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" was definitely a pre-cursor to something like a "nikkas In Paris".

- "Can I Get A..." was different with the dark, bouncy style and was definitely Irv's first dip into that style which he later used on Ja's "Holla, Holla".

 

[Marlo Barksdale]

Couple of things why Jay is largely musically irrelevant now.

• Jay has always been more of a sophisticated rapper’s rapper than a true universal “hit” maker.
• He’s known more as a “business man” than as an actual “rapper.”
• Being Tidal exclusive and not being on Youtube for 5 years made him out of sight, out of mind musically.
• Most kids now can’t name a song from his first 9 or so albums.
• Nobody new has made him current.

 

[Awesome Wells]

jay has more plats and hits than any of those artists but we talking about streaming smh. ask a real one who had the best run in hip-hop and they will say jay 9/10. you have the rare exceptions like maybe Dre but jay will be the top guy.

This is true.

Another thing is, his fanbase isn't the streaming base. Though he's still looking at the same amount of monthly streams as Wayne. He's also getting roughly 10 million+ more monthly streams than Pac and B.I.G. So even though he's not dropping albums like that anymore, Hov still streams heavily out of the 90's and 2000's legends, and he's right on par with dudes like Wayne. That's pretty impressive considering he's just chillin' right now and today's audience isn't really part of his following.

Jay's doing just fine.

 

[Budda]

Most of this is false.

1) There was nothing sonically revolutionary about Ready To Die. And there are few songs on nearly every Jay album that didn't sound like anything else out there.

2) Jay Z has like four songs that sound anything like Ruff Ryders and that's only because of the songs produced by Swizz. Swizz has like five tracks total between Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.

3) There are a lot of Jay Z songs that are sonically revolutionary:
- "Big Pimpin" sounded like nothing else and this was way before everyone hopped on the Bollywood wave or was sampling songs that were Middle Eastern or Indian.

- "nikka What, nikka Who" was something else that was sonically revolutionary.

- "Hard Knock Life" flipped an Annie sample paired with a hard bassline.

- "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" was definitely a pre-cursor to something like a "nikkas In Paris".

- "Can I Get A..." was different with the dark, bouncy style and was definitely Irv's first dip into that style which he later used on Ja's "Holla, Holla".

This is true.

Another thing is, his fanbase isn't the streaming base. Though he's still looking at the same amount of monthly streams as Wayne. He's also getting roughly 10 million+ more monthly streams than Pac and B.I.G. So even though he's not dropping albums like that anymore, Hov still streams heavily out of the 90's and 2000's legends, and he's right on par with dudes like Wayne. That's pretty impressive considering he's just chillin' right now and today's audience isn't really part of his following.

Jay's doing just fine.

Drake has had a much longer and bigger run than Jay, in terms of popularity.

 

[DontEemTry]

Drake has had a much longer and bigger run than Jay, in terms of popularity.

We'll never see a run like Drake again.