This is 50 Cent's fault, it really is. Plenty of rappers before 50 talked about their album sales in their music, but they only used it as another way to stunt. Successful album sales were used for braggadocio the same way cars, skills, women, etc. were.
50 Cent changed things because he wasn't only using sales to brag about his career, but to shyt on others' careers. He had the most successful debut rap album in history, but Jadakiss and Fat Joe didn't have success like that in terms of record sales around then. Before 50, disses revolved around skills or things that happened in a rappers' life. But 50 using sales as a liability against his opponents, and actually talking all of these numbers and the ins and outs of the industry in his interviews, really did a lot of harm because it was matched with the Internet popping off so much around then.
Anyway, it takes a lot to make a record sell. Some of it is the quality of the record. The rest is the timing of the record, the way the songs have been serviced to radio (still the primary way the masses hear new music, despite how out of date it seems), the artist's credibility, and in general, how his/her resources are being used. Lots of factors.
50 Cent changed things because he wasn't only using sales to brag about his career, but to shyt on others' careers. He had the most successful debut rap album in history, but Jadakiss and Fat Joe didn't have success like that in terms of record sales around then. Before 50, disses revolved around skills or things that happened in a rappers' life. But 50 using sales as a liability against his opponents, and actually talking all of these numbers and the ins and outs of the industry in his interviews, really did a lot of harm because it was matched with the Internet popping off so much around then.
Anyway, it takes a lot to make a record sell. Some of it is the quality of the record. The rest is the timing of the record, the way the songs have been serviced to radio (still the primary way the masses hear new music, despite how out of date it seems), the artist's credibility, and in general, how his/her resources are being used. Lots of factors.
