Music Commercial Hip Hop Thread

King Kendrick said:
The root problem is the stars on the label get too big and have everything catered to them. My guy is on Dre’s side, so take it with a grain of salt, but his opinion is that TDE shapes their entire schedule around Kendrick and what he wants to do to help push Sir and them, and I tend to agree. The other problem that I’m only focusing on TDE, and as much as I love Q, even as their second biggest artist I’m not going to drop what I’m doing and rush to hear him on a feature with any of them, except the queen. On top of that, while I think Sir is the most talented of the new cats, he has a few hits and is finding his flow (Cadillac Dreams, Hair Down, All in My Head) but I really don’t see Q being able to mesh with him sonically like Kendrick did.

Meanwhile, SZA isn’t big enough on a mainstream level yet, but it would be crazy if her and sir did a collab album. And that’s just sir and rashad, then you have Jay and Ab sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Make another vice city, shit even another ueono freestyle, something to get hype about. Hard to get hype about people who have done and/or featured on 5 songs in 3 years (Ab) and 3 songs in 3 years (Jay), and none of those songs were with even D list artists outside of Jhene, and they weren’t exactly A/B tier artists themselves. When I saw Ab on Jhene album I legit thought he came out of retirement.

The labels that are bigger than their artists are the ones with the most success. Puff always had people lined up on BB ready to pop. CM is/was Drake and Wayne. Good music yea is Kanye but I think that’s why he put Push as the one controlling the direction for everyone else because Push has said Kanye recognized he was fecking around on their careers. DMX was RR. Look at aftermath, Dre was always the backbone even with Game, 50 and Em, now they’re pushing Anderson into new heights.
Click to expand...

It's a bit of a catch 22 because, it's because of the stars that people start paying attention to the other B & C listers. "Oh this person is featured on Kendrick's album, let me check them out" and in the age of the internet it's almost impossible to find someone like an Isiah or a JID or whoever and become a fan of them without at least being aware of their ties to Kendrick/Cole. There's almost always a crossover of fans of Kendrick who are also fans of Q/J-Rock/Ab etc. the minority will be a fan of Q/J-Rock/Ab and not be a fan of Kendrick.

It seems like there needs to be a better way to go about this, the Bad Boy model & to a lesser extent the Def Jam model has left many artists (even the successful ones) earning comparatively little and only receiving support when they were at the peak of their careers. And the other labels struggle to promote & elevate the artists who aren't the main draw to the labels in the first place.

Not sure what the solution is mind, but it's certainly due some innovation.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Click to expand...


Definitely going to need more listens. A lot to unpack in that! Like it though.

Enjoyed the line about 30 song albums only selling 100k. One of my pet peeves in rap when artists release bloated shite purely for streaming numbers. Puts me right off listening to it.
 
Last edited:
What's the consensus on the Cole album on here?
I've got a bit of a long drive tomorrow so might put it on then.
 
I just can’t do it. Tried to give it a listen and admittedly didn’t give it a fair shot because I think I’m that bored of Cole. Even if he’s dropping gems I just can’t anymore :lol:

I listened to 30 seconds of each song and thought nope.
 
villain said:
What's the consensus on the Cole album on here?
I've got a bit of a long drive tomorrow so might put it on then.
Click to expand...

I enjoyed it and it gets better with every listen. The stand out tracks are: let go my hand and hunger on hillside. It's very much mixtape energy with a sharpened pen. What surprised me most was Bas's vocals, he can really sing.
 
Last edited:
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
I enjoyed it and it gets better with every listen. The stand out tracks are: let go my hand and hunger on hillside. It's very much mixtape energy with a sharpened pen. What surprised me most was Bas's vocals, he can really sing.
Click to expand...

Saw Bas live in Toronto, he was pretty good!
 
Cole sounds angry on this album... I like it, much better than the last one.
 
What’s the reason behind Cole joining the African basketball league?
 
I've had time to digest the J Cole album now. I think it's ok but nothing special. For me the only standout tracks are amari, my life, pride is the devil, interlude and hunger on the hillside. I guess the climb back but we already knew that song. It does feel more 'one' as an album than KOD did though.

For me only 2014 Forest Hills Drive is the only brilliant album. The rest have too many tracks I could take or leave. I do really like him as an artist though as some of his features in the last few years have been quality.
 
Makes you wonder how Triple 6 Mafia and others came out with that production 30 years ago.
 
Solius said:
I've had time to digest the J Cole album now. I think it's ok but nothing special. For me the only standout tracks are amari, my life, pride is the devil, interlude and hunger on the hillside. I guess the climb back but we already knew that song. It does feel more 'one' as an album than KOD did though.

For me only 2014 Forest Hills Drive is the only brilliant album. The rest have too many tracks I could take or leave. I do really like him as an artist though as some of his features in the last few years have been quality.
Click to expand...
I’m liking it, but I’m always big on anything J Cole makes.
 
Anyone listened to new DMX this morning yet? I had a quick listen and its a bit meh for me so far

Swizz has totally gutted the beat for Bath Salts, seems to have taken alot of the hype of it away and taken the Jada verse of it too, would loved it to have stayed the way it was

was never really expecting much anyway, roll on to next friday for one of my aoty contenders
 



This is so much better than Lay Wit Ya and it's being left off the album. Beat switch is so good. I really hope it's not disappointing. Feel like TDE have been veering towards more a more commercial sound.
 
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2...anks-lil-durk-brother-dthang-shot-harvey-club

wouldn't be surprised if Lil Durk retires or takes a long break from music. That was his only brother and was one of the brains behind the OTF collective. After losing his cousin OTF Nunu, his manager OTF chino, King Von in November, his producer last week and now his brother over the weekend :(. His mental state must be in pieces
 
Solius said:
This is so much better than Lay Wit Ya and it's being left off the album. Beat switch is so good. I really hope it's not disappointing. Feel like TDE have been veering towards more a more commercial sound.
Click to expand...


Can't wait for the album.

Straight to my iPod :cool:
 
Last edited:
From Devil's Reject and Griselda's Ghost to this rubbish? Damn Conway.
I hope he makes lots of money and has great success but this shit hurts.

 
Tyler album is growing on me so much. CORSO is a banger, so is LUMBERJACK. Wayne's verse on HOT WIND BLOWS is class. I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE is the reggae Tyler song I never knew I needed. RISE! is brilliant too.
 
lsd said:
Shame he is dead but that style of rap is just so awful and boringly repetitive
Click to expand...
Yeah it's like fast food music. Doesn't help they all sound the same too.
 
2mufc0 said:
Yeah it's like fast food music. Doesn't help they all sound the same too.
Click to expand...


It's like the Snoop quote the creators will last forever but the duplicators will be forgotten quickly and today's hip hop there is far too much duplication
 
You must log in or register to reply here.