This post is written in direct response to a comment on the “Laughter House” write-up which needs to be addressed: “You know who's selling? Maino, Ace Hood, Flo-Rida and Fabolous's R&B ass coaster of an album.”
Let’s break down the numbers, shall we? Slaughterhouse moved approximately 18,000 copies in first week sales. Maino moved approximately 18,000 copies in first week sales. Ace Hood moved approximately 19,000 copies in first week sales. And he’s signed to Def Jam, so you know the label bought at least a quarter of those CDs! Fabolous, also signed to Def Jam, is a platinum-selling artist. His new album Loso’s Way didn’t even break into the six digit mark. Fuck the rap group, it seems like the music industry itself is a damn slaughterhouse!
All of these numbers are abysmal in the sense that they’re not selling like the Black Eyed Peas or Eminem. But Slaugherhouse, like Maino, Ace Hood, Fabolous, [insert under-talented, overly-hyped emcee/group] all fit the same mold. So really, the first week sales numbers should be absolutely no surprise to anyone. Because at the end of the day, for years, it’s always been about one demographic: teenaged white girls. Now that’s gangsta!
Let’s break down the numbers, shall we? Slaughterhouse moved approximately 18,000 copies in first week sales. Maino moved approximately 18,000 copies in first week sales. Ace Hood moved approximately 19,000 copies in first week sales. And he’s signed to Def Jam, so you know the label bought at least a quarter of those CDs! Fabolous, also signed to Def Jam, is a platinum-selling artist. His new album Loso’s Way didn’t even break into the six digit mark. Fuck the rap group, it seems like the music industry itself is a damn slaughterhouse!
All of these numbers are abysmal in the sense that they’re not selling like the Black Eyed Peas or Eminem. But Slaugherhouse, like Maino, Ace Hood, Fabolous, [insert under-talented, overly-hyped emcee/group] all fit the same mold. So really, the first week sales numbers should be absolutely no surprise to anyone. Because at the end of the day, for years, it’s always been about one demographic: teenaged white girls. Now that’s gangsta!
10 comments:
good post but it probably isn't even understood.
if you're not a trend setter in main stream hip-hop you're are follower "too many niggaz ride mine, so I change styles ever two rhymes" - Jay - Z on 22 Two's Gotta keep it fresssssh, Slaughterhouse album, fresh???? Nah was ok, but the shit wears off, the fricking thing feels like it was put together in two weeks (which it was) and the beat maaaan SMH..... also Joey out does Nas when it comes to crapolering beat....
Also isn't there a new rap group with ummm Guilty Simpson, Black milk.... and Elzi? THAT sound promising...
ALSO mad props to Ivan on the Venn diagrams. A few years back there was a website that had a post that used graphs and math to represent lyrics from hip-hop songs, ill try find it, was mad funny
"Fuck the rap group, it seems the music industry itself is a slaughterhouse!"
In a round about way, you kind of proved my point. Let me explain why:
I specifically named those artist for a reason. NOT because their first week sales where 100k+, but because they were ALL hailed as a tremedous success. When Maino's 19k scanned as the #1 rap album of the week, everybody said "wow, congratulations Maino on a strong week!". Khaled screamed "We The Best" when Ace Hood hit that mark. Fab's cd was also #1 AND a twitter trending topic (TTT); once again everybody said "Congratulations Fab on moving so many units!"
Now Slaughterhouse comes out, hits almost the same mark as the rest of them, has even stronger sales on iTunes (#4 for the week in all of music I think?) but yet is hailed by you as a flop.
My question to you sir is why? Why were they held to such super high standards to do super duper numbers? Furthermore, if the industry is a slaughterhouse itself (which it is indeed), then why place most of the blame squarely on the shoulders of one Joe Budden?
Would I have like to see them hit 150k the first week? Of course? But with big name stars not even doing close to that besides Em (and Jadakiss if I remember right), how could you say they failed?
Lastly, I also said they were moving units because why ALL of their sales have dropped, they still continue to sell (even at a snail's pace) so yes, technically they are still moving CDs.
We definitely can agree on one thing though: the largest buying demo in hip-hop is certainly teenaged white girls, with teenage white boys being the second. At this point, "real hip-hop heads" have bought themselves out of the market by barely supporting ANYONE.
Also, since you have such well-thought-out explanations for why no one's selling well anymore, how do you explain the success of somebody like Plies? Clearly his fans are buying his shit, even though he puts out like 2 albums a year. Are his fans all teenage white girls as well?
I guess I wouldn't be that surprised.
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