NW rappers usually sell what?
- Thread starter Young E.A.S.T
- Start date
I agree with the theoretical base of that post and am glad that you're on board with the connection between demographics and music.
I'm not sure rich white people don't buy gangster ass CDs at an equal if not greater rate than poor white people. I'd love to tell you I've got access to some data that could answer this but I don't.
I'm not sure rich white people don't buy gangster ass CDs at an equal if not greater rate than poor white people. I'd love to tell you I've got access to some data that could answer this but I don't.
In my experience ive come to find out that girls will spend the whole 15 dollas on a cd on the strength of one single and the image of the artist.......that demographic talk to me is bullshit because the hood isn't buying cds anymore unless you approach them and sell it to them.......the hood is burning more than a hoe sitting on a stove......its about your appeal to the people and rather they connect with you or not.........its funny how the most un-ghetto(not a word), ungangster type of cats buy Young Jeezy, Ice Cube etc...........the people at a point fell for the message in the music and the image..........
Yeah I agree with that, especially the girls and the strength of a single. That's what I've observed as well.
I've got to better explain my demographics thing though. I think NW rap artists have a particularly difficult time blowing big b/c they're demographically predestined to fail. As far as I know, there are three ways to blow up: 1) you become a regional indy star and the majors come knockin 2) the majors find you before you've become a regional star and 3) you travel to where the majors are and get put on.
I've just been real disappointed with my experiences trying to get people who normally like rap music, into local rap. They always seem to imply that b/c Seattle's a mostly white city, b/c Seattle's got relatively few spots of significant concentrated poverty, then it must be incapable of producing any rap music wortwhile. It's almost as if they assume the rap from Seattle is fake, whereas they wouldn't feel that way about the exact same person w/ the same life experience from another city. The single neighborhood I hear the most about in Seattle rap lyrics is the Central District, that neighborhood is mostly white these days. The rich suburban kids who buy rap music ain't going to buy rap music claiming hoods they aren't afraid to go to. That rules out option #1.
Option #2 is out b/c I doubt that b/c of these demographics and our physical distance from the major record labels. Simply stated, they might look our way for grunge or some other more white kind of music, but not hip-hop.
So that leaves Option #3.
Basically, until hip-hop is no longer synonimous with "from the streets" I don't think we've got much of a chance. I say this b/c there are so many talented artists here who should've made it by now.
I hope I'm wrong about all of this.
I've got to better explain my demographics thing though. I think NW rap artists have a particularly difficult time blowing big b/c they're demographically predestined to fail. As far as I know, there are three ways to blow up: 1) you become a regional indy star and the majors come knockin 2) the majors find you before you've become a regional star and 3) you travel to where the majors are and get put on.
I've just been real disappointed with my experiences trying to get people who normally like rap music, into local rap. They always seem to imply that b/c Seattle's a mostly white city, b/c Seattle's got relatively few spots of significant concentrated poverty, then it must be incapable of producing any rap music wortwhile. It's almost as if they assume the rap from Seattle is fake, whereas they wouldn't feel that way about the exact same person w/ the same life experience from another city. The single neighborhood I hear the most about in Seattle rap lyrics is the Central District, that neighborhood is mostly white these days. The rich suburban kids who buy rap music ain't going to buy rap music claiming hoods they aren't afraid to go to. That rules out option #1.
Option #2 is out b/c I doubt that b/c of these demographics and our physical distance from the major record labels. Simply stated, they might look our way for grunge or some other more white kind of music, but not hip-hop.
So that leaves Option #3.
Basically, until hip-hop is no longer synonimous with "from the streets" I don't think we've got much of a chance. I say this b/c there are so many talented artists here who should've made it by now.
I hope I'm wrong about all of this.
** Which doesn't mean that some of the artists out here are growing up any more priviliged than folks in other cities. I have no clue if they are or if they aren't. I'm not going to tell somebody who grew up in Rainier Beach that they had it easy when I know I had it a hell of a lot easier than they did.
But what I do know is that folks in the city of Seattle with this type of background are not the norm, in a lot of other places they are the norm.
But what I do know is that folks in the city of Seattle with this type of background are not the norm, in a lot of other places they are the norm.