The Plea of the 19th…
A friend drew this for me...she's cool.
5/19/09.
As of this current moment, this is the most important date for hip-hop this year.
Keep in mind I’m being as unbiased as possible here.
Ever since Nas all but shoved the saying “Hip-Hop Is Dead” into the culture, people have been saying it. For the last few years, as I REALLY submerge myself into hip-hop, I hear the same excuses:
- Hip-hop is dead.
- Hip hop has peaked, and it’ll never be where it was years ago.
- The internet is killing hip-hop sales.
- File-sharing online is destroying record companies.
- You need a dance to get famous.
- There’s no such thing as longevity in the rap game.
- No one’s original with their music anymore.
I could keep going, but it slightly depresses me to see how everyone’s piggy-backing off of what other ignorant people say and use it as if it’s their original idea, as if they did their own research and actually LOOKED for good music instead of just cutting on the radio and the TV (because we all know hip-hop isn’t really on the radio anymore. There are exceptions, but its few and far between). And even if they DID hear hip-hop on the radio, it’s not like fans nowadays are going to go out to the store and buy it. They’ll just hop on the computer, type in a name and password, and download it for free.
Yay for Zshare, right?
So even when a legitimate hip-hop artist comes out, everyone’s like “Yeah, this is good music” but no one buys the album. They all download it, so the album flops to a Rick Ross, and the music company’s now thinking that hip-hop ISN’T what people want, so then it makes it harder for the next hip-hop artist to actually make it. And then people make more excuses…
- He’s not talking about stuff I relate to.
- He’s a suburban white boy. I can’t bump Asher in the vehicle.
- And my favorite… “He sounds like Eminem. Eminem needs to come back and show him how it’s done.”
Whether it's Eminem or Asher Roth, you should support good music.
Oh really? Ironically..guess what drops on the 19th? Not one, but TWO hip-hop albums. Busta Rhymes, “B.O.M.B. (Back On My BS)” and Eminem’s “Relapse.” But there’s more of an underlying story here than you think. It’s a reason why this is so important, so let’s put it into two different perspectives:
The Hip Hop Perspective:
As a fan, it’s been four years since Slim Shady’s stepped out of the limelight. Although Encore had it’s highlights, it still wasn’t the Eminem people wanted. He was more mature, more introspective (for the most part), and seemed to be bent on having more fun than proving himself. Although this is still the case, he has more to prove since going through the death of his friend and the pneumonia drug relapse he had in December.The psychopathic wordplay is back and is in full force, the Slim Shady character is in full effect… I really don’t think it could’ve been done any better.
As far as the Busta Rhymes album, Busta’s been one of the longest running rappers (that’s still relevant) in the game, period. Why he isn’t top 5 on most people’s list confuses me. His album was actually one of them that was shelved because of Eminem’s problems. Busta has never dropped a garbage album (not mentioning “Anarchy.” We don’t mention that album), so it only makes sense to support good music. The 19th literally has TWO hip-hop titans dropping heavily anticipated albums.
Why would you NOT be at the record store?
He looks angry enough to Rihanna a dude... pause?
The Business Perspective:
It’s no secret that record sales have been faltering lately. Whether it’s because of the internet, lack of promotion, lack of fan support, or because of the lack of good music, the hip-hop industry is in a recession in terms of promotion and sales. Props to Busta Rhymes for his longevity, but every other artist alive PALES in comparision to how many records Eminem has sold. He is, single-handedly, the highest selling rap artist of ALL TIME.
So who better to save the music recession than him? It’s very possible that if Eminem doesn’t do NUMBERS his first week, there’s going to be some huge fallouts. If the highest selling artist of all time can’t sell records… What exactly do you think is going to happen?
The bottom line is that there’s no reason for you to not be in a record store on 5/19/09. I mean, there’s even a highly anticipated Christian Hip-Hop album coming out from Tedashii titled “Identity Crisis”, so even if you don’t do that type of hip-hop music, you have an alternative. {note: this album was pushed back to the 26th for some reason}
So here’s my plea. For everyone who already have heard/downloaded these albums, if you like the music…go and support the artists. The only way we can get good music is to support the goodness we already have.
Why not start now?
Eminem – Relapse – 5//19//09
Busta Rhymes – B.O.M.B. – 5//19//09
Tedashii – Identity Crisis - 5//19//09 5//26//09
Later.
King Eljay
