Journal Of K1ng Eljay (J.O.K.E.) – “A Quick Question For Bow Wow”
I guess a congratulations is in order? I mean, I guess it takes true talent to barely sell records, but somehow manage to get over a million downloads in a day... This is just confusing.
Ahem…
(Before I begin, please check out this post from QuESt. It inspired this, because I was about to let it go, but as I read his post, it lit a fire. Truthfully. Be easy on him though with the typos, he’s still a “rappah”… lol… )
“For me there’s no more that needs to be done on the music side. I’ve done everything….”
- Bow Wow, addressing the lackluster sales of his last album, “New Jack City II”
This isn’t a diss J.O.K.E., it’s a real J.O.K.E. (in Jay-Z voice)…
So in April, Bow Wow announced his retirement from the rap game in response to New Jack City II BOMBING in record sales. I heard it, and then didn’t hear it. In rap and sports, you NEVER take retirements seriously.
Word to Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Jay-Z…
Regardless of what you might think or say, Bow Wow’s a decent rapper, and so for him to make that drastic of a claim, and then say he’s accomplished everything, and then suddenly get excited for having a successfully downloaded mixtape… You would think that’s a step in the wrong direction.
Ok, let me explain before you think I’m hating. I swear I’m not. It’s not hate…it’s just…confusion.
Bow Wow’s first album did numbers. All of them did, actually. Even the Face/Off “album” that was him and Omarion did decent (when Omarion looked like Black Jesus on 106 and Park…anyone remember that?). Then New Jack II came out, sold well under 100,000 copies. Actually…I’m being really generous on the number; I don’t think he topped 50,000 in total sales. Now the mixtape comes out, and it gets over a million downloads in a super short amount of time.
And he’s happy about that? Hmm… I understand if you’re an artist on the mixtape scene, like a Mickey Factz, or a Quest, or a XV, or a Charles Hamilton, or even Gudda Gudda (haha…Gudda Gudda…) and you basically have something to prove and you’re still trying to get a larger audience. In any of the artists case that I named, this would be a success not unlike the one Drake had with “So Far Gone.”
But it’s not. Because Bow Wow has literally sold millions of records. He’s an established rap star, for lack of a better term.
So to put it in perspective, his last album FAILS EPICALLY (and not because of lack of promotion; He can’t use that excuse like Method Man and Redman can for “Blackout! 2”) but then he considers it a success for a free mixtape to hit the million mark with the quickness.
He can’t sell records, but he can give music away with the best of them?
He can’t GIVE away his last album, but it’s a success that he can do it when it means nothing, considering all of his accomplishments?
These accomplishments, which include (but aren’t limited to):
- Selling millions of records (good job)
- Being heavily involved musically with a singer that was “allegedly” involved with Chris Stokes (no comment)
- Selling out arenas and having one of the more successful tours with the “Scream” tour (props)
- Having the most worthless internet beef ever recorded in the history of mankind with Soulja Boy (once again…no comment)
- Movies (Didn’t like “Like Mike” and “Roll Bounce”, but I respect the hustle)
- Losing Ciara (Idiot)
- Garnering a cult-like following of females (I’m pretty sure they’d kill Yung Berg if he ordered it…)
- Being involved with the one movie from the “Fast & Furious” franchise that everyone wants to cross out of existence.
- Falling out, then in, with Jermaine Dupri.
- Getting kicked off his own song for its remix, which went on to become a HUGE smash (“Imma Flirt” vs “Imma Flirt Remix” featuring R. Kelly, T.I. and T-Pain)
Like I said…this isn’t a diss J.O.K.E., it’s a real J.O.K.E. so here’s my question for anyone to answer. Maybe you guys can see something I can’t here and fill me in:
What exactly did he accomplish with this? Because I can’t see how this is a reflection of something positive.
Help me out here.
(By the way, for the sake of sanity, I’m not even mentioning the fact Bow doesn’t have near 500,000 followers on Twitter, but manages to get over (I’m hearing) 2 million downloads in less than a week…If that doesn’t sound suspect…)
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