What happens when hip-hop ceases to be the #1 music genre in America? What happens when companies no longer see rap music as a way to effectively market their products to young people?
This week, as others have already noticed, there are no hip-hop albums in Billboard's top ten. Also, Reebok has dropped their hip-hop centered campaigns even after crediting it with their amazing brand turnaround. Sprite has done the same, so says Micheal, which is a big deal since I remember them using rappers in their commercials a good ten years ago. In the comments of the Sprite post, Lazarus aka the CEO of Urbanomics is quick to notice that this may be the signal of a larger trend.
I wonder though - will declining sales and less corporate marketing equal more artistry in the music? Hopefully so.
I really think this year and 2007 will be another time of major change in the Hip-Hop scene. I don't have anything to base that on, it's just the feeling in the air. I think this could be Hip-Hop's second "Golden Age", a revival of the demand for sick lyrics to match the quality of the beats nowadays. The beats have steadily been getting better and better, while the lyrics(at least in the pop scene) have been watered down. I think it's time for the balance of beats and lyrics to equal out, except this time the bar for quality has been set even higher.
Posted by: Rajel | 2006.05.22 at 01:02 AM
Who knows? At the end it all depends on what the A&R's do. Tom Silverman called for a huge resurgence of indie labels comparable to the 60's and 70's scene, so who knows. The Heiroglyphics, Def Jux, and Rhymesayers labels have been doing rather well on the low, for real. One thing is that, as we already are seeing, the number of platinum albums are gonna decrease.
I agree though, this should be a good thing for creativity because it will weed out all of these drug-dealing fake rappers out here now.
Posted by: P-Matik | 2006.05.22 at 01:43 PM
"I really think this year and 2007 will be another time of major change in the Hip-Hop scene. I don't have anything to base that on, it's just the feeling in the air."
I feel you on that.
Posted by: Hashim | 2006.05.22 at 04:47 PM
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Posted by: nellson | 2006.05.24 at 08:40 AM