Ayo.... How Did No Limit Sell So Many Records?

[JustCKing]

you do realize that before outkast crossed over more into white america, their main consumer base was the laface-esque r&b crowd, right?

more of their retail buyers were clearly more likely to buy a babyface album along with it, rather than say an album by the 5th ward boys.

youre from georgia, so it might sound crazy to you, and that much is understandable. but if you cant look outside the box, then theres certain things that you just shouldnt be arguing about.

Breh, none of what you're saying can be quantified. A Babyface album wouldn't even be found in the same section of the store as an OutKast album. Completely different genre. You're clearly pushing an agenda now and juelzing.

 

[DANJ!]

you do realize that before outkast crossed over more into white america, their main consumer base was the laface-esque r&b crowd, right?

more of their retail buyers were clearly more likely to buy a babyface album along with it, rather than say an album by the 5th ward boys.

youre from georgia, so it might sound crazy to you, and that much is understandable. but if you cant look outside the box, then theres certain things that you just shouldnt be arguing about..

Yo, stop.

Yeah man, nikkas were listenin' to "When Can I See You Again" and then puttin' on 'Southernplayalistic' cause they were like, the same vibe. Man you be tryin' it, I'll give you that.

 

[DoubleClutch]

It’s hard to explain but I remember them being a novelty like act

They were so different for us on the east coast it was like the interest was there apart from even southern or west coast rap which was already mainstream by late 90s/early 2000s

Not to mention seems like they had a new artist and album every week

It’s kinda like quantity over quality

Plus the music just had untouchable energy and entertainment factor whether you took it seriously or not

Plus the album covers were fire so you had to buy it to collect them all

If you think about it nolimit rise not that different from what lil b did only he had YouTube and the internet

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

He does have a point about a big soundtrack appearance being higher-profile than being featured on 3 NL albums (non-top acts). More eyes and ears on a platinum+ blockbuster/film OST is always great. NL did appear on Nothing To Lose, How To Be A Player etc in 97 too tho

In regard to soundtracks, P and Silkk were also on the Scream 2 soundtrack.

yea but those laface soundtracks were a whole nother monster in terms of staus, at least.

those other soundtracks were just that.
hell, P & Silkk WERE the scream 2 soundtrack.

 

[DANJ!]

and yea, lol @ c-murder not being a star. older people who dont even follow rap know about c-murder.

Aight man, come on with the bullshyt breh... whooooo the fukk are these older people...

Yeah... Puff Daddy, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Biggie, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne... C-Murder I was just at the Walmart and heard two old ladies talkin' about the Trapped In Crime album, you right.

 

[NO-BadAzz]

"If I Could Change" was also on the I'm Bout It Soundtrack before it appeared on Steady Mobb'n's album. They definitely weren't promoted like other artists on the Tank. I think that was their only appearance in 1997. Compare them to say Kane & Abel who actually went Gold. Kane & Abel were on almost all the major No Limit releases.



RIAA certifies albums gold and platinum based on shipments. I don't think Mom & Pop factors into that, but do count towards soundscan (which accounts for units actually sold). There was a list with most No Limit releases that had the numbers each of them sold. I will see if I can find it.

The reason P would boast that he sold that much is the same reason artists boast that they sold X amount of copies. It is self promotion. The average consumer isn't going to fact check that. They see the stat and take it as face value. How does that affect the consumer? If they are telling you they sold millions, the consumer thinks "it sold well, let me check it out". If they check it out and they like it, then that's another fan gained. It's all a part of the hustle.

I never took P as one who would boast about album sales. Why would he do or any artist on his label do such a thing back in the gap?


If those records are not counted, then the RIAA numbers are not accurate


I believe they tally up their numbers from your brand stores, best buys, circuit city, tower records etc.

Folks usually got their records from the mom and pop stores back in the day..96-98.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

Yo, stop.

Yeah man, nikkas were listenin' to "When Can I See You Again" and then puttin' on 'Southernplayalistic' cause they were like, the same vibe. Man you be tryin' it, I'll give you that.

more like ATLiens.

not the same vibe, but they bridge the gap.

youre a so-called DJ. this shouldnt sound new to you.

they were in the same realm as a fugees, just not nearly as big. we picked up on that chit as kids. you coli dudes just aint with it.

Aight man, come on with the bullshyt breh... whooooo the fukk are these older people...

Yeah... Puff Daddy, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Biggie, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Lil' Wayne... C-Murder I was just at the Walmart and heard two old ladies talkin' about the Trapped In Crime album, you right.

i said older people.

i didnt say elderly old ladies. more like the generation before us - the side of that gen that wasnt into hip-hop.

example: my aunt who is pushing 60 and was never into hip-hop, knows about c-murder.

i never said he was up there with those names. stop looking so desperate.

 

[JustCKing]

are you really that dense??? do you not understand the basis of this discussion??

im talking about when the southern market became a thing. it was off the strength of no limit.

you dont realize it because youre a southern homer, under the impression that the south had chit poppin longer than it actually did.

do you understand now? if not, im done with this.

Breh, there was already a market in The South BEFORE No Limit. You just weren't paying attention until No Limit.

still trying to figure out if youre really this dense or if youre just playing dumb.

im gonna assume the latter, seeing how you keep side-stepping the fact the LA Reid signed them because of their similarities to arrested development. you ducked this 3 times in this thread. youre definitely just playing dumb.

im done arguing about that.

LOL. they even stopped marketing outkast towards the rap crowd after a while.

Breh, you can't go around calling someone sense when you post bogus nonsense about PM Dawn and Arrested Development sharing musical lineage with Kast.

I didn't side step anything. Signing a group based on the success of a song from another group from the same city isn't the same as signing a group because they remind you of said group.

outkast isnt just a rap act.

theyre a hybrid group.

theyre tailor made for laface compilations and guest-spots. stop pretending that they were the hot boys or somebody.

i dont know why youre bringing puff into this. you dont threw a ton of rappers under the rug in the last couple pages for no reason. and i dont recall any of those outkast songs making any noise either from those albums, except player's ball.

OutKast was always a rap act. Please explain to me what OutKast was doing on every album up until Love Below. Love Below is the only album in which you could place a "hybrid" label as Andre was singing and rapping on that album. OutKast wasn't tailor made for La Face compilations because they weren't even tailor made for the label. They were the first rap act signed to them. This is how I know you ain't ever listened to a Kast album in your life.

We all know your recollection of events means nothing because they aren't recollections as much as they are rewrites of history to fit your agenda.

its obvious where they got their sales boosts from. your problem is, your awareness levels are low and youre very much out the loop on everything that requires cognizance. you get called out everytime for it, and it aint even me calling you out half the time.

they had their detractors and it wasnt about being from the south, altho that didnt help, but nobody else got curved in that manner at those awards.
also, their entrance was very r&b-ish and their push was extra. AGAIN, you shouldnt be arguing if i have to explain this chit to you.

what crusade?? i havnt talked about outkast on here in ages. youre the one that keeps forcing them into every discussion.
- and lol @ you throwing chit at the wall. bone won bigger awards than best new group at the source, and if i was to be a stan and get petty like you claim - they got screwed out of plenty of awards. wheres my crusade against all those other artists??
- you didnt even bother making a correlation between outkast & no limit. LOL. what does one have to do with the other? and for the record, i really dont see outkast held in high-regard like that outside of media & the internet. LOL. even when i lived down south, i only talked about outkast on here.

It isn't obvious where they got a sales boost from. You're attempting to make them out to be some R&B group that dabbled in rap to discredit their success.

And no, Outkast wasn't the only ones who were curved at The Source Awards. Snoop went on on a rant at the same show calling out the East Coast by accusing them of not having love for Dre and Death Row.

Their entrance was not R&B.

Breh, you are obviously bothered by Kast. Look at the lengths you are going through just to discredit them. This has gone on for years. This isn't just some Internet and media thing. This is obviously deeper than that.

You aren't going hard at those other artists because they weren't big at all. You are going so hard at Kast because they sold records, are held in high regard and higher regard than Bone.

Oh and while we're at it, Bone came in the game far more R&B than Kast. They had the sing song, melodic flows and even had Harmony in their name.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

Breh, there was already a market in The South BEFORE No Limit. You just weren't paying attention until No Limit.

bullchit

ive been into the south since Luke.

im not speaking for myself. im speaking in generals. the south's market was regional before no limit, aside from certain acts.

you could easily just go back to '97-98 and watch how the dominoes fell. that chit didnt happen until no limit.

Breh, none of what you're saying can be quantified. A Babyface album wouldn't even be found in the same section of the store as an OutKast album. Completely different genre. You're clearly pushing an agenda now and juelzing.

yall making a mountain out of a molehill.

the bottom line is this, and its not even an insult:
PM Dawn
arrested development
digable planets
outkast
fugees
etc

all groups who appealed to the easy-listening r&b crowd.

they all got the same looks too, like the automatic soul train best rap album nomination, etc etc.

this chit aint rocket science, and its not an insult.
yall just in denial because yall want outkast to be UGK or somebody.

and no, LA Reid didnt sign outkast because they were from atlanta like arrested development. LA & babyface are the dudes who built atlanta up. they couldve signed anybody from atlanta dummy. they signed kast cuz they reminded LA of arrested development. stop bullchittin and be real with the game.

and now you got @DANJ! coming in here with his slick lil diversions. aint nobody got time for his sweet chit.

 

[CrimsonTider]

I can't remember the specifics. @shopthatwrecks broke it down several times. Something about lesser known No Limit releases would have the same bar code as the albums they knew would sell....like Master P....so a sell for Master P = a sale for the lesser known artist.
I guess this is the part where people claim calling this out is biased against the south....which is because shopthatwrecks is damn near an encyclopedia when it comes to southern hip-hop.

Fred.

this doesn’t make any sense. Stop quoting shyt you see on a rap forum

average person including execs would never catch it...


remember i said be4 ... p treated the rap game like the dope game


nikkas who sold dope...know the old school vials..

every color represented somebody elses work...hence the no limit colored cases..

it was impossible for nikkas on any label to drop albums every 2 weeks...on top of one another...n go gold or platinum...n these are rappers that dont really have a name for themselves..

p was the only label..ever to drop albums consistently every other week..n they were sellin...

he would drop a album...then throw a throwaway album...sountrack or a compilation with the same upc code jus off by a number or 2...

u wouldnt catch it... unless u tried to retun the compilation or soundtrack...with the receipt...or u sittin on the shytter readin the linear notes of the albums u just bought..

master p n lil flip was killin the game with this..loophole..

alot of flip mixtapes had similar upc to the leprechaun and the underground legend...

notice that compliation n snoops debut got similar numbers..

then mystikal..n mac scan dont look nuthin like snoops scans..

every album in here has a different barcode

plus l, wasn’t priority distributing these albums?

Essentially a lot of Indy artist, (E-40, too short, no limit, shave house, etc) had a barcode system in Texas that allowed them to manipulate numbers.

explain

 

[JustCKing]

bullchit

ive been into the south since Luke.

im not speaking for myself. im speaking in generals. the south's market was regional before no limit, aside from certain acts.

you could easily just go back to '97-98 and watch how the dominoes fell. that chit didnt happen until no limit.

Clearly, you weren't into The South like you say you were. In the 90's, all of these coasts were regional with some acts who went national. Hip Hop was still very regional.

yall making a mountain out of a molehill.

the bottom line is this, and its not even an insult:
PM Dawn
arrested development
digable planets
outkast
fugees
etc

all groups who had r&b appeal, particularly the laface side of r&b as opposed to say new jack swing or hip-hop soul.

they all got the same looks too, like the automatic soul train best rap album nomination, etc etc.

this chit aint rocket science, and its not an insult.
yall just in denial because yall want outkast to be UGK or somebody.

and no, LA Reid didnt sign outkast because they were from atlanta like arrested development. LA & babyface are the dudes who built atlanta up. they couldve signed anybody from atlanta dummy. they signed kast cuz they reminded LA of arrested development. stop bullchittin and be real with the game.

and now you got @DANJ! coming in here with his slick lil diversions. aint nobody got time for his sweet chit.

Breh, you're the one making a mountain of a mile hill as usual. This thread had absolutely NOTHING to do with Outkast. They were mentioned in passing, yet here you go again with more BS dismissing Kast.

Breh, a lot of Hip Hop has R&B appeal. I don't really see your point in that. There wasn't an act that debuted in 1994 that was huge who didn't blow without an R&B type sound. You could go back further and look at what Dre did with G Funk, which was built off Parliament ( and this is really the lineage of Outkast as well).

Again, La Face had nothing to do with Kast's sound AT ALL. Kast had this G Funk meets Souls of Mischief/Pharcyde vibe where La Face was adult contemporary R&B for the most part. Organized Noize sounded NOTHING like Babyface. Even the R&B that Organized Noize did sounded nothing like Babyface. "Waterfalls" sounds nothing like "Red Light Special" or "Diggin On You". And "Somethin Wicked Comes This Way" featuring Andre 3000 sounds nothing like the Face songs either.

L.A. Reid and Babyface could've signed any act from Atlanta, but they didn't, they signed Outkast. Why didn't they sign another group when according to you they could've signed ANYBODY.

You and I will never agree on this subject because you make up these elaborate fantasy narratives.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

no it wasnt. especially not for the south. there was no interest in the southern market before no limit. you dont want to hear this cuz youre from the south BUT IM TELLING YOU as someone who is from up-top and lived this chit. yall owe all yall chit to master p.

Uh, J. Prince & Tony Draper would like a word with you.

The Geto Boys were controversial and getting banned back in 1990 and going platinum in 1991.

Scarface is one of the GOATs.

Master P was associated with Richmond California at first

yea, people get mad on here when i point out that outkast inherited that PM Dawn/arrested development fanbase. that and the laface machine are the reasons why they were able to go platinum back in the day. i know some tears were shed on some coli keyboards when i pointed out that LA Reid himself said that he signed outkast because they reminded him of arrested development.

and yea, lol @ c-murder not being a star. older people who dont even follow rap know about c-murder.

No, they did not inherit a PM Dawn/Arrested Development audience.

They didn't even start going "alternative" until their 3rd album, Aquemini in '98.

Before that, they were talking about pimpin', smokin' weed, and being players.

This



Is not like this

the bottom line is this, and its not even an insult:
PM Dawn
arrested development
digable planets
outkast
fugees
etc

all groups who appealed to the easy-listening r&b crowd.

they all got the same looks too, like the automatic soul train best rap album nomination, etc etc.

this chit aint rocket science, and its not an insult.
yall just in denial because yall want outkast to be UGK or somebody.

and no, LA Reid didnt sign outkast because they were from atlanta like arrested development. LA & babyface are the dudes who built atlanta up. they couldve signed anybody from atlanta dummy. they signed kast cuz they reminded LA of arrested development. stop bullchittin and be real with the game.

and now you got @DANJ! coming in here with his slick lil diversions. aint nobody got time for his sweet chit.

So what L.A. Reid thought they reminded him of Arrested Development

Jimmy Iovine listened to Dr. Dre's The Chronic & said that it reminded him of The Rolling Stones.

But you wouldn't say that fukkin' "Dre Day" sounds like "Start Me Up" would you?

Old people do that.

They try to look for similarities with new music with the older music that they like.

It's not fukkin' rocket science, B.

L.A. Reid has gone on record saying he doesn't really like Hip-Hop and didn't get it, so he's not some authority on what's Hip-Hop & what's not.

Fact is nobody in Hip-Hop in 1994-1996 was comparing Outkast to Arrested Development, The Fugees, Digable Planets, and PM Dawn.

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

As for the topic of the thread.

The way No Limit sold all those records was this.

Pac died in 1996, taking the West Coast's dominance with him.

Ice Cube was mostly making movies, Dr. Dre left Death Row and did that forgettable "Aftermath" record, Ice-T was old as hell doing movies & TV, Snoop fell off hard, and Suge Knight went to prison taking Death Row down with him.

From the East came Puffy, Jay, and all the East Coast cats with that "shiny suit" Hype Williams' video glossy shyt (with the exception of DMX).

Master P & No Limit occupied the spot that Death Row had a few years earlier, creating this kind of supermajority in Hip-Hop, where they won the South, the West Coast, where P. started No Limit & did his "West Coast Bad Boys".

Then, the Midwest was always West Coast/South friendly embraced him.

Pretty much everywhere but New York embraced what he was doing.

I'm gonna be real, a lot of us hated & resented Puffy, Jay, and the kind of champagne mafioso rap that New York was doing and resented them because of how the shyt with Pac & Biggie went down, so I'll admit it.

I embraced No Limit at the time to replace Pac & Death Row before I realized a lot of that shyt was wack

 

[DANJ!]

more like ATLiens.

not the same vibe, but they bridge the gap.

youre a so-called DJ. this shouldnt sound new to you.

they were in the same realm as a fugees, just not nearly as big. we picked up on that chit as kids. you coli dudes just aint with it.





i said older people.

i didnt say elderly old ladies. more like the generation before us - the side of that gen that wasnt into hip-hop.

example: my aunt who is pushing 60 and was never into hip-hop, knows about c-murder.

i never said he was up there with those names. stop looking so desperate.

Aight, breh... you got it.

Outkast the same vibe as Babyface... I hear that... I can safely say I will neverbe in any environment, no matter the crowd, or even at home where I play an Outkast song and got it in the same space as any song by Babyface or Toni Braxton or no shyt like that...

 

[OHSNAP!]

100 million

100 albums would mean that each pushed 1 million (Did NL drop 100 albums) from 96-2000? P was yelling he hit 75-100 million sold in the 2000s

A breh stated that Wiki numbers are World-wide

So did Mia X only sell 1 million records? or did she sell more?

Did Steady Mobbin only sell 500k records combined from their 2 albums or did they sell more?

I'm trying to understand how P is yelling 100 million records sold but, He, Snoop, Mystikal, Silkk, Romeo are the stars. Them 5 would have to had 70% of the sales of NL sales to even get to 70 million records being sold

Exaggeration. It was 75 million claimed to be sold a few years ago...

Mia went gold twice afaik. I guess some singles from P, Mia, Snoop, Silkk, 504 Boyz sold well too