Bone Thugs E. 1999 Eternal-Top 5 Album of All Time

JustCKing

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If an artists’ popularity fades considerably over time, particularly when compared to other similar artists, what does that say about the music?

Streaming doesn't measure popularity over time though. That's the point. And a lot of things affect an artist's popularity fading over time. Most artist's popularity fade over time and are left with fans just liking the older music and not checking for newer music.
 

mobbinfms

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You listed several other albums that also outsold 2001.

Ja and Luda were the only other rappers who went triple in the '00's besides Kanye and Drake. Ye and Drake still have high streams for their new music. Luda and Ja aren't as active.
So Fugees, Lauryn, Puff and Will?
Lauryn and Will being the ones that considerably outsold 2001 (although we know 2001 is over 6x at this point, but that’s the latest certification so we have to roll with it).
 

JustCKing

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We’ve both spent some time over the past few days looking at monthly listeners counts and popular song lists for multiple artists. Are you telling me that in reviewing all that data you’ve never once thought to yourself that a particular artist streams more than you would have expected? Or less?

For the most part, no. There may have been a couple that were surprising, but for the most part, no. Only real shockers for me were these:

2001 being the most streamed album of the 90's. Busta having 10.5 monthly listeners. Michael Jackson's numbers not being higher.
 

mobbinfms

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Streaming doesn't measure popularity over time though. That's the point. And a lot of things affect an artist's popularity fading over time. Most artist's popularity fade over time and are left with fans just liking the older music and not checking for newer music.
It measures present day popularity. That’s the point.
Agreed. That’s why with Bone we didn’t compare them to current artists, or even artists who had commercial success in the 2000s. Instead we did Cube, Cypress, Mobb, Coolio, Warren G, etc. Wu. Meth.
There isn’t an artist from the 90s who reached Bone’s level of popularity, who is less popular than them today.
That’s significant. My conclusion is that the music didn’t stand the test of time. Perhaps I’m wrong and people still love the music as much as the other 90s artists I listed above, but there is some other factor preventing people from streaming Bone’s music on Spotify.
 

JustCKing

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It measures present day popularity. That’s the point.
Agreed. That’s why with Bone we didn’t compare them to current artists, or even artists who had commercial success in the 2000s. Instead we did Cube, Cypress, Mobb, Coolio, Warren G, etc. Wu. Meth.
There isn’t an artist from the 90s who reached Bone’s level of popularity, who is less popular than them today.
That’s significant. My conclusion is that the music didn’t stand the test of time. Perhaps I’m wrong and people still love the music as much as the other 90s artists I listed above, but there is some other factor preventing people from streaming Bone’s music on Spotify.

That isn't significant because there's no concrete reason as to why. The only conclusion is that they are streaming less than their contemporaries. Nothing more, nothing less. Without researching why, there is nothing else that can be extracted from their numbers. Jumping to the conclusion that their music is somehow less timeless is in error. That is my point.

Bone is special case because if you research the highest selling Hip Hop artists of the 90's, you won't find Bone on the lists. If you research the highest selling Hip Hop artists ever, you won't find Bone on the lists. They sold over 40 million records which would put them on a lot of those lists, but they are not there.
 

mobbinfms

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For the most part, no. There may have been a couple that were surprising, but for the most part, no. Only real shockers for me were these:

2001 being the most streamed album of the 90's. Busta having 10.5 monthly listeners. Michael Jackson's numbers not being higher.
Yeah - if you would have put a gun to my head and asked me the question two weeks ago, I would have guessed All Eyez On Me or LAD. But 2001 doesn’t surprise me at all.
Bone and Mobb were definitely surprising to me.
I’m really surprised Luda isn’t higher. Not surprised Ja is where he’s at.
Busta doesn’t surprise me. On the high end of what I would have expected, but he’s a complicated case.
I was really surprised Coolio has so many monthly listeners.
 

mobbinfms

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That isn't significant because there's no concrete reason as to why. The only conclusion is that they are streaming less than their contemporaries. Nothing more, nothing less. Without researching why, there is nothing else that can be extracted from their numbers. Jumping to the conclusion that their music is somehow less timeless is in error. That is my point.

Bone is
I think you are just putting your head in the sand here. But obviously that’s where we agree to disagree.
 

mobbinfms

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Busta vs. Nas was never explained. Busta has the one song in "Don't Cha" that is doing high numbers, but that doesn't explain how his numbers are over 10 million and Nas is at 8. Busta is also slightly higher than PCD.

You
I’ve explained it as nauseam at this point. You can say you disagree with the explanation, but to say it hasn’t been explained is disingenuous.
 

mobbinfms

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You may not have responded by saying either stood the test of time, but that's the overall tone of your posts based off several responses. You're not being consistent and that's one of the flaws in your argument. If you're telling us that an artist who wasn't as commercially successful in real time that has higher streams today than their contemporaries has music that is more timeless, then it should be the case across
I’ve been consistent across the board. I’ve pointed out your inconsistencies to you on numerous occasions.
 

mobbinfms

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You said because Mobb wasn't as commercially successful as Bone was in the 90's, but has more streams than their biggest song to day that Mobb's music has stood the test of time, but Bone hasn't. Those are conditions you created.
Also the monthly listeners.
 

JustCKing

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I’ve been consistent across the board. I’ve pointed out your inconsistencies to you on numerous occasions.

No, you weren't. If this was so, then you would've concluded that

1) Busta's music was more timeless than his contemporaries who outsold him in the 90's

2) 2001 is the most timeless Hip Hop album of the 90's in spite of it not having smash, chart topping singles during its run and outperformed contemporaries who sold more in the 90's.

^^^ conclusions I drew based off YOUR criteria to show how flawed your argument was.
 

JustCKing

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I think you are just putting your head in the sand here. But obviously that’s where we agree to disagree.

How is this me putting my head in the sand? Again there is NO correlation between streams and how timeless the music is. That is a FACT.
 

mobbinfms

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No, you weren't. If this was so, then you would've concluded that

1) Busta's music was more timeless than his contemporaries who outsold him in the 90's

2) 2001 is the most timeless Hip Hop album of the 90's in spite of it not having smash, chart topping singles during its run and outperformed contemporaries who sold more in the 90's.

^^^ conclusions I drew based off YOUR criteria to show how flawed your argument was.
You continually refused, and continue to refuse, to acknowledge that I have said from the very beginning that all of this is based on context. You keep trying to claim that my argument is more streams and monthly listeners means the music stood the test of time more regardless of context. If that was the case, I’d be arguing Drake or Xxxtentation stood the test of time more than anyone.
What you are doing is a disingenuous bad faith argument.
 

mobbinfms

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How is this me putting my head in the sand? Again there is NO correlation between streams and how timeless the music is. That is a FACT.
I don’t know what you mean by “timeless”, but there is certainly a correlation between streams and popularity or standing the test of time.
 

Mike Wins

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No, you weren't. If this was so, then you would've concluded that

1) Busta's music was more timeless than his contemporaries who outsold him in the 90's

2) 2001 is the most timeless Hip Hop album of the 90's in spite of it not having smash, chart topping singles during its run and outperformed contemporaries who sold more in the 90's.

^^^ conclusions I drew based off YOUR criteria to show how flawed your argument was.

Monthly listeners can be misleading. Don't differentiate between someone listening to 3 of your tracks or 30. So it's no surprise Busta has a lot of monthly listeners. First ten years from his solo debut he had 5 platinum albums and two gold and outside Anarchy they all had at least one massive hit. His albums may not have been going 3-4x plat but he was a hit making machine far as singles. Far as being timeless, most those tracks hold up extremely well.

2001 is an iconic album and definitely a timeless one too. It's also about as new as a 90s album can possibly be since it dropped in November 1999, that's another factor. Regardless of what the charts say about singles you heard that album everywhere at parties and playing out of cars through summer 2000 at least and a lot of those songs still loved and well known 20 years later. It has the Eminem factor too. A lot of these Eminem stans barely listen to rap outside Em but they fukk with 2001 and 50's first two albums because of the connection

With Bone, fact is they were huge for about 5 years but nobody's really cared about them for 20 years. Not just about streaming stats but that does tell part the story. Look at the venues they been performing at the last 20 years. Unless they opening for a bigger act, they mostly been performing at 1000-2000 seat venues max and state fairs
 
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