Did Nas predict 50 falling off?

[Long Live The Kane]

Well first of all I don't care about album sales -

But 50 does...famously so...which is kinda the ENTIRE point... at 50 stan refugees still acting confused like Young Buck over why people clown 50 for being basically Nelly status now a days after years of throwing his commercial success in people's faces...it's a lot of washed up former superstars out here, but there's a painfully obvious reason why 50 catches the most flack for it

 

[Prae]

But 50 does...famously so...which is kinda the ENTIRE point... at 50 stan refugees still acting confused like Young Buck over why people clown 50 for being basically Nelly status now a days after years of throwing his commercial success in people's faces...it's a lot of washed up former superstars out here, but there's a painfully obvious reason why 50 catches the most flack for it

Yea that's true. But I mean I don't really see it as being a good argument for him "falling off" - especially when other people (like Nas) have had their albums sales drop too. If he was the only one experiencing a drop in album sales I could see it being an argument, but that's not the case. I mean a lot of people consider Nas the GOAT and even he's not selling. So I don't think you can fault 50 for not selling, even though he placed a big emphasis on it in the past (when rap actually was selling), just because of how the industry as a whole has gone.

If you can sell 5-6 mil, while someone else only goes gold, that's a legitimate diss (especially when rap has historically focused on money/sales/popularity in disses). But if you're selling 500,000, and someone else is only selling 1 mil, that's not that big of a difference today. Plus it seems like only certain shyt sells these days - and it's not gangta rap, it's poppy garbage.

 

[criminology]

Well first of all I don't care about album sales - they don't dictate music quality. But if someone says 50 has fallen off because he's not selling as many records as before, you might as well say Nas has fallen off too because his albums aren't selling as much anymore either. God's Son took a year to go platinum. Street's Disciple took a year to go platinum. HHID sold 300,000 in its first week. Meanwhile LIG has sold 300,000 in a year. 50 seems to be having similar record sales as Nas recently - so if Nas is relevant, how isn't 50?

Also I don't agree with your argument that he can't create a buzz with those names. Who is going to get excited and want to buy a 50 album because of Adam Levine or Alicia Keys? I wouldn't even want to buy a 50 album because of Eminem because he has put garbage ass verses on all of 50's albums since Massacre. Plus guest appearances don't help sell record imo - you buy records to listen to the main artist, not their features. The D12 albums didn't sell that much in comparison to Eminem's main albums for example, despite having Em on nearly every track and coming out after MMLP and TES.

Nas doesn't appear to be doing the same numbers as you indicated in the bold, his last 2 albums appear to have dropped off at the same rate as 50's. And honestly I don't care what other people rate albums as, LIG is pretty boring and doesn't have the street sound I expect/want from Nas, while BISD has the sound that I expect from 50 and is full of bangers. Like I said before I'd take BISD over Nas' last 2 albums, so I don't agree that 50 isn't "relevant music wise" - especially if you compare his current work to his previous work (it's not like you should expect his music to change over time imo - and his style was never the kind to get recognized by Harvard or w/e bs).

50 Cent
GRODT (2003) - 6x Plat
The Massacre (2005) - 5x Plat
Curtis (2007) - 1.3 mil
BISD (2009) - Gold

Nas
Stillmatic (2001) - 2x Plat
God's Son (2002) - 1x Plat
Street's Disciple (2004) - 1x Plat
HHID (2006) - 1x Plat
Untilted (2008) - Gold
LIG (2012) - 372,000

When did HHID go platinum? Or Untitled gold? Didn't know that. I want want LIG to go gold at least though.

 

[mr.africa]

y

Well first of all I don't care about album sales - they don't dictate music quality. But if someone says 50 has fallen off because he's not selling as many records as before, you might as well say Nas has fallen off too because his albums aren't selling as much anymore either. God's Son took a year to go platinum. Street's Disciple took a year to go platinum. HHID sold 300,000 in its first week. Meanwhile LIG has sold 300,000 in a year. 50 seems to be having similar record sales as Nas recently - so if Nas is relevant, how isn't 50?

Also I don't agree with your argument that he can't create a buzz with those names. Who is going to get excited and want to buy a 50 album because of Adam Levine or Alicia Keys? I wouldn't even want to buy a 50 album because of Eminem because he has put garbage ass verses on all of 50's albums since Massacre. Plus guest appearances don't help sell record imo - you buy records to listen to the main artist, not their features. The D12 albums didn't sell that much in comparison to Eminem's main albums for example, despite having Em on nearly every track and coming out after MMLP and TES.

Nas doesn't appear to be doing the same numbers as you indicated in the bold, his last 2 albums appear to have dropped off at the same rate as 50's. And honestly I don't care what other people rate albums as, LIG is pretty boring and doesn't have the street sound I expect/want from Nas, while BISD has the sound that I expect from 50 and is full of bangers. Like I said before I'd take BISD over Nas' last 2 albums, so I don't agree that 50 isn't "relevant music wise" - especially if you compare his current work to his previous work (it's not like you should expect his music to change over time imo - and his style was never the kind to get recognized by Harvard or w/e bs).

50 Cent
GRODT (2003) - 6x Plat
The Massacre (2005) - 5x Plat
Curtis (2007) - 1.3 mil
BISD (2009) - Gold

Nas
Stillmatic (2001) - 2x Plat
God's Son (2002) - 1x Plat
Street's Disciple (2004) - 1x Plat
HHID (2006) - 1x Plat
Untilted (2008) - Gold
LIG (2012) - 372,000

nas is not relevant because of album sales. nas never made a big deal about album sales.
you might not care about record sales, but 50 cent prided himself on record sales. the way he talked about fat joe going gold meaning fat joe is irrelevant. so, according to his statement, that means he is irrelevant right now.
here is how i see it :nas relevance was always tied to the quality of his music. nas album's always get compared to illmatic, because people want to see if he can replicate the quality. i'll tell you right now, if fifty releases his next album and it goes platinum (but the quality isn't there), fifty will see it as a win, nas on the other hand, of course wants to sell, but the quality is his main priority. when LIG was announced, everyone wanted to see if he can still create a great album 20 years in. he delivered. oh and LIG is grown hip hop shyt. you might not have liked it, but it still gets recognised as a great body of work by critics and peers (kendrick,fabolous,slaughterhouse,lupe,...). haven't played BISD in years. LIG still gets regular spins. i guess our tastes differ!!!

 

[mr.africa]

When did HHID go platinum? Or Untitled gold? Didn't know that. I want want LIG to go gold at least though.

nas said a few months back (on his twitter account) that he already got a gold plaque for Life Is Good. don't know if it's true though???!

 

[Big Boss]

y

nas is not relevant because of album sales. nas never made a big deal about album sales.
you might not care about record sales, but 50 cent prided himself on record sales. the way he talked about fat joe going gold meaning fat joe is irrelevant. so, according to his statement, that means he is irrelevant right now.
here is how i see it :nas relevance was always tied to the quality of his music. nas album's always get compared to illmatic, because people want to see if he can replicate the quality. i'll tell you right now, if fifty releases his next album and it goes platinum (but the quality isn't there), fifty will see it as a win, nas on the other hand, of course wants to sell, but the quality is his main priority. when LIG was announced, everyone wanted to see if he can still create a great album 20 years in. he delivered. oh and LIG is grown hip hop shyt. you might not have liked it, but it still gets recognised as a great body of work by critics and peers (kendrick,fabolous,slaughterhouse,lupe,...). haven't played BISD in years. LIG still gets regular spins. i guess our tastes differ!!!

 

[Prae]

y

nas is not relevant because of album sales. nas never made a big deal about album sales.
you might not care about record sales, but 50 cent prided himself on record sales. the way he talked about fat joe going gold meaning fat joe is irrelevant. so, according to his statement, that means he is irrelevant right now.

Yea but as I pointed out in a later post, 50 cent was bragging about record sales at a time when albums were actually selling. Fat Joe was not selling even when albums were selling - so I don't really see anything wrong with that diss. But I don't see how you can hate on 50 for not selling anymore when nobody at all is selling, regardless of what he emphasized in the past. If he was the only person not selling anymore (while other people are) it would be a legitimate argument against him though.

But you are right about Nas and what makes him relevant.

When did HHID go platinum? Or Untitled gold? Didn't know that. I want want LIG to go gold at least though.

HHID appeared to take about 2 years to go plat. Untitled seems to have taken 2 or 3 months to go gold.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

Yea that's true. But I mean I don't really see it as being a good argument for him "falling off" - especially when other people (like Nas) have had their albums sales drop too.

Other people (like Nas) didn't base their worth as rappers almost entirely on their commercial success and hitmaking like 50 did though....he's falling off using his OWN standards...what's a better argument than that? A person who went around calling him Curtis "Interscope" Jackson and threatening rappers who he engaged in random gimmick publicity beefs to use his clout with the label to push their albums back, is now struggling over the course of several years to even get a release date for his own album...the sh!t is not astrophysics

If he was the only one experiencing a drop in album sales I could see it being an argument, but that's not the case. I mean a lot of people consider Nas the GOAT and even he's not selling. So I don't think you can fault 50 for not selling, even though he placed a big emphasis on it in the past (when rap actually was selling), just because of how the industry as a whole has gone.

He's not the only person experiencing drop offs, as there is an obvious decline in album sales across the board...but even accounting for that he has fallen off...he went from Eminem/Nelly "one of the biggest acts in any genre" numbers to barely gong gold (shipped gold, but fell completely off at the charts 434K) in '09...besides the fact that NOBODY considers Nas the GOAT because of his album sales, his decline commercially isn't even remotely anywhere close to 50's

If you can sell 5-6 mil, while someone else only goes gold, that's a legitimate diss (especially when rap has historically focused on money/sales/popularity in disses). But if you're selling 500,000, and someone else is only selling 1 mil, that's not that big of a difference today. Plus it seems like only certain shyt sells these days - and it's not gangta rap, it's poppy garbage.

Either you lend credence to sales meaning something or you don't...if you're trying to clown somebody because you're selling 6mil, calling them a bum for not having hits and only going gold...fast forward just a couple of years later and you're doing the same exact type of numbers as they are...YOU FELL OFF...it's that simple...mind you 50's last joint didn't even reach 500k units sold in '09 in a better market 4 years ago...and has been struggling putting flopped singles out over the course of several calendar years just to get a release date...he's fallen off even further and won't get even do the 434K he did last time...even 50 knows this, which is why there's a bunch of "they doubted me but I'm about to make a comeback" rhetoric in some of his flopped singles as of late

 

[criminology]

HHID appeared to take about 2 years to go plat. Untitled seems to have taken 2 or 3 months to go gold.

great. the only reason I care about sales is that it ensures nas will keep getting budgets and release dates.

 

[prophecypro]

Has 50 got a release date?

 

[up in here]

the answer to the question asked in the thread is 'yes, yes he did'

 

[the cac mamba]

Explain to me how 50 has "fallen off" musically

 

[Prae]

Other people (like Nas) didn't base their worth as rappers almost entirely on their commercial success and hitmaking like 50 did though....he's falling off using his OWN standards...what's a better argument than that? A person who went around calling him Curtis "Interscope" Jackson and threatening rappers who he engaged in random gimmick publicity beefs to use his clout with the label to push their albums back, is now struggling over the course of several years to even get a release date for his own album...the sh!t is not astrophysics

Either you lend credence to sales meaning something or you don't...if you're trying to clown somebody because you're selling 6mil, calling them a bum for not having hits and only going gold...fast forward just a couple of years later and you're doing the same exact type of numbers as they are...YOU FELL OFF...it's that simple...mind you 50's last joint didn't even reach 500k units sold in '09 in a better market 4 years ago...and has been struggling putting flopped singles out over the course of several calendar years just to get a release date...he's fallen off even further and won't get even do the 434K he did last time...even 50 knows this, which is why there's a bunch of "they doubted me but I'm about to make a comeback" rhetoric in some of his flopped singles as of late

1. I still can't fault 50 for not living up to his unrealistic standards, and I don't equate that to falling off. He's still relevant in the hop hop community, he's still putting out solid music, his last album was very good imo despite the lack of commercial success, he's put out some decent free albums, so I just can't agree with saying he fell off. Falling off generally means going from being a success to being a failure, or goes from being good to sucking; and while 50 hasn't been as successful, I don't think you can say he's been a straight up failure either, and he certainly hasn't been putting out bad music.

Jay Z dissed Nas for having a "1 hot album every 10 years" - and by my count Jay's last "hot" album was The Black Album (although others may disagree) - released 10 years ago. Does that mean Jay Z has fallen off because he is doing the exact same thing he dissed Nas for (and can you base someone's fall off on a single statement like that alone)?

Plus Dr Dre seems to have a problem establishing hype for his Detox album after releasing Kush and I Need A Doctor, and he hasn't come out with any release date either. Has Dr Dre fallen off too?

2. He bragged about record sales when albums were selling. Now records aren't selling and a lot of that is beyond his control. That's like someone bragging about making boatloads of money by selling real estate/houses when the economy is booming - and then the economy goes into a recession and now they're not making money anymore. That's a result of their circumstances, and you can't completely blame the individual for that.

He's still making the exact same music he always has. So musically, how has he fallen off? Like I said in another post you can't expect every album to match an artist's first/best album. His music hasn't just suddenly become garbage though.

 

[director_of_bands]

is 50 not a millionare hundreds of times over who doesn't have tax issues?...how did he fall off?

 

[Diondon]

Nas still has the public's ear
and can get a release date

50 does not have the public's ear (he's damn near toxic)
and can't get a release date

Any more questions?