How was it when The College Dropout came out?

[TheDarceKnight]

Bruh I distance myself from hip hop at that time and I was barely returning to it, I mean I stopped listened to it on the radio, no MTV or Bet, No Source or XXL, I was record digging and all of sudden I seen Little Brother The Listening, The Cover caught my attention and I copped it, I put that album in and I was like

The Listening and College Dropout brought Pure hip hop back and they had a huge falling even Jay-Z got hold of the listening and he shout the Album out and rest is history

Yep.

And @Monoblock is right. He actually used to chop it up back then too.

LB had a pretty big following online. I actually remember both they and Atlantic Records were frustrated, because both parties knew that there was a strong online fanbase, but social media wasn't around yet in order to track followers, likes, engagement, etc.

Little Brother came at the exact wrong time. If they had been a couple years earlier, they would've been in the Rawkus Records camp. If they had been a couple years later, they could've gotten more backing by being able to show metrics from online fans.

Also, 9th Wonder has a cool interview where he talks about how Kanye was able to do a good job of marketing and branding with the Dropout Bear.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Kanye stood one from the day Through the Wire hit the radio.

Him putting that other album out the same day as 50's was what turned him into a smash mainstream star.

Yep. Curtis and Graduation dropped the same day. 50 really fukked up with that. Kanye wasn't even trying to do the competing albums thing, but 50 kept pushing it, and saying he would retire if Kanye outsold him, etc. Kanye outsold him, and not only that....but Curtis just sounded like a more stale version of The Massacre, and people were burned out on 50 and G-Unit. And at the same time, Graduation was this really large sounding, stadium album that was a new sound even for Kanye.

One of the best albums of the 2000's vs one of most lackuster albums of the 2000's.

IMHO 50 wouldn't have declined as much as he did if he hadn't been the one to push the narrative so hard on making those albums compete with each other. He brought it on himself.

 

[Waterproof]

Yep.

And @Monoblock is right. He actually used to chop it up back then too.

LB had a pretty big following online. I actually remember both they and Atlantic Records were frustrated, because both parties knew that there was a strong online fanbase, but social media wasn't around yet in order to track followers, likes, engagement, etc.

Little Brother came at the exact wrong time. If they had been a couple years earlier, they would've been in the Rawkus Records camp. If they had been a couple years later, they could've gotten more backing by being able to show metrics from online fans.

Also, 9th Wonder has a cool interview where he talks about how Kanye was able to do a good job of marketing and branding with the Dropout Bear.

Word up! No lies and LB got the Atlantic deal off the word of Jay-Z. Because The Listening when it dropped it was The Underground little secret that heads kept to themselves, and it was circulated on Okayplayer forums due to 9th, Phonte and Nicolay was posters on the site and I used to lurk on Okayplayer back then, so when it dropped it was an automatic Classic, it was like the holy grail you had to search hard for it because it was hard to find, people wanted it, so ABB records caught wind of it, signed them and released it on a bigger stage. Guru got hold to the album and let Jay-Z hear it, Jay Z became a fan and was asked what he's listening to he said The Listening by Little Brother, and Atlantic signed them off the hype of the Listening and Jay Z co-sign

 

[darealvelle]

Word up! No lies and LB got the Atlantic deal off the word of Jay-Z. Because The Listening when it dropped it was The Underground little secret that heads kept to themselves, and it was circulated on Okayplayer forums due to 9th, Phonte and Nicolay was posters on the site and I used to lurk on Okayplayer back then, so when it dropped it was an automatic Classic, it was like the holy grail you had to search hard for it because it was hard to find, people wanted it, so ABB records caught wind of it, signed them and released it on a bigger stage. Guru got hold to the album and let Jay-Z hear it, Jay Z became a fan and was asked what he's listening to he said The Listening by Little Brother, and Atlantic signed them off the hype of the Listening and Jay Z co-sign

Not to derail the thread, but that The Listening album literally prevented me from stop listening to hip hop. That is my fav hiphop album of all time and I listen to it on the regular. That album was the gateway of me discovering artist similar to them such as Strange Fruit Project, Skyzoo, Tanya Morgan, Oddisee, Kenn Starr, Kev Brown, Danny!, UNI and others in that same lane.

 

[Waterproof]

Not to derail the thread, but that The Listening album literally prevented me from stop listening to hip hop. That is my fav hiphop album of all time and I listen to it on the regular. That album was the gateway of me discovering artist similar to them such as Strange Fruit Project, Skyzoo, Tanya Morgan, Oddisee, Kenn Starr, Kev Brown, Danny!, UNI and others in that same lane.

Bruh it's crazy ain't it, you like the 4th person in this thread that said the same thing we said, How Little Brother either brought us back to hip hop or stopped us when we was walking out, That's the Testament of that album how much it was needed at that time.

Stones Throw Records with Dilla, Madlib, Georgia Anne Murdlow, Kanye West, Justus League, Cunninglinguistics, Strange Fruit Project, MF Doom really saved us and brought new life and the heads back to hip hop

 

[TheDarceKnight]

Not to derail the thread, but that The Listening album literally prevented me from stop listening to hip hop. That is my fav hiphop album of all time and I listen to it on the regular. That album was the gateway of me discovering artist similar to them such as Strange Fruit Project, Skyzoo, Tanya Morgan, Oddisee, Kenn Starr, Kev Brown, Danny!, UNI and others in that same lane.

100%

Life changing album for a lot of people. That was such a dope era. I don't even know what I'd call it, but that era that was before the blogs but after Rawkus, and there were so many unique artists, groups, and crews...many from regions not known for having big hip-hop artists, and it seemed like such a creative time. So many fresh and awesome sounds and albums.

I'd throw Low Budget Crew in there too, among others.

 

[Piff Perkins]

Kanye is a despicable c00n today but this is NOT TRUE.


There was a time when he first came out when Black folks loved Kanye.


Black folks rode with Kanye when he said “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” all the way up to him getting in Taylor Swift’s ass for being an overrated white woman.

Kanye started losing black people when he hooked up with the Kardashians and started acting cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

I think you could argue that Kanye had one of the biggest black fanbases of any rapper for a long time. Graduation started the trend of more white fans joining but MBDTF was huge with everyone black or white. Yeezus…y’all know I love the album but I’m one of like 10 brehs on this forum that liked it. Since then he’s kinda more of a personality than an artist, and I agree black people moved on.

I almost feel like this gospel shyt is an attempt to get black people back, it’s just misguided. It’s like when Prince was planning on dropping The Black Album in response to his (perceived) loss of black fans.

 

[Ziggiy]

Yep. Curtis and Graduation dropped the same day. 50 really fukked up with that. Kanye wasn't even trying to do the competing albums thing, but 50 kept pushing it, and saying he would retire if Kanye outsold him, etc. Kanye outsold him, and not only that....but Curtis just sounded like a more stale version of The Massacre, and people were burned out on 50 and G-Unit. And at the same time, Graduation was this really large sounding, stadium album that was a new sound even for Kanye.

One of the best albums of the 2000's vs one of most lackuster albums of the 2000's.

IMHO 50 wouldn't have declined as much as he did if he hadn't been the one to push the narrative so hard on making those albums compete with each other. He brought it on himself.

The funny thing is “sales battle” was Kanye’s idea according to 50

 

[darealvelle]

Bruh it's crazy ain't it, you like the 4th person in this thread that said the same thing we said, How Little Brother either brought us back to hip hop or stopped us when we was walking out, That's the Testament of that album how much it was needed at that time.

Stones Throw Records with Dilla, Madlib, Georgia Anne Murdlow, Kanye West, Justus League, Cunninglinguistics, Strange Fruit Project, MF Doom really saved us and brought new life and the heads back to hip hop

100%

Life changing album for a lot of people. That was such a dope era. I don't even know what I'd call it, but that era that was before the blogs but after Rawkus, and there were so many unique artists, groups, and crews...many from regions not known for having big hip-hop artists, and it seemed like such a creative time. So many fresh and awesome sounds and albums.

I'd throw Low Budget Crew in there too, among others.

I felt like HipHop had hit its ceiling during 2002-2006. Those were my high school years. So I was discovering groups and artist similar to Little Brother in that time period. That era I would say maybe should be called "Okayplayer or Forum era" That era basically what would carry rap over the to "Blog Era" which totally saved HipHop imo.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

The funny thing is “sales battle” was Kanye’s idea according to 50

Word? I don't know if I believe 50 though. I mean, Kanye is crazy, but 50 is the one with the reputation for being a pathological liar.

Or, maybe it was Kanye's idea. But even if it was, I remember those album rollouts pretty vividly. I remember Kanye was downplaying it more when interviewers would ask about it, and 50 was the one playing it up, and talking about how Kanye was scared of the competition, and how 50 said he would retire if he sold less.

So if Kanye started it, 50 took it up a notch.

 

[Ziggiy]

Word? I don't know if I believe 50 though. I mean, Kanye is crazy, but 50 is the one with the reputation for being a pathological liar.

Or, maybe it was Kanye's idea. But even if it was, I remember those album rollouts pretty vividly. I remember Kanye was downplaying it more when interviewers would ask about it, and 50 was the one playing it up, and talking about how Kanye was scared of the competition, and how 50 said he would retire if he sold less.

So if Kanye started it, 50 took it up a notch.

Basically the Rolling Stone cover with them facing off was was Kanye’s idea and 50 went with it

 

[Waterproof]

I felt like HipHop had hit its ceiling during 2002-2006. Those were my high school years. So I was discovering groups and artist similar to Little Brother in that time period. That era I would say maybe should be called "Okayplayer or Forum era" That era basically what would carry rap over the to "Blog Era" which totally saved HipHop imo.

That's what it was bruh, that's what we only head to look for hip hop that we wanted Okayplayer Forum, Underground Hip Hop Forum, All Hip Hop, Sohh

 

[Tribal Outkast]

@ people saying nikkas wasn’t listening to Kanye.

nikkas really mentioning diplomats?


Like Kanye want bigger than all them nikkas combined.

Like Kanye want bigger than every nikka in g-unit minus 50.

Kanye was the biggest rapper out not named 50, Eminem, OutKast and maybe Nelly. It was one of the big albums of the year. Sold and was critically acclaimed.

fukking dipset.

I first saw him on Def Poetry and that’s when I started looking him up. I was laughing at how much he used to recycle lines between the old mixtapes and when he started releasing albums but that was ok. Through the wire was my shyt too though. I appreciated College Dropout even though I don’t listen to it much these days. I wore that cd out back then.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

That's what it was bruh, that's what we only head to look for hip hop that we wanted Okayplayer Forum, Underground Hip Hop Forum, All Hip Hop, Sohh

I forgot the name of the site but I remember buying my Little Brother and that crews cds from there because you couldn’t find them in stores in my area. Good times.. good times.

 

[OHSNAP!]

He had the hardest beats and some good fresh concepts (for mainstream/major label artists)

Some were tired of g-rap, crunk n club songs. Ye was the perfect fit for the time. Dropped 3 classics in 4 years. Miss that Ye