Steve Stoute: "The older generation didn't care about lyrics. That's why Illmatic took 5 years to go Gold. G Rap never got rewarded for lyrics"

[Standing on business]

NON TRUE.

nikkaS CARED ABOUT LYRICS
BUT THE MUSIC HAD TO HIT TOO.

THAT BOOM BAP SOUND
DIDNT APPEAL TO THE MASSES.
HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BARS.





​

Perfectly said, nikkas loved bars, but nobody gave a damn about some lyrical miracle shyt on music that ain’t move you.

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

Steve always throwing shots!

 

[Standing on business]

Cats didn't buy Big L.
They didn't buy Lord Finesse.
They didn't buy Lord Tariq
They didn't buy Jay until he went pop.
They didn't buy Nas until he went pop.
They didn't buy anything with Black Thought.
They didn't buy Hiero, Alkaholiks, Ras Kass, Freestyle Fellowship, Chino XL.
They didn't buy Kurupt.
They didn't buy K-Rino.
They didn't buy Common Sense.

They didn't buy Joe Buddens, lol.

They stopped buying Kane.
They stopped buying Rakim.
They stopped buying KRS.

Chuck D? Kool Keith? LOL

If Pun didn't do the remix of I'm not a Player with Joe - they would not have bought him either.

They didn't buy KMD and sure as hell as not buying MF Doom.

TBH, that's okay.

Hip Hop is a party music, made for partying.

Sitting back and listening to an album, trying to understand what the artist is saying on a deeper level, the artist even trying to make some "art" - is how folks deal with rock music, and anything else that's album oriented.

Steve is in the business of selling the culture - and he's telling you what sells now and what sold then.
Yet cats don't want to a listen to a guy that got rich on selling hip hop, about selling hip hop....

List the top selling albums of the 90’s ain’t tell me no one cared about lyrics, you right about hiphop being party music but rhymes mattered

 

[African Peasant]

He's not wrong.

Cats didn't buy Big L.
They didn't buy Lord Finesse.
They didn't buy Lord Tariq
They didn't buy Jay until he went pop.
They didn't buy Nas until he went pop.
They didn't buy anything with Black Thought.
They didn't buy Hiero, Alkaholiks, Ras Kass, Freestyle Fellowship, Chino XL.
They didn't buy Kurupt.
They didn't buy K-Rino.
They didn't buy Common Sense.

They didn't buy Joe Buddens, lol.

They stopped buying Kane.
They stopped buying Rakim.
They stopped buying KRS.

Chuck D? Kool Keith? LOL

If Pun didn't do the remix of I'm not a Player with Joe - they would not have bought him either.

They didn't buy KMD and sure as hell as not buying MF Doom.

TBH, that's okay.

Hip Hop is a party music, made for partying.

Sitting back and listening to an album, trying to understand what the artist is saying on a deeper level, the artist even trying to make some "art" - is how folks deal with rock music, and anything else that's album oriented.

Steve is in the business of selling the culture - and he's telling you what sells now and what sold then.
Yet cats don't want to a listen to a guy that got rich on selling hip hop, about selling hip hop....

Who are those 'cats' you talking about?

This is the problem with Stoute statement: it sounds good, but is it good? He's using very broad terms.

Who is he talking about ? Rap fans? Black people? White teenagers? White teenagers were the ones buying those millions of copies when sme rappers were going platinum.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Is Illmatic flopping exaggerated?

60K first week and going Gold in a year and a half is pretty good for a debut

Fun fact: Ready to Die and Illmatic had the same first week sales...it's just that Ready to Die had Big Poppa and Illmatic didn't lol.

Back then, unless you were an established artist or had a hit single out the gate, your album sales were a slow burn. Word of mouth, college/underground radio, touring, singles and MTV were the ways to build your sales.

 

[ISO]

Not in that era.

The majority of acts did not even go Gold

Biggie was an exception

Watch a Rap City from that time on YouTube most those acts are completely forgotten and never went Gold

 

[NO-BadAzz]

Fun fact: Ready to Die and Illmatic had the same first week sales...it's just that Ready to Die had Big Poppa and Illmatic didn't lol.

Back then, unless you were an established artist or had a hit single out the gate, your album sales were a slow burn. Word of mouth, college/underground radio, touring, and MTV were the ways to build your sales.

Nas single to hit with the masses, I'm sure cats in NY loved it, but cats in the midwest, down here, west coast, didn't bump that shyt.

We did bump Big Poppa because of the "hook" and beat. The lyrics and bars came later.

 

[African Peasant]

Sell out babble.

I can't stand this guy.

He's trying to create a fake narrative to justify how he and others b*stardized Hip-Hop.

 

[TEKBEATZ]

I was there and is absolutely not true. fukk this guy

 

[Awesome Wells]

Ok but why didn't this bootlegging phenomenon affect any west coast artists in that timeframe

Bootlegging outside of NYC wasn't anywhere near the level as it was here.

On damn near every rap classic back then, MC's from NYC would talk about bootleggers and how people should beat them down. That was a huge thing in NY. Dudes would throw that in their videos and show them and their crew turning over the bootleg tables and stomping out the bootleggers. NY rappers had to deal with that more than any other region. It was literally everywhere back then.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Also going off my last point about album cycles part of the reason Illmatic stalled out was cuz according to Carmen and others Nas was kinda lazy and didn't like doing interviews and shows during the Illmatic era so he missed out on a lot of promo opportunities lol. Plus he had a great deal with Columbia that got him better royalty splits than the average artist period, so he was eating well even off Illmatic's slower sales

 

[WIA20XX]

Who are those 'cats' you talking about?

This is the problem with Stoute statement: it sounds good, but is it good? He's using very broad terms.

Who is he talking about ? Rap fans? Black people? White teenagers? White teenagers were the ones buying those millions of copies when sme rappers were going platinum.

People that buy hip hop records.

Guys that are lyrical have historically not sold well.

This is obvious to any one who's been a fan of hip hop, played hip hop for other people, worked in the industry, been to/thrown small shows and big concerts.

Lotta rappers that make these top 100 lists are only big to a certain few, and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with an Envy Caine or a Mr Exquire or an Organized Konfusion CD...

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Bootlegging outside of NYC wasn't anywhere near the level as it was here.

On damn near every rap classic back then, MC's from NYC would talk about bootleggers and how people should beat them down. That was a huge thing in NY. Dudes would throw that in their videos and show them and their crew turning over the bootleg tables and stomping out the bootleggers. NY rappers had to deal with that more than any other region. It was literally everywhere back then.

Tupac in Manhattan pulling up on bootleggers in broad daylight:

 

[Left.A1]

Cats didn't buy Big L.
They didn't buy Lord Finesse.
They didn't buy Lord Tariq
They didn't buy Jay until he went pop.
They didn't buy Nas until he went pop.
They didn't buy anything with Black Thought.
They didn't buy Hiero, Alkaholiks, Ras Kass, Freestyle Fellowship, Chino XL.
They didn't buy Kurupt.
They didn't buy K-Rino.
They didn't buy Common Sense.

They didn't buy Joe Buddens, lol.

They stopped buying Kane.
They stopped buying Rakim.
They stopped buying KRS.

Chuck D? Kool Keith? LOL

If Pun didn't do the remix of I'm not a Player with Joe - they would not have bought him either.

They didn't buy KMD and sure as hell as not buying MF Doom.

TBH, that's okay.

Hip Hop is a party music, made for partying.

Sitting back and listening to an album, trying to understand what the artist is saying on a deeper level, the artist even trying to make some "art" - is how folks deal with rock music, and anything else that's album oriented.

Steve is in the business of selling the culture - and he's telling you what sells now and what sold then.
Yet cats don't want to a listen to a guy that got rich on selling hip hop, about selling hip hop....

Harsh Realities Mainstream poppy sounding tracks have always been the easiest route to sell and promote your music.... We've seen it countless times... Jay literally has the "if skills sold truth be told..." Line that we all should.knkw by now...if anyone is claiming Stoute is lying as a general principle they're in a laughable state of denial

 

[ISO]

Ok but why didn't this bootlegging phenomenon affect any west coast artists in that timeframe

The few top guys sold a lot (Death Row acts, Hammer) most of them didn’t sell Gold either