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"

[Rekkapryde]

Nah, he’s just defining “lyrics” into a specific style. The older generation absolutely cared what they wrote down on paper.

this.

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

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

 

[Marc Spector]

what stoute is missing is having gold singles/albums and having a viable enough fanbase that you could tour off of music WAS the reward. Hes acting like if you werent plat you werent shyt. And all that “Plat or bust” shyt happened after the heyday of Death Row and during the late 90s heyday of Bad Boy and Def Jam (basically Stoute and Diddys fault) going Gold was seen as respectable and artists ate well off of that.

nowadays that middle of the pack gold artist is some low effort trash like playboi carti. No way you can look me in my face and tell me these new nikkas care about lyrics if that trash is what they promote.

 

[Left.A1]

You can look through the list yourself.

Some dope mcs, but are any of these records selling on lyrics?
Maybe a few here and there...but the majority?

1990

M.C. HAMMER - Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em : 10x platinum
VANILLA ICE - To The Extreme : 7x platinum
L.L. COOL J - Mama Said Knock You Out : 2x platinum
SALT 'N PEPA - Black's Magic : platinum
PUBLIC ENEMY - Fear Of A Black Planet : platinum
ICE CUBE - Amerikkka's Most Wanted : platinum
DIGITAL UNDERGROUND - Sex Packets : platinum
ICE CUBE - Kill At Will : platinum
TOO SHORT - Short Dog's In The House : platinum
N.W.A. - 100 Miles And Runnin' : platinum

1991
HAMMER - Too Legit To Quit : 3x platinum
CYPRESS HILL - Cypress Hill : 2x platinum
N.W.A. - Efil4zaggin : platinum
NAUGHTY BY NATURE - Naughty By Nature : platinum
DJ JAZZY JEFF & THE FRESH PRINCE - Homebase : platinum
GETO BOYS - We Can't Be Stopped : platinum
ICE CUBE - Death Certificate : platinum
PUBLIC ENEMY - Apocalypse 91... The Enemy Strikes Back : platinum
HEAVY D AND THE BOYZ - Peaceful Journey : platinum
MARKY MARK AND THE FUNKY BUNCH - Music For The People : platinum

1992
DR. DRE - The Chronic : 3x platinum (5 million sold)
KRIS KROSS - Totally Krossed Out : 4x platinum
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of... : 4x platinum
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - Rage Against The Machine : 3x platinum
BEASTIE BOYS - Check Your Head : 2x platinum
ICE CUBE - The Predator : 2x platinum
SIR MIX-A-LOT - Mack Daddy : platinum
HOUSE OF PAIN - House Of Pain : platinum
DAS EFX - Dead Serious : platinum
TOO SHORT - Shorty The Pimp : platinum

1993
SNOOP DOGGY DOGG - Doggystyle : 4x platinum (6 million)
SALT 'N PEPA - Very Necessary : 5x platinum
CYPRESS HILL - Black Sunday : 3x platinum
WU-TANG CLAN - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) : platinum
EAZY-E - It's On (Dr. Dre) 187 Um Killa : platinum
ICE CUBE - Lethal Injection : platinum
2PAC - Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. : platinum
NAUGHTY BY NATURE - 19NaughtyIII : platinum
TOO SHORT - Get In Where You Fit In : platinum
SNOW - 12 Inches Of Snow : platinum

1994
THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - Ready To Die : 4x platinum
WARREN G - Regulate... G Funk Era : 3x platinum
BEASTIE BOYS - Ill Communication : 3x platinum
BONE THUGS 'N HARMONY - Creepin' On Ah Come Up : 2x platinum
MURDER WAS THE CASE (soundtrack) : 2x platinum
ABOVE THE RIM (soundtrack) : 2x platinum
OUTKAST - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik : platinum
METHOD MAN - Tical : platinum
NAS - Illmatic : platinum
SCARFACE - The Diary : platinum

1995
BONE THUGS 'N HARMONY - E. 1999 Eternal : 4x platinum (6 million)
DANGEROUS MINDS (soundtrack) : 3x platinum
2PAC - Me Against The World : 2x platinum
L.L. COOL J - Mr. Smith : 2x platinum
FRIDAY (soundtrack) : 2x platinum
THA DOGG POUND - Dogg Food : 2x platinum
COOLIO - Gangsta's Paradise : 2x platinum
CYPRESS HILL - III (Temple Of Boom) : platinum
THE SHOW (soundtrack) : platinum
TOO SHORT - Cocktails : platinum

1996
2PAC - All Eyez On Me : 4x platinum (6 million)
MAKAVELI - The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory : 4x platinum
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - Evil Empire : 3x platinum
NAS - It Was Written : 2x platinum
SNOOP DOGGY DOGG - Tha Doggfather : 2x platinum
LIL KIM - Hard Core : 2x platinum
OUTKAST - Atliens : 2x platinum
TOO SHORT - Gettin' It (Album Number Ten) : platinum
FOXY BROWN - Ill Na Na : platinum
DR. DRE PRESENTS... THE AFTERMATH : platinum

1997
WILL SMITH - Big Willie Style : 9x platinum
PUFF DADDY AND THE FAMILY - No Way Out : 7x platinum
THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G. - Life After Death : 5x platinum
MASE - Harlem World : 4x platinum
MASTER P - Ghetto D : 3x platinum
2PAC - R U Still Down ? (Remember Me) : 2x platinum
WU-TANG CLAN - Wu-Tang Forever : 2x platinum
BONE THUGS 'N HARMONY - The Art Of War : 2x platinum
LIMP BIZKIT - Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$ : 2x platinum
INSANE CLOWN POSSE - The Great Milenko : platinum

1998
2PAC - Greatest Hits : 5x platinum
JAY-Z - Vol.2... Hard Knock Life : 5x platinum
DMX - It's Dark And Hell Is Hot : 4x platinum
JUVENILE - 400 Degreez : 4x platinum
BEASTIE BOYS - Hello Nasty : 3x platinum
DMX - Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood : 3x platinum
MASTER P - MP Da Last Don : 2x platinum
OUTKAST - Aquemini : 2x platinum
SNOOP DOGG - Da Game Is To Be Sold, Not To Be Told : 2x platinum

1999
DR. DRE - 2001 : 6x platinum (7 million)
LIMP BIZKIT - Significant Other : 7x platinum
EMINEM - The Slim Shady LP : 4x platinum (6 million)
DMX - ...And Then There Was X : 5x platinum
JAY-Z - Vol.3... Life And Times Of S. Carter : 3x platinum
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - The Battle Of Los Angeles : 2x platinum
WILL SMITH - Willenium : 2x platinum
RUFF RYDERS - Ryde Or Die, vol. 1 : platinum (2 million)
NAS - I Am... : 2x platinum
EVE - Ruff Ryders' First Lady : 2x platinum

Harsh Realities

 

[Diondon]

A lot of albums went at least gold in the 90's
shyt, that when people actually bought shyt

 

[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.

And it wasn't just music - bootleg everything. That's how Wu-Tang was getting those kung-fu flicks lol. Those were HUGE in the northeast (I actually have a wild theory that "Brolic" originated from nikkas bootlegging japanese DBZ tapes at the video stores in 93/94 and then it spun off way beyond the origins but I'm too young to know that lol)

 

[Formerly Black Trash]

You can attack Steve (or me, seems like you're all hot under the collar) all you want.

But he's telling you the truth.

The people didn't want Nas, they wanted Biggie.
They didn't Ras Kass, they wanted Snoop.

Anytime some little gangsta thugged out group comes out of your neighborhood, and not some retread of the Black Panthers - you should ask yourself why?

I'm not denying that he's telling the truth

But you seem almost jubilant about it

As does he

 

[WIA20XX]

And it wasn't just music - bootleg everything. That's how Wu-Tang was getting those kung-fu flicks lol. Those were HUGE in the northeast (I actually have a wild theory that "Brolic" originated from nikkas bootlegging japanese DBZ tapes at the video stores in 93/94 and then it spun off way beyond the origins but I'm too young to know that lol)

Another one from that era

 

[Cladyclad]

this is why Jay Z the goat he straddle the fence better than any other MC

 

[O.Red]

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

Exactly nikkas super juelzing in here already Bootlegging has always existed in music but it never prevented the industry from being the industry. Nikkas dubbing tapes didn't keep Illmatic from going gold the fukk

This obsession with poignant lyrics has always been a revisionist gaslight

 

[ISO]

Tupac in Manhattan pulling up on bootleggers in broad daylight:

Clown shyt. He’s acting like taking his shyt off that one newsstand is going to make a difference.

Acting brand new too like he wasn’t buying bootlegs or taping shyt off the radio like every kid into hip hop at that time.

 

[African Peasant]

Stoute is saying the market for "people who care about hip hop" (whatever that means) is small.

Most people that buy hip hop music aren't buying stuff based on "lyrics".

They didn't support all the lyrical messiahs and word smiths that have been pumped to them for the past 30-35 years.

That's not a hard thing to understand imo.

So it's existed.

So he needs to be more clear: the general public did not care about lyrics

But implying that the Hip-Hop world did not care about lyrics is wrong.

He's using vague words to push a lie

 

[RennisDeynolds]

Steve Stoute loves to come on these interviews and kick knowledge like he's not part of the parasites in the industry

 

[REdefinition]

Illmatic and Reasonable Doubt are like building your house out of bricks instead of hay. Bricks take longer but have a stronger foundation. Would Nas be Nas without Illmatic in his catalogue?

 

[CHICAGO]

You can attack Steve (or me, seems like you're all hot under the collar) all you want.

But he's telling you the truth.

The people didn't want Nas, they wanted Biggie.
They didn't Ras Kass, they wanted Snoop.

Anytime some little gangsta thugged out group comes out of your neighborhood, and not some retread of the Black Panthers - you should ask yourself why?

BIG AND SNOOP WERE LYRICAL

NAS AND RAS KASS DIDN'T
HAVE THE PRODUCTION THAT
CONNECTED TO THE MASSES.





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