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"

[BIGDENNIS10UK]

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

Nowadays, no one even cares who wrote it.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

That and albums were allowed to bubble for a couple of months if the label was invested in the artists and not discarded as a tax write off after week two of the album release.

Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt is my go-to example for this. Didin't even crack Billboard 200 when it came out in October 95...climbed to #175 in January 96, climbed to #89 in February '96, then Just a Girl popped and Don't Speak blew up and it went #1 in December 96...over a YEAR after it's release

From five months of complete obscurity to DIAMOND. That's never happening again.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt is my go-to example for this. Didin't even crack Billboard 200 when it came out in October 95...climbed to #175 in January 96, climbed to #89 in February '96, then Just a Girl popped and Don't Speak blew up and it went #1 in December 96...over a YEAR after it's release

From five months of complete obscurity to DIAMOND. That's never happening again.

My go to example is Aaliyah's third album. We Need a Resolution dropped in April and that album (released in July) was performing badly before her the "Rock the Boat" video shoot and her death a month later.

 

[NO-BadAzz]

Bruh, I'll continue to say, you had to really care about that type of music coming out of NYC at the time if you weren't from like the Tri-state area. Illmatic dropped a week before Southernplayalistic and nobody I hung with or knew gave a shyt about Nas at that time. I only knew of him cause I copped the maxi single of the "World is Yours" that had the Pete Rock remix on it. You know what folks were standing in line outside of Sam Goody, Camelot, & Tape World for in the south? OutKast.

Facts,

Nobody outside of the tri-state area was pressing for that Nas album. I heard about Nas on the song with him and L. Boogie and then I enjoyed the hook more so than what he was rapping about at the time.

 

[WIA20XX]

My go to example is Aaliyah's third album. We Need a Resolution dropped in April and that album (released in July) was performing badly before her the "Rock the Boat" video shoot and her death a month later.

You know dead rappers singers get better promotion

 

[NO-BadAzz]

My go to example is Aaliyah's third album. We Need a Resolution dropped in April and that album (released in July) was performing badly before her the "Rock the Boat" video shoot and her death a month later.

I remember that album, her lead single did nothing for that album. I think this was when she had come back on the scene, Rock the Boat was the single that put eyes on that album, plus as you mentioned, her death.

 

[WIA20XX]

Facts,

Nobody outside of the tri-state area was pressing for that Nas album. I heard about Nas on the song with him and L. Boogie and then I enjoyed the hook more so than what he was rapping about at the time.

IMO, The Source made that album the "classic" that it is now.

Cause I wouldn't have been at Tower Records that Tuesday Morning without it.

Also, I see a lot of cats from "Up North" talk about Gangstarr, Tribe, Nas, Wu Tang - like they was playing that on the radio everywhere in the country.

I can tell you they was not playing Jeru the Damaja in Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, etc for the Hot 7 at 7.

You wasn't gonna play the wall and have some chick grind on you to Mobb Deep.

All that stuff outside of the tri-state/Boston was UNDERGROUND.

Backpacks and Adidas.

Cats in hot ass Texas wearing Timbs and Fatigues, and couldn't tell you where the L train stopped.

 

[ISO]

SO IF YOU CREATED SOMETHING
AND YOU WERE FACE TO FACE
WITH A PERSON STEALING YOUR shyt
YOU WOULD DO NOTHING?







​

U asking if I would threaten to destroy some poor old African immigrant newsstand for being one of the countless people bootlegging my shyt? No. Bootlegging was part of the game. It gets your music in the hands of people that wouldn’t buy your shyt otherwise.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

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.

Right, like look at Redman. He was able to build a long, healthy career off of being on the fringes and then eventually he did go platinum 6 years in

 

[CHICAGO]

U asking if I would threaten to destroy some poor old African immigrant newsstand for being one of the countless people bootlegging my shyt? No. Bootlegging was part of the game. It gets your music in the hands of people that wouldn’t buy your shyt otherwise.

YOU DON'T MAKE MUSIC
SO YOU CAN'T USE THIS EXAMPLE
WHICH IS WHY ITS EASY FOR
YOU TO DISMISS

APPLY THIS LOGIC TO
SOMETHING YOU HAVE A PASSION IN






​

 

[Taadow]

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....

The bold is absolutely right on this subject.

I would absolutely get it …if Steve Stoute could say it like this. But he can’t.

It’s ironic that so many hip-hoppers especially from his era (arguably the GOLDEN Era) don’t know how to express themselves effectively.


That was a great question asked to him at the end. The Answer?
Fans want the same thing they always wanted; The Vibe. The feeling they wanna feel right now. And lyrics are only part of it.

It ain’t just what you say, it’s how you say it.

That’s why your beat matters, because it affects how you might say something.
At the time Steve is referring to in this clip:

They bought Ice Cube.
They bought Redman.
They bought Redman.
They bought Das EFX.

That was it, they wanted some live EFX

 

[hex]

I typed a bunch of sh*t out then just erased it. I wasn't even sure how to address this thread.

The conversation is silly because people are using rappers with lyrics to argue Stoute's point....against other rappers with lyrics.

Using Nas 2nd album as some kinda gotcha moment, like it doesn't have "The Message", "I Gave You Power", etc.

One of the best concept songs in history....and cats are talking like "It Was Written" was 95 South or something.

Damn near every 90's rapper (BONE, Wu, Death Row, Outkast, Nas, Jay, etc.) that was selling millions of records had lyrics.

"Wu-Tang Forever" went 4x plat and the lead single was "Triumph", a nearly 6 minute song with NO HOOK and this clown is talking about "the older generation didn't care about lyrics."

"b bu but what about this specific example (Ras Kass, Chino XL, Common Sense, Killah Priest, etc.)"....who cares? Not everyone was selling, no. Mick Jenkins isn't selling as well as J Cole or Kendrick now, either. What is your point?

Fred.

 

[shopthatwrecks]

Bruh, I'll continue to say, you had to really care about that type of music coming out of NYC at the time if you weren't from like the Tri-state area. Illmatic dropped a week before Southernplayalistic and nobody I hung with or knew gave a shyt about Nas at that time. I only knew of him cause I copped the maxi single of the "World is Yours" that had the Pete Rock remix on it. You know what folks were standing in line outside of Sam Goody, Camelot, & Tape World for in the south? OutKast.

trust me i know.. ugk super tight..big mike ...outkast face...thug life coolio... eiht it was so much shyt we where already fans of n wanted to get ...

the hardest decision I had to make was to either we come strapped or creepin on a come up, n I only had 20 dollars... on me at the time n I picked up eight kuz it had more than 8songs...


and I only knew redman jeru ..craig mack n gangstarr from bet we would pick those up thru Columbia house... soon as the parade section of the newspaper came on Sunday..then we would wait til Sunday night go back to the store n get left over sunday papers n get the parade..from those and add on to the list


then we heard em on nikkas screw tapes..

nikkas didn't give a fukk about no nas... until one love and the world is yours was on a big mello personal called macks drive lacs ...

 

[critical_temp]

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

He means the consumer.

 

[Turbulent]

I think people care about the music and the flow. First and foremost. But i would argue that flow is a big element of lyricism