T.D.E Was Supposed to Be The Next Big Label But They Fell Off! Stunted Growth Music
- Thread starter Rollie Forbes
- Start date
lol this dudes channel got stale quick to me. The basketball one at least..the reasons are usually generic as hell and he says the person was supposed to be the next ______ too often.
Like just off the thumbnail..Rashad being outed has nothing to do with their fall off. He isn’t even a top five most popular artist on the label.
Like just off the thumbnail..Rashad being outed has nothing to do with their fall off. He isn’t even a top five most popular artist on the label.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
Didn’t have to say anything other than Kendrick leaving 
Schoolboy is dope AF, I like Isaiah’s first two projects. Ab Soul’s Control System is dope, but none of them were Kendrick so it’s whatever.
Schoolboy is dope AF, I like Isaiah’s first two projects. Ab Soul’s Control System is dope, but none of them were Kendrick so it’s whatever.
Piff Perkins
Veteran
I mean to be fair they DID become the next big label. They reached that goal and held it for a good amount of time. The problem is that they largely fell apart after the peaks of 2017 and 2018. From their current perspective they'd prob say "SZA is one of the biggest acts in the world, and has back-to-back multi plat albums." Yes she's a superstar and will keep the lights on at TDE for quite some time. But what else is there left? We've been teased with a half assed album rollout for Jay Rock over the last 3-4 months. Schoolboy Q has made some noise about dropping soon. Doechii still doesn't have an album out. How long can they keep wasting time before people simply move on. After having so much momentum and surprising success, they let Jay Rock rot after 2018. No features, no loosies, nothing. Just like they did to Q after Crash Talk. Just like they did with Ab Soul. How many 4-6 year waits do fans have left in them? Worse yet, how many 4-6 year waits do artists in their mid-to-late 30s have in them? Punch and them will say the wait makes the reward better but let's see how that sounds when those Jay Rock first week numbers come out. If we even get an album this year. What's a Schoolboy Q album gonna do in 2024, after making people wait half a decade since his last album (which wasn't received well)? The shyt not making sense...
They were the biggest label at one point, but we’ve seen this same story play out countless times over the years. Once your biggest star starts to fall off or leaves the label things shift immediately. Sometimes labels get lucky and create another superstar that can carry the torch for a few more years, but that rarely happens. Every major rap label that had a run on top has gone through this. What happened to TDE really isn’t that complicated.
It doesn't help that the "next big label":
Why should I give a shyt about a label that could give a single damn about themselves?
Its like when Master P decided to treat his label like a afterthought just have hoop dreams and oh btw "Mercedes dropping soon ya heardddd meeee"
- Relied on another man to get them the plats
- Had that same exact man come off as Jesus Christ from Compton BC
- The CEO is the biggest doofus and troll to grace the music industry
- Fumbling, sabotaging, and pushing back release dates on artists, and dropping the albums at the most random of times
- Going against everything that the label stood for (went from social conscious hood politics, to THOT and gang raps)
- Allowing inhouse beef to trickle down on the overall product
Why should I give a shyt about a label that could give a single damn about themselves?
Its like when Master P decided to treat his label like a afterthought just have hoop dreams and oh btw "Mercedes dropping soon ya heardddd meeee"
Nokids
Promise if I have a seed imma guide him right
I stopped watching after he kept saying the same stuff and had obvious biases towards certain players. I haven’t even checked out the hip hop versions
Piff Perkins
Veteran
It doesn't help that the "next big label":
The final straw was Top shytting on HIS OWN ARTIST JUST TO HELP PROMOTE AN ALBUM THAT DID WEED STEMS AND DID NOT SHOW UP FOR THE fukkING RELEASE PARTY ALONG WITH THE REST OF TDE
- Relied on another man to get them the plats
- Had that same exact man come off as Jesus Christ from Compton BC
- The CEO is the biggest doofus and troll to grace the music industry
- Fumbling, sabotaging, and pushing back release dates on artists, and dropping the albums at the most random of times
- Going against everything that the label stood for (went from social conscious hood politics, to THOT and gang raps)
- Allowing inhouse beef to trickle down on the overall product
Why should I give a shyt about a label that could give a single damn about themselves?
Its like when Master P decided to treat his label like a afterthought just have hoop dreams and oh btw "Mercedes dropping soon ya heardddd meeee"
Reason bullshytted about that release party. Multiple TDE people were there, and he later admitted it.
When a label treats album releases like a limited resource they create scarcity and resentment among fans. The fans understand the label is only releasing 1-2 projects a year, and when those projects are Reason or Lance Skiiwalker the fans start complaining, wondering where their favorite artist is. This has happened countless times with TDE releases and puts their lower level artists in a bad position each time.
The other problem is that artists aren't given an opportunity to build on momentum. Jay Rock came out in 2018, won a Grammy, had a couple hit records, and revived his career. He hasn't done jack shyt since then, until the half assed rollout he got this summer with no album date. In 2019, SiR dropped a great album, got a gold single, and had a lot of success. Jack shyt since then. The label will blame COVID but it's nearly 2024 at this point and all these guys are still shelved. Schoolboy Q also last dropped in 2019 and has only released one song since then iirc. Barely any guest verses either. It's mind blowing. These are all the types of artists who need to be on a 2-3 year cycle between albums. You can't treat everyone like a superstar who can disappear for years, come back, and still be hot. None of these artists are Kendrick or SZA.
Devil Plisken…CMS
Veteran
Were they supposed to be Def jam in 98 or Bad Boy/No Limit in 97?
Kendrick & SZA made major splashes & Schoolboy hit cleanup
Kendrick & SZA made major splashes & Schoolboy hit cleanup
Mindfield333
Superstar
As far as rap artists Zay definitely top 2 on the label. But he’s behind SZA, scHoolboy Q, and Sir
Westbama Heartthrob
Irregular Zero
Plus isaiah got way more support than backlash
If anything, it helped his career more than it hurt cause it brought more attention to his music
tremonthustler1
aka bx_representer
hip hop labels by and large don't have extended peaks. Rappers might, but the labels they sign to maybe have 5 year peaks at best and then crumble. Death Row had 4 years. Ruff Ryders had 4-5 years. Roc-A-Fella had 5-6 years. G-Unit had 3-4 years. No Limit had a 5-6 year run. Ca$h Money's peak was from what, 98-03? Dipset had maybe 3-4 years. Then you had labels like Ruthless and Aftermath which had extended lifespans but were either really infrequent or were only gonna go as far as their star artist carried them.
This might be a more interesting subject to discuss in-depth
This might be a more interesting subject to discuss in-depth