Why are old school rappers selling out tours while new school struggle?

[JetFueledThoughts]

Older people got more money and nostalgia.

This. And also festival culture. Like @O.Red said you can spend $150 for Lil Baby or double that to see 30 artists, 15 of who you enjoy. Festivals are also a whole ass party whereas an arena tour is one night.

And fans under 25 just have a different relationship w/ artists they’re a ‘fan’ of. They’ve probably never actually bought an album, they stream albums and play their favorite artists at kickbacks and pregames, but there’s no real relationship there most of the time.

 

[scorpino]

Older millennials and Gen X are in our prime earning years, making stupid dollars. Buying homes, traveling, and disposable income on deck.

The artists we grew up with now know how to put on a show, and have the catalog for a 2-3 hour set. We're paying for floor seats so we want (and are getting) our money's worth.

A perfect example is Nas. If you were actually there back then, you know his stage show used to be wack. Again, if you were actually there you know this is true. Him and 30 dudes drunk and high af pacing the stage back and forth, putting your ass to sleep.

Now? He's blowing acts off the stage. I went to the NYSOM show last year in West Palm, the MSG show, and recently the Barclays show.

At all 3 shows (MSG doesn't count since it was him and guests for a verse or 2). But the other 2 shows with Wu? He killed. At the WPB show, Wu was lethargic and lacking in comparison (except for RZA and Ghost). Everyone knows Wu is great on stage, and they were much better at Barclays. But Nas was just having fun up there at every show. Mixing old and new songs, bantering with the audience, wardrobe changes, graphics, getting the crowd involved, etc.

Will Lil Buddies and Babies and Young Trap Stars be around 30 years from now? Will their stage show improve from what it is now? Will they sell out arenas in 2053?

This is so true. I’ve seen Nas so many times and it’s crazy how good he’s gotten. I always felt cheated when I would see a Nas show. At the garden and Barclays shows he was performing his ass off. I’m telling everyone my age 42….if Nas and Wu tour again you have to go see it. It’s worth every penny

 

[King Sun]

ITs funny people are using the older route and the Nas/Wu show here was mostly old heads but they had hella zoomers there with wu shirts.

 

[AStrangeName]

We know why.

Younger rappers don’t even have real fans. These dudes have people listening to them who don’t even know who they are, but know their song. Older rappers have loyal fanbases. Who are willing to actually pay to see them. You can't even get younger listeners to pay for a damn Spotify subscription. They're definitely not putting up bread for show tickets. They ain't got it.

Pretty much the biggest reason alone as building an genuine fanbase nowadays comparison from last decade is more challenging than before with how social media evolved. What worked before for the likes of Odd Future, TDE & A$AP Mob for example may not work today as the platforms have changed a lot from the early 2010s. When I look at someone like Lil Nas and Ice Spice for example, they know how to market themselves (their team practically) with the changed market that we've seen since 2019 and how they engage with their fans also makes a big difference too.

TikTok can help you get more to fukk with your music, but there's no guarantee that they'll become you fans if they don't fukk it with the other music in you discography. Also, ticket prices have been crazy expensive lately, which doesn't help and a lot of rapper are underestimated how many of them can afford their shows.

 

[_genocidecutter_]

ITs funny people are using the older route and the Nas/Wu show here was mostly old heads but they had hella zoomers there with wu shirts.

Facts. I can confirm this when I saw them in Charlotte last year.

 

[Low End Derrick]

Before I could begin to answer this question I’d have to know how true it even is….i went to the actual article and it gives neither any specific acts nor any figures whatsoever ….like, who is this even based on? What’s the cutoff for old school and new school ? What are the gate receipts? Is this just some shyt someone pulled out their ass?

I strongly suspect the only “old school” rappers they are even considering are 50 Cent and Nas/Wu’s recent tours…and they’re using the success of those two tours matched up against the headlines from Lil Baby or MoneyBagg having to cancel a couple of shows….but what is the actual data?

Drake just finished up the highest grossing rap tour of all time a couple days…before he broke the record, it belonged to Kendrick from his last tour…are they old school rappers for the purposes of this narrative? 50 and Nas/Wu tours were successful, but how typical are they of “old school” tours? What kinda tour money is (just picked a random late 90s/early Aughts platinum rapper) Trick Daddy bringing compared to MoneyBagg now ? What are the average ticket prices?

This has poorly thought out, fallacious narrative written all over it

Sorry breh, we dont do critical thinking round these parts. We like our headlines salacious and biases confirmed.

 

[King Poetic]

Because other countries outside of the US love real hip hop artist and doesn’t give up on older artist like America

I saw RAKIM AND LL come on stage for the BET Awards and majority of the crowd was sitting down loss

 

[Michael's Black Son]

BECAUSE THEIR FÙCKING MUSIC IS BETTER!

this is common knowledge

 

[Cladyclad]

This is false 1000%

 

[King Sun]

This is false 1000%

 

[Cladyclad]

Ok I guess

 

[Dynamite James]

All these excuses in here

 

[Iverson_64]

Eh...I think it depends on the artist more than the generation. But older artists have the advantage of appealing to a demographic with more disposable income.

 

[MikeStamina]

Exactly
Scroll through Lil Baby’s songkick and see how many arena shows he’s headlined or co-headlined.
Rod Wave and Doja Cat tours vastly outsold Nas/Wu-Tang.
Just the tip of the iceberg of examples.

Rod who? The rapper that wears zinc jewelry?
Get yo lying ass the fukk outta here

Conversely, you must also believe Rod wave makes
more money on tour than Nasir ? Since he's VASTLY outselling him

I know them Lagos Yahoo boys got an unbelievable deal for yo gullible ass

 

[ISO]

Because of cheap tickets and because they tour together.

Lil Baby had to cancel tour dates because he overextended himself in certain markets and his tickets weren’t cheap.