Everybody is looking for someone or something to blame for Hip-Hop "dying".
First of all, it's not completely dead, go to the Underground. Secondly, it's annoying the hell out of me. Here's an idea, you want someone to blame? Blame everybody. It's the industry. It's the guys in the suits. It's the corporate kiss-asses and nonsensical "Yes"-men. It's the "artists" that just want a quick paycheck, so they make up a dance and nonchalantly scat over instrumentals with a cute little digital enhancement on their voices. It's the people that watch BET, MTV and VH1. It's everyone that tunes into another scripted and predictable episode of Love & Hip Hop to see who's going to curse who out, who's staged to play-fight next, and who's going to publicly embarrass themselves... again. It's everyone who continues to contribute ratings to televised watered down Hip-Hop Award shows. It's everyone who settles. It's everyone who complains about what's on the radio but still listens to it. It's everyone that downloads their favorite artists music. It's you, it's me, we're all one big dysfunctional family!
Unless you are a saint and have done none of the above, you are responsible. However, I don't feel that people downloading music is a huge deal. Before you lynch me, hear me out.
A vast majority of artists in this era are making more money from everything but their albums being sold. They profit from their clothing lines, fragrances, beverages, sponsors, special appearances, tours, you name it there's probably an artist out there who has tried it or is doing it. Wake up people, record labels are reporting false first-week sales, they're reporting false sales overall, even Youtube caught Universal Music Group giving their artists videos fake views. Over 1 billion fake views to be exact, and you are telling me there's not a conspiracy to put corporate puppets in the forefront? That is the definition of a conspiracy.
Why do people download music instead of paying for it? Well gee, golly I don't know hmm maybe because if something is free why in the hell would they pay for it? If it's on iTunes for 10 bucks, it's somewhere else on the internet for free. What do you expect? You expect fans to feel some kind of sympathy or guilt for an artist's low record sales? You expect people to continue to throw artists their hard earned money when many of these artists rap in a condescending manner telling fans "I've got more money than you, more cars, more clothes"? Yeah, you should feel reaaaall sorry for not buying their album.
Do not be fooled by the imaginary "worldwide crackdown on Piracy". Yeah... corporations are really going to fight Piracy when they are the ones responsible for the leaks, promotion of the leaks and the convenience of social media to spread the word and even the link to the piracy site itself... really crackin' down there eh?
Even an artist that truly deserves for fans to buy their album does not deserve any sympathy. As an artist, you know what you are getting yourself into when you choose to be the one in front of that microphone, in that recording studio, on that stage, your name in bright lights, your face on the advertisements, you chose that. If you are an artist expecting to sell enough records to feed yourself for the rest of your life in this day and age, good luck with that... better pick up a side hustle, 'cause we ain't in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.
Remember the good ol' days when local artists would pop their trunks, stand outside in sweltering heat and flag down random people in an attempt to sell their underground CDs for a few dollars? Well you should have said goodbye to that long ago my friend. It's almost an insult to try and sell someone a Compact Disc on the street now no matter how well it's packaged. These people are plugging up their iPods and Cellular Devices to their car stereos for crying out loud, they won't want your CD. It's inconvenient, it skips if you hit a bump in the road, they scratch easily, people are too spoiled for that now, let it go.
You don't like the fact that people download music? I'm an artist myself and I'm telling you to get used to it. Piracy is here to stay, you can slow it down, but ya can't kill it. The war is over, the internet won.
Continue to follow my blogs where there's no popcorn, just a menu of cutthroat at my personal cafe'. In the words of the legendary Mick Foley, have a nice day.
www.youtube.com/majormindsetmusic - www.twitter.com/iconokie
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