All Sold Out

I read something not too long ago, it said something on the grounds of this:

Stick to your principles, but when it comes to trends, stay ahead of the times.

We had a Murdock and West talk earlier discussing XXL's Class of 2009 and then some. I was talking about Charles Hamilton, but West showed little to no interest in the up and coming artist, and the rest of The Class for that matter. He said he cared little for artist who are where they wanna be, I.E, record label deal.

He said, and mark his word, Asher Roth will end up using Auto-Tune. I'm like, dog, I can't see it happening. I said, I saw potential in these young'n's having recently downloaded Wale's "Mixtape About Nothing", Hamilton's "The Pink Lava Lamp" and Asher Roth's "Green House Effect Mixtape". He said, when artists get their record deal, their musical vision changes, for example: Jay-Z, Eminem and 50 Cent.

I rebuttled with, Jay-Z signed himself, his excuse, "I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars." I 147% Respect/That.

My favorite Eminem album remains unheard of by the masses, "Infinite", where he flexed the most adavanced lyricism(in my opinion, it topped NaS' Illmatic). He sold 500 copies of the tape out the back of his trunk. The content of his music changed before his deal on The Slim Shady EP. He had to think, I'm not gonna make money off of my conscious music if that's not the in thing anymore.

In 1996, the peak of the Hip Hop Golden Era, there was a lot of conscious music, but the sound changed for money. Apparently Gangsta Rap and Pop/R&B tracks reared their ugly heads. Being Infinite Eminem or Reasonable Doubt Jay-Z was not going to sell records.

Even 50 Cent, one of today's most hated on rappers, was a lyricist in his hey day, The Power of a Dollar speaks for itself.

So, why have great rappers resorted to bullshitting their way to Platinum plaques? Well, nowadays, as I showed on the Britney Spears post, music downloads have a great deal to do with it.

Music can be viewed as one of two things, either Art, or Entertainment.

Art Music is when an artist makes the kind of music they wanna make, not thinking of album sales, underground artists, or any artist existing between rap's inception through 1996ish.

Entertainment Music is your bubblegum artists, I won't name drop because somebody might get offended, but y'all know. You know? The rappers who have no subject matter or do what everyone else is doing.

Right about now, I can't name too many emcees who do what they do because they love to, ok, Outkast, Weezy, Yeezy, Jeezy, Lupe, and oh yeah, M.T. Bag.

So anyway, when you add other aspects to your music that have nothing to do with the music, you become an entertainer as opposed to an artist. The best example of an artist is Prince.

Prince doesn't do commercials, he doesn't strive to sell ringtones, he doesn't feature on anybody's songs, and he doesn't produce clothes or drinks. That's as REAL as you can get.

Is it safe to say our favorites of all time have sold out?

Hell yes!

Here's a top 5 of sell outs:

Jay-Z- Hard Knock Life: The Life and Times of Shawn Carter Volume 2

Eminem- sometime between Infinite and The Slim Shady LP

50 Cent- right after Get Rich Or Die Tryin'

Common- right after Finding Forever, that Universal Mind Control is doo

Mobb Deep- Blood Money


Now, I'm not dissin', I'm being real.

I can respect a man about his dollars, but when you change who you are mid-career, you're misleading your fans. Hov isn't a total sell out, he doesn't make songs distinctly for the dancefloor. Em, he's a silly mofo on his singles. 50, he came out with In Da Club, so that's cool, I guess, Get Up is some bull, and he knows it. Common......Common......Common....he's still one of my favorite emcees. Mobb Deep, you don't go from Shook Ones to the Outta Control Remix.

At least these rappers still drop some lyrics though, you know them bullshits on the radio? This ain't no sneak diss, this is an observation, DJ UNK's songs all sound the same, I think he knows that too.

Alright,man, holla then. =.=

The E-M-P'll Say P.E.A.C.E

P.S.- "We should go back to the days of old"