Why do people complain about album sales on Shady Records?

[mdemaz]

Because they got nothing better to do.

[Trimss]

Well I have to be the guy who doesn't agree.

I don't think Birdman or Weezy told Minaj/Drake "Dumb down your lyrics man we got a stupid reputation, don't fucking ruin it!" I think they did it to fit to the whole image and it's cool, because now they have their trademark. A lot of us hip hop fans don't like it but the average fan loves the young money punches.

Why? Because they're simple, because it's stupid wordplay like everyone does in their life.

Anyway that's not the point, there's still no excuses to be that wack but look at Drake and Minaj. Wayne made them the next big thing, and they're not even that good. They just have something special..
Their voice. Just like Yela. If Yela signed to Young Money, I think he would have the freedom to release Radioactive but the thing is : they would have promoted it EVERYWHERE. Send it to big ass radio stations, to Tv channels, everything.

And the first week sales would have been above 200 000.

Sales aren't important but it's better to see our favorite artist blowing up and everyone appreciating him, than being the only one who knows him. Because sometimes I get mad thinking how many great HITS the Radioactive album has, like 3/4 potential number one (Made in USA, Let's Roll, Animal) but they will never be appreciated and worst, we'll never see music videos. lol

[NextEpisode]

Sales ARE important, if the artist want to stay relevant to the label. Artists that doesn't sell, get little (or no) attention from the labels, and have very little say on when they'll be able to release their next album, and of course, the budget - for the next project - also shrinks with a quite a margin.

Then again, things can change quickly, if you get a hit, the label might see a profit-opportunity, and thus, promote the f'ck out of you.

[aprilm]

I think people put too much emphasis on first week sales in general. There's nothing wrong with an album that is a slow burn. This is an example outside of hip-hop, but look at Adele's record - there was only one single from that album for a year, and it stayed selling steadily for a year, and now all of a sudden there's a second and third single. Since we're talking about Young Money, look at what Wayne's record did - huge first week sales for Carter IV, but what is the buzz around it since? Same thing for Nicki.

In my opinion, Yela is a slow-burn artist. A big splashy launch wouldn't have worked for him. He's on the road building a bigger audience and people will continue to discover him. In all honesty, that makes him a lot like Em. It's easy to talk about how much Em sells right out of the gate now, but when SSLP came out, it didn't go platinum its first week. It took a while to catch on. I would rather see an artist build a career and be around a while than make a couple of throw-away records, which I think is an opinion that a lot of people on this board share.

As for Slaughterhouse, if I can be negative for a moment, I don't think it is a good sign that Em is working so closely with them at all. Yela had a record that Em was confident putting out with a few finishing touches - if all the SH reports are to be believed, he's starting from scratch and practically spoon-feeding them to get their record done. All the tweets they put out make it sound like hip-hop school over there. (In case you can't tell, I get a little impatient with the Stan-level SH operates on. I'm second-hand embarrassed for them, because Em must know what they tweet and how they sound.) I'm sure that if their record doesn't sell well people will again blame it on promotion, but I don't think they can put out music that connects with the masses. Hip-hop heads and underground fans will appreciate them.

And we tend to slam Interscope a lot, but these acts are signed to Shady - Em is the only one signed to Interscope. Shady is a boutique label for a successful artist, which essentially makes it more like an indie label than a major label. If Interscope wanted Yela, I'm sure he would be signed to Interscope like Em, not to Shady. The artists know that too - I would think they know where they stand. Nobody should expect Interscope throw the same money behind them that they do for artists like Em and GaGa.

[Amaranthine]

I mean, it just kinda irks me how people expect a debut album to sell millions without all the single hype, features, promotion, interviews, etc. In some cases it makes us fans look like hypocrites.

I don't understand why Shady Records [whoever is in charge of this stuff. I assume Em has final say because he's the CEO] didn't do more promotion and interviews and advertisements. As far as I can remember, all Yela got was a Kimmel performance, a Twitter interview with Em, the Complex thing, Vibe, and...what? I especially feel like he needed more TV promotion, I think they covered magazines pretty well. Now Yela's finally getting online ads and stuff like that, but I feel like if they had done that in the first place, he would've done a lot better. I feel like, you know...he's on Em's label, and his name carries a lot of weight, and maybe they were just banking on that, but his name isn't enough, particularly with an artist like Yelawolf, who appeals to a more selected audience than, say, Obie Trice did.