by Xray » Jan 10th, '11, 06:49
Wait a second before we all start misinterpreting what underground is and isn't... It's really degrading for these rappers who are mainstream being called underground when they've over come it years if not, a decade ago...
Wu-Tang Clan (as a group) is not underground. Their albums are everywhere in music stores till this day. Why? Because of who they were signed with at the time of their releases who are still distributing their albums, and because of media success they have had. Matter fact, they're possibly the biggest rap group in raps history, in terms of media, not sales.
You don't define an artist underground or mainstream by their current status. If their last album didn't do too well in sales, it doesn't mean they've gone underground, it means their last album was a flop. What about 50 Cent? His last album was a flop, no one bought that shit, except for his last breed of die-hard fans. Does that mean 50 is underground? Of course not.
And it doesn't matter who kids in schools know and don't these days. It matters who's signed to which label and solely on the media, not the sales. Nas is signed to Def Jam, by far a top 3 label in both rap and hip hop. Nas is one of the biggest rappers to have survived his career from the 90's. Nas...even had a little public fued with Soulja Boy two years ago (biggest new artist at the time, and were not even talking about rap, just music in general). The media brought us the story about that fued. Why didn't they write a story about how every underground artist hates Soulja Boy instead? Because Nas is signed to Def Jam and he is NOT an underground artist, his mainstream.
Now back to Wu-Tang, RZA's name is HUGE in the music industry, rollingstones know who he is, go look it up. Same with Nas, Common, and Lupe Fiasco. Common has 3 albums that is underground, his first 3 albums, then he shifted to mainstream, because of who he got signed with and how well media success he achieved. Common's last album "was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album but lost to the Eminem album Relapse". Lupe Fiasco is also mainstream. He's released two commercially certified albums and his fans are waiting for his Lasers album and you're telling me Lupe is underground because he is busy working on his next big album?
We are talking about the media and the success these artists have had with the media, and who they're signed with, not the record sales, when we are talking about underground and mainstream. If the media doesn't want an artist big, then that artist will never sell well unless they win the media's approval, that's when a labels advertisement for their artist album grows by double because of the media and the coverage they recieve by the media. Otherwise their label will drop them, unless they make money from other resources such as movies, etc. aka 50 Cent.
My point is, the media controls who is mainstream and who isn't, not who kids in school know or don't. Once you go mainstream, you're always going to be mainstream, your last album didn't do too well? It was a flop, you're still mainstream. Canibus dropped from mainstream to underground because his first album was highly anticipated and then it didn't deliver to the media so he became an underground artist because he never tried to do radio friendly songs to get back in to the mainstream, he just kept dominating rap in terms of skill.
Over a billion Muslims, you could never stop Islam
Over a billion bullets shooting from the chopper's arm
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