Almostlity wrote:"black artists" are not selling nowadays as good as they did 20 years ago. Cole is talking about 2013,not 1990. Y'all sum dumb ***** fa sho
'Ye debuted with over 400k in the first week with his debut album, nearly double Em.
He also sold nearly a milli first week on his third album.
And Jay has been consistently above 400-500k 1st week per album right?
Black rappers have sold well, and continue to do so.
Then of course 50 Cent who sold over 800k 1st week with his debut and over a milli on his next.
If you're talking really recent... Cole debuted with nearly as much as Em did in 1999. Rappers are debuting with the same or more as the biggest selling rapper ever did; the only difference is, their albums don't CONTINUE selling like that or grow in momentum, as they're not groundbreaking.
'Ye sold nearly 500k 1st week with MBDTF, in 2010, and his... 5th album. Further proof that it has shit all to do with skin colour, but in fact quality and consistency. Kanye has always sold well and continues to do so because he delivers with a unique album every time.
Then you get a few black rappers who become a disappointment to themselves; fail to live up to the hype or truly move the needle, and so they start crying 'race!... um, yeah, race man!, it's not me or my lack of integrity or vision, it's all about race" and then we have this ridiculous discussion again.