We’re getting pretty close. A whole slew of hip hop albums are supposedly approaching. With all the delays that fly around in the industry, who really knows, but Drake’s dropping, Em’s dropping, Big Boi’s coming soon, T.I.’s in the not-too-distant future, and so on. It’s gonna be pretty nice, a year that’s been largely quiet is suddenly filled to the brim with big rap releases.
Sure, I don’t like Drake, and in all honesty, don’t have much love for T.I.P. either. Ultimately though, it doesn’t matter. These guys are keeping on, without them making the big bucks; the smaller guys couldn’t really exist. I guess I’m not talking about much of anything, but I’m just feeling optimistic. After a few days without internet, I return to go through my usual cycles of finding the latest information, and take a look to remind myself what’s coming, and all I can really do is just look forward to it – to all of it, even Thank Me Later.
That said, I figure I oughta get back to taking shots. Or moreover, just considering something. Drake is the buzz kid, set in place by more or less everyone in the industry to be the next big figure in the game. As soon as he started getting huge, as my past column already blabbered, I was put on the defensive. I thought he was just about the worst thing that could happen to hip hop, not so much if he was just “around,” but if he was going to be the young king.
So here’s what I got to thinking about – well, is he? A pretty stupid question: but bear with me. Drake’s been made such a big deal because people in the game want him to be – producers have his back, and Lil Wayne and Eminem – arguably the two greatest “big” rappers rhyming – have his back too. Self-proclaimed (and not justified) “King” T.I.’s on his album, Kanye produced his second single, and so on. Yet what does this mean to the general consumer? Probably nothing. All that buzz that he’s created, or has had created for him, in hip hop circles has probably not only been meaningless to the person out there’s that’s either going to buy his album or not – it probably never even reached their ears.
All the noise that’s created in the hip hop community – beyond Drake, simply in general, just doesn’t register with the “average” consumer. I’ll use myself as an example: back when D12 World dropped in 2004 I was just getting into “real” hip hop. I started listening to it for the reason anyone listens to anything: it’s just what I liked. No matter that I was the skinny white kid who didn’t have 8 Mile on his resume to bring him a little legitimacy. As time went by, I got into the old school shit, and yadda yadda. However, when I was first getting into it all, I was just your typical consumer who bought some hip hop albums. There was this whole Benzino / Ja Rule / etc. beef raging, it was talked about on Em and D12’s albums, by Dre, on Obie’s album, and so on. Apparently, they thought it was quite the big deal. I still had no idea that’s what was going on. When I first heard “Like Toy Soldiers,” I had no idea what it was all about – once I did, the song sure had a whole lot more meaning, but point is, anyone can listen to it, not have a clue, and still enjoy it. Most people out there probably don’t even know who Suge Knight is. If you don’t believe me, just ask. Hell, the other day talking with a friend who knows plenty about current hip hop, I was practically horrified to discover that he had absolutely no idea who KRS-One is.
This didn’t matter to them – it was all about gaining and retaining respect in the hip hop world. Those of us – I concede that it may be a bit arrogant to include myself – that actually care and take notice easily lose perspective that none of this really matters to the bulk of people bringing rappers their money.
So in a roundabout way, I come back to Drake. Do you think all this noise about Drake is being noticed by the average consumer? I don’t know. Every day, I can’t escape some mention of Drake as I scour about – but Mr. and Mrs. Consumer aren’t scouring. They surely have heard “Best I Ever Had” and “Forever,” but does that necessarily mean success for Drake’s debut? “Best” was a single mid-last year, who knows if it’ll still stick in people’s mind when it comes time to buy his record. As for “Forever,” I think it’s fair to say that the other three rappers – purely by status – overshadowed his performance (not to mention that his verse sucked).
Now, chances are that Thank Me Later will be very successful. I do think there’s a legitimate chance that it will underwhelm – “Over” hasn’t been all that as a single, and while B.o.B. debuted at #1 with strong sales, “Nothin’ On You” was damn big. So, while I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to eat my words, I’m going to guess that Drake’s album will indeed bow at #1, but that it won’t be nearly as huge as everyone in the game seems to think it will be.
Beyond Drake, my real point in all this is that aspects of the game that have so much importance placed upon them don’t matter that much when it comes to being successful. Gradually, the general public seems to have lost interest in the “realness” of hip hop. It’s become its own little isolated world, where people hurl insults and older rappers praise younger ones, thinking it’s all so damn important. Yet, in the end, that world just doesn’t connect with the real one anymore. Those aren’t words I’m really fond of, but they simply seem to be true. Take B.o.B. for example, he never was too hyped up by anyone in the game, sure, Eminem spoke well of him, but he never did much of anything. Still shot right up the charts though, didn’t he?
All I can think about still is that guy not knowing about KRS. Even a lot of hip hop heads look back on him as a dinosaur, endlessly deserving of respect, but as an artifact. Remember “I’m Still #1”? He surely believed that, believed that he’d always be making hits. People just don’t remember figures like they do in other genres of music, in hip hop, people are huge and then seem to simply fall by the way side. Invested people certainly remember KRS, but I wonder if they remember how truly successful he once was. So, as crazy as it may sound, at this rate, give it twenty years, and Lil Wayne and Eminem may just be entirely distant memories that the new kids listening to rap don’t even know existed.
