Sales of Rap Albums Take Stunning Nosedive

Foxnews.com ^ | March 1, 2007 | Foxnews.com

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

NEW YORK — Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

[ItsForTheChildren]

Rap was around in the 20s.

Then they were called "patter songs."

"I'm a Ding-Dong-Daddy from Dumas," is a prime example.

Yeah, but Ding-Dong-Daddy didn't bus' a cap in anybody's azz, did he?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I always thought rap went back to the beatnik coffee house where some one would recite bad poetry whist another beatnik played the bongos.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Good. Enough of that total garbage! Maybe some people have got some sense into their heads and turned off this racist, violent, homophobe, woman-hating trash.

[windcliff]

ping

[BikerTrash]

*dont forget commander cody and Hot Rod Lincoln.*

And before that:

Now me and my wife and my brother Joe,
took off in my Ford from San Pedro.
We hadn't much gas 'n' the tires was low,
but the doggone Ford could really go.

Now along about the middle of the night,
we were rippin' along like white folks might,
when a Mercury behind he blinked his lights,
and he honked his horn and he flew outside.

We had twin pipes and a Columbia butt,
you people may think that I'm in a rut,
but to you folks who don't dig the jive,
that's two carburetors and an overdrive.

We made grease spots outta many good town,
and left the cops heads spinnin' round 'n' round.
They wouldn't chase, they'd run and hide,
but me and that Mercury stayed side by side.

Now we were Ford men and we likely knew,
that we would race until somethin' blew,
and we thought it over,
now, wouldn't you?

I looked down at my lovely bride,
her face was blue, I thought she'd died.
We left streaks through towns about forty feet wide,
but me and that Mercury stayed side by side.

My brother was pale, he said he was sick,
he said he was just a nervous wreck.
But why should I worry, for what the heck,
me and that Mercury was still neck-and-neck.

Now on through the deserts we did glide,
a-flyin' low and a-flyin' wide,
me an' that Mercury was a-takin' a ride,
and we stayed exactly side by side.

Now I looked in my mirror and I saw somethin' comin',
I thought it was a plane by the way it was a-runnin'.
It was a-hummin' along at a terrible pace,
and I knew right then it was the end of the race.

When it flew by us, I turned the other way,
the guy in the Mercury had nothin' to say,
for it was a kid, in a hopped up Model-A.

HOT ROD RACE by Arkie Shibley and His Mountain Dew Boys,
written by George Wilson.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The first rap song came out in 1970. A piece called "the revolution will not be televised" by Gil Scott-Heron.

"The revolution...will be live."

The Last Poets put out their first album around that time as well, in about the same vein. But as others have pointed out, that sort of chanted "talking blues" can be traced back to Africa. Honorable mention should also be made of Louis Jordan and in particular "Saturday Night Fish Fry" from 1949 (which some also identify as the first rock and roll song).

[dsc]

"I didn't know rap was around in 1977."

Coincidentally, that's the year in which I first encountered it. I was at Treasure Island for my Navy Reserve ACDUTRA, and walking down Market Street saw this black guy with a turntable and some other junk making odd noises. I asked him what in the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Motzart he thought he was doing, and about the only thing I was able to glean from his reply was that it was something called "rap." I knew the word "rap" meant "to speak or converse" in hipster doofus slang, but hadn't heard it used that way before.

He became sullen and taciturn when I tried to get more historical information from him.

[dsc]

"More likely, it's all crap."

Most likely, you've become more discerning.

[BikerTrash]

It was a fad, a flash in the pan that held on WAY too long for one simple reason: the ridiculous mindset fostered by the entertainment media that "anything inner-city is cool so LIKE IT".

GOOD (insert every filthy word I've ever screamed, heard or read) RIDDANCE!!!

[The Duke]

Until rap I didn't think anything would make me miss disco.

[Starter]

Not quite. For a few days after 9/11, they seemed to realize that showing people whining on Road Rules might be a tad inappropriate, so they went back to the "let's show music videos for most of the day" format. Lasted about a week, IIRC, and then we went back to Billy and Debbie yelling at each other over who had to wash dishes in their million dollar condo.

[dsc]

"That it did. But then again, Led Zeppelin borrowed pretty heavily from some older guys, too."

Yes, the blues was enjoying a surge of popularity at that time. Zeppelin shared the stage with B.B. King on at least one occasion, and Cream flew Albert King to England to help with one of their albums. Born Under a Bad Sign was an Albert King song.

Zeppelin may have borrowed, but they took what they borrowed and wove something new from it. There was legitimate creativity on their first album.

[Patriotic1]

I loved those guys. I still like Old School, not the new stuff.

[getitright]

The Sugar Hill Gang put out Rapper's Delight around that time.

Trust me, I know this. My little brother wore holes in it.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

But the article doesn't say this is a change. Just that buyers are drying up.

[Mr. Blonde]

The problem rap is having is that what is popular now has even less to say than gansta rap. The Lil' Jon style is too brain dead even for the most hardcore rap fans.

[Starter]

(I'm still mourning the lost of MST3000).

Well, if you're a fan of the later seasons, Mike Nelson and a few of the other writers/actors on the show have been producing MP3s that when played along with a movie, provide MST3k-style commentary for newer films. They've done about 25 of these so far, and seem to be producing about 1 a week or so. They're mostly doing these for better known films like Aeon Flux, Battlefield Earth or Road House, rather than stuff like Manos or Monster-a-Go-Go, but it's still pretty amusing. You can check them out at www.Rifftrax.com. (And they're also doing the older films, with commentary and DVD, but that's over at www.filmcrewonline.com)

If you're a fan of the Joel era though, well, he's dropped off the face of the earth. Sorry.

[teawithmisswilliams]

...rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline

Some good news on the culture front, for a change.

[dmz]

Tim O'brien (bluegrass/celtic/country) recorded an all Dylan cover record in 1996, on which he recorded Subterranean Homesick Blues. On tours that followed, it was Tim on mandolin and bass player Mark Schatz playing himself as a percussion instrument. He routinely introduced the song as the first rap song ever.

You may not have been the first and only, but you are in fine company.

[Rastus]

I have a blues CD featuring risque music from the '20s and '30s, and I absolutely could not post the lyrics here. Some of the songs are merely suggestive, while at least one is still tremendously shocking. I didn't even know they used some of the terms they use back in those days. To give a hint, one of them features a woman using the exact line that appears faintly in the fadeout to the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up.