How Come Mid 90s NY Rap Didn't Sell?

[supergangster]

Bruh 80% of the albums you mention is debut albums . It ain't fair to compare.

All waited on Doggystyle to be released, Snoop Dogg and the whole D pound was everywhere on Chronic.

 

[The Recipe]

Niggas wasnt trying to hear that lyrical miracle shit, just like now IMO. I never heard none of them joints till 00's personally and westcoast was running shit much like the South is now.

 

[qd3]

easy answer, The Chronic, end of story. It shifted to the west, and then to the south and it's still there.

 

[its....JOHN B]

Not enough radio friendly tracks for the casual fans

 

[its....JOHN B]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

 

[supergangster]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

He pretty much compared the east debut albums lol. You can compare Me Against the world with it was written

 

[grYmes]

36 Chambers

The Sun Rises In The East

Illmatic

Hard To Earn

Reasonable Doubt

Illadelph Halflife

Do or Die

Midnight Marauders

Most of those albums didn't go gold when they were released. And if they went gold they didn't go platinum.

In contrast, Doggystyle, Me Against The World, All Eyes On Me, Regulate...The G-Funk Era, It Takes a Thief, those albums all sold multiplatinum at the time.

It seemed like New York was in a bubble and the other 49 states preferred West Coast rap.

What is it about that boom bap sound that people don't like?

West Cost rap & G-Funk was just the preferred choice when it came to mainstream rap back at that time. NYC was still putting out quality albums it just didn't translate to big sales at that point. Biggie put the East back on track in 94 & things gradually got better.

It's just how it was at that time.

 

[Elzo69Renaissance]

36 Chambers

The Sun Rises In The East

Illmatic

Hard To Earn

Reasonable Doubt

Illadelph Halflife

Do or Die

Midnight Marauders

Most of those albums didn't go gold when they were released. And if they went gold they didn't go platinum.

In contrast, Doggystyle, Me Against The World, All Eyes On Me, Regulate...The G-Funk Era, It Takes a Thief, those albums all sold multiplatinum at the time.

It seemed like New York was in a bubble and the other 49 states preferred West Coast rap.

What is it about that boom bap sound that people don't like?

simple.......white ppl

 

[its....JOHN B]

People not buying east coast albums had nothing to do with the west coast, Yo mtv raps and that one hour a day your local radio station dedicates to hip hop could only help those gritty classic NY albums so much, but if you don't have hits in rotation regularly throughout the day on your local radio station, on mtv/bet/vh1, then the casuals/kids/women aren't going to buy your shit

 

[Turfaholic]

NY isolated itself

 

[Louis Devinear]

easy answer, The Chronic, end of story. It shifted to the west, and then to the south and it's still there.

Nah, it's not that simple.

You gotta remember nyc ain't like every other city in the nation. Nyc style, slang, and music wasn't relatable to everyone outside of the city with the exception of maybe a few people.

The south is more uniformed when it comes to music and styles. For example if I'm from Memphis and niggas from Texas is dropping music. I would relate to Texas niggas more than Nyc niggas just based off geography alone. Similar environment and experiences. Same goes with the west. Niggas on the west was making powerful music, don't get me wrong.

So if I'm from Arizona and Cali is putting out fire music. I'm gonna gravitate towards what's familiar to me.

It's 9 million people in Nyc. So many different cultures. I know West Indian people who don't listen to rap. Asian people who don't listen to rap. Etc etc. you factor all that in. And you could understand why those artists weren't going gold or platinum.

NYC is whole nother beast

@qd3

 

[5 Grand]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

Yeah Ready to Die and It Was Written both did well, and later Bad Boy ran the table for a couple of years, but Puffy had a formula. They were sampling 80s songs and getting R&B chicks to sing the chorus.

What I'm asking is how come people weren't feeling Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx? In hindsight those are GOAT albums but they didn't crossover regionally like Doggystyle or It Takes A Thief. I mean, I was living in Boston and they were playing Fantastic Voyage every hour on the radio.

What is it about G-Funk (Nuthin But A G Thing) that people prefer over Boom Bap (NY State of Mind)?

 

[its....JOHN B]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

Yeah Ready to Die and It Was Written both did well, and later Bad Boy ran the table for a couple of years, but Puffy had a formula. They were sampling 80s songs and getting R&B chicks to sing the chorus.

What I'm asking is how come people weren't feeling Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx? In hindsight those are GOAT albums but they didn't crossover regionally like Doggystyle or It Takes A Thief. I mean, I was living in Boston and they were playing Fantastic Voyage every hour on the radio.

What is it about G-Funk (Nuthin But A G Thing) that people prefer over Boom Bap (NY State of Mind)?

So your asking why a casual fan wouldn't like boom bap over g funk? Even though I liked g funk I had a friend who didn't and he basically said it best when he called Dre's beats Nickelodeon beats, they were putting out hood jingles where as the east is putting out music you had to decipher

 

[achewon87]

NYC artist were not open to changing their sound for radio spins...

 

[5th Letter]

It really wasn't commercial sounding for the most part.

 

[5 Grand]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

Yeah Ready to Die and It Was Written both did well, and later Bad Boy ran the table for a couple of years, but Puffy had a formula. They were sampling 80s songs and getting R&B chicks to sing the chorus.

What I'm asking is how come people weren't feeling Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx? In hindsight those are GOAT albums but they didn't crossover regionally like Doggystyle or It Takes A Thief. I mean, I was living in Boston and they were playing Fantastic Voyage every hour on the radio.

What is it about G-Funk (Nuthin But A G Thing) that people prefer over Boom Bap (NY State of Mind)?

So your asking why a casual fan wouldn't like boom bap over g funk? Even though I liked g funk I had a friend who didn't and he basically said it best when he called Dre's beats Nickelodeon beats, they were putting out hood jingles where as the east is putting out music you had to decipher

It really wasn't commercial sounding for the most part.

OK, this is what I'm getting at. People always complain about commercial radio and they play the same songs over and over again. They say that all commercial radio is simple and every song uses the same formula.

But when The East was putting out this really complex music people didn't buy it.

To this day Only Built For Cuban Linx is probably platinum at best (too lazy to check). How come all the people who complain about commercial radio didn't go out and buy Only Built For Cuban Linx?

 

[MrCrookedLetter]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

Yeah Ready to Die and It Was Written both did well, and later Bad Boy ran the table for a couple of years, but Puffy had a formula. They were sampling 80s songs and getting R&B chicks to sing the chorus.

What I'm asking is how come people weren't feeling Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx? In hindsight those are GOAT albums but they didn't crossover regionally like Doggystyle or It Takes A Thief. I mean, I was living in Boston and they were playing Fantastic Voyage every hour on the radio.

What is it about G-Funk (Nuthin But A G Thing) that people prefer over Boom Bap (NY State of Mind)?

So your asking why a casual fan wouldn't like boom bap over g funk? Even though I liked g funk I had a friend who didn't and he basically said it best when he called Dre's beats Nickelodeon beats, they were putting out hood jingles where as the east is putting out music you had to decipher

It really wasn't commercial sounding for the most part.

OK, this is what I'm getting at. People always complain about commercial radio and they play the same songs over and over again. They say that all commercial radio is simple and every song uses the same formula.

But when The East was putting out this really complex music people didn't buy it.

To this day Only Built For Cuban Linx is probably platinum at best (too lazy to check). How come all the people who complain about commercial radio didn't go out and buy Only Built For Cuban Linx?

Because a lot of hip hop fans ain't shit

 

[Peezy_Jenkins]

I wouldn't say boom bap was hard to decipher, for example for me a song like sugar hill or ice cream is just as dope/decipherable as say a if I ruled the world, plus there were plenty of East coast albums that did great

It's simple imo, the albums u posted just didn't have that breakout hit perhaps, or wasn't as good/relatable to those not in that region

 

[5th Letter]

Ready to die did well didn't it? Then Nas with It was written, they had smash hits, simple as that

Yeah Ready to Die and It Was Written both did well, and later Bad Boy ran the table for a couple of years, but Puffy had a formula. They were sampling 80s songs and getting R&B chicks to sing the chorus.

What I'm asking is how come people weren't feeling Illmatic or Only Built For Cuban Linx? In hindsight those are GOAT albums but they didn't crossover regionally like Doggystyle or It Takes A Thief. I mean, I was living in Boston and they were playing Fantastic Voyage every hour on the radio.

What is it about G-Funk (Nuthin But A G Thing) that people prefer over Boom Bap (NY State of Mind)?

So your asking why a casual fan wouldn't like boom bap over g funk? Even though I liked g funk I had a friend who didn't and he basically said it best when he called Dre's beats Nickelodeon beats, they were putting out hood jingles where as the east is putting out music you had to decipher

It really wasn't commercial sounding for the most part.

OK, this is what I'm getting at. People always complain about commercial radio and they play the same songs over and over again. They say that all commercial radio is simple and every song uses the same formula.

But when The East was putting out this really complex music people didn't buy it.

To this day Only Built For Cuban Linx is probably platinum at best (too lazy to check). How come all the people who complain about commercial radio didn't go out and buy Only Built For Cuban Linx?

Back then things were regional for the most part so the artists tailored their music to their area. There was no reason for a Mobb Deep to try and blatantly sound commercial.

 

[CapitalB]

Niggas wasnt trying to hear that lyrical miracle shit, just like now IMO. I never heard none of them joints till 00's personally and westcoast was running shit much like the South is now.

this.

niggas wasnt tryin to hear that wanna be mafia shit either.

meanwhile we on the westcoast on some real live gangsta shit!!

drinkin 40s

ridin clean..

fuckin on bitches.

sayin fuck the world!

how can u not relate??