Bling for your supper: hip-hop stars go into battle over the future of a stuttering genre

Kanye West and 50 Cent plan album showdown as rap record sales decline

Paul MacInnes
Saturday September 1, 2007

Guardian

In one corner there is Kanye West, the hipster's favourite rapper who records with Coldplay's Chris Martin and collaborates with Takahashi Murakami, the "Japanese Warhol". In the other looms 50 Cent, the impeccably muscular former crack dealer who recently released a single called, simply, I Get Money and who has said he'll quit if West outsells him. On September 11 their latest albums will go head to head in the record stores, a fight not just between two distended egos but for the future of rap music itself.

In everything from advertising to fashion, the influence of rap and hip-hop culture can seem omnipresent, but the music from which it all sprang is suffering something of a crisis. After dominating the American charts for close to a decade, sales have been falling every year since 2000, down 44.4% since that time and 30% in the last year alone. The decline has been markedly steeper than for other genres: total album sales have fallen by 25% since the turn of the century. And in the UK, rap's fall from favour has been even more dramatic, with album sales dropping by close to 50% in the last 12 months.

Against that background, the clash between 50 and West is being seen by many in the industry as an attempt to resuscitate an ailing form.

"Of the 20 best-selling urban titles of 2007 only three are by rap acts," says Geoff Mayfield, senior analyst at Billboard. "At this point of 2006 half of the category's 20 top titles belonged to hip-hop artists. I'm still trying to come to terms with why that might be."

But while the figures charting rap's loss of popularity are unambiguous, the causes for the fall are being hotly debated. Mayfield suggests a shift in consumption, pointing to the fact that of the musical ringtones sold in the US by far the most popular are from rap songs. With a constituent audience primarily comprised of young males, it may also be that fans are simply getting their music online, either buying individual tracks or downloading it for free.

Others, however, are unconvinced and see a decline in a once vibrant art form. Eskay, author of Nah Right, a popular hip-hop blog, said: "I think there are a variety of factors and it would be crazy to say the internet hasn't had an effect. But mostly there has been a decline in the quality of albums being put out.

"Nowadays we see a lot of what have come to be known as 'ringtone rappers' who are essentially one-hit wonders. And everybody is an A&R nowadays. Everybody wants to know what the [sales figures] are for the week and everybody has an artist they're pushing and a MySpace page. It's awful."

Jeff Chang, author of the influential hip-hop history Can't Stop Won't Stop, says the fall in sales is about more than just a decline in quality but a disgust at what the music has come to represent.

"It's clear to me that many fans have left the music because they believe that it's become a cartoon of itself - one that traffics a little too much in very old racist and sexist stereotypes," he says. "You hear a lot about this from 89ers - fans who came of age during the late 80s through the 90s - but it's also true that younger people feel the same way. A huge survey of youth attitudes by the University of Chicago found that overwhelming majorities of young people of all races like hip-hop, but also feel it portrays young women and men of colour negatively. That's the kind of social contradiction that can't hold for long."

Chang suggests that "corporate rap" of the kind purveyed by 50 Cent (who also endorses clothing, video games and even vitamin water) is suffocating itself. "The industry is milking older cows 'til they're dry, and killing the calves before they've grown," he says. "The industry needs to change."

At the same time, however, he points to the fact that two more progressive rappers - Common and Talib Kweli - have achieved surprising sales success, reaching No 1 and No 2 respectively in the US album charts in the past month.

There may yet be a chance to reinvent a musical form which came from the projects of New York to dominate the world in just 20 years. As for the imminent rap battle, it seems clear which side fans of hip-hop are on. "Do you even have to ask?" says Eskay. "Kanye all day, baby!"

Head to head: Kanye West vs 50 Cent

Kanye West

Worldwide sales 8m

Background
Kanye's mother, Donda West, was chair of the English department at Chicago State University before becoming Kanye's manager. He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago, but dropped out in order to work on his music career.

Sample hit Crack Music

Choice lyric
"How we stop the Black Panthers? Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer." A reference to the allegation that the former US president introduced crack cocaine to the urban ghettos of the United States.

Previous
Outspoken critic of George Bush and the US administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, telling a crowd at a benefit concert: "George Bush doesn't care about black people," adding that the US was not set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well off."

50 Cent

Worldwide sales 20m

Background
Born Curtis James Jackson III, 50 Cent's mother, a drug dealer, was murdered when he was eight. He started rapping with friends before being introduced to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who produced his unreleased first album.

Sample hit How to Rob

Choice lyric
"Aiyyo the bottom line is I'm a crook with a deal / If my record don't sell I'm 'a rob and steal / You better recognize nigga I'm straight from the street / These industry niggaz startin' to look like somethin' to eat."

Previous
Began dealing drugs when he was 12 years old and has served time in prison. In 2000 he was shot nine times outside his grandmother's house.