The rise of 50 Cent and G-Unit through a series of reputation-building mixtapes gave rappers ideas. Lil Wayne’s deluge of free releases in the lead up to his gazillion-selling blockbuster Tha Carter III proved that releasing scores of songs in a small space of time could eventually reap serious financial gain. Wayne and 50’s oddball exceptions have now become the rule, though, and here we are in 2011 staring down an impossible harvest of beats and rhymes. Rappers are now under the impression that domination of music is accomplished through the persistent release of tracks, features, mixtapes, EPs, and the like. Oversaturation, plain and simple. Thing is, not every rapper has what it takes to pull off that kind of industry-wide assault without working on our nerves. This has not stopped anyone from following the path of excess and inundating listeners with more music than we want or need to hear.
Hit the skip to read the latest Broken Language column.
Open any blog, and scroll down the front page. Listen to every song. How much of what you find there do you find yourself listening to twice? How much of it do you find yourself listening to the next day? The next week? The next year? Browse your hard drive. How much of what’s on there have you been able to listen to? How far behind are you? How many songs, albums, mixtapes do you have that you never got around to listening to because that artist (or another one) quickly dropped another project that suddenly required your attention? A lot, right? Artists are way too preoccupied flooding inboxes with tracks to notice, but I do.
The playing field is crowded. If Big Snork drops his Todd Rundgren beat tape on Tuesday, and Yung Lil Bullshit drops his long awaited No Tracks, Just Interludes on Wednesday, and Whoo D’Whoo releases part three in her monthly series of free EPs on Thursday, and I cop all of them, there’s a fair chance that some, maybe even all, of those releases will end up either in the recycling bin or deep in the boondocks of my hard drive or iPod. There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to work, write, eat, sleep, drink, and then listen to every single random new release as well as the stuff I already have that I love. Getting someone to download your music is one thing. Getting ‘em to keep it is another.
Quality control is a virtue. Barring, like, the Beatles, there isn’t a single musical act worthy of me listening to EVERY SOLITARY THING THEY EVER WROTE. Why do I get the impression that some of these dudes are literally releasing whatever they record whenever they record it? Take Lil B, for instance. Lil B’s discography has to have hit some kind of Guinness record for Most Songs Recorded By A Rapper. This dude’s got thousands of tracks released, and he’s only been working since 2007. What percentage of that is worth listening to after the first time? Don’t get me started. If you were planning on releasing four mixtapes this year, try tossing out two. The world won’t end.
Brevity is a virtue. Newsflash: you are not required by law to fill out the maximum time allotted on compact disc. There isn’t a penalty for having space left over on a disc. There’s this unidentifiable point somewhere in the back nine of a lot of albums where I begin to realize that I’ve heard everything this artist is musically capable of, even though there’s still five, 10, 20, sometimes as much as 30 minutes left in the running time. Learn from the greats. Most enduring classic hip hop albums don’t last longer than 10 to 15 songs, and they’re rarely longer than an hour. Imagine if Illmatic came out in this climate! That thing would have 20 songs on it!
We do not forget you exist just because you have not released 20 songs in the last month. I don’t know about everyone else, but I get tired of having the same artist in my ear day in, day out. Buzz is an elusive thing, but I know it’s not solely accomplished by remaining just around the corner with new music constantly coming down the pipeline. How many tracks has Jay Electronica released in the last year? Not that many, right? How many cats are still gonna lose their entire minds the day Act II comes out? Jay-Z and Kanye, two of the biggest artists working today, have an album coming out, and we’ve only heard three or four songs from them in the seven to eight months since the thing was announced. Danny Brown only drops a few tracks and features a month. When his album comes out I am going HAM. You can keep a certain distance and have people remain excited about your next release. It’s not unheard of.
Oversaturation is hip hop’s silent killer, and while it varies by person how much is too much, you know it when you see or hear it. It’s a point just at the end of a track-a-week series where you realize that there was barely a keeper in the batch. It’s a point about thirteen songs into a twenty-plus track release when you realize that everything in the bag of tricks has been exhausted, and nothing new or interesting is going to happen. It’s a mixtape too many. It’s a remix you didn’t need to be on. It’s just too much. Focus on crafting your best, on coaching your best performance out of yourself. If it ain’t the best, leave it on the cutting room floor. Not everything you make needs to see the light of day. Quality. Not quantity. Work at your own pace. Whatever you do, please, please, please (RIP James Brown), don’t put anything out just to have anything out.
Hah I just played Ghost of Christopher Wallace a couple weeks ago. Electronica’s pedestal is more a sign of how desperately thirsty hip hop heads are for anything resembling the Golden Age than anything else.
I personally don’t think that Jay Electronica is proof of shit. Sure, he’s talented, but there was a giant pedestal built for him that exists entirely exclusive of his music itself. I personally think he’s Exhibit A — no pun intended — of how little the music itself matters; it’s the story.
Nobody cares about Lil B’s music. They care about the story, the character, the entertainment, the absurdity.
People think they care about the music with Jay Electronica. When’s the last time you heard or listened to that “Ghost of Christopher Wallace” track he released last year?
You’re right. There is a demand from someone. There’s a demand from the blogs who are obsessed with adding new content a few dozens of times a day. If a site updated itself once a day, or offered 5 great tracks once a week, and that was it… Could they compete? Mos bloggers don’t seem to care, because they’re often (not PIMB) compulsive followers and will post anything they’re spoonfed or everything that someone else more powerful than them posts. I hope the model works itself out, because it’s kinda fucked. It moves faster than virtually 100% of consumers do. What a waste of energy.
Geez. Shush, will ya? Get over the “Hip hop will never be as good as it once was” crap and move on. You’ll feel better about yourself, I promise.
That is completely false. I don’t think there is any demand for 19 Lil B mixtapes/albums. He puts it out and gets a reaction. That doesn’t mean there is a demand. And it isn’t like Lil B makes more money off of 1 mixtape or 100 mixtapes, because they are all free. You can feed your fans in other ways than new music, because right now everyone is getting fat off of fast food.
And this doesn’t just stand for Lil B, because I don’t really look at him as an artist. This goes for tons of “respected” underground artists, many of which I won’t name because they lurk this site on a regular basis.
enlighten me on when was the last time you heard a so called ‘classic’ album. Since we are all listening to the WRONG artists. how many so called ‘classic’ albums have you heard this year. Tell me what albums we will be talking about in 10 years time? seriously i would love to know.
funny. but maybe your too young to remember that GOOD hip hop music shouldnt be hard to find. It never was. Of course there is ‘dope’ hip hop out there. thats not the issue. the issue is that there is not alot of ‘dope’ hip hop. why should i have to search and search to find good quality hip hop. why has hip hop gone backwards? everywhere i used to turn for hip hop in the 90s or even in the early 2000s there used to be great hip hop. underground or not. if you think hip hop standards haven’t dropped then you have rocks in your head. but thats the problem with the new hip hop generation. they except trash and think its treasure.
peace
afan.
Yep, that’s the game right there haha
or
http://youtu.be/WhqqAUh1VPU
Totally agree…its seems the digital age has somewhat of a double edged sword effect
This commercial is the perfect analogy…
That’s just silly. So blogs have NOTHING to do with over saturation? Word. If that’s where we are in this conversation, then I’ve wasted my time here.
Is it possible that perhaps you guys are listening to the WRONG artists? Perhaps you are simply listening and expecting greatness from artists that aren’t capable of it?
This is just a circular conversation. I’m sorry, you can’t demand unlimited access to every song available and then in turn expect every single one of them to sound like angels in heaven. Just not realistic. Choose one. Do you want unfettered access or do you want limited, but quality recordings. You can expect both maybe from one artist, but not from the entire music worlds. Pipe dreams.
Stopped reading this half way through because it’s just random youtube comment level commentary. If you can’t find dope hip-hop in this day and age then you aren’t a fan of it. It’s plentiful, it’s lead to an article like this being written that basically is saying it’s too damn plentiful. Do some digging and become a fan of someone. peace.
I agree with this article. My brother and I happen to have this same discussion a few days ago also. I know this is a serious article, but Big Snork and Lil Yung Bullshit might be the two greatest names for rappers of all time.
Maybe its just me but constantly releasing music to stay relevant on blogs seems desperate, especially if your a talented artist. Jay Electronica proves the fans will be there and support if your releasing good music. The Jay Elec shit talkers aren’t real fans! What fan would talk shit about an artist they support because they aren’t releasing music fast enough for them?
The bar keeps getting raised and I think its dangerous for the business of hip-hop. Ever since So Far Gone and Kush and OJ artist are expected to rap over original production on their mixtapes. I saw Lil Waynes new mixtape get slandered on twitter for not having any original music by so called “fans”. Why should someone who has sold millions of records release what basically would be a full album for free?
I like the fact that Dom Kennedy and Kendrick Lamar recently released their newest projects through iTunes, after building on their buzz and gaining new fans. Thats how it should be done. I have no problem with free music and feel its a valuable tool to build a fanbase but if you don’t put value on your music your fans won’t either.
If hip hop aint dead where has it been for 5 years? The music industry has been ripping off the consumer for decades and you blame the consumer for downloading illegally? I own roughly 300 hip hop albums. 99 percent of those albums are from the 90s and late 80s. now when jay electronica releases his album i will buy it. why? because he has released quality music consistently. Im not however going to buy a 50 cent album because he has been disrespectful to the consumer with constantly releasing bad music.
The reason hip hop was selling better in the 90s then it is now is not only because of illegal downloading.
Albums were going platinum and gold in the 90s because they were better albums.
the quality is gone.
at the moment its just rap music. its lost its soul. its lost its hip hop title because the culture and the anti establishment that was big part of the music is gone.
eminem, 50 cent, jay-z, snoop etc would all be laughed out of the game 15 years ago.
could you imagine eminem releasing his recovery album in the 90s?
or jay-z releasing his blueprint 3 album?
could you imagine lil wayne going around calling himself the greatest without a challenge from some other respected emcee.
compare the standards of hip hop music to any generation before and you can tell it has dropped.
the best news i heard all week was that Consequence dissed one of favorite emcees. Pusha T.
because thats what hip hop needs right now. Pusha T should be challenged. He’s making great music. he’s got a real buzz. and now like in the old days someone is challenging him.
HIP HOP.
I highly recommend anyone interest in this read (or at least wiki):
– The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
– The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
To summarize, the internet has changed the game in the following ways:
1) Fewer and fewer artists are blowing up. But the ones that do blow up are more dominant and powerful than ever before (due to network effects)
2) More and more artists are finding niches. They probably won’t dominate album sales any time soon, but they can be successful by appealing to a target audience of fans.
I think the supersaturation issue is just a symptom of #2. There are more relevant artists than ever before because there are more niches than ever before.
To me, that’s a good thing. Without the internet, maybe Danny Brown is an underground rapper from Detroit who nobody outside of the D knows about.
I think Blogs are actually the solution to this “supersaturation problem”. Just like the increase in relevant artists, there is an increase in distribution sources for music.
To me, the purpose of a good blog / review site is to screen out crap that the readers probably aren’t going to enjoy. If none of the potholes reviewers like lil B, then you don’t need to listen to every lil B cut. We probably don’t like him that much either.
So, I see all of this as a good thing. Thank god I don’t have to find my music on the radio.
Truth.
You should have unlimited access, yes. That doesn’t give the artists free reign on putting out bullshit. Nothing is contradicting here between what I am saying and what Craig is saying.
Isn’t that the whole point? Having people demanding more music from you? Who cares if you give it to them, if people are demanding it then you have succeeded in the music industry. Once people stop demanding music, and you force feed them half-assed shit, then you have a problem. That problem, is exactly what Craig is talking about.
This isn’t just a music industry problem to me. This is a cultural problem in general. I quit Facebook precisely because I was tired of rifling through status updates about someone’s brilliant Slurpee cocktail just to find updates from people I actually care about.
That said, you also have to realize half these kids putting out this material don’t have jobs, meaning they have ALL DAY to play around in FruityLoops and then post every mediocre-to-garbage iteration of their songs on the web next to their tweets about being a table. So in that respect, you have to give them credit for their drive, and the fact that they’d rather be producing something than be shiftless.
I didn’t say I favored “short” albums. I want “less long” ones, if being “longer” means “having tracks that aren’t as good as they should be” on it, which it usually does.
Nah. I don’t see how that’s the case at all. The very nature of the machine right now is unprecedented access. That’s the ground we stand on. Within this framework, I’m asking for artists not to keep feeding us their cutting room floor tracks and scraps. It’s not the least bit contradictory to me.
Love these musings from Mr. Jenkins. I’ll return with my thoughts, after this Applebees-induced nausea subsides
For those 5-10 success stories, how many thousand fail stories are there for MCs using the same strategy? The ones who came up didn’t get by because of how much music they released. They got by because they had something worth selling in the first place. Following blindly in their footsteps is not a sensible marketing strategy to me.
PS why do people keep bringing up blogs asking for more Jay Electronica? Their clamoring for more music from him hasn’t led to any type of music being released outta his camp. If anything, that makes him a fantastic example of how blogger/listener demand isn’t complicit in artists deciding to up their output! (Pats self on shoulder)
That would be called “Having your cake and eating it to”. It’s one or the other, you can’t have both. That’s just the way the world works beyond music. There are pluses and negatives to everything.
Also, I disagree with short albums. Not saying every release has to be “74 Minutes of Bump,” but I think most rappers should be able to put together 60 minutes of quality music. If you can’t that speaks poorly to your skills. Yeah Illmatic was immaculate at 40 min., but a lot of short projects I get these days just seem unfinished to me. (Though this may be a result of the fact the CDs *I* grew up on thinking as classics are pretty long for the most part… 400 Degreez was 72 min., DMX’s debut was 65min., etc.)
I’m going to agree w/ Nasa/Adam Warlock, actually. It’s hard to criticize this as a strategy when it’s pretty much the blueprint most of todays biggest mainstream & underground rappers use/used. Lil B, Lil Wayne, Curren$y, Gucci Mane, Jeezy, etc… With the rate that listeners intake music, there’s no such thing as oversaturation, cause people will just move on to the next rapper who *is* putting out a new mixtape for them every couple months. Like he said, it’s a two way street, and listeners themselves oversaturate, which encourages rappers to put out material to stay in your rotation. No one’s saying sacrifice quality, but if you’re looking to build an internet fanbase, these days it helps to feed the beast. Not saying it’s right or how it should be, but I’ve seen it be successful, so…
I will say two exceptions though: Putting out a mixtape within two months of releasing your retail album sort of takes your own knees out. Also, superstars like Jay-Z, Eminem, etc. don’t need to, cause they have the pedigree and namebrand that they could drop tomorrow with no warning and go platinum. Dropping an underground classic like Blu, Jay Electronica or J.Cole did can similarly buy you breathing room, where you don’t have to release singles all the time, but again, I could find hundreds of blog posts angrily yelling about when any of those 3 are gonna release an album.
If he’s saying we have the right to hear everything, I’m saying that there should be less everything for us to have to sort through.
Correction: “I refuse to forget how we used to process music”.
Ok, I’ll first take the bait here and point out that this very site posts dozens of posts perhaps daily and hundreds a week. So that’s a no brainer.
Moving on from that, let’s analyse what’s being said. You have a writer suggesting there is a gross over saturation in music and the owner of the site that he writes for saying that unlimited access to everything ever recorded is a great thing. Well, which is it?
I guess we’ll go the old standard line of “LABELS BAD, PEOPLE GOOD, slams club, walks out of cave”. I refuse to do that. I refuse to remember how we used to process music as fans, you may not be old enough to remember that time, but I won’t let it go.
The old way of doing things when I talk about it has NOTHING to do with money, over priced CDs or ripping off fans. It has to do with people making ADULT decisions on what they choose to hear and what they choose to not hear. That can be based on your wallet, your HD size or just your plain old tastes. But at some point, it’s on YOU to make these decisions. If that decision is made based on an artist putting out too much low quality music, then by all means make that decision and scream from the mountain tops how wack said artist is. Quality control is a TWO WAY STREET. We are in this together as much as most listeners/bloggers/fans want to deny it.
I will also point out that I can find you thousands of blog posts and status updates demanding more music from the artist you mentioned, namely Jay Electronica.
An artist can’t win. Feed the audience like Lil B (over saturation), delay putting out music in pursuit of an album like Jay Electronica (get electronically heckled until the release drops).
When I said “Quality Control” I meant for the listener/consumer, not the artist. The artist should be on top of their game all the time. But as I said to Andrew, anyone putting out a lot of stuff constantly is doing it because there is a demand for it from someone. Whether it’s a small group of supporters or a gaggle of hype enthused devotees. Feeding your fans is the key, and these days they are very hungry.
I just call it music ADD. I hear something and think its good but I probably won’t pay it much mind. If I get myself to listen to a singular project enough times then I can overcome music ADD…but most of the time I’m getting at least a mixtape a day and it all just makes it onto a huge playlist that I have to shuffle.
I remember when I was in grade school I would be able to listen to the same song/album 10+ times in a row, but it’s so rare that I have that experience anymore. And even if I do, I feel the urge to move on to catch up the music I’ve been “missing”.
I partially agree with Craig saying it’s over saturation. But at the same time I have to agree with Nasa/Adam Warlock on a few points.
Illegal downloading isn’t the elephant in the room. It’s the sabretooth tiger with the ferocious claws and appetite for blood that no one has figured out how to kill. If artists decide that feeding the beast 24/7 is the solution to keeping it at bay, that’s a problem to me. Throwing quality control out the window isn’t good for anyone. There’s a number of artists out there who are tossing out whatever, whenever, and their names are tarnished to me. I care less about their music for them not caring what does and doesn’t see the light of day. I’m not saying drop one album a year, I’m saying don’t let the volume of the output come at the expense of how good the music is. I see that line diluting.
If you are blaming this on the consumer, you are just like all the majors that have fucked up the music industry all of these years. It has nothing to do with the discretion of the people. Artists need to put pride in everything they put out, because it goes far beyond just the free music. Show tickets, merchandise, etc. It is completely on the artists/labels for putting out crap product and over saturating the market. Real artists only need to supply their fans with enough music to hold them over. Quality product, free or not, stands alone when it comes to music. Jay Electronica, Big KRIT, etc. These guys live off of the free music they have put out, and they standout because that is exactly what they have done.
So you are telling me that people are wrong in wanting to hear everything? What do you think services like Spotify, iCloud, Rdio, etc promote? You can have EVERYTHING at your fingertips. How you are thinking is backwards. It is a beautiful thing to have every piece of music you could ever imagine.
One last point… If you think that you need to put out more than one album a year to keep relevant, then I think that it is the artists fault, not the consumer. Making 10 people buy 3 albums is the same as having 30 people buy 1 album And let me tell you, it is a hell of a lot easier to make one person buy one 10 dollar album than three.
Put out awesome music and people will recognize.
seriously.
I would tend to agree, but that’s because I don’t really like Lil B’s music, and I would guess that you don’t either. Or at least not to the degree where you want to hear all that dude is offering. But you know what? There are people that do, or he wouldn’t be doing it. Right now someone wants to hear another song from that dude and that’s who that guy is hustling for. I can do nothing but respect that.
Good read Craig. The Jay Electronica example is salient; “You can keep a certain distance and have people remain excited about your next release. It’s not unheard of.”
Even without illegal downloading, there is still way too much music out there from certain artists. MF DOOM hopping on tracks and releasing random vinyl singles and whatnot is different from Lil B or whoever dropping a mixtape’s worth of new material every two months.
Dropping knowledge again. Yung Lil Bullshit, on the way!
Wow, where do I begin to disagree and how many ways can I disagree.
Let’s start with the fact that the blogs themselves are the ones that have created this monster. To the contrary of Craig’s opinion, the ONLY way to advance these days is to constantly be supplying material. Why do I say this? Because all the artists mentioned as being over saturating the market above are some of the artists finding the most success right now? Even before the internet really took shape to what it is today, MF Doom figured this out. His releases, 12 inches and cameos were everywhere and built him to the figure he is today. As a label owner I can tell you, releasing one amazing record a year will not work. It’s about more. And then it’s about more then that too. Why is that? Because the blogs, twitter timelines, facebook pages, etc move really fast. If you say one thing on twitter how many people actually know you exist? If you talk all day, you get followers and people pay attention. This is relatable to releases these days as well. It’s a huge world out there and we are all fighting for attention. The belief that we are going to make one singular album that is so undeniably “classic” that it will stop all this traffic is naive. That will never happen, and any one fool hearty to believe that is in for a rude awakening.
I also think that the “oversaturation of hip hop” is a self fulfilling prophecy, just as “hip hop is dead” was for a decade. Guess what? Hip Hop never died, no matter how many people said hip hop was dead. Hip Hop was dead to those that gave up listening to it and hip hop is over saturated by those that choose to over saturate themselves with it. If something is wack, pay it no mind. Choose your intake wisely. The biggest problem we face is not from rappers making too much music, it’s from listeners that want to HEAR EVERYTHING. You do not have to hear everything ever recorded from every artist in existence. You don’t have to hear everything that even one blog says you should listen to. Use some discretion people.
My last point is the elephant in the room that no one talks about EVER. The fact that most of the people reading this get all their music for free has a huge effect on how “over saturated” they are. If someone gave you an unlimited credit card for music in 1995 you would have been just as over saturated then as you are now. Because right now with all the illegal downloading people do, that’s exactly what they have, an unlimited credit card, and one that doesn’t have to ever get paid back. That’s why people have too much music, because quality control is out the window when everything is free. If there is no threat to your wallet, you will not be wise with your listening habits, you will hear it all and hear too much. If food was free, we’d all be fat right? Exactly.
This column = truth.com
you have described my itunes playlist pefectly! Listen to it once, never listen again. when will artist realize that the constant release of mixtapes is only gonna hurt your retail sales? You drop a free mixtape, an album in itunes, then another free mixtape 2 weeks later why the hell am I gonna spend money on your project? And the fact that they dont realize they are watering down their “brand” for cheap blog buzz is baffling.
I’ve been saying this for years. Nice article!