With the commercial success of so many hip-hop acts in the last eight years it got me to thinking whether the term “selling out” in hip-hop even applies nowadays. Q-Tip once said; “rap is not pop, and if you call that then stop“, let’s just say 91′ was a long time ago. Hip-hop has always had rules about selling out; when an artist conforms to the way record labels or managers see them in order to make money through commercial success and generally not the original fan base. EPMD had a song called “crossover” that spoke to this topic; play the first 20 seconds of that video – priceless. If something is commercially successful that’s fine as long as artists isn’t compromising the art form for commerce, i.e. The Score, by The Fugees. As hip-hop gained the height of its popularity in the late 90’s, the industry sought to capitalize on the music and more importantly the lifestyle. Artists began making larger endorsement deals and the music began to get more watered down for radio spins. Not that we haven’t had hip-hop records that became pop hits (ie. “humpty dance”, “summertime” or “rump shaker”) on radio eventually, but the music wasn’t as blatant previously.

Two artists that come to mind when I consider this topic are The Black Eyed Peas and Common. People forget that The Black Eyed Peas started out as a three man group that sounded nothing like the radio darlings they are today. Their early music lent itself more to what the Native Tongues were about. Not that it was conscious like A Tribe called Quest or De La Soul, but they were having fun and somewhat underground or backpacker without completely begging for a radio hit see; “joints & jams”, “request line”. Interscope basically tells them they better start selling records or else. They add Fergie to the group and the music becomes completely bubble gum and corny. I’m not even against good pop music as I listed earlier, but its like day and night when you compare the earlier music to last five years. Commercial sales don’t mean shit to me if the music sucks. I can’t decide which is worse; that as talented as Will.I.Am is, this is the output or that he mentions that the music their making now is reminiscent of early Jungle Brothers – “Girl I’ll House You” or Eric B. & Rakim’s – “Let The Rhythm Hit ‘Em”? Even if the music they were making was influenced by those records thus their interpretation, its corny. If they were making this type of music in the beginning there would be no backlash because we’d label them a pop act – end of story.

Common used to be the poster boy for good lyricism, now he’s just selling something on a damn poster. Ever since Jay Dee passed I can’t even recognize the artist formerly known as Common sense. Is he an actor, an emcee or selling hats and tee shirts? Oh wait, all the above. Since BE dropped, Common’s music has lacked the focus and cohesion of his earlier catalog. It’s not for lack of talent, but how far will one go to acquire a larger fan base? I respect the fact that he’s wants to be an actor, but if your heart isn’t in the music then don’t pursue it just to turn around and create mediocre art. I should’ve known it would get worse after that GAP commercial. He’s recently recorded a song with the Jonas Brothers. I don’t even know where to start with that one. If he hasn’t sold out, then I’m in the twilight zone or something. I assume every artist faces that question; Do I want to get paid or make good music, artist vs. hustler? It’s definitely possible to attain both, but it requires patience and some level of discipline with what one will compromise. I don’t think its easy, but Q-Tip, The Roots and De La Soul all prove that it is still possible to have critical and some commercial success without compromising the art. De La Soul recently did a join venture with Nike; Are You In? making the same music we’re accustomed to.

If you go back to early 94′/95 we had hip-hop commercials with Sprite by Nas & AZ or Pete Rock & CL. Smooth and they still represented the art without being outlandish or contrived. It was still very hip-hop in its authenticity. So I really feel the notion of selling out isn’t the real problem here, but rather the finished product we’re getting. Hip-hop is too commercially viable for artists to turn blind eye to the revenue they could be making. If they’re not exploiting the culture/music I don’t see a problem. However, larger corporations seek to profit on the lifestyle and supposed stereotypes in hip-hop all the time. Whether its a Wendy’s commercial using auto-tune or McDonald’s using a rapper/DJ to appeal to an urban demographic. Rappers have to decide how far they willing sell out for profit because they have a say in the matter. If you allow yourself to be marketed for something that’s a contradiction of your music, you can’t really be mad when your fan base then wonders where your heart is. At the end of the day,  if its done with hip-hop in mind, the finished product should embody that.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Column. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.