Rap Music Dying

How does rap move from the #1 selling genre of music in the U.S. to the question mark as to how much longer will it survive.

The music industry is already suffering across the board with dramatic declines in CD sales. Now, rap which has topped the charts for over the past ten years finds that what was once known as it’s swagger all of a sudden appears to resemble more of a limp. “It’s hurting, and hurting bad”.

In it’s search for answers the fam club found that this year rap sales are down 33% from 2006, more than twice the decline over pop, alternative and even country music according to Nielsen SoundScan. Has that much damage been done to a music once the driving, creative and commercial force in not just urban culture, but American culture. Just a few years ago. Five to be exact. Eminem's album The Eminem Show was atop the Billboard chart, later winning awards for best-selling album of the year with over 7.6 million copies sold. Not since has any other rap act achieved even half those numbers in CD sales.
Once guaranteed platinum first week sales for established rap acts such as Jay-Z, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and P Diddy seems to be a thing of the past. The decline at retail can be traced to a number of factors.
Somewhere along the road major labels adopted marketing strategies that placed more emphasis in favor of signing acts for less-lucrative single and short versions of those singles as ring tones. Also, there’s this sub-culture that only exist within the hip hop industry called MIXTAPE DJs that are embraced by those same urban marketing divisions when truth be told these MIXTAPE DJs serve no purpose other than to continue sucking the life out of a once viable revenue source. We won’t stop there because more importantly, we must pay close attention to the signs of music-buying Americans — in a nutshell, “Our Youth”. If rap music is to survive we have to see if for not what it was but what it is. While we would like to remove the Black and White from the equation there is really no way to get around it. That is, if we are truly concerned with the bottom line. It is largely the white audience that make a difference between modest sales of Young Joc’s 68,000 unit in his first week and Kid Rock’s first week sales of 170,000 units.
The question has to be asked. Are they tiring of rappers' emphasis on "gangsta" attitudes, explicit lyrics and tales of street life and conspicuous consumption. Do rappers such as T.I. being arrested on federal gun charges further damage rap music. Are the White youth looking to the internet for the underdogs now-a-days, the artist that the majors have shunned in the past. Music that allows them to enjoy a packed high school or college party filled with both Blacks and Whites and not feeling the discomfort of hearing the N word and looking around the room not sure of anyone being offended. Maybe here is the road to our answer in groups like Soulja Boi and Street Runnaz Click that are discovered on the new social networking sites like myspace, youtube and thefamclub.
There's now a growing debate about whether years of rampant commercialism and thugism is sending mixed messages to the music buyers. Snoop Dogg now endorses Pony sneakers; 50 Cent peddles grape-flavored vitamin water — have drained credibility and creativity out of a once-vibrant genre of music. Rap, also known to the world as hip-hop has reached an evolutionary plateau: Is it the end or simply a new beginning. After more than a quarter-century on the charts, it's no longer the radical newcomer.