After a year full of tepid commercial releases for Hip Hop, a new year-end report from Nielsen Music confirms that Rap album sales fell deeply in 2014 and suffered at nearly double the rate of the rest of the music industry.
According to Billboard’s reporting of Nielsen Music’s annual wrap-up, Hip Hop albums sold 24.1% less last year than in 2013 with CD sales specifically falling 29.6% over the same time period.
By contrast, digital sales fell 21.8% genre-wide. R&B sales fell even more sharply as the breakdown of “total/CD/digital percent declines were 25.1/29.0/19.6,” according to the same report.
On the other hand, Hip Hop and R&B both spiked on streaming platforms with the genres contributing noticeably to an industry-wide 54 percent increase in streaming from the year before.
Album sales for all genres fell 11.2 percent to a collective 257 million units, while vinyl sales specifically were up 51.8 percent, despite only representing a 3.6 percent share of total album sales.
The latest annual report comes just weeks after J. Cole delivered the year’s best first-week sales numbers of 2014.
Last month, 2014 Forrest Hills Drive sold just over 350,000 albums in its first week. Nicki Minaj followed suit shortly after, with the year’s second biggest first-week sales at just under 200,000 units.
Once you give the fans quality and substance, they will cop…
That’s what I’m hoping. All the great albums that have come out over the years have had little to no exposure and all the garbage is out there.
If Lil Wayne’s Carter V flops, we may begin to see a big change occurring. Crossing my fingers.
Rap albums aint sellin because everybody is tired of the bs with the lyrics! How many times can we hear of selling coke for $36k
per kilo! Please stop !
On the other hand, my potna told me about this BANGIN ASS ALBUM
that just came out called “INNER CITY DREAMS”.
My potna told me its a album from Chicago and COMPTON artists
and then when i got it on itunes … I CANNOT STOP BANGIN IT!
EVERY CUT IS HARD!!!
GET THAT FUCKIN JOINT ! THAT SHIT IS TIGHT !
They got this song called “BULLETS GOT NO NAME” ! HARD !
I’m hoping that’s what it is. But in order for this to be confirmed as the reason, Lil Wayne MUST flop whenever Carter V is released, if it is.
But if you are right, then this signifies a change in the fan base and that’s gonna force the higher ups of these record labels to promote real MCs/artists, and we’ll see the beginning of the end of clowns like Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan, Chief Keef, and all the rest of those clowns that ruined the art form.
Nipsey Hussle already did something with the name “bullets got no name”… not original potna
I’m responding to WARDOG: YOU ARE ON POINT MY NIGGUH!!!
I just cop “INNER CITY DREAMS” yesterday after my peeps told
me about it!
That shit is HARD !
The intro where this dude is speaking is even hard!
The “LYRICS” to the songs are COLD!
NO BULLSHIT ABOUT SELLIN KEYS! JUST STRAIGHT REALISM BRO !
I CANT STOP PLAYIN THAT SHIT!!!
Good! Now maybe all these wack so called rappers will stop making horrible music. The genre of hip-hop has long been dead. What you are hearing today is Pop-Rap or some other form of music the powers to be just havn’t found a new name for as of yet.
This is one sick album. Sad that it’s not catching pub, because the messages on this album are desperately needed within the black community.
I’m referring to “Inner City Dreams” below. Sick album.
I have NO problem with this. Not because wack rappers aren’t getting paid (although that is part of it), but because Hip Hop was peaking when it was more exclusive. There was something for everybody. And biting was forbidden.
Kinda like having a few friends over to the crib, you kick back and have a great time. Versus having the whole neighborhood over, you might have fun for a minute but after it’s all said and done, your crib gets FUCKED UP. That’s where Hip Hop is.
Great analogy!
spoken like a true timewasting loser. you would never find a businessman thinking those perverted analogies. go back to partying and drinking you stunted child.
Swallow yourself you emotional, bitch made sucker.
Lol!!! Hip Hop is alive and Good. Next year when Nas Kendrick Lupe Kanye Jay-Z Drake drop the sales are gonna go crazy lol. Don’t believe the hype. WE EEN GOIN NOWHERE!!!
if you think those guys dropping is gonna account for about 75m lost units sold, LOL @ you! the REAL TRUTH is, the FANS are NOT BUYING, no matter WHO. STREAMS are up, that’s FREE USAGE. JOBS will be lost (in stores AND at labels, INCLUDING ARTISTS), the music will be even MORE DILUTED to crossover in other markets, the small guy rapper has basically NO CHANCE, labels will be swarming the WEBSITES to promote THEIR artists with embedded streams and even MORE articles! the LEMMING FANS will follow what’s heavy press, NOT what they FOUND. but YOU think everything’s fine? LOOOOOOOOLLLLLLL
Nas – 60-80k – no hype so far
Kendrick Lamar – 230-270k – songs not as big as with GKMC so far, sounds very different
Lupe Fiasco – 30-50k – no hype, singles not charting
Kanye West – 200-250k – if he continues to release non commercial music, which he probably will
Jay-Z – 350-450k – he will release some mainstream records as usual, was featured on quite some bigger songs
Drake – 500-550k – he’s still constantly all over the charts – since 2009
but all other albums announced so far won’t do 100k, Ludacris will barely reach 50k, kid ink not even worth mentionning despite him being a commercial rapper. Tech N9ne maybe 40k.
Ya I guess about ballpark but I think kendrick will do about 400-500k
Kendrick has no buzz. He will do what you predicted for Nas. Nas will always do over 100k first week.
^ No buzz? LOL get off the bath salts. K-Dot has plenty of buzz. If J Cole can sell 368K 1st week, then he will do 500K 1st week.
do a story about how 2014 was the biggest year for vinyl record sales in decades!
I literally want to buy albums. Like I am begging for someone to put out album that is worth me purchasing. It is strange how bad rap has become. Production/ song making sucks now. Outside of Kanye/Drakes new album, I don’t know what else I’m going to buy. Asap Rocky maybe..
There are a lot of albums worth purchasing. You invalidated yourself as soon as you said “song making” combined with the insinuation that there’s nothing worthy of a purchase outside of Kanye or Drake. Don’t look too fast but you are part of the problem.
lol @ drake and kanye being the only thing to look forward to musically
@jerry- im the same way i purchase music worth buyong and lately ove been finding myself buying alot of nonrap compares to rap. Last 2 albums i bought were gkmc and logics debut and wutangs better tomm. Even tho wutangs wasnt 36 i thought it was great 2015 album.
That said seems like rappers r ok w working on a song for 20 mins and layong it down then saying ok good album time. U can tell it esp showed in jayz mchg.
Ppl like em and kanye who respect the art of a song are why their legends
Nigga Jerry apologizing like he accounts for all hip-hop albums being sold and that if you cater to his tastes then you’ll go platinum
dx don’t want that REAL truth to come out so they “losing” comments. anyway, if you think all will be well if 5 rappers drop, rappers change the content, and not even mention the fans, the business mentality of investment, or even see the true decline of this industry, then you need mental help. the decline is almost 10 years strong with a supposed whole brand new demographic and is doing much, much worse than it was in it’s inception with a limited core base. pay attention, the labels are dusting off the old rap publishing and remaking radio stations………..
Hey, but let’s keep blaming the internet instead of the bad music we’re putting out.
Still Pop stands strong, because they have a market of more than 200 million to market to, so that’s why people like Iggy Azalea now call themselves Rap-Pop/Pop-Rap, not because they are scared of anybody but they know Pop is where the mass audience and money is today, soon you will see many more Hip-Hop artists calling their music Rap-Pop/Pop-Rap to go after the 218 million white audience, they want a piece of Taylor Swift audience.
capitalism is dead
If the labels were smart they would fire the A&r’s and start over.I blame it on the lazy ass A&R’s combing Youtube for the one hit wonders.Instead of signing artist they truly believe are dope and add to the culture, Why Aint the A&R’s in the hood , why aint they on Campuses , Where’s the contest and the way for real emcees to get discovered besides going viral. These labels destroyed the game being late on the Digital movement and now being lazy trying to take the easy way out. Lay off Youtube viral hits and look for artist with great music that have potential to be the next 2pac Nas Biggie .Instead of the next one hit wonder with no real emcee skills…. DEAD the jingle rappers
Amen….Some of the truest words ever spoke.
Great points
If they were smart they would give up a dying industry & go start a garden in their community. They would analyze themselves & the affect their actions have on the world & organize with the people out here working for a clean & peaceful future. Everyone who isn’t lost knows capitalism is dead. Anyone who holds on to it is scared & attached to material. Materialistic & individualistic when humans are an interdependent species which only thrives when working together as a force. All money is dirty blood money. Children are murdered everyday so you can sit comfortably & watch TV & even voice your primitive, psychotic opinions on internet comment sections. Hip hop is not a game, it is the movement of the people. It is the voice of the people. Hip hop is bigger than capitalism. Hip hop is bigger than the government. Long live hip hop.
hip hop needs 2000s eminem back because only he can kick ass of all other music genres.
Truth is, rap fans feel more entitled to steal. The genre, when it was peaking commercially, thrived on content that glorified criminality. The audience is now responding with criminality of their own and stealing from them without giving it a second thought. It’s kind of poetic when you think about it. Cam’Ron said in an interview recently that “Kids look at you like a square when you buy albums, it’s not cool to buy music anymore” and in rap he’s 100% on the money
How can data be stolen? Really? Resources for all to share are stolen from the earth & given a price tag. Capitalism & ownership are thievery of the earth & the people.
Well said.
Hip hop is trash right now, has nothing to do with stealing, most of the music is wack.
There is no way you have listened to even 1% of the hip hop released in 2014 all over the world. Your opinion is wack.
Maybe if MCs stopped bickering on Twitter and went back to releasing quality music then this wouldn’t be the case. It’s no coincidence that Hip Hop sales were much better in 1998 and that the music was of a higher standard. All the pop crossovers, ringtone beats, autotune and corny dances are great gimmicks for making a quick buck but ultimately it damages the overall quality of the music. There is still great material to be found but there was a time when you could go platinum and still put out a great CD.