Complex published a list of “10 Excuses Rappers Make When Their Album Flops” today (April 30).
It includes Asher Roth’s 2009 proclamation that “My album was undershipped” as one of its excuses. “Asher Roth was unable to make the big splash he was hoping for with his 2009 debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle despite having one of the biggest singles at the time in ‘I Love College,’” the story says. “After the project debuted with only 65,000 copies sold, Roth said it was because of his label’s decision to undership his album.”
Complex says that Kid Cudi, 2 Chainz and Wale have also made the same claim.
Angel Haze’s rationale that “My album leaked” also made Complex’s List. “The irony behind this particular incident with Angel Haze is that she leaked her own album,” the story says of her Dirty Gold project. “The result: Dirty Gold sold just 857 copies in its first week.”
“I made this album for myself” is another excuse rappers use, Complex says, using Eve’s 2013 album, Lip Lock, as an example.
“The album was her first in over a decade, and marked a drastically different sound from the former first lady of Ruff Ryders,” Complex says. “‘I knew the music I put on it and the singles I put out wouldn’t be on the radio,’ she said following its release. ‘I kind of did that on purpose. I wanted to make the music I wanted to make.’ Her core fan base was less than enthused by this musical change, which led to Lip Lock selling less than 9,000 in its first week.”
Complex’s “10 Excuses Rappers Make When Their Album Flops” is as follows:
“My album was under shipped.”
“My album leaked.”
“I made this album for myself.”
“My label failed to properly promote my album.”
“My fans don’t want to hear me grow musically.”
“I don’t measure my success by album sales.”
“My album will gradually sell more over time.”
“My album was only sold by select retailers.”
“My fans aren’t supporting me at SoundScan.”
“I don’t care about record sales.”
RELATED: Eve Assures Fans That Her Album “Lip Lock” Will Be Out Next Year, Plans On Dropping A Single Soon
They must have made this in honor of Future.
This was definitely made for Mobb Deep
i never heard them making excuses but if i was them i would say real niggas dont buy albums, skinny jean wearing swag fags do.
Cause fuck logic…them dudes is indie n these clowns only buy shit for beats n 2 word hooks
Rick Ross=Flop
Eminem will never say any of this shit
True, Jay Z also.
“My fans dont want to hear me grow musically”
My label failed to properly promote my album.
– 50 Cent
actually nelly and soulja boy said those lines
50 said the first one in an interview
Week before his album came out French said he was gonna do 200k First week.
Week after he sells 50k first week he says “I don’t make money off CDs. I do shows. I do other things. So that don’t bother me,” he said. “It don’t concern me because I’ll keep working hard regardless.”
“My album will gradually sell more over time.”
Diggy is a fool for that… he musta been high.
French Montana is such a faggot. When he started the beef with 50 after his interview with, ironically, Complex; he said 50 doesn’t sell anymore (which is true) but he was talking about sales like they are important. Then after 50 talks shit to him, he grows a set of balls and says, “Maybe you should release your album the same week as mine, and we’ll see.” I know 50 Cent fell off, but he can sell more than 56,000 cds in a week. French knew his album wasn’t selling for shit the week it released because that week (before his numbers were released), he gave an interview talking about how he’s doesn’t care about sales. Dude is a joke.
I don’t think it’s going to sell more than 56k, no one is checking for 50. French had hits, 50 has nothing but gossip interviews online. It will do about 15,000 first week, same as nelly.
lloyd banks h.f.m.2 “they under shipped me”
What else is a rapper supposed to say? When you guys make comments like this bashing rappers for no reason. Especially when you didn’t support them. We dont support at all
why bother doing such list when only a select few artists even sell anymore. ever since Itunes became popular sales been taking hits. Its like why pay $18 for album when you can download the single or 2 for $2 or $3. Add piracy too. All genres is suffering gold is the new plat, plat is the diamond, hell didnt they have to lower the gold certification when Hov dropped so he look good. Fuck sales quality OVER quantity.
PRAISE JA RULE
You were kicking all of that knowledge and I was agreeing with you…then you had to troll with ‘JA RULE’ smfh lol
I still aint even sold one copy so I dunno how they do it..I just need some management and I will be aight…Blackghost.ca folks..
The actual project flopped because the aggresivecontent failed to to register with th general public.
Complex failed to mention why a lot of artists who may be selling less are doing better financially and tend to have more staying power.
A better list would be “Top 10 Reasons why artists feel their album DIDN’T flop.” How honest do you think artists would be about that?
the staff at Complex can actually literally find a bunch of men with pimpled covered dicks, put them in a row, and suck their dicks
Pause.
all 50 cent excuses lol
all Rick Ross excuses
My fans dont want to hear me grow musically. 50 cent said that one in an interview around after his 5th album, though also it was true what he said, no one wanted fif to change
nelly said that bitch read the article
I dont measure my success by album sales. & “I dont care about record sales” is essentially the same thing.
One thing this list needs is “Sample clearance kept me from outting the best songs on here”
So you need to sell in the hundred thousands otherwise you’re essentially a failure and your album flops? I guess I agree if you’re an artist in a big ass label and they play your hits on constant rotation on the radio or television and you end up selling 800 copies. But, if EVERY artist without the backing of a huge conglomerate that sells just 9,000 copies or less of an album is considered a failure basically than there isn’t enough space in here for me to list all the Hip-Hop albums that have flopped over the years.
This article was made about 50 Cent. I can’t wait for him to drop to hear the excuses.
Shut up u gay ass latino
30 million sold and this about 50? get his cock out of your mouth
Angel Haze is real talk she wasn’t going to be owned on paper for paper.
“The result: Dirty Gold sold just 857 copies in its first week.”
I’m speechless.
thats rough. she can actually rap too, better than some of the others on the flop list like kreayshawn and soulja boy.
Me too, it puts the term “awful” to the whole another level.
what a poorly written article….
I just want my music heard thats all, im not looking for no record deal, getting famous ‘r anything like that.! so please just spare a few sec. to check me out, & if you like what you heard please SUBSCRIBE so ill know you actually listen & support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaSNK0pm4eY
Too bad for you I was gonna give you a deal on new imprint under Maybach Music Group but since you said you’re not looking for one… Good luck with your life.
asher roth’s 65,000 first week flop in 2009. 5 years later 90% of rappers would fuckin kill to do 65k first week. But hip hop is fucked up these days so much trash music sells while the 3 best albums so far wont even sell 100 thousand between them
Freddie Gibbs – Pinata
Pharoah Monch – PTSD
Styles P – Phantom and the Ghost
Freddie Gibbs goes independent. He still got more money for Pinata than for example YG for his album.
So what have been the biggest flops the last couple years im saying
French Montana
MGK
Iggy Azelea
Ace Hood
Fuck-Boy Khaled
Kreayshawn
Lil B
Future
Rich Gang
Young Money
Chief Keef 49k
TRIPLE C ALBUM 12K IN A WEEK ROSS THOUGHT HE WAS G-UNIT
sometimes those excuses are true…”I don’t measure my success by record sales”…Joe Budden had a gold album with 2 big singles “Fire” and “Pump it up” in 2003…do people really think he couldn’t have followed that up with something big?…he internally chose he didn’t want it to sell…something is only a “excuse” when the person isn’t capable…sometimes people don’t want more money, more sales, more fame, because it doesn’t benefit their vision
this is a person well-learnt about muzik
HipHopDX loves anything related to album sales. However this is an interesting article because all these albums seemed to be commercially viable and instead of just saying “we didn’t reach the masses like we thought” there’s a list of excuses. However I still firmly believe quality > quantity
Some of that points are really bullshit excuses, at the same time some points on that list are valid explanations though…
TRIPLE C ALBUM BIGGEST FLOP OF ALL TIME 12K IN A WEEK AND THIS IS WHEN ROSS WAS ON FIRE THOUGHT HE HAD A CREW LIKE G-UNIT BWAHAHA
Now Gunplay is 35 years old without a release date for his first solo rap album after holding rick ross french fries for over 10 years.
MEEK MILL IS BLAMING THE POLICE AND HIS CITY FOR HIS POOR SALES! HE’S EVEN SUING THEM SAYING HIS ARREST CAUSED A LOSS OF SALES!!
HAH! GET REAL. THAT WAS THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO YOUR NO BUZZ HAVIN AZZ.
most of those things are true though, and why first day album sales is a bunch of shit.
a flop can only really be determined after an extended period of time like 20 years. Illmatic was a flop.
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The point of this article? To promote album sales over quality music. Its a known fact that quality doesn’t always translate to high quantity sales.
NICKI MINAJ HAS SAID ALL THOSE WITH HER LAST ALBUM…LOL THEN THEY RELEASE SOME RELOADED BULLSHIT.
Kendrick Lamar’s excuse for only selling 1.3 million:
My ears were flapping so much it distracted me and fucked up my bars.