Is 708,000 a disappointment?<\/p>\n
I’ll posit it is.<\/p>\n
If you’re all over radio and TV, if this is all you can sell, then either you’re a has-been or it’s just about impossible to gain the country’s attention.<\/p>\n
Then again, is it evidence of the decline of rap?<\/p>\n
OF COURSE this is a good number.\u00c2\u00a0 But it is the fourth quarter, the album did go on sale over the holiday weekend, and Jay-Z is considered to be one of the greatest living rappers.<\/p>\n
Let’s change the equation.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s say this was a movie.\u00c2\u00a0 What we’d have here is a ten million dollar opening weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not like the picture only opened in a few theatres and is gonna break wide, this is it, the whole enchilada has been blown, it’s not like there can be MORE publicity, or it will be available in MORE stores.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, it’s downhill from here.\u00c2\u00a0 After Xmas is this record TOAST?<\/p>\n
Not if you’ve got hit singles you say.<\/p>\n
But will radio PLAY?\u00c2\u00a0 Radio might say Jay-Z is too old.\u00c2\u00a0 Might say the bloom is off hip-hop, they’re going in a new direction.\u00c2\u00a0 They might say the first single was NOT BIG ENOUGH!<\/p>\n
That’s the word on the street.\u00c2\u00a0 The Jay-Z track just isn’t a hit.<\/p>\n
This wouldn’t matter in the old days.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not the seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 You sell on the strength of your so-called brand, your credibility.<\/p>\n
But then came MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 And then, when MTV just about stopped playing videos, it was SOLELY about radio.\u00c2\u00a0 And to sell tonnage, you needed Top Forty play.\u00c2\u00a0 And Top Forty would only stick with what reacted.\u00c2\u00a0 Is Jay-Z reacting?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, it appears it isn’t.\u00c2\u00a0 The track slipped from number 8 to 13.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s going in the WRONG direction.\u00c2\u00a0 And you live and die on the strength of your singles.\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that nobody told Jay-Z his track JUST WASN’T STRONG ENOUGH??<\/p>\n
And it’s not like you can break out a new single before Xmas and frozen playlists.\u00c2\u00a0 And, although Beyonce’s album recovered from less than stellar singles, she’s still hot, she’s still today, whereas Jay-Z is a HAS-BEEN?<\/p>\n
Could it be that Jay-Z is no different from the classic rock acts?\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that NOBODY is interested in his new material?\u00c2\u00a0 That he’s just not FRESH?<\/p>\n
I don’t think so.\u00c2\u00a0 It just hasn’t been that long.\u00c2\u00a0 But, another album after this one??\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that like Michael Jordan, after being done with the Bulls, Jay-Z should have STAYED RETIRED?<\/p>\n
It’s a sad sad state of affairs in the music business today.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about winners and losers.\u00c2\u00a0 The middle ground?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, look at the movie business, there IS no middle ground.<\/p>\n
How did it get this way?<\/p>\n
Greed.\u00c2\u00a0 Shooting for the top, for riches, the middle was abandoned.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody wants doubles when you can possibly have grand slams, when your corporate bosses are pestering you to meet expectations.<\/p>\n
But no one will admit the problems.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll see stories in the press how Jay-Z is BACK!<\/p>\n
But the Game is sliding down the chart, only selling 138,000 discs this week.\u00c2\u00a0 Almost nobody goes UP the chart, they just slide down.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about now, it’s about what have you done for me lately.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about Hollywood, Tinseltown, whereas music blew up because it had soul.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say the soul is gone, but it sure looks like it’s in the witness protection program.<\/p>\n
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