let's play a game

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jermaine-dupri/a-good-album-is-more-than_b_73413.html
called "watch jermaine dupri's life fall apart in his huffington post blog." It's good fun. He has a point initially - Apple does take a far larger chunk of the profits than the artists do. BUT as good as Jay-Z's American Gangster was, it was a corporate album full of "eh" stuff. It was a big cross-marketed clusterf***. I respect an artist's desire to keep their work intact. But I don't for a second really see a larger work in Jay-Z's music - he's a man whose built his career off of some of the best singles ever made. There's nothing wrong with that. There just hasn't been a Jay-Z album released without some bum tracks - either singles gone wrong, or awful skits, or just songs to connect the singles together.

Then JD compares Jigga's album to an Andy Warhol painting, making one of the most emotionally unstable comparisons I've ever read. And the fact that JD is terrified that "the consumer" is going to figure out what's going on - can't give the consumer too much freedom or else we'll go postal on the music industry. Well, thing is, if you make fucking great albums, then people will buy them. Anyone who buys a song off of Jay-Z's Vol. 2 .... Hard Knock Life probably ends up buying the whole thing. Anyone who bought "D.A.N.C.E." has a good chance of buying Cross because guess what? A hit single is only better than the rest of the album if you're just trying to sell records. JD, it worked with Kriss Kross because they SUCKED. They needed a hit single or else that album was gonna sell a big donut. That's not a business model to emulate. Hip-hop's marketing power is still tied up in the big single. If the album doesn't have a big single, then why market it? Ghostface Killah's Fishscale, J Dilla's Donuts, The Roots Game Theory. Three great albums that came out last year, not one sold as much as it should have because they had no Ne-Yo/Lil' Wayne cross-overs, no hit singles. The entire album was pure hip-hop magic, but no Top 40 smash, no dice. So these albums didn't get promoted, didn't get hyped, and the best album of The Roots' career is now sitting in Target collecting dust. Donuts is a difficult but life changing album, and I'm the only one I know who owns the damn thing. That's not because it sucks, it's because Radiohead farts in a corner and the world pays attention, whereas corporate music structures think their brand is worth more than their artists.

You want to give the power to the consumers. Because then, if you really make some great shit, they'll buy it. There's nothing wrong with folks buying Mariah Carey - it doesn't keep the artistic shit from bubbling to the top (I think everyone who posts on this blog owns, in some respect, The Emancipation of Mimi, but have a mix of it with Miles Davis' On the Corner, Bendi listens to it along with Radiohead and indie rock and soul coughing, and Alesia observes and savors Timbaland beats like Dawkins adores himself). This industry just needs to grow a pair and a brain. Yeah, tell apple you want more money for your music - apple should be a third party, not a second party - but spend more of your focus on actually promoting your artists, coming up with creative business and advertising solutions, and actually making good music? Because a number 1 album doesn't translate into a vital industry - kriss kross sold millions? Nsync sold 3 million their first weekend? The God emcee only sold 425,000? That's an empty number one. Freaking Incubus went to number one and they only sold 125,000. Why should a new artist sign to Def Jam. Because if the big labels don't start doing their freakin' job, then they're gonna become obsolete - did you know artists can sell their music direct through itunes without a record label? True story - which will be good and bad, because it's way easier to sell records when you've got financial backing for promotion and touring. Radiohead doesn't need any of that, but the next Radiohead does. And maybe make some good music too, while you're doing your job again.

Oh, and JD - don't know if you got the memo - but "Fallin'" is one of the worst songs on American Gangster. So maybe you should take your own advice and go learn something from the greatest producer on that album - Puffy.