The very first post I did for HHNLive.com was entitled “Rappin’ Isn’t For Everyone” but I’m starting to think that rapping shouldn’t be for anyone these days. I thought last year was the worst year in hip-hop ever but 2007 is looking more like the coup de grace. After Kanye and Curtis debuted with ridiculous numbers last week, I thought there was still hope that the music industry as we know it wasn’t headed down the toilet. But after Yeezy and Fiddy’s album sales dropped nearly 80% this week, I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that the music industry is a fucking wrap. Probably more notable in this week’s numbers are the first numbers of H-Town emcee, Chamillionaire, and Chi-Town veteran, Twista. Cham’s sophomore solo album debut at No. 8, with something like 78,000 albums sold, while Twista’s seventh album debuted at No. 10, tallying somewhere around 40,000 copies sold.

For artists like the Shop Boyz or Yung Berg, these kinds of numbers are acceptable because no one was anticipating their albums, no matter how many spins their awesomely bad singles got. But for two artists that have had platinum success like Koppa and Tung Twista, this isn’t a good sign. Granted, Twista’s single with Pharrell was kinda wack and that song Cham did with Slick Rick didn’t really catch on but damn, both of their albums are worth $9.99 or whatever albums cost during the first week nowadays. But I guess no one got those memos (marketing???).

I’ve heard people say, “Album sales don’t really matter anymore. It’s all about ringtone sales.” This has driven record labels to sign artists to single deals based on bullshit jingles and force quality artists to make wack tracks, aimed at driving up ringtones sales. But when people start realizing they can find ringtone songs on the internet for free just as easily as albums, you can put an end to that shit. The truth of the matter is the game’s fucked up and I’d advise anyone that’s in the music business to bail out now before the entire industry goes bell up. I’ve been writing about hip-hop for the past 5 years but I’m thinking it’s time to make a switch to sports writing or something that still makes money and people still give a shit about. Sports writers have it good anyways. They get televisions shows on ESPN and commentator jobs on Monday Night Football. Hip-hop writers on the other hand, get free CDs and “My Album’s Coming Soon” t-shirts (Man, WTF!?!?!).

All you rappers out there that think people really care about your careers, albums, or singles, they might, they’re just not willing to pay for it. So the hell with rap. Just sling rocks or practice on wicked jump shots. You’d probably have a better chance of making it in professional sports than making it as a platinum rapper. Think about it. Every year, the NFL, NBA and MLB have major league drafts, and the first rounds of each draft alone make 30 plus individuals instant multi-millionaires in each sport. Hello? How many new rappers go multi-platinum every year? One. Two. Three, maybe.

And there are no benefits (groupies don’t count), no pensions, no 401ks in this rap shit. Hell, the last time I heard about rap pioneer Melle Mel, he was trying to become a professional wrestler, just to make a buck (and at 50 or 60, or however old Mel is, that’s not the brightest idea). Don’t get me wrong, I still love hip-hop, the culture and the hand full of artists that still make great music. But with the negative attention the attack on hip-hop is bringing to a culture that’s already been selling like lambskin condoms, some changes need to be made soon. Or we’ll all be sitting around trying to figure out what brown can do for you? Well, not me. I’ll probably just take my drink and my two step over to ESPN.com.

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