When I was coming up and rappers threw jabs at each other, as fans we debated the pen. Not sales, not charts, not tix stubs, just the pen. Kids these days justify their faves off of what numbers they did. One of the worst things to happen to the game was fans knowing the numbers
In '94 I had no idea that Illmatic "bombed" commercially. I just knew it was the greatest ever, and 30 years later it still is. I wasn't privy to the numbers. Same for Liquid Swords, Reasonable Doubt, and everything else I loved as a teen. The numbers were for the execs 🤷🏽♂️
@skyzoo @hiphopgods Great Art is a skimming rock over the waves of TIME …
@skyzoo It went gold at the time right… is that a flop?
@skyzoo I remember reading about how Leaders of the New School first album was not commercially successful and I was shocked, I loved that album lol
@skyzoo In the late 90s I worked at an indie record store and our top 10 lists rarely if ever included top selling records. Sales mean nothing when it comes to talent.
@skyzoo I KNEW it "flopped" commercially, but it didn't matter. Back then, sales were not the barometer...it was QoQ - Quality Over Quantity.
@skyzoo Everybody's an expert and critic nowadays, with no credentials or knowledge for a critique When someone says "Well it didn't sell Units" you discredit yaself and it's a shutdown of the conversation for me History Matters and if you don't know it or disregard it, it's a disservice