Violence, demeaning lyrics give industry negative image -The hip-hop and rap industries are losing fans and sales. Sales dropped 20 percent nationwide from 2005 to 2006By Mark Dent
Kansa.com
Television has taken on an MTV, BET image the last few weeks. Rapper Cam’ron told everyone to stop snitching on “60 Minutes.” Common said all women were princesses on “Oprah.” Snoop Dogg’s explanation of how rapper’s usage of words differs from Don Imus’ played on several network news programs.
Their goal: to restore hip-hop’s image in the wake of recent criticism stemming from Don Imus’ now infamous words about the Rutgers women’s basketball team.
But they may be too late.
Long before Imus uttered his “nappy-headed ho” comment, rap, the music part of hip-hop culture, was in a downward spiral. After about 30 years of growth, rap sales nationwide decreased 21 percent from 2005 to 2006. Sales of other kinds of music in the same time frame only went down 6 percent. Those numbers, from the Recording Industry Association of America, include compact disc and digital sales.
Lawrence rap, which is usually grouped together with Kansas City as one scene because of the cities’ close proximity and large number of venues in Lawrence, has also been affected. Sales have plummeted about 70 percent at one Lawrence music store since 2005 and crowds have decreased where rap artists play.
“The last few years have been terrible for rap,” said Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur, co-founder and CEO of AllHipHop.com, a leading rap Web site. See: http://www.kansan.com/stories/2007/may/10/rap/?news
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