[QUOTE="Apocalypse33"][QUOTE="IsThisIt_basic"][QUOTE="hittin"][QUOTE="Toriko42"] How did he get a record deal
He's not a good singer, he's not good at what he does...I mean seriously.
IsThisIt_basic
so y did someone with mroe knowledge about music than all of us put together in here (the guys that gave him a record deal) sign him....
hmmmmmmmmm
I wouldn't exactly say record execs are more knowledgable about music than us (or, at least, some of us) ...
Anyways, Cudi's album has some of the best production of any major label release this year; a shame it's wasted on such terrible rapping.
they know what sells better than usThat was kind of my point - look at how rap albums are selling these days - I don't think they do.
They don't know good music and they certainly don't seem to have an idea what sells. Certainly there's a point to be made that sales are down for all genres, but I don't think the reason they're down so much more for rap is that people suddenly stopped caring about the genre or anything. Execs just really suck at picking music people care about (look at 50 Cent trying to push albums with a single like "Baby By Me" for evidence).
And now more than ever is when the industry needs some good A&R's, because it's obvious that the industry realizes they need to develop new artists. The industry has spinned its wheels the past few years determining if it could stay afloat on established names alone, but it's obvious after this year that less than a half dozen (Jay, Eminem ... um, maybe Dre if he dropped something?) established artists really sell anymore. However, the efforts so far to develop new talent leave more questions than answers - namely, do these execs have any idea what they're doing? People like Asher Roth had tons of money put into promoting them, and utlimately, it's hard to say they made a big enough impact to even warrant a second major label album (honestly, I had to google the guy just to remember his name; he's that irrelevant already).
Yes, I got off on a bit of a rant here, but I suppose it all comes full circle when you take into account that this is a thread about Kid Cudi. He probably made one of the bigger dents of this year's new artists, but, by the same token, take into account the reaction his album drew. I'd say at least 50% of the feedback has been negative, and those people probably won't be coming back to buy his second album.
For the past few years, Koch has really been the label all the majors need to model themselves after. Most majors seem to be following this model:
TONS of promotion + mediocore (or worse) album = artist nobody is going to remember
whereas Koch's model has been more like:
Minimal promotion (often just word of mouth) + quality albums = an artist people will be loyal to
In an age where millions of dollars of promotion isn't going to bring you that much revenue anyways, promotion just seems like a waste. If you look at Koch's releases, debut albums like DJ Khaled's "Listennn" and Boss Hogg Outlawz "Serve and Collect" recieved pretty much no promotion, but were excellent albums, and the first week sales for their sequels were strong because pretty much everyone that bought their first albums was there to buy the follow-up.
Hmm ... people like to buy good music ... who would have known?
really? i gotta disagree with that. that 50 percent that your talking about is probably all hip-hop heads that were disappointed because it was kind of on a different level musically. generally speaking, all the reviews that i saw and people that i talked to (NOT in hip hop forums) really liked the album. its kinda like gnarls barkley...the odd couple was one of the best reviewed albums of the year when you're looking at it as just music...but if you visited hip-hop sites all day you probably got a totally different perspective of it because theres a lot of hip-hop heads that will hate on something that isn't "hip-hop enough". i'm not saying you're like this lol...but i just thought kid cudi's album was generally well recieved, and a lot less than 50% of the people who heard it hated it 
Log in to comment