H I P H O P M AT T E R S

America declared, �śRap was the biggest story of the year in the music industry.” Though the genre’s journey toward the mainstream began

as far back as the middle 1980s, its most important and impressive

gains came in the late nineties. In particular, 1998 proved to be a

great year in hip hop. It was the year that rap music’s ongoing flir-

tation with the mainstream became real and undeniable for the

players that really matter, the executives who run the major music

groups. That year rap’s certified numbers�"units sold, multiplat-

inum status, and chart-topping performances�"confirmed that the

genre, long considered a cultural force, had become a major eco-

nomic force, too.

Over the course of 1998 a total of eighteen albums occupied the

top spot on the Billboard 200 list. Three of the albums belonged to sets by Garth Brooks. Two Celine Dion vehicles, a solo album and the

monster soundtrack from Titanic that owed much of its success to the Canadian-born singer, also topped the charts. Six diĆłerent rap

artists�"DMX, Master P, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill, and

Jay-Z�"climbed to number one on the Billboard 200 that year. Insiders at Billboard referred to the top 200 chart as �śthe big chart.”

Among music industry insiders �śthe big chart” represents the most

important and influential gauge of popular music tastes.

The first real sign that rap would have a breakout year occurred

the last week in May. That week Garth Brooks saw his two-week run

atop the Billboard 200 come to an end. Brooks was knocked oĆł the top spot by a little known rapper from the New York suburbs,

Yonkers, named DMX (Earl Simmons). Two weeks earlier Brooks’s

six-CD boxed set titled �śThe Limited Series” became only the second

multi-CD set to debut in the number one spot. The man one New

York Times reporter called �śthe Real King of Pop” had spent more time at number one on the big chart, forty-four weeks, than any

other artist in the decade. His success bolstered Nashville’s claim as America’s music. But times were changing. That week DMX’s debut

album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (Def Jam/Mercury) sold more units

62







Wyszukiwarka

Podobne podstrony:
00070 274c89465f6c32ef3e1163dc6 Nieznany
00070 31b7211df7dfe44cc66e8bcdb Nieznany (2)
UMOWA SPOLKI Nieznany
00110 9942b2b7d9e35565ed35e862c Nieznany
CISAX01GBD id 2064757 Nieznany
SGH 2200 id 2230801 Nieznany
insurekcja kosciuszkowska (2) Nieznany
Zakochani Nieznany

więcej podobnych podstron