The other day on MTV Jams I was watching the ozone awards, and I thought to myself, man they got real artists that sold a lot of records coming out of the south and wouldnt it be dope if we had artists, more than 2 artists, do more than 500,000????? Think how big the BARS awards would have been?
This Year we had Keyshia Cole (Platnium) and E-40 (Gold), that's it. Our biggest independent artist was San Quinn and he only sold 20,000 this year. It's not that the Bay doesnt buy units. E-40 has sold over 64,000 CD's in the Bay alone. So I know CD can sell out here. Look at the Hoodstarz, they sold 1,300 their first week and they had one of the biggest records, "Grown Man."
The Team did around 2,000 units their first week and they had 7 songs on the radio! Bay Area please stand up! Lil Bossie from little ass Baton Rouge sold 40,000 fuckin records his first week. He's independent as well, and he has a wack ass single, "Zoom."
Is it the Radio??? I hear a lot of Bay records on KMEL and 94.9, so me personally I dont think it's on them. I talk to Big Von all the time and he thinks 99% of this shit is trash, but he says that he continues to play Bay records because of his personal relationships with the artists personally.
So people lets strategize. All the new artists and even the old ones we have to come up with non-traditional ways to distribute our albums. Tower went under and there's less than ten mom and pops out here. All we have is Rasputins, not knocking them. There's not even any record stores in Oakland and the one that is there is never open? Oakland is KMEL's main target market and the artist from Oakland get no success from album sales because their are no stores. Beeda Weeda has been getting his song played for the last 2 months on KMEL and his main audience cant even find his CD! I believe that it's going to have to take stores like Sheik and 20/20 fashion to have to start selling CD's in order for us to sell. People we have to get liquor stores and other urban lifestyles to carry our CD's. The tradional distribution of the past is stuck there in "THE PAST." Lets figure out our future.
This Year we had Keyshia Cole (Platnium) and E-40 (Gold), that's it. Our biggest independent artist was San Quinn and he only sold 20,000 this year. It's not that the Bay doesnt buy units. E-40 has sold over 64,000 CD's in the Bay alone. So I know CD can sell out here. Look at the Hoodstarz, they sold 1,300 their first week and they had one of the biggest records, "Grown Man."
The Team did around 2,000 units their first week and they had 7 songs on the radio! Bay Area please stand up! Lil Bossie from little ass Baton Rouge sold 40,000 fuckin records his first week. He's independent as well, and he has a wack ass single, "Zoom."
Is it the Radio??? I hear a lot of Bay records on KMEL and 94.9, so me personally I dont think it's on them. I talk to Big Von all the time and he thinks 99% of this shit is trash, but he says that he continues to play Bay records because of his personal relationships with the artists personally.
So people lets strategize. All the new artists and even the old ones we have to come up with non-traditional ways to distribute our albums. Tower went under and there's less than ten mom and pops out here. All we have is Rasputins, not knocking them. There's not even any record stores in Oakland and the one that is there is never open? Oakland is KMEL's main target market and the artist from Oakland get no success from album sales because their are no stores. Beeda Weeda has been getting his song played for the last 2 months on KMEL and his main audience cant even find his CD! I believe that it's going to have to take stores like Sheik and 20/20 fashion to have to start selling CD's in order for us to sell. People we have to get liquor stores and other urban lifestyles to carry our CD's. The tradional distribution of the past is stuck there in "THE PAST." Lets figure out our future.