Jermaine Dupri is someone who has been around the music industry for many years. Overall, he has lots of experience, and he has the resume to speak freely on the rap game and how the industry operates these days. In fact, Dupri was at the United Masters’ SelectCon conference in Atlanta recently, where he got to speak with Steve Stoute on the state of hip-hop. It was here where he referenced Sexyy Red's album sales and noted that her numbers are indicative of what's plaguing rap right now.
For Dupri, album sales are low right now, yet artists are still being hyped up and pushed to the forefront. “In the era that I came in the music industry, if you sold 28,000 copies, you didn’t get no other chance to walk in the building again," Dupri explained. "N****s was not talking to you if you sold 28,000 records. It’s such a disconnect between people understanding the streaming situation and actually what you looking at. [...] I came from an era where the numbers were 80,000 100, 200, 800, 900. This feels like it’s going backwards to me.”
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Jermaine Dupri And Steve Stoute Debate
During the conversation, Steve Stoute offered a counterpoint. In his eyes, the low album sales are due to the fact that the streaming equivalents don't make a lot of sense. You need 1500 streams to equal one album sale. That means 1.5 million streams is only 1000 albums. This makes it extremely difficult for artists to achieve the numbers that Dupri is talking about. That said, one has to wonder if the equivalent unit measurement will ever be changed. As it stands, some things just don't add up.
Let us know what you think about this take from Jermaine Dupri, in the comments section down below. Do you believe that the industry is hyping up the wrong artists? How do you feel about the way album sales are counted these days especially when it comes to streaming numbers? Additionally, stay tuned to HNHH for the latest news and updates from around the music world. We will continue to keep you informed on all of your favorite artists and their upcoming projects.
