bigted

So who wants to post over at "Lorettaville"? Everytime I try to drop knowledge there they always don't understand me, I guess paragraphs are like foreign language to them... :stars: btw I wish I had money for this, I'm kinda low on cash these days.... Remember whoever gets this should post a review on that page, maybe Kel Spencer'll see it, we should all put that we wanna see him and Will do a freestyle track together too...

LL Cool J'll outsell G Unit by himself next year, "Mama said knock 50 out"! :pony: :willvspaparazzi: ....

"He's The DJ..." is the greatest album period, "Lost and Found", "Willenium", and "Code Red" are the closest to that....

Kel could've been platinum by now if Will released "Uhhhh" as a single, I don't understand why he didn't have a guest appearance on "Lost and Found" if he helped Will write a few tracks? Will has a lot of friends in the rap industry too, you figure he'd be able to hook Kel up with a guest appearance on an LL Cool J, Nas, Public Enemy, or Jay-Z album... Hopefully when JJFP go on tour they bring Kel Spencer wit them, this mc needs to get more exposure than what he's been getting, the one or two songs I heard from him shows that he could outspit all those 106 & Park rappers.... btw, He's been on about 100 of underground mixtapes on the NY circuit according to his bio, he should sell them on his site if he were smart, he needs somebody like Tim to help him update his site, lol...

Yeah 2002 was a s*** year period, "Born To Reign" was far from the worst album, yes there's nobody out there with a perfect discography, every great recording artist has dropped a weak album, but if they're great they always come back strong and that's what Will did here.... Now I don't get how y'all could say that the beats on "Lost and Found" sounded the same? I don't forget how we'd all say how great production it was when we thought Jazzy Jeff did it, you have to be music on what it sounds like not always who does it! I mean the weakest beat on the album was probably done by Jazzy Jeff like y'all stated there, I think Freshmen held their own on producing some solid tracks, much better than all that commercial production out there now, we'd like another "Willenium" production but that might cost too much money, that album had at least 100 samples on it, it's harder to make those type of albums these days unless your name is Kanye West even though his production sounds more towards Trackmasters than Jazzy Jeff... Will had a bigger budget to do that when his previous album sold 10 million....Think of this way though acting has kept money in his pocket where he'll always be able to afford to release an album to the public, a lot of rappers his age can't say that, you know who, lol.... The one thing that'd really get Will more street credability is if he put money out to establish his Overbrook label and sign all these dope mcs the same way Dr. Dre signed wack mcs to lose credability so I think Overbrook could put Aftermath out of buisiness and put an end to these studio gangstas, people'll calling Will the pope of rap, lol...

Hey I actually listen to that album once every few months or so, it's not that bad of an album y'all make it out to be, I mean the 1st track alone is better than what 50 Cent has done since he got popular, Will just went too left field on it, he needs to stick to the formula of making aggressive tracks, that's more like an r&b album...

Comparing "Born To Reign" to leftover cafeteria food is cold, Will'd cry if he heard it! :paperbag:

Maybe we could convert some Lorettas to some good music... :willvspaparazzi:

:word: Up Tim, Amen my brotha! That's what I'm saying all along, the creative sampling that the Bomb Squad and Rick Rubin used to do in the '80s can't really be done now 'cause it costs too much, the sampling law takes away from the creativity a producer could do, that's why some amateur beats might actually sound better than commercial beats 'cause there's no boundaries, amateur mcs too since they don't have A&R direction could rhyme about anything they too also, lol, this industry crap has killed the art of hip-hop for real...

Actually it was more interpolations on "Born To Reign" than samples so I guess Will didn't take the type of hit I thought for recording that album even with it not doing huge numbers. "Willenium" is definately the album with a s***load of samples, they sampled that baby like it was gonna sell 4 million in the 1st month, lol, I think that's the reason why Will had to pay $$$ out of his pocket to shoot "So Fresh" 'cause probably all the money that planned for more videos was used up in paying samples, he probably couldn't afford to do that big tour he was planning to do either, he probably thought it was gonna do "Big Willie Style" numbers, that's when sampling could be bad when the album doesn't do as well as you thought it was...Every track basically had samples, especially "Pump Me Up", that combines samples from like 100 different songs alone, that was like something that hasn't been done since the samplin' law went into effect it seems, Jeff was able to get all of creative juices flowing there, lol... Will's one of the lucky ones to have all that paper to record tracks with all those samples, not many professional recording artists could pull that off.... btw, one another related note JJFP have to be thankful they didn't have to pay for samples on their earlier albums or else they'd been in an even bigger financial hole than they were when they filed bankruptcy, who knows that might've ended their career....

Think about this though, if I use a lot of samples for recording an album, I might not come away with much profit, especially if my album doesn't sell that much, Will probably spent a s***load recording "Born To Reign" with all them samples on it so when it flopped, that took a hit on his wallet unless he owns his masters but even if he don't, at least he has a movie career to fall back on and his resume is strong enough to have other labels knocking at his door, but I might not be able to say the same if that happened on my 1st album, the label might then drop me then I'll be back where I am now, lol...Sampling could take a heavy hit on a budget....

A lot of times though people make unauthorised mixtapes just straight jacking other people's beats and rhyming over them 'cause they don't know how to produce but they want their rhymes to be heard so they could get some recognition, they shouldn't be penalised for this, this goes back to Vipa's point.... What's the difference between ol' school mcs rhyming over ol' school records and today's mcs rhyming over ol' school records?.... Let's be clear, a lot of amateur mcs also throw in lines from famous songs in their freestyles too.... I bet Furious Five probably might've said one or two lines from a famous song on the radio at that time in their freestyles... Now as far as producing, a lot of times samples are combined with the work of your own instruments, sometimes you might use mulitiple samples in the song but you can't afford to release it officially so that sucks for the producer, the track can't be used especially when you're a professional recording artist with a lower budget, it's harder for Public Enemy to be creative with samples if they don't have a high budget, the cost of sampling takes away from creativity, but somebody could release an unauthorised mixtape trying to get discovered as well but if they ever get discovered they might have to cut down on using samples just like Public Enemy since it's too expensive... It's not free to record tracks in the first place so if you add in paying for sampling, it could very well kill your budget.... In my opinion sample laws are as gay as the government spying on us, rich white men in suits that sign these recording artists are pimping the industry 'cause they're making most of the paper, not the artists.... Michael Jackson could sell one of his multi-million dollar cribs he don't even live in if he got money problems, he could sell his 100 million+ record selling masters of his own, or the 100 million+ record selling masters of the Beatles that he owns, most of us can't say that, have him step in my shoes then he'll see what money problems is, lol... I don't know why some ol' school rap artists have to be so critical of people trying to sample them for free now when they were able to get away with not having to pay from their samples, like Chuck D said in that interview, when the sampling machine came out in the early '80s through '89 rap artists could sample as many as they want without paying for it until the sampling laws came in early '90s.... These lyrics from Pete Rock and CL Smooth's "Straighten It Out" is relevant to this topic: "The funk legacy I pass on, clearancy for high rates Every time we sample all the past time greats Stick it in the SP-1200 beat, I make a loop Lovely, where the Troop in a Lexus coupe Just a little bit, set to make a whole lot happen The musical inside my rappin' Written by the C.L., produced by the P.R. And add in any credit that you heard thus far I start from scratch, cuz the bass line's critical Better than the original who first made it But now you want to sue me, but fans never boo me Believe I know the times, we been broke, too, G Here's another sample clear, seeya, get the hell outta here Like a bootleg, you're over for the year You'll only get the credit where the credit is due So, listen, what I shout out is true" This verse from Public Enemy's "Caught, Can I get a witness" also addresses that: "Caught, now in court 'cause I stole a beat This is a sampling sport But I'm giving it a new name What you hear is mine P.E. you know the time Now, what in the heaven does a jury know about hell If I took it, but but they just look at me Like, Hey I'm on a mission I'm talkin' 'bout conditions Ain't right sittin' like dynamite Gonna blow you up and it just might Blow up the bench and Judge, the courtroom plus I gotta mention This court is dismissed when I grab the mike Yo Flave...What is this? Get hyped, c'mon we gotta Gather around - gotcha Mail from the courts and jail Claims I stole the beats that I rail Look at how I'm livin' like And they're gonna check the mike, right? - Sike Look at how I'm livin' now, lower than low What a sucker know I found this mineral that I call a beat I paid zero I packed my load 'cause it's better than gold People don't ask the price, but its sold They say that I sample, but they should Sample this my bit bull We ain't goin' for this They say that I stole this Can I get a witness?"

Well to bring this topic more to a direct relevance, Mobb Deep really lost their street credability when they dissed Pac after he died, heartless punks! :hmm:

Well if Barry Robinson is credited to writing the song, that means that the members of Furious Five weren't making any profit off of the song anyway, Barry Robinson is, this is a publishing issue since it's about the lyrics... Now it was the record labels who came up with this copywrite law for sampling, so more than likely they're the ones making the most money off of the sampling anyway, not the ones who are sampled. Artists only receiving a small portion for the records they sold or from their songs getting airplay unless of course they own their masters where they'll receive a lil' more profit, only a handful of recording artists do, for example Interscope makes a lot more money off of recording "Switch" than Will Smith would, he only gets a small amount unless he owns his masters.... I think all of these copywright laws take away from the fun of entertainment, I'll be real I buy burned DVDs from flee markets for a cheaper price just so I could see the movie, screw paying $20+ in a store when I could get it cheaper, a brotha's money's tight, lol. It's not like Furious Five never freestyled over old records at block parties and had to pay the record label for doing that? Come on now, I should be able to spit over an instrumental without worrying about being sued from a record label whether I got $2 or $2 million in my pocket, it's about doing it for expression, that's the fun of hip-hop, all of the corporal s*** takes away the fun of the game...

Like I was saying though, nobody should have to pay for samples, not you, not me, not Kanye West, not Public Enemy, Public Enemy can't afford that many samples anymore so a lot of people don't like their production as they used to, that hurt their career, Kanye said in an interview that he's in $600,000 from sampling, that could hurt his career in the long run, that's their job you're messing with when you sue them.... I think it's messed up, the ones that're sampled make their own money too, we as fans put out money to buy their albums, I think we have the right to sample them for free, sampling is a part of respect, the artists we sample influence us, if they need money they should get a job like anybody else, there's many people broke that nobody feels sorry for, I barely make ends meat and I manage to buy CDs so if somebody I like sues me, I'd be pissed 'cause I could've used the money for the CD to buy another shirt, a bill, or food.... If Furious Five are broke, they should make another album or tour, not sue Will Smith...

Well it's better for DMX to move on then being unhappy taking orders from Jay, I don't think the veteran artists on the label like him or LL shouldn't have to take orders from Jay, LL actually has humbled down, if Jay was president around the time LL was battling Canibus, LL probably would leave Def Jam.... btw Juelz Santana said that he don't take orders from Jay-Z but they still allowed him to release his album so I don't understand why couldn't they release DMX's project? DMX is much more established than Juelz, he deserves more respect than that... Jay might be mad that DMX dissed Young Jeezy when he was on 106 & Park a few months ago too, who of course was one of Jay's recent signings in the last year, maybe Jay was gonna declare war on DMX...

It's actually the fault of both DMX and Jay, bottom line they just ain't as tight as they used to be, they both got their egos....

SOOOOOOO NOTTTTTTTTTTTT PS is THE HITTT... it can rock the clubs more then slide... How come nobody played it then? :willvspaparazzi:

Yeah Will basically just resembles the flow of UTFO, if he gets sued for that, Lauryn Hill could sue Lil' Kim for flowing like her on "Lighter's Up"! :kekeke: Well it's not necessary that they'll make millions of the track they use either, the record label probably will, a lot of those popular recording artists make less than $1 off of each album they sell, they're not as rich as you think, Will wouldn't be that rich if he didn't do movies, recording artists have to do other things like tour, advertise, or appear in movies to get more income.... Why do you think Jeff tours so much?.... It's kinda stupid though that we could get away with it but they can't, money shouldn't have nothing to do with it, they deserve their money too as much as we do, sampling laws are crap period, if millions of us amateurs could get away with it why can't a few famous ones get away with it?..... I think it's kinda hard to catch somebody selling bootlegs of something 'cause that happens frequently too, even over the internet.... It should go back to the ol' school days again where they do away with it altogether, most of those people that get sampled now used to sample too so it's all even in my opinion... Think of it this way, how'd you feel if you were told that you have to pay the author of the book you're quoting for a term paper for your college even if you put it in your bibliography? I think putting the name of the artists you're sampling in your credits is good enough without paying them, it costs enough money just to make the song in the first place, the artists shouldn't have to dish out anymore cash... Will should have the right to put Furious Five in his credit without paying them, as long as they're credited is all that matters, that's kinda wack that they'd sue somebody who grew up looking up to them, I'd lose some respect if I sampled JJFP and they sued me.... Like for example if I sample Michael Jackson, come on now, hasn't he made enough money off of selling 100 million albums and all the tours and endorsements he's had in his career? What does he need my money for?....I wouldn't take money if I was in that position, the artists deserve their money, just like if I helped somebody write a track, I wouldn't ask for money either if that artist is really my friend... btw, I found this Chuck D/Hank Shoklee Interview where they talk about how sampling has hurt Public Enemy's career 'cause they weren't able to afford samples anymore so they had to change their sound, and at least I know I could sample Public Enemy if I wanted to without worrying about being sued, lol: How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop An interview with Public Enemy's Chuck D and Hank Shocklee By Kembrew McLeod | Issue #20 When Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, in 1988, it was as if the album had landed from another planet. Nothing sounded like it at the time. It Takes a Nation came frontloaded with sirens, squeals, and squawks that augmented the chaotic, collaged backing tracks over which P.E. frontman Chuck D laid his politically and poetically radical rhymes. He rapped about white supremacy, capitalism, the music industry, black nationalism, and--in the case of "Caught, Can I Get a Witness?"-- digital sampling: "CAUGHT, NOW IN COURT ' CAUSE I STOLE A BEAT / THIS IS A SAMPLING SPORT / MAIL FROM THE COURTS AND JAIL / CLAIMS I STOLE THE BEATS THAT I RAIL ... I FOUND THIS MINERAL THAT I CALL A BEAT / I PAID ZERO." In the mid- to late 1980s, hip-hop artists had a very small window of oppor-tunity to run wild with the newly emerging sampling technologies before the record labels and lawyers started paying attention. No one took advantage of these technologies more effectively than Public Enemy, who put hundreds of sampled aural fragments into It Takes a Nation and stirred them up to create a new, radical sound that changed the way we hear music. But by 1991, no one paid zero for the records they sampled without getting sued. They had to pay a lot. Stay Free! talked to the two major architects of P.E.'s sound, Chuck D and Hank Shocklee, about hip-hop, sampling, and how copyright law altered the way P.E. and other hip-hop artists made their music. The following is a combination of two interviews conducted separately with Chuck D and Hank Shocklee. --Kembrew McLeod * * * Stay Free!: What are the origins of sampling in hip-hop? Chuck D: Sampling basically comes from the fact that rap music is not music. It's rap over music. So vocals were used over records in the very beginning stages of hip-hop in the 0s to the early '80s. In the late 1980s, rappers were recording over live bands who were basically emulating the sounds off of the records. Eventually, you had synthesizers and samplers, which would take sounds that would then get arranged or looped, so rappers can still do their thing over it. The arrangement of sounds taken from recordings came around 1984 to 1989. Stay Free!: Those synthesizers and samplers were expensive back then, especially in 1984. How did hip-hop artists get them if they didn't have a lot of money? Chuck D: Not only were they expensive, but they were limited in what they could do--they could only sample two seconds at a time. But people were able to get a hold of equipment by renting time out in studios. Stay Free!: How did the Bomb Squad [Public Enemy's production team, led by Shocklee] use samplers and other recording technologies to put together the tracks on It Takes a Nation of Millions. Hank Shocklee: The first thing we would do is the beat, the skeleton of the track. The beat would actually have bits and pieces of samples already in it, but it would only be rhythm sections. Chuck would start writing and trying different ideas to see what worked. Once he got an idea, we would look at it and see where the track was going. Then we would just start adding on whatever it needed, depending on the lyrics. I kind of architected the whole idea. The sound has a look to me, and Public Enemy was all about having a sound that had its own distinct vision. We didn't want to use anything we considered traditional R&B stuff--bass lines and melodies and chord structures and things of that nature.? Stay Free!: How did you use samplers as instruments? Chuck D: We thought sampling was just another way of arranging sounds. Just like a musician would take the sounds off of an instrument and arrange them their own particular way. So we thought we was quite crafty with it. Shocklee: "Don't Believe the Hype," for example--that was basically played with the turntable and transformed and then sampled. Some of the manipulation we was doing was more on the turntable, live end of it. Stay Free!: When you were sampling from many different sources during the making of It Takes a Nation, were you at all worried about copyright clearance? Shocklee: No. Nobody did. At the time, it wasn't even an issue. The only time copyright was an issue was if you actually took the entire rhythm of a song, as in looping, which a lot of people are doing today. You're going to take a track, loop the entire thing, and then that becomes the basic track for the song. They just paperclip a backbeat to it. But we were taking a horn hit here, a guitar riff there, we might take a little speech, a kicking snare from somewhere else. It was all bits and pieces. Stay Free!: Did you have to license the samples in It Takes a Nation of Millions before it was released? Shocklee: No, it was cleared afterwards. A lot of stuff was cleared afterwards. Back in the day, things was different. The copyright laws didn't really extend into sampling until the hip-hop artists started getting sued. As a matter of fact, copyright didn't start catching up with us until Fear of a Black Planet. That's when the copyrights and everything started becoming stricter because you had a lot of groups doing it and people were taking whole songs. It got so widespread that the record companies started policing the releases before they got out. Stay Free!: With its hundreds of samples, is it possible to make a record like It Takes a Nation of Millions today? Would it be possible to clear every sample? Shocklee: It wouldn't be impossible. It would just be very, very costly. The first thing that was starting to happen by the late 1980s was that the people were doing buyouts. You could have a buyout--meaning you could purchase the rights to sample a sound--for around $1,500. Then it started creeping up to $3,000, $3,500, $5,000, $7,500. Then they threw in this thing called rollover rates. If your rollover rate is every 100,000 units, then for every 100,000 units you sell, you have to pay an additional $7,500. A record that sells two million copies would kick that cost up twenty times. Now you're looking at one song costing you more than half of what you would make on your album. Chuck D: Corporations found that hip-hop music was viable. It sold albums, which was the bread and butter of corporations. Since the corporations owned all the sounds, their lawyers began to search out people who illegally infringed upon their records. All the rap artists were on the big six record companies, so you might have some lawyers from Sony looking at some lawyers from BMG and some lawyers from BMG saying, "Your artist is doing this," so it was a tit for tat that usually made money for the lawyers, garnering money for the company. Very little went to the original artist or the publishing company. Shocklee: By 1990, all the publishers and their lawyers started making moves. One big one was Bridgeport, the publishing house that owns all the George Clinton stuff. Once all the little guys started realizing you can get paid from rappers if they use your sample, it prompted the record companies to start investigating because now the people that they publish are getting paid. Stay Free!: There's a noticeable difference in Public Enemy's sound between 1988 and 1991. Did this have to do with the lawsuits and enforcement of copyright laws at the turn of the decade? Chuck D: Public Enemy's music was affected more than anybody's because we were taking thousands of sounds. If you separated the sounds, they wouldn't have been anything--they were unrecognizable. The sounds were all collaged together to make a sonic wall. Public Enemy was affected because it is too expensive to defend against a claim. So we had to change our whole style, the style of It Takes a Nation and Fear of a Black Planet, by 1991. Shocklee: We were forced to start using different organic instruments, but you can't really get the right kind of compression that way. A guitar sampled off a record is going to hit differently than a guitar sampled in the studio. The guitar that's sampled off a record is going to have all the compression that they put on the recording, the equalization. It's going to hit the tape harder. It's going to slap at you. Something that's organic is almost going to have a powder effect. It hits more like a pillow than a piece of wood. So those things change your mood, the feeling you can get off of a record. If you notice that by the early 1990s, the sound has gotten a lot softer. Chuck D: Copyright laws pretty much led people like Dr. Dre to replay the sounds that were on records, then sample musicians imitating those records. That way you could get by the master clearance, but you still had to pay a publishing note. Shocklee: See, there's two different copyrights: publishing and master recording. The publishing copyright is of the written music, the song structure. And the master recording is the song as it is played on a particular recording. Sampling violates both of these copyrights. Whereas if I record my own version of someone else's song, I only have to pay the publishing copyright. When you violate the master recording, the money just goes to the record company. Chuck D: Putting a hundred small fragments into a song meant that you had a hundred different people to answer to. Whereas someone like EPMD might have taken an entire loop and stuck with it, which meant that they only had to pay one artist. Stay Free!: So is that one reason why a lot of popular hip-hop songs today just use one hook, one primary sample, instead of a collage of different sounds? Chuck D: Exactly. There's only one person to answer to. Dr. Dre changed things when he did The Chronic and took something like Leon Haywood's "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You" and revamped it in his own way but basically kept the rhythm and instrumental hook intact. It's easier to sample a groove than it is to create a whole new collage. That entire collage element is out the window. Shocklee: We're not really privy to all the laws and everything that the record company creates within the company. From our standpoint, it was looking like the record company was spying on us, so to speak. Chuck D: The lawyers didn't seem to differentiate between the craftiness of it and what was blatantly taken. Stay Free!: Switching from the past to the present, on the new Public Enemy album, Revolverlution, you had fans remix a few old Public Enemy tracks. How did you get this idea? Chuck D: We have a powerful online community through Rapstation.com, PublicEnemy.com, Slamjams.com, and Bringthenoise.com. My thing was just looking at the community and being able to say, "Can we actually make them involved in the creative process?" Why not see if we can connect all these bedroom and basement studios, and the ocean of producers, and expand the Bomb Squad to a worldwide concept? Stay Free!: As you probably know, some music fans are now sampling and mashing together two or more songs and trading the results online. There's one track by Evolution Control Committee that uses a Herb Alpert instrumental as the backing track for your "By the Time I Get to Arizona." It sounds like you're rapping over a Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass song. How do you feel about other people remixing your tracks without permission? Chuck D: I think my feelings are obvious. I think it's great.

So what Eminem does those same type of jokes too in his songs, so that means he ain't rap either? :willvspaparazzi: Beastie Boys did a lot of comedy in their songs but they do political tracks too, if they ain't hip-hop, I don't know what is? You could make a rap song about anything I thought.... How do you define rap, smartass? :hmm: White rappers might rap about the suburban life but that makes them just as real as the black rappers who rap about the 'hood life in my book... If you don't like them that's one thing, but to say they ain't rap is ridiculous and loses credability in my book, millions would tell you different, who died and made you the rap god to define who's doing rap songs and who ain't? You can't be a joke if you have a 20 year in the music industry either, respect the legends, son!.... Let's be clear Eminem'd tell you that Beastie Boys opened the doors for him, he said that on TRL before I think...

That sounds kinda retarted though, why'd you or me be able to get away with not having to pay for samples on mixtapes we make while recording artists like JJFP and Kanye West have to cough lots of dough to clear the samples they use? :hmm: If we were famous I guess that'd be a different story, they know we're broke so they can't sue us, lol, I still wouldn't take that chance 'cause you never know, I should get a job in the FBI and crack down on all that, I'd make a lot of paper... btw I notice that it doesn't mention UTFO in the credits of "If You Can't Dance", Will might be facing another lawsuit..... Furious Five shouldn't complain about JJFP sampling them without permission when a lot of ol' school rappers like them were allowed to get away with not paying for samples back then, JJFP didn't have to pay for all the million samples they used on "He's The DJ...", I think in the early '90s they started clamping hard on sampling laws....

There's warning labels on the albums you buy though about how you get in trouble for copying material off of the album, that's like making copies of "Bad Boys" DVD and selling it on the streets without permission, many get away with it but if you get caught you could face a heavy lawsuit or even time behind bars 'cause that's federal offense, just like illegal downloading...

Yankees are stupid to give him so much money, $13 million a year for an overrated leadoff hitter?!!!! his throwing arm is just as bad as Bernie Williams or Rickey Henderson, and he only stole 37 bases in the last 2 years combined, hell they'd be better calling Rickey Henderson fresh off of retirement than signing Damon to that deal, he sucks! btw, my Mets are gonna run baseball in '06 baby: we got Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright, La Duca, the best lineup in baseball! :yeah:

Didn't UTFO get credit though? I was sure that he did credit them, Wait a minute, let me check the credits.... :pony: Does Jay-Z really credit Biggie everytime he says a line of his though?

In my opinion I think a lot of this street credability s***/commercial s*** is overrated, music is music no matter who listens to it, like Slick Rick or JJFP'd tell you they make music for everybody to listen to and that's what hip-hop is about, music for everyone... btw, I think a lot of those who bought "Big Willie Style" jumped off the bandwagon when Eminem came out, I think most of those who diss Will now are probably white kids who don't even listen to much hip-hop but Eminem so their opinions don't really hold no weight if they only listen to one mc, besides anybody with an appreciation for quality music wouldn't jump off the bandwagon when "Willenium" dropped, they obviously don't know quality so Will don't need disposable fans like that anyway...I think it's reverse racism though if blacks hate on Em just 'cause he's white, I could see if they hate on him if they think his music is wack after his 1st 2 albums, I could agree with that, lol, probably most who know hip-hop whether they're black or white apprecitate what JJFP have done for hip-hop... There was an article saying that mostly white kids listen to underground hip-hop too so I don't think record sales have to do with it, there's less people listening to KRS-ONE than Will Smith but maybe it's about the same percentage of white people listening to both of them, maybe like 70% out of 100,000 for KRS and 70% out of 800,000 for Will.... btw, it's bad for Mobb Deep to release their album the same week as LL, they should know better...