bigted

Yeah Will shot the video already in June but it's industry politics that's most likely holdin' it back not Will, the label probably told him to keep performing "Switch". You mean to tell me that a song complaining about A&R's and reminising of the ol' school is gonna go to #1 on the charts? lol That'd be a dream come true if that happened but that doesn't seem that likely no matter when it was released, people don't wanna bring the good ol' days back and the radio station is not gonna wanna play it in heavy rotation, it's the sad state of music right now, "Switch" only did well 'cause it's radio friendly, but even that didn't get the type of rotation that it should've gotten, Overbrook probably didn't pay radio/TV stations enough to play "Switch" as much as Interscope paid for "Candy Shop", let's be real we all voted about 100 times here on this board and it never made 106 &Park one day, the industry decides what to play more than the fans do, it's hard to fight big buisiness when they're not on your side, Will doesn't kiss ass like 50 Cent does to get his record played all day, even Kanye's song about the diamond trade hasn't hit the top 40 in 2 months and he's supposedly the most popular positive rapper out right now, so what chance does Will realistically have, he's ol' school plus he's postive so the odds were against him from the start of the album's realease, it's a good chance that "Party Starter" could've flopped and "Switch" wouldn't have peaked so high, I doubt that it doesn't cost money to perform on TV, that's bull****, if that was true then KRS-ONE could perform his single on 106 & Park, right? The record label pays the TV station to get their artist to perform on their shows, that's part of promotion, it's not charity.

Well I could agree with one point that Maxfly made there, he shoulda released more singles faster, but in order for that to happen he wouldn't be able to do so many TV appearances, he'd take that money to shoot the music video, but the performances helped push "Switch" into the top 10, he could've only done TRL, 106 & Park, and Today Show and then just shot more videos but it's a possiblity that "Switch" wouldn't hit that high on top 40 'cause it didn't start peaking until after all his TV appearances and "Party Starter" probably wouldn't either, sometimes the way you want it might not work either, it's a buisiness and the industry's biased against Will in the 1st place 'cause they don't like playing positive music, I can't imagine radio playing a song where Will complains about A& R's in heavy rotation realisitically, they rather play a song about hoes all day which is much safer for them, (even Kanye's new single isn't gettin' as much airplay as "Jesus Walks" and it's the most positive song out now, it still ain't in top 40 yet after 2 months) which means the album sales might've slowed down as fast as Beanie Siegal's, who released 2 videos at once but at least he had black radio bumping him, it's better that the album's gone gold instead of only 200,000 right now even with "Party Starter" out that fell off the chart, how'd u feel about that? And of course the "L&F" album could've gone platinum, Slick Rick's last album should've gone platinum too but there's nothin' we could do about that now, I was just happy to see Will performin' on TV so much at once, I don't know about you! Will was out there promoting album up to the point where people would know the album's out there for them to check out, a few might've, but the public majority has decided not to and that's not his fault, you might not like "Switch" but the public made it a hit and more could've bought the album from it but they're brainwashed on 50 Cent, I can't imagine the majority of 50 Cent's fanbase wanting to listen to Will, I already heard some people sayin' that Will was biting Ludacris' flow on "Party Starter" so they probably wouldn't like it just for that reason 'cause they're ignorant like that, Will's only been rappin' like this for years though, that's how much they were not opened minded to actually listen to some of his music! "Party Starter" won't be that much of hit when it's released right now either if radio and TV don't play this 20 times a day like Mike Jones' single 'cause Will's shootin' a film and won't be able to go out to perform it, it's up to the peeps to step up and vote for it, Will could do all he can, the peeps have to respond too.

I'm happy that u got your dream fulfilled, I hope I could be that fortunate one day! :2thumbs:

"Switch" isn't Will's best song but I wouldn't call it a dumbed down song, it's a fun song, hip-hop's supposed to be fun too and Will's about having fun that's his personna but he ain't puttin' out somethin' that's trashy, no matter how serious we might act we all like to have fun too, that's even why Public Enemy has Flava Flav, before Chuck D got signed to Def Jam he used to be a party rapper, I'd call dumbed down songs ones about bangin' as many hoes as you can, braggin' about how much dope you sold, guns you have, and flashin' your rolle and Benz' in your videos which is not a good example for the youth.

All we could do is like the music we like, we can't force everybody to think like us, but they can't have us dumb down what we like either, gradually the kids'll grow out of the trash when they get older but since mostly kids buy hip-hop now, Common, Public Enemy, and FP will never get their due in the commercial world but the true fans of theirs will always respect them for not selling out, I mean kids even say that Nelly's better than James Brown so screw their shallow opinions and let's just enjoy the music!

Destiny's Child "Say My Name"

Then he mostly would have been labelled a sell-out and then the album would not have even touched gold. The thing is people have moved on from the 80's/90's to the millennium where especially in case of rap music, the audience are only interested in new artists. So times have changed a lot and there's nothing we can do about it. ← :word: That's my point exactly, I wouldn't buy the album if that happened, Will's keepin' it real to himself and the true fans who've remained and that's all that matters, end of discussion!

I think the people who bought the album respect Will, btw we forgot to post this week's total here, but I'm gonna do it now, let's update the totals: 85 SMITH*WILL LOST & FOUND 12,381 -27 17,040 575,781

If more people voted for "Switch" to get on 106 & Park and TRL than the album possibly could've done better when it came out but then again LL's videos were getting mad airplay and he didn't go platinum either. Will Smith's a household name that's been in the game for 20 years so if he gets some exposure, people should go out and buy his albums 'cause they should know that he raps about many things and keeps his music positive, but it seems like a lot of ol' school fans have sold out on the legends that're still out or were driven away into other music since hip-hop has become so wack, that's why Will made "Could You Love Me?" to the people who've sold out on him, but why would everyone rush out to buy a new artist's album when they don't know nothin' about them, nothin' Mike Jones does stands out either! Nelly dances in his videos with hoes and goes double platinum so why can't Will or LL go platinum with fun club videos? Most commercial fans don't buy music for consciousness now, maybe when the Fugees were out but now most of the popular videos out now are dumbed down videos, Will should've added more hoes in his video, people wanna see ass, lol, it was too tasteful for a 13-year old to ask their parents to buy it for them. MTV and BET have a bias towards ol' school rappers it seems like I said before 'cause they should replay the specials they've done on Will and he'd get instant exposure, the only way for Will to sell as much as Eminem is if he starts cursing a lot and makes a street album rapping about selling crack, he's gonna have to dumb down his style, now do you want that?

KRS-ONE's "I Got Next" album

Let's be real, I blame the music fans, not Will, he could do all he can, it was up to them to buy the album, they all knew it was released, if it never dropped under 50K a week Will and Overbrook would have more money to make the "Party Starter" video that'd came out in late May/early June, but the album slipped badly and now it's at the point where "Party Starter" might be the only single that comes out if that even comes out, Nas' album flopped so bad that we never got the single about Rakim to come out, so we might not get "Tell Me Why" coming out either and it's all the public's fault, the opportunity to get Kel Spencer on a remix is gone now too probably so he won't ever get buzz which is sad, most rappers only perform their singles when they go perform on shows to cater to the commercial fans since they buy more albums than hip-hop heads do, even Common performed "Go" at the BET Awards which is the worst song on his album too(a bad mistake he made too), Will talked in depth on The Today Show about what the album was about when he was interviewed and he performed "I Wish I Made That" on 106 & Park and there was all this hype online at every forum it seemed, that should've been enough for the public to get "Lost and Found" to go gold in the 1st week, that's more promotion than what Mike Jones did so far and he had a better 1st week and his album's still in the top 20, people want trash, let's face it Will's gonna have to go gangsta to sell 4 million! To say Will needs to go out and heavily promote the album now would be like sayin' he should've went to promote "Hitch" 2 months after it came out! Critics were already criticizing "Tell Me Why" and sayin' that he bit that off of Jadakiss' "Why", so maybe the commercial fans wouldn't except it that much either but they don't realise that Jadakiss bites off of other rappers too, hip-hop heads might but they don't make up the majority of people that buy albums 'cause we call KRS the greatest mc and commercial fans never heard of him.

I think their should be a "Self Destruction" Part II where we get all the positive mcs on one song! MTV sold out on Will too, they shoulda had Sway sit down and interview him for a half hour when the album dropped, Will was one of the original rappers to 1st get airplay on MTV, they might do some specials on him but they never repeat them as much as the other ones they do on gangsta rappers, they even repeat the special on Mike Jones more often than the one they did on Will for TRL, and they didn't even mention when Run-Dmc's last album dropped in '01, who are the pioneers for rappers to get airplay on there. TopDawg has hit right on the nail, Will has done so much to promote this album already, he was on 106 &Park, NBA Finals, Today Show, TRL, MTV Africa 46664 special, and Live 8 which is more than most rappers do, so whoever has it at this point as basically what the sales are, Will can't go out and promote on all those TV shows like he did when the album came out, that'd cost him too much money and since the album sales slowed down it's not worth it 'cause even with that you can't expect it to just jump up to the top 10, bottomline if people really wanted a change in hip-hop and complain about it being so vulgar for their children they'd all went out and bought this album to make it platinum the first month when it was heavily promoted, but it's obvious that they love the trash albums 'cause they even went out to buy Mike Jones and Boyz In The Hood faster than they did to buy "Lost and Found" or Common's "Be" which also had mad pub when it came out, that should be platinum by now too if people wanted a change, the positive music's out there, they just don't buy it.

Haiku D'Etat "Wants vs. Needs", I'm borrowing this Haiku D'Etat CD from the library, dope stuff! :jazzy:

I think Aftermath probably pushed it back 'cause of Tony Yayo's album unfortunately, I hope it doesn't end up like the Rakim situation again, Busta should collab with Will someday, that'd be an awesome video! Busta's featured on The Pussycat Dolls hit song called "Don't Cha" I think, I remember seeing the video a few times on VH1 recently. btw, Did Q-Tip's album ever come out yet?

The music industry's at a sad state right now, I hope it comes out eventually, well in the meantime I'll have to buy other PE albums to hold me over, I might save for the PE box set that's gonna be released on Def Jam in '07 to commerate 20 years in hip-hop, and there's some PE concert DVDs that came out recently too that I didn't get a chance to check out.

Well at this rate, all my favorite mc's'll be quitting in a few years or some already might've quit already not 'cause they don't love to rhyme or they can't rhyme anymore but the state of industry is driving them away, it's like KRS is retired already 'cause hardly anybody listens to him or even knows he still makes albums, I mean they're even pushing Public Enemy's album release date back and they push Eminem's album release date up, I mean if there was no PE there'd be no Eminem, it should be the opposite. :sigh:

I think a lot of us were just being optimistic in hoping that it'd sell 4 million and save hip-hop but I don't think we were being realistic about that, the majority of commercial rap fans think that conscious rap is corny, you could tell by what they buy, Nas' last 2 albums didn't go platinum and he's supposed to be one of the more popular conscious rappers, even when he released songs "I Can", "Bridgin' The Gap", and "Just Another Moment" that had strong messages to them, plus the fact that 99.9% of hip-hop albums have "Parental Advisory" on them doesn't make it any easier for Will either, he still chooses not to curse in his rhymes since he wants to stay true to his beliefs, so fans might diss him for that too, that's why they also dissed LL's last 2 albums and say he fell off, a lot of these commercial rap fans ain't really that open minded to listen to conscious rap or rap that has a message to it, I ain't feelin' a lot of the ignorance they talk about on those so called hip-hop forums, I don't think even if "Tell Me Why" comes out much'll really change, even since after "Jesus Walks" came out there's still a lot of songs out now with no message, it's gonna take more than a few artists to change the pollution that 100 lost rappers are doing, in fact as long as hip-hop stays commercial it might be this way, you can't complain about how wack commercial rap is if you buy those trash CDs, the consumers have to step up and make a change by not buying the trash but as long as they buy it, the gimmicks will continue! "Diamonds..." isn't the best conscious rap song ever but I'd rather see that on TRL than "Ass Like That", this is what tells you about how bad the commercial scene is right now, there should be more consious rappers on main labels but they get pushed to the side but they could easily outrhyme all this commercial rappers, in a few years Nas'll be on an independent label too at this rate. It's like what KRS-ONE said in "Come To The Party" back in '97 that's still relevant today: "Negative rap, positive rap, forget that black it's a trap to set us back, concentrate on various rap talents Presently the rap radio format is unbalanced You either got the player, or the concious rhyme sayer all day, on your radio, not with a different flavor Someone has to DIE before you hear a concious record People don't like gangsta rap but concious rap they don't respect it"

Hey I really want this album to do well too to save hip-hop, I'm not trying to act like I don't care about it, it breaks my heart as a hip-hop fan to see the way hip-hop is right now, but I was just being realistic there, we can't go back in the past, we could only look forward and see what happens, I hope that Will releases "Tell Me Why" still even if the album falls off the chart 'cause there's no doubt that everyone needs to hear that powerful message!

Sales have nothing to do with quality, you mean to tell me that Nelly's dropping classic albums? Eminem's "Encore" is one of the worst albums in hip-hop history yet it's sold 5 million, it more than double the sales of Kanye's "College Dropout" which is a classic album compared to that trash, the wacker you are the more you sell now, I mean it used to be about quality when Run-DMC, JJFP, PE, KRS, and LL were topping the charts back in the day, but now it's changed, if it was about quality that top the charts "Street's Disciple", "Lost and Found", "BE", and "The Defintion" would sell 10 million and KRS-ONE, MF Doom, and Hieroglyphics would get airplay, "Encore" would sell less than 100,000 along with that other garbage on the airwaves that gets played so much that I don't even listen to the radio or they wouldn't even have record deals, I don't give a damn about emptv! Hip-hop heads don't talk about sales when they talk about great albums, they talk about the music, as long as Will makes great music he'll stay relevant in the hip-hop world, maybe not to emptv though, I'm happy that the album's great and he's not selling out his style just to sell more, the real fans respect it. Will summed this up perfect here of what commercial rap has become compared to what it used to be: "I call for the days of the unadulterated When the artistry was cultivated You know, back when rap was smart and multilayered We could rap without A&Rs& ultimatums" There's my 2 cents, I'm out!

Yeah look at Fat Joe, his single "Get It Poppin'" is one of the most popular songs of the summer but his album's gonna sell less than Bow Wow, lol, but why do we talk like "Party Starter"'ll save the album then? I'm happy with going gold here, I was worried that it'd even do that after the "Born To Reign" disaster and with mostly G Unit and Aftermath artists getting airplay and how much disrespect ol' school rappers get in the commercial scene, since MTV calls Eminem the original storyteller and ignores Slick Rick, I figured that nobody wanted to hear Will anymore, but it's reached my expectations and everything from this point on is a bonus, so I'm gonna chill!

It's amazing how fast the album fell, "Switch" is still #18 on the Billboard charts! :hmm:

Well much props to Common, he deserves to go platinum for the 1st time in his career, this is only his 2nd gold album, mostly hype from Kanye West producing it which is good hype in this case, you didn't read my last post where I actually gave Jay-Z props for what he does? He's the major reason why Kanye West is in the position he's in right now since they collab so much. Will's sold 30 million already though, he don't have to outsell everyone anymore, he's been there and done that for almost a good 2 decades, going gold is very respectable sales considering it was mostly him on the album and not much guest appearances like most commercial rap albums, Will could stop promoting the album now if he wants and come back again whenever he wants to just like LL does making albums every 2-3 years, which is better than making an album every 10 years like Dr. Dre, lol, this album ain't making or breaking his career, it's a marathon not a sprint, he'll still be around when G Unit fades away once a new gangsta rap group comes along to take their place, but I think Fat Joe's career's over since he's sold only 200,000.

Craig Mack feat. LL, Biggie, and Busta "Flava In Ya Ear", '94 classic!

Will's outsold most commercial rappers this year so far, he's outsold Fat Joe, Common, Memphis Bleek, Cassidy, and Beanie Siegal to name a few, he might possibly outsell Kanye West too 'cause "Diamonds..." is flopping badly right now on the charts.

I hope this is just a rumor, it'd be dissapointing if they delayed it this long! :thumbsdown: