L&F falls badly on charts

[bigted]

It's be dissapointing if Will went back to acting, I feel your point Frentic, but you gotta look at it like this, his acting career has kept him more relevant in the public eye longer than most of the rappers that came out with him, that's why LL's last album went gold too, if they weren't acting they'd sell less than 100,000 like De La Soul and KRS-ONE who were going platinum when JJFP was back in the days, I mean you gotta do something to stay in the public eye, even Jay-Z is doing endorsement deals which'll keep him relevant and he'll be able to still sell albums now 'cause of that if he wants to come back, it's a buisiness and if you don't do something else besides rapping, your career will fade away, major labels don't pay much either, KRS-ONE and De La Soul could still make albums 'cause the independent labels pay more, everyone's doing what they can to survive to raise their families, not just entertain.

Edited July 27, 2005 by bigted

[Hero1]

I still think the album will get back on track with the release of party starter in about a week and a half.. im pretty confident that song is gonna be a big hit..of course if it isnt lost and founds run is over.. the success of this album rests on party starter

[MaxFly]

I always find it funny when people say things like "I'm just trying to eat... I'm just trying to feed my family..." when in the past, they've made or are even making upwards of a million dollars a project... (not a year... a project...) They're stuggling to clothe and feed their families?

Anyway... back to the topic...

This is like a presidential debate... all the spin and punditry....

Bottom line:

the album isn't doing well largely because of the complete disregard for how the album was doing while Switch enjoyed success (don't act surprised, people have been saying this for a month and a half now on this forum)

If Party Starter had been released in a timely fashion... use your imagination...

This is a critical juncture for the album. I hope Party Starter can bring it back to prominence... but again, I'm not expecting much.

[bigted]

I don't think Will's primarily concerned with just sellin' albums, he just wants to express himself and release the message from his songs and whoever buys it, buys it, rapping doesn't pay his bills like he said before, lol, they make less than a dollar for each album they sell on major labels, independent artists get $5-10 each album sold, KRS probably makes as much money as Will does from rapping even though he sells less, the money that Interscope gave Will to promote the album might've ran low, and yes entertainers make millions of dollars but some gradually go bankrupt if their career ends at 30 years old, stretching 10 million dollars for another 30-50 years in their life might not work, and especially if they give a good chunk to charity if they're honest people like Will but then again, I'd die to be in that position, I'm just worried about eating every month let alone 30 years from now, lol, even if Will's fame ended I think he'd probably still rap even if he was bagging groceries, lol, I don't think he'll ever stop rapping no matter what else he does 'cause he loves hip-hop. btw, I like real discussion like this, you can't get this at Lorettaville! :smart:

Edited July 28, 2005 by bigted

[JumpinJack AJ]

Yeah, "Party Starter" will get things back on track. It's just a waiting game. Either way, "Tell My Why" will take the album 2 new levels where "Party Starter" makes an impact or not. However, i don't think it could hurt 2 post a "Party Starter" snippet on Hip-Hop/Rap message boards and especially Ludacris related boards.

[Frenetic]

Alot ot rappers/singers let a new single drop when their former single is on its peak.. like 50 cent, gwen stefani and more.

[rcpbball30]

I am waiting for Party Starter, the album will continue to slip until it comes out because Switch is finally done. Hopefully, Party Starter will open the album up to a lot of new people, I think it will, it is a great song.

[Lerkot]

Well that means either Will is even more of a genius than we thought, OR that he for once in a while did a mistake. Hmm no, not a mistake but that he was unlucky when he was thinking.

[DevilsJim89]

Yeah but what the hell is going on though? "Party Starter" should've been released back in late June/early July. This is crazy how there is such a delay. 4-5 months? Get real here. You got 50 cent with like 3 singles at one time on the charts. Oh and not performing "Party Starter" at the NBA finals really hurt. "Switch" did its job enough already. PS is an anthem! Better than Switch. And TMW better be released in like 2-3 months, not another 5 months. When a single is doin good, dont sit and watch. Get busy with a new video for the next single.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Will needs to quit acting for like 2-3 years. It's ridiculous. He does a 3 month album run then back acting again. It pisses me off so much when I think about this. You so damn rich Will you can easily live off of what you already made plus whatever Jada's doing. Like Wes said, if FP doesnt care, than I don't care either.

[bigted]

Well maybe 50 Cent might have a better contract than Will from Interscope and has more money in his deal to promote his album by releasing more singles, which would be unfortunate but possibly true, we know how biased the industry has been! :mad: Let's be real if Slick Rick makes a comeback album next year, it'll flop, he ain't relevant in the industry anymore 'cause we don't see him making TV appearances at all, but Will has stayed relevant with his acting career, people always see him out there, he's a household name. And who gives a damn if Will's album flops, Jazzy Jeff doesn't sell much and we still love him right? I know Public Enemy's album won't sell much either but that ain't gonna stop me from saying that they're one of my favorite groups of all-time and Queen Latifah hasn't released an album since '98 and she's been only doing movies but I still think she's the greatest female mc of all time, keep it real!

Edited July 28, 2005 by bigted

[TopDawg14]

As I've said before I guess I'm the only one not stressing here.

To everyone who is blaming Interscope, Interscope has nothing to do with this. Interscope is only distributing the album. That means they're manufacturing(mass producing) the album and shipping it to stores. The rest of the work is done by Overbrook Entertainment. So if you want to vent anger then vent it at Overbrook.

You can't blame Overbrook either because they don't have the capital(money) that Interscope has. The reason why 50 is releasing 3 singles and videos at a time is because Interscope has the money to do and they expect the songs/videos to blow and they get their money back. With the exception of making and shipping the cds, this is all Will and his money so it doesn't make good business sense to pour that kind of money into a project if you don't know if you're going to get it back. Overbrook is basically an independent label so it's all about streamlining and keeping your costs down to maximize your profits.

A lot of this is about politics as well. That's what the song "I Wish I Made That" is about. If Will was thuggin' and talking all about clubbin', sex, drugs and guns then he would probably be multi-platinum by now. But since he keeps it clean then it's wack and soft. The industry at large doesn't support him and Will has too much intergrity to kiss a lot of butts to get his stuff played.

As I said before, I think it's a big accomplishment that he went Gold with this album without the benefit and help of black radio, MTV, BET and the industry at large. He's won 4 Grammys and sold over 30 million records worldwide. He has nothing to prove musically.

Edited July 28, 2005 by TopDawg14

[Bracesup]

I always find it funny when people say things like "I'm just trying to eat... I'm just trying to feed my family..." when in the past, they've made or are even making upwards of a million dollars a project... (not a year... a project...) They're stuggling to clothe and feed their families?

←

This has to be one of the best things posted here. :2thumbs: They make millions of dollars and would be getting so many stuff for free as they are celebs and yet they say such garbage, whereas I'm surviving with way below 100,000$ for probably my entire lifetime and still can lead a comfortable life. :rofl:

Anyways, back to the subject, the description for the Party Starter video sounds awesome. So with a video like that playing in all the videos channels, the probability of the Lost and Found sales picking up is very high. So let's just wait for the video to get in the circulation.

[Fresh-Ta-Def]

yeah man^ people in the rap buisness do lie ALOT! i mean my fam only makes 65,000-70,000 a year and we are ok i mean we aint rich and we do have money troubles but we still living and thats main thing right?

well i hope will gets to promoting his new single by checking himself into them radio stations and he should put a commericial for his album on BET lots of people watch it.

[bigted]

Going gold is definately a huge accomplishment for any rapper today that's not a thug rapper, let alone a huge accomplishment for an ol'-school rapper, the state of hip-hop disgusts me right now, no matter what Will does he'll never get the props he deserves 'cause he's positive, I don't think Kanye West is gonna outsell 50 Cent either, I wasn't basically referring to Will when I said rappers are trying to survive, I was referring to rappers like KRS-ONE and De La Soul that couldn't sell much at the time they were dropped from their major labels, they're living more confortably than any of us still too probably, lol. Here's the bottomline, I'd rather see Will make albums every year too but if that happens his popularity would decline worse than it is now and when he tries to go back to movies somebody'll take his place as the king of the box office and then his fame is over, would you rather see that happen? Thinking about all this actually builds up respect for people like Jay-Z 'cause Jay-Z sells more albums than anyone else in recent years since he finds a way to keep himself out there, Nas has that problem even though he might be a better mc in my opinion but he doesn't get involved in endorsements, you could say KRS is a better mc than Will but he just doesn't find a way to stay out there either, obviously Jay-Z has studied Will's moves more carefully than most rappers out now, the hip-hop industry is a buisiness and you gotta plot a way to win, Will's gonna be able to keep on making albums 'cause he keeps himself out there.

[MaxFly]

Going gold is definately a huge accomplishment for any rapper today that's not a thug rapper, let alone a huge accomplishment for an ol'-school rapper, the state of hip-hop disgusts me right now, no matter what Will does he'll never get the props he deserves 'cause he's positive...

←

Well I think the reason this album isn't doing as well now doesn't have as much to do with Will not getting respect as much as it is that promotion fell off sharply after April. He was everywhere talking about Lost and Found after its release, but after awhile, he was only performing Switch, no other songs from the album, and he wasn't mentioning Lost and Found much.

People were definitely talking about how good the album was, so I think he got some level of respect. But there's only so much respect you will get from mainstream hiphop with Switch as your main and only single...