In light of some recent news I just read about Gorilla Zoe, I wanted to share some thoughts about this whole situation. Rapper Gorilla Zoe, who I would place in the category of “who the hell cares” is releasing a new mixtape every day of this month. In his defense he did choose the shortest month of the year, so it will only be 28 mixtapes in 28 days but one must ask, what is hip hop coming too???? Ever since rappers started blowing up via the mixtape circuit, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Papoose, wait maybe not Papoose, artists have thrown albums to the wind and started dropping mixtapes. If you ask me, a mixtape should be a rare occurrence if you are a major rapper who can get free beats from COUNTLESS producers but whatever. Not only have rappers started dropping mixtapes instead of albums, thanks to the internet and the blog world, they drop brand new shit every day. Now, some rappers are able to put out pretty solid material time and time again HOWEVER, we don’t need to hear absolutely every lyric, every thought and every song, EVERY rapper makes. Everyone thinks that because Lil Wayne’s formula to success was quantity over quality, that they need to follow suit. I do understand that any press is good press but it has gotten out of control. I have seen artists drop a new song every day for a month but this shit is getting ridiculous. With the nature of the blog world, artists are “forced” to drop new material every day to stay relevant. That is where the quality versus quantity discussion comes to play. At what point are artists, fans, bloggers, producers, publicists, deejays, etc…..going to stop letting this happen??? Maybe this is just how music is going to be consumed from now on and the hottest artists won’t be the most talented with the best songs and albums but those who can consistently get on every website day after day after day. In my own, worthless opinion, this formula takes away the value of the music. There is no anticipation. Anyone that knows me, knows how big of a Wayne fan I am but I really lost interest about the time of Carter III and leading up to it because he had new songs every single day. Now, someone has to force me to listen to Lil Wayne. It has turned from “grinding” to over-saturation to just out of control. Maybe I am just an old head who remembers waiting years to hear new material from my favorite artists and I am having a hard time adjusting to the times but all those albums that I used to wait in line at Best Buy to get, I STILL bump. How many of the songs or mixtapes from today’s artist will you be bumping 10 years from now? Maybe fans are just changing and what more and more and more but I think we are creative a breed of “artists” who will sacrifice quality for quantity. I can just hear the arguments now……”How many songs you put out last week????? I dropped 32 new tracks Monday, 27 Tuesday, 14 Wednesday, 19 Thursday and 42 on Friday.” Is this really the type of artists we want????? Like I said, maybe I’m just an old head who is scared to let go of the “good old days” but I think this shit is getting out of hand. I challenge everyone to download every Gorilla Zoe mixtape this month and honestly tell me that was a good look.
Disposable Arts………..
