>>They are a very good example of why I think the broad brush used on rap here is incorrect. Especially when it comes to mainstream huge selling rap.
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cRap has no staying power. In the music industry, there is a concept known as “catalog.” It basically means albums and songs that sell long after their release. Items like “Yellow Brick Road”,”White Album”, “In Search of the Lost Chord” etc. still dominate the catalog domain.
cRap music has about a 1 week shelf life. There is no catalog and eventually the industry will implode from its own embrace of the non-sustainable street poetry.
Who goes back for 10 or 20 year for cRap? No one. But people still want to buy and enjoy “Houses of the Holy.”
Hip hop has an enormous catalogue. Not only have deluxe reissues of hip hop records from the 80s and 90s sold well, plenty of hip hop albums from those years remain in print.
Additionally, hip hop albums that have not been reissued - usually due to legal disputes between management and publishing companies - command hundreds of dollars apiece among collectors.
I understand that you lack the initiative to explore the genre - de gustibus non disputandum and all that - but the market for records spanning the 30+year history of hip hop remains quite strong to the level of people setting up new labels just to reissue these classic titles.