Exactly.

One thing I will say about 50, though, is he still stayed rapping mostly about street/grimy s*** or life related stuff for the most part with exceptions like "I Get Money" and he became more introspective after 07.

He just used to sales talk to start WWE style beefs with other rappers.

david p

Dre and Jimmy with Eminem

it was in the "bling bling era" too that they pushed Eminem, with all the newsmedia and popculture focus in the late 90s the market was already growing sofast

nobody sold like Eminem before, not LL, not Rakim, not NWA, not Wu-Tang, not even Pac, Biggie, Nas or Jay Z

then Dre, Jimmy and Em did it again with 50 Cent and at that same time Jay Z had built up the Roc to where people were calling him the most successful rapper

then Birdman focused Weezy after Hot Boys and once The Carter 3 sold 1 million physicals in first week it pretty much certified hip-hop as the most dominant genre in music

At this point it may as well be about sales because god knows this generation is lacking in skills.

Hov and 50

Yeah he only brought up sells against his enemies, he wasn’t causally going around flaunting his sells success

The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1.78 million copies in its first week, which made it one of the fastest-selling studio albums in the United States. The album sold twice as much as the previous hip hop record holder for first week sales in the US, which was Snoop Dogg's 1993 album Doggystyle.

he literally challenged Kanye to a sell-off and then lost which was 50 Cent's 2nd classic album and he didnt really see much greater commercial success in his music after even though Curtis is a classic and sold a lot it didnt outperform The Massacre

Wanna know how much s*** has changed around here? lol watch this

Fr, that was 90% of his disses or flexes in both song and interview. That's why he was cooked once he couldn't sell triple play numbers anymore

You heard of 50? Or even Pac who was doing great even while in prison?

the only answer here is 50

Hip hop always been about numbers tbh. Hov used it to go at P, PAC used sales as a shot. 50 is the one who made it big in his prime and I’d say the Ye vs 50 beef is what caused this new age excitement with sales.

BIG voice "shit done changed"

Underrated answer.

Interscope definitely played a big role in turning hip hop into a more marketable/mainstream genre compared to the 90's which lead to more emphasis on sales and charts.

dont start to pls

drake stans ruined hip-hop
THATS a fact

so corny

Social media and Stan culture..

Drake had some contributions to this argument, but it's mostly his stans on here or on social media.

Let's be real here

Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer
Then Eminem, Hov, 50 Cent
Now Drake

Vanilla Ice and Hammer were considered pop fads and clowned by a lot of rappers back then so I wouldn't include them.

I'd say LL Cool J started the sales talk going that far back.