The Illusion of Success in Rap

The accomplishment of an aim or a purpose: that is the definition of success. So when it comes to rap music, how exactly would you measure it? A common metric that the industry uses is first-week sales and number-one albums, but these can be deceptive. Many artists achieve these goals, and while it's obviously impressive, they are only the illusion of success.

Even awards as prestigious as the Grammys can be a misconception, and this video will explain exactly why. You can find two examples of first-week sales and number one albums being deceptive in just the last few months alone; however, we'll begin with the one that is more excusable. On August 23rd, Travis Scott re-released his iconic mixtape, *Days Before Rodeo*, a project that fans have wanted on streaming services for a very long time. Alongside the mixtape, Travis offered vinyls, CDs, and other merchandise bundled with the project for his fans to purchase. Additionally, he sold digital deluxe versions of the project that featured unheard songs from this era.

Basically, he was doing everything he could to increase the numbers. This re-release was a massive success for Travis, as the album sold 361,000 units in the first week. Yet, this wasn’t enough to obtain the number one spot, as Sabrina Carpenter beat the artist to the top. To make matters worse, the album sales declined by 94.7% in the following week, marking it as the biggest percentage decline on the Billboard 200 this decade. Funnily enough, he would end up getting the heavily desired number one in the third week, as most of the vinyl shipped then, meaning he sold 156,000 units in the project's third week of release. It would ultimately drop off the Billboard chart in the fifth week, making it one of the projects that charted for the least amount of time. You may think this is a load of nonsense, as Travis Scott is basically a household name at this point and the project was just a re-release of something most people have already heard. So, to say he hasn't been successful would be absurd, and I see your point.

So let us take a look at a smaller artist who has burst onto the scene in recent years: Yeet. Now, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the young artist who has taken the industry by storm. Ever since his debut, his music has been improving—depending on who you ask, I guess—and his numbers have increased alongside his ability. On October 18th of this year, Yeet released his album, "Lifestyle," which earned him the coveted number one spot. In a fashion similar to Travis Scott, he mainly achieved this through the loophole of bundles and digital exclusives.

Merchandise for the project was bundled together with physical and digital copies of the album. In order to increase sales even further, Yeat sold CDs with tracks exclusive to each version of the CD that you purchased. Just in case this wasn't enough, he also released two digital versions of "Lifestyle" that featured even more exclusive tracks. It's safe to say his plan worked, as Yeat landed his first number one album on the Billboard Top 200. But at what cost? The album was not received too well, and you could tell in the streaming numbers, with the streams accounting for only 29,000 units. You may be thinking that those aren't bad numbers, but for Yeat, they actually are.

This was the lowest amount of streams that Yeet has had since his project "Up to Me," which was all the way back in 2021. Things have continued to get worse for this album, as it has now completely fallen off the Billboard Top 200, making it the shortest charting number one rap album of all time. It was one step forward and two steps back for the young artist. On one hand, he has achieved something that is just a dream for most artists; on the other hand, he has harmed his reputation by strongly pushing one of his worst albums in recent times, selling out in order to achieve those heights. This is the perfect example of the illusion of success, but it isn't just limited to numbers and chart achievements. The Grammys are one of the most prestigious awards that an artist can receive, yet even they can be misleading when it comes to success.

Now, this isn't intended to discredit any artists who have managed to achieve this feat, but to highlight the flaws in solely focusing on awards. There are two examples that perfectly illustrate just how misleading the Grammys can be. Let's take a look at the nominations for Best Rap Album this year: *Magna Carta Holy Grail* by Jay-Z, *Yeezus* by Kanye West, *Nothing Was the Same* by Drake, and *Good Kid, M.A.A.D City* by Kendrick Lamar. All four of those projects are arguably classics, yet the award went to *The Heist* by Macklemore.

Fans of the genre were bewildered as there was no reasonable explanation for this album winning instead of the others, especially "good kid, m.A.A.d city." Macklemore himself knew this; he shared a text he sent to Kendrick Lamar on Instagram, explaining that even he thought "good kid, m.A.A.d city" should have taken the Grammy for Best Rap Album. This isn't the only time Kendrick has had a Grammy stolen from him, as he also lost out on the 2015 Album of the Year award to Taylor Swift, whose album "1989" managed to beat "To Pimp a Butterfly," which is highly regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. And if you need one more reason to believe that the Grammys aren't the best way to measure success, take a look at Travis Scott. He is a massive artist, arguably one of the biggest of the last decade, with several highly acclaimed albums; yet, the artist has never won a Grammy. It's not like he hasn't deserved it either—he's been nominated ten times, and in 2019, he looked like a lock to win Rap Album of the Year with "Astroworld," yet somehow he lost out to Cardi B with "Invasion of Privacy."

This decision was yet another that shook the rap industry, and Travis has been on the hunt for his Grammy to this day. That being said, this is just another reason not to use the Grammys as a way to measure success. Although Travis has never won, it's undoubted that he is more successful than Cardi B. So, what exactly makes an artist successful? Before we define true success, make sure to subscribe to the channel, as the majority of you watching these videos haven't clicked the button yet. If we consider things like first-week sales, number one albums, and even Grammys to be vanity metrics, how could you ever label an artist as successful? Well, I'd say the most important attribute to having music longevity applies to both the artist and their actual music. Take a look at some successful rap artists who have been around for almost two decades; Kanye has been in the game for over two decades. Even trap artists like Future have achieved longevity through their timeless music. If you look at the charts, you'll find albums that have been out for years still holding their ground.

Graduation came out 17 years ago, yet it’s still at spot 67 on the Billboard 200. Astroworld came out 328 weeks ago, and it has spent every single one of those on the charts. This is in stark contrast to "Yeet" and "Lifestyle," which spent just three weeks on there. When you’ve created timeless music, the Grammys and number one albums make sense. This is what separates artists who have truly achieved greatness from those who are only under the illusion of success.