Nelly, Album Sales & The Myth of the Hit Single

At the start of the new millennium, you would have been hard pressed to find someone unfamiliar with Nelly. Whether it was with "Hot In Here", "E.I.", "Country Grammar", "Ride With Me", or "Grillz", the St. Louis rapper owned the radio waves. That all changed in 2009 with the release of Nelly's fifth studio album, "Brass Knuckles". With the highest charting single hardly breaking the Top 40, the album (for Nelly standards) flopped hard - debuting at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and tapping out at 225,000 copies. Upset with his declining sales, Nelly hit the studio and recorded the album's confusingly-titled follow up, "5.0". Released on December 16th, "5.0", led by the Top 10 single "Just a Dream", was projected to do big numbers. Nelly couldn't be happier - at least until the actual digits were released.

Selling 64,000 copies in it's first week, "5.0" actually sold less copies than "Brass Knuckles". Needless to say, Nelly was pissed. Earlier today, he released an open letter to the Universal Motown - blaming the label for the album's performance. In the letter (which can be found here), the rapper expresses frustration with the lack of promotion for the album release.

"So who fault is it when a artist gives the label not only a #1 hit but there first top40 #1 n label history!sell 2mill n singles n 2.5month. Who should be held responsible wen a artist has a history for selling records so its not like a new artist n no1 knows his r her name? Benefit of the doubt: Maybe no1 wants to hear music from that artist?well if that was true then the artist would not have a #1 song! Benefit of the doubt:Maybe no1is checking 4 the artist anymore?Well if that was true then how do u explain selling 2mill singles n 2.5month?" wrote the rapper.

Accusations were also made that Universal has been under-shipping their releases - releasing 200,000 copies of "5.0" in physical form.

Now that I've gotten the background out of the way, I can proceed to breakdown why Nelly's accusations are clearly misguided.

I'm going to be very blunt: a hit single doesn't mean sh!t anymore. Flo Rida releases a Top 20 single every 3 months and his albums haven't even gone gold. What matters is a fan base. Flo Rida has hits for days but, face it, there is no such thing as a die hard Flo Rida fan. The teenage girls who spend money buying the year's biggest singles are never going to purchase a full album. They may know to the lyrics to "Low", "Right Round", "Sugar", and "Club Can't Handle Me", but they couldn't care less for Flo Rida as an artist. When you make radio hits, you're just making hits. What you're not making is a fan base.

Lets take a look at the biggest hip hop albums of the year:

1) Eminem - Recovery (3X Platinum)
2) Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
3) Drake - Thank Me Later (Platinum)
4) Ludacris - Battle of the Sexes (Gold)
5) B.o.B. - The Adventures of Bobby Ray (Gold)

What separates each of these artists from Nelly is that, in addition to hit singles, each can rightfully be referred to as a lyricist. In an age where people can purchase and download individual tracks, the only way you're going sell albums is by developing a fan base. Rick Ross sold 176,000 copies in his first week without a hit single. Granted, Ross isn't the most lyrical rapper out there, but what he lacks in lyrical ability he makes up for in production value and an unflinching commitment to releasing quality tracks. Nelly's fan base was lost with the digital age. Why would anyone buy his full album when they could just as easily buy the six highlights and save themselves a few dollars?

What I'm getting at here is that, if Nelly wants to rejuvenate his popularity, he's going to have to seriously step up his lyrical game, become less concerned with making hit singles, and release albums - not greatest hits collections.

Blaming the record label is an appropriate response for someone like Lupe Fiasco, who has waited years for studio executives to release his album - not for Nelly, an entertainer who knows nothing about the entertainment business.

Note: This article first appeared on RandomEgotisticalThoughts.com.