SOHH NYC
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Jadakiss Might be on the Right Track with "Right By My Side," ... and LL Cool J Takes an "L" this Week
Posted on September 18, 2008 10:00 AM
I'm actually a little surprised. This is the first time I've heard Kiss do a track dedicated to the ladies that didn't come off as a for-the-ladies fill he threw togther for the sake of sales.
-------> Jadakiss featuring Ne-Yo "Right By My Side"
WOW! Is Def Jam possibly going to treat Jadakiss like he's an actual artist? With the exception of Jay-Z, they haven't done that for any rapper in a long time. Oh yeah, that's right. Ne-Yo's on the track. So if they actually push Jadakiss then it will only be because of that.
But I almost want to be optimistic that if pushed right, this single might do more for him than what people think. Then that takes us back to square one: they'll only push it because of who's singing the hook. That's the best way to go as a Def Jam rap artist. Ne-Yo's on his third album in three years. Do the math. That's an album every year! Better get him on one of your songs. But wait...there are no rappers left on Def Jam. Fabolous already set the Ne-Yo trend. And it wont be long before he's gone.
Speaking of Def Jam artists, or lack of, LL Cool J just flopped... just like I said he would. That's right. Old Man L sold 43,000 copies in his opening week for "Exit 13." And Jay isn't there to witness it. So now who is he going to blame? After all that complaining he did about "Todd Smith" just barely making gold status, saying it was Hov's fault, blah blah blah, he can't depend on "that man" to promote his album, etc etc. N*gga, you'll be lucky if "Exit 13" sees 100,000 albums before it falls into the bottom 40 on Soundscan. L sold over 200-something-thousand albums the first week with that sorry ass album "Todd Smith," and I saw no difference in Def Jam's promotion this go-round contrary to his claims of such, and now he flopped even harder than ever before (despite "Exit 13" being a MUCH better effort).
This takes us back to what I've been saying, and will keep saying: "Todd Smith" was a horrible album, and you're lucky you got that far with it. Stop blaming "promotion." Stop blaming Jay. Because now, it has pretty much backfired and you now have no one else to blame but yourself. Stop blaming the falling music market. Rappers are still selling a respectable amount of albums.
Now what? Well he says this is his last album on Def Jam. Hopefully it will be his last one ever.
Same thing for Jay. Killing the legacy with the release of these half-ass albums. Ever heard of the saying "stop while you're on top"?
