3 Reasons Why Hip Hop went into 'Rebuilding' Part. 2.

Over a year ago I released this blog and here we are 14 months later, and I decided i'd do a part 2.

This may come as a surprise, but lets revisit Late 2004 when a little song called 'Piggy Bank' came out. By this time Ja Rule was gasping for his career air, and 50 was on the top of the hip hop game when he released the one song that changed the decade.
To the naked eye 'Piggy Bank' was just another furious diss record for hip hop 'IT' kid at the moment, but little saw the domino effect it would have on the game.

Nas, Fat Joe, Lil Kim, Jadakiss, Shyne, and yes, Ja Rule was all a victim of 50's wrath which was just a 1 shot drive by to 80% of NY's elite emcee's at the time. Previous to this track there was no tension between most of the people 50 went at, this came clear out the blue. Now, we know that the 'New York, New York' made 50 VERY uncomfortable for whatever reason, and his insecurities led to the well calculated, and well executed diss track. That machine 50 had behind him was something NO artist wanted to have against them, and it made all artist in the NY area VERY cautious about who they wanted to work with due to 50's wrath.

Now, how did this effect hip hop? Not only did the power house Murder Inc Brand get officially finished, but 2 artist who had been putting NY on the POP charts the previous four 4 years went into commercial oblivion due to the masses taking 50s side. Fat Joe managed a couple of hits, but NEVER sold the records he reached pre 'Piggy Bank'. Jada didn't have an album out for the next 4 years, and the LOX couldn't get ANY support from Interscope.... yes, the label that 50 was signed too. In the end it even led to Styles P getting released from the company, which made him a non factor commercially. Now Nas, well... lets just say that a bunch of 13 year old's are now a bunch of 21 year olds and have absolutely NO respect for Nas' greatness. Lil Kim went to jail shortly after and Shyne, well... he was already in jail. So in a sense 50 Cent monopolized the NY music scene on a national level, cause at that point it was 50 Cent/G Unit Mania, Jay-Z had JUST retires, but some others like Fab and Busta, who wasn't mentioned in Piggy Bank who had a couple hits, meanwhile Tony Yayo sold 800,000 records.

So, there we have New Yorks demise because of Piggy Bank. After 2004 you saw the south's reign and dominate the radio, some good.. but alot of BS seeped thru (i.e d4l, crime mobb, Franchize Boyz, 'Looking boys') and even some Midwest BS like Jkwon, Jibbs and Huey got to eat. But it doesn't stop there.

50 Cent had just help put out an artist named THE GAME who just so happened to sell 5 Million records off the strength of the records 50 crafted for him, but that marriage didn't last long. THE GAME went on record to say that, despite the issues his own camp had with people like Nas and Fat Joe, he didn't care, he would work with them anyway. Shortly after he was released from the label, and a slew of 50 cent/Gunit Disses came about.

Now we have the GUNOT campaign. Games putting out DVDs, Mixtapes, diss tracks in the name of dissing 50. So now instead of just one state being divided, we have a whole nation taking either 50s, or Games Side.... at that point, one big power house, got crumbled down and scattered to little pieces. Em was on drugs, Dre wasn't doin much to push Detox, and 50 was the lone barrier of the '3 headed monster' fighting a pain in the ass campaign, which in the end, hurt his fanbase and his movement.

This all stemmed from 'PIGGY BANK' your looking at 5 artist who went from controlling the charts to having mediocre sales, and albums countlessly pushed back.

50 may have won the battle, but hip hop lost the War.