The Rap Up: Episode 25

Drake most streamed Spotify artist of 2017

Toronto’s own Drake has been named the most streamed artist of 2017 with over 6 billion in 2017 alone. Drake’s high amount of streams can be attributed to the release of his playlist More Life as well as a number hit singles. Drake also has many older albums and song that remain in the libraries of hip hop heads and regular music listeners alike. These 6 billion streams have us at the rap wondering how much money do artists make off streams? Now that rappers and other artists are having their streams and youtube views counting towards their record sales how much exactly does spotify and apple music split with artists and do record labels give bonuses for artists with high amounts of streams. Surely Drake did not make a full dollar or even 50 cents for every stream played but he most definitely got a decently fat cheque for those 6 billion streams. As we move into an era where most music is digitized and more and more people are moving towards streaming sites such as spotify and apple music questions like these and matters regarding artist popularity will become more prominent.

Big Sean & Metro Boomin drop Double or Nothing

Prior to the end of the Fall 2017 school term, Big Sean and Metro Boomin treated us with yet another collab album to finish off the year. This is not Metro Boomin’s first collab album of the year as he has also provided his production for the likes of Nav, 21 Savage and Offset. We have discussed the Without Warning collab before and came to the conclusion that it is one of the best collab tapes of the year. Now the Double or Nothing album did not have a wide well received reception, as many hip hop fans called out the corny bars that Big Sean brought to the table, and some even stated how he wasted some fire Metro beats. We all agreed on the show on Monday that at first we did not know how to feel about the album, but slowly it began to grow on us, and is now played regularly in all of our playlists. The thing about the album that we have to say in its defense, is that you know what you are going to get with a Big Sean album and what kind of bars you will hear. Although there were some corny bars here and there, the overall flow and production on the album makes it one to definitely listen to.

Artist of the Week- Eminem

Eminem was our artist of the week this week, with his new album Revival dropping the past December. We went down memory lane talking about how his music influenced us back in middle school and how unfortunately his new music has been missing the mark for us. Despite this, it is clear that he still has his bars with a remix to Chloraseptic coming out which gave us a little bit of the type of music that we’ve been missing. We’re still excited to see what he’ll do next and hope that he hops into the booth with a producer other than Rick Rubin soon.

Tracklist

One Dance- Drake, WizKid, Kyla

HYFR- Drake, Lil Wayne

All the Stars- Kendrick Lamar, SZA

Till I Collapse- Eminem, Nate Dogg

Ass like that- Eminem

Must Be The Ganja- Eminem

Who’s Stopping Me- Big Sean, Metro Boomin

Bartier Cardi- Cardi B, 21 Savage

Finesse (Remix)- Bruno Mars, Cardi B

American Dream- Jeezy, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar