The Future of Hip Hip: A recent column ‘The Shrinking Market Is Changing the Face of Hip-Hop‘ that appeared in The New York Times discusses the future of Hip Hop.

“Because hip-hop is so intensely self-aware, and self-reflexive, it came to be known as big-money music, a genre obsessed with its own success. Newcomers arrived with big singles and bigger hopes, only to fall off the charts after selling a few hundred thousand copies, if that.

The 1990’s brought a series of breakout stars including Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G but rappers today seem like underground figures, for the first time in nearly two decades. For instance the genres biggest star 50 Cent recent album “Curtis” (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope), has only sold 1.2 million copies while his 2005 album, “The Massacre,” sold more than five million. If we are now entering an age of diminished commercial expectations, that will inevitably change how hip-hop sounds too.”

EMI Culture Changes: A person close to Terra Firma said it had made three significant culture changes at EMI. EMI is now demanding that employees submit business plans and secure senior executives’ approval before signing new artists, asking for detailed marketing plans before any promotional activity and changing bonus plans to encourage executives to focus on EMI artists’ global potential rather than local markets alone. Also, Terra Firma has instructed executives to shift their focus from television advertising to promotions that emphasise digital music. (EMI Faces Tigher Budgets)

Why Did Radiohead Really Leave EMI? Radiohead left label EMI because they refused to agree to a deal worth 10 Million dollars. According to The Times, Radiohead was offered £3m to resign with the label which they found unacceptable. A spokesperson for the label said “Radiohead were demanding an extraordinary amount of money and we did not believe that our other artists should have to subsidise their gains.”