Diggin' In The Digits

Last year, Kanye West unloaded the clip. We knew that he was working on something, the hype train was picking up speed. He then announced three "albums" that we now know as "DAYTONA", "ye" & "KIDS SEE GHOSTS". A couple of weeks later, he announced two more! Nas' "Project That Shall Not Be Named" & Teyana Taylor's "KTSE". So since we're in the space of a year anniversary of the whole thing,...

In a 2-part series, DITD tackles the one topic that has been clouding over every other topic Ben & Charlie has talked about so far on DITD. Major Labels. In the 90s, the US "Big Three", Universal Music Group, Warner & Sony consumed Hip-Hop as soon as it became a cultural force. From '86 to '96, there were 17 No.1 Hip-Hop albums, 11 of them were under Major Labels. It's even more clear look...

In the times we live in right now, it could be said that we're in a golden age of protest. All around the world, there are protests of large numbers being held. They're so prevalent now, you could probably name a few of them. When it comes to Hip-Hop, it too is on the frontline. From Kendrick's Grammy performances to Stormzy's BRIT Awards performance. Music has always been a place to protest and H...

Episode 8 of DITD is all about the women. In the '90s, there was a healthy contingent of women getting the job done in the Hip-Hop space. There were many female Hip-Hop artists to name, some of them got to the point where they had genuine, landmark chart success. But in the two decades since, the numbers have been cut by more than half. If we look at it from the broadest scope, there's only been s...

The subject of Mental Health is a conversation that has been increasing in volume in the past decade. Not just in society, but in Politics as well. (Although most National Jurisdictions are way behind...) But it's not just in day-to-day life, it's also becoming more and more prevalent in the music we love dearly. Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop is historically been iffy when it comes to Mental Health, coinciding...

"Rap Unicorn" - Phrase - A Hip-Hop artist that rarely drops music, but when they do, everybody listens. E.g. Andre 3000 & Ms Lauryn Hill. Ben & Charlie explore another angle in the relationship between the artist and the fanbase. More specifically, is it right for the fan to demand an artist to drop music simply because they haven't dropped in a while? Ben gives statistics on the "Rap Unic...

Out of the Five Elements of Hip-Hop, two of them are based on music. MC & DJ. Rapper & Producer. Both are important in equal measure. So why is it that in this age, where the Hip-Hop sound is bigger than ever and one could say that Hip-Hop production quality is as high at it has ever been... Why has the producer has taken the back seat in every facet of the game?  Why do they get less mone...

Religion and religious content is a staple in music. And when it comes to Hip-Hop, it's no different. Since it's inception, there has always been a section of Hip-Hop culture that is dedicated to looking for meaning and purpose. And in some walks of life, Religion has been the key. For Episode 4 of DITD, Charlie & Ben take a dive into Religion & Hip-Hop. Specifically, Christianity and Kany...

In recent Hip-Hop news, Dave East hopped on Instagram to call the viral Country/Hip-Hop track "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X "wack". Hip-Hop social media proceeded to swell up with defensive shots at Dave East. Shots like "NAME ONE DAVE EAST TRACK", "DAVE JUST SALTY HE DOESN'T CHART", you get the idea. People missed the chance to look at the context and the deeper conversation about inorganic fanbas...

For Episode 2 of "Diggin' In The Digits", we talk about music reviewing and music criticism.  In a perfect world, the average music consumer and the professional music critic would always be on the same page and could even see each other's viewpoint clearly when both looking at a body of work. But obviously, that's a rare thing. We dive into several angles for this one. Starting with Ben's statist...

For the first episode of DITD, we wanted to take a deep dive into the numbers for Nipsey Hussle, who was recently taken from us. Ben delivers three sets of statistics to highlight how great Nipsey was, not from a music standpoint, but from a marketing and a business standpoint.  Topics in the episode include Nipsey's selling practices early in his career, the percentage of conscious bars he laid d...