Diggin' In The Digits

It's been over a decade now when in 2007, two of the biggest names in Hip-Hop literally went head-to-head, to see who was the commercial King. 50 Cent dropped "Curtis" and Kanye West dropped "Graduation". Kanye won in a landslide and at that moment, changed Hip-Hop. The DITD duo discuss the event in detail, looking at the albums themselves, the artists careers before and after the event and, of co...

"Trash" - Something that is of low quality. There's a lot of words in the Hip-Hop lexicon that are used freely & frequently. "Classic" & "GOAT" have been think-pieced to death in recent years, but what about "trash"? Whenever an album, EP or song drops, there is always somebody to label it "trash". But what do we really mean when we say "trash"? Do we mean it's the worst thing ever? The wo...

The DITD "Retrospective" series continues with Chicago's own Common. On the back of his latest Studio Album "Let Love", Common has long solidified his place in Hip-Hop history. Multiple classics, iconic songs and a model of consistency. Now, in recent years, he's evolved to become the signature lyricist to *sound* like he's pushing 50. Themes of Love, introspection & life experience has always...

Storytelling is a foundation in how we communicate. It gives us the ability to inform others of the past. But past that very basic understanding, we can use Storytelling to however we see fit. We can tell the outright truth, we can give a completely fabricated recount. We can make it funny, make it sad. It's all up to the storyteller. So imagine that ability to mould a story and then throw some be...

The DITD duo continues their "Retrospective" series with one of the most visible figures in Hip-Hop history. Snoop Dogg. There's plenty of ways to hail Snoop Dogg , from his music to his cultural ubiquity, to his business acumen, to his activism. Ben & Charlie cover all of these (In a "We are not worthy" fashion) and more as they figure out why Hip-Hop fans don't rate him as heavy in today's l...

Dr Dre is a consensus Top 5 Producer in Hip-Hop history. Where some try to cement their legacy by either being business geniuses or creative geniuses, Dr Dre has done both. A residency on Forbes' Hip-Hop cash kings and countless artists that have Dre to thank for their careers are testaments to that. Ben & Charlie continue their retrospective series with a breakdown of Dr Dre's accomplishments...

It's been a week since the release of Chance The Rapper's much-anticipated debut Studio Album "The Big Day". But the responses towards the album have been... Mixed, to say the least. There are people saying it's trash, (Ben) there are people that don't like it but can find positives in it (Charlie) and there are people that are ready to put on the capes to fight for their boy Chance. It's been a w...

If you're into Hip-Hop in any format, whether you follow certain artists, writers, YouTubers or even just your mate that's really into Hip-Hop, you know about the yearly content dump that is the XXL Freshman List. 10 artists who are on the come up get the opportunity to say "Hey World, I'm here!" They drop a quick freestyle, attend the Freshman Cyphers and of course, join together for a cover shoo...

Nas has recently dropped "The Lost Tapes 2", which is considered a breath of fresh air, especially after the terrible project that was "NASIR". So, in celebration of this, the DITD duo explores Nas' music that's not named "Illmatic". What are the best ones? Why doesn't Nas get respect from the "Genius Generation"? Is the tired "Nas picks terrible beats" comment the real reason why people don't put...

It's been a few months since Lil Nas X's explosion onto the mainstream. Since then, "Old Town Road" is now the longest-running No.1 Hip-Hop track on the Billboard Hot 100 and is quickly closing in on the All Genre record. Memes are the most fluid element of Social Media, which in itself is the most fluid form of communication. So what happens when that meme is based around an artist we've never he...

One of the most anticipated releases of 2019 has come & gone. "Revenge of The Dreamers 3", led by J.Cole, has been received very well. So well in fact, that it got Ben & Charlie thinking about the concept of "Label Albums" or "Collaborative Albums" to word it differently. If we look back at albums such as ROTD3, they're rarely remembered as being high-quality projects. They're more remembe...

With the 2010s edging closer and closer to its end, it is a consensus thought to say that Drake has owned this decade from a commercial standpoint. He came around just before the start of the decade and the (commercial) rise has been at a steady upward trend. But you know the deal, commercial success isn't everything. But unfortunately, the commercial success, for some reason, has gotten people co...

In Part 2 of DITD's mini-series "Major vs Independent", we finally get to talking about the side that we cherish so much. The Independents. As independent writers and Podcasters, we value the fact that we don't have anybody to tell us what we should do because it helps the bottom line. The thing that we forget is that Hip-Hop is, was and forever will be a culture & lifestyle. NOT a business. W...

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...