Radio Silence (Part 2)

Is it doing the most or not enough?

Master P’s released over 20 albums in 1998

In 1998, Hip Hop experienced a surge in music with much of the marquee names releasing seminal works all in one year. DMX released two platinum albums, Jay-Z released Vol. 2, Hardknock Life and Lauryn Hill released the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. This year was a hallmark of Hip-Hop culture with seemingly every marquee artists releasing music.

“I made millions from raps, I couldn’t die in scraps” - Master P

But no one took full advantage of this momentous year than Master P. and that is not only because of the quantity of music he released, but the talent that released from No Limit in 1998 revolutionized the distribution model for the entire music industry. No Limit Records became its own centralized broadcasting station releasing and owning it's entire catalogue. Master P had perfected Berry Gordy's assembly line production style with an album releasing every week - this lineup included the release of the soundtrack to I Got the Hook Up, Master P's MP the Last Don, Mystikal's Ghetto Fabulous and Snoop Dogg's Da Game is to Be Sold not Told.

Artists (and labels) today are trying to implement this similar model without much success. Saturating the market feels like spamming for the sake of activating the algorithm, instead of feeding the fans. Every week we could expect a new album from the No Limit Camp from a completely new artist. It was like a band of superheroes releasing a new movie/spinoff every week. Youngboy Never Broke Again released eight albums in 2023 and it almost felt like an attempt to prove he can instead of sincerely offering something meaningful for the fans. We don't have time to listen to music thoroughly because of the access to every song ever made at the palm of our hands.