Did Rap Kill The Black Male Singer?
By Pearl Jr. How many of you know who the best selling Black male singer in the world for 2008 was? I bet you’ll never get this right, without a few clues. Well, he’s 50 years old, considered washed up and too controversial to sell, plus the majority of his songs are more than 25 years old. It’s Michael Jackson, who sold more than Usher, Chris Brown, Ne-yo, John Legend, and Seal. The King of Pop sold nearly as many records worldwide as the #1 best-selling artist in the US regardless of race, Lil Wayne, whose genre of hip hop lost nearly 19.8 percent in sales from the previous year. Michael Jackson’s song catalog sold 2.9 million copies with Thriller 25 topping over 2.3 million by itself, plus Michael didn’t even promote it and performed nowhere! Shocking isn’t it! (Lil Wayne sold nearly 3 million) Before the 1990’s, it seemed one could find a million-selling Black male recording artist on other every corner, and, at least, 20 in every Black church. Today, it’s becoming more and more di
