How many rap artists have gone platinum or more?
Since 1995, there have been around 500 rap records released each year except for 1999 where the numbers doubled (1995 saw 469 releases; 1996 saw 482 releases; 1997 saw 497 releases; 1998 saw 477 releases; and 1999 saw 997 releases). Yet only such a small percentage of those releases sell at Gold or Platinum level (500,000 plus, and 1,000,000 plus, respectively). In 1998, there were 477 rap records released. Of this amount, only 12 went platinum and only 14 went Gold. Thats a tiny 5% of all of the rap records released–very ugly odds. In fact, only 57 sold above 250,000 units. In 1999, there were 997 records released and only 51 sold more than 250,000 units. Of those 51 releases, 11 were releases that sold above 1 million units (Platinum) and 20 releases that sold above 500,000 units (Gold). And yet those 31 Gold and Platinum records, out of 997 releases, accounted for 63% of the rap sales volume in 1999. If the average rap record costs $1,000,000 to create, market, and promote (and I c
