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Rick Ross And The Power Of Hip-Hop Blogs

10:37 a.m. · May 31, 2011 · by Andrew Winistorfer

Of all the things you could say about Rick Ross, it's hard to deny that dude has good taste in blog rappers: He did, after all, sign Wale, Pill and Meek Mill. So the New York Times has taken the time to dissect Ross' interest in blog-rappers, mostly by claiming he's smashing any local love his posse has in order to have a group of coattail riders. It's an interesting, if tired point: Mixtapes are making rappers more than labels, even if manufactured posses still exist. But the part that will be most hurtful to blog-rap stans is the part where Jon Caramanica says Wale is the least promising rapper in the group:

Pill, Meek Mill and Wale have nothing in common but the MMG chain they wear. Pill, from Atlanta, has a coiled, drawling flow. He first gained notice in 2009, on the back of his stark video for his single “Trap Goin’ Ham,” which became a favorite of the rap Internet. But though he signed with Asylum, another Warner Brothers imprint, last year, he’s yet to capitalize on the initial wave of blog interest. His marriage of convenience with Maybach Music Group has already provided him with his most prominent song to date, the Ross collaboration “Pacman.”

 

Meek Mill, from Philadelphia, is an excitable barker, as heard on his “Flamerz” mixtapes, which have been circulating on blogs for the last couple of years. (The Internet is where mixtapes live now, on sites like LiveMixtapes and DatPiff.) Last summer he had a hometown hit, “Rosé Red,” which helped inaugurate his relationship with Mr. Ross, who rapped on the remix.

 

For Wale, from Washington, this is his second major-label dance — he was signed to Interscope after becoming a blog favorite in an earlier day, the era of the streetwear-obsessed hip-hop hipster. (His Seinfeld-theme mixtape, “The Mixtape About Nothing,” helped too.) After one unsuccessful album, he and Interscope parted ways. While Pill exudes smooth menace, and Meek Mill impending havoc, Wale is the odd man out, a less nimble and less promising rapper whose boasting sounds uncertain, especially in impressive company.

Read the whole thing here.