2007 in hip hop music

This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 2007.

Events

• In 2007 Cam'ron began a feud with 50 Cent. Both released diss videos which were released onto YouTube, moving hip hop onto the web. It began on Hot 97 when 50 called Koch Records the graveyard, implying that artists who cannot achieve success are not signed by the major record labels and go to the independent labels like Koch, Cam'ron, (who is signed to a major label but his crew and crew members are signed to Koch) took offense to this and phoned into the interview.
• In January 2007, DJ Drama was arrested for selling mixtapes, a move which shook the mixtape industry.
• 2007 sees the return of Ja Rule after a break in his career, partially caused by commercial failure.
• Hip hop album sales continue to fall despite still being a popular genre, as no album goes platinum as of July. This is because hiphop's mainstream popularity is more focusing on singles (particularly the hooks), rather than full-length albums that the customer can download on the internet. An example of this is Mims' This Is Why I'm Hot being hugely successful, but his album only reaching #4 in the US Charts. T.I. has made a platinum certification, so many consider him as well as Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Chamillionaire (who all have their albums out in September and have all made notable appearance on the charts before) hope in the resurrection of hip hop sales.
• Kanye West and 50 Cent go head to head both dropping albums on the September 11, 2007. At the time, they were the two biggest selling hip hop artists measured by the success of their previous albums Kanye West's Late Registration (5 million) and 50 Cent's The Massacre (10 million)
• On Sept.18, Kanye West's latest album, Graduation outsells 50 Cent's 2007 production Curtis in first week album sales. Kanye West sold 957,000 copies in the U.S. alone, making it the highest first week seller since 50 Cent's The Massacre pushed 1.14 million in March 2005. 50 Cent sold 691,000 copies in the U.S. during the first week. These are 50's lowest first week sales of his career.
• There were many hip hop albums slated for release this year, though the following were not released in 2007: Nelly's Brass Knuckles, Eminem's sixth studio album, Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II, Lil Jon's Crunk Rock, Dr. Dre's Detox and Three 6 Mafia's Last 2 Walk.
• One half of UGK Pimp C died in his hotel room on the 4th of December

Albums

Highest first week sales

As of December 31, 2007.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Highest critically reviewed albums (Metacritic)

See also

• Previous article: 2006 in hip hop music
• Next article: 2008 in hip hop music

References