Nice guys are finishing first on hip-hop charts

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With the release of The-Dream’s third studio album, Love King, today, it’s sometimes hard to remember how different urban radio was before the “radio killa” started putting his stamp on it. From Rihanna’s “Umbrella” to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It),” the type of music getting radio play has shifted, not just in R&B but in hip hop as well.

There’s no question that artists thriving today aren’t the roughnecks MC Lyte spit about back in the day or the shirtless and menacing figures like 50 Cent more recently, hip-hop is getting noticeably gentler.

Image really is everything.

Rappers don’t even look like they used to. Baggy pants and wheat Timberland’s have been replaced by skinny jeans and high end shoes. Decades ago LL Cool J’s “I Need Love” reached the pinnacle of rapper vulnerability but that didn’t lead to a transformative shift in the tone of hip-hop the way Kanye West’s 808’s & Heartbreak did in 2008.

Pulling from an eclectic source of influences, West created an album that was received a million different ways but innovative in proving hip-hop artists can do more. He’d moved on from the soul samples he made his name on and expounded on the electro-synth music dabbling he did on 2007’s Graduation creating something truly different.

The success of that album ushered in an era of commercial viability for artists unafraid to be emotional on a record, there was now a place on radio for artists who never claimed to be a thug to be individuals and forcing other rappers to accept a new duality that they don’t have to just be one thing to sell.

The indie sound and experimentation was also penetrating the mainstream. With major labels griping their checkbooks tighter than ever, they were no longer investing in artists they needed to spend lots of time and money developing. Instead of buying into raw, unrefined talent, artists who’d developed their voice and cultivated their audiences as indie acts were just smarter money.

Take Drake for example. He parlayed his teen idol status from 8 years on DeGrassi: The Next Generation into having a built in fan base. Before signing a deal or aligning himself with one of the strongest hip hop camps out, he’d built a buzz as an indie artist from his So Far Gone mixtape, which was later repackaged and sold as an album. His first major label album, Thank Me Later, debuted at #1 selling over 460,000 copies in its first week, off his image and music, which is unarguably female friendly.

Tough economic times have forced labels to get a better understanding of their audience. Being a bad ass, in the traditional sense, isn’t appealing to consumers the way it used to.

Hip-hop had once been all about street credibility. In another era an artist like Rick Ross would’ve never lived down his past as a correctional officer but in the current market, him spitting cocaine dreams and caviar living didn’t deter his next release after being uncovered, Deeper Than Rap, from selling 400,000 copies and debuting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 200

The product was proving more important than the package.

The digital era, while nearly toppling the recording industry as we knew it has allowed artists to build their own brands and make their own moves without the direction of major labels.They’ve taken chances that a record label wouldn’t have allowed them to do, especially on a debut where it’s so important to prove you can be financially viable for them.

An artist like Kid Cudi, who’s hand in West’s 808’s and Heartbreak is indisputable, has been experimental, emotional and commercially successful. His 2008 debut, Man On The Moon: The End of Day, pulled from a diverse crop of influences on it’s way to selling over 100,000 copies in it’s first week. He made truly crossover music that was shockingly honest and unique but versatile enough to play anywhere from a rave, to urban radio, to mainstream TV commercials (like the Sobe Life Water commercial using his single, “Pursuit of Happiness”).

In the past where a label may have played up his legal woes, including a felony mischief and possession of a controlled substance arrest this month in Manhattan, to further solidify his street cred, they, along with the public, have generally gotten out of the business of rewarding poor decision making, and let the strength of his music guide his career, which now includes three Grammy nominations and a role in the hit HBO series, How To Make It In America.

The way artists craft introspective music has shifted from anger being the go-to way to convey complex emotions (see DMX) to one where wailing a little bit won’t hurt at all, especially in the eyes of female listeners who are rising as the genres biggest consumers.

Is the “soft” rap era here to stay? I doubt it. How many people believed the era of politically charged, Afrocentric lyricism of the late 1980s and early 1990s would be popular forever, then? For now, it works and for the development of hip hop as a genre, gives artists more range to be more themselves. Nobody wants to be labeled as soft but the fact is; men cry, women cry, numbers don’t. The kinder, gentler era of hip-hop is in full bloom.