Pipe Dreams: What If Curren$y Stayed With Young Money?

Since 2008, Curren$y has been slowly, but surely been elevating himself to being one of the most popular rappers in his era. No artist in this time period has really been able to release a consistent amount of music. His grassroots fanbase, his do it yourself approach, his understanding of himself and what he wants in his music, and his respect and understanding for hip-hop and its culture have allowed him to receive co-signs from artists of the past and present.With all of this success and wealth, it sometimes makes me wonder how different Spitta's path would be if he remained with his former label, Young Money Entertainment. You can never deny that Lil Wayne and Young Money records have more or less dominated the industry for the past three years. With a string of very successful and platinum selling artists (Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj), as well as some noteworthy up and comers (Tyga, Cory Gunz, Lil Twist), it's very hard to rival this team in regards to hit making. In a label that has very few slip ups, it's very easy to argue that their biggest mistake was letting Curren$y walk away. Many people felt that Spitta was the only artist that could keep up with Wayne when it came to rhymes (until the inclusions of Drake and Cory Gunz), and it was unfortunate that they didn't know what to do with him. With all of this being said, this is the good, and bad of what could've happened if Curren$y stayed with arguably the biggest name in rap music today.


 The Good: Curren$y would be recognized as the most lyrical (outside of Wayne) and sonically diverse member of YM. His string of mixtapes in 2008 would allow him to easily become as successful  as he did as an independent artist, only on a much larger scale. Being that Curren$y is being so consistent with albums this days, this massive success and popularity would lead to most of his albums going at least gold or platinum.  All of Curren$y's work would lead to the Jets name being a household name to the point that Cash Money decides to give him his own distribution deal (Jet Life Music). Jet Life Music would be hugely successful, maybe even to the point of surpassing Young Money.

 The Bad: Curren$y would've remained musically stagnant. He never would've found his niche and style and would become generic and lost in this bunch like many of the artist on Young Money (Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, Short Dawg, T-Streets). The Jets would be just another name and Curren$y never would've gotten under the shadow of the Young Money leader Lil Wayne. He never would've released the successful How Fly with Wiz Khalifa. He wouldn't have gotten on the XXL Freshmen 10 in 2009. In short, Curren$y would just be another rapper.


All in all, my pipe dreams will not change the fact that what's done is done. Young Money's loss didn't affect the teams level of success, but it quite possibly affected their level of diversity. No offense to YM, but the only ones that are really diverse artist are the starting three (Wayne, Drizzy, Minaj). Nevertheless, Curren$y's departure from Young Money three years ago was the best thing for him. It's led to his successful, critically acclaimed, and profitable career. Even if it's on a smaller scale, his credentials add up to, and even surpass many of the artists on his former label. I guess it was really their loss.

-Raul A.