Moving up in The Game: Status and Attention in Hip Hop Music

The Social Network of Hip Hop Dis songs Within hip hop there are directional relationships amongst dis songs and the flow of energy to and from rappers. There is a centrality  component in dis networks. The questions become what happens to the actors involved in the network and why are they dissing each others. In the late 1990s dis songs lost popularity in lieu of murders. The qualitative data included in a dis includes content as well as album sales. Furthermore there is a public perception attribute to dis. Affiliation with a high status person (positive or negative) has a positive impact on popularity or status. Methodology looked at may 1 2001 – January 1 2007. The sample included 203 rappers looking at sales and award data as well. What impact to the relationships have on performance in terms of sales. In degrees are disses in and out degree are disses out. Disses in have a positive sales impact. Status was determined by Gold record sales. Being dissed by a higher status improves your own status. However dissing upwards is more beneficial than dissing down. Reciprocity view over a one year period says that diss reciprocity is positive. Giving a response to a diss has an inconclusive impact on sales. Most importantly the Diss is mediated by the industry status structure.