The Ability of Ace Hood to make a "Comeback"

Note: All numbers comes thanks to Wikipedia and various hip hop sites that get their hands on record numbers and chart numbers. They could be wrong and I could be wrong. But the message stays the same
Follow Ace Hood on Twitter: @AceHood954
Follow Me on Twitter: @Idoitforhiphop


I firmly believe that Ace Hood was never gone, therefore he can't exactly make a comeback. Before I continue, let me state that I'm from Florida. Broward County in fact. Thus, the 954 that Ace Hood represents is the same 954 that I'm from. I'm in NYC now for college. So don't take any of this as hate. Take this as an honest opinion.

Now, on to more important matters. Ace Hood's first album sold 124,476 copies. Now that's not the greatest look when it comes to album sales. Look at what he did when he came up. The guy had the backing of DJ Khaled, one of the best DJs in the game. He had two mixtapes out, as well as the street single, Cash Flow, and the ladies record, Ride with Trey Songz. Cash Flow peaked at 120 on the Billboard 100, while Ride hit 90. Strangely enough, Cash Flow didn't even crack the US Rap charts. Ride, because of its content for the ladies, did far, far better, hitting 14. The biggest look that he had was appear on DJ Khaled's third album, We Global.

Ace Hood was on Khaled's lead single, Out Here Grindin. Furthermore he was on the record an additional time, on Final Warning. Last but not least, Gutta came out on We The Best Music/Def Jam. He had the backing of a major label. Why did the record underperform? The same reason why We Global underperformed and the same reason why his sophomore album did far worse.

Rick Ross and Southern Music.

Rick Ross has soaked up all the love that people have for Florida in the game. He's come out and he's continually improved, either record sales, lyrics, or both. But there can only be so many giants from one area. Jay had to battle Nas for the title of King of NY. Trick Daddy and Ross butted heads. Ace Hood can't compete with Ross. Not because of lack of bars, but simply because they're basically the same camp. Down in FL, it's thicker than water. Also, people are starting to get tired of the same sound, which is what Ace Hood is. He has the anthemic singles just like his mentor, DJ Khaled. He has The Runners, The Inkredibles producing his records. But it’s the same sound. Real as it Gets from Jay-Z's BP3 was one of the weakest songs on there. People were excited to hear Jay and Jeezy on the same track after Go Crazy, but shit get Don Cannon to be behind the boards again.

So what does Ace Hood do when his first album doesn't do the greatest of numbers? He goes back to the drawing board. Within a year, actually within 7 months, he releases his sophomore album, Ruthless. Now, many artist s have been afflicted by what's called the sophomore jinx. My question is, when your first album only did roughly 120k, why would you try again less than a year? I'd take a little bit of time off, work the mixtape circuit a little bit, gain a bigger buzz. I'd guest on more records, and more importantly, not DJ Khaled records or records that are associated with him, because people sometimes just pass Khaled because they know what the subject is about: We the Best.

But that's not what he does. The first time around, he had T-Pain doing the hook on his lead single. This time, he decides to double up and get not just T-Pain, but certifiably one of the best persons to put on a single to get people interested, T-Pain's boss. Akon. The result was Overtime, which in and of itself is a good record, with the exception of the fact that putting both Akon and T-Pain on there means that someone is going to lose their look, in this case, T-Pain was overshadowed by Akon.

It didn't help. Overtime hit 119 on the Billboard 200, one spot above Cash Flow. On the R&B charts it did worse. Cash Flow hit 55, but Overtime peaked at 70. Again it didn't crack the Rap charts. His second single wasn't about the ladies this time. He decided to do something a little out of the box at least for him and what was expected of him, and he enlisted Jazmine Sullivan's help for the second song, Champion, which also featured Rick Ross. This one performed worse than Overtime did.

Now, we're coming to the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Ace Hood has to make a decision. He has to start making honest to god hit records and he needs to back that up with an album that at least sells 250k.

Enter his (somewhat as of posting) recent Tweet through his Twitter (@AceHood954): New album on the way called Underrated.

The question is whether or not he can prove that he's here to stay and whether or not he can make hits. Cash Flow was a good song. Ride was good, the remix was better with Santana and them. Overtime had an excellent hook. Champion had a great message. He needs a song that has all of those mixed together. He needs to find a way to make fans want to buy the album as opposed to download it. The question is can he do it?

I think he can.

His plan should be simple. Do something that people don't expect him to do. Jazmine Sullivan was a good choice. It opened his audience up a bit more. Find artists to collaborate with that it just wouldn't make sense. Get Khaled to open up that book of contacts and make something happen.

Call up Asher Roth. Do a track like Luda and Game's song from Theater of the Mind. Call up Ne-yo. Every rapper and their weed carrier has done a ladies song with Ne-yo, (See another Florida artist who did it and did it well, Plies). More importantly, get beats that aren't from The Runners or The Inkredibles, or Cool and Dre. Yes, They're all from Florida and yes they're all Khaled affiliates. Get like Kanye West. You can probably get in touch with him through Khaled after Go Hard. Get Neo Da Matrix through Jadakiss. Shell out the money if you really can and get Timbo. Do the underground a favor and get the Alchemist. That would be an interesting song. But don't do the same thing all over again.


People are starting to get tired of that. Ross was smart with Deeper Than Rap and he got J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League to craft arguably one of the best Hip Hop Albums of 09 when it comes to production. You're not a niche rapper. Unless you let yourself be one.