It's long been a staple of rap music. When a rapper gets big, he brings along all his buddies for the ride. They stand around and look tough while he makes the music and the money.
Now a couple of big time hip-hop stars aren't just putting their friends in the videos -- they're putting their friends on albums, and their friends are following them up the Lycos search charts.
Both Eminem and Nelly have seen a lot of success on the Lycos 50. Both previously were members of rap groups in their respective hometowns of Detroit and St. Louis before getting solo contracts and solo success. Now both have recorded albums with their old groups.
Eminem's old Detroit posse is called D-12, which stands for Dirty Dozen. This is despite the fact that there are only six of them. Eminem never was much of a math genius.
The members of D-12 claim that they are "here to bring the sick, the obscene, the disgusting." Some of us would argue that Eminem's already brought more than enough sick and disgusting to last us all a few years but the Shady One claims that D-12 member Bizarre is even more obnoxious and abhorrent than he is.
Whoop-de-do.
(For those who are wondering, Eminem is the only non-African American member of D-12. There's an interesting sociology thesis hidden somewhere in that fact.)
D-12's album is called Devil's Night and it hits stores on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Nelly and his buddies the St. Lunatics put out their record Free City two weeks ago and it debuted at #3 on Billboard's Hot 200.
Unlike Eminem, who has always been primarily a solo artist, Nelly actually started his career as more of a team player in the St. Lunatics, who had a regional midwestern hit in 1996 with the single "Gimme What Ya Want." Nelly was the star of the group though, so he got the record deal and huge popularity with last year's album Country Grammar
Many of the other St. Lunatics appeared on the record and on Nelly's numerous television appearances where they danced, rapped, and modeled an astonishing variety of Rams jerseys. The goal was always to bring the group along once Nelly got big, and Nelly didn't disappoint his friends. St. Lunatics are a much more fun-loving, party-hardy group than the angry, violence-spouting D-12.
So which group is more popular right now? That title would go to D-12, which received twice as many searches as the St. Lunatics last week.
Since D-12 put out a teaser single, the intellectually titled "S**t on You," last year, searches for D-12 have been around for a few months. But expectations for the new album caused them to triple over the last two weeks. St. Lunatics searches didn't show up until March but have grown more gradually since then.
The posse phase has also boosted searches for the solo artists who lead the teams. Eminem, after nearly falling off the Lycos 50, rebounded to #39 last week. Nelly, who hasn't been on the Lycos 50 since November, was #51 last week and may make Tuesday's new list.
