I Don't Believe In Filler

I seriously don't believe any artist in the world seriously creates a song to "fill" space on a cd. That's fucking ridiculous.

While it may not be their intention, songs do end up as filler.

Please, expound.

Simple, certain songs on CD's are just so wack that you can't stand to listen to them. Some of which prevent albums from being classic otherwise.

But "wack" is completely different than "filler". What you described isn't filler, which is my whole point.

Well the way you made it sound, it seemed like you were saying that rappers don't just put songs on CD's simply to fill spots on them. While I don't disagree with that, many CD's contain one or two tracks that a lot of people feel could have been left off, that's why they get labeled as filler.

But who is a fan to judge an artist's intent?

Jeff wrote:

But who is a fan to judge an artist's intent?

That's what fans do. Fans are the ones who decide whether or not an album is classic or not. Without the fans, they would be no recording industry.

I believe in the existence of filler.

But KJ, you misread or misunderstood Jeff's question.

fans judge artist's intent b/c if there intent is wack then fuck em. Sorry. We buy the artists shit and if their intention of putting a song on is shitty to my ears then im going to say it, i dont give a fuck if the artist likes it. Nas must like a lot of the wack fucking beats he picks and he probaly intends them fo fit well with the album, but not my ears

and i also believe in the existence of filler...not so much that they "fill space" but b/c IT SEEMS like its thrown on to fill space or was unnecessary and either the artist, label or someone was urging it to be put on the album.

I fully believe artist call other artists and say - damn, I need a few more tracks on this CD, come over and let's do this shit... so they make a shitty collab or some shitty other shit to fill out the album.

If the label wants filler, I believe that there is such a thing. An artist may think that a song with Trey Songz is filler but if the label won't release the album without commercial songs, then the artist doesn't have a choice but to have songs that they wouldn't want to release on the album.

I think forced commercial songs are different than filler.

To me filler is something the artist willingly creates to fill space on an album.

Pedro, what I mean is that you have major label artists that have labels that won't release albums without these commercial tracks. If an artist has to make a commercial track or tracks to create songs on an album, IMO that is filler. A mixtape artist can make street tracks all day for a major label release. However, if the label says I want a track with Trey Songz, Jazmine Sullivan, Swizz Beatz, etc and the artist eventually conforms to what the label wants, I would say that is filler.

^ i agree with both of you actually. There are different means and intentions for filler

Yeah, generally when I use the term I don't mean to suggest the artist's intent...I'm more saying that the songs mentioned take away from the rest of the album....the album woud be better off without them...I don't fuckin like em.

You could look at the formula for making No Limit albums. They did their best to put as many songs as possible on the album to fill up every minute possible. And a lot of fans of early to mid No Limit agree that if they had trimmed the fat a lot albums by them would've been rated higher. You don't need to use every minute on a disc just because it's there.

Kid Joe wrote:

Yeah, generally when I use the term I don't mean to suggest the artist's intent...I'm more saying that the songs mentioned take away from the rest of the album....the album woud be better off without them...I don't fuckin like em.

^^^This makes the most sense to me.

That makes the most sense most of the time. But I truly do believe rappers fill albums with bullshit some times. You're telling me when they throw on some half ass remix with the same beat and a few lame verses from affiliates that isn't just some blatant filler?

I bet that really happens, too.

Southern Rap Pro wrote:

That makes the most sense most of the time. But I truly do believe rappers fill albums with bullshit some times. You're telling me when they throw on some half ass remix with the same beat and a few lame verses from affiliates that isn't just some blatant filler?

King George - Tru Player

It doesn't have to be that they created the song just to fill space, but artists usually make many more songs than end up on the final album, and if there is pressure to fill a certain amount of time, songs that would have been cut or ended up as B-sides might be put on the album to fill time.