More MCs Skip Million Dollar Videos,Go Straight To YouTube,MySpa

Kanye, Cam'ron, More MCs Skip Million-Dollar Videos, Go Straight To The WebMCs post clips on YouTube, MySpace to save time, money. By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Jayson Rodriguez and Joseph Patel Send Digg Del.icio.us Newsvine Print You Tell Us Are million-dollar hip-hop videos joining throwback jerseys and Jheri curls on the extinction list? Rather than submit clips to MTV or BET, more rappers are choosing to take their videos straight to cyberspace first. In some cases, they're only taking them to cyberspace. (See what Timbaland, Jim Jones, Rich Boy and others have to say about video disses right here.) "Before you had YouTube and all that, this is something I would do anyway," said Jim Jones, co-CEO of Diplomat Records. "I would shoot low-budget videos and target local video outlets. I would go in the projects and shoot my own videos. This [new trend] is the same thing, but now you have a better way to watch it. You're liable to see your favorite rapper on YouTube every week." 50 Cent, Cam'ron, Mobb Deep's Prodigy, Kanye West and even producer Scott Storch have recently been the biggest names making the most noise. "I think big-budget videos [were] a moment in time," Jeff Sledge, senior director of A&R at Jive Records, said. "It's a lot of money. Artists are a lot more business-savvy, a lot smarter. A million dollars on a video is a lot of money â