There are lots of ways to measure the popularity of a musician, but according to People Magazine, Lil Kim was 2010′s most popular rap music star. The magazine bases its claim on the rapper’s Twitter following, which makes her the sixth most popular Twitter celebrity, behind names like Justin Bieber, Dilma Rouseff, Lady Gaga, Wikileaks bad-boy Julian Assange and Mad Max star Mel Gibson.

Lil Kim And Nicki Minaj Square Off

More traditional (and maybe saner) measures of a musician’s popularity include sales figures, which would put Eminem in the driver’s seat on that one for 2010. If you pay attention to the critics, then you’d have to go with Kanye West, who blew out his fellow rappers in 2010 with the nearly perfect critical success of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Newcomers who received a lot of press include Nicki Minaj, whose Pink Friday debut album sold nearly 400,000 units in its first week on the chart. All of that attention has created a little feud between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj. Lil Kim claims that Minaj has stolen her style and disrespected her in the process. Minaj didn’t take that sitting down, calling Lil Kim a “has been” in her Roman’s Revenge single. Lil Kim shot back with a single entitled Black Friday, a play on Minaj’s album title. Now Foxy Brown may be jumping into the mix with a rap called “Christmas Massacre,” which Brown will perform at Club Jelani’s in Brooklyn on Christmas Eve.

This war of words among the rap stars should illustrate how quickly a rap music artist can produce music today. In the past, an artist might take months to write and record a song. Compiling an album could take much longer. Artists were considered “prolific” if they released one album each year.

Today’s rap music artists write and record music every day. They may produce hundreds of songs each year, and many, though not all of them are worthy of an album release. In addition to albums, artists can also release independent singles, mixtapes, LPs and mini-albums. Better still, these songs can be released almost immediately after they’ve been recorded.

If you’re looking to break into the music scene, there’s no better way to do it than with a product called Sonic Producer. Sonic Producer allows you to record, mix and distribute your own rap beats. It comes with thousands of royalty-free samples that can be used in any way you want. Once you’re done recording, you own the music free and clear! Download your copy of Sonic Producer today and get your music out in the open!

Photo Credit: Windy Jonas, via Flickr