I agree that there's too much talkin and not enough listening..
Overall the rap game is in a state of emergency, but Indie artists are the main one's struggling because there's not enough people willing to listen to many of their brands of music. Everybody coming out is the "hottest" "best artist" however in actuality many of them are making "regional" music. Regional music was the way to go and people were successful with it in the early 90's up until around 2002. After that, the market became more saturated than ever with the mainstream push and widespread acceptance of Hip Hop. More and more people that used to support regional artists, became rappers and producers themselves. Back when we started in 1997, music seemed much harder and was more of a challenge to make. There weren't all these shortcut beat making programs and there weren't too many makeshift studios. We used to record on ADAT and it was extremely expensive having to record at the studios with ADAT. We mixed one of our albums at Studio Ton's and that was expensive as well. But we took pride in doing it what was said to be the "right way." Now there's many ways to cut corners and drop albums faster. I think people oughta do a better job of promoting and advertising their projects. In this day and age, people oughta do more than just flyers. They need posters, snippet and promo cds, t-shirts and other gimmick items to familiarize people with the artist and product. Radio is much easier to get on nowadays as well... as opposed to years back. Now we have homegrown talent hours on various Valley stations and it's opening doors for lesser knowns. Internet marketing is a must and is huge as well however you can't dwell on message boards and most of that feedback. Get out there in the streets... get to car shows, festivals, carnivals, fairs, concerts, downtown hotspots in various towns etc. and make a name for yourself.
We used to sell a shitload of music just because of these little things we would do. turn a function into a makeshift autograph signing. Make it seem bigger than it really is. A lot of people will buy into it. If the music is good, then that will be a huge part of the equation as well. Sell your shit at affordable prices in the streets as well. We'd dump cds for $5 tops, because more people were willing to take the chance at $5 a cd. We'd sell 100 @ $5 a pop... which to me is better than sellin 26 @ $10 a pop. Slow dime or quick nickel. Your choice. oh yea... Don't quit your day job. Good luck to everyone out there with the drive to do it right. just my 2 pennies.
