Got Manager?

[Gotmanager]

Thank all of you who have backed me up in this thread. I appreciate it and definitely always take care of everyone that supports me. Big thanks to Mr. Kee who knows I have pride in my position as do the rest of the people on here. Dana, Kontac, Fresh, Rep Tha Bay, all of you thank you.

If you really are looking for help email me at [email protected] and let me see if I can even help you first... again I don't scam people, I definitely don't bullshit and tell you your music is great and take any money for any shit I don't do, or can't provide.

I respect Gemini and don't think anyone should get banned for stating their opinion, but underestimating everyone that "you" don't know and playing the "blunt bad guy" or "devils advocate" provides nothing but negativity. Definitely doesn't make anyone want to work for, work with, manage (which I am definitely not trying to provide), or possibly help an "asshole" either. It does keep the thread alive, it does say what some people may be thinking when they originally read this.

But it does negatively assault my character by trying to call me faulty, and I find it highly disrespectful to say any business I am trying to conduct is a "scam". The need for people to voice the most negative opinion possible for shock value and attention immediately defeats the purpose of what this thread and many like it before mine are trying to accomplish. Independent artists need help. As stated and verified by others on this thread you cannot do it alone. Some cannot do it at all.

The need for these services are valid, and preferred not only by the companies that we all deal with, but also by some of the artists in the independent music scene. The future of music will come down to an artist and their manager. The deals from major record labels are starting to diminish and the independent rap game that we here in the bay area have invented is what indeed everyone will be immersed in. The need to know how to correctly navigate your way around submissions, contracts, protocol with stores, distribution etc., is vital. Having someone in your corner like me is priceless, and the services, efforts, blood, sweat, and tears are just the tip of the iceberg in the dedication I have to being a competent, and well established manager, consultant and representative.

Asking questions like AP PHOENIX is doing can get the same results of keeping the thread alive without the drama. Calling me directly, or emailing me can get you my credentials, as can asking the people you need to around here to verify me.

Thank everyone who took a min to type some good words about me in this thread.

 

[radiostationrep]

Just to clarify my comments were not directed towards the starter of this thread. It was just a general statement. The services being provided are legitamate and a valuable tool to someone with the money and understanding of what it is you are providing.

When I said scam, I meant the business side of things that independent rappers and others try and pass off as real business. How many artists actually set up their label with all the proper paperwork in place? Ficticious name, publish in publication, business license, sale license, business taxes, etc.? But they have labels, are CEO's, and are the next big thing? The Bay music scene needs more people like you, the problem is are the artists willing to pay? Bay artists for the most part do not like to spend money on the background stuff nobody sees....

 

[Gemini]

Just to clarify my comments were not directed towards the starter of this thread. It was just a general statement. The services being provided are legitamate and a valuable tool to someone with the money and understanding of what it is you are providing.

When I said scam, I meant the business side of things that independent rappers and others try and pass off as real business. How many artists actually set up their label with all the proper paperwork in place? Ficticious name, publish in publication, business license, sale license, business taxes, etc.? But they have labels, are CEO's, and are the next big thing? The Bay music scene needs more people like you, the problem is are the artists willing to pay? Bay artists for the most part do not like to spend money on the background stuff nobody sees....

Thank you! It's not only Bay Area artist, it independent artist everywhere. And yes, I've seen one sheet recording contracts that a lot of independent labels print on a computer oppose to a real record contract that is waist high when printed on paper. A real recording contract includes who's shooting the video, photo shoot, producers, studio, who's putting it out, manager, engineer etc. And signed by every single person (their Government name, not their alias / street name.) involved down to the camera man. The artist must also sign his / her rights giving the label the rights to release & promote his / her material.

A lot of artist talk loosely about just having signed to a major or about to sign, but it's clear to call bullshit because to be officially signed to a legit label with a real contract, would take a year to finish signing after all the entertainment lawyers get done with it. Trust me, any artist is not going to get out of a real recording contract in a couple of weeks. It's going to take a lot longer than that to breach a contract from a real label. Most independent artist will sign without a second thought just to brag that they signed to a label, but ask most independent artist if they own their publishings & the answer is NO. Their infamous rebuttal to that is, "I'm gonna get that next week." When it takes at least 3 months to do, so that tells me right off hand that artist is full of shit.

I've seen artist come in here & claim to of signed to a major & 2 weeks later they breached the contract LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! RIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!!!!!!!!!

That's why I often laugh when I see people come into the Siccness talking about they just signed to a major & people in here believing the hype & propping (when available :cheeky: )

And the whole negativity / accusations / finger pointing that are thrown in here were seriously not directed at J. Grimm. I hope you understand my perspective on the fact that we deal with so many faulty people from CEO's to rappers etc. So the awareness is demanding to throw it out there in the open. If the shoe don't fit, I don't worry about defending myself because I don't have to worry about that. Now, don't misunderstand what I've stated here. It's not a double edge sword. Granted that we've all learned something here, but if anybody is going to be mad & point fingers at anyone for being negative or forthcoming from a different angle, be mad at the faulty people out there scamming people who make us independents who really have love for this be skeptic.

Perhaps I don't have the right words to approach these matters, but it's a lot better than sitting there nodding my head yes & believing everything being told to me.

 

[thizz]

S @SOLO , In your opinion who is running a successful indie label? I always hear you talk about what not to do and how not to operate but my question is, what is the correct way?

 

[Gemini]

S @SOLO , In your opinion who is running a successful indie label? I always hear you talk about what not to do and how not to operate but my question is, what is the correct way?

My opinions are simply based on what I've seen being tried over & over again. If it hasn't been working for years, stop trying to shove it down people's throats. In the peoples (fans) opinion it's garbage & it will always be garbage. I've seen this game go from simple covers & good music to tight covers & garbage music. Just because you change the cover & change the song title doesn't mean the music changes or the people's opinion for that matter. For the past 6 -7 years whatever albums have been sold have pretty much been selling cover art to the consumer.

Again, I'm speaking in general, from the mainstream to the underground and every independent artist / label everywhere. It's the same story being told everywhere, not just the Bay Area. I don't think I can really break it down to one successful indie label, yet staying away from Rap-A-Lot etc. Due to those type of indie labels are more out there.

I'm talking low budget (no offense to anyone) indie label. There have been a few that started off strong, but then went off track. The music got bad, the artist lost his hunger, the label signing every talentless Tom, Dick & Hank just to have a big roster. They think in quantity over quality. And I seriously / personally think it's sad due to a lot of people's visions get distorted & think they're really doing it big / blowing up. When the reality is, they haven't even started to crack the surface. Rappers wanting to charge like superstars when I could go down a 30 mile ratios and nobody has ever heard them. Yet, you ask the Mexican dude on the corner who hardly knows English, selling bootleg Cd's & DVD's & he can tell you who Lil Wayne is. Is that success for Lil Wayne, yes. Although success can be measured different & it often depends on the individual person, but IMO this independent rap game needs a few slices of humble pie. If we really want to see it come back to what it once was.

The correct way IMO would be for all of us independents to humble ourselves a bit and see things for what they are, not for what a handful of people tell us it is. Or for what we wish it to be. People calling albums classic when they've only seen the cover LMAO! WTF?!?!?!

The best thing I've heard about any indie rapper's album has come out the mouth of the rapper himself LOL! SMH.

 

[thizz]

So basically nobody

 

[Dhadnot]

It's hard cuz you have a middle ground now, kendrick lamar, schoolboy Q, Asap, where Kreayshan and OFWGKTAwere, and underground artist see this and are like they made it off the web I can do it, and they did but most of the artist I named bring a somewhat unique style with them, and almost always, if your privy to the behind the scenes they have some big important manager or label behind them pushing for them, until it;s time to say they're signed. I don't know if it's because they get their shit on blogs like 2dopeboys or what, but I think it's more than having a good manager it takes artists either being on some RZA shit nowadays (Tyler from OF) or having a RZA type dude in the camp (Latin cat from ASAP) who's genius in marketing, beats, look, approach what to hit, etc. is all encompassing not just making connects and hittin up facebook, interviews etc.

 

[Dhadnot]

For instance the latin nigga in ASAP was making trips to the south linking with niggas, gettin beats had his ear to the land but away from NY, nigga knew to get a NY nigga to blow he had to not sound NY. He scooped clamz etc. his the genius behind that group. Then you get to blogs like 2dopeboyz and you shit got some crack to it, the niggaz who run that go to roundtables with shit like Redbull, addidas, VICE magazine, Swizz beats, etc. and they talk about whats hot what to push, etc. before you know it, that nigga that you were lucky to stumble on to on the Sicc, has a spread in VICE, his producer is at the Redbull Music Academy, Adiddas is giving him sneakers and his crew to rock, that shit is being pushed to the masses now, Interscope has a manager or some shit working closely with him.

 

[thizz]

Everybody you named has a team behind them and all are unique to what was going on at the time of their success. Every last person you named at some point was considered wack for being different and then heralded for being different. The thing about this is whether or not you could be replaced by another rapper doing the exact same thing and unfortunately a lot of Bay artist are replaceable. E-40 cannot be replaced, Too Short cannot be replaced, Nickatina cannot be replaced, Heiro cannot be replaced because they all either originated their sound or made such an impact that it cannot be replaced without you thinking of them first. It takes a team to be successful in a multi-billion dollar a year industry and if you think you will be with hundred dollar budgets you are crazy. Until people realize you cannot do it by yourself and until you have the proper team it is going to be extremely difficult to make a dent in todays music scene.

 

[Gemini]

So basically nobody

[video=youtube_share;-raEW_nYcb0]http://youtu.be/-raEW_nYcb0[/video]

 

[MOESES SOULRIGHT THE 2nd]

For instance the latin nigga in ASAP was making trips to the south linking with niggas, gettin beats had his ear to the land but away from NY, nigga knew to get a NY nigga to blow he had to not sound NY. He scooped clamz etc. his the genius behind that group. Then you get to blogs like 2dopeboyz and you shit got some crack to it, the niggaz who run that go to roundtables with shit like Redbull, addidas, VICE magazine, Swizz beats, etc. and they talk about whats hot what to push, etc. before you know it, that nigga that you were lucky to stumble on to on the Sicc, has a spread in VICE, his producer is at the Redbull Music Academy, Adiddas is giving him sneakers and his crew to rock, that shit is being pushed to the masses now, Interscope has a manager or some shit working closely with him.

Also, you'll almost always get more love out of town then you will at home...
The amount of hype I got from people in NY was ridiculous, I'm up in the high rises in the bronx rapping in front of bloods and crips and dudes is going nuts yellin "he's good money" people lining up to get my contact info to get me in the lab, then actually callin!!! and these are people who fuck with the bigger ones out there

a lot of people in the bay don't want to see the next man get on,

 

[Dhadnot]

Everybody you named has a team behind them and all are unique to what was going on at the time of their success. Every last person you named at some point was considered wack for being different and then heralded for being different. The thing about this is whether or not you could be replaced by another rapper doing the exact same thing and unfortunately a lot of Bay artist are replaceable. E-40 cannot be replaced, Too Short cannot be replaced, Nickatina cannot be replaced, Heiro cannot be replaced because they all either originated their sound or made such an impact that it cannot be replaced without you thinking of them first. It takes a team to be successful in a multi-billion dollar a year industry and if you think you will be with hundred dollar budgets you are crazy. Until people realize you cannot do it by yourself and until you have the proper team it is going to be extremely difficult to make a dent in todays music scene.

Yeah, but your not taking into account who called them wack, mostly regular niggas/rap fans who don't spend enough money anyways, every artist I named appealed to a hipster crowd and got promoted to that shit and got on. Very true most bay rappers are replaceable, these "middleground" rappers are middleground even though most of their image and even some of the sounds are fabricated because it's new ground in hip hop. It's not traditional underground sound and its not mainstream rap either.

 

[Dhadnot]

Also, you'll almost always get more love out of town then you will at home...
The amount of hype I got from people in NY was ridiculous, I'm up in the high rises in the bronx rapping in front of bloods and crips and dudes is going nuts yellin "he's good money" people lining up to get my contact info to get me in the lab, then actually callin!!! and these are people who fuck with the bigger ones out there

a lot of people in the bay don't want to see the next man get on,

true I don't know whats up with the bay, I feel bad being a socal dude because yall make shit up that gets on here like a yr after yall done with it, and blow up, like all these new socal artist beats are just hyphy shit, and thats been like that ever since we jacked hyphy shit for jerking music. But anyway yall hate like mufuckas up there and you cant get on being a good spitta up there it seems if you not a vet or on some diff. world shit it's like a wrap. At least down here Schoolboy Q, Kendrick LAmar, black hippie crew, nip, YG, a few more folks are doin it.

 

[Gemini]

Everybody you named has a team behind them and all are unique to what was going on at the time of their success. Every last person you named at some point was considered wack for being different and then heralded for being different. The thing about this is whether or not you could be replaced by another rapper doing the exact same thing and unfortunately a lot of Bay artist are replaceable. E-40 cannot be replaced, Too Short cannot be replaced, Nickatina cannot be replaced, Heiro cannot be replaced because they all either originated their sound or made such an impact that it cannot be replaced without you thinking of them first. It takes a team to be successful in a multi-billion dollar a year industry and if you think you will be with hundred dollar budgets you are crazy. Until people realize you cannot do it by yourself and until you have the proper team it is going to be extremely difficult to make a dent in todays music scene.

I don't think anybody is arguing or disagreeing with that, Breh. Everything works in conjunction. Just because you have a team behind you doesn't mean everybody knows what their doing or knows their role. Independents label things just to sound important, but often times that's as far as it goes.

Having the right people behind you. Not your Homie from the block who calls himself your assistant or manager etc. I honestly think that's the fine line where a lot of us in here are getting confused. Nobody is arguing that those people are not needed on a team. It's having the right people with the knowledge, credentials etc. that counts.

Let's be real & face it, most independent artist don't have a legit team nor a legit manager.

 

[Dana Dane]

A lot of these newer artists don't even know what a real manager is, and for the most part, those of us who choose to 'manage' an artist today are doing a lot more than what a true manager would do. We tend to take on the role of manager, publicist, AR, and personal assistant. I agree with Grimm saying that some of the services need to be paid for up front, because a lot of what a 'manager' does these days doesn't involve any money changing hands (verse licks, show licks, etc.) but more promotion and internet marketing.

Take RJ for instance.. He works for 40 in management capacity, but you RARELY see him on here promoting shows or even too much promoting 40s albums. He's a manager, not a promoter, and 40 recognizes the difference and doesn't put RJ in that role.

 

[thizz]

Let's be real & face it, most independent artist don't have a legit team nor a legit manager.

That is true and is the biggest problem in my opinion. And as far as local support that is usually the story for most artist everywhere. Most people get support outside their city just like most bay artist. Usually the support starts in the valley and then places like KC before you hear people in the streets of the bay really slappin their shit. People always take for granted what is right in their face. I always hear major artist talkin about how they never use to get radio play at home until they blew up.

 

[thizz]

That's because most of these artist "think" they have a label and label responsibilities fall on the manager and that's what I think Gemini is talking about with these fake labels. An artist needs to have a booking agents, publicist, and staff to promote their projects and besides booking agent these things are usually provided by the label.

 

[AP Phenix]

how would a new artist find a manager

A lot of these newer artists don't even know what a real manager is, and for the most part, those of us who choose to 'manage' an artist today are doing a lot more than what a true manager would do. We tend to take on the role of manager, publicist, AR, and personal assistant. I agree with Grimm saying that some of the services need to be paid for up front, because a lot of what a 'manager' does these days doesn't involve any money changing hands (verse licks, show licks, etc.) but more promotion and internet marketing.

Take RJ for instance.. He works for 40 in management capacity, but you RARELY see him on here promoting shows or even too much promoting 40s albums. He's a manager, not a promoter, and 40 recognizes the difference and doesn't put RJ in that role.

 

[8FIVE8]

^^that is a good question! u guys should answer this shit. do tell. i would like 2 too to two know

 

[Gemini]

I've never hid who I am by creating a different account to say what the fuck I want. I myself have posted my own pics, so all of you can see my fat ass!

Where's Gemini?