Whatz in a stupid plan?

[WHITE DEVIL]

As I sit here laughing at people who smoke too many blunts, I have had to sit down and contemplate this:

How the FUCK have so many people been decieved into thinking they will EVER make enough to pay the bills as a rap artist?

How many Jay-Z's can come out of every projects? How many Yukmouths, San Quinns, JTs (Who all barely make money - don't listen to their bullshit claims about Benzes and credit lines) can come out of every city?

"Oh nah dogg ima hustle dogg I got skills dogg ima promote market and network and stay on the grind 24/7"

Shut the FUCK up. 99.9999% of people who are rap or musical artists NEVER make money. In fact, most people LOSE money in the music industry.

There is money to be made in the industry in: The legal side (lawyer, broker, etc.), the PR side (writing, publishing, reps), *some* money to be made in recording (though alot less as studio managers, engineers, etc), but there is NO money, none whatsoever, in being an artist.

Of EVERYONE on the siccness who has EVER talked of "blowing up, making it big, getting somewhere", maybe ONE, TWO, or THREE people will ever pay their own bills with the money from being a music artist. (This excludes people who have already achieved some sort of success)

Anyways, this is and will always be a pipe dream. Any of you ever expecting to make some money rapping better keep that 9 to 5 going, and possibly work overtime to offset the heavy losses you will incur from putting money into your music.

As a matter of fact, quit rapping altogether and buy one Super Lotto Quick Pick every day. Your chances of making money are probably better.

"Peep the new heat from Generic G! This song "Just like all the other songs" comes straight from the Bay! With appearances by "Nobody MC, Pak N' Save Loc, the homeboy "Hopeless", and up-and-coming rapper "I put posters all over my hood all day long"! The new song "I just put it on soundclick" sounds just like all the other Bay Area songs!

With lyrical skills that are pretty much average, and not much better than anyone else, you can expect BIG things from these guys!

Arg. I just gotta say..."Stay in School". That is real advice, not just real, but REAL advice you could actually take. Much better than "Hustle dog, promote and network dog keep hustlin!"

If anyone has ever told you that, they can give you this advice which is alot better and alot more straightforward, "You will waste all of your money in rapping. Some people do make money, but it will never be you. Find a job that interests you, get a student loan, and hit the fuckin books."

Good luck to all the aspiring rappers out there. Heh.

 

[TROLL]

yeah u always have too have a back up.. never hop into any situatuion without one... i doubt even tha kats that have blown up now quit there jobs from the git.... but i wouldnt try too turn anyone off from chasing what they want

"those who catch their dreams..are the ones brave enough too chase them"


and too be totally honest... i do music because i want too... not because i expect too be the next jay-z or puffy..if i make some money then heyy... fa sheeze... but i feel as if i was born with a musical soul and an artistic eye so its what im compelled too do.... nobody should rap expecting too make it a carreer... but much props for those who have

 

[YOUNG BREW]

wow....pure brilliance

 

[slapboyzproductions]

real talk mayne , be cool stay in school

 

[L Mac-a-docious]

In the 60s & 70s it was garage bands, now it's samplers and rappers. It's just a sign of the times and a forward in recording and beat making technologies...it costs alot to have band instruments, but not that much to have a whole band in your sampler.

 

[TROLL]

Of EVERYONE on the siccness who has EVER talked of "blowing up, making it big, getting somewhere", maybe ONE, TWO, or THREE people will ever pay their own bills with the money from being a music artist. (This excludes people who have already achieved some sort of success)

yeah see my point is that even those who HAVE achieved that sort of success were in the same shoes at one point of the person who said they had a plot and a dream..

 

[up2nogood]

lol@ pak 'n save loc...

 

[m.w.merlino]

If youre only in music to make money, then you dont have the right mindstate in the first place. Im havin a great time being completely broke just workin on my writing. Havent had a job in 5 months, i have just enough money to get my by, and sell what i dont need to make up the rest. Its a passion, first and foremost.

 

[SLOWPOKE]

i might not be in hollywood making movies but i do this cause it''s not only a passion but i have made more money networkig then my stand up,...and some times they go hand in hane dude is right play the odds,...good post

 

[Dana Dane]

Very interesting post....let me play Devil's Advocate on this one: What about the kids who do go to school, work an afterschool job, and then spend all of their free time in the studio, not in the streets, not carrying guns and shootin people at memorials of their favorite rappers, not out robbin old (or Young) women leaving ATM Machines?? If their love of music keeps them out of trouble, how are they any different from the kids who's dream is to go into the MLB, NFL, or NBA?? (besides the scholarship thing) Chances of gettin drafted to the NFL are about as high of winning the Lotto too. Should those kids put the helmet and shoulder pads down?

 

[KALYN]

.."Whats yo dream..?" ...

 

[Flossalini]

To everybody at work right now.... think back to when you were a kid and were asked this question: "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" If you aint no where close to that you're a loser! Life is what you make it, but if you go against the grain you'll get splinters. Before it was a Jay-Z... I was happy with being a Too Short. The most important thing in life is to get in where you fit in. In my lifetime as a rapper/entertainer I have seen a lot of overnite rappers get discouraged, as well as established talent be wasted. Not everyone is built to compete, and not everyone message is worth being spread. Me... now I do music becuase it's theraputic, it can pay my bills if I focused enough time and effort, but the reality of it is you have to learn more than just rap. Rapping is just a stepping stoneto reach higher places in life. It's always been a way of life, so it's harder to get rid of than herpes.

"Vison without action... is just a dream,
Action without vison can be a nightmare"

 

[ColdBlooded]

99.99% of rappers suck
that's why your average shitty local rapper is arrogant as fuck

No one else is feelin em, so they've gotta make up for it and feel themselves even harder so as to justify wasting so much time on a hobby that they are equally just as shitty at. Which in turn deludes them into believing even more in the idea that they will some day make it?

It's a vicious cycle that should be countered at every opportunity with vicious booing and the harshest possible criticism; included in which should always be the suggestion to "give up".

 

[slapboyzproductions]

slim thug sucks at rapping and he made it because why.. i dont know anyon know>?

 

[Incar]

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!^^^^^ so so true

 

[vinylfiend]

slim thug sucks at rapping and he made it because why.. i dont know anyon know>?

Alot of shitty rappers make it big because they know someone in the industry, its all about networking, who you know, and alot of luck to make it big in the music industry.

 

[KALYN]

Alot of shitty rappers make it big because they know someone in the industry, its all about networking, who you know, and alot of luck to make it big in the music industry.

More times than not.. this is sooo true.. BUT.. once youre signed.. if you dont bring it to the table the way THEY want you to, its a wrap.

 

[SLOWPOKE]

cosigneded

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Very interesting post....let me play Devil's Advocate on this one: What about the kids who do go to school, work an afterschool job, and then spend all of their free time in the studio, not in the streets, not carrying guns and shootin people at memorials of their favorite rappers, not out robbin old (or Young) women leaving ATM Machines?? If their love of music keeps them out of trouble, how are they any different from the kids who's dream is to go into the MLB, NFL, or NBA?? (besides the scholarship thing) Chances of gettin drafted to the NFL are about as high of winning the Lotto too. Should those kids put the helmet and shoulder pads down?

Yes. The scuttling of ghetto youth into either 1. rapping or 2. sports as the only viable alternatives to shooting people in the head is (what I believe) a product of ingrained and accepted racism that started in the white community and ended up in the black community.

I believe that, given an expansion of education, vocabulary, culture, and english comprehension, (I will explain if necessary) ghetto youth could either find more in mainstream society to relate to, create more avenues of expression than what is traditionally considered acceptable entertainment for urban youth.

We have seen an increase (not yet an explosion or cultural revolution) in minority communities of turning to nontraditional art venues as expressions of black culture - operas, plays, books, creative recreational programs, philosophy, etc. that still has yet to truly reach the "ground level" of minority communities.

What I am saying is media, activities, and hobbies that are seen as "not black" or "white" are often ignored, leaving black kids the great and wonderful options of rapping or sports, both of which are financially useless to 99% of the people who undertake them.

I grew up poor, in a mostly Mexican/Black neighborhood, but my exposure with my parents friends, their social circle, basically "white culture" led me into a wide variety and range of activities and ideas for entertainment that was not presented to the rest of my friends.

And when I say "white culture" that was really a mistake, it was more a case of "people with money", and the wider range of options given to them. Though my family didn't have money, families in our social circle did, and when I was a kid I did some off the wall shit because my parents made it a priority to expose me to it. I went to a play and an opera, played paintball, went hiking, went to a workshop for writing, backpacked, took karate classes, got into a little political activism, my dad took me to the trading floor and watched people buy and sell stocks and shit, I played chess, I built shit cause my dad had carpentry tools, went to summer camps, read a lot of books as a youngin, just all kinds of different shit that today built an appreciation in me that allows me to enjoy everything from rap (and know the difference between phony and street shit) to classical to rock to electronica to trip-hop to foreign genres.

I can see the power and still can keep interest with opera music because I have been there and felt my chest vibrate after this one bitch sang (because of the power of her vocals, etc). I just tried anything and everything I could get my hands on. I played dungeons and dragons, I used to graffiti, me and my boys built a fuckin hut out in the cuts of San Bruno and slept in it I mean I just got shown the range of possibilities recreationally and, in a wider sense, educationally. I did all kinds of bad shit just like everyone else I knew. I tried every drug there is. I used to whomp on dudes not from my block, etc. I had seen and understood the magnitude and the reality of the streets, and also the draw and lure and power of the culture. But because of my family foundation and values instilled in me, I saw past it.

I don't think this foundation would have ever been laid had my family let the streets where we lived took over and stayed in ghetto mode. I was always told the value of speaking well, (my folks would not let me talk slang around the house) I was always told the power of reading and education, and without that, I would have had the same attitude as my friends - "Fuck all that whiteboy shit" - basically.

I think that is a very powerful limiter to the dreams and minds of young black kids - the idea that "if it ain't black, don't fuck wit it". You see it today in black culture - a book by a black author can't just be a book - if he wants cred within the black community it must be a "black perspective". Black operas, black book readings, black dorms, black clubs on campus, black clubs on the streets, black student unions, "black" businesses with black clientele, all limit the minds and perspectives of black people today.

If I had a hundred dollars for every friend of mine who put out a CD, I'd be rich. If I had a hundred dollars for every friend of mine who did nothing but play sports, I'd be rich again. If I had a hundred dollars for every friend of mine who avoided anything and everything "whiteboy", once again, we all know the outcome.

This acceptance of rap and basketball in the black community, in my opinion, is just giving up. It's saying that "Well, those are the options for youth today." And then, if they do choose to go a different route, and choose a different path, it still has to be culturally "black", or its unacceptable. So this is another limit on anything a black person can do. And that whole concept is hilarious, because how can a book by a black author not be black enough? Isn't the fact that a black man wrote it enough?

The ghetto and the Black community are very much interconnected. This is not a putdown or an insult, it's just a fact. And just like the ghetto can stop someone from seeing their true potential, the limit that having to always "be black" or not be accepted by the community places a limit on the possibilities seen by black youths today.

But it's all a very fundamental cycle, and it has deep roots. Just as someone who doesn't read books too often will fall asleep at a book reading, someone who has seen their family members deathly afraid of mice, snakes, and rats will not go hiking or sleep outside. These examples could seem racist or assuming, but if you have been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Black youth and ghetto youth need to one day see outside or what is accepted recreationally, because that's the first step. Once that falls into place, different job opportunities and perspectives can and will make more sense, just as the mentality taken by most people in the ghetto can be overcome and not subscribed to.

There is no money in rapping or sports. Hands down. The focus on it by black and ghetto youth is a financial shackle that needs to be removed. But that shackle can't be removed unless they can find interest and enjoyment of other things, yet that interest and enjoyment can't just come out of thin air.

Saying that "at least they aren't out seelin dope" is saying "This is the best that we can do. These kids have no possibilities other than a throwin a ball through one foot hole or telling thousands of people over and over again that they shoot niggas and wear thousand dollar socks." I believe that is very much a cop out of their full potential...

 

[MISTADON]

I would say that it is a cycle, and agree with what Whie Devil is saying. Areas of poverty have so much institutional Discrimination, that many of the youth's only hope is to get out of poverty through unrealistic ways (i.e. rapping, entertainment, and sports). When realistically, those options are a pipe dream. But many of those youth, unlike typical middle class white americans, do not have a viable back up plan, if they do not succeed in their dreams (i.e. college or a decent job).

Then, to perpetuate the cycle, we, as a society, are enculturated that, this incestent conspicuous consumption, is not only acceptable, but somehow makes our lives better because we have these "things". When in reality, all we are doing is feeding into the corporate system that oppresses so many to begin with.

The question that I have has been asked repeatedly by many, why are many of the people who rose from the ashes of poverty, or other harsh circumstances, immediately lured and enveloped by conspicuous consumption? I know the typical answer is because, they can get all the things they could not get while impovershed. But, in the end, the excess of conspicuous consumption may be great for the 50 Cents, Snoop Doggs, and Jay-Z's of the world, but it also makes the divide between the haves and have nots in this country even bigger, as Americas endless need for excess grows.