What the point of making a career out of being a rapper if you just gonna........

[MrJR]

the better question is if you trying to be some type of "educational rapper" why the fuck do you stay underground how niggas suppose to hear yall aint nobody going searching for yall music if i can hear a sound i like.

 

[a.mann]

so damn naive to the politcs and just plain under handed blacklisting of the music industry.

Before going further how about you guys that feel this way call up your local radio DJs, better yet talk to their boss the radio programmer and ask THEMwhy they only play certain artist 20 times a day.

Than try suggesting someone like Skyzoo, Elzhi, Little Brother,People Under the Stairs, etc

See what they say.

I'll wait.....

 

[TheKing203]

so damn naive to the politcs and just plain under handed blacklisting of the music industry.

Before going further how about you guys that feel this way call up your local radio DJs, better yet talk to their boss the radio programmer and ask THEMwhy they only play certain artist 20 times a day.

Than try suggesting someone like Skyzoo, Elzhi, Little Brother,People Under the Stairs, etc

See what they say.

I'll wait.....

they dont play their shyt on the radio because they dont make radio friednly music.If they want to get radio play they have to make a radio friendly single.They know what they have to do to get play on the radio but they dont do it cus they dont want to "sellout".Im not dissing underground rap im just sayin why they tryin to make a career out of it if they just gonna stay broke

 

[blackdemo]

far as i know Wiz khalifa n currenssy is underground, but they still have a fan base, they be havin shows, they gettin paid, all for makin the music they want, If i were Wiz i wouldnt give a fuck about sales shit if 10,000 ppl will listen to me then im good. Maybe some underground artist dont want to be in the spotlight u ever thought of that?

 

[blackdemo]

they dont play their shyt on the radio because they dont make radio friednly music.If they want to get radio play they have to make a radio friendly single.They know what they have to do to get play on the radio but they dont do it cus they dont want to "sellout".Im not dissing underground rap im just sayin why they tryin to make a career out of it if they just gonna stay broke

its not all about the money man.

 

[5th Letter]

If they build up enough of a buzz on the underground they can make a solid living off shows, and if they sign indy deals they may make a little more on album sales, because the label is not spending money on promotion or anything all those other things are up to the artist.

 

[mr.getwitcha]

Reality is some of these cats dont choose to be underground. A lot of their music is garbage and they dont have a choice. Just because you dropping "knowledge" dont mean you making good music. Skills >>>>>>> Content anyday of the week.

Getwitcha

 

[5th Letter]

Reality is some of these cats dont choose to be underground. A lot of their music is garbage and they dont have a choice. Just because you dropping "knowledge" dont mean you making good music. Skills >>>>>>> Content anyday of the week.

Getwitcha

You have rappers that have the content but have no skills too.

 

[1of1]

Rappers don't have to be rich. Some people would try to call a rapper a failure if he made $75,000 a year.

 

[L3NU]

mostvigorousone

Rappers don't have to be rich. Some people would try to call a rapper a failure if he made $75,000 a year.

i mean in some ways that is a failure..most rappers cant make money off of rap for more then a couple of years

so how are you gonna provide for yourself and your family if you made 75k for 4 years and then stopped making money...

on the other hand if you manage to make 200k a year for a couple of years you can stretch that out for much longer

 

[Yungin T. Jeezie]

in other words, stay in school

 

[TheKing203]

in other words, stay in school

thats pretty much what i was thinkin.You better off goin to school and getting a career job because if you stayin underground you gonna stay havin no money and if you do its not gonna last forever becuase you cant do shows and sell mixtapes forever.What happens when you stop rappin?

 

[billy bonez]

I always thought the radio had to support the music not the other way around. I hate that outlook that rappers "have" to make "radio friendly" music. Do we all forget that mainstream radio/music industry shit on Hiphop for many years before it realized the money it could make by exploiting it? Radio stations dont say "that's some good music let's play it"...some label exec goes to a CEO of a station and says, "here's 10g's take your mistress to the bahamas for a week...oh and make sure you play Laffey Taffy twice every hour for the next 2-3 months"

 

[BootyButterPi]

Education dont sell. Thats why the world is filled with dumb N-words.

But why hiphop gotta always educate? why arent there no rock songs that try to uplift the thinking minds of people?

anybody ever been taught a lesson from a rock song? i heard a song where a band had little kids chanting " we dont need no, education."

square biz.

so fuck hiphop. its about the money. if u in it and aint getting paid, u in the wrong business. you wanna teach, be a teacher, motherfucker.

pi

 

[Yungin T. Jeezie]

thats pretty much what i was thinkin.You better off goin to school and getting a career job because if you stayin underground you gonna stay havin no money and if you do its not gonna last forever becuase you cant do shows and sell mixtapes forever.What happens when you stop rappin?

You'll have to invest your rap money into other buisnesses, you cant be rapping for 24 years & hardly have a reliable label to push out records (Jadakiss - D-Block). You aint living right, If it was me I'll use rap, selling albums & doing shows as my side hustle but have an degree in a top field as my main job. But some underground artists eat good in thee underground tho (example most of them Texas artists)

 

[Mally_G]

so damn naive to the politcs and just plain under handed blacklisting of the music industry.

Before going further how about you guys that feel this way call up your local radio DJs, better yet talk to their boss the radio programmer and ask THEMwhy they only play certain artist 20 times a day.

Than try suggesting someone like Skyzoo, Elzhi, Little Brother,People Under the Stairs, etc

See what they say.

I'll wait.....

Out here in DC, a couple months ago, Cathy Hughes was on the radio trying to defend the stations from that "radio tax" law that's on the table. But one caller asked her why do the stations play certain artists multiple times a day and it's always the same rotation by every DJ all day with no new artists being played. Ms. Hughes danced around the question and basically said, the same songs aren't being played all day, every day, and that new artists are discovered and played by request.

Now we all know that's a bold faced lie. If you were to call the station and ask to play a radio friend version of a song by an underground rapper, the station won't have a copy available. I've done this plenty of times. I've called and asked to play certain songs where I know there's a clean version or a version that can be played on the radio and the person manning the phones told me one of two things, 1) they don't have that in the studio or 2) they will play it and never do.

It all points to the channels, down to the DJs are getting "something" in return for clogging the airwaves with certain artists. There is no other reason why the same 7-10 artists between R&B and rap get played all day by each DJ.

 

[konceptjones]

a few points to make:

1. Some people make art for the sake of the art itself, not for the money. Some people have 9-5's, but still want to create something and put their stamp on a particular artform and are not motivated by money to do it. What's happening in hip hop is no different that what's happening in other genres of music. You'll be hard pressed to find classic jazz styles on the radio, but the airwaves have no shortage of "Smooth Jazz" stations that won't touch a John Coltrain, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis or the like. There's "dance music" stations that'll play progressive, trance, and "dance remixes" of popular songe, but won't play Detroit Techno, Chicago House, or anything like that. Often, artists that get no radio play, irregardless or genere, find success on the road, especially overseas where there's an appreciation for original, creative music. Jazz musicians, Underground MC's, and Techno/House DJ's all make theirs on the road.

2. Ever since the Telcom Act of 1996 passed, radio station ownership has gone from independent stations in every market to every station owned by either Clear Channel, Radio One, or Emmis Communications. Before the bill passed, a radio station's programming director made the bulk of the decisions as to what got played on the station and what didn't, with DJ's having the ability to break records they though would do well in that listening area. It wasn't uncommon for a local rapper to cut a 12" single and hand deliver it to the DJ's at a given station, chop it up with them for a bit, and minutes after they've walked out of the building have their single being played during prime time. Right now, this will almost NEVER happen. Station programming is usually decided by a regional manager and the playlist is sent to the DJ's to spin. Deviation from that playlist can often result in termination at many stations unless the show specifically calls for it and it's arranged and approved ahead of time (i.e. morning or afternoon commute mix segments by in-house DJ's).

3. To get inclusion in a regions playlist, record labels pay an Indie promoter to push a song to the regional directors and offer "gifts" to the stations under that individual (sometimes being able to work directly with the station itself). This has gotten labels in a ton of trouble in the last few years, but even with court rulings and fines, the practice known as "payola" continues as a way of doing business. Because "underground" rappers are usually on smaller labels, they can't get the same exposure because their label can't afford to pay an Indie to get spins, sometimes opting to go the college radio route.

There's a lot more to it, but in a nutshell this is why more gifted rappers aren't on the radio.

 

[georgia boi]

If they build up enough of a buzz on the underground they can make a solid living off shows, and if they sign indy deals they may make a little more on album sales, because the label is not spending money on promotion or anything all those other things are up to the artist.

Good point. These days, I don't see the difference between being indy and being on a major. On one hand, the artists get more money from sales by being on an indy, but I don't think they get advance money, budgets or promo. They only get distribution and everything else is paid out of pocket. On the other hand, the majors give artists album advances, promo, and distribution, but this money has to be recouped if the album doesn't meet expectations. My point being these days, it appears that artists have to promote themselves even being on a major. Mixtapes, Ustream, net presence, financing their own studio time and leaking their own music seems to be the way to create a big enough demand for an artist to get a release these days. Look at Ross, "Super High" was the Def Jam sponsored single, but it took a record like "BMF" and the Albert Anastacia tape to create a significant buzz for the album. I think he also did the "Mafia Music 2" video on his own too. If you wanna make it in the industry, you have to grind like an artist on the come up and invest your own money into your projects even if you are a platinum selling rapper or Underground.

Lastly, if you are going to do music, don't limit yourself. Just make music for anybody with ears without trying to appeal to one specific demographic.

 

[tp3]

Reality is that 99% of underground artist are broke or not making any money in rap. Even the ones you think are making money aren't. Shit 90% of the signed artist are broke and not making money. Dont believe the hype. Fact is that anyone in 2010 thats tryna make a living off rap is a damn fool. Aint no money in the game anymore and this is comin from someone in the industry (warner bros). Shit is bad. Underground artist should get jobs and degrees so that they can have somethin to supplement their income while doing music on the SIDE. Doin shows and selling mixtapes aint bringin in the type of money you think it is. There are only a handful of artist in the game that are gettin good show money. The rest are gettin chump change especially after everyone else is paid. Most independent artist wish they were making $75k a year. Don't believe the facade that the industry has put before you.

As far as the radio is concerned its all political. Really the only music that gets played is the music that is serviced to stations from labels. Everything else will most likely not get thru the red tape. The "big 4" controls radio and every other media platform that deals with music. That's why as soon as any signed artist releases a new song its automatically hits the radio no mater how wack it might be and those artist are on every talk show, radio show, web show, etc.. Its all run by the radio execs at each label, down to the program director. DJ's have NO control whatsoever, they play what they are told to play. The only time Dj's have a say is in mix shows, and those are only for an hour each day so that really doesn't reach people. DJ's dont break records anymore...shit nobody breaks records. The whole "breaking records" is done. A record doesn't have to be broke is all you have to do is pay PD's and club, mixtape, artist DJ's to force feed it to the masses. The shits all fucked up and I honestly dont see it getting better anytime soon.

Choose another career.

My two cents

 

[georgia boi]

Reality is that 99% of underground artist are broke or not making any money in rap. Even the ones you think are making money aren't. Shit 90% of the signed artist are broke and not making money. Dont believe the hype. Fact is that anyone in 2010 thats tryna make a living off rap is a damn fool. Aint no money in the game anymore and this is comin from someone in the industry (warner bros). Shit is bad. Underground artist should get jobs and degrees so that they can have somethin to supplement their income while doing music on the SIDE. Doin shows and selling mixtapes aint bringin in the type of money you think it is. There are only a handful of artist in the game that are gettin good show money. The rest are gettin chump change especially after everyone else is paid. Most independent artist wish they were making $75k a year. Don't believe the facade that the industry has put before you.

As far as the radio is concerned its all political. Really the only music that gets played is the music that is serviced to stations from labels. Everything else will most likely not get thru the red tape. The "big 4" controls radio and every other media platform that deals with music. That's why as soon as any signed artist releases a new song its automatically hits the radio no mater how wack it might be and those artist are on every talk show, radio show, web show, etc.. Its all run by the radio execs at each label, down to the program director. DJ's have NO control whatsoever, they play what they are told to play. The only time Dj's have a say is in mix shows, and those are only for an hour each day so that really doesn't reach people. DJ's dont break records anymore...shit nobody breaks records. The whole "breaking records" is done. A record doesn't have to be broke is all you have to do is pay PD's and club, mixtape, artist DJ's to force feed it to the masses. The shits all fucked up and I honestly dont see it getting better anytime soon.

Choose another career.

My two cents

I agree to an extent, but there's more to it than just being a rapper. Songwriting, executive producing, producing, engineering etc. is probably where the most amount of money comes from that is still connected or at least somewhat connected with making music. In fact, those are more profitable than just rapping especially in the long run.

I would inform anyone that having a degree in something is a must. Even if you make it into the game, having a degree can take one further than not having one period.