FuNkwoRm,

Thanks so much for this post. Being an hip hop artist myself, I realize the need to promote those who promote you and also personalize everything you do, rather than just spam a million people. I follow your blog often and regularly tweet your Rap Ratz comics – a very unique and funny idea in my humble opinion. You clearly understand how to position your site in a way many other blogs don’t by offering something different. Keep up what you do – there are many of us aspiring artists who appreciate the opportunity you give us, regardless of whether we happen to get posted or not.

Appreciate the advis and allot of the articles here.

That couldnt have been writtin and explained any better. If people only knew what it took to develope and maintain a soon to be very popular blog site and plus understood the flow of content then most wouldnt even waist theyre time submitting anything but this is the purpose of it all…and thats is to educate the curious.

You are doing a very great job…keep up the good work!

Greetings. I’ve visited the blog a couple of times and this is my first time actually posting anything. Nevertheless, I love the set-up and the blunt, but still friendly, advice that you have given on this page and throughout the blog. If there were more bloggers like you, perhaps hip-hop blogs would have more varying music/subgenres. Alas, one can only dream.
Keep up the great work and I’ll be sure to keep stopping in.
-Speed on the Beat of Team DAR

that is very very highly appreciated..u don’t even know i wish other blogs had such dedicated people.

This was a great read, and I admit until now I haven’t been active on the blog as far as comments even though I visit daily. However, like it was said before it’s hard to be active on every blog we send music to, as it is also difficult for you to got through all the submissions you get. I understand how hard it is on both sides. I’ve even submitted music to you a few times with no results but I just want you to know you do a good job here and I hope with this next song I have it may land on your blog haha but I have plenty of work in my soundcloud to peep until then if you wouldn’t mind taking a look. Keep up the awesome work though man, I’ve been reading this blog for close to a year now and it’s still great.

DAMN DAMN DAMN!!! NOW THATS REAL! IT MAKES THE MUSIC MAKERS MORE APPRECIATIVE AND MORE INTERACTIVE. …I HAVENT EVEN GOT A CHANCE TO SUBMIT YET BUT I ALREADY RESPECT THIS BLOG TO THE FULLEST ALREADY. KEEP BANGING!

Appreciate it man! I always leave a comment every once in a while or tweet a good article, i’ve actually gained quite a bit of knowledge from this site, it’s been very helpful

Seems like there’d be a way to have a gateway of some sort to your submission page that only opens to people who actually read and comment on your articles. Gotta be a WordPress plugin for something like that.

P.S. Love the Rap Ratz comics. Its like the Boondocks (comic strip, not the show) of rap to me.

P.P.S. What topics are you looking for guest posts on?

I think that the indie hip-hop community needs to start shifting its focus into the realm of artists helping each other, rather than each artist sitting on their own “indie island.” I know this isn’t true for all artists, but it’s definitely true for quite a few (even myself in the past) where we want to get our music in front of as many people as possible.

What often gets forgotten is the quality of the people we want to get our music in front of. As an artist, most of the time we’re looking for potential fans, or anyone who could get our music to the right people in the industry. What I see so often is people just dropping tracks everywhere, forums, blogs etc. – without even engaging in that community. It’s somewhat ridiculous to think that cats are going to want to listen to your music when you haven’t participated in their community. You want to give bloggers, fans and other musicians a good incentive to listen to your music.

Recently, I chose to start giving back to the hip-hop community, so I can feel your pain to about 1/10th the degree you have. I’ve decided to take time out of my schedule, to put together bi-weekly mixtapes for unheard indie hip-hop artists that want to be a part of said mixtape. I’m asking very little, just for submitters to read a post as long as yours above and submit songs to me in certain formats. It’s amazing how many artists just skip over the “how this works” part of the page and submit music improperly. Already I’ve designed album art, a website and written long emails and posts about how this works. Taking time away from myself as an artist.

However, I really love hip-hop, so I’m going to keep supporting it. I hope that, eventually, I can start to see some benefits from putting this together. Whether it’s attention to my music (which won’t be on the releases), finding artists to collaborate with or maybe a few extra fans here and there. It’s all worth it to me though, and I know you’ve given a whole lot to the community so I know you think it’s worth it as well.

Enough of my rambling, thanks for what you do for the indie hip-hop community!

-OneTwenty

PS – Chris aka K.i.D. is going to be on the first release, I noticed he posted up there!

Great post! I’ve been reading your posts on this blog via my google reader for several years now, mostly soaking in the information & applying it where I see fit. I’ve submitted music a few times but I’ve found that with the high amount of music blogs on the internet and the submission/follow-up demands of each, the process can be a little daunting. I find that the more I perform in my city of Chicago, event crash, and network, the more bloggers I meet along the way that are interested in working with me. So I think at a time when many artists are looking towards the net as a crutch with hopes of becoming the next viral phenomenon, there is now an opportunity to cut through the noise by making great impressions and increasing brand awareness in person.

I liked this one i think it very true we as artist get caught up trying to be everywhere that we dont take time read any for the thing on the blogs which many timea hold valuable information that will help avoid mistakes or fast track somethings i will now make it a point to read some of the write ups

This is my first time on this site and I will be submitting music. Just wanna let you know on behalf of me and the rest of the unsigned talent that is good and never get’s heard. THANK YOU for your effort and respect to the craft and I fully understand your frustration with this.

indiehiphop.net!! I always check it out, but haven’t left comments. I will comment that the schoolboy Q song up top is dope, as is this blog. I hope yall get to see my website shivat.net, you will like if indiehiphop is your thing!

Very true Artist need to become more focus on building a presence online and then send a press pack in a email instead of, YO Check me out I’m Hot loool. Music industry is 10% or in today’s game 5% percent talent and the other 90-95% is all business.

I read a few of the comments (there were too many too read LOL) and I agree with 3flection. Its too hard for an artist to be involved with every site there is. Our goal is to reach as many ppl as possible, but as I read in another post, its not just about reaching ppl but about reaching the right ppl.

I think in your next submission rant, you should make a connection with the that idea.(I haven’t read the first) Artist should at least listen to music post on that site and read the feedback the readers give. If your a gangster rapper and you submit music to a conscious rap blog, how far will you get? Maybe a few likes but your efforts are better spend else where.

thanks for this post. It gives me a good idea of how to approach submission. Last week, I was on that drive thru mentality but now I’ll at least check out the contents of a site before I submit anything LOL