Some music bloggers communicate with each other. We share ideas, likes and dislikes about life in the blogosphere. This post is about some major dislikes. Particularly, the way artists go about getting their music featured on these blogs. This is important because these issues could very well be the reason why some never get their music posted. So I present to you these 5 music blogger’s pet peeves… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s almost the end of the first month of the new year. Have you gotten off to a good start? Have you learned from the mistakes of last year? Have you made plans to expand on the things that worked well for you last year?

With all the news of declining music sales, an industry in shambles, and a music genre that’s oversaturated, you can be sure of this: some MC will defy the odds and Read the rest of this entry »

Musical masturbation is my diagnosis for rappers (or any artists) who aren’t really trying to do anything significant in this game. They’re just fucking around, forever hobbyists just shootin “one offs”. They won’t invest in their projects, or themselves. They’ll never incorporate their company or label because that would actually force them to think of this as a business. So what will they do? Continue to talk shit, drop links on Twitter and Facebook to their poorly mixed tracks and pose as though they’re actually trying to do something. Read the rest of this entry »

Hopefully you’ve been beating the social networks hard and long enough to realize that your number of friends and followers doesn’t equate to success. Sure it’s a factor, but accumulating people on these networks don’t mean that they give a shit about your music. I have Facebook friends that have pushed their network numbers to the limit, then they release a single only to discover that those people couldn’t care less. Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of you think that success in this rap shit is going to come over-night. It’s not gonna happen! Yeah you may occasionally see a rapper, out on nowhere, create a new dance and appear to blow up instantly. But trust me, even that artist has a story of struggle to tell. Read the rest of this entry »

In a market saturated with so many hip hop artists, you’re going to have to go beyond just lyrical skill to make an impact. You know, the kind of impact where you influence the way a group of people dress, speak, and think. Far too many emcees ignore this aspect of their careers because they feel that they should remain free from “gimmicks”. Read the rest of this entry »

In my city and in others I’ve traveled to, some promoters put on what they call, talent showcases. Most of these lame shows are put together by letting any rapper perform who pays an entree fee.  On top of that, the artist is given a number of tickets that he must sell to his friends and supporters. These are the only group of people usually cheering for him during his performance because no one is there to see anyone else but the artist they came to support.

Anybody can get in and perform if they have the money to pay. These showcases are stacked with well over a dozen artists Read the rest of this entry »

We’re living in an age dominated by social networks. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are populated with artists, business owners, and casual users who are just screaming for attention. It’s normal to see status updates like…”I’m about to walk my dog.” “Damn this hamburger is good!” or “I’m on my way to the gym!” These are people who make it a point to Read the rest of this entry »

Hip hop artist Rhymefest wrote a thought provoking article at DJ Booth.net posing the question about who is more responsible for breaking records currently; bloggers or DJ’s? This has become increasingly frustrating for artists who find out that a lot of club DJ’s only want to play what’s hot on the streets and a terrestrial radio push demands that you have “mucho deniro”. So you’re stuck in a fucked up “chicken or the egg” scenario. They won’t play you if you’re not hot, but you can’t get hot if they don’t play you. Read the rest of this entry »

Just when you thought MySpace couldn’t possibly get any worse, they went ahead and fucked up the last worthwhile function left in that digital wasteland.

This function was the ability to search for artists of different genres and narrow that search down to the country, state and even city they were from. You could also search for keywords in their profile. This was huge help for fans and bloggers like me looking to discover new artists from specific places in the world. On top Read the rest of this entry »