1. Don’t think that heavy marketing and aggressive promotion will be the solution to all your problems. Your music must be great. No amount of marketing will make people care about bad music.

2. Don’t be afraid to be different. Biting someone’s sound and style may get you noticed short term, but the artists who have a lasting affect are those who dare to stand out and create something new.

3. Don’t ignore your fans. Focus on building genuine relationships. Nothing beats word of mouth promotion.

4. Don’t underestimate the power of video. It doesn’t take a big budget to make an entertaining music video. A handycam, a little clever editing, and a creative idea can do wonders for a your songs.

5. Don’t contact blog owners, magazines, or DJs without knowing what their interests are. Do your homework! The more you know about them, the more impressed your contact will be with you.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEozcE542FM

Here are a few inspiring words from some successful independent artists.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrRLI4ozag

Seth Godin is a marketing mastermind, and I’ve been checking him out for a few years now. This is not my first post on him. I just feel that some of his words of wisdom can be beneficial to anyone trying to succeed in any career.  It’s words like the ones contained in this video, that inspire me to make this blog a tool that improves your life after you visit it.  Apply them when thinking about your craft.

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They say how your spend your time is as important as how you spend your money. Very true. There are lot of people who seem to stay busy doing a lot of little things but at the end of the day never complete any of them. This post is about time management.  By effectively examining how you spend your time each day, you can see just how much you waste and make the necessary adjustments to become more productive. Here are 5 ways that worked for me.

1. The “To Do” list: I live by my list and try to check mark as much as I can everyday. The app that comes with my phone makes this easy to manage. Sure there are things that may pop up that will cause you reorder the priorities of your list, but at the end of the day, those check marks make you feel like you’ve made some accomplishments.

2. Multitasking: Some how this became a cool word for people who claimed that they could work on several things at once. I’ve been guilty of it too. Don’t do it. Would you want your surgeon multitasking while you’re on the operating table? I think not. The more you focus your mind on one specific task at a time, the more efficiently you’re going to complete it. In the beginning, I used to write articles for this blog while listening to artists submissions, monitoring twitter and watching television.  I thought I was getting more done but I was constantly going back correcting spelling errors, replaying music and reviewing what I missed on TV. I was wasting a lot more of my time and not doing the job to the best of my ability.

3. Meetings: Most physical meetings about business are a complete waste of time. It sorta makes people feel productive and important so say, “Lets have a lunch meeting.” The fact is, a large majority of those meetings could have been taken care of over the phone in a few minutes.  Cut out the fat and get to the meat! You’ll save time and the money you would have spent on gas, lunch or the bus. Now I think that it’s important to have first introduction meetings face-to-face, but if you want to look at the other party, use a webcam with Skype. It’s free!! You don’t even have to pay for the call and you can record the meeting if you want. How cool is that?  Use the technology!

4. Over-planning:  A well thought out  plan is great, but far to0 many people spend too much time sketching out the blueprints and never get to the actual building. Sometimes you can spend months and years planning an idea, only to find out that it’s a bad one. The quicker you put your ideas to work the sooner you can find out if they fail or if you need fine tune them. If it turns out to be a bad plan, no big deal. Scrap it and start a new one. This will bring you closer to one that succeeds.

5. Rest: Overworking the human brain and body will eventually cause it to cease operating at an optimum level. Resting is something that i had force into my daily routine also. I love what I do so it never feels like work.  Grinding 24hrs a day is not only unhealthy, but it causes you to not be as sharp in mind as you would be after proper rest. Resting greatly reduces the stress of those dreadful tasks you need to complete as well. You’ll look better too.

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Real spit from Hov.

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI8VQ7Zho5M

Truth of the matter is, Will Smith most likely has just a fraction of the rap talent you have. Take one look at this interview segment and you’ll see why he crushed everyone else. HIS GRIND IS RELENTLESS! This man will not lose. I love this clip and I think I’m going to start my day with it from now on.

Hope it inspires you as well. Go out there and get it, fam!

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The music business model is ever changing. Even if you’re an artist that’s signed to a label, you have to learn how to manage the business of being a successful artist.  In this aritcle, producer, John Snyder goes further into depth about these 8 qualities of being an artist entrepreneur.

1. Wants to work for themselves, doesn’t want to work for someone else
2. Can communicate and is organized about it
3. Isn’t afraid of taking risks
4. Sees opportunity and takes it
5. Understands the need for innovation and innovates
6. Overcomes adversity, doesn’t take no for an answer
7. Knows how to sell themselves and their ideas
8. Ready to fight for what they believe

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If you’re an independent hip hop artist, why do continue to do this? I’m referring to music of course. Is it because you love what you do, or is it the fame and potential riches that drive you? Is it a little bit of both? Would you do it if there was no money to be made in this game?

These are rhetorical questions of course and I’m not just asking you these questions, I ask myself these questions to keep my artistic focus in tact, because if you’re human, you are susceptible to distractions.

Let’s face it, this hip hop shit is fully saturated with a bunch of people who feel that if they can string a couple of rhyming words together, then this qualifies them as a recording artists. And the truth of the matter is that there is a lot of really bad hip hop music out there. And if you’re on any social network, rather it be Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter, you’re bombarded with a constant barrage of Zshare links, “add me” messages, and friend requests inviting you to hear their music. After being disappointed several times, how can you not began to ignore them after a while.

Now, I’d never discourage a developing artist from continuing to pursue their dream. After all, most artists don’t start out good in the beginning anyway. This is a process and development happens in stages, but some people just don’t the talent. But who the fuck am I to say? There are a couple of rich mutha fuckers on radio right now that I wouldn’t have given the time of day if I had a label.

One of the problems that exists is that there aren’t enough trusted filters out there. Ya know, a place that’s done the screening process for you. You’d know that if you were looking for good hip hop that wasn’t mainstream, this place would have weeded out all of the crappy music and saved you a lot of time and agony of listening to it.

Well, one of the things that motivated me to start this blog was the lack of support that existed on online for underground and independent hip hop artists. I’m a music producer and not a blogger, so I had no idea what the hell I was getting myself into. But I felt that rather than be one of the people constantly complaining about the state of hip hop and radio, that I’d try to do something, no matter how small, to give a platform to those hip hop artists that are really putting their heart into this shit. And on top of that, educate them about the music business. I’m always encouraged by the messages of appreciation I get from the readers.

In the beginning, I profiled artists and let the readers rate and decide rather they liked the music or not. I tried to remove myself from the process of becoming the sole judge of what was good enough for the site and what wasn’t. This was a mistake because I posted some music that I didn’t particularly care for. Lately, and from this point on, I’m only posting music that I think is good and/or innovative. I want this blog to be one of those trusted filters for you. If I don’t like it, it won’t be on the site. I’m sure I’m going to piss off a few folks and maybe loose some associates but fuck it. There needs to be more balance in this shit. I don’t care because I don’t blog for money and the only real reason I’d like this blog to become super popular is to give the artists featured on it more exposure.

What do I like? A lot of different shit. South, west, east, mid-west…I’m not particular to any style of hip hop. Just send me that shit you put your heart in. It doesn’t even have to have a hook on it. This ain’t radio, man! SEND ME THAT SHIT!!

I don’t post daily because really, I have other shit to do and I only try to post when I have something worthwhile to say. I figured you would appreciate that. This will never become a gossip blog because there’s enough of that already out there, but I do want this to be a support base for independent hip hop artists and a blog free from all that hatin shit.

Anyway, I would like to see more support from artists on the site. Nothing discourages me more than artists who contact me to be posted on the site then, once they’re posted, neglect to encourage their fans to check out the post, or give support to other artists on the site.

I’m going try my best to expand the awareness of this blog and I’m always open to suggestion about how I can make this a better place for artists. I need your help so feel free to drop a note in my email.

Support Independent Hip Hop!!….and if you haven’t subscribed to the blog already, whatcha waitin’ for, Fam??!!

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Seth Godin is a marketing genius and a best selling author. If this video doesn’t inspire you to go out in the world and find your voice, you should check your pulse. Take the time and check it out. It’s well worth it.

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Today we lay, Unsigned to rest. For so long he fueled our hopes and dreams to make it in this thing we call the Music Industry. We tried and worked so hard to free ourselves from being associated with you, Unsigned. Because of you, some of us signed some real fucked up contracts and damn near lost our souls and minds to remove your name from our artist’s bios.

It was because of you that I spent a fortune traveling from state to state, to bullshit music seminars, hoping that I’d get connected with someone that could free me from your iron grip. I walked around wearing all the badges from prior seminars as though they were medals of heroic bravery. I sat and listened attentively to A&Rs and former music execs on panels, who promised to give me the map that would eventually lead me to my freedom. Little did I know, that those maps would always lead me right back to you.

It was because of you, Unsigned, that I would stalk and harass record label CEOs, with my big stack of shiny press-kits in hand, and pounce on them from the bushes. “Here, listen to my demo!”, I would yell.
Sometimes I just made a damn fool out of myself for you, Unsigned. Like the time I sneaked up on L.A Reid one evening while he seemed to be enjoying a nice dinner with a beautiful young lady. I hid my boombox underneath my over-sized throwback jersey and performed my single right there in the restaurant, “Bitch I’m Bout My Money”.

Shortly after I was arrested for that that incident, I continued to spend a fortune on postage stamps and envelopes, mailing unsolicited press-kits and CDs to the addresses of every record label. They never called or wrote back. I paid to be in artists showcases when the promoter promised to have “label scouts”, looking for talent, in the audience. It was all bullshit. (sigh)

I’m not mad at you, Unsigned, and I hate to speak ill of the dead, but you should have told me that I could do this shit on my own and that I’d be better off if I learned the game. You could have saved me a shitload of money and the dignity of a lot of young girls who did some some wild shit in backrooms they’d like to forget. But I guess you needed a purpose and I can’t hate on you for that. How else would I know how sweet being Independent is without having gone through these years of gross denial.

Well, I will never forget you, Unsigned. You’ve inspired generations. Now we’ll gladly refer to ourselves as Independent and explore new horizons with a lot greater possibilities.

Thanks for the ride, G!

Feel free to leave your parting words

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