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 artist. 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 have 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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