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.
“So then the question comes back around, how can the DJ keep his/her relevancy? Artists find themselves in almost impossible situations. There are thousands of DJs in every state, that all want drops, special freestyles and a phone call when you get to town. Everyone wants to be the artist’s friends, just as the artist needs to be the friend of the DJ. However, the DJ isn’t obligated to the artist, but more and more the artist is in debt to the DJ.” – Rhymefest
Also with DJ’s running their own labels and putting out their own albums and mixtapes, the terrain gets increasingly harder and more difficult for artists to navigate through. Getting love from bloggers is no easy task either. Some only deal with artists who are already signed or hot, and others are no strangers to the pay for play game either. As the playing field continues to change and evolve one thing you can always be certain of; there will always be obstacles. And there will always be ways around them.
