Based on the response to my last post about how radio works in today's climate I thought I'd give you guys another big nugget of information about how the game is today. I understand there are some exceptions to this rule, but I would be willing to bet that 97% of rappers have taken this approach to find success, and it's even more prevalent now.
There are 3 reasons why a rapper finds success, none of which have anything to do with what their material sounds like, sadly. It's the old cliche, Money, Power, and Respect. I'll try to break this down for you guys as best as I can. Keep in mind, rappers who only get a handle on one of these things usually become regional acts, or have a quick 15 minutes of fame and never really reach a level that you'll remember after 5 years or so. Rappers who have 2 of this things, can get to a certain level, where they are known, make money, but never taken on a very serious level. The rare rapper who gets all 3 down, becomes a super star.
- Money: It's as true now as it has ever been. If you don't break bread, you can't win. It's that simple. There has never been a rapper ever in the history of the genre, or I'd argue in the history of popular music, that has been able to achieve any sort of level of fame without spending a great deal of money. This can be personal money, street money, label money, etc. Money is money in the end when it comes to this. We know a great deal of these situations involve drug money (see: Irv Gotti/Murder Inc), but what is this money exactly for?
The money is used to pay for radio, pay for placements on Mtv and BET, pay for travel to make promotional appearances, pay for verses and production from high level artists, and on and on and on. If you're trying to breakthrough and have no money to use, and nobody in your camp has money to use, you've already lost. This is the most fundamental part of trying to make it in the music business. You need to break bread to make bread, end of story.
- Power: There are a handful of people in power in the rap game and music in general. There are managers and there are label execs. I'd guess there are not more than about 25 people who can actually move the needle for you in terms of flexing their power. With that power, also comes money. So if you take care of step 2, step 1 "Money" usually follows very closely behind, which is followed by a bill from the Power Players accountant.
A short list off the top of my head of powerful people who can make or break you: Lyor, Todd, Joie, Gee, Hop, Mark Pitts, Jay Brown, Dr Dre, Jimmy, etc. These, along with a few other people are the decision makers in hip hop. They make the machine work. Without one of them in your corner, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. They are king makers. If they decide they want you to win, you almost always will win, or at least have a genuine shot at winning.
- Respect: You need the established huge name artists of your time to respect you, shout you out, do records with you, and generally just cosign you. This is what I like to refer to as the dikk Sucking Effect. The general public are sheep. They follow. They have very little original thoughts and basically like what and who they are told to like. It's sad, it's true, it's always been like this.
This aspect has changed over time and the pool of cosigns that make any impact is much smaller. I'd argue that the only rapper cosigns that matter right now are: Drake, Jay, Ye, and Em. I'm referring to the cosign on the highest level. A proper, strong cosign from any of these 4 right now, today, has the greatest meaning you can get from any other rapper. There was a period of time where Khaled/Ross were in this group as well, but they diluted their brand so much with so many bad decisions that they have fallen into a 2nd or 3rd tear of cosign worth.
Now, seriously think about what I've laid out. If you research any current rapper that has any sort of stature, you will see that they almost all have 2 of these things going for them, especially when they first got hot.
