Five Underground Artiste Tips (unfinished)

So to prevent an over-abundance of 'loose' arguments I tacked on an unfinished to the title. I'm still underground, still hustling, mixtape "Recession Music" releasing this week (hopefully) and still massaging my album "Hitchhiker's Guide to Uwi" to perfection so I won't say that I have a doctorate on giving upcoming artistes advice on what to do. However, I'm very observant so peep the unordered list and let me know what you think.

1) Ignore the haters - People like to talk and hating on new artistes is a given. Even I'm guilty of not giving ppl a chance sometimes and I'm an artiste. No matter how good you are you're going to get it so you need to learn to have that healthy confidence in yourself. As ironic as it seems, people will actually like your music in direct proportion to how much you like your music.

2) Don't ignore the haters...completely - I know that I just said ignore the haters but as hard as it may be to swallow...some of them have a point. That freestyle you posted over Jayz's "Hard Knock Life" may actually not be better than the original. Use hate, even misdirected ones like: "Yuh should stop recording mih boy. Yuh is real sh*t" as a stepping stone to improve yourself. Personally, I go in front the computer and freestyle every time someone tells me I'm mess.

3) Practice - Practice constantly. Making it mainstream from underground is like making it into the premiership from first division: You have to be first in your league to advance. Yes you have songs better than what playing on the radio but your songs need to be better than everyone else who is trying to make it. It's true that it takes more than good songs to make it but having good songs is basic.

4) Understand the business - Success in the industry is not only about your musical output. You have to understand how to position yourself to be heard. This involves marketing, knowing important people, dealing with studios, taking advice, forming alliances, using collaborations effectively, networking, acquiring a good manager etc. I won't get into all of this stuff but basically a terrible artiste with good business sense will win over a good artiste with no business sense any day (ignoring lady luck of course). Discovering and understanding the market you are trying to appeal to also falls under this. Don't frustrate yourself with badman songs if you know girl songs is your thing. Just do you.

5) Plan for the future - If you do the right things then success will come so you have to plan for it. What will you do? What's the next step? You don't want to be caught pants down when an opportunity presents itself. Additionally, when that money start flowing you don't want to be caught broke and a 'has been' months later. This game doesn't offer pension so you need to make it work and make it last.

And daz it people. Look out for "Recession Music" soon and take in "Raining Shots" below. I gone. Face out.