Most artistes I know strive for relevance and uniqueness believing themselves to be a worthy addition to the respective genre in which they reside. Most don't want to be a cliche just like most people don't want to have bad breath but both can happen if you aren't vigilant and/or lack proper self-evaluation. Some of the things I'm going to mention are things that I myself get catch in at some point so don't take it personal but remember if all your actions are cliched then you become a cliche and then that's just sad.
1) Album coming soon - Almost every artiste has an album coming soon. Do you have a budget? Marketing strategy - online or offline? How much money have you saved? Where are you going to record? Have you lined up producers, decided on features, envisioned a concept? It's the easiest thing in the world to say but makes you look silly when you've been saying it for years with nothing to show. My personal method? Don't talk until you have something concrete.
2) Is radio fault - Yeah radio doesn't play people but that is never going to change (even if programme directors were benevolent, which they aren't) given the number of people that drop stuff off and the number of radio time available. Some people will complain about airplay but blank opportunities to perform live which gives you even better exposure if you ask me. There are lots of ways to promote yourself other than radio so if you aren't using them, don't complain. If you do, especially on record, you join the long army of zombies that rinse out potential fans ears with problems on wax and it can be monotonous on the ears.
3) I'm so multi-talented I go rap and... - Nuttin wrong with jumping out in multiple stuff but remember that you risk alienating your fan base that way, especially if it's diametrically opposed disciplines like rap and soca. Nevertheless the norm, especially with upcoming artistes, is throw everything at the target in an effort to get that hit so I don't anticipate this one changing soon.
4) Dem men hating - It's easy to think that people hating on you. I sometimes do but it's usually much less than my ego perceives, even worse, there are lot of people who are indifferent. The funniest thing to me is how in US rap, the biggest artistes uniformly speak about being hated on. If your music is being bought by millions is that really hate? If so then maybe I should reincarnate as Hitler and suck all that hate up. Either way, nutting wrong wit dropping an anti-hater song now and then but being constantly paranoid and delusional when people don't even know who you are is just wack.
5) I not big yet but I still be getting money - It's usually a good strategy to position yourself where you want to be rather than where you are right now, especially if you aren't in a good place. However, if you claim to be rolling in cash and men keep catching yuh jostling in city gate, quarelling about the increase in maxi fares and/or paying the driver short then it not going to look good. However, this is quite common in Trinidad rap being epitomized by our brethren in the US most of whom don't have money either but at least have the means to borrow jewelery and be more convincing. I eh telling no one what to write but trust me, people do snicker and it's one of the main points they use to bun down local rap.
So that's it folks. Till later vibes on "Stress" below if you haven't heard it yet and look out for that video. Face out.
1 comment:
Great post. I'm a Trini now living in the U.S. (10 plus years), and a child of hip-hop long before it was fad in T&T. I'm very critical about what I hear & see with regards to Trini hip-hop and you address some key issues here. I just hope sentiments like this don't fall on deaf ears.
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