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Hip Hop Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dpleezy on October 01, 2006, 09:25:47 AM
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Interview with Kevin Black, Vice President of Interscope Rap Marketing and Promotions
http://www.allhiphop.com/features/index.asp?ID=1552
There are countless indie label’s popping up trying to be the next G-Unit or Aftermath. What are the top five basic mistakes people make when getting in the game?
1. Not enough funding.
2. Trying to hang your hat where you can’t reach it.
3. Lack of information is what kills them and not knowing that every mistake costs. If you have the wrong address on a package that stamp cost you $1.35, and when it comes back you have to rewrap it and send it out again. In the music game every mistake costs money.
4. Promoting to your friends. Your friends will tell you anything e.g., “Oh, that s**t is hot!” then they don’t even want to buy it they want that s**t for free!
5. The final one I would say is mostly people start without a distribution deal and I think you need a distribution deal before you start. A distribution deal is someone who houses you product and puts it in stores for you.
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How do you stay focused?
First of all it’s called time management you gotta manage your time or your time will manage you.
Primarily, I live by my “Four F” theory:
1. Be Friendly, you always gotta treat people friendly.
2. You have to Focus, but I don’t me just straight ahead, you gotta know your mission and always be open to see the big picture.
3. the third F is be Firm. Nobody likes a motherf**ker that just says yes to everything ‘cause then you’re a jellyfish cause like they say, if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything.
4. And my last F is you gotta know when to say “F**k it.” Sometimes the mountain can’t be climbed, the elephant can’t get straddled, sometimes the lion don’t want to get fed, but it’s up to you to know what’s going on so that’s my Four F theory for the new age executive.
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That's logic though
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might be logic, but it's suprising how few SA artists follow those points. Distribution and lack of funding are probably the main problems,,, and i think everyone suffers a little from 'promoting to their friends'.
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everyone suffers a little from 'promoting to their friends'.
I experienced this one before... :oops:
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everyone suffers a little from 'promoting to their friends'.
I experienced this one before... :oops:
hahah,,, don't worry - i think everyone has ;)
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you know what you guys need... scouts mayn!!!
set up cyphers in schools and ish... the high school kids are sick man... and they got nothing much to do...
Hook a lil niggah up with word like, 'if he pa** his finals y'all get him a deal', lil' man will pa** his finals
These ol' cats are not hungry enough anymore, he heard he was a legend, now he jus scribbling, not writin...he says it on record and you expect me to buy hi ish... oh hell nah,
The kids are hungry mayn, they are!!! they jus need direction... that whole big record label ish is played out to...we know what's up now...we want to get paid selling what we love...
hell I don't want to be turned into an MCee and that's it, no money...I want to be my music...don't care if I sell out of a trunk mayn...It's mine mine mine and I'll love the results if the people love my ish...
that's my word...
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distribution aint that important in the rap/hiphop genre at this phase of the game because of things like myspace and soundclick.
another reason is that if you can create a good buzz and do shows then u dont need distribution.look at them Houston boys for example slim thug went platinum without a record deal b4 he signed to startrak.
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:roll: RIIIIIIIGHTTTTTTT.... guess we've had it all wrong this whole time, name ONE artist other than Ca**ie who has generated anything resembling a successful music career exclusively from MYSPACE and she might not have been signed to Bad Boy at first but from get go her producer has been Ryan Leslie, a regular collaborator of Fabolous....
This Is not Texas!! Nobody out here is Slim Thug and not ONE SA hip hop artist or rapper (take your pick) can claim to have gra**-roots support which matches even the minor regional southern rappers.
Besides oFCOURSE Slim Thug had distribution it just wasn't the major label distributors, but every corner liquour store in Houston had copies of Slim's album for sale, as well as the strip clubs and he even got a local chain of fried chicken joints to carry his discs next to the register... all of the parties he broked the deal with profit-shared in the first album's revenues.
In this country if you don't have discs on shelves and a video and have enough fore-thought to realise you need to spend your first 6 months doing gigs for NO cash, you are just anotha poor SA rapper who has to keep his job in Edgars.
In-bred stupidity I can deal with cos shit its genetic and it isn't your fault your end of the gene pool was particularly shallow, but ignorance is f***in unforgivable, But my bad I might be wrong and you might be the one local label head whose been able to move ANY copies without some sort of distribution.... Didn't yo mama teach you to hold yo tongue when grown folks is talkin?
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:roll: RIIIIIIIGHTTTTTTT.... guess we've had it all wrong this whole time, name ONE artist other than Ca**ie who has generated anything resembling a successful music career exclusively from MYSPACE and she might not have been signed to Bad Boy at first but from get go her producer has been Ryan Leslie, a regular collaborator of Fabolous....
This Is not Texas!! Nobody out here is Slim Thug and not ONE SA hip hop artist or rapper (take your pick) can claim to have gra**-roots support which matches even the minor regional southern rappers.
Besides oFCOURSE Slim Thug had distribution it just wasn't the major label distributors, but every corner liquour store in Houston had copies of Slim's album for sale, as well as the strip clubs and he even got a local chain of fried chicken joints to carry his discs next to the register... all of the parties he broked the deal with profit-shared in the first album's revenues.
In this country if you don't have discs on shelves and a video and have enough fore-thought to realise you need to spend your first 6 months doing gigs for NO cash, you are just anotha poor SA rapper who has to keep his job in Edgars.
In-bred stupidity I can deal with cos shit its genetic and it isn't your fault your end of the gene pool was particularly shallow, but ignorance is f***in unforgivable, But my bad I might be wrong and you might be the one local label head whose been able to move ANY copies without some sort of distribution.... Didn't yo mama teach you to hold yo tongue when grown folks is talkin?
think 5 years down the line homegirl!!!
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
u f***in queer
hahahahahahahahah
ps.i hope for ur sake that aint you in ur sig.....
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In-bred stupidity I can deal with cos shit its genetic and it isn't your fault your end of the gene pool was particularly shallow, but ignorance is f***in unforgivable, But my bad I might be wrong and you might be the one local label head whose been able to move ANY copies without some sort of distribution.... Didn't yo mama teach you to hold yo tongue when grown folks is talkin?
damn- why u so mad?
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@ bionic gotti: you're an idiot - that's all there is to it. you really have no idea what you're talking about, but then again you must be one of those who ascribe to the belief that you are entitled to your gross stupidity. well, truth be told, in all earnest you are - but please spare the rest of us.
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all those were good points but you guys know the truth and the truth hurts, hip hop does not sell in S.A the best thing to do is get a degree/honours/masters and you'll be set in this country, but if you want to pursue rap do it on the side but focus on your papers as that's what counts in South Africa
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true bout slim thug.
but i think in south africa hip hop has the potential to make sales-wise provided:
1. rappers stop bootlegging local shit.
2. good albums are made available at least at hip hop clothing stores
3. provided artists stop acting like supastars and start perfoming and selling records at local shows, b'coz, trust me, ive seen cats get big headed from a six track e.p.
they stay indoors the whole day waiting for GOD to:
1. organise shows for them
2. take their tracks to radio
3. for radio deejays to beg them to bring their tracks to stations.
4. make sure people know them.
5. turn them from underground rappers to highly paid performers overnite.
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In-bred stupidity I can deal with cos shit its genetic and it isn't your fault your end of the gene pool was particularly shallow, but ignorance is f***in unforgivable, But my bad I might be wrong and you might be the one local label head whose been able to move ANY copies without some sort of distribution.... Didn't yo mama teach you to hold yo tongue when grown folks is talkin?
damn- why u so mad?
He's mad coz he's the grandmaster of the J.L.H. 8O 8O
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lol you guys are fooling yourselves, we in the digital era now and ppl wont stop bootlegging music and south african hip hop will never sell enough to make it a proffession, house/kwaito/afro pop is where the money is at fullstop
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Those Texas South boys they dont play,they hustle hard,Slim Thug,Mike Jones,Paul Wall,Lil Keke etc
Back in Here in S.A,I remember last year 2005 here in Durban,Slikour b4 and after performing, he would push hes Ventilation album(why would he call album, a mixtape) and T-shirts to the crowds in 2 different shows.U gotta respect his hustle.
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lol you guys are fooling yourselves, we in the digital era now and ppl wont stop bootlegging music and south african hip hop will never sell enough to make it a proffession, house/kwaito/afro pop is where the money is at fullstop
i disagree. hip hop is still in its infancy in SA. As soon as we have more artists who rep their hoods we'll start selling,,, and yes, i'm talking about Spaza.
american clones will never sell in numbers, sorry.
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you see dplanet is talkin my kinda language.
see my patrner dj ronza has a public container at his crib.
when we dropped the rusty 014 ep we solt it from his phones and also on the strrets. the truth is over here ppl dont go to flea markets to buy dvd's and cd's, but if you put posters at tuck shops,public phones and tarverns. get your local tarven dj to play one song or have your cd in the jukebox for a week if they still using that.eveytime there is ppl ovathere u play your songs on the jukebox you might attract a couple of customers 4 ya mixtape,album or ep.
never release an independent cd without a guerilla marketing strategy
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never release an independent cd without a guerilla marketing strategy
IMAO :lol: You wudnt say that if you never read or own the Guerilla marketing books.
Those books actually gave me direction.
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you see dplanet is talkin my kinda language.
see my patrner dj ronza has a public container at his crib.
when we dropped the rusty 014 ep we solt it from his phones and also on the strrets. the truth is over here ppl dont go to flea markets to buy dvd's and cd's, but if you put posters at tuck shops,public phones and tarverns. get your local tarven dj to play one song or have your cd in the jukebox for a week if they still using that.eveytime there is ppl ovathere u play your songs on the jukebox you might attract a couple of customers 4 ya mixtape,album or ep.
never release an independent cd without a guerilla marketing strategy
now that's what i'm talking about...
that's what hustle is all about. people keep thinking they need to be in musica or look & listen,,,, really they need to be thinking about reaching out to their fanbase in their own communities.
by all means, try to get your shit on the radio, but start with your community radio,,, do shows in the hood. give taxi drivers your cd. we need to get more creative with our promotions.