Group one has a lot of characteristics that I find desirable. My first experience with this group was when I was booking and promoting the T.O.N.E-Z show in April of this year. I had 6 openers and 2 headliners. Most of the headliners fall into group one. They were hustling tickets til the day of the show. Even the day of the show they were at the mall or out trying to get more fans out to the show. Most of them knew the bigger the crowd the better the show. After the show two of the openers hit me up for management services because they knew a good manager can make your career move further. Yes a manager does charge fees and very rarely puts and monetary funds into the acts themselves, the manager puts time and effort into making collabs happen, making merch discounts happen, finding shows for the artist to perform at and spending their own time and energy to get your name known outside of your town or city. Because of the time and effort involved in making all these things happen the manager normally takes a monthly fee and gets a percentage of all merch sold, appearance fees, etc. The first group also realized that as they get more popular they might be asked to collab with newer artists. This can be a positive and negative for all parties involved. The positives are that the new artist is getting a known artist on a track that may or may not make them famous, but the money involved can be quite high. The known artist takes the most risk. If they are not selective and just do all the collabs that come along because someone is paying them they risk overexposure and weakening their standing by having their name on sub-par tracks. Artists in the first group are willing to take some risks to help further their career or other artists careers. For newer artists (1-4 years in the business and a few mixtapes or debut album for sale) who are beginning to get asked to collab on tracks my advice would be to do the collabs for free or a max of like $50 for a verse or hook. Doing this will get your name more known, get you some money for it, and allow newer artists to help both of your careers. For more established artists (4-6 years in the business and at least a few CD's being sold on the market) I would say no more than $200 for a verse and $100 for collabs. Of course artists can make their own choices but should definitely consult your manager for their advice. The artists in this group will also rely on their manager for business decisions. If they want to collab with more known artists they should tell their manager and let him/her work out the details. If you want a music video made tell your manager and let them work out the details. By doing this you will allow yourself less stress and more time to worry about what is the most important, writing lyrics, creating beats, and recording your next hot track. A good manager/artist relationship is one where the artist focuses on music and the manager handles the business side of the house. For all these reasons the first group gets my respect and continued support.
Group two is the group I will only work with until they prove they belong in group two. Artists/promoters/bookers/etc all have similar characteristics. Here is the list to watch out for:
- Egotistical, they have an inflated sense of self. This means they may have no cd's on the shelf, no exposure outside of a small geographic area, and limited stage or recording experience but still want to charge $200 for a verse or hook because they "deserve it"
- Not trustworthy, They think everyone else in the business is fake or not real. They constantly talk negative about people and have no loyalty to anyone but themselves. If someone can't get them money or fame they will do everything in their power to make that person fail.
- Two Faced, they will say all the right things to your face to make sure you think they are your friend but as soon as you are not around they bad mouth you.
- Self promoting, refusing to work with anyone they feel "isn't in their league" or is "below them" May have a very limited following but feel the need to price their merch or collabs way to high because they feel it is owed to them.
Now don't get me wrong I feel most artists need a little ego to make sure they produce great music, but too much ego is a bad thing! Self promotion is also a good thing as long as you don't lose your head. People in group two will want to be pampered and waited on hand and foot. They want other people to tell them how great they are and kiss up to them. They don't think a manager deserves anything if they haven't put money into the artist. They feel like no other artist is anywhere near their skill level so they will not work or do shows with most of them. To them the rap world owes them something even if they have done nothing to earn it. If you are an artist and after working with most people they don't want to work with you again, you might want to rethink what you are doing. If you gained a fan base that is so faithful they will buy anything you are selling, don't take advantage of them at every turn to make a buck.
I know I am relatively new to the business but I know who I will and will not work with ever again. My past blog posts have exposed some people from both groups. I didn't do it to start beef or make anyone fail in the business. I did it to make other managers/promoters/bookers aware of the people I have come across that they might wanna look out for. There is a huge movement right now in the underground rap scene that people are taking notice of. This movement is made up of people like me with similar feelings on how things should be done. So if you think I am alone in this I can guarantee you I am not. Things are changing for the better.
That is all I have right now. If you have any input please feel free to comment!
MMWFL,
Juggalotus
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