Don't Try To Be A Rap Star

Initially, I intended to give some inspirational words to help emcees further their craft. However, examining the state of Hip Hop and mainstream Rap music, I would have some better advice. Don't try to be a Rap Star. No exclamation points or ALL CAPS needed to convey my point. Don't waste your energy trying to be a Rap Star.

The way everything is now in the business, your chances of success at that are slim to none at best. The most you will probably ever achieve is some hood love, or some internet success. But people buying your music on download in massive numbers will probably never happen. If people are souping you up at talent shows acting like you can get discovered, don't believe the hype. Record companies don't sign artists off of hearing them in a club. You have to at least have, a real internet buzz. Then that still doesn't guarantee anything. Since I've gone on and on about all that before I won't continue that but say instead... If you perform and make mixtapes and post your songs on the internet, do your music for the love. Because chances  are you will never get paid to where you wouldn't need another job to support yourself. You would be lucky to have the exposure to make a living touring and selling music, even a modest, livable wage would be a blessing for most rappers. Chances are you won't even get that. It's not because you don't have enough talent because you may. It's most likely because you will not stumble upon one hit wonder status. That only happens to maybe ten people a year (20 at the most) out of thousands of people with a new hot song. You probably won't have the relentless promotional machine that keeps your material relevant among all the new daily submissions to get noticed by a label, sponsor or distributor. And you'll probably be so bent on making one hit song that you wont concentrate on promoting your body of work, or creating a supportive fan base.

One major drawback to your whole approach is that you're just doin it for yourself. At least most of you seem to be. Most of yall are just out there talkin about yourself, and what you want and what you gonna do to a nigga and how many bitches and look at my whip and me splurggin on shit you wish you could afford and look at me and my swag and look at me i'm so fly wit my clothes on and look at me, look at me. Plus most them other cats in the mainstream already said the same basic shit. If you wanna get off that style of rhymin, think about the fans. What can you tell them to affect their lives? What do you know to connect with somebody that's not slangin dope, shootin niggas and being a slave to the system? Most people in life aren't like that. If you want them to be, you're wishin for a fucked up world.

But all my advice would be, is to do music from the heart for real. From the heart where you connect with another human being and you say some shit that truthfully touches someone listening to it. Do music not expecting to get rich from it, but in spite of the fact that you won't. Do music that speaks to the person listening because you can make music for yourself all day and listen it. But when you make music you want me to hear, make sure it has a meaning in the grand scheme of things. Make sure that it has some relevance to life. If you looked back ten years from now on the music you're doin right now would you be proud of it? If so where are the songs that you did ten years ago or from when you first started? Are they still hot? If you were talented they would be.If you were a for real artist like a Ludacris or Common or Jay or Big Daddy Kane or Treach or even 50 you would be doin the songs people first heard from you and still rockin a crowd with it. Real artists like Redman and Joel Ortiz, Joe Buddens, Ghostface, Mos Def, Murs, Immortal Technique all put thought and energy into creating rhymes that will stand the test of time.

When you do music from the heart for real, you touch on real topics that affect people in a deeper way. People remember where they were when they heard your song. People are inspired but the way you structured a cadence of flipped a verse. A person's life may be added to by what you mean in a song. Mainstream music takes away from the audience. It takes your time and attention on some meaningless bullshit you could have been better off, without. You take away from the audience when you black out on ego trips about yourself. Why should I listen to you at all? There are thousands of artists.tens maybe hundreds of thousands. Why should I listen to you? What will it benefit my life to have heard something you said? As a real artist you should wonder about that question constantly. If you don't care about the audience you know you're on an ego trip. If you don't care about the audience, why should they care about you? But you don't have to take my word for it. You don't have to think about anything  this post implies. You don't have to change anything you doin at all. What was said here might not matter at all. Because no matter how good you  may be, you can't be surprised if you never get to be a Rap Star.   - One, Kurt Nice