It’s an indies market! Whether you’re a new artist, artist manager, or business owner, there’s never been an easier time to brand and make profit from your craft than it is today. After years of working with accomplished artists, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in the entertainment industry, I’ve developed my own take on the five steps they each mastered to become successful.
Have a Plan.
Having a concise, written plan for your career is essential because, in this fickle business, your career is limited. When you have an end goal in mind, you know exactly what you’re working towards, maximizing your chances of actually getting there. I highly recommend reading Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People to help draft your plan. Think about the accomplishments that you ultimately want to achieve. Be specific and visualize your goal. Try creating a miniature version of what you want to accomplish. Start with an end goal and plan backwards. Continually review your plan for adjustments.
Nurture your Network.
Networking can get you through doors degrees and experience cannot because it’s not just what you know, but whom you know. Develop and maintain your connections regularly. Your follow-up game has to be even stronger. Focus on how you and your brand can add value to your network. Make everyone feel important by treating each with the same respect you’d give to a boss, especially when dealing with clients and fans. Remember, anything that costs you your integrity is too expensive, so know your limitations. But always be ready to provide value to your network.
Be Consistent.
Small progressive activities lead to major impact. Continue being active and grow your resume while you do it. No skill can be mastered without consistent repetition. Perfect your craft and you will accumulate experience as you go. A catalog of content and extensive experience will inevitably earn you the leverage necessary to advance your career. You may hear people say “fake it till you make it” but that’s just bad advice. Don’t run the risk of getting busted out and damaging your reputation. No one likes a poser. Besides, you can’t fool the real ones because real recognize real. So, just do the work. Remember, it’s not a race; it’s a marathon.
Build your team.
You are a business. Even if you’re an artist, you must view yourself as a business since you have the potential to make multimillion-dollar deals. In the beginning of your career, you will have to wear many hats, if not all of them, to develop leverage in your career. But once you start getting a buzz, investing in an entertainment lawyer, publicist, and other essential players to your lineup can level up your career. As a team leader, your goal is to focus on the big picture: perfecting your craft and creating new business opportunities. If the time you spend on other aspects of your business significantly exceeds the time you spend on big picture items, you may want to consider seeking help or reevaluating your current team.
Remain Positive.
This is the most important of them all. In this industry you will face disappointment, discouragement, rejection, anxiety, and many other debility emotions. Your success is predicated on how well you rebound from those setbacks. This is why it is so important to have a solid plan. A solid, step-by-step plan provides unshakable confidence. Visualize yourself at the height of your career. The more you can see yourself succeeding, the more likely you are to self-prophesize your own success. Surround yourself with those that are actively hustling in the industry. Their energy will rub off on you. Remember that no one is perfect. Take your business seriously but have a sense of humor, too. Believe in yourself and your ability to perform the steps to achieving your goals and others will believe in you, too.
Now I haven’t introduced anything new, here, as we’ve all heard these rules in some form before. But when life becomes overwhelming, our goals begin to look impossible to reach. So I’m here to bring you back to basics whether you want to get signed, work as an independent artist, own your own label, or maybe just to get free shit from brands while popping on Instagram. For music networking, digital media marketing, public relations, or if you just have an adorable picture of a pure bred Yorkshire terrier puppy, reach me via email at [email protected] or join our mailing list at www.nastymanent.com for new music and media.
Marketing Maven, Nipsey Hussle, taking over All Star Weekend with Victory Lap
I’m in a closed studio session off Lankershim. As I’m watching producer, Mixed by Ali, behind the mixer board working intently on Nipsey Hussle’s track, “Last Time that I Checc’d” featuring YG, conversation swirled through the studio. “So when’s this project dropping?” I asked. Nobody really knew for certain. Ah, the beauties of being a self made, independent artist. But how does an artist like Nipsey Hussle cut through the noise in LA and drop a known top seller before it’s even released? Continue to run Los Angeles, make sure visitors know that shit, and keep your people anticipating.
Nipsey’s marathon has continued and picked up pace in a major way since his last installment of the Marathon series, The Marathon Continues, back in 2011. On top of doing shows, features, and his publicized relationship with Lauren London, he’s released two mixtapes since then, including the infamous $100 mixtape, Crenshaw, (he then dropped Mailbox Money for $1,000 a piece), did a lil acting, launched management firm, The Marathon Agency, and opened his own official retail store off Crenshaw called The Marathon Store, further imprinting his brand in South Central, LA.
If you’re not from Los Angeles, Nipsey Hussle is making sure that all guests know who’s running Crenshaw by dropping his highly anticipated album, Victory Lap, during one of the most wealthiest, densely populated fanfares of the year, the NBA All Star Weekend being hosted this year in Los Angeles. Nipsey started promotions off by dropping his first single off the album, “Rap Niggas”, separating himself from every other mainstream rapper and declaring his still that same dude from Rolling 60’s except now he’s a globetrotter. The flashy music visual proves this, being filmed mostly in neighboring South Central hoods and Brooklyn, New York. Single “Last Time That I Checc’d” followed up thereafter.
I’ve been watching cuz for years. I wasn’t a fan of Nip in the beginning of his career but I’ve watched this nigga stay true to his name, out-hustling far beyond my predictions and becoming an entrepreneur that I definitely admire. This brother is clever, tenacious, and fearless: the characteristics of any successful businessman and woman.
We can all learn something from Nipsey Hussle’s rags to riches story. I put together some links below of Nipsey Hussle dropping gems of wisdom for those trying to crack this music industry independently. Check those out.
Nipsey Hussle’s album, Victory Lap, is dropping February 16, 2018.
Nipsey Hussle “Rap Niggas” Music Video
Nipsey Hussle “Last Time that I Checc’d” feat. YG Music Video
Nipsey Hussle Opens The Marathon Store - Documentary
Weed is LEGAL! Celebrate with Pat Ron’s stoner debut album, This Time Last Year
California, WEED IS NOW LEGAL!! (Sorry other states.)
It feels like I haven’t heard a good stoner album since Dr. Dre’s The Chronic 2001 that I can rave about. Don’t get me wrong, rappers have dropped some lit joints to toke to but a full blown stoner session from one sole project that can transfer from the sofa coma to rattling car subs? I can’t recall. And if I have forgotten a dope album since The Chronic 2001, I was probably too faded to remember by the time I was blessed with Dallas rapper, Pat Ron’s This Time Last Year.
Heavily influenced by Project Pat, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar, Pat Ron brought us that Cadillac, Slum Thug, “tippin on 44’s” nostalgia twisted with his head noddin, machine gun flow. Speaking on the two topics we in LA know too well, weed and women, his album transitions well into the playlists of every Los Angeles Stoner Hip Hop that appreciates a bangin 808 and a nigga talking that hustle shit. Bruh I’m still geeked off that “Typa Shit” track… trust me, don’t sleep on the lil homie!
This Time Last Year, independently released, is now available on Apple Music and Spotify. Nasty Man approved. Check that shit out below:
If Young Metro don’t trust you… Is Atlantic Records’, APG, the next victim?
I did an entry recently about Artist Partner Group, or APG’s, “Emerge” and their conference that’s taking place in Vegas in a couple weeks. So, Emerge is a talent-scouting platform that’s making it easier for new talent to “break” into the music industry. When producer Metro Boomin caught wind that Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records subsidy, was searching for new talent in Atlanta, he threw caution to wind via Twitter:
Everybody was like, “Whaaat?! Who you talking bout??” So, he clarified in his next tweet:
Producer Mike Will Made It then cosigned with Young Metro saying Mike Caren told him 2012 his catalog had no hits. Oops…
Now if you aren’t familiar with Mike Caren, he is the Creative Officer at WMG, CEO of APG, and responsible for signing T.I., Trey Songz, and Kevin Gates. He’s also responsible for getting that “Cash Me Outside” girl, Bhad Bharbie (yes, the girl from Dr. Phil, clutch your pearls, chil’) a deal with Atlantic Records, earning him the prestigious award of Donkey of the Day from Charlemagne the God.
Now look, the frustration we’re witnessing from Metro Boomin toward the major label is nothing new. To play devil’s advocate, these label executives are pressured to pump out new music that sells like they’re song mills. With the shift of technology and how we now consume our music, they’re working ten times harder to find what attracts followers, likes, and hopefully translate into sales. And not just any sales, million dollar sales (I mean, who’s gonna pay for those lofty offices?). When you’re talking about money at that magnitude, niggas are going to lie, steal, and cheat to build their names in this industry.
In contrast, the Indie market is thriving in protest of all that. Still a multi million-dollar business, funds are going directly to the artists, the way it should be. The catch: you have to work ten times harder. You must be business oriented, patient, AND talented with awareness that nothing will be handed to you. But if you’re truly passionate about your craft, it’s all worth it.
Or, you can sign one of those 360 deals with, Dame Dash Calls, The Culture Vultures: those that take advantage of the culture with repercussions or making any real contributions to the community.
He dubbs himself “Rap God Pat Ron” and this nigga isn’t far off. He is hard af. I discovered him on Spotify listening to “Typa Shit”, a real stoners anthem (”This the typa shit I roll my blunts to”)... I recommend enhancing your high by smoking to that cut, real shit. Searched through more of his catalog and so far, I am impressed, fam!
Check his video out below, “Back Pack Boy 2″.
Pat Ron’s Banger Video “Back Pack Boy 2″
I’m definitely gonna work to get in contact with him to find out more.
I’m LATE AF... Rapper, Innanet James & “Summertime”
Homeboy is NICE. Upbeat, energetic, with playful wordplay on top of infectious drumbeats, the young 22-year-old sounds like Chance the Rapper if he was from Atlanta (I think he’s from Maryland, though.) I discovered him listening to Mac Ayres latest project, Drive Slow, on “Should We Take the Van?”. Then I found “Summertime”!
If you dig Vince Staples, Chaz French, Anderson .Paak, Goldlink (yo! that’d be a dope collab!), then you gotta check homie out. His track “Summertime” is a banger. Check out the video below.
Innanet James’ Video “Summertime” off Quebec Place
EMERGE, the music conference and festival with a cause will be featuring its first annual event this year Las Vegas. one month following the deadly Las Vegas Massacre that took the lives of approximately 60 innocent people. But Mike Caren, CEO of APG, and Vice Music’s, NOISEY “will not be cowed” by recent tragic events. They are, instead, uniting the music community to “condemn this tragic terrorist act and all acts of senseless violence,” according to the music festival’s website.
The conference is set to feature an array of artists and music guest speakers including Larry June, DUCKWRTH, Imagine Dragons, and many more.
EMERGE Impact + Music Conference is set to take place November 16-18, 2017 in Las Vegas. See more info and cop tickets for the event at the link below.
