Adisa Banjoko has a nice piece on Bay Area hip hop’s need to get its business right, if the Bay wants to take advantage of this moment in time. Actually, it’s a series of points on doing business well and for the long haul, something that is difficult for hustlers to understand. And you know hip hop is full of hustlers.
Here’s his first point:
1. You must learn to see what you are d oing beyond the hustle and turn what you are doing into a business. E-40 and Too Short’s success did not happen overnight. It was the result of many years of recording, doing shows, selling tapes outta the trunk, learning the in’s and out’s of distributio n, learning how to use the media to your advantage, etc. At some point, they made the actual transition from the hustle into the business. If you fail to do that, you can expect failure period.
Point 5 on marketing is pretty good too, especially sin ce he mentions me!:
5. Look at yourself, and your group. Are you marketable? Why should someone buy your music over the next rappers CD? If your only response is, “’Cause I’m hella raw”, that’s not enough. Do you know what a brand is? Do you know what your company’s position is? Do you know what messaging is? What does your press kit look like? What is the difference between public relations and advertising? Do you know what kind of habits build and destroy brands? In an oversaturated market you need very edge you can have. Do you visit sites like www.prohiphop.com ? Knowledge is the key. But there is no better branding than making good music, and conducting positive business.
The piece is also up at Davey D’s house of knowledge but, unfortunately, what could have been a highly productive discussion got redirected by Kris Kringle cultists.
I’ll say this about the issues between KRS-One and Adisa. Adisa’s worked really hard to honor the peace and to keep his people cool while folks claiming to be KRS-One supporters keep trying to stir things up. Not a smart m ove in the long run unless these supposed supporters of KRS-One are actually undercover agitator brothers whose job it is to create disturbances. That’s a well-established technique of the FBI so it raises some interesting questions about various individuals’ actual agendas.
Think about it.
These are solid words of advice. However, I’d like to know what he used to measure his opinion that the East Coast fell off. Album sales? MTV appearances? In my opinion the East Coast never fell off, it got left behind by an industry that feared lyrics that were becoming more of a challenge to America’s system…so they turned the channel to something a little less threatening. (When I say threatening I don’t mean a dude wearing a bandana in a video pointing a gun at the camera.)
(of course I’m generalizing to a degree)
Now that the Bay Area and the South are showing that they can make real Hip Hop music that actually stands for something other than personal gain, where will the industry go?
I don’t know how strongly Adisa feels about the NY falling off thing (which is from his post, not mine). And a lot of New Yorkers feel that way. In reading it I get more his emphasis on not being insular and looking down on scenes outside your own, something that’s good for all of us to remember.
Beyond hip hop, one of New York’s strengths across the board has always been as a meeting point for vastly different cultures as well as a destination for individuals looking for more room to operate than they could get in some small town or even many large cities. That mix has resulted in some amazing cultural breakthroughs.
Clyde, thanks for the posting. It is interesting to see that the challenges I see in other forms of business; banks, college: are much the same for the Hip Hop scene.
Everyone seems to find their standard answers when asked, “so what makes you different from everyone else?” A bank CEO’s standard answer might be something like “it’s our people”. And a Hip Hop muscian might say, “’Cause I’m hella raw”. But both answers are not enough!
Thanks for extending the conversation!