Someone has to say it…

This post is a little off our regular subjects, but hope it hits just as close as any other post I’ve written (also a little shorter than usual).

In preparation of the RandomStarMusic.com BETA release, I’ve come across numerous ”individuals” who have chosen to pursue music as their profession.  Whether they are any good or not to make it a reality is entirely another matter.

But unlike most of these “hopefuls”, I believe that their “dream” will stay a “hope” or an overly time-consumptive “hobby” at best.

I’ve come across phrases like, “‘Get Money!’, ‘Do you and I’ll do me’, F*ck all you hatas’, ‘I’m the greatest’, ‘Find somebody that can touch my skills’, ‘I got the city on lock’, ‘C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me, for those that don’t know)’, ‘I’m on my HUSTLE’, ‘Don’t bother keeping up, you can’t'” etc so many times that I question/wonder if they tell themselves this as motivation to actually “hustle” their craft into a business, or are they stuck on their favorite part of a chorus of their favorite song??  I’m dumbfounded even.

The main thought that goes through my head is…”If you are so talented, dope, HOT, fiya’ (fire), untouchable, etc, why are you taking pictures in your closet and posting them on MySpace?  Why are you driving an ‘87 Gremlin?  Are those real platinum chains?  Can’t be, I see rust.  How do you have so much time to take pictures in the club, shouldn’t you be recording, strategizing, analyzing your target market, reviewing feedback, increasing your CD placement/distribution, handing out mixtapes, working on features, collaborating with other artists/producers? (For time purposes I’ll stop there.)  I mean, where is all the “meat” behind all those words?

And then it hits me…IMAGE.  Most of the time, in common (or forced) conversation, when someone says “My record label..”, it draws an initial interest from the “receiving” end which mutates the mood from vaguely interested to inquisitive.  It feels good.  Someone’s listening to you.  You just got a number out of it, without having to buy them a drink.  Now for “drive-less” individual speaking, they notice the change and immediately puts forth the effort to thrive on that moment for as long as possible (a day, a night, months, years even).  ”Someone is listening to me, so they’ll listen to music.”  (Possible common thought, guessing here) “So if they hear my music and like it, then they’ll tell their friends and my sh*t will spread like wildfire!”  WRONG!  It normally works in reverse.  If someone hears the music and they FIND OUT that they’re friends are ALREADY listening to you….then you have a SPARK, that’s it, not “Wildfire”.  Continue marketing, distributing, “hustling” and once one CITY finds out that ANOTHER CITY is ALREADY listening to you…then you have FIRE!  (“Wildfire” possibly happens once a STATE finds out that 2 or more STATES are already listening to you…possibly.)

Time and time again, artists approach me with, “I’m hot, f*ck wit’ me.”  So I ask my usual questions, “What have you done? Where have you performed? What are the names of the last 10 artists whose songs you’ve been featured on? How many songs have you made on your own? As a collaboration?  What’s the largest crowd you’ve entertained?  How many songs have you released?  How large is your following so far?  How long did it take you to get them?”  And when I see the “what’s that smell” face 85% of them give me, I carry on with what I was doing or where I was going.

FREE ADVICE, I won’t even look for payment if you apply what I’m about to say:  WORK! Physically, work.  Don’t work on your MySpace and Facebook page expecting to sell enough music to live on.  WORK!  I-tunes only helps you if you help your self.  WORK!  RandomStarMusic.com only helps you if you help your self.  WORK!  Nothing comes from HOPING and WISHING!

Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die…

 

I see i lied about the “shorter post” thing…sorry about that.  =)