Hubert Sawyers III - S.O.L.A.R.-Powered Content

I actually drew up a new lengthy internet piece as a response to a conversation from an editor from Fader Magazine and blogger extraordinaire Eskay of Nah Right. In this piece, they speak on the fact that very few rap albums are coming out on major labels and the ones that do tend to suck.

Greetings Eskay,
I wanted to comment on your discussion with Eric Ducker regarding the ability of contemporary rappers to make actual albums, instead of working towards making a viral hit single and slapping together an accompanying project of failed attempts. I enjoyed your position and I plan to highlight it on one of my blog spaces in the near future. I would like hip hop artists to take heed to the futile missions they have chosen to achieve.

I feel that hip hop – in general – has been responding to the radio 7-second delay for a little too long. There’s just an extreme lag in response to the changes in the music industry climate. Like, I don’t understand why more indie labels, a la No Limit have not sparked up over the internet. Hip hop is just as old as the internet (well within the same generation), but hip hop doesn’t get the internet. I would think things would be hand-in-hand, but as I was reminded back in the early days of hip hop internet buzz for folks like Eminem, dudes from the ‘hood weren’t seeing the message board threads. Hip hop today is in a place where even the folks that are adopting the new instruments of the trade are showing they do not truly get what they are doing.

I know what I just said above goes a bit deeper than how I put it, but the essence is still true. Hip hop is not getting the internet yet.

I respond this way to encourage someone like you to continue to urge the folks that listen to you to truly learn how to use social media in a way that will benefit them in the long run. Setting up a MySpace page and barking at people to listen to your new single is not the move if you were not already well-established before the year 2005. Marketing experts are showing that the traffic you do get is not earnest and it will not result in sales.

Rappers need to go back to doing what we do best – speaking about what we know that is happening in our neighborhoods. We need to engage our audience and have them feel involved in what you do. People need to like you before they will accept your work. Rappers read stories in The Source and XXL about dudes hustling wares out the trunk, but what they forget is that they probably knew countless dudes that attempted the same method. Yet only a few made it successfully. I proffer that they actually had people that liked them as a person – whether a mass of regulars or a couple of powerful ones – as to why they were able to break the pack. Skill only goes so far and as a rapper myself, I know that the funk doesn’t last forever.

I’m from the great city of Detroit and the most popular rap acts that aren’t on majors are not super eMCees. They are much like today’s trap rappers, who just so happened to be very connected to the neighborhoods they are from. Backpack rappers are nomads and do not understand they need a community behind them to really succeed. Great visual, right?

Anyway, keep up the great work, Eskay. I don’t really check your blog as much, because everything you post gets to me via another blog or an IMed link. I know what you’re about though and I appreciate your efforts. I hope you continue to support quality hip hop. I also hope that hip hop artists will get wise and start to commission folks like us to help them initiate progressive branding campaigns that can get them the type of success in music that they can actually muster on their own with a little work.

Thanks for your time. I’ll see you around in the blogosphere.

Peace,