Kendrick Lamar Goes Viral!

This week the rapper Kendrick Lamar may have been the first recording artists to have a verse, not the song itself go viral. The name of the song is “Control” by fellow rapper Big Sean. The song also features another rapper named Jay-Electronica but no one seems to even mention either of the M.C.s when discussing this song. Kendrick’s album Good Kid M.A.A.d City is well on its way to sell a million copies but I have witnessed first hand his rise in popularity since “Control” hit the social networks early this week. What’s so special about this verse from Kendrick? In my opinion since the Hip hop genre has increased in popularity the content has suffered and cultural divisions based on regional orientation has led to a lack of respect for the origin of Hip hop itself. What Kendrick did was use a song to specifically call out the names of his competitors and vow to steal their fans from them. Kendrick also proclaimed to be the king of New York a title that infuriated NY, rappers since Kendrick is from California.

What came next was an entire week of diss records aimed at Kendrick Lamar. Rappers who felt slighted because their name wasn’t mentioned made diss songs and rappers who were offended about his comments about NY, did the same. The rappers who were actually mentioned in the verse took to twitter and Facebook to give their take on the lyrics. There is an important business lesson to be learned here. Being talented will certainly help you become successful, your core fan will certainly appreciate you but controversy in its various forms still gets the most attention. In my opinion Kendrick realized something was missing in the Hip Hop genre that had been present in the past and that thing is real artistic competition. The Hip Hop industry is very competitive but most of the competition is based on financial gain not artistry.

This week in Hip Hop marked the return of lyricism an art that had almost seemed forgotten in the years of Auto-tune and electro-dance/rap. So far I have counted fourteen response records to the control verse and they just keep coming. If you love Hip Hop this was a great week to be a fan because I’m sure one of your favorite rappers probably released a new diss track this week. The articles written on this topic have been just as interesting. MTV News.com has an article with links to every response song along with ratings and critic commentary for each track. Anytime Hip Hop is in the news for artistic reasons not controversy or criminality is a good day, ironically it took a little lyrical controversy to make it happen.

Beats&Money

What’s the real correlation between music and money? In my opinion that’s a real easy question to answer, when people like your music they’ll purchase it in some form whether that is Cd, Download or live performance. The quality of the music is mostly a relative term but the sales generated cannot be denied. Selling musical compositions mostly starts out as a service business but once your name is established it shifts into a product driven venture. The producer’s name is now the product that is packaged along with the song for marketing purposes. There are many lucrative opportunities in the music industry but there are clearly more artists and companies then opportunities.

In my opinion the best way to close the gap is to occupy a niche in the marketplace and never count on record labels to make you famous. The more work artists do by themselves the more interested distribution companies become. The distribution deal is the holy grail to musicians because owning your own record company is a lot more lucrative then working for one.

Producers normally get paid whether your project is successful or not which is the reason why there are so many successful but unknown producers. Sound engineers and studio owners also make their living off of music along with other scores of professionals. There are plenty of good jobs in music but most of them will not make you rich but the capacity for advancement and growth are ever-present.