How To Make It In The Music Business

I prefer not to associate the word "fake" with the Hip Hop Culture. The Hip Hop Culture is very real and we've seen our share of casualties. If you want to survice in the music business, then the word "fake" should not exist in your vocabulary. There's nothing fake about making music and building a fan base. It takes hard work and sacrifice and I tip my hat to anyone who has found a way to generate income, from their art/craft.

Social media has been going on for over a century. Anytime, media is used, and it gets people talking, that's social media. A "social media platform" and "social media" are two completely different things. Social media can come in the form of a billboard that you see on the highway, or a commercial that you see on TV.

In this episode, I discuss the tragic death of Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle. On Sunday, March 31, 2019, music lost another star, due to senseless gun violence. The alleged shooter, Eric Holder aka Shitty Cuz, is currently being held in solitary confinement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The hip hop community is currently in shock. Nipsey, who was only 33-years-old, at the time of his death, was a thriving songwriter and business man, who was also recently Nominated for a Grammy Award.

Here's another video response to BET Network's new web series "Rules To This Sh!t". In this episode titled "How To Go From Rapper To Business Mogul Like Diddy & Jay-Z | Rules To This Sh!t", I discuss how Sean "Diddy" Combs and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter were first entrepreneurs before they were actually famous rappers.

I am now offering consultations to anyone who would like to reach me direct, and have a one-on-one conversation about marketing and how to succeed in the music and entertainment business. Book your session today.

A study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science found that 66% of people tend to choose a luxury car over a basic one, but when it came to attracting new people, most people also would rather be friends with the person in the cheaper vehicle. What that says to me is, people don't ever like being overshadowed. This natural tendency, is why teams within the entertainment business usually clash.

I signed Makonnen to a 5 year management deal in November 2011 and worked with him for 3 years, until a major label bidding war began. I never want to talk negatively about anyone whom I've worked with in the past, but I must bring some clarification to the story, which has been told wrong.

I came across this article a few days ago and decided to share it with you all. I share my thoughts on a few points that stood out to me. Check out the full series of tweets below and leave your feedback.

For the second time, I'm giving my opinion about a BET's new video series, that covers the music business. This is for entertainment purposes and I respect the people at BET for taking the effort to make the video, in which I'm speaking of, but I honestly feel that the video has no purpose other than to continuously shed light on the negative history of Hip Hop.

Opinions are like assh*les...everybody has them. Everybody will always have something to say about what you do. You can either be influenced by other people's opinions or you can choose not to. Some people's opinions are genuine while other's share their opinion to throw you off balance. In this video, I share my thoughts on opinions and why I think other people's opinions can be a big sidetrack.

Putting out music and catchy advertisements are key to building your audience, fast. In most of my videos I discuss releasing content on a regular basis to building your following and find your audience.

I've recently begun seeing an influx of videos on YouTube about the music business, music contracts, and 360 deals. Firstly, I'd like to say that the term "360 deal" is thrown around a lot and it really means nothing. Profit sharing is expected in any business and music contracts come pretty standard unless you have built enough momentum independently, to negotiate better terms.

The videos made by the big media networks such as BET and Complex are often times very misleading because they only give you one side to the equation. Record labels are always targeted as being predatory, when people talk about the music business, yet no one ever discusses musicians who use predatory tactics to get over on investors.

This video is about financial literacy and it's Based on a True Story. In this video, I give my perspective on why most rappers, singers, athletes and actors, go broke. Most creative and talented people fail at financial literacy. In college, I would get an A in English class, and a C in Math. I was personally more interested in writing and the arts. A lot of us are very creative and talented in many ways, but we'd fail doing simple accounting. In this video, I tell my story of how I squandered through millions of dollars in the matter of 1-2 years.

You must diversifying if you plan to survive in the music and entertainment business. Funding creative projects can be very expensive and nobody wants to pay for your passions. You must set up your own income streams if you plan to have a career persuing your creative passions. Having various businesses and income streams is the only way to ensure that you and your family will always eat, even if your music isn't selling at any given time. I also talk about my website business, ILP, which led to my artist management and publishing businesses.