The Underground Hip Hop Minefield

Posted on March 24, 2007

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Underground hip hop is a mine field strewn with struggling artists and composers that despertely try to make their way with 17 or 18 of the best tracks that theyre possibly capable of. Being a struggling artist myself, I can understand exactly how much time and effort goes into any material that gets pressed. The writing and composing itself, which can be the most time consuming step in a project, can also be the most frustrating. I've personally put more than a month into the combination of bassline, foreground and background music. And thats only half of the track. After that, I need to apply lyrics to the compilation, which aint a walk in the park. Its not until the entire track had been compsed, recorded and produced that I realize whether or not the weeks (or sometimes even months!) was worth it, and I made a quality track, or if i just wasted weeks (or even
months!) making something that sucks royal donkey penis. From experience, I'd have to say that that's the single most frustrating part of the entire music-making process, the fact that one overlooked error early in the song-making process adds up to a very large mistake further down the road.

Some people decide to look past this crucial last step, and only spend the minimal amount of time possible on the collaborations that make up their CD, and this is where the minefield that I was talking about at the top of this article comes into play. Some people know about how taxing and exhausting it is to record a single quality track, let alone the 18 or 19 that make up a cd, and although they try very hard to put it all together, they're simply not willing to make it as good as the potential allows. They simply settle for the finished product. Yes, it's an easy way to get your shit out there, and yes, there are quality tracks. But something that most of these new underground artists need to realize is that it's not the 2 or 3 quality tracks that sell your cd, its the other 14 or 15 that make you legitamate.

A fanbase is a fickle thing, and something that most mainstream artists take for granted on a regular occasion, what, with all of the 'new' clothing lines and colognes and 'behind the scenes' DVD's and such, its easy to manipulate those who put money into your pocket to put MORE money into your pocket. If the fanbase is already there. If it's not, however, the bare minimum just doesn't cut it. They may be sheep, but they're smart sheep.
And, sadly, the only thing that seperates you, from the guy down the street with the same equipment and the same dream of rocking a mic in a jam-packed arena, is the work the you're willing to put into your music to make it better than theirs..

Jooba