Originally Posted by
L.E
I've witnessed a lot of crazy shit in the industry. From local to international levels, I've had personal conflicts with some rappers who've you've probably heard of. Met a lot of surprisingly humble people, too - its just that the egotistic maniacs that tend to ruin music for a LOT of people.
- Rappers aren't supportive to each other. Everybody acts WAY tougher than they actually are and think they have to be better than everyone else. Maybe it's different where you're from, but where I'm at, all the local guys think they're king shit of turd island and don't even bother to support the community. Never leave or tour anywhere else but their local bar, and wonder why they never blow up. Then they take it out on the guys that ARE getting off their asses and doing something with their lives.
- Hip-Hop has a terrible reputation. Violent and derogatory is two frequent words that come up when mentioning rap and hip-hop. The more violence that is escalated, the less that people forget rap is about the WORDS. There is some amazing music out there that IS hip-hop that does not promote violence/drugs/women/etc. Maybe you enjoy that kind of music as an escape, and that's fine! The problem is when kids start shooting each other up because they think its cool too. Start stealing medicine to make lean. Stealing for drugs, etc. You have all heard it/seen it/been a part of it before.
- PAY TO PLAY EVENTS. My fuck, is this a HUGE one. For some of those that may perform on stage, I'm sure you have come across "Play at this showcase, come get judged by so and so, HUGE opportunity..." TONS of those events are put on by scam promoters who are trying to earn money off of the hungry artists. In Canada, I've called out a few of them and they don't like me anymore lol. YOUR TIME IS WORTH SOMETHING - NEVER pay to play at a showcase unless you know its certified legit (spoiler alert: a small percentage of them are). And a HUGE fuck you to the promoters praying on young, hard working artists that are trying to share their work, only to get pickpocketed.
Its worth noting that I AM from Canada, a place that doesn't give a shit about hip hop lol. Rap makes up 4% of what Canadians listen to, leaving about 1.5 million across the country that take an interest in it. From who I've talked to in the States, people come to hip hop shows a lot more frequently. This makes sense considering 21% of the music consumed in the United States IS hip-hop. It's the most popular genre in the country, making up about 69 million listeners of hip hop in total.
So, now you see why Canadian acts like Drake, Mad Child, Snak the Ripper, Merkules, Classified, Choclair, and more, go international. I've worked with a few of them - I won't get into my beefs because they apologized to me, but I WILL sat that Snak the Ripper and Classified are the favourite on this particular list.
I'm curious to learn about where you guys are at too.
Discuss.