Showing Love Will Attract More Followers Than Haterade

Some folk are so disgusted by Drake’s use of AI to diss Kendrick Lamar that they hyperbolically vowed to drop Hip Hop entirely.

To them I say good riddance. Far too often fandoms chase a nostalgic lust for what used to be. Instead of digging through those YouTube crates looking for undiscovered treasures, they get mad that pop stars are pop starring. 

While folk hide behind a ruse of claiming musical purity, they are often just mad their artist isn’t popping.

What grinds my gears even further about all this, there is more music being published than ever before. I know that if people took the time to go digging they’d find stuff they could love and celebrate. Instead they just get mad that stuff they don’t like is celebrated by others. I’ve lost love for a lot of artists over their fandoms.

My opinions are jaded having done about 450 album reviews over on YouTube but let’s go.

A lot of favourite rappers from yesteryear are still dropping music

AZ released Truth Be Told on Dec 1, 2023.

AZ is among the many rappers from the 90s that people herald as an overlooked champion. For some reason when this album came out I saw very little fanfare. My scope is limited to my online/irl bubbles and this is far from what the industry is pushing. That means it got buried. 

Instead I faced the unified messaging of disgust as pop stars made noise, no one even mentioning AZ. 

People dislike the messaging behind drill music. They aren’t into the vapid party music of the club scene. Afrobeats is bringing things in a whole new direction. While Griselda & Nas did a lot to revive a wave of “lyricism” it’s not breached into pop stardom. The reason is mostly because more people like pop music than any popular underground revival taking place.

Something the fans could do is talk about how cool the music is. If they were like, wow I just discovered this amazing album that came out in 2023 that’s wildly lyrical and super interesting, it may get some hype. Instead it’s just negative nancies confused over why Drake is as popping as he is.

Often it’s men not trying to figure out what women like.

Going out is about the ladies so the music focuses on that

After years of performing live I can say in Montreal people go out to have fun.

The more I perform upbeat songs that focus on easy to digest hooks, the better crowd reactions I get. It turns out drunk people are bad at breaking down bars when listening through low-mid end live performance equipment. You need to keep in mind where I live English isn’t most people’s first language. Complicated nuanced language decryption isn’t what people are looking for when breaking away from the stress of the week.

That being said, drunk people out partying aren’t often there for virtuous behaviour. 

Most of the time people want to dance, get loose and possibly meet someone to fornicate with. They are super happy to appreciate music in the 7-10 PM time slot, but anyone out past that is in it for the debauchery. 

There are obvious exceptions. One thing that remains constant is places that draw the ladies will make more money. The ladies bring the men, who come ready to spend. The music creates a vibe to encourage spending. Songs about popping bottles have helped make many clubs money. 

Going out is historically a great way to get new music in your life. 

There’s more to music than partying but partying still drives live performances

I know for a fact some of you reading this will go, “speak for yourself” or something similar. 

I’m speaking on the observations I make as an artist trying to understand how to move my career forward. There are plenty of people who love the skill of rapping. We can all agree that battle rap is the pinnacle of bars and yet it’s also notoriously a sausage fest. 

When you consider the level of writing that goes into battle rap, it also makes a lot of songwriter’s bars come off weak. They write well, but now I’ve heard how good battle rap writing is and the level of mediocrity out there feels more transparent. If it’s not going to be elite, it’s not going to draw attention. People literally compare you to the best rappers they’ve heard when they go out. 

A lot of your early performing opportunities will take place at bars and clubs. 

If you are wise you will find plugs that get you into daytime city gigs. You may end up at festivals and all over. The main component is that you will be facing audiences of people there to hear some good music. One thing they are often not looking for is to get preached at by people for how they live. People want to feel included.

Focusing on your skill and how much better you are than the audience isn’t exactly inviting them to your party.

Your art can be meaningful while keeping the audience in mind

My song Lose Weight goes over well with audiences.

The main point of the song is that if you get healthier, you will improve your coital performance. You will also elongate your life and have a more attractive energy to you. While coitus is the focus of the song, it’s used as a carrot instead of the usual stick.

In the same way if Quebec told anglo’s they’d get laid more if they spoke French, we’d have less language issues. Instead they want to beat us into French speakers. It isn’t very cool.

The point is you really need to read the room and understand what parts of your catalogue make sense.

Keep in mind that when people are paying you for music and performances, you know that the music you are making is connecting with people. Figure out why that is and do more of that. 

Those OG Hip Hop fans that get mad are out of touch most of the time. They are the same people that used to be young bucks and haven’t realized that during their era there was mucho garbage. Now it’s a new era with new interests.

Apparently country rap is about to be a big wave. 

People are attracted to other people’s passion so share what you love

Instead of complaining, if you want to see change, share itunes receipts of new music you bought.

Or share a Bandcamp link of some rapper no one’s heard of that you took the time to find that’s dope. Chances are the whiners stopped digging through the crates a long time ago. If they did they would find new music and if they bought, other people may follow that.

People could have taken the Truth Be Told project and made it shine. They could have organized online as fans and spread the love. But I’m in a few underground rapper Facebook groups. They tend to prefer activity like a toxic hatred towards anyone not backing their person.

If you really want to see things change, focus on promoting different stuff. You may not get as much love for it, but what you will do is cultivate a different type of algorithm. When you share the content and meet people who dislike it, just say thanks and move on. Your job isn’t to convince other people what’s lit or not.

Just take your little light and let it shine, on things that are dope. 

Live Long and Prosper Everyone