IN THE MEAN TIME... Who's To Blame? {"SWAGGER LIKE US" POST ON ITS WAY...}

The other day on the XXL Scratch Blog, there was post entitled "The Biggest Problem In Rap Music Right Now Are The Rappers Themselves". I enjoyed what it had said... Read it... Comment on my page though...

"I mix with a lot of different crowds and have a wide variety of friends- executives, producers, journalists, web designers, publicists, engineers, etc- and the one thing I gather from almost all people is this: They HATE rappers. They HATE doing just about anything with rappers, period. They hate talking to them, hate working with them in the studio, hate interviewing them, hate promoting their records, hate publicizing them as clients, hate just about everything having to do with the artists themselves."

From being worse party-toting rhetoric-spitters than McCain, to feeling some sort of weird sense of pop culture entitlement, to pushing a cookie-cutter creative agenda, rappers got it all wrong. And I can't say I disagree. I've had the (mis)fortune to work with some rappers before on projects, and can seldom say I've walked away from the deal feeling like things worked out the way I wanted to see it happen. For a number of reasons. I'll expand on them below:

A) Creative:
From a creative standpoint, most rappers are corny and stagnant. At this point, hip hop is nearly 40 years old, it's going through a mid-life crisis (and isn't really aging well). By the time most rappers get to any sort of measurable success these days, they've been visually force-fed the culture for decades, and have layers of pre-conceived notions of what exactly a rapper is, and what exactly a rapper's image should be. Part of this can be blamed on the slow creative bleeding that has occurred over the history of the genre. What was once a subculture built upon individuality and creativity has become a market force used to sell anything from crappy yuppy clothing to shampoo that seemingly only white teenage girls would ever use. Creativity, individuality, and expression are no longer the benchmarks of an emcee. When rappers are afraid to do something different and unique, the entire art form suffers (for evidence of this clash and it's results, see the Kanye Vs. 50 battle of last year).

B) Budget:
Believe it or not, your favorite rapper is probably broke. Well, not quite, but unless he's signed to a major, or has some serious label money behind him, he probably doesn't have much of a promotion and design budget. That means it's hard to find good creative willing to do the job unless they're fans or are just doing it out of love and portfolio work. Either way, it doesn't end up going as well as it could have gone had you, (your label, your spouse, your dad, or whoever is paying for it) ponied up the cash to have your whole thing done right. And not just the album cover. I'm talking promo, packaging, music videos, bios, press kits, admats, every aspect of your presentation. Most dudes don't think that far ahead, or are too busy maintaining other areas of their image. Put down the Moet, and pick up the invoice.

C) Professionalism:
Big Surprise Alert: Rappers can be unprofessional. Sounds like some obvious shit, and for the most part it is, but I'm constantly shocked at how difficult it can be to do work for rappers. I'm not even talking about doing the actual work either, I mean it's impossible to get things you need on time, get feedback, just go through the process in an efficient manner. Timelines are either hilariously short due to horrible planning, or seem to drag on forever (I have one client right now that's been dragging on for 5 months and I haven't even made anything for him yet). Assets are either crap (low-res, done with a shitty photographer, have horrible lighting, or make you look like a hobbit), come two weeks late, or don't show up at all. It can sometimes take weeks to get a call back for revisions, and forget about getting any sort of direction other than whatever CD covers they have in their trunk that they like. Granted, it is the designer's job to try and smooth all this out, create a process, make sure the assets are in place, make things run smoothly, but most of the time it just isn't worth it (see point B).

Why are you going to subject yourself to working with an unforgiving, unorganized person on a project that will be hell to go through for little money resulting in cookie-cutter work. At least Corporate America has their money right.



Sorry for putting the wack rapper pic on blast... Whoever it is... You just look... well wack... or should we say, to be politically correct, Stereotypical... ya dig? If anyone agrees, leave a comment and subscribe...

Also, Mek's mixtape is coming soon, Dza's mixtape is coming soon, and guess what? ADAY IS COMING WITH SOME HEAT SOON AS WELL... we can't wait... Leave comments on that... even if you are the listed above... O yeah, I'm still famous nowdays... more on that coming soon... I see y'all reading, thanks... keep it coming...











-Ghost Da Hustla