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The best way to gain exposure and increase sales for
your group or artist is to get them out there in front of the buying
public. The most important thing, I think, in building an artist's career
(after good music) is a promotional tour. Exposing the artists and music
to their core target market (the fans who would buy their music) is
exceedingly important. A promo tour exposes them to the buying public,
retail, radio, and local press. When Crooked Lettaz released with NO label
support from Penalty Records (which has since been swallowed up by Tommy
Boy, thank God), the group and I decided to go out ourselves on a promo
tour through the Mid-South. We targeted Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas,
Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. Had we released our own record we would
have targeted just 3 or 4 states, but saturated those key areas. But since
Penalty released the record nationally, with no push, we decided to target
the areas closest to where the guys were from (Jackson). We rented a
mini-van (it's all we could afford) and for 17 days we went to a city a
day (except Dallas and Houston where we spent 3 days due to the size). We
drove at night, leaving each city after the clubs closed (sometimes they
got to perform, sometimes we just handed out flyers and signed autographs)
and arriving at the next town at about 4 or 5 AM.
We stayed at Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns, never paying more than $50 a night
for the three of us to sleep. We slept until 9 AM when we'd get up, eat
breakfast and start going to record retail stores. We made certain to
visit chain stores and independent retail stores. But we went to EVERY
record store in each area. We also visited the stores that sold hip hop
gear, drug paraphernalia, and in the case of Little Rock, stores that sold
gang banging paraphernalia (vultures!). We shook hands, signed autographs,
and almost always put up our own retail displays. It's amazing how
supportive the retailers were since we were doing our own work and our own
promotions. We didn't have any problems with any stores, except in Houston
where I almost came to blows with the manager of Soundwaves on South Main.
He's a miserable human being who got annoyed with one of my artists for
distributing postcards throughout his store, and instead of just telling
him to stop, or asking us to rectify the situation (I ended up going back
into the store and removing every postcard, hoping it would prevent him
from tearing down our display--it did not), he ripped down our display
after chasing me out into the parking lot to tell me he was going to rip
down what had just taken us close to an hour to design. Rather than beat
his ass, I immediately called his supervisor and then his supervisor's
boss (the VP of the entire chain). They were very supportive of our
situation and invited us to return to the store to set up another display
(which we decided against). Other than that one bad experience, we got
incredible love and support from everyone at radio, retail, and the clubs
along the way.
After spending each day going to every retail store, we spent every
evening at radio. We went to the smallest college or underground station
we could find as well as the larger urban radio formatted stations. No one
knew we were coming in advance (which I do NOT recommend) due to our own
time constraints in setting up this promo tour, but they showed us
incredible love considering. We were able to supply them with promotional
drops ("Hey this is Crooked Lettaz and when we're in Oklahoma City we're
kickin' it with Kool Kila!!"). We even had Dangerous Dawn from KJMM in
Tulsa, Oklahoma drive out to the local Mall to kick it with us while we
gave out postcards and signed photos (ya gotta be slick in the Malls, we
got escorted out of almost every Mall for handing out postcards and
photos). We covered all of the hang out spots as well, besides the local
Malls: Barber shops, Basketball courts, etc. with posters, flyers, and
postcards. At 10 PM we'd head through the local clubs that attracted a hip
hop crowd and blitz the club. In many instances the guys got to perform,
and had we been able to set up this tour properly ahead of time, the guys
would have performed in every city we went to. Although they performed for
free, many of the areas brought them back for paid shows once they saw how
live the show was (David Banner spits real fire when they perform their
hit, Firewater).
In 17 days we traveled throughout 12 cities and covered thousands and
thousands of miles. We did this 5 weeks before the album dropped, and in
the first week sold 8,000 units (that's $80,000). Not bad for an album
that had little to no promotion, no street teams, no video, spotty
distribution, and a Source magazine ad (even though it's a southern
flavored album). The most amazing part of all of this to me, is that in
some of those small towns, the only other artists that the fans got to
meet was Do Or Die (another group affiliated with me) three years prior.
So for three years, no artists came through many of those towns, and
certainly no artists the size of a Jay-Z or Busta Rhymes. In a few of the
cities was a tour that consisted of Salt N Pepa performing in some
‘dedicated to the old school' tour. But superstars never came through.
They were so happy to be able to meet and interact with Crooked Lettaz
that the guys always felt like stars (stars who got no love from their
label, but stars none the less). The price tag for these 17 days? A little
over $5,000. We gained exposure, love, support, and sales from Crooked
Lettaz' core market. And even eight months after the less than impressive
release of their first album, the guys are still doing shows every Friday
and Saturday nights. And got critical acclaim for this album in every
review and from every magazine that exists in urban music.
And lastly, I'd like to share with you one of Tupac's secrets of success.
I asked him once if he did anything special to get to the level where he
was (I asked him this when I went to visit him in prison in upstate New
York, just before his release). He told me that he was always within reach
of his fans. After he would perform as an opening act for a larger artist
(as he was building his career), he would come off the stage, go out the
back door of the club or stadium, then go in through the main entrance of
the venue (without security). He would then stand in the back of the spot
and watch the show with the crowd. He would shake hands, hug women, sign
autographs, and talk to his fans directly. He believed every person he
touched could be another album sold for the duration of his career. Not a
bad mindset for any artist!
This series will continue in every issue of Murder Dog and will contain
information on pressing, street teams, distribution, foreign licensing,
overseas distribution, artist development, flow of product, retail and
radio, artist imaging and more. Each issue will also answer two specific
questions sent in by our readers. Although questions can not be answered
individually, they should be directed to Rap Coalition at 111 East 14th
Street, #339, New York, NY 10003 or powerbroka@aol.com. And remember, if
you don't own your own shit, you're just a sharecropper.
Q. How do I choose a pressing plant for my CDs and cassettes? I'm worried
about being bootlegged. David Banner from Crooked Lettaz in Jackson, MS
A. Bootlegging is real, darlin'. I don't think you can prevent that. When
you sell a CD, you are selling a little master, ya know? So anyone who
buys your CD could potentially be a bootlegger. You just need to maximize
your opportunities and make certain there's enough product to fill the
demand. If you run out of product after your first pressing (this is the
area where MOST small labels go wrong, because they can't afford to
re-press) and can't ship the second run immediately, you will get
bootlegged by any enterprising slob out there. It's happening to Twista
right now with his Legit Ballin compilation. It's a fact of life that when
a capitalist sees an opportunity, he or she takes it. Just keep those
opportunities at a minimum. Ask other small labels where they go to press.
You shouldn't pay more than $1 a CD, and 65 cents a cassette is ideal.
Meanwhile, call the following places for prices, as I know people who have
used them all and not gotten jerked. Also ask for the price for
re-pressing. You need to figure that in as well.
Manufacturer (for CDs/cassettes)and Phone #
DiscMakers (ya either love them or hate them)800.468.9353
Europadisk 212.226.4401
Universal Duplicating 510.430.1000
SAS Industries 800.955.7271
Rainbo 310.829.3476 (This is who we used for Fiend's project)
Digitalforce 212.252.9300
Manufacturers (for vinyl) Phone #
Rainbo 310.829.3476
Discmakers 800.468.9353
A&R Records 214.741.2027 (I don't know anyone who has used them)
Universal Duplicating 510.430.1000
This series will continue in every issue of
Murder Dog and will contain information on pressing, street teams,
distribution, foreign licensing, overseas distribution, artist
development, flow of product, retail and radio, artist imaging and more.
Each issue will also answer two specific questions sent in by our readers.
Although questions can not be answered individually, they should be
directed to Rap Coalition at 111 East 14th Street, #339, New York, NY
10003. And remember, if you don't own your own shit, you're just a
sharecropper.
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