RAP COALITION INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM

Rapcointelpro.  Well, you made it to the end.  You are a trooper.  Or you have no life.  I am happy to see you care enough about the music business to study it under a microscope.  And if you haven't read all of the articles in the first few sections, now is your last chance!!

Section One is WHERE TO START
Section Two is SETTING UP THE RELEASE
Section Three is FINDING DISTRIBUTION
Section Four is THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

This section is a catalog (in the music industry, a catalog is the ownership of the masters of all the releases that were already put out into the marketplace) of the articles I've written over the years for Murder Dog.  After the first year, they were kind enough to pay me $100 per article (before that, I wrote for free).  But the cool thing is, and why I chose them to write for, I physically own everything I ever wrote for them (and any other publication or website).  I believe in ownership!!  Own your own shit!!  I do...

And as always, the information on this site is here to help you, and we take no responsibility for the quality of the information here other than to share otherwise hard-to-obtain stuff, blah, blah, blah... And well, hell, it's free!  Here it is.  You can access the article by clicking on the blue title of the article.  And one last disclaimer: this stuff is ALL my opinion.  If I dissed you, you deserved it, sue me you fuck!  If I love you and mentioned you or shared your business, please don't be upset-- it's for the good of other artists!

Here's what's in this last section:

HOW TO PUT OUT YOUR OWN RECORD For four of the seven years of Rap Coalition's existence, we have assisted artists in putting out their own records and negotiated distribution deals. In that time we've seen many artists come, we've seen even more artists go. We've watched artists sell 60,000 units in a few months (at $5 a record--do the math), and we've seen artists piss away $50,000 in a month to no avail. One of our goals is to share insights, successes, and failures for those who are inclined to put out their own record. The street entrepreneurs. This article is for you...stay strong, stay focused, and keep up the good hard work. Success is yours, go get it....

GETTING STARTED In this column last month, we discussed the importance of having great music that will sell outside of your circle of friends, choosing the single based on reaction from local DJs and retailers, owning only two or three markets at first in which to release and work your record, and timing as the most important element in the success of your project (after good music that is). When your project is pressed up it should have a bar code (UPC Codes can be ordered through 937.435.3870--this takes a minute, so call months in advance) so it can be recognized for SoundScan. This is the "fingerprint" that tells you how many records have been sold at retail stores who use the SoundScan bar code scanning system, which SoundScan, Inc claims to be 85% of the stores selling urban music (I disagree, I find a tremendous amount of independent retailers to be without SoundScan)....

SECURING DISTRIBUTION There are three things a distribution company looks at when deciding whether or not to distribute a record label. The quality of the product (music), the flow of the product into the pipeline (does the label have enough music to release something every few months), and the economics (does the label have enough financing to be a real record label and cause "push" and "pull" through the retail stores). "Push" is getting the retail stores excited about carrying the record so they'll order it for their stores, and "pull" is getting the consumers into the store to buy the record. Retailers are in business to sell records, be informed about artists and their releases, create store loyalty, provide a local service (sort of a music industry center in their local area), and make a nice profit...

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROMO TOURS  (12/99) 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)....

AVOIDING MISTAKES For those of you who read are reading all of these articles, you may find the beginning of this article a bit redundant, but it's discussing a mistake I see being made over and over in today's marketplace. So it bears repeating: whether you are putting out your record to get a deal from a larger or major label (what most artists are looking for because they prefer the fame over the money), or putting out your record to build your own record company (Hooray for Esham, Lil Keke, and South Park Mexican...), be careful to not choose too large an area. This is of extreme importance. First of all, it is next to impossible for a small label without connections, relationships, and experience, to reach many markets at once cost effectively....

BUILDING HYPE  According to SoundScan, in 1998 there were 477 independent rap records released (none went Gold or Platinum).  In 1999, there were 997 rap records released by independent labels.  Again, none went Gold or Platinum.  Why?  How come when Eminem released his Slim Shady EP in Detroit, he only sold a few thousand copies, but when Dre added a few more tracks and re-released the album two years later, it sold almost 4 million copies just in the US?  Em's first album through Aftermath/Interscope, Slim Shady, in fact sold a total of 88,000 in Detroit as of July 1, 2000.  Yet those 88,000 people didn't buy his self-released version of the album which was 7 songs, (and the same 7 songs appeared on the Interscope release, by the way).  So the question is, what do major labels bring to the table that these small independents do not?  And more importantly, how can we, as indie labels, learn from that and apply it to what we do?  The answer is "hype" and, well, a bigger machine (which also accounts for their high failure rate as well)...

RAPONOMICS  (12/99) Rap is feeding upon itself and runs the risk of being destroyed economically. If it is not profitable for major labels to put out rap records, they will move along to other genres of music to exploit. Although independent labels appear to be closer to the streets, and therefore closer to understanding why and how records sell, it’s the money, connections, and power of the majors that help expand the rap music genre beyond its current marketplace. If the major labels move on to an area of music that they view as more profitable, such as Latin music or gospel, the reach of rap music will shrink as popular culture is blitzed less and less by rap music on the radio, in stores, and as part of everyday life. To someone, like myself, who is a strong proponent of independence in rap (supporting the “do for self” mentality of artists putting out their own records and owning their own destiny and careers)...

DISTRIBUTION A year has passed since my words have graced the pages of Murder Dog.  In that time, close to 1,000 new urban “independent labels” have sprung up and sold between 7 units and 125,000 units of each release, according to SoundScan.  The major labels have remained steady with their close to 300 releases this past year.  The majors, in comparison, have sold from 1,000 copies up to (how many has Nelly sold worldwide?) multi-Platinum.  Informally speaking, if you are putting out your own record, this is what you are up against.  This is the competition.  OK, so it should come as no surprise that record stores will always carry what the majors pay them to-- er, uh, I mean what the majors want them to.  But what about those other one thousand releases last year?  Retail stores are not big enough to carry that many new records.  Especially when you take into consideration that the stores exist MAINLY to supply the Top 40 records in radio rotation, and on M-TV and BET.  The stores also sell some back catalog....

HOW TO WORK RADIO  This is an interesting time at radio. Of course, radio has always been interesting. In the mid-1980s, there was a Federal investigation into the music industry regarding payola at radio, which is illegal. For the most part, it was an incredible waste of time and taxpayer’s money because it failed to change anything in the long run. I won’t bore anyone with the details here, but will mention Frederic Dannen’s book Hit Men, which accurately chronicles these days in music business history. The way some enterprising young men got over in the 1990s, was to create a buffer between the record label and the radio station, called an independent promoter. This removed even the hint of payola, thereby rendering anything that resembles pay for play out of the hands of record labels. The way the FCC law regarding payola is written, any song that is paid to air must disclaim to the listening audience that it was paid to air. Radio stations, nor record labels, like that idea of a disclaimer, which brought about an alternative solution. The birth of the “indie.”...

WELCOME TO INDEPENDENCE (10/00) I spent the past two weeks out on the road with Fiend on a promotional tour for “Can I Burn?” the movie and soundtrack. The response to the CD has been incredible, as fans are loving it like his first album, but no one seems to even know there is a video out. Originally, we did a deal with Southwest (I’ve been happier) for distribution in the Midwest and South (even though they do not cover all areas themselves, they have the ability to go to other distributors in other areas, which leaves us to only have to go to one source--Southwest, to collect our money. In a perfect world, this would make excellent sense, but it has been slow getting money from Southwest)...

3 EXAMPLES OF INDIE LABELS (2/02) Every now and again, I have the opportunity to meet some amazing people who’ve done some incredible things. I know I could preach to you for years about how to put out a record and never make as much impact as I can by giving you some solid examples of those who are running their own shit properly. So what I’m going to do now is introduce you, via this page, to three different labels in different regions, and at different stages in their projects, that are successful at what they do....

ANATOMY OF A DEAL (9/02) I get calls everyday from entertainment attorneys and artists asking how I get such great deals for artists.  It’s easy, really, and I’m happy to share it with the world.  The only negotiation that is successful is one where both sides walk away happy.  If I do a deal with someone, both sides have to walk away feeling like they came out with the better deal, or the resentment will build up and affect the artist adversely.  Think about it….if I offer to sell you a brand new Navigator fully loaded, 22s, TVs in the headrest, DVD and PlayStations, etc and I charge you $150,000, no matter how much you love that truck, you’re going to feel played when you find out it was worth half that.  It’s the same with label deals--the artist has to feel like he (or she) got a great deal, and the distributor/major label has to feel like they got a great deal.  It’s really all about managing expectations.

FOREIGN DISTRIBUTION DEALS (10/02) Once you have exploited the United States selling your product, what’s next? For years I have been writing about the basics of selling records regionally and now I am going to speak about what those who’ve been following this column for years can do to get to the next level. Rather than sign a deal with a major label to sell records around the world, you can find your own independent distribution in other countries. Although there is rap music in other places, like South and Central America, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, etc, those markets are key places to sell US based rap music since this is where it started and fans in other countries fiend for US rap....

And including some articles I didn't write, but should have...

THE REAL COINTELPRO  "COINTELPRO" was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally- protected political activity. Its methods ranged far beyond surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world...

COINTELPRO AND THE 5% NATION  I sat in rapt attention last Sunday morning as I saw Meet The Press host Tim Russert work to position Hip-Hop music as a major influence behind the behavior of the alleged sniper in the Washington D.C.- area. Here is the official transcript of that portion of the program (any spelling mistakes/errors are MSNBC's):
MR. RUSSERT: Now, one of the more interesting things that went on in this case was how the police used the media to try to communicate and develop a dialogue with the alleged snipers. And we've gone back and looked at a variety of things as to what influences there may have been on the snipers. This is a CD from a group called Kill Army. It's named "Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars." There's a song called "Wake Up." "Word is bond this is as real as it's going to get." Then here is the letter which they left behind at the shooting in Ashland, Virginia. "Word is bond." And on Wednesday night, we heard Chief Charles Moose of Montgomery County saying this...