Over the years I’ve attempted to give artists advice and throughout
the years, artists have avoided my advice like Skip Bayless avoids
looking at quarterbacks in that kind of way. Artists only get one
first impression, just don’t tell that to artists like Cory Gunz and
Grafh who have already had at least five first impressions apiece.
Therefore it’s important that you make a solid first impression. How
do I make an awesome first impression? you may ask. Follow some of
these guidelines and see if things don’t get a little easier for you.

Guideline #1 – No mp3 is worth protecting. Some of you may have that
disgusted look on your face like most people did when they first
viewed two girls making the best out of one cup (still don’t see what
everyone’s so grossed out about). Trust me, whatever songs you have
now are NOT worth hanging onto. If you have a surefire banger, you
better release it like you would a shart when you’re stuck in an
elevator after unloading your paycheck at your local Taco Bell. If, by
some rare chance, you sign to a major label, whatever songs you have
at the time of your signing are probably not going to go on the album.
What’s the point of hanging onto a banger that could get you some run
on websites and mixtapes? Right now no artist can afford to hang onto
a “classic song” because chances are, that song isn’t the classic you
think it is and if the song is that good, you’re going to need it to
break through because you can’t release B-level material and expect to
get on various websites and blogs with some doo-doo you didn’t write
because you ain’t got time.

This guideline was inspired by a manager who shall remain nameless and
probably will remain nameless as long as she’s involved in hip-hop
because she really doesn’t know what she’s doing and will probably run
whatever artists she touches into the ground. This manager kept on
asking me to post her artist’s music. I asked her to please send the
mp3s. When she responded that they were on MySpace, I responded by asking her again to please send the mp3s. See, this isn’t me being a
jerk and getting some sick pleasure out of making people attach mp3s.
Usually my internet browser does not work well with MySpace players
and more importantly, I can’t listen to a demo on a MySpace page. I’m
weird like that. I like to have the file and listen to it someplace
where I can’t be distracted by a million pop-ups and flashing text.

The manager responds that she won’t send the mp3 because she doesn’t know where it will end up but reminds me to go to the MySpace page.

At this point I can see this is going nowhere so I ask one more time to send the mp3s and she sends me back the exact same message.
Conversation over, opportunity lost. You could have the best mp3 in
the world and no one else could have it. You send it to me. What’s the
worst that could happen? It gets on HipHopGame for the world to hear?
I don’t run an anonymous email blasting service and even if I did bcc
a bunch of people I didn’t know, I probably wouldn’t be sending some
unknown artist. I don’t know where I got the reputation of being a
diabolical mp3 leaker but this manager was so overprotective of some
songs that she really ruined her artist’s chances of ever getting on
the site.

And here’s a sidenote – if you send me a song and ask me not to leak
it, I’m not going to. If Cormega can trust me with not leaking a song
I’m pretty sure everyone else can too. Bong.

Guideline #2 – Thou shalt not hate on other artists. When you send me
an email saying, “There have been a lot of wack artists posted lately.
Here, post this,” tha’ts probably not going to get you posted. If what
we’re posting is so terrible, why do you want to be a part of it? You
wouldn’t go into a pizza restaurant and tell them, “You guys make some
terrible pizza. Give me two large cheese and one large pepperoni,” so
why would you approach me like that? Just because other artists get
posted that you maybe don’t like does not mean that they are wack,
that we are wack or that your artist deserves to be posted. If your
artist is good, let the music speak for itself. Tearing down someone
else to make yourself looks better only makes you look worse in the
end. Corny message? Yes. Is it true? Of course.

Guideline #3 – Mixtapes don’t matter. Mixtape DJs, do not throw your
mouse at me. Mixtapes are very important. Mixtapes do matter, just not in the way artists think they do. Mixtapes matter because they’re a
great way for me to hear a bunch of big tracks at once. Mixtapes help
break out new artists and expose fans to new music that they shouldn’t be sleeping on (ideally). Unfortunately there are so many mixtapes out there now done by so many DJs that shouldn’t even be allowed to access the internet that when they play a new artist’s song, they’re actually hurting them more than they are helping them. Therefore if you’re a new artist and you’re on five new mixtapes in a month, there’s a very good chance that only one of those mixtapes, at most, matter.

Here’s another reason mixtapes don’t matter when you’re trying to get
a song on HipHopGame. A lot of times favors are exchanged with DJs to
play songs. It may not be cash under the table but it can easily be
something that’s under the table and beneficial to both parties. The
problem is that there are a bunch of DJs who abide by the strict rules
of hip-hop and only play music they like but, inevitably, there are a
few DJs out there who have no ear for music but they were blessed with a gift of marketing and being loud. While a more suitable profession for these idiots would be dressing up in a costume and advertising some mattress store’s going out of business closeout on a busy highway, they’re attempting to make their vocation in hip-hop and we have to deal with it.

Therefore if you’re a new artist and you’ve been on mixtapes,
congrats. That’s important and an accomplishment if it’s a mixtape
worth being on. However none of your appearances will make us post a
horrible track. 99% of the industry operates off of half-assed
co-signs and there has to be at least one place in the game where that BS doesn’t matter.

Way more on this to come in the future.

Twitter League Standings Week 2

Top 5

1. EPBeats – in just a short amount of time E Pillz has dropped some
quality updates ranging from hanging with Chedda at a brothel, Kyle
Korver and copping new Jordan’s.

2. tygereye – Dove has been a publicist and freelance writer longer
than I’ve been in the game and she’s damn good at what she does. She’s also pretty dope at Twitter. What earned her the No. 2 spot this week was her Office game. Why more people aren’t up on The Office I have no idea.

3. question210 – Whenever you can successfully chronicle your visit to
Chuck E. Cheese and your name is not R. Kelly or Michael Jackson,
you’re going to get some run.

4. crew54 – The Texas homies hate the rap industry and have a sense of humor about it. That’s good enough for this week but they will have to step their game up if they want to consistently be in this arbitrary
top 5.

5. THE_REAL_SHAQ – His quality posts have dropped drastically this
past week but I guess being a professional basketball player will do
that to you. My favorite post from The Big Aristotle this week: “Its
so cold in porland the sun just sent me a text, yo shaq ill c u n may
Schwwwwwww”. Great save.

Honorable mention:

donnygoines – Donny makes a lot of posts and a lot of them are pretty
good but he’s going to have to have a higher batting average to crack
the top 5.

PumpkinheadBKAC – From dissing Chedda to making Pepsi floats, PH is
pretty adept at this Twitter game so far.

Out of the rankings:

Noreaga – Glad to hear you’re losing weight, big homie, but please
talk about more interesting things on Twitter. Hang hang.

BDotTM – Must have been a busy week for BDot or else we were just
Twittering at different times. There’s always next week.

PaulCantor – See above.

Worst post of the week – IamMurs – “doing a song about soccer using
the ATCQ chorus. does anyone care?” A soccer song from Murs? What, volleyball isn’t cool enough? Where can I hit the eject button?

How to enter – hit me up at twitter.com/seven3zero. Follow me. I will
follow you. Once I am following you, I will be getting all of your
updates. If you make strong posts they will be noticed like Tubgirl
shopping for a new bathtub.