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Parent Category: Onstage

 by Khari Gzifa

Let me begin by saying that I personally love hip-hop and a lot of rap as well and, as a side note, this is your cue to stop reading if you didn’t know there was a difference. Trust me it will only get more confusing for you without an appreciation for the distinction. So when I received the assignment of reviewing Triple Beam Dreams, the new release from Kingpen Slim, a relatively well known rapper in the DMV, I was excited. I had heard good things about his music and I also loved the video for his song Dead, which is featured right here in the OnStage Video Showcase.

I listened to the whole project while in the middle of conversation with a group of brothers, so it wasn’t the focal point but it provided a nice backdrop for what we were doing.  The first impression I got was from someone else, who asked, “Who is that playing on the stereo, I like that track”. So before I really even took a serious listen I had already been given cues to expect good things.

One might think that with a title like Triple Beam Dreams, this album would fit squarely in the “Been there done that” model, but you would be wrong for a couple of reasons. First, let there be no mistaking; Kingpen Slim is a talented lyricist. Most of what goes under the moniker of Trap Rap or the more generic term Gangsta Rap, is not really notable for the quality of the writing. That does not apply to this album though. Kingpen Slim obviously put some thought and effort into crafting the rhymes and will make you take note of a few couplets. Second, there is a thread running through this project that suggest KPS made a real effort to stand out by doing a couple of things that not every independent artist can do, i.e. secure features from artists with international followings and use samples that do not immediately lend themselves to rap music.

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Parent Category: Onstage

We’re in the online publishing business and a trade secret is that one of the best ways to draw viewers to your content is to come up with a list. People love lists. You could draw up a list of cloud formations and folks will be all over Twitter adding their two cents on the topic. As a publisher, you can’t go wrong with a list. Except of course, lists are totally subjective and almost always leave out entries whose omission makes the list sound stupid. So even though it’s not worth spending any more time discussing a list we thought was pretty stupid; the XXL “15 DMV Artists You Need To Know”, suffice it to say it still irritates us enough that we want to set the record straight. Here’s a better list…

15 DMV Rappers You Should Have In Your Playlist.

(And we won’t kill you by trying to build suspense.) Here’s the list:

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Parent Category: Onstage

Artists are fond of reminding the public that an artist’s only responsibility is to his art. Invariably, the artists who make these proclamations are those whose work has been called into question by the public. With Rap Music, which performer/writer Head Roc has reminded us is not the same as Hip Hop, the questions of responsibility, tastefulness and relevance have been around as long as the genre itself. Why are rap lyrics so base, so inane, so devoid of any uplifting theme and so celebratory of excess and violence? Can you even call it art? But if it’s so repugnant, why does it sell so well?

Well, it sells because rap music in 2013 has degenerated into a version of the 1990’s World Wrestling Federation; something so patently fake that we have all agreed to a willing suspension of disbelief. Trinidad James is a star? Seriously? Drake drops a song saying he “Started From the Bottom” even though he actually started out playing the character Jimmy Brooks in the television series Degrassi: The Next Generation and everybody traces that ish. Nicki Minaj is the poster child for irrelevancy and Rick Ross? To paraphrase Jay Z; “I respect the shooter, not the one who got shot at.”

The truth is that rap consumers are as much to blame as rap performers for the current state of the art. Somehow consumers migrated away from being an audience waiting to be entertained to a body of sycophants needing to live vicariously through mindless lyrics completely disconnected from their own life experiences. This is different, and it’s important to note the difference. Music is vital when it reminds us of our own realities; a love lost, a struggle being waged, life with our friends, things in common with our peers. Instead, what we have today are artists who demand that we co-sign childish irresponsibility; throwing money at strippers, trivializing violence, disrespecting our women and the virtue of community. Now, it’s not about you; it’s all about them. If they cared about you, they would write about you.

Think of it this way; if you had a taste for Italian food and went to an Italian restaurant only to discover that every dish on the menu was Chinese you’d leave, right? That’s not what you wanted and not what you came for. It should be the same way with rap music – stop paying for bullshit when what you actually want to be entertained with is something relevant to your own tastes. But rap music marketers don’t think of you as sophisticated consumers. They think of you as the sucker who stays in the Italian restaurant that only serves Chinese food.

Enjoy your meal!

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Parent Category: Onstage

If you use social media, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, you automatically have a Klout score. If you are in any way involved in the business of music be it as an artist, manager, promoter, on-air personality, publicist, etc. and you use social media for something other than taking shots at your baby mama, you may want to occasionally review your Klout score and develop a strategy for using the influence it indicates you have to advance your professional goals.

Klout is built around a simple principle; that everyone has influence, and that influence can be measured, analyzed, and used in productive ways to impact various audiences. Your Klout Score is measured based on your ability to engage others on social networks. This is an important and useful tool in the entertainment industry because there has been a sea change in distribution channels. Nowadays, entertainment professionals have as much control over who is aware of their offerings as do the old guard of industry insiders. The only question is; do they have as much knowledge about how to use their influence to get notice, sell music, draw crowds, and build their own brands?

We looked at the Klout scores of a number of DC area artists and the good news is that a high percentage of them have scores well above the average Klout score of 40 on a scale of 1 to 100. It should be no surprise that the region’s leader is none other than Raheem DeVaughn whose score is a stratospheric 85. This doesn’t mean the number is based solely on popularity, though popularity is a factor in compiling the score. The data, or “signals” used to calculate the Klout score are derived from a combination of attributes, such as the reactions you generate compared to the amount of content you share, how selective the people who interact with you on social media are, and how much engagement you drive from unique individuals. So, if you generate 100 retweets from 10 tweets, your score is higher than it would be from generating 100 retweets from 1000 tweets. Likewise, if 100 different people retweet your content, it gains a higher measure than you’d get from a single person retweeting you 100 times. Folks who rely on Twitter to get entertainment related messages out should pay careful attention to this.