Domination Recordings

Even though, an unearthly amount of crapola has managed to hit the airwaves and many televised video request shows. The underground or (indie) hip hop scene has taken on a whole new life, just two to three years ago, virtually no unsigned or indie rappers could travel outside the U.S. Now, a substantial amount of artist are doing fifteen plus show's from the U.K. to Europe, to Asia with much love and success. Though record sales have not, and probably wont hit major label numbers, the gap really is closing, and as far as shows and touring around the U.S. indie artists have hit the mark. Neck and neck with the big name schmucks in the big cities and out doing the bigger names in small towns, and states that have been known over the years as.. country or rock states. With the recent success of Atmosphere and the continual rise of other artist and groups. ex. Living Legends, Definitive Jux, and Stones Throw the road ahead and future for upcoming artists and labels looks really good becuase of the contributions of the named above. From merch, to internet sales, to touring and shows... it know seems like artists who actually wanna make real music can without the fear of being broke the rest of their career!

JACKFLASHISDEAD wrote:Even though, an unearthly amount of crapola has managed to hit the airwaves and many televised video request shows. The underground or (indie) hip hop scene has taken on a whole new life, just two to three years ago, virtually no unsigned or indie rappers could travel outside the U.S. Now, a substantial amount of artist are doing fifteen plus show's from the U.K. to Europe, to Asia with much love and success. Though record sales have not, and probably wont hit major label numbers, the gap really is closing, and as far as shows and touring around the U.S. indie artists have hit the mark. Neck and neck with the big name schmucks in the big cities and out doing the bigger names in small towns, and states that have been known over the years as.. country or rock states. With the recent success of Atmosphere and the continual rise of other artist and groups. ex. Living Legends, Definitive Jux, and Stones Throw the road ahead and future for upcoming artists and labels looks really good becuase of the contributions of the named above. From merch, to internet sales, to touring and shows... it know seems like artists who actually wanna make real music can without the fear of being broke the rest of their career!

Dunno who you are, but dude, you have your facts wrong. Acts like Living Legends, Def Jux and Stones Throw have been touring Europe and Australia (and in some cases the US) for YEARS! Heck, Def Jux even made a DVD about it. louis logic was on tour for something like 4 months straight. I have been talking to independent rappers so far back when Company Flow were three dudes. The first time I met Lootpack or Swollen Members was in like 1999.

As a reply to the above... it's probably my fault for writing while doin two things at once.. so maybe I wasn't walden's like or a statition with my blog, but yes.. that's all true... i think we should all be happy bout that, that provides the artists with the opportunity to make money and gain extreme confidence, hence be able to make even better music for us to enjoy and not be so serious over the mini's and focus on the BIG PICTURE. Now I'm sure I'm wrong on this as well... but life is about learning and taking risk but I would definately say I've noticed that alot more artists indie/underground have been able to travel outside the states excluding the named above... and I know from a friend and LEGEND that yes.. they've been overseas years ago!!! Australia was a hit!! But know... they can go to these other continents on superstar status because of the rise.. yes alot of label's and artists have had the t-shirt and merch game going... but we'd be kidding ourselves to say that to t-shirt and merch hustle of today is far superior to that of a few years ago.. and to travel outside the U.S. three plus years ago most.....MOST had to be well established artists, today an artist can travel to Europe, or the U.K. without having to have sold 20,000 plus copies over the last 5yrs or something to that degree.. not exact figures just ballparkin' I had to offend numeration, and specifics. The lootpack is sick Madlib is doing his thing right now, and el-p is ripin shit, but I guess had they not been so successful here in the states.. and other indie artists getting tv, and radio, and other mediated opportunities which were never there b4 (without selling your soul) they wouldn't have they other countries begging to have them come out and sell out their venues.

All i Know is I love hip hop, and wanna continue to see these thing happen more frequently, and grow with more magnitude.

captn. knowsnotiguessbutwhatamigonnadofocusoneverybodyelse'sopioni'mmoreconcernedwithwhatgodhastosay

ONE LOVE

LoL, my eyes hurt after reading all this text!

anything def jux & stones throw do i'm on it!

JACKFLASHISDEAD wrote:As a reply to the above... it's probably my fault for writing while doin two things at once.. so maybe I wasn't walden's like or a statition with my blog, but yes.. that's all true... i think we should all be happy bout that, that provides the artists with the opportunity to make money and gain extreme confidence, hence be able to make even better music for us to enjoy and not be so serious over the mini's and focus on the BIG PICTURE. Now I'm sure I'm wrong on this as well... but life is about learning and taking risk but I would definately say I've noticed that alot more artists indie/underground have been able to travel outside the states excluding the named above... and I know from a friend and LEGEND that yes.. they've been overseas years ago!!! Australia was a hit!! But know... they can go to these other continents on superstar status because of the rise.. yes alot of label's and artists have had the t-shirt and merch game going... but we'd be kidding ourselves to say that to t-shirt and merch hustle of today is far superior to that of a few years ago.. and to travel outside the U.S. three plus years ago most.....MOST had to be well established artists, today an artist can travel to Europe, or the U.K. without having to have sold 20,000 plus copies over the last 5yrs or something to that degree.. not exact figures just ballparkin' I had to offend numeration, and specifics. The lootpack is sick Madlib is doing his thing right now, and el-p is ripin shit, but I guess had they not been so successful here in the states.. and other indie artists getting tv, and radio, and other mediated opportunities which were never there b4 (without selling your soul) they wouldn't have they other countries begging to have them come out and sell out their venues.

All i Know is I love hip hop, and wanna continue to see these thing happen more frequently, and grow with more magnitude.

captn. knowsnotiguessbutwhatamigonnadofocusoneverybodyelse'sopioni'mmoreconcernedwithwhatgodhastosay

ONE LOVE

I cannot comment on the current state of things, because I'm way out of the loop. however, if I take the number of indy rap shows into consideration, that a pioneer like Karin of Subotage is able to book, then the numbers are actually in decline.

so looking at my own experience of going to shows, I'd say that from 1994 until 1999 there have been rather few rap shows. many of the names you expect from those years came through (I saw and met O.C. & Big L, Jungle Brothers, EPMD, De La Soul, The Roots, Common, MY Lyte, Diamond D, etc. etc. etc. etc. Actually, to this day, Deliquent Habits, Jeru and Afu-Ra are still touring tirelessly and interestingly enough, they still get booked.) With the explosion of Rawkus, for a little while only the indy artists came out to Europe (or let's say Switzerland, because all the artists always went to England and Amsterdam.... I wonder why...), while the major label folks stayed home. However, I have seen many artists that were not 'established' as you claimed, like Emanon, L-Fudge, E-Dot, Galapagos5 guys, etc. etc. For every Arsonists coming through, there was a Dr. Becket. And finally, and I would say, the current stage started with 50 Cent. He started to tour and the major label artists returned and many indy artists stayed away.

as for merch: I damn hope that artists finally got savvy to that gold mine. heck, I helped Lootpack, Living Legends, louis logic and numerous others sell their merch at shows, and I know how big the bundle of money was that they carried backstage.

besides, it's been an old truth that the smart artists tour and sell merch. that's why I even have some kind of admiration for 50 Cent, as that dude is touring tirelessly and he goes to places where no major rapper has ever been to. that's how he makes his money, including the merch he sells at the shows, and not through record sales.

if anything, what a Def Jux and Rhyme Sayers does better than all other indy acts, and where the major label artists also have a head start: professionalism. many promoters have been reluctant to book rap acts, because of their unreliability. KRS-One backed out of his tour while he was in England (and he insisted on getting there by boat, because he does not fly... after backing out though, he flew back). Or MF Doom backing out because he suddenly realized that he probably couldn't return to the US, him being an illegal alien in the US (he's English, in case you guys don't know).

essentially, it also boils down to promoters: if you don't have promoters in europe that are willing to book you, you cannot come out. thus, whenever a new promoter springs up, the number of shows grows. once he quits, the artists stay away again. that happened in zürich, where one booking agent got fired, and suddenly there were no rap shows anymore. then a new promoter came up near where I live, and suddenly everybody came through there. and you cannot give enough credit to Karin (of said Subotage) as she's been of the first to bring indy people out here.

don't get this as me trying to take apart whatever you're saying. as said, I cannot really comment in a learned way about today's state. but with the deepness of your argument, it would surprise me if you'd not be interested in hearing a counter argument. which I have just typed.

One thing I notice, that the really good indy hip hop music has a better chance standing out now compared to the times when their was a lot of great major label stuff. With so much wack music out now and mostly in hip hop its a lot easier for the vets of the underground rap scene to shine now if they continue to do it. But it seems like most of the artists come out with 1 cd and never come back to release another one. I guess its like what Mobb Deep said back in the day - only the strong survive.

Call me crazy but I thought the indie game was dying!?!?!

Big Steven wrote:Call me crazy but I thought the indie game was dying!?!?!

I wouldn't use the word "dying" its just a little slow. Its not just the indie game its hitting the majors extra hard. Their trying to go 10 x platinum and we're not, haha.

D.J. wrote:

Big Steven wrote:Call me crazy but I thought the indie game was dying!?!?!

I wouldn't use the word "dying" its just a little slow. Its not just the indie game its hitting the majors extra hard. Their trying to go 10 x platinum and we're not, haha.

yeah, i think hiphop is on its way to becoming yesterdays news. what i mean is that hiphop has dominated the charts for a long time now, and its only natural that something else will take over eventually. basically the people that are into hiphop cause its the cool thing are slowly disappearing. thats why things are slow, but like D.J is saying its hitting the majors much harder.

Im painting this a lot more black/white than it is, but im pretty sure there is some truth to it...and im not entirely sure its a bad thing either.

Yeah mate, I'm sure the US scene is not wicked right now...but cheer up ol chap....it will get better! Now the UK scene is bloody wicked!

Here is a link that might be helpful for indie artists: http://derek.s3.amazonaws.com/DerekSivers.pdf

Uh, like Tadah said, welcome to 10 years ago.

locoseven wrote:Uh, like Tadah said, welcome to 10 years ago.

LoL, yep seems like the game changes for the real rap.

King James wrote:Yeah mate, I'm sure the US scene is not wicked right now...but cheer up ol chap....it will get better! Now the UK scene is bloody wicked!

Hey if more old school fellas come back than I'll cheer up big time, LoL!