- Welcome to a series of articles in which we are going to delve into the world of Hip Hop production, promotion, and in between a little of everything that goes into the making, marketing, and selling of your music, Hip Hop music specifically. And what’s so different about Hip Hop from any other form of music that makes this series necessary, well music is music this is true and the basic outline of what I’m going to tell you will remain the same for any form of music that you choose to produce, as a matter of fact, it will work in any field of endeavor which you decide is for you in life so keep this in mind and with that settled let’s get on with getting you on the road to producing those sure-fire hits that will provide you with a steady income for the foreseeable future. Now before we go any further I have a confession to make so that you’re under no illusions as to who I am and where I stand on this platform of Hip Hop and the first thing I should say is that I’m from London in England, no I’m not from New York so if you think this disqualifies me from writing or passing on valuable information then please you have my permission to leave the class but for the rest of you who are more concerned with where I’m at rather than where I’m from this is going to get really interesting from here on in so hold on to your hats as we go on a journey to get you to where you need to be, earning a living from those hot tracks you keep on producing.
So, where was I? Oh yes transported to the release of my first Hip Hop song during the real golden era of Hip Hop when if you didn’t have skills you couldn’t even touch a mic or the decks, when Eric B & Rakim, BDP, Public Enemy, Big Daddy Kane, and NWA were ruling the roost along with Salt and Pepa, MC Lyte, Audio Two, Roxanne Shante, and the list goes on, you see I’m just telling you a little about my background to highlight my history and just to fully qualify it, have you ever listened to It Takes a Nation of Millions the LP? Of course, you have you’re a hip-hopper, well if you listen carefully to the crowd in the segues you will hear me as I was there, I’m not new to this I’ve been listening from the beginning and making it from the Golden Age of the mid to late ’80s onwards and I adore, no I love this thing we call Hip Hop.
I live this too from the way I think to the actions I take I’m Hip Hop down to my toes and before we embark it’s important for you to understand my perspective as it will be the driving force behind my thoughts and opinions, I don’t subscribe to a 1990’s way of Hip Hop although everyone seems to fiend over that period of time now and the so musical sound and style from that era, no I came up with Hip Hop from the beginning of its recorded history which is in the 1980s.
Yes, I’m well aware that 1979 was when the first songs were put down on Wax but it’s the 80’s where it grew up and formed its own identity and I’ve been in this since that time, Kangol hat on, baseball cap turned around or whatever but that’s where I come from and why I can say to you that the knowledge you will learn now will stay with you and put you way ahead of the pack in your pursuit to become the best producer and entrepreneur you can possibly be but before we can become the best it’s important to know exactly what a producer is.
- Now I know it seems like the most obvious thing but many people are quite confused as to what a producer really is and does, not a Hip Hop producer cause Hip Hop is music like any other form of music so let’s not be too specific here, but a producer is a person responsible for the overall sound, direction and the final mix, the finished product so to speak, that doesn’t mean he plays all the instruments if any are played at all, makes a beat, samples a record or even mixes it down, what it means is that he manages the project from start to finish.
If there is someone you need to perform some scratches, an MC (Rapping (or rhyming, spitting,[1] emceeing,[2] MCing[_that you want to rhyme over a song, you need some keys or a bass player or someone who can chop up samples well that’s the job of the producer to hire the appropriate person or people, how about you get sent an idea but it needs something to really bring it out, well it’s the job of the producer to either see what it needs or find someone who can bring it out. It does not necessarily equate to physically doing anything on the boards or at the computer or however else you make music, what the role of the producer boils down to is bringing that final product to fruition.
- In the last article I spoke on the role of the producer, many people see the producer as the person who makes the beat, comes up with the sample idea, creates the track, plays the melody and bassline and then mixes it down when in truth quite often they do none of these things at all, especially in this day and time where there are people called in just to mix a song, a musician to play or replay some music cause you don’t wish to pay for a sample or someone particularly good at sampling which is a lost art in this day and time, yes just as there are many ways to skin a cat there are many ways to make a record.
What’s important to say is that a producer or let’s be honest about this, you are the person who oversees all of the elements and manages the whole mish-mash until it’s no longer a mishmash but a song, and I do mean a song, not a track or a beat but a song which is so much more than a beat but a fully matured composition that can include intro, verse, chorus, bridge and all the other elements that seem to be missing in Hip Hop today and it’s your job to make sure all these elements are there so that your toe-tapping head-nodding banger can stand a chance in today’s market, it’s not going to be easy but between your skills and my advice we gon’ be alright to coin a popular phrase and rapper.
So anyway, that concludes the overview of the producer but still, there is one aspect of the studio along with the producer I need to touch upon which is vital and you all know what that is right?
- No amount of words can overstate the importance of a good engineer, it’s a vital component of every great studio and producers arsenal and although given more credit these days musicians are still a long way from fully appreciating the skills and importance of a good let alone a great engineer, this is the person who sits alongside you as a producer and really helps to craft the tracks, maybe to give room and space so that a sample can breathe, adds a little weight to push along the bass or some mids to highlight that vocal sample you inserted into the track, yes this is the unknown hero who stays late at night and arrives early in the morning to set things up, even in this day of computers and full recall and automation there has to be that someone who keeps track of what’s going on and who often is the real person that physically rides faders, pushes switches and buttons and gets just that right blend for the song, who hears that errant splash of the open hi hat clashing with the sample and gently gives it a cut in the high end to balance things out, it pays to understand this role as well as the producers role because let’s face it, you’re probably going to be the person that does both especially in the beginning when you are building your skills up.
Learning about engineering enables you to at least know what the engineer is doing when you pay for an outside studio and whether to some degree they even know what they’re doing so my advice to you in the early stages is do this all yourself, learn the art and craft of making a beat and producing the music as the more you know the better off you will be.
- Learning the art of the studio is important, finding a studio that you can record out of is just as important because you need to feel comfortable in that environment enough to be creative and a good studio will give you that feeling. It’s similar to a good friend with whom you can just be yourself, it should accommodate your needs in terms of what you want and when you need it and it’s for this reason that I recommend that as early as possible you set up your own personal recording studio that reflects you and enables you at any time to just turn on your equipment and do your thing.
So what equipment should you have in your studio, well this is an individual question as well as a practical one, money is usually a factor as with most things as is space and the style of music will also play a role in what you need to make your music so what I’m about to say is very much subjective, it’s based on my own experiences of recording hip hop for well over 20 and will allow you to create not only hip hop but any style of music you choose.
- When choosing equipment for your studio a good computer I assume you already have, it’s wise to invest in a good DAW program, I won’t say what one to get as that’s a personal choice, for me I currently use Reaper as my main recording and editing software and Harrison Mix bus 3 as my mixdown software because for me it just has a sound which is totally in line with what I want to hear, but there’s lots of music software from Pro Tools to Logic, Cubase, Studio One, etc, some active speakers are essential even desktop ones cause you need to hear what is happening and headphones don’t always allow you to properly hear it the way you need to.
A mixer of some kind and a controller whether pads or keyboard to physically play your music help and finally to complete the package I would invest in a sampler, yes I said it a sampler they’re very cheap but also extremely versatile and they possess a unique sound, all of the above equipment can be bought relatively cheap on the second-hand market for less than £500 if you look around, recently I bought a Roland MV8000 for under £150 which allows me to do everything inside the box so shop around for what you need but know you will have to invest some money in yourself if you want to get professional results but I’ve found over the years that this in itself can be a very rewarding task as it requires you to research and in finding out about one thing you often learn about at least 1 other thing which increases your skillset.
- Something I want to mention is your music collection, this is hip hop after all and it’s based on using snippets and snatches of sounds to create new music, to be successful at this I think you should at the very least understand music from the perspective of a DJ as that’s what this music is based on and it pays to understand not just to know, so go through your music collection and really start to listen to the music on a deeper more personal level not just as a fan but as a producer, as a DJ, as a musician and you’ll begin to hear it on a different level because you need to train those ears of yours to be able to hear something and create some music out of sometimes what can appear to be almost nothing, although it may not always seem so in today’s climate where you can purchase templates that practically make the music for you this is still about skills and yours are going to have to be at their sharpest, so keep practicing every day, it’s the only way you can be sure that you’re the best you can be, there will always be a place for the person who actually knows their equipment how to use it and to get the most out of it and you’d be surprised how rewarding it can be both personally and financially.
- In the world of music today, collaboration is very much the order of the day and it’s a strong possibility that once you’ve created those hot tracks you’ll want to find other musicians to work with, networking is a crucial part of the puzzle that many either underestimate the value of or plain old seem to ignore in the hope that a successful career will just happen because their music is that good, and occasionally this happens and someone gets lucky due to the right ingredients coming together in some sort of serendipitous moment where the stars align and fortune smiles on them, but they’re not you and luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity, you need to be prepared for your chance otherwise it will pass you by so let’s look at how you can be fully prepared to meet the challenge of promoting yourself and your music and giving you the best chance to be successful which after all is what we’re aiming to be.
Getting out there, as they say, is always the hard part, far more difficult to navigate these murky waters than just making music is the art of selling your music, promoting it, getting people to listen so that they can appreciate your art and the blood sweat and tears that has gone into your masterpieces, and it requires some real thought, the first thing you’re going to need is a place to showcase and highlight your work and you already know what I’m going to say here, yes you have to have a website or an online presence and the simplest way is a YouTube channel or a Facebook page which is free, that magic word that we often want to hear and for a time your music will have to be this price too. Do not worry it will not be for long.
- Now I know you want to charge for your music and eventually, we will but for now, the strategy is important and you need people to hear your music first so put it out there so that your fans can hear all this great music and keep it coming, but be selective of what you release for public consumption, don’t give everything away, a few choice cuts on a regular basis is enough, consistency is what counts here. Mixtapes can help as this allows you to showcase your music but not all of it, a minute and a half a track is all you need to show your skills and with the right packaging and branding this is a very cost-effective way to highlight exactly what and who you are and sets us up nicely to get you out there so find your glad rags we’re going out for the next part of the series which is networking.
- Now that we have our product networking and connecting with people or who you know starts to come into play, you need to get out there now, see who’s listening and what they’re thinking, go to clubs, open mic sessions, anywhere that you think the people who would listen to your music are going to be and start talking and getting to know and be known.
Register with forums that actively promote music, your kind of music, and allow people to connect with you as well as connecting with them, be open to what’s going to come your way but at the same time know yourself and what you’re doing and be strong in understanding you.
By that I mean to know who you are and don’t compromise your principles for a quick buck, it’s easy to just conform to what’s going on right now, to want to be the next Jay Z but in truth, the world really doesn’t need another Jay Z, honestly, we really don’t, but what we do need is You to be You cause you are different from everyone else and that’s the angle we are coming from, the approach of individuality in a sea of conformity allows you to stand out from the rest so do You cause nobody can do that better and believe me, in the long run, it’s far easier to be an original of you than a copy of someone else and more rewarding, trust me on that one.
- If you really want to produce Hip Hop for a living for this to work there are a few key areas that you have to look at to ensure you’re doing the right things in order to get the right results, unless you have that burning desire and passion for music it’s going to be an uphill struggle in my opinion cause this is a creative business and they’re always tough to succeed in mainly cause we give up when the going gets tough, but if you really love something you’ll persevere and this is one of the key areas that you have to develop.
Of course, it goes without saying you need to develop your music and musical skills and this is paramount but that covers only a portion of what you must learn and dare I say it not the biggest element you need to develop, I would hazard a guess that it’s the promotion and marketing, the selling of your music that will take the most time and leave you most frustrated with.
- So let’s just cover this again and summarise what this has been about, we began by looking at the fact that you desire to produce Hip Hop and this means you need to know how to do this, that means looking at the role of a producer and what they do, we also looked at the engineering role that you must also take on, after that, we looked at the fact you need to acquire the right equipment to do the job, we examined what you need to make music and also where you can make it, concluding that at home is always best, to begin with mainly as it’s your environment and you know it best.
We then covered the aspect of networking and connecting with people like yourself who also make music and how to get to know them, no person is an island complete onto themselves, you will at some point need the help of others and when this time comes you must be open to other points of view whilst still maintaining your own thoughts and ideas allowing growth to take a hold of the situation.
From there we also discussed what to do once you have the product, online is where it all happens nowadays so be prepared to build up a fanbase by tapping into Facebook, YouTube and all manner of music forums that enable you to promote yourself as the in-demand producer you are or at least are preparing to be, from mixtapes to exclusive singles to remixes of popular tracks there are many ways to get yourself out there and that’s the bottom line here, people need to hear about you and that’s part of your job to promote yourself.
The real you and your music, what about setting up a label to release your material, it’s simple enough to begin and there are many sites that will work with you for a fee or percentage where you don’t have to make an initial outlay or at the very least it will be an affordable sum, there are many ways in which you can promote your expertise, have you thought about performing live, doing shows, it’s another avenue that gives you exposure and possibly a little income and those small successes give you the courage to keep on doing this and that’s what we want. For you to keep on going in the knowledge that eventually with some great music, a little ingenuity, and a lot of hard work you’ll get to where you need to be, so now that you have all the tools to get going what you waiting for.
Start producing your next masterpiece, and Good Luck.
