Your Time Will Come

Older acts that didn’t make it in their generation can do so now if they know how to hustle

Hip-hop as a genre is very young and modern, so we are only now seeing the impacts of past generations’ ageing. Hip-hop is still youth culture, as it should be, but older fans still want to hear new music from artists they grew up on and hear music that reminds them of the artists from their youth.

Many people are able to hustle themselves into great situations because they understand their target audience and how to market to them. Using new technology that wasn’t around when an artist emerged is key to being able to reach a larger fan base. Griselda are a perfect example of this: coming from Buffalo, there weren’t many musical connections when they first started rapping in the mid 2000’s. It was hard for them to get their music played outside of their town. But with the globalization of hip-hop and the introductions of social media and streaming services, they were able to hustle and reach fans that they were never able to reach. Their ability to flood us with high premium projects and move in this generation is the reasons why they hold so much relevance in today’s music scene.

Another perfect example of being able to flip the switch is Uncle Murda, an artist who from the 2000’s, even signing to Roc­-a-fella records in 2007. Soon after he was signed, Jay-Z, head of the label left, leaving no clear vision on what to do with Unlce Murda. So he got dropped. From there he was able to move independently, putting out street mixtapes keeping his buzz local (like Griselda). As time passed Murda was able to create a bigger buzz and even tour worldwide.

I feel like Murda and Griselda were blessed by not being super big when they first came out, because they would have had to sign to a label that could compromise their creativity and put themselves in a box in the fans minds. This is dangerous because it could have prevented them from growing to be as big as now (many artist fall for this). Being able to move locally allowed these artists to grow.

My message to artists and creatives is this: There is no rush. Believe in your craft and vision, and be patient because your time will come.

Karl Sturch

Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge

IDK (Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge) had one of my favourite albums of 2019 with “Is he real?” where he questions God. I am glad he was able to showcase his talent to a massive audience on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he performed the highly relevant track “No Cable” from his album.

In the chorus of this song he offers his take on the privilege of not needing or having to care about police shootings, school shootings or gay/trans rights. He is saying people are quick to label them as thugs or mentally unstable people and they will just “change the channel”.

Changing the channel both refers to the privilege of not having to care about things not affecting you, and the mindset most of these people who hold this privilege have: not being ready to hear the truth. This might break their comfort, so they just ignore it.

He ends the chorus with saying how we are all brothers and sisters and we should recognize this and in turn end the cycle of hurt and pain.

I feel like this was a powerful song to showcase on The Late Show because it is very relevant today, as is the message of literally asking anyone who he makes uncomfortable to “change the channel”. You can either change the channel or strive for what’s best for a society; Black Lives Matter.

 

Karl Sturch

Here Are Ten Black Independent Artists You Need to Know Of

Before I start this article I would like to say rest in peace to George Floyd, and that our thoughts are with his family. No one deserves to be treated differently due to the colour of their skin.

The Murder of George Floyd awoke many people into realising how big of a problem racial inequality is. Many are fighting to be on the right side of history, and many people are trying to fight for equality and against oppression.

We have been able to accomplish many successful things so far; for example we have been able to increase the charges for murderers and get other complacent officers charged. Even on what may seem a smaller scale you have artists and consumers calling out those who make millions off of Black Music to give back and support the black community. Artists like The Weeknd and Russ have called out the likes of Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music, Spotify and Apple to give back. This has lead to some impressive support from these organisations. For example Sony Music announcing they plan to give $100 million to fund social justice and anti racism initiatives.

This is all wonderful stuff but labels are taking most of the money from when you stream your favourite song, unless if it’s from an independent artist. I feel like we as consumers need to put in more of a conscious effort to support Black businesses. A way of doing this from home is listening to independent Black artists. So Predominantly Hip Hop gives you ten Black independent artists and groups you should know of:

Kota the Friend

Kota has gotten big during quarantine. His very chill and relaxed music is perfect for relaxing in the sun or just chilling in your room. He even released an amazing album “EVERYTHING” during quarantine.

Our favourite songs include Hollywood, Volvo and B.Q.E

 

Rapsody

She can out rap your favourite rapper for sure! A perfect musician if you like that lyrical rap. She works with legendary producer 9^th Wonder and  has been nominated for a Grammy.

Our favourite songs include Cleo, Nobody and Oprah

 

Freddie Gibbs

This is an artist who has arguably released the album of 2019. It also seems like he will be part of the conversation this year for album of the year with his album “Alfredo”, which he recorded with legendary producer The Alchemist. An artist with an amazing flow, perfect if you like cocaine rap.

Our favourite songs include 1985, Fake Names and Scottie Beam

 

Big K.R.I.T.

An artist who we respect a lot. When his label was trying to shelf him, he said he doesn’t need them and started moving independently and creating his own buzz. So when he left his label it made sense to stay independent.

Our favourite songs include K.R.I.T. Here, Mixed Messages and Believe

 

Young M.A

An artist with a strong business mind who we’re happy stayed independent. We feel she has great potential and will able to accomplish some big things in both independent rap and business.

Our favourite songs include Big, Get this Money and Trap or Cap

 Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher

We know these three are a group under the name “Griselda” but while Griselda is signed under Shady records, as solo artists these three are independent. They are releasing music at great speed and high quality. Perfect if you like that really grimy rap.

Our favourite Westside Gunn songs: GODS Don’t Bleed, Lucha Bros and Euro Step

Our favourite Conway the Machine songs: Shoot Sideways, Fentanyl and 14 KI’s

Our favourite Benny the Butcher songs: ’97 Hov, 18 Wheeler, 5 to 50

 

The Underachievers  

This is a duo that brings you old style New York rap mixed with psychedelic rap. A very underrated duo! We look forward to seeing what they will be able to accomplish in the future.

Our favourite songs include N.A.S.A, New New York, Generation Z

 

Flatbush Zombies

We couldn’t mention The Underachievers without mentioning Flatbush Zombies, another group that brings you old style New York rap but mixed with Psychedelics. If you liked The Underachievers you would definitely like this group.

Our favourite songs include Bounce, Vacation and New Phone Who Dis?

 

Childish Major

A very talented producer/rapper that is perfect for chilling in your room. Similar to Kota the friend we would definitely recommend for your quarantine playlists.

Our favourite songs include Not Numb, Supply Luh and I Like You

 

Rimon

This is an artist with a beautiful voice, perfect for your quarantine playlist. She even released a wonderful EP called “I Shine, U Shine” recently.

Our favourite songs include Out Of My Way, Downtown and Dust

 

I hope you find at least one new independent artist that you like in this list, and if not I hope this article makes you put more of a conscious effort to try find and support Black independent artwork.

 

 

People aren’t listening to new music in Quarantine, What does this mean for artists

People have been stuck in quarantine letting time pass; yet streaming platforms like Spotify are seeing a stream decrease of 20 percent. Why is this? One reason is that there is no commute. People are working from home so there is no need to listen to music to pass the time. Spotify however has reported that people are listening to a lot more chill music and self improvement podcasts.

Another big decrease we have seen is that people are less likely to listen to new music. This is because even though consumers still have the capability of finding new music, without radio or club DJ’s introducing new music in different atmospheres, consumers are less interested. This has frozen lots of potential releases from artists during quarantine, especially for artists that live off of touring.

Another reason I feel that people aren’t listening to new music is because they want to be able to lose themselves in the nostalgic memories of songs that take them back to a much easier time. They want that comfort in listening to something they know they are going to love. They have that small control over that aspect of their life.

Artists should remain aware of the consumer landscape throughout this quarantine. They should find ways to stay relevant without affecting their brand. For example artist that live stream concerts or have a Tik Tok have all seen an increase in streams. It’s important for artists to figure out a way to stay connected to their fans while we’re all isolating.

Karl Sturch

Hacking for Fake Streams

 

Last year I wrote an article called “Fake Listeners” about the possibility of streaming farms in China. I used the example of Selena Gomez who during that time became Spotify’s most-streamed artist, without even releasing an album. In this article, I wrote that china might have offices with phones playing Selena Gomez music on repeat. Something similar to the ‘click farms’ in China.

But it seems like there may be a new approach to getting fraudulent numbers. Which may be a bigger invasion of privacy. Before I start I want to thank and credit the findings of a twitter profile under the username @karlamagne. Who seems to have the same name as me.

He found out that French Montana’s song “Writing on the wall” was moving suspiciously on the Spotify Charts. When the song was first released it didn’t do great numbers even though it had 2 big features Cardi B and Post Malone, but it only charted for 5 weeks then re-entered 3 weeks later it entered the charts at a new peak.

French Montana’s team even spoke out against the accusations saying that the song is very popular on Tiktok, therefore, people were starting to stream it on other platforms. However, Spotify was the only platform that saw an increase. On the 02/01/2020 the song was #21 on Spotify but #1192 on apple music. Unless if all the Tiktok users only have Spotify, there must be something fishy going on.

Now onto how they managed to create such a fraudulent tactic. If you look at these tweets, he is getting people to hack into your Spotify and playing his music. Instead of his album selling as much as ‘Invasion of Privacy’, it was just an invasion of privacy.

Now I don’t know if French himself is paying for these fake streams it could be a label move. But I hope that Spotify cracks down heavily on this fraud. There are plenty of great artists that want to be able to compete but can’t if sub-par songs are given VIP treatment.

Karl Sturch

2018 and The High Volume of Music

2018 as a year has seen some of the highest volume of music compared to most recent years. Every week, different artists unload us with new music to quickly consume. Some artists even dropped two or more projects this year of which used to be unheard of. Usually artists would have to set plans that didn’t interfere with other artists and they would have to warn the industry a couple months before their intended release.

See, there’s a kind of time frame the music industry use to follow. This timeframe consists of the year being split into quarters of which specific types of artists release their music. The first quarter use to always be for new artists, and the other three quarters where for the more established artists. This was used to ensure the music business didn’t have clashes and problems and therefore ran smoothly as a whole.

But artists and labels don’t really need to be sticking to this old notion. For example, three-time Grammy award winner The Weeknd (who is clearly an established artist) had released ‘My dear Melancholy’ in the first quarter of 2018.

Why is this happening and how does this relate to the high volume of music this year? First, we must answer why there is such a high volume of music this year than in any other years.

One answer is that there are way more artists then there has ever been.

In addition, there is also less power for record labels in terms of controlling the artist’s work and in telling the radio what we, the public, should listen to. Now artists can cultivate a fan base on the internet and these fans are reversing the roles and telling the labels what’s hot and not and thus music is being released based on what is relevant to fans.

Another reason why is that the internet has increased the amount of music out there so music doesn’t have the same value as it did 15 years ago. Artists now must constantly release music to make a living and compete with the high demand. This can create a kind of ‘fast food music’ and this is one of the main reasons there is a shift in how the industry used to be run. Artists are not going to wait to release their music based on a timeframe that the industry uses when they could be making a living right now.

Chief Keef for example. He has released 10 projects this year. 10 projects! He had rapped a total of 43,695 words making that 126 words a day! (If he rapped it all in 2018)

Another example is Young Thug. He said he has recorded almost 15,000 songs since the start of his career (2011).

These are two legendary rappers who are still able to stay reasonably consistent with the quality of music. But this just goes to show how much work you need to put in as an artist to make it to the top.

Now what does this mean for the future of music consumption?

I feel like in the next couple of years the amount of artist will ever so slightly decrease and the true leaders of the next generations of music will start to appear. These years will test these artists competitiveness and their talent.

I hope we don’t see another year with such high volume of music like 2018 because honestly, it’s so hard to listen to so much music. I feel like having more music released just for the sake of selling and staying relevant may lead to lower quality music in some artists. As someone who podcasts on ‘Predominantly Hip Hop’, it would be much easier and enjoyable for me to listen and rate music.

Thank you for reading,

Karl Sturch

Fake Listeners

Last year over 60% of U.S. music revenues came from streaming platforms. This will only rise due to the popularity and convenience streaming platforms give to listeners. For artists, this means that these streaming platforms are very valuable when it comes to marketing and selling one’s work. But is there a way of getting more streams that aren’t actual streams being listened to by real listeners? There is, and these are called streaming farms. I will be discussing what exactly these are and how they may impact music artists and fans.

In recent news, Selena Gomez beat Drake in becoming Spotify’s most-streamed artist, however questions arose since she hasn’t released an album since 2015. Drake has newer content and it would make more sense for him to grab that spot. Could Selena be involved in streaming farms?

Streaming farms are automated streams with a goal to increase streaming numbers and thus increasing profit and popularity. There are various methods for streaming farms, one way is artists or labels paying companies like Streamfy or SpotLister to give them fake play.

Fans suspect Selena Gomez’s label to use automated bots to boost her numbers. These automated bots are thousands of phones playing music 24/7, which is very similar to the ‘Click farms’ that automate likes and comments in China. The fans believe this was all because they want to create buzz and conversation for her new album.

Streaming farms for streams is very dangerous to do. It’s fraud and it will land you in some trouble as an artist. For example, in 2015, a small folk band called “Smokey and the Mirror” received a life time ban from Spotify for fishy streams. This band was able to get 79,000 plays with only 30 followers. You may be thinking 79,000 streams is not much, that’s only just over $450 US, surely Spotify won’t lose that much?

Streaming platforms wants to make sure all artist gets the same advantages. Buying fake streams rigs the algorithms, that companies like Spotify or Tidal have set up. What if there was a great band that deserved to be discovered by a new fan because they didn’t cheat but then another band gets discovered first because they cheated? It is not fair for artists and these streaming companies will lose out on genuine valuable marketing data that will help improve their services. I believe creators should have respect for other creators out there and be able to live their own truths and play fair.

Now I don’t know if Selena Gomez is paying to have her streams automated, I personally doubt it.  I believe her success is due to her ability to constantly be on Spotify’s made playlists, and for being a talented artist, but we don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and we can’t ignore the fact that streaming farms are still being used. It will be very interesting in seeing what Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music will do to crack down on this, and fellow artists’ responses to these changes.

Karl Sturch