Let’s take a look at a few rappers that are currently hot and have the potential to make it even bigger and who of course seemingly came out of nowhere.

Meek Mill

Sure you may have heard of Meek Mill from his 2010′s Philly hit “Red Rose” but did you know the guy has been putting out mixtapes since 2005? In fact, Meek has put out 12 mixtapes in 8 years. That’s unbelievable. Sure only a handful of people heard his first few mixtapes but his Flamer series in 2008 is when he started gaining traction and building a following. His Flamer series was so popular that it caught the attention of T.I. who signed him to Grand Hustle for his 2010 mixtape Mr.Philadelphia. Obviously things didn’t work out with Grand Hustle, but that didn’t stop Meek from dropping Dreamchasers which lead to his signing with Ross which has led to his current success.

You see it’s a process. It’s not overnight. One thing leads to another. “I”m a Boss” isn’t Meek’s first collab with Ross. It was actually on the Red Rose (Remix) in 2010. That’s how Ross got to know know Meek. Once Ross got his label deal for MMG, and he saw that Meek was still putting in work and buzzing in Philly, it’s not that hard to say, “Hey I need to sign this guy”. You see no one’s going to want to work with you if you are not tested. You need to drop tons of mixtapes in order to learn about your craft. You need to do tons of no-budget youtube videos to learn about your craft. You need to do tons of free shows where no one shows up in order to learn about your craft. But there comes a point where you have to step it up and be mindful to develop a following, otherwise you’ll end up like those unsigned 40 year old rappers.

2Chainz

Another rapper who seemingly came out of nowhere is 2Chainz. But he really didn’t, he had been working the system for years, having dropped a group album under the name Playaz Circle through Ludacris’ DTP and Def Jam. He even had that hit song, “Duffle Bag Boy” featuring Lil Wayne when Wayne’s career was taking off. Again, fans may not be familiar with 2Chainz as a solo rapper but he’s put out 7 mixtapes since 2007. That’s dedication. He could have called it quits after the Playaz Circle stuff didn’t work out. But he didn’t. He stayed in the game. 2Chainz is in his mid-30s and is only getting hot now. What does that tell you? Age doesn’t matter. What matters is who is developing a following, who is developing their product and who is learning and applying the most.

Mac Miller

Say what you will about Mac’s skils or fanbase, but you cannot deny he doesn’t work. Since 2007, he’s put out 8 mixtapes and one album. That’s 9 projects, in just 6 years!

Wiz Khalifa

Since 2005, Wiz has put out 10 mixtapes, 3 albums and 1 collab album. He’s done 14 projects in 8 years! This is an insane work ethic. Ask yourself how many mixtapes you’ve released?

Earn the Privilege to Get Better

What you can learn from these rappers is that they earned the privilege to get better. If you are not putting out material on a consistent basis people are not only going to forget you, you’re going to forget yourself. You’re doing a disservice to yourself by not allowing yourself to learn and get better. Think about it? Every time you do something over and over again, you learn. When you started playing ball you weren’t as good as you are now? Remember that corny saying, “practice makes perfect”. It’s a corny saying for a reason, it’s true. Sure you can make the argument of quality over quantity but how many unsigned rappers have access to great mixing, production, videos and cover art? The majority of mixtapes/songs/videos that these guys have done are nowhere near as good as their recent mixtapes. The reason is because they earned the privilege to get better. When you suck at something, nobody wants to work with you. Producers will charge you more. Video directors will charge you more. Graphic designers will charge you more. It’s because you’re a nobody and your music sucks. What you need to do is show these people that you can do it on a small scale. And don’t do it in a way to spite them, even if you do get better they still wont want to work with you. And you are going to eventually need their help. It doesn’t matter if only a hundred people hear your first mixtape or only a thousand people watch your video. What you need to do is earn respect.

A second thing you should take from them is “staying in the game”. You need to set your life up so that you can afford to be an unsigned rapper. If this means having a job, or side hustle, or business, or even signing to a rapper’s boutique label so be it. You just need enough income to live and to invest into creating your product. Obviously this can get expensive so you need to cut costs, but this is where learning to do stuff yourself helps. Of course, having friends that can do your videos, graphics, production and mixing helps. If all your friends are losers try to get new friends or learn to produce, learn to mix, learn to edit video, learn to record yourself. Sure you wont be as good as someone that’s trained to do it but at least you’ll learn about the process of putting material out. If you’re as good of a rapper as you think you are you will attract all those people to help you out as you go along. Once people see the slightest bit of potential in you they’re going to want to come along for the ride. The main thing for you to focus on is: when is you’re next project coming out?

Everyone Gets an XL

The problem is everyone has to sell out. We have to make money. This is no different with bloggers. The problem is websites give away the content for free, so we can’t survive without advertising or sponsorship. I started YoRapper in 2007 because I realized that reviews had an inherit bias because of financial gain. XXL is filled with ads from Interscope and Universal, do you think they’re going to give a bad review to any of their artists? No. Remember, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”. That’s why every album gets an XL rating. I haven’t taken a XXL review seriously in over 5 years. So it’s no wonder that hip hop blogs instead of critiquing the music, just post the music as some kind of implicit co-sign. But this kind of co-sign can be bought as well.

Worldstar Star

For only $600 you too can have your video on Worldstar. Yup that’s right. That’s all it takes to buy influence. As an experiment someone should purposely make the worst video ever and pay to have it on Worldstar. Oh wait that already happens, except it’s not an experiment. The problem with Worldstar selling its influence is that eventually people are going to stop watching those label submitted videos. You can already see the traffic numbers go down on those videos, because THE PEOPLE CAN’T BE FOOLED. Sure you can trick us once, but that’s all you’re getting.

Don’t Bite the Rapper that Feeds You

So what does this have to do with Karen Civil? Well it’s no secret she’s in the pocket for Young Money. She’s officially Young Money’s Social Media Coordinator. And though she likes to maintain that she is a trusted taste-maker, I have a hard time believing this. Let’s look at a recent post she did for Lil Wayne’s song Celebrate. Now I’m a Weezy fan and all, and if you guys read my reviews you’ll know I’ll probably say something snarky like, “This sounds like a throwaway from Rebirth, which in itself should have been a throwaway” or something like that. Here’s what Karen said about this song.

Awwww yeah. Let’s stop what we’re doing and listen to another sub-par Lil Wayne song, like their ain’t millions of them floating around right? But hey I don’t want to attack her, it’s cool if that’s her opinion. Your taste in music is subjective right? Okay. But hip hop more than ever needs unbiased view points. If you don’t know what this means it means REAL TALK. We’re dying for a filter. There’s no way you could hear that song and genuinely say “STOP THE PRESSES GUYS!”. But you know what I don’t blame her. How can Karen be unbiased when Lil Wayne rocks a Karen Civil wristband? [sidebar: Yes that's right, Karen has her own line of wristbands.] If she says something critical about Weezy, he’s not going to rock her wristband anymore and if she keeps it up Birdman will call her into the office and say “You’re fired”. I’m happy that Karen is getting paid and is successful, we need more people like her. However, things like this make me question where her loyalties lye. Are they with the people that pay her or her readers? Remember, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.

I’ve done some pretty stupid things trying to monetize YoRapper.com but I learned that it’s more important to avoid a conflict of interest especially where my readers are concerned. Imagine I worked for G.O.O.D Music? Would you take my opinion seriously about G.O.O.D Music artists? Taste-making is like making music, once you betray your fans, it’s over. How can anyone take Karen, or any of these bloggers-for-hire, seriously? They have sold their influence. But I know, I know, she’s paid right?

There are more rappers with co-signs that didn’t make it than rappers with co-signs who did. Case in point, pretty much 90% of Young Money. Jae Millz had Lil Wayne’s stamp when Weezy’s buzz was at it’s loudest. And what did Jae Millz do with it? A forgettable verse on a hip-pop collab so forgettable you were only reminded of it now and still don’t remember the name.

Even after Lil Wayne’s buzz died down, you would expect the public to accept his artist after his success with Drake and Nicki Minaj. However this is not the case. Young Money artist Tyga, whose had an amazing year, has yet to get a grip on the game. You would think Tyga who does have a hot single, female appeal and relentlessly tours would have gone platinum? Or at least gold. But nope, rap fans are not buying it. Even Mac Miller’s sold more and he’s independent. So what does it take?

Ross signed me!

Let’s look at Meek Mill who even admits that if it wasn’t for Ross he would not have made it. I actually think Meek’s being too humble. If you look at the amount of mixtapes Meek did prior to signing with MMG and having local hits like “Red Rose”, it was only a matter of time before he made “I’m a Boss” and “House Party”. Also keep in mind before Meek signed with Ross, he did a brief stint on T.I.’s Grand Hustle. So not even T.I. could break Meek Mill. It had to have been something more and that something more is…trumpets please…GREAT SONGS.

If you don’t have great material you could be co-signed by Jesus and no one will care. This is the music business and even though artists like Pitbull like to say it’s 90% business and 10% music, you still have to make great music. So if you’re an unsigned rapper and are frustrated, don’t worry about the co-sign, worry about the music. Obsess about it, improve it and then improve it again and I guarantee the co-sign will come. Though it still wont mean much.

Now before you boil over, I don’t want to discourage you, I love that you’re passionate about becoming an ARTIST. But your passion is misdirected. INSTEAD OF TRYING TO BECOME FAMOUS BY EMAILING AND TWEETING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP, WHY NOT TRY TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT YOU WILL BECOME FAMOUS FOR. Said another way, you can’t email you’re way to fame. You have to make songs (and videos) that are so amazing that people want to retweet your links, want to share your song, want to tell people about you. This is what we call “organic growth”. It’s something natural, the people have decided you are what’s hot. I know this might be a hard concept to grasp, but it’s really not.

In rap especially, it’s so hard to get attention because “everyone’s a rapper”. But mostly everyone’s garbage. You want your product to stand out from the crowd. But how do you do this? Because hip hop (and music) has gone global, you’re literally competing against every ‘hood in the world for attention. And that attention is decreasing. Fans are becoming more and more jaded. We are dying for great music that’s why when we do find something that’s good (not great) we go ape shit. You shouldn’t be discouraged by this, rather use it as an opportunity to make BETTER MUSIC. And by better music, I don’t mean just a little better, I’m talking about mind-blowing leaps better than the competition. Besides if everyone is garbage to average, what’s going to make you stand out?

Stop bothering bloggers to post your stuff, if it’s amazing they will eventually (and naturally) get wind of it. If it’s not, don’t worry, keep it moving and make something better. You have to look at the actual songs you have and ask yourself if they can compete with the top artist and more importantly if they are giving the world something new. If they don’t, why are you wasting your time? Why are you wasting my time? Nothing else matters. No one cares how much talent you have, how cute you look, how much street cred you have, who your dad is, where you’re from, how much dope you sold, how much you spent on videos, how many shows you did, who played your song, which blog posts your video. All of that stuff doesn’t matter anymore (and probably never really did in the long term). What matters is THE MUSIC.

We all know there is very little money in music anymore. If you are going to be a rapper, you are in this for the long haul. You better be able to record in your house, be able to mix and even produce your own stuff. No one’s going to do it for you. Dr. Dre isn’t going to reach out of the sky and take you out of your ‘hood. It’s honestly not that hard. There’s millions of youtube videos on the subject. If you really want it, you’ll teach yourself. If you’re doing it for the fame then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. If you’re doing it to get out of the ‘hood, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. Sure you can have a hit single, but then what? How many artists can we name that are one hit wonders? They weren’t in it for the long term. THEY AIN’T IN IT FOR LIFE. Being an artist isn’t a job, IT’S A CALLING. When you start looking at it like this, that’s when you see what you’re really made of.

You have to hand it to Ross, he does knows how to court attention, which as you know is one of the 48 Laws of Power (which I am sure Ross has read hundreds of times). It’s also evident that Ross grew up on wrestling because everything about his showmanship reminded me of Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Vince Mcmahon.

As for the main reason of the press conference, to announce the signing of Omarion, I don’t think it was a good idea. I don’t see how Omarion fans and MMG fans overlap. If anything Omarion looked like a wannabe Ross, mimicking his over-the-top persona. Which if you think about it is a watered down version of Ray J, saying corny things like, “my history is my mystery”. C’mon man.

Nonetheless, Ross has some what of a good ear for music and I liked that they stressed that the signing was based on the unreleased material Omarion was cooking up. If it’s something that’s truly fresh, I’ll be happy. But my suspicion is that it will be the same 2006 commercial hip-pop-rnb that Omarion had been doing. And to that I say, I don’t think the world needs another Chris Brown.

What would have been more interesting and actually worthy of a press conference is if Ross signed someone like The Weeknd. Someone that’s unsigned but hot and that needs that commercial backing. Signing Omarion is a let down and if the trending hashtag #MaybachShouldveSigned on twitter is any indication, I am not alone here.

Who do you think Ross should have signed?

Watch MMG Press Conference:

No Lie

Anyway, Drake pretty much ruined 2 Chainz record. I can’t even listen to it and I’m a fan of Drake and Tity Boy. Not sure why they let Drake do his best 2 Chainz impression for his verse, but it’s embarrassingly bad. I know what Def Jam was thinking with releasing this as the first single: “Get Drake on the record and it will play on radio”, but we’ve seen that story a million times already. It’s boring. It’s played out. It’s predictable. Besides putting Drake on a hook is having diminishing returns. Having said that, I’m still looking forward to the 2 Chainz/Kanye record.

I Don’t Like Remix

This has been on repeat for the last 2 hours. This is new. This is interesting. A big name rap crew co-opting an unsigned 16 year old’s hood youtube record. Kanye’s a genius. Even Pusha came through with a MEAN verse! PUSHA, who hasn’t had a very good track record with these G.O.O.D Music street anthems. Kanye just fucking murdered this making up for the Mercy beat switch up. Chief Keef’s hook was obviously the main draw, catchy and dark. His verse isn’t anything great, a tough talking version of Soulja Boy and Lil b. Big Sean sounds like he inhaled helium before he hit the booth, he might want to stay away from trap beats. Jadakiss who hasn’t had a good verse since Why? is in rare form here, he’s more sharper and seems to finally realize what’s at stake.

“Something about Mary, she gone of that Molly.” – Kanye West

“My young niggas popping M’s and sipping dirty jones.” – Drake

“Put Molly under my tongue.” – Danny Brown

“She wanna pop a molly man, Juicy J gon’ fuckin let her.” – Juicy J

“Pop a molly, smoke a blunt, that mean I’m a high roller.” – Lil Wayne

“Got your girl a molly and we smoke loud and drinkin.’” – 2Chainz

“Pop a molly, feelin’ ten again.” – Kid Cudi

As I write this I’m on molly, so don’t be a douche if this diatribe is littered with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and otherwise nonsense. I’m truly loving life as THE GREATEST RAP BLOGGER OF ALL TIME.

I LOVE THE INTERNET. I LOVE RAP. AND I LOVE YOU FAITHFUL READER. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. XOXOXOXX.

I NEED TO THANK ALL THE RAPPERS THAT REMIND TO POP MOLLY ON A DAILY BASIS. EVEN ON DAYS WHEN I FORGET. I JUST TURN ON MY ITUNES OR TURN ON THE RADIO, NOT THAT ANY COOL PERSON LISTENS TO THE RADIO BUT IF I’M IN THE CAR WITH MY GIRL THEN..YOU GET THE IDEA.

WAIT DID I FORGET TO POP A MOLLY TODAY?

OH THANK YOU KING DRAKE FOR REMINDING ME, YOU’RE OH SO KIND.

I HOPE YOU ARE NOT GLORIFYING DRUG USE JUST SO THAT YOUR MEMBERSHIP INTO THE ILLUMINATI WILL BE APPROVED. THAT WOULD BE TOTALLY UNCOOL BRO.

BUT I KNOW YOU’RE NOT BECAUSE YOU DON’T DO THINGS FOR MONEY.

YOU’RE A CHILD STAR.

YOU’RE A GENTLEMAN.

WE ARE SO NOT WORTHY.

RAPPERS ARE THE MODERN POETS OF SOCIETY.

THANK YOU DRAKE, KANYE, WAYNE, JUICY, DANNY BROWN, 2CHAINZ, CAM’RON, LIL B, CHUCK D, TYGA, BIRDMAN, UNIVERSAL, INTERSCOPE, JIMMY, AMERICAN IDOL, AND RYAN SEACREST.

THANK YOU.

It’s just okay. It seems like Nas is being marketed as a Rick Ross-esque kingpin rapper, which I have no problem with, but the song just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know, hearing a guy rap about his past glories is off putting for me.

I can’t deny some of the roof shots and the bridge shot in particular we’re incredible but I think the director Aristotle needed to do more to make Nas’ message that he’s “the don” more believable. Thought ultimately the blame rest on Nas for making a song called “The Don” and going back to the played out mafioso image he once disparaged after The Firm.

It’s really dumb move for Nicki, there are more people that love her than hate her and for her to delete a method of communication with her fans is dumb. To make things even more crazier, Nicki Minaj is hinting that she is close to retiring.

While the Dre & Snoop closer set did have it’s nostalgic moments, which we’re great. I was more taking back by how terrible Kendrick and Wiz sounded in comparison to Snoop and even Dre. These guys are literally half their age and they sounded winded, unfocused and lacked vocal presence. Even Wiz whose style borrows heavily from Snoop’s calm and confident steez, lacked the full vocal delivery he has on records.

While Snoop may be that crazy uncle that has smoked too much, it’s undeniable that his vocal chops are second only to Jay-Z. This got me thinking. Can Snoop and to a lesser extent Dre (and maybe even Tupac’s hologram) catch a second wind? Go on another 20 year run? Snoop’s 40 years old, can he be doing this into his sixties? I think he can as he effortlessly performed hit after hit without so much as breaking a sweat. Obviously, Snoop’s style has a lot to do with his ability to deliver a clean vocal performance but isn’t that the point? Don’t you want to make songs that you can actually perform without tiring?

Fifty who has some of the worst live performance vocals, did okay, but I still find it odd that he can’t match his live voice with his recordings. Eminem who is usually a great live performer had an off night as well.

Even the material from the older guys is still much better than what the younger guys are doing. Compare Kendrick and Dre’s The Recipe with any Dre collaboration with Snoop or Tupac. I’m no oldster, I usually think new music is better and more interesting than old stuff that I’ve heard a million times, but when you compare it with the new stuff on level terms, it’s undeniable the old stuff is better. Why is this? Was production better? We’re these artists just better? Or is my own bias creeping in?

I think it has more to do with style. The old style of straight forward hits is played out to the new generation of artists. We can see this in The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. Their songs have more layers, more nuance, their are even more subtleties to their vocal performance. This style change has crept into rap as well, as the music has become more artful. As a consequence it takes away from creating straight forward big records like California Love. This isn’t really a negative because there are many positives to the newer style, however, when performing for 90,000 people it’s impossible to kill with this style. Obviously Kanye and Drake to a lesser extent come close. But watch Bon Iver’s performance and you’ll see a clinic on how to kill with a style that isn’t mainstream at all.