What Successful Rappers Do NOT Do

My Experience As A Rapper & Why It Didn’t Work Out

What is considered a successful rap career? Getting a song on the radio? Getting signed to a major record label? Reaching 1 million views on YouTube? I have seen rappers achieve one or more of the aforementioned milestones yet never make a living, or end up fading away into irrelevancy. There are tons of ways to define success and different individuals have different goals. In my opinion, a respectable career involves longevity and the creation of a fan base that will buy your music and attend your shows. If my goals were that simple, why I am I here now writing this blog as a beat producer talking about how I used to rap? Today, I am happy with my decision to focus solely on production but the big reason why I did not reach my targets in the first place was because I gave up. I accepted every excuse that I could think of to justify my unworthiness. In hindsight there were several adjustments I could have made. Here are a few reasons why my rap career did not work out:

1. Didn’t Work On Stage Presence. Performing live is the perfect way to gain new fans and gain some recognition. The point of a live show is to entertain the crowd. What to people find entertaining? Charisma. A sense of humor. They want to see passion. They want to be inspired. They want any hint of personality yet I displayed none whatsoever. I would stiffen up to the point where I couldn’t even nod my head on-beat and when it was my turn to rap, my arms would start flailing around as if I was getting my first swimming lesson and I was pushed into the deep end. My eyes were glued to the floor preventing my from making eye contact with anyone. The image I projected made me forgettable thus making my music forgettable as well. The purpose of performing at a gig is to make a connection with your listeners. Over a five year span I was able to land live gigs up and down the California coast with my rap group, many of which were paying gigs. It was a fun experience but I can’t help but feel like they were wasted opportunities due to my shortcomings in my stage presence. With time and work, it could have been improved upon.
2. Stayed In Comfort Zone. How does an artist continue to improve his or her craft? The path to excellence is through personal growth. One way to grow spiritually and intellectually is to force yourself to step out of your comfort zone. During the heydays of my rap career, I only interacted with people that I knew well. I rarely made the effort to build relationships with the people I met. I only recorded songs with my group and rarely collaborated with other rappers. As for the content of the music, I did not challenge myself lyrically. We rapped about rapping and focused on developing tongue twisting rhyming combos where an entire bar rhymes with the entire subsequent bar. If I wanted to improve my rapping perhaps I shouldn’t have stopped free-styling. I stopped joining in cipher sessions and stopped entering emcee battles because they were challenging and required me to work harder. As for promoting my music, I made sure I was as comfortable as possible, literally. I’d be at home in my pajamas submitting emails and posting music online. Nobody likes spammers but on the other side of the spectrum nobody will know you exist if you don’t get outside and meet people.
3. Made Excuses. When things didn’t work out such as landing gigs or selling CDs, I would put energy into justifying my failure. I would say things like “If my band mates would just put more effort in promoting…” “If I had a bigger budget…” “If people in my city weren’t such haters…” “If my own friends weren’t such haters…” “If I just had more time…” All of these excuses had one thing in common. It placed blame on other people instead of myself. We all hate excuses but we often find comfort in them because it gives us the illusion that the responsibility is taken out of our hands. If I had just owned up to my shortcomings and mistakes, I could have addressed them head on and made some progress.
4. Acted Too Sensitive. I was ready to make music but I wasn’t ready to take on the criticism. I once had a gig and noticed some drunk kid in the back flipping us off as we performed. As soon as our set was done I rushed off the stage and confronted him. We were separated but I looked like a fool. What was even worse than criticism for me was the lack of interest from others. When my music didn’t rack up play counts and comments online I would take it personal. The negativity would eat me up inside and my productivity suffered. Instead of taking the feedback and turning it into positive improvements, I would take the blows, hit the ground, and stay down. Failure, mistakes, and critiques are actually cheat sheets to instant improvement if you learn to develop a thick skin. When I say “thick skin” I mean not giving a damn what people think or at least not putting so much energy in something that you cannot control.
5. Didn’t Find & Cultivate an Audience. Remember how stage presence helps you engage with the audience? So does your online presence. It sounds obvious, you can get a feel for who your true fans are by who leaves comments, what they say, and what they purchase. I failed to compile some sort of mailing list of people who were willing to buy anything we put out. I failed to respond to positive comments on our music pages and videos. Once we figured out who our audience was, we did not really put an effort into creating music for them. In other words, When we wrote our music we did not solidify our identity. We gained some fans because they really dug our tracks with singing. Some fans really liked battle raps and others liked the inspirational songs. As far as content, we were all over the place, making it difficult for fans to know what they were getting, preventing them from becoming loyal long term fans.
6. Unrelatable Lyrics. Once I found my voice and mastered the art of rhyming, I was able to rhyme multiple combinations of words and have it all make sense. My writing focused on this skill excessively. While from a technical standpoint it is impressive, it doesn’t appeal to listeners on an emotional level. One blog reviewed one of my last albums and referred to our lyricism as being a bit too “cerebral.” Writing relatable lyrics and connecting with the listener begins with what I discussed earlier, personal growth. People relate to stories not techniques. I wrote one of my best songs after I visited my grandmother’s province of origin in the Philippines for the first time. Discovering my roots and getting in touch with my family history inspired me to write. It is one of the few songs that fans sang along to when I performed it. The key takeaway is that impactful lyrics come from the heart.
7. Did Not Eat/Breath/Sleep Rapping. If you are a rapper, embrace it as part of your identity. If you are too embarrassed to tell a coworker or don’t think it’s appropriate to tell a stranger how are you going to muster up the courage to pitch your music to an industry professional. Are you writing raps everyday? Do you scribble rhymes on napkins? Are the margins of your math homework riddled with punchlines?
8. Did Not Challenge Myself. One of the biggest excuses I gave myself was “I am not hood enough so I can only go so far.” Being a musician is about creatively expressing yourself. I kept focusing on a limitation that was a figment of my imagination. All my rap development needed was growth. As I discussed earlier you grow when you put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Right out of college, I moved back into my parents’ house while I tried to make it as a musician. Perhaps moving to Hollywood would have motivated me more. Trying to make a living in New York city might have given me a new perspective. Maybe relocating to a foreign country would have forced me to experience the adversity that my personal development needed. Challenging yourself as a rapper isn’t just about writing better lyrics. The words you write are a reflection of life and your experiences. Experience something new everyday. Your lyricism will benefit from it.
9. Walked Away When It Got Tough. I will never forget the string of events that led to the demise of my rap career. My rap group which was once ten deep, was now just me and one other rapper. We were polar opposites. He was making a name for himself on the battle rap circuit and I was on the same grind but with beat battles. We got to a point where we were performing at 2 gigs a week. Then the bookings became fewer and fewer. Then we finally got three gigs in three days. It was a glimmer of hope. I showed up for the first gig and I wasn’t even on the list. We even had to pay $20 each to get in the club. Humiliating. I then receive an email, notifying us that our next gig was cancelled. Strike two. Deflated, I pick myself up because the third show booked that week was at the UC Berkeley campus. We always had success with crowds in Berkeley as well as on every college campus we ever performed on. This was going to be the slam dunk to get my confidence back. As we walk up the steps to the Zellerbach hall, the friend who booked us the gig to perform for the school’s Filipino student association greets us right outside of the venue. “I have bad news” she tells us. She didn’t even have to explain any further. I somehow already knew that it was just our luck that the set was cut for time. I sat on the steps right outside the hall and contemplated my career up to that point. The latest strikeout showed me that it was time to hang em up. It was a choice that I don’t necessarily regret but I do wish I had a little more perspective back then.You are going to get rejected and ridiculed at some point. It’s just the nature of the business. The same goes for the good times. It is easy to revel in a big accomplishment such as opening up for one of your idols or getting airplay on the radio and expect the good times to keep rolling. At some point it will get dicey and you will experience some adversity. I now realize those bumps in the road are positives, signs that I am heading in the right direction.