Image

A

austin4130

New member
What are your thoughts on a rappers image? There are a lot of different variables/options...

good image, bad emcee
great emcee, great image
bad emcee, bad image
good emcee, bad image

Man this wake n bake has me losing my mind! You get the picture! A buddy of mine was arguing with me about it last night. I said the image isn't too important if the rapping supports it. what do you guys think?
 
i think in todays rap world, image is more important than em cee skills - if they can market u - ur gittin signed!!!!!!! let me take that back - if they can MASS MARKET U, UR GITTIN SIGNED.

it should be that em cee skills are primary, but image is everything.
 
so in that case, what about a white kid?

and by that i don't mean like paul wall or eminem either, just a white dude with say a good sense of style.
 
If U Got The Right Look - U Can Easily Be Marketed . . . Thats Just All There Is To It. . .
BUT if you are going . . . independent, then u have to have anogther "reason" people will pay attention to u . . . at least to get started . . . the look can work on the independent level as well, if u are in an area where people make up their own minds . . . if not, then u need to hit em in the head wit a sledgehammer to makke em pay attentino . . .
 
I agree with GJ on this one...I've heard some SICK emcees who get NO love because they don't have the "right" image for the labels to market.

On the other hand...I've seen MANY...and I stress many...WEAK (yeah I stress that too) emcees who can barely put a rhyme together better than a 3rd grader but are getting PAID.

Why can't shit go back to the good ol' days where if you could spit, you could spit and that's how it was.
 
Image is the thing today... Sadly, people eat up ABSOLUTELY WHATEVER is played on the radio.... If emcee skills were important, then Rhymefest and Kweli would be near the top on da charts.... however, their albums have been released quietly with little fanfare.... I'm from the south, and trust me, no one has heard of either one of them.... but those same folks know about all da white tees and air forces, the "a bay bays" and "crank thats"...

It's all about marketing now-a-days
 
i'm from the south too and people definitely know about kweli around here, thats not my point though

i say: rock the mic, and fuck a hater
 
I hate to say it like everyone else, it's image and marketing. Labels first look at your look cause if you don't have that look to do commercial spots and all that, too bad.

It's really not about the art form anymore. Studios can fix your vocals, add background harmonies, fix your pitch and all that. It's style that companies look at. Or they will make you have a certain image.

The only way to be you is do it yourself and say forget what people think.

Look at Making the Band. It's about looks. Ya, they also make you work on vocals. But, you probably have a better chance if you have big style and ok vocals rather than no style and good vocals.

That's why developing artists is so hard. I went through all that and it's hard. I found there is a better chance to be a producer and do business doing production for commercials and such.
 
It's a shame these days. I make music simply because I enjoy doing it. Here's what lays itself on my head though....

...If we think what's out now is crap. Wait about 5 years and this'll all seem like gold.

The industry died when the baby boomers came into control of it. As time goes by, I see rap and hip hop losing more credibility and respect. I mean, how many of this new generation and the ones after it will truly remember emcees like The Roots, Common, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, even the Black Eyed Peas (before they became more mainstream)?

People will remember 2Pac and B.I.G. simply because they died while at the height of their careers. How many people do you know (who doesn't have a musical background in this game) remember Big L or even Big Pun for that matter?

Don't get me wrong, I can still listen to some of the stuff on the radio today and take it for what it's worth (entertainment with no depth), and I can respect it....for what it is, but it just seems like the raw elements that turned more people on to rap and hip-hop is gone. In all honesty, I get more of that sound from underground enthusiasts trying to bring it back than I get from turning on the radio or even going through my old CDs and mp3s throughout the years.
 
Image is everything in the Marketing Game!

Marketing an Image is Money!

Music is a Business!

Businesses goal is to make Money!

The Rap games image is more of the history of the person and where they're from. Most people know where every MCee grew up, you can't say that about any other genre........
 
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