Commercial music.

STOP HATING ON COMMERCIAL MUSIC

I’m still trying to understand why there is so much backlash and hatred thrown at commercial music; especially from artists themselves. The reality is that anyone making music would want to make 'pop' (popular) music so that as many people as possible can hear their music. I highly doubt that any artist is paying money for studio time or buying equipment to record songs for albums so that a few of his friends can hear it; if this is you, then this music thing is merely a hobby. Any artist that is taking this music thing seriously enough, should not chastise commercial music.

On my last album I did a song called “Gotta Be” featuring Jenna (a pop female vocalist that is doing her thing - from Canada). At the listening session; I was a bit uncomfortable of how the song came out; mainly because I really dumbed down the lyrics and with her catchy chorus, the song sounded very commercial…almost a little too "poppy". I told her what I thought and she then said to me: do you know how many artists that I’ve worked with that would LOVE to create songs like this. So many of the artists that I work with can’t make a commercial song. They can't come up with a catchy hook, popular chorus or find a way to make it relate to everyone in the simplest way. From there on out, I started to think and analyze what she had told me. And I realizes that majority of the artists would probably LOVE to hear their shit on the radio or in the club with people chanting along the lyrics. Creating a commercial song is not an easy task to accomplish! That's why artists pay a lot of money to popular producers (it could be in the beat), to song writers (it could be in the lyrics), etc. So much money is being spent on creating commercial music; because it reality it is not easy to make a popular song. Commercial rap helps bring Hip Hop to the main stage - so we need people like the Jay Z's, Eminem's, Fabolous', Kanye Wests', 50 Cent's, etc...doing it the way they are. They are the reason why Hip Hop today is the number 1 selling genre of music.

For anyone reading this saying “Nah! Fuck that! It ain’t hard to come up with some shit that they would play on the radio, bump in the club or have people chanting along with” – then I challenge you to try it. Come up with that next catchy hook, that hot chorus. Fuck the 16s. As important as they are to fellow artists; the majority of the listeners are going to remember the beat first, a few listens after that they will pick up the chorus, and maybe – if they give the song 10-20 listens after that, they will start picking up the lyrics. What I’m trying to say is that even conscious artists are putting catchy/poppy hooks/choruses on their tracks. Nothing wrong with that. The only wrong in this scenario comes from the bullshit artists, that CANT make a catchy song and so they call out, trash talk and criticize the shit out of the people that can. The underground scene is dope! But not so many of these acts can make a safe enough living off of it - to financially secure the rest of their lives and their family. Atmosphere should be a prime example of this – BUT they work so hard at what they do. 90% of the artists I know are underground/conscious but are LAZY as hell! Even though they should be working/grinding/hustling twice as hard to make it. And in the midst of all this, we are going at the rappers like that guy sucks. Stop hating on popular music just because you can’t make it. Do you even know how much pressure is on half of these artists to put out that commercial/pop song/single. Music goes with the times. In its lyrical stage, Hip Hop was blessed by young Nasir Jones - Illmatic. In its bling bling/party era - Soulja Boy created the new Hip Hop 2-step and he was only 16. That shit might be wack - but it's hard to create a track that is widely accepted. What did you with your music at 16? What are you doing with your music at 20? What will you with your music at 25? Hater!