There was once a time when you would spend hours grinding out tunes in your mother’s basement or trapped inside a studio for days on end. The blood, sweat, and tears would cascade from your body, but you wouldn’t think twice. Why? Because in thee end, the outcome would pay off immensely — if the talent matched the work ethic. To flourish in the game was tedious, and still is, but the pride one took into their work was paramount.
Handing out CDs, doing free shows, and waiting outside radio stations or record labels were all part of what made the journey special. Therefore, giving an artist more material for their songs. Rappers used to have stories; they pulled you into their realm, an unfamiliar place for the listener to explore, thus, creating a bond between artist and potential fan. That connection is dwindling. But this is not the fault of the music industry, it’s technology. With that being said, technological advances are inevitable, so everyone adjusts. But what comes with said adjustments; comes consequences.
Social media, blogs, and musicians are the biggest contributors to the lackluster music we’ve come to embrace. The bar has descended so low, Lucifer is using it for limbo at this point. With the ability to quickly produce a “hot 16” and post to Soundcloud, the margin for error is astronomical, like, Matthew McConaughey and the Interstellar crew couldn’t even find the jig, but it’s way out there. The content generated by these artists flood the internet, and with so many blogs, someone’s music is bound to get heard, maybe not to the grandest of audiences, but it’s enough to give said artists that confidence. This isn’t entirely a bad thing. At times an artist may start off slow then gain momentum with their base; while creating better music, simultaneously. The blogs would cosign, then that musician may or may not get put on, but at the very least, they have a platform.
How things have changed in a matter of 12 months.
PARTYNEXTDOOR, Tinashe, OB O’Brien (mildy), and Majid Jordan are all household names in the musicsphere, the latest being iLoveMakonnen. Although, we have to be honest with ourselves and realize that we didn’t know who the hell any of these musicians were prior to Drake baptizing their records.
Tinashe you may be familiar with (if you’re on Twitter, and if you happen to not be, climb from under the cozy confines of that rock) since she follows 168,753 people, and there was a time she spammed us all with her music, she also had the Proactiv commercial to boot. That’s besides the point, my point is, most of the world didn’t hear a lick of her music until Drake hopped on with OB O’Brien and remixed it. Don’t get me wrong, her new song with A$AP Rocky is good, so she may have some fire on her debut album Aquarius, which drops October 7th.
Secondly, we have PARTYNEXTDOOR. Drake basically put him on from the jump. Fortunately, PND makes some quality music that most of us (myself included) can vibe to while cuffing season is afoot. PND dropped two well-received projects — PARTYNEXTDOOR and PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO — in 2013 and 2014. And who is he signed to? OVO Sound.
Then we have OB O’Brien, who comically throws wordplay on wax with effortless vigor. He released “Steve Nash” with Drake just talking ancillary shit towards the end of the track. But that’s all he needed to get the blogs into a feeding frenzy; that Drizzy feature. The song was still that Frank Lucas “Blue Magic” us hip-hop fiends craved. OB also put out two other songs “Jewish” and “Hazelton Trump” prior to “2 On/Thotful” with Drake, which fared well to my estimation.
Majid Jordan, I mean, we all knew once they were on “Hold On, We’re Coming Home” their clout would be higher than giraffe pussy. Outside of that, the duo engineered an outstanding EP that is easily one of the best R&B projects of 2014.
Let’s not forget how Drake got Soulja Boy off Instagram and Vine for a brief moment to jump on the hook for “We Made It.”
Lastly, there’s iLoveMakonnen. The 25 year-old Atlanta native who blitzkrieg’d the scene with “Club Going Up On A Tuesday.” Honestly, I’ve never heard of him, that is until one fateful night when I checked my Soundcloud and saw a new remix featuring Drake. My first thoughts were to listen, however, I wasn’t familiar with the artist and just did not want to play any music at the moment. A few hours go by; the blogs were on fire. iLoveMakonnen was everywhere. Naturally, I go listen to find out what the hype is all about. My headphones firmly grasped on my ears, TV is turned off, and I was ready for musical euphoria.
Nope.
This is were the power of a cosign can go completely right or completely off the ledge. Is the song terrible? No. It’s also not that great. Worthy of a hefty Drake cosign? I guess. With iLoveMakonnen now signed to OVO Sound, I can only speculate a more refined product will be coming in the near future. It may be too early to condemn this young upstart on his musical prowess. He is on the right team; Drake has the power to make potential stars. Having said that, OVO’s ATLien is reminiscent of a rapping version of The Weeknd, with less vocal range. Conversely, I’m sure that’s not the sound he intended, or maybe it is. I just can’t help but to see the comparison. That said, we do have an EP from Makonnen, so feel free to make your own assessment.
Am I a fan? As of right now, no. Despite that, with better collabs with Drake and the team (and possibly a gallon of Jameson consumed), he could win me over. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter because he has the almighty cosign from Aubrey Drake Graham. One feature from Toronto’s God and a record deal will be waiting the next day. The way to get put on has changed immensely, and that could inherently be damaging to the music industry as a whole.
Remember Rebecca Black? All you need is an internet connection and a catchy or halfway decent song to make it.
Nevertheless, quality will determine your longevity.
Image via: hustleGRL
