This thread been on my mind for a month tbh.

This tweet was from a well known local rapper in nyc named Chelsea Reject. She was cool with some of the Pro era cats and was starting to make a name.

Unfortunately, she committed suicide earlier this year.

I knew a talented bass player from a known jazz family back home in Atlanta. Young dude that just had his 31st birthday. Sadly also ended his life shortly afterwards. (RIP Dishan.)

Between him, OG Maco, and Chelsea, I been thinking a lot more about what type of industry have we been working ourselves to the bone under?

Both peers and fans it seems at times we enable or even encourage people’s vices for the means of giving them instant gratification that comes with a good product. Exploiting the welfare of niggas in the name of money (money that in many ways, dont even be around no more.)

It’s personally made me wonder what does “making it” even look like (and do I even wanna do that? When I was younger aspirations to travel around the world doing what you love sounds great…you get order it’s like how do you stay healthy? It’s so many successful musicians known around nyc that never made 50 bro from “natural causes”. Working themselves to death) when, I have friends I care about that have gone on tours with like..grammy award winning stars, and have had panic attacks. Some of em be some of the most saddest folks ever. Stories from tours that’ll make you just…look at said superstar a bit different.

Idk, s***’s been f***ing with me all year.

Is there any way that an industry like this can even treat artists/musicians better on that front? Or is this always inevitably what this machine that turns human beings to commodities always was from the jump and s***’ll really have to just collapse entirely just to rebuild anew?

@illegalnecessity @Mitchell @hadjigaviota @AmoryBlain @inspoeater

i think the economics of music is rly bad right now and it makes things very stressful especially if music is your income

i think signing to a major label is rarely going to work out, only makes sense if you already know wtf youre doing with your career and you have leverage

overall sadly since people are desperate its easy for people to be taken advantage of. the best thing u can do is educate yourself, be realistic and move wisely, if u gotta sacrifice some time and energy to make more money that is probably wise, as long as youre not compromising your vision

music for me helps me stay sane. the moment that flips, its not worth it anymore

man og maco

You be driving me up a wall in some threads on this site but I consistently appreciate your takes in srs threads like this dawg

What i want out of this career wise has damn near flipped a 180 since 2020

lmao thats my bad sometimes i be drunk trolling an s***. but yea, i feel u, i used to wanna get signed but ive accepted if this is gonna work i gotta do it with a small team and no label BS

Poor Kesha

Kreyshawn would have mental breakdowns about this and how people view the industry as devils mainly because they dgaf about their artist mental healths. back in the day and delete them shortly after

like I tell my team, we’re just going to have to work to invest within ourselves and DIY this thing until it either makes or we enjoy our massive catalog of music in our 50s knowing we tried. we’re working on building our platform both on the ones they offer and independently so that we can market our EPK directly to distributors as opposed to having to go thru any independent label. really just reading as much as we can and calling the right people, having the right funds in order and progressing as far as we can with what we have. it’s a lifelong journey and we realized that a while ago. we might just be a lil different cause we’ve had some heated moments over this music s*** and we drag each other to the studio even at our lowest because we know this studio isn’t a low place, you just gotta get your s*** together and communicate to your friends what’s going, how can we help you and how long you need so we can get back to this music or reinsert you as the wheel is going if you’re okay with that.

we all work on the side and reinvest back into the music, meeting up, marketing, and the costs do add up from what you get out of it, but it’s a sacrifice we’ve decided we’re willing to swallow because we love this music s*** too much to make it defeat us. I get more sad about other s*** in life than my lack of success in music. that s*** actually motivates me lol. this s*** like going to the gym, I pay money for that too and it helps me get healthy, have muscles, look good and feel good. the music s*** helps me feel creatively satisfied, create s*** I actually want to hear in my day to day like when I’m lifting, and always have a catalog I’ll never be let down by cause it’s me lmfao.

and this s*** is only gonna get harder anyways so best to focus on you cause they’re gonna be looking for unique multi-talented, especially in content, s*** like Doechii’s YouTube where she’s showcasing her and who she is and it’s either you follow or you don’t and some get success and some don’t but just keep going! idk, that’s a hard reality we had to accept cause as much as we want success we also realize it may not happen, but at the end of the day, we made so much dope music we can ride around to and party to and live life to! idk my dawgs get it and I’m glad

From the United Nations

It is conceivable that within the next few years, the pace of new music releases will hit an inflection point at which DSPs will no longer accept just anything that labels and distributors throw at them. DSPs historically competed with one another on catalog size; after a certain point, sheer catalog size might not be as important anymore. Conversely, DSPs also compete on the quality of discovery that they offer through playlists, search, navigation, social features, and so on; metastasizing catalogs leads to diminishing returns in discovery. DSPs may also find that despite the downward trend in storage costs, it may no longer be cost-effective to keep storing all that music. The evolution of download services towards niche markets, as shown in Table 2 above, may point the way to a future for streaming services that no longer attempt to offer "every record ever recorded" but also serve niche markets

i’m sorry what happened to your friends, I caught my brothers at they lowest moments and the studio saved them we all going through this struggle brother but I do believe artist will prevail at the end of the day

RIP to all the fallen musicians.

Idk, the industry is a hypercapitalist whirlwind that needs to implode from that front if anything positive could be built. The environment just causes people to look out for themselves without extending opportunities to the next person, and even screwing them over. That's why unionizing is a b****

Unionizing never gon work out cause too many b**** niggas gon cross that picket line as soon as any of the big acts in music say, “nah. I aint dropping no more s***.” and that s*** angers me to this day

Your gym a***ogy is on point. Investing money that wont show immediate payoff but you feel good anyways.

Never will be a point ill get tired of creating but the extra mind numbing s*** that has made me look at this s*** with a side ey

Does that united masters mean we going direct to consumer?

its not a modern thing really, just a phenomenon in the arts esp music.

for one there are certain unhinged personality types that gravitate towards not only creating but excelling in art. not just unhinged but in general being mentally ill, an outcast, depressed, or unstable creates a lot of great artists and as art is an outlet the best of which is a result of pain, it is expected that more people die as such. not even taking into account that also its incredibly financially stressful to be an artist and often esp in hip-hop these artists come from difficult stressful upbringings and environments. and also it would be a great option for mental health faculties from labels, wont happen tho

It’s realizations like this that make what chap said at the grammies so important

Because yes. The archetype of the creative leads to one that has a lotta issues they can only really channel positively through the arts.

real af

i saw this and thought of this thread

instagram.com/reel/DHtG5BRMQkl

Feel like it definitely can/should be the standard by the end of the decade