As legislation on these issue continues to pass through Congress, the corporate industry attempts to control the discussion through groups like the RIAA and Sound Exchange in this changing technological, political, and economic environment. While this is going on DC based advocacy organizations like Future of Music Coalition, and others who have popped up to oppose these interests develop interests of their own, which get tied in to the nonprofit industry that has sprung up around the media reform foundation base and the new hip hop foundation base, and it's a big mess, a matrix that sucks in and eats artists and activists, leaving everyone else confused or indifferent. Sun Tzu said a confused army always loses. In this case, the lack of clarity creates either crabs in a barrel, reinvention and/or spinning of wheels, or simple ye' old community fragmentation.

It's true that one's success boils down to your hustle, but that's because the strength of your network and your ability to maneuver it determines the amount of resources at your disposal.

For me, the question we have to answer is: How do we create a situation where the most deserving (in terms of skill, grind, and contribution) independent Hip Hip artists can get the maximum profits for what they do (shows, sales, panels, workshops, whatever) at any given time, despite the current technological, political, and economic environment?

The solution is to organize artist communities to move as one around primary and secondary industry sectors. Most cats aren't JUST rappers, producers, DJs, etc. This looks like a community-owned alternative to Sound Exchange, a coalition of Hip Hop broadcasters, media producers, and journalists, a teaching hip hop artist union. It involves changing how we shape our individual organizations, record labels, businesses, as well as changing how our artist selves interact with our day job selves inside our own mental paradigms. This, of course, is already happening everywhere, but I think we are just reaching the point where the full picture is coming together, and we have some real solid avenues for empowering each other. It's an exciting time….

The labels have created a couple of problems for themselves. First off, they don't really give a shit about artists. The dream of being on a major label is not what it used to be. I hear bands all the time say to me, "Eric, my dream is to be signed. I've been working for my whole life to get signed." I say to them, "Why?" Why do you want to work for someone that's not looking out for YOUR best interests. As an artist today, if you really are talented, you don't need a major label to make money. Yes, it's fun to tell your friends that your signed and you might bang a couple more chicks because of it but as an artist, you do NOT need a label anymore.

Labels don't care about album sales like they used to… they care about digital single sales and ringtone sales. This is especially prevalent in the Hip Hop community. I can't tell you how many times a label has given some young kid who made a hot beat, hot song a decent chunk of change… giving him hope that he's the next big thing … when all they cared about was making a quick buck on his one solid song (that's already done) and then they're going to drop him to the curb. Great example was Pittsburgh Slim on Island Def Jam.

In the day of the internetr and iPod, peoples attention spans are so small. With so much choice out there…. what do you do?

You're spot on with the digital department idea. If you're running a label / management company and don't have a digital initiative… you're done. Your artists should be on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and blogging on their website. Fans should have constant access to them. You have to give your fans something they can't get from their iPods.

Good fun Stu. Keep it up.

Eric Holmes
Detroit, MI