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I came across this article over at XXL and I just had to share some of it with you.

Don’t imagine for a second how drastically the number of failed rappers would drop if they could get advice from some of the veterans whose been there and done that. We see too many artists nowadays who come out, and have a “hit” song only to be dropped from their label months later.

In my opinion this stems from the major labels getting rid of their artist development departments, and just finding the latest artist with the most Twitter followers, signing them, and then throwing them to the wolves.

If you just look at the past year and some change, and you will notice how many rappers that have come out with a hot song only to disappear months later (i.e Trinidad James).

This article can used as an “introductory course” to the Hip Hop Academy. From this point on there should be no excuse or no more “I didn’t know” because you’re going to get “schooled” by some of the best to ever done it.

Hip Hop Vets Share Their Wisdom With Up and Coming Rappers

Juvenile

Advice: Pay attention to all sides of the business.
Juvenile: I would tell new artists to stick to their craft and learn. Things don’t always work out the way you dream them, but that’s how life is. It ain’t perfect, but you have to take the good and the bad. Of course, I could tell you so much that I learned from [my] first situation. I learned everything from how much money it takes to make music, how much money it takes as an artist. The details of publishing and mechanicals and everything like that.

Raekwon

Advice: Don’t let a fellow rapper’s co-sign go to your head.
Raekwon: When you can get somebody that paid their dues for so long to speak on you, hell yeah, you muthafuckin’ right that helps. But, at the same token, I think that it should be used as a medal, and not as a weapon. You can’t lean on somebody just because one muthafucka feel like you nice; you still got the world to please. So it’s still about working as hard as you can to show muthafuckas, Yo, this is why Dr. Dre believed in me, or Eminem, or whoever believed, because they see I believe in myself. So you can’t get too flabbergasted or open too quick. I seen many niggas come in and think that they the niggas ahead of time, based off what we telling them, and, at the end of the day, they lose focus. Don’t get too souped up and think you that nigga—that’s when you fall on your face.

Lil Mama

Advice: Understand the role you inherit with increased visibility.
Lil Mama: Sex sells, and that’s easy, so I understand why some people go that route. But I consider myself the voice of the young people, and I take that really seriously. I can’t be the voice of the young people one minute and then the next I’m a sex symbol. What you see and get from me is who I am, and I’m comfortable in my own skin. Before I can be a voice or matter I have to start in my home, and I have two younger sisters that really look up to me. They’re always watching and listening, so I keep that in mind, because I can’t take back what I’ve done. There’s always something that someone’s picking up from me.

Missy Elliot

Advice: There’s room for everything and everyone—if you’re creative.
XXL: Music videos did a lot for your early career. How has the importance of that medium changed?
Missy Elliott: Some people say that because the video channels don’t play a lot of videos then videos are less important now. I don’t agree. I’m always gonna make hot videos. You can do a lot of other things with them now—YouTube, play it on your phone. It’s still something people expect and talk about and share with their friends. They just might not be getting their videos the way they used to.

Would it be possible to break into today’s rap scene doing the kind of music you’ve been known for?
Yes. There’s room for every kind of rap—always has been. So if you’re a real hard rock, you’re gonna only want some gangsta shit. If you’re a backpacker dude, you’re gonna want some Common or Mos Def, Hieroglyphics, etc. All you can do is…do you.

Is it tougher for female MCs to break through today?
It’s always been harder for female MCs. It’s not so different from when I started, because, as a female, back then, most of the girls had a male camp they were affiliated with, and that got people talking. It’s still somewhat like that. Now you have to be even more creative than before to get the regular consumer’s attention. I’m excited, though, to see females coming back together—old and new—because it’s important to not see such a legacy go to waste.

Nelly

Advice: Hip-hop is ever evolving and unpredictable.
XXL: How has hip-hop changed over the last 10 years?
Nelly: Almost anything is possible [now]. Listen to radio today. Of the Top 10, you can recognize half of them [if they were] in the room, and the other half you’d walk past them. I don’t want to say it’s easier to get on the radio, but there are a lot of different outlets now, and it was so much harder when I came out to get heard. It took years and years of rapping to make it work. Being a rapper now is more of a trend. Then, people studied the game. When guys want to rap now, they’ll hand you a CD and be like, “Man, I’ve been putting in work for a long time.” And you ask them how long, [and they say], “Two and a half years.” I was rapping for nine years before I even thought I might have a shot!

Does that mean that the game is being watered down?
I think it remains to be seen what it turns into. It’s like when a drug epidemic takes place. When crack came out, it was a party drug. Fifteen years down the line, it almost destroyed the entire Black community. It will be years before we know the ramifications of it. But it’s good, and it’s bad… Now, 12-, 14-year-olds are more into entrepreneurship. They try to channel their situations into something more positive.

That seems to promise a bright future, at least.
Hip-hop was created by the youth, for the youth. Sure, rappers that are 29-years-plus might not agree with it, but if you go ask a 14- or 15-year-old, they’re from that school. It’s different for 15-year-olds now, because when we [older rappers] was coming up, that was sort of the beginning [of hip-hop]. We saw it being created, so it might be easy for us to say, What y’all doing, this ain’t it.

Rakim

Advice: The listeners are, and always have been, extremely important.
Rakim: The major difference [between 1987 and 2010] is the way we tried to be original. We didn’t want to sound close to anybody else. Today it’s more of a ‘majority rules’ thing. We tried to bring a lot of different ideas and styles, and it was a sin to bite off of somebody or to sound like them. The listeners were more conscious of that back in the day. These days, it’s so widespread, so usually the listeners are not as aware of the history of hip-hop as they were then. Listeners can’t tell when someone uses someone else’s line. In the beginning, it was the utmost respect that we gave to the listeners, but now artists expect the fans to have the utmost respect for them.

N.O.R.E

Advice: Don’t let the money blind you.
N.O.R.E.: I’m still doing free performances, free mixtapes here and there, free whatever… That’s the era I come from. If I have to fly my own self to a DJ’s party…’cause this is what he wants, then that’s what we gotta do. When, nowadays, you got labels doing that for people, and artists don’t really understand the business structure. They don’t understand how to go out there and hustle… They look at it like they’re making money without having to do nothing. But when they realize their manager and lawyer are best friends and, you know, in cahoots forever, and when it’s time for an artist to go on they own… You’re seeing it right now, seeing artists leave one label and immediately run to another.

Pusha T

Advice: Don’t be unhappy with underground or independent.
Pusha T: [Malice and I] got in the game at a time when the major labels was at an all-time high. Getting signed was a whole ordeal. The generation before me was the independent era—Suave House, Master P, Cash Money, and all that. But when we got signed, the independent hustle was dying down a little bit. They had made a lot of money, and major labels took it over. For the generation we were in, we didn’t have to do too much. Now it’s going back to that independent hustle, and there are other avenues to get yourself out there. Watching it go back to that, with Drake making his name on the mixtape and even a couple of our mixtapes, that whole way, with underground mixtapes and self-promotion, I think this is the way to learn to make it in music. Otherwise, you’ll put all your faith in the label that they’ll make it happen, and that’s not true.

Talib Kweli

Advice: Understand that it’s important to be a businessman, too.
XXL: How was hip-hop different back when you came out?
Talib Kweli: We came in the game ’cause the vinyl sound was missing. It was important for DJs and the culture to get records on vinyl, and Rawkus was putting records on vinyl. Nowadays, vinyl is a specialty item, if you’re really a culture geek, or have some sort of obsession, or you’re a real DJ. But now it’s more the amount of content and getting it out that’s more important than the quality of what you putting out.

How has the sound evolved?
When we came out, there was junk food. Our substance stood in opposition to the junk food you heard 10 years ago. I eat junk food; junk food is gonna be around forever… When we first came out, the music of substance was considered part of the culture. Now the culture has moved away from that, moved more toward a business, and we just have to become better businessmen as a result.

Bun B

Advice: Know your numbers.
Bun B: [One of the] key factors that has changed is the financial aspect. People generally talk about the fact that the cost of recording has gone down significantly over the past 10 years. A lot of people have got relationships with other artists, so you do an appearance here for an appearance there, and people are using more local producers, who are not charging a lot. You don’t have to sell gold or platinum to make money if you’re recording an album for $50,000. The cost of shooting a video is now the price of an HD video camera. All of these different things that used to make it difficult to recoup money on the back end have changed. And there are more ways for an artist to make money today. It used to be just a single, an EP or an album, but now you’ve got ringtones, liquor sponsorships, clothing companies, TV shows, movie trailers. There are people who can make five, six, $700,000 off of one song.

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Peace

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P.P.S-Read the full article at XXLmag.com