What will it take for freestyle to survive?

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synbad

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Okay we have had the questions about old skool vs, new skool and that the new skool sucks, the old skool is great and blah blah blah...........
Now lets talk about what you feel the producers and artists should do so that freestyle will survive. What do the listeners what, what do they want to hear? Maybe next time Willie won't just sell 600 maybe he will go platinium. Come on All we talk about is the problems.... Where the hell are the solutions???
 
Ok, here's a list. Tell me what you think.

1) You have to spend money to make money. The next big freestyle artist has to have the funds behind them from a commited, cash rich label to push and promote them.

2) The artist must be self-sufficent. No offense meant to any of the producers here, but the artist must show a knowledge of music. Perhaps writing and arranging their own lyrics and music. Otherwise, the singer is seen as just a puppet, and this problem has been following dance music for years!

3) Be co-ordinated enough to get through a few dance moves. People expect to see some dancing and synchronized moves in a dance music performance, not someone standing still behind a microphone stand.

4) Be able to sing! And when you perform live, sing live to the track, lip synching is soooo tired.

5) Travel, to the best of your ablility, to a location where your fans can see you. we know through this site that there are groups of fans in different locations who say they never see shows put on.

6) Be visible everywhere! Posters, pictures, and radio shows are a must. Also, plug yourself as often as possible. Tell fans where they can find your stuff, and have all email & website info printed on all your releases.
 
hey Chucky

Hey Chucky,

want to come work for me? lol you have alot of good idea. I was talking to someone last night about something you mentioned. That the Artist has to have a little more say so in what gets put out. More hands on in the production, maybe the artist hears something that the producer doesn't and by working together they can come up with something off the hinges! I agree with everything you pointed out. Good Going 🙂

Nyasia
 
i totally agree with you CHUCK D. Especially with having knowledge of the music biz, in all aspects. you have to be a business person before you are a singer. I know artists like SAFIRE, have done much more than just sing, she has produced & written music for herself as well as other artists.

these are the type of people who will last longer in this crazy industry, whether it be on stage or behind the scenes.
 
Really good points there ChuckD

Especially the 2nd one you mentioned....and I quote "Artist must show some knowledge of music"...Its really sad to see how so many freestyle artists or aspiring songwriters are trying to write songs without some knowledge of melody or chords. Alot of them actually believe that writing lyrics down on paper is all it takes to write a song!! Hello!
They fail to see that every Hit song out there incorporates not only good lyrics but also a good melody and chord progression.
If the writer has no idea of what chords they are writing to or at least what the chords sound like when writing then chances are that the melody they choose while writing is going to sound lame/boring or repetitive. Making it almost impossible for any producer to work with or shall I say a producer who at least cares about the material they are putting out. Hey if the producer has to come up with a working melody for your song, then you might as well just say youre only the co-writer of your own song.
This is why its so important as a writer to have some idea before hand what chords your song is going to be based on.
For those of you who are not musically inclined...its a good idea to hook up with someone who is, someone who can come up with a chord progression for you to write ON (This is the right way of writing songs), not that it cannot be done the other way around but if youre an aspiring songwriter starting off dont think that the lyrics your writing down on paper now can actually be called a song, youve only done 1/3 of the job. Its also a good idea to pick up some books on songwriting formats, such as the A B A B format Or AA B AA B Songwriters need some form of structure when writing (formats). Again, its not necessary to go out buying books on this topic but if you have no clue as to what youre doing you should..especially if youre serious about songwriting. The only individual I know of who who was talented enough to write poetry without music then later have music added to it and turn into a national hit was Jim Morrison of the doors...rest in peace. I've yet to see the Jim Morrison of the freestyle industry. Yes freestyle can progress but only if its taken seriously by this industry's music makers first...If quality songs are written again like they use to be written in the old school days!!!!!!!!

Freestyle forever...........peace
 
Good Job Chuck, may i call you chuck or do you prefer Mr. D, LOL. But seriously, bottom line for freestyle to survive, get back to the basics......
Education is not just for the 9-5 white collar boring live leading robots. singers need to enroll in music classes to learn the cords, take radio-tv, learn the board, take writing classes, singing lessons and learn everything about the business. example.... Nobody painted the pictures for Michael Angelo, he did it himself.
Chuck is right learn to dance, atleast learn part of the routine. Take speaking classes, man how times have you seen an artist perform and then when he or she tries to talk to the crowd, they look stiff and nervous.
Also artists need to remember that there are dues to be paid.
Just cuz you dropped a single don't expect to get $1,000 to perform. YOu got to do a lot of promotional shows, that just how it goes. Understand that just cuz you blew up in New York, doesn't mean that everybody knows who you are.
Okay so this is what this board should be about.
Nyasia get Willie to teach you what he does in the studio,what him and randy lay down tracks. You producers need to teach these artists what it takes to lay the beats.
Man, Dawin didn't call it survival of the one that knew about 50% of what they needed to know- He called it Survival of the Fittest- And how fit is freestyle???
 
Here's one more point I thought of.

I'm glad everyone seems to like my post on this subject. Now, as continued from my above post.....

7) When you write your song, make it interresting, don't rely on the same way to get the message across. Here's an example. Here are two songs. (Keep in mind, I'm not bashing the freestyle song, it's just helping me make my point!) Both sung by women, telling their men that the men have changed in the relationship. Which one sounds more interresting?

A) Why, did you have to change on me/Your love, was so easy to see/Oh Boy, I gave you all my time/So why, couldn't I make you mine? "Change on Me" Cynthia

B) There's a stranger in my house/took a while to figure out/You can't be who you say you are/You've got to be someone else/Cause he wouldn't touch me like that/He wouldn't treat me like you do/He would adore me/He wouldn't ignore me/That's why I'm conviced there's a stranger in my house/ "Stranger In My House" Tamia
 
The bottom line is just one solid song, from beginning to end .. Im still trying to find the magic again .. It worked with "in a dream" now i have 2 follow through, which is my biggest challenge yet .. peace, randy
 
This is stuff that is very useful to me thank you for the tips. I love to write songs and any little tip I can get is helpful. I don't know if I will go into writing a full on freestyle song but I will definitely keep working on it.
 
I think promotion has a lot to do with it. How are you going to sell something if nobody knows its out there to be bought. Posters, Playin the music for everyone to hear, Announcements over the radio. And if u keep playing the same stuff over and over again, it gets a lil boring. New stuff needs to be put out and played in order to bring Freestyle back to the top.
 
For The Last Time

I am only going to say this one more time. PROMOTIONS! PROMOTIONS! PROMOTIONS! Okay I said it 2 more than I meant to. Look I know this rapper named Carlos Coy (Yeah I know, none of youse know him but listen). I started selling freestyle music at the flea markets over 4 years ago (haven't did that in years), & there was this guy who used to set up next to me named Carlos Coy from Houston. He would travel 225 miles to sell him rap cd that he put out on his own label by himself. I would go to sell freestyle in the valley (225 miles south from me) I'm sure it was farther for him to drive, he would be in the valley selling his cd also. I would go sell 35 miles north of San Anto, he would be there selling his next cd. I would sell at a Dallas event he was there. Everywhere I turned, he would be there selling his cd's just as I would be selling freestyle cd's. But he was promoting himself by himself, I was promoting everybody & their mothers in freestyle. I would go to Houston, his hometown & setup shop he would have his stuff there. This guy just never let up. I ended up opening a store a year later. I had a store for over 2 years selling 80% freestyle records & cd's, 19.9% house records & cd's & .1% rap. My store was known as a freestyle store here in SA, oops I'm getting off the subject. Up to this past year 2000, he was still promoting himself like 5 cd's later. I'm talking this guy would print up posters & flats & everything else you could think of, even towels. Next thing I know he was performing shows in Chicago, California & all over TX getting paid & I know this for sure. All this even before signing to a major label. It's gotten to the point that, I'm not sure how he got signed with them, Universal signed him this past year. His name is SPM (South Park Mexican). I gots to give Carlos mad props even though he knows I'm not a fan of rap or his stuff, but he knows I give him MAD PROPS. Like I said in my book he made it. Another point for the Latinos. Freestyle artists have to be the same way. They need to be hungry. Ain't nothing about to fall in your lap in this game. Rappers have street teams in other cities, I'm sure if we get together even on this site, we could help promote out of town Freestyle Artists, in our own cities. Everybody has to know teens that go to HS. There has to be a music store in every city. If the members on this site would be willing to lend a hand to the Labels, I'm sure Freestyle would get more recognition. BUT, it all falls back more on the Labels than the fans. They need to print up the posters & flats, and that my friends is where the problem is........................................LACK OF FUNDS!!!
 
I jussst dont get it...

I must admit that as I read throug all of the post on this site, I wonder how long will freestyle survive,,,,
I have alot of vynil and thank God that through the yrs have been able to maintain them pretty decent. Even though half of my crates were stolen and throwing mad parties, you tend to mess up alot in terms of keeping them clean.
But I live in Boston, and I know mad people that love freestyle, even the young generation.
Freestyle lives, but why is it so hard for the music to stay on top, to even try to make a break through.
I mean Lissette, did it back in 91, and she and Carlos, did a great job bring it back, but damm, only to backfire,,,,
Por Que........
 
that what were asking JCEE, what happened and what do we need to do to make the music survive. As far as SPM goes, It shows you what promotions can do. If he can get a deal with univeral, with product that is considered by many dj's in texas as substandard, then anybody can. He was able to supossedly move over 100,000 units in texas alone, half was in houston. Univeral saw the numbers and thats why they signed him. Besides Latino in Texas are eating up Freestyle and Hip hop.
 
I think that MakeYaDance's post show's that people with the drive to make things happen can. Freestyle didn't start out as radio music. It came from the same streets as hip hop did. It was also accepted at pop radio long before hip hop was. And yet now it's ignored for the most part. Ask yourself why that is? Now, if a record can sell just a couple of thousand records labels consider it a success. While a hip hop record can sell triple that amount and it's a failure to the same label. We as an industry have set the bar too low. We haven't made an investment in the right things. As with most things in life, people love to talk about doing things but very rarely take action to make things happen. If you want to make this music succeed, producers need to make music that is better than the Freestyle records that came before, it must be better than all of the music that you hear on the radio now or the videos that you see on MTV. Now, we can't make videos that can compete with the $100,000 videos on TV (That's a very low number by the way) but we have to find a way to do it. It really is survival of the fittest. Start by supporting or starting a freestyle night in your area. Even if you start promoting at a small bar or club. Grow it from that to a larger venue. Spread the word about new music. Make calls to MTV and your local stations asking for the music you want to hear. You have to learn to walk before you can run and at this point freestyle is barely standing. I love the classics as much as anyone, hell I was there when they were being made. I helped support this music when nobody paid it any attention. It's the same now. Step up and do something to help. I recently spoke with Delicious D from KSJS. What we'd like to do is start by putting together a list of retailers that specialize or just carry our music. If your interested in adding to this list (for all to share as we will post it somewhere, Johnny & Jack do you have any room on your site for this?) Patronize these stores. Make them feel your power as a music buyer. As much as people bitch about radio, we need them like never before. Find out who the Program Director at your favorite station is and write or call them and let them know what you want to hear. Don't abuse them or they won't listen. You might not believe that they want to hear what you have to say but I think they do. Don't knock other types of music but praise what songs you want them to play. Alright my book is done. Thanks.
 
good old days are...over they dont make real freestyle no more
 
HMMMM I LOVE NSWERING QUESTIONS LIKE THIS OK WELL I THINK THE MAIN THING NEEDED IS SUPPORT AMONGST THE ARTIST THEY NEED TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER THERE DOESNT SEEM TO BE MUCH UNTIY AMONGST FREESTYLE ARTIST AS THERE IS IN OTHER GENERS FOR EXAMPLE HIP-HOP & R&B THE TWO STYLES ARE CONSTANTLY COLLABORATING WITH ONE ANOTHER NOT ONLY THAT BUT MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE TO BRING THE ARTIST TOGETHER FOR EVENTS BIG EVENTS IN THE FREESTYLE COMMUNITY ARE FAR AND FEW BETWEEN WHICH DOESNT HELP TO KEEP IT ALIVE GRANTED FREESTYLE MAY NOT MAKE ITS WAY BACK AS WE ALL SO MUCH WISH BUT TO AT LEAST MAKE A DENT IN TEH MUSIC INDUSTRY ARTIST NEED TO SHOW EACH OTHER MORE SUPPORT. I ALSO FEEL THE FANS NEED TO COME OUT TO THE SHOWS TO SHOW CLUB OWNERS PROMOTERS ETC THAT IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE WANT TO SEE MORE OF CALL UP LOCAL RADIO STATIONS HARRASS THEM REQUEST YOUR FAV SONGS NEW SCHOOL ARTIST WILL HAVE A HARDER TIME MAKING IT WITHOUT NEW LISTENERS LISTENING TO THE OLD SCHOOLERS REMEMBER THEY PAVED THE WAY. TO ALSO GIVE NEW SCHOOLERS SOME SHINE OLD SCHOOLERS SHOULD ALWAYS TRY AND GET NEW SCHOOL TO OPEN FOR THEM. THE RIGHT PROMOTING AS WELL AS BACKING WHICH AS I UNDERSTAND IT CAN BE A BIOTCH. WE ALSO NEED TO BE READY TO EXCEPT CHANGE WITHIN FREESTYLE UMM ILL BE BACK WITH MORE LOL 😀
 
I think Rhoq gave a nice answer to this question in his other thread...essentially, quality freestyle (no remakes, planet rock beats, etc) is a priority for it's overall survival. Also, STOP downloading already...we're too small of a market to overcome this stealing of songs.
 
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