'The State of Hip Hop' Is More Business-Minded Than Ever

The state of Hip Hop has evolved in a way few of its originators could have anticipated. On Feb. 13, the Hasty Pudding hosted four New England-based DJs: DJ Chubby Chub, DJ Pup Dawg, DJ/producer Papadon, and DJ Tone Terra. The panelists shed light on how they’ve adapted to hip hop’s changing landscape, emphasizing the importance of how both a passion for music and a mind for business are equally important nowadays to succeed in the industry.

Technology and all it entails provides ever-growing platforms for artists, something the panelists wished they could have taken advantage of when their careers were just starting to burgeon.

“Use your sources. You’re in a day and age right now where you can put stuff up on any platform. You’ve got Soundcloud, and Mixcloud, and Facebook. We didn’t have that when we were starting out,” DJ Tone Terra said, before reminiscing about one of his first gigs at his high school, one of the few places he could initially share his music.

DJ Chubby Chub agreed. “Like what Tone said, the best thing is getting your product out there. Nobody makes CDs or tapes anymore, but put your stuff on a thumb drive,” he said. “Get your logo, put it on a thumb drive. Do 15, 20 minutes, pass it out, let people hear who you are. Tell someone to take a chance on you.”

But the artists emphasized that it’s also important for an artist to not lean solely on the internet as a platform.

“Don’t get stuck behind a computer. You have to go out,” DJ Pup Dawg said. Going out to DJ at gigs, meeting new producers and club owners, and building up an offline fanbase can be just as crucial for an artist’s career to take off, in terms of both building a name for oneself and learning to be a professional. The panelists themselves learned how to network and interact with people who were higher up in the industry to their advantage. Without going out, only to get rejected constantly, they never would have learned the language of the trade, nor met those who would give them the opportunity to rise out of the initial stage of their career.

YN PROP, an artist who puts together music events in the greater Boston area, appreciated the panelists’ insight on the value of networking. “I thought the event was awesome, very informative,” he said. “The panelists gave a lot of information that would be helpful for upcoming DJs and artists, and basically how we can all work together and network to get to new levels in the city.”

When it comes to getting an edge in the rap and hip hop industry, a relatively young musical genre, DJ Papadon stressed the importance of understanding the history of whatever music an artist is trying to make.

“You want to go back and learn whatever history you can in terms of hip hop or whatever genre you like the most,” DJ Papadon said. Having started out his career using CDs and dual players, Papadon went back to turntables to better his craft and learn more about the music he wanted to create. By learning to make music the way his predecessors had, Papadon became more informed as to what direction to take his own music. “That was the key for me: going back and learning all the things that I know the best are using.”

For DJ Pup Dawg, staying close to his cultural roots was key to both build a fanbase and separate himself from other DJs. He said that when he first started out, the Indian community following was his “core” that came to all his events.

“Even in Boston right now, when I do a spot, I would say 35-40% of [the audience] is South Asians that come out and support me,” DJ Pup Dawg said. “You’re my base and you got me to where I am, and I will never turn my back on them.”

The panelists also made note of how the artists of today have learned to navigate the financial danger of being solely an artist. Decades ago, record labels would ruthlessly take advantage of the clients signed to them. But according to the panelists, artists have now learned from history and have grown business-savvy enough to understand how to get their fair share of the paycheck.

“The music industry is shifting to accommodate those who refuse to be signed to a label. “That’s what the business was at the time,” DJ Pup Dawg said. “It was like nobody knew you were handing [record labels] lots of money, and people were signing their lives away and not realizing they weren’t going to make a single dollar for the rest of their life with these hit records. So now this new wave of artists has definitely learned all about the business.”

Paul E. Krasinski, a Milton resident who works with Spotify and Pandora through his self-started audience measurement company, learned a lot from hearing about how business-oriented artists have become.

“I actually think it’s interesting to see how the entrepreneur/enterprising side of music has started to come up, because I think it was talent, and business, and now those two things are inextricably linked,” he said.

For Caleb A. McDermott, a recent graduate from Boston University Business School, being adaptable was the key takeaway.

“I think understanding adaptation and how, if you want to be convinced that your way is the best way, one day that way will be outdated,” he said, “So understanding that even if you think you know what’s good, times change and culture changes and to be aware of that by reading, by experiencing the culture yourself, you know, those things that they were talking about I think regarding culture and how it adapts and being adaptive with is was interesting.”

—Staff writer Mila Gauvin II can be reached at mila.gauvin@thecrimson.com.