A few years ago I hated leaving Hip-Hop shows because every rapper would be by the door handing out their latest mixtape.  Nowadays everything has gone digital and my mailbox can’t escape being filled everyone’s latest single or mixtape. So I’ve decided to give rappers a bit of a guide on how to not on everyone’s shit list.

Now let’s get one thing clear, if you “work” in music (or are trying to get into the industry) you are going to be getting email from everyone and if you’re not, then you’re probably not very important.  It’s annoying, I know but artists need to find ways of getting their music heard and emailing is one of the simplest ways to do that today.  If you don’t like it, hit spam on any unwanted emails.  It’s your right!

But artists need to learn how to send an effective email.  It’s really not that difficult.

1)      Learn to BCC:  Seriously, quickest way to end up in someone’s SPAM folder or getting cussed out is not putting emails in the BCC box.  For those of you who don’t know what BCC does, it’s simple, it hides the email addresses of the people you are sending your music to.  Why do this?  Because people don’t want their email out there for everyone to see and they don’t want 30 replies on the same email of people cussing you out.  Plus, say you do have some important people on your list, do you want every bum to have that address?  Do you want other rappers to have your mom’s email address?  Then learn to BCC.

….Click to continue reading

2)      Label Correctly:  The file name should read as “RAPPER NAME – SONG TITLE (PRODUCED BY BEATMAKER)”.  It should not read “Track21 – Crappy Edit”.  If you got other versions of the song label like this “RAPPER NAME – SONG TITLE (PRODUCED BY BEATMAKER)[RADIO EDIT]”.  It just makes reading and finding songs easier once downloaded so that way people can put them in their MP3 players.  Some blogs will ask for it in a different name, but make sure you include the important stuff (your name, track name and what version it is).

3)      Don’t Attach:  Send a Zippyshare or Hulkshare link.  Don’t use Rapidshare, Zshare, or any site that has too many advertisements.  You want a site that gives bloggers an embedded code so that they can post your music up without a problem.  Viruses are everywhere on the internet and most people don’t want to download anything.  Plus, downloading music means taking away space from people’s hard drives.  Give them a download link, make their lives easier.

4)      Press Releases:  Don’t just send a download link or youtube link.  Let the reader know who you are, what you look like (include an image!) and what you are giving them.  You don’t want to give them 3 pages of info they won’t read but give more than a sentence.

5)      Backup Links:  Datpiff is great for mixtapes.  They count downloads and plays plus they will stream your music but here’s a secret, most blogs hate DatPiff links.  Think of it, you’re asking blogs to direct traffic to another website!  Give them a backup link.  Send the Datpiff link and another download link.  This goes for singles.  Send a backup link in case someone kills your link.

6)      Include Contact Info:  Have your social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, ReverbNation, Official Website, EVERYTHING).

7)      Review:  Before sending out the email, CHECK EVERYTHING!!!  All the links, misspellings, everything.  Nothing worst than a rapper who can’t spell his homtown’s name.  Just a bad look.

8)      Don’t Be Annoying:  Seriously one email is enough.  If you want to be risky send two, but don’t overdo it!  Also hitting up someone’s twitter, gmail, and facebook with messages may seem like you’re grinding, but in reality you’re just being annoying.  If it’s hot it’ll get play.  Focus on who’s opening your emails, not who isn’t.

Sidenote:  There are a million and one email marketing companies.  We here at ThatsMajor have our own as well (contact ThatsMajorMedia@gmail.com for a quote), but I’ll let you guys in on a secret.  There aren’t 50,000 people in the music industry!  So if someone says they’ll email your track for X of dollars to 100,000 people, odds are 95,000 of those people are not checking your email and that list is not focused on just Hip-Hop heads.  So it’s really just a bunch of junk emails who don’t give the slightest shit about your music.

Also, one blast won’t really do anything for you.  Have a plan or work a plan with who you are hiring.  If you got a mixtape, drop a few tracks leading up to the release, drop the tape, then drop videos.  Don’t just get one email blast and expect that to have any impact on your work.  Contact artists that have worked with the company a lot and see if they recommend the company.

Finally, don’t ask for a blast that day or tomorrow.  You want to be a professional, have it time out so that the company can do the blast, send you a preview, you edit, and then send it out.  Just makes life easier when people aren’t running around last minute trying to get stuff done.

Damn, not shocking but damn.

View the story on TMZ

Extremely interesting.

Got this video from http://ikeepsit100.com/

Whitey was a rat.  Buy the shirt HERE.

New York Times writer admits to being an undocumented worker.  Very interesting read about his life.  Read HERE.

13 y/o Bronx girl is going to college.  Read HERE.

Minority babies no longer the minority.  Read HERE

So I’m flipping thru the Washington Post today and I see this pop up.  Never heard of the disease but the article explains it.

Sidenote:  As much as Kim is mad Nicki stole her style or whatever, Nicki def got more of her steeze from Missy than anyone.  Missy was always on that weird costume/make-up/goofy face steeze.  People do say steeze still right?  No?  Oh I meant swag then…

Homie got ten years. Crazy.

It’s become an epidemic. Seriously. Anyone with half a brain knows your views are fake. It’s a bad look when you have 100,000 views and only 100 comments. Basically that means per 1,000 views only 1 person cared enough to comment? Look, I know getting Youtube views to increase is difficult, but their are ways. Plus the money that it costs to get the fake views could be better spent.

P.S.

It’s also a bad look to be following 5,000 and have only 5,001 people following you.

For $2,500, paid by Jimmy “Henchman” Richmond. No real shock. Artists like 50 Cent, Nas, and Tupac himself have written coded songs over the years airing out what happened (well Pac’s songs were not coded, see above). For those who aren’t familiar, Jimmy Henchmen is the Game’s manager, Sean Kingston’s manager and is currently on the run from the feds (he was also said to be an informant since 1997).

This story has been beat to death over the years but I figure I’ll tackle some of the rumors for the readers on this site.

Why was Tupac in NY?

Tupac was running around New York a lot back in the day, chilling with the underworld (during Around the Rim). These people helped fund a certain label and wanted Pac to join, Pac didn’t. These people didn’t like that and had Pac set up (taking the jewelry they bought him).

Where does Bad Boy come into play?

Isaac hinted that Puff had something to do with it in his confession (read the full confession HERE). As much as Diddy tries to make himself look legitimate, their have always been rumored that certain types of people helped him start Bad Boy (*cough extortion). From my understanding (read opinion and could be wrong), Tupac never thought Biggie set him up, but was upset that he didn’t get warning about the shooting since they were friends. Furthermore Tupac claimed that everyone looked at him funny after the shooting and he began wondering how involved they were. Tupac’s friend “Stretch” was with him the night of the shooting and was shot a year to the date of Pac’s murder. Pac is on record saying he believed Stretch was involved.

A big rumor is that these people were not going to shot Tupac, just rob him. But Pac pulled out a gun and shot in the elevator and the bullets came back to hit him.

Enter Death Row

In 95′ a close friend of Suge Knight was shot at an aftert party for Jermaine Dupri. Suge Knight blamed Puff for it. Tupac and Suge now had a mutual enemy. You can’t go to war alone, especially not against New York’s heavy hitters.

What about Nas, Fugees, and the rest of the world?

Tupac was paranoid after the shooting (rightfully so). Anything that remotely looked like a diss was given a response. Nas, Xzibit,and LL each said little lines that may or may not have been a diss. It’s said that Nas and Pac squashed it right before he died. Legend goes they were both mad deep and talked it out (Outlawz have said this and Tragedy Khadifi talks about it in his documentary). The Fugees are different though. Wycelf is related to Haitian Jack.

Who the hell is Haitian Jack?

A friend of the Underworld and an alleged informant. He also caught a case with Tupac…the rape case that was going on when he was shot. It’s also said that the cops who arrived on the scene when Tupac was shot, were the ones who arrested Tupac for the rape case.

As you can see, their are a lot of rumors and shady characters involved. Tupac made a lot of interviews and songs about it though (the infamous Vibe interview goes in greater detail than anyone ever gives it credit for).  I left out a lot of rumors and just tried to say the major ones.  It’s a conspiracy theorists wet dream. We’ll probably never know the truth behind this shooting or the muders of Pac and Biggie though.

Welcome to the best of both worlds. Now that Eminem and Royce Da 5’9″ are back on the same page, the pair are set to release an EP inspired by their 1999 collaboration, Bad Meets Evil. The project is set to drop on June 14th through Interscope and will feature production from D-12′s Mr. Porter, Havoc, DJ Khalil, Bangladesh and others