Get the latest gossip
The Rap Manager’s Guide to Stardom
A tip sheet of things to do — and avoid — from two navigators in a cutthroat industry.
On A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 song “Show Business,” Lord Jamar offers a wise music-industry primer, and warning, for aspiring rappers: “Time pass and your ass say, ‘Where’s my loot?’ / The reply is a kick in the ass from a leg in a boot.” Through his lyrics, Jamar paints a portrait of the treacherous, cynical, often bureaucratic terrain that rappers must navigate to obtain lasting success. It’s a role that requires many hats: getting an artist paid, booking their tours, navigating their emotional ups and downs, and granting them the space and freedom to produce greatness (and, on occasion, roll a blunt). Thirty-one-year-old fashion-industry vet Glyn Brown, who manages New York rapper and producer Cash Cobain, describes those who hold the gig as “often the last people you think of but the first people you blame.” Terrence “Snake” Hawkins, a 48-year-old battle-tested manager who helped Detroit native Veeze secure an unprecedented label deal with Warner Records, notes that all rappers who want to survive “need a guide who can rock with you every day, 24 hours a day.
Or read this on VULTURE
