Drake 2012 UK / Europe / US

The underground mixtape has long been a staple in hip-hop, with blended DJ selections being all the rage throughout the ’90s. But this decade saw the format mutate: Rappers began to take matters into their own hands, working directly with DJs to create artist-specific tapes of original material. As the format shifted to a digital medium, the “mixtape” became shorthand for releases that were neither mixed nor tapes. These days, mixtape DJs rarely blend or scratch on their tapes, and instead play more of a host’s role — which usually entails them shouting the artist’s name loudly or overdubbing the sound of explosions.

Distributed through semi-official means — such as street-corner bootleggers and, later, shared MP3s — the artist-oriented mixtape has just about fully supplanted the album as the definitive full-length form in hip-hop. Some of this year’s biggest rap singles found their footing on mixtapes, including Drake’s “Successful” and “Best I Ever Had” and Gucci Mane’s “Wasted,” to name a few. Many up-and-comers aren’t even eying deals anymore, instead touring solely off of tape buzz. Make no mistake: The future of the genre lies not in the hands of the industry, but at your corner bootlegger or favorite blog. Here’s a look back at some of the decade’s most memorable tapes.

The Decade In Rap Mixtapes

1. 50 Cent Is The Future (2002)

Artist: G-Unit

Song: Bump Dat Street Mix

50 Cent might not have been the first rapper to work the mixtape model, but he was the most successful. After surviving a shooting and an aborted deal with Columbia, 50 Cent embarked on a relentless attack of the street circuit that drew the attention of Eminem and Dr. Dre. The Future is the strongest of these outings, finding 50 and his G-Unit cronies at their most playful and menacing.

 

 

2. In Da Streetz (2003)

Artist: T.I. And P.S.C.

Song: Heavy Chevyz

When Arista fumbled his debut, T.I. repackaged many of those tracks alongside new material and went for himself. The tape blew up and earned him a new deal. Millions of “actual” records were sold after that, but perhaps none of his work has been as inspiring as the work of the brash dope boy who rocked In Da Streets.

 

 

3. Mixtape Messiah (2004)

Artist: Chamillionaire

Song: I Mean That Three

The mixtape can also provide a forum for the airing of grievances. In 2004, then up-and-comer Chamillionaire dedicated his whopping three-disc debut to the mocking of rival Mike Jones. Cham and Jones have since made amends, but Messiah stands on its own, thanks to Cham’s mechanically precise flows and Ron C’s ability to build on Houston’s rich legacy of slowed and chopped mixes, as pioneered by DJ Screw.

 

 

4. Public Enemy #1 (2004)

Artist: Beanie Sigel

Song: Who Shot Ya ’04

Green Lantern was one of the few old-style DJs able to make the transition to the modern artist-oriented mixtape world. And still his tapes — notably collaborations with Nas, Jadakiss and The Beastie Boys — remained meticulously constructed and blended. Public Enemy #1 stands as the finest example of his talents, thanks in part to South Philly hardcore spitter Beanie Sigel.

 

 

 

5. Trap Or Die (2005)

Artist: Young Jeezy

Song: Get Em Jeezy

With Trap or Die‘s exaggerated rasps, Young Jeezy became the most popular rapper in Atlanta. The disc also solidified Drama’s Gangsta Grillz series as the definitive brand in Southern mixtapes. (Drama would later turn into the first mixtape martyr when his studio was raided by federal agents at the behest of the RIAA in 2007.)

 

 

6. Back Like Cooked Crack Vol. 2 (2005)

Artist: Juelz Santana

Song: Mic Check

Cam’rons Diplomats crew and its many splinter acts have done more for and with the artist-driven mixtape than perhaps any rap collective. (In fact, many claim that they invented the model, though it’s a murky origin to pinpoint.) It was their youngest member, Juelz Santana, who seemed most at home on the tapes; his Cooked Crack 2 consists of an extended string of often goofy and occasionally heartfelt rhymes.

 

 

7. We Got It For Cheap Vol. 2 (2005)

Artist: Re-Up Gang

Song: Whats Up (feat. Pharrell)

Another scorned major-label signee, Virginia’s Clipse took to the tapes while its heralded sophomore LP Hell Hath No Fury sat on the Arista shelves. With Philadelphians Ab Liva and Sandman added to the team, the group’s remorseful and literary drug-dealer anthems won it the unexpected adoration of hipsters everywhere.

 

 

8. Dedication 2 (2007)

Artist: Lil Wayne

Song: Get ‘Em

Where many artists saw mixtapes as a mere opportunity for alternative distribution, Lil Wayne saw a chance to improve. He started the decade out as an underrated pop rapper, but over the course of dozens of tapes, Wayne became one of the most respected MCs on the planet. The Squad Up series saw the most growth, and his Drought 3 got the critical acclaim, but it’s Dedication 2 that stands as his most well-constructed tape. Wayne is fully energized and occupies Drama’s instrumental selections with densely constructed bars.

9. Writing On the Wall (2009)

Artist: Gucci Mane

Song: Hurry

After Lil Wayne transcended mixtape stardom to become a pop icon, Gucci Mane stepped in to work a similar blueprint. A mainstay on the Atlanta underground circuit, he began recording tapes at a rapid pace a few years back, improving by leaps and bounds and building a ravenous following in the process. That frenetic focus is most audible on his Writing on the Wall, recorded over the course of a weekend immediately following an extended prison sentence.

10. So Far Gone (2009)

Artist: Drake

Song: Successful (feat. Trey Songz & Lil’ Wayne)

Drake, a Canadian child star turned rapper, somehow managed to take the mixtape world by storm with this well-groomed album disguised as a mixtape. (Drake was technically unsigned at the time of the tape’s release, but was already being managed by the same team that handles Lil Wayne and Kanye West.) So Far Gone is a DJ-free collection of Kanye and Wayne imitating concessions to various demographics — ladies, Texans, Texan ladies (probably). But the kids seem to like it, and that’s truly the only requirement for a successful tape.

Source:  The Decade In Rap Mixtapes (NPR)

As a result of the significant decline in album sales, record labels are exploring new and drastically different business models. The model du jour is called a 360 deal, which allows labels to get income from live performances, merchandise sales and other revenue streams. Although none of my clients are signed to such a deal, this model could help revolutionize the label as we know it by giving it a way to make up for the loss of revenue from sales of recorded music.

Some industry executives believe these deals go too far. But it’s also possible they don’t go far enough—that ultimately labels will need to evolve into full-service entertainment firms that use music as an entry point—and sometimes a foundation—to an artist’s career. On the surface, this might sound like the work of a well-connected manager. But the majority of managers wouldn’t be able to provide the same level of finances or staff. In contrast, one of these full-service entertainment firms could work like a well-oiled machine to discover, shape, nurture and position artists into superstars while maximizing their earning potential—and turning a profit at the same time.

It’s no secret that labels have plenty of qualified, passionate, influential executives. Many of them can see an artist’s potential before others. Most can also develop an artist’s sound, voice and image.

So what happens then? These days, once an artist develops a rabid fan base—and fans can’t get enough of his sound and style—his management works with agents to find lucrative, fulfilling opportunities. If the system works, they make deals with major companies to sponsor existing products—or make new ones—in a way that makes the artist money and brings in new fans at the same time. Meanwhile, the label is stuck with a recorded-music project that doesn’t have the same kind of revenue potential.

This isn’t a cry-me-a-river story. If labels had stepped in with their own staff to fund and create these opportunities, they would reap the benefits and get the chance to cash in on their multimillion-dollar investments.

Now more than ever, artists are brands waiting to be discovered and defined. Superstars can go on to sell movies, clothing and just about anything else, often while the label waits at the door. Often, these outside endeavors are funded by other entities that haven’t made similar sacrifices in terms of time and dollars.

The full-service entertainment firm of the future will not only bankroll the ideas of superstars, it will hire qualified executives to maximize the resulting profits. Labels can no longer sit by and operate in uncertainty. They must convince artists and managers that they see them as partners and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

This is certainly possible. Already, managers and other organizations realize that artists can sell jeans and other consumer products. Recent research from PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that consumers have a propensity to buy products endorsed by musicians more than other celebrities. Labels have always known that, but they haven’t been able to take advantage of it. They should focus more on triple-threat artists who are talented at performing (whether that’s singing or rapping), creating (whether that’s writing or producing) and acting. Labels that sign these types of talents won’t have to depend solely on record sales to make a profit. Instead, they can guide the careers of artists in the ways that will matter most to their bottom lines.

Artists are more viable now than ever. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, people can’t leave home without their music. From Barbra Streisand and Madonna to Will Smith and Jay-Z, music has always been the gateway to larger careers—a way to create superstars. These days, these talents aren’t always evident from album sales. So it’s up to labels—or, rather, the full-service entertainment firms of the future they will evolve into—to harness their brands and use them to create new businesses. ••••

Al Branch is GM for the management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, whose roster includes Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Young Jeezy and the producers Noah “40″ Shebib and Just Blaze.

Source:
Billboard Magazine (November 21st, 2009 Issue)

Bryan Calhoun (BBA ’92) turns up just about everywhere in the music industry. He manages Kanye West’s web site. His innovative software product, Music Business Toolbox, teaches independent musicians and record labels how to make money. And he’s a vice president for SoundExchange, which collects and disperses nearly $200 million annually in digital music royalties. Not bad for a former WUOG disc jockey who hasn’t turned 40.

If you were MapQuesting the journey that Bryan Calhoun (BBA ’92) has taken through the music industry since he began taking finance classes at the Terry College in 1990, you would start by typing in the address for UGA’s campus radio station, WUOG, whose cubbyhole offices on the top floor of Memorial Hall did not afford Calhoun a view of where he has ended up nearly two decades later at the modern, glass-walled offices at SoundExchange on 14th Street in Washington, D.C.

WUOG has an all-volunteer student staff, and its signal begins to fade not long after you leave the Athens city limits. In music industry circles, it’s the rookie league, or what comes before the rookie league. But it’s also a seat-of-the-pants, make-your-own-destiny kind of place where young upstarts like Bryan Calhoun begin their careers in the music business, sort of while nobody’s looking and before anyone can tell you that you’ll never make all the hay you’re intent on making.

“When I wasn’t DJing at WUOG or organizing step shows for Kappa Alpha Psi, I was booking acts for the student union’s Contemporary Concerts division,” says Calhoun, who learned so much in the process that he and some enterprising classmates — including J Lett (BBA ’93, JD ’97), who is now a successful entertainment attorney in Atlanta — pooled their money and started working independently to help usher in the first wave of hip-hop stars before they reached superstar status.

“It was an intriguing time in hip-hop,” says Calhoun, “because back then everyone was afraid to book these acts — which gave us the ability to get into the Atlanta marketplace with acts like Tupac Shakur, Cypress Hill, and Digable Planets.”

Calhoun is indebted to his first event planning experiences when he was still a Terry student. “We were getting big names and decent budgets to work with, and I was calling booking agents and arranging for security. I paused one afternoon and thought, Wow, this is what it’s like being the boss!”
Calhoun now serves as vice president of new media and external affairs for SoundExchange, which the U.S. Copyright Office has designated as the bursar for the entire digital performance industry.

“SoundExchange is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of recording artists and copyright owners (usually a record label) when their recordings are performed on digital cable, satellite TV, the internet, and satellite radio, such as XM and Sirius,” says Calhoun.

SoundExchange represents 5,000 record labels and 40,000 artists. Clients include both signed and unsigned recording artists; small, medium, and large independent record companies; and major label groups and artist-owned labels. Bottom line: This is a company that writes a lot of checks.
“We’re collecting roughly $200 million a year in royalties,” says Calhoun, who has also worked with such hip-hop icons as Ludacris and Kanye West.

Calhoun was previously COO for West’s Good Music label and is one of the driving forces behind West’s online marketing strategy. When MIDEM 2009 convened in Cannes in January, kanyeuniversecity.com generated a lot of positive buzz at the world’s largest music industry fair. At a panel discussion moderated by Billboard international bureau chief Mark Sutherland, West was praised for being one of the world’s most effective artist-to-fan communicators.

“We think it’s the biggest artist web site in the world with more than a million unique visitors some months
— and that’s definitely him,” says Calhoun, referring to the multiple online entries that West posts himself each day. “It’s totally authentic. You can’t pay to put things on there . . . people have tried.”

E-mails and announcements to fans come specifically from West — never from his label, Island/Def Jam — and Calhoun considers that a crucial element in making personalized connections with fans.

When West caused a firestorm of criticism by interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at this year’s Video Music Awards, it wasn’t up to Calhoun to sort out the direct fallout from the VMA incident. But as the manager of the controversial Mr. West’s web site, he did have to deal with all the negative responses and hate mail — some with racial epithets — that flooded West’s on-line inboxes and message boards.

“The digital footprint we’ve amassed for him is really significant,” says Calhoun, who turns up in various music industry niches besides SoundExchange and the West marketing team. Principal among those is a company Calhoun created on behalf of the little guys in the recording industry who aspire to be as big as Ludacris or West someday.

“In 2003, I started Label Management Systems to level the playing field with major record labels by offering indie labels the business and budgetary solutions necessary to run their operations efficiently and manage their releases successfully,” says Calhoun, who didn’t stop with mere consulting services. He also developed a financial software application to help small labels predict and manage cash flow. The idea came to him after he convinced his label boss to release a compilation album where the only financial analysis was scribbling some numbers on the back of an envelope. “It seemed crazy to me that we committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a project with almost no analysis,” Calhoun recalls. “I figured there had to be other labels that would want to do some more detailed analysis.”

Calhoun soon realized that many indie artists and labels needed more basic information about the process for commercially releasing music. The result? An electronic collection of templates, spreadsheets, and detailed instructions that he calls The Music Business Toolbox, which has been used by music industry conferences and…

“Bryan’s role in the music industry is hard to define because he seems to turn up everywhere . . . I’ve always thought of him as an infrastructurist. in the same way that John Keane’s Pro tools software teaches artists how to record music, Bryan’s Music Business Toolbox teaches them how to make money doing it.” — MBus Director Bruce Burch

…universities — including NYU’s popular music business program — to teach students how to manage labels and releases. Calhoun has used that same toolbox, plus considerable skill, in his work with powerhouse management company Hip Hop Since 1978. When the company helped launch the musical career of the now-famous Drake, Calhoun posted the first single on digital services like iTunes. “Best I Ever Had” sold 300,000 downloads in less than two weeks with no major label support.

It was his financial software that got Calhoun hooked up with Kanye West, whose mother was impressed by it — and by Calhoun — at a conference where he was demonstrating his software. “She wanted me to use it to help determine how much Sony was obligated to pay them on the first John Legend release,” says Calhoun, who has worked on West’s behalf ever since.

“Bryan’s role in the music industry is hard to define because he seems to turn up everywhere . . . I’ve always thought of him as an infrastructurist,” says Bruce Burch, a Terry staff member who directs UGA’s popular Music Business Certificate Program. “In the same way that John Keane’s Pro Tools software teaches artists how to record music, Bryan’s Music Business Toolbox teaches them how to make money doing it.”

Sorting through his extensive resume, Calhoun points to one early achievement that convinced him he could make it in the music industry. “I really don’t tell too many people about this,” he confided to a group of Terry students during a recent on-campus visit, “but in 1997 I was instrumental in getting the group Three 6 Mafia signed to a record contract at Relativity Records — and that’s how I got my first A&R job.”

In signing Three 6 Mafia — whose resume would eventually include an Oscar-winning song from “Hustle & Flow” — Calhoun began to establish himself as a player in the industry. His first projects were certified Gold (500,000-plus albums sold) by the music industry trade body, the Recording Industry Association of America. He moved from Atlanta to New York to market other projects for Relativity, including solo projects from Bone Thugs N Harmony. When Relativity merged with Loud Records, he transitioned to the distribution side where he was a founding member of the Sony-owned RED Distribution Urban Music Marketing division, which to this day guides indie urban labels through the complexities of releasing new music.

Calhoun has testified on Capitol Hill on behalf of the Performance Rights Act, which would compensate artists and labels when their music is played on AM and FM radio. Also lending support were (front row, from left) stic.man of Dead Prez, Dionne Farris, and M-1, also of Dead Prez.

Calhoun was on hand at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., in June 2003 for Steve Jobs’ historic announcement that Apple was opening up the iTunes platform to independent labels.

“I called two of my friends at record stores,” says Calhoun, “and I told them, ‘You guys better figure out something else to do because your days are numbered.’”

Calhoun spent time with his Terry audience discussing the rapid-fire changes taking place in the music industry. “Technology now enables you to record music very easily, quickly, and cheaply — and thanks to iTunes and Rhapsody, you can distribute your product with the same speed and efficiency as the biggest record labels in the world. There are also ways to do direct marketing to fans and consumers through social networking.”
But lower barriers to entry mean there are more people trying, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. The number of people recording and producing music has skyrocketed. Big labels with high overhead costs and multi-million dollar contract commitments have trouble competing in such a market. Inevitably, they lay off people to try to keep pace, and that’s why Calhoun has shifted his focus to servicing indie labels that are gaining traction through 21st-century delivery systems.

Moving to the blackboard during his Terry lecture, Calhoun drew a graph depicting “The Long Tail” concept of marketing and sales — whereby a company like Amazon or Netflix can be successful by selling a large number of items in relatively small quantities. The same concept applies to the music industry. “There are very few releases — Matchbox 20, Lil Wayne — that sell a whole lot,” says Calhoun. “But what happens, as all these new technologies improve, is that there are a whole lot more people putting out music. If you can make a dollar off a million people, it might be easier than trying to make a million dollars off of one.”

Calhoun is a member of the board of directors of the Future of Music Coalition, which is “working to foster the development of a musicians’ middle class,” says Calhoun. That mission is based on the premise that “most artists are either really rich or really broke.” Thinking back to the days when he worked for independent labels, Calhoun got a firsthand look at what it’s like to invest $500,000 in a record — and have it tank big-time.

“Anybody who says they haven’t worked on flops is either lying or too new to have earned their stripes,” says Calhoun, who worked marketing and A&R for a label, record, and title that he describes as a “total disaster from beginning to end.” With $500,000 invested, it didn’t sell 50 copies. On the flip side, Calhoun got Three 6 Mafia signed with Relativity, then A&R’ed the resulting record, which sold 700,000 copies.

SoundExchange plays a pivotal role in paying digital royalties to artists who are utilizing new technologies and delivery systems to, in essence, employ themselves. And because it is a non-profit organization, the money collected goes directly to artists and rights holders.

“I feel very fortunate to have one of the coolest jobs possible,” says Calhoun. “Basically, I call artists and tell them that I have money for them.”
Some artists don’t know they’re entitled to the statuatory royalties that SoundExchange collects for them, and “that first check can be a huge — and a welcome — surprise!” says Calhoun. “We’ve gotten thank you notes from people who could suddenly pay off medical bills, or get their kids new coats for the winter. Artists who never made a dime from their creative property are thrilled to finally see some compensation.”

Calhoun’s role as an artist advocate also connects him to one of the most important legislative issues facing artists today: the Performance Rights Act.

“In the U.S., unlike any other industrialized nation in the world, AM and FM broadcasters do not pay performers or labels when they play their music on the air,” says Calhoun. “Most people are shocked by this, and assume that singers would see at least a small piece of the huge ad revenues that radio makes off their songs. They don’t, and they never have.” Calhoun and SoundExchange have been fighting hard to remedy this injustice, along with partners in the musicFIRST coalition, which stands for Fairness in Radio Starting Today.

“Whenever a business can take somebody’s creative work, use it to make money (through advertising), and not have to ask for permission or compensate the creator, that’s fundamentally unfair,” says Calhoun, whose involvement in this fight has taken him to the halls of Congress for hearings and meetings with officeholders.

Asked to speculate about the future of the music industry, Calhoun says he believes technology will play a role in all parts of the process, as devices become smaller and more powerful, and broadband connectivity becomes increasingly ubiquitous. “At that point,” he says, “the distinction between download and stream will become irrelevant. Music has to be viewed as a service rather than a product.”

Calhoun has been working on a financial modeling tool to explore the potential of a blanket licensing agreement. “Theoretically, fans could pay a nominal connection fee (like $5 added to a cable bill) for unrestricted access to all the music they want. If a large enough pool of people pay into the system, revenues and profits will exceed that of the sales-based music industry.” A free, public version of the tool is available (www.APriceForMusic.com) for anyone who wants to manipulate the numbers and see the outcome. “There’s a new wave of consumer interaction coming,” says Calhoun, “and we want music to be on the crest of it.”

When Calhoun finished his Terry presentation, it was apparent that his student audience was both impressed — and somewhat intimidated — by all that he has accomplished before the age of 40. To allay some of their fears and to assure them that it’s possible to throw yourself into a job as demanding as his and still enjoy life, Calhoun reminded them of the many perks that he enjoys as a mover and shaker in the music business — like spending a week in Los Angeles for the Grammys and doing business in France, Jamaica, Shanghai, and London.

“Most of the successful people I know are insanely busy, and I’m really busy, too,” he admitted. “I’m not rich, but I do all right and I just love what I do . . . I have a ball!”

Source:
This is the Fall 2009 feature story taken from “Terry”, the magazine for alumni and friends of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/terryuga/terry_2009fall/#/0

The final numbers are in for Lil Wayne’s 2008-2009 North American touring, and it looks like the rapper will have the highest grossing hip-hop tour of the year — and the most lucrative rap jaunt that Billboard has ever tracked.

Seventy-eight Lil Wayne headlining arena and amphitheater concerts in North America from Dec. 14, 2008, through Sept. 6, 2009, grossed approximately $42 million and drew nearly 804,000 fans, according to Lil Wayne tour producer and tour business manager Shawn Gee, who also serves as president of music and entertainment at Sports & Entertainment Financial Group.

“It’s definitely one of the biggest in the last couple of years,” Gee tells Billboard.com, noting that Haymon Events/Live Nation was the exclusive tour promoter for all of the shows. “Our plan was to prove that Wayne was a viable headlining arena artist.”

The second highest-grossing rap tour that Billboard has tracked was Jay-Z’s 2008 jaunt with Mary J. Blige, which grossed $34.6 million and drew 310,694 concertgoers to 28 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore. Kanye West’s 2008 Glow In the Dark tour comes in third, having pulled in $30.8 million from 49 concerts that attracted 507,853 fans.

Other lucrative hip-hop tours in recent years include 2005′s Eminem/50 Cent Anger Management tour, which grossed $22.7 million from 23 shows; and a 50 Cent tour in 2003 that rang up nearly $23 million in ticket sales, much of it co-headlining with Jay-Z on the Roc-the-Mic tour, according to Boxscore.

Hip-hop tours rarely crack the Billboard year-end list of the top 25 grossing tours, but it’s likely that Lil Wayne’s 2009 trek will earn a spot on this year’s tally. Several well known support acts on various legs of the rapper’s tour helped push ticket sales, Gee admits.

On the first leg of Lil Wayne’s I Am Music Tour (Dec. 14, 2008 through Jan. 28, 2009), other artists on the bill included Keyshia Cole, T-Pain, Gym Class Heroes and Keri Hilson. Later, his America’s Most Wanted Music Festival trek (July 27 through Sept. 6) featured opening performances by Young Jeezy, Drake (who only appeared at three shows due to an injury), Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, Jeremih and Pleasure P.

Gee, who was brought on by the rapper’s management last fall to “help redefine Wayne within the touring market,” says the main touring strategy was to create packages that appealed to fans of different musical genres. “We wanted to make sure we put together a package and over delivered to the consumer,” says Gee, who’s also worked with artists including West, the Roots and Jill Scott.

“We strategically put the I Am Music package together to make sure that all segments of Wayne’s fanbase would be interested in one, if not, all of the opening acts,” he continues. “We had T-Pain as an opening act, who’s had hits over all formats of radio; we had Keyshia Cole, who is more of an urban-leaning female; and we had Gym Class Heroes, which is more alternative.”

The tours were in support of Lil Wanye’s 2008 album, “Tha Carter III,” which has sold 3.2 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The rapper’s oft-delayed next album, “Rebirth,” is due Nov. 24.

Although no specific touring plans are currently in the works, Gee believes that Lil Wayne will continue as an arena-sized headliner. “We definitely want to capitalize on the success we’ve had and want to continue building Wayne as a touring artist and not just an artist that tours,” he says. “We established him as a headline artist and I think it grows from there.”

Source: http://www.billboard.com/events/lil-wayne-2008-2009-tours-gross-42-million-1004009935.story

By any modern measure of musical popularity — YouTube views, radio airplay, ring-tone ubiquity — the single “Best I Ever Had” by Toronto rapper Drake is not only a hit, it’s arguably 2009′s “Song of the Summer.” Since debuting on iTunes last month, the hip-hop lust track has sold 600,000 digital downloads and topped three separate pop charts. Even if you can’t summon to mind its rap-sung vocals or brassy syncopated beat, you’ve probably heard “Best I Ever Had” blaring out of a convertible somewhere.

Less than a year ago, Drake was basically a zero in the music world, unsigned and virtually unknown as a rhyme-sayer. But thanks to some out-of-the-box branding efforts by several of the best-connected marketing executives in the urban world and the institutional backing of his mentor, rap superstar Lil Wayne, Drake landed two songs in the Top 10 this month — “Best I Ever Had” as a solo artist and “Every Girl” as part of the rap group Young Money. He had already amassed a devoted fan base before he’d even landed a record deal.

Every Song of Summer has a saga behind it. And Drake’s breakthrough arrives as a happy accident built on plenty of high-level networking, a label bidding war and an astonishing degree of cooperation among rap world big shots. Chief among them, Drake’s career overseers: the heads of the New York management firm Hip Hop Since 1978 and Cortez Bryant, Lil Wayne’s longtime manager.

“They have given me one of the greatest situations in hip-hop,” Drake, 22, said of his team.

Under the unusually lucrative agreement he struck with Aspire/Young Money/Cash Money Records distributed through Universal, Drake received a $2-million advance. He retains the publishing rights to his songs and cedes only around 25% of his music sales revenues to the label as a “distribution fee,” his managers said. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of new artists sign financially restrictive “360 deals” that sap their touring and merchandise income and offer much more restrictive profit-sharing.

A dissection of how the rapper was able to drive such a hard bargain underscores an evolution in the music industry. At a time when CD sales have declined by 15% over last summer’s numbers and major labels remain more fixated on scoring hit singles than sustaining artist rosters, managers such as those working with Drake have stepped into the void to become king-makers in urban music.

“The record company doesn’t have any ownership of Drake,” Bryant said. “The label does not have participation on profits. They don’t have ownership of his masters. We control his entire career. Those deals don’t happen anymore.”

Although already famous in his native Canada for portraying a disabled high school basketball player on the teen television drama “DeGrassi: The Next Generation,” which also airs in the U.S., Drake (government name: Aubrey Drake Graham) didn’t exactly take the music industry by storm when he self-released a mix-tape, the appropriately titled “Room for Improvement,” in 2006. “I was recording, and the music was decent. But I was on my own. I had no team in place,” Drake said. “What you learn as you progress is this business is based on relationships in a major way.”

After a subsequent mix-tape (as such al gratis digitally downloadable music compilations are known) brought the rapper to the attention of Lil Wayne, everything changed. The rap superstar, whose “Tha Carter III” was the bestselling album of last year, contributed a scorching guest verse on Drake’s September underground banger “Ransom,” effectively vouching for the newcomer’s legitimacy. More important, their “collabo” compelled Bryant to sign on as Drake’s manager.

“Here’s a guy who’s not an established artist, and lyrically he’s close to or on the same level as Lil Wayne,” Bryant exclaimed.

From there, Bryant entered into a managerial tandem with the heavyweight firm Hip Hop Since 1978, whose marketing prowess has resulted in two of the biggest rap releases of the decade: Kanye West’s “Graduation” and “Tha Carter III,” both of which sold around 1 million copies in their first week of release. The firm’s principles — Gee Roberson, Kyambo “Hip Hop” Joshua and Al Branch — earned their stripes working at Roc-A-Fella Records, the influential label established by rap rainmaker Jay-Z in the ’90s.

They are credited with raising the stature of such artists as Jill Scott and the Roots by grooming them into lucrative touring acts. The firm’s greatest renown comes from transitioning West away from his reputation earlier in this decade as a beat-maker for hire into a superstar rapper-singer.

The plan, going forward, was to build Drake’s “brand” in much the same way they had built up West’s. According to Roberson, the key would be “old-fashioned artist development — the kind that doesn’t exist anymore.

“Put out a record and a video and work it station by station, city by city, club by club,” said Roberson, chief executive of Hip Hop Since 1978. “With Kanye, we put out his single ‘Through the Wire’ and had him doing spot dates, opening up for established acts. That affiliation with a marquee artist makes the battle easier. Earlier this year, we had Drake on tour opening up for [Lil] Wayne. He was selling out 5,000-seat theaters. It’s a grass-roots way to build him up.”

Establishing the right rapport with his audience was integral to creating listener awareness. So Drake digitally released his third underground mix-tape, “So Far Gone,” featuring songs produced by West, Just Blaze and Diplo in February.

As the story goes, it caused a sensation in the underground, with more than 8,000 people downloading the music in its first two hours of release, although some blogger detractors dismissed it as ” ’808s and Heartbreak’ lite” — a swipe at a perceived sonic similarity to West’s last album.

Branch, Hip Hop Since 1978′s general manager of marketing and promotion, pointed out that Lil Wayne became rap’s top dog largely through his mix-tape game. Counterintuitive though it might seem, by flooding the market with hundreds of free songs, the New Orleans rapper built a dedicated fan base willing to fork out cash in droves for “Tha Carter III.”

“If you’re a good artist, you make hit records,” said Branch. “It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it for fun or if you’re getting paid. If you’re a hit-maker, you make hit records for free, for mix-tapes, for albums. Drake’s a hit-maker.”

That much was established earlier this year when listeners began calling and text-messaging New York’s taste-defining hip-hop radio station Hot 97 FM to request that it play a cut off the mix-tape: “Best I Ever Had.” Alternately rapped and sweetly crooned (with the added punch of digitizing Auto-Tune technology), the song is an earnest expression of admiration from a young man to the object of his desire. And despite the coarseness of its explicit lyrics, “Best I Ever Had” is surprisingly tender — at least, as emotive as hardcore hip-hop gets without being declared “soft.” On April 9, the song went into rotation.

“It sounds like a hit song. It’s catchy. It was being played in clubs and getting a big reaction,” said Hot 97′s program director Ebro Darden. “People were texting us, ‘Hey, you’re cool for playing this. Thank you!’ I started doing research. He was opening for Lil Wayne on tour, had been on this TV show, he’s obviously a good-looking kid, and the music is good. I put two and two together: We should be playing this guy’s song!”

Branch said he tried to discourage its airplay: “I said, ‘Give me time. This is good for a mix-tape. I’ll give you another record.’ But he was like, ‘I can’t wait. This record’s hot.’ ”

Now Hot 97 has played a “clean” version of “Best I Ever Had” more than 1,300 times and other stations across the country followed suit. Nonetheless, with Drake still shopping for a record deal, the song wasn’t on sale anywhere until he independently released it on iTunes in mid-June. The Boi1da-produced tune hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Tracks and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts and peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100.

With empirical evidence of Drake’s mass appeal, his managers began tough negotiations with executives from Universal Motown, Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records in what Billboard magazine described as “one of the biggest bidding wars ever.”

“They saw the radio spins, that we were selling 300,000 iTunes singles in two weeks after we had the record out there for free for four or five months,” Bryant said. “That gives them numbers.”

In the end, Drake signed a distribution deal with Universal because the label puts out his mentor Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint. (Universal declined to comment on the terms of the deal. Drake said in an interview that although his deal is unusually profitable, he does not give Bryant or the executives at Hip Hop Since 1978 a bigger cut of his earnings than other artists do. “I give them what most managers get,” he said.)

Branch coined a new term for Drake and Lil Wayne’s synergistic working relationship: “cooperitation.”

“It’s when competition cooperates together,” he said. “Wayne is cooperating with Drake to achieve a common goal, to help each other out. The competition aspect is each rapper wants to be the best rapper that ever lived. But Wayne realized that in order to be great, you also have to collaborate with the best.”

In the four months since being anointed hip-hop’s next big thing, Drake has notched an impressive number of top-tier urban music collaborations, recording with Jay-Z, Jamie Foxx, Mary J. Blige, Pharrell Williams and Rihanna. He’s working on his debut album, “Thank Me Later,” with Justin Timberlake. And July 27, he embarks on a 22-city “Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival” tour with Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy and Soulja Boy (it reaches Los Angeles on Aug. 13).

Elliott Wilson, founder and chief executive of the respected urban music website RapRadar.com, spoke in complimentary terms of Drake’s live-performance ability, likened the fan frenzy on his YouTube videos to “Beatlemania” and compared the rapper’s ear for melodies to that of West. Wilson also pointed out that the public seems hungry for “a new rap star.”

“He’s shown the potential to make hit records,” he said. ” ‘So Far Gone’ is one of the few quality releases this year. It’s outlasted a lot of studio releases in the last few months. The kids today want to believe in something. It seems like they want to believe in Drake.”

–Chris Lee

Source: L.A. Times

Five of Hip-Hop’s biggest stars have come together for a tour called “America’s Most Wanted Music Festival” this summer Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Soulja Boy, Drake, R&B newcomer Jeremih will hit the road.

America’s Most Wanted Music Festival will begin in Scranton, Pennsylvania on July 27th and it will end on the tour in Dallas Texas on August 23rd.

The America’s Most Wanted Music Festival will be the second tour in 2009 as earlier this year after he hit the road with RnB crooner T-Pain for the I Am Music Tour.

Below is the tentative tour dates of Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival:

July 27th Scranton, PA (Toyota Pavilion)
July 29th Saratoga, NY (Performing Arts Center)
July 30th Pittsburgh, PA (Post Gazette Pavilion)
July 31st Philadelphia, PA (Susquehanna Bank Center)
August 1st Wantagh, NY (Jones Beach)
August 2nd Virginia Beach, VA (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)
August 4th Toronto, ON (Molson Amphitheater)
August 5th Montreal, QC (Bell Centre)
August 6th Cleveland, OH (Blossom Pavilion)
August 7th Bristow, VA (Nissan Pavilion)
August 8th Raleigh, NC (Walnut Creek Amphitheater)
August 9th Atlanta, GA (Lakewood)
August 12th Phoenix, AZ (Cricket Wireless Amphitheater)
August 13th Los Angeles, CA (TBD)
August 14th Irvine, CA (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater)
August 15th Oakland, CA (Sleep Train at Concorde)
August 17th Vancouver, BC (GM Place)
August 18th Edmonton, AB (Rexall Place)
August 20th Denver, CO (Fiddlers Green Amphitheater)
August 22nd Houston, TX (Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion)
August 23rd Dallas, TX (Superpages.com Center)

Tickets for the America’s Most Wanted Music Festival will available on June 20th through Ticketmaster, Live Nation and each local arena’s ticketing system.

If 2008 and 2009 are any indication, the future of Hip-Hop rests in the hands of Gee Roberson, Kyambo “Hip Hop” Joshua and their GM, Al Branch. While Gee and Hip Hop worked together for seven-and-a-half years as directors of A&R for the entire Roc-A-Fella roster, Al also worked there as general manager. After changing their company name in 2004 to Hip Hop Since 1978, co-CEOs Gee and Hip Hop haven’t stopped working since.

Together, the squad formed management company Rock Da World back in 1998, signing Kanye West as their first artist, followed by Just Blaze. Their powerful roster now includes Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy and newcomer Drake. A partial list of accomplishments from last year alone: Jeezy’s Adidas campaign, Kanye’s Glow in the Dark tour, Lil Wayne’s I Am Music tour, the Nike Air Yeezys, the Nike LeBrons, Lil Wayne’s Sixers spot, Lil Wayne’s voiceover work for Gatorade’s “What’s G” campaign and Kanye’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton on a special shoe collection. If that’s not enough, Hip Hop Since 1978 artists led Grammy nominations in ‘07 (Lil Wayne) and ‘08 (Kanye West). On top of that, Gee is also an executive who serves as a president of the Rap division of Atlantic Records. Gee executive produced T.I.’s Paper Trail, which sold two million copies worldwide. Kanye, Gee and Hip Hop executive produced 808s & Heartbreak, which Gee proudly proclaims, “has sold over 10 million worldwide.” And Gee along with Cortez Bryant co-executive produced Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, which sold 3.5 million copies worldwide. According to the Billboard charts, these were the only albums in Hip-Hop to sell over one million copies in 2008. Do we need to say more? Gentleman welcome to Power 30 and congratulations!

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