The cold truth about success in Hip-Hop
I took a recent trip out to New Mexico to help director Tyler Yee shoot a music video for an artist, and on this trip it hit me. Every rapper raps about money, but in reality 99.9 % of rappers never make a real dime off this music. So as I was thinking, I wrote this down in my iPhone and figured I would put it out as a blog…enjoy
The Cold Truth About Success In Hip-Hop, The Pyramid Theory
Group A: The very top of the pyramid (.01 % of the entire pyramid)
This section represents the extremely few rappers that make enough money annually to be set for life. (Dre, Eminem, Jay-Z, Ludacris, 50 Cent, etc.)
Group B: The top of the pyramid (.09% of the entire pyramid)
This section represents the few rappers that make enough money in their careers to live a portion of their lives well off. These cats usually will have one good year where they might go gold, or have a really big single, but they never make enough money to be set for life. (Jim Jones, Flo Rida, Juelz, Lloyd Banks, Styles P, Obie Trice, just to name a few). Still, this is an incredibly prestigous group, and only represents .09% of the rap pyramid
Group C: The near top of the pyramid (.4 % of the entire pyramid)
This section represents all the rappers that are regional stars, and can tour and do shows in their region, but never really break out and become stars nationally. These rappers never end up making enough money to live lavishly, and will probably have to find regular jobs after their careers fade. (Mistah F.A.B., Raw Dizzy AKA Raw D.I., The Frontline, most of Thizz Ent.). Chances are there are a few in your city, and if you don’t recognize the names I mentioned, then it proves my point exactly. These cats in this group are hardly recognized outside of their regions
Group D: The rest of the pyramid (99.5 % of the entire pyramid)
This section represents everybody with 16 bars and a dream. Everybody with a rap group, a computer, a mic and ProTools. Chances likely you’ve done a few shows, but nothing big. You probably have a mixtape or 2 out, but you don’t have any distribution and you’re not on iTunes. This group makes nearly no profit off of rap. That means they’re broke
What this all means, is that .5 % of all rappers take in 99.9 % of the industry’s profits
So while the subject matter for nearly every rappers song is “I get money”, only .5 % of them are even making any money off of rap. And only .01% of them are REALLY living like superstars
So this is my message to all you indy rappers, quit getting raped, step your game up! We’re letting a few cats take all of the loot. We need to work harder in this game. There’s a million rappers, but we’re letting like 10 cats eat the whole pie
If you don’t understand this idea, or if reading this blog doesn’t motivate you then you’re too dumb and don’t belong in the rap game. This shits a warzone, its time to step your game up. Get right or get left. There’s money to be made in this business, you just have to approach it in the right way… So ask yourself, which group do you want to be in? A, B, C or D??
To The Top
– G-Eazy
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