“I’m that dude!” Dominick “Crooked I” Wickliffe is shouting through the phone as he drives his 2007 Bentley Continental Flying Spur through traffic on an April afternoon in Hollywood. “I just proved hip hop isn’t dead!”
It’s been a long year for the West Coast lyricist, so excuse him for letting off a little steam. But he’s not triumphantly touting his latest mixtape, The Block Obama, or long-awaited debut album, B.O.S.S. (Beginning of Something Serious) (Treacherous/Universal), which has been in the making for more than a decade. Instead, he’s taking a moment to reflect on the past 12 months.
From April 2007 through April 2008, Crooked I, a hip hop veteran, has enjoyed the best year of his career. Why? Because every Tuesday night, he made it a priority to record a new freestyle at his studio, The Mint Room, in Glendale, Calif. He used his MySpace page to take requests from fans to rap over popular beats like Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (Week 5), The Game’s “Put You On The Game” (Week 42), and Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” (Week 51). By Wednesday, each new song was uploaded to his Dynasty Entertainment Group’s Web site (dynastyentgroup.com) and offered as a free download.
Before long, it was posted to popular sites like Dub CNN (dubcnn.com) and Nah Right (nahright.com), and for the first time in a long time, the slick-talking rapper had both an audience and accolades from the rap community, including a glowing endorsement from DJ King Tech of Los Angeles’ fabled “The Wake Up Show.”
“It took 52 weeks,” the 30-year-old rapper says calmly before putting some attitude behind his words. “Fifty-two weeks for [King Tech] to say, ‘Hey, if you take away all the money, the platinum plaques, the success from the clothing companies and you just listen to the lyrics, I can’t tell you who is better: Crooked I or Jay-Z.’ Me [being] online and bringing something quality week after week made this guy spark up.”
When Rob “King Tech” Sepand got on L.A.’s Power 106 [KPWR, 105.9] last December and compared the two rappers, he wasn’t exactly unfamiliar with Crooked I’s work—the Long Beach native has appeared on “The Wake Up Show” numerous times. And he actually co-signed just 36 weeks into the series. But Crooked I is unfazed. As an artist signed to three different labels since 1995 (Virgin, Death Row Records, and his own Treacherous Records) without releasing an album, he’s more concerned with proving his point: that today’s rapper doesn’t need a major label system to get attention. In 52 weeks, the ’Net did more for Crooked I than any of his label deals. Through that, he’s successfully touring, connecting with new fans, and, most importantly, keeping his name in the conversation.
“There’s no way I should be compared to Jay-Z,” says Crooked I, who took home “Best West Coast Mixtape Artist” honors at the 11th Annual Mixtape Awards in New York in April. “But that shows you how important the Internet is right now.”
It’s a sentiment shared by other artists. “Even when I was with a major, I turned to the Internet to release the music I wanted to release,” says Def Jam castaway Joe Budden, 27, who dropped the third installment of his Mood Muzik mixtape series on Amalgam Digital in February and will do the same with his sophomore album, Padded Room, this August. “It feels great to be able to [do that] and get a response.”
And it’s also the key for any rapper looking to maintain a presence today. After struggling through label politics, marketing mishaps, and album delays for years, artists have control again. Online downloads, whether through iTunes, blogs, or your favorite P2P file-sharing network, determine who and what is considered hot—and the formula is already being adopted by the brick ’n’ mortar music industry.
In early 2007, DeAndre “Soulja Boy Tell’em” Way used YouTube and MySpace to promote his independent single, “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” After an avalanche of viral video imitators and a boatload of blog exposure, the then-16-year-old Mississippi rapper went the major label route, signing to Collipark Records through Interscope in May 2007. The song went on to sell more digital singles than any other song in the history of music (it was replaced by Flo Rida’s “Low” earlier this year).
But for Crooked I, the success of other artists, signed or unsigned, only reaffirms his belief. “Look at Flo Rida!” he barks. “He came out of nowhere, and his single is the biggest digital single ever. When I see that, I see there could be a highest-selling digital album ever—the potential is there.” On an April afternoon in New York City,On an April afternoon in New York City, Mickey “Mickey Factz” Williams is making the short walk from the Apple Store on 5th Avenue to MTV’s Times Square headquarters. He’s set to sign paperwork allowing the network to debut his video for “Rockin’ and Rollin’,” a song featuring The Cool Kids. But the video has leaked—and MTV isn’t happy.
“I have to explain to them that I don’t answer to a label,” says Factz, whose bold sense of style is matched only by his equally eccentric music, a blend of hip hop, electro, and house. “I don’t answer to anybody but VIBE.com100 the fans—and if the fans feel strongly about something I have, they’ll find a way to get it.” Nonchalance aside, Factz, 23, is the first to admit that he’s just coming around to the idea of catering to fans online. After working as a paralegal, the Bronx, N.Y., native decided to pursue a rap career in 2006.
But the ’Net wasn’t his focus. “I’m not gonna lie,” he says in his quirky, confident tone. “I was a conventional artist. I wanted to put out one mixtape every two months and I would be good.”
His A&R, Steven “Steve-O” Brown, however, had other ideas. Instead of pressing up mixtapes, why not give his music away for free online and quickly serve the audience? “He literally had to talk me into it,” jokes Factz.
In 2006, he released a pair of free, online-only mixtapes, Kings of the Bronx and In Search of N.E.R.D., and followed up the effort by putting out two more, Back To The Future: Flashback, Vol. 1 and Heaven’s Fallout, last year. This year, The Leak, Vol. 1: The Understanding, was leaked one song at a time to MySpace every week for 17 weeks. The Leak, Vol. 2: The Inspiration is on the way. Musically, his take on everything from sneakers (“I Like Your Supras”) to phony rockers (“Rockstar Posers”) is refreshing. But it’s his relentless work ethic and the regularity of his releases that keep listeners coming back.
“It’s easy for me to record music,” says Factz, who plans to release more than 100 songs this year before dropping his debut in 2009. “At the end of the day, I’m working for the people. The fans are my employers—so why not be a happy employee and give them what they want?”
On the other side of the country, Los Angeles native John “Blu” Barnes is fiddling with a stack of beats for his next project. Blu is scheduled to do a phone interview today, but he’s seemingly one of the last people in America without a cell phone. In fact, he didn’t own a computer until a month before his debut with producer Exile, Below the Heavens (Sound in Color, 2007), dropped last August. Needless to say, Blu is something of an anomaly.
“I’m just tapping into this whole technology thing,” chuckles Blu, 25, who released The Piece Talks (Tres, 2008) with Detroit rapper/producer Ta’Raach in April as the duo C.R.A.C. “When I first got MySpace, I was actually denying friends until a label A&R asked me, ‘How do you expect to have fans?’” Blu’s since learned that having a hot record is as crucial as having a hot MySpace page design in ’08. Below the Heavens, a deeply personal but not especially commercial effort, was released on a small indie, Sound in Color, to little fanfare.
So learning more about HTML and spending “at least two or three hours every day” checking MySpace messages for concert opportunities is part of the game now. Last year, he was even featured on the home pages of MySpace, Imeem, and Apple. But, as he’s found out, the most rewarding part about getting online is connecting with fans.
“It’s cool to be able to contact people,” he says. “A deaf girl once hit me up [on MySpace] and told me she would put her hands on the speakers and get vibrations from my music that she never got listening to anything else. That is definitely motivational.”
Comments
1.
jfanfair says:
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It's really interesting that the internet is the new "street" for hip-hop....what is even more interesting is the return of the era when artists were just happy to have fans and let the music not the money do the talking. - Jermaine Fanfair
July 17, 2008 at 4:00 pm
2.
shli says:
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What confident smile ! However ,somebody said that the tall man is surfing the tall friends dating site Tallloving. C O M ,where he is seeking for models as mind accompanies .I even canot believe it at first .but some profiles and photos on the site has demonstrate his lonely heart .
July 15, 2008 at 8:24 pm