What up world! Yeah, your man is back at it again, journalizing my thoughts and internalizing my sport, hypothesizing and prophesizing theories on this outrageously turbulent game that I’ve subjected myself to. So for this installment I might as well make the subject myself: Serius Jones. As you can see, I’m taking this opportunity to use a plethora of diverse linguistics that may baffle those unfamiliar with my level of intellect and cause you to ask yourself, “Who the f*ck is this dude and what the f*ck is he talking about??” That’s all the more reason for you to pay close attention.
Allow me to simplify the equation for y’all. What happens when you take a young, gifted and Black man and cross Jersey, New York, college, jail, purple, liquor and a bunch of other zones that we can’t get into right now? Serius Jones is what you get. I can use the booth to vent my frustration from this crazy ass life that I’m living, but I need somewhere to unload the little bit of collegiateness (my word) that’s still left in my brain. This is a completely organic process where I’m basically just flowing off the top of my head using this computer screen so you can have a window into my zone.
I just found a great new outlet to voice my thoughts to the world too. Headlines read: “Fight Klub King and highly recruited underground artist Serius Jones signs to Ludacris’ Disturbing Tha Peace record label.” At this very moment several thoughts may enter your mind. You may think you know – but trust me when I say that you have no idea!
Technically you could “google me” and read all of the recent interviews where I discussed the singing and explained why I made the move to DTP, but to keep it funky with y’all, them other websites ain’t f*cking with this AllHipHop.com thing, so I chose this outlet to break down my choice from the extended perspective. Unlike your normal happy-to-be-on ass rapper my reasoning goes much deeper than a huge check (which I owe back anyway) or some big name superstar affiliation. I’ve been in the type of lifestyle where I’m forced trust no one and pay attention to my surroundings at all times, so this explanation starts here.
In case you didn’t know, the average industry mind state is in a state of emergency. Even though it’s a tired ass cliché, “The rap game is like the crack game” in many ways. Executives are fighting to keep their jobs, labels are flaking out like dandruff and it trickles down to artists. The bigger the business gets, the more risk involved and the integrity of the product suffers. It’s the same thing as young runners on the corners who are only hustling for sneaker change with dreams of getting their proper “shine.” Most of them don’t even know the history of their trade, what they’re selling is really worth or how to cut and manufacture the product they’re selling. They just follow the blueprint that was given and do what they’re told.
The same goes for Hip-Hop today. This “anything goes” approach to making disposable and cheap music isn’t new at all, but it’s the millions and billions of dollars generated from this music that has changed the climate drastically from the “Golden Era” of Hip Hop and the drug game. So for a signed artist with a substantial deal on one of the most major labels in the entertainment industry, what does that really mean?
Basically it’s the equivalent of a drug dealer that has a Pablo Escobar-esque connect and has convinced him to give some consignment. Whether you have the clientele to move this amount of work is on you as a businessman, because all that is given to you, you will be fully responsible for. Every car service pick up, studio session, the plane tickets for your squad, etc… Now what happens if you take on all this responsibility without the ability to perform? Ask 90% of the rappers out here.
The “only takes one” philosophy is looked at as the bottom line approach to marketing and selling an artist in today’s market. In a gunshell it means as long as you have a hit single then nothing else matters. You might have a good time in the club when this radio/club sounding record that the label thinks is your only chance comes on, but for the rest of the week, what do you have to zone to? Then they wonder why these albums don’t sell. So I don’t blame fans for downloading one song off a website. Bootlegging my s### doesn’t count though!
I don’t have the time to prove this example, but next time you watch TV for an hour just count how many advertisements and commercials you see… then multiply that number by how many channels you have… then times that number by 24 hours a day/7 days a week all across the nation. I have no clue what that number would be but that’s got to be at least an advertisement every second! This country is a hustle! Even if it’s not a product you know, there’s always someone trying to sell you a dream. Every step of your life someone is trying to sell you something. Think about it. It gets to a point where we want to at least feel good about what we spend our paper on… feel me?
Let’s put it in hood terms. If I cop a bag of haze for 20 cash and its only 0.7 grams on the scale, I’m not upset because I know what I’m getting is quality and I believe in the product. (Hint) It has a catchy name, it’s accessible, but it’s still exclusive and it lives up to its name. It’s respected in the hood and now the suburb wants it, so there’s an established fan base for it.
Now here’s where we get next level with it… Zone with me and imagine the variation of Haze “Sour Diesel” as a rapper (with the names these days it probably is). He’s buzzing crazy in the hood and everyone heard about this guy Sour. A lot of people haven’t sampled him yet, but they heard his music is fire. Stay with me. In order for the streets to really feel Sour out, someone has to convince the bosses who sell the music to invest heavily in Sour, because this is what the streets want. They have to give out samples of it, package it up nice and get the retailers to feel confident in selling this to their own customers.
Now these bosses have been eating good off the rapper “Haze” they’ve been selling, but he has saturated the market. Even though Haze isn’t as original and talented as Sour, they don’t want to take a chance on some so-called “new and improved” Sour Diesel emcee, when they would rather have the same results that’s they been getting over the years with Haze. However, little do these bosses know the people are sick of the same old music and are thirsty for a change, so metaphorically speaking, “Sour Diesel” would have to take the Serius Jones approach to his career to get poppin’ himself!!
I try to separate my ego from my music and look at my music as a product. So I continued grinding until I was a product that had major exposure before my product was available to the masses. (Don’t worry it’s coming!) My myspace.com/seriusjones page had over a million plays before my deal. My Youtube.com visuals are over 1.5 million in audience. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but none of this was by accident. Even still, while I sat in some of these meetings, I realized that most of these corporate dudes don’t know how to be visionaries, its just all numbers.
Therefore, I align myself with an experienced crew of bosses that understand working a product from a ground level, understand the buzz and demand for this product (Serius Jones) in the suburbs and the streets and are committed to the development, distribution, marketing and longevity of this product in the marketplace. This crew (DTP) also has an extensive higher level relationship with top level executives who can be pulled in to distribute and support this product internationally. (Def Jam holla!) Big business. However, as the saying goes, “Scared money don’t make money!”
So the bottom line of this whole thing is that if you don’t think its possible to achieve the level of success that Pac, Big, Jay, Nas or any other of the greats have created, then you don’t understand this Hip-Hop thing. I’m at the point where I’m watching rappers create shameless jingle singles that I could make in 20 minutes. But are they going down in history? Will we remember these dudes 10 years from now? I don’t know, but I’m out here making this history! I take the time out to write these thoughts because we are living this Hip-Hop thing together, and I’m going to stay in tune with you, the fans, so that I stay true to myself as an artist. Real spit.
We are in an era where money is more respected than talent. The little dudes around my way actually judge rappers they like based on how much money they think these rappers are getting! Sad. I’ve made money illegally, legally, lost it, blew it, flipped it, saved it and done everything with it besides get rich. Don’t get it twisted – I’m getting paid, but when my casket hits that dirt I definitely don’t want my impact and legacy left on the world to just be money. What I look like with a tombstone that says, “Here lies a man that was getting money!” Without getting too deep, this is the same mentality that keeps us from owning and loving our craft.
This Hip Hop sh*t is ours if we become more concerned with what we do with it, instead of what we get from it. Until next time keep it 100….. I’m coming this Summer and I’m taking no prisoners! Trust! Check out the movement at LifeIsSerius.com