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Battle Rap News

Let's Talk Numbers: Do Views Equal Fans?

September 15, 2014, 12:32 am

Image by Rehab Regime

 

LET’S TALK NUMBERS

By Quest MCODY

 

The battle rap community is growing, views are rising and its audience is changing. There was a time when, in order to gain recognition you had to travel the country. Now with the help of YouTube, a battle rapper can become "famous" rapping in his backyard. Rappers like, Murda Mook, Serius Jones, Loaded Lux, Midwest (Young) Miles and X Factor were part of the first wave of battle rappers to benefit from YouTube along with Reed Dollaz and the now-popular Meek Mill. Even before YouTube was the place to be, SMACK DVD's were being sold and distributed nation wide giving legs emcees that may have been restricted from national recognition otherwise.

"Men lie, women lie, numbers don't."

Jay Z made this statement so popular that he should have been given a co-writer credit on Yo Gotti's single "Men Lie, Women Lie" that had the club scene on fire a few years back. Now that battle rap is on the rise again, views are up and stars are being made! But are they really? Does 1,000,000 views mean 1,000,000 people watched your battle? How many times do you watch your favorite battles? A few times over right? Do the math.

Saying 1,000,000 views equals 1,000,000 fans is like Kanye West saying he sold 10 million copies because the million people that purchased his album have listened to it 10 times. Maybe Jay Z was wrong. Maybe numbers do lie. Well at least repeat viewing implies that there is some sort of interest in what the viewer is watching. This is the area battle emcees stand to gain the most ground.

As battle rappers we need to smarten up. Getting paid to show up and rap has always been a perk I enjoy, but what about the EXTRA money out there? How many battle rappers have sponsors? People that are actually willing to pay YOU to represent their product in YOUR battle. I know there's a handful of them that do, but there could be
so many more. If you are one of the battle rappers fortunate enough to get 500,000 plus views per battle, maybe hiring someone to seek out sponsorship would be a good idea. If you aren’t there yet, finding management to seek out sponsorship, as intuitively as a new battle or “Proving Ground” opportunity is just as important. I'm just saying, aren't we playing this "game" to make money? Now before the "true hip hop heads" jump down my throat (pause), we do this for the love, but why not get paid for what you love to do (i.e. Kobe Bryant?) The NBA pays its players and reaps the benefits of their talent. The exceptional players end up with endorsement deals that triple their NBA income and help build a brand (i.e. Michael Jordan.)

The battle rap fan base is pretty small in comparison to the rest of the world. Some
of the things we go crazy about in a battle are only usable in the small yet growing audience that we rap to. Example: "Stolen Tapes." If you are not a die hard battle fan you probably don't know or care why the crowd went crazy when I pulled out that tape during the 'Marvwon/Quest MCODY vs Soul Khan/Dirtbag Dan' battle. (7:48)

A lot of you have no idea what the heck that tape thing was about, but the select few that may have followed Jumpoff in 2007 might.

Soulja Boy made it evident that twitter followers and YouTube views don't necessarily help sell albums, so why the hell are some of us so hung up on views & followers? Well, that's easy. Its all some of us have to talk about. Anybody with a friend following or a page impression program can get followers & views, but now it’s a little more obvious than before. Not accusing anyone, just saying that it's fairly simple to pull off. There's a reason 50 Cent, Bow Wow (yes I referred to him as Bow Wow. He’s lucky I didn’t add “lil” to it) and Soulja Boy used to brag about YouTube views - they make a certain amount of money per view. Hell, 50 allegedly made a few million a few years back just tweeting. What makes him so special is that he has an interest in more than one specific area. If you take rap away from him, he'll not only survive, he'll succeed.

I urge any emcee in this battle scene to explore the options in and outside of our close-knit communities of battle rap enthusiasts. I am grateful for the opportunities outlets such as SMACK, Grindtime, Don’t Flop and KOTD have given me as well as my fellow battle emcees, but if they shut down tomorrow, I'd be OK. I "held out" from battling a while back for what I now know to be the wrong reasons, but it actually helped me much more than I ever could imagine. I learned how to utilize and in many cases I discovered my other talents. I'm concerned that with some of our "biggest stars" may be holding all their eggs in one basket dying down just as battle rap did a few years following hype around the 8 Mile movie.

I’m glad to see artists utilizing this outlet to broaden their horizons. Just remember: take advantage of opportunity, not the other way around.

www.getemcody.com

 

Follow Quest MCODY on Twitter