DON’T HOLLA!: Hip Hop “Hollaticking” Must stop.
Even my grandmother knows the slogan. "DON’T HOLLA"
I may piss some people off here, but so goes life sometimes. How many times have you heard this?…
“Yo man, I’mma holla at you son, we definitely gonna get up! Yo gimme your math, I’mma get at you, we gotta connect, we gotta build, we gotta politic, for real.”
But then they’re nowhere to be found when you take em up on their proposition.
Shut the fuck up and find a paper route. Disingenuousness is in every walk of life, but the music business (namely hip-hop) breeds a certain type of insincere rodent, who on sight, makes you feel like you pulled a bunch of wet hair out of a greasy tub drain. MUST you say you’re going to work with, “politic” with, “build” with or “connect” with EVERY muhfucka you meet in the industry when you REALLY have no plan to? Is it a felony to say…
“Yo it was good speakin to you, I’ll see you when I see you. Good luck.”
Is it???
Yeah, it is now, because people are afraid of closure. Hypothetical situation…If you’re Mr. Beat and some halitosis stricken, clammy handshake, 38 year old “aspiring” rapper asks you for a free beat, but you have ZERO interest in working with him whatsoever, what do you say to him? If you’re the typical flaky phony ass music industry amphibian, you’ll say…
“Yeah, no doubt, we’ll get up, I got you, we gonna “build”, I’ll “holla” at you and we’ll “politic”, knowing that you’re just trying to get away from him and stall until next time you see him at some Hollywood attitude on a Homeywood budget industry party. You give him your “math” to get him off your back, but now he’s mass texting you invites to all of his open mic showcases and the “press release” for his new mix CD with the 72 dpi artwork. And when you call his ass back to tell him stop flooding your phone with crap, it goes straight to voicemail. Welcome to the shit pit. So I ask you now, who is the crud muffin in this case? BOTH people. If you’re too busy makin moves to pick up the phone after you bombard my phone with promotional texts, fuck you, we ain’t boys, we can’t “politic“, good luck with your 72 dpi cover CD and your brother who interns at The Source getting you a feature in the mixtape column. On the flip side, if you have no plans whatsoever to take my calls, don’t even give me your number. Just say ‘I’d prefer not to, but good luck to you’ and I’ll respect you a lot more. Why people feel the need to go beyond “hi” and “bye” in this industry has always befuddled me. The lines of respect have been crossed, and the bottom line is these Rev. Deke O’Malley phony cornball kiddie assed adults can’t survive in any other walk of life, so they come to the music business, where it’s currently a free for all on self-aggrandizement that’s anchored by blackberry, sidekick and disingenuous mass text message dreck.
Remember when a phone number was a privilege? When you gave it out (or got it), it was a sign of respect and not another “connect” to text message your wack ass event invites to? Yeah, me too, but it just ain’t so these days. Save that shit for e-mail, because this free flow of “math” exchanging is indicative of how flaky and phony the music biz is, mainly because people have a problem with the words “no”, “never” and “goodbye”. We don’t need to have any type of dealings whatsoever and can still not have beef, so if you ain’t gonna call somebody and hold a 5 minute conversation with them, there’s no need to have their “math”.
At this point, I ask…WHAT THE FUCK ISN’T SOLELY A PROMOTIONAL TOOL????? Myspace, OK, that was meant for promotion. Now we have twitter, email (I do blasts my damn self), blogs (you‘re lookin at one)…OK, but those are pretty non-invasive as long as they‘re not sent out every 3 minutes. But now Facebook (which is meant to be personal)? Facebook was originally meant for people you KNOW (like really KNOW, or want to know more about). If you’re going around adding people you don’t even know just to promote your music career on Facebook without forewarning, I ask you…DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE FOR THE SAKE OF PROMOTION? Is ANY form of social networking or communication technology immune to trying to “get your buzz up”? I know it’s a flooded cesspool in the entertainment biz, but Jesus H. Christ, when the fuck does it stop? And when is the next time you’ll actually pick up the phone to talk to the faceless dude who you texted your show invite to? If the answer is never, you’re a piece of wet kotex fragment and I wish you luck in the ever so booming and recession proof music industry. I hope your “swagger” can get you the money to buy some clothes that fit you correctly.
I’ll end on this note: The music biz is the only place where being an insincere phony flake is encouraged. Don’t ask for my "math" if you don’t intend to call, don’t mass text people if you don’t answer your phone for em. Do that shit in corporate America, you get fired. Do it in the street, you get your head popped off. No wonder the game is flooded, these people have nowhere else to go. "We gotta get up J! We gotta build fam!" No we don’t, just gimme a god damn pound and keep it movin. "Holla" at your halitosis, potna.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
this sort of mentality has flooded into every industry that hiphop touches and its annoying as shit. on the same “math” token, giving out numbers is such a freebie these days that people expect you to give your number out. if you don’t do it in a club, bar, business setting, etc, you look pretentious or like a bitch.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
[...] J-zone airs out flakey music biz people with this rant. [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I think sometimes people go to these networking events and just get into super networking mode and try to open up as many doors and make as many connects as possible. Later on they realize there’s no way to plug the other person in (pause) to whatever they’re doing.
Still, there’s no excuse for ignoring a phonecall/email, especially when you initiated the whole thing. What kind of childish irresponsible shit is that. Just let people know so they can keep it movin’ and you don’t feel awkard about it anymore.
lmao @ “72 dpi artwork”
July 15th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Damn. 300 dpi minimum.I can’t help but wonder, that middle part seemed real personal.
Whatever happened to “Relying on talent, not marketing and promotion” ?
July 16th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Yo Zone, why don’t u just check my awesome top notch MCing skillz on my myspace page (a firend of mine workin at a record shop sayz I’m da new 50cents)?!?!
Then you can twit me what u think, I’ll answer u on your facebook and we’ll holla for politics with comments on my blog, where you can purchase my djless mixtapes, know dat for 4 bought u get a sandwich and a sticker.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
J-Zone, you’re the last of a dying breed. Which is sad. The world needs more people not promoting themselves every single chance they get.