How We Can Build a Serious Movement

Published by Tyler Hakes on March 23, 2010 at 10:00 am

For my second entry I just wanted to talk a bit about the vision of this project — the vision I’ve had of a united movement to seriously reclaim hip-hop from the garbage on the radio. It’s really about taking back artistic freedom and rejecting conformity for dollars.

In my mind that’s sort of what the “underground” scene has always been about. Artists who are set on making music their way, with or without label support. I think that’s an extremely powerful thing. It’s extremely powerful because it demonstrates a fierce dedication to moral and quality standards on their part. And that’s good.

Unfortunately there’s a problem. With major labels you always have this unifying body of executives and cash behind your project. They propel your project by putting it in the face of as many media consumers as possible. They buy you ad space, land you interviews, get you on the TV, etc, etc, etc — until everyone knows your name and knows your music. That’s why the mainstream is the mainstream: It’s simply a matter of saturation.

So, how can we — the little guys, the underground MCs, the indie rap mags (that’s us) — compete with their budgets and their influence?

Well it’s simple. We can not do it alone. We have to be united in a movement. We have to work together.

Sure, groups and artists can achieve a marginal level of success by carving their own niche and selling a few records at their shows here and there. They can be successful.

But to be REALLY successful would take a massive movement. An immense effort where everyone with this goal worked together to promote each other and reject those that opposed the movement. It’s like if two people are trying to get out of a hole. They may be able to individually climb up a ways, but they probably won’t be able to climb the whole way alone. If they join together and put their backs together, with their feet against the perimeter, they can both walk up and scale the walls using each-other’s support.

I’m not talking about anything irrational or apocalyptic here — I’m just talking about a support network. We will always be more powerful as a union than as individuals (or even small, fragmented groups).

Our vision is to be a hub for this kind of support. We want to be a community that elevates hip-hop. We want to connect MCs to producers and producers to fans and fans to fans and fans to MCs. Only then can we make serious waves in the media industry, together.

So, if we support your music, we would like to encourage you to support the other artists that are also featured on our site. Find other artists who are dope and share them with your fans. Don’t see them as just competition — you’re actually adding value for your fan-base by pointing them toward other artists. You’re increasing your value as an artist.

And of course, fans, tell us who else we should be supporting! Spread our articles and help the artists that you care about grow and become successful.

You can support each other simply by re-tweeting other people’s music. Re-posting their mixtapes and directing your fans to their interviews. Telling your friends about an album we reviewed. It’s really simply, and it will make a difference.

We want to see every artist that we feature succeed, but we can’t do it alone. We can’t grow alone, and neither can you. We need to work together and support each other. Find the real, recognize the real and support the real. This is a movement.

Thanks again for your love and support. It keeps us going each and every day.

Peace, love. Real hip-hop.

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3 Responses

DiligentIntelligence Says:
May 2nd, 2010 at 3:26 pm

true talk bro.
and you already know,
we feel the same way.

keep doing what ya do, time will be our best assest in the goal.
K Says:
May 4th, 2010 at 10:45 am

I agree. Almost with all of it. Just one thing I want to add. No one anywhere likes the preachy. No one likes the self righteous. No one likes judgmentalism. I don’t really understand why it has to be like this at all. The implied above is that underground hip hop is inherently better, more moral, based on more talent and less corrupted. This as opposed by mainstream which by definition isn’t. But we all know that there is some real quality in the mainstream rap scene.

I’m not saying there’s something wrong with creating an underground hip hop bloc. I love the idea and I love the intent. But there’s no reason to make it condescending. Heck, with or without anything else, the music speaks for itself.
SubTronik Says:
May 18th, 2010 at 8:36 pm

I totally agree with this and I think this is a prime time for us to do this. Pop music has finally released it’s death grip on hip hop and is starting to latch onto electronic music. It’s kind of still sucky because I like some electronic music too, and don’t want to see it suffer the same fate we did, but at the same time, I recognize this as a good time for fresh, new even just talented people to come up in hip hop and bring it to new heights. Maybe I am just overly optimistic lol, but who knows.

Letter From The Editor

This is the blog for Tyler Hakes, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of aboveGround. I'll just use this for my general musings related to music, hip-hop, life and this site. I'll try to keep everyone up to date on what we're working on and how things are going. Feel free to leave comments with any questions or suggestions you have for us.

Peace, love, and real hip-hop.