Farnum and NOEMOTION GOLDMASK face off against RC and Thinker St James at the Lounge Battles 9 2v2 tournament in Orlando, FL. Let us know who you think won!

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for booking: MarQuest www.modelmayhem.com/mqimagesinc MQmodels@gmail.com (407)405-0520

Isaac Knox and Heir Jordan face Baesik and John D at the Lounge Battles 9 2v2 tournament in Orlando, FL.

Available in 3D

D.I. JOE is hitting the streets with his debut mixtape, the aptly titled, Classic Hour. The project is available as a free download or CD through DIJOE.COM. Dee delivers a collection of solid West Coast Hip Hop, flexing his lyrical prowess effortlessly going from dark & grimy story telling to West Coast anthems to raw Hip Hop.

You can download his mixtape for FREE by clicking here!

Check out The Haters Fade off the FREE Download here:

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Host:MADD ILLZ Camera: Corey Shepard “Corey the camera man:

VIdeo available in 3D.

Music at end of video produced by Roger Corvette

“But Troy A. I don’t have a brand, I am who I am you know? Plus, I aint got money like that to be paying these fools to help me promote & I got a life and responsibilities…” yatta yatta yatta. Look I’ve heard it all when it comes to independent artists being told that they need to depict themselves as a product, figure out what that product ...]]> At this very moment you should look at Hip Hop & the impact it’s had on pop culture (or vice versa) and understand one thing, it seems easily attainable & more so now than ever before a vast majority of people believe they can “make it” as a rapper! If you’re one of the many that feel this way one of the first important steps to make is developing yourself into a brand!

“But Troy A. I don’t have a brand, I am who I am you know? Plus, I aint got money like that to be paying these fools to help me promote & I got a life and responsibilities…” yatta yatta yatta. Look I’ve heard it all when it comes to independent artists being told that they need to depict themselves as a product, figure out what that product is, what it represents, and how to go about advertising it.Usually the defensiveness kicks in to where it’s all about their craft and it speaks for itself or it’s that the funds for their career are insufficient at that point in time or lastly they’re unwilling to promote themselves physically because they’re too big of an artist to be looking like such an amateur. Whether it’s the music, the money, the team or lack there of, one thing that ultimately all successful artists will come to understand is that branding is in everything and doesn’t require a ton of people or money. It starts with one person doing what it is they can do to promote a product that’ll in turn reach the eyes of many, few will bite, and the movement will grow. What’s important to realize is that money doesn’t create a dream it simply rewards the dreamer. What I’m getting at is if you want to be an artist for real and are looking to one day be able to live a life of comfort from your career as a musician you need to take it upon yourself to relate the business of music to your artistic endeavor.

If you as an artist were a clothing brand (Ralph Lauren) your current project would be a line set to be released (Purple Label) and in that line there’d be a theme or set themes to further define the target audience (outerwear, sweaters, sport shirts, knits & fleece, so on & so forth). You’d want to be able to ensure you’re covering the essentials of the need (pants, shirts, underwear, socks, seasonal clothing) and the want (the logo, signature series/limited edition colors or sub logo etc.) because once you’ve been able to create the product and define its appeal to various audiences you’re ready to launch the promotional campaign with a demographic in mind so that you’ll know how to go about getting your music exposure locally and on the web. How’d Ralph Lauren tie into this? We’ll Ralph Lauren is the rap name, Purple Label is the EP, the outerwear, sweaters, etc. are the songs, the essentials is the substance behind the songs, and the want is the album cover, the individual thumbnail photo per song, the artist logo, the “theme” people can & want to identify themselves with. If you structure your brand after a brand of success no matter the industry field and figure out your particular niche to make a brand that’ll in time make money the only way you can fail is by giving up.

There’s a million ways to go about the branding process in its entirety, the way I look at it I’m dealing with Hip Hop heads who’re more interested in just getting the know-how from this particular article and the knowledge from personal experience later, check!

We first must tap into the “Five W’s”
- Who are you?
- What do you represent?
- When did this begin?
- Where are you representing?
- Why do you matter?

Be able to thoroughly define who you are as an artist and the people you’re speaking on behalf of or towards, establish what it is you’re out there representing weather it’s a cause, a life style, a political effort to raise awareness, or supporting single mothers who work the poles, ensure you time-line is right because avid fans like to know the influences of those who’re influencing them and in regards to Hip Hop we all know your credibility will usually determine if you sell, continue to sell, or are sold out (And record sales {often times} depict whatever category the culture labeled you as). Lastly, if you’re trying to get people to support your way of life you better give them a reason to! Do you matter? You must know that answer to be a yes and there must be conviction as to why! There are groups of people all over this world looking to identify with someone and every artist is a person whom at one point or another has or is looking to someone they can still identify with. Keep your music true to you with a conscientious mind as to what styles of music are popular and blend the two. Figure out who you are, create the music to adequately express that, and develop a brand that’ll represent your musical creation 100% thoroughly.

In a world of complexity the only difficult thing should be the artist himself or herself, that’s why they’re making music. Everything else in life should be kept as simple as possible. Keep one active email for booking, features, etc. (but keep the BRAND in mind: RalphLaurenMGMT@RalphLauren.com), one active phone number dedicated to the artist as an artist, and it’s good to get active on as many sites as possible but pick one Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blog, Email for the artist to actively engage on. If you’re one of the millions of artists who aren’t with a team at this stage in your career than it’s important to step up to the plate and handle this business side of your life. Maintain a more professional appearance on your social media platforms, provide only snippets of songs on the vast amounts of sites you can release music on and save the real songs for places that’ll actually sell them like Amazon or iTunes. Worry about logo creation, photo shoots, and basic Internet user ability. The more professional you’re able to present yourself, the more serious you’ll be taken by the people that do have opportunity for you.

Here’s where you’ll need to save a little creativity outside of your lyricism, song structure & subjects, THE NICHE! Begin seeking everything you’d want to be associated with and start at the biggest companies all the way down to the small local ones and work on getting sponsorships/endorsements through any of them to where they’ll promote your music on their sites, at their stores, on their clothes and in return you get their crap and promote it as well or get paid or something. Brand association! Begin tapping into other markets outside of music that you’d maybe want to associate yourself with like Breast Cancer Awareness, Homeless Food Drives, etc.. And develop something for your fans, affiliates, friends, and family to be apart of for the sake of being trendy. Like Twitter for instance my name is Troy Arroyo, I go by Troy A. like the all time great Cowboys quarterback so my hash tag is “Troy A. #No8NoAikman” or Funk Master Flex has “In Flex We Trust” which looks like #IFWT. Create one for you and everyone supporting you to begin doing. You’ve also got the power of YouTube maybe a weekly web series, a Facebook WTF PIC OF THE DAY for your fan page like Big Tigger does, just find ways to gain attention via all your free platforms that isn’t you just straight trying to shove your music or yourself down everyone’s throats all the time. Spamming Facebook walls & @somanypeople on Twitter with your message attached usually does more harm than good.

Moving on to the next big factor in your life is the one that most people fail to think twice about. Your circle of squares! That’s right I said it (and if you’re truly a dangerous man with lethal people in your camp I sincerely was not referring to you ha) Too often it seems that the most talented of people blow up because of their skill sets yet struggle with longevity because they brought the people that were with them at the time along for journey and appointed them positions which were never taken seriously and ultimately that 16th minute after the fame occurred. Now the ones who’re arguably “questionable” as to how they were “put on” in the rap game may be singing nursery flows and elementary rhymes but their substance is true-to-self and the city and sometimes even the entire state can validate that. So being honest with who they are had forced them to realize they need to hire/trust a staff of people who truly cared to be there in whatever form, billet or position such as an accountant, managers, stylists, publicists, body guards, etc. and therefore created a solid safety net that keeps the artist level headed and constantly determined. Guilt by association, How you dress, talk, walk, rhyme, shake hands, are all direct reflections of who you are to the next man, and the same thing goes for the people you bring with you. Everyone needs to be carrying themselves how you want them to be presented because at the end of they day it’s you whose either in or aspiring to be in the spotlight and everyone needs to have that common goal and sense of selflessness to ensure you’re in the best hands. Don’t be a victim of your squad, be a leader!

Lastly, reputation! This is the most basic level of branding and is the easiest to screw up! No matter how you are really it’s important to come off as humble, caring, compassionate, and grateful for every bone that’s been tossed your way. No matter how big you get treat your fans with respect, go the extra mile for them. All this is etiquette and if you have good etiquette or at least have an understanding of what the term means and you go about practicing it as much as your practicing your rhymes you’ll be okay. But be honest, be humble, be a hard worker, BE… YOU! At the end of the day you are the brand and the brand is you, understanding the tactics and finding creative ways to mesh them into being one in the same and how to reinvent it time and time again will serve you justice every time.

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