BRING THE DRAMA! For me January 17, 2007 is a day that will never be forgotten. I sat at the studio with my producer and watched as Atlanta Fox 5 reported that the Fulton County Swat Team along with Clayton County officials and the RIAA had just raided DJ Drama’s downtown Atlanta studio seizing everything in sight. CD’s, recording equipment, company records, cars, money, and pretty much anything that wasn’t nailed down was confiscated as DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon were ON DECK
STREET TALK
If you haven’t heard of Street Talk Newspaper by now then you’ve most likely been hiding under a rock somewhere. This simple publication began less than a year ago but has quickly begun growing into phenomenon. You almost can’t go out to a club or major event without bumping into an issue. Open one up and you are going to get exactly what the name implies Street Talk. The articles are concise, to the point and make for an easy read. It invites the reader to read the whole publication from beginning to end (A definite plus for someone interested in advertising). The best thing about the publication Continued on Page 2
taking into custody and latter hit with a RICO Act for racketeering. Now for those of you who don’t grasp the severity of what the RICO Act is, I’ll explain it. The RICO act was created back in 1970 to aid law enforcement agencies bring down organized crime families. Simply stated, if you commit any 2 of the 35 crimes specified in the act within a 10 year period you can be hit with a RICO charge which carries a maximum fine of $25,000 and 20 years in prison. Now
HOLLA BACK
with that in perspective let’s get back to the subject. I watched as Fox 5 reporter, Stacey Elgin, demonized two of hip-hops most well respected DJ’s as if they were running a some sort of bootlegging empire, continuously reffered to mixtapes as counterfeit CD’s. Keep in mind that we are talking about DJ’s that work closely with both major artists and the record labels who fund the RIAA, DJ’s that have been instrumental in aiding artists such as Young Jeezy, Continued on Page 2
STREET TALK NEWSPAPER Continued from page 1 is it is distributed for Free. That’s right this bi-monthly publication distributes 20,000 Copies of their newspaper completely FREE. Another good thing about Street Talk is its healthy mix of articles about major and independent artists. You may pick it up to read an article on Young Jeezy but you are also going to find out about a lot of the independent artist doing there thing. So for all of you aspiring artist, producer, manager, promoters, and such this is definitely a resource that you want to tap into. With ads starting as low as $99 it makes for a hard offer to resist. To get more info on Street Talk Newspaper hit them up on Myspace.com/ streettalk411 and don’t forget to subscribe to their email blast for the latest news and events delivered straight to your inbox.
BRING THE DRAMA! Continued from page 1 TI and Lil Wayne achieve platinum sales status, DJ’s with their own radio shows on not only Sirius satellite radio but also one of Atlanta’s hottest radio stations, WHTA 107.9. I listened as both Fox 5 and Fulton county officials insinuated that some how being a hip hop DJ automatically associates you with drugs and/or gun posession. And although neither of which were found during the raid of the studio, Fox 5 still found this opinion important enough to mention multiple times in the course of the story. There were so many points of disgust during this report that I’m not even going to try to tackle them all.
Hip Hop. The days soon turned into weeks before I realized that nobody was coming. I had to ask myself where was Nas? Surely the self appointed commentator on the state of hip hop has something to say about this direct attack on one of the four essential elements of hip hop, but I guess the state of hip-hop only matters when you have an upcoming release date. Where was T.I., Jeezy, Lil Wayne, or any of the artists that the Gangster Grillz mixtapes helped to promote? I listened…. And if they spoke against the RIAA, I guess I missed it. The overwhelming lack of public support from the people who benefit most from mixtapes lead me to ask, Is there no unity in hip-hop? Has the rap game turned into just another job? Have the artists become so caught up in filling their pockets that they have lost perspective of what’s really going on. If so, let me put it into perspective: DJ’s make artists. Record companies break them! Who’s side are you on?
Before I piced up a pen to write the article I decide to wait and see how things played out, So I waited… and I waited... and I waited! What exactly was I waiting for? I was waiting for the cavalry. I was waiting for the artists to step forward and defend Drama, Give us your opinions at to defend Cannon, to de- myspace.com/MakinItMag fend the DJ’s, to defend
kin’ It
ed by CJC more info or to ease contact at : Mag.com
m/makinitmag
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Makin’ the Most of Myspace PART 2: THREE ESSENTIAL RULES
This is the second installment of our three part series about myspace promotions. Last month we filled you in on some of the most common mistakes made by people new to the whole Myspace scene. This month we are back at it with a list of additional tips to help you create a powerful buzz both online and offline utilizing the power of Myspace. Just remember Myspace is only what you make it.
1) Don’t Be Stingy.
2) Play Nice!
I know all you artists out there have dreams of one day making it big, playing sold out shows and going on to sell millions of albums. So when uploading your music onto myspace it may seem almost counter productive to let people just download your music for FREE. Well, here’s a little reality check for you. If you are lucky enough to have someone come to your page and like what they hear enough to want to download it so they can listen to it latter in their cars, on their I-pods, or with their friends, why would you stop them. Myspace is a great promotional vehicle for musicians but don’t restrict your music from spreading beyond that glowing screen of somebody’s computer. If you find someone who appreciates your music appreciate them. Besides its a lot easier to allow people to download your music for free than it is to print up tons of promotional copies to end up on the parking lot of the club.
Myspace is a social networking website. If you want to promote your modeling , music, or whatever it is that you do then you are going to have to do 2 things; network and be social. If you are like the millions of people who signed up for a myspace account expecting to become famous overnight, only to abandon it two weeks latter because it failed to meet your expectations of instant promotional success, you might want to re-evalute the situation. There is nothing magical about Myspace. Its just like any any other form of promotion. It is far more effective when properly planned and executed. You wouldn’t create a television commercial, run it once and then sit back waiting for customers to come flooding into your store. Well Myspace is no different the people that you see with all those friends and ridiculous number of plays actively promote their profiles. The advantage that Myspace has over other mass media advertising vehicles is the fact that
its interactive and it s Free. Make sure you remember this.
3) My Friends List is bigger Than Yours! If you from the hood you will appreciate this bit of logic. What good does it do you to hang out with a bunch of people who wouldn’t help you in a fight. Remember that when you are on Myspace. How many friends you have doesn’t matter nearly as much as the quality of the people on your friends list. You are better off building a strong relationship with 200 people who periodically check your profiles for updates, add you to there top 8, and let other people know about you than adding any and everybody who will accept your friend request. True its great to have a lot of friends because when you post a bulletin all of them will receive it. But what good does it do if none of them will read it. Please, Don’t be a “Myspace Whore”… LOL.