Rapcointelpro: The Value of Putting Your Artist on a Promotional Tour

By Wendy Day of Rap Coalition

The best way to gain exposure and increase sales for your group or artist is to get them out there in front of the buying public. The most important thing, I think, in building an artist’s career (after good music) is a promotional tour. Exposing the artists and music to their core target market (the fans who would buy their music) is exceedingly important. A promo tour exposes them to the buying public, retail, radio, and local press. When Crooked Lettaz released with NO label support from Penalty Records (which has since been swallowed up by Tommy Boy, thank God), the group and I decided to go out ourselves on a promo tour through the Mid-South. We targeted Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. Had we released our own record we would have targeted just 3 or 4 states, but saturated those key areas. But since Penalty released the record nationally, with no push, we decided to target the areas closest to where the guys were from (Jackson). We rented a mini-van (it’s all we could afford) and for 17 days we went to a city a day (except Dallas and Houston where we spent 3 days due to the size). We drove at night, leaving each city after the clubs closed (sometimes they got to perform, sometimes we just handed out flyers and signed autographs) and arriving at the next town at about 4 or 5 AM. We stayed at Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns, never paying more than $50 a night for the three of us to sleep. We slept until 9 AM when we’d get up, eat breakfast and start going to record retail stores. We made certain to visit chain stores and independent retail stores. But we went to EVERY record store in each area. We also visited the stores that sold hip hop gear, drug paraphernalia, and in the case of Little Rock, stores that sold gang banging paraphernalia (vultures!). We shook hands, signed autographs, and almost always put up our own retail displays. It’s amazing how supportive the retailers were since we were doing our own work and our own promotions. We didn’t have any problems with any stores, except in Houston where I almost came to blows with the manager of Soundwaves on South Main. He’s a miserable human being who got annoyed with one of my artists for distributing postcards throughout his store, and instead of just telling him to stop, or asking us to rectify the situation (I ended up going back into the store and removing every postcard, hoping it would prevent him from tearing down our display–it did not), he ripped down our display after chasing me out into the parking lot to tell me he was going to rip down what had just taken us close to an hour to design. Rather than beat his ass, I immediately called his supervisor and then his supervisor’s boss (the VP of the entire chain). They were very supportive of our situation and invited us to return to the store to set up another display (which we decided against). Other than that one bad experience, we got incredible love and support from everyone at radio, retail, and the clubs along the way.

After spending each day going to every retail store, we spent every evening at radio. We went to the smallest college or underground station we could find as well as the larger urban radio formatted stations. No one knew we were coming in advance (which I do NOT recommend) due to our own time constraints in setting up this promo tour, but they showed us incredible love considering. We were able to supply them with promotional drops ("Hey this is Crooked Lettaz and when we’re in Oklahoma City we’re kickin’ it with Kool Kila!!"). We even had Dangerous Dawn from KJMM in Tulsa, Oklahoma drive out to the local Mall to kick it with us while we gave out postcards and signed photos (ya gotta be slick in the Malls, we got escorted out of almost every Mall for handing out postcards and photos). We covered all of the hang out spots as well, besides the local Malls: Barber shops, Basketball courts, etc. with posters, flyers, and postcards. At 10 PM we’d head through the local clubs that attracted a hip hop crowd and blitz the club. In many instances the guys got to perform, and had we been able to set up this tour properly ahead of time, the guys would have performed in every city we went to. Although they performed for free, many of the areas brought them back for paid shows once they saw how live the show was (David Banner spits real fire when they perform their hit, Firewater).

In 17 days we traveled throughout 12 cities and covered thousands and thousands of miles. We did this 5 weeks before the album dropped, and in the first week sold 8,000 units (that’s $80,000). Not bad for an album that had little to no promotion, no street teams, no video, spotty distribution, and a Source magazine ad (even though it’s a southern flavored album). The most amazing part of all of this to me, is that in some of those small towns, the only other artists that the fans got to meet was Do Or Die (another group affiliated with me) three years prior. So for three years, no artists came through many of those towns, and certainly no artists the size of a Jay-Z or Busta Rhymes. In a few of the cities was a tour that consisted of Salt N Pepa performing in some "dedicated to the old school" tour. But superstars never came through. They were so happy to be able to meet and interact with Crooked Lettaz that the guys always felt like stars (stars who got no love from their label, but stars none the less). The price tag for these 17 days? A little over $5,000. We gained exposure, love, support, and sales from Crooked Lettaz’ core market. And even eight months after the less than impressive release of their first album, the guys are still doing shows every Friday and Saturday nights. And got critical acclaim for this album in every review and from every magazine that exists in urban music.

And lastly, I’d like to share with you one of Tupac’s secrets of success. I asked him once if he did anything special to get to the level where he was (I asked him this when I went to visit him in prison in upstate New York, just before his release). He told me that he was always within reach of his fans.

After he would perform as an opening act for a larger artist (as he was building his career), he would come off the stage, go out the back door of the club or stadium, then go in through the main entrance of the venue (without security). He would then stand in the back of the spot and watch the show with the crowd. He would shake hands, hug women, sign autographs, and talk to his fans directly. He believed every person he touched could be another album sold for the duration of his career. Not a bad mindset for any artist!

This series will continue in every issue of Murder Dog and will contain information on pressing, street teams, distribution, foreign licensing, overseas distribution, artist development, flow of product, retail and radio, artist imaging and more. Each issue will also answer two specific questions sent in by our readers. Although questions can not be answered individually, they should be directed to Rap Coalition at 111 East 14th Street, #339, New York, NY 10003 or powerbroka@aol.com. And remember, if you don’t own your own shit, you’re just a sharecropper.

Q. How do I choose a pressing plant for my CDs and cassettes? I’m worried about being bootlegged. David Banner from Crooked Lettaz in Jackson, MS

A. Bootlegging is real, darlin’. I don’t think you can prevent that. When you sell a CD, you are selling a little master, ya know? So anyone who buys your CD could potentially be a bootlegger. You just need to maximize your opportunities and make certain there’s enough product to fill the demand. If you run out of product after your first pressing (this is the area where MOST small labels go wrong, because they can’t afford to re-press) and can’t ship the second run immediately, you will get bootlegged by any enterprising slob out there. It’s happening to Twista right now with his Legit Ballin compilation. It’s a fact of life that when a capitalist sees an opportunity, he or she takes it. Just keep those opportunities at a minimum. Ask other small labels where they go to press. You shouldn’t pay more than $1 a CD, and 65 cents a cassette is ideal. Meanwhile, call the following places for prices, as I know people who have used them all and not gotten jerked. Also ask for the price for re-pressing. You need to figure that in as well.

Manufacturers

(for CDs/cassettes)

DiscMakers (ya either love them or hate them) 800.468.9353

Europadisk: 212.226.4401

Universal Duplicating: 510.430.1000

SAS Industries: 800.955.7271

Rainbo: 310.829.3476

Digitalforce: 212.252.9300

Manufacturer (for vinyl)

Rainbo: 310.829.3476

Discmakers : 800.468.9353

A&R Records: 214.741.2027 (I don’t know anyone who has used them)

United Record Pressing: 615-259-9396

Universal Duplicating: 510.430.1000

REALITY CHECK:

So as we check in with Reality, we find his street team left Atlanta after the Superbowl Weekend to increase awareness and sell CDs and videos in Louisiana and Alabama. He pressed up another 10,000 CDs (his cost for pressing is at about $1 a CD and 85 cents a cassette) in late December and 10,000 videos in early December. Reality hooked up with Fiend, and they’ve decided to cross promote their CDs and video projects so they can cut costs. Fiend has mortgaged his house and Reality has been flipping real estate since June to raise money to release their projects. Looks like late May will be the release. They’ve decided to combine their money and efforts which will save them money on the cost of radio and cable ads and reduce their pressing and printing costs. Fiend’s video and CD are called Can I Burn and the video consists of footage from his days out on tour with No Limit. The soundtrack consists of about 4 or 5 Fiend songs and about 8 other songs from folks like Twista and The Speedknot Mobstaz, 3-6 Mafia, Skull Duggery, Crooked Lettaz, Magic, etc. Reality’s video and CD are both called No Apologiez. Both Fiend and Reality will use Select-O-Hits Distribution and Southwest Wholesale for their projects’ distribution. They are targeting a four state area (Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama), and will blitz those areas using cable ads and street teams, and secondary radio.

In late December, Reality purchased his own video editing equipment so he could edit his films in house. He has also taken on the editing of other video projects in Atlanta. He will now be able to shoot all of his and Fiend’s cable ads and edit them in house. The company is called DPI Communications and is based in Stone Mountain, GA. He also started a web site design and hosting company. He was getting so much response from his own website (www.revolutionaryrecords.com) that he started designing other people’s sites and now is able to host them as well. He became frustrated with the company that formerly hosted his site because they wouldn’t take the time to explain things to him about his site and the internet. So he found a top designer in Atlanta, and together they started a company to design and host websites for non- computer geeks. The focus is on customer service (www.dpicommunications.com). They now host seven sites, including two of mine.

WHAT’S UP AT JAM DOWN:

As of mid-March, Lil Keke’s album that released in July has sold 90,000 SoundScan units, but a total of about 150,000 in actuality. No larger labels have officially picked up Jam Down, but they have met with many labels such as MCA, Mammouth, Atlantic, Universal, and Elektra. No deal has been beneficial to Jam Down, the wording in the contracts phrased to take Lil Keke from Jam Down. I am very impressed that Jam Down has enough belief in themselves to hold out for what they deserve: control and ownership. They’ve proven over and over that they can do it. I can’t believe that no label sees the opportunity to make money with Jam Down.

So Jam Down is preparing to release a behind the scenes video project, a movie, and three albums as follows:

April 14: documentary video LIL KEKE THE YOUNGEST DON OF THEM ALL /April 14: Mob Figgaz album/May: The Don & The Underboss (album and video)/June: The Commission Crime Family

Since December, they set up a full video and editing department at Jam Down to keep as self contained as possible, and will continue to release their projects through Southwest Wholesale while working them regionally.