How Do Rappers Blow Up

A question I get asked often from others is “How Do Rappers Blow Up?” Aspiring rappers see new successful rapper getting his songs played on the radio, seeing millions of views, followers and streams on his Youtube, and Soundcloud page.

They even see a relatively new rapper getting invited to award shows and the latest glamorous events. Well how did all that happen?

Most people would see all this and think that it happened over night, but the truth is no success happens over night. For success to happen it takes time and the success that you see rappers have took work.

So to all the up and coming reading this article there’s no free ride to fame and money. It’s not easy to make it big and it won’t happen right away.

But if you’re willing to put in the time and effort you can be an indie rapper that blows up.

Also Read: What Is An Independent Rappers Salary

How Do Rappers Blow Up Quickly?

Well, there’s no such thing as anyone blowing up quickly. It’s a process. One of the elements or formulas that contribute to a rappers success is the music itself.

Now, there are many people that argue that the quality of most rap music that is made now-a-days is poor. The beats are repetitive, most rappers mumble when they rap, and they all sound the same. That will be left for argument on another day.

But back to the point I was trying to make, the music you create has to have a catchy feel to it. In rap music rappers find success in following trends.

If someone has success with a particular sound or style of beat, other rappers will copy that style, and put music out hoping they will catch the same success. Same thing goes for rapping styles.

If a particular rapper is having success rhyming with a certain style, and it’s catching on with music listeners, other rappers will copy it and follow suit.

Not all rappers of course, but most of them will. This of course is contrary to what rappers did in the 80’s and 90’s hip hop era. If you copied some else’s lyrics, sound and style you would be considered a fake and a “biter”.

“Biting” was the ultimate sin in rap music, but I’ve come to realize things have changed over time. Now a lot of rappers are copying rappers hoping for success.

Build A Strong Artist Brand

I’ve always maintained that without building a brand you’re just another regular rapper struggling to make it.

A brand is what separates you from the competition. Making music is one thing but having a brand will take your music career to the next level.

Artist like Drake, Lil Baby, and Lil Uzi Vert are able to push ahead further than other rap artists because they have establish a brand that fans and companies are drawn to.

The rap artists that don’t have brand quality don’t have star like quality either. New rap artists that work to develop an artist brand have easiest time at gaining success than those who don’t.

Also Read: Do Rappers Really Freestyle

Create A Unique Selling Point

A unique selling point is where you create a brand and package it in a way that sets you apart from your competition. What makes you unique? How do you stand out? How is your music different from the rest? How is your appearance, character and style?

A USP (Unique Selling Point) is able to draw people to you because you stand out from the crowd. In the beginning of Nicki Minaj’s career it was her split personalities, different accents, and her style of dress (mostly in costumes, heavy make up and different color hair).

With Fetty Wap it was having one eye that made him different. We haven’t seen anything like that since Slick Rick, but the difference is Fetty doesn’t wear a patch.

With Young Thug he had feminine traits and acted overly flamboyant to the point where people saw him as a gay rapper. They say there’s never been an openly gay rapper before; so that drew people to him.

By the way he’s never said that he was gay he just plays along with the assumption that some people have of him. What is your unique selling point? How are you different from the rest? Creating a USP will definitely help blow you up.

Use The Power of Social Media

Up and coming rappers are in a unique position that past rappers didn’t have the opportunity to be in. And that’s the position to capitalize off the promotion and marketing power of social media. Social media has the power to showcase you to millions of people instantly through a single post.

How do rappers blow up on Youtube?

It’s a combination of things but mostly link sharing. A rapper will upload his video to Youtube and share it among his friends, they will like and comment on it and are encouraged to share the link with their friends and associates.

Those friends will do the same thing and encourage others to so as well, and so on and so forth. Next thing you know the video link spreads like wild fire and creates a viral effect.

I’ve seen it done with Chief Keef, Bobby Shmurda and countless others. The power of link sharing is an amazing thing to witness. No paid advertising deeded, just groups of people sharing and supporting the music.

Also Read: 4 Amazing Ways To Tend On Sound

How do rappers blow up on soundcloud? The same way they do on Youtube. I’ve seen a new rap artist post a link on Souncloud and share it with their friends, and the process repeats several times until the song gets thousands of plays and likes.

The same song I see on Soundcloud ends up being Dm’d to me by a random listener who fell in love with the song.

Yes, a random Dm with the song link. A week later it might be blasted to my email by a rap blog/site promoting the hype the song has been getting, and the link sharing continues in a variety of ways, to thousands of music listeners and taste makers within the industry.

Also Read: 4 Amazing Ways To Trend On Soundcloud

Get Featured Rap Websites/blogs

This is an amazing way to get your music to the forefront and in the ears of hundreds of thousands of people in one setting. Rap blogs have really helped launched the careers of many up and coming artists.

This site since 2009 has been the catalyst for many rap careers and we are happy to do so. Rap blogs will continue to be one of the biggest formulas in launching a rappers career so if you’re not already doing so, submit your music to some. It will help you blow up.

Cross Promote With Other Artists

New rap artists have been able to get a boost in popularity through the cross promotion of other artists that are gaining popularity, or already popular artists.

This is called Artist Cross Brand Promotion and it works to maximize your visibility to a new audience. This is what will elevate and take your fan base to a whole other level, and put you in a place of high demand.

Get “Influencers” To Promote You

One of the amazing things about word of mouth is that it can spread and reach a lot of people quicker than tv or radio advertisement can.

Word of mouth can spread like fire if the product or in this case if the music is catchy enough. So who are “Influencers”? Well, they are people who have authority or have popularity within a certain sector.

So “Influencers” within music would be people who have a huge following and influence within the music industry. These could be bloggers, other artists, music media, dj’s, producers, A&R’s etc.

What they will do is post out your music link to their followers and help spread the word about. Their “Influencers” will share it with their followers, and the followers will share it with their circle, and so on and so fourth.

It’s truly and incredible way to leverage another persons status within the music industry to push your music.

Also Read: What It Takes To Be A Rapper

Go On Your Own Tour

One of the most important ingredients in blowing up all over the country is letting people hear your music. People need to know who you are, they need to see your face, they need to experience your music live in order to have a real connection with you.

You can’t make music in your basement and never come out and expect a connection with people. That’s not how it works.

You have to create good music, share it online with your following, and then go out and perform for the people! Let them see what you look like.

As a new artist you can either have your manager contact a signed artist to have you open up the tour for him, or you can create your own tour.

Creating your own tour does take having money to travel so if you’re going to go that route you have to have the funds.

So who was successful at this? Well, a few people were including Tech N9ne, Chance The Rapper, and Curren$y.

Chance and Curren$y’s story was unique because they gave away their music for free and but made money when people came to their concerts! This is the ultimate way to give away your music for free upfront but profit on the back end.

Hire A Music Promotion Company

One of the ways to fast track to blowin’ up as a rap artist is to get some help from a company that has experience in getting your music to the ears of thousands of people.

The right music promotion company can do all the leg work for you in terms of social media promotion, PR Release, Music video promotion, Email blasts, Magazine features, Radio play etc.

If you are going to go this route please do proper research on the company! Too often I hear of new rap artists getting screwed out of thousands of dollars because they put their money and faith into a promo company that wasn’t legit.

It’s very sad. But my advice is to avoid all that by checking out the promotion company’s references, testimonials, blog features, reports, or media coverage of them.

See if they’re really reputable and if they are you can make the decision to purchase their services. If not you have to get rid of them.

Our company Hip Hop Push Media, LLC has always maintained our reputable status within the industry. We are trustworthy, transparent, and effective in delivering our services. Check out some of our plans: Hip Hop Promo Packages

In conclusion, to blow up you need all the elements listed above in place or executed. As I said before nothing happens overnight. There is no such thing as overnight success or quick success, you just won’t find it!

Instead it takes time to blow up and make it big within the music industry. If you are willing to take your time and put in the work and apply yourself you will blow up within the music industry at the right time!