Everybody’s “Working”, Nobody’s Getting a Check..

What is wrong with our generation??? Have we lost our entrepreneurial spirit and given into the corporate slave mentality?? The more and more I turn around, I notice more & more people waiting for their “Big Break” and “trying 2 get ON”.

What happened 2 “Making something,outta nothing”???…I think we are all lost on the treadmill of life..

Waiting 4 that “big break” and in the meantime suffering & not truly being happy with ourselves. It’s almost like we gave our happiness to other’s and we’re waiting to hopefully get it back, like our “40 acres and a mule”.

Have you noticed that everyone in the music industry is always “working” “making hits” “in the studio making a smash” “grinding” “getting it in” “going HAM” etc, etc, etc (You get the gist lolol) but why is it, that for every single person that is “working” very few of them actually get tangible results? it just seems like a whole lot of people are “trying” but not very many are “doing”.

I was having a conversation with my business partner Buggyeye today, and he made a comment saying “we should have stayed focussed on trying 2 get major placements”. This comment came from the usual and inevitable frustrations that come from being in the entertainment business. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with me, my company Beat Banggahz or my partner Buggyeye. We have been a production team for 10 years and both been grinding individually for an even looonger time.

From 2001 till about 2008, our main focus was artist development and major placements. We had a lot of momentum and that road brought us Thousands of Dollars $$, a lot of  high-profile collaborations and a lot of potentially great projects…Things seemed to have peaked in 2006, and the 100’s of songs & tracks that were created since we started and relationships we that built, seemed to fall apart right in front of our eyes. All of The Projects that we worked on got shelved indefinitely, artists we worked with got dropped from their record label, the songs we worked on ended up not making the final cut, artists&songwriters that we developed got recording & publishing contracts and stopped working with us, plus a lot of disappointment and devastation by “fair weather friends”, everything kind of dried up around mid to late 2007.

In 2008, amidst our 1st dry spell in the music industry since our start as a team in 2001 (no calls, no writers, no projects, no artists, no work in the pipeline, everyone seemed to be passing on our tracks and even calling our sound “DATED”)

a lightbulb went off in my head and I decided that a more productive and fruitful path would come from independent & international markets, licensing and from utilizing the internet to brand ourselves and show that we are bigger than just making beats & the latest placement.

Fast forward, 3 years later in the new direction, we have established a solid fan base & online following, won an award for our production, had multiple songs that we worked on actually see the light of day and be released via (iTunes, YouTube, cd’s, & performed live, received airplay on internet, college & mainstream radio) done lots of print & radio interviews, and best of all GET $$$PAID$$ 2 Do WHAT WE LOVE!!

So, my question is…why is it that people would rather “TRY” to get major placements and even if they’re not getting them, say “im working” and year after year, just stay in the rat race and perpetrate an illusion?? To me, that’s like pan handling and begging for work, hoping that one day somebody gives you that “big break”.

Rather than to be a true entrepreneur, roll your sleeves up and create your OWN opportunities and “DO” what you Love 2 do,(however that may look for you) If your successful at it, one of three things is gonna happen. 1) Your gonna do well, and realize that you don’t need major placements and or a record deal because you’re doing fine without one. 2) You get enough attention & notoriety that major labels and artists seek you out and come to you on your terms. 3) You realize that you just cant “cut it” and that music as a career is NOT FOR YOU! The hustle, talent, resourcefulness, patience, drive, endurance & self-determination are not where they need to be, in order for YOU to succeed.

I think that a lot of us have become too lazy to take responsibility for our future, our dreams and our actions. We would rather get “put on” than to do the necessary work in order to self sustain, becuz independently you have to really get your hands dirty and work really hard to see any substantial results. We would rather wait for our “Big break” becuz if it doesn’t happen, we can blame someone else for our failure. We would rather work for a corporation that doesn’t appreciate or care for us, because we don’t see the true value in ourselves.

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