Okay, most people already know that it does not pay to take the cheap way if they are serious about a career and that applies to hip hop as much as any other form of music. The guys at the top are making money because they made smart investments which is what I try to model myself after. I looked at a bunch of different programs and if you are going to spend money, which you absolutely have to do if you want to be a serious artist, then you already have what it takes to put together sounds. You got an Akai MPC, Yamaha Motif or something like that. Or maybe you are working off the computer like me with Reason, Cubase, Fruity Loops or Logic. That’s great, but you are going to need the right sounds because those programs just don’t give you anything good to try and work with. When I found out I could buy hip hop sounds I was in hog heaven because it finally all made sense to me – instead of using the basic junk they put on the machines and in the programs, I could get sounds that really sounded good to my own ears. I decided that if I wanted to be as great as RZA, Timbaland, DJ Premiere, Outkast or The Neptunes, then I was going to have to do what those guys did and really invest towards my own future.
That is the skip a lot of artists totally skip and then they wonder why they are frustrated that their career isn’t going anywhere. Well, if a person is just ganking different sound files off the internet and using the same stuff everyone else has, most of which is not produced to high standards, then they are bound to get messed up because it just is not going to sound good, it is going to sound amateur as hell and not like the kind of music anyone likes to listen to. The thing you have to do is be able to get the really good music that actually fits in with the times and once you have this you will get far. Those who buy hip hop sounds can always find better quality stuff and since they have the rights to use it they can make great sounding albums no matter if they are working in West Coast Gangsta rap, Dirty South or any other genre. The whole key is getting quality for the cash and that means you are playing quality which people are going to be willing to pay you for. I found once I started going in this direction my albums got picked up a whole lot easier because I didn’t have to hide the sound quality and hoped people would buy because they liked me.
Don’t miss the boat here, buy hip hop sounds and make your music sell itself. You aren’t going to regret it.