If you were expecting yet another “secret societies in rap” article supposedly “exposing the fake industry” and ranting on about how “everybody who makes a lot of money in music is evil”…
This isn’t going to be for you.
On the contrary, this video is going to explain how if you’re an artist trying to make a full-time living from music…
Secret societies AREN’T what should be scaring you the most.
There’s a much more realistic, terrifying phenomenon in the music industry, and specifically Hollywood…
(Which I know the best because I’ve lived in L.A. for almost ten years and attending UCLA for college)…
And that alarming phenomenon you should worry more about that secret society is known as getting… “blacklisted“.
What Does Getting “Blacklisted” Mean?
Now, you may have heard the expression “blacklist” before.
Merriam-Webster defines it as, “to say that a person, company, etc., should be avoided or not allowed to do something”.
Merriam-Webster Definition
In the case of the music industry, the essentially means that a bunch of powerful people in the game have told their colleagues NOT to work with a particular artist.
This happens ALL THE TIME in Hollywood… sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad reasons.
In YOUR case, regardless of if you are already here in Los Angeles, back in your hometown, or even online…
You can get blacklisted from any group of powerful people and it can have DISASTROUS consequences on your chances to make a full-time income in music.
The important point here is that you understand that “blacklisting” isn’t confined to just one particular place or group of people.
ANY situation where you are relying on powerful people’s opinions of you has the potential to turn into a blacklist.
Why Is It Worse Than Secret Societies In Rap?
The problem is…
Most artists conjure up some vision of a few powerful people in a room actively PLANNING to destroy the “little guy” or the independent artist in some maniacal way with their mustache twirling…
Or even more commonly in Hip-Hop, they imagine any EXTREMELY wealthy rappers have somehow made a deal with the devil to get their wealth…
And now rappers like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Diddy, and many others are the most commonly listed as being with secret societies in rap…
(We’ll set aside the fact that I can guarantee with certainty that any “secret society of wealthy people” in America who want to “keep things quiet” are pretty unlikely to recruit a man like Kanye who suffers from permanent foot-in-mouth-disease…)
In any case, the reason that people are so paranoid about secret societies in rap is that the natural inclination from human beings is to assume…
Anybody who is more successful from them either gained their power from nefarious means or cheated someone to get to it…
…And to a certain extent I understand that because of wealth disparities that are so common today…
…BUT another natural human impulse is to assume the world revolves around them and people are constantly thinking about them…
…And so the combination of paranoid and self-centeredness present in human beings often leads someone to conclude…
“Because I’m not doing well and this other group of people, I think they PLANNED to screw me over and are ACTIVELY trying to keep screwing ME…”
As opposed to the more likely case that they were focused more on building their OWN success and ignored other people’s problems in exchange for working on themselves.
In any case, the point is that the most likely thing that will hold you back in rap is not some PLANNED OUT STRATEGY TO RUIN YOU BY A GROUP OF FIVE TO TEN ELITES WHO ARE CONSTANTLY THINKING TO RUIN YOU…
It’s more likely that you will “rub them the wrong way” through a series of amateurish behaviors which will make that group of powerful people see you as a “liability” as a opposed to an asset…
…And they will tell their other friends not to mess with you.
…And because no matter what part of the world you are in, powerful people tend to work together, if you get “blacklisted” by one powerful person, you’ll likely get blacklisted by a bunch.
NOTE: If you are looking to build your OWN full-time career and start your OWN record label so you don’t have to answer to anyone, check out our free book on how I went from living in my Mom’s basement to running my own six-figure music empire (and how you can do it to) by clicking HERE.
What Does It Look Like When You Get Blacklisted?
When you get blacklisted, usually it will be much harder to get money-making opportunities for you music.
A specific example might be if you piss off the wrong club owner during a performance in a city you’re touring in…
He will tell all of his other club owner buddies that you’re a liability and not to book you for shows, and now you won’t be able to perform and make money in a certain town.
Another example might be that you go on a Twitter rant and insult a lawyer, who little do you know is the foremost expert on resolving a particular legal issue you might need down the road…
…And then two years later when you get into trouble on the same legal issue and you forget you insulted them, you wonder why it’s so hard to get in touch with that lawyer…
So you end up getting a cheaper less competent lawyer, and the next thing you know your legal issue blows up in your face and you lose millions.
I’m using these less exaggerated examples precisely because THESE are more likely to happen to you as you chase the dream of being a full-time rapper than some vision of an “Illuminati blood sacrifice” you might have in your head if you’re prone to conspiracy theories…
…It’s more likely you will upset a club owner and a lawyer than Drake will want to drink your blood, is what I’m saying.
How To Avoid Getting Blacklisted
The best way to avoid getting blacklisted is to maintain what they call a “professional emotional distance” from people in the industry.
Do NOT think of these people as your friends… OR your enemies.
These people as we mentioned before are first and foremost concerned with THEMSELVES and their OWN lives…
And so they are trying to find ways to feed their family. You don’t need to look to them to help you “feel better”… or on the other hand, look to them to be “totally fair” themselves.
I think that “expectation of fairness” is something that really hurts artists. This is the music BUSINESS and in business people are out for themselves.
If you do a good job of knowing this from the jump, you will move more patiently and more thoughtfully when interacting with people in the game…
…And keep your friends as your friends.
Hold no expectations for people to be particularly helpful or evil when it comes to the game. Don’t worry so much about secret societies in rap.
Be professional and patient with them and focus on bettering yourself as an artist, and you will likely not activate the hating or negativity that comes from a blacklist.
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