Here’s some tips from DJ BRI-G on what to do before you start claiming you’re the best thing since sliced bread when you bombard our inboxes with nonsense.

Over the last several months, I feel like I’ve been giving the same free advice to every random rapper or manager who calls my phone. This consists of:

1. If you have a beer budget, don’t expect champagne.
2. If you have a beer budget, you might not want to even try this music thing from jump.
3. Yes, there are other people that sound like you. You’re still just a rapper.
4. There’s nothing i can do for you if you don’t want to work on your own
5. There’s a lot of good music out there, not a lot of smart business people behind the music.
6. Get your internet presence to incredible levels before you even try to approach radio. You can hire somebody to do that, but 5 smart interns can do it too.
7. Film everything you do and everywhere you go
8. Go out of town weekly and meet DJs in your region. Keep building relationships.
9. Hire somebody trustworthy and with a track record to work your record to radio
10. Yes, radio promotion is expensive. If you don’t have the money to go all in, don’t expect to have a hit.
11. If you don’t have your hometown poppin’ on your own, how can u expect me to do it for you?
12. You may/may not need to sign a record deal. If you have the means to keep everything in house, do it. But it’s very expensive on the front end.
13. Gig, Gig, Gig, and when your tired, Gig some more.

It seems pretty simple right? I’m sure anybody reading this would think all of that is completely obvious. Well, in my experiences since being on my own, there’s a lot of stupid people out there that either want to be rappers or manage somebody who wants to be a rapper.

Check more of Bri-G’s insightful commentary at his blog: Revenge of Rob Gordon.