Bernie Mac, Rest In Peace

Bernie Mac (1957-2008)
(AP Photo / Tammie Arroyo)

We lost a great soldier today. One of the Kings of Comedy, Bernie Mac passed away this morning due to complications from pneumonia. I know alot of people were touched by his passing and I for one am definitely shook up. Even though I didn't know Bernie, felt like I did through his work.

From his many stand-up performances to his movies to his TV show, he proved he was a King of Comedy. I had the opportunity not only to see the Kings of Comedy concert live but I actually promoted it as well so I can alway say I got to work for Mr. Bernie Mac. I'm really gonna miss that dude. He was pure genuine comedy and I thank God that he walked the earth. I had many a laugh due to him. All Hail The King Bernie Mac!!! You will be missed Brother. May you rest in peace...

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Make Your Own Beats: Selling Beats vs. Leasing Beats

I've been thinking about the different business models in which you can sell beats online. There are several different ways that I've seen since I've been actively selling beats online.

There are membership sites where you can pay a one-time fee or monthly fee and have access to a catalog of beats. There are sites where you can buy royalty-free beats for different prices but. If you buy these beats from these sites you also don't have control over who else buys the beat because you're not the exclusive buyer. There are also sites where you can buy beats with full rights that you own straight out and don't have to share with anybody.

I think the best sites that I've seen combine several of these features in one. They are like hybrid sites. They combine being able to buy royalty-free beats and getting a beat custom made. I know one guy that makes over $15,000 a month using this model!

I told your about Base Jase a while ago who makes beats for MTV as well as sells beats online. His beats sell for different prices but once someone buys them, he takes the beat off his site and the buyer is the sole owner.

Both ways have advantages but I think ultimately to keep headaches down a person who is looking for beats should buy them straight out. The downside to leasing or buying beats royalty-free is that somebody else can buy the beat as well and the beat loses it originality.

Anyway these are just some thoughts I had. I hope you think about your business model when you are making your own beats. If you have any questions, hit me up! Peace...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Make Your Own Beats: Old Skool vs. New Skool

There is a big difference between the music today versus the music 20 years ago. The Hiphop Kulture was in its "Golden Era" back then and the music was alot more fun. It wasn't making as much money as it is today but it seemed a bit more pure.

Everyone was working to be different from the competition, not trying to emulate them. I mean Heavy D was different from N.W.A. Public Enemy was different from The 2 Live Crew. Big Daddy Kane was different from Run-DMC. And being in the true spirit of Hiphop, the artists strived to be different from each other. What was cool is that you could hear all these artist on the same radio playlist. There was balance.

Today I can't say that at all. Most mainstream rappers are consistent when it comes to talking about Ballin'. How much they are ballin? How much money they have? How many girls they have? Let's talk about my Phantom and my Bentley and how I got to be this way selling drugs, etc., etc. Yeah right!!! The only ones that sound different now are the underground emcees. There are some who still flex skills like Common and Lupe Fiasco but they are rare and they ain't selling records like the drug dealer/pimp types.

The music is different as well. Some of the music still bangs but since everybody found out that Soulja Boy made his break off of Fruity Loops & MySpace.com, people have been trying to copy that formula.

What???

There are still some producers that sample and there are still some who try to make their music have a signature sound. I applaud these producers for wanting to be different. Make your own beats. Make your own sound. That my friend is Hiphop. Peace...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Make Your Own Beats? Back Up Your Computer To Be Safe

Here is something that is very frustrating if you are making your own beats using a computer. I made some sick beats and for some reason I didn't get this lesson when it was first put in my face. I'm talking about backing up your hard drive and saving your work on a CD-R.

The first time this happened to me was back in 2006. My motherboard went out in my computer and I had every opportunity to back up my work. There was even a point in time just before it died when I could've saved everything but oh no. I FORGOT that my computer was wiggin' out so I shut it down. It never came back on and I lost everything. The real reason I also lost everything was that my computer guy lost my hard drive which is another reason to back up all of your files.

Fast forward to 2008.

My computer guy built me another computer and it works good enough to for me to make beats and do some basic computing and web surfing. We'll here's a tip: if you have people in your household who use your main computer, then you should back it up regularly. Why? Because people download things sometimes that they aren't sure about and these things can be viruses or programs that don't work well with your computer.

Case in point.

I just moved at the beginning of May and when I moved my computer was working fine. For some strange reason a month later it started locking up. I'd have to reboot my computer every time and I just knew something had been downloaded by my wife that shouldn't have been. Well, I decided I would back up my files because I couldn't afford to lose all of my work. Good thing I did too.

Late in July, my computer started locking up as soon as the Windows logo would come on the monitor. I can't even explain to you how pissed I was. I had been running virus scans and Norton Systemworks scans as well and I kept getting some errors in my temp files that wouldn't go away no matter how many times I tried. Finally, I just decided to track down the location of the temp files and manually delete them. I was a bit nervous but they were temp files so that means it was taking up extra space anyway. This took a little while but guess what? My computer hasn't locked up in a week.

Bottom line: If you're making your own beats and using you computer to run your business, then you absolutely MUST backup your files. You might loose that beat the would've been the million dollar seller. Peace...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Rapper/Producer Daz Dillinger's New Album and What He Thinks About Making Beats

Dogg Pound member Daz Dillinger is set to release his latest album, "Only On The Left Side" next Tuesday, August 12th. I've been a Daz fan before he was called Dillinger in The Chronic and he's been pretty consistent even though he doesn't get a whole lot of publicity.

I liked what he said about making beats though.

“I’m doing a lot of producing, I just don’t be giving my beats out,” he says. ” I can make more money with my beats than the person I give it to. Because I put the records out, I’m seeing the money come in, I’m getting the ringtone money, everything. I can make a song tonight and have it up on iTunes in 2 days.”

I keep telling you cats that making your own beats is the way to go. No, you don't have to be a Daz Dillinger but you do have to be proactive and make things happen for yourself. If you're the writer and producer, you get to keep 100% of your publishing royalties if you know what you're doing.

The traditional music business is dead. I like what he said about iTunes. People are looking for new joints to put on their iPods that not everybody has. People are tired of the same songs being played on the radio 20 times a day. There is a golden opportunity at hand and people like Daz Dillinger are ahead of the game. Peace...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

Make Your Own Beats...Or Else!!!

Hey this is just a thought that I had. If CL Smooth would have been making beats, would his career have flourished as much or greater than Pete Rock's? We all know Pete Rock is sick on the beats and he can flow too. Not as good as CL but he held his own in the group and on his solo joints.

I don't know why Pete Rock and CL Smooth actually broke up. I've heard it was over, you guessed it...BEATS! There was a point in the 90's when Pete Rock was making beats for everybody. Pete was blowin' up and CL was getting blown off. That's just one example of someone who was the beat maker that thrived while others in the group fell by the wayside.

How about Teddy Riley and Guy. Boy, Aaron Hall sure could sing! I mean the ladies were on that dude back in the day even though some said he had a stuttering problem. Teddy was the man though. He coined the New Jack Swing era and made lots of money making beats for other artists besides Guy. I mean from Keith Sweat to Micheal Jackson he made a lot of beats. He produced from countless rap artists too.

Aaron Hall put out some solo albums but so what? I mean the albums were dope but Teddy was collecting checks...FAT CHECKS!!! All from making beats.

Am I advocating that if you are an artists you should take some time to learn how to make your own beats? Hell yeah that's what I'm saying. See you may not always be hot as an artist. And rappers are a dime a dozen. Producers though, producers stand the test of time. Look at Russell Simmons. He even produced a few of Run-DMC's early joints before he became the mogul that we all know. I'll bet he's still gettin' royalty checks too from the 80's.

With that said, I'm out. Tomorrow I'm going to discuss some preventive maintenance stuff to help you in your business as you make your own beats. Until then...

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
www.RapBeatCreator.com

There's No Magic Pill To Make Your Own Beats

The Blastmaster KRS-ONE & The Hot Instrumentalist, Mello Melanin

In this Hiphop "Matrix" there is no shortcut to being successful. In other words, Neo, there is no blue pill! There is nothing magical about making your own beats. There is nothing magical about being successful.

However there is a formula for luck and here it is:

Luck = Opportunity + Preparation

Let's break that down really quick. You've heard of people being in the right place at the right time. We'll they were lucky. An opportunity presented itself and they were prepared when it happened. No magic necessary.

So the question is how can you be prepared when an opportunity presents itself?

I like to relate my lessons by using my own experiences so here is a perfect example of how I was lucky. At my church, our youth ministry was working on events for planning their youth week. The director of the youth ministry was a friend of mine by the name of Server. Server had seen my group Prophetix perform several times before and he and several other people asked me if we would perform during youth week. I was a bit hesitant at first but I eventually said yes.

About a week later, I was told that KRS-ONE would be performing for our youth week as well. I thought that would be cool because I knew we would be opening up for him. Well, the show went better than I expected and KRS was very impressed with our show. I knew he was giving a lecture to the kids the following day so I went to it because I had heard him speak many times before. He did a History of Hiphop speech that was great!

Later that day, the church had a fish fry and all the kids took pictures with KRS. As we were leaving, I got a "gut feeling" that I should ask him for a contact number. I followed my instinct and asked. He gave me his number but stated it would best if I called him when he got back in 2 weeks from touring in California.

This is were the "luck" comes in...

I asked him if I could come on the tour with him and he looked at me real serious and replied "Word! Are you serious?" My response of course was "YES". He said the he could work it out but he'd have to check on the logistics. I was to call the number he had given me on Sunday evening and you bet I did.

I called the other members of Prophetix and let them know what was going on and they couldn't believe it but I could. Lo and behold, I get a phone call back from KRS and he told me that he wouldn't pay for our trip out to California but he would pay for our trip back, pay for our hotel, pay us $500.00 a piece, and pay us a per diem which is money for every day we were out there in Cali. Sounded fair to me. The total time from me asking him could I go to actually being on a plane to Los Angeles was less than a week!

My "luck" got even better though...

When we got settled in Los Angeles, we had a meeting with KRS where we were debrief on how the shows would go. He explained that he didn't want us to open up for him but he wanted us to actually be on stage with him during his set. No joke. Talk about a trill. Imagine being on stage with KRS-ONE while you perform his classic joints with him in front of packed audiences. It was great! And we got to perform in so many other cities in Cali from San Fransisco to San Diego in the process so that made the 2 weeks even better.

So yes, I do consider myself lucky but I was prepared when the opportunity presented itself. That is the point I'm making.

Are you prepared if someone comes to you right now and asks you for a CD full of beats or a full demo package? What have you done up to this point in your career to say that you are ready for a life changing opportunity? You should alway be prepared for an opportunity. You'll never know if it will be the lucky one that changes your life.

Let's Make It Happen!!!

Mello Melanin, The Hot Instrumentalist
http://www.rapbeatcreator.com/

P.S. Get started building your catalog of beats today. Check out Music Producer Pro if you haven't done so already by clicking here!