Your Word is Your What?

Everyone has heard the expression “my word is my bond” but that expression has lost weight and the essence of the phrase is lost as well. As a DJ we hear a lot of “I got you” or “Anything you need I got you” or “On my Momma – I got you for whatever you need”…but you have no idea how many times those words are the last ones you hear from an artist until they have a new single they want you to push. Then *POOF* they reappear like you never asked them for a verse or hosting for a mixtape or even a simple drop.

There are a good number of artists that do follow through with requests and those are the artists I ride for when I’m on the radio, or dropping a new mixtape, or spinning a club gig, or even when I see an opportunity that isn’t even related to me – I shoot it to them. This is how you develop a relationship with a DJ and truly build a solid network of DJs that will lean on your music.

Here’s the funniest thing about the things like drops and mixtape hosting – it costs the artist nothing and can be done from home with a simple microphone and simple pre-installed program like windows sound recorder. I’ve even had drops and one time even full mixtape hosting done directly from an artist’s phone. Sure, I prefer studio quality drops and pieces for mixtape hosting, but a quiet room and a cheap mic and windows sound recorder work just fine. I don’t suggest using your phone for drops and hosting pieces, but I have had one artist provide mixtape hosting while on tour by simply sliding into a quiet setting and recording the hosting pieces on his phone. If you don’t have any kind of recording capabilities at home then the exclusive verse for a mixtape or collaboration request could cost you studio time. The point is it takes a laughably small amount of time and money to knock out drops and mixtape hosting pieces. If you give a DJ your word that you “got him” for drops or hosting a mixtape or exclusives, etc, then follow through on the word you gave and get it done.

Here’s one way to look at it so you can grasp the value of following through on your word: it will never cost you more than 1 day to knock out drops and hosting drop pieces for a DJ, but once you’ve done it you now have the DJ working your music long term and most likely across every medium (mixtapes, radio, clubs) that DJ touches. Even if once a day for an entire year you took 1 hour of each day to record drops and mixtape hosting for a DJ, that’s a small price to pay to have 365 DJs riding for you like they were on your payroll. What would it be worth to you to have more than 300 DJs you can count on to spin your music? A drop for every one of them? 7-10 drops for mixtape hosting for 20 of those DJs? I know that your name is your brand so by all means, be selective. Do a drop for any DJ, but don’t say that DJ is “the best”, just do a generic drop that say’s you’re in the mix with that DJ. I know there are a lot of wack DJs dropping wack mixtapes so by all means, be selective with your hosting and reserve that for DJs who drop mixtapes that you wouldn’t be afraid to endorse as a hot mixtape DJ. Honestly, I would respect you even more if you did that since I do drop mixtapes along with everything else I do as a DJ. You could help us separate the bullshit from the bosses and draw more attention to mixtape DJs with actual mixtape skills.

The DJs will even make it easy and provide you with drop scripts to work from when you’re doing the drops and hosting. If you’re an artist then you should already have at the very least a microphone and some sort of simple recording capabilities right from home. If you give your word on anything to a DJ then follow through on your word. Word up.