Wendy DayCEO/Coach, PowerPlays Coaching, LLC · Helping rappers make money with their music. Building millionaires in the urban music industry since 1992.

FREE advice to be a Great Artist...

31 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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Kanye West entered rap as a producer in the underground backpack scene, a niche with credibility but stigma. He stayed true to that identity while aiming for mainstream success, using collaborations with Mos Def and Talib Kweli to build his résumé. Find what makes you unique, then build a bridge to a wider audience.

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So it's really just trying to find what makes them unique but the same to where you can have an entry. You know, like say with Kanye, he had an entry level with backpack rappers with being a producer. A producer rapper was a thing that had a stigma that kind of put you into the underground, put you into backpack world. And what he did was that he embraced that early But what he had different about them was he still was ambitious as a commercial artist. He still had commercial aspirations that didn't go nowhere. So it wasn't like, okay, I produce and I want to be credible, so I don't mind working with Mos Def and Talib and these people and making good beats in this world because that's always gonna, you know, that's always gonna be a good part of my resume, but I know where I'm trying to go.