Hip Hop Blogs
Hip Hop Blogs
Intro-Rap-Tion
This article took me WEEKS to put together by e-mailing tons of the top hip hop blogs and going back and forth with them to get the responses. As you’ll see, it was well worth it!
This is a huge resource for any up coming rapper!
I have been submitting music to hip hop blogs for years. Posted a lot but I have also been turned down way more than I have been posted.
I wanted to know why.
Whyyyyyyy!?!?! Why the hell would they not post this amazing music I just worked so hard on?! lol I’m kidding.
But only partially kidding.
This is how we think as artists.
We love our songs and we put a lot of work into them so of course we want them to be heard.
I wanted to understand the thought process behind getting posted up to a hip hop blog so you guys can use that knowledge to get your hip hop music posted on these hip hop blogs.
I know there is way more behind getting posted up than just the music itself.
So I went around the internet and looked for the top hip hop blogs to interview and find out what things help hip hop artists like you get posted to hip hop blogs.
These honest first person insights directly from the people who run hip hop blogs is priceless information. Now you can approach them knowing how people on the other side of the e-mail actually feel.
I would like to say a special thank you to all of the hip hop blogs that got involved with this article in order to provide very valuable information to you up and coming rappers. There are a lot of hip hop blogs out there but these are some of the top hip hop blogs to submit music to.
You can also take this information and apply it to any form of marketing you do for your music to any type of websites in the future.
The Hip Hop Blog TheWordIsBond.com
Teck Zilla From The Word Is Bond Hip Hop Blog
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your blog. Why you post them and what kind of approach to you actually helps them get posted?
To use the word “unique” is kinda cliched for me so I’d rather say the oomph factor- which is ambiguous as well. There is that catch though that gets me which is basically GOOD MUSIC. If the music is SOLID it would be hard for us to ignore or not lend our support.
There are lots of talented acts out there with little or no visibility and it would be a damn shame for us not to tell our audience about their existence.
As for the approach, it’s pretty basic DO NOT SPAM – we get enough of that already and no need clogging up your submission with tons of info which is not actually needed.
Remember we bloggers have LIVES too. Keep it simple.
2) Can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT post an artist.
For me, it’s basically the spammers, overly entitled artists -who feel we owe them a post and the artist who NEVER follows the submission guidelines. As I said before – no point including unnecessary info. If you want to push an EP. Talk about the EP don’t throw in a million and one links to videos/interviews on other platforms. Once again KEEP IT SIMPLE
Chase From The Word Is Bond Hip Hop Blog
I personally look at the whole package. I like to see a track that has great production values. It has to have an aesthetic to it as well. I look for lyrics that are fresh and original and that actually say something.
Its amazing being able to share dope hip-hop and expose people to artists they might not otherwise hear.
I search out material myself by doing some digital digging. We do take submissions though and I call for some online through Social Media.
There are a few labels or promotion departments that regularly keep me up to date with releases and send me album and single downloads.
I don’t post or play stuff on the show that I don’t feel. I need to like it. And sometimes it is hard to explain why I don’t like something. It can be the beat, the lyrics, the chorus, or the over-all vibe that is lacking.
The professionalism of the performer also come into play here. If I really don’t respect the artist, I may not post them.
My pet peeves are when an artist tags me and dozens of others in a post and we’ve never once communicated outside of that.
Also, putting a link to your music in a comment is a no-no.
Take some time to get to know the writer or deejay first. Use the platform in the way it was meant to be used. Follow us on social media, like posts, use the hashtag, and contribute to discussions. These all give you a leg-up.
Take the time to release an actual product and get original beats. Don’t just jump on someone else’s track and call it a remix.
George From The Word Is Bond Hip Hop Blog
1) When an upcoming artist approaches me about having music featured on our site or even listened to, I look for professionalism. Aside from the music being a good fit for our site, I need to see some other things before I’ll consider the music. Does the artist have a few high resolution photos attached that we can use on the site? Is there a bio on this artist attached? Most of the time, we don’t know these artists and a bio and a selection of great photos really help your chances of being looked at. Also, be formal and use respectable language. These things go a long way when it comes to building a relationship between us writers and artists.
2) I will not look at your email if you send me a sentence. In some cases I’ve gotten emails that have the worst subject lines like “check this” or “your site needs my music”. This is so bad. Another thing that really gets on my bad side is when I get emails with no content other than a link to their soundcloud account. Don’t expect a response from editors when you don’t even put effort into your emails. Take us seriously and we’ll do the same. It’s as simple as that.
Nick Younes At The Hip Hop Blog IXDaily.com
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your blog. Why you post them and what kind of approach actually helps them get posted
I look for a cohesive music release that is actionable, with a plan, and purpose. If you just send me a link to a soundcloud track, chances are I won’t even bother writing back. An artist really needs to grab my attention in the first 5 seconds of the track, music video, or body of work up until the first drop, or chorus.
Your visual identity needs to be on point, and you should have a basic social media presence. You need to be able to pitch your release with enough context for me to write about it. I hate lazy submissions, they show a lack of interest. If you show genuine effort in wanting to put yourself out there, I’ll be more than glad to give some effort to check your stuff out.
When I post about an artist, it’s because I know my audience will dig the release and that they’ll have a reason to take the time to click play and discover more. With over 500 submissions a week, there’s a lot of good ones that can fall through the crack just because of their weak approach at giving bloggers incentive to check it out. It also helps to know a bit about the culture of the blog you are submitting to.
Social media push is another aspect that seals the deal. If you show incentive in promoting the article through your channels, then that gives more incentive to want to give you a spot of the platform. Unlike most other blogs, your numbers on social media are not a deciding factor for wanting to write about your music.
2) Can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT post an artist.
Badly executed music videos: if you do not have the budget and right resources, do not make a music video.
Songs that are not mixed and mastered are the worst.
Empty email submission with just a link with no information.
Email submissions where you cc (instead of bcc) 200+ blogs at the same time.
Artists need tread blog submissions like an elevator pitch. You got 5 minutes or less to convince the blogger to write about you, make it count.
Douglas Vann From The Hip Hop Blog VannDigital.com
1) What do I look for in an artist???
Talent. I listen and/or watch every submission to see if they are bringing anything new to the table especially since you can turn on the radio and/or the TV to see & hear the usual mainstream rap gimmick topics.
2) The best way to properly approach me???
Don’t send me submissions saying sh*t like “You should give my song a listen. This sh*t is fire yo!!!” or “This a hit song & you’ll be a fool not to post it” (all before I give these songs a listen BTW). And when I tell you I won’t be posting your song or music video or something, don’t start throwing temper-tantrums talking all kind of sh*t. Have some humility.
3) Things That You SHOULDN’T DO To Get Posted Up
Besides the artist being wack; @’ing and/or DM’ing me their material on Twitter, inboxing and/or tagging me in their material on Facebook, having personal issues with me (this can go the other way around as well), etc…
Douglas Vann – Content Manager – Vann Digital Networks
Website: www.VannDigital.com
Submissions E-Mail: Submissions@VannDigital.com
Exclusives E-Mail: Exclusives@VannDigital.com
The Hip Hop Blog Roman’s Rap-Up
I get many emails every day from artists and publicists, asking for me to feature their music on our site. We actually never used to accept unsolicited submissions from artists, however, we recently did start as there was a big demand, hence the creation of our “Queued Up” section, a collection of carefully curated and selected artists to introduce to our readers. The way we’ve started to accept submissions is through a brand new website, submithub.com, which allows us to efficiently review every single track people send to us, and is the only way we accept music from artists directly.
That being said, we have always accepted music from publicists and management, reason being, when an artist has decided to enlist the help of a well known publicity firm or management team, they have taken the next step in their career.
Now it’s gone from “I’m a rapper in my basement” to “I’m a rapper that really wants a chance at success.” Big piece of advice though, regardless of whether you have mgmt or not, you NEED a press kit, consisting of a professionally written bio and PROFESSIONAL photographs.
The amount of selfies I get is unreal, and I rarely review work that comes in like that.
As for music criteria, we really want “radio quality” hits. Doesn’t necessarily have to be what you would hear on the radio, but in terms of production, vocals, engineering, everything has to be up to standard. By posting someone else’s work, we are putting our reputation on the line. If we feature garbage, people will see us as so. We also look for people trying to change the game, with a different sound.
In terms of why artists should care about press- it’s how you really get big, especially if you are an independent artist. If you look at artists right now, pop, hip hop, any genre really, what you see is really hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out by the record companies for advertisements, feature placements, etc.
So for an independent artist just starting out, there is a huge chance you don’t have that kind of money (if you do, you’re a step ahead, congratulations). I mean, imagine if your new song was placed on every indie blog, and because of that, gets picked up by bigger websites like Buzzfeed, MTV, etc, all because of that one blog placement. From personal experience working at Sony Music Entertainment, and managing artists myself, I know labels also look on blogs to discover artists.
—
Benjamin Esakof
Founder/President
Roman’s Rap-Up Media Group, LLC
www.romansrapup.com
Piccochi From The Hip Hop Blog www.ok-tho.com
I look for originality mainly, if I see your’e trying to be the next Drake or Future or anyone new fad that is going on then I get turned off. Coming from the 80’s and 90’s golden era, I praise on the good ole fashion boom bap style beats and straight flow. Everything seems to be a commodity nowadays, nothing is organic, artists just want to follow trends and have no pride in their music and meaning of being an artist.
Submissions should be fairly new, nothing should be submitted that was released a year or even months ago. A lot of artists love to write about their life story and give a whole spiel on their music but I skip all that and just listen to the track or video. If I like it then I’ll read up on them but mainly all I care about is the details behind the track. Keep things simple.
Another thing I tend to look for is the artwork. If there are pictures of money, liquor, guns, women in bikinis or anything that looks like it would have been a No Limit album cover back in the 90’s then I don’t even bother with it.
Nick Peterson From The Hip Hop Blog ApesOnTape.com
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your blog. Why you post them and what kind of approach actually helps them get posted?
Looking beyond artists that we find on our own, the most important thing an artist can do when reaching out is make sure they are a match for our site.
Have you listened to what we have recently posted? Are there specific posts with genre/aesthetic parallels to your music?
Have we hosted an event with a band you toured with?
Basically, show that you are a good match for our site and that it will be a mutually beneficial connection. Be authentic, know why your music stands out from the dozens and dozens of daily submissions and reach out when it’s the right time.
It goes without saying that your music should be the best possible iteration you can create. Spend 95% of your time on mastering your craft and improving your music and 5% on hitting up blogs and you’ll be in a much better position from the get go.
2) Also can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT posts an artist.
On the flip-side of the approach above, showing that you have not done your homework about an individual site is a major turn off. If your music doesn’t fit our site at all, you spell our name wrong, you don’t know anything about what we’ve been doing, etc this will lead to a quick “delete”.
Avoid sending shotgun style emails to 100 sites you know nothing about. Most sites dedicated to new artists are understaffed with few resources. Failing to respect those facts and the site’s time is a great way to land in the trash bin.
Epik Davis FromThe Hip Hop Blog RapsAndHustles.com
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your blog. Why you post them and what kind of approach actually helps them get posted?
To answer your first question, I feel that we help put focus on the artist that is competing with 100,000 + people uploading there music online. Blog/Websites are the ones who have to curate and sort out the worthy artist from the unworthy. We help and encourage people to give artists a chance or listen by placing there song on our platforms.
2) Also can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT posts an artist.
Second artist need to treat us no different from there DJ, engineer, producer etc. In today’s age if you don’t have some type of online presence or media backing you, you’re probably not being seen by anyone of this generation. Artists need to understand having a website is a business also. They need to be selective on who they give there content too and build with a website that is will post them. Give them exclusive, shout them out, premiere you material through them, put them in your videos etc.
Giles From The Hip Hop Blog UrbanVault.co.uk
Urban Vault is a multi genre platform for promoting urban music World Wide. First impressions last, with all emails, the first thing I see is the sender and title. As you can imagine I get quite a few e-mail, so to make my life easy I normally open PR company mail first. 9/10 times they hold creditable content, ie an artist that they actually want to promote so they must be not half bad to begin with, which is a plus and the PR will be easy to convert to make actual content for the site. The title clearly stated, an image/artwork, text content about artist/music, link to music (video/player) and artists link (website/twitter etc).
And 9/10 times I will post content from a credible PR company unless I really can’t feel the content at all :)I find the another thing about posting from PR companies, is they help promote the article after it’s launched normally, some don’t, which I personally think is a bit stupid… Saying that there are 1,000’s of PR companies out there doing a great job.
Most will help you prepare the press release and make it the best it can be for an effective campaign. Unfortunately this more professional approach will cost money, so do your research and find someone who is reputable in your genre and offers a service that will promote you the best! After I’ve scanned PR company mail, I then look through the mountain that is inbox.
Here’s a few things you can do to catch my attention!
I scan for names I may recognize, but with so much mail I randomly open mail that looks appealing via the title for example, I would open : Music Submission: Brand New : Bowza – Man On Fire Mixtape (Free Download), basically how a PR company would head a piece and if the format reads as: an image/artwork, text content about artist/music, link to music (video/player) and artists link (website/twitter etc) and I like the Music/video I will probably post/promote the article.
G. Sawyer
CEO & FOUNDER
www.urbanvault.co.uk
giles@urbanvault.co.uk
info@urbanvault.co.uk
The Hip Hop Blog Beat Trotters
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your site. What we’re looking for are artists that have skills and submit music that we like and that we want to help getting exposure. We post them when we really like the spirit and we feel that it’s sincere. The approach that helps them to get posted is when we feel that the artist or manager of the artist really visited our blog and has watch the music submission policy on our contact page.
2) Can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT post an artist. Being ourselves artists who are also submitting our work to websites and blogs, we are open minded people, so every emails received are opened and all music submissions are listened and all videos are watched. Then, we post the music we enjoy and that fit with our mentality. We DO NOT post an artist when we feel that he never visited our blog and don’t know who we are and we do. We are a Hip Hop and Urban Culture blog, so when we receive (like it happens everyday) a music submission with Pop, Folk, Rock… we know they don’t know us, and we don’t post it. Not that we don’t like it, but it won’t fit with our current content and the style we represent.
Trevor From UniversityHype.com
1) What you look for in an artist when they reach out to your blog. Why you post them and what kind of approach actually helps them get posted
I look for something that doesn’t look like a mass e-mail. We have a plethora of artists who reach out to us on a daily basis, and never once have I posted something that came with the title “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”. It’s just good branding first of all, but more importantly it’s respect. If you respect us as a blog, you’ll try to make your initial contact with us more intimate, something we’ll remember. I’d like to say it’s all about the music, but it’s not; a lot of good music doesn’t get listened to because it isn’t presented well.
2) Can you also tell me reasons why you absolutely DO NOT post an artist.
Don’t use a PR agency. Never use a PR agency. If you use a PR agency, your e-mail will end up in the trash faster than ever. Put the blog’s name in the title of your e-mail so they know it’s real. Don’t hit them up on social media either; if you send me your song via Twitter we won’t listen to it, and we certainly won’t post it.
Take Aways From These Hip Hop Blog Interviews
1) Be original.
2) Don’t Spam. Give time for a response. Then re approach professionally.
3) Keep the e-mail simple and to the point without TOO many links
4) Say something in your music
5) Have great quality music that is comparable to radio material.
6) Make it share-able. Provide that social currency like I speak about every time I mention the book contagious.
7) Give them a reason to respect you
8) Don’t cry if the hip hop blog tells you they don’t feel that song and you won’t be posted. Not everyone likes everything, try again next time.
9) Treat the blog like they are human, not like just another blog.
10) Avoid Submitting Remixes Instead of original material
11) Attache High Reso Professional Photos
12) Professional EPKs (Electronic Press Kit) Help
13) Attache a quick bio when you feel the need
14) Don’t just send a link to your music. You will be ignored
15) If a known publicist or management team approaches them, it shows you are serious and ups your chances of being posted
16) Try to only submit NEW content
17) Don’t attache corny unprofessional pictures or artwork.
18) Don’t send e-mails that link every other hip hop blog all in the same e-mail. Make sure each e-mail is tailored to each individual site.
19) Be very smart with your e-mail title. It is the first thing people see.
20) Try to title it like a PR company would title it such as the example Urban Vault gave
What To Do Every Time A Hip Hop Blog Posts Your Music
If you want to build a true relationship with hip hop blogs show them that you respect that they posted your music up.
If you don’t, they might not ever post you up again.You need to realize a big reason that a hip hop blog will post someone is because they get free traffic from your fans to their site that helps them grow.You probably weren’t looking at it from this perspective.
This is how all hip hop music blogs grow exponentially. So if they see that you are promoting the post to their website and it is gaining them traffic from your friends, family and fans, they are going to be thankful and post your music every time as well as have nice things to say about you in the blog post.
1) Post the direct link up of the blog post to every social media platform you have.
Quote the best line about what they said in your status post.
This is beneficial to both them AND you.
People are clicking over to their site link and reading GREAT things said about you PLUS you are getting more clicks and views on your videos. Why wouldn’t you do this?
2) Like, Favorite, Retweet, Share or whatever social media site ability you have to their post up of your music.
3) Now that you have liked and favorited and shared the link to their site you need to E-mail them saying thank you.
But NOT only that, also tell them that you did everything in your power to spread that link around. That shows you actually appreciate it instead of just saying it.
4) Every couple weeks shoot them an e-mail staying in contact with them to continue the relationship.
5) Keep a list of the blogs that have posted you and what kind of relationship you have with them.
This way you can look at the list and remember what songs they posted and anything important such as the name of the person who posted it or information you need to remember about that person.
Maybe they told you what college they go to or what they are in school for or the name of their dog. All of this is important information.
If someone tells you their dog was sick and they haven’t been checking the music submissions as much because of that, you can ask if their dog is finally okay a few weeks later. Or “How is your Lab Rex doing? Is he finally over being sick?”
If someone has this type of information it shows they care. It builds a MUCH stronger relationship with that person. So keep a list of information like this so you never forget important stuff. You have to treat this relationship like you would any other.
I have an entire list of every single hip hop blogs contact information that I hand picked and put together.
It now includes all of their e-mails, Twitters, Facebook Pages, Websites and more all in the Third Edition Updated for 2016.
Doing this in total has taken me WEEKS of my life. It almost feels sad to type out lol But well worth it since I know it has helped 1,000s of upcoming rappers so far.
You can check that out by going here: www.smartrapper.com/bloglist
(W)Rapping Up
That was some of the best information I have ever seen on getting posted on hip hop blogs. I just re read this article and feel like I even learned something and I wrote the thing lol
I know this is going to help a lot of people so I’d like to say thank you again to all of the hip hop blogs involved in this article.
Go check out their sites and see how they have everything set up and start to get a feel of how you can build relationships with them.
In total I can see you getting thousands and thousands of views and new potential fans by simply befriending and submitting great content to just these guys in this article alone.
Get on your grind and start creating that amazing hip hop content. Like Nick Peterson from ApesOnTape said “Spend 95% of your time on mastering your craft and improving your music and 5% on hitting up blogs and you’ll be in a much better position from the get go.”
As you can see having the power of Hip Hop blogs behind you is very strong for your career. Now you just need to go out and really start grinding on making a strong connection with all of these hip hop blogs. If you don’t have your hands on the 200 Hip Hop Blog Contacts Yet you can get them here.
Then use the information in order to get your music posted!
Good luck my friend.
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