#strugglerappers

Some of the weakest/wackest things rappers can do when they get booked are arrive late, music not ready, try to get all your crew in, do a wack ase set rapping over your vocals are a given, but LEAVING EARLY, not staying to support other acts is straight up sucka ish...

Here's why:

1. It is very selfish & poor etiquette. You want people to support you during your set, you should do the same. As artists, sometimes we all we got, if the fans see us acting petty, their not gonna get behind that.

2. It hurts your chances of being booked again. No rapper will want to be on a bill with you, & no promoter who is worth anything will want to book you again, regardless of your draw. A bar manager IS NOT gonna like to see an exodus of 25 ppl leaving with you after you rap, and will probably have something to say about it with who ever does the booking at the venue.

3. It shows you are a hater, & you're not really tryinna further your career. You're salty because the person performing after you is getting a better response, & you can't take it, so you leave. Any artist serious about his/her craft knows that if there are people better than you in the crowd, you stay and you take notes on what they did good, and if you have a rapport you ask them what you could do better. This is also optimum time to network with the headlining artists & other artists who are more established.

Which brings me to my next point....

4. When you leave early, you show that you're NOT getting money. If you're not a big name artist, 9/10 you have a guarantee, or you're getting a door deal. In my experience as both an artists and promoter, I've mostly got paid at the END of the night, very rarely getting paid upfront. So if you go up first or second, & leave right after you rap, you're pretty much telling everyone that you're rapping for free, after you've been on stage for the last 15 mins rapping about how much money you got.

4a. It shows that you’re not concerned about expanding your fanbase and not selling anything. One of the perks of going up early is that it shows the people what you have to offer early. You can capitalize on being able to network with other artists bc (if you did a good job) you've shown what you can do. Same goes for the promoter, the booking agent etc. Also, it gives you the opportunity to do some very concentrated marketing & promoting to the other artists fan bases (Ex. if another artist on the bill performing after me has some conscious raps & I see the crowd reacting, I'm going to THEM with promo stuff first). 

4b. It shows that you’re not making money from CD/merch sales. The earlier in the show you go, the more time/people you have come by & visit your merch table. At this point, people ain’t too drunk to shop with you (too drunk can be a plus too lol), they haven’t bought everyone else’s stuff yet, nor have they spent all of their money at the bar. As soon as you get off stage, either you or you’re crew need to be in that crowd tryinna direct people to your table. Even if they don’t shop with you, give them a flyer that has all your social media on it & places where they can scoop online.

My question for the rappers who rap & leave... Where tf you gotta go? Unless you are a big name artist, you gotta work at like 5 am, or you gotta make a 10 hour drive back that same night, if you a were booked for that show & u actually showed up, 9/10, you ain’t have nothing else better do.