First I would like to commend you for investing in something you have a passion for. I find it to be a very rational decision to learn from the experience of others rather than from the pitfalls of trial and error. Knowledge is the highest quality of power you can have concerning any aspect of life from home, career, to the political arena of any industry. And honestly, in the music industry, it is to your benefit, advantage and well being to see and know what you are getting yourself into before hand.

Ive been in the music business for over fifteen years and many individuals that I know personally or know of have been taken advantage of by record labels. Presently, my responsibilities consist of being an A&R executive for Def Jam, being part owner of Desert Storm Records, Manager for Joe Buddens, Clue, a couple of producers. I was also a part of Ludacriss early success. I discovered Fabolous. Ive worked with Nore, Jay-Z, etc.
The Basic Guide To Get In The Rap Game could not have been given a better title. A childhood friend of mine that Im still and always will be close to wrote this guide. We are always engaged in conversations about the game and he is always coming up with interesting strategies and point of views about how a new artist could get the attention of those who have the gun to pull the trigger for them in order to pop off their career.


On a few occasions, he complained how people constantly asked him about demos, contracts, distribution, you name it. I told him he should just write a book. Im sure Im not the only one who told him that because next thing I knew he put a copy on my desk. When I read Basic Guide, it was very much like many of the conversa-tions weve had on numerous topics, and you too get to share in this conversation and learn to apply his North Star knowledge that will guide you in the right direction.

You can never learn everything in one book, but this is an excellent foundation to stand on and hold onto until the storm many artists go through in the beginning is over. I wish you the best and who knows where you can go from here. We may even bump heads somewhere down the line.

Skane Dollar