THE COST OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SOAPBOX FOR INDIE ARTIST (my response)

(This was a response to a blog I read from a follower @lowryagency THE COST OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA AS A SOAPBOX FOR INDIE ARTIST) You can read what spawned this response here: http://ow.ly/117dp


I disagree just a lil!

I got into the Ent. biz or comedy for being straight up in Hollywood. I actually told a working comic she sucked! Because she asked me and frankly, she did suck. The next day, she appreciated it so much she fired her writer and hired me to write her material. (i said she sucked but also mentioned I thought of some things that may suit her stand up persona and she liked it) She said she appreciated my honesty. She is VERY beautiful and I could have sugar coated it and made nice to be in her good graces but if I'm going to work with you or be your friend I am going to be honest with you just as I expect you to be with me. I turned down a record distribution deal based on the same issue with my old group.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where people feel a certain way but will not speak up because of this political correct BS we are going through in this country. People are scared to say or speak up because of being shunned by people who quite honestly feel the same as you do most of the time but don't want to make waves so they conform. It's easier that way. So we hide behind avatars to speak up we lose our identity and become another faceless voice.

The constitution says "We the People..." not "We the people if it's okay with the people I need approval from...". Because we don't speak up the government has taken over. If we didn't speak up and rant during slavery, we'd still be slaves. What would have been the perfect time to speak up then?
Yes, their is a time and place for most things but your music, your art should reflect you from JUMP! Not until you get your fan base. They should feel you so they can grow and develop with you.

You know Dr. king had a brotha next to him sayin, "Dr. king, you may not want to say that because it's going to piss off white folks and make it bad for us. Then we may lose supporters." In the end, Dr. king was like, they can bite my ass! You have to be willing to die for what you believe in, as he used to say.

It's the agencies and record labels who send mixed messages and say, "Yeah, we want to sign because you're hot!". Behind closed doors they telling you to change and don't say this and that because they don't want to lose endorsements and revenue.
Tiger only married that girl because of what it would look like if he had kids and was unmarried. his only mistake was being married at an age where he is just finding himself. He is a young man that married too young but because he had kids and this image to maintain he had to make a choice and be someone he really wasn't. We put him on that platform as this perfect individual and if he wanted to keep those endorsements then he had to do what management told him to do.
We wonder why Dave Chapelle rejected 50 million dollars. He rejected it because they were trying to change the very thing they signed up for. His vision! I respect him the most for doin that! It's not about the money and fame in the end. In the end, it's about what do you stand for?

Art is the way you see life and express it. Steve White once taught me a lesson live and just for me in my early days as a comic.

It was my first Feature spot with a celeb comic at Rascals Comedy Club in AZ and I was EXCITED!!!! I quit my job that day over this event. Steve was the Headliner for the week. We did radio together going toe to toe live bantering back and forth and I couldn't be any happier that week!

Anyway, the first show came and my mentor came to me and asked me not to curse at all, which I can but I want to be me at all times on stage when possible. He said it was because the full house inside the club was mainly older Jewish folks and he didn't want to offend them. This was my mentor asking so I was like, "Yeah, I got you! You can count on me!"
Inside, I felt like I was selling out. This wasn't television. This is a live show. Nevertheless, his wish's I was going to follow!

I go into the showroom where Steve meets me face to face and says to me, "So, are you going to sell out?" I was stuttering. "Ah, ah, what are you talking about?". I knew what he was talking about. "Did Tim come to you and ask you not to curse?" I said, "Ah, yeah." "Well, are you going to sell out?" I was like, "I guess so. I mean he is my mentor." I really love Tim and all he did for me and at that time I was two years into performing with big names so I wasn't about to jack that up!
I asked Steve did Tim ask him? He said "Yes" They called my name to go up and perform. i get off stage after selling out wonderfully and with a smile. I run into Steve who was preparing in the back. I ask him immediately, "Are you going to sell out?" He looks at me and says, "Watch this!"

Now this man goes up on stage and the first word that came out of his mouth was an "F bomb" followed by 75 more at least! This man DESTROYED THAT ROOM in front of me!! This man got a standing ovation that I haven't seen any comic get in a while. it was an amazing sight to see.
He immediately finds me and pulls me to the back of the room and says this...

"I did the Apollo the first time and got boo'd because I was trying to be what I thought black folks wanted me to be. I went back again and DETROYED; got a standing ovation because I performed as who I wanted to be... Steve White. Never compromise who you are as a comedian! Funny is funny! They only complain when it ain't funny! so be funny!"

He didn't just say it, he proved it just to show me. The funny thing is, Tim came and watch a bit of the next show with me and says, "Now that's a top comic!" I'm thinkin', "But he cussed."

The point is, never compromise who you are as a person! If you represent yourself as an artist who likes to rap about cats and dogs and that's how you built your fan base and once you get signed you start talkin politics and gun warfare that's when the problem comes. If you have a core view or belief that you put out there for your fans then stand behind it! That's what the people respect! That's why they are your fans to begin with.

When Andrew Dice Clay admitted on national television that he was really a nice sensitive guy, his career was done! His manager wanted to kill himself back stage. America bought his "F you and I don't care" persona. Same with the "Ghetto Boyz". We liked them because they were real!

We live in a plastic, sensationalized, fake, superficial and materialistic society where you are asking us to mask ourselves so that we can speak the truth. That's setting us up for tabloid news later on when fans find out the real because you let your guard down in your private life being who you really are. That's BS. Trends are set only when someone breaks those rules.
You sign someone because they are unique and people like them. Then you change what people liked about them in the first place then wonder why sales are in the slumps. Politics and religion are what keeps people from expressing themselves freely so when an artist comes out and breaks those rules we love it then the industry strips that which endeared them to us and then we have MC Hammer and "Pumps in a bump".

I say all this to say... Can I borrow $5.00?

BTW, the comic I used to write for, has a film coming out she wrote, produced and directed called, DAYS OF WRATH look for it in theaters soon! (so proud of her)


Amaru aka Mista Woosaa