"Put out a record and a video and work it station by station, city by city, club by club," said Roberson, chief executive of Hip Hop Since 1978. "With Kanye, we put out his single 'Through the Wire' and had him doing spot dates, opening up for established acts. That affiliation with a marquee artist makes the battle easier. Earlier this year, we had Drake on tour opening up for [Lil] Wayne. He was selling out 5,000-seat theaters. It's a grass-roots way to build him up."
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Drake: From teen TV star to rap royalty
POP MUSIC
The Canadian hip-hop artist ('Best I Ever Had') has built a huge following with a gift for melodies, powerful allies and savvy management.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 99 words Type of Material: Correction
Toronto rapper: An article about Toronto rapper Drake in Sunday's Arts & Books section said the heads of management firm Hip Hop Since 1978 -- Gee Robertson, Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua and Al Branch -- are also credited with raising the stature of artists Jill Scott and the Roots. Hip Hop Since 1978 does not work with those two artists. It was another individual, Shawn Gee, who had a hand in boosting the careers of all three; Robertson is not a part of Hip Hop Since 1978, but he cooperates with the firm as one of Drake's business managers.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, July 26, 2009 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part D Page 2 Calendar Desk 2 inches; 92 words Type of Material: Correction
Drake: An article last Sunday about Toronto rapper Drake said the heads of management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, Gee Robertson, Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua and Al Branch, are also credited with raising the stature of artists Jill Scott and the Roots. Hip Hop Since 1978 does not work with those two artists. It was another individual, Shawn Gee, who had a hand in boosting the careers of all three; Gee is not a part of Hip Hop Since 1978, but he cooperates with the firm as one of Drake's business managers.
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Establishing the right rapport with his audience was integral to creating listener awareness. So Drake digitally released his third underground mix-tape, "So Far Gone," featuring songs produced by West, Just Blaze and Diplo in February.
As the story goes, it caused a sensation in the underground, with more than 8,000 people downloading the music in its first two hours of release, although some blogger detractors dismissed it as " '808s and Heartbreak' lite" -- a swipe at a perceived sonic similarity to West's last album.
Branch, Hip Hop Since 1978's general manager of marketing and promotion, pointed out that Lil Wayne became rap's top dog largely through his mix-tape game. Counterintuitive though it might seem, by flooding the market with hundreds of free songs, the New Orleans rapper built a dedicated fan base willing to fork out cash in droves for "Tha Carter III."
"If you're a good artist, you make hit records," said Branch. "It doesn't matter if you're doing it for fun or if you're getting paid. If you're a hit-maker, you make hit records for free, for mix-tapes, for albums. Drake's a hit-maker."
That much was established earlier this year when listeners began calling and text-messaging New York's taste-defining hip-hop radio station Hot 97 FM to request that it play a cut off the mix-tape: "Best I Ever Had." Alternately rapped and sweetly crooned (with the added punch of digitizing Auto-Tune technology), the song is an earnest expression of admiration from a young man to the object of his desire. And despite the coarseness of its explicit lyrics, "Best I Ever Had" is surprisingly tender -- at least, as emotive as hardcore hip-hop gets without being declared "soft." On April 9, the song went into rotation.
"It sounds like a hit song. It's catchy. It was being played in clubs and getting a big reaction," said Hot 97's program director Ebro Darden. "People were texting us, 'Hey, you're cool for playing this. Thank you!' I started doing research. He was opening for Lil Wayne on tour, had been on this TV show, he's obviously a good-looking kid, and the music is good. I put two and two together: We should be playing this guy's song!"
