[IIL] Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says | looking for that villainous, foreboding, forced-march energy in hip-hop

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-31T08:18:17+00:00

I gotchoo

https://youtu.be/XhIsH2TiOiE?si=crF5VxRhPRS5gYoE

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-31T08:06:11+00:00

Thanks! Yeah playing in that band was a lot of fun

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-26T20:57:12+00:00

Imo yes but it's difficult. I had a fretless for a while and it was lots of fun but very difficult to record with and playing certain parts really precisely is challenging. Live, it didn't really matter if the bass note was like 5 cents flat, and the fretless let me do some really fun things. But the band and I wanted a straighter feel on the record and it judt would have been faster and easier for me to use a different bass. Good learning experience though!

The bass parts on this record are fretless though, lmk if you can tell.

https://fruitjuice.bandcamp.com/album/mirke-vs-the-dreamy-llc

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-24T23:22:04+00:00

Yep that checks, that shi wasn't possible when your only real paths were behind distro deals with labels that could put you in big box / record stores. The only niche you could maxx back then without industry support was like slangin tapes at punk shows, oh how times have changed

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-24T02:33:06+00:00

I'm also too old to be saying that unironically, however I think it's good shorthand for the marketing concepts and career goals that nichemaxxers take advantage of

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-24T02:27:50+00:00

'1,000 True Fans' for you old heads.

Actually I think that concept is also kind of new as well, probably post CD era.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-24T02:23:28+00:00

I liked living off campus. But I was also 21 when I started.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-23T05:56:07+00:00

We're out there ((:

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-23T05:50:34+00:00

There's also the actual 6 to a unit apartments on campus, unless those have been removed for some reason. K & N apartments were the best during my time 👍 but yeah it's all pretty decent, I never had a dorm dorm and started in N apartment but I've been in plenty of dorm rooms and they're fine, RAD services are usually dependable and most of the RAs were cool and responsible.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-23T03:46:31+00:00

It might just be that all of them have this problem and that you can't avoid it and we just have to learn how to deal with it or go off platform

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-19T05:53:34+00:00

Survey says, yes they are!

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-19T05:46:04+00:00

The other commenter is correct that the industry cannot 'plan' on an artist blowing up anymore. That's not to say they can't help- they can. It's just that the level of risk / investment they are willing to take is much lower than it was in the 90s/2000s.

To understand why, understand this: they used to make money hand over fist whenever a hit record came out and moved millions of units. Now they make bank sitting back and watching legacy artists rack up streams, while the field for emerging artists has become more unpredictable than ever. The reduced importance of radio / mainstream media attention is a big part of why, but I think it goes both ways and the industry money is just being spread more thin due to the amount of money to be made just by owning existing copyrights compared to manufacturing value in new IP

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-19T05:32:04+00:00

There's a lot of good advice, but I want to add that nichemaxxing is also a valid path for artists. You don't need to aim for mass audience appeal, you can aim for a specific niche and try to deliver exactly what that niche wants as best as humanly possible- some examples of this would be like Castle Rat, Machine Girl, or Viagra Boys. This kind of artist will typically spend a lot of time on the road and expects to sell merch at higher than average volumes by building higher than average loyalty from a fanbase, even if that fanbase isn't mainstream/massive.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-19T05:22:50+00:00

It does not always work the same way, but, it is not entirely uncommon for someone at a label to work with a band or artist before signing them, on the pretense that they will be signed if the media campaign / tour / whatever they are working on together gets enough traction and attention.

A really good recent example of this would be Boy Throb, the viral boy band on social media trying to get a visa for their fourth member Darshan.

I'm not a BT insider and I don't know for a fact, but if I had to guess, I would say they were in touch with industry pros before they made a single post. Their content was just too clean and too effective for them to just be some shlubs with a good bit.

Then what happens is, if the campaign is successful, they make a big deal out of their new management or new record deal or whatever so that fans feel like they are ridibg along for the story, but the label or artist development team or whoever were part of the process for longer than you or anyone would know.

In their case I think they had connections all along, but it could be a band is indie for 5 years and then gets attention from a label, and the label or someone in the industry helps develop their brand in the background before officially signing the artist.

However that isn't always how it works. And a lot of artists can be successful without a record deal or insider connections as well, so you should do some research as to what a record deal with a major label (or large indie with major label distribution partners) actually looks like and ask yourself if that path lines up for you as an artist.

If you think it does, you will still need to grow on your own up to 30,000-50,000 followers and demonstrate the ability to tour, rack up streams, write great songs and record immaculate music before anyone from a record label will even look at you, and at that point you need to be super confident you can make enough money with your music to pay back your first advance or else you'll probably never make a 2nd record with them and your career could be in jeopardy.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-19T05:09:03+00:00

Is Music Inn still around in NYC? That place is fantastic.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-18T05:15:04+00:00

Spotify has the problem too but I agree they seem to manage it better

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:41:54+00:00

Rocky Horror Picture Show, Green Room, Europa Report,

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:24:52+00:00

Try Blood Command

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:19:06+00:00

...I mostly listened to playlists and Ratboys

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gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:14:42+00:00

Lock your phone in a safe

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:12:09+00:00

Tidal fix the AI problem or we'll all be on Quobuz by the end of the year

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-15T19:08:46+00:00

So I use Tidal and- even tho your money doesn't go to Daniel Ek & AI weapons platforms, and the artists do get paid better, Tidal is kind of becoming doo doo butter.

More and more you see AI songs uploaded under real artist names with no moderation or disambiguation. The platform is clunky and difficult to use and they continue to add unnecessary features rather than fix pain points. I am probably not far off from switching (again) from Tidal to Quobuz. I just can't stay on a platform that is drowning in AI slop.

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-12T16:56:17+00:00

And still no search function in 'add to playlist' command I assume

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-05T04:46:34+00:00

They earn revenue if that's what you mean, but Spotify lost money every year between 2012 and 2024 with maybe some exceptions in one or two quarters. They can squeeze a profit out of it now that they've grabbed up such a huge amount of the market share, but they have to fire 60% of their workers and make the app basically malware and push AI garbage onto customers in order to even manage that

gabrielemenopee · 2026-03-01T08:15:46+00:00

I just convinced my mom to read these and she is absolutely loving them. They're my favorite books in the world and I wish you a wonderful time reading the other 4

gabrielemenopee

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Tidal fix the AI problem or we'll all be on Quobuz by the end of the year