Is Your New Favorite Rapper Broke?

12 years ago view-show 864,963

This doesn’t exactly pertain to hip-hop specifically, but rather all genres of popular music today. Mike Doughty, best known for being the leader of the avant garde alt rock group Soul Coughing, sat down with Fuse music nerd Dan Brown to explain why new artists don’t stand a chance of making a living off of their music. His points are really interesting, as he dismisses the notion that the Internet alone can provide a supportive enough audience to build a career off of.  His biggest point is that in order to be successful, an artist must tour the country at least 5 times in a 2 year period and that it’s difficult for artists to afford to do this, especially if they have to pay for a backing band (or DJ).  Although this is a valid point, it can be argued that if you’re music catches a buzz through let’s say YouTube, you could potentially get signed and have a label fund your tour.  I guess this really is a subject of debate…let me know what you guys think.