He’s been rapping for less than a year. He’s not stressing over collecting email addresses. He didn’t spend his days spamming social networks with his music. He found some free beats on the internet, dropped one mixtape, blew the fuck up, and the labels started calling. This eventually led to a joint venture deal with Def Jam said to be worth $2 million. You mad?
Here’s what it is. You may hate his music and even clown on the way he looks, but Trinidad James is far from being boring. I wouldn’t have posted “All Gold Everything” on this blog because it’s not the kind of hip hop I particularly listen to. But in my analysis of James’s success, I realized that I personally shared his video with at least 6 friends of mine. It was through a friend that I was made aware of him, and that oftentimes carries more weight than any marketing or promotion you can pay for. Sure I was goofing on it when I passed it along, but I didn’t pass Kendrick Lamar’s video personally to 6 friends, and I’m a fan.
It’s not enough to just have great skill. Good or bad, you and your art has to be worthy of conversation. And that’s what Trinidad James does. He instigates conversation the moment you see the video. Will he be a one hit wonder? Who knows? Most never get one hit. And you don’t need a “hit” by mainstream standards to make it music. But don’t get it twisted, the mainstream didn’t make James.
Watch any of James’s interviews and you’ll see that there are a lot more layers to this artist. He’s very aware of who he is, the position he’s in, and what he needs to do to stay there. His main focus is to “keep working” and to “get better”. If he sticks to this, he may stick around as an entertaining force in the hip hop world. He will have to grow though. He’s hot right now, but we’ve seen this flavor before. He’s just the latest artist to put a bit of a twist on it.
But these are the paths that lay before you as an artist. You can drive down a lane already created, get hot, cash in, and get out. Or you can create a new path, like Kendrick Lamar has, and establish a lane that’s all your own. One that’s difficult to duplicate. Taking the latter path may take more time, more effort, more investment, but some artists you just miss when they haven’t dropped a project in a while. Others have to keep releasing because their spot can be easily occupied by someone else after a short absence.
Watch Trinidad James’s interview in the video below. It may give you a different perspective about him. Like it or not, he is an independent hip hop success story, and there’s always something of value you can take from that.
httpv://youtu.be/I0bQjkOGVPc
