So you have  mad skills, a tight crew and a genius producer but does it mean that you can sell? Which is a good question really. Simply because Hip Hop is not all about the money it does not mean it does not need to make any. Just like any sound business endeavor the whole  idea is  to gain some sort of profit. May it be monetary or  satisfaction the term profit is to gain benefit. Derived from Latin it simply means “to make progress”.

Alright, what are the external factors that determines if progress is made or not? For one Hip Hop has a specific appeal towards a certain market. While that market can be aggressive or dormant it is not up to the specific genre to claim but in essence it is all about the right timing to do so.

Everything has a life cycle…. there is development, introduction, growth, mature and decline. Just how like humans grow starting from a fetus all the way right to it’s demise. What actually determines a Hip Hop artist to make it or break it all boils down to one commodity….TIME.

Time is however influenced indirectly by the external factors. Economy, Political, Social, Legal and Tehnology would most probably influence Hip Hop the most. Now this is the boring bits but it is very important to understand how much it effects marketing Hip Hop. Nonetheless it should be taken as a challenge and not as a deterrent.

• Economy
  It is the realized system of all human activities. Thus it is very closely related to production, distribution, exchange and consumption. By studying what exactly is the current human activity one can judge what kind of outlook is there in the genre. As much Hip Hop is about social culture it is also about how social culture reacts and relates to all activities and the result of it. Generally if there is a lot to go around then the market is more relaxed to absorb what you want to throw at them in this case it is Hip Hop aka the music you make.
• Political
  The core word here is simply politics. It is the social relations involving the authority of power which the government is so usually the case. Lets take a case that happened years ago regarding Black Metal. See how politics played a huge role in influencing that this particular genre of music is a facade to cover up for more sinister and outrageous rituals. Having known for a fact that idiots can become politically influential it is best to leave some issues alone. It is a double edged sword….so choose a time where political preferences are at it’s most neutral.
• Social
  Face it, Hip Hop culture is still something new to our society. Thanks to MTV, yes we get some good Hip Hop but at the same time portrayal of things that are foreign in our local culture will undoubtedly bring a lot of flak. There are no two ways of doing it but to educate society on the proper social culture of Hip Hop. Like they say, the more you give the more you get. One way is to have a collective effort in promoting the good things about Hip Hop. Locally we have an event like KL Undercover that does justice and proper training clinics like what Vandal is doing with School of Rap and Dj Fuzz setting up his own Dj School.
• Legal
  So what is socially and ethically correct becomes law. Abiding to rules and regulations is not to deter good doers in Hip Hop but more to deter those with bad intentions. Hip Hop has been so many times portrayed to be a rebel which is not the case. Most of the time the context of Hip Hop is misunderstood and many would just love to pick on the success of others. So before you even dream of making monetary gains from your music better be sure you got all the legal registrations covered which is so true when it comes to the Intellectual Property part.
• Technology
  The right choice of distributing your music has a lot to do with technology these days. From data storage devices like cassettes, CDs and it’s variations,  DVDs and it’s variations, to the many different broadcasting technologies, all of it equates to costs. It is always a good idea to stay at the tip of technology advancement to cop the best material to package your music all for an affordable price on your end as well as your fans.

I could go into further details on everything above but it would be impossibly long and very open ended. Because like what Hip Hop is, how it sounds like is totally up to you. The same thing when it comes to making decisions and the precise time when you should come out with what. I just hope that I did somehow give a general idea on what to consider during the decision making process of developing and marketing your brand of Hip Hop. Of course you may have some other people doing all the digging for you but having the basic knowledge would definitely help in getting the message across to what exactly you want out of your Hip Hop. After all you want Hip Hop to be known as Hip Hop and not as a generalized genre like what corporate dingbats did to rock when they come up with “Alternative”.