TALIB KWELI

manifest
FREEDOM
Why I left the major label system
by TALIB KWELI

portrait by CHARLES VU

I had been a professional

musician for 14 years at that
point, but never had I seen
money from record sales hit
my bank account so quickly.

Full disclosure:I am an analog dude.I

am mature enough to remember a time
before the internet was prevalent in our
daily lives. I dropped out of school to
start my career before laptops replaced
spiral notebooks. My first foray into
cyberspace was visiting a chatroom on
The RootsOkayplayer.comin 2004, and I
learned a swift lesson in internet etiquette
when I was trolled by anonymous fans
for putting out an album they did not
like,Beautiful Struggle. Also, I am aware
that my use of the word cyberspace
makes me sound like a character from the
movieThe Lawnmower Man.
Regardless of my lack of knowledge about
how the internet worked, I have always
maintained a large online fan base, due in

no small part to the wonderful folks who

run OkayPlayer. Early in my career they
included me as a flagship artist on their
site, placing me in the company of seminal
acts like The Roots, Common, DAngelo,
Slum Village, Bahamadia and more. To this
day I continue to be associated with this
group of artists in the minds of many.
These associations, along with a good
work ethic, a focus on music that has a
message and a willingness to embrace
new sounds while staying true to the
sound that Ive been successful with,
helped me to remain relevant in an everchanging market for a long time. However
by 2008, it was no longer enough to let
someone else control my online presence.
As the music industry began to drastically

decline, partially due to an ignorance about

how the internet worked, it became clear
to me that Id better gain control over
how I was being marketed and promoted
digitally.
Myspace is what got me online in a real
way. Their focus on music as a connector
of friends made perfect sense for artists
with an independent mentality, and I
flourished there. Once I began to spend
a lot of time connecting with fans on
Myspace, I noticed my shows selling out
more consistently. I was able to create an
awareness around what I was doing that
fans hadnt been able to attain in a while.
After the indie label that I started my career
with, Rawkus Records, was swallowed
and then eventually evaporated, the major

labels I found myself doing business with had no clue how to market and promote me, so they would often not even attempt to. Its
easier to sell things that are placed in neat little packages and boxes, and no one could figure out what box to put me in. Myspace
allowed me to reach my niche fans directly for free, rather than have some label invest hundreds of thousands trying to canvas the
entire market.
In 2006, I dropped a collaborative project with acclaimed producer Madlib calledLiberation,for free on my Myspace page, as a thank
you for my truest fans. At this time, rappers were dropping free mixtapes where they were rapping over established hits, but hardly
any artists signed to major labels dropped free albums. It wasnt a thing. This free album galvanized the die hards and set the stage for
2007sEardrum, which featured guests as diverse as Justin Timberlake, Norah Jones, KRS-One and Jean Grae, which I also promoted
heavily thru Myspace. But I knew that the social networking site would not be around forever.
After watching Warner Bros Records drop the ball on the follow up to myTrain of Thoughtalbum with Hi Tek as Reflection Eternal,
2010sRevolutions Per Minute, I decided that I no longer wanted to be associated with major record labels. In 2011, I got with Dru
Ha and Noah of Duck Down Records an underground label that I had been a fan of since a teenager that found ways to make
money staying true to their aesthetic, even as the marketplace became increasingly fickle. Dru and Noah run a record pool for DJs
called 1200 Squad, but they also were starting a distribution service called 3D. When I came to them to ask them to help promote the
singles I was planning to release thru my newly-formed label, Javotti Media, they suggested allowing 3D to distribute the album. It was
calledGutter Rainbows. It cost me 20,000 dollars to create, it dropped in February of 2011, and by May of that year I had tripled my
investment.

Part of the reason it took me so long to take control of my financial destiny is because I believed in the traditional way that the music
business was run, which was to let the managers manage and let the labels do what they do while I just made art. For years I coasted
on my ability to perform on stage or get a new deal when money got low, always trusting lawyers, managers, accountants and label
reps to have my best interest in mind. Making the initial investment forGutter Rainbowsmyself while simultaneously removing several
hands from the pot allowed me to increase my profit exponentially and to receive it almost instantly.Gutter Rainbowsis still not one of
my most famous albums, but it is one of the few that I saw an immediate profit on.
Before starting Javotti Media, my former independent label that I started with my old manager Corey Smyth, Blacksmith Music, had
entered into a distribution deal with Caroline Distribution. I created Javotti Media, named after my grandmother Javotte Greene, after
being frustrated with how Blacksmith Music was being run. A lot of money was being spent that wasnt being accounted for, and I
ended up in debt with Caroline. In 2012, Corey and I folded Blacksmith Music and Javotti Media took on that debt. I continued to work
on the album I originally signed to Caroline for, which wasPrisoner of Conscious, and in May of 2013 it dropped on Javotti Media/
Caroline.Prisoner of Conscioushad taken four years to create and featured Curren$y, Kendrick Lamar, Melanie Fiona and others. The
month before its release, I spent tens of thousands promoting a single to radio, Come Here, featuring Miguel. It was a modest hit,
reaching 1000 spins a week for a couple of weeks before it fizzled out. Had I spent more, it wouldve been played more, but I wasnt
sure that radio plays would translate to album sales for me, especially without having a video with Miguel in it.
In my experience, you shouldnt spend money promoting a single unless you are sure it has a chance to compete on radio, but Miguel

...it became
clear to me
that Id better
gain control
over how I was
being marketed
and promoted
digitally.

was very popular at the time so I took that

risk. Urban radio promoters have elevated
their payola game to a place where you
must pay them anywhere between $15,000
to $100,000 to get a single played. No one
takes any risks on singles anymore which
is why many singles end up featuring the
same four or five hot artists. While Miguel
was very gracious in the recording of the
song and a pleasure to work with, his
day-to-day team didnt seem to have the
same respect for me that he did. They
consistently ignored emails from me and
my team, kept me away from Miguel and
generally worked against me.
After a year, I eventually used some of my
clout to get someone I knew to get them

to sign off on single rights, but they still

refused to let me do a video with Miguel,
which killed the single. Every single needs
a visual in this day and age. At the time,
Miguel had his own hit single, plus songs
with Mariah Carey and Kendrick Lamar that
were bubbling. It seemed like his people
felt like having him in a video with the
underground, conscious rapper wasnt
the type of branding they were looking for.
I ended up spending about $20,000 for a
fantastic, hand drawn video from director
Galen Petersen to accompany the song,
but without Miguel in the video, it never
quite made it to106 & Park, a trendsetting
video show on BET which, incidentally,
has recently been cancelled. Because
of the initial recording debt I racked up

while with Blacksmith and the Come

Here spending, I didnt see the profit I
saw withGutter Rainbows,but I enjoyed
working with the Caroline folks. I signed
a deal with them to continue distributing
Javotti Media content.
At this point I was running my business
completely independently. My good friend
Donna Dragotta and I spend hours running
Javotti Media from the kitchen of my
Brooklyn apartment, and I learn new things
about this business daily. One of the key
factors that helps us create and maintain
a buzz without major label marketing
dollars is, ironically, my online presence.
By being early on Facebook and Twitter
Ive amassed about a million followers

each on those networks. I am pretty good

on Tumblr and proficient on Instagram (I
could be better there). They say a picture
is worth a thousand words, and while that
is true, it is a dangerous notion for the
writer. Anyone can take a beautiful picture
on a smartphone but not everyone can
use words to create a beautiful picture.
This is why I find myself more active on
Twitter, and now Medium. There are other
platforms like Vine and Snapchat that can
help, but hey, Im only one guy.
Having a lot of Twitter followersis great for
the ego. A blog once called me the king
of Black Twitter for my ability to use my
Twitter feed to create social discourse.
So thats nice. However, having all these
followers is deceptive because while it
makes me culturally relevant, it doesnt
translate into actual record sales. This is a
generation that would much rather stream
music than buy albums. I understand
why consumers love streaming over
purchasing albums, but they are mistaken
when they think it is beneficial to the
artists. I see what I make from streaming
vs actual sales and theres no comparison.
I make relatively nothing from streaming.
For me to make the buck I would make
from one purchase of a song, through
streams a fan would have to stream that
same song almost 150 times.

If you are an artist with major marketing

dollars behind you, then streaming may
work out better for you in the long run, but
if you are indie, like the vast majority of
artists are, betting that you will continue to
make money off someone playing a song of
yours twenty years from now is a fools bet.
A true fan will understand that streaming
should enhance the sale, not replace it. This
could be the sale of an album, a t-shirt or
a concert ticket, but there should be some
form of support. Unfortunately, having this
understanding requires high moral fiber and
an unusually acute awareness of how the
record business is run. When I was coming
up pre-internet, you had to own an album
or two to consider yourself a fan of an artist.
Now, someone will call themselves my
biggest fan because theyve seen one of
my videos on YouTube for free. I cant make
this up, people come up to me all the time
saying things like this.
On the flip side, its beneficial for new,
unproven artists to take advantage of all
platforms to be heard, Spotify included. A
new artist needs to be wherever the ears
are. I understand that in my twenty years
of experience, the sales history and the
cultural currency that Ive amassed allow
me to be broader in my thinking when it
comes to streaming. So while my group
with Res, Idle Warship, was the first act to

For me to make the buck

I would make from one
purchase of a song, through
streams a fan would have
to stream that same song
almost 150 times.

ever release music on Spotify before it

was released commercially, I now prefer to
drive all my traffic back to me.
Its generally agreed that this is a problem
for the artist, not the consumer of art, to
solve. To find the answer I began to pay
attention to indie artists with integrity
who still make a good living, and I found
myself paying attention to comedians.
When Louis CK filmed a stand-up concert
and made it available for stream and
download on his website for $5, he made
a cool million and gave half of it away to
charity. I thought it was a genius idea,
but when I tried to apply the realities of
releasing a hip-hop album thru this kind of
platform, the task seemed daunting. Louis
CK comes up with jokes in his head and
delivers them solo, on a microphone to
an audience that is paying for seats. His
only costs were probably the filming, the
streaming and getting the website built,
but the money he made from the concert
could have probably covered these things.
Louis hit show on FX and the success
of his past comedy specials did the
marketing for him, so he didnt have to
spend a lot of money in that department.
He had no producers to pay, samples to
clear, studio time to pay for, engineers,
musicians, etc. There are no royalties that
he has to pay out to anyone once the

product is released as well. I scrapped the idea of being a hip-hop version of Louis CK, until singer/producer Ryan Leslie tracked me
down to share an idea with me.
When it comes to being tech savvy, Ryan Leslie is the opposite of me. A Harvard graduate, he came to fame in this business not just
for his singing and producing skills, but for YouTube videos where he would share his creative process with his audience. He has
remained ahead of the curve when it comes to figuring out how to monetize cultural relevancy, and once he realized that artists are
shut out of the analytics that show us who buys our art and where, he began to think of a way to collect that information. If Amazon,
Google and iTunes can have access to our fans emails and spending habits, why cant we?
Ryan and his Disruptive Multimedia team built a website,RyanLeslie.com, where Ryans fans could buy music directly from Ryan, no
middle man, as long as they provided their contact info. Any artist can use a service like Tunecore to sell digital music on iTunes, or go
thru a distribution company to sell physical products to stores, but you are giving up a hefty percentage to do that, and you will not
have access to the emails of those who spend money on your art. At Ryanleslie.com, Ryan is retaining 100% of the profits he makes
from his art, and he can contact each person who spent money with him directly. In fact, as he was explaining this to me, I watched
Ryan receive a sale direct to his iPhone and then call the fan up and thank him for his purchase on the spot. It was revolutionary. Isnt
this what we all say we want?
In the fall of 2013 Disruptive Multimedia set up a similar site for me,Kweliclub.com. Even though I had just droppedPrisoner of
Consciousthrough Caroline Distribution, the excitement of cutting out the middleman was too much for me to bear and inspired me
to record an album calledGravitas. Recorded mostly in amphitheater locker rooms around the country while I toured with Macklemore

and Ryan Lewis,Gravitaswas an

album that spoke directly to the freshlyindependent mind state I was in. Seeing
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis incredible
success as an indie act was also a
motivating force, and by December of
2013Gravitas, featuring Gary Clark Jr,
Black Thought, Big K.R.I.T., Raekwon the
Chef and more, was available for digital
sale at one place in the world, Kweliclub.
com.
Gravitascost me about $30,000 to record,
but the demand for the physical was so
high that I ended up doing a deal with Fat
Beats Distribution that gave them the right
to press up CDs and vinyl. The advance
I received from Fat Beats coupled with
the pre-orders ofGravitason Kweliclub.
com covered the initial recording costs,
and all monies made from release date
on was profit. To not have to wait months
to profit on my art, to see profit the day
of release, was a first for me. It was like
a high, I felt unstoppable. As liberating of
a feeling this was, it soon became clear
to me that without marketing dollars or
some sort of incredible marketing idea, the
majority of my fans would never know the
album existed. I filmed a couple of videos
for promotion and I tour constantly, which
gave me an opportunity to talk the album
up in front of audiences all over the world,
but there are so many artists competing for
the eyes and ears of music consumers that
its hard not to be swallowed up by all of it.
In February of 2014, 2 months after the
digital, the physical forGravitaswas
released. To make fans aware, I hired a
marketing firm to get some press and TV
and filmed a couple more videos. Sales
continued to trickle in, the song State of
Grace became popular in activist circles
and was nominated for a BET award, but
for the most part, most of my fans are still
unaware ofGravitas. While consumers
say they want to support artists directly,
we all respond way more to products that
are heavily marketed to us, even if that
response is to be vocal about how what
you dont like while refusing to support
what you do.
There was a time, pre-internet, where
diversity in hip-hop music was represented
in the mainstream. Fans of what is
dubbed true hip-hop could find it on the
radio and TV. Once the internet became
dominant in our lives, these fans realized
they didnt have to sit through commercials
and songs they didnt like, they abandoned
radio and TV as a source for hip-hop. As
a result, major labels stopped spending
money promoting this kind of hip-hop
altogether. Now that marketing dollars
are only spent on hip-hop that appeals to

the lowest common denominator, many

of these fans do not have the know-how
or the energy to find alternative ways to
receive the music that speaks to them.
Still, it is not their fault, they dont know
any better. It remains my responsibility to
build the better mousetrap and adapt to
the marketplace, or die. So in September
of 2014, I putGravitasfor sale on iTunes,
where 90% of people who still see the
value in buying music actually buy their
music from. I like working with iTunes,
they make buying music easy, and I buy
most of my music from them, even if I buy
the physical as well. iTunes takes 30% off
top, but I was still able to buy some flights
and Christmas presents with the money
from the fans who boughtGravitasfrom
iTunes, so thank you all. Now, if you
boughtGravitasfrom Kweliclub.com not
only would I receive 100% of the profit, but
I would have your email and I could thank
you directly. First, I have to find a way to
get the audience used to coming to me
directly.
Right now I truly appreciate the space
Im in. There are no guarantees when you
make art for a living and the unknown can
become your inspiration. I have no idea
where the next dollar is going to come
from and its exciting for me to try and
figure it out. I feel like Im on the frontier,
panning for gold. Not knowing where the
money is coming from makes it all the
more sweet when a plan comes together.
This makes me work harder and surround
myself with like-minded folks who see the
vision. I now work with several artists on
Javotti Media, and while I cant guarantee
riches for any of them, I can guarantee that
by following my lead they will be happy
and proud of the living they are able to
make by being true to themselves.
Ive also learned how to carve out many
different platforms that allow me to
constantly present new music. In 2015,
Javotti Media will be partnering with
Caroline Distribution to release my next
solo albumRadio Silence,featuring
production by Nottz, Alchemist, Q-Tip
and more. We will also release the debut
album from renowned poet Jessica Care
Moore calledBlack Tea: The Legend Of
Jessi Jamesand an album by one of
my favorite new MCs, NIKO IS from Rio
DeJaneiro by way of Orlando. NIKO IS is
also releasing a project with Javotti Media/
Colours Of The Culture calledBrutuson
February 3rd, which is a follow up to
his free mixtape we released last spring
calledGood Blood. Good Bloodwas
one of three free mixtapes released by
Javotti Media in 2014, including a group
effort calledThe Cathedral,hosted

by Affion Crockett,andMillion Dollar

BabybyKValentine, a talented female MC
I am currently mentoring out of Chicago.
Lastly, I formed an artist collective with
Pharoahe Monch and 9th Wonder called
INDIE 500, and 9th and I will be releasing
an album together thru Javotti Media/
Traffic late 2015. I am also looking forward
to continuing to find ways to work with
Dru and Noah from 3D, they have a great
operation.
Hopefully, Kweliclub.com can make
supporting what I do directly easier for
the fan. Kweliclub.com will continue to
expand and become one-stop shopping
for all my fans. I will curate there and add
all types of content. I will sell merch and
concert tickets there, like for my upcoming
spring 2015 tour with Immortal Technique.
Kweliclub.com will be a store, an online
magazine and a place for my fans and
friends to connect with each other. For
the members of Kweliclub.com that are
already down with the team, I salute you
and I welcome your suggestions. For
everyone else, get down with us and enjoy
the ride! The future is now, and we are the
new leaders.