This Is My Rifle: How Your Favorite Sites Really Work (Including RefinedHype)

Weekend Edition: RefinedHype's most popular pieces of the week, running from Saturday to Monday morning.

(A Note From Nathan S.: For the record, I had no idea Jason would be writing about this until the column popped up in my inbox last night. Some of the specifics aren't completely accurate, but he did a pretty damn good job of describing how your favorite music sites work behind the scenes. And since I'm genuinely dedicated to making RefinedHype a place that helps teach fans and artists how the music they see on their favorite sites make it from some editors inbox to online, fuck it, I'm posting this completely unedited. And I'll do my best to honestly answer any questions you have in the comments below. I'll let Jason take it from here....)

I would like to begin this week's article by sharing with you an email I received a few weeks ago from an unnamed artist. It went as follows:

"Yo post my music".

That's it. No name, no introduction, no picture or links to his website, twitter or facebook accounts, just one sentence with an arbitrary MP3 attached to the email. Normally I would respond with a simple, "Thank you for your email but I don't post any of the music on Refined Hype" and send him in the right direction, but due to the condescending nature of the email, and complete lack of information as to who this person was, I didn't bother with a reply. I just hit the delete button and moved on to the next 50 emails from artists and promo companies who at least take the time to tell me what their name is and why they're reaching out.

I know that the scenario outlined above seems like an odd occurrence, perhaps even something that would be stashed away as one of the more memorable independent artist fails in recent history, but believe it or not it happens all the time. In fact, more often than not I find that most artists have no idea what they're doing when trying to promote their music. Instead of focusing on the present, a vast majority of the artists that I encounter spend a lot of their time dreaming about future possibilities while expecting the world to come to them with open arms. But what these aspiring rappers and musicians fail to realize is that while they assume that their music is so good that people will like it regardless of the presentation, consequentially they are sinking into the infinite ocean of digital music and getting lost in the fray.

Since I began writing for Refined Hype a few years ago, it's been a massive learning experience and one that has proven to be an invaluable asset to both my creative and professional interests as time's gone by. While I watched Nathan guide the site from a lesser known, yet relentlessly ambitious branch of the DJBooth empire, to an influential editorial hub for all things legit, I've taken notes and come to understand how the fibers of Hip Hop in the digital era are woven together.

Prior to my arrival at the only site in Hip Hop to feature a giant set of heavy brass balls, I used to ask myself the same question that every underground MC in the world has asked at one time or another in regards to their lack of support from respected blogs and other trusted digital mediums; "Why don't these motherfuckers just post my fucking music!?! FUCK!!!". There were moments where the frustration alone was enough to send me into a total mental breakdown. Time and time again, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't manage to catch the attention of that small group of people who could pull me out of obscurity and push me through the gates of artistic recognition. Did they know how much time and energy went into my songs? Not to mention the money spent on studio time to bring them to life? Who were they to pass judgment on me? How fucking hard could it be to post my picture and a stupid fucking download link? How long would it take them anyway? Like 30 seconds?

Well, as it turned out, it's a lot more complicated than I thought.

Remember that awesome Ghostwridah song you found on this site a few months ago that you still have playing in steady rotation on your iPod? You can go ahead and thank Nicki Minaj for making that happen. You see, there's a pre-existing system currently fueling the constant flow of music that makes its way from a pro tools session to an email, then to a blog post and eventually into your iTunes library on a daily basis. We rarely notice it but it's always there, stretched across the top and bottom of this site, non-descript enough that it doesn't impede on our search for good music and interesting articles, but relevant enough that we see it and possibly consider purchasing a product that may our may not enhance our quality of life. That's right, it’s the age-old system of music and brand marketing; also known as the ongoing dysfunctional marriage of art and industry. Here's how it works:

Refined Hype gets 100,000 views per month (not the actual number) and reaches a key demographic of males aged 20-30 years old. It just so happens that this is Coca-Cola's target market for a specific ad campaign they're about to launch, so the marketing department does some research and finds Refined Hype. Coca-Cola contacts Nathan, Nathan names a price, Coca-Cola agrees, Nathan quits his 9-5 job and Refined Hype becomes his exclusive gig. Now, in exchange for some space across the top of the site, Nathan can focus on Refined Hype full-time and keep it updated every few hours, or whenever he comes across content that he feels is interesting and worth posting.

In addition to this, Complex (being the geniuses they are) straps a scrolling banner across the bottom of the site which displays the latest stories posted by affiliated blogs in the network, and so the sites become reinforcement for each other, sharing viewers and increasing not only their readership but also the number of people exposed to the advertisements as well. For example, somebody at Refined Hype checking out the "Fails Of The Week" sees a headline that reads “jordansdaily Air Jordan XI Low: White/Varsity Red” scroll across the bottom of the screen and they click the link to get a look. Or, somebody at GeekTyrant checking out some "Star Wars Undead" artwork sees “refined hype 50 Cent- Remain Calm” and they then make their way over here to give it a listen. At the end of the day, everybody wins and the lights are on everywhere.

As a result of this, Nathan (and Danielle, respectively) have to make sure that they post material that will not only drive traffic to the site, but will also keep people coming back. What this means is that as much as they’d love to post nothing but unknown, certifiably solid artists, they have to be aware of what it is that’s bringing people to Refined Hype, and unfortunately Nicki Minaj catches more attention than an up and coming MC that nobody’s ever heard of before. As much as we hate to admit it, we love to listen to the new Nicki Minaj song and cringe in agony even more than we enjoy discovering new music from artists that desperately need our support. And that’s why “Beez In The Trap” gets posted next to keb0’s “On The Otherside”; because the traffic that Nicki Minaj drives to the site creates the space for a keb0 to exist.

So when you take this into consideration you begin to understand why these blogs don’t post every single artist that pops up in their email inbox. Aside from it being physically impossible, (I don’t publicize my email address, nor do I post music for Refined Hype yet I still get a minimum of 20-30 emails from various artists every day) it’s also not feasible for the site to focus entirely on presenting obscure underground rappers to the readers. If that was the case, the viewership would dwindle, advertisers would disappear and Refined Hype would grind to a halt. Just think of it this way- every Drake fail, Mystery Booty Of The Week and DJ Khaled single make way for music from ANTHM, keb0, Rome Clientel and every other artist not currently making noise in the mainstream.

In all honesty I have to say that Refined Hype has done the best job of maintaining this balance. While a lot of the popular blogs consist mostly of content that will drive up their numbers (resulting in increased ad revenue), Refined Hype has successfully managed to skew it all down to a healthy mix of mainstream artists, up and coming talent, interesting articles (hey!) and, of course, scantily clad pictures of models. Personally, I like to believe that myself, The Chuckness and ThroatChopU are the direct by-product of a half naked Rosa Acosta doing stretches in front of a strategically placed camera. For some reason it gives this whole column a higher purpose in my mind.

So in the spirit of everything I’ve learned during my past few years as a writer for this site, I’m going to be launching a weekly mixshow called the MJR LBL (pronounced “major label”) Mixshow and it will premier next Saturday, May 12th 2012 at 5pm PST (8pm EST). Much like Refined Hype, the show will be a mix of all things exceptional from mainstream to underground, current to classic, with the primary focus being on independent artists. The show will not be genre specific, basically if I like it, I’ll play it. Any artists who would like to submit music for play on the show, go ahead and send it to [email protected]. I will also be opening up the show to DJ’s as well, so any DJ’s who would like to get some shine and have your mixes showcased, you can contact me at the same address above. I’ll be posting the show on my various social networking accounts as well as sending it out to all of my contacts on my email list so it’s definitely worth it to get involved.

Alright folks, that’s it for me this week. Hopefully you all tune in next Saturday (https://soundcloud.com/MJRLBL) and we can get this thing started off with a bang. I don’t know how long the show will last but as long as there’s good music being sent my way, I’ll do my best to give it a platform.

And I promise I won’t talk about the government or the Illuminati. Seriously. Ok, I’ll limit my ranting to 5 minutes per show. See you there!

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)