Your Favorite Rapper is Poor: Interview With Rap Publicist Seneca Doss Posted by Nathan S. on 01/25/11 | Filed under Top Stories, Features, Your Favorite Rapper Is Poor, How to Blow...

Yes our "Your Favorite Rapper Is Poor" is all about pointing out that the rappers you see on BET driving Maybachs actually couldn't afford a Kia, but they're also about helping ensure that the up-and-coming artists who read RefinedHype don't become a broke ballers themselves.

With that in mind, almost nothing's more important than the team an artist surrounds themselves with, and since so few people seem to know exactly what it is a publicist does, and how to hire a good one, I thought we'd take a moment to sit down with Seneca "The Beast" Doss, one of the game's most widely respected rap publicists and marketers.


Seneca Doss, photo by Phillis Kwentoh

RefinedHype: What does an online publicist do? What distinguishes a good one from a poor one?

Seneca Doss: An Online Publicist or rather an Online Marketer is someone that agitates the online community to help bring awareness to a project like an artists new album, movie or even a public figure. The marketing part is added because in the bigger picture of things, that’s what we do – market.

For example... if I’m able to get an artist an interview on a popular online site, then the goal is to hope that other sites pick it up and post it to their sites too. One interview could now be seen by hundreds... maybe thousands on multiple sites instead of just one and that’s a tact move to achieve volume and movement that helps to build a project day by day. If there’s a good plan in play... after that interview goes up, you follow up by trying to get a record put up and then drop the video to the record to keep adding momentum. The goal is to agitate, build and hope eventually people will notice.

A good Online Marketer or even a Publicist at one point was a bad one. I still remember when I was getting fired from internships. The good ones today are the ones that failed, got up, failed
again, got burned, gave up, came back... made some calls and got a lot of no’s, stay determined, wanted to be better and exceed the doubts. You basically get focused. If someone is wack
at being a Publicist or person period, then their probably just wack and I wouldn’t waste my time telling them because they probably already know it.

RefinedHype: What’s the difference between an independent contractor that does online media versus someone that works at a label?

Seneca Doss: This is a great question and the answer is freedom. Those that are independent are entrepreneurs and pick and choose what projects they want to work with. Those that work at a label are giving projects and regardless if the artist is good or wack... they still gotta work it. Some could debate working at a label is more secure in terms of income, because when your independent – you have to hustle for those checks.

RefinedHype: What are the most common promotion/publicity mistakes you see rappers make?

Seneca Doss: There are two that really stand out to me: blowing off the media and using Twitter as a ranting platform. I’ve seen artists blow off so many interviews to the affect that it hurt their careers because we have to be real... the media are the people that assist in putting the word out for artists of a new project. Once these people in the media catch a slight of disrespect from an artists, it’s not a good look. The point at which John Doe at so and so site would be like yeah... “I can come by an interview dude,” would now turn into “I pass.” Once you burn a bridge with a magazine or online site, you’ll be fighting an up hill battle to get them back on board. I’ve seen it!

Rappers that use Twitter as an outlet to rant can be a bad move. Twitter was not meant to become a breeding ground for artists to talk trash about another artist. Once you do that – it could have serious affects on your career. A perfect example is when Chris Brown was going at it with Ricky Romance. Although to some of us regular people that thought it was funny and crazy, for a lot of uptight people that still watch the 700 Club, it was pretty nasty. Chris Brown using homophobic language to describe Ricky Romance brought him a lot of flack on those conservative talk shows and etc. At the end he had to apologize... not Ricky Romance. Chris Brown has everything to loose while Ricky Romance is at home watching Maury. Chris Brown could have been a bigger man and just could have said nothing, but then again we’re all human and we get caught up sometimes when people come at us funny.

RefinedHype: How have you seen the game change over the last few years. What are labels looking for in an artist?

Seneca Doss: Artists will never have to worry about labels not looking for new talent, because they do. It’s a never ending cycle. The trick is getting the attention of the labels and there are so many ways to do that now then ever before. A few years back, it was all about if you got crazy MySpace numbers, but that really means nothing today. Labels are looking for artists today that stand out, make good music and have a lot of things going on for themselves already. Like if your already buzzing online, have all your social sites poppin’, have dropped several mixtapes/albums – someone will find you. You have to stay patient though and the one’s that succeed the most these day’s come in with an already strong team that handle several facets of managing, marketing and etc.

The unfortunately part about this business is that not every artist will make it.