"No seriously … I said my teeth are real diamonds… these are not fronts… I replaced my bottom row of teeth with diamonds"<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
became as famous as any song lyric, part of the fabric of popular culture.<\/p>\n
And throughout the entire episode, Kanye was never soft and fuzzy, was never lovable.<\/p>\n
Sure, Kanye got some mainstream exposure.\u00c2\u00a0 But, he’s considered to be really damn good and he did it his way.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t this how the classic rock artists triumphed?<\/p>\n
So, once again:<\/p>\n
1. Be really damn good.\u00c2\u00a0 Great art makes up for a ton of ills.\u00c2\u00a0 One can argue strongly if Mel Gibson makes a movie on his own dime and it’s great, he can reemerge from the depths.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re a forgiving populace.<\/p>\n
2. Don’t fall on your sword.\u00c2\u00a0 Your crime doesn’t mean as much to people as the mainstream press says it does.\u00c2\u00a0 Kevin Smith sat at home, depressed as the man labeled "too fat to fly", but eventually Tiger Woods crashed his car and Smith’s foibles on Southwest, which were inaccurately reported, faded away.\u00c2\u00a0 A career in the public eye is first and foremost about persistence, and perseverance.<\/p>\n
3. Play the mainstream media game, die by the mainstream media game.\u00c2\u00a0 News outlets don’t care about you, they care about advertising, they care about ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t let the tail wag the dog.\u00c2\u00a0 Katy Perry is in the news every damn day, but she still can’t sell out an arena.\u00c2\u00a0 Get your perspective right.\u00c2\u00a0 Katy’s handlers have got it totally wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 What does showing off your tits have to do with music?\u00c2\u00a0 Kanye’s not the best-looking dude on the planet, but it doesn’t matter, because people believe he’s good.<\/p>\n
4. If you’re not willing to give away something for free, you’re not willing to have a career.\u00c2\u00a0 If Kanye can give away free tracks, why can’t you?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about your relationship with your fans.\u00c2\u00a0 The song doesn’t have to be on the album.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to know where in the food chain to charge, and it’s not at every contact point.<\/p>\n
5. Maintain contact.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re doing your own act.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, with the Internet, you don’t need permission to do it.\u00c2\u00a0 You can perform on YouTube, you can tweet, less is more is history.\u00c2\u00a0 Now you always give more, and the public decides how much it wants to graze in your neighborhood.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans come and go, but you can’t let it impact your art.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to do what you want to do, not what you think the audience wants.<\/p>\n
6. Have a personality.\u00c2\u00a0 If no one hates you, you’re not doing it right.<\/p>\n
7. Don’t focus on the album release.\u00c2\u00a0 Your marketing’s got to go on for years.\u00c2\u00a0 The Doobie Brothers released a new album.\u00c2\u00a0 Straight to the dumper.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no Twitter presence, no fan engagement, just a record most fans don’t know exists and don’t want anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 And I only use the Doobies because they’re an ancient act, and all the ancient acts don’t know how to do it.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t need a label and you don’t need an album.\u00c2\u00a0 You need fans, which you’ve got, and you need to know how to reach each and every one of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Pat Simmons should have played acoustic in someone’s house.\u00c2\u00a0 The band should have done live performances of classics on YouTube.\u00c2\u00a0 They should have gotten their fans involved.\u00c2\u00a0 If Paul McCartney wants to sell a new album, he’s gonna have to do it this way too.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you want to be a recluse, if you want to survive in the new world, you’ve got to get yourself out there.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t pooh-pooh it as marketing, it’s performing!\u00c2\u00a0 And isn’t that what you do!\u00c2\u00a0 And it can be as much about music as you want it to be.<\/p>\n
8. In a chaotic era you’ve got to go your own way, you’ve got to forge your own path.\u00c2\u00a0 No one knows, certainly not the mainstream media guys or those at the label.\u00c2\u00a0 They know how it used to be done. It’s incumbent upon you to do it your own way, for yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 The Eagles can’t sell every ticket?\u00c2\u00a0 How come Don Henley’s not on Twitter, he’s got opinions.\u00c2\u00a0 Just putting tickets on sale is no longer enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, how do people even find out about the gig?\u00c2\u00a0 Most people complain they didn’t know you were playing.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re a new act?\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be good.\u00c2\u00a0 And if your goal is to connect with the mainstream and have it do your bidding, you’ve got it wrong. It’s about a career.\u00c2\u00a0 And you build it.\u00c2\u00a0 And it works because you’ve got fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Your label doesn’t own your fans, nor does the radio station, only you do.\u00c2\u00a0 Start there.<\/p>\n
Read this article, it’s really well done:<\/p>\n
\nKanye West shapes the message his way<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How does an artist go from being the most hated man in America to #1? By ignoring conventional wisdom.\u00c2\u00a0 By giving away music.\u00c2\u00a0 By utilizing Twitter.\u00c2\u00a0 By leaving his rough edges on, wearing them as a badge of honor. You’ve got to read the story about Kanye in today’s "Los Angeles Times".\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been flirting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-W0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3597,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions\/3597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}