Every year it seems like there's a select few beats that become 'the cool thing' for rappers to drop a verse over. In '08 the big one was "A Milli".. I don't even want to think about how many established and bum ass mixtape rappers alike went in over that beat. Eventually, I started getting nauseous everytime I heard it.
Fast foward to late '09 and the "I Wanna Rock" and "Exhibit C" beats were still are having a similar effect within the "freestyle" game. A process where rappers migrate through a list of popular beats, dropping sub-album quality verses on them and exclusively distributing them to the NMC - where they can be inappropriately titled as "freestyles" when 98% of the time the verse was in fact pre-written.
Generally, most rappers try not to be the first to go over a beat, maybe it's legal stuff, I'm not sure. But after a few of 'em do end up using the beat, a flood ensues. Every mediocre rapper and their mother starts looking for the instrumental.
After awhile I stopped listening to most these things. I figured if it was really that good of a verse the rapper would probably include it in they're next mixtape, and if I was a fan, I'd hear it anyway. If not, eh.. I missed one, sue me.
But the other day I started thinking, what do the producers think of this whole thing? The actual beatmakers, that really have no say in which people can rap over their beat.
It could be that rappers going over your beat is like a sign of respect. I guess, maybe, it promotes both parties.. but the producer isn't regularly mentioned when these things get posted. At most the original rapper who bought or used the beat in the first place, presumably for an album of theirs, is the one getting their name mentioned.
Personally, If I made some beat that half the rap game wanted to drop a verse over, I'd want to pick and choose who got to go over it. Some unknown using my beat to promote himself? Eff that. Find your own beat, fool!
And that's really only my plan B. Plan A is to get everyone that wants to drop a verse to drop me some cash on the low. Gotta get that paper. But that's unrealistic. If they're not making any money off it I guess it really doesn't make sense to be charging them.
So what do you producers out there think? Is it cool for anybody that has the savvy to get their hands on your instrumental to drop a verse over it?
2 comments:
I think back in the day when Cube would jack beats it was a show of respect towards the producer.
Now, even in the post-mixtape era, it's a way of quickly throwing some shit together and packaging it as free music.
Btw, why do written freestyles bug you so much?
It's a pet peeve I guess. I'm just don't know why writing and spitting a verse over someone else's beat got to be called a "freestyle" when the word was already in use. Any average joe can sit down and write a 16, it takes skill and practice to be able to come up with a cohesive verse off the top of the dome.
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