Hip hop artist Huddy Combs, born Andre Hudson, was killed in a car accident in New York on October 13. Combs was also known as Huddy 6, and worked on the breakthrough 1997 Harlem World rap album created by rap artist Mase.

The album contained several tracks by Puffy Combs, and featured other prominent rap artists including Busta Rhymes, Lil’ Kim, DMX, Jay-Z, and Billy Lawrence. Harlem World hit the number 1 spots on the Billboard 200 chart and the US and Canadian top rap album charts. Huddy was also featured on a 2003 mixtape by Ray Benzino called Die Another Day: Flawless Victory 2003.

In 1999, Mase put together a rap group named Harlem World, which included Huddy and released one album, The Movement. The Movement featured artists such as Carl Thomas, Nas, Kelly Price, Mase, Drag-On, Rashad, Jermaine Dupri, and the Harlem Boys Choir. Snoop Dogg recorded a single from the album called Cali Chronic. The Harlem World group broke up shortly thereafter.

Hudson was driving a 2000 Mercury Marquis on the upper level of the westbound George Washington Bridge when it collided with a tractor-trailer at about 5:15 AM. Hudson was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the car was taken to the hospital and treated for what was described as non-life threatening injuries. The cause of the accident is not known.

Hudson was influential in the Harlem rap and hip-hop music scenes, and worked until his death as a party promoter in the New York City area. He was well known among local DJs and emerging rap music artists and worked to promote both new and established rap music artists in New York City.

He was also a good friend of rapper Cameron (Cam’ron) Giles, who credited Hudson with saving his life when Cam’ron was shot in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Cam’ron and Hudson were in town to promote “What The Game’s Been Missing,” the second rap album by Juelz Santana. Cam’ron and Hudson wanted to join a party hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs at Washington’s H2O nightclub, but were denied entry into the establishment because several of the members of Cam’ron’s party did not meet the nightclub’s dress code.

After leaving the club, the rapper was confronted and attacked by a shooter who escaped. Cam’ron suffered two non-life threatening gunshot wounds to his arms. The shooting remains unsolved.

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In my last post, I discussed an article that appeared in Digital Music News earlier this week, which claims that rap music artists are better (read: more profitable) at the business end of music than musicians in other genres are. I discussed DMN’s first four reasons. Today, we’ll cover the last four reasons.

Rap Music Is More Than Just Gangsta Rap

Greed. DMN doesn’t come off saying that rap music artists are greedy. Instead, what they say is that materialism is built-in to the entertainment industry and rap musicians have figured out how to make the most of what they’ve got going. Rappers like Jay-Z epitomize the kind of “greed” that DMN is talking about. By marketing more than their music, rappers open up opportunities for themselves to expand their brands and make more money. Jay-Z, who currently earns more than any other rapper, does so by promoting a combination of interests: rap music, night clubs, entertainment, other rappers, clothing and more. By spreading out the brand image, rappers can make more money simply because they’ve got more cookie jars to get their hands into.

Building Culture. Rap and hip-hop musicians travel in the same circles. Having a rapper appear on another rapper’s album is part of the culture. Including samples from other songs – well-known and obscure alike – is part of what makes rap and hip-hop music unique. In addition, rappers refer to other rappers’ works, use each other’s language and have an ongoing conversation that the fans all understand. It allows the listeners to be part of the conversation and to understand what one artist means when s/he refers to another artist’s work.

Powerful, recurring themes. According to DMN, rap music focuses on some powerful, long-running themes, like poverty, violence, wealth, and sex. These themes are common not only to the rappers, but to the fans, who can relate closely with what the rapper is expressing. By giving fans something they can relate to, rappers encourage them to be loyal listeners, and also provide a way for fans to explore these themes in their own lives.

Last but not least, fans are engaged. By keeping fans involved in the evolution of the music, by feeding their desire to hear more of their favorite artists, by showing them their favorite rappers in movies, television programs and other entertainment outlets, and by releasing significantly more material (mostly free), rap musicians prosper even during today’s deep recession.

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Digital Music News published an article this week that explains why it believes rap music artists make better businessmen when it comes to the music industry. The article examines eight ways in which rap music artists support the industry unlike their non-rap artist counterparts.

Music Production Is One Of The Keys

Collaborate. Collaborations are king in the rap music world, and according to the research, collaborations sell better and are more interesting to the listening audience than tracks (and albums) that feature a single artist. By combining artists, DMN argues that producers can “share” fans and get more reliable and effective exposure for up-and-coming acts.

DJs count. According to DMN, DJs are critical to exposing a new artist to the listening audience. They also create a market for rap and hip-hop music by creating mixtapes that are distributed at no cost to the listener. While some may mistake the mixtape as an outlet for material that’s not good enough to be put on an album, the mixtape freebies actually create an ongoing music feed to the audience and increase demand for the artists’ music.

More work means more music. In the past musicians would work intensely for a relatively short period of time to create enough usable tracks for an album. Today’s top musicians (in more genres than just rap) work all the time. Lil Wayne and Lady Gaga are notable examples of musicians who record daily. Not every track is worth putting on an album; in fact, only a few tracks make it to the album stage, but the artist creates a new product every day. This generates a lot of material that would otherwise not be created, or would be thrown away. Today’s artists give away a lot of their music. For example, Lil Wayne has given away more music than most traditional musicians make in their entire careers. The benefits? Audiences have become very familiar with Lil Wayne and reward him by buying his albums when he does produce one. Another benefit? Lil Wayne can release albums at will. He has enough material available to put out a collection whenever the timing is right.

Rappers Find A Lot of Local Support Because rap musicians regularly pay tribute to where they came from, they get a lot of support from fans in those areas. By building a base of support – which includes regular mentions of the places they’re familiar with – rappers can count on receptive audiences for music sales and tours.

In my next post, I’ll look at the other four reasons DMN says that rap musicians are better at the business aspects of music than artists who work in other genres.
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Hip hop beats artist Mos Def has made it official. He’ll join Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label and collaborate with West, Swizz Beatz, and Raekwon on West’s Lord, Lord, Lord from his Friday album. Previously, Mos Def had recorded on an indie label, Downtown Records, which produced his last album, The Ecstatic, in 2009.

Mos Def Has An Established Fan Base

This isn’t the first time that West and Mos Def have worked together. Mos Def appeared on West’s “Two Words” a track on the 2005 album College Dropout and again on “Drunk and Hot Girls” from West’s 2007 Graduation album. Mos Def has worked primarily as a solo artist, although his first album, Black Star, featured himself and Talib Kweli. His albums have each been released by a different record label, and one – True Magic – received no promotion at all, either by the record label (Geffen Records) or by the artist himself. He has appeared in several other albums and collaborations with other artists and he’s recently developed his own clothing line.

It remains to be seen whether Mos Def will become more productive or mainstream on the G.O.O.D. Music label. Despite his limited album releases and movement from label to label, the hip-hop artist has had an undeniable influence on hip hop music. Working with West and his growing collection of rap and hip-hop artists may finally allow Mos Def to achieve what many see as his true potential.

In the mean time, the hip-hop music world waits for another bright star. Many new artists are entering the business on their own, thanks to the availability of music self production tools. Even as little as ten years ago, self-production was relatively unheard of in music circles, because self production is only half the picture. Promotion is what sells records, and weak self-production tools and poor self-promotion channels meant that new, independent artists had little chance of being heard.
Today, all of that has changed. Self-produced music is much more common, and tools like Sonic Producer make self-production easier than ever. Self promotion is available through the Internet, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and sales channels like iTunes. In terms of music, there has never been a better time to be a self-producer than right now.
Sonic Producer is available for download on both the PC and Macintosh platforms. Download your copy today and see how easy self-producing your own music can be!

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