Carolina Commentary - Crabs in a Barrell: The Downfall of NC Hip-Hop

I woke up this morning and read something that to me, has to be the single-most important piece of writing in regards to this Carolina Hip-Hop scene. 9th Wonder took time to drop jewels that I fear many will still turn a deaf ear to. Enough of me...y'all read:

"CRABS IN A BARRELL-THE DOWNFALL OF NC HIP-HOP" -A COMMENTARY by 9th Wonder

Parents............PLEASE EXCUSE The LANGUAGE in this piece....PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED.....

This HAS to be said....

First ask yourself...what is the definition of being "ON" like Nancy-O asked below. Is on quitting your job? Is ON...being ON the radio? Is ON being on 106 and park? Is ON having 50,000 fans in Japan, and turning it into profit? I think ALOT of misinformation runs around the triangle though to stir up alot of things. First....KING MEZ is not signed to me, although he is INSANELY dope (go to iwwmgroup.com to find out exactly WHO is signed to me.) They are signed to me because their HEART is in the right place.....they have a LOVE for the music FIRST......learning that LOVE, APPRECIATING the MUSIC......THEN looking for the DEAL........THATS the type of PLAYERS I RECRUIT.....thats the type of OFFENSE I RUN IN MY PROGRAM......Second, bringing BIG artists, A&Rs and such is NOT an easy task. The closest thing we had to something like that was SMES, and that was eventually moved to SC. 3rd, lets take a look at the NATIONAL artists I've worked with(Banner, Luda, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Destiny's Child, Badu), takes an ARM and THREE LEGS to get those folk down here, period. When we started as Little Brother, NO ONE came here.......NO.....ONE......we utilized the internet as much as possible, made the RIGHT decisions, stuck to OUR sound, didn't worry about ANYONE else and stayed to OUR business, 3 things ALOT of NC artists have a VERY HARD TIME WITH. We were called, backback, underground, fake wu-tang, ALL types of wild shit, just because we BELIEVED in our sound, and knew where to find OUR fanbase. Why compete with artists that stay 10 minutes in your radius where the COMPETITION in OUT IN THE WORLD???? I never understood why you would be concerned with cats who lived 15 miles away from you when KENDRICK LAMAR IS SMASHING AND HE IS FROM LOS ANGELES, and MAC MILLER IS SMASHING ANS HE IS FROM PITTSBURGH!?!???!?! LIL B is SMASHING Those are the ones thats on the XXL COVER, GUN for them, NOT US. THATS WHO YOUR COMPETITION IS......DONT WAIT UNTIL NIGGAS GET ON THE RADIO TO FIND OUT WHO YOUR COMPETITION IS.......FIND WHO THE UP AND COMING TALENT IS OUTSIDE OF NC....NOT THE NIGGA DOWN THE BLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!! THATS WHO THE A&Rs are LOOKING AT...a NIGGA WITH A BRAND HE BUILT. What the hell is KING of NC?? why does everyone wanna be the KING OF NC??? That aint gonna help your career for shit trying to RUN NC!!!!!!! Trying going to ANOTHER STATE and getting love from the big niggas there...WITH YOUR MUSIC...THATS WHEN YOU ARE WINNING......WHEN YOU aRE SMASHING WITH YOUR MUSIC, not JUST your lyrics, not just your BEATS....WITH YOUR SONGS!!!!!!!!!! ONE person can not help the scene if there are TONS of artists in the scene that don't want to listen, nor want to work...EVERYDAY. For me...this is year number 10..TEN....of working ALL DAY...everyday....sometimes 18 hrs a day, and I teach my artists the SAME way, to not CRY ABOUT PETTY SHIT AND WORK EVERYDAY, ALL DAY, WITHOUT HAVING A DEAL IN MIND......DO THE MUSIC, BUILD THE BRAND.....THE DEAL WILL COME......THEY WILL FIND YOU IF YOU BUILD YOUR SHIT.....STOP CRYING AND WORK!!!!!!!!!! The funny thing is, as much as I've done and tried to help people with advice, LONG talks on the phone, mentoring niggas, etc, etc.....there are STILL some bitter, jealous, immature, need to grow up people here that focus on the WRONG things instead of taking the TIME, The DISCIPLINE, and the flat out work to BUILD A BRAND instead of FOLLOWING THE LATEST trend. When Petey Pablo was doing his thing, I didn't say "oh Petey help me"..or "Tyfu why can't I be DOWN WITH YALL".......FUCK THAT...ME and PHONTE told OURSELVES....shit...if THEY CAN DO IT...WE CAN TOO!!!!!!!!!.......I'm a MAN bro...I help MYSELF and do for MYSELF as MUCH as I CAN FIRST. UNDERSTAND this game is NOT easy....it WILL NOT happen OVERNIGHT..you will SPEND COUNTLESS HOURS IN THE STUDIO WONDERING IF THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.....some of your friends/associates/family will NOT believe in you...YOU WILL NOT GET RADIOPLAY HERE..I REPEAT...NO RADIOPLAY.....hell I GOT A GRAMMY, and THE RADIO HERE HAS ONLY played TWO OF MY SONGS IN TEN YEARS in the GAME.........PEOPLE WILL NOT BELIEVE YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING UNTIL IT IS ON TELEVISION......FACE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FACE THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT THIS BUSINESS, THIS GAME WILL MAKE A MAN/WOMAN OUT OF YOU...IF YOU CAN NOT HANDLE IT.....TAKE YOUR BALL AND GO HOME..........Truth be told....all of the people that say I need to do this and that....LET THEM GET HALF OF THE ACCOLADES I HAVE and SEE HOW THEY ACT. YALL think they would be humble, still stay in NC, still do local events, still talk to cats?? HELL NO!!!!! That ONE JAY-Z CO-SIGN WILL SEND HALF OF THE NIGGAS PACKING and JETTING to NEW YORK...........let ALONE staying here to HELP ANYONE..at ALL.....half of yall woulda TURNED YOUR BACK ON NC and wouldn't even say you were FROM here. I've seen dudes get a little PIECE of shine and act BIGGER than the world.

Here are some VERY SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCESS...

1.LISTEN, TAKE NOTES, and WATCH AND OBSERVE ALL CREWS who have a BRAND, and MAKE GREAT MUSIC, and STOP BEING ANGRY, BITTER, JEALOUS, MANNING UP, ask for ADVICE. Stop worrying about if you are DICKRIDING SOMEBODY if you wanna ASK for advice, GROWN MEN LEARN HOW TO BUILD, NETWORK AND TALK TO EACH OTHER.....

2.QUIT BLAMING 9th WONDER FOR WHY YOU HAVENT MADE IT...again......QUIT BLAMING 9th WONDER FOR WHY YOU HAVEN'T MADE IT...one more time....QUIT BLAMING ME WHY YOU HAVENT HAD ANY LEVEL OF SUCCESS....LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND FIND OUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG, BECAUSE I NEVER BLAMED ANY OF YALL WHEN I WAS SLEEPING ON COUCHES AND SELLING BEATS FOR 50 DOLLARS, DOING BEAT RAFFLES.....TRADING SMOOTHIES FOR BAGELS TO EAT, and RIDING DE WOLFLINE ALLLLLLLLLL THE TIME...........when you don't even KNOW HOW YOU WANT TO MAKE IT......

3.STOP LEAVING AFTER YOU PERFORM AT LOCAL SHOWS....CHEER ON THE NEXT MAN.....SHOW RESPECT............

4.LEARN HOW TO TAKE CRITICISM, STOP POINTING THE FINGER, LOOK IN THE MIRROR, STOP PULLING THE NEXT MAN DOWN IF HE/SHE MAKES IT,

5.RECOGNIZE WHO THE LEADERS OF THE NC MOVEMENT IS, FALL BACK AND PLAY A ROLE WHERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY HELP INSTEAD OF WANTING TO BE "THE MAN",

6.STOP talking the SAME LAME EXCUSE OVER AND OVER, PULL UP THEIR OWN BOOT STRAPS and HIT THE MUTHAFUCKIN STUDIO 24/7/365 and BUILD YOUR OWN BRAND........

7. QUIT COMPETING WITH PEOPLE IN YOUR AREA......YOUR COMPETION IS OUT THERE!!!!!!

8. THE UNIVERSE CONTAINS KARMA......AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO HATE...HATE WILL COME YOUR WAY...10 FOLD....DONT BURN BRIDGES.......YOU CAN NEVER CROSS THEM AGAIN IF YOU DO.......

9.AGAIN...QUIT BEING BITTER ABOUT STUFF FROM THE PAST...9 TIMES OUTTA 10 it PROBABLY WAS YOUR FAULT ANYWAY...BY LISTENING TO PEOPLE who HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT...

10.HIT THE MUTHAFUCKIN BLOGS to FIND OUT WHATS REALLY GOING ON AND STOP WATCHING TV and LISTENING TO THE RADIO.......


11.TREAT YOUR LATEST SUCCESS LIKE ITS ONLY A STEPPING STONE....IF YOU GET A WRITE UP SOMEHWHERE.....USE THAT AS MOTIVATION......

12.LEARN WHO ARE THE O.G.s are IN RDU HIP-HOP...they have ALLLLL the ADVICE IN THE WORLD.....when you do...JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LISTEN....DONT TALK....BRING PEN AND PAPER AND LISTEN.....

THE SOONER YOU GET THESE STEPS DOWN......THE BETTER OF YOU AND YOUR CAREER WILL BE...and THE BETTER OFF NC WILL BE.........PERIOD...
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Nothing short of how I've felt for the better part of the last decade...maybe now since someone that's successful in this music shit and STILL resides in NC has said it, y'all will listen. I hope so. For the sake of all of our futures...I hope so.

HOLLA.