I am a strong believer in talent and believe that if you have some hot shit and a good sound, you will be recognized and get your time to shine. In the world of indie hiphop, in many cases if you are not dope, you will not get a deal, you won’t get shows and you won’t have a buzz attached to your name. It’s even harder for indie artists to get their music heard on radio. Of course, we will always have college radio, who will always support dope music. But, when it comes to national radio, or top 40 Clear channel type shitz, indie artists have little or no chance, unless they make some kind of regional ringtone type hit that happens to blow up.

Which leads me to Sirius and XM satellite radio. No holds barred radio! Play what you want. Play the dope shit! Play the classics! Break new artists! Expose dope indie artists! Wait, break new artists? Expose dope indie artists? Now let’s talk about one of the more “popular” DJ’s on the planet, mixtape DJ Green Lantern. In the story below, Kid Kaos (indie MC who also owns Vintage Imperial, a company that specializes in lifestyle street marketing campaigns) approached Green Lantern after one of his notoriously horrendous sets with some music to play on his oh so popular Sirius Radio Show, only to be asked “Ya’ll Got a Check? You know Brothas Gotta Pay the Rent!”

Payola is a touchy ass subject. If you are wack as all hell, but you got some drug deala dough, you can get play. Meanwhile, the indie artists that deserve the play are stuck in the cold. Fucked up, right? Read the shit below. Rap has gotten to a point where DJ’s with no musical talent, rich white millionaires, and barely literate ringtone rappers are running the shit. Shit’s pathetic…

From: http://thekaoseffect.com/blog/?p=1344

So last night I stopped by Apache Cafe real quick to check out Dj Green Lantern spin. Now I’ve never seen dude spin so I really didn’t know what to expect. But what I found was similar to most producers who think their Dj’s. No Blending, just slamming records, letting each song play for like 10 seconds before switching to the next one, etc.I charged it to the game. But heres what “really threw me off. At the end of the night I said what up to Green and made a move to get him some music for his Sirius Satellite Radio show. He looked at me and was like thats cool, but uh “Ya’ll got a check???” And then says cause “You know brothas gotta pay the rent!” As if my rent doesn’t have to be paid as well. And as if he’s not Eminems former Dj and Jay Z’s current DJ, And on the new Grand Theft Auto Video Game, Etc. Im pretty sure his rent is paid threw the rest of the year.

Was Green Lantern really asking me to Pay to Play my music? Yep he was! The Payola game is in full effect in 2008! Digusting! Another artist (who I wont name) told me years ago Dj Clue tried to charge him $2,000.00 to have his song included in the first 6 songs on his mixtape!

And you really wonder how some of these artists are getting exposure? PAYOLA is nothing new. Cats are paying BIG bucks too these Dj’s and Radio Stations for spins. But I damn sure have never had a DJ just come out and say “You Got a Check for that?”

Me personally refuse to be involved with it. So hopefully Mr Green Lantern was really just a lil intoxicated. On the flip side to the artists out there on the come up, know that you shouldn’t be paying anybody to play your record!

“DJ’S USED TO CHECK FOR A RECORD, NOW THESE DUDES WANT A CHECK FOR A RECORD!!!” - SEAN PRICE

“Ya’ll Got a Check? You know Brothas Gotta Pay the Rent!”