S. Samuel
The LOX's Sheek Louch has weighed in what it takes to maintain longevity as an artist in the current entertainment climate and how he has continued his music career for nearly two decades.
Despite being considered a rap veteran, Sheek said he never feels pressured to alter his sound.
“I don’t care if there’s new artists or not. When I come in the club it’s a big thing,” Sheek revealed in an interview. “They’re trying to follow the trend. They’re trying to follow whatever’s hot. And I’m gonna speak for Jada and Styles as well. We don’t do that. We make our music what feels good to us, not what we’re trying to be…I’ve ventured out and I tried. I had the ‘Good Love’ record and I got ‘Party After 2’ with Jeremih now. That’s another lane that I discovered that I got. I really figured out that ‘Wow, these women is on me right now.’ If you feel comfortable with doing those records, cool, but [don’t] come out the gate with those records because you feel the label wants you to.” (Hip Hop Game)
In November, Slaughterhouse’s Joe Budden offered his advice on staying relevant in hip-hop.
“[The key to longevity,] you want to practice, you always want to work on your craft and continue to get better everyday,” Budden said during a Hip Hop Nation radio broadcast. “And you want to be as persistent as possible. You will run into a lot of people who are naysayers, people who will be non-believers, people who will tell you you’re not fit for this, and you know, it takes a strong-willed individual to be able to block all that out and pursue your dreams.” (Hip Hop Nation)
Grand Hustle breakout star B.o.B. recently gave out his own gems of wisdom for upcoming artists.
“Be patient because this is something that is definitely like a benchmark in your career,” he said in an interview. “You’ll never be able to do that again. It’s like you can become famous but you can’t become un-famous. When you’re famous, people become mad. There’s nothing you can do to where people just forget you or be un-famous, so enjoy these times and just be patient…It’s been a long journey, man. It’s good and that’s what I would tell the Freshmen now; it’s going to be a long journey so don’t feel like all the stuff with the label, and the issues you run into… it’s normal and it’s expected. Even if you had your own record label and you built your own team of people, you’re going to run into the same problems. Because people are people no matter what.” (XXL Mag)
New York rapper Fabolous previously provided career tips for new emcees.
“Really, I guess just coming in with not a lot of knowledge of what it takes to put out an album [is a mistake],” Fab explained in an interview. “Knowing the business relationship between you and your record label, a lot of people think it’s just going into the studio, being in the studio all night smoking and drinking and having your friends in there, then the money don’t come back like it’s supposed to or the record labels [take] every coin away from your album. Then they wanna look back and see what’s going on or flip out like, ‘Yo where’s my bread at?’ and it was there, but you ain’t do your business right. So I think everybody that comes in, you should talk with certain people or educate yourself to it by looking it up and checking out your business.” (SmackTube)
Check out some recent Sheek Louch footage down below:
