Rappers…Oddisee Should Be Your Model
Thinking about carving out a career in Rap — be realistic — learn from someone doing the damn thing. A quick tutorial and history lesson from mauludSADIQ
I can’t tell you how many Rappers I Know (No pun intended, Frank).
A new Rapper pops up everyday. Whether I’m in a grocery store or at Saviours’ Day, I’m sure to meet at least three Rappers.
I like to joke that there’s more Rappers per square mile than doctors. If you’re in a medical bind, might be a problem. But if you need someone to kick you some bars and it’s life or death, you’ll make it out alive.
All of these Rappers hoping to be the next Travis Scott, J Cole, Drake, Lil Wayne, or Jay Z.
Fantasies of huge homes, cars that cost six figures, and chains equal the cost, dance in their heads.
“If (enter Rapper’s name: here) can make it, I damn sure can,” the Rapper exclaims to whom ever will hear her. She has to exude confidence. How else can she be a successful Rapper?
I’m going to have to go with Robert H. Frank and Phillip Cook though. I’m sorry. In the Winner Take All Rap world, chances are you will never see Jay Z-type money. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever see sales beyond 50,000, not in the first days, nor in the days after. And you may be unaware…but 1,500 streams is a helluva lot and a long one way to one sale.
So what’s a Rapper to do? How can they make a living? But more importantly — is that even important? If you seek fame and fortune then this is the wrong post for you. Stop reading now. But if you want answers to those questions then continue on as we discuss one of the most prolific, talented, and inspiring Rappers on the scene today.
That Rapper is Oddisee, and if I were going to be a Rapper, he would be my role model…and he should be yours too.
It’s funny. When you talk about Rappers nowadays, unless they are household names or superstars, one of the most asked questions (after ‘who is this’) is how did you hear about — enter Rapper’s name here — ?
What’s funnier is the thousand and one ways I learn about people. How I heard about Oddisee isn’t all that different.
Before I go to my YouTube, I’m trying to think what came first the chicken or the egg? The chicken being shooting and editing a video for my sister or the egg, making a video for her then boyfriend, Steadfast.
Ok. It was Steadfast. I shot and edited his video first. Prior to meeting him, I ain’t know of any Rappers in the DMV. Washington D.C. to me meant Go-Go and Wale who was garnering some attention with his Hate is the New Love mixtape. The end.
Plus, I wasn’t checking for Rap. But Steadfast was a part of a PG County Collective, Rappers from Oxen Hill to Largo, MD. And he put me on to several of the local artist.
After I shot his no-budget video on a Canon GL2, edited on iMovie, and uploaded it to my newly opened YouTube page, many of his collective wanted me to shoot their videos. Unfortunately, I was only able to shoot on the weekends so his was the last video I shot. But I did walk away from the exchange with a new artist to follow.
That artist was Oddisee
The way that most people are with Rap nowadays is they know the most popular person…or if they’re a super fan…they know the most obscure artists that are barely known in a five block radius of their homes.
Like we discussed here, the whole “underground” paradigm no longer really exists. If anything, there are tiers of Rap the same as there are tiers in Acting. The difference being, Rapper’s tiers or status mostly centers around name recognition. In that set up there are very few A-list Rappers. These are the ones that even yo mama and daughter can name — your Jay Z, Lil Wayne, Drake, J Cole, Kendrick, Rick Ross crew.
Then there’s the B-List. Many of the so-called old school rappers fall into the B-list Rapper world. They’re recognized by name — LL, Kool Mo Dee, hell even Busta falls into that category. These are people who have a name but the younger generation can’t attach their name with their music. And they are also artists who rarely put out music anymore (Will Smith is a great example — A-list actor, B-List Rapper).
C-list Rappers? That’s your French Montana, Fabolous, Dave East and any Rapper that is known for mixtapes and constant calls of having next. C-list Rappers are either social media darlings, find themselves on reality tv shows, or have some other method of keeping their name out there. Usually C-list rappers have strong name recognition in their local market.
Then there’s D-list rappers…sounds bad, but it’s not. D-list rappers are making a living off of rap. Some rappers like Talib Kweli fall from B or C-list status and are lucky enough to be D-list rappers. My beloved De La are now D-list rappers. They have a loyal following that devours their music and can stay on the road for the majority of the year.
Most Rappers will never be D-list. And, as quiet as it’s kept, D-list Rappers are far better paid than C and many B-list rappers. Mass name recognition doesn’t always translate into dollars and cents. If Fabolous isn’t on a bill with Chris Brown or someone, he may have one or two dates lined up. Whereas De La will have 11 shows overseas, 1,000 to 3,000 seat concerts.
New Rapper…it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be opening up for Chris Brown. It’s quite possible that you can sell out your local 500 seater…that’s it. And this is why I turn your attention to Oddisee. From now (2 Mar) to 1 July, he has the Beneath the Surface Tour — 57 dates lined up, with shows from Paris to Pittsburgh. Even if each venue is only a 500 seater, by the end of his run Oddisee will have performed in front of at least 28,000 people. “A series of small things, equals a big thing…if not more,” is a statement that Oddisee made on the Juan Epstein Podcast…and those 28,000 folks…that’s a good example of that.
We’re trying to help you out. So let’s see how Oddisee reached this point. Not that you can follow his exact model, but damn if you can’t take any tips. So hold on tight fledging Rapper, we’re going back in time.
There’s a whole chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that deals with this theory. And this is a major paraphrase, but the theory goes like this: Steve Jobs could not have been who Steve Jobs was had he not been born in Silicon Valley at the earliest stage of Silicon Valley. There are other examples that he gives…but Jobs…I think we all know who he is.
I just swing that analogy over to Rap. Dilla was always musically inclined but he was blessed to live near someone like Amp Fiddler who had a Rhodes and an MPC (two sounds that Dilla became known for) and who also encouraged Jay Dee. Fiddler bragged about him excessively which led to Q-Tip (and later the world) taking an interest in Dilla Beats.
Same applies for Oddisee. I’m sure he was always talented and always had an ear for music but was blessed to have grown up living next door to guitar great, Garry Shider, from the pound for pound Best Band Ever, Parliament/Funkadelic. Shider had a full studio in his basement that his children and Oddisee honed their skills in.
Not that I subscribe to Gladwell’s 10,000 hours theory, but I can submit to the fact that having a safe place to perfect your skills, especially at a young age, plays a large role in your future success (Look at Mark Zuckerberg. His father taught him BASIC and he grew up in a house full of computers).
Oddisee began taking music serious when he was fourteen and by seventeen was getting his first placement on Jazzy Jeff’s The Magnificent. Seventeen, yo. “Musik Lounge” was one of at least 16 songs Oddisee had, five of which he rhymed on. But things didn’t end with that placement between Jazzy Jeff and Oddisee. He’s stated in several places that it was Jazzy Jeff’s mentioning to him and others that the record industry was changing as being key to his success. And four years later, Jazzy Jeff mixed Oddisee’s Foot in The Door album (which was my first taste of Oddissee’s music).
That album, Foot in The Door, was released by Halftooth, a label that Oddisee had signed to in 2004. He was the main producer on their compilation release You Don’t Know The Half and while he went on to put out a few more projects with Halftooth, his growth and vision didn’t gibe with the founders David Schrager and Zach Gordon.
The Oddisee that most people know is the one that threw off all the boundaries and underpinnings that he used to hold himself to. Gone was the need to stick to some sort of self-proclaimed “Hip-Hop purity” or desire to be “underground.” Also gone was the naiveté that the product would sell itself. Oddisee had a desire to get his music to a wider audience and it was around that time that he met Michael Tolle.
Tolle, the son of a Civil Engineer, loved music and wanted to promote the music he loved. At first Tolle was simply marrying beats with Rappers and putting out singles but then he met Oddisee.
Oddisee was like me. He was ready to run, he wanted to keep doing stuff and continue making music. I got jealous. I was like, ‘I don’t want this to go to somebody else. I want to put this out.’ So it forced me to keep up. Michael Tolle
From that, came 101, the first Mello Music Group release in December of 2008. Since then, Oddisee has grown and Michael Tolle and Mello Music Group have grown alongside him.
For Oddisee there were a few moments when things began to CLICK with him. The first was the moment mentioned above where he shed the “underground” badge and realized that marketing was important. That led into what would prove to be his groundbreaking album, Rock Creek Park.
Mostly instrumentals, Rock Creek Park was Oddisee’s first concerted effort to make an album that was tied together by a theme. Although he hasn’t stated it in any interview I can find, I think the first steps toward that came with his Season Eps — Odd Spring, Odd Summer, Odd Fall, and Odd Winter which were followed by Traveling Man, an album that bore the name of different locations, 24 songs, from “Goodbye DC,” to “NYC,” “Paris,” “Miami,” “London,” “Khartoum,” to name a few, ending in “Houston.”
In this writers opinion, Rock Creek Park, was the culmination of those albums where Oddisee matched concept with concerted marketing and it proved to be a success. As he mentioned, while walking through Georgetown, Oddisee recognized the trend of nostalgia that was popping up everywhere and decided to make the cover of Rock Creek Park to fit that moment.
Gone are the drawn covers or the abstract ones used for the Seasons Eps. Oddisee is standing by a body of water (likely, in Rock Creek Park). The image is sepia-toned and worn and the album itself is a tight 10 songs, 43 minutes and it proved to be a watershed moment where licensing offers poured in, media coverage, and name recognition poured in.
Part of that success was a result of losing those limitations mentioned above. Another part was when Oddisee formed the band Good Compny with his frequent collaborators: Olivier St. Louis (Guitar & Back Up Vocals), Dennis Turner (Bass), Ralph Washington aka Ralph Real (Keys & Back Up Vocals), Jon Laine (Drums & BVs), & Richard Patterson aka The Unknown (MPC).
The music that Oddisee has made with Good Compny is a great mix between live instrumentation and sampling, a blend that is likely closer to the music that Oddisse was making when he first started out in Garry Shider’s basement.
Oddisee is a model for what the modern, working Rapper can be. For at least four years, Oddisee booked his own shows — having a full hands-on attitude is a trait that was fostered in him by his father — but it got to be too much so he brought on Daniel Luedtke, now his manager, to do that job. That responsibility now falls on the APA agency.
He makes music wherever he is, carrying his “studio” with him in his backpack. He has several revenue streams — licensing, shows, and physical product. He releases what he wants, when he wants to. And most importantly, Oddisee has built a relationship with his audience over time.
I know that for me, I always liked Oddisee but when Good Fight came out, it was around Ramadan and it was an album I could actually listen to (I refrain from listening to profane music for that month). Greater still, it was an album that I could play around my children.
I’m actually old enough to remember a time when Rap albums were devoid of the barrage of curses, when I could play an album around my parents without being embarrassed (when I was older) and forced to turn it off (when I was younger). Although Oddisee didn’t want it to be a part of a marketing plan, or some large pronouncement, for me — his albums being clean — with digestible content, content that is thought provoking and can generate conversation, made me more than a fan — I’m now an avid supporter and champion of his music.
If you’re a Rapper…and you’re just starting out…you’re going to want to make that type of connection with your audience. You’re going to want to understand how this business works. You’re going to want to travel, interact with the people who are buying and listening to your music.
If Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner were to apply their minds to Rap the way they did drug dealing, I’m sure they would find that it’s probably more profitable working at Wal-Mart than to be a Rapper. So if you want to achieve any level of success, you’re going to have to want to WORK…because contrary to popular belief, being a Rapper in this environment…that shit is WORK.
Oddisee just makes it look easy. But he should be you’re Role Model, up and coming Rapper, because the odds of you being the next Jay Z are about as slim as you being 5'7" and landing an NBA deal. Hell, 48 out of 155,955 people do that. What do you think them Rapper odds is looking like? You might not be able to do what Oddisee does either…but he’s a good example of what it takes.
On that note, I leave you with two quotes from him:
This is all I do. There is no other thing that I’m going to do to make a living. And more importantly there’s nothing else that I wanna do. As a result of that, as an indie artist, you have to be prolific. I’m not gonna sell a million records or sell some headphones for a million dollars. Which is perfectly fine because I love what I do. Oddisee
And this one is incredibly profound.
I discovered that I can make a career in an arena dominated by artists that sell false dreams. I realized that although the masses may not know of my body of work, it doesn’t take the whole world to have the world I want. Tangible Dream is a mix-tape dedicated to the deconstruction of our traditional ideas of success & shedding light on the possibility of a sustainable rap life.
These rhymes were written in economy class seats, these beats were produced on long bus trips & these songs were recorded in airbnb apartments. All I want to do is make music for a living so that I can live to make music. The only dreams I’m interested in are the ones I can grasp. It just so happens that anything you want bad enough can be obtained. Perhaps the world may never know of my accomplishments but accomplishments they are nonetheless. Oddisee
