Crew Chat: Boom-bap Collective

Since it's "birth," LA has been a "text heavy" site. Yet, we call ourselves "rappers" or "emcees" (the latter REALLY doesn't work with pure text heads btw.) I hope to change that. To this end, I have formed a "collective."  I don't want anybody to look at this group in the same way as "LA crews" of the past, because it isn't, battle scores, "rep," beef, politics etc have no place here. 

The "Boom-bap Collective" exists for one purpose and one purpose only: I want to develop people into the artists they would like to be.  I've worked as a professional musician for over a decade, have a degree in audio engineering and have worked as a sound engineer and a session player for a very long time,  classically trained in over 10 instruments, I sing, I rap, I produce, music is my LIFE. To this end, I want to help people get into music so here I am.

The collective will function as a creative "melting-pot" where we collaboratively HELP EACH OTHER to develop into better musicians, and enable ourselves to express ourselves freely.

You may wonder what the benefits are of joining the collective, here they are:

You will no longer need to fumble in the dark to learn how to produce/mix your stuff. Why? Because I'll do it for you - This enables you to focus on being a rapper, it's very hard to learn to be a producer/engineer, and to do that whilst also trying to learn to be an artist often causes both skills to suffer. You also get the benefit of literally thousands of pounds (that's money to you none British people) of production software when I mix your tracks.

However, so that you ARE able to mix your stuff and actually learn what "mastering" is (noone on LA besides Ransom and Dalinquent seem to have any real idea, what you are all calling mastering, is just part of the mixing process - I'm talking to you two Mission and Titu ;) ) I will be writing essays and making videos available to members of the group, with detailed step by step guides.

I will "executive produce" all of your "full projects" alongside the other producers in the group. A record producer, is NOT a beatmaker, that's a beatmaker. A producer works closely with an artist to help them find a coherent sound, he mixes and masters their records, he suggests changes and additions and helps you to make the best record you can.  You get that for free, always, whenever you want.

I will find feature artists for your records,  I have been rapping longer than some of you have been alive and have been an active "online rapper" since 2003. I have a LOT of rapper friends, all of whom love making tracks with new people. You get the benefit of my friends and associates.

We will work TOGETHER to make music. I'd ideally like a "group mixtape" every few months, the larger the group gets, the easier this will be. This might mean spitting 1 verse if you're new to rapping, this might mean being the "star" on a number of tracks. These will be more ad-hoc than working on your own projects, but frankly group tracks are fun. they're way less serious than our own "projects" and above all, making music should be FUN. 

I am also an illustrator, if you want, I will hand-draw and digitally produce original album art for you at no cost, and it will be 100% UNIQUE TO YOU. I will even sign over the rights to all art to you the instant I create it if you desire. This is miles beyond googling an image and putting a few words on it. Again, I have friends who are graphic designers and artists, I'm older than most of you, and you will gain access to that network.

Ok, so that's some of the benefits, now, who do we want in the group? There are little real "requirements" to join the group, but the BARE MINIMUM I require is this:

You must want to rap, text is cute, but it's practise. I don't care if you have before, as long as you're willing to take the step and put yourself out there.

You MUST have a microphone. You can't make tracks unless you can be recorded. It can be  a $15 mic, I don't care. I've made many a headset and webcam sound "decent" early in my rap-life.

And lastly, and this is probably the BIGGEST one. You must RESPECT your peers. Any trolling, beefing or disrespect to your fellow rappers is 100% guaranteed way to get booted from this group and hounded by me at every turn. 



Finally let me just say this:


Recently we lost a member of our community in a terrible tragedy. Life's too short to waste it hurting/attacking/degrading each other. If you're interested in this group, hit me up, or just apply. I'm actually not as evil or scary as some members would have you believe, and noone can doubt that when I do things, I go "all in" - I WILL put effort into every element of your craft, you match my effort and together we may be able to finally fill this rap forum with some solid RAP MUSIC. I look forward to hearing from all or any of you.

To those in existing crews: for convenience (once we have enough members of  the group to have a forum) being a member of this group is the easiest way for me to help you become better musicians/artists, HOWEVER, I ask for no "crew loyalty" or any of the typical LA crew culture. I am 100% happy for you to join this crew to develop as artists whilst STILL REPPING your current crew. This isn't about prestige, beef, rep or anything else. This is about music and expression, and I would love to create music with you all.

Thanks for reading to those who did.

Rob.

I think this is an excellent idea, looking forward to watching this progress.