Quality Gate Keeping

Keeping audience expectations realistic is good and important contextually. 

Many quality-focused gate keepers are trying to engineer a more accepting audience.

However, some gate keepers want to be "number 1" effortlessly. They want to sell mediocrity to spite people's talent and effort.

Discerning the good gate keeping from bad gate keeping is important. Inclusivity is nice, but self-seeking power-trips are not.

Producers

Hip hop artists get a lot of attention, but the producers are equally as important. Although the first impulse is to assume they all want to mix cultures, not all of them do. 

 Some producers are bringing attention to equality issues. 

 Some producers are trying to sell urban culture at its most natural state. 

 However, some producers seem to want to deface hip hop from within. Although this isn't provable, it's certainly something we'll be watching.

Literacy

RapIndie is a blog. It's not a Youtube playlist. However, long-winded articles tend to be a little under-utilized because let's face it, reading isn't necessarily popular. So we would like to know, do you want more written articles? Or do you want less/the same amount?

Do you want more RapIndie written articles?

— RapIndie (@Rapindie) January 7, 2025

Impressed?

How impressive is hip hop? How well can the average person do it? Is lyrical hip hop easier than drill rap? Is the authenticity of the musical talent as important as the authenticity of the lifestyle? How do you rank rappers? Is it by money, fame, talent, or rise from poverty? What impresses you?

Division Works

Ladies, do I even need to explain this? Bloggers are nerds, but somebody needs to be scoring.

Why RapIndie?

In some ways, RapIndie is a very simple concept: innovative/universal rap music for fans of rap culture. The demographic that appreciates rap has complete access to it. It works.

However, in other ways, RapIndie's audience is a little complicated. We know that from the feedback. Lately, we have audiences that focus on the ethics of the writings. That's fine, but the music is a lot less ethical than the writings (assuming they listen to it).

Drake got booed at Camp Flog Gnaw, which in my opinion really speaks volumes about the complexity of the indie rap community. Who's your favorite rapper? Do you like ethical intelligence? Diverse intelligence? Interesting people? It seems like indie rap has a radically intolerant audience that looks for tolerance. Whatever makes you a fan of RapIndie, our goal is to amplify it.

Exclusivity or Monopoly

Exclusivity is cool. When you're a part of something exclusive, it usually represents something meaningful.

RapIndie isn't about exclusivity. Indie rap is a mix of indie music and hip hop influences in a "best of both worlds" kinda package.

Our goal is not to make people feel excluded. We want to be who everyone goes to for rap music.

How To Get On RapIndie

In the monotony of modern existence, music has become a background experience for most rather than a foreground experience. Independent hip hop is no different. RapIndie has a catalog of nearly 1000 posts, but if you want to become one of them, this is what RapIndie looks for:

1. Raps that are difficult or creative.

2. Artist authenticity (rapping about their own lives).

3. Cultural significance (songs that elicit social reactions from people).

4. Empowerment (songs that break stereotypes, or songs that display stereotypes in a positive light).

Why Tyler, The Creator?

Tyler has a clout in suburbia that is bigger than rock bands. Likewise, RapIndie was a blog that formerly but is no longer: a suburban thing. Tyler resonates in many areas that no one else does, but it's a little bit of a personal bias to overhype him because of it.

Talent Pool

In the hipster era, we had an endless assortment of prolific artists to choose from. Although they were not always the most ethical, they were authentically talented. Running a blog means reflecting the industry, just as much as sharing my favorite music.

How many saints go viral?