Lot’s going on and I feel great about some recent developments. A website we are developing, which is essentially the whole catalog of SCR Entertainment is now in the works. The first 12 SCR releases dating back to 1993 plus all of the new works will be available. At launch, we will have over 150 tracks with more coming!

While the site is being completed, we are going to be adding a few albums on a new page on BanginBeatsByREL.com which is being worked on at this time. Currently, we intend to launch the SCR Vault site with the release of my first solo album “Spoken”. Date to be announced.

Here is a breakdown of the 5 most recent beats added to the site:

• Mo Fo U - Other Flavor
• Jazzy Funk - East Coast
• In The Hole - Club Flavor
• West Coast Funk - West Coast
• Symphony Funk - West Coast

Natasha from Canada will be flying into the Twin Cities for ten days near the end of August to work with me on her first spoken word album. I am very excited and am looking forward to keeping you updated on the progress of this project.

I’m nearly done with a test collaboration which will be made available September 1st, 2009!

It's Time To Build The Team - Part 2

Absolutely nothing happens in the music business, or any business for that matter, without another person affecting the outcome in some way. Over the course of your musical career, no matter how long it lasts, your achievements will all be linked to your relationships! Throughout history, not one individual has accomplished any great thing without the assistance of at least one other person.

I am now going to offer an approach to developing the team that will help you win. Within this context, I define winning as achieving clearly established goals and positioning yourself for opportunities that dreams are made of. I will be presenting this information in three parts.

A brief recap of Part 1: Know Your Strengths / Skills

Many people are involved in making entertainment available to consumers. Within the packaging of many products such as video games, computer software, magazines, etc., you will see many names associated with bringing that product to market. Each person is necessary, and in an ideal situation, all serve to efficiently and effectively synergize for the purpose of delivering a product consumers want.

Your team must be assembled and developed to support you; however, the only way that can happen is if you first know what you need. The question posed in Part 1 was, “What are your strengths / skills?” The reasoning behind the question was to bring you to this point; whatever your particular set of skills, focus in your areas of strength and seek the team to bring their strengths to your areas of weakness.

It’s important for you to know what your areas of weakness are because at the beginning of your career, and even along the way, you are going to have to sell the value of your skill set to the support (teammates) you seek. Also, if you’re not clear on your strengths, which will also expose areas of weakness and areas of need, you won’t be able to focus effectively your energies on the next step; determining who you need.

At the end of Part 1 I asked you to determine your top three or four strengths / skills. This is about knowing what makes you relevant. These are the things you do well and will be known for. With your list of strengths / skills in hand, let’s move on to the next part.

Part 2: Determine Who You Need

Remove any high speed overnight success thinking from this process and really look at where you are. Let’s go with this example; say your list says “singer/rapper/spoken word artist” (any one of those for the sake of this example,) “songwriter and performer.” These examples are your three strengths / skills in the area of music. A logical deduction regarding the things on your list would be that you have demonstrated these strengths / skills to others and received some kind of positive feedback about them.

Now it’s time for some real clarity. You can do the things on your list, and based on feedback you’ve received, you may even be able to do them well; however, regarding your list, I pose two new questions.

What do you do best?
Self assessment is very important here. This is about prioritizing your strengths / skills in the order of which each should be presented for the purpose of maximum benefit. I have asked many artists the same question and the general answers tend to be either “I do them all equally well,” or they are “not sure.”

The first answer isn’t true in most cases and the latter answer hinders progress in all cases. Again, this part is about self-assessment. Think about it and give yourself an honest answer. You will be doing yourself a great deal of good when you do. Clarity is important.

What do you want to do?
Self assessment is very important here as well. Hopefully, what you want to do and what you do best are in harmony. Example; you consider yourself an excellent songwriter, and even though you perform from time to time and can sing/rap/speak, you would prefer to just write songs for other artists.

If both questions aren’t in harmony, this clarity is valuable too, because you can focus on your primary skill to get you paid while developing what you really want to do. More often than not, the “What do you want to do?” answer is something vague, like; “I want to be a star,” or “I want to be rich,” or “I want to touch millions of people with my music. All very nice, but what does that mean? In a way, it’s like going to the airport and saying “I want to fly somewhere.” The booking agent’s question to you is going to be, “Where would you like to go?”

In order to get team members to help you, you must be able to clearly define what you need them for which will also help them to see potential benefits to themselves. Your first team members will likely be close friends and family; however, when you reach the semi-pro level where most, if not all, activities are about dollars, your clarity will have to show how being on your team can help them.

When you have clarity about what you want to do and what you do best, you are ready to determine who you need.

What you need next is exposure to money making, as well as, new opportunity situations. Who you need are people already involved in these activities.

As a singer/rapper/spoken word artist, you will need material and exposure. Who you need could include a collaborator who produces music, or a beat creation service like SCR Entertainment with finished music you can use for performance and to demonstrate your skills to managers and concert promoters.

As a songwriter, you will need your lyrics put to music. Who you need could include a collaborator who produces music, such as SCR Entertainment. This will provide you with professional quality finished songs for presentation to: artists who need songs for projects and publishers whose primary purpose is to get your songs placed with individuals and companies in need of songs.

As a performer, you will need to be seen. There are many different types of performers, from singers in an opera to rappers rhyming in a local club. What kind of performance interests you? Who you need could include; a booking agent (with solid connections can make all the difference in getting an individual performer or band in front of the right audience) and a band, either by establishing one or by joining one.

Understand that, the clearer you are about “What do you do best?” and “What do you want to do?” the simpler the next step becomes. Assembling and developing the right team doesn’t happen all at once. Most often, a team is put together one person at a time, so you don’t need to be aware of all of the necessary people right now. Often, we want results before the work is done determining and executing the next move.

Exercise

Yes, more writing. Take your top three or four strengths / skills and prioritize them according to what you do best. Next, write down what you want to do as if you were writing it for someone else to read so they could act on it without asking a lot of questions (ensure clarity.)

Example: “I am a songwriter and I have five finished songs that I want to sell.” Someone may ask, “To whom?” This type of question is good because it’s not about what you do best, nor is it about what you’re trying to do (you want to sell your five songs,) it’s part of the process of clarification. This type of question will begin to expose who you need!

When you have determined who you need, it’s time to make a move. In the final part of this series, I will offer you suggestions on how to target and recruit the first or next member of your team

Wisdom from the grind: Knowing what you do best and what you want to do will help you to determine who you need

Beat production for BanginBeatsByREL.com continues to be the priority until the first goal is met: 60 World Class Beats! We now have 27 on the site.

"Spoken", my first solo album is developing nicely! This album will be a mix of all the musical flavors I love; spoken word, rap, neo-soul and lounge / down tempo tracks.

I'm an artist doing what artists do; creating art. Of course it's hip hop, and my hip hop roots will be felt. I've already begun production, so as things are developed I will share them with you. I have added three more tracks to the project. The total track number has again changed. At this point I’m considering 15. This will mark album number 13.