HHNLive.com is proud to announce the addition of Southern hip-hop journalist Randy Roper (a.k.a. Randy Exclusive) and his new column, Other Side of the Block, to HHNLive.com. Randy is a writer residing in Atlanta, GA (via Charleston, SC) and over the past 6 years he has written for numerous hip-hop magazines and websites and currently serves as the music editor for Southern hip-hop publication, Ozone Magazine.

In addition to Ozone, Randy maintains his personal blog, www.writersblockmedia.net where he's not afraid to poke fun at the urban community and hip-hop culture. The Other Side of the Block will provide an alternative look at the music business, hip-hop and pop culture through random rants, comical criticism and partially haterish opinions.

Although he's been a hip-hop head since '81, Randy believes hip-hop died the week Danity Kane outsold Outkast, doesn't understand what Janet Jackson sees in Jermaine Dupri and will trade all his No Limit CDs from '96-'98 for a 12-pack of Coronas. But its nitwitted ideologies like these that make Randy a welcome presence to HHNLive.com.

RAPPIN' ISN'T FOR EVERYONE

Courtesy of http://www.writersblockmedia.net

One thing I've learned as music editor for your favorite rapper's favorite magazine is that there are way too many rappers. Every time I step out of the house I seemingly get hit in the head with a CD like Vonage by an aspiring rapper wanting me to listen to a mixtape (or even worst, trying to sell it to me). It's pretty safe to assume 3 of out 5 people rap, and the other 2 people that don't rap have a brother, cousin or mother that's vying to change the game but they're just patiently waiting to get on.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with chasing your dreams but does everyone dream of being a rapper? When I was growing up, everyone in my hood wanted to be a NBA ballplayer but I don't think kids play basketball anymore, they just rap and surf the internet. If statistics were available for this kinda thing, it'd be common fact that 99% of people pursuing a rap career will end up holding a sign on MLK Boulevard that says "Will Rap For Food" or being scraped up off a corner trying to earn their street credibility.

I'd hate to see that happen and I know the glam and glitz of the music business intrigues the majority of people trying to make it big but there are other occupations and positions that you wannabe MCs can pursue. Take for example, Slo Down from the St. Lunatics (you know, Nelly's homeboy that rocks that Phantom of the Opera mask), he never tried to pick up the mic, he was content with just being there. Now, if Nelly can convince the rest of the St. Lunatics to wear masks and shut the fuck up, that'd be a few less rappers we'd be forced to listen to.

Anyways, here are some other music industry jobs you all might want to consider before wasting your money on studio time without having any real talent.

DJ: DJing is a lot easier than rappin' because all you have to do is press play. Technology has made DJing easy because you don't have to know how to spin vinyl since Serato equipment has made it so any idiot can keep a party going.

CEO: Of course, there are a lot of people that claim to be CEO of random ass record labels and don't have the slightest bit of business sense (or common sense for that matter). But if you have enough money, you can always start a label, write the checks, make executive decisions, hire talented people, take credit for everything someone else does and keep all the money (word to Diddy).

Manager: Managers have a tough job. It's a tough task handling the careers of other people and getting them to do shit. Especially since most rappers just wanna smoke weed, go to strip clubs and smash groupies.

Producer: Being a producer is a tough field to break into. Unless your name is Timbaland, Kanye, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz or Mannie Fresh, no one really wants to use your beats, they just can't afford the aforementioned producers.

Engineer: Engineers sit behind the boards in the studio, pressing buttons and making sure shit sounds right when an artist records. And apparently, being an engineer is incredibly sexy (no homo), ever since that one dude banged Nelly Furtado and ended up marrying her.

Weed Carrier: Weed carriers can play numerous entourage positions (personal assistant, hypeman, security, goon, etc.). The importance of weed carriers should never be overlooked. When shit gets thick, it's often times the weed carriers that stand tall so the artist doesn't get caught doing some foul shit (a la Remy Ma), like when Papoose's goons whipped Uncle Murda's ass. Sometimes weed carriers can be other artists on a label as well, but it's not a good look when the feature artist starts taking away allowances like 50 did his G-Unit soldiers.

Publicist: Publicist will work their asses off to put their clients into the limelight. But often times, publicists annoy the shit out of everyone by clogging up inboxes with email blasts and pitching clients that no one has ever heard of, seen or gives a damn about anymore.

Stylist: Stylists make sure an artists' gear and look are on point. God knows the industry needs more stylists. Whoever let Hurricane Chris walk around with those fucking beads in his hair and whoever allowed Yung Joc to rock a gumby should be fired immediately.

Journalist: As a writer this is the field I fall under but it's really the worst. Writers really don't make any money. In fact, the only person that ever made any money as a writer is former Source Editor-In-Chief, Kim Osorio, but that's only because she won something like 7.5 million from a lawsuit because Benzino and Dave Mays used to grab her ass and call her a nappy headed hoe or something (and you can't do shit like that these days).

A&R: Back in the days, A&Rs used to get off their asses, scout talent and seriously develop an artist. Nowadays, they just sit on the computer looking for artists and beats on Myspace, searching for that next one-hit wonder. That's gotta be the easiest job in the industry.

Video Director: Being a video director in hip-hop doesn't take much creativity at all. To be successful here, all you'll need to do is film a rapper rhyming into the camera with some chicks shaking their booty meat in the background.

Video Girl: All you really have to do is be pretty, shake your ass for the camera and let rappers pour liquor on your head (if that's what they wanna do). As Game spoke of, most video girls don't get far, unless you're willing to fuck all the rappers and write a couple of books about it to cash in like Superhead did (which was probably her diabolical plan the entire time). But get that money while you can. I haven't heard anything about Buffie the Booty lately, so I just assume her ass shrunk or something.

Fan: Of course, being a fan isn't an industry job but I just wanted to throw that out there since the slumping albums sales and T.I.P. jumping off stages to do microphone checks on concert goers' heads, leads me to believe hip-hop doesn't have very many fans left. But that's probably because everyone's too busy trying to rap themselves to actually be a fan of another artist, which is the premise for this entire post.