Zion I with with Red 3, Kazmega and DJ Twist
Pawnshop (10551 82nd Ave.) | Saturday, March 27
In the 1970s, hip hop pioneers like Afrika Bambaata and Grandmaster Flash started a monumental movement spreading their music at parties and shows via the mix tape/party tape. Now, perhaps more than ever, the idea remains essential to hip hop as a way of constantly generating hype, maintaining exposure and creating artists.
Major labels, all too aware of the strength of the mix tape, promote this way too. But for the independent hip hop performer, it’s not just hype, it’s the way.
Oakland, California’s Zion I is completely absorbed in the essential traditions of self-promotion in hip hop. MC Zumbi and producer Amp Live are obsessive in the pursuit of their passion; consistently putting out new rhymes, beats and mix tapes as individuals and as Zion I in order to stay afloat as self-sufficient artists.
“For us, it’s always been that way,” says Zumbi. “As an indie artist coming out from the Bay Area, it’s kind of like a tradition. Like Too Short and E-40 and those guys, they would pull up in their car, open their trunk and sell you music right there. That’s like the thing we’ve been doing, but with the technology added to it — the digital aspect — it’s a little different.”
Zumbi understands the marketing game has dramatically changed since the days when DJs could sell mix tapes for as much as $1 per minute of recording, and now, creativity is the key.
“I feel like it’s the wild west right now,” he says of artists who are just getting started. “As a brand new artist, I feel like it would be pretty difficult to make noise because there is so much going on in the market.
“The Internet is wide open and kids who have been making music for two months are putting out their first song. Cats who have been doing it for 28 years are putting out music for free. It’s just so overwhelming. There are some success stories, I see some people doing it in a very interesting way. So, it’s not impossible, nothing is impossible, but you really have to have a strategic marketing plan to do it these days.”
The strategic marketing plan Zumbi and Amp Live utilize isn’t aimed at sniffing out major representation.
“These days, I don’t even pay attention to the majors that much,” says Zumbi. “They keep putting out records, they keep signing people, but it feels like, more and more, when people are signed I don’t hear from them anymore.
“We just do our thing, we keep huffin’.”
Zion I - HIt Em from Imperial Productions on Vimeo.
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