The Happening

I\’m really excited about the upcoming release of the \”Cartel – Tha Throwback\” album. Seeing as how it was supposed to be released a few months ago, I\’m anxious to get it in the hands of the people. The \”success\” of the first one caught me totally off guard. I mean, even though the album was offered as a free download I was totally surprised by the amount of downloads that I received as well as the feedback. What surprised me even more was that I actually garnered sales through iTunes as well. By releasing the album under the \”Creative Commons\” license (thanks to Jamendo) music from my album has appeared on dvds, ringtones, and a ton of fan created videos spanning YouTube and Daily Motion. My favorite being a really hot chick stripping to Marc Dollarz\’s \”Whoa, Whoa\”… before it was removed, lol. Since I\’m in this more to get my music out than I am for money, I was totally happy with the release of the last album.

I hope that with this second album I\’ll be able to take it even further. The album is going to mastering Friday and I should have the 320vbr mp3\’s back by next Thursday with the glass master to follow. Shout outs to David Pollock of The A Room. If you\’re looking for a good mastering job at affordable prices hit him up. I finished up the cd booklet yesterday and converted it to a pdf and a virtual booklet which you can view by clicking here.

When I changed web host for this site, I forgot to backup my press mailing list which contained about 5000 names of magazines, newspapers and blogs that do or have done articles about hip hop, so now I\’m forced to start over from scratch amassing email addresses where I can send press releases to. If you have a blog or site and wouldn\’t mind receiving press releases from me.. contact me at hoodgrown.productions@gmail.com.

One of the benefits of releasing a digital only release is that the setup time is a lot shorter because I\’m targeting websites and blogs as opposed to print magazines (that wouldn\’t give me the time of day anyway) I don\’t have to worry about a three month lead time. The day that the press release is picked up, I want people to be able to download and enjoy the album.

Well, I\’m going to cut this short because I still have a lot of work to do setting up this release… but you can be sure that I\’ll keep you updated.