Disclaimer: This is definitely not a positive read especially if you’re an aspiring rapper. In fact, it will be discouraging and unfortunately for most aspiring rappers, I’ll most likely make more money from this one piece than most of them will with their entire rapping careers. So read at your own discretion. As a proponent of huge and impossible dreams, I tried desperately to be on your side but even with abundance of talent, heart and omish-like work habit, the numbers, saturation and monopolies are forever against you!

Everyday, at least 500 people around the world wake up and decide to become hip hop artists. Technological platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Sound Cloud, Jukebox, Mixtape Circuit, DatPiff, WorldStar and many others have made sharing their “work” even easier but unfortunately, have also allowed for flooding and saturation of the market. One talent beyond belief could easily and forever be buried under thousands of feces-like materials. For every hip hop fan, there are at least 3 hip hop artists. With a ratio of 1:3, defecate hits the fan extremely quickly. Does it really make any sense to force your way into a market with three times as much sellers as there are customers? No. It doesn’t. And if your aspirations as an artist are only for validation, fame and money, it might be best to invest your time and money elsewhere as you are in for the rudest awakening!

Now, knowing that it’ll take a lot more than a few paragraphs to dissuade you from embarking on your rap career, let’s continue. I’m sure you still believe you’ve got sick flows and mad lyrics that can stand the test of time and tantalize our ears to the point of seducing and having sexual relations with our wallets? Great! But before we take a look at few simple numbers that heavily disagree with you, let’s acknowledge that there are a few people who will defy all odds and find themselves at the very top…these people are outliers…statistically speaking! You may have been led to believe that your mad flow and lyrics, hard work, dedication and patience is enough to get you to the top. Lies! They won’t even get you too far away from minimum wage. Without deep pockets and credible sponsors, your chances of being an outlier are slimmer than an attempt at being an astronaut. Packaging and promotions alone would simply eat you alive long before you see a dollar in revenue!

For a quick and simple analysis, we’ll only examine the rap category and also focus on the US market. We kept the calculations as high level as possible to make it easy to understand and follow (we definitely won’t dive into record deal structures, royalties, reserves, loans, fees, and other miscellaneous financial obligations.) Keep in mind that this is meant to be a simple representation of reality based on 2014 numbers rather than a research dissertation. I will have to admit that we have no idea how many rappers are in the US as of 2014 so we used the WAG (Wild Ass Guess) method and conservatively picked 5000 as the number of rappers with at least 1 album (the real umber is definitely much higher.) Also note that our estimates are extremely on the optimistic side compared to other sources.

Here we go:

Estimated # of Rappers: 5K
Number of Rap Albums sold: 24.2M
Total Sales from Rap Albums Sold ($10/album avg): $240.2M
Estimated Total Sales from Concerts (~$5B for music tours; ~6% for rap): $300M
Profits from album sales (5% of sales TechDirt): $12M
Profits from concerts (20% of concert sales): $80.6M
Average Profit per rapper: $18.6K
Expected annual salary per rapper: $18.6K
Expected hourly wage: $9/hour

You will have to agree that a job at McDonald is sounding pretty good in comparison..Frankly, if you really want to make money in the music industry, your best bet is to work for the record company! You’d more than likely make more money as a janitor at a record company with an hourly wage than a rapper on contract! But wait, it gets even worse for our aspiring rappers! The Top 10 rappers earned about $300M in 2014 from tours and selling records (not including earnings from endorsements, merchandising, and other side hustles) which accounts for over 50% of all profits in the rap category. So if we take eliminate their earnings from the equation, the math gets even grimmer as the expected annual salary for a US rapper plunges even further from $18.6K to about $9.3K (~$5/hour.) You really should be considering that job at Mcdonalds…Pizza Hut is hiring as well! Please visit their websites to find nad apply at a location near you today!

But if you still wish to pursue a career as a rapper, I certainly admire your spirit and I’ll leave you with a few depressing advice: If you truly believe that you can be a top earner in the industry without significant financial investments and sponsorship, please be fully prepared for Mutombo style rejections in all phases of your career and life…physically, financially, mentally and otherwise….And I must add that you’ll need a lot of side gigs or even a few ‘real’ jobs just to stay alive which I’m sure you’re finding out by now! It’s quite alright to keep fighting if you choose to do so but do not overestimate your own prowess particularly with regard to wealth, sexual potency and influence over peers as most rappers often do. The same goes for the rest of Hip Hop and the music industry. But for what it’s worth, good luck and dream on. Eventually, a few outliers are bound to appear in the rap category…it could be you! Hmm, I guess we found a way to end this on a good note!

Source: http://humoredin.com/rapcareer/

Deep, true and inspiring.
The truth is sometimes bitter.