Standing out as a rapper in 2016 is something you have to do if you plan on getting noticed. Thanks to the advancements of technology, the barrier to entry for becoming a music artist is extremely low. For example, I can record vocals on my phone, send it to a professional mixing and mastering engineer, and it can come out sounding better than most rappers.
Will it be of “the best” quality? Nope. Will it be good enough? Probably so.
That's the world we live in. And if you plan on becoming a successful artist, you’ve got to find alternate methods for standing out and gaining attention. So, In this post, I’m going to give share a process with you that can be used when trying to stand out as a rapper in 2016.
One way to stand out, especially if you're trying to take over your local scene first before branching off nationally (which you should do) is to look at every artist in your local area & see what they don't have that they should.
Look and see if they have a website. Does that website look professional? Do they have professional artwork? What about photography?
Listen to their music. Does it really sound mixed and mastered? What blogs are they on? Are they on blogs like Complex Magazine, DJ booth, or 2DopeBoyz? If not, maybe you should get a placement there to help you stand out.
You should be looking at other artists to see what they do & don't have. Whatever they don't have, make sure you do have it and make sure it looks nice. Once you fill in those gaps, look at what they do have, and try to improve on it for yourself.
You don't need to reinvent the wheel. For example, we do the same thing in business. We look at a company to see how they're getting their revenue, how they’re marketing, how they’re branding themselves, and etc.. Afterward, we look and say, "Man. That would be so much better if they were doing this," or, "They can get a lot more revenue if they did this," or, "Their conversions would be higher if they did that."
So do your research. It’s not a quick and easy process, but it will give you a good idea of what you’ll need to do in order to stand out as a rapper.