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Calling all hip hop practitioners, it’s that time again. For as long as we can all remember people have wanted to taste the unyielding pleasures of fortune and fame. Some would do just about anything to stand in the limelight yet many have no clue how to begin such a journey. If you’ve ever wondered how to attain success from the music biz particularly as a hip hop superstar then you should look no further than one man, Jai Hutcherson.

He proudly wears such titles as Record Producer, Audio Engineer, Drummer, Author, & Music Consultant/Manager. Mr. Hutcherson has mounds of credits to his resume like, Best Album of the Year – (World) Solas “The Words That Remain”?Grammy Nomination – Best Male Vocal – Rick Denzien “Exit 21″?Platinum Award – The Roots “Things Fall Apart” (Geffen)?Platinum Award – Whitney Houston “Heartbreak Hotel” (Arista)?Gold Award – Lil Scrappy “Money in the Bank” (Reprise). Let’s just say the man knows his stuff like the back of his hand. Even better he makes it his personal mission to equip those around him with the proper techniques and methods to succeed in the music world.

Jai is an accomplished and well-respected consultant and manager having aimed is business savvy knowledge towards aiding any and everyone who wants to take a stab at the music industry. He has a proven track record and what’s even more daring, he possesses the rare asset of humility in an entertainment landscape. Mr. Hutcherson has also just released his first book, “Hip Hop Business Advisor,” a step by step guide for hip hop artists teaching how to start, manage, market, and profit from their careers or independent record label. The book is a music business masterpiece and a must have for anyone who recognizes the talent of hip hop pumping through their veins. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the studio and seen sessions get started late or halted in order to jump on the Xbox or Playstation. You might say that some are skilled enough to hold the mic in one hand and the controller in the other. As such I recently reached out to Jai to gain further insights for all of you gamers or simply admirers of the art who can spit a hot sixteen and feel that you may have what it takes to truly make it to the next level.

S. Jeanine: First and foremost I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to conduct this interview. I want to begin by allowing you to plug any new projects, ventures, or promotions that you’d like to make mention of for the public to be on the look out for.

J. Hutcherson:   The main thing that I want to make the public aware of is my hip hop business advisor website www.hiphopbusinessadvisor.com. It is a free resource that is updated constantly with new helpful materials. Very soon we are really hoping to have around 1500 radio stations, urban radio stations from all over the country not just internet but actual terrestrial radio stations to aid artist with their projects. We are trying to create a master list of all stations.  With all pretty much step-by-step instructions on how to submit your music to them to try to get play. But the biggest thing is just to focus on the hip hop business advisor website as a core resource for hip hop rap and urban artists. Also we have the book The Hip-Hop Business Advisor and we hope to sell it.  But aside from that, the website is our main focus for the company right now.

S. Jeanine: What type of credentials do you possess or what qualifies you to consult within the recording industry? What attributes should artist/ record labels look for in a consultant or anyone for that matter to know that he or she is legit and not a con before disbursing any funds?

J. Hutcherson:  Yeah there are a lot of them [cons] out there.  First and foremost, what separates me or how people can tell I’m not a scam artist is just do a simple search for Jai Hutcherson in Google and see what pops up.  It is nothing negative.  Everything that I claim on my consultant website is verifiable through Google or Yahoo searches.  I only put down and put out there what I have done, what I can do and what I am currently doing.  I don’t hype myself you know cause like you said there are a lot of con artists.  My credentials are 20 years in the industry and working with some of the top names in the industry from the regional guys to the start up local nobody.  Some of my biggest accomplishments are Millennium Records artist Taz.  I’m the one who got him his Def Jam South deal. I’m also involved with doing some of the largest Spring Break and Black College Promotional Radio tours.

S. Jeanine: What keeps an artist from staying at the middle of the road? Meaning we’ve all seen artist who do everything correct and by the book but only achieve a mediocre success. What elements do you think can push an artist all the way to the top?

J. Hutcherson: Once you get to that mediocre level there’s a lot of folks out there that decide mediocre is good enough. They say, “yeah I wanna be on the top, but I love what I’m doing here.  I’ve got change in my pocket so I can go out and party now, or I can do this, and be a big shot.”  I call them hood heroes.  These are the cats that have marginal success around their hood and the big boys on campus.  But in reality across the world or just the US, they’re nobody and nobody knows about them.  They get content with that.  The ones who take it to the top are the ones who continue to work those twelve-hour days because they can see what working that long day does.  They start working 16 hours a day.  That’s what’s getting people over the hump.

S. Jeanine: Typically artist would contact a consultant to render services but do you ever find yourself approaching an act and offering to represent them? If so then what type of characteristics would an artist have to possess in order to compel you to do such?

J. Hutcherson: Actually I do approach artist sometimes. In fact that’s the story of my latest act.  He’s actually a Christian artist, which I’ve never been in that arena before to be honest.  He had everything and didn’t have anything.  He came to me with ideas for songs.  I met him in the studio and I saw the drive, the passion, the wanting, and the look.  I saw that he was polished up and could actually go to the top.  Those cats are whom I start managing, instead of being a consultant.  Instead of just trying to direct them, I take them on as a full management artist and start handling things for them.  He had the “it” factor, the team, and the drive.  He had the songs and he had this charisma about him that allowed him to walk into a room and take command while staying absolutely humble.  To me that’s what somebody has to have.

S. Jeanine: At what point when working with an artist can you conclude that you’ve reached success within their project?

J. Hutcherson:  That’s a two-part question.  Is it success for me or success for them?  The first thing I do with a client is sit down and have a meeting to get a better idea of who they are and what are their objectives. I ask them a series of questions, it literally is a 100-question questionnaire and it goes from everything from “what’s your favorite color, to what they know about the industry, to their background?” It covers everything that I thought I’d want to know or need to know about a client to be able to take them to the top. The questionnaire, allows me to see their goals. The first thing I ask people are “What are your goals? What do you want to do? Define success to me.”  You get answers that people don’t really put a lot of thought into it.  They are diving in to be an artist or a superstar and they don’t even really know what defines that.  My questionnaire answers it for me so I know where they really want to be in the industry.  So the answer to part A is once I reach their goal that’s potentially 100%.

As for my answer B, I always try to take somebody at least double beyond his or her goal.  If an artist comes in and says we are releasing our first album and want to sale at least 20,000 units in the first four months.  Then we would have enough money to sign these other two artists that we want to sign, and get there.  To me that goal is to sale 40,000 units in four months.  That’s success, but in reality, success is people knowing who you are and someone selling enough units that they are no longer having to come out of pocket to do any kind of marketing or any kind of work, not paying consultants, etc.

S. Jeanine: What is the single-handed most common mistake that you see new artist/record labels make while trying to break into the entertainment industry?

J. Hutcherson: They think its party.  They think it’s a game.  They don’t realize that it’s 100% business.  Everything you do, everywhere you’re at, every corner you turn, every person you talk to, every email you send, every correspondence or social networking, blog posts, or anything you put out there is part of your business.  They don’t take it seriously enough to ever get past “you’re just a local artist.”

S. Jeanine: It is very important to have the proper legal representation as well as be cost effective as an independent record label, so how do outlets like Legal Zoom or Pre-Paid Legal measure up for someone attempting to cut a corner rather than hire an attorney on retainer?

J. Hutcherson: For setting up LLCs for your business, for standard contracts, agreements, for shows and things like that, I think Legalzoom and things like that are wonderful because you don’t need an inside look in the entertainment industry to set up a LLC.  You don’t need an inside look at the entertainment industry to have a contract for a show or even a mini tour.  But to go into a record deal, to go into an endorsement or distribution deal, or even a licensing deal overseas.  Licensing deals are happening every day now because major labels don’t want to sign an artist.  Instead of signing them they are licensing them to the rights of their masters.  Entering into deals like that, you have to have an entertainment attorney or you are going to end up getting screwed.  There is no paralegal that can understand these deals; you have to have an entertainment attorney.

S. Jeanine: With everyone using Myspace, Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking sites some times artist become overtly relaxed and content with this being the main means of promotion? What do you say to this?

J. Hutcherson: I say it’s the biggest joke in the industry.  I’m 100% a social networking freak. I love it and you can absolutely make or break an album on social networking.  The best way I can put it is, what I’ve seen these artists do besides just take it for granted is I have artists contact me every day “I’ve got 40,000 friends.  I’ve got 39,000 plays.  I’m known by everybody.”  What I say to those folks is to go into a restaurant, any restaurant.  Walk in the front door.  Have a boom box in your hand.  Walk up to every person in that restaurant.  Shake their hand and say “I’m Joe Blow. Listen to five seconds of my song.”  Then move on to the next person and go through everyone in that restaurant and then walk out the door.  Then tell me how many friends you have.  How many of those people you met you can call acquaintances? The answer is zero.   Some artists get it.  The majority of artists go out and they think that saying “Add me as a friend” and never talking to or noticing that person again makes them have a fan.  They think they have 40,000 fans.  They don’t even have acquaintances.  They’ve got people that want to have 40,000 friends.  The only way to do social networking is by adding that friend, talking to that friend and being a part of that friend’s life.  You treat them just like you would a real friend in every day life.  I think that people believe since they are at home in their boxers they can have 40,000 friends and don’t have to do any work to maintain that friend relationship.  I challenge every single artist out there to maintain any kind of real friendship in this real world.  Friends who support you buy your albums, go to your shows, and buy your merchandise. So to me, the way social networking is being used is a joke.

S: Jeanine: Let’s talk about your latest project Hip Hop Business Advisor; what inspired you to write this book?

J. Hutcherson: Music marketing and music distribution on the Internet or anything in the music industry online was something that only the major labels knew about.  I had learned about it and studied it enough to know what it was about and I just decided one day, this is crazy, you know as an engineer, I want to my projects to see the light of day too.  I started talking to people and doing market research and really seeing what people needed.  It wasn’t just information.  It was a step-by-step process.  There’s so much information out there now that it’s overloading people.  Hip Hop Business Advisor breaks it down and takes it to a step-by-step fashion that says, “Here’s what we’re doing.  Here’s how it works.  Here’s how to work it in real life and here’s what you need to do it.” It gives people a road map to getting a project out there.

S: I noticed your book reads as a manual for its readers. This makes it incredibly practical and so easy to relate. In general is there a one size fits all type of solution or blueprint that artist/record label should adhere too?

J. Hutcherson:  The book discusses that.  I don’t believe that there is a one size fits all.  But there is in the means at which you do it.  The process, the formula of putting music out there in the step-by-step fashion is a one size fits all.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a major label artist, an Indy with lots of money, or an absolute corner rapper that has no money.   It’s a one size fits all. If you’re an artist that has $50,000 behind you then you can go to the book and in no time do a lot of it.  That book is based off a 4-6 month process for someone who has very limited funds.  I talk about that in the book.  If you have money to do this, this, and this, you can jump and go ahead and start doing it.  So the one size fits all kind of scares me saying that because budget determines everything.  But definitely it is a one size fits all in the process of what you need to do and how you go about doing it.

S. Jeanine: Where can someone go to buy or order this marvelous material?

J. Hutcherson: It is at the website www.hiphopbusinessadvisor.com It is also available at www.amazon.com and it also available at www.iammusicnetwork.com

Written By Sha'Linda Jeanine

Sha’Linda holds a M.S. and B.S. in Mass Communications. In addition to The Koalition she is also a journalist/author for HipHopDX, AllHipHop, Yo Raps, HHW, etc. Her focal point is Hip-Hop the genre and lifestyle. This examination is her concern, responsibility, and cultural investigation.