The cosign is one of the most powerful yet least talked about ingredients for success in the music industry. It’s been shaping career trajectories since Quincy Jones. It’s never been more important than now, as hip-hop becomes saturated with newbies. In the words of Weezy, “Where the hell did all these new pussy rappers come from?” With everyone and their weed carrier trying to pick up the mic, new artists need established artists to throw their weight and dollars behind them.
Can you name one rapper that blew up within the last 10 years without a major cosign? Go ahead and chew on it, I’ll wait. I’ve had this discussion with numerous friends and no one seems to remember the last time an artist made a big splash without a cosign.
Dame Dash and Irv Gotti cosigned Jay-Z. Jay cosigned Kanye. Kanye cosigned John Legend. John Legend cosigned Estelle. And so on…
In fact, the last time anyone in the hip-hop community had significant success solely on the strength of their own work was in 2004. Remember the Grey Album? Danger Mouse’s claim to fame was a mashup album that merged Jay’s Black Album vocals with Beatles beats. Driven by its refreshing quality and fueled by the web, DM would go on to become a Grammy-winning, chart-topping, sellout-crowd performing artist in just 2 years. The funny thing about Danger Mouse’s rise to prominence was that he didn’t alter his sound much at all. He’s always colored outside the line, but no one noticed. His beats on Gemini’s Ghetto Pop Life were just as ill as the Gnarls Barkley projects, but he could only dream of the level of success that would follow years later.
I’m constantly reminded of the power of the cosign each time I see an incredibly talented artist bubbling under the radar.
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K’NAAN…no co sign..nothing…and look where he is now…
Souljah Boy…sad but true..
Same for Tech N9ne
As much as I respect K’Naan and love his music he hasn’t really blown up yet outside of Canada and Somalia I think. The general public worldwide is still mostly unaware of him and if they get to know him it’s probably through his upcoming collabo with Nas & Damian Marley. Which you might consider a co-sign…
Come to think of it, Damian Marley has been co-signing him for years, I first saw K’Naan when he opened up for him on the Welcome To Jamrock tour.
I don’t see how Irv and Dame are “major co-signers”? Weren’t they just as unknown as Jay was? Wasn’t Jay the one that made them known?
k’naan had marley family co signs. dude is good tho. thats why he had the co signs.
and yea dame was nobody and irv was pretty much nobody when Jay came out
I mean really everyone that breaks receives a co-sign in one way or another, be it from another artist, producer, exec, etc. Jay had it from DJ Premier and Super DJ Clark Kent on Reasonable Doubt. Jay put on ‘Ye. ‘Ye gave us the first national introduction to Lupe. Nas had Pete Rock, Premier, Q-Tip, and Large Professor. Dre put on Snoop, Pac, Em. Em put on 50. So on and so forth.
I don’t know if were just talking lately but N.W.A. kinda did it themselves. Easy-E owned the record company and Dre made the beats and the album didn’t have any features with know artist at the time.
Yea Pat…I think you kinda have to talk more recently, because around the time of N.W.A., the whole genre was really changing and evolving, and the majority of the people were new to the game. I think N.W.A. had to do it by themselves based on the nature of the music they were making. They were the ones that started the gangsta rap phenomenon, and I would have to imagine that few labels really wanted to touch it at the time. You also have to keep in mind that Dre did bring a known name (in the hip-hop world) to the group from his time with World Class Wreckin’ Cru, though he certainly wasn’t a household name.
Today, I just think that there’s so much music out there that people are hesitant to touch anything without having the approval of someone else. Therefore, you have the co-sign and generally those artists are the ones who tend to get all the pub.
The last person that I can think of that blew themselves up without a co-sign or anything like that, and it pains me to say it, is Souja Boy. He went from no one ever hearing of him to a #1 song in a matter of weeks. Someone may correct me on that, but I don’t really know of any other artist that was on board with him before “Crank Dat” blew up.
nelly in 2000 comes to mind
i kno its been a while but what about luda its been less then ten for him i think…
Well Luda was featured on Timbaland’s “Phat Rabbit” so I would have to say that would be considered a major cosign.
@King…Luda did “Phat Rabbit” with Timbaland…I would have to classify that as a major cosign.
LL Cool J – Craig Mack – Biggie – Jigga
That’s the co-sign chain of how I got introduced to those artists. The co-sign is an intriguing phenomena. It’s amusing how often a rapper will makes claims about how they made it on their own, also.
“Labels want my name besides the X like Malcolm
Everybody got a deal, I did it without one”
Drake is a clever dude, but I figure he’d still be quite the unknown without the Young Money co-sign.
I mean yeah maybe he hasn’t ‘blown up’ persay but Wale perhaps? I would agree with georgeburns about Nelly as well.
@Dru: Wale is co-signed by Mark Ronson, some might say by Rhymefest as well and his distribution deal with roc Nation could be considered a Jay-Z co-sign.
I honestly can’t think of a new school mc without the co-sign.
King Kooopa…aka – Chamillionaire