Philly has a rich urban music history, including plenty of Hip Hop greats. Can you share some inspirations from your city?
You’re right on target. Philadelphia is a great city full of musical giants. I grew up admiring many dope new artists from the area. Beanie Sigel was one influence. Black Thought was another. Will Smith also. Definitely all legends in the culture.
In the track “Dark Leather,” it appears you were inspired by RUN DMC. Can you discuss that and also other classic influences from the golden era of Hip Hop? Why?
Who else comes to mind more than Run DMC when thinking of leather? They made it a trademark along with Adidas. These guys were absolute legends and pioneers, so giving them props or respect is only natural. Other influences from that era? Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap. All three of them helped shift Hip Hop lyrically. Without their input, things wouldn’t have progressed as drastically skills wise.
Can you discuss the workflow for recording with Azzan?
Well me and Azzan have a very organic process when it comes to creating and recording. Sometimes I will write a rhyme to a beat and we build the hook in unison. Sometimes he will come to the table with an idea and we build the song from the ground up. It really tends to change. But one thing for sure is that we as a duo, try to create the best product at all times.
Please tell us a bit about Dead Wrong Records.
Dead Wrong Records is a label me and Azzan started about seven or eight years ago. We pride ourselves on releasing quality Hip Hop content. We have dope artists on the label already, and hope to have many more in the near future. Hip Hop is just one aspect of Dead Wrong though. We hope to have success in many musical genres in the next five years. Some of our most proud moments happened after we dropped my first solo tape titled All hail the King entirely produced by Azzan. It garnered a huge buzz overseas and countless write-ups in Croatia, Netherlands, and the UK. We accumulated over 25,000 real downloads on our tape and received articles on Hype magazine, and landed a top 5 mixtape on WXPN. Not long after we landed on Medium with our single Autobahn that put us in another top ten list. We kept it up and dropped a slew of singles that got heavy rotation with DJ Eclipse and the legendary DJ Premier. After garnering a lot of respect with our dope content we started getting radio spins on official FM radio stations with no payola or funny freestyle competition. An esteemed Canadian blog started covering us and opened up the door to an entirely new demographic in which top DJs started to play us. This is all from just dropping dope content, we didn’t even drop a video! But trust me visuals are coming by the boatload.
Have you been performing live? If so, can you share how you go about securing those spots?
I perform live whenever the opportunity looks beneficial. Financial compensation is key. I value my skill set and I refuse to settle for anything less. Promoters have to come correct if they want to book King Shampz. We are far past the talent show phase. One of my first gigs was doing a dope show for a Hip Hop movement here in Philly called Lyrically Fit, which was a hell of a look around the time me and Azzan dropped our debut project “Kings of Kings.” We did maybe a 20-minute set and tore the place down. During a crazy media run that I put together, we had the honor of performing for esteemed blog Pigeons and Planes live in Midtown Manhattan. That sh*t was live! It was easily a thousand folks in there and we gained a lot of fans. Just recently we did a dope set with Eff Yoo from Broken Home at the Delancey and we shut it down. It was very sentimental to me because it was the last time my good friend from New York Jason Bourne, a legend in indie Hip Hop, saw me perform while he was here (he just passed in March) so it gives me extra motivation to take my game on stage to the next level.
What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned in the industry so far?
Don’t expect anything from anyone. People are very rarely men of their word. Business comes first. Also, remember this is all entertainment and nothing more.
What’s your marketing inspiration? Can you share a campaign that you’ve found influential?
There have been many. Nobody directly to point to though. We have created our own form of guerrilla marketing. Usually I go on Twitter to promote my music. I call it going in traffic. The internet has provided a way for you to communicate with all kinds of like-minded people who could be potential fans of your music. Going in traffic to me means search an artist that is in your genre, like say a GhostFace Killah and see who’s talking about them and shoot a link to them introduce yourself and ask for their opinion on your music. A lot of artists view it as spamming and think it’s risky but I’m here to tell you that everything is. People, unfortunately, only respond to something that is in there face! So if I look on Twitter and see Bad just dropped an album or Griselda or anybody reputable putting out music, I’m getting to that person’s page and pushing my product. The same goes for Facebook and Instagram. I will check a like-minded rapper’s page and scroll up through the comments and identify people who truly interact in the community. This has been some of the tactics that have been critical to our success. I’m still out in these internet streets!
What techniques have you found most effective in marketing? What are ways you get your music out and reach new fans?
Using social media to our advantage. Sending links to fans of similar Hip Hop music. Some call it spamming, we call it promotion. Many “industry experts” discourage artists from doing this but offer no realistic alternatives. Sometimes a 2,000 dollar a month publicist isn’t feasible. One thing that I believe in is guerrilla marketing.When you are in a generation where everybody raps, you have to be able to stick out and differentiate yourself and get your records heard. I join Hip Hop discussions. I see other people who listen to Hip Hop music and I send them a link introducing myself and telling them [to] give me a chance. I also believe in getting any form of media; whether it’s college radio or internet radio, find DJs that will play your music. I don’t care if they have 200 listeners or two million, it’s a good opportunity to get heard. It’s very important to find ways to promote because everyone and their momma raps, so don’t be scared. Mix it up and network with like-minded individuals who love Hip Hop.
Branding is paramount in the music industry and business in general. How do you differentiate your brand?
Our brand stands alone. Dead Wrong has ambitions in not only music but various forms of other entertainment. I believe when it’s all said and done, our brand will separate from the pack because of our ambitious goals. We will not be held back. Dead Wrong Records is much more than just music my G. We want to create movies, video games, something that we growing up all wanted to jump into. We understand everything is a stepping stone, but we have curated a lot of ideas that we know can impact the culture. You’ve seen guys like 50 Cent tap into games, but I feel it wasn’t formulated properly. With our aspirations being high we have studied guys who have had success like Ice Cube and Will Smith (who is from West Philly like us) that have not only had great careers rap-wise but were able to get a bag in other endeavors of entertainment.
What’s next?
A solo project for sure, a label compilation, and a lot more. Stay tuned. This will be the year of the Wrong.
