*At The Rooftop 130, a new club located 130 Market Street, in Inglewood, the lounge slowly filled with artist and creators of independent Hip Hop music.
They mingled while waiting to step onto the spotlight and perform at the Underground Showcase this past April 26. Get ready for the May edition this Thursday, May 24.
With the moon moving from the third quarter (half moon) to its waning crescent phases, the overcast clouds had little illumination above the seated area and the rains of last month have given way to warmer weather so the Underground Showcase kicked off to a vibrant start.
“Independent showcases like The Underground Showcase are important because Los Angeles is a very unique market,” said LaMarr Blackmon, creator of the Underground Showcase. Los Angeles is number one for entertainment, but there is nowhere for an independent artist to get stage time.” I do marketing on 42 black college campuses and I get asked all the time, ‘What can we do In Los Angeles?’ My answer is nothing. So in December, when we finished our Fall Black College Tour, to create a space for independent Artist and That’s Where the Underground Was Birthed.”
The showcase began with comedians who engaged the crowd with jokes. These comedians are not unlike the independent musical artists, they are looking to build a reputation as a consistently funny comedian and grow their fan base through delivering as many quality shows as they can.
Are showcases like these important in this entertainment industry? How can an artist become successful in this changing landscape of new and untested digital practices amongst a sea of analog procedures and practices? How does the live show, and more precisely, performing at events like the Underground Showcase really affect the direction of an artist’s career?
Being seen, and getting the word out is important to any new artist or comedian. Many new artists do not see the real value in maintaining a calendar of show dates until well into their careers. The live show can become the financial bread and butter of an emerging artist. Garnering fans that are willing to pay money for your creation is the main goal.
“These showcases are important to an upcoming artist like me because it gives you the opportunity to test your music in front of a crowd,” explains KeKe Nova, a Hip Hop performer who performed several songs at the April 26th showcase and performed the following evening at Catch One on the 27th.
“The more you perform, the more opportunities you have to gain fans,” explains KeKe Nova. “You never know who’s gonna be in the crowd, so you have an opportunity to perform in front of game changers, or ones that might have some type of influence in your career or in your music.”
Understanding the realities of how the crowd will respond to your music is difficult to do without performing it.
Drew Spence, a music journalist, and publisher of ‘Producer’s Edge Magazine’ categorizes three basic stages in song creation: writing your song, recording in the studio and performing it live.
Spence adds, “Once you get to the third stage, you change how you create your songs and how you structure them. Delivering in front of the live audience changes your writing standpoint and will change how you record in the studio.”
Spence describes the song creation process kind of like a cipher that repeats as the song is mastered. The live show can affect changes in the cipher more than the others can.
“There is a lot of material that you have the confidence to write in your book, or perform in the studio,” continued Spence, “but the ultimate is standing in front of a group and allowing them to judge your show.”
Recording and sharing your live performances can aid in an artist’s development. Spence has strong opinions on the relationship between live shows, social media, and the internet.
“The networking potential of being out in the scene is different from uploading random stuff on the internet, explains Spence, “It still remains true, that the internet should be the reflection of your life and not the dictator of your life. You’re supposed to do something and then it appears on the internet, and not the other way around.”
Planning and preparation are key to career longevity. The worst thing that can happen is for you to get access to a big stage and mess up your performance.
“Doing smaller shows also gives you the opportunity to prepare for much larger shows,” says KeKe Nova adding her real-world insight as both performer and event planner into the conversation. “That way you can get your kinks out before you perform for even a larger crowd.”
Spence emphasizes the importance of concentrating on your stage show and is glad for event planners like Blackmon that fill the gap between an independent artist and a venue to perform in.
“You, also, need to be able to get comfortable with your music,” says KeKe Nova. “The more times you perform a song, the more you know it, the more you can play with it, the more it becomes yours and you own it.”
“I think that’s extremely important,” concludes Spence. “Its 90 percent of that you need to have mastered. Every artist needs a polished stage show before they can make any major headway in the industry.”
For more information on the Underground Showcase or The Fall Black College Tour, email LaMarr Blackmon at [email protected].
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
