>I just wonder if he wants to go that route or would that be
>too corny for him or feel like selling out. IDK.
>
>
>**********
>"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then
>they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson
>
>"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

It seems to me that a lot of acts now want to make as much money as possible without 'going into the hole too deep' by getting in bed with some huge machine and forcing themselves to have to play the game as the machine requests to not end up broke in a ditch somewhere. Folks seem more comfortable to try to sneak up on folks, get a few decent placements (commercials, tv shows, opening for a big act), and call it a day with whatever popularity they catch. Then, it is show money, collab projects, guest spots, and doing just enough to keep it hot for the next time they hit the road..if they ever even take a break from the road.

Besides that, you guys have covered a lot of the bases. The big point I think revolves around the money part. We cannot forget that Prince and MJ costed a lot of money to get to where they were. It is foolish to assume that the general public decided independently to love Prince, MJ, or anyone who became huge during that era. The whole 'machine' argument is the Connect Four of this argument. The machine had the money. They invested in those two and got paid back in the form of some huge stars. They had jams + mystique/star power + machine support.

I LOVE Anderson .Paak, but he's in the 'regular dude' sector. He's likely a more reliable Bilal. He's not above rapping a little so that folks don't write him off as 'just a singer'. Kanye created a lane for regular guys, right? But he still needed the mystique of being crazy and a bunch of money behind his projects to hit his stride.