Hello head-banging people. This is a CALL TO ACTION and an issue I wanted to address for a while now. I want to tell you guys a little bit about collaborating with people and the mindset you need to have to make that relationship fruitful.

First off let me give you the official definition of “Collaboration”

1. (often foll by on, with, etc.) the act of working with another or others on a joint project

2. something created by working jointly with another or others

What does working together mean? It means you provide your services, the other party provides his, and something ends up happening because of the joint services. I want you to look closely at the definition again and understand that a collaboration does not happen when someone provides you with his or her services and you bring nothing to the table in return. Unfortunately this is a mentality that you will have to face every day when the business you are in is based on collaborations.

As a producer I’m always confronted with the situation where rappers ask for free beats(especially on Twitter) and when I provide the with the link to my page www.refbeats.com so they can sign up for free and get three, THREE, free beats they do not think twice about doing that. My friend if you do not think that taking two minutes of your time to sign up for three free beats is worth it than you have a very wrong mentality that needs to change fast in order for you to succeed. Think about it. If you think that making such a small effort isn’t worth it than why should other people feel like making the effort of clicking on your video link or downloading your music for free. THE EFFORT YOU PUT IN WILL ALWAYS BE REFLECTED IN THE OUTCOME.

Now I don’t want to put down only the rappers because producers do the same thing. Some producers, most of them expect the rapper to buy their beat if the rapper wants to collab. That’s just stupid. The difference between selling a beat and putting that beat up for collaboration is huge. You get to produce the rapper, which means that you can actually control what the rapper says on your beat to make sure that he’s not WHACK, which means you you’ll have a way better product at the end of the collaboration. If the end product is great then you and the rapper get a good promotion out of it and build a successful professional relationship that can AND WILL involve money in the future.

So rappers and producers who think that you deserve success without making any effort, without giving something up…I can tell you right now that you will NEVER MAKE IT unless you change your mentality fast.