Artists are excited when industry professionals and label executives express interest in giving them a record deal, but not all that glitters is gold. For decades we've listened to stories about artists being taken advantage of, and rapper 600Breezy recently shared some advice to rappers during his interview with DJ Smallz.
600 Breezy said the biggest mistake artists make is "signing to other rappers." He added, "He gotta do his job, too. Like, he's still rapping. You gotta sign to somebody that don't wanna be the person that you are or don't want to hold you down to not get bigger than them. You sign to another rapper it's always a hidden agenda there."
There have been "plenty of times" when label-owning rappers have attempted to ink deals with 600Breezy, but he said he's had to turn them down. "If it's like, a rapper that's not rappin' no more or don't really care about it, it'd be cool," he continued. "But not an active rapper. Everybody seen me with Drake all the time. I wasn't signed to Drake, bro. 'Cause at the end of the day, he's still an artist. If I signed to him, he's gon' sign me to a label. I would have other people over and it ain't gon' be like I'm dealing with him. He's still on the road doing shows, making albums. So, if you sign to him and he's really who you singed to and you gotta do the professional part, too, they ain't gon' get nowhere 'cause he gotta focus on himself."
Another mistake that artists make is "taking bullsh*t deals" like "360s." Artists who take advances for a number of albums over a certain number of years is also something that he warns against. "That's where everybody f*ck up at." Watch 600Breezy talk about Drake and share other thoughts about the industry below.