THE CONSULT: Jibba The Gent

Jibba The Gent is a Vermont hip hop ambassador, a widely respected emcee who helped bridge the gap between north & south and build awareness for our state in wider New England scene. Unlike so many grizzled veterans, all his experience hasn't diminished his enthusiasm one bit, so when I hit him up to talk shop for THE CONSULT series, we wrapped that up in a day. This conversation is packed with insights and ideas, from promo to contracts to management to tote bags. Yes, tote bags. Enjoy.

VTHH: When you were first locking down the details behind your career, getting your ducks in a row, who were your role models? Were there particular artists or industry heads you were studying up on?

Jibba The Gent: It took over 10 years and many failed attempts to realize just living the lifestyle of my favorite rappers and rapping about it was not going to get me anywhere. I started to study the dreaded business side of music and realized I was very lost and had wasted quite a bit of my life on doing everything wrong with my music. I decided I wouldn't release any more albums unless it was done right and planned well beforehand. This got me diving into groups dedicated to the music business online. I personally didn't know anyone that was a professional musician, and hip hop wasn't really popular in my neck of the woods.

Up North, there were a bunch of hip hop artists and groups that seemed to grasp the music business. They had interviews, album reviews, merch for sale in physical locations and live shows that rocked. They even had someone on the wheels of steel to run the tunes! (unheard of in Southern VT) I was amazed and a bit jealous to be honest. I didn't understand how they had it all together and I didn't, I felt talented enough to have what they did. So, instead of whining about being so far behind, I reached out to everybody I could find and became a student. I initially just wanted to learn all I could from anyone willing to put me on to game, but this turned into more than that. I was also given many opportunities to improve my career as I learned, and encouragement when I needed it.

There are many people I could name that have helped me since reaching out but, I will name four that have helped me the most. Sydney Devon, who now works for Sony as an A&R. We've had so many talks over the years it's incredible to me, he helped me with radio play and royalties. He also encouraged me to throw my own shows with legit headliners in Southern Vermont. Dakota of VT Union or DJ Dakota drops a lot of gems and I was there to learn whatever I could. Whether it was stage presence, MCing a crowd, tips on artist selection for shows or features, and encouragement to really get after it, Dakota is the man. S.I.N.sizzle was the first to get me on stage in Burlington, I'll be forever grateful for that and thankful I've got to see him rock stages repeatedly. The charisma he has on stage is unmatched. Kwame Dankwa was working at Z97.1 in Rutland VT as the program manager when we officially met. He gave Causin' Effect an incredible shot with radio play at the station. Not only that, he showed me how soundscan and mediabase tracks radio play. Also, how radio stations search for what's popular in different regions. Kwame has since moved on to different radio stations and job titles, but the knowledge I gained from chopping it up with him is priceless.

I'm still a student of the music business today and have realized I actually enjoy that work more than making music. Reaching out to people when I'm stumped is still the way I go about learning the most. Google and YouTube are awesome as well but there's nothing like learning specifics from my hip hop peers.

VTHH: It's wild to me how much hype there has been over the past decade about radio being dead when it's still reaching about 80% of the country every day in 2021. I think a lot of artists, especially here on the independent end of the pool, assume they're locked out of everything but local and college radio. Do you think that's true? Is there still value in doing a serious radio campaign, or should artists be focused on more accessible platforms like streaming?

Jibba The Gent: Radio does seem to be locked down but there is a path forward to unlocking it. If an artist has an absolute jam of a song that is encoded properly before release, major radio stations are actively looking for them on mediabase and Shazam. To get to the top of a region an artist will need to use a local and college radio campaign in a targeted region. New England would most likely work best because that's where most of the support will be. The artist would need to reach out to the radio stations via email and follow ups with professional press releases and updated stats as the song grows. Also, reaching out for interviews at the stations can really help move things along. Especially if they are strategically booked alongside shows in the area.

When Vazy and I released "Redneck" we missed a few steps and a chance to grow past our own region. We just didn't have all of our stats clearly stated when we reached out to other radio stations. Our song was trending in New England and we were completely unaware. We also didn't plan a strategy for the roll out, we just rode the wave until it ran out of steam. The radio play did give us plenty of paid gigs that year though, so I wouldn't ever write off the power of radio. I'd just work even harder than I did last time to make the most of every spin on every station.

VTHH: Based on your experience being your own show promoter, is that something you'd want to do again? What surprised you the most in terms of the demands and workload involved with wearing that particular hat?

Jibba The Gent: Your reputation is on the line every time the doors open on a show night. I did not like the pressure of live event promotions at all. If I was to only promote and not perform it would be a little better, also I would want it to be my only full time job. Planning and executing take a lot of resources. Handing out and posting flyers is very crucial, especially in the final weeks. I had to be in the club a lot leading up to shows, meeting with the club goers, shaking hands and letting them know about the upcoming events. This wasn't as hard in areas I live near.

Once I ventured out, it became a lot tougher to accomplish. It's a large up front investment, even after paying for the talent. There's many different costs associated with a professionally run show.

One surprising thing I learned came from working with Kartoon from 656 Records. He would look at contracts and riders and put huge red X's through sections that made the evening tough on a promoter. Stuff like bottle service and food platters he would just get rid of. I had never tried that in negotiations, but it worked just fine and saved a lot of preparation time on the night of shows. Toon taught me not to put up with the bullshit and that was a huge relief for me!

VTHH: You guys have racked up a lot of experience with merch and clothing in general. What advice would you have for an artist considering their first run? Take Lil Sniffy, for instance. He's only got one project out but his album is only a few months away and he's doing shows as often as possible. What do you think he should focus on if he wants some branded goods to sell?

Jibba The Gent: It may sound crazy, but Lil Sniffy needs tote bags ASAP. They're cheap to get pressed and everybody buying things at shows will need them. They're also great for bundles. For example a CD, T-shirt and hat in an easy to transport bag is a great way to move merch quickly. People love to save money, even if it means spending more to get the deal. Some fans might buy other people's merch too, but they will still need that bag and if Lil' Sniffy is the only one with branded totes he will be the clear winner. As people carry around their belongings in the club and after the show, they will see Lil' Sniffy's image everywhere.

VTHH: If you were working on another solo LP right now, how would you approach the challenge of reconnecting with the fanbase you've amassed between Causin' Effect and The Broccoli Tree era?

Jibba The Gent: Since social media's inception, I have relied heavily on free advertising and sometimes paid to get the word out. It doesn't work well for me at all. When I connect with people, usually the first thing they ask about is music and I will tell them "oh this has been out since blah blah blah... I'm working on this and that... followed by, I posted about it everywhere." The number one response is, "oh I never saw that". It's proven to me, people are not actively checking my social media and my ads or regular posts, tweets, etc. are not showing up for them. That, or they are browsing right by. They may even like something out of habit but they aren't actually absorbing the information.

Video though, hits differently. Especially well done, eye catching cinematography. I would document everything music related on video, make creative music videos, behind the scenes, sessions in the recording studio, I'd capture everything. I would focus on two social media platforms, TikTok and YouTube to reach fans with clips and updates of album progress.

My second task would be to reach out to my core base in the form of email. Building my email list was probably the single most important thing I have ever done. I also have a list of Music Business emails to reach out to for interviews, album reviews and advertisement. Keeping them updated is key as well.

The third would be all guerilla marketing, I would be physically handing out and hanging flyers everywhere I could to let people know this album is coming. Talking to people face to face, shaking hands, rapping on the spot if they ask, just doing the damn thing the ol' fashioned way, because there is still no better way to connect than in real life!

VTHH: What works for you, in terms of organizing and orchestrating all these details? Are you a spreadsheet guy or do you rely on routines or do you have dozens of notebooks and scraps of paper like my dumb ass does?

Jibba The Gent: Oh man, I'm so scatterbrained. I've got the notebooks and scraps of papers like you, laptops and desktops with digital versions of notebooks and scraps of papers, my phone is just dumb and somehow always at its storage capacity. Everything is very disorganized, I believe once or twice a year I will attempt to organize and clean things up, but that's how I end up hiding things on myself. It's all very bad and I know it is, I was warned about it as a kid and somehow have never changed. I guess I function better with a little bit of chaos in my life, or I'm just lazy.

VTHH: Amen. At least you can keep your head straight, this has been a lot of gems. I've just got one more for you: based on all the experience you've had, juggling roles through sheer necessity, what is the role or responsibility you would like to outsource the most? Whether it's down to not wanting to think about it or feeling like you could never manage it, what would you like to wash your hands of and just pass off forevermore?

Jibba The Gent: You have come at me with some great questions! If I am still an artist, I would love to hand off the publicist role. I have an inability to speak highly of myself as a musician, it feels gross to me. Oddly enough, I can be very braggadocious when it comes to bars, but if we're talking I don't want to sound cocky at all. If I am out of the artist role, filling in the publicist part is awesome. For example, I could talk about Yung Breeze's skills all day. Also, if I am no longer focused on my own music I would feel relieved and able to do more on the business side. The multiple hats aren't as bad at that point, definitely more manageable.