TJ CHAPMAN

iN the bizness

FORGET THE BROWN PAPER BAG—TJ CHAPMAN BREAKS RECORDS THE RIGHT WAY.

TJ Chapman is no criminal, but he's got a rep for breaking and entering. Chapman entered the recording industry as a manager for Miami Bass veteran Beatmaster Clay D, then switched his hustle to breaking records for artists like T-Pain and David Banner. The 36-year-old Florida transplant keeps his network tight as founder of TJs DJs, a global record pool started in 1994. Now, Chapman shows us how to break a record off...properly.

CAUGHT IN THE WEB
[DJ crews like the] Core DJs, Bum Squad DJs, Hitmen DJs—they have websites, [so] go to the websites. We all have message boards that all these DJs frequent. Post your music, introduce yourself and get to know these people. Hang out where they hang out—online!

PASS IT OFF
While feedback is important, the purpose [of networking] is to pass your music to the club DJs, mixtape DJs, strip club DJs, mixshow DJs, satellite radio show DJs and the Internet DJs. In Florida and a lot of these other Southern states, we have pirate radio.

PHONE TAP
Each [DJ] organization has weekly conference calls. So talk to the person in charge and see how you get on the conference call. Don't send me a link to your MySpace page talking about, get at ya.

THE BLAST
Find out what it takes for one of the DJ organizations to e-mail your song out. Get on the email list that includes their members plus other DJs. My e-mails go out to about 35, 40,000—it's nothing to spread a record like that.

LIVE AND DIRECT
All these organizations have retreats. You're nobody if you don't know anybody. You go to these events to meet people and build with these DJs also. It's hundreds of DJs at these events.

MYSPACE JUMP-OFF
MySpace is the best indicator of what kind of fan base you have. You can see that by the number of plays that the music gets and by the number of comments and friends that people have. Nowadays, [labels] are giving deals to people who are top artists on MySpace that don't even have radio play.


SCRATCH issue #19
September/October 2007