I Threw Away Your Demo Tape.
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Posted By: Roy Wood Jr. on December 05, 2005 I have a confession to make, I threw away your demo tape. You left me no choice. Headed to the Cingular Wireless store I discovered that My Kanye West CD was scratched. I don't know how or when it happened. Sucks when a CD you never loaned to anyone becomes scratched because now you have no one to blame it on. I was headed to Cingular because I thought I was ready to leave Sprint. Leaving your cell phone company after 8 years is quite difficult to do. It's like leaving a dysfunctional relationship. You know the person isn't right for you but you know them like the back of your hand and just the thought of searching for someone new leaves you exhausted. After listening to what T-Mobile and Verizon had to offer, my hunt for a new cell phone provider lead me into a Cingular Store in Knoxville, TN. I did the usual shuffle around the store looking at new phones when I was approached by a sales rep. I'm expecting him to tell me how much better Cingluar is than all the others and the first question out his mouth is...."Are you in radio?" I told him "Yeah, Kind of. I do prank calls for a few radio shows." This look of glee dripped from his face as he ran to back of the store. He re-emerges with his music demo-CD. A gospel/soul rendition of the classic "Happy Birthday Song". Apparently the man thinks I'm Puff Daddy and can give him a record deal on the spot. As we sit in the parking lot listening to this song he gives me the "Music is my dream" Easter Speech and rattles off a few stations that are playing the song. I agree to take the CD back to Birmingham and give it to a few Gospel and Soul Station DJ's that I know and he tells me he needs $5 for the CD. WHAT?!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS? Apparently Mr. Cingular doesn't know about the crate. There's a crate at every radio station in America. I call it "The Box of Dreams". It's a crate full of demos all from people with the same dream of getting their music on the radio. Any artist that has gotten any of their music on the radio will tell you how hard it is to get that done. And I promise you none of them got their music on the air by charging the radio station DJ's $5 to sample their craft. YOU SHOULD BE PAYING THEM TO LISTEN TO IT!! And trust me, some artists do. It's illegal but hey, it's a dirty game. It'd be different if he wanted to just sell me the CD straight up and make me a fan of his music. But you asked me for my help in getting the song on the radio and then you tell me I'm going to have to pay you for the CD and THEN become your PR Director? Take a long look at that crate Mr. Cingular because all that music isn't going to get played. Half of it won't even be listened to. What's even more hilarious is that his rendition of 'Happy Birthday' was DAMN GOOD and I was going to honestly take the CD to a few people. I've done it in the past. Not saying music directors jump to listen to it because I gave it to them but at least you wouldn't be on the floor in the "Box of Dreams". Entertainment is a rough game. I'm reminded of this every night when I perform. The walls of every comedy club in the country are littered with headshots of people who thought their careers would pan out differently. I call this the "Wall of Dreams." In the midst of these headshots you see the occasional person that did it right. (* i.e. Foxxworthy, Sinbad, Chris Rock or Jimmy 'J.J.' Walker *). I'm starting to blabber, probably because I don't have a point. I usually don't. My point is this, if you're begging for an opportunity to prove yourself then you can't ask for money in the same sentence. There's nothing wrong with giving out free samples. Every ice cream shop in the country does it, The Chinese food place in the mall does it, hell even a stripper will let you watch her from the stage for a while before offering you a paid lap dance. If you're trying to prove yourself in your craft please get the thought of making money out of your head. Accept the fact that you're going to be broke for a while, get a strong black woman or a rich white girl with low self-esteem to emotionally support you and chase your dream. If you have a good product the money will come. I went back inside and I looked at a few more phones and as I turned to leave Mr. Cingular finally breaks down and gives me the Demo Disc for free. He even stood there and waited for ME to tell HIM thank you. LOL the odassity. I'm glad he gave me his demo disc...I needed a case to put my Kanye West CD in. T-Mobile, didn't have the coverage I needed. Verizon didn't have the plans I wanted, and the man at Cingular tried to sell me his Demo Tape. I love you Sprint/Nextel. I'm sorry for cheating on you. You've always been good to me. I'll never leave you. "It's Just My Thoughts. Right or wrong, just what I was feeling at the time."- Jay-Z Wood, Jr. New December Prank Downloads are up and ready. www.roywoodjr.com If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Roy Wood Jr.
From Birmingham, AL Florida A&M University class of 2001 Member Since August 2005 |
Comments
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that's too funny. Some people are a trip. they don't understand that good things come in time and not everything has a price. Good luck to Mr. Cingular Monday, December 5th 2005 at 3:24PM |
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