THIS IS YOUR FREESTYLE BLAST #27

In this issue of The Blast we learn how to help out our treasured promoters, while getting ready for Spring Break!

Mar 15, 2024

Yes, Spring is literally around the corner. Another great season for Freestyle club and concert events. But then again, what season isn’t great for a Freestyle event? If you’ve been following this newsletter for any amount of time, then you would’ve read articles that have thrown a bright light on whatever season we were currently in, or at least heading towards, and in this issue, one of the things I’d like to talk a bit about is Spring Break, what did it to mean to our genre back in the day, and what does it means now?

Also in this issue, I’d like to discuss the importance of artist/promoter support. A bit of a touchy subject though an important one for sure.

Also, make sure you work your way down to the end of the newsletter, where we feature the Freestyle Club and Concert Calendar. Just three months in and look how many Freestyle shows are already popping off. Now if this isn’t proof enough that our genre is still alive and thumpin’, well I don’t know what does.

And of course, show off your Freestyle knowledge by solving the Freestyle Scramble Board, well, unless it’s just too hard for you!

Okay folks, that’s enough foreplay, let’s get into it!

DOING DEM DROPS

Back in the early days of Freestyle, promoting shows was the total responsibility of the promoter, which obviously it’s where the the term stems from.

The artists were hired to perform and the promoters, well… to promote!

There were no cell phones back then, let alone Smart Phones with High-Quality Video recorders in them, and there wasn’t any internet, let alone Social Media platforms to post and promote flyers.

After securing the artist for a gig, the promoter would then create a flyer, using the artist’s promo photos, which usually there were only a few available.

Now, before I get too sophisticated and tell you that the promoters would take this photo to a printer and have flyers made, way before that, these flyers were usually done by hand, a literal cut and paste of the photo and text onto an 8x10 sheet of paper, then ran through a copy machine.

As you can imagine, many of these flyers were probably just in black and white, or if the budget allowed, they’d use color paper. These flyers would then be distributed by hand to those who the promoters thought would go, as handing these out to just anyone was financially inpractical.

Classic Freestyle Performance Flyer from The 80s

A bit later, print shops came into the picture and were sort of a breakthrough as now full-color glossies could be made, and by downsizing these flyers from the regular 8X10 to now, a 5X7 or smaller, the promoters were able to get a lot more bang for their promotional buck.

Now, instead of having just a couple of hundred flyers to distribute, the promoters could now purchase several thousand, therefore increasing their chances of reaching even more people, and guess what… it worked!

As we entered the technology age, and Social Media became a primary source of promoting events, the simplicity and affordability of this new way leveled the playing field. But what also happened, is that the heavy saturation of these flyers on Social Media sort of made the audience we were after immune to its effect.

Rarely these days do we stop our scroll just to look at yet another one of the thousands of flyers that will flood our feeds that day, creating yet another obstacle for promoters to figure out and conquer.

Low ticket sales on any Freestyle event is a catastrophe for all of us. It gives off the perception that there is no longer an interest in the Freestyle genre, and when that conclusion reaches enough promoters, trust and believe that any relevancy that Freestyle might still have, will be no more, and the many Freestyle events we see today, will only be seen on very rare occasions.

So how do we challenge that? Well, we, as industry folk, artists, and managers need to start helping out just a bit more, and with the convenience of Social Media it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

A simple video drop from your cellphone, asking your fans to come to a show can truly mean a big difference in ticket sales, while at the same time promoting the continued relevancy of Freestyle in general and the artists in particular.

I understand more than anyone, being an agent and manager myself and with artists who work quite a bit, that sometimes, getting these drops can be a bit of a challenge, especially for those artists who work a lot. They can’t do some drops and not do others, and so unfortunately they sometimes opt to do none! And for our female artists, simply picking up a phone and making a spontaneous video isn’t something they like to do without first freshening up a bit.

Back in the day, when promoters would book my acts, they’d set us up with a radio interview. Either over the phone or in person when we got to their town, and after those interviews, the radio people would have us do a bunch of extra drops. Some to promote the show at hand and others that they can use over the air.

This was fine for most, and certainly not intrusive. But with the ability to now instantly drop and deliver it to the promoter in just a few minutes, suddenly everyone feels obligated, and therefore some artists have become resistant to doing these drops arguing that they’re paid to perform and the promoter to promote… aka “That’s Not My Job!” But what we have to realize is that if we don’t step in and help out, we might not have a job after all.

Look at promoting these events as if you’re actually promoting yourself, letting other promoters and talent buyers know that you’re a working artist, and if you’re working as much as it looks, then that must mean you’re a great investment, and that’s what will sell you.

So, to our artists, come on, help out a bit more, and to the Promoters… Keep in mind that sometimes we have other shows that we have to drop first, so please, just bear with us… we got you!

When I was thinking about what to write for this month’s issue, my wife brought up the topic of Spring Break because apparently, some cities are planning on blocking it.

“What does that have to do with Freestyle?” I asked her. “Spring Break used to be a big deal to Freestyle.” She went on to explain all of the events the Cover Girls used to do during Spring Break, and though she and I weren’t together at that time, I was on the road with Lil’ Suzy, and yes… I remember this!

Spring Break had many hot spots, but the ones I remember frequenting were Panama City, Fort Lauderdale, and of course Miami, with an emphasis on South Beach in particular.

I always thought that Florida was the only state that hosted Spring Break, and though Fort Lauderdale is where it originated, Spring Break has found many other hotspots to call home.

I can recall one show in particular. It was the late ‘90s when we flew down to Miami for a Lil’ Suzy show that was being held at the legendary Fontainebleau Hotel. We hadn’t realized it upon booking, but it was during the weekend of the incredible Winter Music Conference, a subject I will for sure be talking about in a future issue.

The entire City of Miami seemed to be in party mode that weekend, with thousands of people strolling the strip, and every club in the area packed to capacity, and at the time it was all Freestyle… or at least most of it!

So what happened? When did it stop? Why did it stop? And is there a way for us to once again reunite Freestyle and Spring Break? I want some of you to think about that for a moment, and if you have any ideas, share it in the comment section below.

And speaking of Spring, let’s close out this article with a little something from none other than, The Cover Girls!