![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/qn5-music.jpg?resize=500%2C518&ssl=1\" "\\"qn5")
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Continue reading to check out Tonedeff’s letter in celebration of 10 years of “The New Hip Hop”<\/p>\n
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Holy smokes\u2026has it really been 10 years? Well, technically, it\u2019s 13, being that I released The Monotone EP way back in 1997, but I didn\u2019t have the roster then.<\/p>\n
Ya know, as a kid, I used to draw my own cassette covers for albums that didn\u2019t exist. Today, I can examine the CD booklets and read credits for over 50 releases (plus a bunch of boxes in my apartment I need to get rid of).<\/p>\n
Anytime I reflect on where life has taken me, it\u2019s easy to get lost in the myriad of \u2018coulda-woulda-shoulda\u2019 moments but one thing remains abundantly clear: despite the roadblocks (and there have been PLENTY), I STILL manage to release the music I believe in \u2013 challenging conventions with NO COMPROMISES.<\/p>\n
Still, we\u2019ve managed to infiltrate the MTVs, Rolling Stones, Hot 97s, Lollapaloozas of the world \u2013 albeit in a limited capacity \u2013 all while refusing to draw from the well of industry formula. In this day and age, I don\u2019t think I have to tell you how rare that is doing what we do. And for all this risk, we\u2019ve been rewarded with one of the most hardcore fan-bases on the planet. And while I may never be able to buy a private plane (or a scooter), that\u2019s the next best thing to wealth I can think of.<\/p>\n
Ya know, alot of things have changed over the years \u2013 the industry climate, our roster, our sound, our logo, etc. I\u2019ve seen plenty of indie labels come and go, talented artists call it quits and big distros go belly up \u2013 yet, we\u2019ve managed to weather the storm. The irony is that now, with the social media boom, labels are just NOW doing what we\u2019ve been doing since we started, after all the grief they gave us for being \u201conline\u201d early on. Hell, it\u2019s even trendier to have an indie label \u2013 (something I thought wasn\u2019t possible way back in 98 when every trust-fund baby was putting our 12\u201d singles). The reality is, 98% of the people that talk about their \u2018labels\u2019 are basically just a logo and not much else. I recently read an article in the NY Times about how major labels are having their signed artists post as grassroots \u2018indie\u2019 artists to appeal to folks. But that\u2019s all for show. Those \u2018fans\u2019 aren\u2019t dedicated enough to stick around when the pool gets dirty or the air gets thin. They\u2019ll figure that out eventually.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve made a concerted effort to document all of our steps via video, blogs, pictures and of course music, to show you where we came from, why we did it and and how we\u2019ve developed. Through that process, QN5.com has become my own semi-personal family photo\/video album. Each show photo triggers floods of memories of how we drove 17 hours for a 30 people in attendance, parading for hours uphill in upstate NY through the snow with boxes of merch in search of a hotel, fucked up sound systems, venue-owner debacles and more. If y\u2019all only knew the half of it, you prolly woulda paid me to quit before buying our releases. But we pushed through all of that, and here we are\u2026still.<\/p>\n
Up! Even after 13 years, there\u2019s still plenty of work to do. We\u2019re still reaching further and looking to grow our community. If you\u2019re a blue schooler, then you know the drill already: Each one \u2013 teach one. While I still feel that there\u2019s a bit of a deadzone in the public\u2019s attention span, my goal is to see QN5 Music universally regarded as one of the top indie music labels ever. We\u2019re going push as hard as we can to make that happen \u2013 and we won\u2019t do it without you.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, you\u2019ll have plenty of reasons to cheer us on, as 2010 is 100% on course to accomplish our QK10 Plan in full. I\u2019m already combing over the TON of new music AND visuals that are queued up. I\u2019m still a very firm believer in quality music and community \u2013 so we\u2019re not cutting corners, just giving you more of what you love. <\/p>\n
Shouts to Mrs. Deff, Pack, Kno, Deacon, Substantial, Kokayi, Mr. SOS, Domingo, Mr. Mecca, Elite, Session, JS-1, Akolades, Chris, Samiha, Kontrast and everyone that\u2019s ever been involved over the years, assisting the kid in his dream \u2013 I sincerely appreciate all of your time, talent and loyalty. Special big ups to all the DJs that bump our shit in their sets\/mixtapes (we know we haven\u2019t made it easy on you). To all the girls that were dragged to our shows by their boyfriends and are now huge fans (bring your friends next time). If you’re still not up on what we do… there’s no better time than the present.<\/p>\n
And of course \u2013 THANK YOU TO ALL THE BLUE SCHOOLERS!!!!! Y\u2019all mean the world to us. Just remember, as long as you chip in for gas, we\u2019ll gladly keep driving.<\/p>\n
So Happy Cinco De Mayo, you drunken fucks!<\/p>\n
Tonedeff – Founder, QN5 Music<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Continue reading to check out Tonedeff’s letter in celebration of 10 years of “The New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pG6fW-2Tp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackouthiphop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}