UG Rap Community

I'm in agreement with you. I hope I didn't come off sounding like "I don't want to use online stores because they take your money". That's not at all the case. They are one of the most important resources a underground artist can have. If the stores stock the product they give it enhanced visibility and do provide a chance to sell products. For instance, we have some acts that are selling fairly well in Japan. Without stores in Japan how on earth would anyone there even know who they are? So I am in complete agreement with you in terms of how important they are, it would be crazy (no pun intended) to decide not to use stores like that.

We felt it was important to establish the Rydas Records store as well. As it stood before, we didn't keep much stock of our CDs on hand because they goal was to get them in stores and get them out there as much as possible (sometimes for no profit at all). What we are trying to do with the store is to provide a bit of a balance so that we can cater more directly with our fans as well as hopefully fund projects. I agree completely that we do need to keep it a priority to get our products in stores. With "Heisser Scheiss" the first run was intended to be limited and to be a store exclusive. Part of what we hoped to do with it was to provide our fans with something more unique (perhaps it came out more unique than we intended though) and something that will in time be somewhat of a rarity. The flip side of what you said is very true though, without tons of exposure sales will be slower in the store and we do have to insure we are doing what we can to be visible to as many people as possible.

You seem fairly bright when it comes to these topics, do you have any involvement with music?

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T.O.N.E-Z Heisser Scheiss on sale! Visit the Rydas Records store

What can you tell us about the other artists in your roster - Bloodshot and Jason Porter? Are they affiliated with T.O.N.E.?

I would also like to order me T.O.N.E.'s albums but I'm not into paypal. Is there another way to send a payment? Are these two his only releases?

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UGRAP YOUTUBE ++UGRAP DISCOGS

Can you give us some more infos on your Japan-Connection? I'm always interested in getting to know about international connections, it is a trend to see that especially the US-Rappers build up more and more international contacts to get some influences from outside the states. So how did you start your connections to Japan?

As far as my connections to the music biz are concerned, I simply do not have them , I am just interested in getting to know how this business works. I am not involved in any projects except the things we do here on ugrap.de.

Because you speak of the limited copies of the "heisser Scheiss" EP, how many first copies did you press?

By the way, I will of course post my opinion about the EP here when my package arrives .

Our artists only real affiliation with each other is Rydas Records. Geist is in the UK, Jason Porter is in Arizona, Bloodshot is in Washington, T.O.N.E-Z is in the Bronx and Menacide is in Flint. So, they're all over the place. Even with that though, we manage to do shows together from time to time and there's a lot of collabs (Black Rose features Jason Porter, VIM features Bloodshot, Heisser Scheiss features Geist and Jason Porter, etc...). Part of what we are trying to do is to unite artists together that otherwise would be on their own. If you want to check out audio, the best way of doing that is probably via their myspace pages. They are all on the top friends list on: http://www.myspace.com/rydasrecords

We aren't set up to take credit cards right now (but Paypal does accept credit cards, checks and so on). I do plan on putting up a order sheet with instructions on how to order with money orders but I'm not sure if that would be for international orders as well (money orders in American currency from outside of America would be hard to get I'm sure). Really, aside from that Western Union I'm not sure what to suggest (and that would be too much trouble). I'm up for any suggestions and ideas as far as the store goes though. As far as how many he has released, he has put out three "solo" studio albums (lots of mixtapes and projects with people like Mo Crazy and Myzery though). These two and one as "Style" (which was technically a group name but it was just T.O.N.E-Z and his DJ).



Really, in that case it was a artist to artist thing. Jason Porter works with Intrinzik, Intrinzik has a connection to people in Japan. International is the right direction to move, because there are so many rappers in the US that they end up trying to sell CDs to each other. In Japan for instance, there aren't going to be many rappers with that type of sound, hence people have to choose between mainstream rap or they have to work harder to get underground material. That leads to increased demand and allows for Japanese distributors to move CDs in Japan without a high level of promotion.

As far as how many HS copies were pressed. Firstly, the process was rushed to get it done. T.O.N.E-Z really wanted something out and soon (from the time he signed to the time it was released was a little over a month). What I decided on was to do a limited pressing run rather than trip over our feet trying to get a ton of units out there. Besides, we wanted to get the store going anyway, and stocking the same CDs every other store did wasn't going to accomplish a whole lot. What it might lack in polish (don't get me wrong the audio is excellent but the presentation might be a bit rushed) it will certainly make up in exclusivity and rarity. I can contrast it to Jason Porters first pressing of VIM (as JPD, it has been impossible to find for almost two years). People had to wait a full year after the first one sold out and now the first one is so hard to come by it certainly would be more desirable to own. It sounds like I'm avoiding the latter questions and I am. I don't want to give specifics about certain things out on message boards just because there tend to be people looking over our shoulders to see how we do things and also because I think it is a bit unprofessional to share certain information. I will say this, we pressed exactly as many HS CDs as the first pressing of VIM

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T.O.N.E-Z Heisser Scheiss on sale! Visit the Rydas Records store

Thx for the information. The Style album was alright, Select Records had some good acts on their rooster back in the days. By the way, what's up with T.O.N.E.-Z's DJ, did he retire?

And of course I understand your position not giving away to many information on your sales, no problem, that's business and I respect that . I know that I will get a very exclusive release, and to tell you the truth: that is not a bad feeling !

From what I understand he is pretty much retired and now does web design.
As far as HS goes, I hope you enjoy it and it is unique. Any future pressings of HS will have different artwork and a modified tracklist (add a few, subtract a few).

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T.O.N.E-Z Heisser Scheiss on sale! Visit the Rydas Records store

Ok, thx for the info. Keep us informed about the Re-Release of the "Heisser Scheiß" EP...

Ok, I will. Keep this in mind though, it won't be the same album if/when we do another pressing. It wouldn't be fair to people who purchased the first pressing to do that. So, in the least you can expect a few tracks to not make a second pressing as well as a few new tracks, new artwork, etc... one advantage to being in the underground is the flexiblity so it is hypothetically possible that (most) of the material sees a second pressing on a different CD or as a LP. We always like to keep our options open.

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T.O.N.E-Z Heisser Scheiss on sale! Visit the Rydas Records store