2 The Music Process That Helps Madison Rapper ‘Netflix’ Hip-Hop Artist

Hip-hop, in particular, is one of Madison’s most marginalized music genres, according to a recent survey.

With the goal of helping more black artists navigate Madison’s music landscape, Breyon Sommerville and Akiya Alexander, co-founders of the brand Lesswork Local Lifestyle, created a new project for local creatives to streamline these tasks. developed a subscription-based service program for

Sommerville describes Lesswork Local Lifestyle’s model as the “Netflixing” of the music industry. By paying a monthly fee, artists get access to a range of services including social media management, recording studio sessions, screen printing and photography.

“If you go to Atlanta, Chicago, or even New York, they have our structure. They have a production company,” Somerville said. “Providing maximum value at minimum cost.”

Lesswork Local Lifestyle still has more customers joining, so the monthly fee is about $500. In the future, Sommerville and Alexander want the service to be more accessible and personalized to their customers. This would include implementing a lane-style system, Sommerville said.

The “Fast” lane is $300 per month for artists with unlimited service, the “Passing lane” with more limited service is $200, and the “Slow” lane is $100. The slow lane is suitable for up-and-coming artists, while the passing and fast lanes are suitable for more established artists.

Sommerville and Alexander, who founded Lesswork Local Lifestyle in 2020 and are rappers themselves, said that due to limited venue options and public misconceptions about the genre, local hip-hop artists are navigating Madison. I mentioned it can be difficult to gate. Alexander, who goes by the stage name KILO Aka SkitL’z, says his hip-hop artists often feel left out.

“If I was a vegetarian, I’d go to Whole Foods. If I wanted chicken, I’d go to KFC. But where’s the hip-hop going?” “It’s like you don’t have a home.”

Alexander’s concerns are part of a larger, ongoing conversation about Madison’s musical environment. This month, the Greater Madison Music City Project released a 131-page report recommending ways to increase opportunity and equity for the city’s music community. His two main weaknesses listed in the report included a general lack of funding and a limited choice of venues for music genres, although hip-hop in particular is the most popular in Dane County. identified as one of the “marginalized” genres.

“I feel like they want to make money off of it, but they don’t want anything that comes with it,” Sommerville says of the lack of support for local hip-hop artists. “I don’t think it’s any different from other genres.”

Sommerville and Alexander helped local artists find performance opportunities and host shows. Marcus Porter, a local hip-hop artist and music producer, said Lesswork Local Lifestyle has helped fill a long-standing gap in hip-hop performance opportunities for his artists.

“They’re allowing artists to have a platform that didn’t exist before in Madison,” Porter said. “Local artists don’t play a lot on the radio, and there aren’t many venues for hip-hop artists to play because hip-hop artists are labeled as not the best.”