10 of the Best Hip Hop Rappers to Buy a Verse From – “Best Bang for your Buck”

This article going to be more oriented to the business side of the hip hop music industry. But I think it’ll be an interesting read for artists and fans alike. Social media has really opened the doors to being able to connect with artists. Good luck trying to connect with the likes of Jon Connor, Ekoh, or Webby’s management back in the 2000’s. Hell, we’re sliding up in DM’s all the time trying to get coverage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we try not to be too annoying.

Hip hop collabs are insane right now. Everyone is doing them, and there are some really dope one’s coming out. With the help of Indie Amplify, even the public can get a glimpse at what some artists charge, and for most up and coming rappers, the price of exposure isn’t that bad!

Its great that the prices are out there. It creates an opportunity. I’m an analyst in real life and like to play with numbers. My real-life career sometimes bleeds over into the blog, and I like to review artists streaming data. I noticed there was not anything out there that put a value on buying a verse from hip hop rappers.

So, I struck out to do that. Create a simple formula that measure to put value on buying a verse. I chose the 10 Best Hip Hop artists based on skill, my own favoritism, and impression potential to buy a verse from and ranked them from Indie Amplify.

All ten of these artists can bring something to your song. They are some of the best in the game, and sometimes it just isn’t about the money. It’s about having your favorite rapper on a track with you. And that’s cool as hell too.

The Calculation

I created a very simple formula to come up with an overall “impression” value. In this instant, I consider an impression a chance that someone may see your or hear your song. Like an impression on Instagram or Facebook.

First, I took the total number of subscribers across all media & social platforms by user of Soundcharts. I took 20% of that total. The reason I took 20% is because its not always guaranteed that an artist will share or even acknowledge the song on any of their platforms. Keep that on your mind when spending the money for a feature. The 20% represent that chance of exposure by algorithm.

I then added that 20% to the total Monthly listeners on Spotify to get a feel for how many potential people may see or hear your song on Spotify. This is what I’m calling an “impression”.

I took those numbers and divided it by the cost of a verse. The average for the 10 rappers is $1750. That gave me the cost per one impression, or the chance that your song title is at least seen. I took that and multiplied by 100,000 to get the cost per 100,000 impressions, and I ranked the artists accordingly.

The List

Artist                                     Verse $                 $/100k Impressions

1. Ekoh                                     $1,500.00             $193.74
2. Cryptic Wisdom                $1,000.00             $224.15
3. Mark Battles                     $1,000.00             $232.06
4. Jarren Benton                    $1,800.00             $252.48
5. Futuristic                            $2,000.00             $296.41
6. Chris Webby                     $5,000.00             $303.03
7. Krizz Kaliko                         $2,000.00             $347.34
8. Anoyd                                  $1,000.00             $422.09
9. Jon Connor                        $1,000.00             $648.31
10. Odd Squad Family            $1,200.00             $785.87

If you’re a hip hop rapper and looking to grow your exposure, Ekoh would be the best “Best Bang for your Buck” out of the ten. Having followed Ekoh since we’ve begun, I’m also positive he would share your song all across his platforms. There is a large potential of new fans and value for your investment.

Like I said, all these guys can really bring something special to your release and open the doors for your music to a wider audience and they’re all priced similarly. They’re affordable enough, and a great group of guys. Indie Amplify has made it easy to get in touch with all of them, if them not, search out their management through email.

Keys to Consider.

• When releasing on Spotify, release as a single to ensure being on Spotify’s “Release Radar”. If you have the collab artist attached to the track. Its basically guaranteed to show up on their fan’s playlist on Friday. That playlist is key to initial success on Spotify.
• If you don’t release as a single, make sure to select it as the song to be featured on the “Release Radar” or you’ll miss the initial exposure of the playlist. The next exposure attempt would be the “Discover Weekly” playlist, and that can be random.
• Reach out to artist either through Indie Amplify or through management’s email as the most professional means of communication. Some artists will be responsive in IG. Just don’t “Stan” out, be respectful, not weird, and yourself.
• An artist may not share or promote the song on their platforms.

Interesting Facts

• The total costs to have all 10 artists on a single track is only $17,500. That’d be a dope ass release, who’s got $20k for a cypher?
• Futuristic has the most fans across all media and social platforms at 2.8 million. Chris Webby and Cryptic Wisdom are just behind him with about a million each.
• Chris Webby has the most monthly listeners on Spotify at 1.4 million. Followed by Ekoh at 700k and Jarren Benton at 500k.
• The 10 rappers make up 8.5 million fans across all platforms.
• These 10 artists have 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Conclusion

If you’re an rapper and looking to grow your audience, these ten hip hop artists may be your best value options for exposure. Even if you’re not worried about the numbers, any one of these guys would make a dope collab and bring a lot of notice to your sound. You’d also feel good as shit to have a release with the dope rappers.