You think you've got the ear, the beats, and the musical prowess to make it in the hip hop business.
So how do you become a hip hop music producer? It will involve a great deal of time, dedication, and research, but if you love the game, it can be well worth it.
Passion for rap and hip hop is essential to making it as a producer.
You need to eat, sleep and breathe rap and r&b music, knowing the hits and the history by heart, until you have the musical confidence to start making it on your own.
You should have a healthy grasp for both the current trends in the music and more complex music theory.
If you think you have the music part down, then your next step is to start dealing with equipment and honing your technical skill.
Research which production software is getting the best reviews among rap producers, and check out hardware that will be of use to you in creating synths and samples.
You'll really need to do your homework here, learning the programs so that you are very familiar with their capabilities and technical properties.
But this stage is also where you should do the "fun part"-messing around.
You should experiment with your new toys for a good while, practicing your beats and seeing what kinds of sounds you can make.
It will take you a while to achieve comfort with the technology, but once you do, you can start making your sonic visions a reality.
After you reach this level of comfort, you should start developing a catalogue of beats, and define your niche in the music market.
What genre of hip hop or rap are you most interested in? What kind of artists would you like to work with? You would do well to really focus in on a specific type of hip hop production so that you can master it.
Once you know all these things about yourself as a producer, you can get down to the business of self-promotion.
Send your beats out to developing artists and offer to produce a track or a demo.
But your beats up on music review websites, and plug into online forums and communities for producers and other people in the business.
Go out to the clubs and network-make friends with artists and DJ's who can get you the names you need to get jobs.
Give out a sample of your work whenever you find it appropriate.
As you begin to take small jobs, you can add them to your resume and continue to work up as the contacts continue to develop.
That's it-you've become a hip hop record producer! And if, in the end, you feel that production is a task that you are just not up to, but you are still passionate about the hip hop industry, consider artist management.
Beginning producers often have to use the same skills that managers do in finding gigs and doing promotion work.
Becoming a hip hop manager is a great career path for those who are knowledgeable about the music industry but do not feel musically or technically proficient enough to be an artist or producer.