Rappers and beat makers of Steem! A proposal for a more sustainable community. Opinions?

This goes out to all Steem rappers and beat creators. I think we could really benefit from taking some time to decide on a new hashtag and how to use it. I don’t want to do this alone as I’m sure it won’t get as useful as if we do this properly in the decentralized manner we all love. I think if we create something simple but important enough it could survive us being lazy sometimes and gain a life of its own. So let’s make this a planned operation and release multiple copies of the original ‘whitepaper’ AFTER some debate, at a set date?

I’ve seen a lot of talk about the original rap/hip hop community on Steemit falling apart. The idea is to eventually make this really simple for everyone but to get there I think we need to first get the ball rolling with some initial support. And for that, the active community now needs to agree on some simple terms. This is the hard part. My only motivation is to have a hashtag that benefits everyone interested in posting or hearing original Steem hip hop. I’ll get to why I believe this tag needs to be a new and unique one soon but first I’ll give you some situational history. In case you’re newer than me here or still not sure what I’m talking about..

The background story from my point of view

Since @rondonson’s break from hosting his legendary #rapchallenge the community of rappers split up more. He’s now back by the way so check out his post: Rap challenge week 18. And perhaps make an entry for friday! But he still supports a more sustainable community for downtime in between competition as well.
Having this one post a week where everyone got together and commented on eachothers entries was really inspiring and probably helped me find some original rappers here that wouldn’t have otherwise. On the other hand after this split I’ve done more challenges with the amazing @termitemusic and creating those kind of connections directly to beatmakers is also very valuable for us rappers.

I started to notice that more people commented on how the community was falling apart after weeks of no #rapchallenge. @kenentertainment, @geechidan and @boycharlieplays being some of the recent ones I remember.

The problem to the solution

Our communities has relied on individuals keeping them together with persistent work and challenges. Steemit is still not giving us the opportunity to create groups or subforums. Maybe chainbb.com is an option but I’m not sure about them, please let me know if you think using their platform would solve this.

What steemit gives us is hashtags. And I’ve also heard that an update soon could let us choose some favorite hashtags to always have easy access to. But using tags like #rap or #hiphop we’re not creating a community because they’re too broad. For example #rap shows every post that writes anything about rap or showcases anyones favorite rapper etc. While this is good too it doesn’t give original creators a chance to stick out or build a community.

Basic hashtag whitepaper idea:

1. We together decide on a new hashtag and some SIMPLE guidelines for it
2. As many that wants to posts the ‘original’ infopost with the guidelines, to be referred to forever, on how to use this hashtag
3. If you are interested in what this tag offers you’ll always keep track of it
4. ????
5. PROFIT!!!

What does ”????” stand for?

I think depending on how useful we make this tag, with simple guidelines to respect to get respected, a lot of people might want to check it out and use it. It could be like a quality tag that says it’s at least original content of this kind that we decided on.

Then we might also have to talk about threats like people misusing the tag. For now I think if we just keep it simple Steemit makes it very easy for us using it right to respond by flagging or something?

I could just roll with my idea entirely and hope it catches on but I really think it could become something so much better if more of us agree from the beginning. I’m taking the role as moderator of this new hashtag discussion for a start but if you feel like you can make it more fair just let me us know here and use some tactic.

First step questions I think we need to discuss here! And my example answers..

Does this problem exist?
I feel like I want to follow more people than in only this sphere but a lot of the time I would like to separate out this kind of content. And also hope to find something new similar, if someone would have promoted this tag recently.

What should the tag be?
I would like to see this tag grow into a “place” where we can always find new original beats to rap on. Or rappers that we want to collaborate with if we have instrumentals or song ideas.

I’ve personally used “the cut” and “deep cut” as phrases for all places that’s gradually more off grid. The cut is many times just around a slightly more shaded corner. I’ve also already seen people like @geechidan using ‘the cut’ here referring to what I think has been the inner circle of the rap community. I’m thinking there might be a smaller chance of anyone claiming that they really need to spam #deepcut with something else as it’s not as common but perhaps I’m overthinking it?

The cut kind of already exists which could be good if we can make #thecut a stable thing by creating a protocol for it.

What should the guidelines be for you to be interested in looking at the tag?
I’m thinking that for the next step I can do a more detailed example of the original guidelines post. But the layout could be something like this:

Title including that this is the original guidelines on how to use #thecut

SHORT introduction that welcomes people to #thecut. The name of the agreement, possibly including the date it’s published to make it harder to imitate, and that this is a place for original quality hip hop.

Important note that this is a place we created but do not own. No one can change what #thecut stands for without going against the whole original concept. Not like a threat but just so no one can claim to BE the cut.

The guidelines

1. If you respect these you should respect that everyone is welcome as long as they do too
2. Only use #thecut if your post contains at least one of these things. New original beats created by you, original raps by you on any beat, original challenges on this for SBD or general community talk spreading this message.
3. Please don’t spam anything. We leave room for what the future community considers spamming. At the point of writing some examples could be that if you’re hosting a competition you might only want to use this tag once for the introduction and once with the conclusion. If you’re doing original music you might sometimes want to release a burst but it should probably never amount to more than an average of 1-2 posts a day over a couple of weeks. To keep some quality. If you’re overstepping these limits it’s up to the current community to decide if it still keeps quality. As long as you’re not posting too much everyone gets accepted.

After the guidelines I would like to see a picture that people can use in their posts if they want to promote this original paper. If they want to help to grow the core message of 'the cut'.

To finish we repeat that this is a permanent agreement that’s purpose is to never change. Please use some other name. Or use the same one if you need to but if it doesn’t fit these original criterias it’s not the same cut. Finally some credits might be due. Everyone that stands behind this protocol. And after it’s posted we can update the naming list with everyone commenting that they’re also in the cut. Creators and initial backers in alphabetical order.

Who’s going to write the “original white paper” for this?
I could set up a discord channel or we could use Steem chat if that works before the next update on #thecut plan? So that we could send this ‘whitepaper’ back and forth before agreeing on all phrasing and publish date. If we keep it cool new years isn’t too far away..

Otherwise I’ll make an example and showcase it somehow in the next update for one more round of debate before the final.

Open questions?
No well I kind of wrote the examples but please leave yours in the comments everyone! And I really want your opinions even if you think this sounds really stupid. Why? Until next time, peace and love!

Last minute update!!

As I’m about to post this I see @geechidan just made another post trying to save this community with a competition that can get passed along. Check out his ‘jacking for beats’ proposal as well! Sounds promising and as he’s using ‘the cut’ again I think it’s fair to say that the cut already exists!! But also that we definitely should not use that tag unless he approves or improves the guidelines.

I don’t want to own any of this either, I’m just presenting a very simple idea. That all we need might be a hashtag and some simple guidelines to it that can never change. After that all of the competitions such as jacking for beats, the rap challenge and Termite’s cypher could be ‘in the cut‘ if they want? Someone could make their own ‘cut of the month’ awarding or just praising the best cuts in the cut including perhaps both content made for contests and just any original hip hop as long as #thecut is used correctly. :)