Alternates To Chasing Fame

Just because you choose not to chase fame, it doesn’t mean you’ve chosen to be small. 

Chasing fame includes not being worried about who is in your audience. The more faces who show up, the better. And, any face will do! The point of chasing fame is you are building the biggest audience you can possibly build. 

Fame is great for making money. It’s also great for losing money, but that’s not the point of this post. Chasing fame, at its core is a wonderful way for a lot of people to know who you are without requiring too much concern for A. the work you do, or B. who the people in the audience are. 

Ignore the downsides. Focus on A and B with me. What happens if you increase the concern for each?

Instead of chasing fame, what happens if you…

1. Do great work

2. Care about who is in the audience you’re gathering 

(???)

Spoiler: you might not get famous. 

Spoiler #2: you might not be choosing to be small either. 

Spoiler #3: you still might get famous, and you might still know just who your true friends are.

Chasing fame prioritizes audience building over everything else. You don’t have much say in who your fans are. Just ask the Beastie Boys or Nirvana how that feels.*

Choosing to do great work while prioritizing who you are attracting to be your fans - it can’t scale the same way fame can, but it’s way more sustainable. 

And this boils down to your fans. There’s a difference between fans of your work and fans of your fame. 

I think a lot about the time Jay-Z sem-dissed Talib Kweli and Common in “Moment of Clarity.” How Jay acknowledges he’s a fan of the two underground rappers, but then points out how much more money he’s capable of making by choosing not to be underground. 

Jay chose to chase fame. And there’s nothing wrong with that. He wasn’t exactly punching down, he was admitting his admirations, but - “I did 5 ‘mill - I ain’t been rhymin’ like Common since.” 

When Kweli and Common responded on “Ghetto Show,” they put the emphasis on being concerned about their work, and - especially, the people who could appreciate it in the scenes they chose to occupy.

If lyrics sold, then truth be told

I’d probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z

Truthfully I wanna rhyme like common sense

Next best thing I do a record with Common Sense

Cause it’s the music, the blues, it’s the jazz, it’s acoustics,

Soul, Rock and Roll, the hip-hop that we producin’, yea

Kweli and Common are (clearly) comfortable saying, “This is not for you.” They are comfortable saying, “This is what we think of as great work, these are the people I genuinely admire, and here's why all we want to do is do good work with these likeminded people in the scenes and communities that make us happy.” 

Kweli and Common aren’t chasing fame. They care about the work. They care about who’s in the audience. 

Choosing not to chase fame does not mean you’re choosing to be small. 

It just means you have different priorities. 

h/t Justin Castelli who can’t stop thinking of this idea either and keeps graciously reminding me how important this message is. 

Read the original post on this here: Pop Vs. The Underground: Community Wins