In 2018, TDE is a music industry powerhouse.
Back when Kendrick Lamar was transitioning from K-Dot, TDE was fledgling label who had to hustle to get their artists on.
Hustle they did. But in a new interview with Vibe, TDE co-president Dave Free explains that none of they tactics TDE used ten-plus years ago to get going would work now.
"Oh man, the approach is totally different. I was actually telling a buddy of mine because he just thinks we just have all the cheat codes, we just hit a button and they could just be famous the next day," he said. "None of the tactics we used back in the day to break Kendrick, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock or Schoolboy would work now, none of 'em. It’s a whole new game. Blogs were very influential back then and I’d have to build a lot of relationships with blogs and now it’s just more about streaming. You have to have the relationships with the streaming sites and it can’t just be a fake relationship. It has to be a relationship of understanding. Back in the day, if a blog posted a bunch of stuff, it was no hurt no foul. For streaming, they centralize. They have to post what works for their system too, it’s kind of back to a radio format a little bit in a sense."
Free added that in these days of streaming a single will hook fans on an album, whereas when Kendrick was coming up it was the other way around.