For people who are new to make rap beats for dollars, here’s an interesting concept: if you create a good beat, it will pay you many times more than the time it took to create it. What do I mean when I say this? I mean that your rhythms have value, not only for you, but also for others.

My rap group Prophetix put together a single in 2000 called “True Urban Grit.” It was the first song we recorded with our new Dee Jay/producer. Little did we know that this song would become a standard (a song that stands the test of time) in our music catalogue. We released the single to as many media outlets as we could, including commercial, non-commercial, and college radio. We send out press releases, email blasts and perform that song all over the United States. We even send copies abroad.

That song was not only a favorite at our live shows, but it became #1 on Tokyo, Japan’s most popular rap radio shows. Yes, I said Japan. We sold all the copies that were printed, so we made some money and got recognition. Having completed several other projects a few years later, we received a call from DJ Numark from Jurassic 5.

This was back in 2005. My DJ knew Cut Chemist who was the other DJ on Jurassic 5 and I’m not sure how Numark got the song but it somehow ended up in their hands. He wanted to put out a mixtape with “True Urban Grit” so we started negotiations. After the negotiations were over, we finally agreed to some money up front to allow him to use the rights to our song. We settle for $1,500.00 which is not bad at all for a song that was created 5 years earlier. The part that is even more surprising is that he only used the first 30 seconds of the song.

This was very good considering that we did not expect this money to arrive. This is the power of not only creating rap beats, but also understanding music publishing. Creating rap beats is an investment in your future. Is this for everyone? Certainly not, but for those who are serious about the music business, it would do them good to learn about music publishing and royalties.

Wouldn’t it be nice to cash checks over and over again for music you only worked to create once? I’ve only scratched the surface of the power of creating rap beats. Some artists don’t even know that they can charge fees to license their beats to BMI and ASCAP. These are the publishing companies that license your music for radio, television, movies, ringtones, etc. They also get paid for you and send you a quarterly check if someone uses your music.

Imagine what kind of checks Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Kanye West and Just Blaze get just for creating rap beats. Now imagine how you would feel if you were receiving these checks. It would feel good, wouldn’t it? So what are you waiting for? You have rhythms to create! Start creating and marketing your beats now and with a little luck and hard work, you can strike it rich creating beats.