I think often times, success and exposure are manufactured. It's almost like once you're being promoted by certain major labels, you're going to gain a certain amount of exposure regardless. They practically determine who is and who isn't successful because they control the channels.
And while record labels do coach artists on what to write and try to tell them what to say, it is ultimately up to the artist whether or not they're going to listen and go along.
My basic point is...people should be defined based on what they have control over and the choices they make as individuals. It's just like we don't have control over what race we are or what gender, so we shouldn't be judged/categorized on those things. But we DO have control over whether or not we choose to smoke crack...and we can be judged on that. I believe in this day and age, how successful an artist is on the mainstream is out of individual control. The record labels and corporations determine that. So if we are going to categorize and define people as mainstream/underground, we need to look at the content...because THAT is something they have control over as individuals. It's a matter of personal choice. Someone who raps about the same thing that Drake does is just a mainstream carbon copy, regardless of whether they've made record sales yet or not. In the same sense, I would consider certain artists who have gained a lot of exposure like Mos Def or Talib Kwali still underground. Underground to me means "original content." I'm not knocking how anyone else looks at it though. I understand we all define mainstream and underground a little differently which is why I raised this question just to see how people look at it.
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