words by Larry Chiang, pictures by Brian Solis

Chamillionaire, MC Hammer, MistahFAB

Quincy Jones III

Mark McCormack wrote about street smart sports stars in his book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”.  I attended a session at AlwaysOn that uncovered musicians making the transition from musician to full-on entrepreneur.  Here are nine things I learned at AlwaysOn from MC Hammer, Quincy Jones III, Chamillionaire, MistahFAB.

-1- Dumb it Down, Sandbag for Success.  “My manager said, keep acting dumb and people will keep giving you gangster”, Chamilionaire.  Translated, under promise and they won’t see you coming when you’re passing them.

-2- Citing and sourcing Mentors. From the panel at AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford, MC Hammer said to Ron Conway, “There’s a great great advisor to my business, DanceJam”.

MC Hammer also mentioned Mike Arrington of TechCrunch, SoftTech and Rustic Canyon.

-3- Treasure Management 101.  Managing your money where you never enter a deal because you are short money.  On leaving Universal without a new contract Chamillionaire said, “I got in a position where I was ok with leaving Universal without a new deal.  And I wanted it bad too”.

“Money Delayed is NOT missed money,” added MC Hammer

-4- Be Happy Working It.   Chamillionaire, drove 200 miles to sell 200 CDs… on consignment.  They don’t pay you to rap. They pay you to promote.

-5- Hype of Bubble #1: “you gotta say its larger than it is… it’s marketing 101″.  MC Hammer

About Bubble #2 “You gotta talk/study conversion rates, analytics and behavioral targeting,” MC Hammer when alluding to radio stations padding air play.

-6- You own the YOU brand. You own your own domain. 360 degree deals keep your music from your myspace and EVERYTHING else (ringtones, voicetones, etc). Your brand is pure when you’re close to your fans.

Chamillionaire: ‘My mom has a mySpace so I stay connected to everyone and stay real’: MistahFAB advised, “You get a dude who loves the computer and you… just let him be genius”.

-7- MC Hammer advises, “Twitter UP.  You can bypass radio and just talk to your Twitter followers.  Mr Hammer works the Twitter Party http://tinyurl.com/6ak7r2

-8- Content is King (or a lil Prince). “Lil Wayne puts it all out there,” said MistahFAB.  He knows that when your fans (aka your users) scream for stuff… you listen.

-9- Good ideas vs Dope ideas. “MLK was in bed asleep when he had a dream,” MistahFAB.  I’m interpreting this to mean that when you’re great, you come up with “dope” ideas even when you’re asleep.

Quincy Jones III

Chamillionaire

MistahFAB

Visit Brian Solis’ album on Flickr for more pictures from the event.