Internet Gangsters….What you gonna do, buss a CAPS LOCK in my ass???

Friday, January 8, 2010 in 10 Commandments of Music and Social Media, Best Posts, Leverage, Real Talk, Social Media, The Power of Digital

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The last half of the naughties saw a lot of growing trends; availability of Broadband on a large scale, online video growth went through the roof, connecting to friends/acquantances became easier and the gap between an unreachable celeb to the common folk decreased due to the likes of MySpace & Facebook.  However with the good, always comes the bad – and they can trend too! One in particular has been the rise of the Internet Gangster.

Urban Dictionary describes these “hoodlums” as: “One who uses the internet as a front for acting like a tough guy gang member, usually because they are hoping to gain the respect that they lack in their real life”.

If you type in ‘Internet Gangster’ into Youtube you will see some great examples and spoofs. However, unlike in the films where you meet them alone, in a dark alley type of way, the Internet Gangster’s favourite haunt is the Comment Section – a place for all to see.   They can be quite nasty and any musician that has had some consistant success will no doubt have come across this.  But in a situation like this, what are you to do?  Ok, it is damn near impossible to control what they say but you usually have 3 choices when dealing with these pests:

1. Ignore them and hopefully they will find the next victim.
2. Start fighting back, which could potentially lead to them bringing in other (Internet) gang members and making your time online pretty unpleasant. Dont forget you have a life outside of a laptop (Or phone and video console now its 2010), they don’t.
3. Have other people fight your battles. A way to do this is building up your network over time and have rapport with your true fans. What you will find is that fans will stand up against people who are unneccesarily unpleasant to you. Good can be triumphant

I like choice 3 as you get to ignore them (Choice 1), while at the same time fighting against them in numbers (Choice 2).
All of a sudden, you become a force and a real problem to some!

But, and there’s always another BUT, let’s go beyond thinking about street gangsters and hoodlums and refer to the classics like The Godfather.  The main man running it all, and who has the REAL power (that would be you is you choose Choice 3)….is usually the top Gangster, which then leads to the question “Who really is the Internet Gangster?”. Is it the kids who, like one of my favourite battle rappers “Illmaculate” said: “With beef they’re the type to resolve that/by banging on keyboards and typing in ALL CAPS” OR the artist who stays silent and lets his team fight his battle? Hmmmm, food for thought. What do you think?

If you want to know more about building a powerful network then please check out chapter 3 (Your Network = your networth) of my free ebook; 10 Commandments of Music and Social Media.