Published: Thursday - November 8, 2007
Words by Donny Goines
Are you familiar with the name Troy Duffy? I'm sure many people in the hip-hop community aren't. He was a screenwriter, director and a musician who created and wrote the script for a movie called "The Boondock Saints." While working in a bar in Hollywood, he got discovered by Harvey Weinstein (Google his name) and became an "Overnight" (by far one of the best documentaries I've ever seen) success. Ill get back to him in a minute.
Last night while doing an interview, someone who heard my latest project The Excerpt Pg. 1, told me that is was one of the best albums he's heard all year and put me right up there with Kanye's Graduation and Common's Finding Forever. That's a HUGE compliment and I was very grateful to even be associated and compared to such great artists and bodies of work. I told him I really appreciated the love, soaked it in and kept it moving. Now here's where me and a lot of other artists differ. Most people I know would have took that same statement and really blew it out of proportion. There egos would have been stroked a bit and they would've have ran with that. Not me.
Humility is something that many people need to practice. Not to be confused with confidence (something that you need in this game), arrogance and egos are career killers. Most artists I see act like there the hottest rappers in the game, and even if they are running around screaming, it doesn't really help the cause. A lot of times that kind of attitude and cockiness can really turn some people off. Its good to have your swagger up, believe in yourself, etc. but sometimes you have to learn to turn it down a notch. This is a common mistake I think many unsigned artists make. They approach these A&R's saying things like "I'm the hottest in the game right now" or "I'm gonna change the game" so on and so forth, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Like people have always told me, don't talk about it be about it.
Now back to Troy Duffy. This dude buzz was HUGE. Harvey was going to back his film and even buy him the bar he worked in just because the hype was so crazy. He also got a record deal for his band without releasing one single based on the hype. Many famous people from Hollywood would frequent his bar and stroke his ego and all of this played apart of his downfall.
He became so wrapped up in his own hype that he lost all sense of humility and became a egotistical maniac. In the end, he lost the funding, the record deal, the bar, the money, everything. No one wanted to be associated with him, no one hung around him and most importantly no one cared anymore. Moral of the story people, be humble.
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