Hip-Hop & Rap, in practice
Rap moves faster than any release calendar was designed for. Mazufa Records distributes singles, tapes and albums for artists we invite in after a human listen, so features, producer credits and sample paperwork are handled before delivery. You keep your masters and your publishing, and we take 0% commission.
Regions, not one genre
Rap splits by city before it splits by sound. Boom bap and its descendants still run through New York, while trap production came out of Atlanta and the harder sampled variant out of Memphis. Drill started in Chicago, was rebuilt in London around sliding basslines and UK slang, then crossed back into Brooklyn. Detroit and the wider Michigan scene has its own beat switches and delivery. Add Bay Area, plugg and rage, phonk built on old Memphis tapes, grime and road rap in Britain, French and Spanish-language rap, and Afro-influenced hybrids from Lagos, Accra and Paris.
Loosies, tapes and the release clock
Most rappers release far more often than the album cycle assumes. A single every two to four weeks, a tape of eight to fifteen tracks once or twice a year, then a deluxe or extended version months later is a common shape. Freestyles over other people's instrumentals live on video platforms because they usually cannot be cleared for stores. Remixes with new guests, sped-up and slowed versions, and radio or clean edits all count as separate deliveries with their own codes. Plan clearance and feature approvals before you set a date, because paperwork, not upload, is what moves dates.
Features, producer tags and version names
The most common rejection here is a feature written only into the title. If someone raps a verse, they belong in the featured artist field, and the title text should match exactly once, not twice. Producers are contributor credits, not artists: a producer tag in the audio is not a credit, and the beat maker should be listed as producer with their legal or registered name in the split sheet. Name versions consistently across a project, mark clean edits and remixes in the version field, and set the explicit flag honestly, since a missed flag can pull a track from some surfaces.
How rap is tagged and surfaced
Stores keep a broad hip-hop and rap category and then sort inside it with sub-genre tags such as trap, drill, boom bap and Latin rap, which differ slightly between services. Editorial surfaces on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer are usually organised as new-release rap lists, regional lists and mood or workout contexts. Algorithmic surfaces respond to what people do with the record: saves, repeats, and short-form video use that gets matched back to your recording. Choose the sub-genre that matches the beat rather than the one you want to be in, and expect no promised placement anywhere.
Samples, 808s and loud masters
Rap masters are often finished far louder than playback normalisation expects, and platforms turn them down toward roughly minus fourteen LUFS integrated anyway, so clipped low end survives the trip while the perceived loudness does not. Keep the 808 and kick centred and mono below about a hundred hertz, and check the record on a phone speaker where sub content disappears. Uncleared samples are the real risk: an interpolation still needs the publisher, and a recognisable recording needs the master owner too. Artwork with brand logos, other people's photographs or store-restricted text will be rejected before anyone hears the song.
Hip-Hop & Rap questions
I sampled an old record. What has to happen before release?
Two permissions, not one. The master owner controls the recording you lifted, and the publisher controls the underlying song, so both need to agree before the track goes out. Replaying the part yourself removes the master side but leaves the publishing side, which is what an interpolation clears. If you cannot get both, replace the sample or hold the record. We cannot distribute a track that we know carries an uncleared sample.
Can I put out a freestyle over a beat that is already someone else's song?
Not through stores unless the owner of that instrumental licenses it to you in writing. The instrumental is a released recording with its own owner, and uploading it under your name usually triggers a claim or a takedown, which can affect your whole catalogue. Video platforms handle this differently through their own claim systems. If you want a freestyle on streaming, commission or license an original beat and treat it as a normal release.
How do I split royalties with the producer who sold me the beat?
Read what you bought. A lease usually limits copies, use and term while the producer keeps the composition share, and an exclusive transfer should state the publishing split in numbers. Whatever the deal says, write the split sheet before release with full legal names, shares that total one hundred, and everyone's publishing society details. Recording revenue and publishing revenue are separate pots, so agree both rather than assuming one figure covers everything.
A guest sent a verse but will not sign anything. Can I still release it?
You need something in writing, even short. It should say the guest approves the release, how they are credited, whether they take a share of the recording or only the publishing on their words, and that their name can appear as a featured artist. Without that, their team can ask for the track to be removed later. Also confirm whether their own label agreement lets them appear on outside releases at all.
How is drill or trap tagged, and can you get my song pitched?
You pick a primary genre and the closest sub-genre at delivery, and that is what we send with the release, subject to current availability and platform rules. Where a store gives us an editorial submission form, we can pass on the details you provide, but the platform decides everything and no placement is promised. Sub-genre labels differ between services, so pick by what the beat actually is rather than by the scene you identify with.
Do I need to deliver a clean version as well as the explicit one?
It is optional, but useful. Radio, some retail partners and certain playlists only take clean audio, and a clean version is a separate track with its own code, its own version tag and the explicit flag switched off. Edit the audio rather than relying on the flag. Keep the naming identical across the pair so listeners and stores can tell which is which without guessing at the differences.