Los Insiders - Ruling The Underground
If ever you wanted to know one of the things that precede a genius business plan, allow me to share the following: take a careful look at the competition and target demographic. After enough research and planning, improve on whatever contemporaries are doing and exploit the opportunities that appear. The Concepción clan is armed with 4 college-educated siblings (two brothers, two sisters) who have masterminded an assault on the mixtape market and simultaneously provided a forum for the underground hip-hop scene. The eldest of the four, Diony, sat down with ULM to talk about the Mixtape Kings rise to the undergrounds throne.
How did the idea of MTK begin?
The Mixtape Kings concept was inspired by collective DJs, you know, my peers. We were involved in other projects that had to do with urban lifestyle and online streaming and video at that time. We were helping one of the DJs at the time, to get him into the clubs coupled with the mixtapes because that was something my brother and I took as a hobby. We were also looking at other mixtape sites and said 'we could do a
much better job than this.' Other factors led to the conclusion that we should do our own mixtape site, because at that time there was a popular mixtape called Knockout Kings, we were like we should just
name it Mixtape Kings.
Recently you had an event (The Mixtape Experience) at the Canal Lounge in lower Manhattan where new talent was showcased. When did you guys start branching out from online?
We started getting into that like maybe a year ago. I knew from the beginning that this was something that we needed to take advantage of because the mixtape stuff would open other doors. The other doors would be doing event planning, advertisement...in other words just look at other business ventures and branch out. The first event that got the ball rolling was my birthday, a birthday bash. It opened doors to continue it and say, "Ok lets do 4 events a year," and that's how we can attract the other business side of sponsorship
and advertisement.
There was an authentic hip-hop vibe that night. Is that something you strive for in terms of paying homage to the old days?
That's the reason we had Kool Herc. Not forgetting who started [hip-hop], who the pioneers are. Then we also had all the new talent. That was the idea.
How did your upbringing factor into what you currently do?
We were always business oriented. My father was like we need to have our own store - we had our own store before. We didn't want to work for other people. Those three factors: music, our own skills, and being business oriented really made me apply my skill in this type of industry. That was my goal. This was also a way to do what we liked.
Any advice for those dreaming of a successful entrepreneurship?
The first thing you want to do is be true to yourself. To me education is key. The other thing is, whatever passion you have, always make time for it.
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