Hip Hop Artist Consequence Builds Grassroots Celebrity Status Online

The hip hop artist Consequence, who released his debut album "Don't Quit Your Day Job" with Kanye West's label G.O.O.D Music last year, is building his grassroots celebrity status online, he says. His Kyte channel "ConsTV" has received 1.4 million hits and his Web site itsthecons.com, started in the Winter of 2007, will be finsihed soon.

Consequence is one of a number of rappers using the Internet to promote themselves as a brand, and he performs a rhyme about the online competition called  "Online Wars" at the end of the segment. Consequence will release his second LP, "You Win Some, You Lose Some," with G.O.O.D. early next year.

To promote his new video, "Q.U.E. Another E.N.S.," Consequence started a feature on his Web site called "The Kings of Queens" that profiles the who's who of the borough, including street legends, rappers, producers, and politicians. One of the first videos profiled hip-hop pioneer Russell Simmons.

Another popular feature on the site is "Real Men Don't Cry," a self-help guide for signed and unsigned artists. In one of the videos, which you can watch here, Consequence speaks with Sha Money XL, founder of the Money Management Group, about some of the deals he orchestrated.

I interviewed Consequence at the Beet.TV offices last week.

His music video "The Good, the Bad, The Ugly," featuring Kanye West, is posted below. The video has nearly 200,000 hits on YouTube.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer