With the economic crisis at full throttle, even artists are feeling the pressure to tighten their belts a little.Right now, a lot of MC’s are steering clear of the “get money” theme because they know that currency-driven lyrics won’t encourage a lot of their fans to spend their last $18.99 (plus tax) on a CD that will probably only have five songs worth listening to.

Jobs are hard to come by, homes are being auctioned off, and simple payable bills have now become the Achilles heel for a lot of families.

But with all that said, plenty of people still aren’t deterred when it comes to doing whatever they can to reach the level of superstardom. Right now, all the starving artists out there who are hitting up the open mic scenes, hoping that a music executive wanders in on their performance, and hands them a business card after their set can get some additional help if they can afford it. 

It’s no secret that the Internet has basically revolutionized the music industry by fans being able to visit up their favorite artists’ Myspace or personal pages, and see what’s going on with them. In turn, the artists are reaching back to the people who helped put them where they are, while assisting unsigned acts in the process (somewhat). Not too long ago, Detroit MC Royce Da 5’9” put an all points bulletin out on his Myspace page selling his lyrical services for $1,000.00 a pop.

He offered unknown artist s their very own 16-bar featured verse in hopes that it would help their movement (while padding his bank account). From there, lyrical femme fatal Jean Grae started negotiating her prices on Craigslist.com, and now Joe Budden got into the fray, and his fee is $1,500.00 a verse for the month of November only. Obviously, you have to send them the money in advance before you can start bragging about sharing the same track with one of these artists. But the question is: Is it worth it? Is it actually worth spending your money to get a feature? Most importantly, are you getting your money’s worth?

Over the years I’ve heard countless of songs featuring certain MC’s (just as you have), and sometimes I walk away thinking that the featured artist wasn’t up to par. I then contemplate to myself, “Damn, I hope so-and-so didn’t pay such-and-such for that feature, because it was trash!” I always pondered if an artist getting paid to do a feature would use his best stuff on somebody else’s album, as opposed to saving his good punch lines and hooks for his own release.

What would be more valuable? A verse from the aforementioned artists who combined don’t have the most impressive sales record (no offense) or just continuing to stack your cash and hope that you catch a producer like DJ Premier or The Alchemist having a fire sale? What kind of promotional sticker would look better on your album cover? “New album featuring -----” Or “New album featuring tracks produced by -----”? With all that said, next time you hear a collaboration with the guest artist spewing out mediocre material, make sure to go straight to the host artists’ webpage and let them know about it.