RMG is Setting Up the Christian Rap Industry for Success Through Major Sync Licensing Deals

RMG (Reflection Music Group) is setting a strong precedent for business success in the Christian rap world. Co-Founders Derek Minor and Doc Watson are creating strategic partnerships through sync licensing to provide residual income and steady paychecks for artists within CHH.

What is sync licensing?

“A music synchronization license, or “sync” for short, is a music license granted by the holder of the copyright of a particular composition, allowing the licensee to synchronize music with some kind of visual media output.”

This means, for example, Derek Minor makes his song “Money on the Phone” available for placement in a video game or commercial. He will get paid for the use of that song in the media property it’s featured in.

Someone has achieved a sync licensing deal anytime you hear a song played anywhere that isn’t an original score made for that content. Wande’s “Woo” was used by Apple. She, along with Christon Gray, Lecrae, and many others have had songs featured on ESPN. Konata Small had his song featured in a Fortnite commercial. The list goes on and on. (These are not RMG artists).

RMG and Universal Publishing

RMG and RMG Amplify made a deal with Universal Publishing which will provide a lane for artists to receive sync placements. This will in turn bring in tens of thousands for the Christian rap community and for everyone involved.

“It’s great for the artists and genre to land songs in video games, commercials, YouTube videos, movies, and TV shows by brands. People get paid well and it’s great exposure,” said Rapzilla owner, Chad Horton, who has spent 20 years in the music industry. “Being the theme song for a video game is better exposure than trying to release music over and over in the same way to reach the same audience. Additionally, this is an important revenue stream to help our genre become a sustainable genre in the music industry.”

The following is a list of placements the label has already achieved:

  • Network Placements with NBATV, NBA on TNT, ESPN, ABC, Oprah Winfrey Network, NHL Network, and NASCAR

  • Other Placements include Black Panther, Black Lightning, Grownish, Jordan Commercials, and Fortnite.

  • NBA Placements with the Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Charlotte Hornets, and Sacramento Kings

  • NFL Placements with the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Rams, and Los Angeles Chargers

Highlight Tapes Vol. 1

The next project RMG is rolling out is called Highlight Tapes Vol. 1. This compilation was made with the sole intention of landing syncs.

The album features tracks from Derek Minor, Canon, Mission, and Jon Keith, Parris Chariz, Makeba, and more.

“This project is filled with hit after hit. From ‘Buckets’, — the bass-jumping, captivating anthem that most definitely would be played at a basketball finals game — to ‘Wins On Me’ — the song that every player on every team is going to want to hear before walking the tunnel — it’s clear that Highlight Tapes Vol. 1 is far from lacking.

Other songs include ‘Get It’, ‘Off the Rim’, and ‘Uh-Uh’.

Highlight Tapes Vol. 1 is not only the perfect soundtrack for sports teams and fans all over. But also fits perfectly in the tv/film promos and gaming worlds as well.” 

– From RMG

Roll Out

Derek Minor will be the “DJ Khaled” of this collection of songs as he helps usher in over 20 different artists in this compilation. RMG will be strategically rolling out sports footage along with these anthemic tracks playing.

The project kicks off with “Wins on Me” which will be NBA 2K EU’s main promotional song. RMG is also giving fans a chance to receive NBA 2K22 as well as a $250 Ticketmaster Gift Card to use towards NFL/NBA tickets to their favorite team, HERE.

More videos will be on the way ahead of the project’s September release.

One of the major goals is for this project to be the go-to release for tastemakers, influencers, blogs, and playlists to find quality music. Just because the music is made by Christians, doesn’t mean it doesn’t stand up to everything else out there.

This isn’t new for RMG

Whether you knew it or not, RMG has been doing this for years already. In 2018 Derek Minor released The Trap which was his last full-blown project. Since then he’s snuck a few sync licensing projects past the audience. In fact, two of them were released in 2019 with Going Up and Whole Team Winning. His last EP, I’m Lovely, was also part of this rollout.

“We want to connect people to the idea that music is for fun, gaming, workouts, and motivation,” said RMG co-founder Doc Watson. “We want to provide something along with our other music to create more opportunities and grow the culture.”

So look out for RMG because if this is just volume one. Who knows how many more Christian rap artists we’re going to hear infiltrating mainstream media.

Justin Sarachik
Justin Sarachik
Justin is the Editor-in-Chief of Rapzilla.com. He has been a journalist for over a decade and has written or edited for Relevant, Christian Post, BREATHEcast, CCM, Broken Records Magazine, & more. He's written over 10,000 articles, done over 1,000 interviews, and is in post-production for documentaries on Danny "D-Boy" Rodriguez & Mario "Machete" Perez. He's the project manager of the upcoming video game Run the Court and of the media brand Crimefaces. Justin likes to work with indie artists to develop their brands & marketing strategies. Catch him interviewing artists on Survival of the Artist Podcast & creating videos on his social media channels.
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