Genre pools · 6 min read
Send hip-hop, rap and R&B promo to DJs and radio
600+ DJs and 400+ radio shows in NeedlePool’s Promo pool play hip-hop, rap and R&B, in 67 countries. Send them your unreleased track as an Audio Promo campaign: you pick the genre, and NeedlePool sends each one a personal link and shows by name who pressed play, downloaded and rated it. The Promo pool opens with Starter, $14.99 a month.
Hip-hop, rap and R&B DJs and radio in the pool
1,000+ curators in the pool play hip-hop, rap and R&B. A curator tagged with several genres is counted once, and the numbers are recounted when the pool changes (checked hourly).
- DJs
- 600+
- Radio shows
- 400+
- Countries
- 67
The largest groups are in United States (300+), United Kingdom (100+), Canada (40+).
Numbers only. NeedlePool never exports pool addresses or lists them on screen: you choose by genre, country and role, and it sends the campaign for you. Being in the pool is not a promise that anyone will listen.
What the hip-hop curators in the pool play
Hip-hop is one of several genres in the pool outside electronic music, next to soul, funk and jazz, and reggae and dancehall. One genre covers the whole family: rap, trap, drill and UK drill, boom bap, old-school and underground hip-hop, R&B and neo soul. Radio stations with an urban format are filed here too.
Two neighbours sit in other genres. EDM trap and future bass have their own, Trap / Future Bass, and grime is under 140 / Deep Dubstep / Grime. If your track crosses over, pick both genres when you choose who gets it.
How to send hip-hop, rap and R&B promo that gets a listen
- 1Decide whether to start in United States300+ of the hip-hop, rap and R&B curators in the pool are in United States. If your release has a home market there, send to them first; otherwise send to the whole genre and let the report show where it lands.
- 2Write to radio hosts as hosts400+ of them are radio shows. A host plans a show weeks ahead: send it well before the release date and say which show the track suits.
- 3Send it before releaseA promo works while DJs can still play the track first. Once it is on streaming platforms it is an announcement, not a promo.
- 4Put the facts in the first linesGenre, BPM, key, release date and one sentence on how your hip-hop, rap or R&B track sounds. A DJ decides from these whether to press play.
- 5Follow up onceA week or so later, write once more to the people who never opened it. From the Pro plan up, tick one box in the campaign and NeedlePool does it for you.
What the DJs get, and what you see
Each curator gets an email with a personal link to a player page for your track. They can stream it, download the file you uploaded if you allow downloads, and rate it or write a line back.
The campaign report names who opened the email, who pressed play, who downloaded and what each person rated and wrote. It can’t tell you whether a DJ played the track in a set: some say so in their feedback, and for the rest a listen is the most you can see.
NeedlePool doesn’t guarantee plays, support or airplay.
Why there is no hip-hop, rap and R&B DJ promo list to download
The pool holds 5,900+ curators: DJs, radio hosts and YouTube channels with promo addresses that NeedlePool collected, checked and tagged by genre. It never exports the addresses or lists them on screen; you see a curator’s address only when they reply to you. You choose by genre and country, and NeedlePool sends the campaign, so the list stays clean and nobody’s inbox gets resold.
If you already have your own list, import it and send to it and the pool in one campaign; overlapping addresses are removed so nobody gets two copies. Your imported contacts stay in your account: other artists never see them, and your rows are never moved into the shared pool.
Questions
How many hip-hop, rap and R&B DJs are in NeedlePool?
600+ DJs and 400+ radio shows right now, recounted when the pool changes; a curator tagged with several genres is counted once. The whole Promo pool is 5,900+ curators.
Can I download a hip-hop, rap and R&B DJ promo list?
No. NeedlePool never exports pool addresses or lists them on screen; you see a curator’s address only when they reply to you. You pick the genre and country, and it sends the campaign for you.
Can I send only to hip-hop, rap and R&B radio shows?
Yes. In the pool table set Role to Radio; All roles takes DJs, radio and YouTube channels together. The genre and country filters work the same way.
Will they play my track?
Nobody can promise that, and NeedlePool doesn’t. What you get is a report that names who pressed play, who downloaded and what each person wrote back.
Is NeedlePool only for electronic music?
No. It started there, and most of the pool still plays electronic music, but hip-hop, rap and R&B have a genre of their own, as do soul, funk and jazz, and you filter the pool by them the same way you would by house or techno.
Does trap count as hip-hop here?
Rap trap does: curators tagged with it are in this genre. EDM trap and future bass have their own genre, Trap / Future Bass.
What does it cost?
Starting is free, with no card and no time limit: you send to your own contacts. Paid plans open our Promo pool in any genre and start at $14.99 a month (Starter).
Keep reading
- Dance pop promo to DJs and radioThe dance pop DJs and radio shows in the Promo pool, by number and country.
- Pop promo to radio and DJsThe pop radio stations and DJs in the Promo pool, by number and country.
- Soul, funk and jazz promo to DJs and radioThe soul, funk and jazz DJs and radio shows in the Promo pool, by number and country.
- Nu disco and disco promo to DJs and radioThe nu disco and disco DJs and radio shows in the Promo pool, by number and country.
- How to send promo to DJsThe sending side: what to write, whom to pick, how to follow up.
- Where to find DJs who take promosWhy bought lists fail and where working promo addresses come from.
- How to submit music to radio stationsSpecialist shows and online radio: what to send and to whom.
- NeedlePool for artistsSend music to DJs, radio and labels and see who listened.
- PricingWhat each plan includes.
Send your hip-hop, rap and R&B promo to the pool
The Promo pool opens with Starter, $14.99 a month. You see by name who listened.