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Speaker 3: All right, guys, welcome back. E y L.
Speaker 4: This is an extremely special special edition. I'm excited special,
Speaker 4: yeah for sure. Before we before we start, we got
Speaker 4: some housekeeping items. So if you follow E Y L.
Speaker 4: You know, we've been traveling around. We're hitting all of
Speaker 4: our major markets, so d C, d M V, Maryland, UH, Virginia.
Speaker 4: We are coming December seventh and December eighth. We got
Speaker 4: a whole e y L weekend planned and we're having
Speaker 4: a workshop on December seventh. Were two of our biggest alumni,
Speaker 4: Mobile Homes Elite and I got Wall Street Travelers. So
Speaker 4: we're gonna have a walk, a workshop about investing in
Speaker 4: mobile homes, and a workshop investing in real est stocks
Speaker 4: combined and MG the mortgage that will be there as well,
Speaker 4: so you never know, he might talk about Now it's
Speaker 4: gonna be a whole vibe and then and then so
Speaker 4: then that's Saturday, and then Sunday we're going to have
Speaker 4: our very first live podcast ever and we're going to
Speaker 4: do it a Capital One Arena. That's where the Wizards play,
Speaker 4: and they're giving us they're giving us the court.
Speaker 5: They give us court.
Speaker 4: And then what they're gonna do is that anybody that
Speaker 4: comes to the podcast, they get tickets to the game
Speaker 4: right after the podcast. But it's not just a regular game.
Speaker 4: They play the Clippers, and the Clippers have one of
Speaker 4: the best teams in the league, one of the best
Speaker 4: players of all time, Kawhi Leonard and Load Management will not.
Speaker 3: Management.
Speaker 4: Kawhi's playing, Paul George is playing, so yeah so and
Speaker 4: we're also going to live stream the workshop too for
Speaker 4: fifteen dollars, pretty much giving it away. So if you're interested,
Speaker 4: go to unier Lesion dot com under the events tab
Speaker 4: and all of the information is there. So all right, So,
Speaker 4: as I said, this is very special because you know,
Speaker 4: music is part of our man. We grew up on
Speaker 4: hip hop specifically, and we just love music.
Speaker 3: So we talk. We always quote jay Z all the time.
Speaker 4: We always call all these rappers and because that's kind
Speaker 4: of how we grew up and just listening to rap,
Speaker 4: that's how we learned. Some things we learned good, some
Speaker 4: things we learned bad, but that's how we learned. So
Speaker 4: my man, Mickey Facts is a perfect a perfect guest
Speaker 4: for ey L. So he had a freestyle that about
Speaker 4: three months ago went viral on social media and it
Speaker 4: was with funk Flex and he was talking about credit
Speaker 4: and when I saw the freestyle, a couple of people
Speaker 4: had DM me like, YO, you should post this, you
Speaker 4: should post this. So when I actually sat down because
Speaker 4: a lot of times you get stuff, you only look
Speaker 4: at it. So once the third person hit me, I'm
Speaker 4: like I should Actually, that's three minutes of my time
Speaker 4: to look at this. And then I looked at it,
Speaker 4: I'm like, Yo, this is dope. So I reposted it
Speaker 4: and then it went crazy on my page and then
Speaker 4: we connected and I'm like, yo, like, would you be
Speaker 4: interested in coming on the show? He's like, yeah, for sure,
Speaker 4: So I'll run it down. He's a veteran, veteran in
Speaker 4: the rap game over a decade of experience. He was
Speaker 4: on the Double Excel Freshman of the Year cover. Yeah
Speaker 4: for sure, two thousand and nine Freshmen.
Speaker 5: Right. Yeah, so Bronxe native, we can't forget that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, you know Shout Corey. You know that's that's
Speaker 4: the birthplace of hip hop. That's that's where it started.
Speaker 4: So yeah, man, just a veteran in the game. Have
Speaker 4: been on major labels, independent labels, drop projects, worked with
Speaker 4: some of the biggest names of hip hop.
Speaker 3: History, from Drake to Kendrick Lamar.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, so.
Speaker 4: You know, it's he's the perfect guest to have because
Speaker 4: you know, when we talk about entertainment, a lot of
Speaker 4: times people have aspirations of being in the entertainment business,
Speaker 4: but you know, they don't really know how to how
Speaker 4: that works, right, And I was telling Micky off cameras like,
Speaker 4: there's a lot more people that could relate to his
Speaker 4: story that could relate jay Z right, because as far
Speaker 4: as being an independent artist and making a living for
Speaker 4: yourself and going on tour and selling merch and all
Speaker 4: of this stuff, there's all things that are viable career.
Speaker 4: You're making a living out of it, right. So it's like,
Speaker 4: as an artist, there's no mentorship and there's no blueprint.
Speaker 4: You're gonna give us some some some free games. So sir,
Speaker 4: first and foremost, Man, thank you, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, thank you for having me in man excited.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So all right, so we're gonna kick it off a
Speaker 4: little different how we usually kick off the podcast. How
Speaker 4: we're kicking it off, all right, So said this all
Speaker 4: started with the Funk Flex Freestyle. So we're gonna try
Speaker 4: to We're gonna have one up on flex, one up
Speaker 4: on Flex. We're gonna very first, breaking history, very first,
Speaker 4: y l free style. Yeah, Man's gonna bless us with
Speaker 4: a hundred boss Yeah. Yeah, Lisa and we're gonna and
Speaker 4: we're going through it. So yeah, whenever you're ready.
Speaker 6: Man, okay cool. Uh So I'm doing this freestyle you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying off of band from TV. Shout
Speaker 6: out to Norri, Nature, pun I, p Cam and Swiss
Speaker 6: for making it.
Speaker 3: Thank you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: And I hit up for Shad. I was like, you know,
Speaker 6: I want you to pick the topic. I want you
Speaker 6: to pick the beat, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 6: Troy picked the beat. Rashad picked the topic. So you
Speaker 6: know today we're gonna be rapping about you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, entrepreneurs. You know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Man, Let's get it going.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 5: Guys. In nineteen.
Speaker 3: That's hour.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I saw what I did on the Flex Show, helping
Speaker 6: the people get out of debt. Bro Shan gave me
Speaker 6: a call and told me to flex Moe teach him
Speaker 6: how to work for himself to get Joe said, Joe,
Speaker 6: you can think ready for that? He said, Mick, give
Speaker 6: yourself more credit than that. You tell them the facts.
Speaker 6: That's when I start remembering back working at a law firm,
Speaker 6: sort and mailing the fact going to work very poor.
Speaker 6: I'm making twenty k a twenty four. I can't take
Speaker 6: it anymore. So I made it my business to make
Speaker 6: my own business, create my own lane. That the game
Speaker 6: happened witnessed before. I thought, is a good and a
Speaker 6: bad guy, and I'm gonna give you both.
Speaker 3: Be a good and a bad guy. Let's start with
Speaker 3: the good.
Speaker 6: Because you gotta find a niche example considered with mars
Speaker 6: A Choir Twitch. It was other chocolate bars right in
Speaker 6: the mix, but the company made tools.
Speaker 3: Womaning gyro rich.
Speaker 6: They saw with the need for something, so they created
Speaker 6: a product who appease the public. But you gotta do
Speaker 6: the same. Convent something in your own lane, create the
Speaker 6: value for the customer you can gain.
Speaker 5: You could put a.
Speaker 6: Barber shop next to a lounge, or start a laundering
Speaker 6: at in the college town. Got to know what you're
Speaker 6: getting into with the creative research.
Speaker 3: Don't go and blind you.
Speaker 6: The your arrogance. A doctors can't start a business without
Speaker 6: knowing its medicine, and author can't start a series without.
Speaker 5: Knowing the narrative.
Speaker 3: Experiment with the benefits of your market.
Speaker 6: Know your demographics. Who are you trying to start with?
Speaker 6: What is your business plan?
Speaker 3: Here's how you started.
Speaker 6: What is your company about?
Speaker 5: What do you call it?
Speaker 6: Lady out the services, tell us about the product. Flesh
Speaker 6: out the numbers. What's your repende target and that's what
Speaker 6: you make hid now subtract what you spens just to
Speaker 6: make it. That's your profits and loss it yem sure,
Speaker 6: hold up. I might be stealing. God might give me
Speaker 6: your ticket from all the speakings. I might get banned
Speaker 6: from TV with this Preacher and Nor We're gonna have
Speaker 6: to re release it as a remix and old sixty
Speaker 6: five and mixtapes with DJ's walk back, he closing and
Speaker 6: toes with a mean face. I had glasses, skinny jeans,
Speaker 6: gold supers. Cats saw that to said he had no future.
Speaker 6: But they were wrong because people were connected, they brought
Speaker 6: into the brand and it was respected for checker. I
Speaker 6: don't want DVA from the message. Let's get back to
Speaker 6: this entrepreneur lesson. Sometimes people do it to get out
Speaker 6: of stressing. Working for the man to them, whocomes suppressive.
Speaker 6: So they start a business for income play. But they
Speaker 6: ain't worried about growth, so the income stays. The problem
Speaker 6: is if they ever see an income raise, the iron
Speaker 6: rest on their back. Now incomes grades. You gotta have
Speaker 6: a good accountant. What does the duck pay yourself? Your
Speaker 6: own salary? What is enough? Don't get too passive with
Speaker 6: the money you clutch, or you gonna be a mechanic
Speaker 6: going under the bus. Now let's talk about the bad
Speaker 6: and what people don't tell your ninety seven percent of
Speaker 6: businesses and the failure not because what they did.
Speaker 3: Wrong to other reasons.
Speaker 6: Let me breaking down people. You can go to a
Speaker 6: neighborhood restaurant every other weekend the going siste kid because
Speaker 6: the owners with the beegan but he wants to sell it,
Speaker 6: so the food is the season. Other customers see that
Speaker 6: and start leaving. Now they gotta shut the business down
Speaker 6: where you're eating because the founder they want to keep it.
Speaker 3: Another example to believe.
Speaker 6: In is how how you rules the product to those
Speaker 6: who need it? Is it like breathing? Is it worth
Speaker 6: pulling my wild out with the feasons? Or should I
Speaker 6: pass des I ain't got financial freedom. See the things
Speaker 6: you gotta take in account. A real entrepreneur is never
Speaker 6: wait in it out. They start one company, let it
Speaker 6: make in them out, and then sell it before it
Speaker 6: gets placed in the trout and start another company. Every
Speaker 6: couple of years after and you can repeat those steps,
Speaker 6: kind of like staying mastered. This is not actually taught.
Speaker 6: These are gems that I'm dropping. Hope they actually get caught.
Speaker 6: Another thing, Stop trying to ask for support. If your
Speaker 6: product is good, then it's practically brought. So if your
Speaker 6: man done something and you feel that is basic and
Speaker 6: you don't support it, being enforced it with a statement,
Speaker 6: invest in their dreams and state this.
Speaker 5: The best way to predict the future is for you
Speaker 5: to create it.
Speaker 6: And this is for the work of bees.
Speaker 3: Don't get cocky.
Speaker 6: You get paid for your work.
Speaker 3: Don't be snappy.
Speaker 6: Don't ask to be the bossy whole shits sloppy because
Speaker 6: a brand new fighter just won't hit rocky. Ownership's not
Speaker 6: a reward for work. That's the paycheck. The ownerships of
Speaker 6: rewards for risks. That's the apex ostead of double tapping
Speaker 6: asses and muscles.
Speaker 5: Google and research the past to the hustling.
Speaker 3: Get you a mentor and asks about the struggle and
Speaker 3: learn from mistakes.
Speaker 6: Don't brag.
Speaker 5: Keep a subtle.
Speaker 6: The last freestyle had the last Nigga puzzle. I ain't
Speaker 6: rap about a ring and how a flash.
Speaker 3: On my knuckles.
Speaker 6: A couple of people said that they was trapped in
Speaker 6: the bubble till they heard my freestyle, and they asked
Speaker 6: us to double some education and gets you a portions
Speaker 6: self education and get you a fortunate want to get rich.
Speaker 6: It's a passion. Trust me, and some people so poor
Speaker 6: all they really have is money. This verse ain't facetious.
Speaker 6: Take that lyric down and break the words and pieces.
Speaker 6: Get you a nice life. Work cohesion, get you one
Speaker 6: step closer to earn your leisure.
Speaker 5: Heard you heard it? Listen, listen, listen, don't ever play yourself.
Speaker 5: Listen one take only Nickey Fast is burned down my house.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: I'm glad I got insurance. Lisia has been earned, y'all
Speaker 5: shy man. That was first time ever. Yeah, first time
Speaker 5: ever or alsia. Yeah, they're gonna be hitting us out now.
Speaker 6: Yeah yo yo, I was the first.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah yo.
Speaker 5: Just listen to my demo.
Speaker 4: Bro, No, that was dope. That was that was dope
Speaker 4: for me. Man, Once again, thank you for that. I
Speaker 4: appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Absolu.
Speaker 4: So yeah, this is gonna be. This is this is
Speaker 4: dope because all so we got the freestyle and just
Speaker 4: burned it, burned it down completely, and now we're gonna
Speaker 4: go into the to the interview part of it to
Speaker 4: let people know who you are, and then also to
Speaker 4: to give information for for artists out there that that.
Speaker 3: May not know the game.
Speaker 5: We said, it's not something that's taught. There's no manual
Speaker 5: for it. People learning on the fly, and forefathers before,
Speaker 5: you know, maybe they were learning on the fly as well,
Speaker 5: so they didn't pass it down. So we're gonna get
Speaker 5: into that today.
Speaker 3: So can we talk about your journey? So it's interesting.
Speaker 4: So you were saying you was, you was in college
Speaker 4: and she was in n y U and I guess
Speaker 4: after one year you just figured that school route wasn't
Speaker 4: for you, right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean I was. I was studying law, you know,
Speaker 6: and paralegal studies specifically, and I remember being in the
Speaker 6: front of criminal justice class drinking a triple shot of
Speaker 6: espresso with my coffee still falling asleep, and you know,
Speaker 6: I feel like, you know, and just education works for
Speaker 6: some people, but for others is to retain some knowledge.
Speaker 6: It's just it just didn't work for me in that way.
Speaker 6: So I decided that, you know, I was going to
Speaker 6: take something that I was doing as a hobby seriously.
Speaker 6: So I was like, you know what, let me just
Speaker 6: you know, at the time, I managed it and my
Speaker 6: and I was like, yo, if you really want to
Speaker 6: do this, you gotta be serious and quit.
Speaker 5: So you started college already doing the music thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was already doing music before I went to college.
Speaker 6: I had prolonged college for like six years. I had
Speaker 6: went two thousand and seven. I had graduated high school
Speaker 6: two thousand. So as soon as I got to college,
Speaker 6: I deal with most black people do they just get
Speaker 6: a job because they want to get to the money.
Speaker 6: You know, they want money. So I went and worked
Speaker 6: for six years and then and I was like, all right,
Speaker 6: let me go to school to make my mother happy.
Speaker 6: But it didn't make me happy. So I just kind
Speaker 6: of left.
Speaker 5: Twenty four thousand a year. Couldn't take it.
Speaker 6: I was, yeah, it was literally and this was five
Speaker 6: four five was making twenty four thousand a year, you know.
Speaker 4: So so all right, so you decided to drop out
Speaker 4: of school. What is it like, what's your next steps
Speaker 4: in order to pursue your music career.
Speaker 6: I mean at that time, the internet was just butting
Speaker 6: and I buzzn't Yes, I was on MySpace heavy, and
Speaker 6: we were changing top eights. We was making people change
Speaker 6: their top aids, you know what I'm saying. And we
Speaker 6: just kind of we I had a graphic design person
Speaker 6: who knew how to work with the HTML and had
Speaker 6: our backgrounds looking good. So we was, you know, we
Speaker 6: was a kind of ahead of the game in that aspect.
Speaker 6: So when people would go to my page, they would
Speaker 6: see it was completely different from what other myndspace pages were.
Speaker 6: And we were also utilizing Facebook and Twitter around this time.
Speaker 6: This is before it was like what it is today.
Speaker 6: So we were using the internet when when hip hop
Speaker 6: wasnouncing the internet like hip hop was denouncing.
Speaker 5: It at that time, music is being stolen.
Speaker 6: Music was right, it was being pirated still, but people
Speaker 6: were still purchasing. It didn't go into the era of
Speaker 6: free music just yet, like you could get freestyle like
Speaker 6: people who still buy music, but people would go on
Speaker 6: these sites to get freestyles and certain videos, you know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying, Because there wasn't I think iTunes was out,
Speaker 6: but it wasn't like concrete just yet.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so you built a team around you. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: who's consistent in this team In the early.
Speaker 6: Days, it was a Saint he was my manager and
Speaker 6: creative director. Then I had Steve O who was also
Speaker 6: creative director, slash A and R. I had a stylist Quas,
Speaker 6: I had a producer, Precise. I have my own personal assistant, Lakita.
Speaker 6: I had a hype man.
Speaker 3: So how did all this come about?
Speaker 6: Though?
Speaker 3: As far as like, you leave college, I'm assuming you
Speaker 3: don't have any money.
Speaker 6: I had ten thousand dollars save, all.
Speaker 3: Right, So how do you fund the operation? At the
Speaker 3: beginning stages?
Speaker 6: I mean in two thousand and seven, from what I remember,
Speaker 6: we I put all my money into a project called Flashback,
Speaker 6: which was basically wrapping over old school beats, but we
Speaker 6: had my producer remake them to be newer. We wanted
Speaker 6: to get DJs to but DJs were too expensive, so
Speaker 6: we just basically created it and put it on my Space.
Speaker 6: When we saw it didn't do anything, we put it
Speaker 6: out July twenty seven, two thousand and seven. We saw
Speaker 6: it didn't do anything, I started working on another project
Speaker 6: called Heaven's Fallout, and I sampled the Geico commercial beat
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, and I wrapped over that.
Speaker 6: When I wrapped over that, it started to gain attention
Speaker 6: because it wasn't a typical hip hop beat. Then I
Speaker 6: sampled Arms the Arms Race remix which Kanye on it,
Speaker 6: and the Fallout Boys and Gym Class Heroes. The Gym
Speaker 6: Class Heroes and fall Out Boys management heard that and
Speaker 6: called me up. I was like, okay, we want to
Speaker 6: make you a part of this team, you know, we
Speaker 6: want to manage you. And this is all off my
Speaker 6: space and this is like unheard of around this time.
Speaker 6: And then I put another record out called Stop Me.
Speaker 6: I sampled Daniel Merriwether and then I sampled another track
Speaker 6: called Tokyo Shit. When I did that, that's when Fader
Speaker 6: picked me up. And then after once Fader picked me up,
Speaker 6: mind you, this is no. I didn't have no money.
Speaker 6: We haven't spent a dollar yet. Once Fader picked me up,
Speaker 6: everybody picked me up. You are b Billboard, Rolling Stone, Vibe,
Speaker 6: the Sauce Sauce in Double Xcel were actually the last
Speaker 6: people to pick me up.
Speaker 3: But at that.
Speaker 6: Point we were using the Internet when other rappers really weren't.
Speaker 6: Like it was a couple of us like Me Cuddy,
Speaker 6: the cool kids, cool kids. Well while a we were
Speaker 6: like the ones using the Internet to get out whereas
Speaker 6: there was like at that time, it was like fifty
Speaker 6: cent Kanye. They were all still doing the traditional.
Speaker 5: They were still like a crew love type situation, right,
Speaker 5: like the crew was hot and then somebody from that
Speaker 5: crew was goawing off and blow up.
Speaker 6: But also the labels just didn't know how to maneuver
Speaker 6: it on the Internet. They tried to fight napster, they
Speaker 6: tried to fight technology. They they tried to fight all
Speaker 6: of that, and they didn't realize like they were guys
Speaker 6: that were more popular than me in the streets. But
Speaker 6: I was touring like I was traveling. I went to Japan,
Speaker 6: I went to China before I performed in New York
Speaker 6: City by myself, you know what I'm saying. Because I
Speaker 6: had fans all over the place, and DJ's at the
Speaker 6: time in New York City were charging way too much money.
Speaker 6: I just couldn't afford it. So I made the Internet
Speaker 6: my fan base. And then when I did that, I
Speaker 6: started putting a song a week out every week. I
Speaker 6: put a new song out every week for free. And
Speaker 6: when people saw the work ethic on that, it just
Speaker 6: kind of was like a mushroom.
Speaker 5: When you say DJs was charging too much, you mean
Speaker 5: in the sense of DJ's playing the records on the radio,
Speaker 5: or DJ's making actual records for you.
Speaker 6: DJ's playing the records on the radio, DJs to take
Speaker 6: your song and put it on a mixtape, DJs to
Speaker 6: host your mixtape, DJs to play the music in the club,
Speaker 6: DJs to play the music at events. DJ is just
Speaker 6: they hear the song.
Speaker 5: They wanted money, So that's crazy.
Speaker 3: Payola, Paola, that's a real thing. Payola is a real thing.
Speaker 4: If anybody's not payola. That's when you pay people to
Speaker 4: play music on radio station. It's a federal offense.
Speaker 6: Right, it is a federal offense.
Speaker 3: So people really do that, you know.
Speaker 6: It's one of those things.
Speaker 5: It's one of those things where incriminated.
Speaker 6: No, no, I mean, I mean, it's one of those
Speaker 6: things where like if you hear a song on the radio,
Speaker 6: I'm I mean, first of all, I believe all of
Speaker 6: us in here, we grew up in the era of
Speaker 6: the nineties and the two thousands, Hot ninety seven. It
Speaker 6: wasn't power one five at that time. We all am not.
Speaker 6: We all tried to call up the Hot ninety seven.
Speaker 6: Any of us ever get through, No, no.
Speaker 5: Never, I've never trying to call when when DJ red
Speaker 5: Alert was on Kiss FM, and did you ever get through?
Speaker 3: Never?
Speaker 6: Man, never, and you're not gonna you weren't gonna get
Speaker 6: through because it's already a programmed kind of situation. The
Speaker 6: music is already programmed for what they're gonna play. Program director,
Speaker 6: they already the songs are already programmed to play because
Speaker 6: of how popular it was already it already was, or
Speaker 6: because the label paid for that.
Speaker 4: M So all right, that's interesting. I didn't know that
Speaker 4: even to for the DJ to either hear your record.
Speaker 5: All you ever hear is like, yo, I don't take money.
Speaker 3: I don't take a DJs have too much power, not anymore,
Speaker 3: they used to.
Speaker 6: They used to have tons of power.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because I would imagine, like and there was a
Speaker 5: certain time when DJs would break the record right right now.
Speaker 3: Like the internet's breaking the record.
Speaker 5: I mean, people break their own records.
Speaker 6: I mean, I mean when I was when I was
Speaker 6: on Jive, I was frustrated because I was like, they
Speaker 6: wanted me to do the DJ stuff and DJ and
Speaker 6: I wanted to say I'm not against DJs, but I
Speaker 6: felt like it was archaic because like at some point,
Speaker 6: like people are not going to go to the radio
Speaker 6: to listen to music anymore. They're all now they're listening
Speaker 6: to music on Spotify, they listening to music on Title,
Speaker 6: They're listening to YouTube, you know YouTube. So I felt
Speaker 6: like it was archaic and they didn't want to hear
Speaker 6: me at the label. They was like, now you still
Speaker 6: gotta do it, You still got to do it.
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, you know what's crazy is that,
Speaker 4: Like the first time I heard about Takashi was like
Speaker 4: I think a year and a half ago, and it
Speaker 4: was Uncle Murders Yearly Week. He does like the Yearly
Speaker 4: Reek after so he's mentioned his name. And when he
Speaker 4: mentioned his name, like, I like googled him, Like I
Speaker 4: looked on Instagram. And when I looked on Instagram, he
Speaker 4: had two million followers. So I'm like, how does he
Speaker 4: have He's from Brooklyn, he got rainbow head YEP. I'm like,
Speaker 4: that's I say that to say, I was so out
Speaker 4: of the loop. Two million people had already been follow him,
Speaker 4: He's on tour overseas. He was already hot, and I
Speaker 4: only heard about him because of Uncle MURDA said his
Speaker 4: name was way bigger than Uncle Murder.
Speaker 5: The radio is only playing twelve records. If you listen
Speaker 5: to it, it's just twelve records over and over, just
Speaker 5: the time span and then like they have maybe a
Speaker 5: new at two section that's like forty five minutes throughout
Speaker 5: the day. Most people in their cars, it's the same
Speaker 5: records over and over. Unless they're doing like a show,
Speaker 5: like an interview that's coming on, that's it. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean, I mean, like like with Rashaw just said
Speaker 6: like this, I find new artists and I be shocked
Speaker 6: that they have over five hundred thousand followers. I find
Speaker 6: new artists all the time and they just have tons
Speaker 6: and tons of followers and they sell out venues they don't.
Speaker 6: And I'm one million percent sure they didn't pay a
Speaker 6: DJ to be on the radio. They didn't pay anybody
Speaker 6: to make it happen. They just kind of had their
Speaker 6: own following. People brought into their brand, like I said
Speaker 6: in the rap, and they were connected to it and
Speaker 6: that's what made them pop.
Speaker 5: That's one of the things I think Brooklyn Johny has
Speaker 5: said that He's like, you want to make it get
Speaker 5: hot where you are right in your town, then the
Speaker 5: city will be in love with you, and then your
Speaker 5: state will find you and then by that time the
Speaker 5: industry will come get you. Yep.
Speaker 6: That's how it works.
Speaker 4: So all right, So in the next second, we're going
Speaker 4: to talk about your experience going from a major to
Speaker 4: be an independent or everything in between. All right, So
Speaker 4: you was telling me that you actually have an interesting
Speaker 4: experience because you you've seen all sides of the game. Yes,
Speaker 4: from from living the high life being on major labels,
Speaker 4: to having endorsement deals from Fortune five hundred companies yep,
Speaker 4: to be an independent and having to grind it out yourself.
Speaker 4: So all right, can we talk about your experience on
Speaker 4: on the major labels and how did that work out
Speaker 4: for you? Is it like because everybody talks about majors
Speaker 4: and majority of people that always talk about majors is
Speaker 4: always it's interesting to me, Like even when Kissing was
Speaker 4: on the radio a few years ago and they said
Speaker 4: that they was gonna like throw pop off a roof
Speaker 4: and all that, it's interesting because everybody has bad to
Speaker 4: kiss that beautiful, But everybody always has negative things to
Speaker 4: say about major labels, but everybody always signed to major labels.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know I heard Jim like Jim Jones was
Speaker 5: probably one of the biggest independent artists, right, and he
Speaker 5: had you know, independent independent until recently he's like, yo,
Speaker 5: you need the major because there's certain things that they
Speaker 5: can provide that you can't as an independent artist.
Speaker 4: So your your experience, how was it being on because
Speaker 4: you're on a few majors, how was how was that experience?
Speaker 6: I mean it was it was a great experience, and
Speaker 6: then it was like a weird experience. So the great
Speaker 6: experience of it was it was more clout for everybody basically,
Speaker 6: so like once you say a job recording artists mickey facts,
Speaker 6: it's like, ah, everybody's all over you. You know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. But essentially what it is is a bank loan.
Speaker 6: You know, they give you a lot of upfront money
Speaker 6: and you use that money to live off of and
Speaker 6: fund your project. You know what I'm saying. Use that
Speaker 6: and so they give you half upfront and that half
Speaker 6: of whatever you sign for is to live off of.
Speaker 5: That's the events.
Speaker 6: That's the events, and then the other half of the
Speaker 6: money is for your marketing budgets and whatever else that
Speaker 6: you spend studio time, features, production, things like that. And basically,
Speaker 6: if you run out of your money, of the upfront
Speaker 6: advance money. Then you have to kind of grind it out,
Speaker 6: but it's limitations on what you could do because the
Speaker 6: label still owns your name, content and things of that nature.
Speaker 3: Before.
Speaker 6: But one thing with me, like before I did my deal,
Speaker 6: I had to hond a commercial, I had a sponsorship
Speaker 6: with Puma, I had EA sports scenarios, so I had
Speaker 6: my own merchandise. So when I signed to Jive Battery,
Speaker 6: they couldn't take They couldn't three sixty me because I
Speaker 6: was already moving and I was already already had certain
Speaker 6: situations put in place. So that was the good part
Speaker 6: of it, you know, and being able to meet people
Speaker 6: that were in the industry, go to their parties, the events,
Speaker 6: and and you know, eat for free and things like that.
Speaker 6: But you know, when it was time to kind of
Speaker 6: put the music out, Jive had folded. So everybody that
Speaker 6: was on job at the time, justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, myself,
Speaker 6: there was a couple other artists that was on it,
Speaker 6: like big pop artists, like they were a big pop label.
Speaker 6: We all were in limbo. So I got moved to
Speaker 6: RCAA and had a whole nother team, a whole nother deal,
Speaker 6: and it was rough because it was people there who
Speaker 6: didn't believe in the project in the first place to
Speaker 6: sign me. You know. So I I did a record
Speaker 6: with John Legend at the time. I did a record
Speaker 6: with Bruno Mars, did a record with Yellow Wolf, and
Speaker 6: they just didn't the an R just wasn't fans.
Speaker 3: They didn't understand me.
Speaker 6: They didn't understand it because he wasn't invested into it.
Speaker 5: Coach Chilling Labels.
Speaker 3: So one thing, one thing that you said was interesting.
Speaker 4: Because, like I said, we we grew up on hip
Speaker 4: hop and like even in my brain like I have,
Speaker 4: it's weird, like somebody else say something and then lyric
Speaker 4: triggers that I remember from fifteen years ago. So one
Speaker 4: of the greatest rappers of all time Cannabis right, he
Speaker 4: is one of.
Speaker 3: The greats from last six It was pretty crazy.
Speaker 4: It didn't work out for him, but people won't remember him. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: he's one of the great that boy. But one of
Speaker 4: the things that he always said that stuck with me.
Speaker 4: He said, he said, did you actually your label if
Speaker 4: it was with Coopable. I'm sure the vehicle was probably beautiful,
Speaker 4: but did you actually like label if it was with Coopable.
Speaker 4: So you talked about like the events, So can you
Speaker 4: just break that because I'm actually interested to know, Like,
Speaker 4: they give you a million dollars, right, right, but that's
Speaker 4: your budget, yes, So now out of that million dollars,
Speaker 4: your studio time is.
Speaker 6: On the second half of the budget. So if you
Speaker 6: get if I had a million dollar deal, I would
Speaker 6: get five hundred thousand up front, and out of that
Speaker 6: five hundred thousand, automatically, my attorney has to get paid,
Speaker 6: my manager has to get paid, my accountant has to
Speaker 6: get paid. They keep the other five hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 6: to do everything that needs to be done in terms
Speaker 6: of marketing, studio time, features, and then the other Well,
Speaker 6: if it's five hundred thousand that I keep, I would
Speaker 6: probably keep three seventy five after paying everybody out. And
Speaker 6: with that three seventy five, I shouldn't go and buy
Speaker 6: a chain. I shouldn't go and buy a car, a
Speaker 6: super expensive car. At least I should buy something that's
Speaker 6: practical by home by a practical car, and wait until
Speaker 6: you know you're touring and you start seeing publishing and
Speaker 6: things like that, because it's basically a loan and it's taxed.
Speaker 4: Also, it is taxed, So the three seventy five is
Speaker 4: really like two fifty.
Speaker 6: I can you could have it taxed, or you can
Speaker 6: take it up front and handle it on your own.
Speaker 6: I took it all up front and handled it on my.
Speaker 3: Own and pay the taxes laid on.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 5: So when a label says that when we hit a
Speaker 5: lot of times, they were cooping the money, how's that happen?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: They're recooping the money off of your record sales?
Speaker 5: All right, So the money that they gave you as advance,
Speaker 5: they're taking it back from what you sold.
Speaker 6: Yes, in the event that you sell, In the event
Speaker 6: that you sell, in the event that you don't, in
Speaker 6: the event that you don't, you in the red. They
Speaker 6: could write you off as a tax as a as
Speaker 6: a tax right off, or you're in debt, you're on
Speaker 6: the label, you're in the red.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So how is it as far as label politics?
Speaker 4: As far as because you said when you switched labels,
Speaker 4: the other label didn't believe in in the project the
Speaker 4: way the first label did, right, So, like I always
Speaker 4: wanted it this too. Where it's like people push their
Speaker 4: albums back, Like how did what is it to say? Okay,
Speaker 4: you're green lit for a release in April?
Speaker 3: Do you coming out?
Speaker 4: Like how does that look from the inside, Cause a
Speaker 4: lot of people we just see from the outside of fans,
Speaker 4: this person's album keeps getting pushed back or this person
Speaker 4: quick but we don't know, like the single might not
Speaker 4: have worked, or they wanted him to go in a
Speaker 4: different direction, Like how does that work at that right?
Speaker 6: A lot of times it's analytics that people that the
Speaker 6: other people in the office is you know, doing. So
Speaker 6: they'll put a record out for a feeler or you know,
Speaker 6: to to test it at radio to see what's going on,
Speaker 6: what's the response, and if they're not getting another if
Speaker 6: they're not getting a good enough response, they're not gonna
Speaker 6: start putting gasoline to the fire because the fire is
Speaker 6: already out there. When the song is on the radio,
Speaker 6: it's in the DJ pool, it's uh, you you send
Speaker 6: it to the tastemakers or whatever, but the consumer hasn't
Speaker 6: gotten to the record just yet. So they used to
Speaker 6: have a mixed show. Now everything is streaming, you know
Speaker 6: what I'm saying, But before it was all mixed show
Speaker 6: taste makers. You had to do DJ meetings, you know,
Speaker 6: go to the go to different cities and go to
Speaker 6: the the radio station and talk to the DJs and
Speaker 6: basically beg them to play the record and they would
Speaker 6: play it during the mixed show hour, which would be
Speaker 6: before prime time five to seven. The DJs have free
Speaker 6: range to kind of play whatever they wanted to play,
Speaker 6: and if there was enough impact on the record, they
Speaker 6: were added into rotation. After the label would then put
Speaker 6: money behind the song, so the label would make their
Speaker 6: money back off of licensing the song. The label makes
Speaker 6: their money back off of the radio spins. The label
Speaker 6: makes their money back off of the publishing sometimes the
Speaker 6: royalties and as well as album sales. So that's how
Speaker 6: the label went. But then when they when they when
Speaker 6: they saw that Napster was coming around, that's when they
Speaker 6: started the three sixty deal. So I need ten percent
Speaker 6: of your taking. I need ten percent.
Speaker 5: Of everything basically, So like when you said they could
Speaker 5: make it back off the album, is that when the
Speaker 5: points come into play.
Speaker 6: Yes, that's what points come into play, and everybody gets
Speaker 6: a point. So basically you give a point to this
Speaker 6: producer for making a beat or if they made like
Speaker 6: if I paid Swiss to do three beats, I would
Speaker 6: give him a point on the album along. It's like
Speaker 6: you get ten to twelve points on an album album
Speaker 6: and the points go One point goes to executive producer,
Speaker 6: one point goes to another executive producer, then you give
Speaker 6: one to producers who make beats. You take like two
Speaker 6: to three points, and then the label keeps the rest
Speaker 6: of it. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Basically, so a guy like J Cole who produces the
Speaker 5: album has no features and executive producer, he's keeping all
Speaker 5: the points.
Speaker 3: Yes, So what's difference between points and masters?
Speaker 6: Masters are the master recordings that you own. So if this,
Speaker 6: let's just say, Earn your Leisure was a studio and
Speaker 6: I didn't sign a record deal. If I pay you
Speaker 6: to record here, I own my masters. If I come
Speaker 6: here for free to record here, Troy owns the masters.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. Rashard owns the masters. If
Speaker 6: I sign a record label, if I signed a record label,
Speaker 6: if I signed a record deal, I relinquished my rights
Speaker 6: to the masters, depending on what kind of attorney I have.
Speaker 6: So now black artists are now starting to be a
Speaker 6: little bit more smarter and they want to own their masters.
Speaker 6: But before everyone was intellectual and smart, people signed their
Speaker 6: masters a way to get that upfront money, not knowing
Speaker 6: that the master recording is basically and essentially the foundation
Speaker 6: of owning your music and your money. So if for example,
Speaker 6: I'll use outcasts for an example, I think they wanted
Speaker 6: I think there was the label wanted to I think
Speaker 6: license one of their songs for the super Bowl and
Speaker 6: it was a very big record and a very big commercial.
Speaker 6: Big Boy signed this licensing thing. The label signed it,
Speaker 6: but Andre didn't want to say on it. So because
Speaker 6: Andre didn't want to sign it, because they owned some
Speaker 6: of their masters, because they made so much money, they
Speaker 6: weren't able to use the record.
Speaker 5: People don't even know that, Like Alcaz has the biggest
Speaker 5: hip hop selling out of all time. Right.
Speaker 6: But in the event that they didn't own a portion
Speaker 6: of their masters, the label could have said we're selling,
Speaker 6: we're licensing this song, and we're going to keep the
Speaker 6: money and they get a piece of the money, right.
Speaker 4: And then and then the publishing is when the writing
Speaker 4: the writing and right right, So in the composition.
Speaker 6: Yes, So a lot of times people get publishing confused
Speaker 6: when they read credits.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 6: So when you consider someone like Drake, right, people say
Speaker 6: Drake has ghostwriters. And right when you look at the
Speaker 6: credits and you see someone like Drake's name, you see
Speaker 6: Aubrey Graham, right, and you see about ten of the names,
Speaker 6: they're like, oh, Drake has nine other writers. No, Sometimes
Speaker 6: I want to say, I want to say ninety nine
Speaker 6: one hundred percent of the time he's writing his records.
Speaker 6: I feel like that one time that you know.
Speaker 3: He had reference track, say the entire entire song.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that one time, I think I think it was
Speaker 6: I think he was trying to give someone a shot exactly.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. He was giving somebody a shot, right,
Speaker 6: and it leaked. But when you see ten names on
Speaker 6: the project, music is written, there's a producers write music.
Speaker 6: It's not just producing you you're writing the music. So
Speaker 6: they're writers on the song as well. And if it's
Speaker 6: a sample, the people that they sampled are also in
Speaker 6: the credits. They're writers as well. So I don't want
Speaker 6: people to like you might see like if you check credits,
Speaker 6: you'll see jay Z and and a bunch of other people,
Speaker 6: but that doesn't mean people wrote jay Z's.
Speaker 5: Lyrics probably make more money off the album.
Speaker 6: And you well, you see name on other people's but
Speaker 6: you know, I actually listen. I challenged people to look
Speaker 6: at them old albums and if you know some of
Speaker 6: these rappers governments names.
Speaker 5: That was That's exactly how I started knowing everyone's name.
Speaker 5: I would read the credits and like.
Speaker 4: You have to open them up opening and you can
Speaker 4: see who wrote it in the opening credits and all
Speaker 4: of that. So all right, So this is an interesting
Speaker 4: conversation because it's very complex and you obviously you are
Speaker 4: a very intelligent person, right, but you're taking a kid
Speaker 4: off the street with no education. How is he s
Speaker 4: posted to navigate through masters, publishing points, budgets.
Speaker 3: How do you have And.
Speaker 5: It's something that nobody taught you when you came in
Speaker 5: the game. Nobody taught me to know.
Speaker 6: So it's like but a lot of it was also
Speaker 6: because I was working at a law firm like you
Speaker 6: guys are in the freestyle, So like I would give
Speaker 6: my contracts to the junior partners at the firm and
Speaker 6: we will all look at it together and they will
Speaker 6: break things down to me. So I kind of understood
Speaker 6: my contracts. So I had them checking my attorney's work,
Speaker 6: you know, and I'm checking their work. You know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, check lawyers, and.
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Speaker 7: all you need for kids.
Speaker 6: I mean, I wasn't taught a lot. I wish I was,
Speaker 6: but you know, in this game, I just feel like,
Speaker 6: you know, black men, for whatever reason, they're just not,
Speaker 6: you know, reaching back, or maybe there is a disconnect.
Speaker 6: I don't want to say black men are not reaching back.
Speaker 6: Maybe black men do want to reach back. But I
Speaker 6: feel like there's a language barrier that has to be
Speaker 6: kind of severed in order for us to kind of,
Speaker 6: you know, interact with the younger generation. You know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. I feel like sometimes they're the younger generation,
Speaker 6: they have this pushback to the older generation because they're
Speaker 6: the gatekeepers.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: I went through that as a young artist. But if
Speaker 6: an older artist would have came to me and been like, listen,
Speaker 6: you need to do this, this, this, this, this is
Speaker 6: that and that and that I would have listened. You
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. As far as your question, what
Speaker 6: does a young kid do? Man, I mean I would suggest,
Speaker 6: you know, being headstrong and trying to find a mentor.
Speaker 6: That should be the number one thing to do, someone
Speaker 6: who actually cares about your career, someone who actually knows
Speaker 6: the business and knows what to do and how to
Speaker 6: navigate around certain things. Because there is no retirement plan
Speaker 6: in music. There is no fall one K plan in music.
Speaker 6: There is no healthcare in music. There is no dental
Speaker 6: plan in music. I have my own separate insurance. I
Speaker 6: have my own I pay a lot for insurance. We
Speaker 6: I have my own four one K plan, own life assurance.
Speaker 6: You know, I have to take care of these things
Speaker 6: myself because if I don't, nobody else will.
Speaker 4: It's interesting you said that because like when we spoke off
Speaker 4: camera and I was saying that, like Sequel is one
Speaker 4: of our favorite rappers. So when he said, with no union,
Speaker 4: no dental plan, I can't eat off one honey grant.
Speaker 5: I got cavities, and I got cavities.
Speaker 4: I need feeling, yo. So when you when when these
Speaker 4: are things that know? Until Seguel said that I've never
Speaker 4: even thought about it. Like, rappers have no union, right,
Speaker 4: even actors have a union, yep, rappers have no I
Speaker 4: heard nor saying like they like they should try to
Speaker 4: have a rappers union.
Speaker 6: It's imperative because.
Speaker 3: It's like even on a label, do they do they
Speaker 3: have benefits on a label?
Speaker 6: Yes, you do get benefits on the label, but you
Speaker 6: have to opt into it, you have to pay into it.
Speaker 6: And again, once rappers get a check, that's it, man.
Speaker 5: And is it the same if they get dropped from
Speaker 5: the labels, Like if I get fired for my job,
Speaker 5: obviously I'm not part of that anymore.
Speaker 6: That's it what you're doing drop? Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 6: it's one of those things where they're taking uneducated, impoverished
Speaker 6: black young men and young girls and throwing money in
Speaker 6: their face. So think about us eighteen, nineteen years old, seventeen,
Speaker 6: even twenty. If someone offers you a ton of money,
Speaker 6: you're not thinking about four one K, You're not thinking
Speaker 6: about health and arans because that stuff already comes out
Speaker 6: your check. And it's interesting because I feel like most
Speaker 6: Americans probably wouldn't think about that shit either if it
Speaker 6: wasn't already taken out of the check. So you put
Speaker 6: this stuff in front of a young black kid, They're
Speaker 6: not thinking that. The first thing they're thinking about is
Speaker 6: getting drippy, getting lived how fast can I didn't buy
Speaker 6: a chain, like, I didn't buy a chain with my advance.
Speaker 6: I did not. I wanted I wanted a place to live,
Speaker 6: you know. I wanted my own place to stay, you know.
Speaker 6: And that was the first thing that I did, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. I didn't get a chain. I
Speaker 6: didn't get a nice car. I had a free call
Speaker 6: shout to Honda. But I didn't want any of that, like,
Speaker 6: because I knew I had to recoup the money, and
Speaker 6: I knew I had to live off of this money,
Speaker 6: even though I had a booking agent. I knew at
Speaker 6: some point that the hotness would dissipate, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, So I had to save and stack my bread.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing too, Like you said, with the hotness,
Speaker 4: a lot of times you feel like you're in and
Speaker 4: you'll be hot forever, exactly like y'all got this, I'm
Speaker 4: on top of the world, but in three years you're
Speaker 4: not on top of the world.
Speaker 3: Are you already spent your bread? Yep.
Speaker 4: So it's like, what do you do You don't have
Speaker 4: any formal education, and always said the music business. I
Speaker 4: want to actually this because we like being in like
Speaker 4: we're interviewing people now kind of like making all rounds
Speaker 4: around the music industry. So I told Troy, I'm like this,
Speaker 4: this music industry. I remember Chris Gotti told us this
Speaker 4: when you interviewed them.
Speaker 3: Shout to Chris.
Speaker 4: He was like this, this isn't a real industry. It's
Speaker 4: the only place where you can be a high level
Speaker 4: executive with no qualification.
Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: You know that's true.
Speaker 5: I mean it's we run into people and we're.
Speaker 4: Like, really, like, how do you how you call? How
Speaker 4: did this happen to give somebody a million dollar budget?
Speaker 4: You don't, you're just friends with somebody, but you just.
Speaker 5: You was hanging out with them and they.
Speaker 6: Put you on intern and you learn here, and it's like,
Speaker 6: we have a good you picked the right record, you
Speaker 6: were there at the right time, and that happened to
Speaker 6: a lot of guys, and.
Speaker 5: You're a senior executive because you picked the right guy
Speaker 5: at that time. Yep.
Speaker 4: But then somebody else told us that that's kind of
Speaker 4: done on purpose because the higher ups keep it unorganized, unprofessional,
Speaker 4: because it's like a bunch of chickens just running with
Speaker 4: the heck's cut off. The artist don't really know what
Speaker 4: they're doing, but a lot of executives don't really know
Speaker 4: what they're doing either, but the high level executive they know.
Speaker 4: So if you keep if you keep them like kind
Speaker 4: of drugged up, and they don't really know their later meetings,
Speaker 4: and it's very it's not it's not a real business.
Speaker 4: It's not run like a real meeting. No, it's real,
Speaker 4: it's not run like a real business.
Speaker 5: Like.
Speaker 6: So I was going into the off I was going
Speaker 6: into the label every like twice a week, and it
Speaker 6: was to the point that people thought I was an
Speaker 6: employee there because I just wanted to know what was
Speaker 6: happening with my project every two days. I just needed
Speaker 6: to know, you know what I mean. And that's how
Speaker 6: I was able to have a great rapport with a
Speaker 6: lot of the people that were there. I was about
Speaker 6: to call them co workers, but they were technically were
Speaker 6: my co workers, you know. And you know, I feel
Speaker 6: like artists just just just let things they just let
Speaker 6: things go how it's supposed to go.
Speaker 5: It's like, I just want to create the music. I
Speaker 5: just want to create.
Speaker 3: That's what Cheese says.
Speaker 4: Jesz has a clip that's one viral on Instagram saying
Speaker 4: that he got taken advantage of because he wasn't educated
Speaker 4: pretty much paraphrasing, he wasn't educated on music business. He
Speaker 4: had lawyers that screwed him over, and he felt he
Speaker 4: felt intimidated to even let somebody know what was going
Speaker 4: on because he's geezy, he's a snowman, so it's like
Speaker 4: for him to get ripped off, it's embarrassing, and he
Speaker 4: just went with it because he didn't know.
Speaker 3: He didn't know what to do.
Speaker 5: How do I tell somebody like I'm the snowman and
Speaker 5: this little guy over here with a bow tie every day.
Speaker 6: I Mean, it's frustrating because this should be some sort
Speaker 6: of educational workshop for new artists that come into the game.
Speaker 6: There's so many people that don't know anything about the
Speaker 6: music business. And a lot of times these guys, they
Speaker 6: some of these guys don't finish high school and they,
Speaker 6: you know, they get into the game and they just
Speaker 6: think the money's going to come in forever. But think about,
Speaker 6: like if it comes at all, right, but think about
Speaker 6: ten years ago. Who was here ten years ago then
Speaker 6: and it's not here now, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: Or even twenty years ago like a mill like and
Speaker 6: that's not a fact. That was twenty years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, and she was a talented artist, but she's
Speaker 6: not here no more. Like I'm not saying that I
Speaker 6: don't think I want to be here, you know, past
Speaker 6: another ten years. But what I'm saying is, utilize this
Speaker 6: time to ask questions. There's nothing wrong with asking questions.
Speaker 6: I feel like sometimes we're just so prideful. There's certain
Speaker 6: things that we just don't want to know or we're
Speaker 6: too afraid to ask, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 6: for me, I asked questions. I'm always curious as to
Speaker 6: know why a certain person popped, or how a certain
Speaker 6: person got hot, or how they got hot in their town,
Speaker 6: what did they do to get to that next level.
Speaker 6: I absorbed this information so I can take it. I
Speaker 6: mentor like about ten or fifteen kids, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying, young artists, because I feel like that wasn't
Speaker 6: given to me, so I should give it back, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean. And it's imperative that these kids
Speaker 6: know these things because this this is our future.
Speaker 3: That's a fact.
Speaker 4: So that's a perfect sebuay into our last seven, we're
Speaker 4: gonna talk about the independent game, what you got going
Speaker 4: on now? And yeah, educate people want to be talking
Speaker 4: about the major side, we're gonna talk about the Yeah,
Speaker 4: all right, So in the last seven, we're going to
Speaker 4: talk about the journey, your journey as an independent artist.
Speaker 4: This is something I think is extremely valuable because, as
Speaker 4: I said, there's a lot more independent artists out there,
Speaker 4: especially now, millions of than are major label artists. So,
Speaker 4: all right, how does it work being an independent artist?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: As far as is it is it you fund the
Speaker 4: stuff yourself or is it that they funded a hybrid approach?
Speaker 3: Like, how does that work to be an independent artist?
Speaker 6: I mean, there's different ways to be an independent artist.
Speaker 6: The best way to just kind of explain is tell
Speaker 6: my story real quick. I mean, after leaving the label
Speaker 6: in twenty twelve, at the beginning of twenty thirteen, I
Speaker 6: had ninety thousand dollars in the bank, and then at
Speaker 6: the end of twenty thirteen, I had four dollars and
Speaker 6: fourteen cents in my bank. Account. I made a song
Speaker 6: about it's called four fourteen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I say remember yeah, because I remember looking at the
Speaker 6: bank statement like this is that's unbelievable, and that I
Speaker 6: think my back was against the wall because, like we
Speaker 6: said earlier, I didn't have any job experience from twenty thirteen,
Speaker 6: well from twenty seven to twenty thirteen, so I'm looking
Speaker 6: at six years of just not working, just doing music.
Speaker 6: So I panicked. I tried to get a job. It
Speaker 6: didn't work, so I was like, okay, I have to
Speaker 6: be an artist. Even though I quit, I was like,
Speaker 6: I'm not doing this anymore. And then I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: I gotta pay rent. So from that point I had
Speaker 6: to kind of figure out and navigate what my supporters
Speaker 6: we're going to buy from me as a as a consumer.
Speaker 6: So I realized that they appreciate my lyrics, they appreciate
Speaker 6: my honesty, they appreciate merchandise, they appreciate seeing me. So
Speaker 6: I had to create this whole. I had to basically
Speaker 6: start all over again, and but I started all over
Speaker 6: again with a cushion because I had a fan base,
Speaker 6: so I had to make merch I spent all the
Speaker 6: money myself. I funded everything myself with a little bit
Speaker 6: of money that I had. You know, I was working
Speaker 6: with new artists, you know, doing features and taking that
Speaker 6: money and reinvesting it to be able to sustain a living.
Speaker 6: And so now I'm in a position where it is
Speaker 6: a hybrid situation where I fund some of it and
Speaker 6: then I have soul Spasm funding some of it as well.
Speaker 6: So it's a partnership would come together and then you know,
Speaker 6: we split the costs down the middle.
Speaker 4: Okay, so how is it as far as like, do
Speaker 4: they distribute your music as well?
Speaker 6: Yes, they distribute all my music on all streaming platforms
Speaker 6: and they handle that side of it, so I'm able
Speaker 6: to give them my whole catalog. They take a percentage
Speaker 6: off of that catalog, and I get a check every month.
Speaker 5: So everything you did prior to coming to the independently though,
Speaker 5: you have.
Speaker 6: I own? Yeah, I own everything, Yeah, even from the label,
Speaker 6: because again I didn't sign a three sixty deal and
Speaker 6: I was in the black. I was not in the red.
Speaker 4: So all right, So as far as like press, do
Speaker 4: you do you handle that yourself or is that you
Speaker 4: get help with that?
Speaker 6: I handled my press myself. I mean, on my last project,
Speaker 6: we hired a publishers to do the work, and he
Speaker 6: got me on you know, some some online sites and
Speaker 6: some playlists on some streaming sites, and you know some
Speaker 6: radio on serious satellite and things like that. So that
Speaker 6: stuff always helps. But for the most part, a lot
Speaker 6: of it is relationships, having your own relationships, building your
Speaker 6: own relationships, so like I can hit Sway from Swaying
Speaker 6: the morning on my own and be like I want
Speaker 6: to come up there, or just even how I'm up here,
Speaker 6: Like I hit Rashard myself and was like, yo, I
Speaker 6: want to come up here.
Speaker 5: You know. Yeah, how about Tory, I know you mentioned
Speaker 5: you had a booking agent. That's still true or do
Speaker 5: you handle that now yourself?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I handle all my booking now. I mean I
Speaker 6: had an agent last earlier this year, but it just
Speaker 6: didn't work out the way I wanted it to work out,
Speaker 6: and even previously I had agents before. But you know,
Speaker 6: I have a baby on the way, I have a
Speaker 6: wife at home, so if they're not booking me the shows,
Speaker 6: I have to book my shows myself, okay. And I
Speaker 6: hired promoters to you know, get the people in there.
Speaker 6: Along with promoting on my own and making it happen.
Speaker 6: And you know, running a van on my.
Speaker 3: Own, you know you're putting the money up yourself.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I put it up the money myself.
Speaker 3: So all right the road.
Speaker 4: So you talk about streaming, how much do you get
Speaker 4: paid for stream Like what's that breakdown? Because I've seen
Speaker 4: a bunch of different numbers on the internet, like a quarter,
Speaker 4: a fraction of a penny for every stream? Is there
Speaker 4: a set number that everybody gets for streaming?
Speaker 6: Or yes, everybody gets the same set number. It's like
Speaker 6: zero point point point point. No, it's point it's zero
Speaker 6: point zero zero zero six. And then the numbers is
Speaker 6: like pi three point four world, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: But it's basically zero point zero zero zero six. And
Speaker 6: then you have to make you have to stream so
Speaker 6: much in order to see like a decent jack.
Speaker 4: What's the what's the one that you get paid for
Speaker 4: the most? Like streaming service?
Speaker 3: Is it title?
Speaker 5: They say?
Speaker 6: Title is the is the morning the most? You get
Speaker 6: paid the most from title? But you still need all
Speaker 6: all streaming sites in order to get a decent jack.
Speaker 6: You can't just put on title. So for instance, like
Speaker 6: what my when my pay she comes in every month?
Speaker 6: You know, it's not just title. It's title, it's Spotify,
Speaker 6: it's Pandora, it's Apple Music, it's iTunes when people purchase
Speaker 6: the music, which is always the best because you keep
Speaker 6: eighty percent of the money. So if it's ninety nine cents,
Speaker 6: you keep eighty cents of that. Apple takes twenty cents. Okay,
Speaker 6: so that's that's the best. And then YouTube as well,
Speaker 6: and Vimeo and TikTok. Now, so combine these seven to
Speaker 6: eight companies and you should receive a decent check a
Speaker 6: decent check.
Speaker 5: How do you make it to those curated playlists because
Speaker 5: like I'm not just saying, I'm thinking, like songs just
Speaker 5: pop in there. Like once I download a certain playlist,
Speaker 5: if a new artist comes in it just do you
Speaker 5: have to pay for that? As there's somebody at the
Speaker 5: streaming service that actually just says, oh, I like that song,
Speaker 5: we're putting that in there.
Speaker 6: I mean, sometimes it's the labels that own the playlist.
Speaker 6: Sometimes if you're very cool with the people that run
Speaker 6: the playlist, you can get lucky. Or if you're a
Speaker 6: very popular artist and the song is very popular, they'll
Speaker 6: the person who runs the playlist will put that song
Speaker 6: on the playlist, but you know, the labels figured it out,
Speaker 6: so they kind of have control of everything.
Speaker 4: Again, So like, are your payments coordinated through like all
Speaker 4: seven that come to you streamlined at one time? Yes,
Speaker 4: from and that's from the label that puts it on. Yes,
Speaker 4: Then they cut the check, then they take a percentage
Speaker 4: out of that, and then they putting all right, So
Speaker 4: it's like CD baby or something like that, right, or
Speaker 4: toon Core.
Speaker 6: Or toon Core right. But sol Spasm is my distribution,
Speaker 6: so and I guess my checks would be different from
Speaker 6: another person's checks because I have sixteen to seventeen projects,
Speaker 6: so I'm like steps ahead of someone who might only
Speaker 6: have two or three projects. You have leverage, so like
Speaker 6: I'm getting a substantial amount of money every single month.
Speaker 5: That's mixtapes and albums can combined.
Speaker 4: But the mixtapes all right, so let's talk about mixtapes
Speaker 4: mixtape that's how does that work?
Speaker 3: Same same thing? Could you put mixtapes on streaming services too?
Speaker 6: Right now people are putting them on there, but before
Speaker 6: it was the cool But I think you can put
Speaker 6: them on there now, but it's still it's still like.
Speaker 5: What's the difference, Like, like I know Drake put out
Speaker 5: a playlist, then there was there's mixtapes.
Speaker 4: And there's albums. He just came out with his first album,
Speaker 4: but he has like six projects. What's the differences.
Speaker 5: It's not like.
Speaker 6: The marketing rollout from the label. Okay, that's the only
Speaker 6: thing different. Because he was on he's on Massive Pill
Speaker 6: Deaf Jam, I believe. So massa Pill was handling the
Speaker 6: mixtapes and they were putting that stuff out, so he
Speaker 6: was probably getting financed by mass A Pill. They were,
Speaker 6: they were handling that. But then this big project is
Speaker 6: a death Cham thing, so like deaf Cham is now
Speaker 6: handling the rollout. They're probably taking that budget from when
Speaker 6: he first signed four years ago or whatever, and now
Speaker 6: they're using that money to push this project. Like how
Speaker 6: it is, you know, that's how it works essentially.
Speaker 5: How about endorsements that I know you said that you
Speaker 5: have one with a Sports and Puma and of course.
Speaker 6: Yeah you got the before Yeah, I mean a lot
Speaker 6: of that stuff was before I had did my record deal.
Speaker 6: So they just were interested in the brand they built.
Speaker 6: They bought into who I was, what I represented. They
Speaker 6: saw that, you know, this kid is an image that
Speaker 6: can be pushed out there without being too flashy. That
Speaker 6: was one of the reasons why Honda chose me, because
Speaker 6: I was not flashy. I didn't have a big chain on.
Speaker 6: I didn't have the crazy jewels on. I didn't come
Speaker 6: in there and talking crazy. I was an intellectual. I
Speaker 6: was an everyday person. What is a Honda Hondas for
Speaker 6: everyday person? You know what I'm saying. It's a great
Speaker 6: card at lasts, So you know that money was from them,
Speaker 6: and then Puma. You know, I worked with Puma for
Speaker 6: a little while for like two years. They gave me
Speaker 6: product that would wear the product and get that stuff
Speaker 6: seen all over because I was a sneak ahead. I'm
Speaker 6: still a big sneak ahead. And then you know I
Speaker 6: also did UH. I also did EA Sports. I was
Speaker 6: very cool with the music supervisor with the Rafa Lean
Speaker 6: shot out to her and we kind of just continuously
Speaker 6: worked for like five years. I was on like every
Speaker 6: EA game you could potentially think of, except for Madden.
Speaker 6: Like I was on like hockey. I was a need
Speaker 6: for speed. I was on FIFA No, no, not FIFA
Speaker 6: part of me. I was on the sims like I
Speaker 6: have a.
Speaker 5: Sim so you get royalty checks from the game the person.
Speaker 6: And now you don't get royalty checks, you just get
Speaker 6: up front show. But the commercial you got royalty checks. Yes,
Speaker 6: I got as long as the commercial played. Yes, the commercial.
Speaker 6: That commercial ran for about four or five years, and
Speaker 6: I was getting checks every day for four or five years,
Speaker 6: no part of four five months, four five months, and
Speaker 6: I was getting I was getting checks every single day,
Speaker 6: every day.
Speaker 4: So they calculate like how many times it aired, and
Speaker 4: then they send you a percentage of that.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, on top of my music being in it,
Speaker 6: and on top of me acting in it. Like it
Speaker 6: was like three separate.
Speaker 5: Checks, music check, acting check, and then a residual check.
Speaker 5: A lot of checks.
Speaker 6: It was a lot of checks. There's a lot of
Speaker 6: checks me, all right.
Speaker 4: So if I'm a kid that just loves music, I'm recording,
Speaker 4: can you give me some advice, Like what's the first steps?
Speaker 4: I don't have a major break record deal, but I
Speaker 4: want to get my music out there?
Speaker 3: What do What do I do?
Speaker 6: First steps is to build a team. It's like a
Speaker 6: pyramid scheme. You know that I used to sell Kirby
Speaker 6: vacuums back in the day. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: And even like the Cutcold Knives, and it was I
Speaker 6: want to say, you're selling Eastna, But you know, I
Speaker 6: would have to go into these wild areas to sell
Speaker 6: these things. And whenever we would come back to base,
Speaker 6: they will always say to me, you need to go
Speaker 6: to your friends parents' homes, and you need to go
Speaker 6: to their friends parents' homes. And that's how it needs
Speaker 6: to happen. So I would tell a kid start, start
Speaker 6: a team. Start a team of five to six people,
Speaker 6: and everybody has to have a specific amount of network
Speaker 6: where they, you know, pushing your music consistently and constantly
Speaker 6: to different people, and it has to be music has
Speaker 6: to be hot, and they have to concentrate not on
Speaker 6: the numbers. You know what I'm saying, Like, I feel
Speaker 6: like we're in the era of it's just so much
Speaker 6: clout and how many likes you have and how many
Speaker 6: views you have and this, and that they are artists
Speaker 6: that have more followers than me on Instagram, they have
Speaker 6: more views than me on Instagram, more likes, and they're
Speaker 6: broke and they don't know what to do with their career.
Speaker 6: They're in a rut. And I know artists that have
Speaker 6: less followers than me, that are doing better than me
Speaker 6: when it comes to moving and shaking and getting this
Speaker 6: stuff out there. So it's all about focusing on exactly
Speaker 6: what your goals are. Have people that are knowledgeable in
Speaker 6: your corner as well as having people that have the
Speaker 6: same goals and beliefs that you have. And spread this
Speaker 6: word out to every and anybody that has ears that
Speaker 6: want to hear it, and just create. Create, create content
Speaker 6: that people feel as valuable. You know, if you're not
Speaker 6: creating the content that people feel as valuable, then you can,
Speaker 6: you know, be a mechanic or something.
Speaker 3: You know what I How stressful is it? How stressful
Speaker 3: is it to be a to be an artist?
Speaker 4: That's another thing I don't think people fully understand, Like
Speaker 4: it's not it's not easy profession, And yeah, how stressful
Speaker 4: is it?
Speaker 6: I work twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Speaker 6: Sometimes my wife is angry at me because I'm always working,
Speaker 6: But that's what it takes. I feel like if, like
Speaker 6: you said, some artists do get hot and then they
Speaker 6: stay hot for like two three years, and then that's it.
Speaker 6: You don't hear from them no more, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. I'm one of those guys that's been out
Speaker 6: for eleven years now, I'm living off of music. I
Speaker 6: make six figures a year just independently, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. And I know what a little bit more backing,
Speaker 6: I could crack seven figures easily because I know exactly
Speaker 6: what to do. I know how to do it. I
Speaker 6: know how to maneuver. But a lot of guys they don't.
Speaker 6: Sometimes they just don't want to hear. I feel like
Speaker 6: sometimes they just don't want to hear these these things.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. Artists don't want to hear work, work, work,
Speaker 6: work work. They just want to get to the bag.
Speaker 6: It's all about the fast money.
Speaker 5: Fast money don't last too long. You gotta chase it.
Speaker 6: Fast money don't last money. That's a good quote, you
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying. It just doesn't. You have to.
Speaker 6: You have to diversify, like I don't. I don't just
Speaker 6: rap either, you know what I'm saying. Like I try
Speaker 6: to make investments on certain things, like you know, trying
Speaker 6: to buy home. You know what I'm saying. Looking, I
Speaker 6: was just telling a man off camera, I'm trying to
Speaker 6: get a tesla because it doesn't depreciate. It appreciates in value.
Speaker 6: Also just investing in different companies. Like there's a company
Speaker 6: that's doing marijuana, cannabis stuff, but it's from the health
Speaker 6: side of it. So it's called Glenn Mayor Farms. You know,
Speaker 6: they are a farming agency that's using the medicinal portion
Speaker 6: of the cannabis, you know, legally and getting it out
Speaker 6: there legally. Because we all know marijuana is just on
Speaker 6: the verge of being you know, legalized. I feel like
Speaker 6: that's something that you know, as black people, you know,
Speaker 6: we're not you know, we're we're drug heads. We're always smoking, smoking, smoking,
Speaker 6: We're always putting into it instead of reinvesting into it
Speaker 6: into the medicinal aspect of it, which is the legal
Speaker 6: portion of it and the legal side of it where
Speaker 6: you can invest in making money back on it. You
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying, It's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 6: billionaires made if they make the right you know, decisions
Speaker 6: and choices. So, you know, I'm always looking at what's
Speaker 6: the next thing is going to happen. Virtual reality, That's
Speaker 6: another thing that is on the cusp of the gaming industry.
Speaker 6: It's just you have to find the right one, you know.
Speaker 4: I think virtual reality is gonna be big. We haven't
Speaker 4: spoken about that yet, but I think that virtual reality
Speaker 4: is gonna be huge, especially in sports.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it's going to be I think they tried
Speaker 5: that this year with the NBA Lead Pass, where you
Speaker 5: get the virtual reality and you could sit courtside.
Speaker 3: It's perfect.
Speaker 4: You think about it, It's like, am I going to
Speaker 4: pay ten thousand dollars that only one percent of America has.
Speaker 3: To watch Lebron? Or will I pay one hundred dollars? Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not bad.
Speaker 4: And to feel like I'm literally right there, especially sports
Speaker 4: like boxing basketball, you can't that court side feel means
Speaker 4: a lot.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, that look is a lot, That's what I said.
Speaker 5: But that's one of those sports where it makes sense
Speaker 5: to do it. Like some sports are not great being
Speaker 5: viewed live. Right, If I go to a football game
Speaker 5: and I'm sitting in the upper deck, I have no
Speaker 5: idea what's happening down there. I just know that something stopped. Right.
Speaker 5: It's not like when you're on TV and you can
Speaker 5: actually hear the refo that was the call. Oh, we
Speaker 5: can see the instant replay. Some things just aren't made
Speaker 5: for consumption, that's true.
Speaker 3: No, this is well. I think they're going to do
Speaker 3: a combination of both though.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. If you get the
Speaker 5: virtual reality now you can see it, but you.
Speaker 3: Can hear a commentators talk about it too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's why you hear about the games with the
Speaker 5: headphones on.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna get to that level.
Speaker 6: I just feel like you can't just want to just
Speaker 6: do music and that's it. It's it has to be more.
Speaker 6: It has to get into acting a little bit, get
Speaker 6: into creating a merchandise, you know, make something that people
Speaker 6: don't you know, or won't create, you know, like be creative.
Speaker 6: I feel like these are the things that you know,
Speaker 6: artists need to kind of take back, not just their
Speaker 6: ownership and their music, but the ownership and their imagination.
Speaker 5: We just said. I just it's funny you just said
Speaker 5: the word artists because hey, Buggy he said next project
Speaker 5: is last one because he wants to focus on things
Speaker 5: outside of music and this is the time now while
Speaker 5: he's hot. I had a quick question. You said you
Speaker 5: were trying to get a job right before, Like what what.
Speaker 6: Were you gonna try anything? Trying to do anything anything
Speaker 6: anything at that time I was desperate and there was
Speaker 6: nothing for me. There was literally nothing for me. And
Speaker 6: you know, I had shows lined up, but I had
Speaker 6: to wait to get the second half from those shows
Speaker 6: to even you know, make some money. So I had
Speaker 6: to kind of I had to thug it out, you know.
Speaker 6: I was trying. I was trying to work at I
Speaker 6: was too overqualified for burger king and underqualified to work
Speaker 6: in the office again. So I was just like, I got.
Speaker 5: To do music.
Speaker 3: How does that work? I'm glad you said that.
Speaker 4: When everybody talks about like getting paid on the back
Speaker 4: end for the shows, you get paid up front fifty
Speaker 4: and then after you perform you get the fifty percent.
Speaker 6: That's usually that standard, Yeah, standard right after you perform.
Speaker 6: Sometimes before you get on stage, sometimes after depends that.
Speaker 4: I've heard like artists not get on stage because they
Speaker 4: the promoters have money.
Speaker 6: Sometimes the promoters do pay for play, so you know,
Speaker 6: they'll charge, you know, artists to sell tickets before the
Speaker 6: main act gets on so they can make the rest
Speaker 6: of the money to pay the headliner.
Speaker 3: Have you had bad experience promoters before?
Speaker 6: Not a lot, but I've had some. I've had some
Speaker 6: bad experience. I mean, the best the best shows that
Speaker 6: I've had was corporate shows because you're gonna.
Speaker 5: Get paid corporate money.
Speaker 6: Corporate you that money is guarantee. You can go on
Speaker 6: stage without getting paid and you you know you're gonna
Speaker 6: get paid eventually, like or you'll sue. So those are
Speaker 6: the probably the best shows. You know, there's contracts put
Speaker 6: in place where you have to sign a contract music agreement,
Speaker 6: performing agreement with a buyer talent buyer that you will
Speaker 6: get paid before the night is over or at the
Speaker 6: end of the night when you settle up, depending if
Speaker 6: you did a door deal or depending on if you
Speaker 6: get a guarantee.
Speaker 3: Some you ask your music question before we wrap it up.
Speaker 4: You work with a lot of artists, like I said,
Speaker 4: from Drake to Justin temple A to Andrew Kendrick and
Speaker 4: then underground artists as well and mainstream are everybody.
Speaker 3: You work with a lot of different people, right Who
Speaker 3: who was.
Speaker 4: The most enjoyable for you to work with as far
Speaker 4: as like the talent level? Like who did because like
Speaker 4: I used to play ball, so like sometimes I played
Speaker 4: backble somebody I know, like there's special like I played
Speaker 4: like Mike Beasley went to school with me and I
Speaker 4: knew he was younger than me, but I knew like
Speaker 4: he was special.
Speaker 3: I knew he's gonna make it to the league. I
Speaker 3: just knew he was special.
Speaker 4: Did you ever have that type of vibe with anybody
Speaker 4: like that you worked with, Like this dude is different.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's a lot. I can be here
Speaker 6: all day. I mean I remember when I got Drake's
Speaker 6: verse back for Overdose on Life. We were talking about
Speaker 6: that earlier and I was just like, Yo, this guy
Speaker 6: is fucking dope.
Speaker 4: Did you see it happening like people saying Drake is
Speaker 4: the best rapper ever?
Speaker 3: Did you ever imagine he can be put in that category?
Speaker 6: No, not the best rapper ever. It was more like
Speaker 6: it was more like, this guy's light skinned, he's marketable,
Speaker 6: and he could rap really well. This is before he
Speaker 6: was singing really and I was just like, Yo, this
Speaker 6: dude is dope. He got a knack for choruses and everything.
Speaker 6: And then like after we did that record, he kind
Speaker 6: of he kind of just ran into not ran into,
Speaker 6: but I remember when he hit me like yo, like
Speaker 6: I'm meeting Wayne tonight. I'm about to meet Little Wayne,
Speaker 6: and that that changed it all and I was like
Speaker 6: that's crazy, bro, keep grinding. But that experience was just
Speaker 6: dope because you know, he was a he was an
Speaker 6: unknown artist. He was nobody really knew who he was
Speaker 6: when I put him on the record, Like it was
Speaker 6: a big deal for him to be on that record.
Speaker 6: Styles p was that was that was an amazing session
Speaker 6: where like he was doing features for other artists that
Speaker 6: came in the in that day, like and like the
Speaker 6: whole locks was there.
Speaker 3: And he doesn't write rhymes, right, that's true.
Speaker 6: That's true. He didn't write his rhymes. He so I
Speaker 6: was like, I was like, yo, like I want to
Speaker 6: do this record, bro, And he was like, I, how
Speaker 6: do you want to do it? I was like, I
Speaker 6: want to do uh five eight bar versus. And he
Speaker 6: knew with my talent level was so he kicked everybody
Speaker 6: out the studio.
Speaker 3: He's used to that, going back and forth with Kiss Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but yeah, but he it was the fact that
Speaker 6: he kicked everybody out, Like why do you kick everybody out?
Speaker 6: Because it was just too crazy, Like everybody got go
Speaker 6: it's me and you know, but he stayed with other
Speaker 6: artists when they did their records, other artists were still there.
Speaker 6: Everybody had to go when it was me and him
Speaker 6: and we just we just did that record. That JOm
Speaker 6: was wild, you know what I'm saying. For Legends, you
Speaker 6: know Royce. Royce was a dope session. I asked him,
Speaker 6: asked him to send me like twenty four bars. He
Speaker 6: sent me back like thirty two forty bars. It was
Speaker 6: just like, all right, you want to kill me your
Speaker 6: my own record happened?
Speaker 5: Well, you got a verse back of me like, damn,
Speaker 5: I gotta go rewrite.
Speaker 6: I don't rewrite my verses. I try to rewrite them.
Speaker 5: But you ever felt like, yo, did he bothered me on? Yeah?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, but I let it. I let it rock.
Speaker 6: I let it rock. Yeah, shout out, you know what
Speaker 6: I'm saying. And lastly, John Legend. I mean when I
Speaker 6: worked with John Legend, he was on tour with Shad
Speaker 6: day Man and he and he it was an overseas
Speaker 6: tour and he came off tour when he had his
Speaker 6: day off in New York and we went in the
Speaker 6: studio and made our record and then I asked him
Speaker 6: can you do some stuff over? And he was like sure.
Speaker 6: Like he was the nicest artist ever, you know, that
Speaker 6: was a super intelligent dude. Oh I love John. John's
Speaker 6: is a good dude man. I appreciate it, just him
Speaker 6: taking that time out to work with me, you know,
Speaker 6: in that facility and capacity, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Pow make you appreciate you coming telling people I know
Speaker 4: you on tour right.
Speaker 6: Yes, yeah, I got a tour coming up. It's called
Speaker 6: the Fan Tour. It starts November twenty ninth and the
Speaker 6: ends December twelfth. We're doing Boston, New York, Philly, Baltimore, Virginia,
Speaker 6: North Carolina, Atlanta. You know, hopefully we'll put up the
Speaker 6: fly here so you guys could check it out. And
Speaker 6: you know, just come check me out mickey fax dot
Speaker 6: com if if you see some merch that you like,
Speaker 6: or is there's some music that you uh yeah, he
Speaker 6: got the Enigma button on everybody hang, I got them
Speaker 6: a button. And you know, if if there's merch, you know, hoodies, shirts, hats,
Speaker 6: thumb drives, what else we got on there. There's a
Speaker 6: lot of stuff on there. You can go there and
Speaker 6: cop and also, you know, hit me up on Twitter,
Speaker 6: Twitter dot com, forward Slash, Mickey Fact, hit me up
Speaker 6: on Instagram, Mickey dot Fax, m I C K E.
Speaker 6: Y the period F A, C, t Z, D M ME.
Speaker 6: I talked to every single person that reaches out to me.
Speaker 6: I feel like, if you have you take the time
Speaker 6: out to talk to me, I will definitely take the
Speaker 6: time out to respond to you. I think that's the
Speaker 6: polite thing to do. Except for spam. I don't talk
Speaker 6: to spam, but you know, just reach out to me
Speaker 6: if you feel like there's a question you might have.
Speaker 6: You know, feel free reach out because I feel like
Speaker 6: holding on to information is not the way to get
Speaker 6: information out.
Speaker 4: I appreciate that, bro, Thank you choice.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Shot out everybody on patreon dot com. Y'all know
Speaker 5: that's all proud to pay program as five tiers. We
Speaker 5: are at over one hundred patrons, man, so shout out
Speaker 5: to everybody that is joining. Like we said E y
Speaker 5: L University for our top tier four and five members,
Speaker 5: you're going to be getting access to our webinars. So
Speaker 5: make sure that y'all go and check your messages so
Speaker 5: you can have access to the links. Every Wednesday at
Speaker 5: eight uh and U y L we actually put out
Speaker 5: some new merch man so we got the fire Bloody
Speaker 5: season is in effect. Every every time we come on.
Speaker 5: We're putting out new merch so the hats will be out.
Speaker 5: Hopefully we get some gloves out there. Man, we were
Speaker 5: preparing for the winter, even though we don't like beings.
Speaker 5: Is gonna be theres So shout to everybody that's been
Speaker 5: supporting the merch man. We got some new stuff on
Speaker 5: the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4: And then once again don't forget December seventh and December eighth,
Speaker 4: we coming to d C. We're doing the workshop from
Speaker 4: Overahoma Elite and Wall Street Trap on the seventh, and
Speaker 4: then we got our very first live podcast and then
Speaker 4: the Wizards Clippers game after that, following after that, all
Speaker 4: of the information is on legia dot com on the
Speaker 4: events tab. You can loudstream a workshop if you're not
Speaker 4: damn person. E y l University we have classes every
Speaker 4: single day. We have a class pretty much. Matt teaches
Speaker 4: a class on every Monday, on real Estate Wednesday, the
Speaker 4: class is different. Me and Troy are gonna do classes
Speaker 4: on Friday. And then starting in January, we're gonna launch
Speaker 4: e Yoo every Thursday. Financial in Spanish Latino.
Speaker 3: Support this.
Speaker 4: Sure and the book tip of this week is the
Speaker 4: autobiography of Johnny Cochrane recommended.
Speaker 3: I guess Mickey, great book.
Speaker 5: Great book.
Speaker 6: I promise you really really really good.
Speaker 4: Johnny cockin people don't understand how you know what the
Speaker 4: thing about Johnny everybody knows him for the oj trial, right, Yep.
Speaker 4: He was a high powered lawyer way before. That's exactly
Speaker 4: because that was the dream team. But he was the head.
Speaker 4: A lot of people somewhat like some of the lawyers
Speaker 4: felt the way because this is Lloyd, like Johnny Cockrow Shapiro,
Speaker 4: like these dudes Alan Dershuis. They was high powered lawyers. Yes,
Speaker 4: Johnny Cochran and he's the quarterback. A lot of a
Speaker 4: lot of them felt the way about that. And he
Speaker 4: was working on Geronimo Pratt's case when he died. A
Speaker 4: lot of people don't know that either. Geronimo Pratt, legendary
Speaker 4: black panther leader who was incarcerated Mike Jack.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So he did a lot of social change before
Speaker 6: the old j case. He did a lot of pro
Speaker 6: bono work because he was also he was also a
Speaker 6: DA but he did a lot for South central l
Speaker 6: a man like because he was in the thick of
Speaker 6: the racial uprising there. So I implore all black people, please,
Speaker 6: people of color. Please read the autobiography of Johnny Conchran.
Speaker 6: That was an incredible book.
Speaker 3: Incredible you have guys, Thank you for RockA what us
Speaker 3: We see you next week.
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