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Speaker 1: Turners.

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Speaker 2: What's going on? Listen, Eylu is relaunching, revamping Retoom. That's

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Speaker 2: shy telling.

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Speaker 3: We gods twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 4: We got a lot.

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Speaker 3: It's still a lot planning for you guys. So you

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Speaker 3: know that Eylu already includes monthly financial planning calls with me,

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Speaker 3: book club calls with Troy, real estate calls with MG

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Speaker 3: to mortgage Guy, access to the home Buying Blueprint Volume

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Speaker 3: one and Volume two. Part of the revamp will include

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Speaker 3: twenty seven local chapters from across the United States, live

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Speaker 3: interactive teaching, hands on not just pre recorded videos, plus

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Speaker 3: fifteen brand new curriculums.

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Speaker 2: The biggest just got viger.

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Speaker 5: Head over to eyl university dot com. That's EYL. You

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Speaker 5: n I V E R s I t y dot com.

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Speaker 6: See it there.

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Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 7: in Massachusetts and MS thir two gang member from Al

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Speaker 7: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged

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Speaker 7: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are

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Speaker 7: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of

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Speaker 7: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United

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Speaker 7: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal

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Speaker 7: border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and

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Speaker 7: over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If

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Speaker 7: you are here illegally, your next you will be fine

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Speaker 7: nearly one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you

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Speaker 7: will never return. But if you register using our CBP

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Speaker 7: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to

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Speaker 7: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump,

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Speaker 7: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 6: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 1: All right, guys, welcome back, Eyl.

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Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, are in the studio, back off the invest

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Speaker 4: Fest with one of the highlights of invest Fest. In fact,

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Speaker 4: if you didn't catch his interview with Big Facts, then

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Speaker 4: you definitely missed a great one. Hopefully they might put

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Speaker 4: that out. I don't know, but Lookray, I mean, you know,

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Speaker 4: we look at the music industry, somebody that's changed the game.

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Speaker 4: As far as the content is important. We'll talk about

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Speaker 4: the categoration of the content. But in a time where

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Speaker 4: you know, people have complained about a lot of negative

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Speaker 4: influences and music and how it influences people, especially young people.

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Speaker 4: I think that it's positive to have a balance. So

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Speaker 4: he's been able to do it and also an entrepreneur

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Speaker 4: running the record label twenty We just talked about twenty

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Speaker 4: seven awards from Grammys.

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Speaker 2: To people say.

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Speaker 1: To everything and just.

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Speaker 4: Been you know, a very interesting story. So thank you

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Speaker 4: for joining us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I'm excited to be here.

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Speaker 2: Boy, appreciate We saw each other in passing. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: was like my brother. I appreciate you so much.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I was. I had a blast. It was

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Speaker 1: a phenomenal time. Man, you phenomenal.

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Speaker 4: So for the people that may have heard about you

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Speaker 4: but not totally familiar with your story, yep.

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Speaker 1: So all right you. I want to make sure I

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Speaker 1: say this correctly.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you are a hip hop artists first and foremost,

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Speaker 4: but just content usually leaned towards Christian raph Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there's so many ways to spend that. This is

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Speaker 1: what I always try to tell people. I am authentically Christian,

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Speaker 1: but I am authentically hip hop. I'm kind of like

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Speaker 1: if outcasts in the books of Moses had came together,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's kind of like

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Speaker 1: sometimes it's a category for people, but that's the essence

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Speaker 1: of hip hop for a lot of folks. It's always

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Speaker 1: been this outlier that people didn't quite understand. And then

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Speaker 1: it was like, okay, hip hop is now mainstream. But

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Speaker 1: then it was like Southern rappers, what is that? And

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Speaker 1: then it's like now you got outcasts and it's mainstream.

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Speaker 1: Now the South is like on the forefront of it.

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Speaker 1: And I look at it the same way, you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like Wu Tang was spitting five

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Speaker 1: percent gyms and it's like, Okay, that's the perspective they're

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Speaker 1: coming from. This is the perspective I'm coming from. But

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's hip hop, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. So, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, honestly,

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Speaker 1: I never really thought about it like that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I never heard like rock Kim be classified as

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Speaker 4: a five percent.

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Speaker 1: Rapper exactly, exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hip hop music. It just has faith based

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Speaker 2: that's right.

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Speaker 4: But that's any anything that you do is going to

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Speaker 4: influence your life that you're living exactly, Like you know

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Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like, that's just that's just common sense.

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Speaker 4: That's rap about the things that you do on a

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Speaker 4: daily basis. So all right, so how did how did

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Speaker 4: this come about for you? As far as you're from

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Speaker 4: Houston originally, then you moved to the West coast, so

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Speaker 4: I'm assuming you grew up in a church.

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Speaker 1: I didn't. That's crazy, that's the part. So my mom,

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Speaker 1: my mom grew up in church and she had a

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Speaker 1: really negative experience. So it's like every leagual church the church. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so she had this real kind of rigorous like she

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Speaker 1: couldn't wear pants, makeup, and she this is in Houston,

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Speaker 1: Third War Houston, so it was really tough for her.

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Speaker 1: And at the same time, she's also the Black Panthers

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Speaker 1: is feeding her free breakfast and teaching her these lessons.

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Speaker 1: So she getting both of these worlds and she like,

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Speaker 1: wait a minute. So she's like, I don't want my

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Speaker 1: kid to have religion forced on them. So she raised

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Speaker 1: me to be a free thinker. So as a kid,

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Speaker 1: I'm reading Eldris Cleaver, I'm reading Autobio, Fory Malcolm XX,

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Speaker 1: I'm reading WB the Boy. She's like, Nah, we're not

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Speaker 1: doing this religious stuff. You know, she's a hippie, you know,

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Speaker 1: she got a little weed room and all of that,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So that was kind of

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Speaker 1: the world and she let me explore, and so I

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Speaker 1: just hip hop raised me, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: So that's just you know, And it wasn't until I

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Speaker 1: was a young adult going to a college Bible study

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Speaker 1: that you know. I had a four Rodgers University of

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Speaker 1: North Texas. Girl invited me to a Bible study. I went.

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Speaker 1: Never heard or any of this stuff before, and that's

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Speaker 1: when the transition started to happen. And I always rapped,

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Speaker 1: but now I had a different lens, so I didn't

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Speaker 1: know gospel music nothing. The first gospel album I ever

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Speaker 1: listened to, as far as I'm concerned, was The Miseducation

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Speaker 1: Laura Hill. So that's what I thought you do when

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Speaker 1: you meet God. I thought you rapped like that, So

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Speaker 1: that's what I started trying to do.

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Speaker 2: So this is late nineties, yep, right, because I feel

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Speaker 2: like we're from the same generation thousand, So you didn't

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Speaker 2: obviously you didn't grow up listening to gospel music, but

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Speaker 2: the hip hop era of that time, so mis educational law.

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Speaker 2: That's interesting. I've never thought of it in that sense.

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Speaker 2: Who else at this time is influencing you? Because I

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Speaker 2: know you're big on Jay for a a few reasons outcasts,

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Speaker 2: but who like What was it about the lyrics that said,

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Speaker 2: you know what, I love what they're doing Because at

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Speaker 2: this time people are talking about the negative impact that

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Speaker 2: hip hot has had. Kangs to music has just been

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Speaker 2: introduced in the early nineties. Now we're getting the bling

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Speaker 2: error going. How do you say, all right, I like this,

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Speaker 2: I'm listening to it. It's influencing me.

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Speaker 1: Let the script. So Tupac was probably my He was

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Speaker 1: like my dad, you know what I'm saying. So he

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Speaker 1: was so transparent and vulnerable. That vulnerability I wanted to

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Speaker 1: communicate in my music, you know what I'm saying, like

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Speaker 1: just the pain. He had a song called Papa Song

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Speaker 1: where he talked about his relationship with his dad. My

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Speaker 1: dad ran out on the family, you know, he was

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Speaker 1: doing his dirt, had his run ins with the law.

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Speaker 1: He was, you know, running with the crips and Compton

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Speaker 1: and I never saw him after I was four years old.

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Speaker 1: He was gone.

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Speaker 2: Nah.

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Speaker 1: I just saw him again for the first time in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty and we sat down and had a discussion

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Speaker 1: for the first time I filmed it in Everything So

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Speaker 1: Out in Cali, so hip hop was like my dad.

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Speaker 1: I was these were the men who were raising me.

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Speaker 1: I'm listening to these stories, and I was like, I

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Speaker 1: want to impact people the way pak Is impacted me.

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Speaker 1: After I met God and had my spiritual transformation, it

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm still like this to this day. But

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Speaker 1: it was like Righteous and Ratchet. So it's like I

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Speaker 1: still listened to the hood the rat stuff, but I

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Speaker 1: was trying to like, Yo, I'm changing. I need to

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Speaker 1: listen to Common now, I need to listen to to live,

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Speaker 1: I need to listen to Most. I need to listen

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Speaker 1: to some village, like I need some positive, like different

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Speaker 1: type of focus in my music. And so that's kind

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Speaker 1: of you know how I develop some of my craftsman shit.

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Speaker 1: But even just talking about things that matter to me

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Speaker 1: without feeling like I'm just trying to punch people in

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Speaker 1: the face with it, but just like it's just who

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Speaker 1: I am.

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Speaker 2: It's crazy that you reference those albums, but at the

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Speaker 2: same time I'm listening to those albums. So like Common

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Speaker 2: puts out b but you being obviously Houston having some roots.

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Speaker 2: I wonder how much Scarface played it because at this

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Speaker 2: time the Fix is coming out in that whole album,

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Speaker 2: classic album. Yeah, he's talking about faith, He's talking about God.

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Speaker 1: Man. My drummer to this day says Scarface is his

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Speaker 1: gospel music. He from Houston as well, So Houston. So

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Speaker 1: the funny thing is Houston the rap scene. When you

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Speaker 1: from something and you around something, it doesn't have the

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Speaker 1: same kind of influence on you as people would think.

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Speaker 1: So it was like the rap scene was everywhere, but

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Speaker 1: hip hop to me was so global. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: know what was happening with the West coast, the East coast.

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Speaker 1: You know. I wanted to know all about that because Houston,

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Speaker 1: I could walk out the house and that's right there. Well,

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Speaker 1: Houston taught me more than anything, and to this day,

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Speaker 1: Chamelionaire are still one of my dudes. What it taught

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Speaker 1: me more than anything is the hustle is the entrepreneurship

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Speaker 1: because everybody was selling their music out the trump. That's

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Speaker 1: why I have an independent label to this day is

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Speaker 1: because that's what I saw. You know, I went to

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Speaker 1: school in Texas. My partners was from Houston, and you

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Speaker 1: just saw how it worked. You saw entrepreneurship. So even

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Speaker 1: with my first CD. I went to the major label.

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Speaker 1: They said it's too it's too Christian. Take it to

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Speaker 1: the gospel label. I went to the gospel label. They

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Speaker 1: said it's too edgy. Take it to the mainstream label.

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Speaker 1: So I said, oh, neither one of them want me.

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Speaker 1: Let me create my own lane because that's what Houston

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Speaker 1: had to do. So it was like, all right, we're

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Speaker 1: coming out the trunk with it, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: And it's a crazy story. How it popped off from

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Speaker 1: me was I made the CD. I'm on my campus.

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Speaker 1: I got a group of folks who rocking with me.

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Speaker 1: I take it to the store or trying to sell

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Speaker 1: a box of CDs on consignment. They say we'll take one.

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Speaker 1: I give them one, and then I said, they say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: if somebody buys it, then we'll, you know, maybe we'll

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Speaker 1: buy some more. If they give them one, I send

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Speaker 1: four people up there. They go buy that one. They

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Speaker 1: say it will take five. I give them five. Within

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Speaker 1: two hours, all five are gone. They don't realize I

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Speaker 1: got four hundred people. You're sending people. I got four

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Speaker 1: hundred people ready to come. Where the four hundred people

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Speaker 1: from from my cop from my campus? Yeah, from my

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Speaker 1: campus who rocking with me and supporting me because I

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Speaker 1: was putting in the work on the yard, on the campus,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And just school. I'm at

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Speaker 1: North Texas University of North Texas. I tried to walk

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Speaker 1: on the basketball team, but it was too much, it

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Speaker 1: was too too much of a grind, you know what,

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Speaker 1: Scott say. I got full scholarship and performing arts, performing arts.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, okay, So as far as the independent side

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Speaker 4: of it, right, what what.

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Speaker 1: What's the steps that you took to actually have a label.

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Speaker 4: Because it's one thing to press up CDs and sell

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Speaker 4: them right right that.

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Speaker 1: That's a hustle.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, But if you have a label, that's a business, right,

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Speaker 4: So how do you just start a label?

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Speaker 1: So obviously you need to see capital to really begin

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Speaker 1: to do the work. My partner Ben, you know, he

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Speaker 1: had another friend of ours, a friend of his, who

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Speaker 1: was like, I got like five grand from my pops

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Speaker 1: that we can invest into this. So with that five thousand,

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Speaker 1: it was like, that's the lawyer drawing up getting a trademark, LLLLC,

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Speaker 1: all of those particular things, the logo, all of that

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Speaker 1: building it out. What we already had was a market base.

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Speaker 1: So we already had a fan base, We had a market.

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Speaker 1: We had good music because no one had ever heard

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Speaker 1: anything like this before, because I was blending the traditional

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Speaker 1: sounds of hip hop with my faith, and it was like,

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Speaker 1: what is this? You know what I mean? So we

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Speaker 1: knew we had something. We had a focused group with

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Speaker 1: the campus, you know what I'm saying. So the test

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Speaker 1: market the issue. Now, I was creating a business, and

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Speaker 1: so after the business was created, you know, we still

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Speaker 1: didn't really understand. No one went to business school, so

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Speaker 1: we still didn't understand how it works. So I'm reading books,

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Speaker 1: you know, the information is free. I'm reading Russell Simmons books.

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Speaker 1: I'm reading everybody's books trying to understand what this looks like.

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Speaker 1: And from there it was like, oh, we got to

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Speaker 1: put the UPC. We first we were selling CDs without

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Speaker 1: the UPC code. It is just like on the back

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Speaker 1: of the CD, just you know the bar code. People, Yeah, people, exactly.

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Speaker 1: You just learning that and you just learned pieces of

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Speaker 1: the game. I highly recommend, like if you got to

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Speaker 1: do it yourself, you'll learn the whole game. A lot

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Speaker 1: of times artists will give their artistry to someone else

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Speaker 1: and say, you figure it out, but you don't learn

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Speaker 1: the game that way. So for us, it was doing

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Speaker 1: it everything. I mean literally, I'm mailing every CD, I'm

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Speaker 1: mailing CDs to Australia and paying the fees on it

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Speaker 1: and learning like, oh I got figured out a different

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Speaker 1: way to do this, and so you know, it was

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Speaker 1: just a step by stay process. It was a slow burn,

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Speaker 1: but it was you know for slow grind, butter for

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Speaker 1: show grind. And that was that was two thousand and three,

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that was that's before iTunes. Yes, what's the transit

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Speaker 4: from the physical CDs to actually iTunes?

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Speaker 1: Espeah. So that was the dope part is we were young,

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Speaker 1: so our audience is young, you know because generally your

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Speaker 1: audience is like five to ten years younger than you, right,

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Speaker 1: So our audience is young. So transitioning to digital wasn't

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Speaker 1: a hard thing because we had a young audience. Older

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Speaker 1: audiences tend to struggle with like change. So for us,

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Speaker 1: it was like what what social media is today? Back

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Speaker 1: then was YouTube? So we just was on YouTube. We're

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Speaker 1: making content content. Here go a ePK, here go the

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Speaker 1: story of how this song was made, and our audience

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Speaker 1: is eating it up, and then we're saying, go to

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Speaker 1: iTunes and go get this, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: And that's how mainstream started to pay attention because we

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Speaker 1: didn't categorize ourselves in a Christian category. We put ourselves

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Speaker 1: in a hip hop category. So our fan base was

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Speaker 1: it was a ground swell and then it just jumped

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Speaker 1: up and all of a sudden, people are like, yo,

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Speaker 1: who what is the lak craze? Why is Lucreze beating

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Speaker 1: Nicki Minaj? I had the barbs coming at me crazy,

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Speaker 1: like would you be on the charts on the iTunes charts?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard your name before I even knew who

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Speaker 2: you were. Yeah, because I just kept saying I was,

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Speaker 2: I was. I mean, I go to church. I was

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Speaker 2: going to church every Sunday and I kept hearing it.

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Speaker 2: I got a few questions though, because it's interesting you

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Speaker 2: said mainstream, and I'm thinking to myself, people that go

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Speaker 2: to church, uh huh. The population is getting older and older.

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Speaker 2: I don't see as many young people going, so that's interesting.

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Speaker 2: So who's the how are you being received by church going?

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Speaker 2: The traditional gospel art that fred hamm is the Hezekia

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Speaker 2: Walkers who they're looking at like that's the music we

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Speaker 2: listened to when we go to church, whereas your approach

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Speaker 2: is like you might that's what I'm gonna listen to.

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Speaker 2: This almost feels like this is secular music exactly. It was.

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Speaker 1: How was that reception early on? But see it was

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Speaker 1: like n w A. It was like it's like the

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Speaker 1: more you say we are wrong, the more the young

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Speaker 1: folks wanted, you know, so we was getting. They hated us.

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Speaker 1: They was like, this is the devil rap in God.

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Speaker 1: Don't go together and look at their clothes and the

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Speaker 1: tattoos and you know, but the older pastors and churches,

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Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So even one dude went

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Speaker 1: on and made a series about us and how we

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Speaker 1: was people should not be listening to our music and

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Speaker 1: steamrolling it. And but that was fuel because it just

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Speaker 1: made younger folks say, oh, I gotta check this out.

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Speaker 1: What is this? You know what I'm saying exactly what happened?

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Speaker 1: And that's what that's what what what what ended up

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Speaker 1: happening for us, But we faced a lot of backlash. Oftentimes,

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Speaker 1: what would happen it would be like a youth pastor

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Speaker 1: or somebody like that who was like, Yo, my kids

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Speaker 1: rock with it. We're gonna bring you out to do something.

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Speaker 1: Or it would be like some hood outreach, you know,

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Speaker 1: where it wasn't connected to a church. It would just

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Speaker 1: be like somebody who is like just trying to impact

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Speaker 1: the neighborhood and they would bring us out and then

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Speaker 1: that's how it was spreading. But also there was a

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Speaker 1: sports camp in branch And Missouri and Missouri called Kids

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Speaker 1: Across America. And this camp was for like inner city

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Speaker 1: youth and they was kids off the block. But they

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Speaker 1: come into this camp to get this new experience, and

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Speaker 1: our music is pumping through the speakers. So these kids

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Speaker 1: are like, Yo, what is this. This is crazy and

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Speaker 1: they're loving it. So of course they're leaders and you know,

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Speaker 1: guidance counselors are like, I gotta get this music back

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Speaker 1: to them because it's connecting with them. And it just

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Speaker 1: was like a tumbleweed effect. Man, it just kept building.

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Speaker 2: So that that's exactly how I got introduced my pastor.

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Speaker 2: He came from music, say, the music background. He's a

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Speaker 2: little bit younger, he comes from he's from Queens, so

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Speaker 2: he'sent the hip hop and I was like, that's the

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Speaker 2: first time I heard it when I was in church.

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Speaker 2: The other part of that question is a lot of

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Speaker 2: times in hip hop, you know, people are rapping about

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Speaker 2: the environments that they're in.

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Speaker 1: Yep.

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Speaker 2: And so as you being faith based, I wonder what

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Speaker 2: the environment around you was like, because like I grew

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Speaker 2: up and like as an adult, I was going to church,

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Speaker 2: but none of my friends were going yeah, and it

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Speaker 2: was like I can't do nothing on Sunday. Sunday I

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Speaker 2: go church. So how much did that was that pressure

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Speaker 2: or was it like do people start performing around you

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Speaker 2: to saying, look, he's doing something, we should probably join him,

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Speaker 2: or were people kind of like reluctant to be a

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Speaker 2: part of this.

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Speaker 1: So this was the crazy part the because the black

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Speaker 1: community oftentimes, you know, we the white community has been

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Speaker 1: around the monopoly board more times than we have, right, So,

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Speaker 1: because we don't get as many chances around the monopoly board,

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Speaker 1: we're not as apt to change. We're a little tighter

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Speaker 1: on things. We're like, wait a minute, I don't know

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Speaker 1: because I'm first generation money, I can't be giving it away,

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Speaker 1: or you know, things along those lines. So the white

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Speaker 1: Christian community was like the first to really give me

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Speaker 1: a chance to let me rock. You know. The black

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Speaker 1: community was like, I don't know, this don't feel right.

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Speaker 1: White Christian community was like, dude, yes, do something different. Bro,

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Speaker 1: like yeah, get a rapper. They had already done the

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Speaker 1: Christian rock thing, so they bringing me out to these

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Speaker 1: rock festivals and they got it's I mean, it's sixty

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Speaker 1: thousand people out there, you know what I'm saying Billy

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Speaker 1: Graham speaking in all this type of stuff. So I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm out there and I'm like, the first encounter they've

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Speaker 1: ever had was something like this, and they're just they've

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Speaker 1: been around them, and I'll be brought a few more times.

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Speaker 1: They got the extra money to invest in it. They'll

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Speaker 1: take a risk a chance, so they was giving me

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Speaker 1: a chance to rock. And I did the same thing

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Speaker 1: that Jay did with Lincoln Park or the same thing

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Speaker 1: that run DMC did with Aerosmith, and I started blending

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Speaker 1: in some of the sounds with my song and I

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Speaker 1: would make a remix just for that event. And then

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Speaker 1: it was like Gangbusters. So now I had this community

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Speaker 1: rocking with me tough, and little by little, the black

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Speaker 1: community was like oh okay, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. We we okay, if it works,

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Speaker 1: then we'll take it, you know what I mean. And

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Speaker 1: it's understandable because you know, we're a little more like

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Speaker 1: wait a minute, reserved with what we got. So okay.

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Speaker 4: As far as like being an independent artist, we've seen

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Speaker 4: a lot of independent artists like Russ, even the Russell

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Speaker 4: shot him, where they've been able to make money, especially

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Speaker 4: like Russ, Like, you've been able to make a lot

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Speaker 4: of money, but I've never heard a Russ song played

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Speaker 4: like on a radio or something like that in life, right,

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Speaker 4: But he's he's been able to cultivate a cult following.

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Speaker 4: Do shows so merch whatever? Right, So a lot of

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Speaker 4: people don't. They don't understand that. They're like, how can

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Speaker 4: you how can you be a successful artist? If I

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Speaker 4: don't I've never seen this person.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 4: So you as an independent artist, right that has had

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Speaker 4: a lot of success, what's your blueprint as far as

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Speaker 4: you know, maintaining your your following? Yeah, you know, making

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Speaker 4: revenue while facing the challenges of not being like a

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Speaker 4: quote unquote mainstream mars.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think you know they say niches get riches,

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Speaker 1: So you know, are you taking care of your niche?

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Speaker 1: You're taking care of your your space. I never believed

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Speaker 1: that I was in any other business other than the

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Speaker 1: people business. You're always in the people business. If you

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Speaker 1: take care of people, they'll take care of you. So

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Speaker 1: if you just look at this as a transactional situation,

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Speaker 1: if you don't look at it as how can I

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Speaker 1: benefit the person on the other side, the consumer from

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Speaker 1: this B two C. How do I take care of them?

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Speaker 1: Because then they gonna take care of me. So, man,

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Speaker 1: we super serve our fans, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: Like every T shirt, we just look something small, throw

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Speaker 1: some jolly Ranchers in the package. When you send it

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Speaker 1: to them, they're like, yo, they sent me some candy.

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Speaker 1: It's just it's small, but it's like they feel considered,

430
00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:01,560
Speaker 1: you know, doing Q and A's. I was meeting greets

431
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:05,239
Speaker 1: with everybody when I first got started, you know, just

432
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 1: to like super serve the people that was coming to

433
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:13,359
Speaker 1: support me. And you got to realize, if your experience

434
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 1: is something, there's other people who are having a similar experience.

435
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:18,800
Speaker 1: So there's all you're not alone. So how do you

436
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 1: connect with the people who are dealing with or wrestling with,

437
00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 1: or experiencing stuff you're experiencing and that was how you

438
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:29,080
Speaker 1: know we did it? And that was the craziest, like

439
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:31,240
Speaker 1: just like what you're saying, Like with Russ and everything.

440
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,359
Speaker 1: I had the number one album in the country beat

441
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:39,480
Speaker 1: Maroon five, and everyone's like, how who is this? Who's

442
00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:41,320
Speaker 1: this person? I don't know a single song. I didn't

443
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,239
Speaker 1: have no record on the radio. So everyone's scratching their

444
00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:47,960
Speaker 1: head like why. It's because, man, I'm super serving my niche.

445
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:50,600
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm like, I'm at everywhere

446
00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 1: they are.

447
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:51,400
Speaker 2: I'm there.

448
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:55,040
Speaker 1: I'm doing the shows, I'm doing the meeting greets, I'm

449
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: connecting with them, I'm sending out the packages, I'm having conversations.

450
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,480
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times artists don't want

451
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 1: to put in that work and do that hand to

452
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:08,240
Speaker 1: hand transaction to understand the market. That's another thing I

453
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,080
Speaker 1: come from. So when I first got out of school,

454
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 1: I couldn't find a job. So I went to the

455
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,240
Speaker 1: cable guy. I was a cable guy. You know, I'm

456
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: an addicts fighting off rats, you know what I'm saying,

457
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,000
Speaker 1: installing cable and I hated it so much that one

458
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,080
Speaker 1: day the Vice president came to, like, give us this

459
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,920
Speaker 1: little motivational speech like, hey, you know, vice president of

460
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,159
Speaker 1: the cable company. You guys are are superstars. And I

461
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,119
Speaker 1: went up to her and I was like, yo, you know,

462
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: I got a background in marketing, you know, I went

463
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,879
Speaker 1: to school. Is it anyway, you know, because my day's

464
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:45,080
Speaker 1: off for Thursdays and Tuesdays and Thursdays, is it anyway

465
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:47,800
Speaker 1: I can come and intern for free, you know, whatever

466
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,680
Speaker 1: y'all need me to do. And she was like, oh okay.

467
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 1: So I went up into that building and I just

468
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 1: was soaking up game, just soaking up game, soaking up

469
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:00,159
Speaker 1: to the point where they was like, oh you we

470
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:01,720
Speaker 1: got to hire you. You're not a cable with it

471
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 1: no more. So now I'm working in a marketing department

472
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,960
Speaker 1: at the cable company, you know, and soaking up more games,

473
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 1: soaking up more games, so everything. I'm soaking up focused groups,

474
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:12,920
Speaker 1: test markets, how to talk to people, you know, running

475
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: a board meeting. This is our game. I'm soaking up.

476
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 1: So by the time I start my own company, I

477
00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: have a prototype from a very successful cable company on

478
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 1: certain little things. And I think it's just access to

479
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 1: that information helps you to understand how to connect to

480
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: a marketplace. I would reae some of those things that

481
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:35,159
Speaker 1: you learned. So one of the things which we do

482
00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:40,400
Speaker 1: now is, you know, do you have proof of concept? Right?

483
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,439
Speaker 1: So a lot of times, especially artists will say, yo,

484
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 1: my music's listen to music?

485
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 6: How do you know it?

486
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:46,919
Speaker 1: Though? You got proof of concept, like you made it,

487
00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:49,600
Speaker 1: your product, whatever you created, you do you have proof

488
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: of concept that is that people want this, that it works.

489
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: So you know, proof of concept is we tested it

490
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 1: and we got a good result. So what what they

491
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 1: tasked me with They couldn't figure out why Hispanic people

492
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 1: weren't watching this this network. And they was like, and

493
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: they're not buying our package for you know, the Latin

494
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:13,479
Speaker 1: community is not buying it. So I'm in Texas and

495
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:14,919
Speaker 1: I said, and so I said, well, let me do

496
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: a focus group, you know, because I've seen him do

497
00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: focus groups for other things. So I just said, you know,

498
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 1: let me get it, you know, get a bunch of

499
00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 1: the Latin community out here, let me ask them some questions.

500
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: And they and I'm like, why don't y'all watch this?

501
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: And they was like, it's Cuban, it's Puerto Rican, it's

502
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 1: we're Mexican. And he was like, oh, y'all speaking to

503
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:39,679
Speaker 1: the wrong people, you know what I'm saying. So it

504
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: was like, all right, no proof of concept, that's why

505
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: this package ain't working. Redo it. They redid it and

506
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 1: made more networking for the Mexican American community. Foun took

507
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:52,679
Speaker 1: off like Gangbusters. So same concept for me now is

508
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 1: I'll take my artist Limo Blaze. He's an afrobeat artist,

509
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:01,040
Speaker 1: a producer. Made this remix of a of a very

510
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 1: popular song. It went viral on his ig. I said,

511
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: they like this remix of this song. That's the sound.

512
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: That's proof of concept that this sound base works. You

513
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,679
Speaker 1: need to rap over this. He wraps over it, jumps

514
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,640
Speaker 1: up to top forty afrobeat charts. You know what I'm saying.

515
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: And it was just like we already saw it worked.

516
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: The market already said it worked, so so do that.

517
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:26,080
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things I learned. Work the

518
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: focus group. Yeah for music, Yeah, we do focus groups

519
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, so this is treating people. Yeah,

520
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: So we'll do a test market. We'll have like fans. See,

521
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 1: that's another way to super serve them as well, because

522
00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 1: now they getting exclusive let them here first exactly. So

523
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 1: we'll get a group of fans We'll say, heo, here's

524
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: six songs, rank them, you know what I mean, and

525
00:25:46,359 --> 00:25:48,480
Speaker 1: they'll be like, this one is this, that, this was this,

526
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 1: And you got two thousand fans and they like, these

527
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: are my top fives and this is why and this

528
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 1: is why. So now you got feedback, you got prooper concept. Yeah,

529
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 1: you and an office thought this was the joint that

530
00:25:57,240 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: ain't it.

531
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 2: Look, I'm want to say that for a sec. Right,

532
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 2: this sounds like you're big on analytics.

533
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: Oh for sure.

534
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 2: I can just hear it the way you're talking. So

535
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,159
Speaker 2: what happens when you do the focus group right? Because

536
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 2: sometimes it works, but sometimes you'll hear and like you said,

537
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 2: this ain't working. What are the lessons that you're learning

538
00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 2: from that? When it's like all right, yeah, we this

539
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 2: one didn't chart. What are we learning from this? Yeah?

540
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,159
Speaker 1: So one of the things you gotta learn. One of

541
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:21,919
Speaker 1: the things I've learned is that the market is always

542
00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 1: changing and what and even like the audiences are always changing,

543
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: so you can't always bank on it. A case in

544
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 1: point was, you know, I had a record with metro

545
00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 1: Booming called hammer Time, and at that point in time,

546
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: everything on rap Caviar that was doing well had metros

547
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: tag at the beginning, you know what I'm saying. So

548
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,879
Speaker 1: it's like the top ten songs got if your metro

549
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 1: don't trust you or something like you know, you know

550
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,399
Speaker 1: you're a Metro on a check. So it's like, all right,

551
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,200
Speaker 1: we're gonna, we're gonna, We're gonna run this song because

552
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 1: everything with Metro in it is taken off. We make

553
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: the record put it on. Rap Caviar didn't work because

554
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,240
Speaker 1: what's starting to happen was ear fatigue. It wasn't the

555
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: same thing. It didn't didn't work in the same way.

556
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: It didn't move the needle like it did. The audience

557
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,160
Speaker 1: had kind of already moved on, but we didn't realize that,

558
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:16,920
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's like you got

559
00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,159
Speaker 1: to understand, like where are people? And that's why I

560
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: keep younger people around me who are who are tapped

561
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: in and attuned to what's going on, because you are

562
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 1: looking at things from your vanished point and where you

563
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: are in life. But meanwhile, the cultures move in a

564
00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 1: completely different way. So it's always just like, you know,

565
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,280
Speaker 1: who has their ear to what's going on and where's

566
00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:39,960
Speaker 1: culture going? And how can I be tapped into the

567
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,200
Speaker 1: culture and if and that's that's sociology. That's just understanding

568
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,520
Speaker 1: where people are. You know, all the all good marketers

569
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: are sociologists and understand where the culture is.

570
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 2: So you you got the metro booming feature. Yeah, but

571
00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:55,600
Speaker 2: I wonder, as you're doing Reach Records and you're obviously

572
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:01,920
Speaker 2: creating music, who's the first person your background of influencing music,

573
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 2: that is receptive to it, that's accepted, accepting to it

574
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 2: and saying like this is a guy we need to

575
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,119
Speaker 2: rock on. Who's the first feature just like this is

576
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 2: now about my life about to change for me?

577
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, the person that that that tapped in early Don

578
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 1: Cannon uh, Don Cannon DJ, you know, the Gangster Grills

579
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,439
Speaker 1: mixtapes and all that type of stuff was popping. So

580
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,920
Speaker 1: I would say this kind of too. It's my Gods

581
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 1: Street Symphony. So Street and I went to school together.

582
00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,040
Speaker 1: Street went to work for a Luda disturbing the piece. He's,

583
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: you know, doing all this type of work. Street starts,

584
00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: you know, He's like, man, God is showing up my life.

585
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 1: I want to transition and do some do some different things.

586
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 1: Craig Let's work together. He already was plugged with Don Cannon.

587
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,880
Speaker 1: He links me with Don Cannon and we get the idea, like, Yo,

588
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:48,480
Speaker 1: we need to do a mixtape. You know what I'm saying.

589
00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:50,800
Speaker 1: What we're gonna call it church close. While we call

590
00:28:50,800 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: it church close because everyone expects us to wear a

591
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,320
Speaker 1: suit and tie, but we out here in jeans and

592
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 1: tattoos and fitteds, and we these are church clothes, you

593
00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:02,479
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So no one was putting it

594
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: was the first time anybody put like a Christian rap

595
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:08,320
Speaker 1: mixtape on like that Pith and all them type of sites. Right,

596
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: So Don Cannon is like, I'm with it. We we

597
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 1: you know, I get beats from Ninth Wonder I get.

598
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: You know, I had met Kendrick a couple of years

599
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 1: prior me and Kendrick built a dope relationship. Kendrick does

600
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,640
Speaker 1: a little intro on my video for the song and

601
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: it crashes the mixtape website. You know what I'm saying.

602
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: It was they the downloads were so crazy. One was

603
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:38,120
Speaker 1: our fans. Two was the intrigue, cause it's like, is

604
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: this gonna be dope? What is this gonna be? So

605
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: it's like people just intrigued wanting to listen to it.

606
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 1: And you know that for us was like confirmation. It

607
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, Don Cannon did the mixtape you get

608
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:52,960
Speaker 1: you hear him in the background. It's the mixtape era too,

609
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: so it's like you hear him in the background, and

610
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,320
Speaker 1: people like, what is this ninth Wonder Beats And it's like, Yo,

611
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 1: this is crazy. We never heard nothing like this before.

612
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: And I think that's when people was really like tapped in.

613
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: And then the second thing I would say was the

614
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: catalyzer that pushed me over again. I'm doing the work

615
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:12,880
Speaker 1: on the front end. So you a lot of artists

616
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: don't have what Malcolm glad Well says, they ten thousand hours.

617
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, ten thousand hours is gonna

618
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: make you an expert or something. I had my ten

619
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:23,760
Speaker 1: thousand hours in so by the time I got to

620
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,760
Speaker 1: this moment, this watershed moment, I was ready for it.

621
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:29,640
Speaker 1: And that watershed moment was my my publicist at the time,

622
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,120
Speaker 1: Tasha Stout, got me on the BT cipher.

623
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 2: For the Hip Hop Awards.

624
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 1: They didn't know what category to put me in, so

625
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: they put me in a foreigners category. So I'm in

626
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:44,240
Speaker 1: there with French dudes. Estelle you know from London. But

627
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: I'm ready, you know, I've been groomed for this moment.

628
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: That's my watershed moment and they never heard nothing like it.

629
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 1: I'm getting hit up Royster five and all these rappers

630
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: like what is this? And that was when it was

631
00:30:57,440 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: like we own you know what I mean.

632
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 4: So as far as like you mentioned Rara Cavear, Yeah,

633
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:08,120
Speaker 4: how important is that for artist's career to kind of

634
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:11,000
Speaker 4: get on those type of playlists and how do you

635
00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 4: even get on that?

636
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:12,200
Speaker 2: Yeah?

637
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 1: Playlisting is that's another thing, is like there's errors. I'm

638
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: not gonna say it's not important, but what I will

639
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:20,920
Speaker 1: say is it's not as important as it once was.

640
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: So it's like radio radio was once it like if

641
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: it's not radio, it's nothing. It's not moving the needle.

642
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: After radio, it was playlisting. Playlisting was it. If it

643
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: wasn't playlisted, then it wasn't moving the needle. Now it's

644
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 1: social media, it's TikTok, it's reels, you know what I mean?

645
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 1: If that's moving the needle. And so if you are

646
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: not connected, like I wouldn't even sign an artist who

647
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: doesn't have a social media following a platform, you know,

648
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: because if they're not engaged on social media. What they're

649
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: telling me is they're not willing to do the work.

650
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 1: So it's like, nah, you want somebody to do to

651
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,080
Speaker 1: work for you. I'm not gonna do the work for you.

652
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to work yourself. So now I would

653
00:31:59,360 --> 00:32:01,880
Speaker 1: say social media and you got the beautiful thing. And

654
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: where we are now, as in industry, is the floodgates

655
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: are wide open. Everyone has equal opportunity access make your music.

656
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 1: Your test market is social media. They gonna let you

657
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: know if it's dope. The only downside is that do

658
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: you have the ten thousand hours to recreate what you did?

659
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,000
Speaker 1: And a lot of artists don't have that, you know

660
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:24,720
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's like Fifth just said it on

661
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 1: a recent interview that he was gonna sign Designer, but

662
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:29,720
Speaker 1: Designer only had that one song, and he was like,

663
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: you don't have another one. I don't have any confidence

664
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: you can even make another one. And so I tend

665
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: to look for artists who have they made it once,

666
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 1: they made it twice. There's a consistency, there's a pattern

667
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,720
Speaker 1: of consistency. So if if one of them pops off,

668
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: I know they can do it again. They didn't put

669
00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:46,440
Speaker 1: in the man power in the hours.

670
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 2: The artists that you're looking for, are they all faith based?

671
00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:51,600
Speaker 2: Faith based?

672
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: Absolutely?

673
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 2: So they have to be faith based. The other part

674
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:56,920
Speaker 2: is that it's a challenge, right. Social media is a

675
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 2: challenge because, like you said, it's ever evolving algorithm change.

676
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 2: How do you keep it authentic without making it corny?

677
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:04,080
Speaker 1: Right?

678
00:33:04,080 --> 00:33:06,880
Speaker 2: When people hear church, they're like, yeah, I ain't come

679
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 2: here for this. How do y'all manage to make it

680
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:10,880
Speaker 2: something that people wanted to into?

681
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: It's category? It's categories, So you know, I would say,

682
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,880
Speaker 1: you know, you got different iterations and different types of artists.

683
00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 1: So I got some artists who lean into it heavy,

684
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:29,520
Speaker 1: like this song is like a worship rap record, you

685
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, And they lean into it and

686
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: there's an audience for that, and and we want them

687
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: to do exactly that. I got other artists who they

688
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 1: have more of a mainstream presence, you know what I'm saying,

689
00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 1: and they are more creative. You know, they blend it

690
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,840
Speaker 1: up and if you listen, you might not know that's

691
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:52,320
Speaker 1: a Christian record. So like my buddy that we signed

692
00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: years ago, Andy Mino, the song that we had that

693
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 1: took off as number one record, was one of the

694
00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:03,400
Speaker 1: most streamed, and it was viral on social media. Was

695
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: coming in Hot, coming in hot, you know what I mean?

696
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,279
Speaker 1: Everybody here's a song, right, But Andy's the type of artist.

697
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:13,280
Speaker 1: It's like, you're not gonna know he's this faith based

698
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: artist just on first. You gotta like get into his

699
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 1: ecosystem to really kind of know where he's at with it. Right,

700
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:26,959
Speaker 1: So it's still it is clean, it's not negative, and

701
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:28,839
Speaker 1: it may not have a message right away, but it's

702
00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: something that still resonates with the with the broader culture.

703
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:34,719
Speaker 1: Then I got artists in the middle where they can

704
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:36,799
Speaker 1: go over here or they can go over here. Like

705
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:40,720
Speaker 1: my artist one k Few he's he got he's from Atlanta.

706
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,239
Speaker 1: He got records with Zetoven, with Hancho, But then he

707
00:34:44,280 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: also got records with like a gospel artist, and so

708
00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,759
Speaker 1: he can go in both spaces. And so you just

709
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:52,320
Speaker 1: I let them be the authentic seales because otherwise it

710
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,760
Speaker 1: will come off corny to the artists.

711
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,840
Speaker 2: It's like a Hancho for example, Yeah, when y'all do

712
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 2: the record, is it like with you know, it's just

713
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 2: faith based or he's like yo be yourself and what

714
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 2: the censor? How do you how do you approach that?

715
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: So the crazy part is I think people kind of

716
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: cater to where they think you are. Sometimes they overdo it,

717
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like they in they mind,

718
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: they got to come in there saying like hallelujah, you

719
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: know what I mean.

720
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,360
Speaker 2: It's like yo, yeah, chill, chill at.

721
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,080
Speaker 1: It's like chi chi chill chill you yo yo yo,

722
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:32,759
Speaker 1: fall back, you're going too crazy, just like you know,

723
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 1: like chill. A lot of times we'll have a conversation

724
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 1: and we'll just talk about it, talk it through, but

725
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,720
Speaker 1: it's rarely an issue. It's mostly we try to create

726
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:48,280
Speaker 1: the songs that's neutral territory. So it's like, yo, let's

727
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,120
Speaker 1: talk about you got kids, I got kid. Let's talk

728
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: about being a father, being a present father, how we

729
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: didn't have that. Let's let's do a song about that. Like,

730
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: let's not put you in a lane that's weird for

731
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: you and it's gonna make it awkward. And I learned

732
00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 1: that the hard way because I did a record with

733
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:06,319
Speaker 1: Big crit years ago called may Day Fire Record. But

734
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: in the record, you know, he's talking about his struggle

735
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,600
Speaker 1: with faith and wrestling with God and so on and

736
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,960
Speaker 1: so forth, and it kind of put him. He's talking

737
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: to this audience that is not expecting to hear this

738
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: coming from him, right, So they this hyper religious people

739
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: got Adam and was mad at him and like, don't

740
00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:32,480
Speaker 1: talk about this and why would you do this? And

741
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,360
Speaker 1: you know, kind of was off putting to him. So

742
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:35,840
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm not trying to put you in an

743
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: awkward space either. I want you to talk about what

744
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable talking about. And then you got artists

745
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,000
Speaker 1: like Ti dollar Sign. I did a record with Ty

746
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,319
Speaker 1: and Ty was like, bruh, I love gospel music. I

747
00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: was raised on it. I want to do this song

748
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:47,359
Speaker 1: I got. I'm gonna write a verse for it. I said,

749
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:48,680
Speaker 1: we just wanted you to a hook. Noah, I got

750
00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:51,359
Speaker 1: a verse and for him, he wanted to do that.

751
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:52,880
Speaker 1: So it was like, all right, bet.

752
00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:56,400
Speaker 4: So what about like booking shows and touring, because I

753
00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:58,360
Speaker 4: know that's the major part as far as you do

754
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,040
Speaker 4: that independent or you work with like a lot nations.

755
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:08,879
Speaker 1: That work done both. I prefer independent just because when

756
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,520
Speaker 1: you have a niche audience, nobody knows them like you do.

757
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,280
Speaker 1: And if you can understand your audience, and your market

758
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:17,560
Speaker 1: you can serve them better. So I've done both, but

759
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 1: I like it better doing it myself. That's another thing

760
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,520
Speaker 1: is like I'm big on touring because that's what I

761
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:29,880
Speaker 1: was fortunate to see, like some of these big crossover

762
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:35,320
Speaker 1: rock groups. You know, Like you know a lot of

763
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 1: people don't realize a lot of these big rock groups

764
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 1: like Evanescence or pair Erners. What's up?

765
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:43,880
Speaker 2: You ever walk into a small business and everything just works,

766
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 2: like the checkout is fast, or seats are digital, tipping

767
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,239
Speaker 2: is a breeze and you're out the door before the

768
00:37:50,280 --> 00:37:54,680
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769
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,840
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770
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771
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Speaker 2: pop up market, or even one of our merch partners.

772
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773
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774
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775
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776
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777
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778
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779
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780
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781
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782
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783
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784
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795
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811
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Speaker 1: They started off on the Christian side, you know what

812
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:35,040
Speaker 1: I mean. Create, Yeah, they started on Christian side, and

813
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 1: so I was fortunate to see how they move and

814
00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:39,600
Speaker 1: how they do it because I was over there with them.

815
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: So it was like, oh, you got a tour, and

816
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 1: a lot of our artists don't understand touring. So for

817
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 1: mainstream hip hop, well we take that soft money. We

818
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: go to the club, right, Yeah, they're gonna give you

819
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 1: forty bands, but they're not already coming for you. They

820
00:40:55,719 --> 00:40:57,719
Speaker 1: trying to go to the club because it's lit and

821
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: you happen to be there. So it's like great, as

822
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: long as your song is popping, you can get a

823
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:06,440
Speaker 1: club date. But you're not building a fan base. Our

824
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:08,600
Speaker 1: club is the church. So if you're doing these church

825
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: events all the time, you not building an audience. Right,

826
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,600
Speaker 1: They they come in to church anyway, you know what

827
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 1: I'm saying, They coming to the club anyway. So you

828
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 1: not building an audience. You just capitalizing off of what

829
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 1: is already there, that built in audience, And it looks

830
00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: good until you don't have a hit and nobody wants

831
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 1: to book you for that event. So what we learned

832
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 1: was to build our own audience and our own touring.

833
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,640
Speaker 1: So we started doing our own tours. And you know,

834
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:41,560
Speaker 1: Tech nine another good friend. You know, I sat with

835
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:43,520
Speaker 1: Tech nine and saw how he built his empire, been

836
00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:45,799
Speaker 1: to his studio, been in his warehouse and saw what

837
00:41:45,840 --> 00:41:48,440
Speaker 1: they did and how they did touring, and just kind

838
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 1: of soaked up some game and made sure my artists

839
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 1: were touring artists. You gotta be a hard ticket artist.

840
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:57,920
Speaker 1: That's how you're gonna have longevity. I've been doing this

841
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 1: twenty years because I built a fan. A lot of

842
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: people don't build hard ticket artists hard ticket fans. So

843
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,440
Speaker 1: because of that, you know, they don't know how to

844
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:11,879
Speaker 1: do it. And that's what happens to hip hop a lot.

845
00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 1: So I've had big, major, major artists come to me SAYO,

846
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 1: how you do tour? What do we need to do? Like,

847
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:17,719
Speaker 1: can we We'll get you on the radio if you

848
00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:20,440
Speaker 1: can get us touring, teach us the game, let's trade secrets,

849
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,919
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just something that rock band's been doing.

850
00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:26,480
Speaker 1: That's why they toured forever. So what is the secret

851
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: to that? The secret is you. You can't be afraid.

852
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:34,000
Speaker 1: You can't be afraid to start small. And that's what

853
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,000
Speaker 1: we be afraid of. We don't want to look lame.

854
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 1: We're like, nah bro, one.

855
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:40,879
Speaker 2: Hundred people, Nah Bro, I ain't going out there.

856
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: I ain't doing that. Travis Scott, That's what he did.

857
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 4: You know, what is it financially beneficial to Because when

858
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 4: you go on tour, you're gonna have to bring a DJ.

859
00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:51,319
Speaker 4: At the very least, you have to bring a DJ,

860
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 4: you're gonna have to bring. It's at least five people

861
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 4: that probably kind of have to come with you, right. Yeah,

862
00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 4: So if you're doing shows for a hundred for one

863
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:00,919
Speaker 4: hundred people, let's say you charge you twenty forty. Yeah,

864
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:02,800
Speaker 4: from the artists standpoint, they look at it probably like

865
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:03,760
Speaker 4: I'm losing money.

866
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,800
Speaker 1: What's the point of doing it? Yes, it's two things.

867
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:13,399
Speaker 1: One is you're telling the story, so it's branding, right,

868
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 1: So part of that is is your story building. You're

869
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 1: telling the story, so sometimes you're gonna have to do that.

870
00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to tell a story that makes people

871
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 1: want to come and pay for the next one. So

872
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: you you know, it's the cost benefit analysis. It's like

873
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:29,280
Speaker 1: this is gonna cost me this, but what's the benefit?

874
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 1: And it's the benefit gonna outweigh the initial cost. And

875
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,480
Speaker 1: then two, if you can do enough shows, you can

876
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:38,879
Speaker 1: break even or make a little bit of money, right,

877
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:40,360
Speaker 1: if you do enough of them. Yeah, if you do

878
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 1: two shows, five shows, you probably you're gonna lose money.

879
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:45,880
Speaker 1: But if you can, let's say you do twenty, it's like, oh,

880
00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 1: you might break even doing one hundred people, But if

881
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:52,080
Speaker 1: you do one hundred and you know you put on

882
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:53,719
Speaker 1: a good show. You got to invest in your show.

883
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:55,399
Speaker 1: A lot of rappers get up there with the DJ

884
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 1: walking back and forth on the stage, like investing your show,

885
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 1: make it something people want to and then you just

886
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 1: keep building it and building it and building. It's like

887
00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:06,720
Speaker 1: flipping houses. It's like you gotta buy a cheap house first,

888
00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:09,719
Speaker 1: put a little bread into it. After you put some

889
00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 1: bread into it, then you flip it and you sell

890
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: it for more. Then you take that bread, you reinvest

891
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 1: in another one a little bit more, a little bit more,

892
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 1: a little bit more, a little bit more. And that's

893
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,600
Speaker 1: it's the same concept with touring. You know what I mean?

894
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 2: As you're doing this from an entrepreneurial journey, you're learning

895
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 2: and growing, but I want it from the spiritual side,

896
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 2: right Like that also is an evolving process for how

897
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 2: do y'all and as a leader and the founder of

898
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,960
Speaker 2: a company and having artists under you, how do y'all

899
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:41,160
Speaker 2: tap into that? Are y'all doing retreats or is it

900
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 2: like because I watched my brother go through seminary school, wow,

901
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:49,200
Speaker 2: and I was like, bro, he's a passer. Now study theology.

902
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 2: What is that like for you? As a leader of

903
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 2: your company.

904
00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I take it back to we

905
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:04,160
Speaker 1: were talking fifty earlier. The reason why we bought into

906
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:10,000
Speaker 1: fifth is because of the authenticity. You really got shot.

907
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,280
Speaker 1: It was really in the streets, what you rap about,

908
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:19,319
Speaker 1: you really live. I think that is a paramount importance

909
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:24,880
Speaker 1: for what I'm doing and what I'm building. Is this

910
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:27,919
Speaker 1: your real life, right? And how do we make sure

911
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: this is your real life? Like, how are we investing

912
00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,960
Speaker 1: in the youth so that you are spiritually grounded so

913
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: when you do get up there and you talk in it,

914
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: this is not just talk. This is your life. So

915
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 1: you know, part of that includes mentor shit. You know,

916
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:43,839
Speaker 1: I'm big on that. I'm big on just like yo,

917
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:46,359
Speaker 1: I'll get into trenches with my artists and like, let's

918
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,320
Speaker 1: wrestle through things. Here's some book. I give them book recommendations.

919
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: You know. We read through books together, we do studies together.

920
00:45:51,719 --> 00:45:55,280
Speaker 1: We've done retreats, you know, all of those particular things.

921
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:59,200
Speaker 1: And I've just been very privileged man living in Atlanta

922
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:04,319
Speaker 1: and seeing the inner workings of organizations. I see the

923
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:08,239
Speaker 1: inn you know, me and Andrew cathy who the son

924
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 1: of Dan Cathiye who owns Chick fil A. You know,

925
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:12,879
Speaker 1: we've sat numerous times. I get to see the inner

926
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 1: workings of Chick fil A. You know, my homegirl is

927
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:17,800
Speaker 1: at Delta. I get to see the inner workings of Delta.

928
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:21,839
Speaker 1: And one of the books that I highly recommend that

929
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:23,560
Speaker 1: that has helped us and I tell other people is

930
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:26,319
Speaker 1: for d X. You know what I'm saying. And for

931
00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 1: d X is a book that teaches you how to

932
00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:35,280
Speaker 1: structure your business, how to create, you know, an infrastructure,

933
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:39,360
Speaker 1: and teaches you, like sometimes you're so busy working in

934
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:42,120
Speaker 1: the business, you don't work on the business. And so

935
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 1: if I'm constantly working in it, I'm not working on it.

936
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:46,920
Speaker 1: What does my staff need? You know, what do my

937
00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: artists need? What's the needs right now? Because if I'm

938
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: constantly just cracking a whip and I'm not taking the

939
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 1: inventory of what they need, you know, we'll do reviews

940
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: and we'll do stop start continues, say well, what do

941
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: you need to stop doing. Here's what you need to

942
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 1: start doing, here's you need to continue doing. This is

943
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:05,720
Speaker 1: what you're doing well. And so always constant evaluations, always

944
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,239
Speaker 1: constantly working on ourselves, like you said, the spiritual retreats,

945
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:13,640
Speaker 1: the prayer times, the groups. We do devotionals, you know,

946
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:15,680
Speaker 1: I see Chick fil A, they do the devotionals, they

947
00:47:15,719 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: do all kinds of stuff like that. So we're just

948
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:18,280
Speaker 1: incorporating them things.

949
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:22,280
Speaker 4: So like Low Russell and a couple of other artists

950
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:24,000
Speaker 4: that we interviewed, somebody had a platform where a lot

951
00:47:24,040 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 4: of artists now independent there. They're like having a pay

952
00:47:28,600 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 4: what you want strategy. Yeah that Nah, we don't do that.

953
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:39,399
Speaker 1: I'm not I understand it. I do think, I do

954
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 1: think I get that. I think at the stage that

955
00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:48,680
Speaker 1: like the Russell's at, he's in a disruptor stage, which

956
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: that's dope, and I salute him for that. You know,

957
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,480
Speaker 1: I want to work with him. You know, we've talked

958
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:56,560
Speaker 1: about doing some stuff. I'm not in the disruptor stage

959
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:58,920
Speaker 1: in the state of my career. So at this stage

960
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:01,279
Speaker 1: of my career, you know, I got out, you know,

961
00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 1: an office full of employees and multiple artists, like I

962
00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,600
Speaker 1: have to think about maximization. You know, I'm not like

963
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:11,960
Speaker 1: the lean startup you know, I'm not at that stage.

964
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 1: If you're in the lean startup stage, obviously do some

965
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 1: disruptive things, you know what I mean, because you lean

966
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:21,360
Speaker 1: and you can move lean. I got four to one kse.

967
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,400
Speaker 1: We can't play no games. So for us, it's like

968
00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:29,200
Speaker 1: we think we have to think a little bit bigger. Now,

969
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,000
Speaker 1: maybe there's one artist that we can do that experiment on,

970
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:35,360
Speaker 1: but as a whole, we can't be that disruptive. We

971
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 1: have to move in the flow of business in some senses,

972
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,800
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, Like where is the business

973
00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:45,239
Speaker 1: culture going? And you go with the flow. If you're

974
00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,360
Speaker 1: a disruptor, you're going against the flow of where business

975
00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 1: is to create something different. And I've been there and

976
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:55,319
Speaker 1: it's effective. But this would always tell people. It's like

977
00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:01,200
Speaker 1: when you start off your business company, you play golf, right,

978
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:04,400
Speaker 1: and when you're playing golf, everybody uses the same tool.

979
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,960
Speaker 1: Everybody gets to hit the ball, everybody puts it in

980
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: the hole. It's all hands on deck. You can be

981
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:14,399
Speaker 1: a disruptor playing golf. It's fine. You get a little

982
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:18,960
Speaker 1: bigger as basketball. Right, Everybody touches the ball, everybody shoots,

983
00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 1: some shoot more than others, some pass more than others.

984
00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: But we got different roles. But when you get big enough,

985
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 1: which is like you know, it gets very intense. You

986
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 1: got multiple employees. You playing football, and when you're playing football.

987
00:49:37,960 --> 00:49:41,279
Speaker 1: Everybody can't be the kicker. Everybody can't be the quarterback. Yeah,

988
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 1: your homeboys, that's your man. You grew up with him.

989
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 1: Y'all's playing golf. It was all good. He can't catch

990
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 1: You gotta have a specialized person who knows how to

991
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:56,040
Speaker 1: do that role. And that's when you know it can

992
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 1: get sticky and tricky. But you have to kind of

993
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 1: put that hat on and go in the flow of

994
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:03,560
Speaker 1: business and say, man, if we're gonna do this right,

995
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:06,799
Speaker 1: we need the right person for this particular thing. Like Yo,

996
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:11,440
Speaker 1: Shorty was dope grinding underground, but we need somebody who's

997
00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:16,200
Speaker 1: skilled in marketing because the budget is higher, what's on

998
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:17,760
Speaker 1: the line is more crucial.

999
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 2: So let's talk about that. The business culture of hip

1000
00:50:21,200 --> 00:50:23,960
Speaker 2: hop really Yeah, when you started early two thousands, you

1001
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:25,200
Speaker 2: said there was balance.

1002
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:26,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, right.

1003
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:28,520
Speaker 2: What people talk about now is that the absence or

1004
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 2: the lack of balance.

1005
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:29,759
Speaker 1: Right.

1006
00:50:29,840 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 2: So for every I don't know, little dirt, who is

1007
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 2: the next person right there? There is no common right now,

1008
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 2: right right there is for every Ice Spice who is

1009
00:50:39,040 --> 00:50:39,640
Speaker 2: the Lauryn Hill?

1010
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:40,840
Speaker 1: Yeah?

1011
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:43,919
Speaker 2: How difficult is it to now crack through in a space?

1012
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,120
Speaker 2: But there's no balance it's a good thing and a

1013
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:47,600
Speaker 2: bad thing.

1014
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 1: To me. I think it's a good thing in a

1015
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:52,200
Speaker 1: sense that it doesn't exist as much as it did,

1016
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 1: so people are thirsty for it. So when they get

1017
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:56,640
Speaker 1: a taste of it, they're like, what is this? This

1018
00:50:56,719 --> 00:51:01,080
Speaker 1: is amazing, So there's room for it. But at the

1019
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:07,879
Speaker 1: same time, I think as a culture, you know, hip

1020
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:14,400
Speaker 1: hop as a culture is getting like so frivolous and

1021
00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:22,320
Speaker 1: careless that it could put itself in a very bad situation.

1022
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:25,520
Speaker 1: So similar to rock and roll, right, rock and roll

1023
00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:31,080
Speaker 1: just got so crazy, like so off the hinges, it

1024
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:36,240
Speaker 1: became nonexistent. It's like you used, you drugged yourself to death,

1025
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:40,399
Speaker 1: you prostituted yourself out to death, and now no one

1026
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:44,360
Speaker 1: is interested. Right, It's like there's nothing, there's no texture

1027
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: to it. It's gone. And I feel like hip hop

1028
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 1: is runs the risk of following the same pattern as

1029
00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:52,759
Speaker 1: rock and roll. Like once upon a time, rock and

1030
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:57,399
Speaker 1: roll was everything. Now it's like, who's that? What's rock

1031
00:51:57,440 --> 00:51:59,920
Speaker 1: and roll? So hip hop runs the risk of being

1032
00:51:59,920 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 1: like yo, you prostituting yourself to death. You drugging yourself

1033
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,840
Speaker 1: to death. Eventually there's gonna be no substance to hold

1034
00:52:07,880 --> 00:52:10,120
Speaker 1: on to to like even it's just gonna be a

1035
00:52:10,160 --> 00:52:16,480
Speaker 1: bunch of chaos and you turn into what my man

1036
00:52:16,560 --> 00:52:20,719
Speaker 1: Tehran calls like y'all remember the little hands that you

1037
00:52:20,840 --> 00:52:23,000
Speaker 1: that were sticky and you see, you know what I'm saying,

1038
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:25,600
Speaker 1: You just pick up stuff with it. You turn into

1039
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:27,560
Speaker 1: that to where it's like you just like the blob,

1040
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:31,319
Speaker 1: knowing you don't have no distinction anymore. It's like you

1041
00:52:31,480 --> 00:52:34,360
Speaker 1: part of country, you part of pop, you part of

1042
00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:37,759
Speaker 1: every You not your own thing anymore. Like what is

1043
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 1: hip hop culture in twenty twenty four? You know what

1044
00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:41,440
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, once upon a time it was distinct.

1045
00:52:41,600 --> 00:52:43,800
Speaker 1: Now it's like it's.

1046
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 4: What do you think about artists that you know a

1047
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 4: lot of artists when they become more spiritual? Yeah, it's backlash.

1048
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1049
00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 4: Even talking about little Dirk right, like he's in an

1050
00:52:57,480 --> 00:52:59,880
Speaker 4: interesting space right now. Everybody knows how he started as

1051
00:52:59,880 --> 00:53:02,480
Speaker 4: a drie rapper. Yeah, and he's taking a very spiritual

1052
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:04,640
Speaker 4: turn in his life, not necessarily his music, but in

1053
00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:07,879
Speaker 4: his life life. And I'm watching him and he sees

1054
00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:10,319
Speaker 4: he's trying to walk both sides. He's trying to say,

1055
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:12,320
Speaker 4: I'm a different person, but I'm still gonna make the

1056
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 4: same music, which is kind of difficult.

1057
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:16,680
Speaker 1: And now people are criticizing.

1058
00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:18,720
Speaker 4: Him like, well, how you're going to be a devout

1059
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:20,640
Speaker 4: Muslim and you're talking about killing people.

1060
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:25,040
Speaker 1: Right, and it's it's a weird space.

1061
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:28,440
Speaker 4: And like some rappers like me, they just left like

1062
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:30,800
Speaker 4: he's like as opposed to try to walk that line.

1063
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 4: It's like, I'm out right, So what's your thoughts on that?

1064
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:37,080
Speaker 4: Because it's like it's one thing if you start how

1065
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 4: you started. Yeah, there's another thing if you if you

1066
00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 4: start very secular and then you make a one to

1067
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,640
Speaker 4: eighty turn and now people is like disappointed, they say,

1068
00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:49,360
Speaker 4: and it's not real. They overly judging you for everything

1069
00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:53,680
Speaker 4: now because the expectations are so that's a very difficult

1070
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:54,400
Speaker 4: space to be in.

1071
00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:58,040
Speaker 1: I totally agree. I'm a big fan of taking people

1072
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:01,480
Speaker 1: with you, right, Like, don't do a hard left on folks,

1073
00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:04,759
Speaker 1: take them on a journey with you, because if you

1074
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:06,680
Speaker 1: bust that hard left, it's like a bait and switch.

1075
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm different now. And I tell this to

1076
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,359
Speaker 1: a lot of my younger Christian artists. It's a young

1077
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:18,160
Speaker 1: lady out here. I was just talking with her. Her

1078
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:21,040
Speaker 1: producer last night. She's like a New York drill artist,

1079
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:23,960
Speaker 1: right she meets God, she wants to change. I started

1080
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:27,560
Speaker 1: listening to her songs and it's like I'm killing the

1081
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,560
Speaker 1: devil with my Bible, you know what I mean. And

1082
00:54:29,600 --> 00:54:32,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, slow down, because all you're really doing is

1083
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 1: trading in your old ops for the devil. And it's

1084
00:54:36,120 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 1: weird to somebody, like what is happening right now? This

1085
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:42,680
Speaker 1: is strange. So I was like, yo, take your people

1086
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:47,200
Speaker 1: with you. Talk about the story of when you left

1087
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:49,880
Speaker 1: the club and you was feeling empty and you was

1088
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:52,239
Speaker 1: like I need something different, Like take us on that

1089
00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:56,480
Speaker 1: journey so we can understand this process that's happening and

1090
00:54:56,560 --> 00:54:59,919
Speaker 1: we can walk with you down that pathway and say

1091
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:03,759
Speaker 1: that's what's up. Like the song Dirk and Cold, it

1092
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:06,600
Speaker 1: is like that's that's a piece, that's like, that's we.

1093
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:11,640
Speaker 2: On the journey exactly. We had that conversation great song.

1094
00:55:11,920 --> 00:55:12,960
Speaker 2: Will they go with him?

1095
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.

1096
00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:16,520
Speaker 2: That was like the conversation will they go with them?

1097
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:19,080
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. You can't just you can't do it,

1098
00:55:19,200 --> 00:55:21,040
Speaker 1: just abruptly. You can't. So let's talk.

1099
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:24,120
Speaker 2: About somebody who did do with another guy from Chicago.

1100
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:28,919
Speaker 2: All right, yeah, Jesus walks, Yeah, Jesus is king, yeah,

1101
00:55:29,920 --> 00:55:33,840
Speaker 2: everything in between. And after I went to that show

1102
00:55:34,719 --> 00:55:35,760
Speaker 2: by myself, Thank.

1103
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:39,520
Speaker 4: You, because I don't think I was abruptly you know

1104
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:39,920
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.

1105
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:42,319
Speaker 2: So you're taking taking them with.

1106
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:46,040
Speaker 1: You saying he's disappointed you didn't go with him, that's well,

1107
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:47,360
Speaker 1: you want to know what really happened.

1108
00:55:47,640 --> 00:55:50,120
Speaker 2: I bought four tickets. I was like, yo, we were

1109
00:55:50,160 --> 00:55:52,880
Speaker 2: at a complex con. Yeah, and it was kind of

1110
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:55,400
Speaker 2: like there was a panel that was going to happen

1111
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:57,680
Speaker 2: and like the concert was going to happen, and I

1112
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 2: was like, I'm called, I gotta I have to see this.

1113
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:02,520
Speaker 2: I don't really want to see this. And the uber

1114
00:56:02,560 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 2: came and I was like in it and I looked

1115
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:07,880
Speaker 2: at them and they're like, I'm not coming. I'm like,

1116
00:56:07,960 --> 00:56:09,799
Speaker 2: I closed the door. I went by myself, and I

1117
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:13,759
Speaker 2: almost appreciated that I went by myself because did you

1118
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:14,400
Speaker 2: see the show?

1119
00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:15,319
Speaker 1: Did Jesus King?

1120
00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:16,400
Speaker 2: No?

1121
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:17,279
Speaker 1: I didn't see that one.

1122
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:21,719
Speaker 2: It was emotional like because it infused hip hop. It

1123
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:23,719
Speaker 2: was like the soul, the soul, but it was like

1124
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 2: sold out has like all that together, and I was

1125
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:29,480
Speaker 2: like this is what it should feel like when you

1126
00:56:29,520 --> 00:56:32,759
Speaker 2: come and then obviously we didn't see anything follow up.

1127
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:36,680
Speaker 2: I'm talking about that that taking them with you, but

1128
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:38,920
Speaker 2: you what happens after.

1129
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:41,759
Speaker 4: But I'll say this about this because Kanye probably I'm

1130
00:56:41,760 --> 00:56:43,040
Speaker 4: by the biggest Kanye fan.

1131
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 2: In the world. Well you didn't come to that Kanye fan,

1132
00:56:45,680 --> 00:56:46,719
Speaker 2: the biggest Kanye fan.

1133
00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 4: Look, okay, so hey, I think Kanye was always on

1134
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:55,759
Speaker 4: that type of time. He did Jesus Jesus walked to

1135
00:56:57,040 --> 00:57:00,080
Speaker 4: But so I don't think that that's not really he

1136
00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:00,920
Speaker 4: wasn't really shocked.

1137
00:57:02,360 --> 00:57:03,840
Speaker 1: Okay, this this is my thing.

1138
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 2: Tim only because that comes right after Life After Pablom No.

1139
00:57:08,000 --> 00:57:10,319
Speaker 4: No, but I'm saying it's not a completely shocked. You're

1140
00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:13,160
Speaker 4: not shocked at Kanye. Like Kanye is not a gangster rapper.

1141
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 1: No, no, not a trail rapper like you know what

1142
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:15,359
Speaker 1: I'm saying.

1143
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:18,440
Speaker 4: He always was talking about something. Yeah, so it's not

1144
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 4: a complete part of it.

1145
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:20,200
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1146
00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:23,480
Speaker 4: My thing with the Kanye thing is that I felt

1147
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:27,760
Speaker 4: like the like when he was doing the Sunday Services,

1148
00:57:28,160 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 4: like that was dope, you know what I mean. Yeah,

1149
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:33,360
Speaker 4: And I listened to the album just because I'm a

1150
00:57:33,440 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 4: Kanye fan.

1151
00:57:35,720 --> 00:57:37,200
Speaker 1: And the album.

1152
00:57:38,400 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 2: You listen to Jesus.

1153
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:43,520
Speaker 4: Of course, the album did not meet expectation. Did you

1154
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 4: I'm just being honest with you. Did you like Coloring

1155
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,560
Speaker 4: I did not like Chance the Rapper Coloring Book. You

1156
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:51,160
Speaker 4: could say that's like a Christian rap album. To me,

1157
00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:53,680
Speaker 4: in my opinion, that's a dope classic. I think that's

1158
00:57:53,680 --> 00:57:56,640
Speaker 4: a classic album. Right, there's good records on it. Colors

1159
00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:58,320
Speaker 4: Jesus Jesus.

1160
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:01,200
Speaker 2: Jesus King production one of my favorites.

1161
00:58:01,240 --> 00:58:03,360
Speaker 1: I love the production. I didn't feel like Kanye was

1162
00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 1: at his best.

1163
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:07,520
Speaker 2: He's not. Yeah, but that's because are we going to

1164
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:08,000
Speaker 2: go with him?

1165
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:11,000
Speaker 1: I just it was tough. Was it authentic? Was that's

1166
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:11,600
Speaker 1: the problem.

1167
00:58:11,640 --> 00:58:13,240
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. I don't think it was, That's

1168
00:58:13,280 --> 00:58:16,000
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. So like Jesus Walks felt super authentic.

1169
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:18,880
Speaker 2: It was like, this is different life at the problem.

1170
00:58:18,920 --> 00:58:21,800
Speaker 2: I'm like, a, right, this is yan Yeah. And then

1171
00:58:21,920 --> 00:58:24,080
Speaker 2: Sunday Service started happening. He had taken us a battle.

1172
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:26,240
Speaker 2: It was like, oh, Sunday Service's okay.

1173
00:58:25,960 --> 00:58:26,440
Speaker 1: I get it.

1174
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:28,960
Speaker 2: And then Jesus King is like, oh, this is what

1175
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 2: he's on now. But it really wasn't what he was

1176
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:33,520
Speaker 2: in the moment he was on that right.

1177
00:58:33,960 --> 00:58:39,080
Speaker 1: That's what I I think that's for anybody who first

1178
00:58:39,520 --> 00:58:44,760
Speaker 1: learned something, it's like they want to just they busting

1179
00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:47,480
Speaker 1: everybody over the head with whether they just you know

1180
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, It's like, it's like, you gotta take

1181
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:52,920
Speaker 1: time to let that sit in and let it soak

1182
00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:56,800
Speaker 1: and let it process. How does that mat manifest in

1183
00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:59,240
Speaker 1: your day to day life? You know what I'm saying. Like,

1184
00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:02,120
Speaker 1: when I first had my spiritual transition, I was coming

1185
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 1: home with my mom like, yo, Ma, Ma, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

1186
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:08,280
Speaker 1: She was like, Yo, do you talk about anything else?

1187
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. And then my pastor at

1188
00:59:11,280 --> 00:59:15,280
Speaker 1: the time was like, stop talking to her about that

1189
00:59:15,880 --> 00:59:17,960
Speaker 1: and live it. I said what you mean? He said,

1190
00:59:17,960 --> 00:59:23,200
Speaker 1: cut the grass, wash the dishes, like just live out

1191
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:26,440
Speaker 1: the new joy you have for and love for her.

1192
00:59:26,520 --> 00:59:29,280
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, so then I just started

1193
00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:32,080
Speaker 1: serving her, loving her, being a good son. She's like, Yo,

1194
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:34,720
Speaker 1: what happened to you? Yea, what's going on with you?

1195
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:38,160
Speaker 1: And it was that transition that she got to see

1196
00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:41,880
Speaker 1: versus me just and I feel like that's what I

1197
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:47,320
Speaker 1: heard on Jesus King. It was just like, like, you

1198
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:51,040
Speaker 1: know this dogmatic, which we love Kanye for being dogmatic, right,

1199
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:53,479
Speaker 1: but it was like, just don't feel like you done. Really,

1200
00:59:54,680 --> 00:59:57,040
Speaker 1: you ain't steeped in this yet. It's like you just

1201
00:59:57,160 --> 00:59:59,800
Speaker 1: learning it and throwing it at us. And I will

1202
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:04,000
Speaker 1: to hear you talk about how your life looks in

1203
01:00:04,080 --> 01:00:06,400
Speaker 1: that time period, you know what I'm saying. Like Eminem,

1204
01:00:06,880 --> 01:00:09,000
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know is a Christian, you

1205
01:00:09,040 --> 01:00:11,440
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But when he did the God

1206
01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:14,840
Speaker 1: the Joint on Calli's album, you heard it, but he

1207
01:00:15,560 --> 01:00:18,240
Speaker 1: his content just kind of shifts a little bit, you know.

1208
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 1: He doesn't talk about the same like I'm not killing

1209
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:24,360
Speaker 1: people and stabbing eyeballs and drinking my mom's urine and

1210
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:25,680
Speaker 1: all kinds of crazy stuff.

1211
01:00:25,800 --> 01:00:26,520
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

1212
01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:29,920
Speaker 1: You could just hear like you maturing, you know what

1213
01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:32,040
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So that's I'm a fan of that.

1214
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts about Hove when you talk about

1215
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:36,120
Speaker 2: growth and journeys?

1216
01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:38,280
Speaker 1: Four four four is a grown man's album.

1217
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:41,560
Speaker 2: Bro written testimony as well. No, yeah, yes, you know what.

1218
01:00:41,520 --> 01:00:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like we need that as That's the other

1219
01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:49,360
Speaker 1: thing about hip hop, hip hop, don't be letting us

1220
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:51,640
Speaker 1: grow up, you know what I'm saying. It's like it

1221
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:56,640
Speaker 1: just like for everyone's to keep us as kids. And

1222
01:00:56,640 --> 01:01:00,000
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I think we need a new categor

1223
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:03,200
Speaker 1: glory or something we need. Like I think Nas has

1224
01:01:03,240 --> 01:01:03,920
Speaker 1: done a great job.

1225
01:01:03,960 --> 01:01:06,400
Speaker 4: He has a phenomenal job. I think Jay has done

1226
01:01:06,440 --> 01:01:10,560
Speaker 4: a great job killing Mike. Yeah, you know what I'm Yeah,

1227
01:01:11,240 --> 01:01:14,520
Speaker 4: so I think even like a little Wayne, like you

1228
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:16,880
Speaker 4: know you I don't know if the content of his

1229
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:19,160
Speaker 4: music has changed, but you see he's changed, Like he's

1230
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 4: doing sports shows now and he's with his kids.

1231
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:23,440
Speaker 1: It's like he's still little.

1232
01:01:23,240 --> 01:01:27,760
Speaker 4: Wayne, but he's not the same little Wayne in two

1233
01:01:27,800 --> 01:01:30,120
Speaker 4: thousand and two than he is in the.

1234
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:32,600
Speaker 2: Double Cups have been put down, I think, yeah, hopefully,

1235
01:01:32,680 --> 01:01:34,000
Speaker 2: hopefully that's what I'm saying.

1236
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:36,400
Speaker 1: We'll drink ourselves to death out here if we don't.

1237
01:01:36,240 --> 01:01:39,000
Speaker 2: Which is true. Yeah, but it was just when you

1238
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:40,919
Speaker 2: were saying that, I'm thinking about what may have killed

1239
01:01:41,040 --> 01:01:43,920
Speaker 2: rock and roll, right, and like if you think if

1240
01:01:43,960 --> 01:01:46,479
Speaker 2: you're from that era, so like when Kurt Cobaine takes

1241
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:49,400
Speaker 2: his life, yeah, that's a pivotal moment. Yeah, they lost.

1242
01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:52,440
Speaker 2: This was the group, this was the star. But the

1243
01:01:52,520 --> 01:01:55,560
Speaker 2: hip hop we're losing those stars, like daily, every day

1244
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:58,160
Speaker 2: we're losing them. The difference in rock and roll is

1245
01:01:58,200 --> 01:02:02,080
Speaker 2: that you're right, they and as they age, they're appreciated,

1246
01:02:02,120 --> 01:02:04,040
Speaker 2: they get the tour. We're starting to see that now

1247
01:02:04,040 --> 01:02:05,760
Speaker 2: in hip hop a little bit with like I know

1248
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:07,919
Speaker 2: what El El's doing. I know he just put out music,

1249
01:02:07,920 --> 01:02:11,160
Speaker 2: but he's rocked the bells and the but where's that

1250
01:02:11,320 --> 01:02:13,240
Speaker 2: next generation of people who are gonna be able to

1251
01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:13,440
Speaker 2: do that?

1252
01:02:13,600 --> 01:02:14,919
Speaker 1: To do that, it's doing it now.

1253
01:02:15,240 --> 01:02:16,840
Speaker 2: No, No, the next generation.

1254
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:18,480
Speaker 4: That's doing it now. Ja Cole gonna be here for

1255
01:02:18,480 --> 01:02:20,440
Speaker 4: a long time. Drake's gonna be here fall on.

1256
01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:22,320
Speaker 2: So those guys are thirty nine to forty, I'm saying,

1257
01:02:22,320 --> 01:02:24,840
Speaker 2: that's the next generation after after.

1258
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 1: J Cole, Kendrick and them.

1259
01:02:26,240 --> 01:02:26,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be.

1260
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:29,040
Speaker 1: That's the hard part is that's the little dirt conseid

1261
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:31,600
Speaker 1: the world. And that's the hard part is I don't

1262
01:02:31,840 --> 01:02:36,040
Speaker 1: I don't know when it pertains to them because labels

1263
01:02:36,120 --> 01:02:39,840
Speaker 1: keep signing these jokers right off the block and the

1264
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:42,280
Speaker 1: gun is still hot, you know what I'm saying. So

1265
01:02:42,320 --> 01:02:46,960
Speaker 1: they it's like there's no development there's no isolation, there's

1266
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:50,200
Speaker 1: no time to get away from the chaos. It's like

1267
01:02:50,880 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 1: your song is it hit like Bobby Smurder. It's like, Yo,

1268
01:02:53,000 --> 01:02:55,160
Speaker 1: you hot and now you're in prison. You know what

1269
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:57,600
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Chef g you hot? Now you locked up?

1270
01:02:57,760 --> 01:02:59,200
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? It's just bang bang bang

1271
01:02:59,200 --> 01:03:01,240
Speaker 1: bang bang pop smoke you hot? Now now you're gone.

1272
01:03:02,000 --> 01:03:04,680
Speaker 1: And it's like, man, we just we need to insulate

1273
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:06,840
Speaker 1: them a little bit, give him some game, like it's

1274
01:03:06,840 --> 01:03:09,960
Speaker 1: something different gotta happen, because they don't even get a

1275
01:03:10,440 --> 01:03:13,200
Speaker 1: chance to They frontal Low ain't even closed. You know

1276
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:14,920
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. They're not even getting a chance to

1277
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:16,760
Speaker 1: mature and to grow in the process.

1278
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:18,960
Speaker 4: Well, speaking about that, because you know a lot of

1279
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:19,640
Speaker 4: that has to do.

1280
01:03:19,640 --> 01:03:21,000
Speaker 1: With the home structure.

1281
01:03:21,240 --> 01:03:24,280
Speaker 4: Sure, and you said earlier in the show, like you

1282
01:03:24,280 --> 01:03:25,959
Speaker 4: didn't see it there for thirty years.

1283
01:03:26,040 --> 01:03:31,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, so how is that? What was that like, you.

1284
01:03:31,720 --> 01:03:36,400
Speaker 4: Know, reconnecting with him after a thirty year turnframe.

1285
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:40,120
Speaker 1: I was fortunate to have been through therapy. So Jay

1286
01:03:40,200 --> 01:03:44,480
Speaker 1: actually got me Jay jay Z jay Z you know

1287
01:03:44,600 --> 01:03:46,880
Speaker 1: Jay I met him once. He didn't get me to

1288
01:03:46,920 --> 01:03:50,000
Speaker 1: go by him telling oh you listened to the listeners

1289
01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:54,200
Speaker 1: and yeah, you know what I'm saying. But David Banner

1290
01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:59,520
Speaker 1: also told me to go to therapy, and so so

1291
01:03:59,760 --> 01:04:02,000
Speaker 1: there he put me in a place where I was

1292
01:04:02,040 --> 01:04:05,640
Speaker 1: able to meet my dad and say, it's not about

1293
01:04:05,720 --> 01:04:08,840
Speaker 1: what you did, It's about what happened to you. What

1294
01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:12,080
Speaker 1: happened to him, Yes, what happened to you to make

1295
01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:15,840
Speaker 1: you this way, because this ain't just you just being

1296
01:04:16,120 --> 01:04:19,960
Speaker 1: a terrible human being. Something made you like this. Did

1297
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:22,280
Speaker 1: you find him or he found you? I found him.

1298
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:25,680
Speaker 1: I found him, and me and my sister went to

1299
01:04:25,680 --> 01:04:28,560
Speaker 1: go meet him. My sisters. You know, I sit there

1300
01:04:28,600 --> 01:04:31,400
Speaker 1: and I ask him, I say, yo, how you feeling,

1301
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:34,200
Speaker 1: what's going on? And you know, you tell me some

1302
01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:36,439
Speaker 1: crazy stories. And then my sister's like, are you proud

1303
01:04:36,480 --> 01:04:38,680
Speaker 1: of him? Are you proud of your son? Like he's

1304
01:04:38,680 --> 01:04:41,000
Speaker 1: done all these things, Like do you feel sorry that

1305
01:04:41,120 --> 01:04:44,040
Speaker 1: you wasn't in part of his life? Even following your journey?

1306
01:04:44,960 --> 01:04:46,600
Speaker 1: He hears about it, you know what I'm saying. So

1307
01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:50,800
Speaker 1: he taps in and when she asks him, are you

1308
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:54,280
Speaker 1: sorry about it? He says, I never say sorry. That's

1309
01:04:54,280 --> 01:04:59,120
Speaker 1: the sorriest word in the dictionary. My sister's pissed. I'm like,

1310
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:01,520
Speaker 1: something made him this way, you know what I'm saying.

1311
01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:03,320
Speaker 1: So I just pry a little more. He starts telling

1312
01:05:03,360 --> 01:05:05,800
Speaker 1: me stories about his pops and you know, his pops

1313
01:05:05,800 --> 01:05:07,720
Speaker 1: passed aways, like when my pops went to Vietnam he

1314
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:09,800
Speaker 1: came back. I didn't ask him how you feel the

1315
01:05:09,880 --> 01:05:13,000
Speaker 1: emotionally and I got out the way and I was like, Okay,

1316
01:05:13,040 --> 01:05:15,160
Speaker 1: this is what's shaping you as a human and why

1317
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:17,680
Speaker 1: you engaging us in this way? And he was like,

1318
01:05:18,120 --> 01:05:19,919
Speaker 1: you know, God got y'all. I knew God was gonna

1319
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:22,600
Speaker 1: take care of y'all. And it's like got you. I

1320
01:05:23,280 --> 01:05:25,439
Speaker 1: could be mad at you for this, but something made

1321
01:05:25,440 --> 01:05:27,000
Speaker 1: you this way. And I don't. You don't have the

1322
01:05:27,040 --> 01:05:30,360
Speaker 1: mental categories of the mental health to even process this information,

1323
01:05:30,480 --> 01:05:36,360
Speaker 1: right I do. So for me, it's like, oh, I

1324
01:05:36,400 --> 01:05:39,640
Speaker 1: don't need you to be my mentor in this season

1325
01:05:39,680 --> 01:05:41,440
Speaker 1: of my life. I just need to put my eyes

1326
01:05:41,480 --> 01:05:44,600
Speaker 1: on you know a little bit more about myself and

1327
01:05:44,840 --> 01:05:48,280
Speaker 1: maybe we can connect from time to time, but it's

1328
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:50,960
Speaker 1: not gonna be healthy until you get some growth and

1329
01:05:51,080 --> 01:05:52,920
Speaker 1: maturity for you to be a part of all.

1330
01:05:52,920 --> 01:05:55,160
Speaker 4: So it wasn't like a kumbaya, no no, no, no,

1331
01:05:55,960 --> 01:05:58,920
Speaker 4: he stood firm on why he left.

1332
01:05:59,040 --> 01:06:01,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like, yeah, man, y'all was gonna be straight,

1333
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:04,439
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yeah? God got you. Yeah,

1334
01:06:04,480 --> 01:06:07,000
Speaker 1: God got Have you stayed in touch? Yeah, we stay

1335
01:06:07,040 --> 01:06:09,560
Speaker 1: in touch. You know, I'll hit them from time to tom.

1336
01:06:09,840 --> 01:06:11,920
Speaker 1: You know, he's a very intelligent dude, reads a lot

1337
01:06:11,960 --> 01:06:13,400
Speaker 1: of books. But at the same time, it's like he

1338
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:15,800
Speaker 1: hasn't done the work on himself. But how did that

1339
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:19,080
Speaker 1: affect you growing up? It's terrible. It was horrible. I

1340
01:06:19,080 --> 01:06:21,120
Speaker 1: didn't even realize how bad it messed me up, you

1341
01:06:21,120 --> 01:06:27,040
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Like it it made me insecure,

1342
01:06:27,240 --> 01:06:32,640
Speaker 1: It made me, you know, always run to the affections

1343
01:06:32,680 --> 01:06:34,960
Speaker 1: of a different woman to try to feel something, you

1344
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:38,000
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And then worst of all, I'm

1345
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:41,880
Speaker 1: looking for a male figure to be like that leader

1346
01:06:42,000 --> 01:06:44,760
Speaker 1: for me. And the only men who were invested in

1347
01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:46,960
Speaker 1: me were my uncles who were gang members, you know

1348
01:06:47,000 --> 01:06:50,120
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's like I'm just out here,

1349
01:06:50,200 --> 01:06:53,520
Speaker 1: like I'm not a man unless I join the gang.

1350
01:06:53,600 --> 01:06:56,680
Speaker 1: And you never wanted to join the game, so yes,

1351
01:06:57,480 --> 01:07:02,920
Speaker 1: I did, But probably I wonder what y'all. I don't know, y'all.

1352
01:07:02,920 --> 01:07:07,200
Speaker 1: Personal stories but probably similar to y'all. Y'all probably are

1353
01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:10,520
Speaker 1: growing up around things, but you know, internally like I'm

1354
01:07:10,520 --> 01:07:13,560
Speaker 1: a little different, that's not you. Yeah, I call myself

1355
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:16,320
Speaker 1: a hangbanger, you know, not a ganganger. Like I'm hanging

1356
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:20,240
Speaker 1: around the bangers, but I'm like far from hood and

1357
01:07:20,320 --> 01:07:22,600
Speaker 1: understand the streets man, you know what I mean. I'm like,

1358
01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:26,000
Speaker 1: I'm like the same really, so when they start recruiting,

1359
01:07:27,560 --> 01:07:29,800
Speaker 1: that's when it got real for me. When when when

1360
01:07:30,120 --> 01:07:32,400
Speaker 1: I'm standing on the street corner and some of the

1361
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:35,760
Speaker 1: ogs are like, hey, the rivals keep coming through here

1362
01:07:35,760 --> 01:07:39,920
Speaker 1: shooting up. This is y'all's gun, y'all share it, some

1363
01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 1: pop off, y'all start shooting back. Now, what we didn't

1364
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:45,720
Speaker 1: know was we're thirteen, Like this is them trying to

1365
01:07:47,920 --> 01:07:50,520
Speaker 1: you know, let the people who not gonna do prison

1366
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:52,720
Speaker 1: time do the shooting. You know what I'm saying, Like

1367
01:07:52,760 --> 01:07:56,440
Speaker 1: this is a little manipulative. But we feeling like, oh,

1368
01:07:56,600 --> 01:07:59,960
Speaker 1: they like this is you know, like right a past.

1369
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:05,760
Speaker 1: And that moment for me was like, y'all don't see

1370
01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:08,240
Speaker 1: what's happening. Like I could see it, I could peep it,

1371
01:08:08,920 --> 01:08:11,320
Speaker 1: and I was like, I ain't even mad at these

1372
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:13,920
Speaker 1: other dudes that much to take their life. And that's

1373
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:15,800
Speaker 1: when I was like, I just know I got a future.

1374
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:17,519
Speaker 1: I feel like I got more of a future than this.

1375
01:08:18,040 --> 01:08:22,680
Speaker 1: So honestly, for the second half of my life, I

1376
01:08:22,800 --> 01:08:26,160
Speaker 1: felt embarrassed and less of a man because I didn't

1377
01:08:26,160 --> 01:08:29,760
Speaker 1: do the prison time. I didn't, you know, join the

1378
01:08:29,840 --> 01:08:33,600
Speaker 1: set and I go back to the hood and they're like,

1379
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:38,479
Speaker 1: what's up, og, And I'm like talking to me and

1380
01:08:38,479 --> 01:08:40,439
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, you put the Hood on the map, bro,

1381
01:08:40,600 --> 01:08:42,679
Speaker 1: you did it da da dah. And I'm like, that's

1382
01:08:42,720 --> 01:08:45,080
Speaker 1: crazy because I thought I had to do it that

1383
01:08:45,200 --> 01:08:50,880
Speaker 1: way and I did it a different way. And man,

1384
01:08:51,360 --> 01:08:53,080
Speaker 1: it's just a you know, that's some of the trauma

1385
01:08:53,120 --> 01:08:54,679
Speaker 1: that we deal with is as black men too.

1386
01:08:54,720 --> 01:08:58,679
Speaker 2: But in that story, as a young man, the story

1387
01:08:58,720 --> 01:09:02,000
Speaker 2: you meet your Dad, I hear faith being tested, for

1388
01:09:02,120 --> 01:09:05,320
Speaker 2: sure over and over again. Sure, talk about the response

1389
01:09:05,360 --> 01:09:07,320
Speaker 2: to that, because a lot of times we don't know

1390
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:09,760
Speaker 2: how to handle it when we're being tested. We're not

1391
01:09:09,760 --> 01:09:12,479
Speaker 2: even aware of it till after Yeah, for sure, talk

1392
01:09:12,479 --> 01:09:12,920
Speaker 2: about that.

1393
01:09:13,120 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the beauty of my relationship with God

1394
01:09:18,600 --> 01:09:21,400
Speaker 1: and my faith, man, is that I know to whom

1395
01:09:21,479 --> 01:09:24,479
Speaker 1: much is given much is required, and to whom much

1396
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:31,120
Speaker 1: is forgiven, much is required. So I know the dirt

1397
01:09:31,520 --> 01:09:35,360
Speaker 1: that I have done, I know the chaos that I've caused,

1398
01:09:35,760 --> 01:09:37,800
Speaker 1: and I know I've been forgiven. So for me to

1399
01:09:37,840 --> 01:09:40,679
Speaker 1: meet my dad, it was like, Man, I done been

1400
01:09:41,000 --> 01:09:44,120
Speaker 1: forgiven for so much. You know what I'm saying, And

1401
01:09:44,120 --> 01:09:47,040
Speaker 1: and God, if God can forgive me, how can I

1402
01:09:47,080 --> 01:09:52,600
Speaker 1: not forgive this man? Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean we connected,

1403
01:09:53,240 --> 01:09:54,519
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. What it means is I'm

1404
01:09:54,560 --> 01:09:57,320
Speaker 1: not harboring ill will towards you. I don't want nothing

1405
01:09:57,360 --> 01:10:00,360
Speaker 1: negative for you. I'm not holding no bitterness. It doesn't

1406
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:02,559
Speaker 1: mean we're about to hang out in kumba ya. It

1407
01:10:02,720 --> 01:10:06,559
Speaker 1: just means, you know what, I could be mad and

1408
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:09,040
Speaker 1: carry this bitterness pill, but I want to get better,

1409
01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:11,479
Speaker 1: not bitter. You know what I'm saying. I want to

1410
01:10:11,520 --> 01:10:14,280
Speaker 1: not that's not gonna help me. So let me love

1411
01:10:14,320 --> 01:10:17,960
Speaker 1: you from afar, you know what I'm saying, and forgive

1412
01:10:18,000 --> 01:10:22,640
Speaker 1: you and move on with my life. And that's, you know,

1413
01:10:22,760 --> 01:10:23,719
Speaker 1: just a part of the journey.

1414
01:10:23,800 --> 01:10:25,320
Speaker 2: It's another man trying to get to heaven.

1415
01:10:25,439 --> 01:10:28,040
Speaker 1: You feel me like yeah, man, facts, It's like yeah,

1416
01:10:28,320 --> 01:10:31,000
Speaker 1: he he doing what he can or what he got,

1417
01:10:31,360 --> 01:10:33,720
Speaker 1: and you know what I'm saying, hopefully you know what

1418
01:10:33,720 --> 01:10:36,479
Speaker 1: I'm saying that that that helps him to see like, Yo,

1419
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:38,680
Speaker 1: my son didn't even come at me crazy like he

1420
01:10:38,720 --> 01:10:41,160
Speaker 1: didn't he came at me carrying. I'm not trying to

1421
01:10:41,200 --> 01:10:43,280
Speaker 1: be an enabler either, though. I'm not trying to be like,

1422
01:10:44,120 --> 01:10:46,120
Speaker 1: hey man, you know, let's just get to get like

1423
01:10:46,439 --> 01:10:48,400
Speaker 1: cause I got cousins who've been in and out of

1424
01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:50,400
Speaker 1: the prison system and on and off drugs, and it's

1425
01:10:50,439 --> 01:10:53,040
Speaker 1: like I'd have been through that where I'm like, I'm

1426
01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:54,840
Speaker 1: not putting on more money in your books, bro, because

1427
01:10:54,880 --> 01:10:56,639
Speaker 1: now I'm enabling you. You know what I'm saying. You're

1428
01:10:56,640 --> 01:10:58,479
Speaker 1: not trying to get better, you know what I'm saying.

1429
01:10:58,520 --> 01:11:01,080
Speaker 1: But if you're trying to do right get better, I'm

1430
01:11:01,120 --> 01:11:04,120
Speaker 1: with it. So what's next? What's next?

1431
01:11:04,120 --> 01:11:07,640
Speaker 4: As far as the label, Yeah, any big initiatives that

1432
01:11:07,680 --> 01:11:09,639
Speaker 4: you're working on, Like what's what's what's the plans?

1433
01:11:09,640 --> 01:11:13,720
Speaker 1: Man? Just for me? You know, it's legacy. You know,

1434
01:11:13,840 --> 01:11:18,439
Speaker 1: legacy is more than inheritance, what you leave two people.

1435
01:11:18,560 --> 01:11:21,160
Speaker 1: Legacy is what you leave in people. So it's like, man,

1436
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:23,400
Speaker 1: just trying to leave legacy and folks, but also inheritance.

1437
01:11:24,320 --> 01:11:26,439
Speaker 1: I love creating opportunities for other people. Man, I want

1438
01:11:26,439 --> 01:11:29,559
Speaker 1: to be the my ceiling be someone else's floor. So

1439
01:11:29,960 --> 01:11:32,599
Speaker 1: obviously the label, you know, signing, We got a few

1440
01:11:32,640 --> 01:11:34,920
Speaker 1: new artists we signing. I'm putting out new music. Of course,

1441
01:11:35,040 --> 01:11:39,800
Speaker 1: for me, I still put on music. I still enjoy it.

1442
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:43,519
Speaker 1: Funny that the next single that I'm dropping is a

1443
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:47,240
Speaker 1: song that was written the hook and the production was

1444
01:11:47,240 --> 01:11:50,080
Speaker 1: for Kanye because they thought he was on that page,

1445
01:11:50,360 --> 01:11:54,000
Speaker 1: but he switched. So there's like, we ain't got none

1446
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:56,880
Speaker 1: of you know, you want these records. I was like, absolutely,

1447
01:11:57,320 --> 01:12:00,880
Speaker 1: So the records are crazy. The next one, you know,

1448
01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:04,840
Speaker 1: is on the way, and then man, just you know,

1449
01:12:04,880 --> 01:12:06,560
Speaker 1: the reason why I was excited to connect with you

1450
01:12:06,760 --> 01:12:12,680
Speaker 1: was because I'm big into investing. I'm big into, you know,

1451
01:12:12,800 --> 01:12:19,320
Speaker 1: diversifying stocks. You know VC. I'm part of Collab Capital,

1452
01:12:19,360 --> 01:12:22,160
Speaker 1: which is a fund in Atlanta. You know, we raised

1453
01:12:22,160 --> 01:12:26,679
Speaker 1: fifty miil for black entrepreneurs in the city, Black founders,

1454
01:12:28,320 --> 01:12:31,559
Speaker 1: and for me. I want artists to know, you're like

1455
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 1: an athlete, you only have a certain window of earning opportunity,

1456
01:12:35,479 --> 01:12:38,599
Speaker 1: so you've got to diversify. When you're at the peak

1457
01:12:38,720 --> 01:12:43,280
Speaker 1: of your earning, you know capacity. And so there was

1458
01:12:43,320 --> 01:12:46,280
Speaker 1: one point in time. I'm still doing great as an artist,

1459
01:12:46,280 --> 01:12:48,519
Speaker 1: but there was one point in time I had a

1460
01:12:48,600 --> 01:12:50,559
Speaker 1: number one album in the country. If I was if

1461
01:12:50,560 --> 01:12:53,360
Speaker 1: I would have just lived like that for the remainder

1462
01:12:53,360 --> 01:12:56,920
Speaker 1: of my career, I wouldn't, you know. So I just

1463
01:12:57,080 --> 01:13:00,479
Speaker 1: learning how to invest educating folks. That's a big piece

1464
01:13:00,520 --> 01:13:03,200
Speaker 1: of what I'm what I'm about now. So I'm always

1465
01:13:03,240 --> 01:13:07,519
Speaker 1: even you know Flex, I'm always telling him like, you

1466
01:13:07,560 --> 01:13:09,720
Speaker 1: don't work for me. I'm your client. You know what

1467
01:13:09,720 --> 01:13:11,400
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I want all my artists, I want all

1468
01:13:11,439 --> 01:13:13,919
Speaker 1: my employees to see me as a client. You're an entrepreneur,

1469
01:13:14,000 --> 01:13:18,639
Speaker 1: this is your your thing. I'm your client. You're building something,

1470
01:13:18,880 --> 01:13:21,640
Speaker 1: you know, use what I have to build whatever it

1471
01:13:21,720 --> 01:13:23,400
Speaker 1: is that that you feel like you need to do.

1472
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:26,639
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, more of those types of things. Man,

1473
01:13:27,720 --> 01:13:29,479
Speaker 1: that's really what my where my head space is.

1474
01:13:31,240 --> 01:13:33,439
Speaker 4: Well, how can the people stay in touch as far

1475
01:13:33,479 --> 01:13:36,799
Speaker 4: as you know, website, Instagram, make sure.

1476
01:13:36,640 --> 01:13:38,200
Speaker 1: You tap in with me, you know what I'm saying.

1477
01:13:38,560 --> 01:13:41,799
Speaker 1: At LA CRAE l E c r a E social

1478
01:13:41,800 --> 01:13:43,479
Speaker 1: media follow me. I'll take you somewhere. You know what

1479
01:13:43,479 --> 01:13:47,520
Speaker 1: I'm saying, catch me probably at every investments in the future.

1480
01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:52,160
Speaker 2: Too, you know what I'm saying.

1481
01:13:52,800 --> 01:13:54,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, So just stay taped in.

1482
01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:58,200
Speaker 4: Have you done anything with like you talked about like church.

1483
01:13:58,320 --> 01:14:00,840
Speaker 4: Have you done anything like a little to collapse, like

1484
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:02,120
Speaker 4: any like the mega churches?

1485
01:14:04,840 --> 01:14:08,040
Speaker 1: Not not necessarily, you know what I'm saying. Like I've

1486
01:14:08,080 --> 01:14:12,880
Speaker 1: done like interactions and certain things like that where we'll

1487
01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:17,160
Speaker 1: partner on on a few things. Our partner would experience

1488
01:14:18,120 --> 01:14:23,360
Speaker 1: to do some financial literacy programs and you know, obviously

1489
01:14:23,400 --> 01:14:29,000
Speaker 1: we we targeted some churches for that. My pastor he

1490
01:14:29,160 --> 01:14:32,120
Speaker 1: was actually a financial advisor, so he's on Instagram as

1491
01:14:32,160 --> 01:14:35,519
Speaker 1: a stewardship coach, and you know, we we got some

1492
01:14:35,680 --> 01:14:38,160
Speaker 1: talks about doing some stuff. Is pretty big church in

1493
01:14:38,160 --> 01:14:41,040
Speaker 1: Atlanta as well, and that's why I knew about that

1494
01:14:41,080 --> 01:14:46,960
Speaker 1: series seven and the Who. But but yeah, man, just

1495
01:14:47,080 --> 01:14:48,920
Speaker 1: you know, I just want people to be educated, especially

1496
01:14:48,920 --> 01:14:51,640
Speaker 1: our people, and if if if a portion of our

1497
01:14:51,680 --> 01:14:55,320
Speaker 1: people are in the churches, how do we just disseminate

1498
01:14:55,360 --> 01:14:56,599
Speaker 1: that information to them.

1499
01:14:57,240 --> 01:15:00,000
Speaker 2: You are the probably the I mean easily the most

1500
01:15:00,080 --> 01:15:04,479
Speaker 2: well known faith based hip hop artists. Who do you

1501
01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:07,760
Speaker 2: see out there right now. That's like, I like what

1502
01:15:07,800 --> 01:15:10,040
Speaker 2: they're doing that signed to you and not signed to

1503
01:15:10,080 --> 01:15:11,840
Speaker 2: you like you're the next one coming up.

1504
01:15:12,520 --> 01:15:15,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I think everybody has different iterations and different

1505
01:15:15,880 --> 01:15:19,000
Speaker 1: like aspects of what I do or what I see

1506
01:15:19,040 --> 01:15:21,960
Speaker 1: that I love, you know what I'm saying. So I think,

1507
01:15:22,120 --> 01:15:23,599
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, I got one k few

1508
01:15:24,320 --> 01:15:26,320
Speaker 1: the streets love him, you know what I mean. He's

1509
01:15:26,400 --> 01:15:28,559
Speaker 1: able to connect with the streets and the culture and

1510
01:15:28,920 --> 01:15:31,240
Speaker 1: the church in a way that I feel like I

1511
01:15:31,280 --> 01:15:34,519
Speaker 1: was able to do. You know, my guy hovies. The

1512
01:15:34,640 --> 01:15:38,400
Speaker 1: artistic capabilities and blending out all that together is incredible.

1513
01:15:39,320 --> 01:15:42,000
Speaker 1: But the person that I see, like is like, oh,

1514
01:15:42,240 --> 01:15:44,559
Speaker 1: this dude gets it, is my guy KB and you

1515
01:15:44,600 --> 01:15:48,439
Speaker 1: know he was signed to me, but you know he

1516
01:15:48,840 --> 01:15:50,720
Speaker 1: gets it so much. He's like, nah, I'm gonna do

1517
01:15:50,760 --> 01:15:53,160
Speaker 1: my own thing now, you know, started his own clothing

1518
01:15:54,720 --> 01:16:00,599
Speaker 1: supply company, so he like does fulfillment for us the artists,

1519
01:16:00,680 --> 01:16:03,479
Speaker 1: you know, because he learned that game and he just

1520
01:16:03,880 --> 01:16:08,000
Speaker 1: he gets it, and I'm like, you get it. Yeah,

1521
01:16:08,120 --> 01:16:10,720
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us, brother, absolutely man appreciated. Man,

1522
01:16:10,720 --> 01:16:13,360
Speaker 1: I appreciate you. Rock onners. We'll see you next week.

1523
01:16:13,439 --> 01:16:18,120
Speaker 7: Peace an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a

1524
01:16:18,240 --> 01:16:21,720
Speaker 7: child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al

1525
01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:26,639
Speaker 7: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged

1526
01:16:26,640 --> 01:16:30,559
Speaker 7: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are

1527
01:16:30,600 --> 01:16:34,120
Speaker 7: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of

1528
01:16:34,120 --> 01:16:37,840
Speaker 7: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United

1529
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:42,599
Speaker 7: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal

1530
01:16:42,640 --> 01:16:46,320
Speaker 7: border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and

1531
01:16:46,360 --> 01:16:49,720
Speaker 7: over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If

1532
01:16:49,720 --> 01:16:53,400
Speaker 7: you are here illegally, your next you will be fine

1533
01:16:53,439 --> 01:16:57,559
Speaker 7: nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you

1534
01:16:57,640 --> 01:17:01,160
Speaker 7: will never return. But if you register using our CBP

1535
01:17:01,320 --> 01:17:04,040
Speaker 7: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to

1536
01:17:04,120 --> 01:17:06,120
Speaker 7: return legally. Do what's right.

1537
01:17:06,720 --> 01:17:07,599
Speaker 1: Leave now.

1538
01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:12,240
Speaker 7: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families.

1539
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:12,679
Speaker 4: Will be protected.

1540
01:17:12,760 --> 01:17:14,920
Speaker 6: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,