Speaker 1: They get called broadcast line from Atlanta, Georgia. Wan't to
Speaker 1: the ball show. I go by the name of fer.
Speaker 2: I go by to that.
Speaker 3: You know, bat too, man.
Speaker 1: We got some special guests in the building, Keenan in
Speaker 1: the building?
Speaker 2: Maybe in the building? What's up? Fellas' real good?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What do you talk about? The rook like that?
Speaker 1: Now? I know people are like, who the hell? How
Speaker 1: the hell do we get these guys on here? Again?
Speaker 1: I just wanted to talk to two people that I
Speaker 1: very much respect. In the industry full of weirdos and
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of bullshit going on.
Speaker 3: That's how you feel.
Speaker 2: We all know this.
Speaker 1: I like to talk to people who stand on business.
Speaker 1: I've never heard anything bad about either one.
Speaker 2: Of you guys. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: In the industry full of.
Speaker 3: You know, we gotta gotta, we gotta give who these
Speaker 3: guys are?
Speaker 1: Okay, please introduce yourselves please.
Speaker 4: Keenan Johnson originally from New York but been to Atlanta
Speaker 4: since nineteen ninety two. Went to clark Land University. Music
Speaker 4: industry well well well respected, I would say professional, been
Speaker 4: the game twenty five plus years and basically from what
Speaker 4: you're saying, I prod myself on being consistent. I think
Speaker 4: that's why I've been able to be around so long,
Speaker 4: and people should respect for me for so long because
Speaker 4: I respect you.
Speaker 1: Trying to be too humble man s VP. Interscope records
Speaker 1: that year EVP EVP. Oh my bad, damn.
Speaker 4: How many years I was at Intersco for almost fifteen years? Yes,
Speaker 4: started as a regional and worked my way up to
Speaker 4: a EVP. Yeah, ended up running at the department over there.
Speaker 4: So I'm not trying to be humble. I just figure
Speaker 4: I was just gonna get into that a little bit.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's okay. Uh, Yeah, I'm easy. You know, anybody
Speaker 5: from Atlanta, y'all know me. I'll just be chilling. Man.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no. See see I first met this
Speaker 1: guy man, he was promoting Yeah, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I see this young guy with dreads fighting
Speaker 1: in the club, and I've kept saying, who is this guy?
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden these were like, Hey,
Speaker 1: the next one twenty one savage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm manager of twenty one President.
Speaker 1: Are you also manager a producer?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Kid, Hazel, And I'm recently I'm just now creating
Speaker 5: my management company.
Speaker 2: To kind of expand my roster as well. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Can we wint my camera? He wasn't gonna say. Yeah.
Speaker 6: He definitely was gonna say, but can we talk about
Speaker 6: who you recently signed?
Speaker 2: Not right now?
Speaker 3: Okay, we keep that on Instagram, but yeah, he but I.
Speaker 2: Got I just yeah, I just got somebody who who's
Speaker 2: super lit. Yeah, super lit.
Speaker 5: And I'm excited for the world to kind of see
Speaker 5: what we do to grow what we got going on
Speaker 5: for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, so my first question both of you guys are
Speaker 1: when you first got into the industry, what are some
Speaker 1: things that kind of made you say, damn, this is
Speaker 1: some bullshit that I'm entering or did you have an
Speaker 1: optimistic view of it? Nah?
Speaker 4: Not really. Honestly, when I first got into business, it
Speaker 4: was a lot harder to get in. It was so
Speaker 4: much gatekeeping going on back then. It was a lot
Speaker 4: harder to get in.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know, the business was really based in New York
Speaker 4: and LA for the most part. Back then. In Atlanta
Speaker 4: was really just starting to pop back in the mid
Speaker 4: in late nineties, So there wasn't a lot of true
Speaker 4: business out here. There was a lot of a lot of.
Speaker 1: Art out here in Atlanta, in Atlanta, but.
Speaker 4: Not business yet. So the people that were down here
Speaker 4: were people that were getting put on by their people.
Speaker 4: And those people were doing this holding it tight, holding
Speaker 4: it tight, and only putting on people that you know,
Speaker 4: that they that they messed with, you know, or was
Speaker 4: they homies or their cousins or whatever. So I remember
Speaker 4: a time where you know, the executives that that I
Speaker 4: that I saw coming up, they was assholes. This would
Speaker 4: be perfectly honest. And what I what I what I
Speaker 4: took from that was I'm gonna get on, but I
Speaker 4: never want to make people feel like some of these
Speaker 4: people made me feel when I was trying to come up.
Speaker 4: So that's why I was, you know, rolled the way
Speaker 4: I rolled, like I always wanted to just be me
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, like be represented for
Speaker 4: who I am as opposed to what I did.
Speaker 5: You know, Yeah, that's the same way with me. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I just seen it with some bullshit from the promoter standpoint.
Speaker 5: I seen niggas fake kick it. I've seen a lot
Speaker 5: of shit. So when I came in, I was real,
Speaker 5: like staying office. I was one of them. Fuck them niggas.
Speaker 5: We don't need them niggas.
Speaker 2: If I fuck with you, I fuck with you. Fucked,
Speaker 2: We'll fuck all that shit. And I've learned, you know,
Speaker 2: through time, like you.
Speaker 5: Gotta play politics and stuff and just to somebody else
Speaker 5: in some type of way. You don't got to be
Speaker 5: that way, you know, just staying on my character, you know,
Speaker 5: So anybody who know me, No, I'm just I feel
Speaker 5: like I hope that anybody runningto me just like, oh man,
Speaker 5: he a cool.
Speaker 2: Ass motherfucker first before.
Speaker 5: Like oh yeah, man, I'm man at twenty one savage
Speaker 5: manager's that or I fake, you ain't gonna see me.
Speaker 6: But you never never even been like that, Like even
Speaker 6: even when I first bet both of guys, y'all have
Speaker 6: always been super cool.
Speaker 2: Like I didn't even know.
Speaker 6: Like even when I first met you, I didn't even
Speaker 6: know what you did with I was just like, dangn
Speaker 6: it's a cool dude, Like yeah, he used to promote
Speaker 6: and this and that, and now.
Speaker 2: He you know, he managed this artist.
Speaker 6: And I'm like, I'm like, oh that's fire, because you
Speaker 6: don't you don't see people that gain that type of
Speaker 6: success that you guys gained and that still keep a
Speaker 6: level head because we used to people in the industry
Speaker 6: being like assholes or like, oh, they.
Speaker 3: Don't want to talk to you if you can't do
Speaker 3: nothing for them.
Speaker 6: And that's that's another thing the industry gotta stop doing,
Speaker 6: like stop being friends with people fake as you say,
Speaker 6: fake kicking it because they can do something that they
Speaker 6: can help you.
Speaker 4: Well, I started from humble beginnings, like I started on
Speaker 4: the street team BRO. So for me, like I couldn't
Speaker 4: come in, you know, on a higher level acting like
Speaker 4: something I never. I wasn't from the beginning. I came
Speaker 4: literally from the bottom doing street promotions at Clarkland University,
Speaker 4: like on days like this, putting out postal boards, putting
Speaker 4: stickers on on goddamn walls, and all types of stupid
Speaker 4: shit all through the winter, not getting paid. So for me,
Speaker 4: it's like I literally grinded my way from not being
Speaker 4: paid to an EVP bro. So never at any point
Speaker 4: that I that I wanted to feel like or could
Speaker 4: I feel like I was better than anyone, because actually
Speaker 4: put it into work, So I can respect anybody that
Speaker 4: puts into work, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And Mesic you came from promoting, you came from kind.
Speaker 5: Of the same I was throwing parties, and I also
Speaker 5: did street team work, like that's the first pack I
Speaker 5: ever got was a two Chains album. That was my
Speaker 5: first entry point into like the music business outside of
Speaker 5: navigating how of throwing parties, because I remember one of
Speaker 5: my parties got shot up.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
Speaker 5: I was making a whole bunch of money and one
Speaker 5: of my parties got shot up, and I remember my
Speaker 5: life flashed for my eyes. I'm like, damn, my shit over.
Speaker 5: I don't know how I'm gonna eat. I don't know
Speaker 5: what I'm gonna do. And I remember sitting in the
Speaker 5: house like what do you I would like because this
Speaker 5: party shit is not about to last.
Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm about to do. I'm like music,
Speaker 2: and I remember I just.
Speaker 5: Called Charlie Tech and al over there at Street is
Speaker 5: X and it was like, man, just come over here.
Speaker 5: And I did the street team work for Boats two Chains,
Speaker 5: and then shit, I did really good at that, and
Speaker 5: that's what made me just really fall in love with
Speaker 5: like the music business and just learning more about it.
Speaker 5: That's kind of like it was my entry point.
Speaker 1: Stop right there. So you remember he's got you, said
Speaker 1: Streeter Zax. I remember a time when there was a
Speaker 1: lot it was not a lot of music executives in Atlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but then it became to where music is x X
Speaker 1: moved to Atlanta and a lot of people from Atlanta
Speaker 1: became music at X for sure. Can you pinpoint when
Speaker 1: did you guys see that change?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, for me, it was the La Face era. La
Speaker 4: Face era. That's when I was in college and baby
Speaker 4: Facing La Reed. They came in set up shopping in
Speaker 4: Atlanta and they created that that vehicle La Face, which
Speaker 4: brought us outcast TLC and all these these icons of music.
Speaker 4: Uh usher you know. So they brought the foundation of
Speaker 4: what became the new music hub for the for the
Speaker 4: industry of Atlanta in the nineties, and I think Atlanta
Speaker 4: grew from there. And don't get it wrong, you know,
Speaker 4: Jermaine and Dallas they did their part as well, but
Speaker 4: as far as bringing a full infrastructure of a big
Speaker 4: label to the city, definitely that that office on P
Speaker 4: Street was like oh shit, this is like this is
Speaker 4: this can happen like this? Like I used to go
Speaker 4: up there, My man Taya used to wear there. Who
Speaker 4: I think you know that shit used to be like boomerang,
Speaker 4: Like we were going there and people be dressed beautifully,
Speaker 4: the women would look amazing. Everywhere you turned, everybody just
Speaker 4: looked good, smelled good, felt good, and they was just
Speaker 4: and they was popping out that shit. So, you know,
Speaker 4: really set the foundation for what things could be and
Speaker 4: what was fur the ground Atlanta to grow from from
Speaker 4: there from that point on.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I grew up. I
Speaker 5: grew up in seeing it. So I wasn't a time
Speaker 5: where I didn't know that it wasn't able to happen
Speaker 5: in Atlanta, you know, just because I'm little facing all
Speaker 5: that stuff. I'm young, I was young. I'm thirty five,
Speaker 5: so shit around that time, I ain't know much about music,
Speaker 5: but I know music was always here, so I always
Speaker 5: seen it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So what made what made you?
Speaker 6: I know you said that you you started working with
Speaker 6: street executives, But what made you really start like getting
Speaker 6: into like management, Like did you ever think you could
Speaker 6: start manage? No?
Speaker 5: It was Charlie from streets he not with you know,
Speaker 5: Charlie CEO was like man because I used to help artists,
Speaker 5: but I would only help artists to get them for
Speaker 5: free or for cheap, so I could make money at
Speaker 5: the door. So I'm like helping work in their music,
Speaker 5: doing whatever, making sure the DJ play the shit. I
Speaker 5: don't give a fuck what I had to do because
Speaker 5: I knew when two Chain changed his name from teddy
Speaker 5: Boy to two Chains, I'm like, shit, I want to help.
Speaker 5: Anything I need to do for two Chains, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: do because when his mixtape release come, he gonna I
Speaker 5: get it for free. So if I get it for
Speaker 5: free and my door hit forty thousand and I make
Speaker 5: twenty five percent of forty thousand, fine, you know. And
Speaker 5: I got in the relationship. So I used to just
Speaker 5: do stuff that marketers in different I used to do
Speaker 5: stuff label people would do, and I didn't know what
Speaker 5: I was doing. I'm just thinking whatever I can do
Speaker 5: to build a relationship with the artists to make money.
Speaker 5: So Charlie was like, look, bro, you can manage Do
Speaker 5: you realize that you need to? And it was this
Speaker 5: group called two nine that I was real close with,
Speaker 5: nine Siege and Jason. He was like, man, you should
Speaker 5: manage them. They are friends. You should try it. I'm like, damn,
Speaker 5: I ain't ever think about it, but fuck it. That's
Speaker 5: what made me move out my mama house. I moved
Speaker 5: out my mama house and got an apartment right behind
Speaker 5: Siege's house, bought them studio, and then, shit, I ain't
Speaker 5: look back. That's when that was my entry point manager.
Speaker 5: If it wasn't for Charlie, I would never thought about managing.
Speaker 5: I just would have been throwing parties and trying to
Speaker 5: figure it out, which is nothing wrong with that. I
Speaker 5: still miss throwing parties. I had to stop on because
Speaker 5: he was doing too much, so I had to stop
Speaker 5: throwing the parties like I was trying to, Like he
Speaker 5: was going out of town. I still had my percent,
Speaker 5: but they got to the point where it's like I'm
Speaker 5: not doing I'm not earning my money. So I just
Speaker 5: gave my percent up and then that was it for
Speaker 5: me with the parties. But I still wish I could
Speaker 5: promote to this day. That's why when I get excited
Speaker 5: when his birthday party come and shit like that, because
Speaker 5: he give me that feeling of like, oh, y'all, come
Speaker 5: fuck with us, we got this, we got that. I'm
Speaker 5: really excited to promote anything, you.
Speaker 2: Know, how exactly.
Speaker 3: I'll get excited. How did you How did you and
Speaker 3: Savage end up meeting.
Speaker 2: I knew him back.
Speaker 5: Shit if I'm three years older than him, so I
Speaker 5: think I met him. This is just in Passing, just
Speaker 5: because we grew up around the same people, like when
Speaker 5: he was like twelve and I was like fifteen, seeing
Speaker 5: him in Passing and then from there me throwing parties.
Speaker 5: They will always come to the parties, bisections and stuff
Speaker 5: like that. They was in the streets. They used to
Speaker 5: fuck my parties up, like dough all these shit. He
Speaker 5: was not a rapper whatsoever. So I just knew him
Speaker 5: in Passing. I knew a lot of his older homeboys,
Speaker 5: had a relationship with them, but they used to come
Speaker 5: and from there. When he did start rapping, I was
Speaker 5: just happy to see somebody who I knew for a
Speaker 5: long time doing it and the music was good. So
Speaker 5: I just was promoting him, pushing them just on some
Speaker 5: like man, this nigga next, I know him like cool,
Speaker 5: let's you know.
Speaker 2: That's how it was organic.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I knew him before anything, like just just
Speaker 5: in Passing, just growing up on the East Side.
Speaker 1: I could tell because it seems very organic between you two.
Speaker 1: I could tell he cares about you. I can tell
Speaker 1: you care about him. You know it's not transactional. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as you can kind of tell from outside looking in
Speaker 1: in certain situations, I could tell you guys have a
Speaker 1: really good relationship.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Yeah, are you doing a good job? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Because it's funny because when we went to Ruggs No
Speaker 3: was it? Who party was? I forgot? Was at somebody
Speaker 3: party and this uh savage saw you, like what you're
Speaker 3: doing here, and it's like, damn, I'm trying to get
Speaker 3: away from him.
Speaker 6: Stuff like that just shows me like how organic you
Speaker 6: know your relationship is, because you really don't see that
Speaker 6: a lot like a lot of times in this industry,
Speaker 6: we see like, uh, like an art like a manager
Speaker 6: like yourself, give with an artist and then as soon
Speaker 6: as the artists blow up and they get big, so
Speaker 6: what do they do? Snip snip switching later and then
Speaker 6: they got a whole man, they got a whole management company,
Speaker 6: and you don't help bring these artists, you know, to
Speaker 6: the point to where where they at.
Speaker 3: And you know, you see, you see that so so
Speaker 3: often in his industry.
Speaker 5: I'm blessed, bro, Like I know I'm blessed. I don't
Speaker 5: it ain't no, I don't got no advice for nobody
Speaker 5: and none. You gotta just pay. You got a real motherfucker.
Speaker 2: That's you.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, the way you fuck with them,
Speaker 5: because it's the percent the people that are like savage
Speaker 5: is like two percent in the industry. So it's like,
Speaker 5: don't think it's gonna it's it's it's rare for somebody
Speaker 5: be loyal, you know, and locking the way you know
Speaker 5: niggas is locked in. I was just talking to Shock
Speaker 5: up about it before I got here. They going on
Speaker 5: twenty five years together.
Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, yeah, wow, shout out the shock.
Speaker 2: That's rare though, you know what I'm saying. So I'm blessed, man,
Speaker 2: I'm blessed.
Speaker 1: Okay, Kenan, I got a question, man. I know you
Speaker 1: you was on the promo side for a very long time,
Speaker 1: so you saw some things going no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: ain't going too crazy.
Speaker 2: Hold on that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, like, what are some things
Speaker 1: that you think an artist tends to blame the label
Speaker 1: which is inaccurate?
Speaker 3: I want to good question because I worked at.
Speaker 1: The promo side year. I worked at war the records,
Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes I saw when I had I
Speaker 1: had a I had a corporate card, and I thought
Speaker 1: that was cool.
Speaker 2: I kept saying.
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, I had to do my little
Speaker 1: use expenses. I said, oh, this goes to the artist budget. Wow,
Speaker 1: I just mons how to eat. Everybody was saying it
Speaker 1: is we go to the bull artist. But what are
Speaker 1: some things that you know are misconceptions that artists may say, Man,
Speaker 1: it's y'all phone.
Speaker 4: I mean, I've seen many of times where you know,
Speaker 4: as a promo guy, we've delivered you know, success, you
Speaker 4: know for artists on records, you know, whether it be
Speaker 4: number ones, top tens, top fives, but the man, it
Speaker 4: a record doesn't work, y'all shit, y'alling. I've had that
Speaker 4: happen many a time actually, and I don't even take
Speaker 4: it personal. I just I know what it is. Like
Speaker 4: I learned early in this game, it's a delicate dance
Speaker 4: that we have to do as record people, especially on
Speaker 4: the promo side, as far as building bridges and relationships
Speaker 4: with artists, like to one degree, we're literally most times
Speaker 4: the first line of defense when it comes to showing
Speaker 4: them how to be artists in front of people, because
Speaker 4: when they do promo, they're getting in front of people
Speaker 4: like yourself, and a lot of times they don't really
Speaker 4: have the tools to communicate properly, to actually have conversations
Speaker 4: where they know how to give the right answers and
Speaker 4: not put themselves in bad situations. So what happens with
Speaker 4: that is you build the trust with these artists, you know,
Speaker 4: in that process early on. So that's the great part.
Speaker 4: Right on the way up, you're helping them build you
Speaker 4: watching them grow, and they get all success. But then
Speaker 4: to the point about the management part where people get
Speaker 4: snip snipped. It's the same kind of dichotomy when they
Speaker 4: get super big and all of a sudden they're not
Speaker 4: as big as they were, and they may fucking deliver
Speaker 4: a dud, and you may take that dud top ten
Speaker 4: because that's the you know, you have an interest in
Speaker 4: the staking of artists, you believe in them, you was
Speaker 4: with them from the beginning. But this just ain't the record.
Speaker 4: But they'll throw your ass under the bus, so god
Speaker 4: damn quick and make your head spin. But I, like
Speaker 4: I said, I ain't take a person at this point.
Speaker 4: It's it's the game, you know. At the end of
Speaker 4: the day, I would hope that my overall track record
Speaker 4: of success across a lineage of artists speaks to my
Speaker 4: what I contributed as opposed to what I did with
Speaker 4: one artist or one record.
Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you this, is it true that
Speaker 3: you can pay for a number one record?
Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about that, Okay.
Speaker 3: I just see this on the internet all the time.
Speaker 6: Report you get, you get, you get industry experts, and
Speaker 6: they were like, hey, it cost this to go to
Speaker 6: number one. And you know when you see these artists
Speaker 6: going number one is because the labels are doing let's
Speaker 6: do it.
Speaker 4: I mean, let me let me start.
Speaker 1: Let me, let me, let me, let me start.
Speaker 4: I'm from a different eraror bro. You have to pay
Speaker 4: so much so for me, So for me, let's just
Speaker 4: let's just get get this out the way. For me,
Speaker 4: even speaking on platforms is a big deal one, that's
Speaker 4: a fact. Speaking on gang business is even more of
Speaker 4: a big deal for me. So for me, like whatever
Speaker 4: is known, it is what it is. But at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, you have to have a great
Speaker 4: record in order to put it in position to go
Speaker 4: number one. I'll say that, yes, are there budgets involved
Speaker 4: with working records? Of course, there's budgets involved with every
Speaker 4: department at a record label. Just like there's a digital
Speaker 4: department that needs a budget to move things around, there's
Speaker 4: a marketing department that needs a budget to move things around.
Speaker 4: There's a radio budget as well. But if that record
Speaker 4: ain't shit, that record's gonna stall at twenty because the
Speaker 4: record ain't researching. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: you need a really really good record that's connecting with
Speaker 4: the with the with the audience in order fourth to
Speaker 4: go number one? So can you pay for number one?
Speaker 4: I wouldn't agree with that. Do you need a great
Speaker 4: team to position a record to go number one and
Speaker 4: a budget to support that? Of course absolutely, And that
Speaker 4: was a good answer because the reason why I access
Speaker 4: because people making it seem like it doesn't matter what
Speaker 4: type of music it is, like you can instantly pay to.
Speaker 2: Go number one.
Speaker 6: So that's why I'm glad we got experts in the
Speaker 6: room to really break it down.
Speaker 4: So I get so many conversations about people who hire
Speaker 4: independent people who and they say, man, I gave it
Speaker 4: so and so personal this amount of money and my
Speaker 4: record ain't even chart. Well, what's the record good?
Speaker 2: First of all?
Speaker 4: You know, let's start there, right, And sometimes you're dealing
Speaker 4: with people who are maybe call themselves professional, but they're
Speaker 4: just looking for a check. One thing I can say
Speaker 4: about myself, and you know, I will choot my heart
Speaker 4: in this regard. I never took no money that I
Speaker 4: didn't believe in. If I didn't believe in the record
Speaker 4: or believe in the artist, I'm not taking your bread.
Speaker 4: It ain't work for you diminishing my my reputation for sure.
Speaker 4: Like the headache is one thing, but my reputation is
Speaker 4: a whole nother thing. That's why to this day I
Speaker 4: can walk in any room my head high and no,
Speaker 4: there's no one in that room that could say Keenan
Speaker 4: did them dirty? Ever, you'll never find that person. If
Speaker 4: they did, they full of shit, you feel me? So
Speaker 4: you gotta you gotta with anything. You need to vet
Speaker 4: the people that you're dealing with. But you also need
Speaker 4: to vet your goddamn product. Yeah it's that product worthy?
Speaker 2: Not for sure?
Speaker 1: Now measy. I know. Sometimes you gotta go hide sometimes
Speaker 1: because motherfuckers probably be walking up to you, like bro,
Speaker 1: blow me up like you did?
Speaker 3: Savage?
Speaker 1: My boy, how can you take me there to that?
Speaker 1: You say?
Speaker 2: What what they got? I can't, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't do that.
Speaker 5: But you know, I get even advice about looking left
Speaker 5: and right, bro, looking to people, look at the people
Speaker 5: around you, BROI try to build and make sure you
Speaker 5: got passionate because one thing about us, we was pat like.
Speaker 5: It was a time where, believe it or not, people
Speaker 5: did not believe in twenty one Savage. They thought this
Speaker 5: nigga was a crazy street nigga. I remember biggas come
Speaker 5: to me like, Man, be careful, Bro. I don't man
Speaker 5: this ship. Man, I don't know how long it's gonna last.
Speaker 5: Get your money because of where he started, you know
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. But it's when you find people that
Speaker 5: genuinely believe, bro, it'll happen, don't you know. I feel
Speaker 5: like sometimes look left and right and don't look up.
Speaker 5: You know, look left and right, your people were right
Speaker 5: around you. That's gonna help you build that ship, you
Speaker 5: know a lot of times. So that's the best advice
Speaker 5: I get. But you asking me to put you on,
Speaker 5: I can't do it.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 6: What I would say, what's what's uh you know on
Speaker 6: on your adventure going up? What's some of the craziest
Speaker 6: things that y'all have to experience?
Speaker 2: Like what you mean that.
Speaker 1: You can say things that you can say because I know,
Speaker 1: I know, I know.
Speaker 6: At one point, you know, I saw you do an
Speaker 6: interview or y'all talked about y'all. Y'all was like traveling
Speaker 6: across country like in a in a small van, you know,
Speaker 6: just just talking about the grind that people may not
Speaker 6: see because of the sex that y'all have.
Speaker 5: Savage couldn't fly, so, you know, due to his you know,
Speaker 5: nobody knew at the time, but you know, citizenship and
Speaker 5: stuff like that.
Speaker 2: We didn't just we never discussed it, but he.
Speaker 5: Could not fly. He didn't have ID. So everywhere we
Speaker 5: went at the beginning, we drove everywhere. We used to
Speaker 5: have to route our shows. Yeah, like if we did
Speaker 5: a show in Kansas City, we couldn't take a show
Speaker 5: in Miami the next day, no matter how much they
Speaker 5: was paying.
Speaker 2: So we had to route the drive. So we knew, like,
Speaker 2: oh we do these two shows.
Speaker 5: Cool, this takes twelve hours to drive here from there,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be six hours here and then from there
Speaker 5: to get back home, it's gonna be this.
Speaker 2: We used to have to ride it like that.
Speaker 5: Or when we met in LA for the labels, that
Speaker 5: was a thirty five hour non stop drive drive to LA.
Speaker 2: Back and forth. So we knew that was gonna take
Speaker 2: a week.
Speaker 1: Bro, it's gonna be two days drove to LA.
Speaker 2: All the time. We did that more than once.
Speaker 5: Two days to drive there, three days to do what
Speaker 5: you need to be, two more days to get back home.
Speaker 5: So we need, like we used to have to schedule
Speaker 5: how we traveled just based off of us not being
Speaker 5: able to fly for a long time till he got
Speaker 5: enough money, and a lot of these niggas fly private
Speaker 5: where they flew.
Speaker 2: At the time.
Speaker 5: He was one of the first niggas to take jets,
Speaker 5: but a lot of niggas is taking jets flexing because
Speaker 5: they spend their money just flying private.
Speaker 2: Niggas. They understand we that was.
Speaker 5: The only y'all have to do li you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying, without him having to go through the process
Speaker 5: of TSA and all that.
Speaker 2: So that's why we was flying private at first.
Speaker 5: Honestly, it wasn't a flex It was like, yeah, we
Speaker 5: had to get Wow, I did not know that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, so at what point did
Speaker 6: y'all have that conversation? Was that something that he was
Speaker 6: like y'all gotta have a talk with you about.
Speaker 2: Oh. No, I mean I knew it's something.
Speaker 5: It wasn't like people see the ice shit and see
Speaker 5: it think like, oh, he scrambled to try to fix
Speaker 5: something when to hit the fan.
Speaker 2: No, man, it's something this like his life.
Speaker 5: He's been working on this for before, Like this is
Speaker 5: something that's been the top priority for him. It was
Speaker 5: always something that you know, knew, But it's just nothing
Speaker 5: that you you don't just want to go around talking about.
Speaker 5: I had a friend who had a citizenship issue and
Speaker 5: I didn't know until something happened with Savage and he
Speaker 5: actually told me, and I been friends with him since
Speaker 5: middle school.
Speaker 2: It's just something you don't ship.
Speaker 5: It's something you don't talk about because it was gonna
Speaker 5: come from you talking about it, besides you endangering yourself,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. So the people that needed
Speaker 5: to know new But it wasn't like one of them
Speaker 5: things he hided from the world a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Oh, he wasn't really from Atlanta.
Speaker 5: He was cat Man that Nigga came in when he
Speaker 5: was seven. That Nigga's from Atlanta, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: But he also can't just remind you that he's come
Speaker 5: another country when he's trying to handle his immigration issues.
Speaker 5: You know, he's not just about to Hey, yeah, by
Speaker 5: the way, man, I got this going on.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna talk about it? Yeah, that's kind of how
Speaker 2: that worked.
Speaker 1: I wanted to give him his flowers, man in front
Speaker 1: of you, because I always say this on the radio.
Speaker 1: I always say this every podcast, dag. He is very
Speaker 1: consistent bro in a lane in the industry with a
Speaker 1: lot of Sometimes artists go up in peaks and valleys
Speaker 1: with artists. He is still peaking, bro. Like I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: every time he dropped, we got at least four bangers
Speaker 1: at the same time and another four in the club.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it to that.
Speaker 1: Where does that come from?
Speaker 2: Man? That nigga hustler. Man, he know and he pay
Speaker 2: attention to the game.
Speaker 5: So like we watched the game, we watch what needs
Speaker 5: to be done, what don't need to be done, what
Speaker 5: we can change, how people feel about us, how people
Speaker 5: feeling about other people, the.
Speaker 2: Temperature, everything. You know, he pay attention to everything.
Speaker 5: He not just some nigga going into booth rapping and
Speaker 5: you know, nah, he knows he has intention on everything
Speaker 5: he does. He knows what he needs to do, he
Speaker 5: knows what's expected of him, and he know where he
Speaker 5: wanted to take his career and where he wanted to
Speaker 5: take his life.
Speaker 2: At the end of the day, man, shit, he hustled.
Speaker 2: He know this shit paying. He ain't about to fuck
Speaker 2: it up. Why would you want to suck it up?
Speaker 2: You gotta make it bigger, get the checks bigger, man.
Speaker 4: That's how he thinks, honestly, and he actually be rapping
Speaker 4: rapping like I gotta no for like because I watched
Speaker 4: the journey as well, and I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 4: In the beginning, I was like, these niggas look crazy
Speaker 4: as fuck. Ye what is these niggas talking about?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: And I'm staying away from that shit. Like, so I
Speaker 4: got to give you, like give flowers as well, for one,
Speaker 4: having the foresight to see the talent that was there
Speaker 4: and be able to be able to nurture it and
Speaker 4: you grow along with him at the same time, because
Speaker 4: I watched him grow and become this young man. It's
Speaker 4: like really like a pillar, Like he gives back so
Speaker 4: much in the community and I love to use it
Speaker 4: just this analogy, like you know, people always look back
Speaker 4: at who people were in the beginning, but we have
Speaker 4: to remember there is no Malcolm X with our mounc
Speaker 4: and little you feel that. And I apply that same
Speaker 4: analogy to people like Savage, Like I watch who he
Speaker 4: is today. He's an amazing human being and the way
Speaker 4: the way you guys as as as a team give
Speaker 4: back and just contribute to community.
Speaker 1: Salute, Nah, thank you, I mean a lot, bro, No listen, bro,
Speaker 1: anytime I can give him his flowers, because I always
Speaker 1: feel like people just purposely leave him off.
Speaker 2: I'm over here, like the reason why I just tweeted
Speaker 2: that the other day.
Speaker 5: He's not in a lot of conversations in my opinion,
Speaker 5: because he raps and moves out the way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he don't talk.
Speaker 3: He don't.
Speaker 1: That's why I raise my hand and say, twenty one
Speaker 1: savurage about it in there.
Speaker 2: Bro, He not in the mix. He not on the
Speaker 2: blalls for nothing.
Speaker 5: Everything you see by some music related is nothing really, Like,
Speaker 5: you know, he's not really the conversation. When he drops
Speaker 5: his music, he does what he does, then he falls
Speaker 5: back and it's a gift in the curse, you know.
Speaker 5: So I feel like that's the thing when it comes
Speaker 5: to conversations, it's one of them. Oh yeah, twenty one,
Speaker 5: like you don't just sometimes people don't think of it
Speaker 5: first because of how he moves. He's like more reserved,
Speaker 5: more quiet to himself. He's not really all out and about.
Speaker 5: You don't see him holding hands with holes, running out
Speaker 5: of club going viral for that.
Speaker 1: Well, it's my camera. That's why it's more. People like
Speaker 1: me need to come out and start saying, twenty one savage.
Speaker 1: You gotta have some more champions, bro, you feel me,
Speaker 1: come on out there and start talking about twenty one
Speaker 1: savage little bit more.
Speaker 6: But that's that's how you know he making good music
Speaker 6: though not to cut like, you know, an artist is
Speaker 6: making good music when they don't have to do all
Speaker 6: the antics and stuff like that. I think that's another
Speaker 6: reason why an artist like Rod Wave is so popular,
Speaker 6: because you don't really hear nothing about him, you know,
Speaker 6: just the music.
Speaker 2: He let the music speak man, and the people speak
Speaker 2: through the music. That's how it is. I mean he dropped,
Speaker 2: you gonna know, because the people listening to it, that's
Speaker 2: the most important thing, all right.
Speaker 1: So to each one of you guys, Keenan, I had
Speaker 1: you go first, if someone wants to get into the
Speaker 1: label business and they're young, m what would you say
Speaker 1: to them, Man, they don't know what to do well,
Speaker 1: where to start?
Speaker 4: I would say, now is the best time, more than never,
Speaker 4: to lean into your independence. To be perfectly honest, you know,
Speaker 4: the label business, you know, as you know, you know
Speaker 4: I was. I got caught up in the restructuring that
Speaker 4: happened at Universal earlier last year, back in March. And
Speaker 4: the fact is there's a lot of great people on
Speaker 4: the outside of a label right now. So the reason
Speaker 4: I say for people who are in the beginning on
Speaker 4: the way up to maybe build on the independent level
Speaker 4: is because that's what the opportunities are.
Speaker 6: Like.
Speaker 4: There's so many opportunities for you to put off music
Speaker 4: on your own, you know, get your own distribution deals,
Speaker 4: build with a team, and actually figure this shit out
Speaker 4: early before you have something to deliver to a label.
Speaker 4: So by the time you get to the point to
Speaker 4: get into a label, you actually have some equity built up.
Speaker 4: And if you're going inside, you're going inside for a reason.
Speaker 4: You're going inside for even more resources, right and the
Speaker 4: check in addition to the resources, as opposed to when
Speaker 4: you going too early most times you end up gett
Speaker 4: fucked just being honest, Like most artists that go in
Speaker 4: too early, you know, with just the music to offer
Speaker 4: and just a little bit of a buzz, they get
Speaker 4: the deal they got. It's cool and it may be
Speaker 4: an opportunity, but you got to remember at a label,
Speaker 4: there's so many artists that are vying for the attention
Speaker 4: of the label to become a priority. If you not,
Speaker 4: if you're not driving them to make your priority because
Speaker 4: you're actually delivering, you're probably not going to get the
Speaker 4: look that you want, that you truly want initially. So
Speaker 4: I would advise anybody like, get your team together, you know,
Speaker 4: just like Mezi had to foresay with the two Change
Speaker 4: Project to be you know, and to say, I want
Speaker 4: to build relationships with people I see have something to
Speaker 4: offer and give them my resources early because I see
Speaker 4: what this can become. Build that kind of network with
Speaker 4: your own people first and then consider going into a label.
Speaker 4: Then you'll have actual tools and you'll actually have skills
Speaker 4: to take into a building for marketing, for promotions, for
Speaker 4: you know, for whatever, like you may even have you
Speaker 4: know your own revenue story. By building up your own
Speaker 4: artists that you can take into a label and become
Speaker 4: part of the revenue department, you know. So for me,
Speaker 4: my my suggestion wouldn't be immediately to go into a label.
Speaker 4: Maybe intern at a label, but have your own thing
Speaker 4: going on outside of a label.
Speaker 2: I agree measy.
Speaker 1: If someone is looking at you like, man, how can
Speaker 1: I be as successful as easy?
Speaker 2: Where?
Speaker 1: Where do they start? What would you say to them?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I did like what you said earlier, left, look right, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 5: What I say. Like if you see, if you you
Speaker 5: gotta figure out. Like I always knew, I always had
Speaker 5: a gift a gap. I always knew how to communicate,
Speaker 5: I always knew how to talk. I always knew I
Speaker 5: loved music, always knew I had a good ear for music.
Speaker 5: And I always knew how to help others. So it's like,
Speaker 5: once you find your strengths and whatever, you know, your
Speaker 5: strength is hone in.
Speaker 2: On it with the people around you.
Speaker 5: You know, whether you're a producer, same with producers, Like
Speaker 5: I look at producers and a lot of producers want
Speaker 5: the Rihanna place me. They want the jay Z place me,
Speaker 5: they want the little Baby place me, they want the
Speaker 5: twenty one Savage place men and those it's cool, but
Speaker 5: the dude that's wrapping his ass off next to you.
Speaker 5: Building from the ground up with somebody is the best
Speaker 5: thing you can do, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So that's what I'll say.
Speaker 5: Utilize your talents and look at the resources around you
Speaker 5: and try to add to what those people need, and
Speaker 5: they can add to.
Speaker 2: What you need.
Speaker 5: That's the best thing I could say. That's what I did,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. Me and Savage got together
Speaker 5: because we're from the same side of town. He had
Speaker 5: a dream and I had the same dream. We wanted
Speaker 5: to go to the same place, and we had the
Speaker 5: same vision, and we both did two different things to
Speaker 5: be able to make it happen, came together and made
Speaker 5: it bigger.
Speaker 1: That's dope, all right? Before we go, when you guys,
Speaker 1: just a mental health check in. Yeah, when Keenan's having
Speaker 1: a moment or a bad dam I know what you
Speaker 1: call moments or bad days?
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 2: What do I do?
Speaker 4: I do a few different things. I have a therapist
Speaker 4: that I talked to. I get with him maybe every
Speaker 4: other week. I may reach out to I'm a part
Speaker 4: of a couple of different circles with brothers that we
Speaker 4: communicate about what's going on in each other's lives. One
Speaker 4: resource that I use is this out here is called
Speaker 4: do your Google Brotherhood. They're based here in Atlanta. Really
Speaker 4: Really Dope Brotherhood. You can find them on ig Really
Speaker 4: Really Dope Brothers. That's leading that. Oh, I just you know,
Speaker 4: tap in with my people that really know me best
Speaker 4: and have a real conversation. Like I had a conversation
Speaker 4: with one and one of my guys yesterday that was
Speaker 4: going through and with his lady, and he was approaching
Speaker 4: the conversation and a momentary issue from a place of ego,
Speaker 4: and it was a beautiful thing for me. Even though
Speaker 4: I wasn't having a bad day he was. I was
Speaker 4: able to level set for that brother and have him
Speaker 4: like retap in a way that was posted with his lady,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And they were able to
Speaker 4: reconnect in that moment. So, you know, it's just being
Speaker 4: there for each other in those moments and having people
Speaker 4: that you can actually lean on for those moments, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. That's important to you know, have
Speaker 4: a little more vulnerability with the people that actually love
Speaker 4: you and allow them into your space to be able
Speaker 4: to help you.
Speaker 2: When you need it.
Speaker 1: Is having a bad day or Ship's all over the place.
Speaker 1: What does what does measy do? Call of duty?
Speaker 5: Okay, call of duty in it. Like I said, said that,
Speaker 5: we got a group. We got a group besides. Besides,
Speaker 5: I'll go to Magice sometimes having a bad day. But
Speaker 5: we got a group chat too.
Speaker 2: With Ship. We just keep it up. We like keep
Speaker 2: it real.
Speaker 5: Sometimes, bro, we be on that motherfucker. We'll start a
Speaker 5: FaceTime and don't be doing Ship. We'll just all be
Speaker 5: just talking and the nigga might just we talk about music,
Speaker 5: we talk about whatever. If the nigga going through something,
Speaker 5: they might throw it out. We give each other advice.
Speaker 2: We got a group chat. Yeah, I got a couple
Speaker 2: of group chats. I'm in a group chat. I'm in
Speaker 2: one group chat with him, and it's it's therapeutic. It's
Speaker 2: their repauty for me. Honestly.
Speaker 5: Like it might be having a bad day and somebody
Speaker 5: might say the right joke and it'd be like, ah, man,
Speaker 5: you know what, let me interact with.
Speaker 2: Them, and then it boosts my day a little better.
Speaker 5: It might not have been going that good, but you know,
Speaker 5: sometimes that good energy being around you by genuine people helps,
Speaker 5: you know, honestly, So that's what I do.
Speaker 1: Like, man, we appreciate y'all. Anything else be t man,
Speaker 1: it's a good episode.
Speaker 3: This is a good episode.
Speaker 4: This has been a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Was I was giving our game?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Man, we just wanted to, you know, just start again
Speaker 1: interviewing people that we care about, that we see doing
Speaker 1: positive things that are humans too. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I know you guys got a lot going on in
Speaker 2: your plate.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you spending your time with us. Just know
Speaker 1: these clip clip now, so anything said let us know
Speaker 1: now that's our.
Speaker 2: Producer, right.
Speaker 4: We ain't said nothing crazy.
Speaker 1: It's the ball or show