Speaker 1: R and B money.
Speaker 2: Honey, we are.
Speaker 1: Thank ta Malati.
Speaker 3: We are the authority on all things R and B.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 3: My name is Tank and this is the rmy Money podcast,
Speaker 3: the authority on all things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, all.
Speaker 1: Things A building R and B in the building, yeah,
Speaker 1: hm hmmm.
Speaker 4: Where you gonna put your army.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you want to congregate, yeah, associate, Yeah, sometime they
Speaker 3: want to grind.
Speaker 1: They want to grind on you.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And spaces where there's R and.
Speaker 3: B only high You are good at this, man, it's
Speaker 3: only R and B and we're gonna get into this
Speaker 3: ship because you need to be in the place where
Speaker 3: this shuts up with it.
Speaker 1: The founder, Leona R and be on himself.
Speaker 5: Happy to be here with my brothers.
Speaker 1: This is it.
Speaker 5: This is a long time coming.
Speaker 1: Jabari Johnson bro.
Speaker 3: I remember, yeah, I remember. It's like, yeah, you gotta come.
Speaker 3: I want you to sing at this R and B
Speaker 3: only thing. I was like, R and BE only. What
Speaker 3: does this mean they're only doing R and B.
Speaker 5: I was like, well, I love that.
Speaker 3: But it's really just about the music. You're a surprise,
Speaker 3: right right, It's just part of the experience. We're just
Speaker 3: moving the music and everything that that that comes out
Speaker 3: after that, anything that comes along along with that is
Speaker 3: just the cool part of the curation to where since
Speaker 3: you decided you wanted to be a part of R
Speaker 3: and B only, here's our gift to you. And I
Speaker 3: was able to come out on your stage twice Chicago
Speaker 3: and La, you know, in front of your LED walls,
Speaker 3: your DJ and your smoke in your lighting rigs and
Speaker 3: get real R.
Speaker 5: And B that we all own too that you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, not as I said, your LED walls, your CDJ.
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 3: Say the boy got his own money and bro, what
Speaker 3: an amazing thing that you have created.
Speaker 6: Thank you, R and B. Thank you, Thank you. I'm
Speaker 6: just grateful because you know I was. I was graciously let.
Speaker 5: In to R and B.
Speaker 6: You know what I mean, Like I'm always grew up
Speaker 6: loving R and B. My mom played you know, I
Speaker 6: always tell the story my mom used to have like
Speaker 6: baduism on the on the counter, like like like it
Speaker 6: like it was a piece of artwork, just because of
Speaker 6: the way.
Speaker 1: That album cover.
Speaker 5: Yeah you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: Like yeah, so like you know, but I grew up
Speaker 6: on hip hop, you know what I mean. And that
Speaker 6: was my first love. And R and B, man, is
Speaker 6: just like it was something that was just really driven
Speaker 6: in the household, you know what I mean, And it
Speaker 6: was always being played from like the stuff in the
Speaker 6: seventies to you know, the nineties when I grew up.
Speaker 6: And then once I started to see what was sort
Speaker 6: of lacking in the live space in R and B,
Speaker 6: I felt like I was graciously let in by the fans,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, And like I just like
Speaker 6: really don't take that for granted, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: And I try to try to really provide an experience
Speaker 6: and value to the R and B community.
Speaker 4: So what do you like to be called? Ye in
Speaker 4: this whole thing?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 4: Because you know, everybody's okay, well I'm a this or
Speaker 4: I'm a what you do multiple things? Yeah, yeah, you're
Speaker 4: doing well.
Speaker 7: Appreciate it really well for yourself, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: So that's I like to you know, like to ask, like,
Speaker 7: like what do you see yourself?
Speaker 2: Ask?
Speaker 5: That's a great question. Man.
Speaker 6: I don't really get caught up in like labels and stuff,
Speaker 6: but I think ultimately a creator, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 6: just like because on the one hand, I am a founder,
Speaker 6: you know, I am the CEO of my company. But
Speaker 6: it's not just limited to that. I don't just sit
Speaker 6: in a business hat all the time. You know, a
Speaker 6: lot of stuff I do is creative, you know. I
Speaker 6: executive produce series. You know, I'm literally like making records
Speaker 6: right now with artists, you know, like I'm uh directing
Speaker 6: videos sometimes, you know what I mean. But at the
Speaker 6: same time, like I'm also balancing budgets, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. I'm also like, uh, you know, making sure
Speaker 6: that payroll is clear and running. I'm also you know,
Speaker 6: you know, making sure that everyone's four one K is
Speaker 6: set up, that our employees in the company, you know.
Speaker 5: So it's like it's just like creative hat, but as.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm I'm a I'm a real business owner, you know,
Speaker 6: and I really do this business thing for real. So
Speaker 6: I just think like the word that can encapsulate all
Speaker 6: of that is creator.
Speaker 1: Mm hm. Why R and B?
Speaker 3: Though, if you were raised so hip hop, yeah that
Speaker 3: was your first thing, like your first mind?
Speaker 1: Yeah, why R and B?
Speaker 6: I think it's really one word. I think the genre
Speaker 6: overall in the live space was underserved, and I think
Speaker 6: that for years and years and years, people's view of
Speaker 6: an R and B show was an artist on stage
Speaker 6: with a microphone and maybe, if they were lucky.
Speaker 5: A band behind them.
Speaker 6: I don't think people before we came into the game,
Speaker 6: I don't think people could conceptualize a show involving a DJ.
Speaker 6: I think that they always thought that that was a party,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. If I'm going to a party,
Speaker 6: it's a DJ there. And when I started going to
Speaker 6: you know, electronic music shows, I started seeing like incredible
Speaker 6: hip hop DJs alongside artists, like opening up for an artist,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, but having their own flow
Speaker 6: and their own show. I said, Man, this isn't really
Speaker 6: happening like this in the R and B space, you know,
Speaker 6: Like like I said, it is just really filled with
Speaker 6: a bunch of incredible artists doing their thing. But I
Speaker 6: wanted to provide something where I thought people could have
Speaker 6: that same experience of a concert but sort of have
Speaker 6: it be a hybrid of a party. But I just
Speaker 6: really wanted to make people pay attention to what was
Speaker 6: going on on stage, but just from a DJ perspective,
Speaker 6: like telling stories through music, and that's what I thought
Speaker 6: was missing, And that's that's how R and B on.
Speaker 3: It was really birthed and with this idea, with this thought,
Speaker 3: what is your first move?
Speaker 6: WHOA so well, really, I was doing hip hop parties
Speaker 6: at first, and at the end of those parties I
Speaker 6: would play R and B exactly and I would well,
Speaker 6: I was hosting. I would always hire DJ. I never
Speaker 6: was a DJ myself, but I would always hire DJs
Speaker 6: and I would host the events. And I turned the
Speaker 6: fader down one day, and sometimes the DJs would hate
Speaker 6: this because I would like grab their yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 6: would grab the fader from there right, turn it down,
Speaker 6: and and so I would. I did that, and I
Speaker 6: was like, if I did an R and B only event,
Speaker 6: would you guys come? And I had noticed at some
Speaker 6: point like we would play R and B in the
Speaker 6: last hour and a half. But as these parties were
Speaker 6: kept progressing, all of the women would really come. Like
Speaker 6: for the R and B sets, they would be like, oh,
Speaker 6: I know they're about to do R and B, Like
Speaker 6: at the end, I don't want to be there. When
Speaker 6: at the time, you know, this is like little UZI vert,
Speaker 6: you know, asap ferg, Like this is like the era
Speaker 6: of turn up hip hop, you know.
Speaker 5: What I mean?
Speaker 6: And the girls were just coming at a certain time
Speaker 6: and they were just like enjoying it so much, and
Speaker 6: the entire room just like erupted when I asked them
Speaker 6: if they if they would come to something that was
Speaker 6: on and be only. And so the first move was
Speaker 6: just like, all right, book a small venue. And so
Speaker 6: I booked a venue down the street from where I
Speaker 6: was doing it. I was I was having my events
Speaker 6: in La at this place called a Dragonfly on Santa
Speaker 6: Monica Boulevard. And then we booked a really small venue
Speaker 6: off Sunset. Maybe it held to like maybe about one
Speaker 6: hundred and fifty two hundred people.
Speaker 5: It wasn't even really like a venue. It was kind
Speaker 5: of like a bar.
Speaker 3: Hold on, let's get this because I want to get
Speaker 3: because you're not You're just You're not just a creator. Yep,
Speaker 3: you're a businessman.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: How do you book this venue? Do you do a
Speaker 3: deal with the venue in terms of the door. Do
Speaker 3: you say, hey, let me buy out your venue?
Speaker 1: Yeah for the night? Like, how did you do that?
Speaker 6: Ever since I started, I was always I it was
Speaker 6: always important to me to have as much control as
Speaker 6: I possibly could have. So I always and to this day,
Speaker 6: we still only do rental deals. So I would say, hey,
Speaker 6: I'll at the venue and maybe there's a fixed fee,
Speaker 6: but maybe that you know, fee can go down if
Speaker 6: we have some sort of bar participation. So like let's
Speaker 6: say at this time, maybe the venue cost about like
Speaker 6: twenty five hundred or something to rent, but if we
Speaker 6: did x amount at the bar, that twenty five hundred
Speaker 6: might go to like fifteen hundred. And then if we
Speaker 6: did more at the bar, that fifteen hundred could go
Speaker 6: to five hundred, and if we hit the highest tier, it.
Speaker 5: Would be a free, free venue rental. Yeah.
Speaker 6: So that was like how I started all of my deals.
Speaker 6: And you know, it's evolved a lot now as we're
Speaker 6: in like much larger capacities, but the spirit is still there.
Speaker 1: You're betting on you're betting early people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yes, you're hedging a real bad yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And there and there's a there's a lot of skin
Speaker 6: in the game, and there's a lot that can be
Speaker 6: lost when you do that because it could rain and
Speaker 6: nobody could show up. Yeah, and now you you you've
Speaker 6: already paid that fifty percent deposit to the venue and
Speaker 6: they don't care if it rains or not.
Speaker 4: They had the staff.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so yeah, you could, you could, uh and I
Speaker 6: have many times you could.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 5: You could lose your shirt on some of these deals.
Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, when you take
Speaker 6: the most risk, naturally, when it works, you're going to
Speaker 6: be able to have the most reward.
Speaker 1: So your first your first one, yeah is Dragonfly is correct?
Speaker 6: Well, well it wasn't Dragonfly, it was it was another
Speaker 6: venue that I don't even down down the street. It
Speaker 6: was I believe it was called the Lost Palmas or
Speaker 6: something we recently. Yeah, it was all off of Lost Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 6: so it was there and that one cracked. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 6: for sure. Honestly, it was just under the amount of
Speaker 6: people that were at the hip hop shows. And so
Speaker 6: I was like, you know, but the thing is like
Speaker 6: the hip hop the room was and the hip hop
Speaker 6: stuff was ticketed. This one I made a free rs VP,
Speaker 6: but it was free rs VP before a certain time.
Speaker 6: It was like free rs VP, free rs VP before
Speaker 6: nine thirty because I knew if I incentivized people to
Speaker 6: get there early like that would that was that was
Speaker 6: the payment for me. It was like, you don't have
Speaker 6: to give me any money to come to this show.
Speaker 6: But if you get here early. That's more time you
Speaker 6: drinking at the bar, you know what I mean, that's
Speaker 6: that's more time that that people. You know a lot
Speaker 6: of times, especially in LA people want to get to
Speaker 6: some place where it's already popping at They don't want
Speaker 6: to be there.
Speaker 4: They don't want to be the first people in the building.
Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly right, And so like they didn't mind getting there.
Speaker 6: Now everybody got there at about nine to twenty five,
Speaker 6: you know, and then the line is wrapped around the corner,
Speaker 6: it looks and you know, so now it's like okay, cool,
Speaker 6: once we got everybody in, and it goes from like
Speaker 6: nine thirty until you know, two am. I just noticed that, like, wow,
Speaker 6: this music, it has the key ingredients to storytell through
Speaker 6: music throughout the night, right, and and those those ingredients
Speaker 6: are it has to have a past president in the future, right,
Speaker 6: So like there's an old school that people really want
Speaker 6: to hear, but there's also a current like at the
Speaker 6: at the at the current time, this is what the
Speaker 6: music sounds like. And then there's like this up and
Speaker 6: coming you know what I mean of the genre and
Speaker 6: where it's going. And as long as we have that,
Speaker 6: we can curate the music in a way where we
Speaker 6: can take people on the journey, you know. And I
Speaker 6: started all those wheels started turning in my head on
Speaker 6: the first show.
Speaker 4: So you were curating the DJ's playlist.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I wouldn't just tell a DJ,
Speaker 6: hey spin an R and B set, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean? And that that's not even how it works
Speaker 6: to this day. You know, like we really sit with music,
Speaker 6: you know, I work with the music director and we
Speaker 6: curate everything, and then there's a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 6: we have moments in the show where we might we
Speaker 6: might get the crowd interactive, and so we'll put you know,
Speaker 6: actually we're doing it with one of your songs. In
Speaker 6: this season, we have a we have a moment that
Speaker 6: progresses from like baby making music or I think it's
Speaker 6: love making music, baby making music, and then freak nasty music.
Speaker 6: And we put a screen up and we have like
Speaker 6: three options for each category and we get the crowd involved,
Speaker 6: the nextra crowd to choose which songs they want to hear,
Speaker 6: right yeah, And I think on freak Nasty that's when
Speaker 6: one of the three options is when we and I
Speaker 6: can't tell you how many times that song wins. Yeah,
Speaker 6: And I always show you out when whenever, whenever, if
Speaker 6: I'm on stage, if I'm hosting none of these shows,
Speaker 6: I always say it's time to play big bro tanks joints.
Speaker 6: It goes absolutely crazy nasty.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's under.
Speaker 3: Freaking appreciate you putting me in the right category.
Speaker 5: You got stuff that can fit in every category.
Speaker 3: But like I know, I get back make room for everybody.
Speaker 3: Like the variety is what makes it dope. That's I
Speaker 3: love that. What is like even when you're when you're
Speaker 3: now when you're picking DJs, are you or were you
Speaker 3: at that time? You know, did you have a database
Speaker 3: of of of of DJs that you knew were well
Speaker 3: versed in the R and B space or was it
Speaker 3: something that you have to like now teach and and
Speaker 3: and kind of curated you say, the playlist and all
Speaker 3: of these things so that you can have now your
Speaker 3: stable of DJs that understand your format.
Speaker 6: No, No, it was definitely like I was rocking with
Speaker 6: the people that I had known, and it was it
Speaker 6: was a very different thing back then because at that
Speaker 6: time it was really only males DJing at R and
Speaker 6: B only shows. Now we're known for and it has
Speaker 6: evolved into like, we only have women DJ at our
Speaker 6: shows and very intentionally.
Speaker 4: No, we did Chicago. It was a young lady, Yeah,
Speaker 4: san Diego.
Speaker 6: Da big shout out to Dasa. She was actually the
Speaker 6: first women DJ that started working with me and it's
Speaker 6: still rocking on.
Speaker 5: The team to this day. Yeah yeah, So, but.
Speaker 6: You know, like the way it started was it was
Speaker 6: it was male DJs who were primarily known in the
Speaker 6: hip hop space, but they had this R and B
Speaker 6: knowledge and I will work with them.
Speaker 5: To curate the sets.
Speaker 6: But I started to realize as time went on, seventy
Speaker 6: percent Because I'm a data guy. I'm a nerd, right,
Speaker 6: so I'm always like I was making people select what
Speaker 6: gender they are when they got a ticket, Like that
Speaker 6: was something that I was doing super early so I
Speaker 6: could get the data on what does the audience look
Speaker 6: like and analytics, right, and I started to see like
Speaker 6: seventy percent of the audience was women. So if seventy
Speaker 6: percent of the audience as women, but it's a male
Speaker 6: host and a male DJ up here, you know, we're
Speaker 6: giving you guys what our perspective is, but really we
Speaker 6: should be given what y'all's perspective is you know what
Speaker 6: I mean? And so and then I really wanted women
Speaker 6: to feel seen, like I wanted them to look on
Speaker 6: the stages that we were on and see themselves there.
Speaker 6: You know, And to this day, I don't think you
Speaker 6: really see that many women DJs, you know, in front
Speaker 6: of the size crowds that we're in front of, right,
Speaker 6: and so you know that when you're coming to an
Speaker 6: R and B only show, now, it's only going to
Speaker 6: be women DJs because they're they're serving a crowd full
Speaker 6: of women.
Speaker 4: So you only have women DJs.
Speaker 6: Now, Yeah, that's it. And that's been going on for
Speaker 6: the past seven years. Yeah, I say, you find you women. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and I got to give a big shout out to
Speaker 6: all of them. But uh so we got Dasha, we
Speaker 6: got Tierra Monique, we've got Magic, we've got Gap soul
Speaker 6: h We've got Savage, and we've got dj Ashby. So
Speaker 6: big shout out to all the women of R.
Speaker 1: And B on I think I'm a steal savage.
Speaker 6: Savage, savages, savages.
Speaker 5: She gets the crowd going. Yeah.
Speaker 3: When you when you're when you're going through the progressions
Speaker 3: and of course you're doing these analytics and and figuring
Speaker 3: out now attendance and all of these things. What are
Speaker 3: the things that give you the indicators that Okay, now
Speaker 3: it's time to move this from this club to now
Speaker 3: this club. Now we can't even do clubs. Now we're
Speaker 3: in palladiums and now we're in like you know, what
Speaker 3: are the indicators that give you that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 6: So I think it's two things. The velocity in which
Speaker 6: tickets sell when you drop them, right, So, like in
Speaker 6: our industry, you guys know this, you have an announce
Speaker 6: in an on sale. So an announce for those that
Speaker 6: don't know, is when you announce a show or a tour,
Speaker 6: that's just like essentially just like putting it out to
Speaker 6: the public. Right then you have the date that the
Speaker 6: tickets actually go on sale. And sometimes that could be
Speaker 6: the next day, it could be two days later, it
Speaker 6: could be two weeks later. But when you go on sale,
Speaker 6: that really determines the interest of the people, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean, Because like sometimes you have a situation
Speaker 6: where you blow through the tickets and you sell you know,
Speaker 6: the whole show out, or sometimes you might sell ten
Speaker 6: percent of the venue, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 6: you're like, WHOA, So I think the first thing we
Speaker 6: look at is the velocity and the speed in which
Speaker 6: tickets go on sale and how fast they sell. I
Speaker 6: think the second thing, though, is sometimes you have markets
Speaker 6: that are just you know, people people just.
Speaker 5: By late, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: People, Yeah, people walk up, yeah yeah, people just like
Speaker 6: you'd be surprised that how many tickets get sold in
Speaker 6: the last forty eight hours. We would, And sometimes you know,
Speaker 6: you're sweating, you're you're, you're, you are really wondering like
Speaker 6: is this going to work? And then the last forty
Speaker 6: eight hour hits and you know, it just just ticks up.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 6: Ultimately between the on sale and the actual you know,
Speaker 6: like the fully you know, after the show is completely done,
Speaker 6: you have the data on like what has been done.
Speaker 6: And typically if we're if we're selling out quick, then
Speaker 6: we know that we need to move into a bigger room.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, But if it's taking a little bit of time,
Speaker 6: then we'll probably double back. We'll come back to that venue,
Speaker 6: will know this is the right size that we need
Speaker 6: to be in, you know, and then we'll just we'll
Speaker 6: just assess it on the next run.
Speaker 7: Like I know Tank is here, I know he's here,
Speaker 7: right but what's the biggest record in R and B only?
Speaker 5: Oh, I mean, it's so it's so many.
Speaker 6: It's so many because you know, now we're in our
Speaker 6: tenth year and we've thank you so much.
Speaker 5: Spin. It's been incredible, incredible journey.
Speaker 6: But I've seen I've seen I've seen records go like this,
Speaker 6: and I've seen records go like that, right, I've seen.
Speaker 6: But it's it always it always boils down to the classics.
Speaker 6: And I can't I can't give like one political right now,
Speaker 6: but one record see you, I think I think I've
Speaker 6: I would have to, I would have to say something
Speaker 6: along the lines of like like Fantasia when I see
Speaker 6: you usher Superstar the way the way people just want
Speaker 6: to sing that. Yeah, of course, you know.
Speaker 5: Chris Brown say goodbye. You know, that's a that's a
Speaker 5: that's one that is to be.
Speaker 6: Surprised at, like the whole rooms, you know, just like
Speaker 6: go crazy, Tevin Cable, can we talk? Is just like
Speaker 6: we don't even really play that record anymore, just because
Speaker 6: like you can hear it everywhere. Anybody that does R
Speaker 6: and B anything is gonna you know, that's a that's
Speaker 6: a go to. But it's still is what it does. Man,
Speaker 6: those are the those are the ones like that. I
Speaker 6: would say, I'm going down still yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, s w V. I'm going oh no no
Speaker 5: marry marry my bad Yeah no, what's the s w
Speaker 5: V one though? No, no, no week week that's the way.
Speaker 6: Love love, Yes, but I still that that one kind
Speaker 6: of is in the same vein as the the Tevin
Speaker 6: Campbell Like it's like it's like, yeah, just kind of
Speaker 6: like played.
Speaker 5: Out classics, but but but classic.
Speaker 7: As you're curating these playlists and these shows, because yours
Speaker 7: the shows, yours parties, and within a show, there is
Speaker 7: a set list, absolutely right, So how do you how
Speaker 7: do you say, like, maybe we don't play this huge
Speaker 7: record because other people are playing it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have to do that all because the.
Speaker 7: People want to hear those records though, Bro, yeah yeah,
Speaker 7: but I think I come and.
Speaker 4: I don't hear love. I'm gonna have some hate for somebody.
Speaker 6: That and tell you that, and it happens, and that happens,
Speaker 6: and we catch and we catch a lot of hate.
Speaker 6: Because it's impossible to please everybody. We cannot play every
Speaker 6: because here's another problem with that, right, if we play
Speaker 6: that every season, then why are you gonna come back again?
Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Now, what happens is it's only a small portion of
Speaker 6: the show, but some of those records get weaved in
Speaker 6: and out for each season, right We we we look
Speaker 6: at the playlist and the set list for a particular season,
Speaker 6: and then we have to say.
Speaker 1: It's like a tour. It's like your set list for
Speaker 1: for this tour.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, going to run. Absolutely.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we kind of have like those classics, there's gonna
Speaker 6: be like three or four of them because we're playing
Speaker 6: about one hundred twenty two, one hundred and fifty songs
Speaker 6: every show, you know, because remember we're not staying in
Speaker 6: songs for all three verses, right like sometimes we get
Speaker 6: in and out. Yeah, but yeah, so you're you're there's
Speaker 6: I will say, if you experience the show, it's definitely
Speaker 6: something for everybody. And we and at the same time
Speaker 6: with those classics, you know a lot of times there's
Speaker 6: there's new classics, you know what I mean, Like and
Speaker 6: there's stuff that people really want to hear that might
Speaker 6: not be twenty to thirty years old, but it might
Speaker 6: be ten years old, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 6: it's like it's one of those new classics that people
Speaker 6: are like, damn, you know what I mean, Like Bryson
Speaker 6: Tiller Exchange, you know what I mean, Like that's that's
Speaker 6: very much up there with some of those older classics
Speaker 6: to a newer generation though.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no, absolutely, but you better play Frankie Beverley.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, yeah, Frankie Beverly, so before I let go.
Speaker 6: It's damn, They're always going to be played. That's a
Speaker 6: confetti moment for us.
Speaker 3: First of all, congratulations on ten years, really really, and
Speaker 3: it's not just like there's not just ten years in business.
Speaker 3: It's ten years of progressing and elevating in business and
Speaker 3: growing in business like this not a you ain't just
Speaker 3: here for ten years.
Speaker 1: You're cooking for ten years.
Speaker 3: Right, And as you approach this ten year anniversary anniversary,
Speaker 3: what would the ten year guy say to the first
Speaker 3: or second year guy like you wish you would have
Speaker 3: known in that time. I mean, it was good to
Speaker 3: get the lesson, but had you had that one or
Speaker 3: two pieces of information.
Speaker 5: That's such a good question.
Speaker 4: Thank damn, if you'd have had an R and B
Speaker 4: money podcast.
Speaker 6: Honestly, I think it's gonna have to be a lesson
Speaker 6: that I've learned over the recent years, and it's when
Speaker 6: you have to have hard conversations, run to them and
Speaker 6: have them quick, right. And that can be with employees,
Speaker 6: that can be with partners in business, that can be
Speaker 6: with you know, artists and managers.
Speaker 5: You know what.
Speaker 6: I've been in situations where like I've said, I had
Speaker 6: this money for somebody to pop up, and then like
Speaker 6: something happened in the business and I didn't have the
Speaker 6: money anymore, and I have to just make that phone
Speaker 6: call and be like, I don't got it on this round,
Speaker 6: I don't have.
Speaker 5: It right now.
Speaker 6: And I know I said I was gonna you know
Speaker 6: what I mean, and I wanted to make it happen.
Speaker 6: But I rather my I rather my integrity be intact
Speaker 6: with you. I'd rather be like, stand up and I'd rather,
Speaker 6: you know, double back on it later. And so but
Speaker 6: it's hard, you know what I mean, you have to have.
Speaker 6: But the thing about hard conversations is that you're never
Speaker 6: gonna have to stop them, you know, so you might
Speaker 6: as well just run towards them, have them when you
Speaker 6: need to have them, and iron it out. Because what
Speaker 6: I found in my earlier years when I would put
Speaker 6: stuff off and when I'd have to wait to have
Speaker 6: hard conversations, like things would get blown way out of proportion,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: And I was miss missed so much misunderstanding that can
Speaker 3: happen without having the.
Speaker 7: Actual yes, and that's time progressive, yes, yeah, because then
Speaker 7: you put people in position where they can't adjust boom,
Speaker 7: and then and then it starts to feel like, oh
Speaker 7: you just fucking yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: You played me this whole time, So then it's like, okay,
Speaker 7: so when did you realize that you have all my money?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Because and in business altogether, especially in promotions, right, I
Speaker 7: think there's a stigma that comes along with it from
Speaker 7: the beginning that you have to work against. Oh the
Speaker 7: first thing people say, JANKI promoter. They made the movie
Speaker 7: about it, you know what I'm saying. But it is
Speaker 7: the first thing, because it's been so much bad promotion
Speaker 7: and bad business done from people since the beginning of
Speaker 7: the time that you know, for a young man like
Speaker 7: yourself getting into this game, you had to be mindful
Speaker 7: of that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: And the thing is I didn't even know right, like,
Speaker 6: because I don't to this day, I don't really look
Speaker 6: at myself as.
Speaker 5: A promoter, you know what I mean, Like you're definitely
Speaker 5: a promoter too. Oh it's an element, yeah, yeah, no
Speaker 5: doubt about it. Yeah.
Speaker 6: But I come from the content creation world, you know
Speaker 6: what I mean. Like I come from like making YouTube videos,
Speaker 6: interviewing artists, like making media and so in that world, true,
Speaker 6: I was always like marketing stuff and promoting stuff, and
Speaker 6: you know, but then it's like promoting shows and when
Speaker 6: there's money involved, you know, there's a lot of people
Speaker 6: on every front that were like who is this guy?
Speaker 6: You know what I mean, Like, because it's the venues
Speaker 6: that are like, we've been screwed over before. It's the
Speaker 6: fans like oh when you imagine, Like it's easy to
Speaker 6: talk about all the stuff right now, but imagine when
Speaker 6: you start in the show and there's no talent involved,
Speaker 6: traditional talent involved, right and you don't have a huge
Speaker 6: Instagram following, and all you have is an idea or
Speaker 6: a few pictures from the last event. You have to
Speaker 6: like use the few pictures that you got from the
Speaker 6: last event and videos to like promote the next event
Speaker 6: and keep going. And when people hit an Instagram page
Speaker 6: that they've never seen before, and they're like, oh, R
Speaker 6: and B on the show happened in there, and they're like,
Speaker 6: I don't know, this looks like a scam. I mean
Speaker 6: people still say that to this day about our shows that.
Speaker 5: Have never been before.
Speaker 6: I mean, and we have all this media, we have
Speaker 6: all these testimonials, we have everything to prove that it
Speaker 6: is a legitimate business and real but people have been
Speaker 6: screwed over so much by Jankie promoters that you know,
Speaker 6: if it's new to somebody, people just automatically go to like,
Speaker 6: I don't know if I'm gonna spend my money with that.
Speaker 6: And then and then when we had COVID, oh my gosh,
Speaker 6: that just made everything crazy because.
Speaker 4: Everybody was scamming.
Speaker 6: I mean people, people, people were putting putting tickets on sale,
Speaker 6: and then they were not you know, the shows weren't happening.
Speaker 6: They were being like, it's postponed indefinitely, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's just right. Those two don't even go together.
Speaker 5: So there was a lot that we had to overcome.
Speaker 4: For sure, absolutely.
Speaker 7: And what I'll say, Bro, is we've done business with you,
Speaker 7: and I'll put that out there.
Speaker 4: You are a great business man.
Speaker 7: Think when you handle your business and you take care
Speaker 7: of people the same way when you when you present
Speaker 7: it to them, it's the same way when they get
Speaker 7: there and what.
Speaker 4: Comes from it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's super important.
Speaker 4: We were never on the other side.
Speaker 5: Of the hey guys, luckily, and it's.
Speaker 3: Like, you know, you know, attitude reflect leadership, right, and
Speaker 3: so yes, you are. You are a great reflection of
Speaker 3: even the people you surrounded, your staff and everybody, like
Speaker 3: everybody around it's a pleasant, pleasant, cordial and professional like
Speaker 3: it's I'm very blessed. Yeah, man, super cool. Love it's crazy.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: So you you did a very very amazing job with
Speaker 3: that part of it, because that's hard to maintain.
Speaker 5: Extremely extremely man. Yeah, I think.
Speaker 3: There's always like somebody that wants to be an asshole
Speaker 3: because they want to be you show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't care who you are, you're getting it.
Speaker 5: So if I called your bar, yeah, because we'll call it.
Speaker 6: I think I think that comes from, you know, just
Speaker 6: having people who their their goal is to like change
Speaker 6: the game and do something different. It's not to be
Speaker 6: next to the celebrity, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 6: not necessarily to just like be on and be seen
Speaker 6: It's like I've been able to curate like such an
Speaker 6: amazing staff because all of them they were like they
Speaker 6: were just hungry. At one point, like literally we got
Speaker 6: ten full time employees and about another forty contractors that
Speaker 6: work with us, and so but every all of the
Speaker 6: full time employees started as like an independent contractor. They
Speaker 6: were just like, hey, I'm available. They I'll do whatever,
Speaker 6: I'll do this at a show, I'll do this.
Speaker 5: And they didn't.
Speaker 6: They didn't like get their jobs from like applying on
Speaker 6: the website. They got their jobs from like doing what
Speaker 6: was necessary and showing what they could do. And then
Speaker 6: that evolved and you know, got them their full time position.
Speaker 1: Fire.
Speaker 3: Another question, as we spoke on earlier that equipment and ship,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah is yours?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 3: When do you say renting this ship is not adding up?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: When does that? When does that hit you in the face?
Speaker 5: So it was probably year.
Speaker 6: Three or four when I was just you know, I
Speaker 6: mean we didn't always have led screens, right, So like, man,
Speaker 6: I remember days where we were walking around going from
Speaker 6: city to city in a sprinter van with projectors and
Speaker 6: fast fold projection uh screens there, you know, and uh
Speaker 6: and you know having to make sure that the that
Speaker 6: the that the amount of lumins on the projector were
Speaker 6: bright enough so that people could see it, right, see your.
Speaker 5: Visuals on the screen.
Speaker 6: And I'm downloading, by the way, visuals right like I'm
Speaker 6: downloading stuff from YouTube, putting them on a broke ass laptop,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, having somebody else run it
Speaker 6: while I'm on stage, right and like and that that
Speaker 6: was that was.
Speaker 5: Our visuals here, right for sure.
Speaker 6: And so but at a certain point when I wanted
Speaker 6: to elevate up and I said, oh, we need LED.
Speaker 5: This is the future of all live shows, Like.
Speaker 6: You know, the LED is gonna be what really keeps
Speaker 6: people's eyes locked in, you know, because a DJ is djaying,
Speaker 6: but you know, they can only they can only be
Speaker 6: so entertaining and still have to be a technician, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean. So you need some other sort
Speaker 6: of visual to keep people's attention. And so I started
Speaker 6: renting the LED, and you know, man, it was so expensive,
Speaker 6: and I was just like, you know, I have I
Speaker 6: have a really funny story about this, but uh not funny.
Speaker 5: It was just crazy.
Speaker 1: I was.
Speaker 5: I was spending so much money on the rentals. And
Speaker 5: then at the time.
Speaker 6: One of my DJs was opening open not opening, but
Speaker 6: we we This is back when Rihanna first launched fenty
Speaker 6: and she has an opening party for the for the
Speaker 6: fentie Just brand and it was her holiday party actually,
Speaker 6: and so we we we DJ the holiday party and
Speaker 6: get there early. She comes to the booth and she's
Speaker 6: like telling us, Hey, this is sort of like you know,
Speaker 6: curating the night. This is the type of music I
Speaker 6: want to hear. Boom boom boom. And first off, I'm
Speaker 6: just like gosh that this is you know, Rihanna's talking
Speaker 6: telling us like what music to play.
Speaker 5: And I'm just like this is crazy.
Speaker 6: And so I start like just mingling meeting people, and uh,
Speaker 6: I said, you know, I really love that all your
Speaker 6: staff is women. This is before I even have like
Speaker 6: female DJs. And she was like, oh, you know, I'm
Speaker 6: going to introduce you to them, like that's that's really
Speaker 6: that's that's nice that you even noticed that. You know,
Speaker 6: like so much of her like high up staff was
Speaker 6: like all women. And she starts introducing me to folks
Speaker 6: and you know, she said, hey, you need to talk
Speaker 6: to this woman right here.
Speaker 5: She handles like all of the uh, all of the
Speaker 5: manufacturing for the Puma deal.
Speaker 6: Right, And this is why it's super important to get
Speaker 6: to places early, right, because like nobody's in there at
Speaker 6: this time, right, And so like I actually got to
Speaker 6: have like, you know, the five ten minutes with her
Speaker 6: and meet some some interesting folks. I start telling the
Speaker 6: head of the Puma manufacturing about my shows on what
Speaker 6: I'm doing, and I said, I'm saying, I'm showing her
Speaker 6: pictures and she's like, oh, like, do you do you
Speaker 6: rent those LED war And I was like, yeah, it's
Speaker 6: like crazy expensive.
Speaker 5: No. Lie.
Speaker 6: This woman goes My husband is at this like he's
Speaker 6: about to go to this conference it's called LED China.
Speaker 6: And I was like what and she was like yeah,
Speaker 6: it's like he goes through it every years, this.
Speaker 5: Conference where like all the manufacturers for the.
Speaker 6: LED screens, like they all meet and they all it's
Speaker 6: a marketplace and you like buy and sell LED screens there.
Speaker 5: And I was like, can you like leave me with them?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: She puts me on a WhatsApp with her husband. This
Speaker 6: guy sends like a bunch of business cards like this person,
Speaker 6: this person, like all these companies that manufacture LED screens,
Speaker 6: never heard of these companies. This is out of shen Zhen, China, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6: So then it's like he's like, oh, the next the
Speaker 6: next conference is coming up like on this day, and
Speaker 6: it's like a month away, and I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 6: I'm like, whoa, Like what we got to go out here, man,
Speaker 6: because like we're spending you know, depending on the size,
Speaker 6: like five to ten grand to rent these things at
Speaker 6: every every show, you know. And so I'm like, all right,
Speaker 6: let's book the flights, you know, I just me my
Speaker 6: DJ and then another guy that that I know that
Speaker 6: was like selling fake clothes out of China. So that's why,
Speaker 6: like he he was like, yo, I'll pull up with you.
Speaker 5: Where are you going?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I I need the gate, So US three
Speaker 1: I need your listen.
Speaker 6: Yeah yet, So US three get on a flight, three
Speaker 6: black dudes in the middle of the engine and we're
Speaker 6: at LED trying to and I mean this is where
Speaker 6: my mind was blown, and like, this is this is
Speaker 6: how I started to know, oh, you have to own
Speaker 6: this stuff. And I had cut the middleman out and
Speaker 6: I did a deal. I think I might have the
Speaker 6: first LED. I mean I've been back there so many
Speaker 6: times now and I have the direct relationship with them
Speaker 6: now with various companies, but at this time, I probably
Speaker 6: spent like maybe maybe about like eighty to one hundred
Speaker 6: on the on my first screen, and I, you know,
Speaker 6: got it shipped over here.
Speaker 5: Uh it.
Speaker 6: It went to the to like a shipping place by
Speaker 6: LAX And I didn't even know that these things came
Speaker 6: in like road case.
Speaker 5: I mean, I didn't know anything, you know.
Speaker 6: I was just like I had to wait there and
Speaker 6: I had to wait for the parcel to clear customs.
Speaker 6: I didn't even know that, like you had to have
Speaker 6: a customs broker and all this type of stuff.
Speaker 5: When you're when you're just freaking that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm thinking it is, yeah, like wall, Yeah, that's
Speaker 9: literally because I had to wait, I had to go
Speaker 9: and I had to go figure out a broker.
Speaker 5: I had to come back.
Speaker 6: Man, I didn't even have a way to transport this stuff, right,
Speaker 6: So like I had to meet and my buddy shout
Speaker 6: out to Mario man who's who's our production manager now,
Speaker 6: but at the time he was just a driver. And
Speaker 6: we had to go to Hurts by l a X
Speaker 6: and we had to take out the seats of a
Speaker 6: cargo van and put like road cases in it and
Speaker 6: and like one at a time, and we were just
Speaker 6: like put taking the road cases in, putting it in
Speaker 6: the cargo van, taking.
Speaker 5: It to our office.
Speaker 6: We didn't even have a proper space for this thing.
Speaker 6: And uh, that's when I learned about like equipment and ownership.
Speaker 6: But it was it was when we started doing the
Speaker 6: next few shows, and then then we had to learn
Speaker 6: how to work these things.
Speaker 5: But what I started, and then we.
Speaker 6: Had a we had a show in San Francisco, and
Speaker 6: I'll never forget this is this is your hometown up
Speaker 6: in the Bay.
Speaker 5: Man. We were at the I want to say it
Speaker 5: was the the.
Speaker 6: Regent or the Regency, and we had to get these
Speaker 6: cranes to lift the screen up like and then one
Speaker 6: of them snapped and then the screen is like this
Speaker 6: like on an angle, and we couldn't open doors because
Speaker 6: the screen is hanging off and it's cold up in
Speaker 6: the Bay and people in the Bay.
Speaker 5: I love the Bay.
Speaker 6: It's like one of one of our top audiences. And
Speaker 6: we let them in. We let the audience into like
Speaker 6: the sort of like like a like a lobby area
Speaker 6: of the venue and they're banging on the door like
Speaker 6: let us in.
Speaker 5: Let us in and.
Speaker 6: I'm like, yo, the show is like two and a
Speaker 6: half hours late, and I'm like, man, are we gonna
Speaker 6: have this show with the screen hanging like this? And
Speaker 6: we just didn't know how to work anything. And I
Speaker 6: just said, fuck it, let them in. And so we
Speaker 6: let these people in. Man, the screen is like this,
Speaker 6: like it's just madness. But the silver lining was when
Speaker 6: I was looking at those expense sheets, you know, and
Speaker 6: I was looking at the settlements after the shows, that
Speaker 6: line item of LED rental was not.
Speaker 5: On there anymore, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: And it's like now that I was using my own gear,
Speaker 6: the margins were just growing, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: And I was like, Okay, this is going to make
Speaker 6: itself back in you know, twenty shows and then boom,
Speaker 6: That's what happened. And then I started to invest more
Speaker 6: and more and more, and you know, now we have
Speaker 6: a warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee. We have a fleet of
Speaker 6: three trucks so we do our own logistics drivers. We
Speaker 6: have multiple LED screens, we have multiple special effects lighting, cryo,
Speaker 6: you know, confetti. I have another order coming from China
Speaker 6: actually in a few weeks. Just re upped on some
Speaker 6: more led, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, more.
Speaker 4: We talking about buying sniagas and shit.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and these are the ones that curve too, so
Speaker 6: we're gonna be able to do some really cool stays
Speaker 6: design yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: How many shows have y'all done? Do you have a count?
Speaker 5: I do have a count.
Speaker 4: You said you were a NERD earlier.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeh yeah, I have checking your nerd right now.
Speaker 6: At this point, we are over four one hundred and
Speaker 6: I think we're about four fifty right now. We've just
Speaker 6: scaled up to the point where we're doing about eighty
Speaker 6: to one hundred shows a year now. That started that
Speaker 6: started last year.
Speaker 5: In twenty three. This year, I think we're gonna crack.
Speaker 6: I think we're gonna crack eighty and twenty four and
Speaker 6: now we're really just going eighty to eighty to one
Speaker 6: hundred every year from here on out.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So it's been it's been crazy.
Speaker 6: And we're in a we're in fifty five cities, I
Speaker 6: want to say, in North America and well this is
Speaker 6: a RB Money exclusive, but next year we'll also do
Speaker 6: a UK tour as well.
Speaker 1: That yeah yeah, yeah, get international.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, We've already done London, but we need to
Speaker 6: really just like crush the whole building and just do
Speaker 6: like full on UK run.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you get into it, getting to it.
Speaker 1: You got people singing in the shower and ship.
Speaker 5: Yes, you know, we wait for you to come in,
Speaker 5: wait for you to come.
Speaker 3: My chest's gonna be out.
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna have nothing but the town.
Speaker 6: Maybe that's gonna make the internet the Internet the Internet.
Speaker 2: M M.
Speaker 7: But the lower level, the entry level, is just the
Speaker 7: tricky part. And so now artists just think well I
Speaker 7: can just get in. You shouldn't just think you can
Speaker 7: get in. You should see Chris and say how do
Speaker 7: I get there? See Beyonce and you should watch her
Speaker 7: talking about eating air.
Speaker 5: Look at the backstory.
Speaker 7: You should watch Rihanna go from the little girl to
Speaker 7: the superstar. You should you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 7: you gotta watch Taylor Swift be able to perform for.
Speaker 1: Three hours, you know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Those things that is the disconnect steps, the skipping of
Speaker 7: the steps, and people thinking that you're going to because
Speaker 7: you're gonna Yes, you might get in, you might get in,
Speaker 7: but this door will push your ass out so fast.
Speaker 7: Yeah on you you be knocking at it.
Speaker 1: I can see line. Now you're good that horse keep bucking.
Speaker 1: You can get on the horse hopefully.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: But that's why I wanted to I wanted to save
Speaker 6: it for here man, because I knew you guys would
Speaker 6: have the perspective.
Speaker 3: Yeah it's us man, we can do it, yea.
Speaker 4: And now he's going to go be talented.
Speaker 5: Oh no, here we go. You spoke of R and
Speaker 5: B when the keys come. Yeah, you know you and your.
Speaker 1: You and your R and B only love the name,
Speaker 1: love the name.
Speaker 3: Ioul curate this R and B, my brother, you are
Speaker 3: playlists to the tune of one hundred and fifty injuries,
Speaker 3: my brother you you know what R and B supposed
Speaker 3: to found.
Speaker 1: And with all the R and B you've heard, sorry,
Speaker 1: this is feeling amazing.
Speaker 5: Depend on.
Speaker 3: What is the music that resonates with you, the music
Speaker 3: that has made you come to the conclusion that it
Speaker 3: should be R and B, Oly Barry huts.
Speaker 5: What is your.
Speaker 2: Top five?
Speaker 1: Your top five, A five? Your top five.
Speaker 5: Single?
Speaker 2: Are me?
Speaker 5: So we got to know?
Speaker 1: We thought you gore?
Speaker 10: Are you to Barry nothing?
Speaker 3: Go?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You mm hm.
Speaker 5: Man, you know I watched this show so like, I
Speaker 5: love when you do that. But now being here.
Speaker 4: Like so much better.
Speaker 5: It's incredible, incredible, he live.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Man, Jabari Johnson your top five R
Speaker 3: and B singers.
Speaker 6: All right, so top five it is not in any order, right,
Speaker 6: all right? Uhsher mm hmmm yeah, Chris mm hmm. Jasmine,
Speaker 6: I've never heard anybody on this show say this one, but.
Speaker 5: Sanpha mm hmm yeah, sanfa Is.
Speaker 6: I just saw him live in Austin, Man crazy, just
Speaker 6: like writing, just just what he does, like from a
Speaker 6: production standpoint, mixed with just like his vocal is so unique.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 6: And I got one more I'm gonna have. I'm gonna
Speaker 6: have to go with a new school. I'm gonna have
Speaker 6: to go with Brison mm hmm yeah, just because I
Speaker 6: and I feel like I didn't have like any sort
Speaker 6: of like old like I didn't have Luther in my
Speaker 6: list oring that type of thing. But I just have
Speaker 6: to be what's real to me, what music like connected
Speaker 6: to me?
Speaker 5: Hey you know what I'm saying, but.
Speaker 6: Kick you, but but that's mine, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: And uh yeah, it's like if I'm if I'm talking
Speaker 6: about artists that I can just go bar for Barr
Speaker 6: and I like know the discography and you know what
Speaker 6: I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's mine.
Speaker 1: Top five R and B songs.
Speaker 5: Okay, I had this one written down, all right, Sorry,
Speaker 5: so I'm pulling.
Speaker 1: Out re organized business.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so all right, Top five R and B songs. Now,
Speaker 6: I do have a classic on here. I like that
Speaker 6: Isley Brothers Between the Sheets Welcome, that's just super classic.
Speaker 6: Alita rocked a bout yeah, Sampa Dancing Circles. A lot
Speaker 6: of people might not know that one Bryson Tiller exchange.
Speaker 6: And you know, this is this is kind of crazy
Speaker 6: because I mean most people would not mention this as
Speaker 6: this art this song, but this is this is my
Speaker 6: favorite song from this guy, just because of lyric, lyrically
Speaker 6: and what it's about. I just love the storytelling. But
Speaker 6: Usher Papers, hmmm, yeah, I love that record.
Speaker 7: You know, like it's just like he's going he wrote it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's going in about his divorce.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: I just I just thought that was like such a
Speaker 6: real and vulnerable record from him, and so like that's
Speaker 6: one of my favorite all time of Russia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's build a ould trum. Let's build your super
Speaker 3: R and B artists, the artists that you're gonna get
Speaker 3: the attributes from all the cool ship yo artist since
Speaker 3: the beginning of time, the vocal, the performance style, the styling,
Speaker 3: and the passion of the artists. Who you gonna get
Speaker 3: the vocal from that one vocal?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 6: All right for vocal, I'm gonna I'm gonna go Jasmine
Speaker 6: Sullivan for the vocal.
Speaker 1: You want that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's just like Soul Church, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 6: that's that so saving?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, lives to be changed, I got it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Performance style, performance style, I'm going to I'm probably gonna
Speaker 6: go with Chris Brown for the performance just because like
Speaker 6: the stamina, the back flipping, just like the ability to
Speaker 6: have dancers to rock out solo, you know what I mean. Like, yeah,
Speaker 6: so like full show, you know, like I've seen like
Speaker 6: the last four tours he's been on, and even even
Speaker 6: when he's like next to like going back and forth
Speaker 6: a little baby, you're like, you know what I mean,
Speaker 6: Like even when he's with a rapper, it's like it's
Speaker 6: a different There's a reason he's been here for this song,
Speaker 6: you know. Styling, styling, the drip, that's a that's a
Speaker 6: tough one. But I might have to go, Like now,
Speaker 6: this one, I might have to go somebody like.
Speaker 5: Back in the day.
Speaker 6: And I mean, I know he's the king of pop,
Speaker 6: but I just feel like Michael Jackson with the styling.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4: Popular?
Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, yeah yeah, So I mean, yeah, it's just
Speaker 6: like this guy. I heard somebody say this the other day.
Speaker 6: But it's like, imagine if imagine if he was selling
Speaker 6: gloves as much, Like, how many would he have moved?
Speaker 1: Think about how many Just think about how many gloves moved,
Speaker 1: just huge, just period, all over the world.
Speaker 3: How many Red Thriller jackets moved, how many Beat It
Speaker 3: jackets moved. How many Penny Loafers got ahead.
Speaker 4: Promoted on the ground.
Speaker 1: Imagine Jesus Rice.
Speaker 5: Wipe up, kids, come on out of here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he would have done a billion.
Speaker 5: In that's it.
Speaker 6: Like they weren't even like merch wasn't even really done.
Speaker 3: He probably did a billion in March, yeah and not
Speaker 3: and couldn't didn't collect no money on it.
Speaker 1: You got the passion of the artists, the passion of
Speaker 1: the artists, who means.
Speaker 5: The passion man like I'm trying to think of like
Speaker 5: who I feel like.
Speaker 6: Aretha, like that like Aretha too, like Aretha's like that's that,
Speaker 6: that's that music that.
Speaker 1: You have jazz singing it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but with Aretha's passion, you know, like that's that,
Speaker 6: that's that for your soul music, Like that's food for
Speaker 6: the soul. Yeah yes, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: So I know y'all might have killed me from my
Speaker 5: top five, but.
Speaker 1: You redeem your.
Speaker 5: The vultrying the Vultron was vultroyning.
Speaker 7: So I'm gonna call you see what just gonna tap in.
Speaker 4: Man, my brother, Thanks for Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Ain't saying no next day, Ain't saying no names. I
Speaker 3: ain't saying no names. Ain't saying no need what you did?
Speaker 3: Don't see she.
Speaker 8: He's saying, I already know what we're here.
Speaker 4: You've been thinking about you.
Speaker 5: I've been thinking about this all week. I've been thinking about.
Speaker 7: Part of the show Man airportant segment called I Ain't
Speaker 7: Saying no Names tells the story funny, I fucked up,
Speaker 7: funny and fucked up.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 7: I hope that nobody ever, you know, tried to kidnap
Speaker 7: you at the show and get the.
Speaker 4: Money out of you and that type of ship.
Speaker 1: But you know, listen, take the wall.
Speaker 5: Just won't please please please you have it.
Speaker 6: Oh man, you're here, tell us your okay, my iron
Speaker 6: saying names is uh all right. So we were we
Speaker 6: were getting into producing our own festivals, and so we
Speaker 6: had a really big show in Atlanta and this is
Speaker 6: our i think, our second time doing this, but it
Speaker 6: was just like a way bigger production, so you know,
Speaker 6: a list talent.
Speaker 5: This wasn't surprise guests.
Speaker 6: These were like announced the names, you know, household household names.
Speaker 6: And first off, the show was just running super late.
Speaker 5: We had a.
Speaker 6: We didn't have the best production team, and I don't
Speaker 6: even want to blame them, like I take full responsibility
Speaker 6: because like at the end of the day, it was
Speaker 6: me who hired them, you know, And so things weren't
Speaker 6: things weren't going on schedule. You know, when this happens,
Speaker 6: like when the doors get pushed and then the first
Speaker 6: act gets pushed, and then our DJs start getting pushed,
Speaker 6: and then it's just a snowball effect. Right, So we
Speaker 6: start getting into like really later in the night, and
Speaker 6: I'm having to basically cut all of our DJ sets, right, so,
Speaker 6: like again we're known for that, and so now we
Speaker 6: added all these artists, but I'm having to accommodate to
Speaker 6: the artist needs and everything that they need. And you know,
Speaker 6: I'm having to say, like, well, either it's my team
Speaker 6: that's not going to perform, or some of these artists
Speaker 6: are not going to perform, and like I don't want that,
Speaker 6: Like my team is able to perform the next show
Speaker 6: and the next show and the next show.
Speaker 5: And so we had a.
Speaker 6: People can figure this out, but I'm still not going
Speaker 6: to say their name, but we had a co headlining situation. Right,
Speaker 6: So it's two artists at the end of the at
Speaker 6: the show, and I'll never forget we got to the
Speaker 6: to the we were way past curfew and at this
Speaker 6: point it's one thousand dollars per minute minute that you're.
Speaker 5: Over curfewt oh yeah.
Speaker 6: And I'm just like, you know, first of all, I
Speaker 6: already lost money on the show, like before the curfew, right,
Speaker 6: so I'm in the red on this show. And this
Speaker 6: artist is just like they're an artist, and they want
Speaker 6: they this ain't their fault, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 6: there's your fault. So they don't want to, you know,
Speaker 6: diminish their performance or their brand because you're going over
Speaker 6: you know, and they're gonna get paid regardless whether it's
Speaker 6: you know, they did, they did their show, they did
Speaker 6: what they were contractually obligated.
Speaker 5: To do with me.
Speaker 6: And the time is going and I mean, now I'm
Speaker 6: looking at my watch, it's like thirty minutes over, it
Speaker 6: gets to forty minutes over.
Speaker 5: We now are at.
Speaker 6: An hour over, and it seems like this artist is
Speaker 6: just never gonna stop, you.
Speaker 5: Know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I'm like, oh, she ain't even get to the hit yet,
Speaker 6: Like what is going on? And I'm on the radio,
Speaker 6: I'm like, I mean, it's damn near tears coming down
Speaker 6: my eyes, you know what I mean. I'm in front
Speaker 6: of house and I'm just like I'm talking to her
Speaker 6: production manager, you know, and I'm just like I'm on
Speaker 6: the radio, like please somebody stop her, please, Like this
Speaker 6: is I don't want, Like I don't want to have
Speaker 6: to cut the mic, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 6: I just it's not going to be me to do that,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. But like I'm just begging,
Speaker 6: like does she have to do her closing record? And
Speaker 6: I think production manager actually made the call and he
Speaker 6: was like, you know, like let's cut it, and and
Speaker 6: then you know, gave that sort of like signal to
Speaker 6: the to the like monitor guy.
Speaker 5: And so like.
Speaker 6: The mic didn't go out while this artist was performing.
Speaker 6: But I think somebody told it, might have told her
Speaker 6: in her ears or something like that. It was like
Speaker 6: this is like but but the call was not made
Speaker 6: from me. The call was made from the production manager
Speaker 6: on her team. And uh, you know, the everybody knew
Speaker 6: what this art, what song this artist was going to
Speaker 6: close with.
Speaker 5: She didn't perform that record, and.
Speaker 6: I think, and I'm looking at the setlist and and
Speaker 6: she had like two more to go, and like that
Speaker 6: song was on the last song, and artist looks to
Speaker 6: the right to the left says like, hey, I want
Speaker 6: to thank you guys for everything. Thanks the crowd, you know,
Speaker 6: I mean like a like a like a true professional.
Speaker 6: But then says, uh, they're cutting my time short. And
Speaker 6: I just want to say to everybody running this ship,
Speaker 6: fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. That's my time.
Speaker 5: Who's next?
Speaker 6: And and and then the show ended, and then like
Speaker 6: we couldn't even get back on stage and close the show, like.
Speaker 5: We couldn't, you know what I mean?
Speaker 6: And like I got my whole family at this festival,
Speaker 6: like it was and I was just just like.
Speaker 5: She just basically said f me.
Speaker 6: And I mean I just like and and so so
Speaker 6: mind you, I'm already like sixty thousand down from this right,
Speaker 6: not from this part, because I've already lost money on
Speaker 6: the show, got cursed out by by you know, the
Speaker 6: artist that I love in the door. And then I'm
Speaker 6: just walking backstage, you know, the night is over and
Speaker 6: I'm walking backstage to my dressing room. And then I
Speaker 6: like cross paths with the artists, and so I'm like,
Speaker 6: what do I do now? Like do I say thank you?
Speaker 5: You know? Is what do I do?
Speaker 6: And so I just said, you know what, let me
Speaker 6: take the high road. I said, thank you so much
Speaker 6: for performing. I want to apologize, you know, and I
Speaker 6: just took all the responsibility. And you would think that
Speaker 6: this you would think that nothing happened, you know, like
Speaker 6: you would think that she didn't just say like if
Speaker 6: you f you f you, Like it was just like,
Speaker 6: oh baby, you found I had watch an amazing time,
Speaker 6: like thank you so much, like we gotta do something again.
Speaker 6: And I was just like, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 6: because I was like, what is that just a stage?
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6: Like and it gave me the biggest hug everything, and
Speaker 6: I was just like, wow, you know, but.
Speaker 5: That's my story.
Speaker 4: Wow, the great story, the great story.
Speaker 1: And it's very familiar.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, if you have a heart out and I'm
Speaker 3: headlining your show, I'm your friend.
Speaker 1: What did you say? We got twelve minutes? I got you.
Speaker 5: When we to X speed.
Speaker 1: Get over.
Speaker 3: Yeah, promise we get you out of here please.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We don't go drink.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, so I know now.
Speaker 3: But you know what, it's just it's it's it's those
Speaker 3: learning curves broy and and doing a doing People don't
Speaker 3: understand doing a show like we just did our own tour,
Speaker 3: like we the tour from top to bottom, from security
Speaker 3: to catering to production.
Speaker 6: To us Congress. We wet.
Speaker 1: We don't start.
Speaker 4: No big shot, big shot knock on your.
Speaker 1: Big shot works for me. He knocking on my door,
Speaker 1: It's time to go on shot. You don't talk to
Speaker 1: me like that.
Speaker 3: He shot has all the tools to make you slightly
Speaker 3: afraid to be late.
Speaker 1: Man, I'm coming. It's my show.
Speaker 3: But you know it's it's not an easy feed, bro,
Speaker 3: It's not an easy feed. It's a real business. And
Speaker 3: we commend you because you know, you're the conversation about
Speaker 3: RMB only there's there's it's only a great conversation.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's azing.
Speaker 3: I've never heard anything bad about ARMB only ever. And
Speaker 3: that's hard to do. When you're doing so many events,
Speaker 3: there's always something bound to go wrong. It's always bound
Speaker 3: for you know, somebody not to be happy and to
Speaker 3: make a stink and go live and hit the Shade'm
Speaker 3: like never and that's hard to do. So congratulations on
Speaker 3: that alone.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Keep making keep keep keep doing that, bro, keep making
Speaker 3: spaces for us. Man, like I thank you, he thanks
Speaker 3: you absolutely.
Speaker 5: Thank you. Man.
Speaker 6: I remember, man, and I'll say this before we get
Speaker 6: out of here, Like when you guys took me to dinner,
Speaker 6: you know, you guys took me to sower House. I
Speaker 6: think it was yep hmm, And it was just like
Speaker 6: y'all were the first people in the space to like
Speaker 6: embrace me, you know what I'm saying, And like I
Speaker 6: just I just never forget it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: I mean, even I remember when you told me that
Speaker 6: you guys were starting this podcast, you know what I mean,
Speaker 6: And I was just like, that's going to be something
Speaker 6: so important for the game overall because you guys. I
Speaker 6: know you guys say it, but you guys are really
Speaker 6: the authority, you know what I mean. Generation like you guys.
Speaker 6: As long as you guys are here, I feel like
Speaker 6: the genre is in good hands. And I just want
Speaker 6: to say, man, appreciate y'all for everything that you guys
Speaker 6: have done, because you guys really embraced me and wrapped
Speaker 6: your arms around me when a lot of other people
Speaker 6: weren't doing that.
Speaker 1: There it is absolutely we love you, brother.
Speaker 3: And this is the Army Money podcast, the authority on
Speaker 3: all things R and B. We don't We're not mad
Speaker 3: at nobody else. We're not mad at your job. But
Speaker 3: this just happens to be. R.
Speaker 6: B joson Concern in the Building, R and B Only Time,
Speaker 6: RB Money, Get It, R and B Money.
Speaker 7: R and B Money is a production of the Black
Speaker 7: Effect podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
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Speaker 7: your favorite shows. Don't forget to subscribe to and rate
Speaker 7: our show, and you can connect with us on social
Speaker 7: media at Jy Valentine and at the Real Tank. For
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