Speaker 1: Charlemagne the Guy. This is close to a household name
Speaker 1: you should get in modern day radio. He's an entrepreneur, investor,
Speaker 1: and mental health advocate. He's also passionate about black people
Speaker 1: taking ownership wherever we play. A two thousand nineteen Nielsen
Speaker 1: reports stated that African Americans spend more time consuming video
Speaker 1: on their smartphones compared to the total population, saying black
Speaker 1: people spend nearly thirty hours a week on websites and
Speaker 1: apps on their smartphones, more than three hours more than
Speaker 1: all consumers as a whole, and we over index on
Speaker 1: YouTube and Facebook. I asked Charlemagne the Guy about what
Speaker 1: it takes for black people to not only see technology
Speaker 1: as a medium for consumption, but a new wealth opportunity,
Speaker 1: a place where we can build. I think the biggest
Speaker 1: land might actually is the information right, Like, how many
Speaker 1: people are really thinking about being in the tech world.
Speaker 1: We're quick to download the latest you know, at will
Speaker 1: download Twitter, the Instagram, the facebooks to TikTok's, you know
Speaker 1: whatever it is where where where? We're so quick to
Speaker 1: be consumers, But how many people are actually learning coding?
Speaker 1: You know? Like, how many people are taking advantage of that?
Speaker 1: So to me, I think the biggest land mine is
Speaker 1: just lack of knowledge on what it is we're actually
Speaker 1: consuming all the time. You know, it is realizing that
Speaker 1: you don't have to just go in there and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, buy some clothes, you can own the store. Like,
Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest land
Speaker 1: mine is just lack of information like who's gonna be
Speaker 1: the the cool black tech guy that makes other black
Speaker 1: kids want to be in the tech world, Like who's
Speaker 1: gonna be the man that they see make a couple
Speaker 1: of billion dollars and be like, oh, I need to
Speaker 1: get into techtus. We're visual people, you know. You see
Speaker 1: one Lebron, everybody want to be Lebron. You see one
Speaker 1: Drake now, everybody want to be Drake. So it's just like,
Speaker 1: who's gonna be that in the tech world. That's why
Speaker 1: you know, people like Robert Smith was so important, you know,
Speaker 1: That's why people like you know, even a Byron Island
Speaker 1: is important because I just feel like black kids need
Speaker 1: to see them and realize what are their stories? You know,
Speaker 1: how did they get started? What fields were they in too?
Speaker 1: That made them who they are? Because you know, we're
Speaker 1: like I said, we're visual people, so once we see
Speaker 1: them and we'll be like, oh, well, maybe I need
Speaker 1: to be in that space. The biggest thing that we
Speaker 1: can have is ownership. Nowadays. This isn't a new concept,
Speaker 1: like this is an old concept. This is what you know.
Speaker 1: Elijah Muhammed has been talking about owning your own you know,
Speaker 1: doing for self, like like, this is what Marcus Garvey like,
Speaker 1: this is what they've always told us that we need
Speaker 1: to do. I just think that we're the first generation
Speaker 1: that actually has the resources and the knowledge to be
Speaker 1: able to make those ownership dreams or reality. I'm Will
Speaker 1: Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money. Now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names, some
Speaker 1: of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black
Speaker 1: and building or simply using tech to secure your bag,
Speaker 1: this podcast is for you. People are saying that there
Speaker 1: is value in creating the tools, and I think full all, like, yo,
Speaker 1: let's go after let's get after it. But I think
Speaker 1: that the way that this Internet and people are able
Speaker 1: to give money and break themselves in the Internet, I
Speaker 1: think that that's just opened up so many doors for
Speaker 1: people as Brian Michael Cox, music producer and songwriter responsible
Speaker 1: for more than a hundred million album sales, thirty five
Speaker 1: number one hits, and twelve Grammy nominations, including nine wins.
Speaker 1: While he's less known for his business and entrepreneurial prowess,
Speaker 1: people are starting to take notice. He owns the production
Speaker 1: company and in that music label to send the first
Speaker 1: a clothing line Nerds Get the Girls, and partner with
Speaker 1: Studio Linked to create both the vs T, which is
Speaker 1: a virtual synthesizer, and a masterclass where he teaches production
Speaker 1: and songwriting lessons. Brian has been the friend of mine
Speaker 1: for closer twenty years, and I wanted to get his
Speaker 1: thoughts on the deep relationship between music and technology that
Speaker 1: many of us may not fully appreciate, and how black
Speaker 1: people are in the perfect position to create new distribution
Speaker 1: channels for our creativity, channels that we can own. You know,
Speaker 1: if we think back to the you know, the earlier
Speaker 1: stages of like recorded music, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: People don't like to use the word technology when it
Speaker 1: comes to like things from the early twentieth century, late
Speaker 1: two dight century, but that l a a nineteenth century,
Speaker 1: but that was technology, so if you know, when people
Speaker 1: had the advent of record players, the advent of vinyl,
Speaker 1: the advent of you know what I mean, the all
Speaker 1: the way down to the you know seventies, you know, furniture,
Speaker 1: stereos and I mean, all that stuff is technology. So
Speaker 1: you think about how we used to record music. We
Speaker 1: used to recording music straight to vinyl, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and they would take that vinyl president and
Speaker 1: go duplicate that vinyl, you know what I mean. Um.
Speaker 1: Then it evolved into you know, recording, you know, recording
Speaker 1: studios with four track recorders and eight track recorders, the
Speaker 1: sixteen tracks and then do what I mean um throughout
Speaker 1: the years. So every ten years there's always been an
Speaker 1: advancement of technology. It's anonymous with music, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So you think about the sixties. If you
Speaker 1: if you are familiar with the Beach Boys, and there
Speaker 1: was a record you know that they made that was
Speaker 1: like changed the whole wave of how people recorded music
Speaker 1: because the leader the Beach Boys was laying on all
Speaker 1: these sounds, because they had all this access that they
Speaker 1: never had before, two different tracks and multiple tracks, um,
Speaker 1: and he was able to put all these different things
Speaker 1: into this you know, into this into this music that
Speaker 1: changed the way people made music. Um. You know, technology
Speaker 1: has always been synonymous with music. Um, you fast forward
Speaker 1: to you know, in the seventies where it's eight track
Speaker 1: nal cassette becomes a huge thing because now people are
Speaker 1: able to do portable you know, it's the portable cassettes.
Speaker 1: You know, people have Walkman's the whole thing. And in
Speaker 1: in the eighties when they introduced us to this, to
Speaker 1: the compact, this concept and how that changed the whole
Speaker 1: you know, landscape of the music business and all of
Speaker 1: this is technology that always that's been developed. You know
Speaker 1: that that has been developed you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: or or been in development for decades, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. It just kind of as as things start
Speaker 1: pushing forward. I feel like technology leads to music. Right. So, um,
Speaker 1: when things become super digital in the in the late
Speaker 1: seventies early eighties, technology lad that you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you go to the studio. Now you're able to
Speaker 1: record things digitally. There's digital audio tape, there's digital you
Speaker 1: know recording uh consoles, there's digitally you know, there's digital
Speaker 1: outboard gear that's making the sound crisp you know, more crisp.
Speaker 1: All of that has to be developed, you know, do
Speaker 1: all of that was developed to enhance uh or to
Speaker 1: progress the the trajectory and recorded music, and then how
Speaker 1: do we put this stuff out? So then if us not,
Speaker 1: technology has to lead the way of how the things
Speaker 1: are released. And I feel like, because we've been especially
Speaker 1: me being a music business, we don't really view it like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we're part of the technology business, but what we are
Speaker 1: if we understood exactly, we don't mean how things go,
Speaker 1: why things are the way they are. We're part of
Speaker 1: that business too. And I feel like now we're in
Speaker 1: a space where people are starting to really really realize
Speaker 1: that technology and music have always been synonymous and now
Speaker 1: we can see it being synonymous through the advent of
Speaker 1: the internet. Um in the way that people are able
Speaker 1: to release music, market music. Um. You know, there are
Speaker 1: no more gatekeepers per se. So I think the gatekeepers
Speaker 1: it's kind of what what kept us from noticing the
Speaker 1: actual connection that technology and music actually have, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. But now there's no gatekeepers now, man,
Speaker 1: It's like it's it's it's literally the wild, wild West
Speaker 1: right now, you know what I mean? And I don't
Speaker 1: think it's ever going to go back. I think you know,
Speaker 1: you can't really put up you can't really control the
Speaker 1: World Wide Web. Man. Yeah, let's let's talk about that,
Speaker 1: that trajectory of production, because you know, I've had the
Speaker 1: pleasure of seeing you work in the studio, and you're
Speaker 1: working with you in the studio, and you know, if
Speaker 1: you to your point, you know, if you rewind fifteen
Speaker 1: twenty years, you know you're working with dats and you know,
Speaker 1: because you know all that kind of stuff, and now
Speaker 1: it is you are equally almost have to be good
Speaker 1: at programming as you are if you have to, if
Speaker 1: you know how to play at all, you don't even
Speaker 1: have to know how to play an instrument. You have
Speaker 1: to know how to program, program and instrument. So talk
Speaker 1: about technology from that lens and the music production side,
Speaker 1: Like how much time are you learning? Are you spending
Speaker 1: learning new software? Oh? I mean, I'm I'm I'm like
Speaker 1: right now. That's the beautiful thing about Quarantine, And I've
Speaker 1: been able to really dive into software that I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to what I bought it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get to it. But when you're actively working, you kind
Speaker 1: of just use what you've been using, and for me,
Speaker 1: you know it. The shift from Logic two Ableton was
Speaker 1: a hard shift because I was in the middle of
Speaker 1: projects when I made that shift, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So learning able to and the missed me making you
Speaker 1: know us your album? Want to miss me making a
Speaker 1: Monica album. It was difficult because I couldn't totally. I
Speaker 1: couldn't totally just shut Logic off because I was in
Speaker 1: the middle of making records. But I want to learn
Speaker 1: this new thing, so I would take time to learn
Speaker 1: able to to do you know, do my little online
Speaker 1: classes and all that, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: I couldn't totally just shut logic off. Um. In this quarantine,
Speaker 1: I've been able to just shut things off and say, yo,
Speaker 1: I want to learn fl So I'm gonna shut um
Speaker 1: Ableton off for two weeks because I don't really have
Speaker 1: any proper day lines, and if I do, I'm using
Speaker 1: pro tools, which I would never not use. Proteols like
Speaker 1: my tape machine, so I'm using pro tools. So if
Speaker 1: Jermaine send and me, you know, um, you know stems
Speaker 1: from his ANPC to do overdubs, and I just do
Speaker 1: that stuff in pro tools, and I just protess just
Speaker 1: like a live you know, a live tape machine versus
Speaker 1: versus programming and proteols. Even I'm still programming, but the
Speaker 1: way that I approach it, it's like, oh, I'm using
Speaker 1: pro tools as a tape machine. So I'm playing things
Speaker 1: live down in the protels, I'm over the side down,
Speaker 1: do my copy and paste, send it back to j D.
Speaker 1: And That's how I've been working. But as far as
Speaker 1: my my actual digital audio workstation, I've been trying to
Speaker 1: stay away from Ableton. I've been really trying to lead
Speaker 1: on i FL so I could learn. You know, it's easy,
Speaker 1: It's really easy. But the hard part was being able
Speaker 1: to shut ableson off, you know what I mean, So
Speaker 1: being able to show ableson off. I've been able to
Speaker 1: really dive into FL and now I'm diving in the
Speaker 1: cue base this week. Um, So it's like, really, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's helpful when you're not in the middle of
Speaker 1: projects per se, you know what I mean, Or you
Speaker 1: have the end of project where the end of Busher's albums,
Speaker 1: so everything has been in pagement overdubs and drops and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. It's not a whole lot a lot
Speaker 1: of writing. You know what I'm saying, which is basically,
Speaker 1: I'm just in production mode when it comes to the
Speaker 1: susu alum right now, um, and I do all that
Speaker 1: stuff in pro tools. So so you're spending in OrderIn
Speaker 1: the mind of time, just just learning how to work
Speaker 1: new software, navigate, navigate, solt there, which is programming. And
Speaker 1: I don't think we we don't. We don't correlct the
Speaker 1: two because we're being creative and we use as a
Speaker 1: tool like, oh, this is just our tool to create music,
Speaker 1: but it's literally programming. And the way that I view,
Speaker 1: like people who use fl I view it kind of
Speaker 1: like how kind of how when I was coming up,
Speaker 1: right when we was coming up in elementary school and
Speaker 1: the middle school, you know, Steve Jobs is something very
Speaker 1: very revolutionary right by you know, you knew that you
Speaker 1: couldn't really compete with Corporate America at the time. You know,
Speaker 1: you know IBM was was the was the standard. You know,
Speaker 1: Dell was the standard. These were the standard PCs and
Speaker 1: Corporate America. Right, so if you introduce Apple to Corporate America,
Speaker 1: they you know, there was some resistance. But what do
Speaker 1: you do You say, Okay, we're going to raise up
Speaker 1: the next generation of computer users. So if we can't
Speaker 1: get into these big corporate offices and put a put
Speaker 1: us corporate officers who put our systems to elementary schools
Speaker 1: and middle schools and the high schools, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So my first computer I ever worked on
Speaker 1: a regular basis was an Apple to e. You know,
Speaker 1: as a little kid, that keyboard, that Apple two keyboard
Speaker 1: is the same exact keyboard that we use right now
Speaker 1: on our back and pros, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So what happens that as the program as a kid,
Speaker 1: like my first computer I touched was an Apple two
Speaker 1: years So as they developed and you get older and
Speaker 1: you and you go to different schools, you you you
Speaker 1: you go from middle school to middle school to high school.
Speaker 1: By the time I got to high school, McIntoshes were
Speaker 1: every high school that I you know, that we that
Speaker 1: I knew. So in my high school, I used mcantoghies.
Speaker 1: So you graduated high school and you know, my twelfth
Speaker 1: grade years when I when love grade years, when I
Speaker 1: first started using like music software, Apple was the only
Speaker 1: company that was really making software for music, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Yeah, So, so as a creative I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm using Apple. So to this day, as afforded two
Speaker 1: year old person has been amused me for twenty some years,
Speaker 1: all of the used Apple products, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: if they you know, unintentionally or it might have been
Speaker 1: attentional on his part, but on our part on intentionally
Speaker 1: creating their own consumer right. SOFL is that same exact thing, right,
Speaker 1: So think about this now, I use Apple, I'm an
Speaker 1: Apple user, right, But the average person in the corporate world,
Speaker 1: they're using PCs. Right. So if you have a PC
Speaker 1: in your in your corporate world and um um um,
Speaker 1: and you're my age and you might have gotten married
Speaker 1: young or you might have you know, a young child
Speaker 1: is seventeen eighteen, you know, fifteen years old, you know,
Speaker 1: and I only compute at the houses a PC and
Speaker 1: they want to make music. WELLFL was giving, they were
Speaker 1: it was free. I feel used to be free. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm saying when you were you back in the day,
Speaker 1: ten years ago, fifteen years ago, FL was free. It
Speaker 1: was a free download. So if your mom at a
Speaker 1: PC and you couldn't afford a Mac, of question, you
Speaker 1: couldn't get a Mac because Mac was popping. You know,
Speaker 1: you pick tootho app with your mom. That's computer already.
Speaker 1: I'm a download FL and I'm gonna start making my
Speaker 1: little beats on FL. And people kind of shunned FL
Speaker 1: initially professionals, you know, because it was it was like
Speaker 1: a game, almost in a video game, the way that
Speaker 1: we viewed it then, right, But what we didn't realize
Speaker 1: was happening is that they were basically building the future consumer. Now,
Speaker 1: all those kids that were making beats on FL fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago are top hop harder producers. Now. FL is
Speaker 1: the number one dog, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: the business right now, all these kids that are going
Speaker 1: to do is program. A lot of our musicians they
Speaker 1: just learn how to program, and they still don't even
Speaker 1: understand that that's what they're doing. I think that the
Speaker 1: kids trying to connect to that's to let people know that, yo,
Speaker 1: you're a computer programmer too. Yeah, so you can actually
Speaker 1: not just make beats and program. You can create this ship,
Speaker 1: you can create something. You can actually do something with
Speaker 1: this that's way bigger than what you e meant you're
Speaker 1: even thinking you're doing, you know, So that's that's good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that was my next question because I remember when
Speaker 1: Fruity Loops was like men, you like, that's trash or
Speaker 1: whatever you needed you needed a big building with big NPCs,
Speaker 1: big keyboards, or you was not really doing this thing.
Speaker 1: The music industry impresses it when it's convenient, right, So
Speaker 1: there's a level of embracing it now because you can
Speaker 1: get records done for a fraction of the costs we
Speaker 1: were making records, I mean, but in the same breath
Speaker 1: we were making records for the practics and the cost
Speaker 1: that I pressed this is you making records for you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's just a now, um, it's just
Speaker 1: they they recognize and when it's convenient, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Now you can go get you can make
Speaker 1: a hit record for under that the hounds and hours,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, if you you know, you've got
Speaker 1: to get the right creative person, you know, because everything
Speaker 1: you need in your laptop man, everything you know, your
Speaker 1: tape machine, your sounds, your you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: your environment, isn't it? You can now and then you
Speaker 1: can make the music, write the music, make the music,
Speaker 1: record the music, mix the music, master the music. Then
Speaker 1: if you want to just be some super creative ship
Speaker 1: and you and you know, you can afford the camera,
Speaker 1: but to say you can afford the camera and all
Speaker 1: that ship, then you could say, let me look at
Speaker 1: a camera or use your phone, you know, people using
Speaker 1: their iPhones making music using the iPhones, and then you
Speaker 1: can and then you can you can edit, you know,
Speaker 1: you can make your video, edit your video, you can
Speaker 1: colorize that joint, all of it. You can do everything
Speaker 1: that you want with this laptop. And now you can
Speaker 1: put it out so that as you can say, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to tune core or go to
Speaker 1: dist your kid or whatever. Put my package together, put
Speaker 1: the album out, of the video, out all that ship.
Speaker 1: Like literally, if you could do every single thing yourself,
Speaker 1: which I think about when I was coming up and
Speaker 1: trying to send demos to like you know and ours
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, like bro, like it was impossible.
Speaker 1: It literally isn't possible. If I could just make music
Speaker 1: and put music out the way that these kids can,
Speaker 1: I would have so many albums out back then, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But it's just it wasn't available,
Speaker 1: but now it's available, and the record of the major
Speaker 1: label system has become almost a little bit obsolete, or
Speaker 1: it could be it could become obsolutely I think that
Speaker 1: where major labels to be uh uh coming handy? Is
Speaker 1: there like banks now? You know, I wonder if it's
Speaker 1: especially you know, in the types of environments were living
Speaker 1: now people are working from home. You know, is the
Speaker 1: big studio a thing of the past in a way,
Speaker 1: and maybe for for the past several years, it's been
Speaker 1: you know, on the on the dowards slide, but I
Speaker 1: remember taking taking a hit. It's taking a hit. And
Speaker 1: you know, I remember when you could you could just
Speaker 1: have a studio in your house and that was looked
Speaker 1: down upon. You needed to be at Doppler or you
Speaker 1: needed to be at you know, all these big studios.
Speaker 1: And to your point, people, you you can do all
Speaker 1: this on your laptop. So do you see, um a
Speaker 1: transition happening to where we're going back to the basics
Speaker 1: of like, look, we're getting the garage set up or
Speaker 1: the basement set up, and we're just gonna do all
Speaker 1: this stuff in this smaller footprint. I mean it is,
Speaker 1: I mean that's where we at. I feel like the
Speaker 1: studio business is definitely taking a hit. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: you can see definitely see in New York City really
Speaker 1: really heavy in New York City because that's where student
Speaker 1: business was a real thing up there, and it's not anymore,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um, In Atlanta, a lot
Speaker 1: of people just have their own studios, so it's you know,
Speaker 1: people are you know, people stop kind of booking studios
Speaker 1: some years ago. Now, I mean, you still could book
Speaker 1: studios here, but it's not like the business wasn't really
Speaker 1: like the past couple of years. It's been like anyway
Speaker 1: because everybody has their own spot, right um l A
Speaker 1: is the only place where the studio business is still
Speaker 1: you relevant, and I think because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: just you know, when you're doing movies and you're doing
Speaker 1: you know, when it's a big town like that, it's
Speaker 1: a you know, a lot of what they're doing is
Speaker 1: UM based on that. I think. I think that for
Speaker 1: the most part though, when it comes to making music,
Speaker 1: people people make their own masters at the crib, the
Speaker 1: quality is high because the you know, the access to
Speaker 1: UM to to being never an immediately manipulate the sound
Speaker 1: properly is it's easy now, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: It's easier to get access to that type of stuff.
Speaker 1: So UM, the senior business definitely took a hit man,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You know, I'm I'm still
Speaker 1: a person that enjoys going through the studio um because
Speaker 1: that's just where I come from, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But why these kids they don't you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like like if you ever seen these kids go to
Speaker 1: the studio, like you know, they don't even understand. They
Speaker 1: only use student for the speakers. Literally, like how high
Speaker 1: school the studio and I would have to rent all
Speaker 1: this gear if it was a process, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like these kids, it's an ox cord laptop
Speaker 1: and speakers. That's it. Don't even the board, don't get
Speaker 1: touched nothing, and just plug up is the stereo you know,
Speaker 1: fader on the board with the ox cord and they
Speaker 1: do beats. They make their beats like that and this
Speaker 1: is chump wow. You know it's really it's really a
Speaker 1: new day from gods to that. The Black Growth Network
Speaker 1: from Blavity, Inc. Provides Black small business owners and entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: with the funding, resources and network needed to stabilize and
Speaker 1: growth the business. And you're invited to join our network
Speaker 1: of startups, angel investors, and vcs, which can open the
Speaker 1: door to even more funding and opportunities like pitch competitions.
Speaker 1: We're building black economic empowerment together. Check it out now
Speaker 1: at Black Growth Network dot com. That's Black Growth Network
Speaker 1: dot com. If you are subscribed to the Afro Tech newsletter,
Speaker 1: are you really about that life? All the exclusive content
Speaker 1: and subscriber only promotions can only be secured by becoming
Speaker 1: an afro Tech insider. Join for free now and joint
Speaker 1: dot afro tech dot com. Cox has been in the
Speaker 1: music business in more than twenty years, and he's seen
Speaker 1: a lot of people come and go. He's navigated a
Speaker 1: stellar solo production career and still today produces alongside one
Speaker 1: of his mentors, Jamaine Decree. He's a highly regarded DJ
Speaker 1: uses his digital platforms to further embed his name in
Speaker 1: the conversation in these leveraging his relationships and cultural capital
Speaker 1: for business success. So I think about, um, the things
Speaker 1: that you've been able to accomplish in the business world. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've successfully in a couple of different verticals,
Speaker 1: transition from not just being seen as a creative but
Speaker 1: also a businessman and like so a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago you had the trophies of Virtual synth Um, the
Speaker 1: producer mind Master class and nerves, get the girl's shirts,
Speaker 1: you know? And so how how have you seeing your
Speaker 1: road and being respected as a businessman and not just
Speaker 1: a creative I mean, for me, I feel like I
Speaker 1: just I'm a person that had utilizes all the tools
Speaker 1: that are there. Right, So I kind of feel like
Speaker 1: one day I woke up and said, Yo, you know
Speaker 1: I have some some you know, I have some traction
Speaker 1: or I have some bandwidth when it comes to social media? Right,
Speaker 1: how do I turn? How do I make this benefit
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: How do I make the social media and the world
Speaker 1: wilde where benefit what I'm doing? You know what I'm saying? Um?
Speaker 1: And how do I get these people who come to
Speaker 1: see me? Um? How do I engage them? And how
Speaker 1: do I make them say? You know what? I how
Speaker 1: bout that? You know what I'm saying? Like, what what
Speaker 1: do they want from me? Right? And so being that
Speaker 1: you know, the music business you know can be um,
Speaker 1: it's also a very very you know, uh, this lifestyle
Speaker 1: could be a lifestyle business too. So it was like,
Speaker 1: what do I like, you know, you know, I wear
Speaker 1: what do I wear? I wear? T shirts? And sweats
Speaker 1: all the time, So let's figure out. Like I was
Speaker 1: like trying to do a clothing line, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't want a little line, Like what does that like?
Speaker 1: You don't it doesn't feel authentic? What's authentic to me? Right?
Speaker 1: I will teach as the sweats for the most part,
Speaker 1: So let's let's start there, you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: And that's where Nurse the Girls came from. Um um,
Speaker 1: and just the whole lifestyle ship is just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: me creating a vs T and virtual synth makes sense
Speaker 1: because people come to my Instagram or my Facebook or
Speaker 1: my Twitter to see me create or to hear what
Speaker 1: I'm creating, and that's what people buy into, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it's like, okay, well, let me
Speaker 1: create a tool that I use that I know people
Speaker 1: are gonna go, you know, because I mean I do
Speaker 1: what happens. I started doing these brand partnerships and started
Speaker 1: saying how I was selling somebody else's brand, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, And they were like really really really
Speaker 1: on me, like you know, whether whether it was working
Speaker 1: with a KAI, whether it was working with Native instruments,
Speaker 1: was working you know what I mean? Artist other brands
Speaker 1: and and and looking at their bottom line, you know,
Speaker 1: uh shift because people are like, oh well if Brian
Speaker 1: is then now I'm gonna buy it. It sounds like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: let me create something that that I own, that people
Speaker 1: would that people could use that I own, and I
Speaker 1: use that people would use, and we came up with
Speaker 1: I didn't do. The partnership is still a link for
Speaker 1: trophies and it's been great because you know, it's a
Speaker 1: business that a lot of producers I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't even think about, you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: And we're doing well, we're doing great numbers. And then
Speaker 1: of course my partnership was still only led to us
Speaker 1: doing Producer Mind, which is some always wanted to do.
Speaker 1: I was wanted to grow massive class was trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to do it, and we came with
Speaker 1: the constitute Producer Mind. From that, we have my own
Speaker 1: only myself. We guys. They told him we gots got
Speaker 1: storage and we have some people on that that's really
Speaker 1: you know, killing it. So you know, it's just I'm
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, you have to be in a
Speaker 1: space where you have to have multiple strain aims of income.
Speaker 1: But I also want to do things that are that
Speaker 1: are compatible. Two to the brandom of trying to build
Speaker 1: you know, particularly to like your your vs T. I
Speaker 1: was I had this um talk with Charlemagne the God,
Speaker 1: and we were talking about how we've been incredible consumers
Speaker 1: of the technology that's come out of Silicon Valley and etcetera.
Speaker 1: And his point was, you know, we have to start
Speaker 1: creating these so not just being the biggest you know,
Speaker 1: influencers on TikTok and Instagram, but we need to be
Speaker 1: in the room building those things. And you did that
Speaker 1: with the vs T. So, but do you think other
Speaker 1: people in your industry have recognized that, Yo, this is
Speaker 1: there's a bigger opportunity here than just making a record,
Speaker 1: but creating the things that helped create records. I think
Speaker 1: now for sure, you know what I'm saying. I think
Speaker 1: the past maybe you know, two or three years, people
Speaker 1: are saying that there's value in creating the tools, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Um, And I think people are like, Yo,
Speaker 1: let's go after let's get after it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Um, I guess it just it would take
Speaker 1: it takes time for people to you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of see past there immediate you know, fruntal vision, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Sometimes it takes time for you
Speaker 1: to see the panoramic view, you know. Um. But I
Speaker 1: think that with the way that the way that this
Speaker 1: Internet and people are able to give money and break
Speaker 1: themselves in the Internet, I think that that's just opened
Speaker 1: up so many doors to people, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I think that's opened up a lot of people's eyes, um,
Speaker 1: and they're trying to figure out, even if they don't
Speaker 1: know what they're doing, at least they're trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, what if this panoramic do
Speaker 1: look like in uh? Um? So I do believe that
Speaker 1: I believe I believe that people are trying to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Could could we see a day where we
Speaker 1: have like micro distribution platforms because I think about you know, um,
Speaker 1: you've had the Spotify ees of the world, You've had
Speaker 1: the titles and the Apple Music and even like on
Speaker 1: my Apple TV. You know, like Disney broke off to
Speaker 1: create their own app, and now then you can't just
Speaker 1: get that on um inside the other apps that were there.
Speaker 1: Could could you imagine the day where December first has
Speaker 1: its own distribution outside of a Spotify or an Apple
Speaker 1: or a Drake Ovo or Kevin Gates, Brad Winners, a
Speaker 1: social cause. You could you imagine the day where or
Speaker 1: what has to happen to for that to happen to
Speaker 1: be successful. I feel like we never saw Spotify or
Speaker 1: Apple Music coming, you know what I mean, We never
Speaker 1: saw a title coming, you know. I mean I feel
Speaker 1: like I feel like based on like with Jimmy, I've
Speaker 1: been with jim being realized that the record business was
Speaker 1: over as we knew it, the regulars, we as we
Speaker 1: knew it was over. When he went to go meet
Speaker 1: with the guy from Intel, was like, Yo, how do
Speaker 1: we stop piracy? How do we just win? You know,
Speaker 1: Lime Wire? And you know all the shop was just
Speaker 1: running rampant, and the guy, the guy Intel told him,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes man like businesses, businesses change man Like
Speaker 1: sometimes it's not a bad idedn't get out. I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: it's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea beginning.
Speaker 1: You don't want to be the last guy selling the CD,
Speaker 1: you know, man um So he was on that way
Speaker 1: before any of us knew what was happening. Right, So
Speaker 1: now we're in this stage of the business where this
Speaker 1: is this is this is it. This is where people
Speaker 1: consume musics, where they get it, you know. So of
Speaker 1: course the way that the music is distributed, you can
Speaker 1: disrupt that ship at any given point, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Like, for example, Dame Dash has his own Netflix,
Speaker 1: his own version of Netflix right right now. Now, how
Speaker 1: many subscribers he app we don't know all that, right,
Speaker 1: we do know that he has his own Netflix. Basically
Speaker 1: he's creating his own content for it, and it's all
Speaker 1: new content, is all content you only get on his ship.
Speaker 1: So really, that model already exists. It's just he hasn't
Speaker 1: blown up yet. You know, it's somebody's got to break
Speaker 1: that mold though to your earlier point exactly, so who's
Speaker 1: going to be the first want to do it? Damn
Speaker 1: Dash the first want to do it? And who's to
Speaker 1: say that he won't have a show. Finally, that makes
Speaker 1: people say, yo, like that's why we Netflix, Netflix have
Speaker 1: Aungers New Black. That's what made people come to Netflix,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. There was content that people
Speaker 1: wanted to see that they could only get on Netflix.
Speaker 1: That's how people was like, well, I gotta strip the
Speaker 1: Netflix if I'm gonna get on New Black, I gotta subscribe,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So Dam is on the
Speaker 1: right path. He's only one step away from creating something
Speaker 1: that people are going to want to watch so bad
Speaker 1: that they're going to they're gonna go and subscribe. Same
Speaker 1: thing with Title. Right, Thinking about Title, the one thing
Speaker 1: that Title does, that Apple Music and that Spotify and
Speaker 1: none of us because people do, is that there's original
Speaker 1: content that you can't get nowhere else, whether it's drup Champs,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, Elliott and beat out with it
Speaker 1: with the Rap Radar podcast, whether you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: that people want to see. So if you want to
Speaker 1: see if you're not gonna see on Apple Music, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna see it on Spotify. You're not gonna see
Speaker 1: another thing You're only gonna see on Title. So guess
Speaker 1: what If you want to see Drink Champs, you know
Speaker 1: on before everybody else sees it. If you want to
Speaker 1: see the Rap Radar podcast, if you want to see
Speaker 1: the exclusive Beyonce uh content, exclusive jay Z content, if
Speaker 1: you want to see that Street is watching is on Title,
Speaker 1: Like you can't get them no world, see what I mean?
Speaker 1: You know, So it's like if you want to see
Speaker 1: that ship, then you gotta you gotta go to titles.
Speaker 1: That's why titles. You know, they are gonna be a
Speaker 1: force with this thing because they understand that that they
Speaker 1: create content that people want to go see, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So it's not like going on YouTube
Speaker 1: and just to see of all kinds of ship that
Speaker 1: you can see whatever you want to see. It's like,
Speaker 1: so you have to beat less things. So the question was,
Speaker 1: will there be people with their own distribution, you know,
Speaker 1: outlets when it comes to digital. I think it's already happening.
Speaker 1: And people just gotta believe in themselves to just jump
Speaker 1: out there, Like Damn Dash believes in himself. Crazy because
Speaker 1: he's out there by himself right now, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. But he sees it. He's like, yo, if if,
Speaker 1: if Netflix can do it, and nobody knew geta funk
Speaker 1: about Netflix. Nobody know by Netflix until they have some
Speaker 1: content people wanted to see it that I want to
Speaker 1: get your take on, like generational wealth and longevity, because
Speaker 1: you know you're not You're not talked about this before.
Speaker 1: It's like, it's not always about being like the hottest
Speaker 1: thing in the moment, you know. And I but from
Speaker 1: the industry perspective, the people who last in this what
Speaker 1: has been the things that they've leaned on to last? Well?
Speaker 1: I got, you know, some really really incredible advice that
Speaker 1: I got early on that you know this is that
Speaker 1: this thing is um. This thing is a marathon. You
Speaker 1: know what, I man, it's not a sprint. Um. And
Speaker 1: I related. I connected with that statement, um, because I
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't much of an athlete. But when
Speaker 1: I you know, the one sport that I was really
Speaker 1: good at was track and I ran a long distance
Speaker 1: and people will be like, yo, how how do you
Speaker 1: How can you run across country? How can you run?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And for me, it's just
Speaker 1: it was about pacing, and you pace yourself. You know,
Speaker 1: you know where to pay yourself. You gotta know whin
Speaker 1: to kick, you gotta know when to fall back, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. You know, the thing about a
Speaker 1: cross country is patience. And when somebody, you know, somebody
Speaker 1: told me that early on in my career, like, yo,
Speaker 1: in your life is a marathon. I got connected with
Speaker 1: that because it was like, Okay, it's like running across country,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, no, when the kick, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. You know when they fall back,
Speaker 1: pace yourself. You know, you can feel when your legs
Speaker 1: start shifting, when you start losing energy and your legs
Speaker 1: and you have to but you have so much further
Speaker 1: to go, and you want to win. You know, you
Speaker 1: want to win the race. But you're like, yo, if
Speaker 1: I pushed now, I know at the end, I won't
Speaker 1: have it. So let me, let me, let me fall back.
Speaker 1: These three guys may feel like they're beating me right now,
Speaker 1: but in about three minutes after I get the proper
Speaker 1: after I recoup. You know what I mean. With this
Speaker 1: light jog I'm doing, I'm a kick and when I
Speaker 1: kick him out, you know what I'm saying, And then
Speaker 1: I don't go, you know. So it's just, um, life
Speaker 1: is a marathon man, and it's just you have to
Speaker 1: know when the kick, when they fall back. And then
Speaker 1: another thing is that Quincy Jones said something the documentary
Speaker 1: that was I was. I mean, I've watched the documented
Speaker 1: a hundred times and I think out of all the
Speaker 1: time I watched it, this thing sticks out the most
Speaker 1: every time I watch it. He says that take care
Speaker 1: of the valleys. You know what I'm saying, The hills
Speaker 1: will take care of themselves. Mhm. Right when you're up.
Speaker 1: When you're up, you're up. Everything that you want, everything
Speaker 1: that you need in life will be imported to you
Speaker 1: when you work. You know what I'm saying, Because everybody
Speaker 1: wants to be with a winner. The problem is when
Speaker 1: the valley's hit, and we all have values. The problem
Speaker 1: is when the value and that's what sheally a bad
Speaker 1: attention to. And that's the thing that I feel like
Speaker 1: people when you start making money, when you start really
Speaker 1: really doing you know, well in this business, um a
Speaker 1: lot times you're gonna pay attention to when valleys hit.
Speaker 1: We don't know, you know. We think that the Highs
Speaker 1: are gonna be Highs forever, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: The checks will keep coming. I'm gonna keep doing these projects.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep you know what I mean. It feels
Speaker 1: like it's never gonna stop, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: it fucking stops, you know what I mean, And it stops,
Speaker 1: and you haven't prepared for the valis. You haven't taken
Speaker 1: care of the valid um. You left everything up there
Speaker 1: at the Highs and now you're in the valley and
Speaker 1: you ain't got shipped and you're trying to figure your way,
Speaker 1: you're trying to figure your way through. Um, those are
Speaker 1: some hard lessons how I learned, you know what I mean? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for me. With the advot of the Internet
Speaker 1: and the aving like Instagram and social media and things
Speaker 1: that nature, during my valleys, I was able to find
Speaker 1: another way to be relevant, you know. Um, but it's
Speaker 1: still hard still, you know, it's still difficult, you know,
Speaker 1: in because when you're such you know, such a high
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, for such a long time too,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, and then the day we
Speaker 1: feel like, okay, well, year five, it's gonna definitely I'm
Speaker 1: a hit about Oh no, you're eight. I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know the ten years you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: You know, ten years, twelve years without really hitting a
Speaker 1: super low, you know what I mean. You feel like
Speaker 1: you're almost feel invincible in that low hits. If you
Speaker 1: haven't prepared for it, then you know it's gonna be
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a difficult, difficult path for you, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Easter Ray has this quote where
Speaker 1: she said, you know, come up with the people around.
Speaker 1: You don't always try to get this put on, you know,
Speaker 1: thinking we have a tendency to try to network up,
Speaker 1: but it's really about networking across and those are the
Speaker 1: people you need to build with. What do you say
Speaker 1: for people who only want they want to get to Brian.
Speaker 1: If I can get to Brian, then I can then
Speaker 1: I can get there. Right. If I can get this
Speaker 1: person to hear my demo, I can make it. I
Speaker 1: feel like there's value in that to a degree, right,
Speaker 1: because somebody can always help you, um, manifest your dream,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean a lot of times it may
Speaker 1: take somebody who has a little more leverage in whatever
Speaker 1: fields you're trying to get into, you know what I mean. Um,
Speaker 1: But I will say this, the majority to help I've
Speaker 1: been able to I've been getting in my life for
Speaker 1: the past fifteen sixteen years have been directed from people
Speaker 1: that I came up with. Whether it's the Shakazulus, whether
Speaker 1: it's the Delicia Butterfield's, whether it's the you know Johnson's,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know what I mean, Chris Higgs. Like
Speaker 1: these are people who Chris Hicks was a little heat
Speaker 1: helping me. He put me on. But if we look
Speaker 1: at it. You know, we talked about it all the time,
Speaker 1: like we were learning that we're learning together, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. You know, I didn't go to a
Speaker 1: cloud day this, you know. I mean it was like
Speaker 1: we were you know, Chris and Noony and Ryan they
Speaker 1: we were all learning together, you know what I mean. Um?
Speaker 1: So I look at the people around me and the
Speaker 1: people who's who helped me, the Ryan Glovers, the new Needs,
Speaker 1: to Chris Hicks, to Terry Rosses, Um, we were all
Speaker 1: they were definitely ahead of me, but they were Jimmy Ivy,
Speaker 1: you know, they couldn't just kind of check and just
Speaker 1: saved my life. We had to literally work, you know,
Speaker 1: learned together, and I needed them to guide me to
Speaker 1: get to those places, you know what I mean. Um
Speaker 1: So I would say that, and then I looked at
Speaker 1: my peers like a Folicia Butterfield, Christie Henderson, Um, you know, um,
Speaker 1: and any help that I need, I could just reach
Speaker 1: out for them. I mean, that's my network and we
Speaker 1: came up together, came from nothing. That's my network. So
Speaker 1: I always tell people your net worth determination net worth right,
Speaker 1: so at the day, yeah, you could like it, moving
Speaker 1: up is a is a good thing, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, if somebody can help you, who's who's who's
Speaker 1: in position to help you? If if a you know,
Speaker 1: if you're able to get to a puff or get
Speaker 1: to a you know, be cox whoever right, you know
Speaker 1: there's a that's cool, you know what I mean. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I can help you
Speaker 1: get the point B. But the people that you surround
Speaker 1: yourself with all the worts is going to be your
Speaker 1: your direct you know, your direct anchor. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Because you don't even call me for every
Speaker 1: little thing. I can't call Claude Davis for every little thing.
Speaker 1: So I can't call you Ivan or not. You know,
Speaker 1: I can't call you know what I mean, anything anything.
Speaker 1: I gotta issue in that want to bounce off anybody
Speaker 1: as I bounce off. I could call Chris Easy. I'm
Speaker 1: called Alicia Easy. I could call j Q Easy. I
Speaker 1: could call John Tay Easy. You know, I mean, these
Speaker 1: are all people that we all came up together. So Scooter,
Speaker 1: who's you know, he's the guy, but but we came
Speaker 1: up together. So my relationship with Scooter is very different
Speaker 1: than the Irish person relationship Scooter. So if I need
Speaker 1: anything from any type of perspective, I could just call him. Um,
Speaker 1: that's a relationship that I've built that nobody knew school
Speaker 1: you know, who knew that he was gonna be the
Speaker 1: guy here the becoming you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: that's the ship that I had. And we were friends
Speaker 1: before all of that, and he holds that near and
Speaker 1: dear because he knows that I don't. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: an opportunist when it comes to him. We're actually friends
Speaker 1: because we both didn't have shipped coming up, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, And we came up, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: so you know the importance of having people around you,
Speaker 1: of creating your network around you is I mean, it's
Speaker 1: necessary because you might you know, if you don't, you know,
Speaker 1: when the valley is hit and you out there by yourself,
Speaker 1: who yeah, my valleys hid. I was. I was in
Speaker 1: a good space because I was out there by myself.
Speaker 1: I have people who came up with and we can
Speaker 1: help each other, lean on each other, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Brian Michael Cox my brother, I know your
Speaker 1: long time man. I appreciate you. You've always been a
Speaker 1: real I feel like I grew up around you, so
Speaker 1: I appreciate you man more than you know. Well. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you, my brother. Thank you. Black Tach Green Money
Speaker 1: is the production of blackt The afro Tech is produced
Speaker 1: by Morgan Dabon and me Will Lucas, with additional production
Speaker 1: supported by Love Beach, STEPHANIEA Vogu and Rayveneerport. Special thank
Speaker 1: you to Michael Davis, some cars of van Yan you
Speaker 1: know like the wine and yes that's his real name,
Speaker 1: and Creka Green. Learn more about Brian Michael Cox and
Speaker 1: other tech disruptors and innovators at afro tech dot com.
Speaker 1: Go get your money, peace and love,