 but as far as competition. Only as competition, cause the beauty in music is everybody can be number one. You know, I can be number one this week, the next week somebody else can come in. A really thing like Apple Music, I can be number one for this hour and then two hours later you can be number one. So it's like, it's a shared space at the top. You know what I mean? It's not a space where only one person can be number one. So that's how I kind of look at it with my other executives that are at the top with me. It's like, I'm gonna help make sure you get yours. You know what I mean? Cause to the truth of the matter is you can be number one for one minute, get that screen shot and that's all you need. That's the truth. You know what I mean? So for me, with my friends, like I want to just make sure they reach that. You know what I mean? I'm not involved. You my boy, I got to help you. You got to touch that number one. So it's not a competition in that sense, but as far as being oversaturated, very much so. And I just feel like, man, just like kind of like, I care about who the president is, but at the end of the day, I got to make a shake for me. And so that's kind of how I feel about it being oversaturated. I care about it, but I got to make it shake for me. I got to find a way. You know what I mean? So that's how I move with it. That makes a lot of sense. And the way you make it shake today. Yeah. Is the point that you said you made, I think Jacory sent me the video and I was like, yeah, man, we've been talking about the same thing. Having your own media company. Yeah. How do you look at an artist having their own media company and what you said? Cause I know what I think. Right. Well, I mean, you have to recognize that you need that media. You know what I mean? All music discovery, well, not all, I can't say all, but majority music discovery is through content. You know what I mean? So you have to recognize that that's the only way, well, the best possible way you'll be discovered and the most likely way you'll be discovered. So once you recognize that, then it's like, how do I keep up with the demand of putting out X amount of pieces of content a day? Well, that's why it's called a business or a company because now it's more than just you. You have to put together that team that understands content and what I learned from you, that team that knows how to speak the language of TikTok because that's the language being spoken in content right now, right? So you have to understand that I need a team that understands this to help me execute that mission. But with artists, they still have, in all things in their business, they still have to be the visionary and the leader in that, you know what I mean? Because even if I hire two people to help me make content, they can't make me get out of bed and turn on the camera. You know what I mean? They can't make me sit back and think of the ways to deliver this message. They can help and they give me ideas and they maybe can show up with the camera when I allow them to. But at the end of the day, if I'm not the person that's the most gun hole about this, it's not gonna get done. It's not gonna be successful. First you have to be the number one and then you build a team around. You have to be Michael Jordan, then you have to go find your Scott and you have to go find your Dennis and you have to build that media team. Just like when I started NPR, I knew this already. So I didn't hire A&R team. I hired a content team. That's the first thing I hired. I said, okay, I need to find people who understand content. So I hired that team and we signed money loan and then five months later we were number one because we understood content. You wanna move streams, you need content. And we understood that best. But now, you know, here we are two years later, everybody has followed that blueprint and so now you have this flooding. And so now I was like, okay, they flooded what we were doing great. So we have to find another way to be great. You know what I mean? Because that way is too oversaturated. And so that's what we're in the midst of doing with the Manny Wells and with Amari Noel. We're in the midst of changing what it looks like to be great in order to succeed because our old method is flooded already. On August 12th, myself, Sean and JR McKee will be hosting a live event in Atlanta where we'll be sharing some of our best marketing, branding and content strategies that we haven't really been able to put out anywhere else. So if you want a reason to come to Atlanta or if you're in Atlanta or if you just want to adapt us up and see if we're real, go and get your tickets at nolabelsnecessary.com or check the link in the description if you're watching this on YouTube. We're only doing 60 tickets, like a hard 60 tickets. So you want to make sure that you're one of those 60 once again, nolabelsnecessary.com or check the link in the description and we'll see you there. But I'll give the game away since we all know labels necessary. I believe what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to find ways to create experiences. You know what I mean? You're going to have to find ways to create experiences and then from that experience the content will be able to break through on the internet. But you have to create these experiences because everybody's on the internet. But the artist that can come to my hometown or a wild mile at their hometown or whatever the case may be, the artist that can connect with me in a different way besides the internet is going to be the artist that's going to flourish the most. You know what I mean? Because I can like 10 artists on the internet but the one person that was in my crib, oh no, I love him. You know what I'm saying? You have to find a way to create these experiences and of course you have to document those experiences and put that content online because that experience will reach that one person but the way that that feeling comes across the screen will reach millions. You know what I mean? For example, Manny Wells going home for the first time in Nigeria. You know what I mean? Him showing the experience of connecting with his father at the 14 years, although you're not him and you're not his father, you feel it. You know what I'm saying? It's connected with him in a different way. Exactly. I know Manny for a while. When I saw that video, that's just different. It's just different. And so how do I create those experiences more often to be able to connect way larger on the internet? You know what I mean? And so that's what we're in the process of figuring out for Manny and for Amari and that's how we're gonna break them and take them to the top. It's great, man, because hearing you talk is like there's always things that we're on the same page with. I've been waiting for something that we can argue about but I haven't seen it yet. Because we even say the way fans see you treating other fans, they almost appreciate it as if it was them, right? Yes, yes. Like showing, like you said, these real-world experiences of I did this with a fan or like this happened in this private event that we had with the fans. Like we had the artist who was doing this real dope private event and she was able to sell out with 75 tickets, $400. That's dope. On the 75 Cat Room, right? And she's already gearing up to do another one. Like nothing, right? And the way that's gonna connect and have to be shown back online. It's all the same thing. And I think that leads to something, I guess, what's required on that side, right? In terms of doing an event well in your opinion. I mean, again, this process, I don't wanna call it new to me but I'm trial and error in this process. And so I'm still learning, I don't have this master yet. But I think at the end of the day, it has to be, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't wanna say small, it has to be limited. It has to be, it has to be, it's a word I'm looking for. Personal, intimate. Well it has to be personal, it has to be intimate for sure. But like, what's the word when like the quantity is small? I can't think of a word, I almost lost some of me. But anyway, let's just stick with small and intimate. It has to be that because it has to be personal. You know what I mean? So that's number one, it's like, I feel like it has to be personal. Every person there has to feel a much deeper connection with you than they would if they were at a concert with 3,000 people. You know what I mean? Because again, you looking for that feeling to come across on camera because it's still about content at the end of the day. You know what I mean? That feeling has to be different than the feeling of 3,000 people. You know what I mean? So I think that's the first part. It's just those intimate experiences. And then after that, it's just like, it's just, you gotta make a connection with those people that are there because those are gonna be, you know, kind of like your bull horns. Like that, every, out of those 75 people, every single one that I promise you, they're gonna talk to 10, 20 people about you. You know what I mean? And so that's how your fan-based spreads. You know what I mean? So you just gotta make sure they feel like this experience was amazing and they got to connect with the artists. Because I think what's gonna end up happening is instead of having, you know, two or three just super dominant superstars, everybody's gonna have their own space. You know what I mean? So as a young fan, as a 12 year old, let's go, as a 15 year old, I'm gonna have two or three artists that I really love that most people would have never heard of. You know what I mean? And so that's gonna be the way that consumers experience music, in my opinion, moving forward. They're gonna have their people that they love that everybody else isn't up on. And that's fine because I haven't been to this person where there's only us and 50 people. You know what I mean? Like this is my guy. This is my girl. You know what I'm saying? So that's how fans are gonna feel about their people, about their artists. So I think that's more or less what we're headed to where everybody will be able to have their own thing versus all of us loving Beyoncé. Yeah. And by the way, I'm not saying we'll love Beyoncé forever, but the point I'm making is it's gonna be you have your people versus everybody loving one person. Yeah, it ain't gonna be you have any new Beyoncé. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But this space has been created because if you look at technology, how, right, first it allowed us to connect with people in other places. Then it got to a point where, you know, we got detached and then we had working from home. So you have these people that don't have a way to connect and create community in the same way it was just natural without us thinking about it growing up. So you have generations that are looking for people to connect to and a lot of them are doing it through their artists. And when we add these events and create community around yourself, like that's why I was talking about, this is part of what we were arguing about between Russ versus Lil' Russell. Oh, you're not gonna let it go. I'm not gonna let it go. I was following you, I meant to say you're not too late. It doesn't matter. It was great for the content. So you gotta hold, you gotta hold the position on going forward. Yeah, you gotta stand on it. I'm not saying you gotta stand on it. So there's a difference between having a very strong fan base. You can have a very, very, very strong fan base and be successful as an artist versus having a community, right? And the community are also going to be fans, but they're not a community. The community requires the fans to actually connect and interact with each other. They have a certain set of values. All Drake fans don't necessarily- Had the same values. You know what I mean? But Lil' Russell, you can probably identify what they look like. J. Cole has a bit of a community going forward. We kind of know who his fan base is. You can look at him and he and J. Cole. Yeah, exactly. You know, you got to dream a little fast and it's like they all kind of look like they're in the same category. Right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So- They're what they call what they call a J. Cole backpack rapper. So yeah, I get it. A new age backpack rapper, for sure. So that's what you get the opportunity to do at these private type of events. Or as a private- You build a community. Whatever those type of events are. And you can still sell to people at these events. It's a great size. And because it's a smaller community that are accustomed to supporting you, they'll support you with much larger numbers. So I'm not selling these shows for $20 tickets. You know what I'm saying? I'm selling like you said for $100. I'm selling them for much more because this is a small community that appreciates me much more than they appreciate somebody that they've just seen online. You know what I mean? So you're actually able to make more revenue doing it this way. Keeping it small, keeping it limited. Yeah, what I think is interesting too is like fans have kind of been asking for that for years, right? Like you only see fans say like, man, like I'm trying to get keep you, right? I'm trying to keep you just to me. And it feels like now they've come to the realization like, oh, there's a price for that. Yeah. That price isn't gonna be cheap. But to your point, I would much rather pay $100 to be able to daff up my favorite artist. Right. $300 just to see Drake, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I mean, I think it's, the times we are moving into are beautiful. You know, it's gonna be an amazing time and amazing atmosphere. And artists are gonna be able to eat. You know, finally, you know what I mean? Like every artist that is able to create a community is going to be able to do well.