 You don't necessarily have to put out records professionally in order to be a musician or to make money from music in the music business. There are a thousand different ways that you could do it. Meditating music, wake up music, inspirational music, office music, elevator music, man. They still play elevator music in elevators. You walk in Waffle House at three o'clock in the morning and they'll do everything in touch tunes but get the information to get your music in touch tunes. And I'm supposed to feel sorry for you, bozo? No, I don't. What's up, what's up, what's up? It's Brayman, Sean. And I'm Cory. And we are back with another episode of No Labels, Necessary Podcast. You can catch us every Tuesday, every Thursday on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever you check for your podcast here at the intersection of creativity and currency. I'm ready for another creative conversation. We have yet another person who represents the No Labels necessary way of thinking. Key word, necessary. You can use them but they're not necessary in the way you move. Today we have the rap juggernaut, AKA Kingpin, a man of many positions but primarily a marketer and sounds like, just from our short conversation, a great man to have in your corner. Thank you, I appreciate that. I would love to hear more and learn more about you. Thank you first and foremost though for hopping on. Thank you for the hospitality. Thank you for the opportunity, man. It's always great to connect with like-minded individuals that are trying to push the boundaries of creation and entrepreneurship. So anything that I could do to participate in that and help our community grow in the city of Atlanta and beyond because I'm sure you guys have listeners all over the globe. So hello to everybody who's listening and to everybody watching on the video, but up though. Appreciate that, appreciate that man. I would love to just start here. You've done quite a bit and supported a lot of infrastructure around, especially Atlanta for a minute, but how did you get into the music industry specifically? I was working at a warehouse. My younger brother was living with me and one of his friends had came home after school one day and was like, hey man, I want you to look at this contract. I want to be a rapper. I didn't know anything about rapper contracts. I'd always talked about opening a club one day when I got out of prison and stuff like that, but it was always dreams and talks. And I told them, I said, I don't think you should sign that. I mean, it's really blank and they want you to fill in your name and stuff, don't do it. So the next day I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers at work. We were joking about it. Like, man, could you believe this kid? He was going to get signed. So another one of the guys walks in and he's like, man, you know about the music business. And I was like, no, I don't know anything about it, but I know a bad contract when I see one. So we got the, you know, we got the politician and come to find out. He had a recording studio, maybe four or five blocks away from my house. So that night we worked the night shift. So that night when we got off of work, I went to the studio and I didn't get out till the next day in the afternoon. Here I am. That's never, I quit my job. I never looked back. I, you know, I had it, I did it. And when I started to ask for time off to go to my first music conference and stuff and they were like, you know, hey man, we need somebody that's going to be here. And, you know, of all the jobs of all the things I've done in my life, I've always gambled on myself. And I believed in my ability to provide enough for myself and my family at the time that I would be able to survive and ultimately succeed. So it was, you know, I've spoke about this in the past. I've been blessed that I came from a long line of entrepreneurs, you know, my father, my mother, my uncles, everybody owned their own business. Everybody that I've known, all the people that I grew up with in some way, shape or form, they either worked for themselves or was a boss and worked with somebody. Very few people in my life ever worked for anybody. And I'm saying that there's anything wrong with that, but that was the example that I was given. So it really wasn't that much of a gamble for me to, you know what, I'm out of here. And I did it and I didn't look back. And it's been up, it's been down, it's been rough. There was a lot of times where I had to try to find myself, question myself. And that's kind of why I do what I do now, because if somebody would have bothered to share with me some of the things that I learned along the way that may have helped me arrive at the position or at the place where I could help others sooner, then maybe we could have changed the culture. Maybe we could have pivoted somewhere. Maybe we could have helped somebody else. And then by definition, we could have changed the life or even ultimately saved the life, you know what I mean? So, you know, with the way the entertainment industry is set up and the way that we consume content, if you don't own it, if you don't establish ownership at the origin, if you don't know what you're looking at when you open the hood, you put yourself at a gross disadvantage to where you'll accept whatever is being offered. And that comes with knowing value and value only comes with ownership. And ownership means that it allows you the opportunity to measure what it is that you're attempting to grow because make no mistake, what is not measured will never grow. Make sense? It makes all the sense in the world. You mentioned the conference, right? Your first ever music conference. And you said that you believe conferences are worth it. What was your mentality going into that first conference? And let's, you know, talk about how you flipped it. I wanted to get to the city a day early because I wanted to see the lay of the land and I still do that in most cases. You know, if I get to a city that I haven't been to or if I get somewhere that I'm unfamiliar with, I want to get there as much in advance as possible if I can get there a day early, cool. And when I got to the event, the event started at 12, I wanted to get there at night in the morning because I wanted to set up. I wanted to go and I wanted to meet the people that were going to be opening the doors and putting the keys in. And I learned early in my entertainment industry that if you act like you're supposed to be there, very few people are going to stop you. And I would show up with a camera and that was my thing. You know, I was, I was published in ozone magazine before I ever did anything else, you know, shot at the Julia Beverly. And I was able to use that camera and I would go to red carpets and as I would see people or DJs walk by with no red camera, I would jump out screaming their name and turn the camera on that light and walk my way into a room. And then when I got into the room, it was off to the races. It was all about networking. So, you know, I finessed my way into a thousand and 400 conferences. I finessed my entire team into a thousand and 400 conferences. I've paid to be a part of a thousand and 400 conferences. It's, I wanted to do it. You know what I mean? So I found the way to do it. And when I got to those cities, yeah, I would have loved to have had the extra money to go shopping or go to a club and buy a bottle and make a spectacle. I was lucky if I had enough money to feed my whole team. And we were out there promoting for the artist and every song that you put on us, how much money they got and their diamonds and blings. But the street team got a bust down 99 cent meals. Like that's real. I did that. I've walked in the room. I biggest walked into rooms where it's been 12 people in a two-bedroom room during Memorial weekend with 10,000 CDs stacked up to the ceiling. And biggest walked in there while we're taking shifts. People sleeping, people working and people stuffing CDs. Cause how do you pass out 10,000 CDs hand to hand in three days? You see what I'm saying to you? So a lot of those campaigns we had to learn and we had to get and we had to build those relationships. So now where I had to get out into the trenches and learn cities and learn a lot of these artists aren't that burden isn't on them. They can now switch it digitally. But because they've gone digital, they've gotten lazy and they haven't really used all of the tools to their advantage. Here's one, if you're going to a music conference, right? Google Earth. Google Earth is gonna give you, you can look at the street. So if I'm going to a venue, if I'm going to the, I'm going to the Core DJ's music conference in Miami July 21st through July 24th of the year 2020 this year rolling loud weekend and I want to know what I could do. I'm going to Google the Intercontinental Miami where the host hotel is and I'm going to pull up the street view, ask me why I want the street view because I want to know, do I need a stapler to hang these posters on poles? Are they wooden poles or are they concrete poles? Hmm, how many poles, how many poles will tell me how many posters I need to put up? How many posters I need to put up will tell me, well, if there's poles, then I'm not going to be the only one in doing this. What time does it start at 12? I got to get there at nine. Now I've got a schedule, I've got an itinerary. Now when I put them up an hour and a half later, I got to come back and replenish. Whatever I got taken down, got to get put back up. I could use Google Maps to my advantage. I could use events in the city. Now I'm going to go down to check the Miami Herald. I'm going to see what events are happening that weekend because the events are going to have the DJ on the flyer and if the DJ is on the flyer, he's got his Instagram online and if he's got his Instagram online, he's got his email address in his bio and maybe just maybe he replied to my email and say he likes my record and is willing to play it. I don't know. I don't know if I don't try. And because I'm lazy, because I think that the internet is more than just, it's supposed to make me a star by just dropping music. It scares me that these kids don't open the emails like I did today that tells me Luminate's new data says that 41% of the records that are available online, that's over 67 million, have 10 or less streams. You started to touch on something that I was actually going to ask you, but I feel like we can go even deeper in that. The old street team way of doing things, which still does apply, it's just now more avenues to get to people. What are some of those things that you feel like translate those small nuggets that you had to learn in those trenches that you feel, feel like can either translate online or have use online to empower. I think most people fail to put a call to action on their promotional items. Major labels are notorious for just- Flyers, posters, some people are just, they'll throw a picture of a flyer up. I challenge you, go down Midtown and find one of those artists that have an album out and there's no QR code on it. There's no, it's just a picture on a trash can. So when it comes to marketing, whatever it is street marketing, digital marketing, the call to action, is it educating? Is it informing? Is it empowering? What is it doing? And I think as creatives, we get so caught up trying to create. Well, people are gonna laugh and if I can make them laugh, they're gonna love me. So I'm gonna wear a wig or I'm gonna start doing funny skits or I'm gonna start acting crazy. I'm gonna start doing all these things that are against who I really am because I feel that attention equals retention. And you may pass by and look at a crash, but when was the last time you saw a crash that you loved so much you had to stop and stare at it? Park, come back. Let me go get in traffic again and keep coming back and look at it. Never. You'll see the accident, look at it. Man, that's messed up and keep it pushing. That's what some of these things are. They're accidents, good or bad. And because they weren't ready to capitalize off of that, it becomes a bad accident. Could you imagine what happens if all of your stuff is owned and then you trigger a viral moment? It makes the difference in the bad they offer you. It makes the difference in the stipulations of that contract, in the limitations and what they're trying to tie their money into. You now walk into it with leverage. That's all we're saying. We're not saying that if you do these things, you will become a star. We're saying that if you do these things, you're establishing ownership so that in the event, in the event, because it's hitting the lottery, 100,000 songs a day, 36 and a half million records a year, 67 million records as of today have only streamed 10 or less. That's every record for the last two years, statistically speaking. Those are the reality of what we're talking about. And nobody wants to talk about that because you're being a hater. What do you know? You're lost. You don't know, old man. Prove me wrong. If what I'm saying is wrong, then do it the right way and prove me wrong. That's my call to action. If you have enough energy to debate with me in the comments, you should have enough energy to go find the truth. If what I'm giving you is incorrect or as you feel is moved you to the point of where you wanna debate, then go seek the truth. That's what I want. That's what the cheat code is. I've said it in one of our lives. You wanna know what the cheat code is? Do the work. There is no other shortcut. Success only comes before work in the dictionary. No other place on earth does success come before work except for in the Oxford Dictionary. That's it, brother. You spoke about attention believing. Are you, you said that people believe attention equals retention. We all here know that's not true. Right. So community. When you think about building a community and what it takes, what does that look like to you? It takes consistency. It takes understanding who the possible members of your community you're gonna be. It takes understanding who you are and how you package that to the world whether it's your brand, whether it's your podcast, whether it's your music, whether it's your music videos. It's understanding how to present that to the consumer and then start to use the different avenues and platforms that you have to find who your target consumer is. The bullseye on a dartboard is really, really small. And the more information that we get, our bullseye gets bigger. So if each time we drop a video or each time we drop a song or each time we drop a t-shirt and we're studying metrics and we're learning colors and we're learning color schemes and we're learning times a day and we're learning usage and we're learning census statistics because all of these things factor in because these are the people that are most likely to engage with this platform and this type of content at this particular time in this particular region. That matters. That's more of a calculated guest than a blind than just going into it blind. It's more calculated. And that's what I want these young brothers and sisters to understand that building a community requires you to know how you're going to provide for that community. Is it gonna be content? How are you gonna provide the content? Is it gonna be content that's gonna nourish them? Is it gonna call them to action? Are you gonna feed their minds as well as their souls? Are you gonna feed their bellies? What are you gonna do for them? Because you have to be a, in order to have a community, if it's your community, then you have to be the leader. And in order to lead, then there has to be people that are willing to follow. Nobody's willing to follow somebody that doesn't know how to lead. So those are some of the things that I think as entrepreneurs, as independent business owners, this is where there ain't no hope for the youth, right? This is where that comes in because the people that know don't wanna waste time on the youth because they feel the youth don't need to know, they're not worried about that right now. And I'm the complete opposite. I hold the young more accountable than I do an adult because an adult has the ability to decide to wake up and be lazy. A child is only gonna do what he or she is programmed to do. And that's why they catch you early when you make these mistakes and they put you in these boot camp programs. I know I was a product of one of them. I got direct filed at 13. I was sentenced as an adult before I was old enough to drive a car. What do you mean boot camp? What did you, that you were a part of? There's a, and in the state of Florida, there's the extended day program. So anybody that goes to prison under the age of 25, it's like a boot camp. So you're not allowed to touch your bed. You wake up in the morning, do calisthenics, march everywhere, yes or no, sir. Your socks gotta smile, underwear gotta be folded up. Your whole life will fit in a three foot by three foot metal container. Everything has to be folded up organization. I never thought, or for a million years of my life, thought that anything I learned in prison would carry me to in the free world where it would help me. I never thought that sitting in class and learning how to rationalize or how to make statistics or how to separate things and make lists, something as small as that has helped me in my adult life more than you can ever imagine because I go into things looking at them differently. I don't go into things looking at a problem. I go into things looking for solutions. And I think that's what one of the things that separates individuals like you guys from the rest of the people in the world that made putting a podcast together is that you guys found the solution and this is the vehicle to deliver the solution to the people that need it because there are people that need it and want it and seek it. And it's our job as being ambassadors of the culture as much as it is being representatives of the culture and living it and being a part of the culture. It's our job to kind of keep it going and pass it on to that generation of up and coming executive, up and coming podcasters, up and coming journalists, up and coming artists. Those are the ones that need the game the most because we are the generation that got fed up. We're so fed up. We're telling you what not to do. Please be the generation that listens. Feel like people listen? No, no, I don't. I feel like people hear us. And I feel like people are entertained and that's why I'm as animated I am on the podcast and that's why I'm as in your face as I am and that's why I'm unapologetic as I am because I have to disrespect people in order for them to listen to my message because if I sit there and I give it to them nicely, oh, okay, yeah, old man, no, I'll be an old man but you're an idiot and a fool. You know what a fool is in a dictionary? Look at it, you may not like the word but that's exactly what you are, a goofy. A goofy is a person who does silly things. That's the definition of it. So when you do silly things, you're a goofy. So they like it when I do that. They don't respect when you give it to them the truth because the truth sometimes has to be delivered by hand. Can't put it in a mail. You gotta give it to them. You gotta hand deliver it to them like a little Caesar's knock on the door. Here it is in your face. What you're gonna do now? You're gonna punch me in my mouth for telling you that you don't know what you're doing. That's fine, punch me in my mouth. You're gonna go home and cry about it. You're gonna post the video and you're gonna tell somebody that I don't know what I'm doing. Thank you, that's engagement. Let's argue, come to my post and tell me how silly I am, tell me how wrong I am. The other 437 posts are gonna disagree with you and all you're gonna do is land us on the explorer page of somebody who needs to hear that message, who may be lost or who may be in the shadow that your son is shining on them, casting on them. They need to be brought to the light. And I think that's what we do with the cheat code. Wendy Day is a pioneer. She doesn't care who she pisses off. Ferrari Simmons, he's in the music business. He doesn't care who he pisses off. Me? I'm a violent, habitual offender. I should not be outside of a cage, let alone on this side of the earth. And I am, so I wake up every day with a burning desire to get it done and I go to bed every day with a burning desire to wake up and get it done. That's my goal in life, to let my kids see everything that I want them to understand you have to be to be successful in life. Determine, focus, relentless, those are the things it requires. Do not get praise. There's no glory. You finish first place, so what? You gotta finish first place again in order for me to respect it. You finished again, so what? You gotta finish in first again for me to be in awe. You finished in first again, so what? Now every time you don't finish in first, you fell off. That's the reality. That's how it works. That's the reality. That was deep. That was real. That's the reality. There are 1,000 Division I schools that will field a collegiate football team. That's 55,000 kids are gonna play college football this year. Only 250, 260 are gonna go into the draft. Only 60 of those drafts that are gonna make the actual team. Only 20 of those 60 are gonna make the roster. Only five are gonna start. Only one will be rookie of the year. You know how long it took that young man to be rookie of the year? 15 years. He had to play Little League through elementary school, flag, junior high, high school. Hey, Jack. The race ain't for the swift. It's for those that can endure. That's what I feel like people messed up looking at fields like sports because they're young and successful but they've been in it their whole life by the time they hit the ground. It's misleading, yeah. It takes them 10 years to become an overnight sensation, you know? Think of what somebody like, that's why somebody like LeBron James is so, you know, in my eyes, such a cultural icon across the board. LeBron was playing on ESPN in high school and still maintained that dominance over the last 15, 20 years, you know? And this is somebody that I borrowed from. Miami, they won their first two championships on my birthday, June 20th. I got the tattoo here. I love, these are my guys. So when they lost, I cried, I hurt. And then the next morning I wake up and I'm watching the parade and I'm hating and then I look up and I see ESPN flashes and LeBron James is in the gym working out, watching the parade. What? I'm worried about the wrong thing. Losing is a part of winning. What you do with the loss, there's a blessing there or a lesson. Which one we get first? That all determines on how we act after. Is it a blessing or is it a lesson? There's no losing in life. In the minute we change the words that we use and how we use them, we start to adapt to that killer, that mama mentality. The mama mentality was more. It wasn't, I have to be the best in it. I am the best. And in order to be the best, it requires commitment and it requires work. You don't have to outplay anybody. You gotta outplay yourself. That's it, that's the key. When I'm worried about outplaying you, you beat me because now my mind is off of my game and my mind is now on what I gotta do to beat in your game. I can't do that. I have too many other things to worry about right now. My game is paramount. And as long as I stay on the top of my game, it doesn't matter what I'm judged by anybody else. I know what I'm capable of and I know what all of us are capable of and that's why we do the cheat code. Because if there's 10 people that can do it right, that's awesome. But if we can get 100 people to do it right, then that's change. I love that you said that, man. I was literally just talking with somebody about that earlier today, about not letting the enemy, whatever. If you define yourself as the anti to something else, that means that something else always controls you. Amen. So I love that idea of being self led and self guided. And obviously the journey of an artist is ups and downs. We hear about it often. We talk to a lot of artists who speak on that often. You're more on the executive side, right? Or the music entrepreneur side, however you wanna look at your personal career. Can you speak on some of those ups and downs personally that you've been through? You know, I've lost everything I've ever loved behind the music business. I've lost everybody I've ever loved. I still sacrifice my health. I sacrifice my mental health every single day. Find any study and it's gonna tell you that one hour of social media day is poisonous to your mental health. And I have to consume it at least an hour a day. You know, and it's, I don't wanna do this every day. You know, but that's discipline. That's doing what has to get done when you don't wanna do it. That's what character is. They taught me that when I was in prison. Character is who you are when you think nobody's looking. When you get to wake up in the morning and you feel like you're home alone, do you walk around and dig off in your boxers and pick your nose and sit on the couch and drink out the milk carton and lick your fingers and touch the remote control. That's really who you are when you think nobody's looking. That's really who you are. Do you get up in the morning and pursue greatness at all costs? I chose to be the person to wake up and pursue greatness. So I wake up with that attitude. I'm not upset when I wake up in the morning. I'm happy. I don't care what's going on wrong. I'm happy. Three o'clock in the morning, I'm excited. Oh my God. I got another chance to get it right. Let's go. I've got six hours before anybody else even walks into a building. And if we're talking California time, I got nine hours. I got a whole work day before the people on the West Coast even think about getting to the building and plugging up their smart car. You see what I'm saying? Because right now, there's somebody 12 hours, there's somebody nine and a half hours ahead of us, 12 hours ahead of us. So I'm up against the eight ball, just like all of us are. And my thing is constant growth. It's constant evolution. And if we're not studying, if we're not measuring, if we're not learning, if we're not involved, then we fall behind. We have to move at the speed of the culture, ladies and gentlemen, all of us. If you don't wanna do that, then it's okay. Do this as a hobby. But when you do this as a hobby, then you're a hobbyist. Get out of the way. Go do it with the hobbyist, you know? Go stand in front of the martyr station and open your guitar case and do it for pennies. If you wanna do it for the love of it, bro. Go volunteer to school, go teach at a school. There are a thousand schools that need music instructors. There are music therapists right now. You don't necessarily have to put out records professionally in order to be a musician or to make money from music in the music business. There are a thousand different ways that you could do it. I tell producers all the time, you're not putting out beat albums. There's just a thousand different ways that all of these guys meditating music, wake up music, go to bed music, inspirational music, office music, elevator music. Man, they still play elevator music in elevators. You see what I'm saying to you? So when was the last time you walked into Waffle House and looked at the touch tunes and took a picture of the phone number on the front of it and the website address so you can find out how you can get your music in touch tunes. Well, you walk in Waffle House at three o'clock in the morning and they'll do everything at touch tunes but get the information to get your music in touch tunes. And I'm supposed to feel sorry for you, bozo? No, I don't because I've sacrificed everything I have and love to learn that and you don't? So I'm supposed to give it to you for free. I do. Once a week on Wednesdays. Other than that, pay for it. You talked about the speed of culture, consuming social media and music in general, right? Right, moves of culture. The internet has fed up culture. Hip hop has always been the cutting edge so that combination has made things move faster and faster and faster, especially if you're a hip hop. The speed that you have to move is ridiculous in comparison to the rest of the world. Today, we're still yet halfway through the year, no number one hip hop song on the charts. That news came out probably maybe a week or so now, a go now. What do you feel about that? Why should there be? Taylor Swift is on tour. Beyoncé is on tour. The legends are on tour. Why does there have to be what, again, it's not mood music. It's not genre music anymore. It hasn't been genre music in three, four years. It's mood music. People are tired of the death and destruction, man. You can't push it. You can't market it. Brands don't want their brand tied to it so Coke isn't gonna advertise in your YouTube video with 32 million views because all you do is kill people in your music. It's no longer artistic expression. It is now a declaration, a warning. And how long do you think you can keep warning and taunting your consumer, your fan base? How long can you continue to tell people that they're stupid, they're ignorant, they're lame, they're not as strong as you? Less than 1% of the world's population are criminals. Less than one. Nobody wants to hear that no more, bro. They wanna dance. They wanna have a good time. They wanna party. They wanna be in love. They wanna be heard again. They wanna, they want emotions and that's what's coming back into play and that's why AI to me doesn't threaten me at all. At all. At all. Because the people have to program it. Have you been around the people in the music business? They're clowns. You could tap dance around them in a square circle. They're not threatening anybody and the people in power, they don't threaten nobody either because they signed the checks to the bozos. So we're good, bro. We don't have to worry about somebody taking, but again, protect yourself so that you can be a part of the revolution, man. Because as an artist, you're going to, you're going to have to sacrifice your free time. You're going to have to sacrifice everything. Listen, if it weren't for hip hop, my kids wouldn't be on a roll students because they are. Thanks to what I can provide for them with hip hop. If it weren't for hip hop, I wouldn't have met my beautiful wife. I wouldn't have been able to get married. Hip hop did all of that. I don't have no silver spoon. I don't drive Uber. I don't finesse people out of checks. I don't run scams. I haven't gotten a PPP loan. I don't do government, nothing. Hip hop did all of this that I've done for myself. Hip hop does that for me. So I love this culture. And I'm able to go home and eat dinner and eat breakfast and drink coffee because of this culture. And I put on clothes because of the money that I make off of this culture. So I can never take from this culture. If anything, I owe this culture, I owe hip hop my life because it gives me life. And I think that's the sacrifice that you have to make. If you want, I said it on the podcast, right? I want, you guys watch movies? I'm a movie buff, right? I watched Troy, you ever watched Troy? Troy the movie Troy? I love the concept of the movie Troy because your boy wanted immortality. He knew he was going to die. He knew he was going to die. Everybody dies. But if he knew if he did what nobody else was willing to do, his name would live forever. I'm going to die. All of us are. When it's all said and done, they won't remember the Titans because we are the Titans. We're still here. We're putting in the work. We're going to change the culture. No labels, necessary podcast, the cheat code. We're going to change the culture. We're going to change the way people consume. We're going to change the way people create. We're going to change the way they put it out. And by that way, we're going to make our own lane and we're going to provide for ourselves and our families and make a way so that these up-and-coming your brothers and sisters can provide for their families. And only the strong will survive. Everybody won't make it, bro. Everybody isn't meant to make it. Some of y'all aren't special. Some of y'all are special ed. It's okay. Be you. Everybody else is taken. If you be you, you will be a lot happier in life. That's my number one piece of advice, man. Ups and downs, you're going to lose it all. Money gone. You can't make it fast enough. I can't charge you enough money for what it is that I do for you. Where do I put that on an invoice, Sean? Where do I tell somebody I'm charging you 1,500 to do what you don't know how to do? Where do I put on the invoice? I'm charging you an extra $2,000 for the 20 years worth of relationships that you'll never have because I'm the one that the husband threw a DM-ing broads on because he got caught cheating. And it was kingpin' because he handles the social media. Where do I put that on an invoice, Sean? That this guy owes me favors because I had to drive from Florida when he caught his wife sleeping with another man. I had to drive overnight to come to the city to talk him out of doing something to her. So he's indebted to me for life. Where do I put that on an invoice? I can't. So I just work, bro. I work. And I hope that people give me exactly what I demand. I don't want nothing more than I'm due. I work for everything I want. My praise comes from, my blessings come from God, brother, ain't nothing a man can do for me on earth. Nothing. Pat me on the back, high five, it's cool. I don't need it for validation. I made it happen, my validation. I go home happy. I give 12 hours, 14 hours, 16 hours. It's done. I go home satisfied. I'll tell her, I got a lot accomplished today. I feel good about myself. If I didn't get a lot accomplished, I'll tell her, I didn't get a lot accomplished today. I gotta get up early tomorrow. And I do. And I wake up every day at three o'clock so imagine what early is. It's what it takes. It's what's required. 100% is what's required. 120 is what you give to succeed. 80%, you didn't even do the bare minimum what required, 100% is required. If you don't do that, what are we talking about? So how can I take you serious if you don't know how to use email? Man, I'm glad you said it. That sounds so simple for anybody listening. I've spoken, we've spoken with multiple people who, Oh really? Don't know how to use something like an email. And these will be young people who act like I can't figure out technology and basic stuff. They don't want to read. They don't want to read. If you want to, when you day wrote a book called how to get a rap deal, how to get a record deal. And they'll still ask questions. They'll tune into the cheat code every week and watch it like she didn't write a book about this. If you ever want to know a secret book, put it in a book. That's why we had to do the cheat code. People weren't even going to go look for the knowledge that's already available to them so we got to find somebody to bring it to them. They love and they trust and they respect Wendy. She's like mom to them. Cause she holds them, she embraces them. Come here, you messed up your budget, you did wrong. You went to jail, come on. And that's Wendy. When are you going to cut her, you know? She's going to give you a stern. Don't do it again, but we got it. You know, that's mom, you know? And Rory, Rory is like, hey, come on, bro. You know, you got it. Positivity, you know what I'm saying? Look at what we've done. We can move around. Young guy, you know what I mean? That Rory's full of vigor right now. And I'm that person that I just want to do because I know what all that talking, the high five and the hugging do. I know it don't mean nothing. I know what you want from this business nobody can give you. Nobody on earth can give you because what you want is to feel like you've made it. I can't help you what you feel, bro. What you feel is the darkest place on earth. That's why I don't tell you to drop the music you feel is hot. Who cares what you feel? Your mama don't care what you feel. If you want to know when you're ready to drop music, call the person you love the most and the person that loves you the most in this world. And as soon as they answer the phone, ask them, what are you waiting on? What you talking about? No, what are you waiting on? Man, would you tell me what you calling me for? I need to know what are you waiting on? And if they don't say your music ain't nobody waiting for it, bro. That's a fact. If the person you love most on earth and that loves you the most on earth, what you waiting on? And they can't answer it out. They, nobody's waiting on it. So you take your time and you marinate and you follow the steps and you preheat the oven and you make sure you got the garlic cloves and you got the ground up pepper and the paprika and the bay leaves. And you got everything you need because once this comes out of the oven, you're gonna feed that community that you've been building. And is it gonna nourish their soul or is it gonna be bitter to their belly? One shot. 100,000 songs a day. You kidding me? One shot, that's like a sperm. It's 100,000 a day, buddy. You know the odds that all of us beat to get here? We're still fighting them every day when we drop music. That's the crazy part. Amen. We're all fighting for this for the, we're all fighting for that bar. You know what I mean? To me, music is a kid, bro. You know, people tell me, I got a song. You know, man, I'm gonna drop it on the third. Where's the cover? I ain't got no cover yet. So I don't know, are you pregnant? Where's the sonogram? I wanna see the baby. You're just telling me you pregnant. Nah, I don't believe all that, bro. Let me see the baby. Let me see what it look like. Okay, it's a boy. Cool, win the baby shower. When you go see the specialist. You know who the specialists are? The producer, the mixing mastering engineer, your lawyer, photographer. That's the doctor, Lamar's class, the specialist, the nutritionist. Then you have a baby shower. That's your listening party, huh? You see what I'm saying to you, bro? And then guess what happens when your kids are born? You got more, anybody here have more than one kid? You got kids, no, no? Two kids, okay. Got five kids. Two kids. Listen, does any one kid get more than the other? They both need food, shelter, love, and attention. But one of your two kids may be more athletic than the other one. So that one's gotta go to the park. The other one may be more computer or technologically savvy. So they may need more tablets than the other one does. So if this child starts to excel, you're not gonna feed this child no more? You go in the room, I forgot about you. You don't make no noise, you don't talk, you're not throwing the football far enough. This child over here, excelling. A-rolls, you get food, you get nothing. Every time you drop a record, it has a birth date. It says so at the bottom of your song. Don't take my word for it, go to Google right now. Go to Amazon right now, go to YouTube, go to Apple Music, go to Spotify. Look at the bottom of your page. It has the month, day, and year your song was born. You're gonna have a hard time convincing me eight months later that you got a hot record. And all you got is 64 streams in Australia. You're in the wrong country, mate. You need to take it down under. Cause you ain't got no reason to be walking around Atlanta passing out a CD, passing out a thumb drive, passing out a flyer. Your fan base is in New Zealand. Do you know what language they speak in Italy? Italian. That's why your music does you real good as the top 25 in Italy. Really, really good. Maybe Google the percentage of the demographic of Italian population that speaks English. And you'll be disgusted to learn that it's maybe 20, 30% of 50 year olds. How many 50 year old Italian men or women do you envision walking around listening to some of the music that is number one in Italy according to some of these kids' collective efforts? I'm glad you brought it up because I feel like when artists think about the international marketing or campaigns, they just think about the numbers right. Not them as actual people. And like you said, like, where's the cultural things that's kind of going on there and how does it play into what you're doing? Do you make sense for these 50 years? Most of these artists don't even have their global collections set up. You'd think that if you're impacting Italian Italy that you'd want your bio in Italian, you'd want to make some post in Italian from your social media platform. If your Apple artist says you just got 50 plays in Italy. Ciao, amigo! Hey, boy! Baby, I don't care if I gotta make a video sounding like Luigi, huh? I need to know. Do I need to get a passport ready? There's an American military base. There are soldiers there. There are people who speak English. I'm not telling you that you're not gonna reach those people. I'm telling you, what good does it do when you bring your analytics to a platform, to a program director in Atlanta? And he looks at it and says, New Zealand, Green Bay, Australia, Russia. What does it do for the program director in Atlanta? What does it do for the program director in St. Louis, in Richmond, Virginia, in Detroit, Michigan, in Flint, Michigan? What does it do for the guy in Little Rock, Arkansas, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Rocky Point, North Carolina? What does it do for those guys? That you have streams in Australia where they should take a gamble on you? Take a gamble on you. Are you kidding me? Beyonce got the concert. The tickets, the people are calling in. I don't wanna listen to you. People are calling in right now. People have things to do. I don't have to worry about you. And that's what these artists, and they need to figure that out. You make people worry about you, because nobody cares. A lot of what you're saying, man, about artists is needing to figure it out, find yourself, can't rely on anyone else, and building yourself up, right? And obviously what you wanna represent. What was that for you? Because you even talked about earlier on, you alluded to finding yourself. You had to find yourself. How did you become the confident, clear on what your path is? I need to wake up and do person that you are today. I've always never really cared what anybody thought about me, per se. So I've always been cool with beating, moving to the beat of my own drum. I've just always been mindful of having a very boisterous voice, and I'm a bigger guy. So I know I come into some situations and it's intimidating, you know what I mean? Bigger guys sound loud, aggressive, talking to people looking into their face. So it had to come from, I knew all of that, and I still couldn't get people to cooperate. So then I had to learn how to talk to people. I had to learn how to speak with confidence. I had to learn how to tell people what it is that I needed from them, more so than what I wanted from them. And then I had to learn how to tell them why it would work so that they would be like, oh, okay, that's why I'm gonna do it. And I understood that whenever somebody talked to me in that manner, that got me to do it. I needed to do it for them. I just never learned that language. I never learned how to communicate effectively. And I started to talk to myself. Not in the, I'm crazy gonna answer it, but on some, like you need to get up and do this. And believe it or not, more often than not, I'm saying that to myself in the shower, in the morning time, like I pep talk myself all day. I get myself organized, even if it's mumbling it out a lot of guys, what are we gonna do? I'm gonna go downstairs, I'm gonna get my coffee going. I'm gonna get myself a game plan in my head that I'm gonna try to execute. And throughout my day, if anything happens or anything pops up, I'm managing the exception. It's only because I have that schedule in my mind, or I have the, I can show you guys my calendar schedule. My calendar schedule is set to 2025. I know where I'm gonna be at the next, I'm gonna know where I'm gonna be at in March of next year, today. So we just add to the calendar dates and we add to some of those things. So, you know, I guess the biggest turning point would have been just waking up and understanding that nobody was gonna come save me. No matter how many celebrity friends I had, no matter how many successful people I knew, no matter how many artists we got to the promised land, nobody stood in front of a microphone and said, man, thank Kingpin, brother, for doing all the hard work. I never got a phone call when we dropped mixed tapes that went trending worldwide. Nobody called me, nobody texted me and thanked me. So I learned not to need that to feel validated. I look at my kids and my kids need to eat. And when my kids look at me and they see me working on the computer, they see me out in the street, or they see me on the cheat code, or they see me doing something, they see me doing something positive, setting an example for them. They see me working towards them and I'm always, I never shy away from telling them what it is that I'm doing or what it is I'm trying to accomplish, because that would be to defeat and to cheat them. So, I don't know, man, there's no timetable that I could say when the switch happened, but, you know, three hours after my daughter was born, my oldest daughter was born, I was on my way to Jacksonville to go to work, at the Diamond Awards, for bigger. I wouldn't have gone, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off. And, you know, I regret missing a lot of moments and that's why I tell you, I sacrificed everything I loved and had behind this business and I still sacrifice every day. And if it wouldn't be for my wife and if it wouldn't be for my kids and if it wouldn't be for my core, my core system, the people that hold me up, I wouldn't be able to bear the burden of what's expected, of what's demanded of me. Every day. By my clients, by my team, by my family, and more importantly, by myself. So, I take that pressure and instead of using it to remind me of how unbearable it is, I use it to remind me that it takes pressure to make a diamond. In order for a diamond to come out, it has to go through extreme pressure and it has to go through extreme fire and then it has to be cut. And then it becomes one of the most priceless things in the world. And, you know, maybe I'm a fool. Maybe that's what I've used to convince myself to keep doing this. And sometimes I debate with myself like, man, are you really like, but you know, I'm cool. I'm cool, beautiful. I love being the fool that I am. That there is a way for us to change the world. There's a way for us to make money. There's a way for us to empower each other. And there's a way for us to do what it is that we love doing every single day, whatever that may be. Making music, working at the kids' hospital, landscaper, golfer, cartoonist, novelist, journalist, dentist, orthodontist, paralegal, lawyer, judge. There's enough want for everybody in the world. And if we start by impacting our immediate circle, then the ripple will move outward. And we may not be able to change the world, but we could change our own immediate world. And that's what I want right now, more than anything. Have you ever managed an artist? Yeah. I mean, you know, for lack of a better term, it's what we do now. You know, until you have something going on where somebody has to make phone calls for you, you don't need to manage it, bro. You need assistance, you need a team, you need a coach. You know, this is the coach's job to take you to the gym, bro. The coach is already at the gym when you get there. The coach don't buy you clothes. Your mom and daddy do that before you come to the gym. The coach don't feed you. You're supposed to come to the gym already full of energy, you fed. I'm your coach. I don't want to be your buddy. I want to be a champion. And if me not being a champion requires me being your buddy, then go buddy somewhere else. I want to buddy with winners. I don't want to buddy with losers. Go buddy with somebody else, man. You go over there, go, go, go, go, go. That's why Jim is working. You know what I mean? We stay here, we work, we put it in, and if it doesn't work, then cool. We keep working. And we don't cry when things don't happen. We overcome, we adapt and we overcome. And that's got to be the mentality with everything that we do. Enough of the excuses, enough of the whining. Some of us need more prayer. Some of us need to pray more and vent less because we need more strength than we do sympathy. That's a way better delivery of my brash way of saying that. I'm gonna borrow that because people don't respond well to what I said. Good, absolutely. Please, by all means, man. Listen, these gems are meant for us to leave a field of gems for the ones that wanted to pick up and succeed. Yeah, man. What is your personal goal at this point in your career? I want to be the prescription. I want to be who you have to come see. And everything in this music business. If you want to get it done right, you got to come see me. That's my goal. That's what I'm after. I want to live forever. Man, listen, no label necessary. What an amazing experience, man. Talking with you guys was so refreshing. I was able to do it and we're in like, can I tell them where we are? Church, this thing is phenomenal, bro. So you know what? I didn't cuss one time, you'd be proud of me. And YouTubers, you guys would be very proud of me. Cheekoters, you guys know I have a filthy mouth. And I was able to contain myself and still convey that passion. So it was the godly feeling, man. It was the surroundings, it was the environment, it was the energy. Thank you guys for the amazing hospitality, man, for the opportunity to sit on the love seat. I don't know if this is the love seat or if this is the Ottoman or something, to sit on the couch with you guys, man. And chop it up a little bit about entrepreneurship and about what it is that I do. And anytime that I can get somebody interested to hear about the nerd stuff in the music business, I get excited, man, because there's a potential that somebody that's gonna listen to this podcast will grab one of the gems that we put down and we'll put it in their crown and we'll start to build their village, man. And that's the most rewarding thing about this is that we get to pay it forward. So every time somebody listens to this podcast, we're gonna be able to do that, pay it forward, man. So thank you guys for the awesome opportunity and for allowing me and my business partners, the platform to get out here and talk to you guys. And hopefully you guys will see you guys July 8th at the cheat code live. We're gonna do the cheat code lives on a Rome Lennox. So hopefully you guys can come down if anybody listening. If you missed it, don't worry about it. Now you know and no one's half the battle, brother. So July 8th, Rome Lennox, 12 o'clock, we're doing a cheat code live followed by a live Q&A. So we're gonna do our 20 minute episode and then whatever's left at the time we're in the building, we're opening it up to the people because we want people to come in and we want them to get the answers. And it's at a nice spot in Buckhead. It's really exclusive and stuff. So we're not gonna be able to do all the kick in the bobo and the smoking and doing all the hooting and carrying on that I wanna do. I was very disappointed in that. Like I gotta smoke and stuff like that, right? I'm chief, but anyways. So I'm gonna have to contain myself for a couple hours and so I'm gonna take it out on the work. Money makes it happen, but anger gets it done. And that day I'm showing up ready to get it done because I know that there's people that are gonna use their money to get there. And it's because they were tired of being lied to that's gonna drive them to get there. And we wanna give them the truth. So July 8th, 12, 30 noon, Rome Lennox. We're cranking up 12 o'clock noon. I'm sorry, 12 o'clock noon, we're cranking up. And if not, you know the cheat code premieres every Wednesday at 3.30. We're gonna start doing some different things. We got the remixer brand getting ready to come to Atlanta in a couple months. I'm gonna fill you guys in on that because that's gonna be something that I know you guys wanna be a part of. If not, I definitely want you guys to be a part of. So hopefully we can talk about that. We got the Core DJ's retreat in Miami rolling line weekend June 21st through the 24th. So man, there are just so many things on the table. So many things we're involved in which is it beats the alternative. So I'm blessed. And today was just another one of those monumental stops along my journey to where I'm ultimately trying to go. And I wanna thank you guys for providing me this awesome opportunity, man. Thank y'all so very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, man. As he said, man, he got that calendar planned out. We got to, man. Listen, prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance. And that's perfect way to end it. This is yet another episode of No Labels Necessary podcast. I'm Brandon Shawn. I'm Cory. I'm Rap Juggernaut. And we out. Peace.