 if you want to make art and just throw it out there and just pray to God it it goes somewhere well then good luck and that to me that's that's mediocrity like I refuse to let other people who bleed like me decide where my stuff goes. What's up what's up what's up what's up I'm Brandon Shawn and I'm Corey and we are back with another episode of No Labels Necessary podcast you can catch us everywhere you stream your podcast here at the intersection of creativity and currency and y'all know when we do this intro we got a very special guest man successful rapper poet all around entertainer on social media I consider Dax a straight up just winner at this point man because you broke some barriers man I gotta do my little intro man I always say like this man it's your boy Dax and we back at it like a bad habit if you want something in this life you better go grab it today baby we finna make a big play hey that's the affirmation right there I love that man I love that man hey I think the first thing I want to start off with and I love that energy because really you're an artist that's done things that aren't covered enough in my opinion and you're an inspiration or should be more of an inspiration to a lot of artists but being successful independently my question to you is are you happy and let me give you a little context of why I'm asking this a lot of artists right we're not deep deep deep in this indie era that we're in so most people still grew up with the vision of something that looked quite different when it became to living as an artist you know the labels that traditional route so it's hard to accept there might be other ways and it might still not look exactly like you thought it would and for as somebody who's successful um but not in the more traditional version of what it might have looked like back in 2005 or something are you happy yeah I would generally say I'm a pretty happy person for me I guess the definition of happiness I've always um subscribed to is having something to look forward to and I can definitely say I always have something to look forward to but I also usually have things to look forward to because just like right here I write down my goals every day so I'm always in a car with a destination to go to and sometimes I feel like people who are generally unhappy from what I've seen is they don't really have like a destination since life is a car you know we never get in the car without knowing where we're going so you know writing goals is really giving me that happiness um I'd say you know since it's different than conventional like you said artistry like the label and everything I I enjoy I've always enjoyed having like I like to control my destiny obviously there's God but you know God granted us free will you know so God helps those who help themselves so I always like to have things that I can control and you know I've always felt when you build it a certain way no one else can break it so I'm happy in terms of that you know I don't got to worry about how much gas costs and I can go buy whatever cereal I want at the grocery store so yeah I would say I'm generally happy was there a moment in time where you feel like you had to accept that your path is just different um yeah I mean I think I had to from the jump like I never wanted to make music like this wasn't my golden life I was playing basketball the whole time um found the law of attraction I was 11 and committed to basketball and I tried to mimic the whole Kobe Bryant work ethic so that was a 10 year uh just you know 5 a.m. my high school my practice older person's practice waits down because every just all of that for 10 years went to three different colleges in four years division one basketball was trying to go pro and then I just randomly stumbled onto poetry my junior year of college after d1 didn't work out so I was like this wasn't really the plan but poetry and words came so easy that um I was just like I think this is what God has planned for me so I just it just like it wasn't my goal you know so yeah I forgot the original question actually what was the question you're talking when I asked about accepting yeah so I've completely accepted I think like the way I do things maybe might not be normal you know I think when I was when I was trying to when I started writing poetry I didn't even want to make music I was just like okay well I want to be the Drake and spoken word poetry because my life and the way I grew up didn't really resonate with what I was seeing in mainstream hip-hop you know I didn't I came from Canada you know to say the least um so I was like I don't think there's really a space for me in this hip-hop thing from what I was seeing because I didn't I didn't watch music growing up I was just like there was a background music to basketball when I was working out so then when I finally figured out how to merge like my poetry spoken word motivational speaking into actual music I was okay I think there I can't accept this because I can do it the way I want to without compromising my morals and beliefs and stuff that's dope man because you you've definitely kept a consistent path where like you haven't tried to put on any type of image it feels like right without knowing you you definitely didn't try to put on an image that was conventional or feel like you were trying to fit in and like I knew you first as a poet like I did like I was familiar with like the poet guy that's how I kind of thought of you not even like in a bad way but it's just like there there's not a lot of people today that are like have viral poetry you get I'm saying so I was just like oh man this dude's like actually blowing up in that realm I think there's one other guy I can't remember his name at the moment that was probably like in the first half of last decade that was um had some decent viral poetry stuff but um print c a maybe yes print c a yeah print c a and and then I remember you um like Tori lanes had this whole like he was battling people and then you got on it and in my opinion like you were crazy I'll say that to say the least right and then it got interesting around around that time I remember there was like some uh like Tori had come up to you or whatever but like I only mentioned that because I thought that was like your first like real moment into things like I knew your poetry and then like from rap that felt for me and what I experienced you as was like oh snap like this dude was really in he can rap for real and then I didn't I found out that you had the um the then what's the uh the remix catch me outside I was like wait Dax that was that I had no idea obviously I'm praying for him you know I that's an unfortunate situation um but yeah before that I had a couple viral moments I think that was just a moment in time where I guess a lot of you know maybe mainstream um hip-hop um uh what do you call them media probably covered and said my name but before then I had a you know a bunch of different viral moments whether it was for like poetry hip-hop uh just just like in my realm of stuff you know I mean it's never really been my goal to step into like the mainstream side of it like that so I understand what you're saying though yeah so what did it did you feel like you had to completely rebrand when you did figure out the rap stuff or was it just something that happened organically since it was still just words um no not necessarily I think I've always just sort of been like okay well what what is it what it is what what do I do you know I'm good with words I'm a motivational speaker which I did that as well I do poetry so that's why a lot of my initial songs that went really big were just you know rapping from beginning to end you know like my first song she cheated again there's no hook the then even the Daniel Bergogli there was no hook um dear god there was no hook there was a bunch of my songs had no hooks it was just me rapping from start to finish and then the content of the song was basically just went was what in line with you know I had experienced through my whole life you know like the she cheated again song that blew up that was an actual you know thing I went through you know so I wouldn't necessarily say I had to rebrand I would say maybe a better word is a refocus but I wouldn't say I've ever stepped I like the rapping stuff was really just a sharpening of skill like when I was like rapping on two pock beats and you know Eminem beats and doing all those remixes I just told myself okay well how did I get better at basketball I needed to do progressive overload or when I'm lifting weights you know what I mean it's okay well this is easy how can I make and practice this skill harder so I just figured okay well if I'm gonna rap who are the greatest rappers of all time what are their beats let me do it publicly because failing publicly makes you have to improve faster so I was trying to rap on some of the greatest beats by some of the greatest artists to where my pen had to just like get better you know so like I was rapping on the two pock beats I don't even rap in for like six months so I was just like doing these like to me there was I was doing drills you know what I mean so yeah but I wouldn't that not a not a rebrand was it was just a refocus tapping into God's plan for me that's really interesting because like today there's a lot of complaint that labels don't develop their artist enough right but when you one have less responsibility from a label size harder for you to take that on and but that puts more responsibility on the artists to develop themselves and you know there's less of a blueprint out there for that but it sounds like you just took the idea of self-improvement that you learned through sports and of course following somebody like Colby and was able to just translate that into your own self-development bootcamp right that's that's exactly what I tell people sometimes people like oh man how do you like you know because I do like all my social media stuff and stuff like that and just the whole thought process like I call it like going door to door like when I first started I was like okay well I have a service I'm providing motivation and hope to people hope is like the greatest gift you can give so if I'm doing something that's positive how can I get it to the people you know when I played basketball I'm I made the provincial team we won a national championship it was crazy um but I needed money to go to practice in Toronto and my mom didn't drive long distances or like to drive on the highway so I had to take a gray hound so okay well how am I gonna make this money so I would literally go door to door and I would just ask people for one dollar you know and I made a shit ton of money because everyone I figured everyone has one dollar we can't know we have loonies and tunies but most people reached into their pocket they got more than one dollar so they end up when you're asking for one dollar like oh that's nothing let me get this little kid dollars and they end up giving me two three four so I do that the whole summer I'm starting to make like thousands so I had to stop because I felt bad I'm like I'm making like this I just need my ticket for gray hound and I'm good you know so when I made my music I'm like okay well I'm providing a service that's positive that's not leading people to the depths of hell so how can I spread this okay door to door so you know I put a number on my wall I said if I individually talk to a million people by myself and tell them about this service that is providing them like it's providing them a service and doing something positive there's no way I can fail so that was just the mentality of like basketball as well you know rep after rep shot after shot a thousand shots a day you know just that mentality so I always tell people like this is so much easier than basketball because it's not physically taxing you know it's just tedious you know hours of back in the day sending emails and DMing hundreds and thousands of people and you know so yeah what drove you to go do it or door though like I know that you wanted to play basketball but yeah that's a different thinking I've just had this burning desire at me since I was just like a a kid and one of my biggest fuels usually is like anger you know I that's why I love disrespect I love when people disrespect me you know like I love that shit it just like it's just a fuel to just like oh you know and the thing about basketball is like when you play sports it's it's like you understand hierarchy you know you understand that okay I'm not I mean I wasn't the best player on every team I played on you know sometimes I was when I was younger on the when I was playing up I was the worst player on the team you know there's been my high school I was the best player so you understand there's different skills and okay I'm only six two I'm not six six I don't have a 40 inch vertical these different things so there's only like a certain there's a ceiling and I could just be the best I can be but with me with music I feel like what I'm capable of in my brain I feel like I feel like I was I feel like I'm a LeBron in terms like what I was gifted with naturally in terms like brain and writing and stuff like that so you know it's just it's fun it's just all I have to do is figure out ways to get it to the people and you know generally you make stuff that's relatable people are going to share it you know and then you just scale it you know what's crazy is that when you talked about going door to door asking for money and then people give you know ask for a dollar and people give you more you know I think back and you know times with somebody that's homeless walks up to me in the car they'll ask for a dollar sometimes I might give them 20 give them five whatever and that directly translate into this pay what you owe or what's the what's the name you call a cult pay what you pay what you want pay what you want or whatever or proud to pay style of um you know music sales music sales that people are doing today I guess you know it's an element that's always always been there right you you ask for something specific but if people support you there's like a rule it's like it's like a thing in life I remember I was told it was like if you're willing to ask I forget what the number was if you're willing to ask a thousand people any you can get anything you want in the world but most people stop after three strikes they get told no three times and they're done you know but if you're willing to ask any question I'm talking some sick-minded shit you know you ask you are you willing to ask a thousand people you're gonna get a yes eventually yeah you know so that's just always been my mentality man sometimes like back in those days I remember when I first started you know it's a little bit nerve-wracking like go door to door social media wise or message everyone new growing up to share this or share that so I'd be sitting in my dorm room with like a bottle of tequila or I mean vodka back then just like sipping it periodically while I'm just messaging everybody ain't could you share this poem I'm making poems about love and shit you know what I mean I'm like hey could you share this and just going through all the list every single time every single poem and then it paid off but you know I see why a lot of people don't want to do it and why the label system seems the way because you you know you have this machine that's doing all these things for you but I want to drop a quick note for anybody who has a fan problem and not just any old fan problem but the type of fan problem that we encountered after helping a lot of artists go viral have a lot of success get a lot of streams but still not being able to know who exactly are my fans how do I reach them how do I actually leverage that to excel merch go to a show because that's where Spotify leaves us without knowing who our real people are same for social media if you've had this problem I'll tell you how we've been solving it and our agency for a while now in the pro version is just now being released to be accessible to any artist or manager out there I'm talking about forever fan a lot of the campaigns and successes that y'all have heard us talk about on this channel have been powered by that software that's made finding and understanding your true fans simple so they support you with their pockets because we all need a little money in this music thing and now they're making it available to our audience for only one dollar at foreverfanmusic.com slash no labels no labels with an s at the end and you got to put in the code no labels zero two all right now look the DSPs the social media platforms I think they've shown us how much they care about artists for a while now so at this point we can all play naive or actually do something about it bet on yourself at foreverfanmusic.com slash no labels and again put in the code no labels zero two to get initial access for only one dollar let's get back to this episode you don't want to handle your own rejection up front it's better if it comes through somebody else who manages most of the rejection right right do you have any mental tricks other than vodka for that um i mean so yeah i mean sometimes it's just like you just sometimes i just gotta slap i slap myself and just be like man i you know what i say a hundred times a day fuck it fuck it yeah relax or i'll say man i hate like i hate cussing a lot now but i'll like i'll think of something and oftentimes what deters a lot of us is like the thought of what other people are gonna think you know so my phrase fuck that motherfucker send you know just like fuck that motherfucker post like just i'm saying my little my first poem was literally about um about not letting people who do nothing for me take everything from me i said i was on break as a janitor and i was about to you know i'd been i played basketball my whole life and all of a sudden i'm writing poetry and i'm like man this is for shit for sissy you know i'm a writing poetry for it and i'm like man fuck it why do i care what these people think what do they do for me absolutely nothing so that was like i had to keep tricking myself out of you know judgment of other people still do it to this day man i resonate with that so much i had to tell myself the same thing a few days ago quite a few times in that same day that's i use that strategy as well as somebody who developed yourself as an artist right developed yourself as a basketball player um that's not a that type of ambition and method doesn't leave a person you usually don't do that just once once you unlock that key to life that you can do that so what are you focused on developing now when it comes to yourself uh like music wise we're like as a man let's go with as a man um as a man is i think i think saying saying no saying no is a skill you know like trying not to you know run myself thin um also have discernment with that you know it's crazy i think like the the everything is so easy in life except for like choosing a partner you know i think it's like really having discernment with women not uh you know i literally have this song eventually that's going to come out it's called Jezebel and one of the lines is like um everything that glitters ain't gold everything pretty ain't meant to be touched you know so it's practicing discernment man you know turning off the god dang uh you know that that sexual switch you know what i mean just because that thing shakes doesn't mean you got it you know what i mean essentially so that um uh being a man of my word just making sure it's like not necessarily following through with what i say but not saying things that i'm not going to do so not like it's like you know so it's like only say things that i'm gonna complete on all aspects um there's that um being present and trying to get better at that and conversations uh what else uh trying to get better at um praying i don't pray enough started going to church more yeah it's that and then you know it's crazy too as well one thing i'm really focusing on is only speaking on things i know i'm pretty i'm pretty good at that but just like making sure it's like okay if i don't if i don't know don't don't say anything you feel a pressure to speak on stuff because of your platform no it's crazy i don't even speak on stuff with my platform just talking about like a real like real life like with people who are who i know and people who i take care of and stuff like that you know it's like if i don't know find the answer and if i don't have the answer don't answer it just say i don't know i feel it i feel it because a lot of people expect me to have answers and i'm just like i don't fucking know like i'll find out but we can figure it out together i got you well let's talk about moving into country right okay there's a lot that comes with that right right now we literally have this conversation of Beyonce doing the country music and you know the conversation gets becomes racial very quickly right you found a way into country and it hasn't even really been covered right what you were doing right that kind it kind of goes like you just slip below you know the door over and over they're always going to do me how did was that like an intentional i'm going to get into country or did you just get moved and you felt a song and you're like this is kind of a country type song so i guess i just got to put it out like what was the thought process there uh shit you know it's crazy it's really just it's it's a it's a it's a way of life it's the life i've lived a lot of people don't know i've lived in montana i've lived in miami and i've lived in kansas my dad when i was growing up he worked in mississippi so i was in mississippi um i was born in st john's newfoundland which is like a rock so i'm used to like small town places um my first artist name was actually almost cowboy growing up whenever i would like like mess around with my friends i'd always sing in that tone of voice with my model tone voice singing is like that you know so it's like people see oh he dropped a country song where in my mind it's okay that was just like what i that's some of parts i've lived in my life i've lived in all these different places and then not only that it's like i think the reason it sort of happens smoothly is because like my music primarily focuses on the words so it's like regardless of it's like no one cares who sings to be a man it's the message that people care about you could i could take a dude off the street who has a decent voice and give him that and he could read it as a poem and it's still going to go viral yeah because it's talking it encapsulates manhood so my goal when i'm writing songs i feel like the best songs like dear alcohol it's like no one cares who sings that no one cares who sings dear god anybody could i could give that those words to anybody so it's what's being said so i think country has been accepting of what i'm doing so far because the message is bigger than me like to be a man is a song it's it's bigger than me it's not even about me it's like oh this is about the like i'm just i'm just a lucky person who got the words and the vessel to say it i see what you're saying so i think that's why they've been accepting because then country music is about words you know songwriting so you know that obviously you know there's there's certain things where like you know there's remind you you know like i had the number one selling single in canada last year with dear alcohol you know but it's not on the radio so there's other things where i still haven't broken the barrier in but in terms of like you know the operas and all these things like that i think it's been a good progression but um it wasn't planned it was just like i was at that time i was sort of struggling with drinking i didn't know the last time i drank two days in a row not not two days in a row and um i already had a poem called dear alcohol that was like seven paragraphs long that i wrote six years ago and then after that time i woke up after asking myself when was the last time i didn't drink for two days in a row and lex played that beat and boom that came out and so right so then i like me dropping the song was me telling myself okay i'm gonna go sober which i did for six months when i dropped it so it was like it's just like it's it there's no plans like it's the life i'm living at the time it's so interesting man because i think sometimes from the fan perspective right they may see it as hey this this artist is trying to to cap on the trend right or maybe maybe get ahead of some type of curve they see coming and i do think that pretty much what you said is accurate right sometimes it's not the artist trying to capitalize on anything is hey here's an element of my life that i haven't yet shared with you in the timing of when i choose to share it with you just so happens to line up with this moment that's going on is that something that you ever worry about taking away from the the message of some of your music i do you ever worry about the timing of some of these things and even though like you know like shun asked like it wasn't your intention necessarily try to crack into country as this as this building into this new trend but it hit at the same time my stuff the dear alcohol was sort of a little bit before that that was almost i feel like it was almost like three years ago now almost i think i was sort of like i said no one really speaks about what dax does on that side of music even you know even so it's like i think it was a little bit before but i necessarily i've always told my stuff that like like if i go back to how like you know like the basketball i wasn't six four with a 40 inch vertical you know but i think music writing wise and what i can do musically i am that six eight 40 inch vertical person who can write something really good that's bigger than me so i think i i try not to even worry about that type of stuff i think once people hear this song and hear what i'm saying you know they're okay with it regardless of what time it dropped or obviously no there's there's exceptions like you know if you i don't want to give an example that's controversial but if something crazy happens all of a sudden you know what i mean there's exceptions for that but for the most part like when you know i'm just writing songs about life so and they're not like you know i'm not dissing anybody or doing anything like that so it's like what can you really be mad at it sounds like like that's a big key to why you're able to be so multi genre multi style in your music because that's something that so many people ask us about right so so many artists say yo should i just do one drama or or can i do all the genres and then a lot of the common answer ends up being well if you could blow up within one drama or use this it's easier and then spread your you know your wings a little bit now that you have more of an audience if you have the talent to right because a lot of people think i can create great music in a lot of different genres but a lot of people necessarily have the talent to but what would you say like what one do you think that is the key for you just to songwriting while you're able to create in such a vast amount of types of music or is it something else yeah i think it's that's the song right no someone like you know when i when i grew up like i was i was an average music listener you know i didn't know anything i just listened to what was on the radio so as someone i didn't know some people didn't write their songs i didn't know you know as someone just grew up listening to me so i like now i'm like you know i write i don't even i wouldn't even let a motherfucker breathe on my shit so it's like i think the power is in the in the in the in the people who write the songs the songwriters are so important you know as someone who writes all my own songs it's like well i don't care what your voice is you have nothing to sing you know so i think when you're focused on the songwriting and the words um the world is yours the oyster is yours you know i whether i'm singing it or i give it to someone else to sing you know you're making money either way and you're making impact either way so i think for me it's just words words like words shape our reality what we say in our brain every day that manifests into our actual life we read words we hear words people speak everything is just like language whether it's sign language or actual words that i'm out there that we're reading so it's like word shape everything so when your focus is primarily the words everything else is just a plus not to mention you throw in you know what you can do with people's voices nowadays and studios and stuff like that i mean you know like so you have multiple genres but you also just have so many talents in general in terms of like the way your videos are shot and everything like are you like full-on director you would say or do you just find really good talent you know video people to collaborate with um i've directed some of my videos i used to direct more a lot of them in the beginning were just one takes because i i just didn't have money to pay for four videos so i literally used to tell my guy you know to show up and literally just press record you don't even have to edit just i'm gonna do a one take and just send it to me um now a lot of the times i've been working with the same people since the beginning his name's logan mice it's my guy it's legend um so he directs a lot of the videos i'll sometimes have like an initial idea like for depression i was like oh man i'm sort of thinking like you know true man true man show theme and then he'll just like put that all together in his world he's like a master of his shit you know stuff that i can't see so sometimes i'll have like a general idea of what i'm thinking then he'll just look it up i think yeah just you know working with consistently working with the same people you just learn each other um and you grow together and you know it's it's also that healthy competition you know i'm i remember when when uh logan first came out uh sorry when i i think i was when i graduated and i saw like he had he had moved because we started working in kansas and you know i sort of see like people he's working with so it's like oh you want to go harder go harder go harder so you can continue to up your videos and get to the point you know what i mean so it's like that also like that sports good competition so i work with a guy named logan mice asir as well they own this company called juny v and then like every now and then i'll work with other people i've also worked with a guy called damien sand of all done a bunch of amazing videos with him same way give him maybe a general of what i'm thinking and you'll create it into a masterpiece and then a couple videos with this girl named eden who has a masterful mind as well um so yeah really just try to find other people who are masters on that side you know but not only just masters people who are like willing to work hard and grow and improve the same way i am right so i feel like i've just been lucky enough to run into people and then i'm like a you know go to the wheels fall off type guys so it's like i think when oftentimes like i've always been an energy giver so once people get around me they feel that like i'm just like going so they're gonna start to go harder and now i'm starting to go harder because then so you know what i mean and all of a sudden you got you know i'm a pro at this and they're a pro at that and then we just all just continues to get better like if you look at the videos between me and logan from the beginning till now they're just getting better you know yeah man you have such a variety of content from a standpoint of like low quality and high quality and a lot of people kind of have reservations about one or the other right like maybe i don't have the money to do high quality but especially i have a big brand and i don't want to do this low quality or i want to feel more artistic do you did you did you ever have to face any of that or are you just like i'm just going to put out whatever and post as much as i can and keep moving um i guess what i whatever i was seeing at the time was high quality to me you know it was just like i didn't know you know i didn't know like you know i didn't know videos could be this bad expensive or you could do this or now the set could be 50 people on set and do like i didn't know that back then i just like okay i'm doing a one take it's i'm in the desert or i'm like on the road and we're just like me and you filming i like the way it looks on camera but now is i'm like learning more i'm gonna go wow okay so this is what they do in actual movies okay jeez okay wow damn it's a lot of money okay all right so i'm going broke this year you know like so yeah i think just it just whatever i was doing at the time i thought it was the best and then i learned okay oh there's more okay okay well let's do that too okay there's more oh oh okay okay okay oh and now it's like you get to this point where like all i'm not there yet but i'm trying to get there to film it like that but you know much the money thing really sounds like that's like that's an important it's an important like lesson and just executing and then not taking in too much information because if you have too much information sometimes you will allow yourself to be paralyzed by that gap but if you don't know there's a gap and you're just you know taking it in and executing yeah you're just going of course and you approve over time because you're never going to be you're not going to be the same person you know a year from now that you are today anyway so you might as well like document who you currently are you know what i mean and i guess that's what social media is good for because you sort of have that you know documentation ago this is how it used to be i remember for a long time i didn't want to delete i didn't delete but i like you know archive posts on instagram like now i do it sometimes i'm dropping a new song but i always felt like that instagram they could scroll to the bottom and see how it started which is pretty cool um and it's just i just like the idea of failing publicly i think that's important you know some people will try to like they never want to fail in public you know when you fail in public you improve twice as fast you know so just showing people that process showing people that yeah i am you know contacting people trying to spread it trying to share you know so they see that process so they resonate with you more you know man it seems like you are everything out here is just like driven to become better like in one way or another it comes back to like this this thirst to improve what is that i think just like to make an impact you know it's like i think um i've always tell people i don't i don't i don't i don't i just i guess for like people i say well what's your goal in music now what's your goal and i'm like i just i guess to unpack more people but at this point i'm just like just give me what i worked for give me what i deserve you know like that's like i guess one of my main goals i think that's a great just like staple as a man just like you know i feel like just you just you just want what you worked for that's what i want so what did you work for what do you deserve what do i deserve is a tough word i know what i work for i feel like for example like just let's say one example i could say like you know in canada you have the number one selling single in canada you know what i mean dear alcohol all right well then put it on the radio you know like to me that's that's what i that's what the song deserves you know it's saving people's lives dear alcohol people are going sober stuff like that more people need to hear it so i think that's that's like what i'm i and there's a lot of people with the way i'm growing the way i've done my stuff is i think it's sort of turning you know heads in the way people view the industry because like i said i'm coming from an aspect of like i never wanted this wasn't my goal i didn't think i was going to be making music nor was an average music listener so i'm like okay well look at all this stuff oh okay it's okay i see what's going on here okay okay you know that you see what i'm sort of saying without saying it um so yeah it's just interesting it's interesting that makes a lot of sense is like just just a standard if when this happens usually that's the outcome then when i do it i expect the same or similar outcome right but it's how it's happening slowly which i'm cool with you know i don't know man it seems like you might need a little bit of that that little that little friction just to keep driving you man that's yeah to me i love that i love that type of shit man i love i love negativity in terms of like stuff to motivate me not like actual negativity negativity but just like you know negativity disrespect anger those types of things i think they're great for motivation you know yeah no i could definitely get see that especially from a sports background i mean that's that's just one of the main motivators man but i know exactly what you mean what about marketing man like to me i think you're a genius marketer from the outside but you know there's some people that might say no i'm not marketing at all i'm just you know doing things that happen to work because i'm so authentic i'm an artist and da da da you know like well how do you yeah motherfuckers who say that have a label pushing it for them we know what i mean like if i've always told people it's like if you if you want to make art and just throw it out there and just pray to god it it it goes somewhere well then good luck and that to me that's that's mediocrity like i refuse to let other people who bleed like me decide where my stuff goes like i'm going to do everything in my power because it's having a positive impact now if i was saying some i think there's a direct correlation i think subconsciously the human body knows whether or not you're doing something good for people or bad for people and it's almost hard to shout at the mountains share if it's some shit that's that you subconsciously not say verbally but subconsciously the fibers and the cells in your body know it's not good whereas like as someone like i always i tell people it's like people work as hard as they believe if you if you knew you had the cure for cancer like you were just like i i know i i have the cure for cancer and i know it heals people like you're going to the mountains and you're screaming the shit so it's like if i feel or based off of you know people who message me oh this has helped me this song blah blah blah blah like i feel it's my responsibility to do whatever i can spend 93 percent of my income making the visuals and try to market it in a way that it's going to get to the people you know whereas if i was just saying some bullshit i probably would be screaming you know marketing that the same way you know but it's like i think um yeah people just have to you know i think there's a big trend i see online as well like oh i didn't sign up to try to have to trick the algorithm you know well it's like well also this is the only age and time where you could actually put out music yourself so why are you like what are you complaining for you know back in the day it's like you you you would have never even had the chance yeah you know it's like i think the opportunity that you can wake up every single day and post something and it could go viral potentially and you can then create a living for yourself and help your family is crazy to me you know like and now you see instagram like trying to compete with tiktok so they've made the reels expandable too so shit's just going viral left and right you never know what it's going to be just pieces of content i'm like wow what a what a time to live in no man i agree i feel like that lack of context is probably why the entitlement perspective comes but it's like exactly what you said like this wasn't possible back then and when you had less responsibility you also had less benefit right you got less of the money that's the error you're complaining about you had this is what comes with being out the house right you living you live on your own now you know what i mean like well you got to pay your own bills and that's just a part of it so you know i i love that you said everything you said especially because i like out of college i live like i did a lot of startup work all right and i end up working with the sales company and so i got really deep into just sales for a period of time and one of the core things was the more you believe in the product all right the easier it is to sell but if you feel like you're lying like exactly what you said like that was one of the core things and i could feel that like like by myself right so like the company literally had to switch the product change things um at one point and then all of a sudden the company took off it's now like a billion dollar company etc so like it's real it's so real and then some people you know they're just amended and it could sell anything regardless of the belief definitely could sell you a bag of shit have you believed in it's gonna gonna you know whiten your teeth not real shit maybe that's why but that's that's true man i remember when i was in high school i um going to my 12th grade year i dropped out of all all science all math and i just took classes that i was just interested in because i knew i could pass like the act and sat to get into college for basketball so i just i dropped out of everything i didn't fuck with because i was like why the hell am i learning algebra at this point it's not it's not applicable in any type of way if anybody's want to go so i took like a marketing class i took a marketing class a business class and just all this stuff that i feel like i'm using now just like how you said like you like you know if you don't like if you don't have a product you don't believe in like you subconsciously your body won't even allow you to like promote it but if you if you have you have the cure for cancer you're shouting that shit out loud you know for everybody so i think sometimes like some i've been saying this this year as well we have to start asking different questions right so it's not why do you have to trick an algorithm why don't you have a product that makes you want to trick the algorithm great way you know like the question it's like why should why oh why didn't you fight hard enough to see your child this the other question is why did i have to fight to see my child like sometimes we're asking the wrong questions very true very true that it's so funny man how we uh like a line on some of this stuff because i i used to say this in a lot of videos on a youtube page early on um and it came from like people would ask me to consult them some things and i realized they came in unprepared and there was a lot of bad questions so i started to make a point to say the quality of the answers you receive are predicated on the quality of the questions you ask right and like that right there it's just like i like that it's everything that you said man you know what i mean because question asking is a lost art it's yeah it's hard and people think it is that's what scientists are even sometimes i remember even just like even in art like i had to learn that as well like even just like you know in arguments with a significant other like like the question i literally have done this sometimes like argument with a significant other it's like okay i'm just gonna go into this conversation and i'm just going to i'm not even gonna make statements let me just ask questions and that shit will go 10 times better just asking the right questions to it's like yeah that's a skill man asking questions saying no like a lot of different like skills that we don't think about that could really change your life i like that the quite the answer to your the answer to your the quality of the answer is based on predicated off the quality of the question yes sir yes sir what's the what's the skill you think is contributed to your success and music that you don't think most people would would see being something you need to develop or do um i love i love psychology um i like psychology a lot i think like so obviously you know you can't worry about okay you know there's it's two sides of the coin okay well i don't want other people's judgment of me to box me and make me scared to do things but then we also have to understand that we do live in a world where people's you know judgment people do judge my music and i either gonna come to the show or not so what people think does somewhat matter so trying to understand human psychology you know i think can help people in business like oftentimes it's like obviously i like my own songs but then once they're completely done i'll even think about things like okay well what pronouns am i using in this song do i want this to be an affirmation for the listener to where they're saying it and they're saying the eyes and the things so they can feel like it or do i want to put this in third person that where they might somewhat feel attached or my storytelling you know so i think like just little things like those um the psychology the way people think the way people receive things i thought about the psychology in the lot and a lot of my song to be a man obviously it just naturally came out of me but once it was done i have to step back and okay i said okay well a lot of the conversation between men and women is divisive right now you know a lot of it brings about negativity when you try to talk about the you know dichotomy between like just relationships and nuclear families okay well i know men are gonna fuck with the song because i'm saying facts but are women gonna like it and i said okay well how do you you know how do you genuinely you know get something across to women it's an emotional appeal you feel me so the song is like is an emotional appeal to women as well so they fuck with it so just thinking about the psychology and that you know uh so yeah i think psychology and uh what else what's another skill uh shit just thinking i guess being smart shit you know you gotta learn stuff to to talk about shit you know that's that's true so you know reading and consuming content that's has you consistently learning uh living life to where you have more things to talk about especially if you write all your own stuff um yeah prayer shit to be a man you know being such an emotional appeal being so like timely in terms of so much of the conversation that's going on today or even the lack thereof right of understanding that and needing the conversation like was that a song like i'm i'm sure that's one of those songs where people had to like hit you up or drop comments like yo man you changed my life but i i'm curious to hear the women right because you just spoke about women did you achieve that goal where you saw women say hey you just changed how i saw my husband or my relationships or the men in my life in general oh yeah there's been a there's been a lot of that um i honestly think that like you know obviously like i really i do truly believe that song is is a bridge to that conversation i mean i tell people all the time it's like okay well i was like really who you choose as a significant other is the most important decision in life like we're all only here because a man and a woman made a decision to have a baby or didn't make a decision that baby still came out so that is the most important thing because human we can only have this talk interview because someone had us as a baby so the relationship between a man and a woman is the most important thing on earth which is why it's the hardest decision we make as humans who we're going to spend our life with you know so i knew that just like creating that emotional appeal was what was needed just subconsciously and then just a lot of women have been commenting reaching out you know i see all the comments oh it's making me change the way i see my husband because the thing is that it's it's not even just about husband every single they either have sons or father or cousins or other men that may just not be a significant other so even if there is a little bit of negativity in the significant other relationship they still see it in other aspects like their son brothers and blah blah this blah blah that um so yeah a lot of a lot of support of the song has been women as well which has been good to uh which has been good to see this one of those things is very much so needed whenever there is any light on that conversation because we we speak so much about the emotions we're heavily educated on society on how women feel but because men aren't edgy we aren't trained to express i don't think most women realize they don't actually don't know how men feel this is exactly that's the 100 correct i think i've i've said before where it's like as a man we have to somewhat understand women to get one like that's just like we have to learn game we have to learn a little bit to get one whereas women don't need to understand men to get to get a man they could just stand there and we're gonna approach them you know but then i do say a woman only needs to understand a man when she gets the one she wants agree once you get the one you want you need to understand that motherfucker because if you don't it's not gonna work out yeah so i think the conversation gets divided because when we speak about it most women go like well like you know screw most men like but it's like it's not about all men it's about the one you actually when you actually find the one you like hmm you know so yeah i think i think the song is bringing about that understanding you know to us to us men too man it's needed a lot of dudes suffer and how do i know because i went through this shit you know like people be thinking like oh where did you i'm like because shit i was that's i was going through some shit you know what i mean where i like that's how i was able to write it you know what made you put 100 people on that song man shit i gotta put this up on my phone 100 people on the song yeah i don't know oh so i just like those open verse challenges when i have a song like that that i think is like you know timeless where you know people are gonna be able to relate to it now in 100 years 200 years from now i think it's cool for other people to share their stories so people can see every there's there's different men all different walks of life who have different stories but we can all come together and agree on this one topic you know such a simple way to see it's not even like oh i need to extend it with a remix to get more promo yeah that's the way i thought about it pretty much i like doing the open verse things i like i like i also like showing people that listen there's talented people all over the world don't think just because these are the people that the mainstream media is shoving in your face up there the cream of the crop i could go to istanbul and find a kid in a hut who's got a better voice than some people that you know you may see on tv every day that's a simple way to see it and i like it just because like you said they could just share their own perspectives but something like that also can only be truly done if you feel like there's substance right like to be shared because the song is or if like the the opposite not the opposite but a similar version is there's so much substance to this beat right i want to hear everybody on this beat you know like when we do remixes back in like a millie right everybody wanted freestyle to a millie it was just hitting in that way and you found the subject version of that and like it was real cool to see the but i didn't know if they were just all like homies or if there was like a marketing play into it or what brought it about but i just it was one of those things that of course it stuck out as an individual song but then additionally stuck out when you did the that the remixing that approach because it was like when is the last time i've seen something that had this many people and people are listening for the next story you want to even see what the next person says you know what i mean i got one coming for dear alcohol too actually i literally just filmed it this weekend 12 different people well like before we get out of here man one question chicory i know you wanted to answer this question but you haven't so i'm gonna ask it so you waste time remembering but it was the future push future uh proofing question yeah right yeah yeah so dex what did you and i chicory let me know if i'm asking it correctly but like how do you think about future proofing yourself so like you have longevity future proving myself so i have longevity i think it always goes back to the words i think it's like you know when i think of to be a man that song is going to be relevant for all of time because there's always you know new men born every day new people turning 18 and you know every man is a man and every woman knows a man so i think it's just in the words continuing to make songs that are going to be relatable that are always going to have you know i think i got a bunch of those the dear gods the dear alcohol so just that i think yeah words so you're playing to i like it the future proofing plan is to make sure that i talk about things and subjects that stick with people so they still want to talk about it and relate to it and luckily for me that's just what i do i can't even i can't even make nonsensical shit it doesn't even work if i even if i wanted to you know from the poetry to now things just always full circle and so yeah and then just obviously just you know staying disciplined um you know there's a lot of things that tempt you in the music industry or whatever that may be and just you know staying on the path i think we all have passed that god has us walking on and work we can just mess them up based off our decisions so you know like i said if that thing that thing's shake you know it's not always you know it's not always the time not yours to take discipline staying away not not too much liquor um stuff like that i like that yeah i love that man because to me that just sounds like connecting well yeah like connecting like if i actually make a real connection there's nothing greater than that that is the impact and the impact becomes the legacy because people don't just forget about real impact that got made on their life yep right so yeah i just try to simplify everything i got my little my little theory i got called symbol complexity and that's just how i live my life what do i mean you got to explain that man simple complexity i am i've been saying that for years it's like i just everything is everything is like just simple yet you know complex you know it's like okay well what's the simplicity of you know we get in a car but we never get in a car without a destination one was a lot like very few and listen you might there's something going on if you're just getting in car and taking drives with no destination to go you're usually going somewhere yeah you know so that's such a simple thought but then if you think of life as a car why do you why do we live life without goals then what do i writing goals is so important i saw when i was 11 years ago i saw a video when you write goals you get ahead of like 95 percent of people so which is why daily i just like even i was like i write tiktok posts facebook posts just like like direction creating direction depression is the feeling of being lost so how do you find yourself well first of all you don't want to find yourself you want to create yourself but how do you create yourself you create yourself by creating direction and following that direction every single day day after day after day after day until habit becomes lifestyle it's like no one likes when you're a kid you don't like brushing your teeth it sort of sucks but then it gets easy because it just becomes a part of your lifestyle so what if we started to get things to become a part of our lifestyle like working out or writing down goals or on all of a sudden you add all these tools to your lifestyle belt and you're fucking successful you know man i love that simple complexity so it's like simplifying things to just like so people ask me why don't you get a nice car i'm like well to me the function of it is just to go to point a to b that's right now i don't really feel like doing all that it's like i pretty much wear the same thing every day you know unless it's like you know i gotta dress up for something just like simplifying the things that don't need to be complicated right all right my analogy that kind of like works within your framework i would say is um like the same but different everything is the same but different and i would use a snowflake as an example right all snowflakes are unique but they're all made out of the same elements right it's like just super simple um so i don't know man i feel like the things that you say require you to think right and refining everything that you like you know finding these ways of viewing the world or at least refining how you view the world so you understand how you think about it is probably a huge part of your success because one of my favorite things to say is the greatest value in an artist is their point of view like what else is there you know what i'm saying and you have definitely have a point of view but let's let's end it here man dax pretty straight having you on man let's see if he catches it i'm bram and shon i'm covery and i'm dax there we go this is no labels necessary we out we out appreciate you for watching if you like content like this you'll love seeing our amusing marketing strategies that we use as an agency to actually blow up artists to millions and even billions of streams that are available for free at no labels necessary dot com and the cool part about it that's going to really make you love it is we don't have to be all entertaining and add all this fluff just to get some use that we do on youtube we get straight to the information there's play by play in courses that give you a breakdown of every step that you should do to get success and you have the ability to have communication with us we get on live talks a lot of cool things for members and it's free just to hop in so check it out right now at no labels necessary dot com