 morning to you. You are watching Why In The Morning, your favorite breakfast show only on Y2FiveFour channel. As you know it is Tuesday, entrepreneurship Tuesday. And for today we have a very special segment for you because have you ever been interested in joining the music business? Today we have a CEO, a producer, an artist in studio together. So yes, put your hands together for vanilla flavor. If you do want to participate in the conversation it's at Y2FiveFour channel on Twitter. The hashtag is Why In The Morning. On Facebook, Y2FiveFour and Instagram Y2FiveFour underscore channel. On DSTV channel 376 on Signet H24, Star Time 54. So make sure you slide into our DM. But it's about time I let my guests introduce themselves so that you can know exactly who is who. All right, turn the cards and say good morning to the Why In The Morning family. Hi, what's up people? It's Dossky over here. I'm an artist from vanilla studios. I'm here with my CEO and producer and we're here to introduce good music to you guys. Tune in and enjoy the show. Okay. Hey, what up? This is the iconic, the producer vanilla flavor. Yeah. Yeah, good morning. It's Ray Miles. I'm the CEO and director of vanilla flavor studios. Yeah, the music director too of vanilla flavor studios. Thank you so much. All right, for somebody who wants to start their own record label, you've been around since the year 2015. How did you get your team together? How did you get all set up, Mr. Ray Miles? It's not an easy journey. It's been a hard task to come through all this. You see, it's been a tough journey. So if you want to start, the first thing you have to know is know why you're getting first into. You know, you don't get into the music business and expect tomorrow to be a big name. You must learn how to be patient because it requires a lot of patience because it took us from 2015 to now it's 2019. We've been there, been behind the scenes. We've been there. People don't know that we've been there behind the scenes. Actually, we've been working for big names. People don't know. But this is the time now we are coming out. See, so one thing is to go first and learn. The most key is patience. Patience. Patience. So where did you get financing from? Because most people usually ask, Oh, we don't have money. We don't have money to start a business. What would you say? I say money is not everything, actually. Money is actually the only thing. It's not everything, actually. We need money to actually. Right, that was very hopeful. You need money to do things. But sometimes if you don't have enough cash, you have to utilize what you have. So I can say like we started from humble beginnings. We didn't have everything, actually. The little we had and the savings that we had and we had to connect to people to get and source and maybe a few things. That's how we kickstarted our label. Now here we are again. Well, before I move to your producer and Dusky himself here, I'd like to finish with the CEO first. How did you get your links, your network? You've worked with the biggest of the biggest, my boy. My God. Yes, please let us know. How did you build your network over the years? Okay, I didn't start from vanilla. People don't know. I started working in other studios, actually. I started working in other studios. I started at Stila Life. That's where Stila Life Studios, if you've ever heard of it, that's where I started like my journey of music. That's where I started learning, actually, the music business. And I did start as I was there as a designer. Actually, I was doing design, actually, there. I started to learn to see these artists upcoming, you see, and I started having this interest of having a label and seeing, you see, Mr. Sibahati there, the likes, you see. So I got this interest from there. And I knew how the producer of Stila Life team actually, I've learned so much a lot from him. Then from there, we went, we joined Partio Entertainment. No, that's where I started meeting all these people because at Partio, that's where we started now doing a lot of videos, a lot of videos, you see. I was a guy called Crystal Prime. We were shooting videos at Partio. We were directing with him. So that's why I got all these connects from. And then from there, now, I saw a bigger gap of what these old people, they didn't have, you see, from Stila Life to Partio Entertainment. I saw a gap. I saw like I could do something that these guys are not doing. Maybe now, maybe take music to another level. So that's where I started my own label. But I knew it wasn't, it's not going to be easy. But I knew like someday, sometime, we're going to reach there. So right now, you see, I'm still working with the same people that I used to produce for them. Okay. Yeah, that's what's up. Okay. So the iconic Triple B, you know, the braids behind the beat. Where did you find your interest in music? And why did you teach yourself to become an audio engineer? Because your work is, I mean, like, amazing. First of all, thanks. My interest developed way back since my dad has been working on this. So since he was doing it, I thought I could do it too. So he taught me a few things. Then we left it at that. So that was back in primary. So as I went to high school, you know, the piano playing and all that, all the things I've been doing are music related, the drama stuff, the music festival stuff all the way. So when I knew him, it was when I was still in high school. But he used to tell me that I could be the producer to his label someday. It was like way back. We've known each other for way too long. So it's been growing since. So basically it's self taught and of course for my pups. I refuse to believe that all that magic is self taught. But anyway, let me fly back to Dersky over here. What's up, Dersky? You have a song you're dropping for us today. Yeah, sure. So why did you find yourself in music? What happened? And you sing real good back up? I think that's a tough question, but I'll answer it easily. It's a family business. My sister sings. My cousin is a producer. My other brother sings. So Ed, my bro is also a manager for big artists out here. I think you know him or maybe you've seen him before. He was also done modeling and all that stuff. So for me, this has been like a calling. Even though I've been running away from it, finally it has caught up with me and now I have to live the life. Why have you been running? Why did you decide to run away from it? I guess I'll have to put that on the education system we have. Because you know very well our education system does not support artists, musicians, and people who are crafty. So you're taught to go look for a job and live like a civilized kind of life, which is a lie to the artist normally. Because once that is done is that you put in a box and your creativity goes out the window. So how did you come about the iconic and Mr. Ray Miles? Now apparently I was recording at another studio, but I wasn't really getting the kind of music I wanted. Because the way I am, I am a rapper. I can sing. I can dance. So the previous studio I was in, I was normally put into rapping. Oh, I was even just going to ask you a niche. Like what would you say is your niche genre? But now it's like you're already answering the question. Yeah, I guess I'm a versatile artist. So whatever you throw at me, we're going to come up with magic for sure. So the problem is I didn't feel myself well as a rapper because I felt like I was limited. I felt like I was going into an industry that is already, that already has so many people. You know, we have the likes of calligrapho, to piso, and you know, that's environment is a bit... Is it why you're so threatened? That sounds like a threat. I feel like I was threatened in a way. Oh, that's honest. Because I feel like my singing is a bit better than the rapping. Hey, God, okay. So that's why I stuck to singing. Yeah, and I guess that's how my journey started. That's when I decided to go and join Ray and his company. And they welcomed me as a brother. And what can I say? I'm just like, this is where I want to be. Yeah, you seem very happy when they're mounting to you there. You are very happy. Everything was flawless and the economy was just slinging. Anyway, I'm glad that you brought up the competition aspect. Ray Miles, how do you guys deal with competition? Like you said, you're not the only ones. So what do you guys do? What's special about vanilla flavor? Vanilla is very special in many kinds of ways. First of all, you do a lot of research. We don't sleep. We are not sleeping each and every day. We can stay in studio like the whole day and the whole night in studio and still get there the other day. We're still there. We're still on. We're going to sleep for a few hours. So because the competition is tight, you see, and you know, Kenyans, Kenyans love good music. You see, you cannot lie to them. If you give them crap, they will just, they will just throw it over your face. So competition is tight. Competition is tight. You can see the way in a calligraph, the way they are pulling up. You can see many artists, night boy, they're on their way level. If you want to work with these guys, you have to show them you guys are not sleeping. You have to give them the best. You see, there are people who have been there in the industry. They know the hustle of the industry, so you cannot lie to them. So you have to create something that when he hears it, and you want to work on your beat, or you want to work with him at your label, you have to give him something that when he hears it, he says, at a penyan of anyakazi, they steal our fikibado. You see, so we're doing basically a lot of research, both in Kenya. Maybe we are doing music in Zandani, where a lot of them are combining. We are doing music in West Africa, then now we set our own bar. So what we do basically, we mix our sound. We are creating actually a new sound, actually. If you listen to our music, our sound, if anani or any other sound, put a feel like it's tropical, then we mix it with African, we mix it with West African, then we have our own sound. Yeah, that's now what makes us different and special from other labels. I was even just going to ask the iconic, the brains behind the beats, one more time. Where do you derive your inspiration from? Because you sound very interesting, like you said, tropical, like you're everything combined, Nigeria, house, I don't know everything combined in one house. Is there any producer in specific that you have been listening to who inspires you, or what's your inspiration, where you draw your ideas from? I listen to so many producers. I have several. Mostly the competition internally is quite tight, you know, Akina Riks and the likes, they're bringing the bar up way too fast, so I have to like act in the same way. So basically, the guy who inspires me the most, actually they are two, it's Diplo, the one for me, and these are the guys, so yeah, basically that's what I do. I look for things, you know, if I have a kick, for example, this is the kick that is trending right now, every producer is using it. So which one is coming up in the morning, the next morning, you know, I have to do that because, you know, a producer is like a machine, basically. Oh, a machine, wow. So if you don't update, then that's where you start doing, what do you say, for lack of better words? Mediocre. Mediocre bits. That's my favorite word when I'm talking about certain things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, just to let me slide back to you. Sure. So what can the fans expect from you now that you're just breaking into the market, you found your home as I can see? What can we expect from you? Expect fire, expect the best, expect hits after hits, after hits, after hits. That's my promise to you fans, and we are going to do another project with Matonya soon. That's going to be like the biggest song out here, for sure. That much, I promise. I don't doubt it. Okay, Mr. Rimmel, you're an artist yourself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm an artist. Let's talk about choosing it. What can you say is your niche and what's happening? What's going on with you? Yeah, I'm an artist, but you see, I had to first slide back to push the label first, because you know, you can't handle too many things at the same time. So I'm only human, so I'll just fail all of them. So I had to sacrifice first my music for other people to go first, and then now me coming later. I have a lot of records I've done in the studio, but this is one I've done with Matonya. I've done with other big artists that I haven't named since you met Matonya. We're dropping their project maybe from next week, people should expect. So first it's going to be a hit. It's a big song. So there are other artists that we have worked to in the country and also the country, and they're big artists too, but that's an exclusive thing for now, we can't say anything. For now, what would you do with the project that Matonya and the people that come through? The other one, it's going to surprise us, yeah, for sure. But now, okay, you asked me about my music. My music is coming out soon. People start singing my music, because I'm also singing at different genres. What would I do? You know what I mean. So actually we have a plan, we have dates of release, we have strategies actually. We can just give people the music. What people do in the music business, because that's what the topic about. People just release music and how do you get money from that music? You see, there are many companies and many platforms that you can, your music can pay back. You know, artists just want to release their music and just expect the shows and stuff. It's way, way, you know, an artist has only 10% and every artist out there, let me tell you the truth. Many of them are talented. Your talent is only 10%. You know, artists have only got talent. We've only got 10% of the day. So you have only got 10%. I'm giving you 90%. So why are you bringing at the table for me to help you, for me to get your name out there? Because it's not easy. See, it's not about the talent. It's about everything. There is the music, there is the marketing stuff, how we now start making money off your music. Okay, so when I see, oh, what do you look for before you sign an artist? What is it about Dusky? What is it about the iconic, the producer? What do you look for? What qualities do you look for? The number one thing I look about an artist is first is loyalty. Oh, and he has to be honest. And now he has to be patient. Only those three things. Only those three things? Of course. And it's a wrap? It's a wrap. Yeah, because most artists, he can be honest, actually. And he can be loyal, but he can be patient. So many artists missed one thing or two things out of those. And most of the artists missed the bigger percentage, they missed the patient. You see, when I bring it to my label, like I'm signing you, I actually have to test your patient. Me, who are going to say, even I tell the iconic of the board, you see, these artists are going to release these artists after two years. So we have to test this patient for these two years. He has to record us and give the best music. You know, an artist can sing one song and that's a wrap. Maybe that's the only hit he can only produce. Oh, you have to test, though? Yeah, we have to test the waters. Of course, yeah. Because you've seen many artists even in Kenya. And then that's it. He's never there. You see, because me, I'm a songwriter. He's a songwriter too. We have even songwriters in the studio, actually. So we have a big team behind us, actually. It's not us that we had just only here. We have a very big team. So an artist, last month, we were up and I appeared and I showed concern. We are love those people because we have so many artists in the studio, but he's the artist at least. And then he's showing the passion for it. He's grinding for it. He's up in the studio anytime in the middle of the night is there. You guys, you know, I have this idea. We should do this. What do you think? I'm telling you that that can do. Okay, this can do. But we can do it this time. See, that's what I love about Toski. Of course. That's important for artists. You know, I can see some patients have for two years. Hey, but don't see your tracks. My God. This is going to be a time just for mapping. Yeah, I was, I was downfounded. Of course. I never expected it to be honest. But anyway, this is the song you're going to drop for us today. Yes. And it's kind of like a love song, baby. So what was the inspiration? Is the lady in the video the one or is there the one somewhere? I thought you have a guest females, by the way. I've not seen any females featured in your, you know, car along. So you can tell us if you're working with any female, right after Toski tells us about this track. All right. For semantics, I will keep that private. All right. What inspired that song is basically the perception of the boy child in Kenya right now. I hate it when, when you try to be charismatic, when you try to be, what's the word? What is it called? That's the word I was looking for. When you're trying to be like, when you're trying to own up to Chevrolet in Kenya, people think you're following this western culture. And I hate that about our people. So I sat down and asked myself, if I write a love song that actually speaks to both boys and also females, then they will start to appreciate the boy child more. Because now they will see that it's not only the Nigerians that have like romantic. So I want to phase out that thought and also teach people that we have Kenyan men who can be very gentle and loving and caring. So let us stop supporting all these other foreigners and let's support our own. Basically, that's it. And the iconic body love flavor really killed the beat, man. You guys kill, kill, kill. Thank you. Thank you. Anyway, Ray, please, I'd like to know, have you guys signed any females? Are you working with any females? Yeah, we have not signed any females, but we are working with some females actually. You see, they are there in the label. You see, it's hard for us to sign a female right now. Why? They can catch up the speed that we have. Yeah, you see, you know, a female, we love to swap with time. As we don't work with time, we work with the apparent like, we can say like anything that comes up, that's what we do. So we can be working on a project on a student, something comes up, we supposed to be at an event at that very minute. We just close everything down and just go. You see, a female will have so many schedules, he have to be here on time on this. He can cope up, you see. But it's not in a bad way. It's quite evil. I see it's a good bias. Be iconic and let's just speak for yourself. I see this. We are not in the bad way. I must say the truth, you see. I'm so shocked. We must say the truth, actually. But actually, we are looking into it. It's a big deal. We're looking into her. She's a great artist. Actually, she really dropped the project here last year. She's in school actually. So she has to balance in between. So but she's an artist like, none of the bigger things in her. Why? None of something in her. Oh, see, you're so tough. Can you please stop and this is how you do it. Be iconic. Can you please give little emails? I'm hope. My God. Um, okay. He's often did, actually. So you're going to be what? Oh, well, I asked anyway. What I'm looking for for a female artist is, you know, that spark. When I give you the beat and I give you the lyrics because that's what I do. I expect you to like kill it from the start till the end. Like you like intrigue somebody into listening to it. Dochi is good. Yeah. But for me, I can say that I haven't got it yet. Not yet. Because I don't work with professionals. I would end up at the academy. Do you think? But I won't work with that. I'll work with your talent. You drive for it. Yeah. So if I see the way you crave for it, the way you hustle for it, that's when I come in. Yeah. Basically, that's it. That was better. Anyway, so it's about time I allow Mr. Doski over here to, you know, to let the fans hear a little bit, even from Ray Miles and the iconic, my God, you all did a good job. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. So, um, I don't know, I'm going to allow everybody to give a parting shot and your social media handles in case they wanted to get in touch with you. Those people with the drive and the, you know, if you think you have what the iconic is looking for, you know, where can they find you? Yes. Um, the iconic, the underscore iconic on Instagram, the underscore iconic, the same way on Twitter, and then the iconic on Facebook. Okay. Yeah. All right. Mr. Ray Miles, gosh. Yeah. How can you make work up? See you all. He's a CEO. He has Twitter. Yeah. Me, I'm Ray Miles. Ray Miles of, Ray Miles official on Instagram. On Facebook, you can find me on Ray Miles. He has a tag Jamal Majid. That's it. I have so many, and you can find also vanilla flavor studios on Facebook. I'm not on Twitter, but soon they're joined too. You're not part of the KOT fans. Yeah. So that's, that's, that's my handles. So, but if you get into vanilla flavor studios on Facebook, all our details are there. The numbers are there. We can contact us there. Don't fear. Just call in the numbers. Just call in the studio and then you can express yourself what you want. And then we see if you can work together. Okay. Don't fear. Key word. Desky, are you going to work on any albums and then where can your fans find you? Yeah. I'm actually working on an album. It's called a percussion discussion. Oh, percussion discussion. Yes. Damn. What's that about? I'm so curious. It's basically about enjoying our African sound. I like what Nigeria and South Africa are doing. So we try and do the same thing with our country. Try to create our own sound and try and relate our traditions with what's happening in the modern world right now. So that's basically what percussion discussion is all about. And it's not a solo album. I'm going to do collabo's. I've already done a few songs with Iconic too. We're going to do a song with Ray. There's a song with Matania already done. Two more other collabo's are on the line. So yeah, things are coming up good. Okay. So where did they find you on social media? On my social media, you can find me at doski underscore 4k on Instagram. Doski baby on Twitter. Doski on Facebook. And it's D-O-S-K-E-Y. All right. And actually, doski is an acronym, which means don't only sing and keep entertainment young. Wow. That is basically my drive. Wow. Yeah. Hey, okay. It's a bad time. I paved the way for you. But first, wait, wait, wait. For this one last question. What is the one thing you wish you knew then that you know now when you were starting out? Well, I'm starting out. I wish I didn't know nothing actually. Why did you eat today in the morning? You know why? You know why? Because if I knew who I would be today, I wouldn't work hard, you see. But you see, God is surprising me each and every day at every step that I'm taking. And I always ask God each and every morning when I wake up, thank you for life and thank you for this wisdom. And don't skip me a step. Just let me step one step at a time. I don't want to go there first. Let me enjoy, you know. I always say one thing. There's still some happiness and sweetness in the struggle. And there's some tears and all those bad nasty things in success. You always hear the story. You're successful, but you're hurting inside. But you see you might be not there, but you see you comfortable and have peace inside. So I just ask God to take me one step at a time. So I wish I knew nothing. I just want to discover the ways that go on. Okay, Manila Flavor. We've had a taste of the CEO's flavor today. The echo, because anything you wish or you would say, I echo this sentiment. So Manila, what are you going to say? Basically, what I'll say is don't rush it. You know, if you love what you're doing, don't rush it. Because you'll always fail if you rush things. So just keep it one step at a time and keep a small circle too. If you have too many friends, you'll be destroyed. Simple. All right, Dusky. You're about to take the breath away of some females out here, which is some. So I don't know if you can just give us a small taste because we are about to play it right now. So you can give us a small taste maybe. Oh, by the way, I've not said thank you for coming. God, thank you so much for coming before I met you. We appreciate it. Because before you go, I just want to ask our fans, our supporters, and people who are going to be our fans in the future. We are actually not the best. We are still trying. So I want to ask everybody to support us and expect more from us. I don't think you guys are going to have a problem with that. You guys are lightning. I don't know inside what you guys are doing, whatever you guys are eating, keep doing it. So Dusky, Dusky, Dusky. The stage is yours, you know. Before I do that, I want to give a little advice, mostly to the artists and also the fans. My biggest thing, since I've waited too long to be in this industry, I've learned a few things that most of our artists don't do. There's a reason why we are Kenyans. And there's a reason why we were brought together in this country. And we need to sit down and figure out why we are together as a country. This issue of us creating side stories and all that, music is a tool that is meant to bring people together. So let's use this music to bring people together. Let's make this music to give those stories that were not said in other fields. For example, the story of Shevaulry. Sorry, the story of Shevaulry. We need to air out the fact that Kenyans are also just as... Romantic. It sounds just like someone I know. All right, all right. Asante Nisana for watching. Please do not go anywhere. It is Entrepreneurship Tuesday. And ladies and gentlemen, for the very first time, from Vanilla Flavor, produced by The Iconic and Ray Miles, Dusky has come with his song, if only. Peace. Got to get you feeling like a landlord. Your face is so perfect, no pimple. Got to know who no more didn't go, yeah. You'll be my ride or die. With every walk or fly. She will touch the sky. Always you'll be mine.