 We'll be on fire, we'll be lit, big shit Big shit, big shit, big shit It's a unique hustle, nigga, big shit Big shit, big shit, big shit Name another podcast like this Who gon' bring it to the table? Boss talk, who your girlfriend favorite? Boss talk, we gon' do it how you Hey, take it, take it, this is your unique hustle, it's your boy, E.C.O. And I'm here with the official, Ms. Jamaica Well, go on. Say, man, my guy is back, man. You know, it's crazy, man. When I started this podcast, I knew I was gonna be the only one, you know, with the award ceremonies. I wanted to do something for people while we had the ability to do it. God has blessed us where we could bless others. And this guy certainly deserved it. They don't even seem right to even do it with other people if you ain't did it with him. You know what I'm saying? Appreciate it, appreciate it. The work that you put in, man. Me and my wife, my wife like, you getting, what you doing? I say, yeah, he getting the award. I gotta get him back on the show. And I wish I had it when you first came. Nah, it's all good, bro. You know, I'm from the Grove, so I'm like right down the street, man. I'm here, I'm ready. You know what I'm saying? But I'm gonna call you Mr. Handcuff, bro. You trying to tell your beautiful wife, man, you put your hat on. Nah, man, let her do what she wanna do, bro. Just cause you wearing a hat, bro. Nah, bro. She got that natural beauty. You trying to cover all that hat. I'm pretty, hey, man. I'm pretty lenient on her. I just mess with her. Nah, man. I don't mess with her. I don't know, man. Say, man, look, man, you're 18 years, man. Let me keep going. Let me keep going. Hey, you know what I'm not gonna say what I'm gonna say, cause I don't want jinxed nothing. You just better be careful, bro. I'm trying, man. You better be careful, bro. I'm trying. She's a keeper for life, man. Say, man, it's been a long time coming. That girl over there, she's watching us. I see her. She's smart. 15 and driving. Straight A's. I'm scared, bro. Straight A's. Straight A's. That's even better. In all gifted classes. It's going down, man. That's what I hope for my son, man. Say, man. I always want them to do the best. You know what I'm saying? That's our heartbeat, right? That's all you can ask for. Yeah. That's our heartbeat. Like, that's what keeps the things going, man. We try to make sure our children. We got a 13-year-old, too. I know you got a couple. 14, 22, and 29. Yeah. I'm way up there, too. I got 20. And grand babies? One grandson. He'll be three. June 17th, he'll be three. You have a lot of boys. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to put that Lopez out for life. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? We just took a picture a couple years ago from my grandfather passed away. It was my grandfather, my dad, myself, and then my two boys. So that's what four generations of Lopez right there. Wow. It's a blessing to be able to have that picture. Yeah. Oh, man. I love that picture because it's like, I actually got it, but I haven't made a portrait. I want to make a huge portrait put in my living room because that's four generations. Definitely. That's four. It's my grandfather, my dad, myself. Your sons know how valuable that is. Oh, they better know because, I mean, I try to distill that into their minds all the time, like loyalty and family is everything. There's nothing else that could take that place. There's no money. There's no actions that you can do that are more positive than just have loyalty and family. That's the two most important things to me. I mean, I had these conversations all the time with my two boys and my daughters like, look, man, whatever you do, be loyal. If the other person screws you, you just get away from them people. You know what I'm saying? You're always going to do negative when you hang around negative people. It's just a force of habit. You don't want to be negative, but when you hang around negative people, you pick up their habits. Yeah. So it's like the best thing to do is get away from negative people. And if someone in your family is negative, have that talk. Like, hey, bro, I don't like what you're doing, bro. Calm down because I'm not that way. So if you want to be that way, you know what? You distance yourselves from that people. You know what I'm saying? It's just what you got to do. But man, you know, that's something I tell people around me all the time. Family's over everything. Even if you're not even blood and I treat you like family, you family for life. I'm family. You know what I'm saying? You family because like I said, we've been a long time. You called me out of the blue. You called me out of the blue and I was here. And not only that, he came back and he's been on time. He's different in all the rappers. No matter. He's here. That's why I'm glad I'm not a rapper. Man, you're different, man. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like the rappers is something else. They be coming late. Yeah. No, they be tripping. But you're a businessman. So I expect that out of him. Like we going to try to be there early, you know? Yeah. Man, it's just a different. But then that's why you end up being the leaders and the one who got to make everything happen. Yeah, set an example. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And I try to set an example with my kids and everyone around me, even when it comes on an artist, I let them know, like, look, man, being punctual is everything because there's a stigma for artists. Oh, they're always late. They're always late. They're always smoking weed. So when an artist doesn't smoke weed or is on time, you're like, whoa. This guy's different. This guy's different. This guy's different. But you know, sometimes you got to set your own tone. Yeah, definitely. Man, so I need your wife to talk to me real because I heard that Jamaican accent. No, she doesn't talk to you anyway because she got questions. When I see someone yelling with that phone, she's going to ask you questions because she didn't get to talk to you last time. We'll let her talk the whole interview, okay? I heard that Jamaican accent. I was like, whoa. Funny thing, when I talk to a lot of people, they don't ever hear it till, you know, the more I talk, you hear it. But like I'm talking to you, you hear the accent. But if I'm talking to somebody who is Jamaican, you hear an even worse accent. Oh, I got a friend of mine. He's got a store. He's got a clothing store right behind me and he's Jamaican. He just got here a couple of years ago, so he's got that strong accent. I'm like, what? What did you say? Yeah, that's the way it be, man. So last time we get to ask him about, sir, you would ask him different questions than what we asked him. So give him your spiel. I know how you come. No, I was going to ask, like how many artists do you have right now? I mean, right now, all I've always had was DSR. Those are my artists, you know, T-Town Music, Jimmy's group, you know, myself, whatever. You know, my cousin, Trini's still around. So we're all partners with DSR. That's for life. That's like SUC, you know. The guys can go several ways. Someone can pass away. It's still going to be SUC, just like Wu-Tang Clan. You know, they're not dropping no albums, but there's always Rick Juan representing. You know, you got Red Man representing. It's the same thing with DSR. DSR is always going to be family. It's always going to be the only official artist of mine. Now, other artists that I work with, those are artists that I manage or they go to the marketing company, Jim Music Group. And I work with a lot of different artists, but they're not my artists, you know what I'm saying? So they have their own labels, their own managers. So what's the difference between you working with an artist and it's your artist? Do you get more incentive when they're your artists? Of course, of course. So let's say I sign you to my label and I sit at record and studio and record albums. Now, those masters are mine because I pay for everything. You get, you know, you get your percentage. Usually what I do when I work with a lot of artists is that I want them to really be part of my family. Let's say I can pay you as soon as you get into the studio and say, look, man, you want to get on those records? I'm going to pay you $1,000 for 20 minutes of your time. And we're going to record that record. That record is mine. And then there might be some artists like, yo, I need $1,000 plus. I need 10 points on the back end, which is, you know, publishing. And I'll give you that. But 90% of that record is still mine. 10% is yours. Now that's my artist that I'm working with. Because that's your rules. Because I know that some people, when they go sign on to somebody, they come and say, OK, well, the masters is mine. I'll sign with you, but I'm keeping my own masters. Only is rare, rare. It's probably 5% of artists in the world that have that. Wow. That's why Prince had to fight it for so long. Michael Jackson had to fight it for so long. You don't get that option. I mean, you got to understand, if I'm a billion-dollar company and you're an up-and-coming artist, you're like, I want to keep my masters. I'm like, bye. Bye. I'm making a billion dollars a year. Who are you? Right. Now, if you want me to make you the million-dollar artist, I get 60. You get 40. The masters are still mine, but you're getting 40%. That's still a good deal. And some people are like, nah, man, screw that. That's a bad deal. It's not a bad deal. I think we talked about this. I don't know if we talked about this here, but people talk to me like, yo, Post Malone, it's got a bad deal. It's got a 360 deal. I'm like, OK, 360 deal is however you want your 360 deal to be. All deals are not the same deal. Now, when he first got into his label deal with, I mean, he's got his own label, but when he signed to a major distributor or major label, they're like, hey, we're going to put millions of dollars behind you, but we're going to give you 40. We're going to take 60. Cool. Now, at that time, Post Malone was probably making a million a year, probably, coming up. Now, right now, he's making 50 million minimum a year. So why is 360 a bad deal? He went from making a million dollars to 50 million dollars. It's not a bad deal. It's just how you structure your deal. Every deal is different. People put the word 360 like, oh, that's a bad deal. No, it's not a bad deal. You know what I'm saying? It just depends on what is all included. Exactly. I got you. It's like our deal. T-Time Music, we dropped albums for six years by ourselves, so we owned 100% of everything. We did everything ourselves, but when we signed the Universal deal, we signed a subsidiary deal, which was Universal Slash Republic Slash T-Time Music. So Republic and Universal, Universal is a distribution. Republic was the actual label. So Republic, the deal that we structured was 50-50. That's a good deal. Take it or leave it. Because we were already making millions a year. So it's like, you want the Texas market? We'll give it to you at 50% cost. You know what I'm saying? I'm not doing a 60-40 or I'm getting 40. Did you have a lot of people walk away from it and say, no, they're not going to do it? No. He made that deal. I actually had three labels that wanted to do it. We just went with the most money. We had EMI at the time, Virgin wanted it, and then there was, I don't even remember the other label, but Universal came with the most money, of course, because they are the biggest company. Yeah, they got hundreds and hundreds of subsidiaries. So us being a part of their subsidiary was like nothing like peanuts. You know what I'm saying? And like I said, people don't understand, whatever money they're giving you, they can write it off at the end of the year. So we did our deal in 2005. So the money they gave us up front, plus whatever they spent putting Tux album together, that first year, they wrote it off by the end of December. So when the new year came out, we started working on Tum Toms record, that was a whole new year, and then you write that off at the end of the year. So when a company is making a billion dollars, they're probably writing off probably 10 million, 20 million, they're writing off. So it's like, it's nothing. But for us to be a part of that movement, regardless, it's an experience. You know what I'm saying? People are like, oh yeah, I got screwed, whatever. I said bro, it's a lesson. How many people can get signed with you? A lot of people don't even get signed. Yeah, a lot. We were lucky. It took a lot of labels 10 years to get signed in Texas, up to 10 years. How long did it take you to get signed? Four years. We got signed. DSR got signed in four years. Now, the deal was with T-Town. So T-Town was the umbrella over DSR. But T-Town as the label who put out DSR, DSR came out in 2001, October 25, 2005, we signed the deal, the fastest. Every artist in Texas, if you go back to look at, I don't even want to call names, but you look at everyone's deal in Texas, it took all of them 10 years to go with the major label. And we were all making the same amount of money. You know what I'm saying? We all are making independent money. So it's like, we could have took a couple more years and said, you know what? We'll come back at you in 2010. But we knew there was going to be a time that the Texas movement was going to fade out. So we're like, you know what? Let's take the money. Let's work with them. Let's do everything on the side anyway. And if it doesn't work, we still got our thing on the side. And that's basically what happened. You know, the deal wasn't structured right because Universal had split up into Motown Republic. And we didn't know when we signed our deal. So all my connections that I had at Universal, I didn't know that when it split to a change, like the radio people went to Motown. The promotion of marketing department went to Motown. So we're at Republic. So I go back to Universal to go say hi to all my friends. Like, yo man, we're going to do this big old promotion marketing deal. They're like, Joy, we can't work with you because there's a huge, how you say, position. There's a big fight going on at Universal with Motown and Republic. And whoever has the best records of the year are going to win, you know, under Universal. So Motown was beefing with Republic and we're on Republic side. And I'm like, who's on our side? We got a, it's us and we got a little mama. We got three doors down. We got a, that girl, the one who passed away. And I think her name went Angie. She had the black hair, had a song from the 60s. Oh, no, 60s. No, it was, she was a new art, but she had that sound of the 60s. She passed away? Yeah, she passed. No, no, no, this was a recent artist. This artist came out like in 2004, 2005, but she passed away like a couple of years ago. She died at a young age. She was a young girl. Yeah, she was huge. I gotta figure out who that is. How does this song go, da, da, da, da, da? Man, I gotta look up that song, but she had black hair, beautiful. She sang, she was real bluesy, little jazzy. Man, I gotta figure out who you're talking about. God, and she ain't running with no dudes, just her. It was just her. So we were on that side. Okay. And then we looked at the competition at Motown. Camille and her had the number one record on the radio, Riding Dirty. You know what I'm saying? When they were dealing with rap, the whole team was pushing Riding Dirty. So over here, I was like, well, who's our marketing guys? We don't have none. Wow. We're a new company, Republic, and we're gonna build our new team. George, just keep doing what you're doing. But I'm under the machine. Where's the machine at? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no machine right now. The machine went to Republic. They're working Camille and their record. I'm like, oh my God. So I go to my radio guy, you know, Troy Marshall, and I say, Troy, man, I need you to work my record. But he's like, well, I can't touch your record. I'm pushing the shit out of Camille and their record. And I would get fired over here if I'm dealing with anybody on Yawzee. And because there's a big beef going on. Right. You know, it was Sylvia Rome, who had Motown. And I was with Monty and Avery Lipman, who was the president, the vice president of Motown. So they were having some beef going on. And I couldn't use none of my friends that I knew for years. And if y'all don't know who Troy Marshall, he's the one who's been working Yellow Bees record his whole time. Wow. Nationally. Really? So if it was for Troy Marshall, Yellow Bees' record wouldn't be out there. I mean, Troy Marshall is a beast in radio. He knows how to do it. He knows how to do it. So, you know, shout out to the Yellow Bees' team. They got a great guy working the record. That's what's up. So, you know, usually when you got, people are like, oh, how can you get on the radio? You know, who do I got to pay? And what do I got to do? Like, bro, you got to hire you a radio quarterback. Wow. One of the best. And he is the best. So, I mean, we got some in Dallas, too, that I would love to work with, too. But at that time, you know, I was trying to go after him and we couldn't get him. We had a few guys that we try to work with. But like I said, the label was just like, they just couldn't compete with Motown. The label Republic. They could not compete. So, we were lost out in sea for a while. So did you, what's the craziest thing you did when you got your deal? Craziest thing you did with the money. Something real thrown out. Man, you know what? The craziest thing. We celebrated. That night we celebrated. We went, there's a steakhouse, the best steakhouse in the United States. It's a steakhouse. Okay. What is that? It's on the, I think it's the lower east side. It's in Dallas? No, no, no. It's in New York. We were in New York. So that night. That's where Universal. Yeah. Because he said the best steakhouse in the world. In the world. To be Texas, right? We would think that would be Texas. I would think, too. This steakhouse has been there since 1889. Yeah, because that's the oldest city. Oldest city. That's why. So that's called the world. Was it really good? It was off the chain. The shrimps were bigger than my hand. Each shrimp was bigger than my hand. Wow. So for advertisers, we had a centerpiece, like a four-piece centerpiece like this. They're just like a waterfall with just shrimps. And we took pictures of it. And it was like shrimps were bigger than my hand. Wow. And like I said, we didn't even look at the bill to the end of the night. So that was the craziest thing. So we ordered that as an appetizer. Of course, as the artists are entertainment lawyer. And that's it. So it was the artist, the CEO's entertainment lawyer. So there's probably eight of us there, nine of us there. The bill came seven grand. Wow. So that was the craziest and probably the stupidest thing we've ever done. Seven grand. I was so mad. I mean, because the food was great. It's an experience that you can talk about forever. It was an experience, yeah. Well, I'm going back to New York next week. So we're going to go back. Yeah, we're going to go there. Me and my boys are going to go there. We're going to hang out. Yeah, we're going to hang out. But we're going to be smarter. We're not going to order crazy like that now. But that's a good time. So let me ask you. You deal with so many different artists and so many different people. And you seem like the person who managed everybody. Yeah. How do you deal with all these different personalities and get everybody on the, to, to, to be cooperative? Well, it's, it's different. It's everything is a lot different than what it used to be now. DSR, people can say whatever they had to say because I was dealing with six or seven different personalities, but I never had no problems with DSR. It was so easy because I could just, I could work with everybody. And believe me, everybody has seven different personalities. But these artists these days, they think they're entitled to everything. So when I work with artists these days, it's one or two artists on a monthly basis. And it comes down to money. If you're not going to pay it, I'm not going to deal with the headache. So now it's like my price is like, yo, this is my price. If you can pay it, I'll deal with your bullshit. But if I got to deal with it more than that, I'll just drop you, bro. I ain't got time. That's why I'm not signing on these artists. I just work with them. And when I say work with them, I do more artists developing. Like they're like, George, I got a record. What do I need to do next? Okay, we're going to sit down. We're going to set up your marketing and promotions. We're going to set up studio time to clean this record up because the record sounds okay. We're going to clean it up. You know, we're going to mix and match with a person that's better and make it sound better. We're going to send it to all the DJs. We're going to meet all the DJs. We're going to do drops for the DJs. We're going to do walkthroughs with the DJs. And we're talking about from radio to podcasters to clubs. So we're going to actually work these records, how we used to work these records. You know, so that's what they're paying me for because I already got my contacts. I'm basically just hooking them up with my contacts. So, but, you know, I've had some artists that had to cut off, you know, and just because, you know, I have an artist that just started rapping a year ago. He's like, yo, I'm not opening it for Rick Ross or Boosie. I'm like, bro, you know, they charge for that. You know, for most, I mean, this is good, bro. Every artist says their music is good. Your music is okay. It's not good enough to be like, yo, this guy's going to be the next Jay-Z or something. You know what I'm saying? So it's just crazy. But I, you know, I do with different personalities all the time with these new artists. And like I said, that's why I'm lucky. I'm in a position that I can pick and choose who I want to work with. Yeah, yeah. Because there is a lot of personalities out here. But you got the experience and the history behind you to where people should respect you if you're coming at them with something. But I know you say they don't. They don't care. They don't care. But is it worth dealing with them? It's not worth. It's not worth dealing with them. I mean, right now I got one artist that I work with. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, somebody new. No, he's naming you. He's an original house member of Swisher House. He just got out of jail. He's been locked up for like 13 years. Wow. And he had a big record before AD. So he should have a lot of good music right now. He's got great music. Yeah, because he's been locked up that time. He should have been writing and writing and writing. Oh, he's got an album ready to go. He just dropped his new single. It's on our, it's on our Jimmy's group. We're promoting it. It's called Crawling on Gray, featuring Paul Wall. If you look at the video is Paul Wall's Michael Watts and him on the video. It's Houston with all the slabs and everything. I mean, you basically, you even though it's 2021, you go back in time to 2001 when you hear this record. It's just, it's one of those classic Houston records. So are you just working with him? Are you signed him? No, no, I'm just working with him. Now it's crazy because before he got locked up, I actually, I didn't sign him, but I actually did an album with him. So I have an album underneath my label T-Town Music with him. And then that's when he got locked up. Wow. But it's still cool. You know what I'm saying? We're family. We talked, we corresponded back and forth while he was locked up. Yeah. Don't you just hate that? Because I've seen or heard about some of the cases where some are newer and upcoming and you see the promise. You see how good they can be. But then they get in trouble and they're gone. Well, Pop Smoke. Pop Smoke was going to be the king of New York. Yeah, he was the girl. I mean, in six months, he was on top. Yeah. And then at his seventh month mark, they killed him. He was Bobby Smrit in him. Yeah. He was part of that crew. You know what I'm saying? Bobby Smrit wasn't out yet, so he was just working his way out. As soon as he got to the top with 50 cents, they killed him. Now it's done. So now we got to wait on Bobby Smrit. Now he's out. He got to get back. See what he's going to do. You know what I'm saying? I just don't see nobody doing what Pop Smoke would have done. Yeah, the momentum. Right now, the closest thing is CJ right now. He's got that whoop-dee record. Yeah, yeah. That's the closest thing. He's like the closest New York record that's crossed over worldwide. Because New York music is different. Yeah. We're not hip-hop heads in down and south. Yeah, yeah. You know, we're more of the southern than anything. What do you like the most? Do you like, okay, I know, hold on, hold on. I know you are here in the south and you deal with a lot of southern rappers. But, because I've met some DJs who like, oh well, I'm here, but I do like up north music. Of course. So which one do you like the best? Pop Smoke was my favorite artist last year before he got killed. My favorite last year. Last year, don't play. Now he passed away. So it's like, eh, like damn. You know what I'm saying? It's like I can't put my hopes in someone who just passed. I have to move on to someone who's hot now and that I'm feeling them. So I'm feeling CJ right now. I'm feeling Poo Shiesty right now. He's with Gucci, man. Poo Gian was pretty good. He's hot. Kevin Gates, you know, sometimes it's jamming, sometimes it's not. It just depends. Because sometimes, you know, I think the last album, he was everything about Allah. Now this year, he's all Puerto Rican. So it's like, whatever he, whatever he is this month. It's like, what are you feeling, bro? You were black in the hood for New Orleans on one album. And then you like a lot in the Middle East. And now you come back with a new album. Like Puerto Rico, this Puerto Rico, that everything's Puerto Rico. So it's just, it just depends, man. Some of these artists, they come and go with me. So let's get over to the podcast. You know he does the podcast. So let's talk about that for a second before we get out here. Doing what you're doing. Is this what you always wanted to do ever since you were a kid? Man, I got a mouthpiece. My mom and dad, my mom was like, you can sell dirty underwear. You know, people would buy it again. Even though it's dirty and used, they'll buy it. Because I can just talk to people. You know what I'm saying? I can relate to people. You know, if they're having a bad day, I can relate to that. If they're having a great day, I can relate to that. You know, everyone's got an opinion. So I can relate to everybody because I'm open minded to everything. It's funny how the kids are. Because his brother is not even nothing like that. My brother? No, my brother is different. Are you the only one in your family who is like you? Kind of. My sister's a little bit like me, but she's a little bit like my brother, too. So we're all different. We're all different. Yeah, you're supposed to be different, but your brother, you would think, too, oh, he's going to be nothing. He's more quieter. He's like my youngest son. Is he like your dad, though? Your dad would be chilling, man. Yeah, my dad's real quiet. Yeah, my dad's real quiet. My dad's real quiet. He used to try to whoop me up over there. Try? I think he did. Watch out, man. I don't think anybody would be my dad. Your dad's something else, man. We used to be over there shooting all the time. My dad taught me how to play pool. Yeah, we used it. That was what we'd done over there. Like, a long time ago for years. I used to be in there with him. So when did you realize you wanted to do this business? I've been in the music business of the podcast. Music. Music. I've been in music all my life. My uncle was a DJ back in the 70s and early 80s. So, you know, he's a couple years older. He's probably 15 years older than me. So when I was eight years old, I'd go to his DJ room and he didn't let nobody in his DJ room, nobody. But I was the oldest nephew he had. So he's like, come and sit down. Don't do nothing. Don't say nothing. Don't even bother me. Sit down. Because he would practice before Friday nights. Because he had to get ready. He'd buy some new vinyl, clean it up. You know, get a mix of some funk, you know what I'm saying? Parliament, Rick Jan. Whatever. He kind of just mixed it up. I'm like, ah, man. All right. And I was eight years old and I was like, can you show me? He's like, nah, you're too young. You're too young. So I just sit in there and he, you know, he had the DJ speakers, the whole DJ setup in his bedroom. He had a little space where his mattress was. And that was it. Everything else was DJ speakers on lights and he had the glow-in-the-dark posters and the fishnet hanging down. I mean, he had that real 80s room. They were popping back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was what was up. I wanted to be a DJ. So I told my uncles, man, I want to learn. He's like, all right, I'm going to teach you when you get a little bit older. So about nine, nine and a half, 10, he started showing me, okay, this is what you do. This is how you clean the record. This is how you mix. This is what this is. This is a mixture. This is a pitch control. So he started showing me slowly but surely. And that, I just fell in love with it. And plus I've been a music guy all my life because of him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would always just sit in his room and just listen to music he played. And he played great music. And then one thing about Hispanics, I'm pretty sure everybody, but we played not just clubs. We did Quinceañeras. Quinceañeras. And when you do Quinceañeras. That's a big old party. You got to play it all. You got to play country, Spanish, Mexican, you know, hip-hop, old school, oldies. So my uncle was practicing all that because he had a 15 or a wedding and then he had a club gig. So my mind was everywhere with all the music. I'm like, what is that? What is this? And what is that? And he's like, oh, this is a new Rick James. Who's that? You know what I'm saying? Like, this is the old, you know, Chuck Berry. You know, why are you playing this? Well, you know, I'm going to have some older people. I got to play that. This is the hit. What is this? This is a new artist named Prince. Oh, really? Man, he looks cool. He was showing me the old hours of long hair and stuff. So it was like, he was just showing me. I was in school. And you were eager to learn because you were asking all these questions. I was asking questions. And I'm pretty sure I got on his nerves, but he was very patient with me, which he has no patience. My uncle does not have no patience. He's like me. I have no patience at all. He made me think about that little dude that was at the magic always, the little dude to be DJ. You done seen him as a little kid. He's growing up now. That was you as we were seeing him at magic. He was young. Probably about 11 or 12. He did that every since. At magic. He'd be in Vegas. Every time we go. Baby G. That's him. That's my boy. That's him. He did it right on the nail. Baby G. Yeah. No, man. Like I said, I was blessed. Like I said, so I was always going to be part of the music business. But how hard is it to start your own, like for a person who is listening, who, you know, whether it be a rapper or inspiring to own their own label or something like that, because you're successful. You're very successful at what you did or what you're doing. How can they learn from your mistakes? How can they be successful in that same career? Okay. So to be successful, you have to learn lessons. Don't say, I'm taking a loss. I'm taking a loss. I mean, you can't be negative all the time. Everything you do, I just learned. I just learned. You lose money here. I just learned. You took a hit here. I just learned. You got to kind of keep everything positive. But if you take everything like, damn man, I don't even want to do this. I just lost 10 grand. You're not going to be successful because you're giving up already. You're giving up. I never gave up. I worked a daytime job. I worked construction with my dad. And so whatever I made between 6 a.m. and 2 o'clock, okay, my dad had me that schedule there. I come home, shower, open up my store at 3 o'clock. And this was in 1994 when I just opened up my retail shop. So I was at my shop from 4 to 8.30 selling CDs. I might have made some money. I might have not. That made no money that day. But regardless, every time I got a paycheck, I would put it into my store. Now it would be broken. My dad was like, you broke? I said, I'm broke. I just paid you $500 this week. I said, I'm broke. I just stocked up my store. But you're not selling nothing. I said, I'm going to sell. I'm going to sell. So eventually, I started selling CDs. Yeah, I had faith in what I was doing. Right. And that's one thing about these artists these days. They don't have faith in what they're doing. And the reason I said, people say, oh, man, you're wrong. Okay. For example, when an artist comes to you, what's the first thing they say? Sign me, Lopez. Sign me. Well, I got to sign you. You got confidence in your music. You got to sign yourself. Right. Where's your money? Right. Nah, George, you put a million dollars into me. We're going to split that together. How are we going to split my money? That's already my money. Right. I get that all the time. You know what I'm saying? So when they see somebody with little money, I'm going to sign me. Nah, bro, that means you don't have confidence in yourself. How true is the statement? You have to spend money to make money. That's very true. That's very, very true. So the way, the example that I followed was Master P. I got to work with him for a few years. And his thing was make a dollar out of 15 cents. So that means if I'm putting 15 dollars, I'm going to make a hundred? I'm down. If I make a hundred, if I put in a hundred, I'm going to make a thousand? That's what I looked at. These days, they don't look at that. These days, man, I need to get signed right now. Who's going to sign me? They hit all these labels. They don't want to give anything but get a lot back. Exactly. Get a lot back. And then when they, let's say they make half a million. Man, that label screwed me. Tell me, you just made half a million. You need to spend that one dime. Not my talent. Man, your talent ain't nothing, bro. It's just like, it's just like water and cement mix. Cement mix is there. When you add the water, it becomes cement. But without the water, you just cement mix. You know, it takes one to help the other. So if you're an artist, you need a label or distribution to help you out to get your music out there to become worldwide artists. People like Travis, who went with Kanye. People like Post Malone, who went with the label. They all learn. You got to take a little hit to make something. You know what I'm saying? You got to give a little to make a little. Because it's so hard, though. I got a question for you. It's crazy. How's this George Lopez name versus the other George Lopez either made a good impact or a bad impact on you? Oh, who you are? You see what I'm saying? There's a negative and a positive to that. I know because my name Elvis. So that's why I'm asking. I can relate. When people look up George Lopez, we've been looking you up all week. We look up. I'll think I'll never beat that guy. That guy's got a star Hollywood. You pop up Dallas, George Lopez. That's what you have to do. You have to type in Dallas, George Lopez or DSR or T-Town Music. You're going to have to put that up. So what's the negative? What's the positive? Is that the negative? The negative is all these these guys when they say, we're going to go meet George Lopez. The comedian? Come on, man. They don't know the T-Town or the DSR George Lopez. They don't know because they're too young. So one thing about the new age guys, they don't do no homework. I met a guy last week. He's like, dude, I've been in Dallas all my life. I never heard of you. I heard of George Lopez as a comedian, but I never heard of you. What do you do? Because you have the younger people. They stay on this phone all the time. And you can research anything and anybody from this phone. Why not? So the thing is, why are you going to change the channel when you got it on BET all day? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, you got channel 4, you got channel 8, 11, but everyone in Pleasant Grove watch Bounce because that channel is for free on K, on Time Warner. So you're watching Bounce, you're watching all those old movies all day. You're not going to get up. It's the same thing with YouTube. All these YouTube artists are coming up way before my time, way before DSR time. So those YouTube artists are coming up every minute. There's a new artist from some. So they're looking at all the new artists. They're not even changing the YouTube channel. They're not going, they're not typing in George Lopez, DSR Dallas, you know, 2001. No, they're just next. Future, NBA, Drake, Future, NBA, Drake. That's all they're seeing, repetitive artists or Joe Blow just came out today. And he's got green hair with gold grill and doodle braids and they're going, they're looking at that. It's entertaining. I just think about that new track, that new song by Old Town Road Boy. I was just about to ask him. I haven't heard the song. You've seen the video. I haven't heard the song. I ain't seen the video, but I heard about it. It's satanic. Yeah. Man, you're reading my mind. Why are you in my head? Get out my head. I'm just asking the question of people. I just thought about that. It's great. I had a conversation with my son yesterday about that because my son's in a trippy red and little oozy and they're rock stars into the satanic. So they don't take it that far. And they know when they get to a pop stage, they got to back away from that. Now Nas, he jumped into the pop stage. Now he's going backwards. He's actually hurting his career by doing all that negative stuff. Because it's so crazy because it was a guest of ours who told us about it. Because it pops up on your phone. It came up, but I don't really look at him. All negative stuff is going to pop up on your phone every second. It came up, that Nas X, whatever, but I didn't look at it. But our guest, he's like, he was told us about it. He's like, no, y'all need to watch this video. Because the kids go watch it. We're like, no, we don't want to see, we don't want to see nothing satanic. But then, he made a good point. He's like, let me tell you these young kids, because they're on these phones, on YouTube, they're watching this. They're watching it. Because I even asked him, the first thing I asked him, I said, tell me how many views it has. It's been out one day. Not even a day. Not even a day. It had over 12 million views. And I'm like, are you serious? And I know that it's all these kids who are watching it. But how can you watch? To me, I looked at him like, okay, that's satanic. It shows the devil. It shows all sorts of stuff. And I'm like, how can you feel comfortable watching this thing? I just thank God. And supporting him. I thank God my kids know, know about God. That they able to understand. They can see it one time, so this is not for me. They gonna know. But then you got these other kids who are their parents. Don't talk to their kids. Don't have them in church. Kids are failing, skipping school. Those kids will be like, man, they're into it. They're attracted to it for some reason. But then there's kids that are smart, who have great parents. And they got role models in their family. They're like, this is crazy. I'm not watching this crap again. So yeah, it's gonna happen. Like I said, both of my kids watched it. And they're like, that's crazy. We're never watching that again. We're not even gonna play little knots again. And even though he's got a new shoe and the bottom of the shoe has the devil on it. Yes. If you turn the shoe over, it's like a mirror. What's wrong with him? This is what he said. Everyone's saying, I'm gay. I'm gonna go to hell anyway. So, oh, I'm gonna run with it. I'm gonna hell anyway. So that's the reason why he did it. That's the reason he said it straight up. I'm doing it because everybody says I'm gonna hell anyway. So I'm gonna deal with the devil. I'm with the devil. Y'all calling me a devil anyway because I'm gay. Okay. Who called him a devil? Everybody who's against, whoever's homophobic. They're saying. But you can't, you should be. You can't just listen to tune in to what everybody say that's negative about you. Everyone has opinion. You don't have to take it, though. That's right. It's like, okay. When I'm watching that, to me, I'm like, okay, for him to be so bold and do something like that, you must be like a devil worshiper or something like that. That's what came across to me. To me, that's just being weak. He's feeding into what people were telling him. Like, you're gonna go to the devil, so he might as well just hang with the devil. Okay, cool. And that's not, if you're strong, you're gonna believe in what's right. But I can't say stuff like that because you're like, George, he has an opinion, so whatever he does, he has an opinion. Leave him alone. I'm not going after him. I'm just answering the question when people ask me. You manage artists. How much say so does a manager have over an artist of what they put out? Because then he is a manager as well. So how can they influence him with what he wants to do? Okay. Our situation was different. Tea time music, I was a manager and those are my artists at the same time. So my thing is, me and my cousin Trini, we talked about, this is what we want from the guys. So I would sit down or he would sit, we would all sit down and say, look, man, we want you to do this. And then they would come up with a, how you say, like, well, we get that, but we want to do it like this also because this and this and that. And then we're like, okay, you know what, two opinions, it works. So we always came to the middle on every situation. Always. But if you didn't like what they had to say or what they wanted to do, how does that work? We never got to that point. That's why DSR, we've never got to that point. It's a great relationship. It's a great relationship. Now I got into that with other artists and they're like, I'm just going to do what I do, George, because this is my money on anyway. I'm paying for my own and I'm paying you. I said, okay, you know what, put your stuff out. That's cool. I ain't got to work on it. I'm good. We're done. That's it. I can walk away from it. You know, because I'm like, dude, I got the years of experience. This is not going to be good, but I want to do it. Just do it without me. I can do that when I manage different artists and they're going through a marketing company. But as far as DSR, it's like we always work to the middle of something. Like me and Trini wanted a certain look, a certain sound and they wanted the same thing, but they wanted to switch it up and we'd come to the middle and talk about it. And you know what? It makes sense. At the end of the day, these are, these are good guys. These are good guys. So it's like, if they were like troublemakers, I'm like, bro, man, but it wasn't like that with none of these guys. These guys, we all worked it out and it made sense to, on their opinions, it made sense. One thing, me and Trini are older than the artists. So we value their opinion on everything and everything they wanted to do, they would bring it to like, we want to do this, we want to do that. We're like, all right, let's make it happen. We had the money. We were the CEO. We're like, let's make it happen. Because at the end of the day, we want to keep the artists happy. And if the artist is happy because we're selling records, then we're happy because we're selling records. Now the artist got what he wanted. And we got what we wanted because he's selling records. It's a win-win situation for everybody. But some people are like, they want to hold down the artists and don't let them have no opinions or no say so. They're actually hurting the artists because one thing about artists, real artists, they're great because they're artists. They're not just rappers. There's a huge difference between rappers and artists. So when it comes down to artistry, we kind of sit back and we're like, you know what? It actually makes sense. Y'all are rare because it wasn't many people coming out of Dallas when you guys came out. Not at our time. Not at our time. That was the difference in them? Before us, you had Pukin Lucha before us. It was a rare thing, man. It wasn't really a lot. Yeah. Before you had Pukin Lucha, then before them, you had the Nemesis. Nemesis? That's right. You know, Ron C, Trent Setter. You had those guys. You had Fresh Art Productions at a Pleasant Grove in South Dallas. You know, those are classic artists. And then, of course, then everybody else started coming in. So the doors kind of wide open. I always go back to what Kiki Jay told us one time and it made a lot of sense. She said, George, y'all came in way before y'all's time, way before y'all's time. He goes, y'all should have been, right now, y'all should have been like Post Malone right now. But because y'all came in when there was no social media and y'all's music was way advanced, that's why your music is timeless. But as far as being a huge artist like Post Malone and Travis, y'all are not going to get that because y'all came in too early because there was no social media then. But your music is timeless. That's why your music has lasted 20 years on a radio. Like today, I heard South Salinas at least four times. I heard Caprice music at least one to twice a day, every day. You know what I'm saying? Those records, and then what other artists can say that in Dallas that they get their records played on every station, every day? They can't. And like I said, I'm not in competition with any artist. I respect all the artists. I'm just saying we were blessed to do what we did. And like I said, it was a great scenario on us. She's like, Joe, y'all just came in way before y'all's time. Definitely, man. I appreciate you coming. But I wanted to ask about the podcast. Man, take your time. Which one? I just got one. I think she's still got a question. No, no. She's done. She's done. Man, come on, man. Quit cutting her mic off, man. Come on, man. No, the thing I wanted to ask you was how the podcast life's out. You know, you guys been added longer than us. So I just was trying to say your feel on it. I like... I love it, bro. I love talking to artists. I love talking to people that are actually making moves out there. There's a lot of people I don't know who they are. I got a great partner named Z-Star and she goes under Z-Star Productions, Z-Star Rock Productions. And she brings attention to a lot of up-and-coming producers, engineers, people in the entertainment business and she brings them to her show. And I'm learning every day on every interview. I might know half the people that I do interview with, but the other half I don't know who they are. That's the same thing with you. And like I said, people like, it's your show. It's our show. So two heads are better than one. So when she has an opinion and she has an artist that she wants to bring to that she think is going to make our show better, let's do it. I'm that type of person. I'm like, let's do it. You know what I'm saying? And we all sit back and talk like, okay, why are we doing this and why are we doing this? Okay, boom. That's why we're doing it. Let's do it. But you know, this show has been great. I think we're up to 75 episodes already. And we haven't published them all yet. We just had an issue with two of our episodes Spotify. The Universal has taken them down because two engineers that we had on our show actually produced these records. So we, of course, every engineer, every producer that comes to our show, they bring music that they produce. And we play it. But I guess you got to let the label know, because the label's things were still in like, look, we had the producer on our show. Yeah, but it wasn't cleared. It's his music. So the, I had to get the producers to hit email Universal like, look, bro, they would just pulled our interview from you off of Spotify and Apple podcast because they say, you got to let them know. Wow. Okay, cool. So now our two producers had to call Universal. I had to email them. There's a certain email. You hit them up and they supposedly release it faster. We'll see. That's crazy. I think, like I said, we, we've seen, we've seen different relationships building between all this, man. Oh yeah. And it's a great, it's a great conversation starter, right? It's a network, it's a network builder. It is. This right here is a network builder because people you haven't talked to in a while, all of a sudden you're talking to them again. You know what I'm saying about relationships, you're bringing back old relationships. So it's a growing, it's a growing thing. It's growing, you know, your networks get bigger and bigger with the listeners. Yeah. And there's listeners out there that really want to get involved with you. So I'm pretty sure the email and you are being, want to be asking you questions. Hey man, I just want to say, man, we wanted to invite you here to give you your roses while you are here with us so we could give them to you. Appreciate. We wanted to give you this plaque. She usually do it over here. So we, but I just appreciate you, we love you. Appreciate it. Boss talk one of one loves George Lopez. Exactly. The real, the official George Lopez. The D town, George Lopez. The D town, T town music, Lopez. Yes, sorry, George Lopez. Let's get it. Hey man, thank you so much, man. We love you bro. Appreciate it. Thank you. Boss talk one of one. Yeah. George Lopez. Yes. Dallas George Lopez. Thank you. We love you, we love you too, thank you so much. Thank you so much. We love you too, thank you so much. The music industry with T town music with DSR over 30 years is what we have. That correct? Definitely. Definitely. Okay. Okay. So it says what? In recognition of the work you have done in the music industry for over 30 years, t town music DSR and this jockey industry because that's where you started. Definitely. Thank you. We thank you and we appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I'm not good at that I'm like I'm like like uh what's the name of Apocino and Godfather. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I can't I'm not good at speeches man. I just want to thank both of y'all for man man I appreciate all these years. Everything you done done man. It's a no-brainer Appreciate it. Given roses are why you here bro. I see that bro. That's what we got to do I appreciate it. So I think that's what gonna sell us apart. That was our deal We thought we're gonna give awards to the people that deserve it in the city. That's good man. People don't show appreciation