 It's the mat work. What's up everybody once again is brand man and I have another link up today. I'm linking up with Danny Asadi. This guy is an electronic and hip hop producer in a live trap instrumentalist. I say that right right that is instrumentalist or artist. You're an artist. Let's be an artist. Artist a full blown artist and this guy has one of the best brands I've seen in as far as just producers who are doing their thing the way he conceptualized everything as a whole. We'll get into that. I want to see how much is intentional and how much is just organic and you don't even know what's happening. But yo Danny what's up man. I'm so glad to have you. I appreciate you having all. Dude like I'm honored to be interviewed by you. I watch your videos all the fucking time. So thank you. Appreciate it man. Appreciate it. Let's start here because I want to get right into the hustle of things. Before you know thing we hopped on we were talking about the hustle of getting to where you are now which I wanted to go to Vanity for people who need Vanity to know that people are worth listening to. You got 270k on Instagram right now. You're verified. You get a lot of views. You know important people follow you all that good stuff right. But like before and to get to this period you had to hustle right. And you talked about like you were just in a mode right. You were zoned out not necessarily appreciating things from a standpoint of happiness. So before we even get into any philosophy what did that what did that mindset that DNA really look like to get you where you were. I know you might not say it was necessary but you know I think it's necessary. It was necessary. Who were you in those moments. Yeah like who are you. Okay well yeah so I go by artist's name Asadi and I Danny Asadi is my full name. Daniel Asadi is my full name. People call me Danny. I grew up in Columbus Ohio. I was born in Dallas, Texas but I was like there for a month. But most of my life I was in Columbus. When I was probably I mean ever since I was like a little kid I love music. I really got into it the older and older I got. I was in a band you know then I started getting into producing music in high school and I was obsessed with it. Well no one around me did music production. No one DJ none of that crap. People barely played the guitar around me to begin with. I was raised in a very privileged like suburban white community. Everyone wanted to be like a doctor or this or that and so I was really hungry and kind of I think that's when I started developing this kind of attitude where I just really wanted it. And I took it very very seriously and that hunger just kept growing. And when I was like 19 I went to Full Sail University in Orlando. I started taking it even more seriously there and being about our production. And at the same time I was really getting into like playing that shit live. And while I'm at school you know I'm meeting all these professors and alumni's I would visit and they got Grammys they put this and that artists and all that stuff you know. And I'm just like every time I got some sort of like I don't know like every time I got some sort of like window of like what the industry is like and people actually doing it I was like motherfucker I want that you know. And so I don't know I think it came from when I was I'd say when I grew up in Columbus and everyone around me was telling me like you're not gonna make it. It's luck or you know it's you should take it as a hobby go to school for go to medical school go to go to school for like being an engineer or something like that you know. And it was I was really like no I don't want to do that screw this this is depressing I want to make music this is my passion. And I just didn't want any excuse to get in the way. I wanted to know everything it takes to make it in the industry. I never did drugs or alcohol because everyone was telling me how people didn't make it or whatever because they became drug addicts stuff. I didn't I immediately like found a mentor because I heard from someone like y'all you need to get a man anything I heard that felt right in my gut I was like I need that I need to do it I need to do it I need to do it and one of those things was you know making a lot making being consistent right like how you always talk about it making songs releasing songs consistently making content releasing content consistently I was trying to figure it out at first and I only did like a video a month and that did great for me because back then the algorithm was just like you make one video it could get like 300,000 views and you've never made a video before you know um yeah rest in peace Facebook but um so I I was doing that once a month I would make like six videos and I like worked so hard to make these six videos release one once a month and that's kind of how I started like really understanding wow this shit's working all I gotta do is make these videos make this music and do it consistently um and I guess long story short that's pretty much what I've been uh dedicating my passion towards for the past like three years and um I think looking back I like the positive um the positive things that the things that I accomplished were definitely like yo you work hard you hustled you were consistent good for you now look at you you got 270,000 followers on Instagram you got all these plays on Spotify you got all these uh plays on these videos and the other side of me is like man you could have been a lot more positive about this shit you know um well you know I I was I don't know about you but or anyone watching who's a musician or producer when you get advice from you know people who've done it and they're on YouTube or you know uh doing lectures or alumni's from uh from your college telling you giving you life advice it's all about being diligent working hard you know that kind of stuff but I never learned about like you gotta be you gotta enjoy it you know you gotta enjoy it you gotta have fun you gotta you know go out a little bit and um be fucking be social and uh but also I'm more specifically about the process like enjoy it you know don't make something because oh this is what I need to do to be famous you know make something because you like it even if no one is gonna like it and I realized looking back the ones that I just love I just wanted to make the songs that I just wanted to make the videos I just felt like making those are the ones that made me um that was a big like w for me not the ones that were like forced you know I forget sometimes you know there's a human element to being a content creator on the internet you know how many videos have you at your peak of like I'm on it I'm on it I'm on it I need to do this yeah yeah what do you make it a day well I'd say because the the way my videos are set up is I have to do them in chunks and I have to really plan them because I don't just sit here and just do this in front of my you know computer all day like I have to go to a nice location make sure it has a good theme make sure the song is well prepared all that kind of stuff and you know that takes a lot of planning and time and I also like to incorporate a lot of collaborations which we can get to later so I'd say I mean it's more about like I do a chunk of videos like 30 videos 30 to 40 videos for the next like I don't know fall season or winter season what are you doing that's interesting I never thought of someone doing it in terms of music that's pretty cool and that explains a little bit about again that aesthetic like all right I'm not gonna play for the volume sake but yeah I mean you have these cool as environments that's what I mean as far as being one of the best branded people I've seen man there's always exactly what you said right exactly what you said you do it comes across like there's always these cool locations this cool aesthetic that's part of why I'd like I didn't even think you lived in the country man like I was like where like what beautiful place like what place has all these beautiful places you know what I mean like there's no place that I know yeah so uh that's that's right there Santa Clarita California right above LA the if you look at the one on the top left with D sharp on the violin that's uh that's in his patio um I you know because when you do like a frame if you really think about it um you just gotta find something that has a lot of color and looks good but it's just in that frame you don't need to worry about like the video uh with um with the violinist there's there was like construction and shit happening in the background really and it was yeah there was just a bunch of stuff around him that we didn't have in the shop you know that kind of stuff um I think you just gotta have a I'd say you gotta you gotta really I for the longest time I cared about um like the aesthetic of my videos like just make sure they're not like they're clear they're nice they look good you know they're like I like my videos to be a little bit like eye candy you know they are man they really I mean they really are the different sets setups man one of my favorites I think the the first one that I like just watch watch was like yo I probably watched it 50 times it was actually this one right here oh look to kill it yeah I think they were my this was my first time seeing them which you made me become a fan of them I went and looked them up and everything and saw that they were on Ellen the scene was dope you were dope I was like this is crazy so I mean that so thank you man the way I mean I think if I gotta give any life advice to anyone trying to make it is and I mean I what am I to say because I haven't I don't think I like actually made it yet um I still consider myself as an up-and-coming artist but you know like what make sure you have an like practice um having an eye for things you know like on the spot like really think your best on making sure that the that it looks good or you know it sounds good and all that kind of stuff yeah it's like a practice it's like you know it's like working out like you gotta if you don't uh perfect practice makes things perfect you just gotta practice like having a good design um element you know that kind of thing definitely get it man even though it takes a short amount of time I'm in a longer about a time at the beginning over time when you build that catalog and you just get better at it so you do it faster you get the result of a page like yours right and it's not all about the instagram page but you get the result of a career where whether it's your instagram page or your your music videos or whatever you do it has that right like anything that you touch now has a sense of that energy so I definitely agree with it and I think you're a walking um testimonial of it and you said you haven't made it yet in your mind what level like what it what does making it look like to you have you had a specific goal in mind or is it just but nah I don't even want to imply any answers I wouldn't let you talk yeah is it a specific goal in mind how does that work for you I want to be so freaking successful and famous that if I walk I can't even walk into a grocery store that's what I want to be I want to be like I want to yeah I want to be like just top top of the food chain I want to just call the shots I just want to sit in my chair and be like I call the shots now you know yeah I mean shoot for the stars and I think that I mean you've got to be happy wherever you are you know wherever you are career wise you always got to be grateful you're just in a balance still wanting more right like being grateful but also a little bit cocky okay so what do you think based off your analysis in somebody who's already walked a certain you know amount of road how what does the road ahead look like right you made the progress you made but to get to that level in your mind what does what is it what have you studied in terms of what you need to do to become one of those people I mean at the end of the day I have no fucking idea but I just gotta give it a try act like I know and I think what I what I'm acting like I know now is collaboration but this time instead of focusing so much on collaborating on doing Instagram videos I'm focusing more on actually actual songs because as great as my Instagram is I cared way too much about it looking back I think I cared cared about it more than I cared about my Spotify actual music I know kids that have like 2,000 followers on Instagram but you know they're making way more Spotify streams than me way more and that really made me realize like dude you gotta have a balance not don't throw all your energy on one platform just because it's the poppin one look and look now TikTok's gonna blow up and Instagram is gonna be like Facebook and all that hard work I put into 270,000 followers is gonna go down the drain unless if I get started on TikTok which I did that's what I want to do I want to balance with with all the networks so that's one thing I want to do the collaboration aspect is that way I can get other people's spot of my followers to check out my content but that's like my business brain my artist brain is also like I really want to collaborate I've been working on music like on my own for the longest time and it's just super fun to collaborate with other people so that's what I that's my like main thing right now so collaborating on active music yeah and I think I want I want to secure that um collaboration hustles reaching the politics of it you know like reaching out to other people making music and all the way to the end product and doing that for and never giving up on that like I never gave up on my content creation you know it's interesting that you say that it is a muscle because what I think it translates everything that you're knowing translates which if I had to bet on you I would say you would be successful moving forward because creating the eye having the the perfection towards the content that you were creating on instagram that's going to help all right help not guarantee but help you on tiktok but that's also going to help you and your other artwork and however you catalog things but then also the collaboration yep once you know how to collaborate with people social media the rest of business is is collaboration collaborating on music collaborating in partnerships which is a harder part of of the game right just the actual basis of things and understanding yeah navigate your own ego and other people's egos but those the people who do it best in the industry you got to do it I one of my biggest struggles is communication because all I know is music you know the whole like you know from small talk to you know getting a cool deal together establishing relationships and stuff I'm like just getting into that which is really weird I mean I should have really taken that more seriously too I think these past few years I mean I'm not that I'm like it's too late but that's that's one thing I want to learn probably something you know way more than me I think that's really important is to like understand how to um I don't want to say deal with because you have an ego you're like I have an ego too but like you know other people's egos you got to have some respect you know think about like one thing I learned is it's always a good idea to think about what the other person wants and try to help them before you tell them what you want like like for a simple example I'd say like if you're in a studio and the first thing the person you're working with is like I want this I want that I think we should do this I think we should do that and that person doesn't have the set time of day to even tell you like ask you uh what do you think we should do what what is your opinion you know yeah and uh yeah just like you know don't be ignorant that was me like I'm always like I know what I want let's do it this way and obviously that's big dick move but you know yeah yeah I mean hey I mean I think in one way we watch so many people do that like so many people that a lot of times people admire seem like hey we just come into Rome and XYZ this is me especially in the entertainment world right in the back end especially when there's these people that are oftentimes even bigger than them because of business and controlling everything you have to be able to navigate and play that ego game and I don't even mean that negatively because even what you said as far as dealing with other people's egos oftentimes causes you to deal with your own ego because the only reason their ego becomes a problem is also the conflict with your own ego right right I managed this and how do I not escalate the process or make something go awry just because I have my own ego issues to deal with so it's an aspect of things but I think acknowledging that you have one is always going to be the first step and then it's not something you should try to get rid of it's just how do I channel it positively productively right it's a tool to be used but most people are like they're victims of their ego you know what I mean versus masters of it right I think two things that I um had for the longest time unfortunately was I was I felt like one the whole world was against me I acted like you know like I acted like everyone was out to get me and um I think it came from it definitely came from like back in 2017 I had a really good agent and he got me like 30 festival gigs and like no one knew me at the time I was like 20k on no 15k on instagram just because of a video and viral um and like 70k on facebook or whatever it didn't really matter but he just liked my music and he was like let's get you some shows and he had a lot of connections and a week later I'm getting like all these offers to play shows for money that I've never I never had this much money before like I was like 19 and um but when I went to these shows some of them a lot of them actually were really um I realized like the show industry even what even the most professional ones even the biggest ones um you know you can't control all the employees there and a lot of them do some like really fucking annoying shit you know and um there's been festivals I've been to where I had to just walk all day following this person just to collect a check to like not collecting like not getting paid um a lot of times there was a lot of times oh my god this was the worst I now I remember this is the worst I show up and they have my tech writer right everything I need to perform it's not much but it's very specific things that I need like I need a drum throne because I sit like I sit on the chair or at least a chair right and um I'm not a DJ I think everyone kept thinking I was a DJ but I'm playing on the pads and the audience needs to see me perform like I worked so hard learning how to play this shit live I'm not about to have that blocked off by a DJ booth you know so my I always sent my tech writer I always sent it they even the buyers even signed it like that we read it you know um and I show up and they're like all right what do you want CDJs and I'm like dude did you read my writer so yeah I go on stage and uh nothing set up and I'm freaking out and I'm like oh my god like I don't have anything you know so that happened a lot um another festival man there was like a really really trashy um like limousine service I think you know and yeah I almost died long story short it was like the guy's car um his brakes failed and I don't know maybe god was watching over me but I was I was like hey can you stop by like a convenience store I just want to like grab some water or something like that see the guy's like yeah I'm going for him he pulls in as he pulled in out from the highway which by the way he was going 80 miles per hour he pulled in to the parking lot and his brakes failed and we were there for like an hour waiting for another ride yeah it was crazy um yeah a lot of shit anyways I'm getting off topic um I think and oh and I never had a manager I I'd like tried out managers so I never had like my guy with me I never had anyone around me so when I went to all these festivals it's all on my own so I felt like I had to like really defend myself so that that was the defensive attitude got you and from that from that when it comes to negotiating deals when it comes to like even getting like opportunities in the first place I wouldn't even think like financially I would think this guy's trying to screw me over you know what I mean or I would think even if I got an opportunity I'd be like okay what what the fuck this is like what is this guy you know uh another another side of me I think was like the ego thing like I really thought I really thought I deserved things like not like instead of like deserving something like you want to say you earn something you work hard to actually get it and if you haven't gone yet then you just got to keep working hard but my attitude was like I'd compare a lot like like I would I would be trying to you know run as fast as I can to jump over this cliff and make it over to the other cliff you know and I keep failing and I keep failing and but I see people who from what I see you know from my point of view like how should hand it to them and are soaring over me to the other side you know what I mean and now that's a wrong mindset obviously because you have first of all man yeah because yeah because first of all you don't know what who they are what they've been through you have no idea and second of all like that's life like you're always going to see people soar over you you're always going to fail your way to success it's always going to seem like when you make it there were hundreds of other people who made it before you but one thing that I never um learned until not too long ago was but when you make it you made it and that's all that matters you know and that immediately just shut off my whole attitude about I deserve this I deserve that I've earned more it's like I'm going to keep working hard and I know I'm going to get it one day whether it's tomorrow or you know two or three years from now and believe it or not I've been getting amazing opportunities I mean I'm like that and I'm the least stressed that I've ever been um and you know I'm just happy because I don't care about that kind of I don't have that attitude anymore you know that that's what I was talking about earlier when we were talking before this interview was like um that's one thing I didn't learn from the the mentors I always learned about how to hustle because you know most people and unfortunately but fortunately because that's competition for me most people don't have the hustle that like you and I have most people don't really have it right you've got all these crazy um awesome like programs and videos and free content on youtube to really learn how to technically hustle how to financially hustle how to have your mind right you know um in the music industry though they don't really talk to you about like how to how to like actually have your mind right you know um and I think like a lot of times you know when you when you see like motivational speakers and stuff you don't really relate that to your music as much as you obviously would with brand man shot right like when you watch brand man shot your mind your your music hat is on uh when you're um when you're watching like you know tony robbins or whatever your your tony robbins has you know you're jumping on your trampoline but uh but I never like I thought I was like combining the two but I never I never really was into like not too long it's difficult the pressure that comes from watching so many other people you know you get that external input and now it's fucking up your own progress the way you think about yourself the way you see the world and it creates that unhappiness it creates that anxiety and even like you said it's perfect knowing who you are now you start to be in conflict with the world everybody's against me something's working against me how come not me how come not me now all right yeah in that process especially when you add an industry that can be as chaotic as music we've been trained um you know from childhood through a very segmented system or a structured system and you do this on the test a b c b plus e f like this is the answer to the test you get 100 I always tell people someone gonna have and then and then you look at your friend and your friend got an a and he was like oh I studied for this test this morning and I was like dude I've been studying for the past week for this test why did I get a fucking c on this and you got an a that's life and even worse than that music unlike school someone you have these answers and have an a you can copy those answers and fail in the real life right right just because you have the same answers and music I just so many other factors is so nuanced so I definitely understand that period and I feel like people who make it through that period are able to come out of it un you know I won't even say I'm scarred because the scars may be a lesson or reminder but unjaded right the older people who could win with both sides the success and the happiness spiritually have you want to look at it now tell me this though you never had a manager right never at all right I never I never have to manager like I've tried out managers every once in a while and it just never worked for me man like I guess maybe my expectations are too high because a lot of the stuff that managers do I already do on my own so I don't really need a manager except for the for the politics for someone who knows a lot of people that I don't know that can be a benefit to me if that person can just simply finesse those connections I mean I'll sign up for the starting team you know but I think a lot of managers that I've tried out like probably three or four managers in the past and first they say they know a lot of people because they know it's important that to the artist that you know they're well connected and but the at the end of the day it's like are you gonna do something about it though are you going to reach out are you gonna you know give me opportunities or at least give me potential opportunities that even if it didn't work out out of your control the fact that you do it makes you a manager to me right but I think a lot of a lot of managers out there they they their job is to like develop an artist and I don't need development necessarily I need opportunity to grow I'll develop myself so that's why I never really had ended up having a manager because a lot of them will just they ended up kind of twiddling their thumbs and not doing what I truly need them to do yeah I mean that you need to bring something to the table whoever you are on the team and yes there are plenty of artists who require certain things but there's some artists most things and doesn't mean you don't need it you can't use a manager but the manager has to has to be a compliment they have to add something it can't just be a generic one size fits all so I get that but what about the fact that I think 2017 you said you had a really good agent who got you on all those shows so do you not have that agent yeah man it sucks that guy was awesome um he left like the music industry like the dude just told me one day he was like man I can't do this anymore I hate my job I hate doing this I'm done I'm going to law school dude went to law school became a construction lawyer but uh I was like man I feel you I understand you know like I I totally totally understood where he came from like he was awesome man I mean he uh kind of referred me to another agent and two things were happening one the agent he referred me to uh I believe out of his knowledge because I don't think he would just pass it along to some inexperienced person but inexperienced she was inexperienced um she just wasn't in the game for a while she didn't know a lot of people and like she was an assistant agent for a long time and just became an agent and you know I just it just wasn't working out you know so we just kind of pardoned ways and then also the second thing was the agency just kind of fell apart you know I don't know the one of the biggest agents in that agency like laughed and took all his artists maybe there was like a fight or something but they just went as uh like as strong as they they used to be you know it's unfortunate but um that was the reason and you know ever since then I was um I've been looking for an agent and I've tried a couple of agents out they didn't really weren't weren't as weren't as great um you know but it's hard now I think I was just lucky honestly I think I was just lucky you know I made a video there was a guy who had a lot of connections um who uh he had a lot of connections and but he loved live electronic artists and he wanted to get me shows and I just think that that was really cool and two things I've learned um politics is so important like being connected being being that guy you know I mean that's so important um but equally as important as important is obviously being a good artist creating good content yeah what do you yeah right um in terms of maybe some failures you've had with politics and then what's maybe a tip now that you would give old self with politics yeah I know you probably don't think of yourself as perfect and that politician type guy still but I'm sure you have better I would say don't like bug people so much you know like I I would I would like try to really pressure people to like work are you working or like what's taking so long are we doing this we're doing that I don't know I think maybe it's because I'm just so like quick with things I don't like to wait around and whatnot I produce my I produce mix and master my own music because I like to wait on people to finish my songs you know that's my attitude so you know or like making videos um I just don't I don't I don't like to wait on people to do videos and stuff and um I like I try to use my tripod as much as possible to feel so I can just do it all myself and put it online um so I think you know don't push people so much I think that's what I would tell myself prior because when you're annoying when someone when someone says you're annoying oh it sucks because they they won't take it seriously anymore you know what I mean yeah yeah and on the other end of that if you're one of those people you're probably also start you'll get moments where you start to feel like people are against you um like people don't like you they're not responding fast enough like maybe it's something bigger than it actually is whereas yeah you freak yourself out yeah you create a narrative and so that that's definitely a gem it sounds so small but people who have actually been through it understand how important that small thing is it for you you know what's funny um I I've lived I've lived in LA for 2017 2018 2019 yeah three years I was in LA for three years um I just didn't like it man I didn't like the city uh all of my connections were happening online so the city wasn't doing anything for me um and like I'm freelance like I don't drive to work like I'm sitting in front of my computer like making beats all day and whatever so I'm at home well it's just doing harm for me that I have to pay way more rents living out here in LA when I could be way less stressed and still be doing what I love to do and still be getting all the opportunities I'm getting through the internet if I lived elsewhere you know so I moved out I moved to Michigan um I might end up in Chicago might end up in New Jersey I don't know I don't know where I'll end up but for now I'm in Michigan and I'm saving money and I feel great because I get to you know just do what I love to do and blah blah blah when I was in LA like I said I wasn't getting any opportunities okay when I was living here the people that I was hitting up that I knew in LA there I said yo I moved to LA let's link up some time you know like whoever the person is a big shot guy um a friend anyone yeah let's do it sometime right well I'm here visiting LA right now for three weeks okay yo I'm here for uh I'm here for three weeks let's link up you want to make music you want to like I can I can actually tell them you want to make music like straight up to their face and they're like oh my god yeah we gotta link up before you leave dude I've been getting the most opportunities these three weeks that I've ever gotten the past fucking three years I was in LA you know such a weird city man but um it makes sense right yeah you create urgency it's like a sales funnel man it's like yeah act or not and then I'm gonna be gone the opportunities go yeah and and in my opinion and I always tell this to everyone it's cheaper to visit LA I mean I guess depending where you're flying from but for the plane ticket cost but it's cheaper to visit LA than to actually live there when you break down the expenses because the cost of rent which is a big chunk of it is so high um but also you know when you live here you gotta have a have to have a car have to or else you're gonna go broke through over um and the car expenses are really expensive like it's trying to 450 a gallon for gas um oil changes are everything's more expensive oil changes are like a hundred bucks um like tires everything everything's expensive insurance is out the way like out to lunch insurance is out to lunch I'm talking car insurance medical insurance um groceries are spent like groceries are just like way more money out here for some reason um and I just thought to myself like dude I could pay way less living out somewhere else and then if I visit and I'm creating urgency I mean that's that's the best and because I know people out here I can I have a place to stay you know that's that's always good um I think if you know people in LA or try to try that's my advice that's my advice all the producers out there if you are or or producers or rappers or anyone in the music industry network with everyone you know in LA if you really want to try to get shit happening in LA network with everyone you know in LA if you live out of state um and then when the time is right hopefully you have a place to stay go there for a week hit up all the people that you uh you know we're networking with create that urgency hey I'm here for a week if you want to link up man if you establish good relationships over the internet I mean hand sound they're gonna be like oh he's in town let's go link up whatever dude one time my friend who's a like a he's a famous rapper I really wanted to make music with him sometime this one week he's like bro I can't my friend my friends in town um and I really want to see her like before she heads back to Toronto this girl's like a she has a successful like fashion uh company and stuff and and she has like a blog and everything like that and when she came to LA she had so much good content she made she was with this guy and you know they had all this good stuff going and and I'm and I'm fucking living here and I'm like man I can't even get a single uh day out of this guy to uh make a song and then a week after the guy went to Europe I'm like you know but that's you know like if I visited um if I visited you in Atlanta or I'm sorry if I visited Atlanta and I told you hey I'm here for a week I'm sure you would try to find time out of your week to be like I want to see if this week I can find time to see Danny like that's the simple thought that you're having in your head you know what I mean yeah it's I mean it's a it's a strategy that doesn't get used or pushed and I think everything you're saying especially when you have money coming in and it's coming in through the internet not the location that you're in stop being married to the don't stop being married to this dream you've been sold that this location will solve the problem for what you're still getting the income and now you can lower the the uh what is it the quality of life or the income needed for a quality of life so now it's less stress you can market yourself more with the extra money or do whatever you want to do for the extra money you invest in business all that stuff so it makes all the sense of the world then you get the benefit of people actually working with you when you act when they can do it so exactly I mean we live in the fucking future now like let's take advantage of it you don't need to live in LA LA is land of LA is the city of opportunity okay and so is Chicago and so is New York and so is Atlanta in Miami and London you know why would you uh live in LA when you can just visit it and you can still get probably six months worth of like scattered meetings into three weeks why wouldn't you do that you know that's what I'm thinking and we got planes we got the internet there's nothing else to worry about you don't need to don't move somewhere unless you really are in love with the city and you want to live there and you can afford it but I see a lot of musicians man they depress this shit out of themselves move out here they think that they're they're going to be a they're considered a failing artist if they move out you know a lot of a lot of people they uh they do judge me believe it or not um when I tell oh I don't live here anymore I live in a small town 12 hours in north of Detroit I think you you know they look at it yeah they're like I'm telling you a lot of people look at me like you know well meanwhile you're struggling and you're judging me living there and I'm good yeah yeah right interesting now I appreciate that I haven't heard anybody really break it down from their personal experience in that particular strategy and that insight that things like people and just take away a lot of pressure that doesn't need to be there like you said you don't need to you know live in the city a certain city you don't for an artist you don't have to blow up and like make your hometown love you first like we're not in that place anymore so if you're so talented if you're so talented why don't you be the what is the what is the phrase something fish uh big fish in the small pond something like that where you really stand out in your small community you know why wouldn't you want to be the diamond in the rock why wouldn't you want to be like have all these dedicated fans from the city who really appreciate you because you represent your hometown l.a. doesn't have that for you 100% l.a. is so corporate now because the the cost of real estate is so high that your local bar if it's not closed down yet doesn't have the time to give some singer a rapper or a unique electronic artist a chance to play his local gigs or open mic nights and stuff they didn't Chicago out here it's it's super like all right uh first of all who the fuck are you you know they laugh at you they laugh at you if you want to go play at their welcome to go like anyone watching i dare you to walk into a bar and be like hey uh what does it take to uh you know just play a play a show out here or whatever oh my god they know what you mean um it's all top 40 dj's that are well connected or bob about their this and that and stuff you know what it sucks sucks i like like i see so many movies and stories and everything about how sunset boulevard all the rock bands when they were just up and coming no one really knew where they were they were playing at these dingy bars and stuff like there's there's not really anything like that anymore uh in l.a. your new place i'm gonna have to somewhere else now yeah that's for sure okay well our tips when it comes to pricing yourself as a producer that you come up um and i kind of learned throughout the years pricing yourself like how much you charge for like music yeah dude i have no idea because all of my all of my music has been like from me just to release on Spotify as me um for the longest time i've always just tried to find a way to split the profits 50 50 with artists um and i don't know if a regular beat maker can bring that to the table um but a lot of my music is really i'm really involved in it more than just the production i also mix to master it but more than just that i have my own following my own fan base and i'm my own artist and i have my own fans so how did you do so you're basically saying yeah i am an artist these people are collaborating with me right so i'm you're releasing you under your name that other artists might collaborate so you're a part of the track it's not like you're just in the background making making beats for random people and then those artists yeah i'm not like sending a i'm not just sending like a you know way file to some rapper to rap on and it's his now i mean he can do that that's fine you know and i can sell it to him if he wants to just do that i'm not i'm not i'm not um i'm definitely open to that like i don't mind that but i feel like a lot of times when people want to make music with me they also want i mean my 270 000 followers to see their work right and if they want that you know then we got to create content and if they want content now now you they got my face on it you know it's kind of like dj call it right when you want to produce with dj call it now i mean i don't know what his rate is or whatever but i mean he's just as important on the track as you are yeah i think that um it's that's that's where the better comes down to you built a real brand right so like if you want to associate with my brand we're doing this 50 50 because now you're your brand and my brand are always what making this song something right but if you're if you just want this to be a song by you and you don't want any promotion from me then you know you can just call it that you know what i mean that's kind of my thing i think what that comes from right because most people are like how do i do this like particularly the do so right how do i do this and it's that thing that you referred to earlier in this talk about yeah i kind of went too hard on my instagram or i was too focused and overly focused but that actually resulted in you building your own brand right you actually have that selective eye of i want to always have these nice environments some people might say i want to always have these trash environments or that really like whatever your brand may be but having a point of view over time is what created your brand versus what video is going to maybe pop it oh they say i need to do behind the scenes and oh i need to do these videos and i need to do pictures it's not that it's communicating an artistic perspective over time and doing a following around that that actually projected the brand that you now have and you're even the benefits of this i just want to applaud you on that thank you man i appreciate it um on a side note that's a good point on a side note i realized there's an audience for everything because what i make i have been making for so long okay and it which is what i call purgeant trap music what i've been making for so long um everyone can now understand oh this is everyone now agrees right agrees that this guy's music is something at least something right but when i first started out everyone didn't really understand it didn't care about it or they passionately like hated it right they thought it was stupid you're ruining purgeant heritage or whatever one thing i've learned was that there's an audience for everything and even though it seems like there's not an audience for it kids don't know what they want you know most people don't know what they want musically they're not like i only you make purgeant stuff okay well you know like i'm from i'm from chicago what the hell is what do i have to do with purgeant music i know bye no people don't talk like that you know people are people are always open to realizing that wow i love this music that's why hip hop became big right i don't think purgeant trap music is going to be a genre like hip hop i don't think it's going to be genre i just consider it my style but i definitely think that i started something that a lot of other people are um not only like becoming in like like a passionate fan but also involved with like people want to do that kind of music they want to make that kind of music and now i started something and i think my best advice is just do what the fuck you want to do don't worry about if there's an audience or not you know so yeah i think that's it's very well said man and i appreciate you sharing your process like that and i mean i think that's yeah it's definitely the perfect closing where should people follow you most man just check out my music that's all i asked i think um you know obviously yeah follow me on spotify if you want to be connected that's where i mostly have my music on um not my music um like my content like to stay in touch but i mean spotify i have music check out my music tell me i hope you like it it's purgeant trap purgeant trap music middle eastern influence but it's hip hop it's electronic um it's cinematic a lot of hype it's kind of my thing don't add a lot of collaborations on the way and a lot of waiting along the way collaborations yeah man looking forward to the process as it unfolds i appreciate you doing this once again man and everybody this is yet another link up would love to get your feedback definitely go check out danie super dope and as always if you like this video go ahead to like button if you like your mouthful sharing if you're not subscribed you know what to do hit that subscribe button