 What's up everybody, it's Lady J Bookums. And it's Brand Man Shine. We are back with the Music Mavericks podcast. What do we got today, Lady J? So today we're going to talk about something that we started to talk about in the last episode, which was, you know, artists being role models or influences for the community. We started to talk about Juice World, but we couldn't really get into it. So we're definitely going to tackle that for today. We're also going to talk about a few things that independent artists should start doing to get themselves prepared, right? To be professional, to kind of scale up and step their game up, alright? So let's go ahead and jump right into this. You know what I mean? I said I'll waste no time and talk about the whole aspect of artists being influencers and you know, should we as the community really look up to these artists based on the things that they're talking about and doing when it comes to their music? Alright, so there's two angles that I know I want to tackle it from, from a standpoint of really digging deep into how this marketing thing works for an artist to a point that they might not even understand. People in society in general don't really even understand. Right. And people think it's an exaggeration. And then of course, practically, how can you use this as an artist? So first and foremost, we already talked about last episode, so you are an influencer whether you want to be or not. Right. You want to be an artist. If you got a little brother who's watching you, like people in your environment who are watching you, you have an influence on them that you might not even know you have, right? So they're making decisions. When we look at Juice World, it's crazy. So I can't confirm this, but I was, I heard of people, a couple of people mentioned on radio shows and things like that, that Juice World actually told Future that Future put him on to drugs. That was why he tried drugs. And Future apologized, actually, that he put him on drugs because, you know, Future was heavily on him. Right. And then he continued to even make music on it after he finally got off, but he got off and he continued to make music about it for a period of time on it. And they made their joint project, World on Drugs, Juice World. Yeah, yeah. Right? So I think that's, that enough shows, the fact that Juice World said that Future was the reason that he even tried drugs shows you the influence of an artist on the population, the influence of a voice. Because at the very least, if we go to the core, core, core of marketing, what's the very first thing? Get attention. Right. Why is that? We can't act. We can't buy. We can't do things that we don't know about. Exactly. Right? I like to even get as deep, and I had this thought at like a very young age, but it was wild enough to me. If you look at depression, sad, and some of the things like, and we talk about the sad music, because a lot of this is depressed music that we actually borrowed from rock culture. We always say we rock stars these days. We borrow this emo from rock culture, and they already went through this. They already have seen this and knows what this looks like, hip hop is just experiencing it now. But when we look at that type of music, I remember having this thought when I was younger, and I was like, man, you know how people talk about a lot of people who are depressed, they'll cut themselves and things like that. Now, very well, it is, you might get depressed and you might think to do something like that. Right? Hurt yourself in any kind of way. There's so many ways to inflict pain to yourself, whether it's not physical, just through my relationships, I'm destroying the world around me, or I'm becoming aggressive, or I literally self-inflate pain physically to myself. The thing is, though, when so many people do that particular thing, and oftentimes use the same items, that's not nature. That's because I've seen that other depressed people do this. Right. It's been marketed to me, I've become aware, and sometimes there's that balance of creating awareness to talk against it and say, hey, kids, you shouldn't do this, and then the balance that you also just told some kids that this is what you do, and how do you do it. Right? It's this weird balance that always goes on, and we have to kind of work with, but just starting from the fact that creating awareness that something exists is marketing in and of itself. Right. That's true. Now, this is one thing. When artists are first coming out, let's say, for Juice World, for an example, so when you first come out, most of the time, that first project is like your truest project of who you were. You know what I mean? It talks about the struggle that you've been through, it really starts, most artists, like their first project really speaks on things that happen in their life, right? So at some point, when you start to get noticed from this project, it's kind of like for artists like, okay, everybody love this from me. This version of me. So it's like now. It's like Mary J. Blige, everybody likes to press let Mary J. Blige when she's in pain. Right. And it's like now, that's because as an artist, when you know like, okay, everybody love that from me, this is what people want, do you feel like it all, it kind of makes artists stay in that moment? It's like for artists, like if you knew that this would got you popping, and you know, this is all the things that I was doing to get this music to come out. I was doing drugs or I was so depressed and I was all this. Do you think that's one reason why artists have to kind of stay in that or they feel like they have to stay in that mood to, in order to keep producing that kind of music. So for a person like Juice Worker, you know, I was listening to a lot of his projects. There's no transition from like 2017 his music and they're all we have until now. All of the projects are sad. All of the projects have been talking about dying young, popping pills, you know, being so high, like all of them have talked about the same thing. So it has been no, you know, progression or, or transition to a better life because now you have more, you have the ability to, or you have things to where you didn't have before. So you shouldn't be that sad. People will think. So it's like. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of truth to what you're saying, actually. Just because, and I don't know, not for him specifically, but just because any idea when we look at artists who are creating music and then they play around with this one song and it takes off and now they kind of get trapped in that. Right. Right. It's the same concept. So, and then if you have to do and be in a certain mindset to be there, then that's a whole another thing. And that's what worked. That that's what's working. This is what's getting me out of the hood or this is what's paying my bills. And this is what people want to see from me. It's a weird space to be in, right, to not want to be like that. And then also get your best results superficially at the very least, right, and money and fan love and all that stuff from this side and this, this space that I'm in. So I think that's interesting, but at the end of the day, that's part of the problem because we have gotten to the point where I'm always connected to commerce, right? Like capitalism, how business works, patterns, marketing. That's always how I'm going to think about it. So yes, this artist comes out to do this and he breaks the breakthrough because it's sad, blah, blah, blah. Now not only does he possibly do more of that if he gets into that trap, or maybe that's just something he likes doing because he's young and that's how he's feeling. But now he doesn't realize how hard it might be to get out of that. But then now the record labels are going to say, Oh, I need me a sad man. Like we're me. That's not even the words I want to use, but I need to find me a sad artist. I need to find me a sad artist and now we literally start to market sadness to kids and that creates and permeates this entire vibe and energy on a whole generation. And now I'm listening to sad music, despite what you think, sad music doesn't make you happy. Like some people get happy listening to sad music, but that's just not how the laws of the universe works. We can go science. It doesn't work like that. And these thoughts that you allow to be in your brain, they affect you even if you don't think that they're affecting you because it's not as immediate. We all think that we're all good. Just like we think, Oh, I just took a little hit of this and I'm straight. Not really. You're still affected, maybe not to the fact you might not look wild like this person, but you're still affected. So when it comes to the music, like you're putting these people in a place where for what some people you're taking people from a happier, not as dangerous state and put them there. Right. And then from a standpoint of people who are already in that space, I understand the idea of connection and relating. Oh, this person feels that way too. But even sometimes that comfort in that space can become a dangerous thing. Right. Of course, it does help some people connect enough to have time to get out of it as well. It's just a, but like my problem is the marketing of it when it becomes gets to a point where it's profitable to push this on people because people, these businesses do not care like in large when we think about the large, large, large institutions where you can't really attribute it just to one single individual. Right. You know, this is just an entire system that's at play that's hard to just stop. You don't pump the brakes. It takes years to even evolve and change. It's going to take the most profitable product and then multiply that. And sometimes the most profitable product is destructive. So do you think that's, I mean, this is not like a fact, but it has to be something on, you know, the people that are on his record labels or on the record labels or in those positions that are kind of like over your career, like they know everything that you're talking about. They know the things that you're doing to kind of produce this music or, you know, things that you're saying in your music, but it's like they're not really doing anything to cut that off. So when it comes to marketing is like, do you feel like they're encouraging you to like be this person, like be the sad person duty? I would say, yeah, because I would say, like, they're probably not telling you, like, go get you some part. Did you have some part today? Like, Perk in the Buns, like, I don't think they're, they're coming out and saying that, but they're also not, they're also, like you said, signing a wave of people that are in this place, you know what I'm saying? And then they have to turn around and market that. So it's like, they know what's going on, you know what I mean? So it's almost like, I don't know if it's something that can be like slowed down or taken away because I do feel like that, that is actually for like any type of genre of music. Like when you said about Mary J, that's the same as like Keisha Cole. Like Keisha Cole went through, she was kind of like the up and coming Mary J. She had that breakup music and, you know, that I'm a woman stand tall music. And then when she went through that period where she was getting married to the movie, the basketball player, she started being all in love and dropping like happy songs and like everybody was like, what? Nah. And then she, and then the music went down. Like people couldn't follow that because they're like, yo, that's not what we came here for. You know what I'm saying? So we go back to the system. And so he's like, there's so many stakeholders, the fans, the artists. Like it's, it becomes a bigger system that's harder to stop because, oh, I'm trying to keep my job. I'm at this label and I need to hit these numbers or else they might fire me or a lot of other hungry person to like to take over what I'm doing. So if this is going to help me hit my numbers, I'm going to push this, right? And I'm going to push this artist. So when it comes to being that artist and being an influencer to other people, like how do they even really break out of that? Because if you're, if you start out just being who you are and telling your story at the moment and that picks up to the world, but then the world is like wanting more of this from you. And then you get picked up by a label and they're like, no, you gotta do more of this because this is what it's selling. Like how much responsibility can we put on that artist? Because it's like, this is what everybody is pushing you to do for you to be successful. Yeah. So it's like, you either going to do it or not do it. Like rebranding is difficult for a lot of people. Like it's a because it takes time and you have to be intentional and you have to stick to it and have to sometimes deal with some of that short term backlash, which should, you know, when you look at the fact that some people do a lot of crazy stuff just to deal with it for short term backlash when they think it's going to get them attention. It's more so not the fact that they're not willing to sometimes go through the backlash, but it's just a longer term result versus short term benefit. So like artists, you one have to have balls to do it. Like it'd be serious about it. Like if you want to rebrand whatever vibe you get into, but a lot of it takes talent too. Like I think juice world, somebody who could have done that. That dude was crazy talented, like crazy, crazy. Like one of, like when it comes to that generation of artists, he was one of my favorite off of just pure talent alone. So like, I think if he got to a certain point where he wanted to do that, not knowing anything, what he want, like his personal thoughts, I think he could have done that. Somebody like X could have done that just because talent, it takes a level of talent to make some artists get lucky and they catch a vibe in a specific pocket and they really can make great music on, you know, on any, any other bag. But the idea and sometimes it's like you have to just accept you're not going to be on the same level, but this is more profitable for you or a better lifestyle, more healthy and long term, it's going to be better. It's just not in the short term. You might be lower, but long term is just like being on a high scale because you're at a record level, but you might be an indie artist and get bigger cut. And you just, if you stay in the game, you can get more long term depending. It's not everybody's situation. Not that cut and dry, but like is that. And then also, again, though, the other people to do it and we can say, oh, they're super successful. That's going to be talent. Like there's no, the only way to truly rebrand fully in that type of way is to outdo what you did prior. Right. Like, so we say Cardi B with the stripper and Cardi B with the, um, the personality and all that kind of stuff. And no, it wasn't just like Bodak Yellow and now she's, she's popping just because she already had a platform. She struggled. She made music and her music was not necessarily all that great. It got some attention, but it wasn't all that great. They didn't think about that until she dropped Bodak Yellow. And Bodak Yellow is so much better than the other stuff she was doing. It was, it allowed her to be known on a higher level and transcend that other stuff, right? Like now it's like, oh, we can look at her as an artist. So you, sometimes you just have to, it's not that it's like being good at something can be a curse if you don't have the ability to do the other things at a higher level. You get what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's, that's a, that's a real true statement. You know what I mean? And, but I still think like, if you, I think it's just even more than talent. I think you have to be bold enough to do it. You know what I mean? Because balls, balls are bad. You already know that. You quit the line of balls for like women. Like if they say I got balls, like takes balls to do it. What would you say? I think women still say balls. I don't know. Oh, okay. Like, you're not going to say like, to a different set. Right. Yeah. Thanks. Uh, but yeah, I think you got to, you have to be brave enough to like do it, you know, because you already know, first of all, as an artist, especially when you sign a lot of times until you get to a certain point, like you're, you do have, you're doing what the companies want you to do. You know what I mean? So sometimes you don't really have that free range to even decide to switch your stuff up yet. You know what I mean? Like even Tiana Taylor, when she dropped her project, you know, she talked about, after she did it, she talked about how like it wasn't all her creative idea because she was still like under Kanye and it was like, you know, they had a vision for her that she kind of was going with, but it wasn't like all her thing. You know what I mean? So it's like, you kind of, sometimes you got to kind of get a few things under you so that you can get to that point where you have more creative ability or, you know, you have more say so things that you're doing. More leverage, all leverage, life is leverage. And I think people, a lot of artists shoot themselves in the foot because sometimes it's not that you can't go this direction. Like, yes, I get that you want to switch up at some point, but you have to understand if you lengthen your timeline, you'll have the ability to get more leverage and make it happen. So some people want to rebrand in the day, like give yourself some time to flower or maybe have this pop away for a while and then come back. But once you work on a longer timeline, it works, it becomes a lot easier to rebrand because now you can do the necessary steps that allows the leverage to make it happen, whether it's because you have to deal with business stuff, whether it's because you have to deal with fan psychology, whatever you're dealing with. But it's that short microwave mentality that makes most of these moves impossible for people. Right. And then one thing you said, you know, when it comes to Cardi B, you know, her change was like big because even though she's still like super out of control or not even out of control, but just she's still got that. That frame is she's still with the vibes. You know, but she's, she's, she's definitely like way more polished even the way she speaks. You know what I mean? Like she, when she was to speak, like loving the pop, she'd be like, what? She, you know, and she even did like a speaking class on the show where she just was out of line, but like even the way she speaks now is just more like refined. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's not that she changed. She just learned how to be more professional and carry herself and stuff like that. But then I also think surrounding yourself with certain people will also let you get, like help you get to another level. Because I remember when she, when she was dropping Boda Yellow and a couple of projects, she was saying how she didn't feel like it was going to be a thing and Offset was the one who was telling her like, no, we need to drop that. We need to drop that. So it's like, you have somebody else around you that's very successful, you know, and in their music. So it's like that influence kind of helped her like shape her into doing certain things, you know, opening up her mind to different possibilities because they do different things. So I think like us as people and us as artists, sometimes we are who we surround ourselves with as well. If you notice like Juice WRL, you know, hung a hung a lot with the other emo people who like you hanging around all sad people. You know, I saw Trippie Red just put on Instagram the other day, how, you know, after Juice WRL passed, he was like, yo, we're not doing drugs no more. Like, and he was like, when I say we, we mean the whole community, like all the emo, you know what I mean? Like all of us, we're not doing that. He said that he was like, if it's not we, he said, if it's not we, we're not doing it. And he literally looked like he wanted to cry, but he said that, you know what I mean? So it's like when you hanging around everybody that's doing this, how it's hard for you to get out of that place or get away from that, you know, that thing that's kind of holding you down and keeping you stuck. Like people make you feel like, oh, we all going to be comfortable in, in this mood or in this area. Sometimes it takes to, yeah, sometimes it takes somebody else to be like, to open your mind to other things, you know what I mean? Or other ways to go about things. That's exactly what it like. That's an environment. That's what it is, right? So we talked about the larger system influencing these things and making it hard to change and you capitalize and you keep pushing this down fans' throats because it's profitable. But then, of course, in life, we have these micro systems, which are the environments and we choose to be in the people we change. You choose to hang out and there's these natural things that are happening within it. And that's what it sounds like in that particular case. And, yeah, to me, it's hard for artists to ever try to use the idea that I'm not a role model, I'm not an influencer. A role model, I guess, that has a cash aid to it. That has a specific idea. So maybe you say you're not a role model, but you can't ignore the fact that you have influence because exposure, exposure itself is influenced because it's ideas that are being inputted into our brains like a computer, right? And in some form of fashion, that affects what we put out, right? You can try to suppress and minimize some things. And but it all is always on form how we see the world. It's always going to inform and add to the filter of how we interpret things. So, like, if you give this type of content to people, that's going to be what they have to work with and how they they act, what they want to do, what they want to behave in. Oh, this is fun. So I want to have fun when I get to a certain age. Oh, I'm at a party and this is what they do when they have fun. They I want to have fun, too, because that's what has been marketed to me. That's the awareness that's been created to me. Well, it's like, how do we combat that, though? Because it's like, you know, music is the freedom of speech. Most people's music is really talking about the things that they have literally been through or witness or whatever. So when we have music, you know, track music or whatever, a lot of the music talks about drugs. A lot of the music kind of, you know, degrades women. You know, a lot of the music does these things. That's where I've been. Like, like, I've been I've been through a sad experience and now I'm a degree. But it's like. Because I degree degree to my real life. If you grow up, you know, a lot of people grow up in the house, you know, especially, you know, minorities, you growing up in the house with without your dad, your mom is probably a single mom, or you probably had a stepdad in the house, like in men in and out. You know, so it's like your mom is probably working. So you're more so raised on the street. So you're raised. You're around all the people on the street. Not everybody. That's not everybody. There's a lot of there's a lot of people who do not grow up in that. Right. I used to be mad and try to get like, there's a lot of people who do not grow up in that. But this looks appealing or interesting. And then they'll try to, you know, dip their toe in the hood. I used to tell everybody like some people like, bro, no, we are trying to get out. People don't want to like outside of people who are comfortable. So they just don't they're afraid to leave. A lot of people are trying to get out. You can't just, you know, come through and frolic through it because it's a trap. Like, right. You think you just go to this party, but once you get into certain environments, then I don't know, man. Like I get to me, that's my bigger problem. The people that get drawn in that aren't of that and they think it's a game. So when you got the people who never really get in it and they're just watching on TV and that's a lot the masses. So they fund the reason for do it because now we're going to give you more of this. Oh, this is bringing us money. Then you have the people who are truly affected where because of the marketing of it, they get into it. And then their life is there, you know. But we do have those people who came from it. And then you got the people who came from it. So the people who came from it, this is where it's originating from. You know, so it's like, how can we tell you, like, you can't, you shouldn't talk about these things because now you're influencing kids. Like, right. So it's like, we can't really ever have a solution to the fact that, you know, we have all of this music that influences millions of people who talks about all of these, what most people will say is negative things and influencing people to do things and say things and act a certain way or whatever. Like, we can't really do anything about it. That goes back to my perspective on the Lizzo conversation, right? Sometimes the thing in and of itself is not the worst thing in the world, but it's how it gets, what's the word I'm looking for? Whatever, I'm not gonna remember that word right now. But it gets taken and repurposed, right, for agendas. That's when stuff becomes a real problem. So that's, like, we can't tell these kids or these artists, you almost want that, you want that level of expression and awareness to exist in the world, in the space. You want people to tell the stories, you want the news to report from the ground, but you don't, but when it gets repurposed for these agendas or when it becomes synonymous with certain forms of capitalism during certain periods, that's when it becomes dangerous. How do you control, you know, capitalism, right? Like, the stuff is multi-layered and you can run in circles in your mind all day, so I don't. But at least understanding that it's connected, for one, it's just a part of, for me, like being a marketer, like you gotta know, so it allows you to make the decisions that you're making, you have to be able to see it and analyze it in that way. My issue is just when people act like it's, none of that stuff is connected. When they act like, oh yeah, these songs are not that big of a deal or they say, you know, all that stuff, it's like, bro, no, yes it is. It's too apparent that it's, to say, oh, guns and music or entertainment and all that stuff doesn't affect the way you look at stuff or trying, it does, drugs, sex, happy stuff, like things you might consider positive, whatever, it all affects all of it in the same way you might look at your parent doing something and do something because of it. It's just a mere exposure of it. Let's start there. It doesn't mean that you did something wrong. It's just the reality, it is what it is and let's move and try to make, get to the results you wanna get to. Right, right. So I mean, I think we can wrap this up. I think for anything, I think for artists, I just feel like, you know, just remember that you are an influencer, the moment that you decide to be an artist or entertainer, you're going to be influencing people around you, period. So, at some point, you know, you do have a level of responsibility to others based on what you're doing. So with that being said, I also wanna switch it over and, you know, talk about some things that you guys can start doing to start preparing yourself, to be more professional, to just scale your business up, you know what I mean? So, one thing for me, and you can throw in, one thing for me that's important for artists is your performance, right? I always, I talk to the brand man about it, you know, I talk to a lot of artists about it. A lot of y'all performance is, it ain't it, it ain't it, you know what I mean? And the weekend was a trash performance week, a performance week popped off and he even said it himself. Right, but you know what? The thing is, the difference is, you know, some people learn from their experiences and then some people don't. So I see a lot of independent artists when I go to shows, you know, I was just on a panel recently and they had, there's always something that could go wrong, right? So the DJ was playing music, the DJ was all the way messing up the artist set. Like, every artist set, he was like speeding it up or he kept like looping the beginning and then it was totally throwing the artists off where A, you can see them getting mad, you can see them like losing their whole mind in front of the crowd. And it's like, one, the crowd is seeing what's happening. They understand that the DJ is messing your set up but you got as an artist, a performer, you got to learn how to keep the show going. If you see the DJ messing you up, the music ain't sounding right, you still got to be able to communicate to the audience, talk to them because these artists was totally like, like they just wanted to get off stage now, you know what I mean? But it's like, yo, it's people in the audience, we actually rocking with you because we see the DJ messing your set up, right? So it's like, you got to be able, you got to understand that first of all, the show must go on. You have to learn how to keep your set going. I also think that artists need to start exercising. Your artist be out of breath. You rappers, especially you rappers, singers don't really move around too much. And if they do, they got some type of choreography going on. But like rappers that y'all be so hyped, y'all do the bouncy thing back and forth. And then y'all be out of breath. Nah, I get it. Like that's real because when we talk about artist development and all that stuff, a part of it was exercises and like, rapping while I'm doing stuff, I'm on the treadmill and I'm saying my lyrics and all that stuff. Like seriously, that's the thing. Like I only know one artist these days who I got to know on a ground level who would be taking part of something like that. And that was Yanni Moe and sir, like he would be putting her through that old school gamut and like she was dopest. I remember she performed sick one night. Like for real, she was like got off the stage and there was like a rap pass out type type. But she killed for that moment, she was able to lock in and go. And you would have never known from a crowd standpoint. And it was amazing. I enjoyed it. What I knew was supposed to be happening and everything anyway. Like I forgot about the fact you were sick, right? But most artists can't really do that. And to know, all right, so camera stop for a second. So maybe I shouldn't. Nah, nah, we wanna know what you're doing. I shouldn't be going into details. But I used to do this. I was in an acting class or whatever, theater and all that stuff. Really? Yeah, I'm dope. I actually, one man show, I can kill it. Like all kind of accents and all that stuff. But that's a different life, you know what I mean? Okay. I'm the most interested man in the world, little key. But we had, whenever I would do speeches, right? Or scripts. And this wasn't even just for that. This might be a speech for class or something like that. I would practice it in different states, right? To the point where no matter what happened, I would be able to kill it. So I'm talking about, I might do it sleepy, right? And I'm gonna practice just to kill it. Fresh when I wake up, I might drink a little something and still practice it. You know what I mean? I might do an accent. I would practice it for all these different angles. Like I ain't going to the extreme. I don't really wanna hear an accent. I'm not gonna even talk about like how deep I would get into like, deep into it. But like I would literally practice it from so many different states, you know what I mean? So many different environments where no matter what happened, when it happened. You can still kill it. Now that's a thing. Okay, so a lot of artists don't actually rehearse. You know what I mean? And I think that y'all gotta start getting into rehearsals because when I was at this show, it was a young lady. She was a rapper and she was from up north. So she had that old school like Foxy Brown kind of style rapping, which was dope. It was refreshing. But she was like, she didn't have a show track, which is something that a lot of people need. So as she's rapping, she's like rapping over her vocals, which is clashing. And then when she's, then she's running out of breath. So when she runs out of breath, she actually puts the mic down and just let the music rap for her. And then she's just like this. But it's like, we don't even know your song to vibe with you. So you gotta keep rapping or keep moving, bust a move or do something. I'm like, don't just put your mic down and look tired. Because that's what she was doing. But it's like, and then she literally, she knew I was one of the judges. So she got off stage and I told her, like, you know, I like the feel of your music gave me that old school feel. And she was like, oh man, I ran out of breath. And I'm like, first of all, I know that, but why don't you tell me that? You know what I'm saying? But it was just like, yo, and she was just like, you know, I'm just, I'm trying to figure out how to do this. Like she didn't really practice on how to be performing and moving and connecting with the crowd at the same time. You know what I mean? Even if you gotta run out of breath, like you gotta practice where to take your breath at. You know what I'm saying? So that's one thing you guys gotta start doing. Start having some rehearsal, which actually will give you more content. If you start having rehearsals, you can videotape yourself and use that as content. So it's more than one benefit to rehearsing, right? And then also get other people, if you're gonna have people in the crowd, you know, if you have a show where you're rehearsing, you can literally tell all your people to come out and tell them what to do. Or when I get on a hook, I'm gonna be dancing like this, all y'all dance like this. It's like a way to get creative. The best athletes in the world, best performances in the world, whether you're talking about Beyonce or Tom Brady or LeBron James, they watch film of themselves, critique themselves and figure out how to get better. Like, are y'all doing that with y'all cells? Are you just performing? And it's like, oh man, that was a great night and you were just happy to have you performed and you don't even have the ability to look back and think back. Well, okay yeah, I felt like I was doing good in my head but the crowd looks like, who is this trash person? Exactly. Or I could have did that better, even if it was perfect. These people who are beyond and already considered the best are looking at themselves, trying to figure out how to get better. How seriously do you take your own stuff? That's why I don't have like any remorse sometimes. When for real, like when you aren't taking that seriously, like how can you expect to get those results? Yes, people get lucky and this person doesn't have that ability. This person doesn't have talent. They're still successful. This person, like cool, but when you go through stuff, you might not have all those other benefits that other people have. All you can do is focus on what you can control. I'm big on focusing on what you can control. So if you aren't doing stuff like that to make yourself better in your art form, your craft and then the same thing when it comes to your business and professionalism and all that stuff, then you can't be mad when you get certain results. Right, it's gonna be really hard for you to scale up. So definitely do that. Another thing I wanted to throw in there. Drop the list on this one. You know, another thing, and this is not even in order. You know what I'm saying? Another thing you guys wanna do is make sure that you are updating your platforms as far as like your bios, especially like coming into new projects, like your bios on all your platforms, your social media, your website, you should update those. Your pictures. One thing I really wanna talk about is pictures because when I'm putting shows together or if I'm doing stuff where I need an artist to send me a pic, like, yo, the pictures be out of line. Y'all have pictures be out of line. First of all, they be like selfies. They make it in a diaper. Yeah, crazy, but it's like, yo, if you ever, if you notice, you know, any celebrity, the reason why they can easily be put on different flyers at any given time is because they have those pictures where they can be cut out. So you guys need to start having a photo shoot where you're on a plain, solid background, like a white background, even if it's colored, a flat color to where you can be taken out and put on a flyer easily, you know what I'm saying? So they like, I get that problem all the time and I hate it. And it's because like, y'all pictures, if you send me a random picture, sometimes I can't fit you into the space that's allocated for an image on a flyer. So now I gotta do all of this maneuvering. You know, you as an artist, you should always have a full body shot, half a body shot, a head shot, and that should all be on like some plain background to where you can reuse all the time. And then you can get in more into your creative bag and do photo shoots outside or in Rose versus or whatever y'all be doing for these photo shoots. But you should always have that variety so that you never have a problem with people being like, nah, I can't use this picture. I can't use this picture. Send me another one, send me another one. And they should definitely be high resolution, like 300 DPI, but that's getting deep into the details. But you need some updated pictures for whatever project you're doing, you should have a set of something new. Like to keep it simple, you wanna make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you, to spread the word, all that stuff. The more hurdles they have to jump, the harder it is gonna be for them to deliver. And they might just say, look, next time, bruh. Right. Yeah, next time I might not come. Or it's like, I couldn't put you on this flyer so somebody else on the flyer now you messed out on the op. So at the end of the day, man, like, cause I have a homie right now, I needed a picture for something we doing together and he wasn't sending it fast enough so I took this bad picture online as a filter. I took a bad picture from his other stuff where I'm like, bruh, really need to change this picture. And then this man actually didn't recognize that that was a bad picture. And the only reason I know was he took a picture that looked exactly like that bad picture. I'm like, yo, so he did this on purpose. So I didn't even hit him back. I'm like, nah, I don't wait till we can talk. I'm gonna sit with him. I gotta walk him through the process. So with that being said, you might need someone who's a professional, like in terms of like, if I'm out of camera, let me provide photography and all that kind of stuff. I can have a decent eye to get at least solid enough. But now you might, you should go ahead and get a professional and invest in that one time, get as many outfits, squeeze it in. Say like, if they hourly squeeze in like five outfits so however you gotta do it. And now you can use that variety of those different looks for things as they come in. You can use the same set for a couple of years. Exactly. Exactly. So that's definitely another thing that y'all wanna like get together, get your pictures right so that you can move forward. Something else that bothers me is- Grind your gears? It's just boy, y'all are this boy, boy. This artist be bothering me. You know, a lot of artists when they are, well I know this because you know, I have a show coming up and I have artists sending me stuff. And if you call yourself an artist, right? I'm gonna need you to have recent music. I have artists right now that's sending me stuff from 2016, right? And I'm like, and you're saying that you're an artist right now. So there ain't no way that you don't have up to date music. So for all of you guys, and now I'm not saying that- But it sounds great though. So is it like this? Cause it sounds old or just the fact that it was created back then? The fact that, first of all, I feel like sometimes, a lot of times music gets dated. So you can hear a song and the beat, the vibe, it feels like something from years ago, you know what I mean? And with this show in particular, I had multiple artists sending me stuff. Now I have requirements like I need you to have a video, all of this. So all of it looked old. You know what I mean? Like all of it looked old. And I'm like, what do you have that's right now? Are you still an artist? Or are you just- Just saw an opportunity and was like, how do you have a nation? So it's like, if you're a person and you're reaching out to people because you're trying to get placements, you're trying to get booked for things, like people want to see what have you done recently? You know, what have you done for me lately? Like, what have you done lately? If you're trying to get booked for shows, and you can't send me anything that's up to date, that kind of tells me, as a booking agent, as a promoter, like, if you don't even got nothing recent, that tells me you probably don't even got no fans right now, or you don't have nobody moving for you. It's just like a bad look, man. So it's like, first of all, artists should be recording or producing music on a regular basis. Now there's no like, oh, you need to bust down a song once a week or release a song once a month, but you definitely should be recording and creating music if this is what you do for a living, on a continuous basis. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, if you are artists and you don't really have anything new, maybe your thing right now is to get a project together, create some new music, get your imagery together, get your presence together. Maybe you are trying to go through a rebranding phase, and maybe that's one reason why you kind of took a moment off, but like, you got to hit people with some stuff with right now, and stop like sending all of this old, super old music that sounds outdated, the visuals look outdated. You know, in the video you had Bray's and now you got a cut like, Brand Man Sean, you know what I mean? You sent me pictures where you had locks and now you got a low cut, like everything has to translate with who you are right now, because if you want people to promote you as who you are, like, and we're putting out flyers and we're putting out content and then people are seeing like, people that look too different, like two different people, it don't correlate, like it don't go together. So we need to update everything. You need new music, now's the time to start working on something new, get some fresh sounds, you know, get everything that's new. I can say as like to artists, what you're hearing right now is the type of person you want to do business with, because the people who don't care about those things, the quality of their show or whatever they're doing in the other spaces is going to be on the same level. So they're not carrying and holding you to those standards. Yes, you can say, oh, I got in, but now you can also expect those low standards to be in the other aspects. So it's actually not worth being a part of that thing in the first place. So you want the people that you do business with to hold people to those types of standards, to have barriers to the level of quality of artists and the other people they do business with, because I've definitely been through that, especially when I was doing my festival, that's my biggest experience was artists and things like that. For one, even if the music doesn't sound outdated and isn't wack, you have the idea, just from a business standpoint, am I trying to put an artist out there and promote an artist that isn't active? They're not committed and they're not constantly working towards their career because it's like, yeah, I believe in you, but I'm not your manager trying to build you up. So I want, my incentive is to have an artist that's dope right now and for that artist to continue to be dope and enlarge in their platform, because now I'm associated with that. That's how the people who are doing events or doing certain things are gonna be thinking. So it's in your best interest or in their best interest to work with people who are currently active, currently grinding and doing work without them, because now I can add my sauce onto it. And then if people really see you doing that stuff, they'll add something extra or they'll really, oh man, this artist is dope and I think this artist is going somewhere. I see the momentum, let me get him on because I wanna let everybody know about him and I want them to know that I was the one that told them about him. You know what I mean? But you have to put yourself in a position to look like that, because then people will start coming to you more or doors are opening for you a lot faster. Right, and from a fan standpoint, like if somebody hears a song, right, I just hear a song, but now I wanna look you up. So I go look you up on YouTube. People look at dates, I know I do. Like I look at like, when was this video posted? You know what I mean? Little video, especially, yeah. Right, it's less on Spotify though. Right, it's less on Spotify, but I feel like a lot of people, oh, I know me personally, I think when I listen to something new, I'm always trying to find the visual because me, I'm just activated visually. Like I like to see something, you know, sometimes you watch videos and it makes you like a song more because you've seen some type of visual to it and it kind of like, it engage with you to, it like reeled you in versus you just hearing it. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, a lot of people will go and start to look you up. And I'm one of those people, like I go to YouTube because I wanna see like what your visuals look like, especially when I hear of artists that I don't know who this person is, like I wanna see what you look like. You know what I mean? So I'll go to YouTube and search for some type of video. And then I always look at the date, like is this video, is this a recent artist? It's old, what does it mean to you? Like if it's old and I can't find anything that's recent, it makes me feel like I'm wasting my time. And you can't find something recent. Right, and I can't find something recent. I'm just like, okay, well, maybe this artist is not even doing music no more. So like, what's the point? You know what I'm saying? Oh, dang, they were dope. They could have went somewhere or did something, but. Yes, but you got me on a hyphen and saw a hot and bothered, you know what I mean? And then just let me down. I'm unfinished. You know what I mean? And complete. That's how we took it down. So it's like, boy, you gotta come with the package and you should wanna not cause, I don't know if that's your fault. Whatever. But it's like, yo, before you, it's like, yo, a lot of your artists are constantly reaching out to people to like put you on and do this and do that. And then they're asking you like, okay, send me what you got. Send me pictures. Send me this, send me that. And it's like, you just don't have nothing recent. So it makes people feel like they're wasting their time trying to put into you. You know what I mean? When you don't even, clear it looks like you're not putting into yourself, so. No, 100%. Like I still always go back to this artist who rejected him for his show. And I was like, bruh, you don't have anything. Right. Like literally, I couldn't tell he was an artist. Look, from looking at his Instagram, I couldn't find music. Like he literally had nothing. And then this artist had the nerve to get mad and say, look, man, you don't know what you missing out on. I was going to debut my music at your event. And I was like, no the hell you weren't. It should work like that. If you think I'm a risk, my credibility, I'm just like, I have no idea about. So I don't understand how artists put themselves in that position to think of themselves. I get the having to build up confidence and that becomes a part of the game sometimes. But the level, the goal that some of these people have like as far as not understanding the other side of the business and the value that you need to be bringing, not just the fans, but to the other people. What matters to them, right? The more you can put yourself into the mind state of the person you're doing business with, understanding their business model and just what matters to them, the more you can make it easy for yourself to be a value to them and to just create a relationship that actually gets an impact. So. Right, cause one thing is like, you're going to lose out on a lot of opportunities because you're not prepared. You know what I mean? Like you might lose out on a gig because you don't have no pictures for a flyer or you don't have your music in a certain type of format. You know, which is another thing that y'all should be having like. When you said you're not prepared for life. No, not prepared. It reminded me. So my sister had his home girl. They were at school. They were a personal story. They were at Jackson State and Russell Simmons came apparently. And she was like, oh my God, like can I get an autograph? And the girl, I mean, he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like, where's your pen or whatever? And she was like, oh man, I don't have a pen. And I was like, okay, an I-5? And she looked at her, dead in the face. It was like, you're not prepared for life. And she just walked away. I was like, oh my God. Wow. But yo, that's a fact. Like you, like, listen, we can't go places or do things expecting certain things and we're not even prepared to be able to take on that opportunity. So I think it's a lot of opportunity that a lot of you guys miss out on, especially those artists who really are talented. Like you, your music really sounds good, but to a lot of people that's, it takes much more than good music to market and to, you know, to put on a show and everything. So it's like, it's not just about your music. You have to be more than your music. You have to be your business manager. You have to be your own assistant. You have to be your own, all of these people so that you can put all of these things together. So when you're going to promoters or music supervisors or licensing companies or whoever to get placements or do whatever you need to do, then you have exactly what they need. They don't have no room to ask you no questions. Cause when I'm looking to book somebody for a show, it's like, you should off the bat, send me, you should already have a drop box or a thumb drive or a hard drive or something filled with everything that people need in order to be able to promote you, which is your music. You know, you might want to start thinking about and I feel like a lot of artists don't do this for some reason, but a lot of artists don't even have the different versions of their song, like a radio edit, explicit version, you know, the stems, the, you know, just, just the vocal. Like y'all don't even have all of these different versions. So how do you expect to get on different radio stations? Every radio station, you can curse, you know, every, you know, podcast or whatever, everybody on curse on everything. So for you to not miss out on that opportunity, why don't you have a radio version, all right? You can't run no ads when cursing in your videos, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's a, it's a lot of things that you guys got to really hone in on so that you can start scaling yourself. You're probably holding yourself back from not doing a lot of these things. Facts, that's all I got. Right, I mean, we go down, we go down lists. You don't kill the topic. Yeah, being professional, like period, right? And again, the shortcut to being professional when you're working with other people is understanding what's a value for them, what that task they need to do, what you need them to help you with and making it easy for them. Right. Like that's it, just make it easy for them. And now that also makes it easy for you because I've been in situations where someone like, Brandon, matter of fact, you asked me for a picture. I wasn't gonna say it. And that's just like two, three weeks. So like, I'm like, man, I don't have, now I gotta go and try to get a haircut. And I don't like these other pictures of me and not having that to just send over, right? Then it makes it one, once again, it delays their process or makes it harder for them. But then also you might have to interrupt what you're doing and it might not be a good time to do that. So you create a longer timeline and now you really are making it difficult to keep the ball rolling. Right. So like, just do that stuff. It'll be worth it on the back end, even though it might seem annoying, put the entire package together, whatever that looks like for you. Everybody who's actively trying to do something as some sort of public figure should have something like that. Or if you just have a business, you should have something like that. Definitely should have that. That makes it easy for people to communicate and understand what you stand for so they can do that for you. Right. And I wanna end it off with this one last thing which is more like a challenge to my artists. You know, one thing I wanna challenge you guys to do is to start putting yourself in different situations or around different people. Meaning that if you're an artist, you know, start going to business events where they're talking about building your business in general, right? If you're an artist, start going to summits where they're teaching you how to do things or workshops where they're actually teaching you how to be a successful artist. Get out of that mind state of like, oh, I'm a pop up at this networking event or this showcase or something. Get out of that and start surrounding yourself with people that are outside of the music but still have relatable information that you can apply to your career. Not only is that gonna elevate your mind, that's gonna get you into a different space of even how you network with people, speak to people, give you other things to talk about outside of music and just help the way you communicate in general. I think that's something that I am doing for myself, being around people who are way more successful than me that probably know a lot more than me but still putting myself in that situation and being humble enough to just sit there and shut up and learn, you know what I mean? Because it's just helping me scale and elevate as a woman, as a person, as a business woman, all of that. So I challenge you guys to start doing that and I think it's gonna give you some different results and kind of just open your mind up to some new opportunities. That right there, all the way. That's it. All right, folks, this is another episode of Music Mavericks, podcast. Follow at bramanshawn and follow at ladyjbookums on the Graham, Twitter and anywhere we exist online. Right. Y'all be good, peace.