 of nature decided that today I focus on music and music only. We had the CEO and founder of Jumbo Sounds Records but right now in studio with me is a recording and performing artist Kali. She has an EP out going by the name different definitions of love but one she's here to share a story with us. Thank you very much. Your camera is number four. Like I always do, I give people an opportunity to list all their credentials before we can carry on. Okay so I'm a singer, songwriter, live performer and co-producer. Co-producer? All right what is the definition of a co-producer? So it means like you just assist with the production of the songs so if I feel like there's something else that needs to be added I'll add it myself or I'll just tell the producer to add it. All right today is entrepreneurship Tuesday, hustle Tuesday on white in the morning and music is your hustle for sure. Yes. You even went to school for it. I did. All right so many people are doing it as a side thing right but for you you decided to take it to school and further study it. What is this, what was the impact of taking your music to school? What was the difference going in and out of school? I think when I studied it helped me learn different concepts of what I was doing and go into the music at a very deep level and also you know the same music is a language so you learn how to speak it and I feel like I learned how to I guess speak that language better when I went to school and I studied it and I was around people who have the same dreams and the same passions so it was really cool. You learn how to also work with other musicians in the industry and I think that's really important. It's a skill that you need to have. It's a skill that you need to have. All right performance. Performance is a very important aspect in the music business. You are recording and performing artists. What is the power of a powerful performance according to you? I think a powerful performance to me is when you can really connect with your audience and also being a strong vocalist because I feel like a lot of musicians nowadays are more recorded artists and they rely a lot on auto-tune and you know all of those things that happen in the magic in the studio and the effects but when you can actually sound just as good as you do live then on your records I think that's really a 10 out of 10 performance for me. 10 out of 10 performance for you. All right talking about the business aspect of the music after taking it to school what was the next step for you because I see a lot of people go to school and then look for a job or start a business or start a startup somewhere. What was the next step for you transforming this from something you actually love and study to a business? For me it was more like how can I do this full-time. That was my main goal is like how can I create an income doing what I love because that's what we all want to do at the end of the day. So for me I started now recording and writing my own songs because I needed to put out content so that was my initial focal point was to now get myself in the studio get myself surrounded with the right people produce content quality content and then now create a fan base not just locally but globally as well. All right for many artists who are in it for the money I don't know what you're in it for the approach is always the market first what does the market want and then I go to the studio and make what the market wants but for the artists who are passionate about their craft they tend to say I make what I love and put it out there I don't care how it's going to resonate with the people which approaches it. I'd say the second one because even for me I didn't have the mentality of oh I'm making this album for people it was more for myself like for my own expression and if people connect with it then that's all and well but for me music is such a personal thing that I think that's what makes someone successful also at the end of the day is when you can really put your heart and soul into your music and then release it to the world. All right ever since Masimaira then we transitioned to a different age of R&B we had the Antonew souls we have the Sauti souls and the Ben souls and and all the souls that exist and the Sautes that exist in the country. Do you think there's a space for R&B in the country right now? I definitely do. I think that you know there's this whole approach of you only have to sit to Afro beats because you're in Africa or you only have to make this kind of music or you only have to sing in this language but I think that's where the problem is it's because we want to be global artists but we don't want to do global genres and so I think there is a space now for African artists to delve into these different genres so that we want to see us winning we want to see us on BET we want to be winning Grammys but how can we do that if we only limit ourselves to only specific genres? So people are used to yeah and what people I love all right we are on social media Y254 channel on Twitter Y254 and the school channel on Instagram and Y254 on Facebook hashtag is Y in the morning hashtag is entrepreneurship Tuesday and mine is at it's very more so you can interact with me directly what is yours Cali? All of my social media is at I am Cali music. All right a fan is asking do you get compared to Caligraph Jones that is from from a fan out there who's watching um do you get confused Yeah I mean there are many Cali's I know there's Jua Cali there's Caligraph Jones so for mine's just straight up Cali and then at least I'm female too so that that also helps All right where's the name from? So my full name is Mui Cali so I just kind of self-explanatory there's no need to spread the story all right so talking about the music as a business so I'll take you back you released an EP and once you're done recording the rollout process is a different ball game it is how was the rollout process for it? So basically what you have to do is register yourself as a singer or songwriter so that you make sure that you get your royalties because that's also a really big part of it is you want to create an income when you get radio play if your songs are on streaming um so that was like the main priority on getting your songs on all streaming platforms so it's available to now multiple people around the world and then now you focus on marketing yourself and the you know creating hype and creating buzz and being like oh she's dropping something you know and then you release it and you see how the world takes it. Is this something you studied in school or you just winged it? I did take a business management course even though I was focused on performance there was the business side of it and I really did want to know. Was it one of your favorite classes? I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites but it was knowledgeable I needed to know what I was getting myself into because I know also some record labels they have you know different record deals and so to look through I think it's really important so that you don't get cheated in the music industry. All right you signed a label that is based in Australia yes they're distributing your music as we speak yes you affiliated to other management deals in Nairobi right now and your your aim is to take the music worldwide. Yes it is. All right how did you get into this deal and what did you learn going into this deal? With my record label so I had a graduating recital which is where now you basically have a mini concert and you still get like marked on it and graded and so at this concert they invite a lot of people in the industry to come and watch and so that's when I got scouted by my label and they really liked my performance and so they were interested in now working with me and then that's how I ended up getting signed to them. All right so you get a call from a label exec obviously they presented some papers do you? Yes. All right did you read the papers? Of course I even had to go through them with a lawyer just to make sure I was getting the percentages that I deserve as an artist so yeah you really have to look through the nitty gritty because one clause can literally change your life. All right so you know your contract quite by what? I don't know. You know most of it. All right so many artists tend to be doing independent stuff right now as we speak because streaming sites have made it possible for artists to be independent and just push the movement and maybe sign distribution deals with measure labels. What was it that made you get into a record deal when artists of your generation or of our generation say we can do it ourselves? That is the message they're preaching I saw chance there was saying the same thing the other day that is the message young artists are preaching but you chose to go the other direction. Well the thing is for me I also was that kind of person that's just like I can do it myself I really don't need a whole label to do all this stuff for me because like you said it's so easy nowadays but the label I'm signed to is independent and it also gave me a lot of freedom to do like what I want to and kind of be in control of my music whereas other labels are a bit more controlling of the artists so I made sure I could have my freedom and then they could also help me because I figured out that as much as you can do a lot by yourself when you have a whole team helping you it actually makes a huge difference. Wonderful the last questions of the interview probably the last two are always opinion based and I'd like to get your opinions on a few topics in there. If you're in touch with the Kenyan music scene number of ciphers dropped that the week which one could be your favorite? A number of ciphers oh like different artists dropping different songs and stuff like that yeah different freestyle ciphers so we had calligraphic drones dropping the the Cali Catel one right we had Kevo Keif was dropping the 31 cipher we had Ocari Nali dropping another one we had people dropping dropping dropping which one could could have been your favorite I'd like there was one that King Kaka did with four female rappers it had to be that one it was so good I couldn't help it I loved it it had to be that one so King Kaka carried the week for it yes yeah all right so the next one is your you have your phone with you right now it's in my bag it's over there yeah all right the music player on your phone which artist would I fan on your um you would find Jenae Aiko, Ella May, Ariana Grande, um Daniel Caesar and then also like a bit of old school like Brandy, Monica, um Tamiya it's so many but very R&B based people yeah all right so uh another another we are going to be playing your music towards the end of the show you have two videos on youtube please remind them your youtube channel um Masuiya my youtube channel is youtube.com slash I am Cali Music all right I am Cali Music you can find that on social media as well uh but before we play the music we have a question on our facebook uh for entrepreneurship Tuesday or hustle Tuesday and the question is which uh transaction mode do you prefer card mobile money or cash um why probably like what I use the most or your preference the one that would make life easiest for you I think card card is the one for you yeah all right reason being I think because when I was in Australia I used to use my card so much and it was just so much better to carry a card instead of all this cash all right yeah all right so there she's saying it card works for keep your your views or your comments about this particular question on facebook coming uh we'll be very happy to read them even if not today we are always happy to receive your feedback so keep them coming on our facebook that is at Y254 and we have Cali in studio she has two videos on youtube so far of her latest EP she's going to pick the one that we are going to play uh which one I know this is hard to play for rights with your kids but just pick one for us uh you can go ahead and watch attention because attention is on the EP attention is on the EP yes all right one last time I'll give you a chance to tell them how they can interact with you and your last message to the girl child since I saw you were really passionate about them yes um so thank you guys for having me on the show um you can find me at I am Cali music on all social media platforms and to my women in the industry keep doing your thing honestly um and just keep being yourselves and yeah that's all I can say keep being yourself yeah Cali said it you can find an EP on every streaming platform uh the name of the EP different definitions of love part one but fun so we're looking to see part two yes all right different definitions of love is on every streaming site uh by Cali you can head to uh youtube channel um Cali I am Cali music yes I am Cali music uh support support support and enjoy Kenyan music we have come to the end of our entrepreneurship Tuesday uh third day on why and the morning you can find me at it's my own social media tomorrow is Queens Wednesday we are celebrating all the queens out there so you don't want to miss it and today we still have a lot of shows lined up for you from uh the bounce in the evening to the rest of them so you don't want to change the dial you don't want to you don't want to take the dial rather we change the channel see you tomorrow