 It's the network. Oh, what's up everybody once again, it's brand man Sean and this is inside the network It's our exclusive series where we show you exclusive content interviews and artist sessions from inside of brand man network dot com And this one is one of three initial interviews. We decided to show you from inside the network dj pain one this guy right here Man, like if you haven't if you don't know who he is first of all You probably just aren't on the internet right now because this guy's he's moving He has his own youtube page just killing it in its own right doing this thing on instagram And just the impact he's making in the music producer community really can't be measured at this point right he's also a co-owner of music entrepreneurship club Obviously is what it sounds like right? They it's about music entrepreneurship and Once again, this guy has his own track record. I'm talking about working with young jeezy Uh, little baby rick ross so many other people when we're looking at these placements So i'm not gonna go too much further and tell what he's done But just know you'll get a lot of dope insights from the interview. Let's get into it And he's gonna be a wealth of knowledge. I already know I like i'm just excited to talk to him myself So let me go ahead and get into these questions dj pain one welcome. What's up, man Appreciate you having me on don't set the bar too high though. Let's let's be realistic here Hey, man, you give just about as you know, you give as much knowledge as anybody these days But all right, I get I got it set the bar low and shock him. I got you All right, let me let me start here because i'm interested and I don't know this How did you personally get started? I always got a like set that tone just to give me a feel So with with production or with the entrepreneurial side of it all Not production Uh, I was just a Kid You know kids are curious I loved hip-hop always on a on a musical level on but also on a deeper cultural level For years and years and years. It was just that I was bored. I haven't been bored for over a decade now Now that i'm doing what i'm doing There was you know boredom was a close friend of mine. So Age 14, I'm like, you know what I'm just gonna make two crazy decisions. I'm gonna start writing graffiti And I'm gonna start making beats Because oh man because hip-hop. So I do that that's what I did for years talking about for real Yeah, yeah, I'm still making beats not not breaking the law anymore Don't man, I mean I see real quick question just because random and I thought about it You I saw in your discography that you got a chance to Do a beat for public enemy. How was that? I've worked with him a lot. Shout out to Chucky I've worked on at least three of their albums and then plus a couple records for chuck as well and then for jahee too Who's uh pe 2.0? So I feel like i'm kind of Yeah embedded in that world right now. I didn't realize it was that serious man I only asked because they're you know, you have legends and then you have like legend legends Right. So it's a legend. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, of course a lot of people might not know them these days But like yeah, what was it like working with them personally, you know, I mean, that's all like this is a selfish question I mean that's that was my favorite hip-hop group growing up So the the fact that it even happened In another dimension where I'm where I'm 11 years old. I'm them my head is exploding Got you Got you. All right. Well like you you hopped in the hip-hop just out of you know, boredom And it sounds like you just navigated your way through And like if you fast forward you're at a point where just like I mentioned You're like you're you've done all this stuff placement wise, right? But then you're also beat least in beats online All right, and that's you're one of the few people I'm sure there's a lot of people but you just wanted a few people that I know who are Doing both sides of those like without necessarily You know trying to hide it or anything. I mean it's just a both You seem to do them fluidly with no with no problem. How do you feel about that argument that I'm always hearing? Uh, well, let me just go back. I got distracted by something. I said, I wasn't so bored that I just wanted to do hip-hop I've been trying to I remember when I was five. I wanted to be a DJ and a graffiti writer So it was just like suddenly I was bored enough to Have that internal dialogue As deeply as it can be when you're 13 14 years old and I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna do it But uh, but yeah, um, sorry the question was internet versus industry Yeah, I mean just Just the fact that you're doing both and you know, just like the ways is known that there's some producers were obviously on the industry side that have pages but Are hiding it, you know hiding their identity and things like that and there's reasons why I get it Yeah, I wonder how that I've never met one personally. Yeah, I just Made yourself and called me yesterday shout out to him and he wants to um to kind of transition into that world but his mentor is monstrous so And monsters, I think the top selling internet producer so It seems like it's just happening Right out in the open static selected for example um, a lot a lot of people it's funny too because a lot of people contact me and 10 Eight five years ago if you had asked me, hey, should I sell Beat licenses on the internet. I would have said no, don't do it And now I'm kind of the guy that that some people contact and say hey, you know What what's the real inside scoop with this? And now I'm saying yeah, I think it's a great Outlet for for beats. It's a great opportunity to work with unsigned artists. It's a it's a great revenue stream But you know like like Curtis King said It's he didn't say this exactly but he kind of implied it. There's a lot of gray area between the internet and the industry and ironically for me this year Some placements including Wiz Khalifa that came through my friendship with a producer who's For all intents and purposes probably considered an internet producer whose dream life and then also um I've been doing static selected forever, but That came around full circle when he joined beat stars and I interviewed him and we reconnected Hmm interesting Now you said something there. I don't want to like skip over it. You said five years ago. You would have said no I don't do it But we're changing a lot of mistakes. Oh, just you know you're You're ignorant until you choose to not be ignorant anymore and if you if you are presented with a A fact or two that challenges your ignorance And you still choose ignorance then you're stupid I didn't want to be stupid, but I damn sure was ignorant and You just kind of have this Or I I'll speak for myself. I kind of had this mentality when I was working for placements that Because it was so damn hard just to get a placement That I wanted to I guess feel like I was working harder than everyone else And like my work had more value and far too much value to License or 2499 on the internet to anybody, right? but When I say it out loud, this is really what I was feeling when I say it out loud. It sounds absolutely ridiculous Because in the meantime, there were artists Who were getting beats online that that are now great artists, you know, he was artist That I that I would have killed to work for back then There are producers who were building up their brands on the internet And and generating income at the time that I would have never Trained of generating Doing what I was doing chasing placements. So it was it was just really stupid of me to create that Psychological line between what was happening on the internet and what I was doing and it just it was ignorance it was ignorance and It wasn't until people who I respected started giving me more insight into Let me close this window into What the the internet beat licensing space was all about and then I started and even that that only brought me in and then I had to meet people like beat demons and Dillon Graham and The crates and dream life for it to become real to me where I could actually ask this person Questions about that world and you know, they're they're so forthcoming They'll pull their phones out right now and say here's the sales report. Look, I just made 1700 dollars the last two days So I'm like, wow, you did this independently and you don't have to chase labels and you don't have to get Oh, you know a lawyer every time you upload a beat and you don't have to wait for a check for six months How could I how could I be mad at that? 100 but I get that that that more Corporate side of things or just industry side of things just the the politics alone the movements alone is Is enough to drain you so it just works differently. They want you to work fast And they want you to wait to get paid And that's that's the nature of the business that they advances come late The royalties come quarterly, but there's always a lag time Um You send the beat I've had placements take five years to even come up So from a creative side, it's frustrating, you know, if I and and that's what now I'm so much more relaxed because if I make a beat that I really Love and want people to hear which is kind of the point of making art in my opinion I can just Put it out and there's a platform for that and there's a there's a base of listeners for that Whether it's other producers that just want to listen to it and give me Feedback or whether it's recording artists that want to license that beat and you know put money in my pocket God bless them There's an outlet And I can and I control that I don't have to wait for somebody else to tell me. Yes. It's cool. You can you can upload this beat now I do now the producers are interesting because you just talked about like Playing for other producers to get feedback and things like that Like what makes producers so collaborative in a way where artists aren't and do you think artists Like that culture would ever change with artists where they'll be so You know sharing with each other to create things at scale I think a better question is will producers ever be At each other's necks the way artists are and I and I hate to be pessimistic But I just think that that producers are kind of experiencing a renaissance where not just now we're getting A piece of the spotlight whereas 10 years ago nobody knew who Producers were really I mean unless they wrapped unless they put their feet You know people knew who Timberland was people knew who Drey was but they were the exception and they didn't just stick to Producing records or making beats nowadays Murder beats doesn't rap People know who he is though Metro woman doesn't rap people know who he is though suddenly the producer Is a marshmallow doesn't sing mark. You know what I mean and these aren't superstars Yeah, and and so things are are different for producers now suddenly we have the limelight things are going well, but I'm seeing kind of hints of Negative patterns emerging, you know just with with kind of public feuds and Stupid stuff that can just get handled As adults because we're all adults and even if we're not adults. That's not really an excuse for acting Immaturely in the public space So my hope is that that's not what happens. My hope is that we look at at our successes and Where we stand as a collective community And say, okay, this is good Let's make it better But by respecting each other and by maintaining this collaborative culture rather than Moving backwards and I and I interviewed an hour ago I interviewed J. D on the track and then the week prior I interviewed iceberg beats and they both collabed on That polo G record pop out which is a huge hit right now and I just discovered that today actually I saw an ad What yeah, so I mean this is one of the the songs of the summer and They collaborated on it and so I wanted to tell that story and kind of emphasize The benefit of collaboration in the in the producer community because there is this kind of paranoia and fear because every now and then something negative will happen But it's our decision to make do we do we allow our our decision our collective decisions and our collective philosophies on collaboration to be defined by the couple negative experiences or do we correct the negative experiences? address them and move forward with The benefits of collaboration guiding us Interesting I could see what you mean by the additional spotlight coming Could at some point create some of that energy Or add to that energy obviously just because I mean when I when you think about an artist Producing and collab will collaborating with each other, especially if only one of them ends up performing Right, they get a lot of the credit and that's how consumers look at credit So maybe when you start to get into that side of things who gets credit for stuff like that Maybe you'll get what weird, but it's it's it's kind of a interesting Dynamic or maybe even a weird analogy But I kind of think about like segregation theory when you said what you said because it's like when you're Separated it's easy to stay together when you're not You know getting the credit or when you're not allowed certain rights and then once you Assimilate then you kind of take on some of those other problems that you wouldn't experience otherwise. So that's interesting Well, also what we do is is is a competitive too, but we can be Competitors and respect each other at the same time and want to see each other win, you know, we're always competing I think in rap There was definitely always competition in hip-hop period. That's what it was kind of based on It was there were always battles whether it was breakers whether it was djs whether it was rappers whether it was graffiti artists and there were always You know the kind of the purpose was to do it in a positive way But there were always those moments where where negativity would find its way in and I get it. It happens Um, I just don't want that to be the norm Obviously, none of us want that to be the norm there. There are moments in history where it became really ugly obviously losing two great mcs in that kind of Competition gone wrong, but I think there's a lot more to that story and just you know, rap beef That being said Seeing those kinds of examples should make us want to be a little more careful about what we do And how we move and how we treat each other, but We're humans at the end of the day we make decisions. I just Hope we make the right decisions and you know five five ten years ago. No one would care if I went online and and said something negative about Curtis king or lifestyle or whoever nowadays Like I'll joke with people on twitter You know just roast each other because because I don't I'm not sensitive like that I'm sensitive in other ways, but people take it too serious and it's like a long Why our heads shouldn't automatically go there You know we we we don't need this this public Beef just because people are paying attention just because some people are attracted to negativity. That shouldn't be The basis of our branding It's the the attention man. That's what makes a lot of things go wrong, right? You want people are watching it's like oh that ego gets involved Yeah, exactly and then social media I mean Thank god we didn't have social media when hip-hop first started I couldn't even imagine what that would have been like You mentioned something earlier When you basically talked about that psychological line that you had drawn in your head when you were saying no I'm not gonna do this online be selling thing Is there anything that you see with artists or producers? That like that when they're trying to work their way up There's is there any kind of commonality that you see in terms of like some psychological lines that they have drawn That are holding in back Oh my god. Yeah, there are a million. I think all of the lines that are holding in the back are psychological One big one is thinking that you already need Some kind of insane budget some kind of crazy industry support To to create a career for yourself That I mean Thinking there's no middle ground thinking it's either you you're failing or you're You're winning on this grand scale. That's a terrible way to think And you have I've had conversations with people that say, you know, if you don't get signed, what's the point? Well, you could make a living doing what you love. Isn't that kind of cool? You can do that without being signed you can have touch If you're not touching tens of of millions of people's lives you can touch 10,000 people's lives And that's your livelihood doesn't that sound good to you? um So that's a that's a psychological barrier They're just a lot, you know, and you can see it in the way certain people move I think the other major psychological barrier is just not wanting to or not understanding that this is a Long game because if we should know The whole marathon concept by now Oh, uh, and we say it but some of us don't actually embody that Because we want it now Which is the reason I got 10 producers every day in my inbox trying to sell me beats And then when I say take me off this list, I'm a producer. Oh, okay fam I'm just trying to hustle any way I can or or why are you in your feelings? I'm just doing what everybody's doing Yeah, because well number one, that's not true and number two is because you want it now You want me to buy a beat want me to put money in your pocket But you don't want to take the time that that it requires to build a some kind of trust To the point where people feel comfortable Spending their money with you that's not something we need to take lightly and people get so for all all artists These days with the internet They they apply that instant gratification concept that the internet is so good at instilling in our in our brains Then they apply that to their long-term music careers. Okay, if you do that, you're gonna fail. Sorry but That's your choice. You either look around and and see people like tech nine and see people like macro more whoever and And you see well, oh, they got famous overnight. Well, no, they didn't Yeah Go back they've been doing this for years and years and years But that's your choice to see it on the surface level And if you see it on the surface level, of course, everything's gonna look like like instant gratification and somebody who actually has experience in the game will come along and tell you it's different and and you have it wrong and then A lot of the times unfortunately people will Lash out at them as haters or lash out at them as Discouragers rather than people who are trying to give you a reality check. So It's all mental How do you pace yourself speaking of the marathon? Uh I'm bad at pacing myself. I'm all I'm trying to work and do 20 different things at once but Setting smaller goals um Goals that that have an impact. So it's not like I want I want to make 100 followers every day That's kind of stupid as gold because what did those followers mean? um, I want to I want to set some meaningful goals if the if the meaningful goal is Uh pay all of my bills off with passive income Well that projects a series of tests that I need to Implement and complete in order for that goal to be met So I know exactly what I need to do for that to happen and guess what if I don't know what I need to do Then I know exactly what I need to do a research I know exactly what I need to research and focus on in order to figure out how to make that happen So those are the kinds of gold. It's not like Like 15 years or okay 10 years ago when I was really Chased in the placements and Thinking okay, I need a million dollar publishing deal. I mean and that's what I was thinking Need a million dollar publishing deal. Otherwise It's just not gonna work for me Now I'm looking at it like well wait And let me just get my foundational My financial foundation to a point where I can focus on the next step rather than trying jump up to to because you know, and it could happen I'm not saying that overnight Not necessarily overnight success, but but life change can change overnight. I mean, right If I accidentally get a hit record tomorrow. Yeah, my life's gonna change But I can't plan so that kind of stuff. I can plan for what I can control So so setting those smaller goals That are are within the realm of possibility based on what I can do for myself because at the end of the day It's just me working for myself. So what can I do? You know, they mean I think a lot of people plan for Both signs they plan for placements. They they plan for deals And You can't you can't set plans based on the actions of other people that haven't happened yet All right. So like stuff out of your control All right Okay That's interesting. So do you read a lot of books? Yeah, I mean, I'm yeah, I'm a nerd I read books What what are some books you recommend you were saying some things that just remind me of like concepts that I hear a lot I was wondering if there's anything that you recommend I read mostly Novels, so oh really? Yeah, I don't have any, you know, and I need I talked to people all the time. Yeah, you got to check out such and such marketing experts such and such wealth building expert I've never heard of these people and And I'm probably telling myself short by by not Doing doing that research Got you Got you. Okay. Well, you talked about your the fact that you were I mean like you're doing your thing and you said at the end of the day is just you like what's the difference between I do you consider yourself like a music entrepreneur at this time at this point? Yeah Okay, even when I was and I didn't you know, I didn't Consider myself that I still was Got you. So that's what that's what I want to know Like what do you feel like the difference is between Like being now that you like truly consider yourself one Right, like what's the difference between this and maybe even when you just thought you were Again, you know, it's a mental Now that I consider myself one I have to Implement Certain well, okay, so When I first started And I wasn't calling myself a music entrepreneur. I would consider myself a Producer who was trying to become a professional producer, which I guess you could say are the same thing um, I had to impose some kind of schedule under myself because suddenly I was I was transitioning out of having a traditional job traditional jobs tell you you got to show up At this time and you can leave at this time Music all the people around me all of my music people around me when they quit their job They didn't know what the hell to do because suddenly they had all this freedom and they just lost their minds and didn't do anything So for me it was important for me to actually the same way I showed up for work was to show up for my music career So that that was kind of the first step for me and then nowadays Obviously that habit of showing up is still incredibly important, but I've Added way more daily tasks to that schedule Because I've just learned about Different revenue streams back then I was just focusing on one now. I'm focusing on like 12 So that's changed content creation Like we were having talking about before the the camera started rolling the same situation You know, it's a more deliberate focus. It's not just That we suddenly have content accidentally every other month and oh, yeah, sure I'll upload this at a certain time now We're on a schedule and we know we have people that are relying on us to drop content at certain times That level of consistency and that level of structure Helps us as creators because we know what we need to do and it helps the people that That support our content At it It's always good to hear people talk about how creatives need structure because so many people are Anti-structure and I always try to really push that point through that, you know Creativity can't really be channeled without a structure to channel it through No, that's a hell of a conversation too because I posted something on me talking about this What was it? I was talking about the the be the day challenge and and how Finishing beats helped me And it was oh you just probably made a whole bunch of trash beats. You can't force the process I'm like, yes, I can I did and did I make trash beats? Yes, I did But the lesson in that was I had to build a habit to complete my tracks so that I could build up a catalog So I could step into the professional arena and and compete and actually be viable I can't be viable with five finished beats and a thousand unfinished beats. You know what I'm saying So once I got in the habit of finishing beats, then I just have to focus on the next thing which is increasing my Uh musicality programming better drums As long as I have the foundation of seeing a task through then I can improve how I I create that task. So it's just it's it's one of those frustrating conversations because artists are just frustrating Man, we're we're we are so difficult and so stubborn and irrational And that's why that's why I think and sometimes it's like the more irrational and frustrating An artist is The better their artist because I've worked with artists too I'm like, you're so talented. Why are you so Resistant to doing the things that are going to help get your art to the people who need it That you could have a livelihood right now Why are you messing around doing all this other stupid stuff and fighting with all the people that are trying to help you instructor your life Yeah, so it's it's difficult. Um, I mean as an artist, I reckon I talk to dame all the time I know I pissed dame off all the time because he's so Far over on the business side of the the music entrepreneurship spectrum Yeah, kind of like I'm either in super creative mode or super entrepreneur mode You know what I mean? So and I saw him the other day. He came out here for a conference and He's like, I know I pissed you off and like, you know dame is probably That I I know you a lot more than you annoy me because I understand both sides And I know when I'm doing I know when my my artist side is is unchecked and All right part of the interruption for a quick commercial break because again This series is brought to you by brand man network.com and of course you probably recognize that name and that's because we signed ourselves That same mentality we preach is something that we also practice because it allows us to control And actually be able to not have to dilute certain information that other people would not want us to put out Now with that in mind just to make it clear with brand man network.com is it's a space It's all about progress all about action This is not some kind of space where artists just go take in courses for entertainment or anything like that We leave that to youtube for those people who aren't serious This is a specific space for people who are dedicated to progress in their career and building their own systems and their own team Where they don't necessarily have to wait for a record deal or they don't even have to wait to find a manager Right, we're seeing artists in four months make more progress and they've made in two years of just taking in This random research on youtube or google or all these videos that pop up on instagram because it's not about the Inspiration in here is about the progress So we're an artist development platform where we get your brand right your content right And we also help you build a marketing plan a custom plan to you to actually make progress Keep that in mind and let's get back to the interview It's the network I don't know how to help them. Yeah That's that's uh That's interesting what you talked about as far as you creating beats then improving him because that's That's the idea that you don't have to sacrifice right you can you can have quantity and quality But it's just reps right you you get good at what you train for you know, like it's kind of that simple No, that's a good metaphor because some because the people saying no you got to make quality all the time That's like saying every time you do a rep and leave the gym You got to get another inch on your bicep. It's just not it doesn't work that way That happens over time Some people have natural raw talent, but that doesn't mean that your final product is going to be ready Got you Yes, so it's just a refinement thing interesting to think about it that way it's like if uh You know, of course all those shots that Steph Curry shoots at a distance I don't know if you watch basketball, but like traditionally those are bad shots But obviously he trains so well and so much at shooting those all right that it's not a bad shot for him But most people stayed in the box of that's a bad shot So i'm not going to even shoot it or even try to get good at that I mean i'm from wisconsin, so i'm all for the for staff right now because Got you Cool, like i'm interested like you've done You know quite a bit you're not the most famous producer in the world But you are like very accomplished in your own right like what Like do you want out of this industry still? I'm at the point where I just want to be happy which for me involves Having the freedom to make music that that I enjoy and that other people enjoy And not feeling the financial pressures that most artists feel I don't think anyone can be happy with with someone's foot on their back. You know what I mean, so Yeah That that to me is just Yeah, I just want to focus on what makes me happy and And Some of that is a large part of that is making music a large part of that is affecting other people's lives with music and another part of that is having the freedom to You know Visit a family member or a friend if they need me and and not have financial constraints constraints that prevent me from doing that Got you very You know, what's I'm trying to think of the term. I don't know why I can't think of it right now But it's a term that I like to describe you by What is that term? It's so it's popular now. Everybody wants to be like this Uh, there's a emperor You know what I said about family members that even my mother's calling me right now. Hello Be good. Sorry Uh, yeah, that's fine Yes But yeah, um I'm sure you heard this word before. I don't know why it's it's slipping my mind All right, you know that there's like a I don't know. I don't even know if he was a roman emperor I'm Marcus Aurelius, right? He took he wrote these notes right meditations or whatever What's the term that they relate to all those types of folks? It's not pragmatic. It's like I'll take pragmatic Okay, but that's that's one of the things yeah, I thought about that but I was trying to think of the other term Like and really it comes down to some High self-awareness and focusing on what's in your control like Really and that seems to be like you And part of it is just me saying it out loud so that I can kind of remind myself It's it's easy to stray away from from that piece of knowledge um It's funny you say that because I that's what I feel like I'm doing a lot of times like I'm I'm saying a lot of stuff to That I need to be doing or like reminding myself to do it So if I keep telling people then like eventually I say all right. Let me make sure I'm parallel to what I'm saying Yeah, because I don't want to get caught by anybody being an hypocrite. So It's a good incentive. You kind of put yourself you paint yourself in the corner. Yeah Yeah, exactly All right, cool. Well if you Based on what I'm hearing as far as your goals And um just overall like long term in industry like you're you're pretty you keep it pretty simple all right, um when it comes to like music Specifically artists these days Like who are some of the artists that have really impressed you recently just from a producer standpoint Like recording artists. Yeah um, man There's a girl in my city who's and I'm not using girl as a diminutive. She's actually like a kid Um named cc. Who's dope? Uh See her last name is m a r a v i l l a I'm out of the uh, I think So google that she's dope um I'm impressed by a lot of the people around me. Honestly. I'm trying to think what music I like To listen to I listen to mostly dancehall. Um, I think Dexter daps is a great artist. Uh, very underrated Um, who's that guy? Is that white dude from new york that raps? It's a terrible description. Um, damn it man. What is his name? Uh, shoot He had this record called gang I gotta look it up now He's dope. He can really rap Um, let me find his name. Who do you like son? What's he say what? Who are you impressed by? Oh man um There was one guy in particular that I just Well, all right for one there's um one dude named leon I forgot his last name leon bridges. All right. I like his stuff a lot um I wouldn't call him like the newest artist in the world Who is marlin craft is his name by the way melon craft marlin craft How do you spell that m a r l o n space c r a f two Gotcha, got you. Oh, and there's another artist. I just Actually found a couple of weeks ago Or maybe lastly because he commented on one of my videos, but his name is yellow Pain actually I'm not like enough. Um y e l l o Pain, he's not that big like 12,000 subscriber. I'm a sub subs on instagram like 30k on On youtube, but yeah, he has some pretty Like dope. He has some dope concepts and dope music. I definitely think I don't know what his situation is, but It is it is right. He has a lot of potential interesting guy But um Yeah, um, she threw me off with that question always that's like That question for me is always like movies Whenever I said flying your time to watch a movie always forget every movie. I said I was gonna watch But let me let me see. Well just a I got two questions to close it out because I'm interested. Did you ever Wanted to develop an artist yourself? Yeah, I did do it But it goes back I'm not gonna say names because that it was a It's just a negative experience and I you know, that shouldn't define Artistry it just it just changed my approach Um, it made me you want to do that less Uh, because you know artist development You it's kind of like it's it's It's hard to draw lines, right because I'm a creative myself Artist development is heavily creative, but it also has a lot to do with structure And management. So I did have a management deal with at least one artist Who was a great artist but Very difficult to work with like I said Sometimes it's it's like the the greater the artistry the higher the talent level The the lower the interpersonal Um, so just it was devastating to me as an artist when it everything kind of came to a crashing halt because it was I had invested so much into it and I just wanted to see this this musician win I really did and It felt personal because the music Is always a little bit personal um, but you know, I work I I think There are a lot. There's so many informal artist development opportunities that don't actually require, you know, a traditional kind of management scenario. So like I've been working with ted parks since he was in High school I did his first mixtape and I kind of look at that as this two-way artist development street where You know, we work so closely together. It gives me a chance to really be a producer um, but when you're developing a sound with an artist It's not just you as the producer controlling everything. It's a symbiotic relationship. So I'm informing him on his process as a songwriter and the recording artist He's informing me of my process of the beat maker and a producer and so it's just back and forth back and forth We're growing together. So um the music that we're making Now is just I mean when I'm sitting around listening to the music That's That that tells you something me and solar are finishing up our new project the same deal That was that was one of my favorite rappers when I was a teenager and so now We're like Four albums in if you're counting eps So maybe more than that honestly and and this is this this might be our fifth sub That's to me. That's development. It's just not development with a capital D got you so All right, so kind of alluding to some of those things you just said though Like a lot of artists aren't even in a situation Where you know, you were at where you're working actually with somebody and they're having those troubles A lot of artists are having troubles even getting people to work with them at all All right, they even you know, listen to their music at all believe in them in any kind of way What are but so in a lot of situations, I'll just preference it with this A lot of artists have a bad approach, right? So in the same way you kind of alluded to the producer just like spamming emails Are there any like tips that you have? That just based off of some things that you seen like maybe some specific things that you say That would be helpful for artists to understand that this isn't just like one person randomly saying Oh, I don't like this. This is my opinion on these. This is kind of a Collective thought of a lot of industry people that I've been around. They do not like this type of approach and this doesn't work I think a broad Sweeping statement that I can make to address all that is to tell every single artist out there to stop trying to get Approval from industry dudes And you all was here and like let's stop tagging me and stuff Please well, you know, you should want to help somebody you should you got connections. You got this. No, I don't and I'm just I'm in a studio trying to make music just like you and if I were an a and r for a label I don't think the damn about you man. I really don't if I find in that position. I'm doing my job as an a and r for a label Get some fans. Nobody cares until you have fans and then by the time you have fans You stop caring about all this other stuff Because your fans are the ones Providing a livelihood your fans are the ones energizing you your fans are the ones that you owe your success to They're the ones that are going to take you to that next level. Some a and r is not going to do that Some some verified profile on instagram is not going to do that So stop chasing those people focus on making the best music possible and getting it to the right people You don't make music for everybody. There's a very specific community out there that wants your music That likes your music and that likes you as a person And as a brand you just have to tell your story And once you tell your story effectively and you continue to do it in the build you build your brand around it and And you do it over a period of years And you're focusing on people who are actually going to stream your music Who are going to show up to your events when you have them who are going to buy your merchandise Who are going to tell their friends about you who are going to rep you who are going to Interact with you on social media like your post boost you up in the algorithm watching music videos Then you're going to see how little a cosine matters. Then you're going to see how little Or a radio DJ or a club DJ spinning you once or twice You know in a year matters because trust me none of it. I've been I was a radio DJ I am a club DJ. I've been in all those situations I had the same messed up Mentality because it's easy to think that way It's easy to think that all you have to do is get radio spins and all of a sudden the labels start calling you It's easy to think that you just get a verified check on your instagram page and the rich trust me is that's not true I've done all of that At the end of the day, it's just you and your fans If you don't have if you have the fans Nothing else matters and you you have to pay attention you have to treat them like they matter They can tell if you're not treating them like they matter if you're just Focusing on tweeting DJ Khaled your soundcloud link all damn day. You just wasted He's not even reading that But somebody out there might need your your song right now They might be at a place in their life right now where they need to hear your song And they might be at a place in their life right now where they need to feel like you care enough about them To personalize your outreach Or to at least tell your story share your story the easiest way humans connect is through commonality So if I go on youtube right now and say listen to my record now I'm not telling the story I'm being an asshole. But if I go on on the internet and say look This is what I was going through. I was dealing with depression A b and c happened in my life. How many people are going to be able to relate to that? Thousands hundreds of thousands millions Now we have a connection People act like this is we're just selling music. No, we're humans humanity that's what That's that's the that's the secret You can't buy that you can't package that it has it has to be authentic People see through that stuff Hey, man, I always say people matter most I mean you try to do all these tricks and things like that, but it always leads back to the people at the end of the day I don't care what the brand is The logo is not like no to people real people not not numbers on your post social media or nothing Well, and it's definitely true and I don't even know why It's even a question anymore and you you had that young man and you know, I I hate that he's in the in the position that he's in And I don't know what his situation is if he's if he's facing prison time or what was that the young man who? um Maybe he's not that young. I don't know but he was he was an SEO specialist and he Stole for for embezzled four million dollars or something and bought fake views and but oh, yeah Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah, like in Baltimore with Maryland or something like that. Yeah, and it's like Let that serve as an example of so many artists if I just had This money or this amount of followers or this kind of verification badge my life would be different. Look at him It's not different Yeah Yeah Yeah, and the fact that four million dollars went into that $100 million, you know and that's And someone out there right now is trying to scrounge up 30 dollars to buy fake spotify place because they think that's the move And it's not someone out. Someone had four million dollars to spend on that and You don't know his name. So yeah tragedy, but we should learn from it and I wish him the best 100% man I think that's a great way to end it. Um, are there any specific things that you would like people to follow you on? Uh, yeah, follow me everywhere you guys He's something to be moat, you know Well music doctor for newer club com me see tour.com in september 2019 me dame and kato are hitting the road again This time we're starting in Atlanta and moving up to and I'm gonna see you on this tour, right? Hopefully, uh, dame told me about the Atlanta day. I got to be at a wedding in san francisco So it might be one of the other dates. Yeah, well, I'll see you on one of the other dates. You heard it first here He committed, uh, new york, swastin, philadelphia, dc So mbc tour.com. That's where to get the tickets Um at dj paying one instagram. Follow me on youtube. Help me help me reach the hundred thousand mark That's that's a it's not my primary goal, but I'd like to hit it Either way this year That'd be nice. Yo, man You heard that first man follow him follow him follow him follow him get those subscribers up and then You know y'all go find some y'all friends to help me get to 100k too Yeah, no do do it both do it both. We'll reciprocate for sure for sure. All right guys Once again, this video is brought to you by bramann network dot com And if you like this video go ahead and like button if you like you might as well share and if you're not subscribed You know what to do hit that subscribe But it's the network