Latest / The Baller Alert Show / Episode 355 "Label Executives & Managers"

Transcript

Episode 355 "Label Executives & Managers" · The Baller Alert Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: They get called broadcast line from Atlanta, Georgia. Wan't to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the ball show. I go by the name of fer.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I go by to that.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: You know, bat too, man.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: We got some special guests in the building, Keenan in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the building?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe in the building? What's up? Fellas' real good?
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: What do you talk about? The rook like that?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Now? I know people are like, who the hell? How
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the hell do we get these guys on here? Again?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to talk to two people that I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: very much respect. In the industry full of weirdos and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of bullshit going on.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: That's how you feel.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: We all know this.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I like to talk to people who stand on business.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I've never heard anything bad about either one.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Of you guys. You know what I'm saying.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: In the industry full of.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: You know, we gotta gotta, we gotta give who these
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: guys are?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, please introduce yourselves please.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Keenan Johnson originally from New York but been to Atlanta
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: since nineteen ninety two. Went to clark Land University. Music
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: industry well well well respected, I would say professional, been
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: the game twenty five plus years and basically from what
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: you're saying, I prod myself on being consistent. I think
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: that's why I've been able to be around so long,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: and people should respect for me for so long because
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: I respect you.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Trying to be too humble man s VP. Interscope records
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that year EVP EVP. Oh my bad, damn.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: How many years I was at Intersco for almost fifteen years? Yes,
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: started as a regional and worked my way up to
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: a EVP. Yeah, ended up running at the department over there.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: So I'm not trying to be humble. I just figure
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: I was just gonna get into that a little bit.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: Okay, that's okay. Uh, Yeah, I'm easy. You know, anybody
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: from Atlanta, y'all know me. I'll just be chilling. Man.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no. See see I first met this
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: guy man, he was promoting Yeah, and then all of
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a sudden, I see this young guy with dreads fighting
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: in the club, and I've kept saying, who is this guy?
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden these were like, Hey,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the next one twenty one savage.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm manager of twenty one President.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Are you also manager a producer?
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah? Kid, Hazel, And I'm recently I'm just now creating
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: my management company.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: To kind of expand my roster as well. But yeah,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: that's what I'm saying.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Can we wint my camera? He wasn't gonna say. Yeah.
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: He definitely was gonna say, but can we talk about
• 2:30
  Speaker 6: who you recently signed?
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Not right now?
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Okay, we keep that on Instagram, but yeah, he but I.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Got I just yeah, I just got somebody who who's
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: super lit. Yeah, super lit.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: And I'm excited for the world to kind of see
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: what we do to grow what we got going on
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: for sure.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, so my first question both of you guys are
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: when you first got into the industry, what are some
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: things that kind of made you say, damn, this is
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: some bullshit that I'm entering or did you have an
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: optimistic view of it? Nah?
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Not really. Honestly, when I first got into business, it
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: was a lot harder to get in. It was so
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: much gatekeeping going on back then. It was a lot
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: harder to get in.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: You know, the business was really based in New York
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: and LA for the most part. Back then. In Atlanta
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: was really just starting to pop back in the mid
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: in late nineties, So there wasn't a lot of true
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: business out here. There was a lot of a lot of.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Art out here in Atlanta, in Atlanta, but.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Not business yet. So the people that were down here
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: were people that were getting put on by their people.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: And those people were doing this holding it tight, holding
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: it tight, and only putting on people that you know,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: that they that they messed with, you know, or was
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: they homies or their cousins or whatever. So I remember
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: a time where you know, the executives that that I
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: that I saw coming up, they was assholes. This would
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: be perfectly honest. And what I what I what I
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: took from that was I'm gonna get on, but I
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: never want to make people feel like some of these
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: people made me feel when I was trying to come up.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: So that's why I was, you know, rolled the way
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: I rolled, like I always wanted to just be me
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, like be represented for
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: who I am as opposed to what I did.
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: You know, Yeah, that's the same way with me. But yeah,
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: I just seen it with some bullshit from the promoter standpoint.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: I seen niggas fake kick it. I've seen a lot
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: of shit. So when I came in, I was real,
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: like staying office. I was one of them. Fuck them niggas.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: We don't need them niggas.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: If I fuck with you, I fuck with you. Fucked,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: We'll fuck all that shit. And I've learned, you know,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: through time, like you.
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: Gotta play politics and stuff and just to somebody else
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: in some type of way. You don't got to be
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: that way, you know, just staying on my character, you know,
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: So anybody who know me, No, I'm just I feel
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: like I hope that anybody runningto me just like, oh man,
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: he a cool.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Ass motherfucker first before.
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: Like oh yeah, man, I'm man at twenty one savage
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: manager's that or I fake, you ain't gonna see me.
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: But you never never even been like that, Like even
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: even when I first bet both of guys, y'all have
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: always been super cool.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Like I didn't even know.
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: Like even when I first met you, I didn't even
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: know what you did with I was just like, dangn
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: it's a cool dude, Like yeah, he used to promote
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: and this and that, and now.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: He you know, he managed this artist.
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: And I'm like, I'm like, oh that's fire, because you
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: don't you don't see people that gain that type of
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: success that you guys gained and that still keep a
• 5:10
  Speaker 6: level head because we used to people in the industry
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: being like assholes or like, oh, they.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Don't want to talk to you if you can't do
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: nothing for them.
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: And that's that's another thing the industry gotta stop doing,
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: like stop being friends with people fake as you say,
• 5:23
  Speaker 6: fake kicking it because they can do something that they
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: can help you.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Well, I started from humble beginnings, like I started on
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: the street team BRO. So for me, like I couldn't
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: come in, you know, on a higher level acting like
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: something I never. I wasn't from the beginning. I came
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: literally from the bottom doing street promotions at Clarkland University,
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: like on days like this, putting out postal boards, putting
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: stickers on on goddamn walls, and all types of stupid
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: shit all through the winter, not getting paid. So for me,
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: it's like I literally grinded my way from not being
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: paid to an EVP bro. So never at any point
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: that I that I wanted to feel like or could
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: I feel like I was better than anyone, because actually
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: put it into work, So I can respect anybody that
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: puts into work, you know what I mean.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: And Mesic you came from promoting, you came from kind.
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: Of the same I was throwing parties, and I also
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: did street team work, like that's the first pack I
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: ever got was a two Chains album. That was my
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: first entry point into like the music business outside of
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: navigating how of throwing parties, because I remember one of
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: my parties got shot up.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I'll never forget.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: I was making a whole bunch of money and one
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: of my parties got shot up, and I remember my
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: life flashed for my eyes. I'm like, damn, my shit over.
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: I don't know how I'm gonna eat. I don't know
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: what I'm gonna do. And I remember sitting in the
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: house like what do you I would like because this
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: party shit is not about to last.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm about to do. I'm like music,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: and I remember I just.
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: Called Charlie Tech and al over there at Street is
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: X and it was like, man, just come over here.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: And I did the street team work for Boats two Chains,
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: and then shit, I did really good at that, and
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: that's what made me just really fall in love with
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: like the music business and just learning more about it.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: That's kind of like it was my entry point.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Stop right there. So you remember he's got you, said
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Streeter Zax. I remember a time when there was a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: lot it was not a lot of music executives in Atlanta. Yeah,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: but then it became to where music is x X
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: moved to Atlanta and a lot of people from Atlanta
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: became music at X for sure. Can you pinpoint when
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: did you guys see that change?
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for me, it was the La Face era. La
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: Face era. That's when I was in college and baby
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Facing La Reed. They came in set up shopping in
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: Atlanta and they created that that vehicle La Face, which
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: brought us outcast TLC and all these these icons of music.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Uh usher you know. So they brought the foundation of
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: what became the new music hub for the for the
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: industry of Atlanta in the nineties, and I think Atlanta
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: grew from there. And don't get it wrong, you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: Jermaine and Dallas they did their part as well, but
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: as far as bringing a full infrastructure of a big
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: label to the city, definitely that that office on P
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Street was like oh shit, this is like this is
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: this can happen like this? Like I used to go
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: up there, My man Taya used to wear there. Who
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: I think you know that shit used to be like boomerang,
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Like we were going there and people be dressed beautifully,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: the women would look amazing. Everywhere you turned, everybody just
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: looked good, smelled good, felt good, and they was just
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: and they was popping out that shit. So, you know,
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: really set the foundation for what things could be and
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: what was fur the ground Atlanta to grow from from
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: there from that point on.
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, like I said, I grew up. I
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: grew up in seeing it. So I wasn't a time
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: where I didn't know that it wasn't able to happen
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: in Atlanta, you know, just because I'm little facing all
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: that stuff. I'm young, I was young. I'm thirty five,
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: so shit around that time, I ain't know much about music,
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: but I know music was always here, so I always
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: seen it, you know what I'm saying.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: So what made what made you?
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: I know you said that you you started working with
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: street executives, But what made you really start like getting
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: into like management, Like did you ever think you could
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: start manage? No?
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: It was Charlie from streets he not with you know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: Charlie CEO was like man because I used to help artists,
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: but I would only help artists to get them for
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: free or for cheap, so I could make money at
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: the door. So I'm like helping work in their music,
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: doing whatever, making sure the DJ play the shit. I
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: don't give a fuck what I had to do because
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: I knew when two Chain changed his name from teddy
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: Boy to two Chains, I'm like, shit, I want to help.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: Anything I need to do for two Chains, I'm gonna
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: do because when his mixtape release come, he gonna I
• 9:20
  Speaker 5: get it for free. So if I get it for
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: free and my door hit forty thousand and I make
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: twenty five percent of forty thousand, fine, you know. And
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: I got in the relationship. So I used to just
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: do stuff that marketers in different I used to do
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: stuff label people would do, and I didn't know what
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: I was doing. I'm just thinking whatever I can do
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: to build a relationship with the artists to make money.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: So Charlie was like, look, bro, you can manage Do
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: you realize that you need to? And it was this
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: group called two nine that I was real close with,
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: nine Siege and Jason. He was like, man, you should
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: manage them. They are friends. You should try it. I'm like, damn,
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: I ain't ever think about it, but fuck it. That's
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: what made me move out my mama house. I moved
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: out my mama house and got an apartment right behind
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: Siege's house, bought them studio, and then, shit, I ain't
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: look back. That's when that was my entry point manager.
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: If it wasn't for Charlie, I would never thought about managing.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: I just would have been throwing parties and trying to
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: figure it out, which is nothing wrong with that. I
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: still miss throwing parties. I had to stop on because
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: he was doing too much, so I had to stop
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: throwing the parties like I was trying to, Like he
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: was going out of town. I still had my percent,
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: but they got to the point where it's like I'm
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: not doing I'm not earning my money. So I just
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: gave my percent up and then that was it for
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: me with the parties. But I still wish I could
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: promote to this day. That's why when I get excited
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: when his birthday party come and shit like that, because
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: he give me that feeling of like, oh, y'all, come
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: fuck with us, we got this, we got that. I'm
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: really excited to promote anything, you.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Know, how exactly.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: I'll get excited. How did you How did you and
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Savage end up meeting.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I knew him back.
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: Shit if I'm three years older than him, so I
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: think I met him. This is just in Passing, just
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: because we grew up around the same people, like when
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: he was like twelve and I was like fifteen, seeing
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: him in Passing and then from there me throwing parties.
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: They will always come to the parties, bisections and stuff
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: like that. They was in the streets. They used to
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: fuck my parties up, like dough all these shit. He
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: was not a rapper whatsoever. So I just knew him
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: in Passing. I knew a lot of his older homeboys,
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: had a relationship with them, but they used to come
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: and from there. When he did start rapping, I was
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: just happy to see somebody who I knew for a
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: long time doing it and the music was good. So
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: I just was promoting him, pushing them just on some
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: like man, this nigga next, I know him like cool,
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: let's you know.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: That's how it was organic.
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so I knew him before anything, like just just
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: in Passing, just growing up on the East Side.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I could tell because it seems very organic between you two.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I could tell he cares about you. I can tell
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you care about him. You know it's not transactional. Yeah,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: as you can kind of tell from outside looking in
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: in certain situations, I could tell you guys have a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: really good relationship.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that. Yeah, are you doing a good job? Yeah?
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Because it's funny because when we went to Ruggs No
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: was it? Who party was? I forgot? Was at somebody
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: party and this uh savage saw you, like what you're
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: doing here, and it's like, damn, I'm trying to get
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: away from him.
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: Stuff like that just shows me like how organic you
• 12:06
  Speaker 6: know your relationship is, because you really don't see that
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: a lot like a lot of times in this industry,
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: we see like, uh, like an art like a manager
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: like yourself, give with an artist and then as soon
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: as the artists blow up and they get big, so
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: what do they do? Snip snip switching later and then
• 12:22
  Speaker 6: they got a whole man, they got a whole management company,
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: and you don't help bring these artists, you know, to
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: the point to where where they at.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: And you know, you see, you see that so so
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: often in his industry.
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: I'm blessed, bro, Like I know I'm blessed. I don't
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: it ain't no, I don't got no advice for nobody
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: and none. You gotta just pay. You got a real motherfucker.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: That's you.
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying, the way you fuck with them,
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: because it's the percent the people that are like savage
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: is like two percent in the industry. So it's like,
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: don't think it's gonna it's it's it's rare for somebody
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: be loyal, you know, and locking the way you know
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: niggas is locked in. I was just talking to Shock
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: up about it before I got here. They going on
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: twenty five years together.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, wow, yeah, wow, shout out the shock.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: That's rare though, you know what I'm saying. So I'm blessed, man,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I'm blessed.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, Kenan, I got a question, man. I know you
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you was on the promo side for a very long time,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: so you saw some things going no, no, no, no,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: ain't going too crazy.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Hold on that.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, like, what are some things
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that you think an artist tends to blame the label
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: which is inaccurate?
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I want to good question because I worked at.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: The promo side year. I worked at war the records,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes I saw when I had I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: had a I had a corporate card, and I thought
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that was cool.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I kept saying.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: I was like, damn, I had to do my little
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: use expenses. I said, oh, this goes to the artist budget. Wow,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I just mons how to eat. Everybody was saying it
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: is we go to the bull artist. But what are
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: some things that you know are misconceptions that artists may say, Man,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: it's y'all phone.
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, I've seen many of times where you know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: as a promo guy, we've delivered you know, success, you
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: know for artists on records, you know, whether it be
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: number ones, top tens, top fives, but the man, it
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: a record doesn't work, y'all shit, y'alling. I've had that
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: happen many a time actually, and I don't even take
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: it personal. I just I know what it is. Like
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I learned early in this game, it's a delicate dance
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: that we have to do as record people, especially on
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: the promo side, as far as building bridges and relationships
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: with artists, like to one degree, we're literally most times
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: the first line of defense when it comes to showing
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: them how to be artists in front of people, because
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: when they do promo, they're getting in front of people
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: like yourself, and a lot of times they don't really
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: have the tools to communicate properly, to actually have conversations
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: where they know how to give the right answers and
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: not put themselves in bad situations. So what happens with
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: that is you build the trust with these artists, you know,
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: in that process early on. So that's the great part.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Right on the way up, you're helping them build you
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: watching them grow, and they get all success. But then
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: to the point about the management part where people get
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: snip snipped. It's the same kind of dichotomy when they
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: get super big and all of a sudden they're not
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: as big as they were, and they may fucking deliver
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: a dud, and you may take that dud top ten
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: because that's the you know, you have an interest in
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: the staking of artists, you believe in them, you was
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: with them from the beginning. But this just ain't the record.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: But they'll throw your ass under the bus, so god
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: damn quick and make your head spin. But I, like
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I said, I ain't take a person at this point.
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: It's it's the game, you know. At the end of
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: the day, I would hope that my overall track record
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: of success across a lineage of artists speaks to my
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: what I contributed as opposed to what I did with
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: one artist or one record.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you this, is it true that
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: you can pay for a number one record?
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know nothing about that, Okay.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: I just see this on the internet all the time.
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: Report you get, you get, you get industry experts, and
• 16:03
  Speaker 6: they were like, hey, it cost this to go to
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: number one. And you know when you see these artists
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: going number one is because the labels are doing let's
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: do it.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, let me let me start.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Let me, let me, let me, let me start.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: I'm from a different eraror bro. You have to pay
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: so much so for me, So for me, let's just
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: let's just get get this out the way. For me,
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: even speaking on platforms is a big deal one, that's
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: a fact. Speaking on gang business is even more of
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: a big deal for me. So for me, like whatever
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: is known, it is what it is. But at the
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: end of the day, you have to have a great
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: record in order to put it in position to go
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: number one. I'll say that, yes, are there budgets involved
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: with working records? Of course, there's budgets involved with every
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: department at a record label. Just like there's a digital
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: department that needs a budget to move things around, there's
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: a marketing department that needs a budget to move things around.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: There's a radio budget as well. But if that record
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: ain't shit, that record's gonna stall at twenty because the
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: record ain't researching. So at the end of the day,
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: you need a really really good record that's connecting with
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: the with the with the audience in order fourth to
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: go number one? So can you pay for number one?
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't agree with that. Do you need a great
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: team to position a record to go number one and
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: a budget to support that? Of course absolutely, And that
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: was a good answer because the reason why I access
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: because people making it seem like it doesn't matter what
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: type of music it is, like you can instantly pay to.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Go number one.
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: So that's why I'm glad we got experts in the
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: room to really break it down.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: So I get so many conversations about people who hire
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: independent people who and they say, man, I gave it
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: so and so personal this amount of money and my
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: record ain't even chart. Well, what's the record good?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: First of all?
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: You know, let's start there, right, And sometimes you're dealing
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: with people who are maybe call themselves professional, but they're
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: just looking for a check. One thing I can say
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: about myself, and you know, I will choot my heart
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: in this regard. I never took no money that I
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: didn't believe in. If I didn't believe in the record
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: or believe in the artist, I'm not taking your bread.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: It ain't work for you diminishing my my reputation for sure.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: Like the headache is one thing, but my reputation is
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: a whole nother thing. That's why to this day I
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: can walk in any room my head high and no,
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: there's no one in that room that could say Keenan
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: did them dirty? Ever, you'll never find that person. If
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: they did, they full of shit, you feel me? So
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: you gotta you gotta with anything. You need to vet
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: the people that you're dealing with. But you also need
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: to vet your goddamn product. Yeah it's that product worthy?
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Not for sure?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Now measy. I know. Sometimes you gotta go hide sometimes
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: because motherfuckers probably be walking up to you, like bro,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: blow me up like you did?
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Savage?
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: My boy, how can you take me there to that?
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: You say?
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: What what they got? I can't, I can't, I can't.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I can't do that.
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: But you know, I get even advice about looking left
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: and right, bro, looking to people, look at the people
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: around you, BROI try to build and make sure you
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: got passionate because one thing about us, we was pat like.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: It was a time where, believe it or not, people
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: did not believe in twenty one Savage. They thought this
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: nigga was a crazy street nigga. I remember biggas come
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: to me like, Man, be careful, Bro. I don't man
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: this ship. Man, I don't know how long it's gonna last.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: Get your money because of where he started, you know
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: what I'm saying. But it's when you find people that
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: genuinely believe, bro, it'll happen, don't you know. I feel
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: like sometimes look left and right and don't look up.
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: You know, look left and right, your people were right
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: around you. That's gonna help you build that ship, you
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: know a lot of times. So that's the best advice
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: I get. But you asking me to put you on,
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: I can't do it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: What I would say, what's what's uh you know on
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: on your adventure going up? What's some of the craziest
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: things that y'all have to experience?
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Like what you mean that.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: You can say things that you can say because I know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I know, I know.
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: At one point, you know, I saw you do an
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: interview or y'all talked about y'all. Y'all was like traveling
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: across country like in a in a small van, you know,
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: just just talking about the grind that people may not
• 19:52
  Speaker 6: see because of the sex that y'all have.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: Savage couldn't fly, so, you know, due to his you know,
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: nobody knew at the time, but you know, citizenship and
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: stuff like that.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: We didn't just we never discussed it, but he.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: Could not fly. He didn't have ID. So everywhere we
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: went at the beginning, we drove everywhere. We used to
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: have to route our shows. Yeah, like if we did
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: a show in Kansas City, we couldn't take a show
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: in Miami the next day, no matter how much they
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: was paying.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: So we had to route the drive. So we knew, like,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: oh we do these two shows.
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: Cool, this takes twelve hours to drive here from there,
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: it's gonna be six hours here and then from there
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: to get back home, it's gonna be this.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: We used to have to ride it like that.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: Or when we met in LA for the labels, that
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: was a thirty five hour non stop drive drive to LA.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Back and forth. So we knew that was gonna take
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: a week.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Bro, it's gonna be two days drove to LA.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: All the time. We did that more than once.
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: Two days to drive there, three days to do what
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: you need to be, two more days to get back home.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: So we need, like we used to have to schedule
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: how we traveled just based off of us not being
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: able to fly for a long time till he got
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: enough money, and a lot of these niggas fly private
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: where they flew.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: At the time.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: He was one of the first niggas to take jets,
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: but a lot of niggas is taking jets flexing because
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: they spend their money just flying private.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Niggas. They understand we that was.
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: The only y'all have to do li you know what
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: I'm saying, without him having to go through the process
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: of TSA and all that.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: So that's why we was flying private at first.
• 21:12
  Speaker 5: Honestly, it wasn't a flex It was like, yeah, we
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: had to get Wow, I did not know that.
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, so at what point did
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: y'all have that conversation? Was that something that he was
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: like y'all gotta have a talk with you about.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Oh. No, I mean I knew it's something.
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: It wasn't like people see the ice shit and see
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: it think like, oh, he scrambled to try to fix
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: something when to hit the fan.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: No, man, it's something this like his life.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: He's been working on this for before, Like this is
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: something that's been the top priority for him. It was
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: always something that you know, knew, But it's just nothing
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: that you you don't just want to go around talking about.
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: I had a friend who had a citizenship issue and
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: I didn't know until something happened with Savage and he
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: actually told me, and I been friends with him since
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: middle school.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: It's just something you don't ship.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: It's something you don't talk about because it was gonna
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: come from you talking about it, besides you endangering yourself,
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. So the people that needed
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: to know new But it wasn't like one of them
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: things he hided from the world a lot of people.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, he wasn't really from Atlanta.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: He was cat Man that Nigga came in when he
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: was seven. That Nigga's from Atlanta, you know what I'm saying.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: But he also can't just remind you that he's come
• 22:18
  Speaker 5: another country when he's trying to handle his immigration issues.
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: You know, he's not just about to Hey, yeah, by
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: the way, man, I got this going on.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Who's gonna talk about it? Yeah, that's kind of how
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: that worked.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: I wanted to give him his flowers, man in front
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: of you, because I always say this on the radio.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I always say this every podcast, dag. He is very
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: consistent bro in a lane in the industry with a
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: lot of Sometimes artists go up in peaks and valleys
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: with artists. He is still peaking, bro. Like I'm talking about,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: every time he dropped, we got at least four bangers
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: at the same time and another four in the club.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it to that.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Where does that come from?
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Man? That nigga hustler. Man, he know and he pay
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: attention to the game.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: So like we watched the game, we watch what needs
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: to be done, what don't need to be done, what
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: we can change, how people feel about us, how people
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: feeling about other people, the.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Temperature, everything. You know, he pay attention to everything.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: He not just some nigga going into booth rapping and
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: you know, nah, he knows he has intention on everything
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: he does. He knows what he needs to do, he
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: knows what's expected of him, and he know where he
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: wanted to take his career and where he wanted to
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: take his life.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, man, shit, he hustled.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: He know this shit paying. He ain't about to fuck
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: it up. Why would you want to suck it up?
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: You gotta make it bigger, get the checks bigger, man.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: That's how he thinks, honestly, and he actually be rapping
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: rapping like I gotta no for like because I watched
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: the journey as well, and I gotta be honest with you.
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: In the beginning, I was like, these niggas look crazy
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: as fuck. Ye what is these niggas talking about?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: And I'm staying away from that shit. Like, so I
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: got to give you, like give flowers as well, for one,
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: having the foresight to see the talent that was there
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: and be able to be able to nurture it and
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: you grow along with him at the same time, because
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: I watched him grow and become this young man. It's
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: like really like a pillar, Like he gives back so
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: much in the community and I love to use it
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: just this analogy, like you know, people always look back
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: at who people were in the beginning, but we have
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: to remember there is no Malcolm X with our mounc
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: and little you feel that. And I apply that same
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: analogy to people like Savage, Like I watch who he
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: is today. He's an amazing human being and the way
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: the way you guys as as as a team give
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: back and just contribute to community.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Salute, Nah, thank you, I mean a lot, bro, No listen, bro,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: anytime I can give him his flowers, because I always
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: feel like people just purposely leave him off.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: I'm over here, like the reason why I just tweeted
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: that the other day.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: He's not in a lot of conversations in my opinion,
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: because he raps and moves out the way.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he don't talk.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: He don't.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: That's why I raise my hand and say, twenty one
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: savurage about it in there.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Bro, He not in the mix. He not on the
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: blalls for nothing.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: Everything you see by some music related is nothing really, Like,
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: you know, he's not really the conversation. When he drops
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: his music, he does what he does, then he falls
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: back and it's a gift in the curse, you know.
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: So I feel like that's the thing when it comes
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: to conversations, it's one of them. Oh yeah, twenty one,
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: like you don't just sometimes people don't think of it
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: first because of how he moves. He's like more reserved,
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: more quiet to himself. He's not really all out and about.
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: You don't see him holding hands with holes, running out
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: of club going viral for that.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Well, it's my camera. That's why it's more. People like
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: me need to come out and start saying, twenty one savage.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: You gotta have some more champions, bro, you feel me,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: come on out there and start talking about twenty one
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: savage little bit more.
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: But that's that's how you know he making good music
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: though not to cut like, you know, an artist is
• 25:37
  Speaker 6: making good music when they don't have to do all
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: the antics and stuff like that. I think that's another
• 25:44
  Speaker 6: reason why an artist like Rod Wave is so popular,
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: because you don't really hear nothing about him, you know,
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: just the music.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: He let the music speak man, and the people speak
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: through the music. That's how it is. I mean he dropped,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: you gonna know, because the people listening to it, that's
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the most important thing, all right.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: So to each one of you guys, Keenan, I had
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you go first, if someone wants to get into the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: label business and they're young, m what would you say
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to them, Man, they don't know what to do well,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: where to start?
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: I would say, now is the best time, more than never,
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: to lean into your independence. To be perfectly honest, you know,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: the label business, you know, as you know, you know
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: I was. I got caught up in the restructuring that
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: happened at Universal earlier last year, back in March. And
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: the fact is there's a lot of great people on
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: the outside of a label right now. So the reason
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: I say for people who are in the beginning on
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: the way up to maybe build on the independent level
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: is because that's what the opportunities are.
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: Like.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: There's so many opportunities for you to put off music
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: on your own, you know, get your own distribution deals,
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: build with a team, and actually figure this shit out
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: early before you have something to deliver to a label.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: So by the time you get to the point to
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: get into a label, you actually have some equity built up.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: And if you're going inside, you're going inside for a reason.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: You're going inside for even more resources, right and the
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: check in addition to the resources, as opposed to when
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: you going too early most times you end up gett
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: fucked just being honest, Like most artists that go in
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: too early, you know, with just the music to offer
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: and just a little bit of a buzz, they get
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: the deal they got. It's cool and it may be
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: an opportunity, but you got to remember at a label,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: there's so many artists that are vying for the attention
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: of the label to become a priority. If you not,
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: if you're not driving them to make your priority because
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: you're actually delivering, you're probably not going to get the
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: look that you want, that you truly want initially. So
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: I would advise anybody like, get your team together, you know,
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: just like Mezi had to foresay with the two Change
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Project to be you know, and to say, I want
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: to build relationships with people I see have something to
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: offer and give them my resources early because I see
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: what this can become. Build that kind of network with
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: your own people first and then consider going into a label.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: Then you'll have actual tools and you'll actually have skills
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: to take into a building for marketing, for promotions, for
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: you know, for whatever, like you may even have you
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: know your own revenue story. By building up your own
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: artists that you can take into a label and become
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: part of the revenue department, you know. So for me,
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: my my suggestion wouldn't be immediately to go into a label.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: Maybe intern at a label, but have your own thing
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: going on outside of a label.
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I agree measy.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: If someone is looking at you like, man, how can
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: I be as successful as easy?
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: Where?
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Where do they start? What would you say to them?
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I did like what you said earlier, left, look right, Yeah, that's.
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: What I say. Like if you see, if you you
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: gotta figure out. Like I always knew, I always had
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: a gift a gap. I always knew how to communicate,
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: I always knew how to talk. I always knew I
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: loved music, always knew I had a good ear for music.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: And I always knew how to help others. So it's like,
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: once you find your strengths and whatever, you know, your
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: strength is hone in.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: On it with the people around you.
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: You know, whether you're a producer, same with producers, Like
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: I look at producers and a lot of producers want
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: the Rihanna place me. They want the jay Z place me,
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: they want the little Baby place me, they want the
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: twenty one Savage place men and those it's cool, but
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: the dude that's wrapping his ass off next to you.
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: Building from the ground up with somebody is the best
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: thing you can do, you know what I'm saying.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: So that's what I'll say.
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: Utilize your talents and look at the resources around you
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: and try to add to what those people need, and
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: they can add to.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: What you need.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: That's the best thing I could say. That's what I did,
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. Me and Savage got together
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: because we're from the same side of town. He had
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: a dream and I had the same dream. We wanted
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: to go to the same place, and we had the
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: same vision, and we both did two different things to
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: be able to make it happen, came together and made
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: it bigger.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: That's dope, all right? Before we go, when you guys,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: just a mental health check in. Yeah, when Keenan's having
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: a moment or a bad dam I know what you
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: call moments or bad days?
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: What do you do?
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: Man?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: What do I do?
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: I do a few different things. I have a therapist
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: that I talked to. I get with him maybe every
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: other week. I may reach out to I'm a part
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: of a couple of different circles with brothers that we
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: communicate about what's going on in each other's lives. One
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: resource that I use is this out here is called
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: do your Google Brotherhood. They're based here in Atlanta. Really
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: Really Dope Brotherhood. You can find them on ig Really
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: Really Dope Brothers. That's leading that. Oh, I just you know,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: tap in with my people that really know me best
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: and have a real conversation. Like I had a conversation
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: with one and one of my guys yesterday that was
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: going through and with his lady, and he was approaching
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: the conversation and a momentary issue from a place of ego,
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: and it was a beautiful thing for me. Even though
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: I wasn't having a bad day he was. I was
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: able to level set for that brother and have him
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: like retap in a way that was posted with his lady,
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And they were able to
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: reconnect in that moment. So, you know, it's just being
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: there for each other in those moments and having people
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: that you can actually lean on for those moments, you
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. That's important to you know, have
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: a little more vulnerability with the people that actually love
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: you and allow them into your space to be able
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: to help you.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: When you need it.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Is having a bad day or Ship's all over the place.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: What does what does measy do? Call of duty?
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: Okay, call of duty in it. Like I said, said that,
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: we got a group. We got a group besides. Besides,
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: I'll go to Magice sometimes having a bad day. But
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: we got a group chat too.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: With Ship. We just keep it up. We like keep
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: it real.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: Sometimes, bro, we be on that motherfucker. We'll start a
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: FaceTime and don't be doing Ship. We'll just all be
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: just talking and the nigga might just we talk about music,
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: we talk about whatever. If the nigga going through something,
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: they might throw it out. We give each other advice.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: We got a group chat. Yeah, I got a couple
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: of group chats. I'm in a group chat. I'm in
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: one group chat with him, and it's it's therapeutic. It's
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: their repauty for me. Honestly.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: Like it might be having a bad day and somebody
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: might say the right joke and it'd be like, ah, man,
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: you know what, let me interact with.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Them, and then it boosts my day a little better.
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: It might not have been going that good, but you know,
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: sometimes that good energy being around you by genuine people helps,
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: you know, honestly, So that's what I do.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: Like, man, we appreciate y'all. Anything else be t man,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: it's a good episode.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: This is a good episode.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: This has been a pleasure.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: Was I was giving our game?
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Man, we just wanted to, you know, just start again
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: interviewing people that we care about, that we see doing
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: positive things that are humans too. You know what I'm saying.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: I know you guys got a lot going on in
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: your plate.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you spending your time with us. Just know
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: these clip clip now, so anything said let us know
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: now that's our.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: Producer, right.
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: We ain't said nothing crazy.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: It's the ball or show