Episode 429 w/ Ryan Leslie

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
He is Drink Chants Mother Bucky Podcast Make He's a
legends Eary Queen's rapper. He's agreed that your boy in
O R E.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
He's a Miami hip hop Lionere put up his DJ
E f N.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Together they drink it up with some.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Of the biggest players, you know what I mean. And
the most professional, unprofessional podcast and your number one source
for drunk.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Drink chans mother das do ye see that's it's time.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
For drink Champions.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Drink up mother, Mother? Would it gonna be hoping? It
swished to be this your boy in O R E?
What up his DJ E f N?

Speaker 4 (00:47):
And this is drink Champs japri All make Toys guest
Today's Guests. I literally think it's the smartest person probably.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Ever had on drink chest. The fact that I've heard it.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
He went to Harvard at fifteen years old, graduated at nineteen,
had his own has his own platform. I thought I
thought the record label was just going to try to
kill him. At one point he was the director to consumer. First,
he was giving out his phone number. He's doing concert,
He's selling the tickets. It's this man is a mogul.

(01:24):
This man is a legend, writer, producer, everything. I've been
trying to give this man his flowers, and today we're
gonna give him his flowers. In case you don't know
who the fuck we talking about, We're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
The one only impeccable. Now. Now, I thrive in dumb rooms.
I played that. I played that role.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Good?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
That role?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Good?

Speaker 4 (01:52):
Are you uncomfortable around other scholars or other like you know,
what is that Ivy League school?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Or who do you? What do you IQs?

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Now?

Speaker 3 (02:02):
I feel like I can. I can move in really
any type of room. Yeah, And to be honest, like
when I first got on Harvard's campus, it was a
little you know, it took some getting used to just
a being of color and you don't row no. And
then also being as young as I was, you.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Know, fifteen for real.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, so you learned very early on to just sort
of move in any type of room. But I really
got to give it to my father man, when I
was coming up. You know, my my parents are from
the Caribbean Islands, and they worked their whole lives in
the Salvation Army, and so they knew that they weren't

(02:46):
going to have really you know, all kinds of wealth
stacked up because they sacrifice wealth in the service of others.
I mean still to this day, my mother's you know,
going to build hospitals in India, try to retire her
and that's what she wants to do. So my father
very early on decided, hey, we immigrated to the United States,
I want my kids to be set up, and I

(03:08):
know the way to get there are the only way
he never was yeah, yeah, and the only way to
really get there, in his opinion, was through education. So
he didn't want me going to just any old schools.
Anytime we got to a new city, he said, look,
let's go find the top tier private school. And then

(03:28):
he would go in and he would advocate, hey, I'm
a servant of the community. Can you take care of
my and my kids in yeah, doing We're not doing
the tuition, but we do service in the community. Can y'all,
you know, make an accommodation for our kids. But he
also said, look, we ain't just doing the private school
because he was still running the boys and girls club

(03:50):
as well, So I had to move in both circles.
Would we would go to private school and then go
get my tail beat on the basketball court at the
Boys and Girls Club in Richmond, Virginia, you know what
I'm saying. So I think I think the other piece
of it though, as well, is in terms of service
to others. You never realize the stories and the backstories

(04:12):
of folks who are in those homeless shelters, who are
in those places, they didn't just you know, they weren't
homeless their whole lives. So they have backstories as well,
and you have you have to sort of learn how
to be empathetic in any room. And it really doesn't matter.
Like I just I think on a human level, everyone
is going through something, you know what I'm saying. So

(04:34):
if you could connect on a human level, whether you're
with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley or artists, you know,
you talk about a heartbreak and they you know, they
going automatically tell you know what I'm saying, somebody that
did them wrong across them, et cetera. And there's there's always,
I think there's always a line of communication that you

(04:56):
can that you can connect with somebody on on a
human level.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Have you ever had a bad day? Have I had
a bad day? See your music, I'll just be happy,
Like you get up out of the bed with silk
robe on. That's just man.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
You really do put in a happy movie. Give your
sad songs are happy. Like you ever like had a
bad day, of course you did.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
But yeah, I mean I think we all do. I
think it's all I think. You know, when you talk
about those rooms though, if you're ever in a room
with somebody, that's that's worth let's say three hundred five
hundred MS or a billion dollars. Wow, whatever your bad

(05:40):
day is, Yeah, it turns good. They really You say, oh,
I have a fifty thousand dollars problem or eighty thousand
dollars problem or one hundred thousand dollars medical issue, and
they're like, oh, that's that's small. So it puts things
in perspective. And I'll say this, Actually, when I first
got to New York City and was just producing, I

(06:02):
was running around, you know, just running around producing, doing clubs, dating,
and I did I think at one point there was
like a record that I was waiting to come out,
and I was, you know, I think we was on
a chopper doing a photo shoot or something, and I
told my girl, I said, hey, you know, I'm not
I'm not. I feel like i'm not having a good day,

(06:23):
and she said, is your family all right? I say, yeah,
they're fine. Are you healthy? Yeah, I'm fine. She says,
so what's a bad day are you talking about? And actually,
you know, it brings me to that quote. Somebody with
zero dollars, right, and they feel like they have a
million problems. But someone with all the money in the

(06:44):
world and they don't have their health, they only got
one problem. Right. So for me, I'm healthy, I'm still
of you know, in great health and strength. I still
have you know, great relationships, and so there's not really
any reason to ever have a complaint.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
You have a very interesting story.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
First off, you, like you said, we went to Harvard,
and most people go to Harvard and they get away
from the music industry. You went to Harvard and you
went towards the movie it was the industry.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Did you feel like you was moving backwards at one point?

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I mean everyone that I initially told my plan to
thought I was moving backwards. They said, well what are
you doing here? And I think maybe the biggest, the
biggest challenge to overcome initially was my own family, right,
because when I was on the road to Harvard, as
you said, parents were like, okay, how are we going

(07:45):
to afford this?

Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know?

Speaker 3 (07:46):
So my dad said, hey, look, you know I'm in
the Rotary Club. They have these speech competitions, So you're
going to write a great speech and you'll go and
speak to all the Rotary Club members and they'll put
up a couple of dollars to put in the kids,
so you can, you know, have some money to move around.
And so I wrote a speech about how I wanted
to be a neurosurgeon. So that very was very inspirational.

(08:08):
You know, my dad was so proud of it. I
was pre med my first year at Harvard, and I realized,
you know, the kids that were in my chemistry class,
bi biology class, et cetera, they had a passion for science,
a passion for medicine, a passion for what they were studying,
the problem sets. And I found that my passion was
just music. And I said, look, you know, if if

(08:30):
this is what's keeping them up at night, I need
to do what keeps me up at night. And I
went maxed off my credit card. I didn't even I
had I think everybody does that when they go to college.
You get a credit card. And I went straight.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
I was in jail, so maybe noted out to you.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
So you know, when you get on when you get
on campus, every bank got the table out go sign
up like a credit.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Card lending board, of course. And so that's exactly what
I wanted.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
So I was cutting hair on campus, and I wanted
my little dorm room to feel like the barbershop. So
I had to have you know, five this CD changer
and you know, the receiver and everything, and made everybody
listen to my records because you know, we had there
wasn't many. There wasn't really a black barber on Harvor's campus.

(09:26):
You had to go to you know, you had to
go to Central Square or whatever if you wanted to
get your haircut. So I said, hey, I'm open for business,
and anybody that came into and we called the barbershop
Shady A's because shady because you can't. You're not supposed
to run a business at Harvard, right, which is why
like Zuck and Bill Gates, they just dropped out. They
were running their businesses so shady and then eights because

(09:47):
we charged eight dollars of haircuts, so Shady A's barbershop.
And then I used to have a line of folks.
And you know, it's like when I came in today,
if you got a barber, they're about their craft.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
You got to sit there and wait, you know what
I'm saying. So I would have my missed have found
out you got a line on side.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yeah. We had everybody just sitting on the couch or whatever,
and you know, we cut everybody's hair, but we actually
for me, I would have my records and people would
have to listen, you know, while they were waiting. And
that's how that was my initial sort of focus group.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
And folks.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Folks were saying, yo, you nice. So I said, hey,
I'm gonna I'm gonna go for it.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
You was like the uber driver, you see the Uber drivers. Yeah,
everybody is going on. So you're still paying off people
student loans. Howard you pay it off a couple of
student loans.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah yeah, I mean I think really right now sort
of what's been super important for me. I think everybody
has if they're extremely fortunate, that they have a number
of acts in their lives.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
So maybe my first act was a starving artist. Then
I became a producer, then I was able to be
an artist. Then I've build a technology company, and now
I'm really at a place where you know, once you
reach a certain level, it's about how many how many
people can you send the elevator down for to bring
them up? And so, you know, I started to realize that,

(11:16):
especially in the United States in music, there is so
much talk about money, cars, jewelry, the lifestyle, et cetera.
And it's very aspirational. Get the hosts right right right,
show right for show, it's very aspirational. But as I
started to kind of, you know, have that one on

(11:38):
one direct relationship with the people who are supporting me,
you realize that America and actually many countries around the
world is actually engineered for folks that only make forty
fifty sixty thousand dollars a year, right, And so to
be able to educate folks, you know, sometimes you could

(11:58):
you give them a check. Well, give them a check.
It's totally different than teaching them how to fish, how
to navigate finances, how to navigate the financial markets. How
somebody who's a postal worker can retire a multimillionaire if
they know how to put their money, you know, and
put it to work the right way. So I would
say that's the act that I'm in now is you know,

(12:20):
when you start thinking about legacy, it's about how many families,
how many people can you touch. And what happened is,
as I was because you're right, I gave my phone
number out to everybody, and as I was talking to folks,
folks were saying, Yo, Ray, you know, we love the music.
We love what you're talking about, whether it's you know,
like you said, happy song, sad songs, et cetera. But

(12:42):
you got a couple of records where you're talking that
talk money wise, and is there something that you can
share with us, because we'd be willing to, you know,
support you even more if you can show us the way.
And so we built the club and you know, we've
we've basically been mint minting every day millionaires through the
Wealth Planning Club. And then also what I realize is

(13:04):
that a lot of artists they don't actually have a
backup plan or and they don't actually have what they
consider or what they what they you know, what could
be their plan B or play see or their second
act or third act. Not everybody's going to be able
to just do a podcast. Not everybody's going to be
able to do a fashion right.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
If you do, they don't have retirement plans or anything.
Oh man, they'll spend it all when they get it
and not think of what comes after me.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Yeah, and so I always say that.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
I always say the music industry and boxing is the
only place that don't have.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Like a what is it a union union? Yeah, it's
like yeah, and then look up the music industry show you.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
And so I think, now, what's what's been awesome is
to be able to say, hey, look everybody, if you've
ever seen my Twitter, Instagram, et cetera, you can reach
me directly. And if you're looking for that type of guidance,
if you're looking for an infrastructure, I got a hold team,
I got a whole staff, and we provide that kind
of like business infrastructure. So give you a case in point.

(14:05):
Somebody came to me and had just gotten in advance.
Maybe it was a seventy somewhere between seventy to one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars use music advance, right, And
basically the first thing, especially young artists want to do
is when they get that money, they say, hey, I
want to put my mom on payroll, right, And that's great,
you should, you know what I'm saying. But you don't

(14:26):
have to actually pay that money. You can actually put
that money in a vehicle. So the money pays your
mom a salary the interest of that money. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So let's just say, for example, right, you get a
Let's just say, for example, you get one hundred thousand
dollars advance.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Currently, there are vehicles, and we help artists structure those
vehicles where you can earn four percent per month. It's
not a crazy amount. But if you were going to
put your mom on payroll at four thousand dollars a month, yo, Mom,
here's a debit car, here's a credit car. You got
a four thousand dollars bounds every single month, that one
hundred earning four percent per month is going to pay

(15:10):
her for the rest of her life. And that one
hundred never walks down, right, So the one hundred never
walks down. The hundred is just sitting there. It is
throwing off the forest, throwing off the forest, throwing off
the four Mom is set for the rest of her life.
And you actually did something smart with your money, as
opposed to saying, hey, I'm going to put my mom
on payroll and pay the four because if you pay

(15:31):
the four in twelve months now you only got fifty
thousand left. Then you pay the four again in two
years now you got zero. Where if you put it
in the right type of instrument, then the instrument will
pay her. And then what's dope about it is once
we start unlocking that for artists, right, they have an
incentive because now they understand where the money. When the

(15:52):
money comes in, they want to put it in these
kinds of vehicles, right, what's the vehicle like that for example.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
Like high yielding?

Speaker 3 (16:00):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm not financially if I'm
not going to call out stuff cause because people have
to really do their own. But there are there are vehicles,
and that's what we work on now, you know, because
like I said, I could you know, I always think
of my life in terms of how can I be
most of service. So when I first came in the game,

(16:22):
you know, somebody had to sit me down because when
I first came in the game, obviously at twenty when
I first moved in New York twenty two, twenty three,
I want to be the star. I want to be dance.
I'm in the offices, dancing around. We were actually shopping
an artist, but I'm the one, you know, dancing around
in the office and everything, and somebody had to really

(16:42):
pull me to the side and say, yo, right, listen,
if you really want to be of service and you
want to be valuable, yeah, of course you need to
put the creativity and energy that you have in these offices,
but put them put that energy towards the projects that
folks already have invested money in. So the first one

(17:03):
of the first records that I actually placed was New
Edition hot Tonight. So there's a record called hot Tonight
on New Edition, and so that was a record that
I had actually written. I say, yo, this is going
to be my songs, will be my single. But when
I came to New York and played it, New Edition
had just gotten signed and they say, yo, this is
going to be the first single for New Edition. So

(17:25):
it's about being of service. So making that sacrifice sometimes
will open the window, open the door to relationships, to opportunities,
because people know, hey, look, this is somebody I can
go to who's a if we need that single, we
can go get it, get one, you know what I'm saying.
And then what happened? Is that open the door? Then
fab need a single yo, you'd be killing them, Red
Cafe need a single fly together, you know what I'm saying.

(17:47):
And then basically now I realized, Okay, now there's plenty
of other producers, right. And I also feel like if
you go on YouTube now, every producer that is look
looking to illustrate their skills, they followed the blueprint that
was originated when I was trying to show my skills, right,

(18:09):
so I would just be on YouTube, have a camera, Yo,
is how I make it be et cetera. If not
the first early early on YouTube, early on MySpace. Right,
So I realized, once you pass the baton and the
mantle and the gauntlets passed to the next generation, where
is the way that I can be of service? And
then I start realizing when I'm having conversations, even just

(18:30):
in this conversation, hold on, there's a financial instrument that
does that, right. And it's not that we're we haven't
been around money. And for me, I didn't learn this
in college, but I did have a mentor that actually say, yo, right, listen,
when you get your check in the music industry, make
sure you put a little bit aside, here, here, here,

(18:51):
and here, and then give me a shout three years,
five years, eight years, twelve years later and tell me
how much it double triple, quadruple, and man, I still
have those conversations, and so I realize now there's a
responsibility that I have if somebody is an artist, if
somebody is a manager, because you know, COVID hit people
super hard, right, especially managers. Right, managers were making money

(19:13):
based on their artists being able to tour. Once the
artists can't tour anymore, where's there, where's there? Where's their
income coming from? Right? But if they had a little
bit saved, they called Ryan Yo, right, listen, you know
we locked in, we shut out, We can't tour right now.
I got a little bit of bread. It need to
last me the whole year, or you know, until we

(19:35):
get to the other side. And there's also no guarantee
that on the other side of whatever the season is,
that your artist is going to be hot again. Right,
And so that's why initially it was it was about
and actually I'm headed. I'm headed tomorrow. Shout out to
Jazzy Jeff. He runs a playlist retreat and he asked

(19:56):
me to come speak at the Playlist Retreat because I
think what was interesting or has been interesting about my
story is I didn't need a million fans to be engaged.
I only needed ten or fifteen thousand fans. And if
you really think about that, that's you know, old the
money's going to you, it's all coming to me. And
back then when I was doing in twenty thirteen, you know,

(20:19):
and we'll probably talk about this, my laptop had gotten stolen.
Everybody laptop got stolen, and so at that time, you know,
when the laptop actually got stolen, I lost the judgment
right because I was running around, say, you know, I
got a million.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
Dollars, I had to actually go to court. I thought,
I thought you said because second right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
like some of your publishing or something like that.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Yeah, just just for a short amount of time until
it was taken care of. But the blow that was
dealt is and that story is crazy because it was right.
It was literally right in federal court down down in
New York City. So you know, I'm living down Wall
Street area. I like to be around findings. Living down
Wall Street, there's a bodega. They still had a bodega.

(21:09):
Somewhere at Wall Street, right. So I went to the bodega.
I've been going to this modega, you know, getting my breakfast.
But this day I walked in and the guy behind
the counters like, yo, can I take a picture with you?
I said, Yo, I've been coming here. Why today is
the day for the picture? He said, well, you want
to cover in the New York Post today, So I'm
looking to cover the New York Posts and it has

(21:31):
a headline, you know, rap weasel, you know, must pay
for whatever laptop or because that was the day that
the judgment came back. But the crazy part about that
story is not just that he wanted to take the picture,
but it was actually because when I went to actually
pay for my breakfast, it was declined, and I was like, yo,
how's this possible? And what I realized is that when

(21:55):
you actually have a judgment, that the federal or state
government can come in and seize your bank account.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
So literally I going to you know, I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
I went to sleep and woke up the next morning
there was a two million dollar hole froze frozen, so
I couldn't even get literally a breakfast sandwich. And he
was like, yo, if you take a picture with me,
we all good, I said, you know, but that was

(22:30):
right around like twenty thirteen whatever, And so I wanted
to make sure that, you know, in a centralized banking system,
that's what's possible. The government can come in and just
seize your assets. So it wasn't necessarily because a lot
of folks say, well, Ryan, you were early on bitcoin
and you were early on crypto. Necessity is the mother

(22:52):
of innovation. So in order for me to feel like
I could actually still have control of my finances, I
moved everything to decentralize. So all of my tour advances,
all of my merch all of my digital sales. I
had taken it off of Spotify, but you got to
pay me in bitcoin. So twenty thirteen we got earth

(23:13):
hundreds and hundreds of payments and transactions and bitcoin at
one hundred and twenty five dollars a coin. Last time
you check, where's a bitcoin at. Now. I'm not saying
this for any other reason, because it wasn't that. It
was just a genius move. It's almost like you and
I think, if you put good energy out in the world,
even if you get a curveball, and even if something

(23:36):
happens where someone else will be like, man, I just
got hit for a million dollar lawsuit, but they charged
an interest in my accounts of frozen for two million.
If you sit down and you have gratefulness for just
your ability to still have curiosity and ingenuity, then you're
going to have these ideas and opportunities and as long

(23:56):
as your lines of communication are open as well. That's
one thing I've always wanted to make sure is, Look,
anybody wants to reach me, text Ryan dot com. You
can go leave your number in that website and I
will text you back. Now, I got one hundred thousand
plus people in my phone, but that's why I had
to build a software so that I could manage all

(24:17):
of it. But in those times, yeah, superphone, But in
those times where people actually, you know, they they feel
like they want to be of service or of help,
you're not unreachable, you know. And I find a lot
of times when people going through something that's that's that's tough,
they want to sort of retract from their their friends

(24:38):
or fan base, et cetera, not realizing that that. I
think the the default human impulse is to be helpful.
You know what I'm saying, the default human impulse is
to be helpful. So when I actually, you know, was
going through that, somebody was like, yo, man, you know,
why don't you look at this bitcoin thing? You know

(24:58):
what I'm saying, And that way made a serious way,
you know what I'm saying. And so I think that's
really what my real crusade and purpose is now. And
I'm setting up different infrastructures so that I can actually
handle all the inbound because I think, you know, we're
in Miami, but I think, you know, Miami money is

(25:18):
a major issue. So anyone that's interested, you know, and
I know for sure I can actually understand from the
concept of that feast or famine season that happens in music,
right There's gonna be times where you're super hot, everybody
wants you for a club appearance, everybody wants to book
you for tour. Then you're in between albums and you're like, mm,

(25:40):
where you know what we got going on? You know, saying,
So the ability to actually set up a financial infrastructure
so it's smoothed out. And if you have a couple,
you know, you have a couple of dollars put away,
they're gonna work for you and they're gonna work for
you in a really powerful way. So that's that's really,
you know, that's really what I've been working on now.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
So let me ask you, right, Because when Twitter first
came out, I'm the boso. I thought that this was
just between me and the fans. I had no idea
that other people could see the same conversation.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Public I knew it was. I thought if you, I
didn't know, if you wasn't following me, you can.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
Still see my messages, like you can go on my thing.
I thought this was just for my fans, and I
had to learn the hard way the buckers just being nosy.
Most of these motherfuckers wasn't fans, they were just being nosy.
How did you make your super phone?

Speaker 2 (26:32):
Like?

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Did you know that through Twitter and my Space? Did
you learn that? Yes, I got caught.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
I was giving out my phone number and I didn't
want to, like you know what I'm saying. It was
like it was bad, but it was bad for me.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
But I think I think where that really was born
from is you know when we first and I say weird,
was really just me and one of my brothers, Rashid Richmond.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Started the company.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, and basically, you know, he was actually and he's
always been super early. So he he had actually built
a social network and was exchanging emails with Mark Zuckerberg.
Like that's how early he was on building social networks, right,
and he's still you know, send me the screenshots, et cetera.
So he basically was like, look, right, if you if

(27:17):
you check out the the MySpace music charts, I want
you to check out who's number one today, and then tomorrow,
I want you to call me and check out who's
number one tomorrow. And he had a way that he
could actually manipulate, yes, early, and he could make anybody
number one on MySpace music. Now this wasn't a Billboard
music chart, but he was that early in the game

(27:41):
to understand that.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Social financial repe I don't remember what, I don't ever
making money up for my space no.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
Deals, Yes, yes, Zach right, And that's exactly how it
worked for me. So I already was doing records inside
of you know, the record label ecosystem. But one of
my biggest challenges or gripes was that I would do

(28:16):
records and then I have to wait. I gotta wait
until the album's done. I gotta wait until this time
for you know, such and such to be mixed. I
gotta wait until you know whatever release states, et cetera.
Sometimes my records wouldn't even come out. You know, you
feel like you have some great on an album and
then all they've decided to move a whole different way,
you know what I'm saying creatively, So I decided that

(28:37):
I wanted to actually sign an artists do the whole album,
top to bottom. I didn't have the whole thing, the
whole yeah, well produced the whole thing, right, the whole thing.
I didn't have no big studio, you know. I was
in a one bedroom apartment in Harlem. But we made
that whole Cassie album. And I called my boy Rashid.
I said, yo, listen, I don't know what these MySpace

(28:58):
music charts really mean, but can you get my project now?

Speaker 1 (29:04):
This thing that?

Speaker 3 (29:05):
Can you get my project that I'm working on number
one on the chart? He said, yeah, what do it
looked like? I said, okay, let's just send you a
pa oh. He said, yo, this is out of here, right,
so just a picture and then we had me and
you the record. That thing went crazy on MySpace. It's
still actually kind of going crazy now. I mean that

(29:25):
record still that we're talking about, you know, almost twenty
years later, it still has a life of its own.
But that's really how it all started. And so we
had built for Cassie like a quarter million an audience
on MySpace in terms of friends, right, and then all
of a sudden it became a graveyard. Everyone moved to
Twitter or they moved to something else. And I say, yo,

(29:47):
all those people, we don't have access to all those
people no more. And I said, look, that's a I
feel like I'm I was just renting the audience from
that platform. I should own the relationship. I felt like, hey,
you know, what is what really is our oldest social handle.
I feel like Instagram has done a great job now
dms you actually, you know, you can kind of get

(30:09):
a sense of you know, messaging you, and you know,
when they send you a message, you get a chance
to kind of see what they've been up to you Yeah,
I just saw you. But even before that, I feel
like the cell phone number is the oldest social handle
because it allows you to actually, you know, have a
personal line of communication, which is like you said, is

(30:32):
private right. And so basically I said, look if I
really want to have a real relationship with someone. And actually,
I'll still challenge anybody today if we went across this
room and say, yo, go in your phone, scroll all
the way down. How many contexts do you have in
your phone? Over the course of your life, You've collected
thousands of contexts. The reality is you're probably only in

(30:56):
touch with three percent maximum. Sure, so if you got
a thousand people in your phone, maybe it's thirty that
you maybe if that that you're talking to all the time,
right unless you unless you's your job, you're a salesman
or a manager or something like that. So my concept
was I would prefer to actually have a direct cell
phone on everyone because if people feel as though I'm

(31:20):
someone of influence in their life because of the music,
then I'm gonna have a high rank if they feel like, Yo,
I got Ryan Leslie's cell phone, you know what I'm saying.
I got Ryan's number and more personal and it changed.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
But it got to be a headache too. You know,
you got to have that one fan that hits you all.

Speaker 4 (31:36):
The time for sure, because he's ten dollars one time
you think you just want to be there, I gotta
be annoying people's annoying story.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
No, actually, I think you'd be surprised. Man, I think
I think, And let's be real, let's be real. Okay,
let's just say, all right, you know you actually meet
someone that you truly respect. Right, let's say you you
you went somewhere, you even met Barack Obama and he
gave you his cell phone number. Are you really going

(32:04):
to abuse that? Probably not? Probably not.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Now, you're right, some fans, there's a lot of them.
Some people don't got class exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
But we built the software in such a way that
you know, we we have safeguards in place, right, because
you know.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
What's funny, To this day, I have a friend that
I met through my Space because he he jacked me
on my stake.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Yeah, he jacked he actually ran my profile and like yeah,
and I was like, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
He hacked me. Yeah, And I'm friends with him to
this day because he was good. He's not working there
anymore because he can get he's not working in the more.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
But when we used to take I'm sorry, IM sorry,
I'm gonna sidetracked, but.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
I mean we just we like if someone made a
disc record against me, I would take their whole page.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Back then.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, he worked there, so he was.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
He was a super Norwy fan and we became friends.
So you are absolutely right. He could have easily, but
I didn't respond. He could easily turned into like one
of those super fans because like he was telling me,
you recons I forgot about doing.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
It, and to this day we're friends, so you are.
And I think he did that because he thought somebody
was impersonating you.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yes, that's why the person Ye. Yeah, So I mean
I haven't really had any crazy. Well actually I'm I'm.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Let's get let's go there.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
Okay, I do have a crazy. I do have a
crazy And you know what, I honestly believed that that
this person is mentally ill. So I don't want to
know or whatever, but this person's mentally ill. And they
would literally find me on every channel, Twitter, Instagram, Discord,

(33:43):
cell phone, everything and was like, oh you know. And
actually I've had stories where people felt like they Someone
actually pulled up at h at at at the at
our spot in Financial District and was like, yo, you
know we're married, right, I say, what you talking about?

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Now?

Speaker 3 (34:03):
We married? I got the whole certificate and everything, and
I sent you money and this and that, and I'm like, Yo,
this type of stuff is actually happening out here, you
know what I'm saying. But I said, look, you know,
I'm sorry, miss, but like we're not married. You know
what I'm saying. It is wild.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
It is wild. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Oh man, So hold on, okay, this is one Kuck
Thomas Slime. Well, first off, before we do with Qrick
Thomas Slime, we want you to know our show is about,
you know, giving people they flowers while they're alive. We
wanted to give you your flowers. You are one of
the most remarkable people in this world.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
We wanted to let you go there, Chris, because I'm
gonna be honest with.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
You, the first and the fifth person to ever do
something is always that risk taker.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Right.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Most of the time the reward is worth it. But
the fact is that you three sixty to yourself.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Think about it. You can throw your own merchan you control.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
When I found out that you were selling the tickets direct, yeah,
shows it's smart, but that's a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
So yeah, are you physically doing that?

Speaker 3 (35:10):
Yeah? So the way that we've had to do it,
like let's just say we're going to do a venue
in New York. We ad the venues have deals with
Ticketmaster or whatever the vendors are, so we buy out
all the tickets and then we are the we are
we are our own resellers. So when people come and

(35:31):
get the tickets we said, we could say, Yo, the
whole venue sold out already. But that's because I can
just go. If it's an eight hundred seater, I'm still doing,
you know, theater. So I see the eight hundred seater. Bang,
we get all the tickets and then people text in
and we just send them.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
What you're doing is you're buying them from Ticketmaster, Yes,
at a wholesale rate or regular Well.

Speaker 3 (35:51):
We bught we buy up because we want to We
want the stats that we've sold out.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
So you're also buying the stats by buying all the tickets. Yes,
all the books sold out already, and then you could
do whatever you want with yes, exactly.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
The Actually, how about like states like Miami, Like states
like Miami became like a New New York. What I
mean is they're not impressed by nothing, right and right,
y'all know this, yea know how foul y'all all out here.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
They all know this, right, So but this is this
is a this is like a market.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
Like they come out if they want to what happens
if you you buy out and then only fifty percent?

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Do you lose money? Nah?

Speaker 3 (36:29):
We always have Okay, you know our process. Our process
is a reservation.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
So we'll say, hey, look, we're going to do one
night only Miami for example, right and we'll say, hey, look,
if you're interested, reserve and tell me how many tickets
you want to reserve.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Extent I keep forgetting.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
So they come in, they fill out a little form,
they say, Yo, I want five tickets, I want two
VIPs et cetera. We already know before before we go
to the venue, and we might actually say, yo, we
need a bigger venue. You we are our reservations. It's
crazy right now, you know what I'm saying. And I
think that's really it's nuanced. At the same time, though,

(37:08):
it's a very simple, let's call it. It's just a
very simple sort of transition to the information age. If
we're in the information age, we should be making decisions
based on information, right, based on information and data. So
if you have a means to collect that information and data,
then your decisions are just going to be better business wise.

(37:30):
You're never going to be holding a bag on anything, right,
And so that's the reason why even if you think
about brand new artists that are coming out trying to
do merch now, they have just on demand printing, so
you don't have to go buy seventy ninety one hundred
T shirts. You just say, hey, look, this is the
logo that I want, this is what it looks like,
and then through your e commerce store, they will only

(37:53):
print and ship what has been ordered. You know what
I'm saying. And so we're getting better and better and
better are and more efficient at being able to allow
creative minds to build enterprise around themselves. And I think,
you know, there's there's I think there's no better time
to actually be an entrepreneur than twenty twenty four and beyond.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I think I think a lot of people have an
issue processing the analytics of things to understand it the
way you might understand. Not everybody has that knowledge to say, Okay,
this is what these analytics mean, and this is how
I equal it to.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
This marketing plan. Yeah, execute it this way.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, but I would say this, You're you're only as
good as your crew, right, and if you're the creative
in the crew bring in, then you can't you can't
say like, yo, I'm going to be the three sixty everything.
In some cases maybe you know you you're just like, oh,
you have extra hours in the day and you can

(38:51):
do four hours of music and four hours of data analytics.
But you have to think this industry, the creative industry,
whether it's film, whether it's podcast, whether it's YouTube, whether
it's influencing, whether it's music. You have so many people
that are magnetically attracted to this industry. They want to
be around it, but they're not creative. They are the analytic.
They are the analytical person, they are the management person,

(39:14):
they are the operations person. And it's just once again,
I think it's just about putting the bat signal out
and saying, look, I want the greatest of the great
to be around If you think what I'm doing is great,
I want the greatest of the grade around me. And
you build that team.

Speaker 4 (39:27):
Now, when you open up the site, did you take
your music off of Spotify? And I'm iteling yes, And
now you do you think now that same usic you
put back on your platform, do you think that helps
will hurt you.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
I think it helps. And the reason for it is
because when you really you know, at the very beginning,
it was more about doing the experiment because we needed
to do the experiment, make sure it works. And you know,
these are the type of conversations I was having with Nip.
Nip did is proud to pay?

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (39:57):
Yeah, yeah, Zach, how you guys?

Speaker 2 (40:01):
You guys?

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And really that's that's
that's got to be through through through my guy Nathan McCartney.
If you haven't even been noticing what Nate has been doing,
he has an Instagram profile called the Bag. It's crazy
data analytics about the music business and everything. If you
check the followers of that page, it's like somebody Who's who?

(40:23):
And I'm talking about music, film, investment, et cetera. But
he's always wanted been one of these guys that's had
his ears to the ground and was one of the
first guys that that that worked with me on superphone
as well. But he actually was the one that put
me with it.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
So yeah, actually, I don't know. We're bouncing around, yeah,
but we're going to cover all grounds. He comes to
you and says, I want to sell a take for
one thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Yeah, And basically you didn't think he was out of
his mind, nah, because he had already he had already done.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
That's right, you know what I'm saying. That's the one
that they bought a thousand of them? Yeah, yeah, what
a thousand of the Now he bought a hundred. So
that was the screenshot the ten bands. One hundred albums
out one hundred dollars, ten bands, right, So he had
already done that. But he said, yo, right, listen, you
know I've been looking at what you were doing.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Like we just sat down and compared notes, and I say, hey, look,
I'm gonna be honest with you. If you allow folks
to actually give you what they believe is worth to them,
and you don't put the price on it, then there
will be some folks that will come through and say, hey,
I think your music has changed my life. It got
me through whatever I've had. Folks come to me, and

(41:35):
actually this is for any artists.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yo.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Your song got me through a breakup, your song got
me through cancer, your song got me through whatever it was,
and to them it's priceless. So if they have it,
they'll give it and if you don't put a cap
on what you think it's worth. Hey, it's worth twelve dollars.
Then I was showing him in my superphone. Hey, I
got folks that have spent twenty five five grand, you know,

(41:58):
fifteen twenty five with me. He's like, yo, off a
twelve dollars album, and I say yeah, because once you
build a relationship, they'll tell you what they want in
terms of what's premium. And so when he was putting
the whole package together, it wasn't just Yo, here's the
CD four thousand. You got to go to a show
or you know some I got a phone call, whatever
it was, and I say, yo, man, let's do it.

(42:20):
And you have the app, and you got all the data,
and you know every single person where they live, in
their zip code, and then you know what I'm saying,
and you can actually show them your appreciation for their support.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
It's all the stuff that you did.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
And then even what you're describing here pre Patreon, because
it sounds like the Patreon model.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Yeah, it was pre Patreon's crazy.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah. Yeah, let's say it in your intro.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
It's like your real threat to the industry because if
they have more of view.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
What are they needed for listen nervous.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I never worry about that for the simple reason that
when it's your time, it's just your time, and you
have to do the most that you can with the
decades that you have. And we really only get three
four if we talk about decades, you know what I'm saying,
And we're lucky if we get three or four of them,

(43:12):
you know what I'm saying. So you have to do
the most that you can with the decades that you have.
And if I really think about it, some of the
artists that we still revere to this day, there's this
concept of like the artist's age of reckoning, where like
some of our greatest were all gone by like twenty
eight Yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying, and so

(43:34):
they did what they had to do with the time
that they had.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
So for me, I'm like, yo, I've had plenty of decades,
you know, And so if what I'm able to do
is plant the seeds, whether it's plant the seeds for
like you said, a Patreon or you know, any of
the superphone competitors that have come out right and clones
that have come out, or plant the seeds for the
next artists to be able to know what to do

(43:57):
with their money, how to do it with their money
the right way.

Speaker 3 (44:00):
I think, you know, there is a possibility to actually
have a like a real creative middle class, right because
you know, for me, and going back to the beginning
of the conversation, for me going to Harvard and then
saying I want to be in music, everyone just assumed
I was going to be broken. Just assume they just say, Yo,

(44:21):
you want to be creative, you want to be in
the arts. You're going to be starving for a long time.
You may you might might just get that break where
you you're the one percent that actually gets on. But
I think as you're talking about, if you understand how
the data works, as Nip was talking about, you understand
how to connect with that core group. It doesn't matter,

(44:41):
even if it's just a product that's not music, even
if it's just a you know, you're you're starting a
coffee brand, you're starting to liquor brand. Whatever. You find
that core group and you can appeal to them, they
will be loyal. And I think it allows for there
to be an actual creative middle class where you can
actually and it's tough though, because that's almost like a

(45:05):
that's almost like an oxymoron. And I'm gonna tell you why,
because most folks, when they think creative, they don't want
to be middle class. You know. It's like it's like
when when you say, you know what you take, I
rapped for the drive. That's not what you're doing it for.
But the bottom line is that if you're doing what
you love to do, and what if you can, yeah,

(45:25):
if you can earn a living doing what you love
to do, how valuable is that you made it? How
valuable is that you know what I'm saying? And so really,
for me, I think, really that's that's the crusade that
I'm also I'm not worried about, you know, if it's
my time or you know, all the greats, the greatest
of the great their their impact was even more exponentially

(45:48):
increase by the fact that, you know, maybe folks felt
that they were going too soon. Where you talk about Martin,
you talk about X, you talk about Nipsey, you talk
about Bob Marley, you talk about Pack because Jimmy Hendrick,
the body of work that they have, that's all you got.
And then you start realizing, man to be that age

(46:09):
and be talking like that, playing like that, thinking like that,
you know what I'm saying, and it sets the bar
for us that are actually still here. We're still here,
so we better be continuing to push. You know what
I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Am I hearing you? Correct?

Speaker 2 (46:24):
And when you say that, you're happy enough with just
planning the seed almost like you believe in what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Open source is an open source.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
So everybody could go do this, yes, because I would
hate for corporations won't name any companies to take.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Your idea and then run with it and then monopolize
that what you at. Yes.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Yeah, he was one of the first investors in Super
Cool record label.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
For lack of a better term, they are participating, so
I think make the stallion at something Yes too.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah, so Cardi Bad Bunny zaying from one direction, Miley Cyrus.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
The record label. They're doing this through you direct.

Speaker 3 (46:58):
It depends sometimes their management company, sometimes just to the label.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
But yeah, I mean, I mean, I would think in
order for artists to reap the same benefits of you,
the only how they can do that is they do
the direct to you.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
And I think that goes I think that goes to
your question. Once the knowledge is open source, then it
allows for folks to build on it and and iterate,
you know what I'm saying. And I think that's just
the human cycle. We got it. We have to enhance
and iterate, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
For lack of a better terms, you are like the
Steve Jobs of this. So you know what I'm saying, Like,
let me take that of it. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
So it's like, it's like, that's what I's that's that's
That's the one thing I want to commend our community
is that if we know, if we have the information,
we'll go support the information. A lot of people don't
have the information, and a lot of people are probably saying.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Well, this guy is super smart. He went to Harvard.
He's the only one who can do it.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
But just saying it's it's it's I went to Harvard
and I am swerper smart, but I'm not the only
one that can do it. And you'll get down like
for me search and I love the fact that I
see Megan has something in your black home. I love
the fact that I found out nut that to you.
You think that's going to be more popular, like more
artists gonna come. Do you think Jay Z would drop

(48:09):
an album on your platform?

Speaker 3 (48:11):
Yeah, I mean I think honestly, I think it's I
think it's all possible. I think it's all possible. And
at the end of the day, for me, it's just about,
like I said, being of service. So if this is
a way I could be of service, then great. If
it's more on the money tip and people want to
figure out, hey, I just got my advance. I don't

(48:32):
want to mess it up, you know what I'm saying.
I can do it that way as well. But I'm
in a great place. I'm in. Uh, you know, I'm
super blessed, and so you know, as much as I
can give what I found is the more that I give.
You know, my parents are religious, so they say, look,
the more you give, the more your cup will be filled,
so that you can give more, you know what I'm saying.

(48:53):
So I'm good where I'm good.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Yeah. You ever thought the music business would come down
to this, like, because it's like it's so much disposable
music out there in the nineties, in the two thousand
and I don't want to sound like that old guy.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Oh in my day, right, But I'm just gonna just
just to deal with the facts. It felt like music
when it was when it was analog. He had to
be in the studio together. It felt like the music
was better. Doesn't that I feel like that. I'm super
I'm in that world too. I listened to.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Thriller, right, and I listened to those records I listened to,
you know, and actually one of the folks that really
put me onto this was Tommy Mottola. So my first
my first record was with Casablanca. So I had records
and I came in and played it for Tommy and
he said, yo, right, these are good. But I got

(49:50):
my guy t bone Walk, and he's just gonna come
in and just play play the records for him and
just see what he come up with. Man, this guy
came in and put baseline lines and Tommy Mattola was
playing guitar because he because Sony's music studios are still
open at that time. He come in And so I
think there is a there is a there's a certain

(50:11):
magic of that time in that era, which is probably
nostalgic for me, you know what I'm saying. But I mean, listen,
you know, each generation has their own you know what,
what what matters to them? You know what I'm saying.
I think for me, I'm just an old I'm old
school like that. You know what I'm saying, It matters
to me.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
I love analog. Yeah, where were you at when you
heard that? Kanye kind of like challenge.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
A whole court. He did it on here, but he
kept going.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
It just happened here, But like that was like, now,
I'm smarter, right now, I see that he Actually I didn't.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I didn't know I was living in them. I was
living in history.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
Now that it's history, it's like, damn, it's the first
time you've seen a person.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
I don't want you to say a black person.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
I don't want to say a person period company and
then kind of like prove it like not the racist part.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
But the fact is that they kind of kept selling
the sneakers. They kind of like like and was where
was you when you found out this? How you've got
a relationship with you? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (51:15):
I really I kind of live in my own bubble,
you know what I'm saying. So I'll see little things
that are happening, but I mostly invest my energy, time
and resources where I can make a difference, and so
in that struggle, that's his struggle, maybe a phone call

(51:36):
of support is the most that I could offer. When
I'm talking about the artists that come to me and
they you know, they're not taking on a corporation head on,
but they want to take care of their mom or
they want to do whatever. I know that my time,
energy and resources is well spent, and I can see
the impact and the result of the investment that I'm making.
So you know, I think I might have just been,

(51:57):
you know, just wherever I was when I saw it,
and say, hey, look, you know, more power to those
who are fighting those fights. And I know where my
actual strengths are. I know where my muscle per se
can actually add value, because I.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Would think that him and Todd Dallas signs of poaches,
but a.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
Loongs on your platform, Hey, let's make it happen. Not
because you have to think about it, all the things
that YE just talking about and been through. Then you
come to find out that Voltures was on Atlantic and
you're like, what that didn't.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Make sense to me. I remember it was your monopoly
or some of it a tweet and it's like this
whole time I thought this is what you was fighting
for to be independent and then come to find out
you got a secret deal with Atlantic. It does does
not make me mad.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
It just makes me disappointed because I'm just like, Wow,
I thought we were fighting for independency.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
Hey, and I'm willing to be in the trenches and
fight for it with whoever wants to actually fight that fight.
Some folks they don't want to fight to fight. They
actually they actually just want to be creative. They don't
want the actual added weight of actually having all of
their customer data. They want to just you know, And
it depends on where you are in life. What is

(53:10):
it that matters to you, you know what I'm saying.
But if you want to run your creative business and
enterprise at a data driven level, which is how every
great multi trillion dollar business runs their enterprise, Amazon knows
everything you've ever done on their platform, everything you've looked at,

(53:32):
they know. Instagram knows everything you've done on their platform,
everything you've looked at, they know every conversation you've had,
whether you give them permission to or not, it's on
their servers. Right. So if you decide that you want
to actually shoot for multi trillion dollar status, which now
there are several companies that have reached multi trillion dollar status.

(53:53):
We saw in video get to multi trillion dollar status
just this year. You have to run it and assume
the responsibility of managing, navigating, and analyzing that data and so.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
And there's the AI tools to help you get out.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Of course, of course, of course, but you have to
have a desire to do it. So it's almost like
people will say, well, why so and so selling their publishing, Well,
it's because they would like to actually have bring forward
the actual revenue to today and let somebody else wait
for the revenue payoffs, right, And somebody will say, well,

(54:29):
you know, that's your annuity, that's your retirement plan. But
if you get two hundred million dollars up front, that's
tw hundred million dollars of front. You could do with
that what you want to do now, at the health
and strength that you have now, then waiting fourteen fifteen
years for that two hundred million to trickle in, you
know what I'm saying. So, I think everybody has their

(54:51):
different motivations and desires for how they want to run
their business, and more power to them for those that
want to run it at that level to have that
infrastructure technologically, analytically, then that's what we're here to help
out with.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Now, what life would have been like if you never
lost that laptop and you made Watch the Dome album.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Wow, Well, I mean, actually we can look at the trajectory.
I'll probably be hit boy, there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
It's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
It's nothing wrong.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Okay, because I think it's imparis I'm trying to yeah, Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
You know what I'm saying. Okay, And there's nothing wrong
with that. And I think he's had a he's had
an incredible run. Yeah classic, yeah to me, we know,
you know what I'm saying. But I think I think
the world in the universe and God shows you where
your light can really shine, you know what I'm saying.
And that's how I really feel like. There are folks

(55:44):
that come to me yo, man yo, your studio videos, yo.
You know, like we just did a tiny desk, you
know what I'm saying. And the bottom line is, I
feel like the gauntlet has been passed. You know what
I'm saying. We passed the mantle on now I'm doing
what the producer could actually do they can't do that.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
Because I like, I don't when people say everything is
meant to be. Sometimes I think life makes a mistake
too sometimes because I just think I don't think like
would that record would have sound like what you hold?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
And yeah, man, we got at that moment.

Speaker 4 (56:18):
At that moment, I'm trying to figure out what because
you went hard for the laptop when that happens, so yeah,
and then I yeah, I kind of find out that
was one of the reasons wives because you had watched
the Throne.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Yes, so they never came out, never came out, you
got That's why it's in the laptop.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Right, you ain't got it never came out.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
I want to hear how that record style, you know
what I mean as a fan, as a fan, I
want to hear that copies of that anywhere now.

Speaker 3 (56:44):
I mean maybe maybe they have because we were recording
out in Bath, England. So whoever that engineer is, he
has he got Yeah, he has a big He.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
Gonna tell that somebody he goes nobody he got him.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
Now let me ask you, being the fact that you
have this direct relationship to your fanst We'll take a
couple of years.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
Back to the album yes, and the album was just
for one of one. One of one is one is
that something you've ever been offered to do? And two
would you do it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (57:18):
So I don't me personally, I truly believe that music
is forever to be distributed. Right. It is a strange
business model, right, I think it's an extremely strange business
model because literally I've seen art and it's hard to
wrap your brain around, especially down here are bossles down here.

(57:41):
Sometimes you go into these galleries and you literally see
it's a canvas and it's all red, and that's that's
the whole thing.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Garbage on the floor or whatever.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
But it's literally someone paid twelve million or twenty two
million dollars or a hundred million for it, you know
what I mean. So that doesn't exist in music, you know,
I'm saying. I think Wu Tang was at least shooting
for that. But I think the difference with music is
that it's it's created so that many can enjoy it,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
You're right about that. I go to art be every year.
I haven't seen the paint and I like yet.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
I have not seen ones we like her on the
walls outside you know what it is.

Speaker 4 (58:19):
It's not meant for me, this is not this is
not for me. I'm here for the advance. I'm here
to talk and kissing babies.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
But but there's some scamming it too, that's not Yeah,
it's an incredible viehic for.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
People. There's people using exactly absolutely absolutely, So we want
to do quick time s line. Let's go. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
One thing when we talk about the number thing we
can't forget. We got shout up Mike Jones. He was
doing the yeah, yeah, you know Texas. He was on something.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Yes, it was.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
I always thought ya, I wasn't giving out your real numbers.
This is your real number?

Speaker 3 (58:56):
Really?

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Okay, Okay, we're doing here, right guys.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Yeah, so do you want to get a designated drinker? Yeah,
because you ain't drinking. Look before we go on, before
we go on. This is a certain thing that I
love about having this job.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
One is to see if the guest is drinking and
what they are drinking, right, and we always bet, well
if they're gonna be on time or not.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
Okay, I lost to you to say you came at
four four. I was like, he's going to be here early.
And then the other thing that was was was very impressible.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Man.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Yeah, I bet on you lost whatever about it. We
had the circle of block. Okay, okay, okay, yeah, but
you got to be in there better. But I thought
when we did this that she was going to have,
like it's always someone say this is off the table
and you can't ask that. I thought you was going to.

Speaker 4 (59:53):
I almost bet that she was going to say this
is off the table, this is that. And when I
found out that you did not say none of that,
I was like, Wow, this guy is about that life.
So yeah, that's that's all. Yeah, you'll be surprised or ship.
We go through and people two minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
Before, as many of y'all know, drink Chance wants to
give flowers, but people are here to receive them, giving
flowers and celebrating our legends while they can still smell us.
We have partnered with What the Flowers to create this
movement where everyone can give flowers to the legends in

(01:00:28):
their lives. You can now order a custom flower box
for to someone you want to show appreciation to you
by visiting w w W dot w T flowers dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Orders.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
You're gonna go first. We want to get them a
designated rive. I explained, Can you explain.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
We're gonna give you two names, two places to things,
and this is really just to bring up people, places
and things stories like anybody, you pick one and nobody drinks.
If you pick one, okay, nobody drinks. But if you
say both or neither of them, like you don't really
want to answer it, then we all drink the table drinks.
If you have a designated drinkers at Oh, Michael, yeah,

(01:01:15):
I a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
He look like you got drunk a lot of vacuum.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
That changes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Yeah, okay, So please, any stories come up with anybody.
We're not trying to diss anybody. It's all love for
everybody we mentioned.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
He could be right there, Yeah, be on the side
of him. Okay, bet he said that's your Barbara, Mike fall.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Okay, I'm about to say that it's kind of weird
that Barbara are gonna drink cool my bad. Are you ready? Yes,
Kanye farrouh. We have a quativity one.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
You said story. I gotta tell a story. No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
The game is you pick one or you pick one
or none?

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Yeah, I picked one or none.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
You can say both, No, you pick and if you pick,
we don't drink, right, if you pick one, we don't.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
If I want everybody to drink, I say both.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Smart.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
But we're saying if you've got stories with anything, this
is really just to bring up names and places and
people you're working for.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Both Okay, Okay, he got a shot? Yeah, slo s
better not and baby shots because is okay? Oh yeah, yeah,
get to kill the Matt Delly. That was funny. That

(01:02:51):
was funny.

Speaker 4 (01:02:52):
Okay, let him get his drink. Okay, yeah, okay, that's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
Okay, Chris Brown or Usher, you gotta take one shot
off top to catch up Chris Brown Usher both? Damn
you both in all of this. Fabri kiss, I.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Know what you're gonna say, Fab's that's that's my guy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
I make great music together. How did you guys connect?

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
Man my the the late Gray Edwards? You know what
I'm saying. So I had a I had a record
call used to be and he said, Yo, we're gonna
get you need a feature on this, and he went
and got fab and you know what, I was so
naive early in the game.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
What do you mean?

Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
And so we got in the studio and I tried
to tell Fab I didn't like one of his lines
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Looking at me, He's like looking at me. I was
brand new, I had, I had.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
It was it was my song. And was like, yo,
I got you know, I got surprised for you go
in the studio, Fab, you know, and and he said
something like it could be how it used to be,
uh because it used to be the charm. I'm early
like a rooster on a farm with a Jacob exclusive
on the arm. And I said, I said rooster like

(01:04:31):
that's not a good He was like looking at me, like,
you know, but from there we you know. He said,
look right, he said, look, this is what I'm known for, right,
Like you know these type of lines and punch lines.
That's that's what I'm knowing. So I said, okay, place right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
I say, doctor Dre does that all the time. But
he was new, he was great new, Okay, okay, okay,
brand okay, all right. Swiss and Timberland mm hmm, Swizz,
you worked more of a Swiss, right.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
I've actually never I never met Timbo. Never met really
I mean talk about a super huge student, but never
met Timbo.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Hopefully that changes up to you. Yeah, for sure, Premo
or p Rock neither. We don't drink. We do drink neither, Okay,
any reason why neither? Just no, no influence there.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
Well, no, I just don't have any.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:05:41):
I don't have any. You say that I don't have
a story, right, No, No, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
Not about.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Any any criteria to if you picked somebody, it could
be anything. It doesn't have to be a story. We
just say if you have a story, he's just so smart.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Just over. But sure, okay, So if we go back,
like damn you don't like pretty much? You got it? Yeah,
Johnny Gill or Ralph Tresvan both. I think you're gonna say,

(01:06:20):
Ralph tres Both, I mean I did that. I did
the New Adition record. That's right, both, New Addition, that's right. Well,
I don't know who're gonna go with this, Michael Jackson
or Prince. And if you got a story with Elip,
please chair.

Speaker 3 (01:06:39):
We gotta go both?

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
You give neither?

Speaker 3 (01:06:43):
Look like both on that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
That's hilarious. Good gonna the table any story with m
J Prince?

Speaker 3 (01:06:52):
Well, I actually the closest I ever got to having
a Michael Jackson story was just being around these producers
from Philly vidaland Dre and they had done they've been
working with Floyd Tree and I remember being in the
studio session and they were playing the Butterflies record that
Marcia had written for Mike, and I was just like yo,

(01:07:16):
and I think they had his vocals and it was
that's the closest to an actual store. And then I
think the VMA's one year, I actually was able to
ask Quincy Jones. He was backstage at the VMA, so
I was able to ask him a question, you know,
just about that. But that's the closest I've ever been.
But in terms of just Prince in general, that's a

(01:07:37):
whole nother level. In terms of musicianship and independence, he was.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
And also when you think about it, the legend is
that he was sixteen years old and he went in
the studio and he didn't have a demo. He just
went in the studio and just made it in front
of everybody's and so that really was what inspired That's
what I'm saying, at like sixteen or seven, team, he
didn't have the demo, They just say yo, they put

(01:08:03):
the tape. And this is back when they were running
the tapes, you know, what I'm saying. He laid all
the drums, then he said, you're running back, laid the
guitar running back, and laid the bass running back, laid
the vocals, et cetera. So that's really what the blueprint
was for all of the studio videos that I was making,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
Speaking of Prince, non source the story on this show
he's We asked him if anybody ever denied him, and
he said Prince denied him because he didn't own his
own Master's. Prince was on but You was loud show.
He was telling people you own your own ship. So
imagine that coach IV got the mike Liz for Ralph

(01:08:42):
sent him a bunch of beats.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
This story is amazing. And Michael called him and said, no,
I want with I want? He was like, if you.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Fact?

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I always what your mike listening to me like gatest it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Out like something else says like in the back he's
listening like literally here for rel sweat and like He's like, yo,
you don't believe it's called And I'm like.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
What He's like. I took got a form with Michael
Jackson's people and they said, if nor gang I wanna beat,
don't send us to beat. Wow, always bike in the car,
put a band on. So I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
I had a flashback Di Angelo or Anthony Hamilton, the Angelo.
I heard he's coming up with a new project too.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
Man, even if this man never came out with another project. Yeah,
the Voodoo album was yeah, absolutely Wu Tang or n
w a Wu tang.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Teddy Riley or Raphael sad m.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
Teddy Riley.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
It was because of proximity of Virginia. I wouldn't say
that well, I mean Virginia. Well, I mean and Teddy.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
First of all, just right, so Black Street guy. And
then if you talk about Pharrell Timbo, they came out
of there, yeah, I mean and Davante and Jojessy. Literally
I was studying everything those guys, did you know so?
And they all said Teddy was the he was the

(01:10:30):
godfather basically.

Speaker 4 (01:10:32):
Now, this is what I don't know where you're gonna
go with This could go either way. I could beat
on your answer, but I'm gonna think I'm gonna lose
because you've been shocking me all day. And give us
the story if you got one Quincty Jones or doctor dre.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
The R and B is pulling you one way and
then Pop is pulling you the other.

Speaker 3 (01:10:54):
Dre Wow did not know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
I did not expect that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:59):
No, And the only reason is the in the club
beat was the beat that that that I basically I
felt like I modeled my entire career off of just
the beat itself, because basically, like even right now, I
could go and basically the simplicity of that and the

(01:11:29):
ability even without the lyrics, for me to just actually
be able to beat box that beat, and how simple
it was and how it not unbelievable. So when you
think about the biggest record I ever had, I can
sing that bing bing bing bing bing bing bink and

(01:11:53):
and and if you think about that, how sparse that
is sonically? I mean, so I mean and also to
be honest, Quincy just seems like worlds apart, even for
me musically, in terms of what.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
As a producer, like planet or just historically, how are
you seeing worlds apart?

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Well, I'm saying like if somebody came to me and say, Yo,
here's a forty piece big band orchestra and arrange something
for Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones closed his eyes and conducted,
you know what I'm saying. So I don't even put
my like, you know, Steve Prince, you know, I don't

(01:12:40):
even put myself in that, you know. But when we
when I think about the reason why I say Dre is,
I feel like, Okay, I'm not. I wasn't necessarily musically trained.
I don't know if Dre was musically trained, but he
had there was something first. So that's to be able
to recognize and be that sort of sonic architect, you

(01:13:03):
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
So that's you know, the next three Mary J. Blise
or Eric a bad both, thank you? Yeah, light work both,
booth booth both either hit make up or hit boy. Yeah,

(01:13:32):
don't look at me neither. I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
I don't. No stories are either one no no stories,
and remember what the story we're gonna go on this
forse with stories. That's that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
Just make that clear.

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
That's your no stories analog or did you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
You took your shop? Bro Oh, I've been took the shop. Okay,
I got another one analog analog and me too.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
I'm with you on that, and then you can go
to go to the next ones thriller or bad thrillers.

Speaker 1 (01:14:06):
Tell you it was the thriller, type of dude thriller
that I don't know. I just feel like he had
the jacket at one point, gloves or coming boss like that,
like in a good way. A lot of us had
that Michael Jackson glove stop righting, yeah, looking around people,
not even gonna make eye contact right now. They had
had the jacket too, had all right, Whitney, Okay, you go,

(01:14:31):
you start Whitney or ritha Whitney, d J Quicker the Riza,
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
Neither.

Speaker 1 (01:14:47):
You're neither. Yeah, I'm not used to it. The tupocket
d m X.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
POC.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
You got a story, then this is your criteria. Yes, okay,
but I obviously he was going before way. But but
my like I said, we started the whole.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Cassie project and Rashid literally it was like, yo, I
don't care who you're listening to, et cetera, et cetera.
It's all Pac all the way. And also uh poc
because there was when I I actually was one of
those kids that went to a band camp and I

(01:15:38):
you know, I had camp. I went to a band camp,
so so you know, I had one of those you know,
one of those super early adolescent you know crushes, and
she she basically, you know, I wanted to make records,

(01:16:00):
you know, write songs. And she was like, oh, well,
you know, I'm doing this song for Mother's Day and
she she had the Dear Mama song from from back then. Yeah,
exactly right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
Cool Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield, mhm, neither. Okay, she
knows you better go down. Okay, I know where you're
gonna pick on this one. At least let me take

(01:16:30):
the shot.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
I say he's picking the second he's been saying. I
been saying like James James Brown, James Brown.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
Or Jimmy Hendrix Sun like Jimmy Hendrick and Bob Marley
is like your your thing, but James Brown both both
both because you're a fan of Jimmy Hendrick and mar Yeah,
like that's that's yeah, but but for different yeah different
and James Brown.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
Yeah, James Brown, James Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
He came up to me and said, keep saying playing
my ship ship Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:17:04):
I mean, if I look at the Dodging Girl video,
that's that's a that's a James Brown. That's actually a
James Brown reference. You know where, because in that video
I'm wearing the tuxedo. I come down to join. We
got the band playing. That's that's the actual James Brown reference.

Speaker 1 (01:17:20):
Everybody took this shot. Oh I took my shot already,
this one. Thank you. So I'm gonna ask you this,
but then I'm I'm gonna ask you in exceparately a
different way. Major or independent?

Speaker 3 (01:17:38):
Major independent? Independent?

Speaker 4 (01:17:42):
Okay, your first two albums was on Motown. Correct, Yes,
this is this is This is me being a straight
spoiled It was hard for me to go from a
major to independent because I like the four Seasons. I like,
you know, sether sist And when I went from major independent,

(01:18:05):
I had to down grade. I don't know if that's
the right world, but.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
It is. Damn yeah, but I had to down grade.

Speaker 3 (01:18:13):
It was yeah, yeah, like it was. I had to
go back to the sheriff team. But it was completely
different from me I had. Like I wasn't a multi
platinum like I had. There was a lot of respect
for the musicianship, but it wasn't like our multi platinum
Billboard number one hits and you know, records and clubs

(01:18:35):
and the hottest et cetera, et cetera. But it looked
like that to us at least it maybe maybe maybe
maybe it looked like that. But I mean, to be frank,
we sold one hundred and eighty thousand records the first
town and sixty thousand on the second. Now, the second
one we got nominated for a Grammy. But I mean
that's a total of I mean that's we didn't we

(01:18:56):
didn't even you know, and still the era where you
had to sold like crazy amount of records.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:03):
Literally, I heard you say this before, but you literally
made more money for your independent albums than you did now.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
Is that entirety? How about the tours? Yeah, but that's
what I'm saying. I didn't even tour off of those albums.

Speaker 1 (01:19:17):
You know what I'm saying and what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
So like once we went independent, then I understood, like, Okay,
this is how we're going to really get to the money,
because that's I think. What's so it's very opaque when
you're a major label. You're at the major label, things
are paid for, studios paid for, advance is paid for,
travel is paid for, et cetera. But then once the
sales come in, unless you reach a certain amount, you

(01:19:41):
gotta wait till your next album budget opens up before
you get paid again.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
It's a bank yeah, age first deal or something like
something like that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
And that's what I'm saying. It's just like you know,
for me, I don't like that opacity. I want to
have full trans that again, yes I want yeah, so
old paid. That means contret you know you want. I
want full transparency, right, And so that was quote unquote

(01:20:10):
none of my business. You know how much did they make?

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:20:13):
And so that's why I really wanted to go independent
because I was like, Yo, if we sold one hundred
eighty thousand records the first time, how did I only
sell We're in the information age, how do I only
sell sixty thousand the second time? We should just email
everybody the first.

Speaker 4 (01:20:28):
US sales because they could have did that. And like
you said, they didn't give you the information. So maybe
you sold because we were saying the records everywhere, so
we had maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
I truly believe, man, I think that the records were
favorites amongst artists. So if artists were sending round, yo,
you heard Ryan's join, et cetera, they were favorites. But
when I went to Germany, I was not on the radio.
In Germany, everything was on little mixtapes. People were spending
it in clubs, et cetera. But there was that real

(01:20:59):
ground swell of people that's like, yo, I like this music.

Speaker 4 (01:21:02):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
I remember me asking for like account and things like that,
and they're telling me that. The recordats saying, oh yeah,
we spent five hundred grand in Japan and we spent
two hundred and fifty thousand of Germany and we've been
we spent this in only in duself my favorite player.

(01:21:24):
I'm gonna have Burg Frankfoot, all that, you know, Berlin
and all that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:27):
I've been right some time. But what I'm trying to
say is when they did that to me, I couldn't
like it was I don't know. I don't want to
say it wasn't ordered in back then. I just didn't
know about it. There was no way for me to
There was no Instagram, so they said they had a
poster of me in Japan. I had to just tell you,
you know now that they were scamming everybody that way
for real. Yes, the marketing budgets they were, they were

(01:21:51):
ciphoning money like I got cal This is why, this
is why, this is why.

Speaker 2 (01:21:56):
You love the majors because the era that you were
in was when the record labels were flushed with cats,
so they didn't make you pay back.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
They would be like, cool, they will let you off.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
Your cousin's so flush with cash.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
Still, let's not It was crazier back then. That's the
record of off of CDs. I love Mark back there.
I love this isn't argue all the time because he's
a super independent guy, which I just think that independent.

Speaker 2 (01:22:18):
If you want to go to major, be independent first
so you can leverage and have a better deal.

Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
Oh no, with the machine, I.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
Feel the opposite, And you can tell me. I feel
like you should be go major first.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
Let them spend that budget on you, yescause they can't
never take back your friends. It's not like that now.
In his era was now they're accounting for every penny.
I'm not a dinosaur man. Yeah, yeah, ago, in the
terms of the record business, it was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
What I'm saying though, is I agree if somebody else
is going to spend the money to make you famous,
and then you can actually leverage that and make sure
you do it the right way and you can.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
Come out whole. But now a lot of these artists
aren't coming out whole. They're stuck in that now. And
these deals, you mean there was so they kissed the money.
They haven't recouped. Someone who stuck with the record then
you could not recoup. And they were doing well. The
labels they.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
Could have had liked you as an artist, We're like cool, yeah,
no problem, and we'll let you out your deal. Let
this person buy you out your like they were making
deals left and right.

Speaker 4 (01:23:20):
I don't think as Norrie, I never recouped. I did
as Norri, I spent so much money. I mean, like
I wanted to Norri signs.

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
Today he's signing a three sixty deal where the name
Noriego or Norri is violent label.

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
And when you don't recoup, you can't use that name.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
You better go on as Sir Francis Junior ncut there,
make a little buddy time. They got spooky are crumbling
as we see them right now. I think the tech
companies are the new record labels.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
They're his.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
I think your Idea period is a new record label
for those two.

Speaker 1 (01:23:58):
I'm talking about the bad guys. When I say imagine,
now imagine, we take you your concept concept right and
now you showing people you listen, because even when you
was dropping independent, it looked like you was apasior.

Speaker 3 (01:24:12):
Oh because we I mean we were, we were moving
that way. You know what I'm saying, which is but
that's the other piece of it is it requires also
the financial infrastructure because otherwise, like if you can make
one hundred grand, pay four thousand dollars a month forever,

(01:24:33):
then that means you can make a million dollars, pay
forty thousand dollars a month whatever. Right, So that's really
Once you have both the business infrastructure and the financial infrastructure,
then it becomes an infinite loop. And that infinite loop
is really what that's really what an artist needs to
be able to say, like, you know what, I want

(01:24:54):
to go record my next album and in France somewhere
you know, like the Rolling Stones City.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
Yes, right, so you know what I think?

Speaker 4 (01:25:06):
I think you being as smart as you are, right,
you having this early idea that's fucking genius.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
We all know. We all know it's genius, and we all.

Speaker 4 (01:25:14):
Know if it works, when it works, how artist the
artist can benefit off of this? Right now, radio is
still important, right, I told this the fact Joe the
other day, I was like, Yo, if I was to
ever drop a record again.

Speaker 1 (01:25:29):
You're gonna work by radio like him, Like, I don't
want you to hire somebody there.

Speaker 4 (01:25:36):
You you know, you know every PD he's put in
twenty seven to more years he's been in that work.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
But Joe has to fight. He did it. I feel
like that's the future, Like when the concept that you
have for artists working for other artists and artists are
saying I always love Violator for that Violator was like
artists managing artist. Chris Lighty was like an artist. Yeah,
And that's why I think this is going.

Speaker 4 (01:26:03):
Like I know it's sounding so minute, but I feel
like fat Joe will be running ahead of a radio apartment.
See how he just dropped the record just now, and
it's just everywhere everywhere, not because he's my friend, she
was just everywhere, and I'm like, he knows what he's doing. Eventually,
we're going to hire ourselves to do.

Speaker 1 (01:26:24):
To do, to work on your platform. You think it's
gonna go that way, let me speak to his.

Speaker 3 (01:26:28):
I would like to see that. We don't. What I
will say though, is just as you said, there will
be other iterations of platforms for folks to actually communicate
with their fans. I think the money piece is more
of an issue because the money piece is what people,
even like you said when we started this conversation, said,

(01:26:50):
I didn't know there was something that could do that, right,
And so I feel as though for me, even moving
from music to technology is because I felt like I
could serve a wider transh of the population.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
Just go right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
So I think the spread, I think now you're right,
But the ability for money management from the concept of
what artists really like, because we, like you said, we
like the four Seasons, we like the you know, if
we can if we give fly charter, we like the

(01:27:33):
fly charter. If we could go vacation, we could go
on a destination recording. We'd rather do that than the
bedroom recording. Right, So it's about how do you work
the finances to be able to deliver that. And that's
why I think, like you said, when we when we
were doing independent albums, we still.

Speaker 4 (01:27:53):
I thought you were still on the major I'm saying,
like me and him always arguing, and it's like, yo,
you know what, it's taking the best of both worlds
and mix it together.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
And I think that's what this is like for us
to make.

Speaker 4 (01:28:02):
Independent money, yes, but to look like a major, look
like a major is back in it, because then you
lose nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:09):
You actually gain everything. And I believe that this is
a and to be I believe you struck.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
You struck, to stand struck, to stand on your own
independently and strike strategic partnerships with whatever major entities. That's
that's really the goal, because that's where a lot of
them you can get a lot of financing from.

Speaker 1 (01:28:29):
Why it started to cut you off.

Speaker 4 (01:28:30):
Think about it when you're doing it on your own,
and if you don't show up to the radio station,
it all gets on you. But now if you have
somebody who's professional in that position, it's like you don't
you're still independent, but you got somebody else helping us, saying,
you know, listen, we got to make it the cosmic
cab at five pm, he's going to pull our record if.

Speaker 3 (01:28:47):
We don't do it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:48):
If you have somebody who has that experience, I think,
why wouldn't you do that? I think that's the only
thing that's missing from this beautiful idea. It's like, you
know what it might be really us running us. When
I say us, don't mean you raise, I mean the people.
That's a part of the culture. What I'm saying, it's
it's important, it's important.

Speaker 1 (01:29:06):
I think we should make a noise to that. Okay,
had the moment ahead. Where are we at here? Okay?
Are they over there snitching on you saying you ain't
take the shot? Ellmatic or ready to die.

Speaker 3 (01:29:26):
Both?

Speaker 1 (01:29:26):
Okay? Yeah, yeah, that's a great answer.

Speaker 4 (01:29:29):
You need to know this.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
I bet you didn't think he was. He was gonna
come again with your kid drinker, but now you drinking
to a drink sa I got.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
On the time Diana Ross or Donna Summers, Diana Ross
from lew that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
Missy or Eve? Missy? That was any stories? You're not
telling us any stories?

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
Diana Ross. That's a favorite of my mother's, you know.
And uh, Missy Elliott, I mean just sort of set
the standard. And I think I think, really, did.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
You say Diana Ross and Missy No, Diana Ross or.

Speaker 3 (01:30:24):
Donna Summer and you said Missy or or Eve?

Speaker 1 (01:30:27):
And so he asked the two questions at one time.

Speaker 3 (01:30:33):
Right now, Missy? Really, you know, I think the signing
of Missy out of that camp as well, right at first, right,
I mean, that whole camp. Honestly was just super ultra
incredibly ill because that was it was Timbo, it was

(01:30:53):
Missy was genuine, it was play.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
But it's like it's like for us to something in
the water over there. Yeah, you know going on? Yeah, yeah,
it's crazy. I got next one, all right, Stevie Wonder
and Marvin Gaye Stevie Wonder. Did I hear that Stevie
Walker walked to the stage one time?

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
Yes, he's confirmed.

Speaker 1 (01:31:18):
You can see we always get told us we have
so many stories. I'm seeing a lot of ship. Did
I hear that story that ye walk to the stage
together something like that?

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
Yeah, okay, I forget where I was performing and it
was something.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
Yeah, he didn't have a walking stick, let's be real.
He walked up, was like, what's up?

Speaker 6 (01:31:37):
Like, like, yeah, I respect that motive or phantom motif
playing guys you got this arm?

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
Yeah right? Or ghosts the race, Well he's he's thinking
he went cars he put it together.

Speaker 4 (01:32:08):
That's not what it was, right, you know, I said, right?
Or ghost Space Ray Kuan or go Space talking about
I'm glad I think you you saved me for.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
This one one because he actually did a record with me. Wow, Wow,
Moriah or Lisa Keys both man's so much more life

(01:32:43):
music industry or the tech industry. We're both okay, And
I knew he was gonna say that, Like I said,
it's not even in there. That's not in there. I
just made that up and I new it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:33:02):
In it real quick, okay, because before when I said
about the tech industry is taking over the music industry,
what is your take on that, Like how everybody's kind
of vilifying the Spotify's and all the DSPs.

Speaker 1 (01:33:13):
Like, what do you think it's necessary? I think they
necessary evil.

Speaker 3 (01:33:19):
I believe that there's a symbiotic relationship between the creativity
and the technology. Is necessary and it will take several
iterations until it will be perceived as fair. But I believe,
like you know that there there was no other way
to go than a Netflix or a Spotify, right. But

(01:33:44):
do you like it's all the entire library of all
recorded music is in my device right now? Well, the
lever of humanity is yeah, but that but that's what
I'm saying. So it's it's inevitable, and it's almost like
how people are they might want to vilify AI, but
it's inevitable, and so you were just we were just
talking about motif versus you know, phantom. But when you

(01:34:06):
think or STEVIEE Wonder, the guy Ray Kurzweil who made
the cursewhile synthesizer, he's a you know, a super forward
thinker on what's called technological singularity where you won't be
able to tell the difference between a human and a
and a robot at some point. He believes that at

(01:34:27):
some point it's going to converge. And so that's why
you have a neural link from Eli Musk or whatever
that he will put a chip and it's like, okay,
you either assimilate or do you you know, at some
point there are folks that are going to say, hey,
I don't want the chip in my child. But then
does that mean that your child is not going to
be behind all the other kids that have a chip. Right,

(01:34:50):
So at some point there is going to have to
be some sort of of you know, convergence, and it's
about us as as a as a race, as a
species understanding how we do that in the safest way possible.

Speaker 2 (01:35:06):
But putting your financial cap on, don't you think that
the conversation should be have because these we're seeing it
in real time.

Speaker 1 (01:35:13):
The DSPs are making an incredible amount of money. Spotify
has got three hundred and sixty five million billions and
they're making billions.

Speaker 2 (01:35:20):
I mean, yeah, yeah, off of you know, because obviously
the model is that now anybody could be an artist
and feed that.

Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
Yeah, and you know, and and it generates income.

Speaker 3 (01:35:31):
But that's exactly what I'm saying. At some point, through
different iterations, we will get to a relationship that is
fair and equitable. But in the early stages, he who
controls the cash flow controls how the actual pie is divided,
you know what I'm saying. And right now, as as.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
You're optimistic that it will pan out.

Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
It's inevitable. In my opinion, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:35:56):
Snoop Dogg, I believe he's the first one that said
it's unfair these music splits are.

Speaker 1 (01:36:01):
Yeah, he's the one at that status, but a lot
of people have been saying that, Yeah, yeah, I believe
he's the first one I saw, like yeah, yeah, no, no,
definitely at that status that was willing to step up.

Speaker 3 (01:36:13):
All right, producing or singing, singing, performing. I mean there's
really just no Yes, being a producer is awesome, but
I mean there is no, there is. There is no
substitute for being on stage in front of I mean

(01:36:38):
talk about it. You could be in it, you could
be in the lab and imagine it as a producer. Yo,
this is going to be crazy at such and such,
but when you do that festival stadium you got people
jumping and singing every word back is no, there is
no substitute for that.

Speaker 4 (01:36:54):
I always say an artist that's a producer is the
most unselfish person on the planet because in order for
you to make a hit, especially after you know where
I hit it feels right, that must be feeling like
giving a like a the way.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
Have you ever given away of record?

Speaker 3 (01:37:15):
It was like, well that was that first record, that
was hot Tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:37:18):
Okay, that was that first d You want to get that?

Speaker 3 (01:37:20):
No, but you had it? Yeah, we let it go,
let it wow?

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
Lionel Richie or Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, you got a
story with him.

Speaker 3 (01:37:37):
Well, in my family, they're very religious family, So there
were only two non religious A tracks in our house,
and one was Linel Richie and the other one was
Michael Jackson.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
Everything else was easy like Sunday morning.

Speaker 3 (01:37:55):
Well, I mean it was no, No, it was the
one with All Night Long on it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
Yeah yeah, okay out Cast gk.

Speaker 3 (01:38:07):
Our Casts.

Speaker 1 (01:38:09):
It's a twenty fifth anniversary of Outcast the first Yeah,
I probally like the second album.

Speaker 3 (01:38:17):
Rick Ross or Meek mill Rose clips or marb deep
Oh clips just because push your tears on something that
I like.

Speaker 1 (01:38:33):
Very happy.

Speaker 2 (01:38:33):
He just he's just right right now. That's that's his
fan clips over here. Laurence Hill or Queen Latifa, Lauren Hill.
I was going to say Lauryn Hill no matter who
you said.

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
Second, and the reason for that is just you know,
uh two parts of that once again grew up very
almost sheltered. But yeah, that's all my mother could talk about,
My mother and father could talk about. No was her
performance in Sister Yeah, yeah kid, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
Do you realize she only has one album?

Speaker 3 (01:39:07):
That's all you need? That's crazy, that's all you need
that album?

Speaker 2 (01:39:12):
When you have that, that's all you need. I mean
you got to count the Fuji's. Yeah, that is her album.
We didn't say, but that's.

Speaker 1 (01:39:19):
Another it's all.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
In my opinion, that's as close but almost as close
to a perfect album as you can possibly get in
terms of what in terms of what I like.

Speaker 1 (01:39:33):
I mean a lot of everybody would agree with you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
The world, the production, the songs, the emotion. I was
actually this crazy. I was just watching. I think it
must must have been like an MTV unplugged or something
like that. And then she actually because one of my
favorite records is the X Factor record. But then there's
a clip on YouTube where she actually is freestyling at

(01:39:56):
the end of it and it's all live and it's
just that whole vibe is just and.

Speaker 1 (01:40:00):
The fact how Son is out here, Yes, a part
of the mally extended that that is great. That is greatness.
Her album is such a positive album too. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:40:12):
Yeah, it's the last one for quick time of sliming.
We get back into the interview. Loyalty or respect?

Speaker 3 (01:40:23):
Loyalty?

Speaker 1 (01:40:25):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (01:40:27):
Loyalty? Well, I mean, listen, you can be respected by many,
even by those who don't know you. But to have
loyalty or to have true betrayal, someone really has to
know you.

Speaker 1 (01:40:40):
M that was hard. He's got a flight sing. Okay,
what times it's flight? Mister Lee? Yoh we got you
drunk man? Yeah yeah, yeah, don't take my last shot
with you.

Speaker 4 (01:41:00):
Okay, Okay, let's talk about the wealth Plan before we
get about it at what exactly is the wealth Plan?

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
They'll be touched on it a little bit earlier, but.

Speaker 3 (01:41:12):
I feel I feel like we've we've covered it because
it's it's more of a concept than an actual, you know,
the wealth Plan. So it's just more of the fact
that we have a service that we provide, whether it's
to artists, musicians, but anybody. I have folks that have

(01:41:32):
been longtime fans of mine but work at Facebook, work
at Google, and they're like, Hey, I mean, I'm the
first person in my family making tech money, and I
don't want I want to be that different differentiator in
my family for how our money is going to grow,
you know. And that's the crazy piece about it is
you could be really smart in technology, you could be

(01:41:52):
really smart in college, you could be really smart in music,
you can be really smart in business, but you don't
know anything about investing and how to make the money
work for you and last forever, and how to actually
do it in the right ways with tax laws and
all that kind of stuff that allows you to really
live how you want to live. And for what we

(01:42:14):
do at Wealth Planned, it's kind of twofold one is
just how to teach people how to invest. But number two,
what is money unless you can enjoy it with the
people you love when you're in the best years of
your life. Because a lot of folks put a huge
they put a huge emphasis of retirement, etc. And yes,

(01:42:36):
you should have a great life in your golden years,
but you should you should have a great life now
with the people you love, you know what I'm saying.
And so if you know how to take a small
amount of money and make it work for you so
that you don't feel like I said, and we gave
that example, if you want to hire your mom that

(01:42:56):
in many cases it seems like it would seem like
a massive financial commitment. But if the money is doing
it for you, then you can do it and actually
feel great about it, you know what I'm saying. And
that's really that's that's really what the wealth plan actually
is all about.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
That's something I mind about you throughout all this thing
that everything's going on. It's like, you stay positive, gotta
be It's not it's not easy. That's not easy, not always.
I mean, even though you're making it seem like it's easy,
like and you like I said, do you have music?

Speaker 4 (01:43:28):
Like like, God bless me for using this term, but
you you remind me like a male shot day, Like
you know what I'm saying, Like I can't get a massage,
listen to your ship?

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
Be cool?

Speaker 1 (01:43:37):
Still be cool? Crazy right now saying like it's music
that made me feel good, Like I'm not gonna listen
to I'm listening to some smooth ships. But how do
you maintain that positivity? Like this ship is? It's crazy
right now? You can say crazy things.

Speaker 4 (01:43:55):
About whatever you want to say online and yeah, and
you're maintaining you're not jumping out there, not commentated.

Speaker 3 (01:44:00):
On, you know, whatever's happening. And the reason for it
is because there actually is no better feeling than being
helpful to someone. And I'm telling you just something as
simple as you know, if just imagine how you would

(01:44:22):
feel if you know, you in line in a Starbucks
or somebody and somebody says, you know what, I actually
what do you order?

Speaker 1 (01:44:29):
And I got you.

Speaker 3 (01:44:29):
It's something as simple as that. But on the flip side,
if you're the person who's able to do that, that
gives you that kind of that kind of positivity that
you're able to do something for someone. And so I
think really there's two parts of it. Number one, take
care of yourself so that you're in a position to

(01:44:50):
be helpful enough service to folks. So obviously, if you're
taking care of yourself, you're gonna feel great.

Speaker 1 (01:44:56):
Right, It's like the plane mask, right, put on yourself
first you can help kids.

Speaker 3 (01:45:00):
And then number two, actually be in that spirit of service,
because there is no greater reward than knowing that something
that you've done is actually helpful to someone else. And
that's that that and and so that's why that's why
I have the optimism about music and technology. That's why
I have the optimism with you know, if people are

(01:45:21):
not making that much money in music or that much
money period. I have seen literally, I have seen folks
who have taken you know, mail carrier, commercial truck driver
salaries and turned it to millions of dollars. And it's
because they just need to know. It's middle school math.

(01:45:42):
But somebody just got to show thee. Yeah, and they
have somebody, They got somebody that's going to show them,
you know. And for me, I had someone to show me.
So that's really what it's about for me. Now, It's
that legacy of actually saying and whoever wants to talk
to me about it text Ryan dot com. Still to
this day, you leave your number there and it's my

(01:46:03):
direct number. And obviously I've got technology to you know,
make sure that we weed out the bad actors and
we have you know, safeguards in there. You know what
I'm saying. But the bottom line is that there is
no I couldn't be at a better place because I
see every single day the impact that I'm having, and
it's it's it's a real commitment to the furtherance of community,

(01:46:28):
the furtherance of our culture, the furtherance of just humanity
in general. I know it sounds either lofty, but that's.

Speaker 2 (01:46:37):
In the Golden rule, like do want to others that
you would like to be Yes, exactly, that's a basic thing.

Speaker 1 (01:46:43):
Yes, everybody should implement. Yes, you know for sure, we
know you got to go.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
But on this day, Monday, September twenty third, at six
twenty three, Yeah, do you think that we would be.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
Talking here and Didy being And yeah, no, I did.

Speaker 3 (01:47:03):
No, absolutely not, absolutely not. And I think really for
me is because when I first got into the music game,
we talked about Tommy Montola. It was Tommy and Puff,
those were my mentors. Puff was on the management side.
Tommy saw me as an artist. On the publishing side,

(01:47:23):
Puff and Gwen Niles they managed me. But I've always
been in my own insulated. I didn't see any of
this going on. I literally did not see any of it.
So all I saw was someone who gave me an opportunity,
somebody who put me in the room with all the
biggest artists. My first placement ever was on Beyonce because

(01:47:44):
of this connection Britney Spears, you know, doing Danny Kane
singles for Loon, singles for New Edition. But that's because
I basically was in my little Ivory tower making stuff,
sending it and literally, you know, incredible connections and and

(01:48:07):
uh and and opportunities were being created from the music.
So all I needed to do was be in the music.
But even today, I mean y'all can see, like from
from even me being in Harvard that young I just
I never acquired a taste for alcohol, for drugs, for partying,

(01:48:27):
and not to say when I got to New York,
I was And that's actually how I met Cassie, because
I was like, yo, I'm I'm I'm a big producer.
Now I'm going to the club whatever, you know what
I'm saying. But like I just I have never really
had that as advice. I think I have obsessiveness in
other pursuits, so I would have never literally never. And also,

(01:48:48):
you know, folks have always talked to me and say, hey,
you know, they've asked me, you know, hey, how do
you feel you were you heartbroken? You know, puff took
your girl whatever it was. And like I understand when
a story or a narrative is not for me, and
once it was no longer for me, then there were

(01:49:10):
other narratives and stories for me to invest my time,
energy and resources into. So even for all of this
to yeah, of course you heard, but I never. I
was just in in my ivory tower the whole time,
so I would have never.

Speaker 1 (01:49:25):
I admire your attitude, for sure. I admire your maturity.

Speaker 4 (01:49:31):
I admire you're holding it down for sure, because you know,
there could have been a lot of things you could
have answered that, and you answered that like a grown man.
You answered like a person that is not petty. And
I'm very petty, so I could recognize when a person
is not to take going down that same block that
I stay on.

Speaker 1 (01:49:51):
But I respect that, man, I respect that.

Speaker 2 (01:49:53):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:49:53):
Thank you for being here. I know you got to
catch a flight, take a couple of pictures.

Speaker 4 (01:49:56):
To get a drop and yeah, yo, man, we really
wanted to get your flowers. May deserve it, man, you
deserve it because you leading the way for every artist,
not just independent artists, major artists. Is who find out
you know, how much that, how much have they given
one hundred percent fit for and receiving so little and

(01:50:20):
when you know, I had to take me years to
find out, but you leading the way and me seeing
you do it in in real time. Yeah, you know,
I'm seeing I get to witness you do this in
real time. I get to witness you, you know, your
shows in real time, say your merch in real time
and sit back and say, damn man, that's something that
eventually want to do with Drink Champs. You know, we
want to drop a compilation album and I just feel

(01:50:43):
like everyone should should pay attention to your story.

Speaker 1 (01:50:45):
Let's go and we got your back.

Speaker 2 (01:50:52):
Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production hosts and
executive producers n O r E and DJ E f
N listen to drink Champs on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us
for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by Yours truly,
dj e FN and n O r E. Please make

(01:51:14):
sure to follow us on all our socials That's at
drink Champs across all platforms, at the Real norriegon ig
at Noriega on Twitter, mine is at Who's Crazy on
ig at dj e FN on Twitter, and most importantly,
stay up to date with the latest releases, news and
merch by going to drink champs dot com

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