Season 2 · Episode 15

Terrance TDames Productions Music Consistency

Machine-generated transcript, not manually corrected. Wording, including names, may contain transcription errors. Reading never uses your Free Ask.

Transcript library Listen to episode

813 timed lines. Each timestamp opens a link to that line; to share it, copy the address from your browser.

0:02Welcome, welcome, welcome to Alienize Photos industry talk with your host
0:09photographer Jackson Steve Jackson of Alienize Photos Media bringing you
0:15another episode with a special guest my old producer long time producer when I
0:22used to do music see bringing that music back around in my origins the
0:28now this is gonna be a testimony to that my good friend my brother T Dames how
0:34you feeling yo yo yo I'm good I'm good man I'm blessed to be alive man blessed
0:39to be here man how you doing man? I'm lovely I'm fired up just came back
0:46from filming another podcast that I'm director and producer for so and now
0:51we here I know it's late so I appreciate you for accommodating me
0:55I'm still being up to this so I'm a night out still man yes yes oh nah never
1:02forget yeah I mean speak about oh nine that brings me back to almost 20 years
1:09but just to say 20 years you've been producing about like 20 years right 20
1:14plus years for real yeah it's ongoing since about 2005 got introduced to that
1:21FL studio making them homeroom beats in Collingwood for the audience I don't
1:27know FL what's FL? FL studio one of the most popular dogs out here to create
1:32music. Oh Fruity Loops. Yes sir Fruity Loops is top dog when it
1:38comes to making quick beats. Have you ever used something outside of Fruity
1:43Loops? Yeah I use studio one I use Reeze and I used to use that a lot
1:49after Fruity Loops and then I went right back to Fruity Loops because my workflow
1:53was all messed up I tried to keep up with Reeze but I had to go right back to
1:59FL and kept it going. So what about for a beginner what program would you
2:06recommend? FL for sure because everybody liked to click it in so
2:12you can actually click in what you hear if you don't have that luxury of
2:15having a mini keyboard around you just click all the notes in and it's
2:20easy and copy paste and move stuff around some other ones is like that too
2:25but it seemed like it's quicker on FL maybe because I've been using it maybe I
2:30got some type of favoritism for it. You need a Fruity Loops partnership at this
2:37rate. I know. Hey we're gonna talk about it we're gonna make it
2:42happen that's a must. Like even the type of things I focus on too
2:47like brand partnerships stuff like that so yeah. Oh yeah that'd be a good book. But uh what's
2:55what's like the I don't want to say a favorite because I know I know that's
3:00kind of subjective but like some of your favorite instrumentals that you
3:03created it could be something you release or you know something that you
3:08haven't released. A couple of beats I did for PB Trump was one of my
3:14favorites both of my favorites I should say and then the one I gave you back
3:20against the wall that's still one of my favorites. Man that was one of my favorites. It's so
3:24unique like I don't know how it could be. Will Weston and he collab with me. Yes sir. Yeah. I don't know how I created that I
3:31created that like four in the morning. I felt pain in that like a story of
3:37pain and like man that was organic like it was just man. It sounded like nobody else. That's yeah. And it's another one. I got some tucked away. I like
3:50Fliz's uh I did actually a few of Fliz he an artist that's local to as
3:56well. I did some unique beats for him and he he did his thing on them.
4:02Shout out to you Fliz. We're gonna play and we're gonna have maybe have a behind the
4:09scenes session see what I could work out with the man behind the scenes. Yes sir. But yeah I definitely could see you teaching like classes
4:17courses or even doing like tutorials basic tutorials and monetizing it. Having a site monetizing it. Yeah I might one day. I still be feeling like I'm
4:29learning. I mean but from someone I never even opened a program. Yeah. I'd even maybe they
4:38aspire to be a producer but I don't even know how to get started. You know like I like my realm is like early stage creative entrepreneurs. Like that's my
4:48focus and that's who I coach as well. So yeah because I definitely started from just a compact computer and a keyboard with a keyboard on it.
5:01Shout out to Six Man because he bought that from me. Six Man aka Thomas. He bought that from me and I was like I ain't never seen nothing like this in my life. I was making beats on the piano under the keyboard. It's crazy.
5:14Yeah I mean like I said somebody that never even opened a program like you got 20 years of experience. You could teach them how to even start and then they need to figure out something else along the way. I'm sure you got that recipe as well.
5:30Yeah I can do that. 20 years. That's a whole Bible. It's almost a quarter of a century. It's crazy.
5:40Time flying. Somebody spun the world. They spun around like basketball on the tip of your finger.
5:47Just kept spinning that boy. Yeah that's so how you get started in production. I got started so
5:53I was always into tech. So I was always using the computers as much as I could in the class.
6:00Because my computer was it was all right. The home one. Yeah let me check these deals out. And then
6:12so I was in math class and I was messing around with stuff and then my boy was like
6:20shot a P watch. He was like hey man since you mess with this computer stuff man
6:25I need you to make me some beats and I'll pay you for it. I'm like shoot all right I'll learn it real quick.
6:31So you came out the gate monetize. Yeah I did. And I ain't even know how to export beats right.
6:39I was just letting it record and then looping it myself. It's just crazy. I think I started
6:44like that when I was dabbling into producing. I was doing stuff. I thought I was like alright
6:53sound good to me but I know public probably ain't gonna like this. I need you to cook.
6:58Oh yeah. Yes sir. That's what's up. That's kind of like some of your first like the
7:06Wads brothers man. Yeah UTC. Some of the early some of the early artists. Yes sir.
7:16T Shane, D Wads, P Wads and Vette. Yeah they had a group called UTC. That's for 156 in
7:24Clare. So they dropped us some heat around that time on the mixtape. I'll tell you what
7:29I got their CD upstairs too and the quality was pretty good. They used to mess with
7:35uh with a bassline record. Shout out bassline. Yeah it's classic man. It is all one big you
7:42know family man. Some were closer some were distant but we all you know from the Collinwood
7:49area. Shout out to the railroaders. Collinwood railroad. That's history. I don't think it's
7:55even over. That's crazy right. Yeah and we about to do the last tour on 22nd or 23rd so
8:01man they closing up shop. It's crazy. Right that's man. Time is flying by. Yeah. Like
8:10literally history like and that's that's the beauty of what I do. I mean not only just
8:16photography like my childhood house got you know torn down. If I had a photo of that
8:23now I can't prove you know how they be on MTV Cribs and like oh this is my old house.
8:28I can only say it's a plot of land. There's open space right here. That used to be my
8:32that's crazy. I don't have no picture or no visual that are people you know with their
8:36grandparents they don't have pictures. So it's like me as a photographer I'm a historian.
8:41I'm from freezing time and really capturing moments that's important as you know impactful.
8:48Yeah that's true. And it's crazy because my childhood house is knocked down too.
8:53It's crazy. I was there for years and so we was holding it down on the front yard.
8:58Now it's a plot of land. Yeah right up the street up. Yeah so it's crazy like just seeing
9:07the importance of it like the documentation alone like even with this podcast is documenting
9:13my journey especially when I do solo episodes it's like almost like master classes like
9:19you know somebody you want to invite me on the stage already have you know multiple episodes on
9:24it so I can pull from this and have it 80 percent of the way done and I just tailor
9:28it to the event or the speech. Yeah true. Yeah I try to keep photos and stuff too.
9:34I know it's how significant it is. I take random photos people be forgetting to take photos.
9:42They take videos of certain situations in front of them but forget to take a photo
9:45or video of themselves in that moment you know. Right. We don't have Polaroids like that
9:50no more. Like well they got it as an option but people don't even remember to do that no
9:54more. We had at least you know paper documentation of our family tree and situations
10:01that was going on and that's all everybody's thinking all digital but that can be gone in a
10:06second. Yeah that's true. That's very true. It'll be harder to at least get rid of photo albums
10:14then you know them digital albums so people need to tap into that if everybody can remember
10:19hey you can send your digital photos to Walgreens like we used to back in the day.
10:24You can just send it over the waves now and get it printed out. Yeah. Start opening up your
10:29creativity and getting them books together and putting those photos in there capturing
10:35memories man and make sure you write on the back of them too. Write the dates. Right yeah
10:42that's important. It's almost like a title like man it's the meta the metadata.
10:49Yeah man put your name in all that. That's important yeah. I mean I like a lot of old
10:57school methods for real. Like you just think about a lot of principles like just Thomas.
11:05Yes sir. Definitely is. That's cool. So who are some of the producers you learned from
11:15as you were just beginning and started now as you was trying to tinker with the computer and
11:21figure the programs out? So in the beginning I used to cook up beats in homeroom and then
11:30had somebody named Jet Lee. He made a lot of stuff for Boss Bird and local artists around
11:36that time and we was tapping into our own sound so we was inspired heavily by Texas rappers.
11:45So I don't know if people know that but Cleveland music is kind of rooted in Texas
11:51rap for real. Cap rap is literally the brother of Texas rap. So I learned I was learning
12:00how to make certain sounds sound like some Texas beats as well. I needed a hit like that but my
12:08ears was like I was trying to train my ears so I was fresh. I had fresh ears. I had to figure
12:13out how to do that. So how did you train your ear? So I trained my just trained my ear with
12:18experience basically. Experience and repetition. Yeah so that's good because I got this one quote
12:24rep replaced out. That's something if anybody follow creative frequency on a creative frequency
12:30rest replaced out like showing the word keep doing the words the more you do it
12:35you know the more consistent you be. Yeah true true. Yep and then as time progressed
12:44and I got better the person that really captured me was Zaytoven Sound because I
12:49ain't never heard no beats that sound like that at that time. I definitely was trying
12:54to make some of my beats sound like he is. Oh yeah he was doing that too man yeah.
13:01I finally stepped back and I was like nah I need to chill because I still have my own sound too
13:06though. I was just making stuff but I wanted to replicate some Zaytoven beats. Lex Luger's
13:14beats and stuff like that. Maybe Metro because Metro was around too back in the day and I
13:21was listening so I was tapped into a lot of Atlantis music scene mixtapes and stuff like that
13:28but every time that I learned how to make a beat from somebody else creating beats and stuff
13:33like that they do on YouTube too. I basically mimic they beat make my own beats and create
13:41my own style. So I mean it's gonna be like a segue to my question after this one but
13:50how would you describe your your style your production style? My style let's see
14:02my style is like it's a mix of Midwest and a mix of the south like ATL Tennessee style
14:12and I'm starting to sprinkle a little bit of the west coast into it as well
14:19and get more like more melodies basically now more bass lines that stand out because
14:28everybody using the same ATL weights and stuff like that. I don't want to sound the same so
14:35be in the pack. That's crazy that's uh like a quote I was uh saying earlier you know if
14:42you follow the if you follow the crowd you will never get ahead. Yeah that's true
14:49yeah and the only thing I hate about the music game right now or production game I should say
14:54is everybody is looking for tight beats that sound like somebody else's
15:00just use this beat I'm gonna give you it's a T-Dance beat you sound good on it you'll go
15:06good on here trust the process. So with that being said I'd like to ask creatives this question
15:16how would you describe your creativity if it was a weather forecast? I'd do one better
15:28it's like a summer day in the late 90s. That was a good time okay this you can smell it you
15:41wake up in the morning get that morning dew in your nose like it's early I feel like I slept
15:48good yeah yeah so it's that tight that refresh me when you wake up yes sir that's what clear
15:57weather okay I don't think I ever heard that one before 73 degrees that's perfect yeah that's
16:05yeah got the window cracked you feel that little breeze like oh that feels good and
16:09stop it but I don't still feel good take it take it okay that's what's up yes sir so I want to
16:18kind of change change directions I know you were into to tech as well man I'm thinking about
16:24like the music industry you got to have those connections those circuits those systems just
16:31like you know a computer when you're building a computer and it's the same in business and
16:36music industry you got to have those same connections and circuits and systems in place
16:41so what type of systems you have in place for your production business right now
16:49the foundation is registering your name please register your production let's go back to the
16:56foundations give us let's give uh some new artists some checklists even new producers
17:00I'm still learning as I go but I know for sure your checklist should be at least register your
17:07name if you want to do business register as a dba you're doing business as so you can be a
17:15sole prop register your sole prop get an ein pay the extra fee to do your dba as your producer
17:23name so you can get paid in that and open up a business account open up some type of business
17:29account uh it's a free one I forgot the name of it off the top of my dome because I just kind of
17:34got it recently but uh you tap into that you're paying into that now you got a check that got
17:40your name on there now these big companies can actually pay you as a company now you're good
17:46on that part now you need to go ahead and get yourself out here now it's 2026 so everybody
17:54off line like all it take is one beat and it can be the most random but you think it's trash
18:01that boy gonna go viral as soon as like the right ears pick it up and if people use it a
18:10that depends though you drop it up on there that's free or at least so yeah you taking
18:17a risk with that but um you should do that you should have a place where you can get your
18:22bought at like beat stars what is the error I forgot the name of the other one but I guess
18:30it's not air table I think is it I can't remember the name of it it's air something I know that
18:36air bit that's what it's called yeah yeah yeah and um if you want to do it on your own just
18:42buy the premium membership from beat stars and upload your stuff there but you have to have
18:46a logo in place for that you know get your logo together too as well for your brand and
18:51because they don't know your your name from that logo as well the logo gotta be
18:57it gotta be good a good presentation of you man yes sir
19:03and deal with certain artists I want to say honestly blow up with artists that you mess
19:08with locally or something like that find somebody that's dope and put your effort
19:11behind them y'all do your split sheets please do your split sheets in the background what's
19:16a split sheet for the new artists split sheet is you getting your proper payments and your back
19:24end so artists gets a percentage producer gets a percentage you can also be a writer
19:30as producer as well so get all that stuff tapped in you good I want to say smooth selling
19:39it's gonna be a lot to learn read your contracts too contracts ain't any law you read
19:45contract to figure out what should be paid or what should be done in order for you to get
19:50these residuals and signing with these companies and getting caught up in a 360 deal which a lot
20:01of early artists that we kind of look up to in our younger days have but what's uh
20:09do you see any benefits in a 360 deal not really short-term benefits yeah they
20:16blow you up and everything they put everything behind you right after that oh we're gonna need
20:22that money back we had to recoup the money back that we signed you with oh you had a fee
20:28for all the travel that you had to do oh you had a fee for engineering oh forgot about the
20:34fee for the advertisements we did oh we put some people behind the advertisements as well
20:39so you gotta pay them too oh you bought in the hole oh hold on you owe us about four
20:45albums don't you oh wait wait a minute no no not four more albums we own your name so
20:51you with us forever just read it please yeah and that's going back to registering yourself
20:57like registering your name having ownership uh just just thinking about as an independent
21:05artist like how can you get ahead and i know distribution is one thing marketing is another
21:14investing in yourself is another because like if you don't invest it invest in yourself and put
21:18in that time you know labels or even other artists and producers ain't gonna want to work
21:24with you so definitely invest in yourself invest in your craft learn your craft study your craft
21:30practice your craft like even if you sing good keep keep practicing working on different
21:36techniques and your voice control it's always ways to improve and you know if you were a
21:42songwriter i had different type of you know melodies and song structures like challenge
21:47yourself broaden yourself yeah sure and go ahead and press some keyboard keys man you
21:53gotta click in everything you gotta cop loops from everything either and please invest in
21:59yourself yeah what's the last thing you invested in computer equipment all this computer
22:07something got invested in you gotta keep it running it uh software as well matter of fact
22:15had to buy some vsts also let's see what else did i buy what about what about ram because i
22:24think a lot of people are jumping into it like you said that old computer like what's
22:28what's like the basic ram specs a new producer should have 16 gigabytes of ram at least
22:36you should at least have an ssd in your computer 512 gigabyte of that and some type of a decent
22:43processor it can be an i3 as long as it ain't from 20 years ago you should be okay and
22:51a decent screen maybe on the laptop if you got a laptop please have a decent screen them
22:55720p screens be leaving your vsts all toe up you can't see the corner to close it out
23:01oh man yeah so i see that a lot yeah definitely 16 gigs is your minimum
23:11i prefer 32 that's the optimal you should be set once you go higher than that oh you must
23:17got 30 000 vsts in your stuff you must be a master mixer or something like that what kind
23:33of projects you working on at the moment i'm working with timeless to mc this is the first
23:40me even speaking on this by the way but we cooking up something and my nephew young zay
23:47i'm cooking up something with him and it's the first time i spoke with that too
23:55shout out to my nephew man it's a beauty to see you man you've been cooking
24:01and we go cook some more oh yeah what about uh any collaborations you may see
24:10in the future whether that's another producer or artist a brand company you might see me
24:19collabing with 1990 now no you're gonna see me collabing with him for real okay that's my boy
24:25we got something cooking i know he cooking up something but whenever he need me i'm ready to
24:32um collab a mooc on the beat pretty sure that'll be very soon and also the work heads
24:40we ain't really been saying too much lately but yeah we're gonna pop out if i pop out anyway
24:47it's still work heads regardless and shout out the pack house studios too as well
24:57how should how should a new artist or i won't even say new artists is the new or just the
25:04work with you how should they approach you um if you're approaching me you fresh face
25:11don't expect to get nothing for free because that's just very unprofessional i didn't bump
25:19into too many people who would be like yeah we can do this blah blah blah fresh face take one
25:25two three beats don't do nothing with it just sit on them maybe drop one song with it
25:31ain't do it no promo no nothing like bro that was kind of pointless even made me waste the beat
25:37you uploaded it then uh tagged it now now i can't use the beat with somebody else because you go
25:43copyright claim it i don't even want to deal with that just approach with your business
25:49mind have a plan drop a couple hours we'll see what happens after that yeah
25:57do you build plans like they say i don't have one but i don't want to create
26:02i don't necessarily build plans myself because i don't really know 1000% what to do i do and
26:12don't at the same time uh we might have to put something together then okay yeah we might
26:17because you know i understand both sides like kind of all sides so yeah yeah yeah most definitely
26:26for like helping my new creators and artists like you know that's that's where i came from
26:35yeah before it all just man yeah yes sir being creative seeing creativity in all things
26:43yeah that's how we uh stay alive and keep flowing and keep going
26:48yeah i would say what's the last uh couple books you read actually i don't read too many
26:55books at all honestly i usually just read online there's articles and stuff like that but my
27:00latest book i've actually read is about music business but i only read a little bit of it i
27:07got the book over here in kona but uh i need to crack it open again because i only skim
27:14through like beginning of it to try to figure out some stuff but yeah i gotta read that
27:19and that's just part one of two books so i'm gonna get the other book too
27:24uh oh so i mean the next time you hop on you're gonna be have read both
27:32that's that's the challenge yeah i'll say one of the um last books i've read was uh
27:51dollar million dollar money models
27:55that's how i'm interested yeah breaking down the different uh money models and uh different
28:01promotion offers ads things like that so so it's a it's a great book and it's like oh
28:09this car salesman using this one on me oh okay i see what you're doing here you gotta see me
28:15oh yeah i love it man like yeah i don't like his personal content i can't i'm not a fan of these
28:23other people that i enjoy more than um if i'm listening to a video but like his his his
28:31information is always on point and delivery like i would even watch live him breaking the
28:38guinness world record of uh of it was a book salesman within 24 hours
28:45and then he broke it for uh the business uh sector so like i'm like yeah seeing records
28:53being broke live to guinness world records he kind of planned this for planned this and
28:57like invited them on you know to keep tallying record like okay he did that and it was like
29:05like 28 hours that boy cooking
29:11that's crazy and how he was doing it is like having mainly corporations buy like bundles of
29:19books so if you get 250 books you also get this so you know add on stacks perks and stuff
29:26like that bonuses yeah that's dope yeah that's a good way to like collecting collectors you
29:32one book is we'll say 30 but you know 30 times 100 you know with a slight discount i'm sure
29:39it's compounding like man it's always open to my mind love watching other creatives and other
29:46business owners and how they kind of run and hence at the podcast the industry talk like
29:54just having a conversation with different people from different industries and how we
29:58all learn from the you know together and you know i never even thought about
30:04oh if i sell this water in my industry that's four times the amount like hence at a store
30:13is quadruple at an airport you know it's positioning it's like i never thought about
30:19positioning my business this way or positioning my brand this way let me try that so you know
30:26love these uh different conversations and like i said it's all about that that network and all
30:32those connections and the circuits and the systems and once you have a system in place
30:38when you're in business everything flow yeah like even even the podcast is doing multiple
30:45things for me like the podcast is my biggest marketer for my business alienize photos like
30:54my people type it in you know for the podcast oh my business pop up you know i help creative
31:01entrepreneurs gain visibility through visual media and also podcasting it seem like we don't stop
31:09learning huh hey never that's that's that's the goals like if you know it all in life
31:15like then what is life true you know you start you know it all you know it all like
31:21is there to learn or what is there to do or how if you're not growing you know i don't like
31:27using the d word but your d i e i n g d y i n g so it's about always you know growing and like
31:39i said you may be a great singer but you know challenge yourself you got to grow always
31:46improve you gotta hold it for 20 seconds oh hold it for 21 seconds hold it for 30
31:51always challenge yourself improve yourself always like following things that's uh on a forward
31:59and upward progression like if it's going up or if it's moving forward you know i can get
32:05down with that like that positivity that positive emotion how do how do you see music nowadays i
32:16like when we was growing up we had some good music good cuts and like i felt like it it
32:23changed drastically and i used to be in the industry and you know i saw some things and
32:28took some steps back as well but it was like man i see where it's going do i even fit in this
32:35but also i did a experience experiment with my last uh well it wasn't a full album was
32:42ep and just just testing it like i did a bunch of hooks and bridges versus you know traditional
32:51verses and i made the verses longer than only one but like just testing testing the waters
32:57having my own creative style just like throwing paint paint on the canvas and making it look
33:03beautiful like i just really tried that like i'm about to break the untraditional way or like oh
33:09verse chorus but like you know no i'm doing it my way painting a story my own way versus
33:14how you know we we used to hearing the structure how the radio wants you to structure
33:22so that was like one of my last projects before i hung it up and retired but yeah how
33:30do you see uh music in this day and age uh i see it as either the labels got lazy or
33:39they see artists as disposable now there's so many artists that's coming in and leaving out
33:45no longevity and it's the same old story a lot of people complaining about their contracts
33:52no people been speaking out about contracts for the longest and you know i think y'all forced to
33:58sign it stop doing it yeah y'all ruining the art okay what does that pressure like when they
34:05like they they have to sign like you said it's important to read but even if they read it they
34:11don't fully understand what's that pressure like like i have it set in front of these labels for
34:20these contracts but if i use my like contest clues basically it seemed like they get all
34:29smooth talking like come on man we need you to sign this it's a it's a time it's a time limit
34:36on it we need you to sign it super quick or something like that yeah they feel obligated
34:41to have to sign and take it as is now change that to what fits you and stop doing music for
34:50just money you gotta respect the art there's a lot of disrespect to the art too
34:55i don't like like they say hip hop is run by the youth it is i'm tapped in to mainly hip hop and
35:02rap if you haven't known by the way yes sir so it just seemed like they disrespecting the
35:10previous generations they're not doing the due diligence of listening like just listen to it
35:16and stop trying to troll all the time i see too much of that going on and it's getting
35:24over saturated right now and i think it either is collapsing or already collapsed to be honest
35:31so that's why i say get it on your own put out good music good quality music
35:38whatever way you feel that sounds good that is good see how it does if you don't get the
35:46feedback you get you need to get then maybe change something you got you got to change
35:51regardless to capture people's ears or put in some footwork like we used to back then
35:58i think that can carry a long way now but i think it's some ways that people haven't thought
36:05of because this is a technology age and people ain't got cds no more so you got to be kind of
36:12clever put a qr code on your business card or something go ahead and throw a memory card
36:17or usb because usb is cheap and an album is under a gigabyte that's all i can put out
36:27look look at that see he's passing me one right now double qr codes right here
36:32in a podcast link so i got the business and the best of both worlds it looked like a
36:38holographic pokemon it is right that's why i did it you know sense that creativity like
36:43oh man shining like yeah because like think about your pictures i want you to shine your
36:49pictures that's like man that's bringing visibility like yeah that's what i do like
36:54just thinking outside the box but like you touched on a lot of key points like you brought
36:59up uh you know the oversaturation and you also talk about technology then you also talk about
37:07respecting the art respecting the game so what are what are your thoughts on like
37:13ai artificial intelligence in the music industry specifically i really don't like it to be honest
37:22i mean i don't even think i like using as an assistant because all that stuff is computer
37:28program and they kind of got a weird sound to it you know it don't sound right to me
37:34maybe if anything if you don't have nothing i don't think you should use it like if you have
37:42no creative ideas or you just got the bare minimum nah it'd be cool maybe to use it as
37:50an assistant for it like maybe something some padding for what you already know how to do
37:57maybe that'd be cool but full-blown ai stuff nah they gonna use it to replace us
38:04at the rate that the us has been going anyway it seemed like big businesses is it like got more
38:12leeway than the little people which is us so i don't know man i'm torn right now but i still
38:22i still look at it and uh i mean it's this is across almost every industry even with like
38:29my authors and writers and even with me photography and video everybody's gonna always
38:36go back to that authenticity like that organic that rawness that real and you know instead of
38:43crisp quality animated pixelated deformed finger uh video you know you got i got a
38:51little grain in my photo it's real so authentic like yeah i remember you know being there when
38:56took the picture like yeah just that memories so like that connection going back to that circle
39:01that circuit that connections like the the motherboard or the computer like is everything
39:07is connected like you think of a city you on an airplane you can see those same connections
39:13like a motherboard like the whole world is connected think about the universe universe
39:18one verse and like even going back to my my experiment uh with my ep i literally did one
39:28verse just experiment like what what do the the the crowd the audience you know receptor
39:36you know with like they like the standard form do they like the entry in traditional form
39:42beta testing and like that's always you know i ran i started to run you know music as a
39:50more of a business versus for the art form but like you said it has to have respect like we
39:59lost our respect i believe in like say the downfall of like 2018 somewhere around 2018 2017
40:10somewhere around there is everything that sounds the same
40:13what did mumble rap come out because that annoyed me man that that's what changed i'm like yeah i
40:20can't it was basically everybody after an amigo everybody that's been copying the style
40:28see people it's so many people that love lord b it's crazy i was i was in the moment and
40:37still didn't like him and they say he was the blueprint for a lot of stuff today and
40:43that's not really a good thing so this is what is coming out i remember uh being in a music
40:52group with somebody uh a short time short live but and it was like man rap is gonna become
41:00just this just sounds like this it ain't even be words gonna become a song that's what it
41:07became i'm like what this is this is really what it's becoming to uh instrumentals the vocals
41:18oh yeah maybe it'd be better if they wasn't saying nothing
41:27like 20 minutes long itself i'm like man boy you sound like 12 other diggers right
41:33auto-tune the auto-tune is like man yeah it now auto-tune for sure just make everybody sound
41:40the same somebody spoke on the two i think it was was it jay-z who spoke on auto-tune
41:46or something like that but yeah like t-pain is the og of it because he made it sound like
41:52something he he know how to sing and he layered it a certain way too so yeah it's just
41:59it's just fire from him but everybody after that maybe future cool too future he got his own sound
42:06but after that no i don't think it's too many people that can harness auto-tune correctly
42:13because they sounded the same yeah i mean i've been experimenting with i'm not a fan of it
42:17but you know turning on very low make me harmonize a little bit yeah i remember what
42:31i'm trying to push is just learn some of them notes man yeah just practice like
42:38because that's what artists used to do back in the day they well i'm pretty sure singers still
42:42do it now but just practice a couple of notes figure out what notes you your voice likes
42:48because everybody's voice don't like the same notes you can't hit certain octaves like
42:52everybody else yeah but it's not that hard to kind of like drag your your voice around
42:59and get them crazy nice hooks i was learning too like you even told me like you're just
43:04dragging the word yeah no not like this like this sometimes you don't even need to drag it
43:10you just say it like a certain way yeah and it'll carry with the effects like a reverb or
43:16something like that but you got to kind of think of a mix like in a mixer mind or
43:21want to say like yeah like like a mixer like a person that does mixing and arranging stuff
43:28on the recordings you think ahead but you need your engineer to really call that out
43:34for you anyway like a good coach yeah good mentor so so yeah like collaboration with
43:40your engineer that's a big part too some engineers just be doing it for the bread
43:44yeah i've been in both sides like done but i don't blame you though because if you
43:49just don't do it for the bread all the time then you're gonna be like spending 40 hours trying
43:55to coach some artists like every single artist that you deal with it'd be crazy you'd be like
44:01oh we about four hours over the next client already been sitting out there i mean yeah that's
44:06what i'm saying even going back to artist development i think that's a loss already
44:10in itself yeah you don't see that too much anymore or hear about it i wouldn't say here
44:15but yeah actually yeah publicly because they get everybody got social media and they basically
44:22oh you know what people got social media and put too much on social media
44:27there ain't nothing mysterious about you you do your weird stuff online and everything
44:32everybody can see exactly how you are and that's terrible like that'll turn people off right
44:38off the top but i mean it goes it's a double edged sword because you do have to build a
44:42brand and i think in this day and age even with people with traditional businesses people love
44:48seeing that personal brand versus this faceless business that's just the logo but they don't
44:53see people or people in the business or people who's behind it so i think people that have a
45:00personal brand kind of is winning i think it is kind of a it's a good way to kind of get
45:06that out there like you got to put some money behind your videography or photography
45:10a bit you can be a little mysterious or not post as much but when you post it'd be something
45:17of quality yeah it'd be intentional yeah like so if you do music and you post a nice little
45:24quick little promo or something with your song it'd be pretty dope people don't really
45:30invest in music videos too much like that either i noticed as well it's kind of been
45:34fading away a little bit now i'm thinking about it yeah people don't really do music videos
45:40they just put it on tiktok or something like that and hope it go viral that's interesting
45:48because someone uh my lady uh she was talking to a student and
45:58they were saying they want to do a podcast and their version of a podcast is like a talking
46:03hit reel like our podcast first off was just traditionally like this audio only
46:11and then we started incorporating video and when i think of a podcast i usually think of something
46:19that's 20 minutes or longer so for a 90 second two minute video to be called a podcast i don't
46:26think that's accurate so it's interesting how the younger generation view you know like
46:33radio and podcast it's interesting yeah there's a lot of people that want to voice their
46:38but that's not really a good thing either i think it's too many people podcast too many
46:45opinions oh it's over it's over 500 trust me i do these stats because i you know also teach
46:51you about podcast and like yes it's five five million plus podcast that's birth and a good
47:02fraction of that is in inactive like i even did this research it's crazy i'm in the top
47:1110 percent of podcasts can you believe that oh man yeah i can believe it because of the
47:18format of like you not just spewing bs around negative bs but no it's really because people
47:24stop they do one or two and they stop like i've i have what 60 60 plus episodes
47:33consistency that that's true that's that's true but yeah it's like a little over a year
47:39top 10 podcasts so really soon to be like top two percent but it's just like because
47:46i stayed in the game just that simple i'm i'm top 10 podcasts when you hear that's crazy
47:52yeah that is crazy like wow like i said it still got something to do with your content as well
47:59that's true yeah all that negative stuff be kind of draining oh yeah especially all their
48:05relationships so it kills me i can see if you convey it a certain way but a lot of
48:10them been doing that for attention lately so they don't care what fly out their mouth
48:15but even going back to the the music game i think they kind of did the same thing like
48:21have like relationship issues and like especially like when the album about to drop like
48:27yeah that's true as well man we need more positivity out in the world so let's go back
48:36to a new artist how you how do you feel like a new artist should market themselves and get
48:40themselves out here honestly at this rate there's so many different things that's going on so
48:47easily either pop off or so hard to pop off let me just say do you follow some people
48:56or learn from people that didn't blow up in this game already try to take from that
49:04try to talk some to some of the older cats as well figure out how they blew up if you
49:09didn't even get in touch with them but it's social media out here you can low-key tap in
49:14with some folks that popped out just just look around a lot of people be giving game on tiktok
49:22to tiktok youtube because those the most viewed things out here and people will just grab their
49:28phone and start yapping just check out some tiktoks check out some youtubes maybe read a
49:36couple articles check out reddit key insights like even so what i hear is basically like get
49:46a coach a mentor or somebody that already been battle tested and you know had some
49:52scars and stripes in the battlefield that's actually done the work
49:58i mean even you even yourself i don't know people could reach out to you for something
50:02some pointers some guidance some tips i can give you a little bit like i said i'm always
50:08learning so i'm just kind of still sitting back and figuring it out at the same time
50:15well that's that's going back to getting my reps like another thing we have is
50:22what creative frequency is our work with me's what we call it since it's two of us work with
50:30we www you know dot so work with we are people call it work with me like really documenting
50:37behind oh i'm making this beat i know you've definitely done it in the past you know i've
50:42seen it 10 years ago like you showed it behind the scenes of you making a beat so like you you've
50:48been doing this so like uh going back to that like just documenting the process and like man
50:53because people think oh you press a couple buttons you got to beat just like when people
50:57think oh i'll just press this this thing oh picture it's come out beautiful no it's a
51:03process behind it you got to tailor it's like a song and it's getting mixed and mastered
51:07the whole process the whole song structure arrangement like it is still a level of volume
51:14like it's a process people don't understand that oh i want my pictures two hours later like
51:22can i get home but dang you know i gotta put my creative mind behind it chill out
51:30like i i give more respect to like when i used to do music i want to hear myself like
51:35when i get at the studio you know of course i got the raw mix that's cool as long as i got
51:39something i know it's it takes it takes it's a process to you know get this song polished
51:46because like you don't want it to be rushed anyway people back then used to rush a lot
51:51they were like yeah let me get that beat real quick let me get that song that we just did
51:55come on come on yeah you get it sent over they then leaked it out without the mix on it
51:59god come on bro yeah let me finish the mix that's that's the same well that's why i'm
52:07sending no photos at them too like the like uh like we depend on a relationship like if i
52:13know you may need something or if it's a sensitive time thing i may just just drop it but
52:19you know i wait for the edits to be done or send out a proof gallery proof gallery that way
52:25you could choose the photos and stuff like that yeah even with raw footage i'm like no
52:32you're gonna have to wait for the recap because pay action you get it all yeah i'm gonna hurry
52:43up and work on that but yeah that's uh you know just uh being in business and learning
52:50things along the way like i my first photo shoot i charged 50 dollars 50 dollars and i was
52:59to another artist well artist and producer i call him a dr j of cleveland has produced
53:07i say none of no public songs like a lot of songs he produced of mine is not released
53:14so that's that's wow but but yeah that's uh my first my first client
53:21uh charged 50 dollars definitely uh multiplied that over the years and you know just being in
53:31business and like dang i'm working eight ten hours and 50 dollars that's true five dollars
53:37an hour no okay okay i like at that time too i mean i didn't have a business but i'm like
53:43if i'm being business i gotta make money for these first uh three years like haven't really
53:51paid myself from my business like have my business running so pay for all the
53:56you know fees and software subscriptions and expenses you know make sure i can maintain
54:02and run a business over the years and you know i haven't paid myself but it's like yeah
54:08i gotta have that change too at least you know uh five percent or something every job
54:13or every booking so and then going back to that okay how can i just kind of stop working
54:21like okay what if i had a book or how to you know start a photography business or the things
54:27you should you know have a product versus just services because when i do services i gotta
54:35physically go out there and do it myself then it's working after hours so just having
54:39something in the background to kind of offset that right yeah that's why i was going back
54:46like yeah we gotta you know have a product for you like that's a book or even a service like
54:53just coaching people how to even set up your uh fruity loops your fl studio to even begin
55:00like you want to structure the right way or having enough pay attention to your uh beats
55:05per minute and how important that is and having the flow and everything is synced even how to
55:11so that's a big important piece of it yeah very because you can also sell your music
55:17i don't know if people realize you still can sell your music for like um what was it i think
55:25it's ten dollars you have to queue buzz no i'm not queue buzz you can sell high resolution music
55:32people export your beats out and songs into the right format and wave or better and you
55:38upload it to them high res websites you said wave or better yeah it was better than wave
55:45flag because mp3 wave and then flak okay i think i think apple records in flak ac ac or acc
55:55acc i think it's aac or acc one or two but yeah uh flak is top dog for sure i i keep a lot
56:04in flak format but don't convert your mp3s to flak and wave it don't matter it'll still
56:10sound terrible just make sure you get it from the session in that format so if you export it
56:19directly in flat and also if you get your beats please get the waves if you can because
56:24you have the highest quality as possible mp3 caps it off at a certain quality 320k bps
56:30that's terrible well not terrible it's good enough to listen to it's like actually streaming
56:36services for for visuals it's like 1080 versus 4k yeah basically like people see 1080 but like
56:43you can record in the 4k and then downsize the down symbol yeah exactly most people don't
56:51really care about 4k which is crazy like if you show them like a proper like 4k video
56:59into 1080 oh yeah they'd be amazed but when they get to the house they ain't
57:03remember they don't care yeah but once they start making money and then you go care you
57:08should care that's true go ahead export in them ways and flaks because you can put it on other
57:13websites as well don't don't forget about bandcamp as well you can have people pay
57:19whatever they feel like they want to pay you and i guarantee it will be more than their
57:23service how much streaming services pay a portion of a cent per play portion of a cent a fraction of
57:33a cent half less than half a cent it's definitely mostly all of them and they're like even like
57:43youtube like i've i've been on both sides it's like youtube don't like me like they they they
57:49prioritize for creators now that i'm more of a creator it's like i have my podcast on and
57:57it's posted directly feed it but now it's like an era it's like when i was an artist it's like
58:02man they like well they want to show me love and like just the fraction compared to even
58:08other stream of art you know platforms it was at the bottoms like they know they don't
58:14focus on music artists i was like they focus on advertisements that's all they care about
58:21the more people engage with your stuff though or music they can't really engage but well they
58:28you engage the whole track but with videos like actual content videos they can put multiple ads
58:35into it so you get paid more from that because of that but music is just is what it is
58:41and i think they actually severed like youtube music plays from your actual plays to your
58:47music so something like that you got to read it up though but they definitely cutting down
58:53payments even more spotify doing the same thing it's terrible for music artists out here
58:58just go ahead and put that on other platforms title i think pay the most right now yeah title
59:05apples back in napster that was my the top three when i last did my research yeah that
59:12was something i paid attention to and that's just the knowledge of even going back to
59:19distribution and what platforms you should you know be focusing on and even just building
59:26your own platform and like you said maybe beat stars or band camp you just really being
59:34strategic and going back to that system you know once you want to publish you know where is
59:40it going after that like what's the long-term goal even going to the target audience so as
59:45we speak about target audience is there like a uh persona or like an ideal artist you kind of
59:55envision as you produce like these the type of type of artists i work with or want to work
1:00:02i prefer to work with somebody that is open-minded about a production is trust process
1:00:09like i might have a certain beat that sound a certain way and i think you'll sound good on
1:00:14it just trust me rap to it somehow like it is difficult for some i want to say actually
1:00:21more than some it's difficult for artists in general to write to beats that they're not
1:00:26used to most people like 90 percent of people chase a youtube beat and then record to it then
1:00:36drop it what's the dangers of that danger that instant copyright strike on your shit
1:00:43right off the top because you're taking somebody's beat it literally say lease or buy
1:00:51in the comments and you just snatch it off record to it and upload it like you bought it
1:00:59like what sense did that make you can't even make money off of it artists should market
1:01:13themselves what about producers how should a producer or how can a producer market themselves
1:01:21beat stars that's what beat stars because that's like the top platform and have some
1:01:26aside for like advertisement budgets because you can push your own advertisement
1:01:32budget to get you more plays and put you in different locations
1:01:40it's it's a weird space right now like you can even make a little video of your beats if
1:01:47it's sound fire enough like you can just record a session the old studio or whatever
1:01:52you use and send it to tiktok and it can pick up a bunch of plays
1:01:59just off of that so you can try that instagram got advertisements behind it too as well
1:02:10youtube youtube it's still it carry a bit you put your make sure you don't forget to put your
1:02:17bio under your your descriptions as well like they can find you at because that's the that's
1:02:25the best way so you kind of got to market yourself as well as your brand so you are
1:02:34your brand yeah you are your brand like yeah going back to that uh you know that
1:02:42presentation and like them talking head videos like people love seeing that personality and
1:02:49going back to building a personal brand which is to me uh the biggest thing and most important
1:02:56in this time you know what i've seen as a creative entrepreneur and the people that i
1:03:03work with like personal brand matters more like people want to see and you know connect
1:03:09with actual people versus going back to like the ai the artificial like people wanted to see
1:03:16the more real and organic that's kind of a balancing act with that i personally would do
1:03:24a balancing act with that just i'll post whatever i want you to see but still not
1:03:29everything you don't post everything if you want to be easily accessible you can engage with
1:03:35audience if you have an audience you know or drop a comment on somebody's page or something
1:03:42you can go viral from that i have before just speaking something real like hey why am i
1:03:4912 000 13 000 likes like oh i said some real stuff so real just being or authentic
1:03:56with boundaries yeah you know the stuff i've seen i'm like oh my goodness like i was
1:04:05yeah when is the sensor like what's going on like this is you know all these people see this
1:04:13like what am i reading right now what am i viewing like what stuff that i've seen man
1:04:19one of the funniest terms on there is when somebody doing too much it would like the rank
1:04:25can't be that high they put that right under your comment section
1:04:29let it mean you're doing way too much go ahead and shift that gear back down
1:04:36it gets crazy sometimes like i even did a 10 day social media sabbatical like i took
1:04:44it was a 10 and a half almost 11 days off of social media straight it was good timing
1:04:51i was actually in las vegas for a conference a real estate conference at the time and a perfect
1:05:00time and i had more clarity more focus and i felt more productive i got a lot more done
1:05:06i wasn't doom scrolling but now like returning from now like okay i need to put more
1:05:13boundaries and guidelines when i'm on social media or thinking about getting on social
1:05:19like just post and get off and not just keep scrolling or commenting too much or
1:05:26doing quote unquote more research like i set up a five minute timer so after that five minutes
1:05:33up it's like okay i gotta get off now you know sometimes i allow it for that that 15 but
1:05:40yeah i had that five minute mark and that little thing notification pop up okay five
1:05:46oh yes let me sit this down is you right let me get back to work or something
1:05:52yeah that will keep you up at night and oh man sometimes it tethered to you you honestly
1:05:57have to put it across the room on the stand or something on charger just forget about it
1:06:03because you will wake up looking for it and you wake yourself up like just because it's
1:06:07like a natural thing so you try to cut it out at night for real and you'll probably save
1:06:13your sanity you can go insane with this social media stuff oh yeah like even with like uh
1:06:20cutting off wi-fi like not having your phone by you while you sleep like you know it makes
1:06:25with your uh your whole mental like just going as deep as that yeah like yeah we're just going
1:06:32back to being rooted to this this earth like going back to the universe the one verse like
1:06:38are connected so being connected with the nature and the earth sometimes with technology
1:06:44you know it kind of overrules us i'm not being on our right frequency and going back to my
1:06:51my poetry days of frequency i left off at that poem like that was my staple poem
1:06:57and uh it went like uh frequency frequency is what you frequently see
1:07:04vibrations all in the universe and also inside of me alien to this world society
1:07:10shooting stars consciously righteously until every dust particle unites in me
1:07:17sparkling like water wine and jewelry and jewelry yes i'm brighter than my time of infinity
1:07:24living see speckles around my eyes this vicinity vividly femininity raise my higher divinity
1:07:33sacred trinity reflects my divine masculinity lost in the trenches relentless lost my human mind
1:07:41to gain my spiritual senses defenseless elevation through focus and meditation patience
1:07:51eyes closed silence reality is real transcend be fulfilled energy gathered as magic we all
1:08:03have it pass it positivity pass it love pass it around like the last supper at least in this
1:08:14time this dimension keep intentionally moving with the tension open your mind of endless
1:08:20comprehension now listen and listen with attention now listen will you complete the
1:08:28mission that's frequency like that was one of my deepest poems i'm like man this is the one
1:08:35like you know how you wrote that one song like i'm like yeah this is the one it's like
1:08:40nothing higher than that i felt that like i said on a spiritual level like that was more deeper
1:08:45than just you know anything i wrote like that was like man this is beyond me beyond life like
1:08:52this is it's ain't just another song or another poem another creation this is this is something
1:08:59and frequency plays a big part in life in general yeah music too and it's been a lot
1:09:06dark frequencies going on lately dark loops and everything it's another reason i kind of step
1:09:12away from the music because like man it's just you know i feel more refreshed i feel like a
1:09:19human again in a sense like as an artist sometimes we become like a character in a sense
1:09:26the happiest i want to say the happiest we had it musically was like 2016
1:09:33the championship yes and the frequencies were sounding good all the beats was like happy kind
1:09:39of sounding even though they had the crazy eight of ways but hey man everything just sounded so
1:09:44good and hey man we need that back man i had to help bring that back one good time i would
1:09:51say what is what is like one one beat that you produced that coming to mind and have like
1:09:55that happy feeling a happy frequency um it's a flair song that i did i forgot the name of it
1:10:05off the top of my dome but it was different i gotta let you hear it for sure for sure
1:10:13yeah let you hear it was a good beat happy beat different it was one of the ones one of
1:10:23the ones slept on y'all need to listen to it what about a transition to more of the
1:10:33what are some ways that producers can make money to different avenues selling your beats
1:10:40or uploading them for leisure as albums so you make your own beat albums and upload them
1:10:47if if you don't mind uploading them to all the streaming services go right ahead
1:10:51Spotify and all them you got to get an abundance of plays to make some money
1:10:55but if you feel like you can make a good body of work with just your beats
1:11:00go for it it's been done before dj fresh does that and i like his his instrumental albums they
1:11:08sound pretty good sync license sync licenses that too sync licenses for those who don't know
1:11:19are commercial licenses for these companies making jingles melodies something that sounds
1:11:26like it should be on tv movies it's a bit it's like almost like big sounds to kind of
1:11:33gotta have a big sound to a good mix shout out to cleveland trump because he kind of
1:11:39introduced me to that he is a part of the workheads i don't really remember
1:11:43the workheads and he used to make commercials for the people the people that he was around
1:11:53and that's pretty dope that was the first time i heard about that
1:11:59i'll say that probably like bigger contracts too sometimes
1:12:05if you can get into that realm you could be around forever you ain't got to put your tag
1:12:10everywhere who knows you can't but your your sound or jingle or loop melody would be out here
1:12:20in people's ears all the time because the advertisement game is the most profitable game
1:12:26the ads is everywhere if you haven't noticed ads is everywhere that is very very true
1:12:34very true like i feel them so i know and it's and even going back to that
1:12:42maybe you can even help me on it like kind of explaining the difference between
1:12:48uh a monetized beat or like one that you you should going back should be purchasing
1:12:56versus like royalty free community use fair use type of beats like what's the difference between
1:13:05those uh the community fair use style is definitely just anybody can use it
1:13:12so you put that out to the masses thousand people could use it it don't matter royalty
1:13:18free just means you don't get royalty on the back end it's just out here some of the put
1:13:25here and stuff for advertisements though you get paid off of that so you're putting out something
1:13:32for the advertisement slash sync is literally you you get paid your portions there you go
1:13:38you get your credit and everything royalty free literally free i mean but but should companies
1:13:45and brands be using royalty free music in their ads or even artists when they try to use
1:13:51should they be doing that well artists if it is a royalty free beat like if they're trying to
1:13:57monetize off of it basically oh yeah you can yeah it's there for that reason literally if
1:14:03somebody makes a royalty free beat or song or melody something like that this is made to be
1:14:09out like that for the masses go ahead and use it maybe they just like they have a pleasure
1:14:15listening to their music get out here no matter what go ahead it's free so it's kind of like no
1:14:23no barriers for people that inspire to be artists like oh i don't have the resources to
1:14:29it's kind yeah you can say that yeah that is a little cheat code too ain't it you can
1:14:35definitely tap in but still redefine print because it might say something like hey
1:14:38you can only use this during advertisers not right for music so just make sure
1:14:44well and another thing too is there is definitely terms and like sometimes like what they're doing
1:14:49now like with these royalty things they're having you got to have this active subscription
1:14:58to the site to be continually you know used so as long as you have an active subscription
1:15:04you'll be able to use all these different royalty free but at time you don't you know
1:15:11it's like you know copy of it like oh they revoke your license basically that sounds dirty
1:15:18honestly locked in that's distro kid too they saw yeah they did it before
1:15:26yeah they did it to some of the stuff you don't pay it they take your stuff off of streaming
1:15:30services wow i've always brought that that legacy thing so i even i think they changed it
1:15:38because it's gone stuff is gone some stuff is not on streaming because of that right now
1:15:45i heard they're about to get bought out who was it by one of my mba player well i know
1:15:51there's like trying to sell it like probably in the billions i would think so crazy though
1:15:59man so i know that's gonna change in different terms for the next ownership they're probably
1:16:05gonna change things around yeah i don't trust that i don't know what's gonna happen with
1:16:12the streamer size i mean monster my stuff still up there you know active artists at least in this
1:16:20day and age but be clever with it throw out some merch with it too if you feel like your
1:16:26branding is strong enough go ahead put together some quality merch do a limited lineup so that's
1:16:32that's even something i thought about like one of the biggest artists that's really
1:16:37making money that i could definitely testify for is chris brown like you know he thought about
1:16:44oh i'm paying for all of this and you know let me go on tour and i'm going to i'm selling
1:16:49my merch you know now i'm getting people to buy my merch and i also have a vip experience
1:16:56you know they're behind the scenes taking silly photos with me wearing my merch so it's like
1:17:01you know how many times that he monetized not just all buying the tickets he the ticket sales
1:17:07probably he probably almost breaking even on you know paying all the different costs and producers
1:17:13and videographers photographers the sound and like everybody to run the show effectively his
1:17:19staff management you know travel and then okay now you're making you know off the the merch
1:17:26the album sales and the promotion yeah and then the vip experiences behind us you know behind
1:17:34the scenes and the photos like photos like what a thousand dollars a walk thousand miles a piece
1:17:41oh yeah 30 that less man now you profit on each tour versus you know all the different
1:17:45going back to the splits you know knowing your split sheet so if i'm only getting
1:17:49you know uh five percent of this like oh i need to make more money how can i make more money
1:17:55nipsey also did something too remember he sold his album was a thousand dollars or something
1:18:00like yeah it was a hundred dollars with a signature but it was like a thousand limited
1:18:06to like a thousand yeah yeah that's what that's what a hundred thousand yeah six figures
1:18:11it's crazy yeah and it's people for sure pay that you get a physical copy and you get
1:18:16an autograph on there and probably some other experience that you never get
1:18:21so yeah you build up your brand try you go have to start off small though
1:18:25but you get to that status it's a work for sure yeah that was that that was an offer going
1:18:35back to you know different money model that was an offer like you know just being bold
1:18:41and doing that this albums at the time you know selling for what like 10 and 23 dollars
1:18:47average for a drop 100 almost five times the amount five or six times like that was bold
1:18:54a mixtape but that wasn't a mixtape i believe it was a mixtape no i might have been a mixtape
1:18:59i can't remember it now i think it was a mixtape yeah selling for 100 dollars and uh
1:19:07it was only a thousand copies but like that's how i kind of do it too like just
1:19:11down different numbers different like okay uh yeah going back to the 100 grand like okay
1:19:18break that down like okay if i had a thousand clients and i sold 100 of these
1:19:23you know even uh breaking down different you know pricing with different clients like okay
1:19:32well you say your goal is this how many people do you need to solidify or
1:19:39book with to get to this number right at the end of the day it's just numbers
1:19:44instead of making it so hard and complicated just just follow the numbers
1:19:50like going back to like chris brown like he followed the numbers like okay i'm getting
1:19:55this much off ticket sales i'm getting like a hundred dollars a show like okay i need to
1:20:00make more than that i'm the biggest thing i need to compound is multiply this and he found
1:20:05avenue in his lane you work out perfect fool oh yeah like that and that's instant marketing
1:20:13for them people want to post out their photos at aspen a thousand of course i want to post
1:20:19this so that's more market from him and like man that's genius like the closest person that
1:20:26i've witnessed and like the all-time performer is like michael jackson like man one of the
1:20:32greatest performers like that i could like testify and vouch for it like that i would love
1:20:39to see him i didn't appreciate him till a little bit afterwards i started appreciating more music
1:20:45after i got out of high school oh yeah because it seemed like high school was peer pressure music
1:20:52yeah yeah i mean i still listen to mike i used to dress up in michael jackson too
1:20:56like i could play michael jackson in the movie i gotta see that too though michael
1:21:00the new movie just came out that's that's one artist that i can say like
1:21:10all his production all his beats was fire like man and it's all unique and different
1:21:16they was going crazy all his beats and i'm like man he's fire like man i think about that all
1:21:26like there's so many unique melodies and stuff that they created from nothing
1:21:31and people been sampling it over years and everything yeah especially me i sampled a couple
1:21:37of them myself no they can't come out because i can't afford them licensing fees
1:21:42but they in the computer somewhere hey when the time was right man yeah once i get that
1:21:50then use this michael jackson beat i used it as a sample break you off a portion of it
1:22:01but you get there you get there for sure yeah all his production is so unique and then
1:22:13and just back it up with the lyrics and then the heart like man it's one of a kind and i'm
1:22:21that's kind of how i wanted to like take my music you know traditionally known for you know as a
1:22:27rapper being someone that rap but i just wanted to be an artist just do music i'm going to be
1:22:37boxing as a quote-unquote i'm an artist and that's when i got more into the poetry
1:22:47in a sense branching off but still of course doing the music but you know just speaking
1:22:54my mind that was the biggest thing the words and words and the vibration and words have
1:22:59meaning and like words influence you know i was always the one of the ones that
1:23:08focus on the lyrics and that was my biggest thing yeah like when i hear a song i want to
1:23:15hear the lyrics like what are they actually saying you know yeah that's when i like when
1:23:21mumble rap came i'm like no they all not really what is y'all doing what is this
1:23:26having respect for the game like people was telling like man history lessons like man
1:23:34yeah this stuff you need to hear like we had we had pros and cons music no it's just
1:23:40pros no cons huh like we had people that's so dope but you know the consequences behind
1:23:47it because they told you that either immediately or another track like they do storytelling
1:23:53now the people nowadays they the ones that's doing the dope yeah they doing the dope they
1:23:57don't want to press and suicidal it's crazy shooting people for what like
1:24:02you got ops because y'all had an argument in school or something bro like what what you
1:24:07doing drill rap chill out crazy and we spoke on it back in the day like people not using
1:24:13their hands to handle business and they pulling out that pipe and taking you out
1:24:18right it seems like they know the consequences and just don't care regardless like and they're
1:24:26telling themselves because technically we the parents we the parents of this generation is
1:24:32doing it or our brother and older brothers and sisters then raise this crazy generation
1:24:39i really can't even explain it what about the music thing music and media has an influence
1:24:45music now officially has more influence over everything media not so much i mean it's
1:24:52advertising just pop up in your face but it's for sure music like they taking all this
1:24:59negativity rolling it up using it as an excuse clout chasing internet too internet is one of
1:25:08the worst it's like a pro and con with that too people always want to show out people
1:25:14easily put out music same day that they they recorded people don't care what they say will
1:25:21flout their mouth it's it's dirty right now and i just hope that we can figure out another way
1:25:31to to put out this good music like because it's overlooked like we used to have a balance
1:25:37used to have some far rappers we had some pop rappers we had hip-hop and rap artists as well
1:25:45but also let me speak on this there's been a lot of disrespect on hip-hop as a culture
1:25:51in general we have sub genres too just because they rap don't make them a hip-hop
1:25:58artist just because they're hip-hop artists don't make them a rapper yeah we have gangster rap we
1:26:06have vibey rap everything we got so many sub genres use them sub genre tags man
1:26:13everybody is not the same hip-hop changed even the 90s rappers hip-hop changed
1:26:19yeah like like even your dopest mcs you think it's not really the true basis of hip-hop
1:26:27it's evolution of it but our previous artist was definitely taking heed from previous generations
1:26:36i keep on speaking on that because people be forgetting that
1:26:41because i ain't gonna lie yadi rubbed me the wrong way from back in the day
1:26:47he talking about he ain't know who pocket or biggie them would like
1:26:50man if you're going somewhere you know exactly who it is
1:26:54and nobody checked him about it like that they well i won't say nobody nobody around his age
1:27:00checked him about that when somebody older check him about it i know you're an old head
1:27:06that's what i low-key think old head is disrespectful now it used to be
1:27:11something like you're saying this person got older cool now it's like this old
1:27:17talking he an old hater that's what that sound like it's it's crazy though it's definitely crazy
1:27:28what would you say would be like your goal or vision for the music industry especially stuff
1:27:36that you're building and doing in the next 10 years having an ecosystem of people
1:27:42that's on the same page as me whether it be artists producers anybody that got something to
1:27:47with music and business and i prefer cleveland as an ecosystem all this hating that's been
1:27:53going on for years pulling people down talking mess some of them will have a blind
1:27:59they from one of my need to support y'all local artists even people that's outside of
1:28:03the neighborhood too though like please support each other and if some of these local artists
1:28:08show need to collab with these other popular artists from other hoods too why not what
1:28:13to the unity of music where people pop up on trash like oh what you pop up on the track
1:28:19or pop open a music video if you shoot a music video or something yeah ain't no type of cross
1:28:25advertisement like that smart advertisement i mean y'all ain't got to be 100 cool but
1:28:29it'd be nice to show some positivity for once even if y'all rapping about bs sometimes
1:28:35i would say how how can people get in contact with you they want to book
1:28:43finally on social media all that good stuff if you want to get in contact with me
1:28:48find me on b stars.com slash t dames find me on instagram at instagram.com
1:28:54slash it's t dames it's hard to miss me on tiktok it should be t dames of the workheads
1:29:02if not it's t dames on beats so check me out on there and if you need to hear my email
1:29:08get me at beats at t dames dot com follow the man go cop some beats get some exclusives all
1:29:19that good stuff start with these youtube beats and invest in yourself if you're an artist
1:29:26it's a must invest in yourself please and last question for all the new creative entrepreneurs
1:29:38that want to start a business or want to get in the music industry
1:29:43what tips and advice would you leave for them don't lose sight of the vision
1:29:50keep pushing don't listen to the critics but take heed to the critics as well
1:30:02people will talk mess about you and if it's enough people saying the same thing
1:30:08take that as constructive criticism i was humble i still am i'm humble to learning
1:30:15from anybody in this game i don't boast i don't do none of that even though some people tell me
1:30:21i should because i make fire up and now i'm gonna sit here be appreciative and listen
1:30:29and figure this stuff out man you'll get it let's get to it receive that's not taking
1:30:42that in for myself that's that's powerful sometimes you need to take that time sit and
1:30:49like i'm definitely bigger now even before a podcast i'm like yes
1:30:53you know it's a ritual i take that a couple minutes just to meditate collect my thoughts
1:30:58clear my head so yeah sit and listen i definitely received that too
1:31:04but see yeah i appreciate you again brother i appreciate you for having me oh yeah it's
1:31:09been amazing man it's a long time coming a very long time yes yes and this is another
1:31:18episode of alienize photos industry talk with your host photographer jackson steve
1:31:24jackson the alienize photos media and yes man this is a wrap definitely connect tap in
1:31:32i'll catch you on the next one peace