The music industry is a maze, and we've got a seasoned guide on the show for you today! From coast to coast, this super producer and beat battle champion has worked with some of the biggest names in music and entertainment. Godxilla has over 30 years of music production under his belt. He holds degrees in music tech, entertainment media, and entertainment business. Recording, mixing, and mastering come second nature to this producer. Godxilla is the owner of "The Mountaintop A.V." The Mountaintop is a full-service recording and
video studio is set in the North Shore area of the City of Milwaukee. The studio is a one-stop shop for many of the area's recording artists. Godxilla worked in L.A. for a couple of years and, as a result, still regularly mixes and works on projects from all over the country. His notable credits include KRS-One, Mad Lion, Afroman, Too $hort, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, Kurupt, Krooked I, Organized Noise, X-Clan, O.G. Big Mike, Baby Drew and Coo Coo Cal. He offers us a rare glimpse into the world of music production, sharing his journey and the lessons he has learned along this nugget of wisdom as a reminder that consistency is critical, treating music like a job you show up to daily.
The conversation doesn't stop at music creation. We also roam the fields of business in the music industry. Godxilla underscores the importance of understanding the ins and outs of the business side of music, including attending industry seminars. The need for honesty and openness between artists and producers was also mentioned during our chat. We touch on personal music preferences, industry dynamics, and how labels approach signing artists.
We dig into the concepts in the music industry, a crucial strategy for every artist. Our guest points out the importance of planning, using influence strategically, and the role of mentors. We also discuss the works of Wendy Day, a titan in the music industry, who advises that artists should aim for a significant contract within three years. Wrapping up our chat, our guest reflected on how his follow-through has contributed to his success and offered final advice to all aspiring musicians. Tune in for an enlightening journey through the music industry like no other.
The music industry is a maze, and we've got a seasoned guide on the show for you today! From coast to coast, this super producer and beat battle champion has worked with some of the biggest names in music and entertainment. Godxilla has over 30 years of music production under his belt. He holds degrees in music tech, entertainment media, and entertainment business. Recording, mixing, and mastering come second nature to this producer. Godxilla is the owner of "The Mountaintop A.V." The Mountaintop is a full-service recording and
video studio is set in the North Shore area of the City of Milwaukee. The studio is a one-stop shop for many of the area's recording artists. Godxilla worked in L.A. for a couple of years and, as a result, still regularly mixes and works on projects from all over the country. His notable credits include KRS-One, Mad Lion, Afroman, Too $hort, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, Kurupt, Krooked I, Organized Noise, X-Clan, O.G. Big Mike, Baby Drew and Coo Coo Cal. He offers us a rare glimpse into the world of music production, sharing his journey and the lessons he has learned along this nugget of wisdom as a reminder that consistency is critical, treating music like a job you show up to daily.
The conversation doesn't stop at music creation. We also roam the fields of business in the music industry. Godxilla underscores the importance of understanding the ins and outs of the business side of music, including attending industry seminars. The need for honesty and openness between artists and producers was also mentioned during our chat. We touch on personal music preferences, industry dynamics, and how labels approach signing artists.
We dig into the concepts in the music industry, a crucial strategy for every artist. Our guest points out the importance of planning, using influence strategically, and the role of mentors. We also discuss the works of Wendy Day, a titan in the music industry, who advises that artists should aim for a significant contract within three years. Wrapping up our chat, our guest reflected on how his follow-through has contributed to his success and offered final advice to all aspiring musicians. Tune in for an enlightening journey through the music industry like no other.
What's up everybody. This is your host D-Star here with Godzilla Godzilla. What's going on, man, how you feeling.
Speaker 2:Man, you know, I feel real good right about now. I'm in the place to be jacked, that's right, that's my mentor.
Speaker 1:So for the people that don't know you, can you give him a little bit about yourself? I?
Speaker 2:was born in the river. Here we go. No, no, no, I just gave it. He was raised in Chicago. Right now I'm a music producer, recording engineer, part time comedian, father, all of those other things. If you want to know what my name is made in, it's made from mixing records and making beats. Beat, battle, champion, walkie, pad masters Say that we just won a championship, national championship. Yeah, I guess I've lived a life in music over 35 years, but I have an album cover of me playing the organette too. Wow. So I mean, I don't know nothing else about music. And your wife comes from music too. Her family is in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame the Hopson family singers.
Speaker 1:And she can sing yeah she does all the backups. What are some of the notable people that you've worked with?
Speaker 2:My favorite name that I like to pull up on people is Kobe Bryant. Right, right, that's my favorite.
Speaker 1:I've seen that picture.
Speaker 2:Pictures. You can't see here's pictures. You can't see me and Todd Gurley. I think there might be a picture of me and Jay Ajayi somewhere running back. But we spent a little bit of time working with Todd Gurley. I was working for Bleacher Report, so I had did like three different interviews with Isaiah Thomas and Nipsey. Hussle was his favorite rapper, so I got to work with Isaiah and Nipsey in the same I seen.
Speaker 1:I seen a picture with you and Nipsey.
Speaker 2:Right. So um, krs One, rico Way from Organized Noise and Sleepy Brown and Bushwick Bill, rest in peace. Rest in peace. Little work with Busy Bone. Obviously my main road dog, cuckoo Cow, really heavy for the in my projects thing. So I was on a projects tour and doing Hype man duties towards the end of that run. A few other great Milwaukee artists Ice Moan and whatnot and like Baby Drew was another like underground hero, the ghetto hero, if you will Right, that's the. He has an album literally titled Ghetto Hero and people jam with it. Like I like Baby Drew. I just did like two Baby Drew albums and he just filmed a movie and I'm supposed to be scoring the soundtrack with Baby Drew.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed Drew's work, especially what he did with Cuckoo Cow and Twista.
Speaker 2:You know, the funny part is I don't know much of a Monday records, honestly. They're my guys, I love them, but really all I know is what I worked on and what I need to learn for a show. So I only get out of the studio for a couple of things and that's why I'm here today. Anybody who's keeping score. I get locked in the studio pretty much, unless there's a music video to shoot, a concert to be done or we got some kind of industry showcase event, like what I'm in Madison for today. Big ups to the urban community arts network in the level up event, because that's what I'm actually in Madison. I would have came up here for him anyway, but to put two of them together on the same day, that that's all right. My next move I'm going to have to go up to the suburb and see my other guy.
Speaker 1:Real quick. Can we just talk about be justice and what he's got going on?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, we can talk about be justice. I mean, that's like my little brother at this point. Our birthdays are like four days apart. So it's funny because on his birthday this year we did the all white party with this really well known Milwaukee band called cigarette break and they have a lot of Milwaukee's ace young musicians that play in the band and we were able on his birthday, which was August 21st, to play a show with cigarette break down at the Harley Museum on the lakefront. And then my birthday was four days later and we got to play another be justice show on my birthday at the Pfizer. Wow, so I'm DJing at the Pfizer while the justice is rocking. It's like you know, I told you I could spend money, so that was one of the first things I didn't buy. One of the first things I didn't buy was a big blow up poster of us rocking Right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I wanted to buy one, so bad to put it on the wall, but that's coming.
Speaker 1:The picture ain't gone nowhere.
Speaker 2:But I'm trying not to spend no money because I'm buying a house and I was telling him earlier that I'd be killing myself $40 at a time, because I really just don't care about things that have a price tag less than $50, but I go get 20 of them and then I'm like wins the next recording session, right, right.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. Ok, so let's get right to it, Right? So a lot of guys that got a lot of talent and they number. One question how can I get on? Break it down? How can I get on?
Speaker 2:The very simple answer is it's a very, very simple answer to this. You may not like it, but it's the truth. Do it every day is like the best answer I can give you is do it every day. People are taking me saying do it every day, probably with a grain of salt, but I'm going to tell you that a D boy who want to cut money going to go to the trap every day Barbara that want to cut hair ain't going to do it by not going to the shop, right? So are you trying to be a professional recording artist, entertainer, singer, whatever it is? You try to if you.
Speaker 2:The first key is to do it every day, not every other day, not when you have time, not when you feel like it, but do it every day like you don't have a choice. If you get up and go to the gym, you have to get up and go to the gym and write a record. If you get up and and decide you're going to do X, y or Z, it's messed up, but I need everybody to, and this is something I've been teaching and I'm going to lay this on you and you probably going to hear this throughout the course of the day a couple of different times. How many NBA teams are there? 32. I'm sorry, right. How many drive rounds do they have in the NBA? One, two, two, so that's 64.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Two, two, two, 64. So the 64 players you're looking at getting in the NBA every year? Right, 64 players getting in that you won't even remember most of the names. Right, right, show me 64 artists that get in music every year. And rap music, right, you can't.
Speaker 2:So really more people get into the NBA every year than getting a rap music, okay, well, how big is the pool of people that think they belong in the NBA as opposed to how many people? The pool of people that think they belong in entertainment and music? Right, right, your odds. Just from the odds perspective, if you decided you wanted to be in the NBA, maybe you don't become a player, but you become somebody who works in the front office and executive. You have way better odds of working in the NBA than you do working in this pop music situation. By the odds, by the odds. So what does a kid train like when it's time for them to go to the NBA? I got a nephew, fortunately, that's playing D2 ball. He just his freshman year in Michigan right now for a private college. His regimen for the last four years of high school has been wake up early, work out, go to school, get out, go to basketball practice, because he was playing varsity. You remember him? He was playing with us up here, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:He was playing varsity as a freshman in high school. Yeah, I busted, I can't play.
Speaker 2:I can't play. He was like 11.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got it. I still want my credit, you got it.
Speaker 2:He was 11. You got it. I still want my credit Right about now. I love you. I'm filing him. And he ain't tall either. So he's a grasshopper. He get out of school, go to basketball practice, go home, do homework, eat dinner and then go to a private workout after that. So school breaks come that go into showcases down in Palm Springs. Before, when he graduated high school, they flew to like North Carolina and a couple other states because they were having basketball showcases with scouts. You can't even get up and go to a music conference in your city. So when I'm saying, do it every day. That boy wants to be in the NBA. Do it every day like you want to be an entertainment.
Speaker 2:You future said that he been in the studio every day for the last 10 years. If you're not in the studio every day, you can't compete, you can't be as good. It's impossible. You're not doing it every day. So it sounds. It sounds like it's a cheap answer or not an easy way out. But as I say this to you, people always say to me well, you make money like that because you make beats, because you're a producer and I rap. So that's different. It's like tell me, look me in my eye and tell me that if I had decided to rap by for the last 35 years, that I wouldn't have figured out how to make no money right now. Tell me that I, like I, got up and did it every day. You didn't period, no matter who you are, you didn't get up and do it every day.
Speaker 2:That discipline, that the key word is discipline. That's where that starts, because I mean, a singer doesn't have to be in a recording studio. A singer wants to sing. A singer belongs in choir at church. A singer belongs at open mic night doing some karaoke. A singer belongs doing singing telegrams. They're trying to do weddings, funerals. That's a singer right. A recording artist records or should. But this is the thing we're talking about.
Speaker 2:So you say that this is what you want to do and you say well, what is one thing people can do? Tell me something somebody can do because they want to get on. How do you get on? First of all, you have to do it every day, period, point blank. Secondly, you have to drop it.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you and I'm sure my big up to my man, chill, come clean empires in a building. Yes, sir, it under smells me. Chill is in the building. Yo, that mic is high, healthy, wealthy and wise. To kick it with your man. He said you got to be at the table, you, if you're going background, if you're going background conversing, but big ups, big ups to my man. Chill. But for me, like the next thing after you, after you decide like I'm going to be the everyday person, I'm going to hit the studio every day, I'm going to jam with it. You got to drop it. I know that you know. Give me an example of a percentage of the amount of music that you see artists release, that they record. How much music would you say they release against what they record? Chill, he say about 5% of what you hear is what people have made.
Speaker 3:They have to put the machine behind it.
Speaker 2:Well, now I'm not going to Right right, right, you need that box like here. You need that box right here Because, like, if you needed to turn the side mic on or whatever, you could get jig without ever having to get up. So that might be an adjustment you make, because it looks fly to have your controls in front of you. It looks real fly to have your controls in front of you and then, being who you are, I'm sure you can find some kind of specialized stand to make it look all tron, or whatnot you?
Speaker 1:know what I'm saying. Hey, you know what. I'm tired of y'all already. How long is this interview? I got to get shot out of here.
Speaker 2:But smoke this. Here's a saying that I got from Steve O. Your music is worth way more online than it is in your computer. So I mean, people make records and they sit on them. You don't even have a chance for them to be heard or for to earn Because you haven't put them where people can actually get a hold of them. And for beat makers who want to get all, that's real easy to do. I got two or three ways you can do that real quick. First way do it every day, of course. Secondly, find whoever is the hottest person near you that's actually releasing records Right, and offer them something for free. But don't become no servant. Offer them limited services for free Because you don't want to join the team. You don't want to be the person who well, they do it for nothing.
Speaker 2:So like no, I'm looking to build my portfolio up. I've worked it, I did. I like what you're doing. It's dope. I see you dropping records. I want to jump in with you, give you some of this production real quick. Record you. I don't need nothing for it, but I know you grinding, I'm grinding and you look like somebody. I can put this production behind and get a little bit more notoriety from myself, from it, like that discussion out the gate. He know what you want, you know what he want. He got some buzz, some shine, you got some heat and some time Y'all can put the two of them together and come to a mutually beneficial agreement. That's one way you can begin to build your name.
Speaker 2:So when I got what Cuckoo, that was really something that I had gotten into. There was promises of other things that was supposed to come that just never was able to work out. No blame and nobody on that, just things wasn't able to work out the way we thought they was going to work out. But because of that I was getting into seminars and things like that. As Cuckoo Cal's producer. I didn't make projects. I mean, hank's been my guy since way before that. He made that beat and we were very close. I work with him right now like a mug and some of the stuff that is big Hank is me. But then it wasn't. And for that to be the case when I got what Cal, it really did a lot to elevate the name.
Speaker 2:Now here's another little move you can do if you're a producer. Let's say you can't find somebody that's hot and dropping records, but you can find a lot of little cousins or whatnot that can rap. Ok, well, bring them little cousins in and cut some records with them. Offer your studio up as a record label to produce not records for people or albums, just to produce compilations. What happens is is those artists go and show all their friends the records that they didn't cut with you, and then all them people like I'm trying to do that too. I'm trying to get they all start seeing them size, them dollar size and them stars in their eyes, and they come around and trying to get them servicing. You put the the tax on them because because of that and you have to understand what success is A lot of people don't see it as a success unless you're sitting in the studio with an A-list celebrity you know, shining and looking on the background on the Instagram, or like because I'm pressing buttons at the board, or because I got skills, or I got my pad, or I'm good with the ink pen, I'm nice with the hook, son, or whatever.
Speaker 2:Success is a working musician being able to buy a car in the house and feed in a family of five without having to do nothing else but make records. Sometimes it's national, sometimes it's music, sometimes it's a video game, sometimes it's a movie. You can begin to move in all of them disciplines, but understand what success is and what you're looking to get out of it and have a realistic expectation of what it is you're going to get from it. You always aim for the moon because hopefully you can fall among the stars if you don't land there. But at the same time, being able to take what you have available to you right now for your resources and maximizing them has everything to do with people hearing you, whether you are an artist or a producer, and if you're not putting yourself in a position to be heard, you're actually just talking about it.
Speaker 1:That's great advice for people that's outside maybe just came home or something like that but what can one do if they're still locked up? Okay, I'm there.
Speaker 2:You know what the hardest thing for me to do okay, you locked up. The most important thing for you to do is stay busy. You have to keep your mind writing, you have to keep your mind creating and if you're writing and creating and you can't, don't have the ability to manifest it right in that period of time set on it so that you can have the ability to update it and manifest it when you're available to do it. But you have to still. You have to still. If you're in the joint, you still have to be something that you do every, every day.
Speaker 2:And then the biggest threat to artists coming from incarceration is recidivism. You know, I would always, as a producer, like to see somebody be out for six months before I was getting ready to work with them, because they get out and they'd be like man, okay, I'm gonna hit the studio, I'm finna, and then it's like that's an emotion, not a career. That becomes like an emotion. I got to go record, I got these records fab, and then when I see that they've expressed them, then they go their own way. And then if they make it back, like what happened to do, where are you, man? He got locked back up.
Speaker 1:Dude was cold. Shout out to Shotown Tours too, because he's. He's an example of somebody that got out and chased a dream and is still chasing.
Speaker 2:I call Taurus a unique situation because he came out looking for me. He actually came out. He came out looking for me and he went to Madison Media when I was teaching there in search of me, and then I moved to California right as he was in Roland.
Speaker 1:You know what's crazy. I thought that he wrote you while he was in the joint.
Speaker 2:Well, he would have wrote the school while he was in the joint because, they would have had correspondence, because that was part of his release. Has a plan for? Yeah, he told me.
Speaker 1:That's what he told me. He was like man. I wrote him. He was like I heard him on the radio or something like that, and he was like man. That's a guy that I want to work with.
Speaker 2:And then I moved to Los Angeles right away and then three years later, when I moved back and he was like man, I'm still trying to work and he caught up here.
Speaker 2:And I just finished his I just finished like three tours album. So to, to, to, to piggyback into another segue about people getting on. Most artists don't suffer from being hot or not. Most artists suffer from lack of material released, which is why I was saying you got to drop it. I mean, the music business, as you know, it doesn't exist. What is what is given rise to is the streaming business, and you have to look at streaming as a completely different category than you looked at music, because the algorithm is very dependent upon your ability to feed it this is Godzilla's interview, but grassroots music seminar showcase tour.
Speaker 3:If you want to find out more information, just go to wwwgracerootsmusicseminarcom. It's a industry seminar built to educate and motivate the artists and managers, promoters, all of them within the business that want to really get to know the business for real, not the play or little teasers that other seminars give you, not talking bad on them, but you want to know the real deal. You got to show up in one of these seminars and you will get the real of what it really is there. It is Grassroots seminar man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, so. Yeah, tobrosky, he's doing wonderful things and you know, the B Justice has three albums put up. He just dropped entrepreneurial. He just dropped entrepreneurial rap.
Speaker 2:I know that October 22nd we have his next album, which is called the arcade, which that one is primarily produced by me. So that'll be like really, the first time you really hear me just cut loose on a B Justice album, because I do way more engineering. You know what? We don't agree on music. I remember you telling me that we don't agree musically.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's the beautiful thing about the people that I work with, because, as a producer, you can come in my studio seven days a week and say, oh man, let me hear some beats, and I will play you a beat, and you say I don't like that, go to the next one. Fine, as a producer, okay, let me play the next one. I don't like that, let me hear the next one, fine, okay. Well, as an artist, I can't say to you I don't like that, go to the next one. Hmm, like you better than me. So no, I as. So we have a real good understanding that everybody in the mountain top which is my studio is our equals, and if I don't like your record, you ain't got to like mine either. Tell me you don't like it? Well, let me listen to what it is you don't like about it.
Speaker 2:So what being B Justice really don't agree about is I'm, I'm just rugged. I'm rough, rugged and raw. I'm from the NWA ghetto boys generation. Um, and, being from that generation, I really ain't in the love music. I was in the gang banging, I'm serious, I was a kid. I'm, I'm, I'm being. I don't listen to love songs. I'm not, I'm not making this up or or trying to trying to say nothing different for it. I just really, really really do not listen to it. And but not be just this, as records are primarily based upon male, female relationships, love and those other things, and he does a great job at explaining it.
Speaker 1:And the good song like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's in that pocket.
Speaker 1:Oh, if you saw me with this dude's show with him.
Speaker 2:you wouldn't think that I didn't, because I'm the hype man in the right right right, I'm his tour DJ, right, so you wouldn't think that I don't like the songs, but between him I, you know which ones I like and which ones I don't like, and it's just.
Speaker 2:it's just personal preference. I want to hear it. Come on. I like music that make it sound like somebody finna climb in and get into a heavyweight prize fight. I like music that I can put on in the gym. It's good. I like music that I can put on in the gym. It's going to make me want to run real hard, real heavy. I like music that is aggressive. I like music that get me up in the morning and make me want to drop the elbow off the top rope and the whole recording studio Like boom right.
Speaker 2:Come on, let's make some records. And that's how I'm just rough like that. And the funny part is is my mother used to listen to the most smoothest R&B Luther Van Vrol's Teddy Pindagrass. He used to everything in my mama house she switch and all that. You know. All this love is waiting for you. Like all them records, was was was bumping when I was a little kid. As soon as I got old enough, I didn't want to hear it no more. Right, right B Justice. Mama was bumping Ain't no future in your front.
Speaker 1:And then so he don't want to hear it. No more, you don't hear that no more.
Speaker 2:And that's, that's what happened and that's why that dynamic switch and we're talking about our birthdays are both on that Virgo Cusp. So we're the best of friends. And one thing from him to tourists, to Al, to rock Mac, to everybody else that jams in the studio with me we can be honest with each other about that. You might not like what a person is going to say or might not want to hear it, but you want to hear it from me or you want to hear it from the person with the checkbook, and that's a whole other thing. Right there, y'all making records for Y'all. Y'all ain't making records for the person with the checkbook.
Speaker 2:I can tell people seven days a week that that's not okay. And I'm talking about the person with the checkbook. Not okay, I'm from a technical standpoint. And they'll argue me down about why they, why it need to be like this, and my response has to be to them like if you was a D-boy, tell me, tell me, a D-boy just gonna go buy a bunk stepped on key or 10 of them, because they finna give you a contract for a whole album. Like no, they're buying that because they wanna get their money back. A label is signing you because they wanna get their money back. Do you think they don't know what it looks like when they can get their money back?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Do you think they don't know what it looked like, when they can't?
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna put it, it's so. It's such a fallacy. People think like, okay, well, I'm finna get signed, I'm gonna get my record to chill. He gonna give his record to blah, blah, blah. And I'm finna get signed. I'm finna be on. Okay, great In the world where you actually do get a deal because you do have the talent. You haven't done the groundwork for people to know who you are. You haven't put it out here like that, but you talented and they jam with you. How much money is a label supposed to put into an unproven artist? What would be a good number? Because we just believe and you can chime in what's a good number for a label to put in an unproven artist, cause we gon' see if you got some sauce. 200,000. Excuse me, 200,000? In an unproven one? And well, unproven, unproven, they ain't got. No, they hot, they came through you, they hot.
Speaker 1:We gotta really see if they hot. To be honest, I thought it was a million dollars.
Speaker 3:We'll see.
Speaker 1:Or is that the break it break it.
Speaker 2:Come on chill, Cause you just gave us a figure in that back room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you just nah, nah, wait, wait. That's behind the scenes. Figures though, no, no.
Speaker 3:Just the machine, just the machine.
Speaker 2:Right right that's why you need that button. You ain't gotta go press it, you ain't gotta go press it. But but okay. So this in a world, in a world where I gave you $10,000 and say that you, that I have a song, an album and I'm trying to get my jam, have a figure of 10,000 for. So now you and I agree that when you step to chill and it's like, okay, I'm finna, go look for my record deal, I should have a completed project, right, correct, okay, cool. So I'm stepping to you with a completed project and I need to really get it heard, and I got, let's say, how much, would you say, that I can legitimately put in your hands to get me some ground work.
Speaker 1:I remember this. You said 50,000.
Speaker 3:Regionally if you want a regional reach, a real regional promotion. 40 to 50, most artists. Nowadays they come with 10 to 20.
Speaker 2:Stay right there 40, 50, 10, 20, let's stop at 30. Reasonable how old are you recording artists? There's a certain age where you supposed to get to. And half $30,000,. I'm sorry, but you are supposed to become at some point your own record deal. Cause what we're talking about is if I, you have an album and I take my money and I give to him, I'm a record label that just paid to have you promoted to put it together. That's a record deal and people don't understand that a record deal is not necessarily the big $50 million situation. Like and you know you, closer to this Megan had a ND deal. You know that it's been a very public spouting situation where they fell out, but QC right.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The people down in Houston 15 on.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, but the point is the point is that was an ND label and when they stepped to the table, they probably stepped to the table with 40, 50, cause that was her record deal that they gave her.
Speaker 2:They took that contract that they had with her and then upsold it to a major label and was able to get themselves a deal where they could be getting to push more artists through the door. But her deal ain't with them, her deal is with them, and so we still write back to that figure that I'm saying that artists that want to campaign and really campaign and maybe get a little older especially we talking about people that need to touch the ground understand that no matter what the dollar amount is that you put in, you want to see it come back, and not just you but a major and anyone else. And if you unproven and so my point is, if you unproven we just talked about what it looked like, what the budgets look like for unproven artists to get their squabble up If you unproven, your ability to put that together for yourself give you way more leverage. Now you have uncles, cousins, brothers, people who- Like Master P did.
Speaker 2:The houses and all this other stuff. You can take your records to them and say come on, let's get it. Cuzz, you can do it, but that's still something you have to do. We're going to go right back to the top every day. Yeah, it's still going to be so Say that again you still something you got to do every day, because now Cuzz-.
Speaker 1:I just got me another sound bike.
Speaker 2:You know, because now Cuzz going to come in and he going to say, man, I put this money in you and now this Cuzz, now Cuzz ain't here to take no loss on your name, right? And you know, like I know, on the streets, man, I put this into you, man, I got to get this back. Apache, bro, like that's how I go to talking on the streets. When you don't have no love in a relationship, when it's just street business between each other, when it's family business between each other, somebody going to take your L or somebody going to win, but if one is that label, that label going to get their money back One way or another. So you have to show, before they're willing to break the bread with you, that you're not walking in the door looking like a loss, you know, and building that leverage for yourself. Does that? And what's the leverage?
Speaker 2:I was at a speak where Wendy Day was talking. If you don't know who Wendy Day is, she's, that's my girl. She's a very, very, very influential woman in music who has done a lot to pioneer a lot of people's careers and really bring a lot of people to the forefront. She said I'm not going to really work with an artist that's over 30.
Speaker 1:She ain't no joke.
Speaker 2:Because it takes me at least three years to do what I'm going to do, to get them hot, to get them to the point where they're going to get that big slice of life, that big deal. And your shelf life at 30 years old is way shorter than your shelf life at 20 years old and people don't understand that as you grow older you grow away from your relationships. So when you were 20 years old and you said I was going to do a show, so many people came that didn't have no responsibilities, had money, no kids. No, they there. But when you got 30, they out of your way. They out and grew up, you out and grew apart. People that moved out of town. I don't really talk to them no more. I see them on Facebook. Maybe they might come and then next thing you know you do it and only half of them people show up.
Speaker 2:If one or two people in the joint can actually hear this lock on to this and actually wrap their brains around, here go a couple moves that I have to discipline myself to live by. They call this a culture of music and creation. The root word of culture is cult. That mean there's a level where we all have to do the exact same thing, right Cult like we have to be zombie in that, in that fact of the matter, is the creation part of it, and so many people like, want to be in the culture, but aren't understanding that that culture requires you to live on the microphone. That culture requires you to fall asleep at those controls with that drum machine. That culture requires you to get up and practice them piano runs before you get ready to go to work or wake up and use a vocal trainer right after you brush your teeth and before you eat your cereal, because I'm going to give my vocals a half an hour every morning to warm up so that I'm really working on these notes and these pitches and I can perform when I'm called on Like this is the every day that I'm talking about that people that they're there with a doing inside don't match the fire that comes out on the outside.
Speaker 2:This is what people that are on the outside to say. They want it. Don't understand who in the hell is going to play you to play pro, and you ain't even showing you can play amateur, because the real amateurs do it on an Olympic level. Well, real amateurs do it on an Olympic level, but you want me to pay you like a pro.
Speaker 1:Definitely, and I really appreciate both of y'all, especially you guys. Ella, you know you taught me a lot over the years and know what we're speaking about. Follow through a lot of the times that people seek out mentors and seek out people that know more than them. They don't get a lot of good response that maybe they're jammed with them for a little bit, and I'm going to tell you why. People with abundance of knowledge, they only going to give you so much right and then they're going to sit back and see what you do with it. If you're not doing what they say to do, or they're not seeing that you're trying to follow any type of guys that they're going to give you, they're going to cut you off. That's one thing. That when he was talking about follow through, if I tell you to do some, I'm going to sit back and I'm going to see if you do it.
Speaker 2:This house we're sitting in right now is our discussion. This is your follow through right here from our discussions we had. So I don't have to look no farther than to see what your follow through is, because everything that I gave you from credit to investment, to home ownership you took it around with it and did all beautiful things with it. So people going to jam with you for a long time on when somebody calls and say what's up with your man's here? Immaculate response.
Speaker 1:I'm D star Until next time, guys.