SPEAKER_00: 0:00

But you know what? We're edgy. We're edgy.

SPEAKER_04: 0:03

Tell them, Brandon. Tell them.

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

We're gonna say stuff that like you're gonna be like, I can't believe they said that.

SPEAKER_04: 0:24

What is your superpower? If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Invisibility. Where's he at?

SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Where do you go? Brandon. Where do you go? Brandon. I'm all around you, son. Oh man. All around you.

SPEAKER_04: 0:41

You can't see me. Where's the first place you would go?

SPEAKER_00: 0:45

Oh, I'd steal money. Immediately.

SPEAKER_04: 0:48

Are you kidding? I'm invisible. But the money wouldn't but like when you touch the money, does it become invisible as well?

SPEAKER_00: 0:56

Okay. If somebody at a bank sees somebody walking out with money, uh-huh, get the person. Security pulls the guns. There you go. Money floating out. I gotta stop touching that mic. Money floating out is a whole different, different thing. A lot of people are very afraid of ghosts. You're right. I haven't seen one and have zero desire to see one ever. I'm hoping my vibration is low enough to not pick up on those high vibrations.

SPEAKER_04: 1:23

Yeah, you're under the ghost level.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

Yeah, it's not, I haven't reached the threshold of enlightenment. The race to receive them. So I keep myself just dumb enough to avoid ghosts. I can tell. I can tell. Um I think most people can. I bet and I pride myself on that. Yes, sir. When I start learning something on the any nature channel, I'm like, stop right there. I know this already. No. I say this is a bunch of shit I don't know.

SPEAKER_04: 1:49

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

And it's gonna bring my vibrational level up. Up. Stop right there.

SPEAKER_04: 1:53

Stop right there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:54

If anybody talks to me about emotional intelligence, you shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_04: 1:58

You shut that's what I you know what, man? That's what Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:01

I hear that. I will be a terrible person forever with the singular goal of avoiding ghosts.

SPEAKER_04: 2:09

Avoiding ghosts. You know what? I don't know though, man. You've been your vibration's been pretty high recently. I'm I'm not gonna lie to you. I mean, I I I'm gonna have to throw that out there. I mean, obviously, we are we're you know, we're we're throwing jabs, but let me just introduce you. Oh, we're already recording, dude. We are on and ready. You did that on purpose, okay? We that's how we do. Okay. Listen, I have none other than the hip-hop engineering extraordinaire. Okay, he has created a movement throughout Baltimore City, and he has a team that's behind him or alongside him that have been just constantly creating and staying uh relevant. They're always relevant, they're always at the top of the game. And you know what? I I think I I think I've said uh I think I'll let you kind of kind of lay the the red carpet here. I have Mr. Mr. Oh yeah, and you know what? He's just he knows he's killing it, and uh, I'm super proud of this cat. And uh I'm I'm glad to have Mr. Brandon Lackey here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

I appreciate it. Uh thank you for the kind words. Um, yeah, that makes me pretty uncomfortable. This uh which is why this is like my first long form podcast.

SPEAKER_04: 3:29

Uh thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00: 3:30

Sure. No, I was happy to do it. I'm like trying to get out there a little bit more.

SPEAKER_04: 3:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:35

Um, but no, yeah, I'm excited. Thank you for the compliments. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 3:41

Tell them tell them a little bit about yourself, kind of where you grew up, and kind of you know, just a little brief history so so the the outside world, the people you know across the seas can understand who you are.

SPEAKER_00: 3:51

Okay. Uh I am a Brandon Lackey. I have one. I was born in North Carolina, which everyone knows is ground central for hip hop. You know, oh everybody knows New York, nothing on the middle of nowhere, North Carolina. Moved up to Maryland in like sixth grade. Okay. Got into hip hop when I was 17 and um tried rapping a little bit.

SPEAKER_02: 4:16

I remember this.

SPEAKER_00: 4:17

Yeah, and then just because I was making beats and I needed to record something. Okay, and then when I went on to record actual rappers, I was like, oh, that's not what I do. That is not at all what I do. Found your lane real quick. That is far or no, just like just like the talent level of like seeing somebody that does that for real, yeah, was uh enough, it was a relief for me to shut the fuck up. So um, my first internship was in um Jamaica, Queens, with a guy named Ralph Lowe, who worked with the Lost Boys, did some work with the Marlies. Um, it was short, but I learned a ton. Um then graduated college, started Where'd you go to college? Uh Towson University. Cool, shout out Towson. Yep, and um uh from there, just I got into the Baltimore hip hop scene and just wanted to be a part of it and wanted to contribute to it, and I love the underdog plight, I relate to it big time. David and Goliath kind of yeah, or any like I don't watch sports like that because I just don't interest me. Like I played them, but um I just into what I'm into. But anytime I'm watching a game, like my friends want to watch a game or something, whoever's losing off rip, I'm like, shh, if they come back and fuck those other guys, yeah, right, guys or gals or other, uh, that would make me happy. So and Baltimore very much uh felt more so like an underdog than it does now. Great point. And I related to that, um for sure, and I just met so many wonderful people, and um, yeah, so where I am now at some point um in my 20s, I started a lineup room recording studio, um, which worked after three times of other studios failing. It happens, and but I did work with a label before that, okay, but with uh lineup room, uh immediately got into doing events, um, which really helped spread the word. I had already built a lot of relationships locally, but that was just like such an amazing way to meet up with producers. It's called Be More Beat Club.

SPEAKER_02: 6:32

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 6:33

Um, and you know, just kept doing that, kept working on a lot of records, um, started um traveling a lot more. Um got more requests to mix stuff from outside of Baltimore. Okay. I still have a decent amount of clients that um they just send me stuff to mix, which is cool. I get to work on music that uh that is different. Um worldwide?

SPEAKER_04: 6:57

Are we talking about artists?

SPEAKER_00: 6:59

Worldwide, yeah. Nice. Um but predominantly United States for sure. Okay. Um but yeah, so I was mixing full-time for about 10 years, uh doing lineup room, doing beat club. Uh, and then during that time I got involved with Beats Not Bullets, which is a nonprofit started by Kevin Beasley and Damon Blue, uh, that focuses on using music as an a tool to connect with at-risk youth here in Baltimore. Um, I had taught before that, but it was kind of like my worlds kind of merged, and my ego wanted to resist it, I think, initially, but like, no, I'm gonna get on. Right. Which like is not quantifiable.

SPEAKER_04: 7:44

Like, oh shit, but it's it's good if you die, but you know, to be able to come to that.

SPEAKER_00: 7:48

Yeah, but once I stopped being foolish and like really embraced it, like the marriage of hip hop and education, that intersection is like my strong suit, I think. So doing that program did it for like seven years, still doing it. We had a student that passed away, um, unfortunately. And I was like, I just I want to be doing more.

SPEAKER_04: 8:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:12

So I ended up getting back into teaching again full time, in addition to Beat Star Bullets, in addition to lineup room. So I'm teaching uh I tried to teach in the city again, but the one that stuck was Dundalk High School. Okay. And I shout out to Dundalk High School. Yeah, so I'm teaching at Dundalk High School now, and I absolutely love it. Like, talk about like working class community of people that are like their parents are working hard. Nice, that's cool to hear. The kids, like the parents are involved in their lives. A lot of my teaching backgrounds, just like the the parents were as much of an issue as the student. I can imagine. So um working in Dundalk has been really great, despite Dundalk gets a bad rap. It really does. Well, tell give it a good rap real quick. I am so Dundalk has like this white trash rap, or white trash bad rap, pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Now, me being a I'd say marginally white trashy fellow, you know. I mean 65.

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

I would vape.

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

Yeah, you know, that's like that's a big indicator. That's like a big uh white trashy bag. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, all right. So and the underdog thing, right? Yeah, there you go. Relate to it 200%.

SPEAKER_04: 9:32

Okay. I see what you did there.

SPEAKER_00: 9:33

Yeah. Man, call back. Yo, nice for real. Yo, swoosh. So um, after getting to know the community out there, I'm just really impressed with it. It does smell terrible out there.

SPEAKER_04: 9:46

I think the Do you want to tell people why?

SPEAKER_00: 9:49

Well, the I think they treat all of the sewage for the entire city out there. And the smell hadn't really spent much time out there. And I got out there, and it's really, it really does smell like poo. Oh my goodness. And like, I love the kids I work with so much, but I absolutely do make fun of them for being a dun dog.

SPEAKER_04: 10:11

Just the smell is in the air, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 10:14

Yeah, they were like, we were talking about stuff to do. I was asking about pizza restaurants because I'm out there now. I don't live out there because see, I'm contributing to the bed rap. Yeah, yeah. But I was like, they're like, oh, where do where do you hang out out here? I'm like, I would never hang out out here.

SPEAKER_04: 10:31

I don't know what my I don't even I don't know if my nostril can stand it, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 10:36

No, but they actually uh I talk shit, but they have like some amazing spots over there, like Squire's Pizza is a really cool spot. Right.

SPEAKER_04: 10:44

I think it takes a strong person to be able to like you know, just imagine Yeah, so just imagine like finding your forever home, you know, and you're like you're you're away and you're you know you're not familiar with the the the spot itself, and then like you know, you're with the family, you're every you know, you stop it, you stop and dude, you stop and get like some ice cream on the way, you know what I mean? And then all of a sudden, you get to the house, you open the door, your car door, and then all of a sudden Dookie. Dookie, straight up to your nostril, and I mean you for people to to to go through that and be like, you know what? This is still the place that we want to raise our children.

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

I don't know. Like, I've thought about moving closer over there just to make my commute shorter. Like, I think like once I'm there for a few hours, you get used to it. I could imagine, but I could imagine it'd be done sometimes when you when you roll up. Um that's too funny. But uh, like hearing the bridge collapse story is like really sad.

SPEAKER_04: 11:50

So I for everybody out there who it'd be actually, I guess that was worldwide. People knew, yeah. Uh the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which is in Baltimore, yeah, collapsed, and there was a lot of um uh you know media uh that was following it. Um but yeah, what was the point?

SPEAKER_00: 12:06

So like to me it was like kind of funny, which is this is terrible. I why because you expected it? That's how I process a lot of fucked up shit, is like I make it funny. Like, oh yeah, it's a it's way like even the bridge gave up on Dun Dog. Oh like that's fucking horrible, right? Yeah, and then I ate my words going there. I would not say that out there. I shouldn't say it here.

SPEAKER_04: 12:32

Well, you're just being honest, dude. You know what? We all have a different uh a different way of coping with certain things, and uh I feel like you know you hear about like comedians, and most comedians go through some pretty pretty crazy stuff, right? And that's their way of you know I'm I'm not gonna lie, dude. I I think you'd be you'd be good for for stand-up.

SPEAKER_00: 12:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 12:54

I do you want to give it a try? No. I'm not putting them on the side.

SPEAKER_00: 12:58

You know what it is? It's like I'm not putting them on the side. It's so much a product of being me being uncomfortable and me. I I think I have a constant need for dopamine hits. I think we all do, dude. Yeah, but like it's how I'm trying to get out of it, but it's how I like pull value for myself. Like, so like if I get that hit, so it's just like jokes are like, uh, once you rewarded yourself, you're like, alright. Right. So it's like I'll circle back to that, but the last thing I wanted to say about that Dundog tragedy is that like most of them kids out there, they they felt it when it hit the ground. And like they know someone that died. I know, that's it.

SPEAKER_04: 13:42

And that's like that's terrifying. So it's it's good of you to be able to kind of circle back around and really um you know bring some balance to uh the situation itself. And um what what uh class is it that you teach?

SPEAKER_00: 13:59

Uh 12th grade English, specifically British literature. What? That's what I said. That's what I said. So when I was applying for jobs, I did the interview, and when I found out it was British literature, which I've like read some in school, like everyone else, I was like, I'm gonna get an offer for this job because I'm absolutely terrified. I was like, I know that's what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04: 14:27

You knew it. Because I was like, there, dude, this was look up there. Yeah, see that that guy up there? The GO he's testing you, dog.

SPEAKER_00: 14:35

So yeah, so uh British literature, yeah. So um what? Oh, it was great. Like that, like they started a new curriculum curriculum this year, and it was really amazing how they break everything down. It's not this focus on forcing you to read every single page, it's very much like why and what? Like, why is it important? What is the point? Yeah, right. And they do read, um, as you know, all students have to.

SPEAKER_04: 15:13

I think that's a requirement for school.

SPEAKER_00: 15:14

Yeah, for sure. I mean, if I knew how to read, I would do it.

SPEAKER_04: 15:17

Dude, I listen, I I people can read for you.

SPEAKER_00: 15:20

Don't give me these instructions. Don't like say them. Don't say them to me.

SPEAKER_04: 15:25

You know how when you're like reading a page and then like, well, not for you, but like most people, when they're reading a page, they read like I read like halfway through the page, and I'm like, what just happened?

SPEAKER_00: 15:35

Yeah, I get halfway through it and I'm like, I'm thinking about kangaroos right now. My attention span is absolutely horrible. But but I think that makes me well suited to teach the subject. Is like a good point. I tell them like first day of class, I'm like, you don't want to read this. Honestly, I don't want to read it. But my level, you know what I'm saying. Right. My job isn't my job like is to understand it enough to translate it. For them to to not like just translating the language, but to understand them enough to put it in a way that they can digest and that has that resonates in some way to them. Cause like none of these stories matter if you don't get the point. Oh, like the Great Gatsby, like I get the point, but God talk about meandering to the point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 16:34

Or like Moby Dick. Wait, let's go back to Great Gatsby. Um, I love like me, the older me kind of loves that that story, but like, yeah, how how could a story like that be beneficial for someone younger? Like, what what what what do you what do you what do you think they're trying to get out of that that story for a younger, you know, for reading it at that age?

SPEAKER_00: 16:58

I think it ties in, I think the reason it resonates with people in general is just like delusions of grandeur.

SPEAKER_02: 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:04

And like wanting to be great and like YouTube kit kids want to be famous on YouTube now, you know? So it's like it's definitely it it applies as a cautionary tale. It's just so important to like break down that why, you know? And like it's just tough when it's like the it's so culturally removed. Yeah. Like Moby Dick, the first of it, it dude's talking about very specific scientific information about whales. Okay. That doesn't necessarily pertain to the plot. It's just like, before I tell you the story, yeah, there's all these details. Let me tell you about the biological makeup of the whale digestive system. I'm paraphrasing. Yeah. But I haven't read it. So it makes it like thick and hard to digest, you know? I understand. But like again, I'm so lucky with this, the this the curriculum they're using that they implemented at the school. I think it's the first one in the county, um, that it makes it so effective. So that that really is a a big tool for me. And then like my the bulk of my job outside of that is connecting with the students. And since I've been working with the youths for so long, the youths, and I'm still lucky enough to be a part of hip-hop culture, I like I'm I don't want to say able to relate to them because that's it's a bit of a stretch, but I am familiar with their world enough to know what they're talking about, and maybe even like get into it a little bit to like, you know, um to reach them in a way.

SPEAKER_04: 18:43

Sure. You know, that that you you know that you can. Um it's really cool to see, man. What what is some of your uh early hip hop influences?

SPEAKER_00: 18:52

Yeah, what so until I was 17, I wasn't like I was very much into like grunge.

SPEAKER_04: 18:58

Oh where you I could I could see you now. Yeah, some and like so you had like the big pants with the flannels, all that stuff rock flannels.

SPEAKER_00: 19:08

But um, yeah, that was my jam. I was in bands, like I was managing my own band when I was like 15. Oh, really? Getting us gigs. What? Yeah, like tiny, non-important. What was the band?

SPEAKER_04: 19:20

What was the band name?

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_04: 19:22

Oh, is that what they're called? I don't remember. That should be what they're called.

SPEAKER_00: 19:26

But like it never I didn't it didn't even dawn on me till like last year that I was like, like I always had a mind for growing something. You know what I mean? Uh I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew that like I didn't mind going somewhere as a stupid teenager and being like, can we play some music here?

SPEAKER_04: 19:50

I love that. I could see you being kind of like the guy that's like, yeah, can we plug something in here?

SPEAKER_00: 19:56

Just dumb enough to ask and and dumb enough to assume that they wanted that to happen out there.

SPEAKER_04: 20:03

They want that to happen too. You know what I mean? You have to, yeah, yeah, you have to get to this point where you're like, you know, um, you know, if you're asking somebody something like that, let me tell you, dude, like there's so many places that I think like music should be. And you know, uh I really do think like, you know how like Louisiana is kind of like known for like their like outdoor jazz like scene. You know, I'm really surprised that like a lot of other places haven't um I mean I guess you could say like Nashville is another one. You know, but like East Coast to where like dude, I think Handon would be perfect for like two or three like outside venues, you know, that are just like playing music like that you can hear from like you know five blocks down the street. I wish we had uh had more of that, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 20:54

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04: 20:55

Makes sense, right?

SPEAKER_00: 20:56

Yeah, I think it really comes down to um the musical property value. Oh, that's a good good point. Where it's like like in New Orleans, you have an international flow of revenue to support that, you know? Yeah, not that it makes it any less hard, yeah. But like there's a there's a demand for it. People are coming there like for that they know that so in Baltimore it's like it's always getting better, but there isn't a uh tourism demand, especially for Baltimore hip-hop, and that was something by starting Beat Club that that was my specific goal to fight for. But to circle back to my influences musically, I heard Timberland when I was 18, 17, okay, who is kind of fucking up now. Um but he was my hero still for sure for a long time. I heard the Spider-Man song that he did. Oh yeah? Yeah, and then from there it was just like Okay, the old one. Yeah. From from there it was like I was all about hip-hop because and that opened up the door to a lot of older stuff and all kinds of stuff. But at the same time that happened, I got tired of waiting on band members to do stuff. Oh, because I'm clearly worrying about stuff that no one needs to worry about yet, like booking gigs for like a band that's probably rehearsed four times. Oh, right. Okay, so you're over. Yeah, I was just like tired of drummers, and my brother had Fruity Loops, FL Studio now. And I was like, Can I make drums in there? He was like, Yeah, and I was like, that happened at the same time as Timbo, and I was like, dude, I never looked back.

SPEAKER_04: 22:45

That 16 bar pattern when the first way, as soon as you learn that and you realize like that's what the makeup of a song is. Yep, man, that's so you know, for me it was uh well just to circle back, uh, 3-6 mafia, and then like I was able to like put together like the Fruity Loops um breakdown, you know, and like and then what you do is you basically compare it to like whatever music is influencing you at the time, and then you know, you're able to like fuse those two things together and realize like how possible it is, you know, to make any sound or type of music, yeah. And like, dude, nowadays, like the accessibility to it's incredible to stuff is like is next level. So, you know, we should really be taking advantage of that type of stuff, and it's good that you did. And I hope that a lot of people who are like listening, you know, are either like you know, experimenting with sound or video or um graphic design, or like if you're a manager, you know, there's there's there's conferences for like managers out there to like learn how to do, you know, you know, how how to manage whether it's a small, you know, independent artist or you know, a band itself.

SPEAKER_00: 23:54

Um not to mention there's like the people that are actively successful at it talking about it in YouTube videos.

SPEAKER_02: 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:02

Like I like one of my first jobs out of college, I was a substitute teacher, and I liked it because this is before YouTube had content available on this stuff. I would use their printers to print out all of this, like these articles about mixing. Oh, okay. So I would be there substituting or whatever, but I was reading. That was your research? That's where I was studying, yeah. Nice, and I learned a ton that way, but to just um to piggyback on what you said. People like to say piggyback off of that. Yeah, too. To lend some synergy, yes, so yes, or thank you. Um I lost my thought for a second.

SPEAKER_04: 24:45

But okay, wait, you were talking. You're too funny, dude. Um, okay, wait. We were talking about um uh what were we frickin' talking about, dude? It'll come back. Okay. It'll come back. Okay, it'll come back. Should we should we play the dun dun dun and dun dungeons?

SPEAKER_00: 25:05

Let's just talk about something else. It's fine. Like, no one's watching this.

SPEAKER_04: 25:08

I love you know what? I love the fact that's the coolest part about a podcast, is like we're we're talking about so much stuff. Like, you know, like there's there's gonna be points where and like think about that, like in real life, there's sometimes like we were talking about, like when you're reading a book, like it's the same thing, you know. I think though, as you get older, you start to like really kind of like compartmentalize, you know, and like organization is huge, you know. Like, how do you stay organized? Um uh being a a business owner, a slash uh a studio uh creator, you know? How do you access?

SPEAKER_00: 25:44

That's what we were talking about. Oh, circle back. Circle back. So but I'll go into the organization. Yeah. A lot of my sh my organization is an absolute shit show. Um so what I do is I am what I like to call fire jumper.

SPEAKER_04: 26:01

Oh, it's the first time I've ever heard those two words together.

SPEAKER_00: 26:04

Fire jumper is like someone that like jumps out of a helicopter plane to put something to put a fire out, right? Well, sure. Yeah. So I spend a lot of time putting out fires with proper planning. I'm sure I could avoid many of them. I do plan a lot of things to avoid that stuff, but when you have so many things going on that you can't possibly plan for everything. Good point. I'm a fire jumper. There you go. So, like as fires pop up, all right, cool, shift gears, boom, move to that, shift gears, move, boom to that, and just keep the ship going. I love that, dude.

SPEAKER_04: 26:43

That's a that's a great way to put it though, because I do feel like I've been watching this um this younger independent artist named Nick D. Um, and he is kind of in like the circle with like Connor Price and those guys. Okay. Yeah, man, and he's been super um influential in the way that I'm like processing how to run my music as a business. You know, and he's been really talking about like not overthinking it. He'll literally like like make his cover art in like 10 minutes, yep, you know, because I let me tell you, in the in the early part of my career, you know, I kind of like you were talking about with like the band and like booking a tour, yeah. Yeah. Kind of the same, the same deal. I was just really thinking, overthinking the things that really didn't matter um as much as like the music itself and getting the music out. Uh, I highly recommend check out uh Nick D N I C Space D. And uh he's got an awesome uh group and network. And if you're a young artist that or young old doesn't matter who you are, if you're an artist trying to understand how to navigate uh the waters these days, he is super helpful in in that.

SPEAKER_00: 28:00

Yeah, that information is super helpful.

SPEAKER_01: 28:02

Yeah, it is. Um, let's go back to you said access.

SPEAKER_00: 28:05

But this applies to what you were saying with business. Um, like and and the way I've heard the way like uh Bravado MC Bravado for everybody. Shouts out MC Bravado, my uh hetero life mate.

SPEAKER_04: 28:27

Um the way he Y'all both of you were killing it, he's underplaying it. They are one of the best duos out there. Continue. Thank you. Um sidetracked me again. The compliment. Once you get a compliment, it's like it goes right.

SPEAKER_00: 28:44

It's fucking terrible. Because you and Bravado. You and Bravado. Business. Okay, so and then marketing. All right, so the way he does marketing, and this is probably standard, but you do like three ads. You make three ads. Okay. You put all put the same amount of resources into each ad. Okay. If one of those works, you then shift your focus to that. Okay. Okay. Because that's what's working for you. If none of them works, you do three more. Business is the same way as an artist, and for me, as doing everything that I do, is you're gonna put some sort of product out there, and people might not want you for the thing that you want them to want you for.

SPEAKER_03: 29:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:33

And you have to be, yeah. You have to be open to what people do want, recognizing that and thinking like, is that genuine to what I want to do? Is it my path? Does that pull me off of my path? Does it pull me in a direction that intersects with what people need? So I think being open to that is so important. So, like when you start doing a bunch of stuff, like I was doing all kinds of events, um, all kinds of clients, just doing working any way I can. I was working with rock bands then too. Oh, cool. Um, and I got a good understanding of kind of what people wanted from me, okay, or what was working, and I just was able to like shift and you enjoyed it down. You enjoyed it. Yeah, I got lucky. Okay. I mean, there's other stuff that like the thing that surprised me the most is people liked me giving out information. I was like, oh, this shit's like out, it's in books, it's in videos. But like, I was always very, very much open about introducing artists to someone that runs a venue or talking to someone that does what I do, like the problems that I ran into and the solutions that I found. I've always been very open about mixing. I'll show someone exactly what I'm doing because and one thing that I tried to keep in mind with that is like not to be threatened to show someone your technique because you're that's just your application. No one has your taste, right? You can have the same painter, the same paintbrushes, and even skill level is like a Leonardo, right? Same everything, but you are not him, and it's your ability to apply like what you think is good, what you like, that is that's your strength. So piggybacking on that part of learning, bringing it back to access. I think that a lot of um now that I am an older head, an older head. I am an older head. Um trying to get to extract information from people back in the day, let's say 20 years ago. Ooh, 25 years ago. Right? Think about that. Engineers were like these like hermits, and they were so hard to get in touch with they didn't want to talk many of them. Finding one that would talk to you was really hard. It took me a long time, and often people run into the issue of it's someone that didn't respect hip hop, you know, didn't look at it as music, and like that's at that point very much a lack of access. Yeah, that makes sense, right? Um so not only did you had to like learn these things, you had to figure out how to apply it to what you were doing. Oh, that's a good point. And it's also that like that um kind of freestyling how to apply those techniques to hip-hop in the beginning is what made it sound the way it did. You know what I mean? It was this smash up of what you're supposed to do and what happens, yeah. So access has changed a lot since then, and there are so there's just a wealth of people that are willing to share exactly how to do whatever. Yeah, making beats has never been easier. I'm not saying it's an easy thing to do. Um, but the ability to do it is an app on the phone, yeah. And like I see a lot of engineers that'll like something be like, oh, I recorded this on my phone, and they'll just be like it's trash. Won't even listen to it. Oh shoot. Right? These kids that I work with, yeah, they got a recording doll on their phone that has auto tune.

SPEAKER_04: 33:28

Does it?

SPEAKER_00: 33:29

Yep. That like if you or someone that records on a mic on like can record like at this distance, yeah, and it doesn't sound crazy, you're not super loud, if the level is right, yeah, you're you can get a good sound on the phone. Wow, that's so good. And with all the effects that are processed in it, like, and now with the advancement of AI, so do I like mixing stuff that was recorded on a phone? I don't love it, but the the the youth are the keepers of the cool.

SPEAKER_01: 33:54

Oh, dude. Like they're gonna determine what is cool. And me being like, don't use your phone, come spend 60 an hour or whatever.

SPEAKER_04: 34:05

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:05

Like, no, that's not that's not punk rock. Yeah, that's not punk rock at all.

SPEAKER_04: 34:09

The roots, dog. Yeah, I love that you I love that you do that, and it's all you know, it shows why you're probably such a good teacher because you know, you're able to respect perspectives. You dude, seriously, you know what I mean? I'm out of here. God I'm dude out of here. Mic drop, baby. No, seriously, man. Like it's so cool to see that and to hear it coming from someone like you who I really do respect. And let me, I'll give you a little history because you know, Brandon and I have been working for, I would say maybe like five or six years. Really? Yeah, it feels like 20.

SPEAKER_00: 34:48

It's fucking exhausting.

SPEAKER_04: 34:50

No, it's I love working with you.

SPEAKER_00: 34:52

You're a great artist to work with. Oh, thank you, dude.

SPEAKER_04: 34:54

I appreciate that. But no, really, um, you know, I was I was telling somebody this over the weekend. I started out with the studio in the closet, like everybody does, you know, and that's basically what the the phone would be, you know, in this situation. And I was kind of forced to get the get the computer. I remember I remember going into Best Buy and I got approved for like a$2,000. I didn't even know what dude, I was like, I was like 18. I just turned 18, and they're like, you can have all this money. And I'm like, clearly responsible enough to do that. Yeah, clearly. And I'm like, wait a second, you mean to tell me if I fill this form out right now, you'll let me walk out with all this stuff? Right. And they were like, yes, sir. So I did it, and I got my first computer that way. And say less, fam. Dude, I did not pay, I don't think I've even paid for that computer yet. I'm I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie, okay? Um and but with that though, I was able to like hear that Chase Bank? Yeah, you don't have to be able to do it. You should never get that money from Andrew Cornwall. Never forever? Cornwallis. It's Cornwallis. And what's your address again? Jeno, right? Sun baby.

SPEAKER_01: 36:06

I'm living on the plus Chase, right? Fuck you, Citibank. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04: 36:10

So, okay, so wait a second. So um, okay, wait, what we're talking about access.

SPEAKER_00: 36:16

We're talking about youth.

SPEAKER_04: 36:18

We were talking about the youth, but oh, your computer, all right? When you get that darn computer, then what you do is you start going to different studios, you start finding out where different engineers that you know that you're hearing about, you know, you go to a few. Let me tell you, I went to at least 15 different studios. Yeah, yeah, before I found Brandon. And, you know, I had to real there was there was a a point in my career where I was making music and I knew I was capable of better. You know, I knew that the sound that I was creating was, I don't know, it just I I felt like I was a lot, you know, more of value to the music than I had been making. And I was able to pinpoint the fact that like it was the engineers and like the sounds that they or the effects that they were using, and me also, it was 50-50 because it was also me not knowing how to describe sure.

SPEAKER_00: 37:22

Yeah, yeah, vocabulary is a big thing too.

SPEAKER_04: 37:24

The sound that I want. Um, and so I was able to start doing that. And I'll tell you, I mean, Brandon's really helped me with you know, being in the studio, it's not just me hopping in the booth, him pressing the space bar, and like, you know, doing that, you know, 50 times over and over again. It's, you know, asking questions to each other and you know, feeling like not being afraid to be like, hey man, you know, how do you feel about this section? Do you think it needs anything? And let me tell you something. As a young artist, you are going to have to learn how to take feedback and take criticism with a grain of salt. Do not take it personally. That's one thing that took me a long time. I'm actually still learning how to not take things personally.

SPEAKER_00: 38:15

I'm super defensive. So my mind goes there eventually. Uh no, like immediately. Like my first task as a 43-year-old man is do not listen to that voice. Please do not listen to that voice. You've been fucking our lives up for 43 years. So, no, I get that for sure.

SPEAKER_04: 38:32

Yeah, well, let me ask you. I mean, like, you know, what um what things have you done? Have you ever heard of the book The Four Agreements? I mean, I know you don't read, but No, I'm not in a cult. Okay, this cult I started, um, it's called The Four Agreements, and one of the things is blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:51

You're gonna have sex with everyone's wife.

SPEAKER_04: 38:53

Yeah, that's like never. Oh, that is every cult, right? Right?

SPEAKER_00: 38:58

It doesn't matter what. Yeah, we're gonna go, we're gonna. Oh, dude, I'm telling you. I gotta have sex with your wife.

SPEAKER_04: 39:04

You got like I dude, like you it makes you think too, like you think about that, and like do you think at any point, like throughout that, they're like, Am I in a am I in a cult? Like, you have to ask yourself.

SPEAKER_00: 39:15

Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04: 39:16

You have to ask yourself, yeah. And then what? They just they just say yeah, they're like, you know what? I probably am.

SPEAKER_00: 39:22

It's also it's I think it's the the how seductive uh the sense of belonging is.

SPEAKER_04: 39:29

Oh, wow, dude.

SPEAKER_00: 39:30

You know, and you don't read, but you write. You feel me? It's I think it's like um it's like why people don't want to leave relationships, you know, even if they're unhappy.

SPEAKER_04: 39:41

It's why people don't want to see that girl over there. She's forced to be with me. She's here. All right, she's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 39:51

Where two dudes are like, smile, baby, why don't you you smile, baby? Baby, hey, smile over there, baby.

SPEAKER_04: 39:58

That's uh Silver Surface. That's Rickette, yeah. Riquette, yeah, yeah. Flavors, flavor of the day.

SPEAKER_00: 40:03

She said a whole lot one episode, and the cult master was like, Ice, ice and chrome, ice and chrome, sleep, you live here now as a statue.

SPEAKER_04: 40:14

Yes, sir. Okay, now she's here, and she's been super helpful, actually. She's the one who set up the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00: 40:21

That's cool, and she and she lurks. She does, she's she has like a real hefty lurk. She doesn't know like really fucking lingered.

SPEAKER_04: 40:29

Like I can feel her staring at you right now.

SPEAKER_00: 40:32

Yeah, yeah. My son has a pet snake, and it it's the similar cold, dead, soulless eyes of something that will eat a mouse. Oh shoot. And look confused while it's running away.

SPEAKER_04: 40:45

Dude, every time I see that, I think of Roadrope. Every time I see a snake eating a mouse, oh my gosh, with Tom Green and the orange snake bites his arm, and he's got oh my gosh, so funny. All right, let's switch gears. Let's switch gears here.

SPEAKER_00: 40:59

Can I say one thing to what you said? No, you can't actually work. Let me stop right there because it's is it the AWOL? Is it the Brandon podcast? No, it's the AWOL's respecting perspectives podcast. So, Brandon, you can shut the fuck up. You can listen, Brandon. Brandon, will you please shut your mouth when you're talking to me? You can do a whole lot of shutting the fuck up. Or after he I was just gonna tie something like that. You said after I do something. Okay, okay, sorry. No, you can't, you can you can go. You're allowed to be a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01: 41:27

When are you gonna get this time?

SPEAKER_00: 41:29

Did you okay so um oh yeah, time back to being a new artist and being able to communicate. I think um uh as an engineer, and I learned this through time because in the beginning I was stupid. Um the engineer's job is to understand what the artist likes, what their taste is, and use their tools to heighten the emotion of what that is. So if like a lot of times uh cold, hot, warm, right, those mean different things to people. Oh, for sure. So a lot of times if I'm mixing something in notes or like even working with you, like there's some words that I say with you that I don't say with other other clients, like vice versa. No, I say that to everyone, but no, um that like because that's your translation of that, you know. Okay, and that because and that's our language. So it's like you gotta I I think if you you'll find a good engineer when A, they give a shit, that's the biggest part. Dude, you you you shit twice today. You gave two shits. I'm I'm uh I'm generous. I know that's how you are, but and then find an engineer that's able to translate what you want with like with their tools. And if you guys don't have a method of communication, um, then that's a total meltdown. Yeah, it's like telling, I mean, yeah. So you have it's just mechanical at that point.

SPEAKER_04: 43:01

Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah, you know, it it comes down to uh language, right? And being able to it it's it's very hard to describe music. Like it's hard to describe sound. Like if you were to, you know, just think okay, if you were to describe hip hop music to an alien, how would you describe it? Offensive.

SPEAKER_00: 43:27

I would say don't play this for your parents yet.

SPEAKER_04: 43:29

For your alien parents, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 43:31

Um no, really though. How yeah, how would you play? I would try so I wouldn't try to explain hip-hop specific. I wouldn't start with that. I would start with um revolution. Or like um, there's a better word for this. Bucking back against the system. Okay again, like punk rock, hip-hop start around the same time. Very much of like, fuck this system of how things are supposed to be, fuck the way you're supposed to do it, we're gonna do it our way, the keepers of the cool. And honestly, like resistance. I had started like mixing records for graphically gay hip hop artists with very graphic lyrics that offend most people, right? And that is something in hip hop with the amount of hobo f homophobia there is, is really looked down upon. And they're not describing my lifestyle necessarily, but I like the fuck you. Yeah, I like that, you know what I mean? Yeah, so I think that I think to tie all of those things together, the fuck you and fighting against the establishment, that's hip hop. Ooh. So if I can that is the emotion I'm trying to convey. Gotcha. And if they can get that, you know, if they can get what it feels like to be a teenager, you know? Oh, I love that. Or to work to do a job they don't like all the time, yeah. Or to work for someone that's a piece of shit. Yeah. Like, or to be confined, or authority loom over you, you know?

SPEAKER_04: 45:15

Or to be confused, you know, like even like in your own head, like asking yourself all these questions, you know. I feel like that form of expression just is really is is really cool, you know, and it's it's it's it's awesome that we're able to do it, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 45:30

It's powerful. That's why I like I try not to be an old head and be like, man, music you're making on your phone is stupid. Yeah, it's wrong for this, this, and that. Sure, I would do stuff different. We are one hit song away from a lot of music being done on the phone. Yeah, it's terrifying for me, but my job is applying the tools that I have, supporting the youth, and continuing to like spread the word about hip-hop, like Baltimore hip-hop specifically, which is why I started B Club.

SPEAKER_04: 46:06

Yeah, I want you to dig into that. I think this is a perfect time for you to dig into some of the things that you have been a part of in Baltimore and shine some light on them. And why and maybe why you did some of these things too?

SPEAKER_00: 46:20

So when I so I was with a record label for a long time called Mania Music Group that uh a friend of mine, Dwayne Lawson and I founded. DDM was on it, Kane Mayfield was on it, Rat Man Ron, shout out to him, Easy Jackson was on it. Oh, awesome. We did a ton of stuff around the city um because the artists that we oh Millie July too. Shouts out. The music that we did was so diverse, it was all hip-hop, it was different kinds that we were able to use. Okay, the venue likes this type of rap, cool. We'll use them to get in there, we'll all get in there, you know what I mean, and just be flexible. So that like, and then with Easy Jackson's help, getting venues to accept hip-hop that would never like that were so resistant.

SPEAKER_04: 47:10

Love that.

SPEAKER_00: 47:10

Um, and he opened up so many doors. Um, with his ability to do that, he's with so many scenes. So easy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 47:19

Easy shout out to Easy Jackson. Man, I'll have you on. We'll sit down with him at some point. I I'd love to do that.

SPEAKER_00: 47:25

That's good.

SPEAKER_04: 47:26

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00: 47:27

Um, so that was how I got into doing events. It was very much from the artist's perspective of just getting in the door. Money, local music, you're not gonna, I'm not worried about money. You're just not gonna make money. Yeah, if you do, cool, but it's not about that, it's about raising awareness, right? So I learned to do that. We learned how to get press, we learned how to build relationships with people to get coverage. Like, we traveled to South by Southwest, New York, all of these places, finding at that point, like blogs were the keys to the castle of being successful in rap. So we would we learned the process of like emailing our stuff, submitting some stuff to them or whatever. But like I don't like that. Like, I like I'll do it if that's the program, but like once I figured out we could just pull up, like if it's a person, yeah, like give me a shot. Like, I'm generally likable. Yeah, right. Yeah, so I'd rather get rejected in person um than through being some ambiguous person on the internet. Yeah, I like that. So we figured out we built relationships through doing that. Um, so that that kind of dual approach of opening up venues to get our music to new artists or to new audiences and leveraging that with press relationships to not constantly pitch them a story, but to talk to them as a person and just being like, This is what I'm doing, yeah. I think it's interesting. Yeah, if they think it's interesting, it like you can format it as a story of what you're doing, but if that like if they think it's interesting, like it's their job to find out interesting stuff, then it'll resonate. If it doesn't, circle back the next time, it's not a big deal. But if you have 10 press relationships, something might they might be into something.

SPEAKER_04: 49:20

Yeah, you guys do a really good job of that for us.

SPEAKER_00: 49:23

Thanks. I appreciate that. Rich is on fire, man. I've been going through it for the last couple years, and he's been carrying the flag. So nice. Uh I uh really appreciate and love that guy to death. Yeah, um, but so coming to the event space and the studio space from the artist perspective, um, and then looking at it as uh a marketable commodity in the form of events or whatever, because I knew the music wasn't selling, so it was the scene, it was the the coolness of it, right? Um so doing events from that perspective caught on, um, and we were able to get a lot of attention that way, shows like some touring. So moving on to lineup room, um, I applied the same thing in terms of trying to build a scene. Um, and I listened to the voice in my head of is this an event I would want to go to? Yeah, yeah. And that's it. That's the question you gotta ask yourself, right? And I didn't listen to anything in my head of this is what I don't want. Because like that was like fear-based to me. Yeah. Like this is what I would like. And then I started going, like I started out at tiny venues. There was one that was like a a metal, like like um death metal record shop. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. And I was they looked like they needed some business, so I went in there. I was like, can I do some rap shit here? Oh, really? Yeah, you did, yeah, nice. And they were like, Yeah, they needed bodies in there. So I was like, awesome. That was like our first venue outside of doing small events at the studio. Uh-huh. That was at I can't remember what it was. Shockwave Records. Okay. Yeah, okay. So I started doing events there. I started like Beat Club was one, and initially it was just producers playing beats. Um, and me being a producer. For each other, just for other producers or for artists to come through and shop. Like, and then I did one called Record Breakers, which was for bloggers and tastemakers, or for bloggers, artists, and then I did one and DJs, and then I did one called Tastemakers, which was very much for like influencers at the time. And like I did a couple, I did a couple of those events, um, several of those events to build my relationships, to meet new people, to introduce so many artists that I worked with. Yeah, this is a person in the press. Um, we did one called Head Rush at um Maryland R Place, where I brought in the talent buyers from the city that actually book people for shows.

SPEAKER_04: 52:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 52:03

And they got to tell the artists how it's done. Oh, wow. Because I had the relationship, but there is always kind of uh how come they never look out me for me for this? How come they never it's like do you talk to them? Yeah, like do you just ask them for something all the time? Or do you understand that they're a person and understand what they're trying to do? Right, right. So putting them together was a really good opportunity because as a talent buyer, you just don't want to deal with bullshit. Like getting somebody to tell sell tickets sucks, right? But most of the talent buyers they don't want to do it either. That's the system that's in place. Yeah, they're not in a position to change that. Yeah, so linking them up with that understanding and putting them with the artist was like a big thing. Like it warmed my heart so much to have all those talent buyers in there talking to these artists that just need a leg up.

SPEAKER_03: 52:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:57

You know, and then to this day, I talk to some of those artists, and they'll be like, Oh, yeah, I was gonna do this show, but I talked to so and so at Soundstage or whatever, and he didn't think it would fit, but it would fit for something else. And it's like that stuff almost brings me to tears because that dialogue of communication was established at that initial meeting. Oh, god. And like, who knows? After that amount of time, now this artist has a relationship with that talent buyer that books local artists for acts. That they have other artists they've worked with, yeah, that have introduced them. Yeah, you know, and made this the system a lot easier. So my focus with the industry side of it was that connecting people.

SPEAKER_04: 53:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 53:39

I read a book that really changed my life about that. I'll circle back to it.

SPEAKER_04: 53:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 53:44

Um, so I used those things to launch uh lineup room, and then with all the events I was doing, B More B Club, out of all my like beta event series, beta testing, that's the one that really stuck. Okay. That were not from the scene. Oh, cool. I love having the support of the people from the scene, yeah. But raising the the property, the musical property value is about bringing in more prospective value uh buyers, right? And showing them, hey, this is something that is worth investing in, whether financially or time-wise. So I brought uh I mean I had Bobito from Stretch and Bobito come through. What? Like some legends that got to come through and see how powerful the event was. The concept was Yeah, uh producers play beats at random. I had three producers, they would go, it was two producers at a time, they would play a beat at random. MCs were signed up to be on the stage, they didn't know what they were gonna rap to until it was played. Okay, and to me, that is the most like that is the dopest situation there can be. Yeah, and I loved it. And so many people connected from that, so many groups started from that. And like to this day, there are new projects coming out with people that could not be any more different doing a project together because they met at beat club. Oh, love. Where it's like someone that has more of like makes music for like a like a dope boy crowd or whatever, for lack of a better term, working with uh a producer that does nothing but like soul sample beats, like they would never necessarily do anything together, but it made a beautiful thing and it added to the culture. Oh, that's so cool. So that was my goal, and then creating that environment that was exciting, special, bringing outside people in and it being safe, not just like, oh, nobody's gonna shoot anyone, like yeah, safe, like feel everyone feeling welcome, yeah, especially anybody that's not involved in hip-hop culture because we needed them, like we need them to believe in us, to believe in this. So that's with with B Club was with the goal with that, and then honestly, we were so connected with the scene and the community, and people got the mission that like the studio started to just kind of move itself, you know, and it's just comes back to that same thing of giving a shit. Yeah, and like I've always given more than I've taken from hip hop culture, always like being a white dude in hip-hop culture. I'm a guest, lucky to be here, but I feel like I have an obligation to give more than I take, 200%. But and but it's like the that's how I'm made up, anyways, when it comes to to work and being creative. That's awesome, dude. Yeah, that's so cool.

SPEAKER_04: 56:52

You were talking about you wanted to circle back to like a book that you read that changed your life.

SPEAKER_00: 56:56

So it's a book about a guy named Jerry Wintraub. It's an um autobiography. This guy, the book is called When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead. Or You'll Know I'm Dead When I Stop Talking. One or the other. So this guy started out young and wanted to get in the music business, didn't know what he wanted to do. Just completely broke. He had an idea that Elvis Presley could fill up a stadium. No artists were playing in stadiums, it wasn't possible. Nobody could do it.

SPEAKER_04: 57:27

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00: 57:28

This motherfucker knocked on every door, got the money, got somebody talk like with money to give it a shot. Wow. And then he had to track down Elvis Presley's manager, get his attention, like, and it was a long process.

SPEAKER_04: 57:42

Oh, so he wasn't even Elvis's manager, fuck no.

SPEAKER_00: 57:44

Yeah, he had to attract that, yeah. So, and by that, and at that time, Elvis was freaking huge. So he convinced them to do a show in a stadium. What was the first date?

SPEAKER_04: 57:55

Do you know?

SPEAKER_00: 57:55

I don't I don't know. But like it was unheard of before that. But he thought it could happen and it would be dope. Yeah, right? So there's a scene in the book where he's talking about the end of that show, because the Elvis' manager was like, I'll tell you what, if this works, I'll give you half of everything. Oh right? So he brings Jerry in the back room in the back of the stadium. Uh-huh. There's a table covered with money.

unknown: 58:18

What?

SPEAKER_00: 58:19

The Colonel, Elvis' manager, uses his cane and s whack, like whacks the middle of the table and separates the two piles. What? And like so he gave him half the money.

SPEAKER_04: 58:30

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00: 58:31

And that was like earlier on in this guy's career. That is so good. So he did a ton after that, but uh towards the end of his life, one of his major successes was like the Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, Ocean's 11 franchise.

SPEAKER_02: 58:46

Oh whoa.

SPEAKER_00: 58:47

If you look at the cast on all of those, uh-huh, no studio could afford all of that. Like all A, like all like A-list shit. Uh-huh. All A-list um actors that get paid way more than any studio could pay for at the time, right? Okay. But he was able to do the same thing of I think it would be dope. What it would be this is a movie I would like to see. How would you feel about and then developing relationships with these artists? And he got people on board. That that's why those movies are so special to me. That like it only happened because someone had the audacity to be like because everybody would say, nah, that would never work. We can't afford it, right? But he was like, Yeah, but what if how dope would it be if it did happen?

SPEAKER_04: 59:33

Yeah, I guess that dude, that's what it takes. It takes those people who are really gonna, you know, question the norms and be like, you know, do I really feel like this is something that that that and I mean it make it really makes you glad for the fact that like knowing every and anything, you know, is possible, you know?

SPEAKER_00: 59:50

Yeah, and and the value of understanding when you have the ability, the comfortability, comfortable comfortability of being a connector of people. Ooh, love that dude. Sometimes you're not the you're not the band singer. Sometimes you're not the the drummer. But being able to bring two different people together and excite them about something, that's just as good as the idea coming from the people don't really because it's not like enticing someone to buy something.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:21

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:22

It kind of is, but building a real help, helping people connect, build relationships, those two people will remember you forever. Oh, dude. And like every time they talk, yo, how do we meet? Oh, Brandon introduced whatever. And there's social currency in that, and it can turn into um to money too.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:42

Yeah, gosh, dude, I love that, man. Let me ask you, um, as far as like starting a studio, do you know, do you have any advice for younger people who want to create their own studio and you know bring in like interns and things like that? What what what advice would you have for someone who's kind of trying to do that these days?

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:06

I would say for any business, if you like to do what you will be doing, start doing it. Don't worry about money, don't worry about your LLC, don't worry about your logo, don't worry about artwork, don't worry about anything, but doing it, try to make some money.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:28

Like the hard part is convincing someone to come and spend$20 an hour with you. If you're nobody, you have the time to be, you have all the time in the world to be flexible in price and your your time value. So find an artist that you think is dope that resonates with you, and you get along and try to work something out.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:51

If you like, I used to just go to open mics. This is how this is exactly how I found clients. Go to open mics, I would look for specifically performers that killed on stage.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:06

I wasn't so worried about the music, I was worried about their connection to the audience and the impression that they make and their ability to do that because that isn't quantifiable. They're good at that. You can't really you can get better at that, but I don't think you can be starting out and be really good at it. Gotcha. So I look for those artists, and I would say, Hey, what are you working on? Um, come through, we'll do a record. Like, first one's free. Or if I really like them, I'd just be like, let's just work together. Yeah. And if you put that as an investment, if you're working together for free, right? And because y'all are both at the bottom, build each other's value up. An artist that gets people's attention that is loyal to you, will big you up just like you'll big them up.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:52

And like that way, see that if you're building, you're building an artist, like their visibility goes up. Where's the recording? Where's she recording? Where are they recording? Like, that's a good point. And that's that is how you create a demand for yourself. There's other ways to do it, I'm sure, but that worked for me. Nice. But you're like, you know, genuinely giving a shit.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:13

Oh, 100%. Um, I have something here that I want to uh that I it's this is a speed round. I don't know. I don't know if I talked to you about if we were gonna do this or not, but I'm putting you on the spot uh right now. Okay. Alright, you ready? This is this is lightning round. Fruit bat. Yep, you gotta be yep, gotta be quick with the fruit pet. Centipede. Okay, you ready? Yep. What's the real weirdest request an artist has made during a session?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:41

Oh, that's easy. This one's by far the best. This is before like the opiate epidemic. Oh, sure, or like the fentanyl epidemic. But it was an artist on like pills, um perks, probably. And he was like wanting that experience of what he listens to in the music, um, and other music, he wanted that recording experience with that. So I'm like, whatever. Like I didn't know what he was taking, and it's not my job to like it's my job to prevent people from dying. Yeah, but if somebody is exploring with drugs for their own purposes, that's on them. Yeah, of course. So I guess he took too much, but he was like, Yeah, I want to sit down, put the mic like right on my face. I was like, All right, let's go down the rabbit hole. Yep, yeah. And I do I still do shit like that with you, not ridiculous requests. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But one of the biggest things I learned was like, all right, let's see where this goes. Okay. It's technically wrong based on what I know, right? But let's see where it goes, and it often leads to me learning something. Yeah. All right. So I'm like, fuck it, we'll try it. Absolute nightmare. So then he's like, this isn't working after like five minutes of silence. Oh. Me being like, You good, bro? You good? Are you are you there? He's like, yo, I'm gonna I'm gonna lay down. Might be laying down. And I was like, Yep. And at this point, I'm like, would it be difficult for me to do that? Yeah, is it possible? No. Paid for his time, yeah. Fuck it. Maybe he's gonna do some shit. On the ground, do I think it's gonna work? Fuck no. Nope. Um, so we do that. Uh-huh. Super surprised, he falls asleep. So I I got him up, and you know, once he was like got him some water, I was like, let's do this another time. Yeah. And he's like, nah, I'm finishing my hour. I'm like, bro, I will give you an like an extra hour to come back and do something. Come back at a different time. If you get coherent and get yourself home safely. Because this is wasting both of our time.

SPEAKER_04: 1:05:51

All right, that was supposed to be lightning round. Let's keep going. Good, good request though. Yeah. Uh good story. All right, you ready? Yep. Have you ever had to secretly fix a major mistake an artist never knew they made? Yes. Yes, okay. What's the longest studio sessions session you ever survived? Actually, it's that one right there. 12. Have you ever had to kick someone out of the studio? Yes. Yes. Okay. What's the most unusual sound you've ever used in a track? You can either make the sound or describe it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:24

Um, so uh, if I hear harmony and the artist isn't getting it, I'll do it. Okay. And put it in the background. Gotcha. Okay, cool. Very unusual.

SPEAKER_04: 1:06:34

Alright, if your favorite plug-in was a person, what would it be who would it be and what plug-in would they be?

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:39

Jesus Christ. Um Zach Galifanakis. Yep, and what plugin is he? Um, what plug-in would he be? Um maybe like uh um uh wave CLA vocals, not because I love waves, I do not like the company. Um but uh it's Zach Gallifinakis because you can drop it in most situations and it's gonna be very handy.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:07

Yeah, very I like that. It's gonna go over well. That was perfect. All right, would you rather mix on blown out speakers or track on a laptop mic?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:18

Uh track wait, mix on blown out speakers or track on a laptop. Fuck, that's hard. Uh blown speakers.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:31

Okay, blown speakers. All right, let's see here. Analog warmth or digital precision? If they got in a fight, who would win?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:39

It's already over. Done. Digital already won. Like the plugins are close enough, they sound great. The anal like analog is fantastic for an aesthetic. I respect it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:07:50

It's no contest anymore for me. Dope. Don. Alright, um, if your mic had a name, what would it be? Mmm.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:59

Silk the shot. Oh, dude. It doesn't shock.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:03

There you go, there you go. All right, wait. Um, if you had to produce a hit using only three sounds, what would they be? Number one, liberal tears.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:16

Um the hit using three sounds, drums are a sound. Drums, um, vocals, and a keyboard where the key the player is playing bass and keys at the same time.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:31

Love it, love it. Okay, what is one plug-in that is underrated?

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:38

Um the logic enveloper plugin, which uh just like Transience, it is uh super slept on. Dope.

SPEAKER_04: 1:08:50

Good to know. All right, let's see here. Um, have you ever tried recording underwater? No. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:58

Uh what about me says I can afford a water mic, bro? A water mic dog?

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:02

All right, wait a second. If you could produce a track for any movie villain, who would it be?

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:07

Oh fuck. Um, Mr. Burns.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:14

Mr. Burns.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:15

He's this one, right?

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:16

All right, not Smithers.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:17

Yeah, there you go. All right, what cartoon character would you want to record a mixtape with? Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:23

Um Brian from Family Guy.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:31

Oh, yeah? Yeah. There you go. Uh, here's another TV one. What if um if you could produce anything at lineup room for a TV show, what TV show would you like to be have producing or engineer for?

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:46

Um if I produce it at the if I mix it or whatever.

SPEAKER_04: 1:09:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:52

Uh something like The Office would be cool, something like kind of informal. I thought you were saying if we had a show at the studio, and it would definitely be like The Office. Oh, there you go. Because I've been wanting me and Rich have been Bravado have been saying we want to um like a five-minute episode podcast every week called Moose Gets Mad. Because when Casey, I love DJ Moose Jaw with all of my heart. When he gets mad, he is the funniest person to listen to, and it needs to be documented. So that would be a second show.

SPEAKER_04: 1:10:24

I love that he's joke. Moose mad. Yo, uh, that's just listen, man, dude. I dude, we're coming up on time here, so I really do want to uh thank you for being here and uh taking your time and really kind of just riffing, asking you all these cool type of studio questions that I've always kind of wanted to ask you and really kind of, you know, usually when we're in the studio, it's it's down to business. And uh, you know, we do take it very seriously, but at the same time, I love how you know we can joke around and just be really uh, you know, just be really honest with each other and and kind of show each other different sides. And it's cool because like when you have an engineer that you can really connect with, you know, you can also kind of like tie in your whole life to the music and they really understand like where the music's coming from, and then they can also give you feedback on you know the music itself from where you're coming from. So, you know, continue to to search for engineers and producers out there and uh, you know, build build a group of them, kind of like he did with Beat Club. You know, I'd love for you guys to, if you're in the Baltimore area, um, check out uh all the things that that Brandon's doing here, and um we'll put links for for all the stuff that that you got going on underneath here. Um, do you have a just a last piece of um either like advice or like um you know a piece out, a tan down type uh uh uh uh uh something you want to say?

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:47

Uh very quickly, I just wanted to say it's been dope working with you, seeing you grow as an artist. The last record we did together, I was like really blown away. Um, because I was texting you right after like the next day, and I was sending it to people, I was like, yo, he's got one, he has got one. So it's beautiful to see that uh maturity in an artist where they're translating their emotions in a song, but when it's just when it's so clear, it's really impressive. So that was a special one to be a part of, sure. Thank you, too. And um your ability to advocate for yourself in a studio is really good. Um thank you. You're blunt if you have to be about getting what you want done, and that's what it takes often. Um, so I encourage younger artists to, like you said, uh be humble, but also trust yourself and advocate for yourself. It's okay to be like, nah, I'm not really into that. I do stuff for you all the time where I'm like, let's try this out. I'm like, huh? And you're like, I'm like, okay, moving on. Yeah, like but then there's other stuff that you do that sure where we're like, wow, this is I I couldn't have thought of that. Yeah, so uh that would be that last thing to say would be um lineup room, recording studio, uh, if you need to record, mix, we need something mixed. Um label necklace is a label between me and MC Bravado. We are very much at the intersection between hip hop and education as two former teachers, um, and we leverage that to help with programs like Beats Not Bullets. So if you are interested in helping at-risk youth in the city, um beats not bullets.com, beats not bullets on Instagram, label necklace on Instagram, label necklace.com. Um and yeah, educate the youth, man. If you are an older head like me, and you've been doing this for a while, and and like the questions that that up-and-coming acts ask, you become cliche and you feel that need to be cynical. Take a breath, remember what you needed, even if you didn't get it. And um, you know, help a little bit.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:59

Love it, love it, dude. Great, man, great message. Um, well, hey, you know what? He he he said a quote back in the day, you know, kids are the keeper of the cool, and that was one of the most awesome. That's not my quote. I I know I got it from someone else. Okay, well, either way, either way, you brought it into my life. So, um, yeah, man. Hey, keep the cool out there, and uh, thank you for joining us uh with another episode of the Respecting Perspectives Podcast. We'll see y'all another time. Peace.