Jeezy $50k Debt and Dreamville Music Videos ft. Chad Tennies

Anybody that we're working with, I plan on working with for a long period of time. Big believer in bridges go two ways. Like people can people burn bridges this way all the time. I will never burn a bridge that way. I never know why I'm gonna need you, and I never know who you're gonna be. The one more time music podcast. Genuine conversations with genuine people about music. Hosted by Henry with a three and playback Ben. Ladies and gentlemen, we are back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuning in. I'm Ladies and gentlemen, we are back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. Appreciate you guys tuning in. I'm your host, Playback Ben, here with my co-host. My name's Henry with a three. I spell it with a three because Henry with an E was already taken. That's right, Henry. Who do we have on the podcast today? Today on the podcast, welcoming in Mr. Aaron Paul. Breaking Bad. As you know, Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad.

Jesse, Jesse. Thank you for having me. Breaking Bad, by the way. So great to have you on, Aaron. Good to be here. How's that tequila company with Bryan Cranston going? No, but in all seriousness, we have Mr. Chad Tenney. Chad Tenney. He's a video producer. He's a filmmaker. He's a director. Really all things creative, visuals. Uh, he's an extraordinaire. We appreciate you coming on the podcast today, man. Oh, thanks for having me. Thanks, Chad. Thanks, Aaron. Um, no, so getting right in. How early would you say that you picked up a camera? Uh, fifth grade, maybe, fourth grade? Fourth grade. Probably. Yeah, and then like fifth grade, like convinced my teacher to let me take half the year off and like go into the library and just like make our fifth grade movie. Whoa. And then just sat in there and edited all day. Yeah, it was kind of fun. That's awesome. What was that first camera? Do you remember? Oh my god. We asked the tough questions.

Yeah, I remember the second camera, which was like the upgrade camera, was the Canon XL2. Ooh. Mini DV, had the automatic focus off to the side. I could switch. the lenses off. Sounds deluxe. It was groundbreaking at the time. No, it was crazy, man. Sounds like it. I was lucky to be able to have a camera, you know. So it was that, and just like living in uh Barnes and Noble reading books, man. Was was anyone in your family into film or photography at all? No. No. So no one really did that. My brother was a musician, but um what did he play? He played bass. And I don't even know if he was like into the bass by the time I started started filming, but I was always like in plays and doing the talent shows and stuff. And then one of my homies' dads would always film it. I was like, that's kind of cool. And I was like, what would it be like to be on the other side of the camera? So shout out to your homie's dad. Yeah. right. Because it sounds like he was your main inspiration. Sir Lanti's father. Wow. That was his name. There we go.

He's the reason we're here today. Yep, yep. And and so you mentioned um, you know, about fifth grade. You were working on a on a on a project. I think it was a it was a documentary, if you will. Do you do you remember making this uh class film? Well, there's yeah, the class film that they showed at graduation. I mean, I mean, I was just running around pointing and shooting, kind of like learning this stuff. I think like the first film I actually ever made, which was before my fifth grade class, was uh this thing called pole spinning. And it was like, I like it. Yeah, it was like fourth grade, and I thought it was like a funny innuendo for strippers. Yeah. Um sounds like it at 30 years old. So I mean, we had our own like I can only imagine what kids did with that. Cribs episodes in the in the tree house, and then this was pole spinning with this kid named Boogie and my buddy Pete, and it was like them laying down in the grass, and they're like, Man, when I'm pole spinning, I just like you know, lose myself. And then it was some Coldplay song as they're just like spinning around street signs and stuff.

It was pretty random. But did you license that Coldplay song to use in the video? Definitely not, but shout out Coldplay for not suing. I don't think I don't even think YouTube was around at that time. Like people weren't even posting shit at that point. Yeah, Coldplay, we'd love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you on. So you know, you go from making these uh kind of you know films with your friends, shooting cribs videos in the tree houses to actually at a pretty you know early age, you know, I guess relatively speaking, you were starting to shoot run and gun music videos, right? Yeah, I actually like wound up into music videos through a wild path. But initially, and this is funny, it was like convinced my mom to let me drop out of school in 10th grade, and like how'd you do that? Well, what was the argument? Well, what was your pitch? What's the argument? Well, I ended up going back. I mean, I I was you know in and out of like trouble as a kid, and then uh, you know, ended up taking like the second semester of 10th grade off and going and staying with my dad for a bit, and then came back to to Atlanta and convinced these guys when when I was like selling some equipment on Craigslist, uh I was in this like small apartment almost in the basement of the house that like felt as if you could be just someone renting the crib, even though I was like 15 at this time, like just about to turn 16, like didn't have a car or anything. And this guy was like, Oh, like he stepped into like my office area and was like, Oh, do you shoot?

And I like showed him some of my work, and he's like seeing all my books on the wall, and he was like, Oh, word, like, well, I have this this feature that I'm doing with my brother. You know, we're from Tanzania, but we're shooting here in Atlanta. You know, we need a DP. Would you be interested in DPing? And I was like, Oh man, of course, you know, we could definitely make that happen. And then he was like, Okay, here's a contract, and I'm like reading that. I gotta be 18 years old to like sign this thing. And I'm like, you know, but I I'd already sold these dudes at this point. They're like, Man, this guy's gonna execute our vision. And I was like, So is it cool if like my mom signs this contract? And they're like, they're like, wait a minute, how old are you? And I was like, Oh, I'm like about to turn 16, man. You know, I couldn't throw out the 15 number, and and so about to be sixteen. I'm not 15, I'm about to be 16. Yeah, so then um man, so it was like they're like, Okay, like shit, like now we're babysitting, you know, this this minor, but he he carries himself. It's a liability. Like, he's an older dude, so I guess it's like it's all good. And then they were shooting out in like Lawrenceville, and I grew up in the city of Decatur, so I was like, Shout out to Decatur.

Shout out to Decatur. It was like once we got over the 18, not being 18 part. I was like, So I kind of need a car, and I convinced these dudes to buy me a car. No way, yeah, dude. It was it was it was pretty great. My brother ended up scoring it. Do they not understand how things work in Tanzania? This is before this is before Uber. You can't just have an Uber, like I have an Uber budget. Oh, yeah. There weren't taxis, yeah, there weren't other logical options besides buying him a car. They believed in him. It was I'm a good salesman, you know. Yeah, I was I'm starting to see that. I mean, obviously. You pitched your mom dropping out in 10th grade. You pitched these Tanzanians to buy you a car to shoot their video. The salesman at heart. Yeah, it was this like movie called Baby Powder, and it was you can find it on YouTube, and I'm actually I actually end up playing a crackhead. Yeah. We might link that in the comments below if we can. Link to baby powder in the comments. Yeah. You want to see Chad as a crackhead in his first feature film. Somewhere in the middle, like they're like, damn, the crackhead didn't show up.

And I was like, I could be a crackhead, you know. So yeah, it was like still in crackhead. The white, the white leader. She's a multi-hyphenate. Yeah, yeah. We shouted out crack in the last episode, so we won't do that again. But so how did you even learn? Did you have mentors um getting into the scene? I didn't really even like learn the concept of mentors really like that, like until later on into my career. Like, I was just like someone who just loved shooting and was had a good eye for it. Yeah. Um, so like who are you running around with? Who are some of the guys you were looking up to at the time? There was this one guy, David Kim, who ended up coming into my life later on, who had found me when I was young and saw some of my work and was like, yo, dude, I want to bring you onto our roster of directors. And I was like, Mom, like, this is my super opportunity. And then she somehow did some research on the internet and found he was connected to some dude that did sorry, David. I know you're not involved with this, but at the time, my mom thought you were. Uh oh god, like webcam porn, which was like illegal in Georgia.

David, how dare you? He he literally had nothing to do with it, but like through some connection, and then my mom was like, Yeah, you're not signing to this company. And I'm like, Mom, this is my big break, like you're ruining my career, You're ruining my life, you know. Um, but uh yeah, I mean, David Kim came in when I was a little bit older, and signed me when I was 18. Sounds interesting. This guy decatured Dan, who used to go to our school, who was a director that was jamming out at that time, was like, yo, dude, you shoot dope shit. You should come like shoot my shit. And I was like, okay, cool, man. I'll come shoot your shit. Yeah. That wasn't like dope too. Yeah, I wasn't making any money. Like the first video I did for him was with like it was young Jeezy, which is a crazy story. Young Jeezy and I are not on good terms. Um God. But was with I would hate to be on Jeezy's bad side. He's on my bad side. Like no, no, I got I got issues with Jeezy. But Jeezy, we'd still love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you on the podcast tentatively. Yeah, no, we can discuss this out. The lawyers we need to

be involved. Um to take it back to Decatur Dan. So then I started shooting with Decatur Dan and was like DP and all his stuff and got to learn so much. That's where I like first met Future. And this was like before Future was Future, future at all. Like just this guy just rolled up to set, and we were doing a video for it was Jeezy Gotti Alley Boy. This was like back when duct tape was like really popping. I was the biggest Alley boy fan. I wanted him to break so bad, man. So it was the four music video that's like Foe, foe, foe, ho, moe, fo. mo. Everything's foe. Yeah, it was all yeah, all fours. Um, and that was like where where future rolled up and you DP'd this one? Yeah, I DP'd this one. And it was like uh it was it was fun. It was like so much run and gun shit. But long story short, yeah, future quiet dude just guccied out but by himself standing in the corner. Um so you're shooting run and gun videos, and you and you end up getting a scholarship, right? To a to a film program up in Pittsburgh.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They I was it was a short stint, right? It was short stint. I was there for like two seconds, and it just wasn't making any sense. But like my prerequisites for the college I applied to, and I only applied to one. Thank God they paid for all of it. But like was don't make me live on campus. Like, I just want my apartment. Let me do my thing. And they were like, cool, we're gonna give you the biggest scholarship in the history of the university. So it was like also getting paid to be there. Still didn't work. Still didn't work out. No, I was just like, well, I was like getting like hundreds in all my classes, and I was like looking at my teachers, and my teachers looking at me, and they're like, yo, dude, why the fuck are you here? Yeah. I mean, it wasn't all for naught. No, you did needed a very important person. Met a great dude. Met a great dude. In your career and and a business partner, you know, you met Mac at this university, whereas you weren't learning much in class. He said he was learning a lot. So it was good for some people. My nickname was, and I found this out like years later was Hermione Granger.

Oh, God. Because I was like always like raising her hand. And I was like, I was trying to participate, but um, you're wrong about this point. Um that was a canon 7D, not a 5D. I mean, yeah, you started a business basically right when you came back from Pittsburgh. We'll rewind real quick. I was like balancing budgets, delivering edits, studying for psychology. Yeah. And I was like, this makes no fucking sense. And it was like, okay, I'm I'm done with this. This isn't if anything, it's like my degree is not standing in between me and my career or the lack of a degree. Yeah, it was actually literally standing in front of me and my career, or in between me and my career. So I was like, drop out of school, just pursue the fucking grind. Yeah. And happened to know Mac, you know, at that time from the previous days. He was in Pennsylvania roofing, and things had really like started to pick up with the business. And I was like, yo, dude, I need more peeps. Like, I need more people down here.

So I called Mac up and I'm like, yo, dude, what you doing? And then ended up flying up there. My girlfriend was still going to school there, and now fiance, love you, Paula. Shut up, Paula. Shout out, Paula. And so went up to quote unquote, like visit Paula, but it was really like to take Mac out to dinner, try to convince this dude to like stop whatever he's doing in Pennsylvania and coming to move down to Atlanta. Stop roofing Mac right now. Stop overcharging commercial clients and work with you. For their roofs. Oh, probably in cahoots with the plumbers as well. Definitely. Yeah, so I fly up there and I'm like, yo, Mac, like things are kind of popping off. I'd love for you to, you know, come down and make make magic with me. And then the first, and this is like shouts out to Mac, because he's like a dude, you can, he's a phoenix. Like, you can throw this guy in the fire, and he comes out like fucking flying. Like he is the OG. Like, it doesn't matter, like if he knows it or doesn't know it, he's gonna figure it out. So, like, first night, he's drove down from uh from Pennsylvania, which is like an 11-hour drive.

Yeah, it's not fast, it's not a fast drive. And we're this is when I'm at this like loft in Castleberry Hills, and I'm like, yo, so Mac, this is a crane, and I got this church contract for Jesus, and you are gonna go out and you're gonna set up this crane, and you're gonna crane this stuff. And like, dude's like been in Atlanta for two hours, and and we're up on the roof of this loft apartments, and it's pitch black, there's like not a lot of light, and I'm like, we we halfway build the crane, and I'm like, Yeah, so you get the point. This is like how we how we build this crane and and use this joystick to point it around. And then Mac like goes out and crushes it, and then I get a call from the client like the next day, and they're like, Man, this Mac guy, this guy you're bringing out, he's incredible. Like, I love it. He must have been doing this for years. Can't imagine him doing anything else. Dude, he nailed it. So that doesn't seem like a roofer at all. Definitely not a roofer.

This guy was not a roofer. This is what he's doing. Which then takes me to like, so I'm like, man, this guy, I can like throw him into the fire. He can do, he can do anything. I'm like, this, my man is called a drone. And this was like when drones like first came out. Oh yeah. Only Amazon had them. We had like the first, like, inspire one. Like, I pre-ordered that thing like six months in advance. And like, we were like one of the first people to get it. Yeah. And then I'm like, okay, here's how we fly it. And like, here's how you move around and groove. And so I was like, so I got this crane contract on this future Rick Ross job. And they're gonna need some drone too. And he's like, sweet man, I got this. And he goes out, and then we'd now moved apartments. They're now at a different apartment. And Mac's like, you gotta check this footage, bro. It's crazy. It's absolutely amazing. And then he like pulls up this footage. I see like all these cars in live traffic, our drone chilling right up at the top. He's like following this car like through intersections under all these fucking wires.

And in my mind, this is where I'm like first learning about like liability. And I'm like, holy shit, if someone gets in a car crash, yeah, just looking at our drone, we're completely liable. He's staring there, like his mouth is to the floor because he thinks it's the best shot ever. My mouth is to the floor because I'm like, holy shit, like almost got my ass shooed off. You know, so it was it was ironically that there was much bigger issues with that job. So it uh not on our side, but on just like just shootouts and all this crazy stuff. So the drone was not a big issue, but very funny lesson and funny story that Mac learned that it's like, yeah, as great as the shot is, like, if you go bankrupt because of a lawsuit because of that great shot, it's not not very much worth it. And and honestly, that would segue me into the Jeezy story really quick. Yeah. Because let's hear it. That was a great lesson. Expensive lesson, but like we are all about lessons here on the one more time podcast. Really, really good lesson. Um contracts are worth the paper that they're printed on. Okay.

Like they they mean absolutely nothing other than your willingness to pursue that in a court in the money that it takes to get there. Yeah. Um with jeezy was like, you know, we'd finally started getting some money in the bank, and it was like, okay, like my job now is like play bank for record labels. I front money for them, and because it takes so long to get through finance and legal, I'm like, doesn't worry. Like Interscope has a $200,000 line of credit with us. We m will front it until they start tapping up to the 200, and then we're like, hey, you know, start paying these bills. So that ended up becoming a line of our business, but you gotta know, like, and trust who you're doing it with. And I didn't even know that that was a thing. Oh, that's opening my eyes to like uh I would have thought you would never have even stepped onto a shoot without being paid. Yeah. That's like what makes us special. Have you found yourself really liking the business side of things? Oh, I love business.

As an entrepreneur, okay. Love business. Like you clearly love the creativity part, but you really do a hundred percent. Consider yourself a a businessman. I'm a Businessman, but I think like really successful businessman or businessmen and women, uh, it takes a lot of creativity to be successful at that. Like you have to approach things in a different way. Yes. So like I think there's a lot of creative that goes into how you work your books, how you leverage cash, how you float cash, yeah, all that stuff. And it's it's it's I'm also like semi in the business of like high interest loans. Like we get to charge 15% on all the money that we're floating for them. And in a worst case scenario, it's a hundred and twenty days, 180 days. Yeah. But you gotta add that up in your mind to to reel it back towards Jeezy. This was like we were finally in a position to be able to start floating cash. And this was at the time like our biggest contract that we had gotten for music videos, and it was like 160 grand. And he was like on tour, and they were like, yo, we want to like shoot videos in these cities.

And one of the tracks was on the couch. And now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I need to talk to my attorney tomorrow, make sure I'm not like uh um, but like so this jeezy thing will never go away. No, it was it it was a lesson that ended up costing me $55,000 out of pocket, but like expensive ass. It's an expensive lesson. But so I was like, yo, like they're fucking with a real company, like we got an office, like I got like an accounting person, you know, this and that. And I was like, Oh, this is a large sum of money. The the first invoice is like 127,000. Like, I get you gotta like clear it through the normal channels. But they had approached us with this project so quick on that it was like we needed to get going ASAP. It was like, okay, we're in Chicago next week, and then immediately from Chicago, you're going to LA. And so we were shooting videos in Chicago, shooting videos in LA, and I'm like sitting here, like between all the chaos, emailing and just like, hey man, like what's up with this invoice? And it's funny because I told my dad, I was like, yo, dad, can we accept a hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollar payment uh through uh credit card?

And sounds like such a logical question in my mind, though. Well, this is I mean, a lot of lessons here. You know, the second that a client's like, yo, I need to take notes. Can we put this on a credit card? Like, I I should have been like, holy fuck, get get out of here. You know, we have we have other shit to do. Yeah. But I was like, you know, of course, I'm just like trying to be that like maybe. Let me ask. Let me ask a friend. Sure. I think of course. Probably we can process credit cards. But yeah, so it's first red flag that I should have known off the rip was they're trying to pay on a credit card. They're trying to move this fast. I haven't done a bunch of business with these people before. So that I should have never stepped into it. But in my naive, like business is going good, and I'm trying to open myself up to other clients, you know. I'm like, dude, we got it, dude. Like, we can no problems, like, we can front money all day. Like, that's what we do. And so we fly to Chicago, shoot there. That was like $26,000, and then like fly over to LA and we shoot there, and it's like another 27.

And then I'm like, get back to Atlanta, we're getting ready to shoot in Atlanta. And I'm like, holy shit, dude. Like, I've spent like you know, 50 something grand, like cash money's like out the bank. And like, I'm like, yo, where, where's yo, you guys are taking way too long to pay this fucking invoice? Like, let's put this on pause. And they're like, yo, you know, it's in like an accounting thing, and this and this, and this. And and the the wild thing is the second that a client says you can send your contract and they don't revise it when they sign it, that's also another red flag. Because this was the most, and this brings us back to the contract thing and them being worth the paper that they're written on. It was the most pro production company forward in my favor contract. It was like I didn't know. It was meant to be really too good to be true. Like I we didn't even have to step on a plane and they owed us the 200 something thousand dollars. Like off the rip. Like contractually. Contractually.

Contractually, of course. On the paper. With the stars. On the papers And Jeezy or some Jay Jenkins, like signed the motherfucker himself. You know, so I was like, oh man. And so then I'm like, well, well, everything goes south. I'm like, holy shit, I'm out, 50 something grand. And that's I mean, still today, that's like a lot of a lot of money Yeah. That's that's a really nice time piece, man. Yeah. But but so I was like, damn, dude, now I gotta get this. They owe me this money, my contract's fucking rock solid. I then realized that it's gonna cost me $70,000 to sue Jeezy to pay me for the project that I got totally boned on. So I'm like turning down so much work in that process because he'd booked us out for like three weeks. And you were out of pocket. Yeah, exactly. Going over, We performed to the contract 100%.

Yeah. Then you're like looking at like where am I at right now? Yeah, and what would $70,000 do for me at this point in time? Like in investing in people, investing in equipment, investing in whatever that is gonna make you more than 55 for fucking sure. Yeah, you know, and so I had to like cut my losses and be like, damn, dude, like that was a fifty-five thousand dollar mistake, or yeah, you know, it was a lesson. Exactly. It was a lesson. It was like a really great, like your biggest fuck-ups are the things that teach you the absolute most. Like the most important thing. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. One more time one more time, one more time. Your biggest fuck-ups teach you the absolute most. Like you'll notice the most successful people in life have failed more than anybody else. Like the most successful people are the biggest fucking failures. Crazy. They failed constantly. And it's a it's like a mix of like just keeping on the grind and like learning from those mistakes. And it's like putting yourself in those positions to learn those lessons.

Like, had I not learned the lesson of, hey, there's value to fronting money for clients. Like I need to know, like, and trust somebody. Like I have to barter for trust, which means like if I don't know you, you gotta pay me for us to be dealing with this, or I gotta know you through somebody else. Yeah. So it was it was interesting, expensive lesson, but you know, nonetheless, something I wouldn't trade for the world. And it was like that 70 G's at that time was like that's that that's a bringing a Mac in. Yeah, you know, and then Mac turned out to be just amazing. And he was like, dude, I really don't care what money you pay me. That's not what I'm interested in right now. You know, it's I I want to stake in this. Like this is what I'm trying to do. And it was like, okay, like you can pay people in two ways via money or via equity. Yeah. And I was like, holy shit, dude. Like I I believe in what you're doing, and I know if I can help you win, I'll win. You know, make enough people's dreams come true, your dreams will come true.

Yep. So yeah, then he ended up coming up. Yeah. So obviously hip hop music videos in particular, have been your bread and butter over the years, how you got your start. I would say I know things have evolved, and we'll get into that, but what would you say some of your favorite videos that you've been a part of are? Some artists to pick their favorite song. It's impossible. Yeah, it's like I've I forget about a lot of videos. Like sometimes I'll like see videos come up on the TV and stuff, and I'm like, oh shit, we did that. Like, I'll be watching, I'll be like, this shit's fire. And then I'll be like, oh my god, we did that. Like, that's amazing. There's been there's been so there's been so many, but there the ones I like certain ones for certain reasons. Um, you know, so I would say the first time I met uh Barry Johnson, Zeke Nicholson. Um, that's when I started working with EARTHGANG, Jid, those guys. Yeah, this is since the 80s team. For those of you that don't know, they work with Jid, EARTHGANG, Nyomza, yeah, um, Benji, yeah, shout out since the 80s. Since the 80s, yeah.

They got this new cat that's doing a lot of oh, yeah, Metro Mars. Yeah, yeah, I know he's we're very familiar with Metro. Yep, he's a homie of ours, so yeah, good people. Those dudes came in and we like liquor store and mama told me we shot in like 11 hours in one day, and this is like back when I used to have the camera on my back, and I was like running around and we were producing directing editing, doing every DP and every possible thing you could do, and we were doing it that was for both of those videos was $5,500. Yeah, you know, which is absurd, and they're still cool videos, like there's like a rawness and a realness of those videos that you just you don't really find. Um, and those were like really great clients. I was on a conference call with them today about Jid's next single, like and drop some fire. Just look out for that.

It's coming. Like it's it's gonna be really, really dope. But they they went, we're all waiting on that project. Went for a five thousand dollar client to doing like half a million plus a year in business with us. You know, they're really who introduced us to Dreamville that like took us to J. Cole and like took us to all these different people. And there are I would say Yeah, tell us about the Down Bad shoot. Down bad, wild. You know, Down Bad came in last minute as shit. You know, it was like we had like 48 hours to like 72 hours to prep for that. And it was like that amongst three other videos. And it was all these projects on the Dreamville project. And it was it's really cool because I was like up in New York. That was the Dreamville album. Yes. Yes. Revenge of the Dreamers 3, right? Yeah. So like I was flown up to New York and directed three of the videos up in New York with like a team of directors, and they're like, let's approach this similar to how we approached the album and make it like collaborative. Which they did in Treehouse Studios all at once. They invited a bunch of artists, producers, songwriters into a one studio for camp.

Without even knowing, we ended up like supplying the labor for some of that documentary footage, not even realizing it. But it was like Scott Laser called us and was like, yo, can you like give us this camera and this dude and come out and like shoot this stuff? And okay. I was like, sure, like whatever. Like I'm in the midst of some random lifetime movie, and with Paula. Um that's real life now. This is like the imaginary life is okay. But uh but yeah, no, no, and then it ended up like coming like super full circle and then did some really cool stuff, like in even the New York stuff was like super run and gun. Um, because it was under the sun, sacrifices, and oh my god. I have limited hard drive space up here, so I like I routinely clear it out. But but yeah, so that ended up leading to down bad coming through. There was actually another video that we were supposed to shoot off that project who's it was down bad that we did in Atlanta. We did one other one, swivel, and then we were supposed to do the one that had Jid on it.

And who was the other artist, and they like weren't available that day, and they ended up pulling the plug like 17 hours before call time. And it was a bummer part because it was like, yo, like we've reserved all these people, we've rented all this gear, and they're like, How much can we get back? And I'm like, Dude, like I we didn't even charge director rates on that video. Like, I was like, look at the budget. There's no director line. I was just brought out a bunch of dudes. I was like, I'll pay out of pocket, like, let's just make fucking magic. Yeah, and yeah, no, and then they pulled in. I mean, crew still got paid because it's like people are actively turning down work when they accept a job. Yeah, and then for me to pull the rug out the job, it's anybody that we're working with, I plan on working with for a long period of time. Yeah, and I'm big believer in bridges go two ways. Like, people can people burn bridges this way all the time. I will never burn a bridge that way because I don't know when I'm gonna need to use you, not in a bad way, but like I'm I never know when I'm gonna need you, and I never know who you're gonna be. And I just yeah, so bridges go two ways, people.

One more time, one more time. One one give them one more time on bridges. So when we do bad business, our employees and our workers don't get fucked. Like that was like part of the 55,000 on Jeezy Was like I had people come and work for me and take off work and take off time and commit themselves to me. And it was like, it doesn't matter if I didn't get paid. Yep, it's interesting, man. I mean, this is a common theme. Like, we've had a few other people on where they've made it a point to connect with the intern in the room, to in your case, probably like, you know, show love to the PA on set or whatever, right? Because you're right. You never know who the fuck that person's gonna be. If you treat them, you know, as unimportant, or if you write them off, they could be the next person that is either giving you a gig or not. You know what I mean? And especially in music, I mean, some of these interns at record labels, especially become, you know, heads of AR, they become, you know, senior VPs of digital, you know, so on and so forth. And so I mean, we've had a couple guests on, and that's been a recurring theme.

So I think it speaks volumes about like why you've gotten to be, you know, where you are and just how you treat people. Yes. Because I think it goes a long way. Um literally was walking in the back of the office. We have an awesome forest and a beach behind our office, and it's somehow centrally located. I love it. With someone who originally started as an intern and is now full-time salaried with benefits. We're building them up to start directing features, like, well, I call you Paul. I know you go by Trey, but you applied as Paul Hawkins. Shout out, Paul Trey. But he goes by Trey. His resolve media group email is Trey at Resolve Media Group. But like literally, like, I was just walking through the floors of Trey, Kiki, Kiara, Garcia, the the chick, the cornerstone that holds it down. Yeah, I remember she was starting to get a lot of. She was running the show at the one that I PA'd. on. Yeah, dude, started as an intern, you know, There you go. and so like the two newest people that we've brought on is like full-time salaried labor, where it's like, yo, it doesn't matter what we're doing, like your salary is being paid. We cover a hundred percent of your health care, zero deductible, zero co-pay, zero co-insurance.

Um, and we match a hundred percent of your 401k contributions. Like it is it is really, really important to us. That's like how you keep great people, like great people you have to incentivize to stay there. And how you come in is not my plan for how you never leave, because I don't want anybody to leave, but it's like not where you're gonna go. How much in business would you say is gut? I feel like the the gut is a relative thing, you know. Like we as we go through life and get more experiences, the red lights on our like switcher board grow. You know, and now there's calls that I get or emails that I get where all these red flashing lights are going off, like to take it back to Jeezy, that red flashing light wasn't going off because it didn't exist yet. Yeah, you know, so like your gut develops based off of experience, you know. So it's really an experiencing, and that's even like with the great producer, a great producer is just mitigating issues before they arise. You know, it's like, how can I take on a project and know all the crazy shit that it's about to come from this project and eliminate all that risk?

Yeah, you know, so I I think everything is a bit of like gut per se, but it's like based off of experience. Now, my mother is like the type of person that's like, I don't sign any contracts renting out the house, I just sit and have some tea and go with my gut feeling. And I'm like, no, mom, like a background check would probably be important here, you know, so that it's not like the super extreme, like just like go with your aura kind of thing, but it's also it's a calculated gut thing that's like constantly being tweaked and evolved, and you're learning from it, and it's just mitigating risk. Yeah, you know, and the the bigger the risk, sometimes the bigger the reward. But you just gotta be willing to lose what you're risking. Yeah. For sure. And so obviously, like I said, hip hop music videos were how you got your start, it's definitely been a staple of yours, you know, through your career. But you guys have evolved a lot at Resolve. You've started to get into other genres, right? You started to do commercial stuff.

You've started, I think, dabbling in some original content as well. Talk to us about the evolution of your company. Because you're an entrepreneur through and thin, or through and through, excuse me. What would you say the evolution has looked like? Well, the I would say, like, you know, starting from the base, it was like the evolution was okay. I'm gonna go from a dude that's directing for other people's companies to directing for myself. And then it was like, oh my God, I have all these doors open, and let's figure out if I can open them from other people like faster. And then that happened with Mac. And then it was like, okay, cool, let's go there. Let's can we repeat that model? And then it was like, okay, where does this branch off to? You know, it's like we have this really cool Madden project coming up. Uh, and this is uh one of those things I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about, but um but like certain doors will open up a lot of other doors, and I think from there it was okay, now let's start representing directors. And then it was, I was like, damn, dude, I'm gonna be limited by the director talent.

Then I was like, no, like a production company is a house, a director is a piece of furniture, you know, and you can style a house so many different types of ways. And when you're talking to these labels and when you're dealing with people, like I learned the IBM business model, which was like they they had this the saying that was like no one ever got fired for hiring IBM. And so many people are competing to be the best choice at an extent that makes them unsafe. It's like be the safe choice. What have you liked about entrepreneurship and what what has been kind of a uh you know something you've not liked very much about being your own boss and and you know running your own business? And there is like a the buck the buck stops at you, you know. Is that something you like or don't like? Yeah, which was that an answer? it's just the reality of it, you know. Like people think like being an entrepreneur, they're like, oh my god, you decide your own schedule and all this shit. I'm like, nah, dude, you work all the time.

Yeah, you know, and it's it's whether like you can either like be building your dreams or be building someone else's dreams, you know, and and and it's different for everybody. Sometimes like their dreams to be built has to take place within someone else's bigger vision, but then there's other cases where it's like, nah, dude, like you'll be miserable doing this for somebody else. So I would say in entrepreneurship, it's I just I'm the type of dude that in I learned this everyone should take a Myers Briggs personality test. Okay, I'm an ENTP and I've taken it so many times in so many different states of minds. I always get ENTP. Um, and I've I learned that like I'm the type of dude, you hit me with A, I'm gonna hit you with B. You hit me with B, I'm gonna hit you with A. I just enjoy mental sparring. I enjoy looking at things differently. It's not that I like to break the rules, but I think if there's a better way to do it, we should be doing it. Yeah, how would you ever know unless you have that combat? You'll never know if that's the best option or not.

And so it's uh like I think it's all about like solving problems, delivering value, shifting with the times, you know. Like imagine if you're some dude that shoots music videos on film back in the day and takes a million dollars to shoot a music video, and it's like, oh shit, Canon released this thing called a 5D, you know, and there's like the red and like which used to be a thing, you know. So it's it's entrepreneurship is like a lot of fun because you do get to kind of really determine what you want to do. Now, whether you can do that immediately is a totally different story. And your vision just has to be big. It's like, what do I need to do to get where I want to do what I want to do, if that makes any sense? You know, and like thinking at that big picture and like working backwards from your goals. And there's the big saying that's like most people don't set their goals too high and miss, they set them too low and hit. Yep. You know, and it's just like thinking really big, fucking up, because that's where you learn the most. Yeah, you know, like I if you're just constantly winning, you're never gonna learn lessons.

You know, so it's it it is a bit of like it just like takes you through the mud of life. Yeah. Um, and those things make you dividends like wild down the road. I've always been an entrepreneur. That's like always something I wanted to do. I started a 3D printing company called 3D Sandbox back when I was like 19. Were you the like the lemonade stand kind of kid? Uh I was uh I mean, no, I I trading baseball cards. I sold a lot of pot back in the day, but like that was like there was a clear demand, and I was good, you know, my janitor was one of the best clients in middle school. You know, but uh but it was I I don't know. I just I think there's like when there's a clear way to do things, like you know, and there's there's a way to manage people like me. It's like take crazy problems and don't try to micromanage this dude. Just like make sure he's solving different weird problems that we don't know how to solve, and just make sure he's not doing the same thing over and over again. That is death to me.

You know, it's I'm I want to keep growing, evolving, doing different things. And I'm the guy that loves to design the house, but I don't hit the hammer in the nail. But I'm willing to hit the hammer in the nail if that's what it takes for me to get there. Yeah. You know, so it's like, and you'll see me. Like it's so funny because there's PAs that will come on set, and yeah, I'll be like sweeping something up, and they'll like give me shit to do, and they have like no clue that I'm running the entire thing, but I fucking love it. You know, like I love it because I'm like, dude, look at this. Can you get us some coffee, motherfucker? Like taken charge. You missed a spot over there. Yeah, and I'm like, I'm like, yes, ma'am, yes, sir. You know, I'm like, dude, look at you like sitting here like taking on a leadership role. It's the even the conversation in the back of the office at Alex like, dude, I don't want you to have to do any of this shit. Yeah, just know that it needs to get done. Yeah, like I'm actually gonna love you even more if you're able to like get a squad of interns to do it, or like tell me here's how I we can outsource X and Y. Like, there's something so valuable to not actually performing the duty, but still delivering the value and then figuring out a way to make the money.

Yeah, that's huge. So you mentioned, you know, most people don't set their goals too high and miss some most people set their goals too low and hit if they have goals. Sure. What is your what is your super lofty goal right now? What are you working towards right now? It is like the original content side of things, you know. I think is is I've if I had like 10% of the royalties of all the music videos that I've made, just like on the ad spend, I'd be a multi-multi-multi-millionaire with that would not have to work. Like, I gotta work my ass off to make my millions. Like, it's so it's it's I I would love to own the stuff that I'm making, and it doesn't just it's like I'm like, yo, we're put we're creating the song to your lyrics, you know, but visually, and producers get it's it's weird 100% of the 200%. I don't even understand how this 200% pie works, but we we won't get into publishing role man. We deserve it.

We did the music. We need that. No, you guys do. I'm not I'm not knocking that at all. For sure, for sure. Especially in today's visual age, you are giving breath. Oh, to all gold everything. What's that dude's name? Trinidad Trinidad. That's my guy. Trinidad. So we filmed an episode, you know, prior to, and we just talked about Henry's experience hearing the ad libs of Trinidad James recorded, All Gold Everything. that whole project, including all gold, everything at the house that I lived in, where I learned how to do this. You know the music video where he was at this like club and there's boxing and stuff there. It was like the second one that came out after. Oh, was it was it at MJQ? Or uh one of three. He doesn't even remember the videos he shot. Yeah, right. Like we're thousands in at this point. But but yeah, you did a Trinidad video, yeah, yeah. Back in the day, it was right after all good everything. Motion family, great deals. Okay, so they did that.

That project was out for months, you know, and it wasn't until that video came out that that shit really, really popped. And it was like people seeing this dude do something that no one else was willing to do. He's like sitting here and just like looking, sorry, dude, but like ridiculous. But it's something that you remember, and he's like carrying this little puppy, and it. It's just like yes, what? And the thing is, like, I'm like, this has been on the internet. This mixtape's been out forever, and it needed a visual to go there, and I I genuinely still believe that Motion Family deserves at least like 10% of all the money that dude's ever made because it wouldn't have happened without them doing it. But so moving more into the original content side of things and and then developing and growing talent. Like that's the most important thing. It's like, yo, dude, I've done all this work to get here. And I know what got me here ain't gonna get me there. Great book, by the way.

But it's also a thing where it's like, okay, let me extend this out to all these other people. And then you have like an army of incredible people that are really passionate about what they're trying to do. They've gotten there faster than it would have taken them any other way, and you can do so much beyond that point. So yeah, you know how I know you're a true entrepreneur, man, is like that piece of it caring about growing talent and stuff. That's not shit, just like the average creative says or whatever. Like, that's a businessman speaking, you know. what I mean, so that's like that's really respectful. I feel like you know what I mean. And to anyone trying to do it out there, you will not be the person that takes you to the finish line. There's no there's no extremely successful companies with one person. No, not at all. Zero. It doesn't exist. Everybody that works with you of course, you can have a nice little sole proprietorship, don't get me wrong, you can build a nice little thing for yourself. But if you're setting goals up here, you need more people. It it's it's a team, it's a team effort for sure. Which is it's interesting because it that that takes me a bit back to like when I first realized I needed to start resolve.

And I could see the ceiling. Like, and it was like I was making good money. It was like at that time, I was like ghost directing for a lot of dudes, and ghost directing, yeah. Yeah, that's a new one. Shit, never even knew that. Oh, yeah, that was that's all about creating supply and demand or creating demand when there's supply. But you know, I was like, I want to ride my motorcycles, live in dope lofts, and and buy lots of clothes and just have fun, you know. And I didn't want the responsibility, but then I was like, okay, like, dude, I'm like staring at the ceiling. Like, how far can I go with this as one dude? And I just very I know exactly where I was standing in my loft at this point in time when I realized like shit, and it was like in the middle of a crazy edit and a budget and a psychology exam. And I'm like sitting there and I'm just like, dude, doing this by myself, I can only go so far. You know, there's there's only so much money I can make solo, dolo. And it's not even about the money at a certain point. Like, you get once you got everything you want, like it's no longer about the fucking money.

It's it's about like, does this give me life? Do I am excited when I wake up in the morning? Is it hard to go to bed at night because I'm so stoked for what I'm doing? Yes, which is something we're always fighting for, and then there's an ebb and flow to life there, you know. It's it's and there's gonna be times where it sucks, and you're like, what the fuck am I doing? And then there's times where you're like, yeah, it's like it was all worth it. Yeah, um, but it's uh that's a good one for me, yeah, especially. Yep. So I think that brings us to a final segment of the one more time podcast curated by my guy Henry with a three. Let's get into it, Henry. Everybody's favorite segment of the One More Time podcast. It's called the Rapid Fire Rampage, Mr. Chad Tenney. Okay, and it says this work, so it's a three-part rampage. Buckle up, Chad. Yeah, get ready. Buckle up. Right. It's about to be a rampage. So it's a three-part rampage, right? Okay. First part, I'm just gonna give you some short answer questions. Just give me an answer. Second part is gonna be a this or that. I'm gonna give you two options.

Just pick one. Third part is gonna be a word association. I'm gonna give you one word. You give me one word back. And I'll explain them again as we go. Okay. Because there was a lot to Because there's not enough hard drive space up here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're working on the short term. Take it one part at a time, Henry. Yeah. So here we go. Rapid fire rampage. Chad Tenney's. Part one. Short answer questions. Here we go. Give us one project, mixtape, EP, or album in your top five of all time. Oh man. Well, the funny thing is, I don't listen to any. The only music I listen to is when it shows up in the email. Like that's crazy. I'm a dude. I'm I I'm an old head, dude. Like, so I don't Well, give us an old album. Give us something. What do you what's on repeat? Bitches brew. Miles Davis. Miles Davis. Shout out. I did hear you were a jazz guy. I am a jazz guy. That's great. No, it's just the Sam Cooke. and it just goes forever. Give us your favorite hobby to get away from music and directing. Watches.

Watches. Nice. Love watches. What are you rocking right now? Uh this is the first watch on the moon. The Omega Speedmaster. Now, what makes this one special is it is called the Sapphire Sandwich. Oh. Where they have sounds delectable. Sapphire on the back end of it. Um manual wind watch. Really important. Well, yo, go ahead and show it off a little. Yeah, we'll get a we'll get a close-up if you show it. Yeah, bang. Look at that. Dude, it's a great watch. You know, it's not an automatic movement because here's the funny thing. There's no gravity in space. So the movement of your wrist, wrist won't won't charge your watch. Manual watch. my fiance got this for me. Um, which, shout out to her. Really, dude. Shout out, Paula. Love you. Shout out, Paula. Um, yeah, so I'm rocking the Omega Speedmaster. There you go. Okay, moving on. Joe Biden exiles you from America tomorrow. Where do you go to live?

Denmark, Sweden. Some of the happiest countries. The Nordics. Yeah, yeah. Like they take care of their people, man. Give us your dream artist to shoot a video for. There are bucket list items. Then there's just like people that I just, really dig, you know, like back in the day, there was like, dude, I'd love to work with Tom York, Radiohead. Like, that would be really, really badass. Um he's on the bucket list. You know, it's funny. Wayne's come through the email so many times, he's on the bucket list. But this dude's rider is so crazy. He needs a skate park within like X amount of meters of set. And it the first time I came into the zone with with Wayne was it was a $15,000 music video. The artist rider was like $75,000, and he was like a feature dude. You know, long story short, that the video did not happen. But I do remember the PowerPoint presentation for this dude's rider.

But Wayne, we'd love to have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you on the podcast, Wayne. And we will provide you the skate park within X amount of meters. of our podcast. We'll Move the podcast. Wherever you need, man. We'll do it in the middle of the fucking bowl or the the you know, Vert. So whatever you need. Okay. Give us one tip for artists approaching you that you would give them that would help convince you to shoot a video for them. Besides money. Well, that would be my first thing. And I'd be like, dude, we're the wrong people to like hit up. You know, it's it's it's literally like find me eight years ago. Like you need to be finding those guys that are like needing the needing the portfolio. Yes. That bad, and they're willing to grind out or they're living at their parents' house and like build with them. Love that. Chad, give us one of the dumbest things you ever did. You can pick one. I've done some really dumb shit. Haven't we all? Trapping to your janitor sounded pretty dumb? No, that made a lot of sense, man.

I was like, dude, I see you every day. Like, you know, like this is this is perfect. Uh the dumbest shit I've ever done. Just one of the dumbest. We just want a glimpse. We don't have time for all the dumb things, Chad. Oh man, I've done so much shit. Uh I try to find silver linings and all the stupid shit that I do so that it's now value, but uh I learned you could learn a lesson from a dumb thing. That doesn't mean it's not dumb. Yeah, no, that's true. I've I've I've I've crashed a I've crashed a few cars. Okay. Okay, let's let's flip it around. Give us one of the best decisions you ever made. Besides marrying my wife to be uh and bringing Mac on as a business partner. I mean, those are great. Uh yeah. Those are great. Those are that those are that's that's don't even try and think past those. Those sounds amazing.

That was part one of the rampage. Rapid Fire Rampage. Continuing right on to the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices, Chad. You just have to pick it the one that jumps out to you the quickest. Okay. The less you think the better. Okay. Here we go. Rappers or singers? Oh my damn. I'm like, dude, so much of our revenue is made up of rappers. We're not gonna, we're not discounting. This is not uh we don't fuck with the other one kind of thing. Uh I would uh singers, maybe rappers or singers. Which one jumps out? Singers. There it is. Beer or liquor. Oh, I love beer. Beer. I'm an IPA guy all day. Okay. You drank some of my liquor just now, so I'm a little offended. Oh, I'm like ready to fill that back up, honestly. I was like, I've been looking at this and I'm like, damn, we're kind of on a flow. Both you guys are. And I'm like, we're on a flow, and I shouldn't interrupt the flow. I want to be like, yo, can we pause this so I can make a drink? We're gonna we're gonna do another round after this, but we're we're close to the end, so let's go ahead. Sandals or slides.

Thongs are interesting for the toes. Um it's not comfortable. Well, and it's like then it's like the good ones you gotta wear in, and they'll like give you blisters and stuff. Uh I'm a slide guy. We're on the same page. House party or the club. Oh, house party all day. I'm like so anti-club. I'm like, I think that's a hundred percent of the guests so far. Yeah. no one likes the club. When I go to the restaurant, I want to be empty. Yeah. Like when I go to the pool, empty. Like I I'm around people all day, so like I don't know. Good on people. Job is to put large groups of people in small areas, which was shitty for COVID, but we still won. Yeah. Okay, give us lake house or mountain cabin. I've had some great times in the mountains, but I'm um I'd say go go lake house. Pending you don't rent this really awesome cabin that we rented this one time. If it was even stakes, we go lake house. Cool.

Yeah, because like all this stuff could be out of lake house too. Perfect. Okay. He's got fond memories from this mountain cabin, Yeah, clearly. Indoor pool, indoor movie theater. It was pretty fucking dope. Holy shit. Send me the link to that. I think I know the answer to this next one, but I'm uh just based on our conversation so far, I'm gonna ask it anyway. Um tattoos or jewelry? Jewelry. I haven't run into a piece of art that I love so much that I not remember it, but need it permanently on my body. It's a weird way to be anti-tattoos, but it makes sense. This is a good point. I'm not like anti-tat, dude, but I'm like, yo, dude. Like forever? Forever, man. I don't know. Forever? Here we go. Moving on. Sandwiches or burgers. Interesting comparison. I was like, are they different? Take it as you will. This is not an analysis. This is pick one off the top of your head. Well, it's like I kind of feel like a sandwich because is a burger not a sandwich? That's what I it's like a square versus rectangle thing.

We're asked the tough questions here on the One More Time Podcast. Yeah, I would say sandwich because a burger is a type of sandwich. There we go. Great answer. I can have both, dude. Black, not white. It's great. Great answer. Boxers or briefs. I'm a brief dude, even though boxers apparently, or I'm sorry, Um, yeah, I'm a brief guy, even though they're not good for us men, apparently. Oh. They hug they hug the uh the the our balls are outside of our body for a very specific reason because the temperature regulation. Interesting. Um we're we're two briefs in a row now since I introduced that one to the this or that. Yeah, dude, briefs all day, and that's when they make really nice briefs, man. TV shows or movies? TV, dude. TV. Just series. It's like really long movies. And like you can get into so into it. Now it's like you're not waiting till Wednesday. Yeah. You know, for that shit to come out. You can binge it all. Yeah. Cats or dogs. Dogs, for sure. Now I have a cat, Khaleesi, love you, but you're a cat cat. Dude, you're a cat cat.

Like. You know, it's like pet me once, I love you, pet me twice, I fucking kill you. You know, I I always say this. I'm like, dude, this is Khaleesi's house. I just live in it. Um that's funny. There's a big difference between dogs and cats. Um, directing or producing? Producing. Boom. Part two of the Rapid Fire Rampage. It was a good one, but we're now moving on to part three. I do have to caveat because when you're producing, you still get the say in all those areas. Right. You know, and it's like now my job is just to bring in somebody who's better at it. And if I feel like they're making a bad decision, you can still have the power. Love that. Love that. Here we go. Rapid uh fire rampage part three. Word association. I'm gonna give you one word. You give me one word back on top of your head. Rapid fire rampage, Chad Tenney's part three. Here we go. Your first word is time. Sublime. Pandemic.

Academic. Is this a rapper we have on? Family. Oh, we rhyming, or am I just doing like what it reminds me of? No, like literally the first word. It's killing the rhyme thing. Like we love that. Oh my bad. Oh, if I did pandemic non-rhyming, I'd be like money. Yeah, well, in a good way. There you go. Well, yeah, we're going for first thing that comes to your rhyme. First word, it can rhyme, it can not rhyme. Oh, okay. First word. Sorry, I was like, what rhymes? Family. He's like, shmamily. Family. Love. Lens. Cook. China. Money. Strip club. Fun drugs, girls. Awesome. All acceptable. Roofies. Good story, by the way. Oh, God. Roofied at the strip

club with a client. We'll talk about that on episode uh two, Chad Tenney's. Stress. Uh, every day. Green screen. Costs a lot of fucking money. money. Bitcoin. Love. I got Bitcoin stickers on my future journal, man. I love the crypto. This is my second bull run, by the way. Atlanta. The shit. Lobster. Great. Government. Doing it the wrong way. J. Cole. Thank you. What a rampage. What a rampage, folks. What an episode. This has been another episode of the One More Time podcast. We have Mr. Chad Tenney, director, filmmaker, producer, Extraordinaire.

We appreciate you coming on, Chad. Thanks, guys. For those of you that like this episode, please like our page. Please follow us. Please subscribe. Drop a comment. Drop a review. Wherever you listen to your podcast. Tune in every week. We are coming back at you, whether you like it or not. We don't care. We don't care. You're not getting rid of us. Not happening. We appreciate it, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Until next week. We are out. Peace. Peace. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you.