Joint Venture with QC (Atlanta's Top Record Label) ft. 808 Blake

If you're an artist today, step one is can you bring people out? Do whatever you gotta do. Figure a way to gather a group of people. That's an important part of this whole equation of being an artist. I mean, eventually you gotta gather people to come to a show. You gotta gather people to listen to your music. You have to do something that makes people look into what you're doing. The One More Time Music Podcast. Genuine conversations with genuine people about music. Hosted by Henry with a three and playback Ben. We're from being more coops to piss off. One more time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. I am your host, Playback Ben, here with my co-host. Henry with a three, aka The Trap Jack Black. The Trap Jack Black. I like that. Good one, right? That's good. Henry, who do we have on the podcast today? Welcoming in on episode 40 of the One More Time Podcast. Big 4-0. Big 40. Large 4 0. You know him as a supervillain from the Marvel Universe.

It's Eric Killmonger. Killmonger. In the building. I I fought people for less for that. Have you ever gotten that before? Because of the hair. Bro, when it when I first got it, I got so much, so many killmongers. Who had the hair first? I'd like to say that I had it like six months before that movie came out. Oh, so they had it probably though, like a year before the movie. came out. You know what? It's funny. Yeah, so I mean, who, yeah, I I I wasn't on the set, so I didn't, I never even knew that was a thing. Okay. It really was. I saw some World Cup. Uh it was one of the dudes in World Cup, and I was like, man, that shit's hard. Like, I was like, I just needed something different. I I had had, I mean, I was having, I had dreads, I had dreads, and I was just like, man, I just need something different. So I talked to my barber, he was like, man, we just I was like, bro, what if we just cut half of it? Yeah. Well, yo, shout out to Trim for helping us out with the roast because I was like, yo, who does Blake look like? He came through with the killmonger. Yeah, shout out Trim.

So shout out Trim. Yeah. Um In all seriousness. In all seriousness, this is legendary producer, manager, business owner. The list goes on 808 Blake. Oh man. We appreciate you coming on, man. Man, I never got legendary before. I appreciate that. You are legendary. Legendary. That's for sure. So you've been crushing the dad game. You're like what, seven months in? Seven months in, yeah. Loving the dad game. They need some pointers. I need some tips. I'm expecting. I'm expecting in May. Yeah. Give me just a couple of the like key takeaways, man. Uh, you know, the first few months, you know, you and your wife be nice to each other because. that shit is- Oh god, that's gonna be hard. That shit is a blur. Like, yeah, I mean, just you're not gonna sleep. I mean, your days of sleeping are done. Yeah, I mean, like, uh I mean, I was just thinking about it today. I'm like, I'm fucking tired. I've been tired for seven months, seven months. Yeah, and on top of trying to. I mean, I was already tired of music, but I am ultra tired.

But I I I love every second of it. I mean, you know, it's just you're living for something different, which is you know, for me, I think that was a big part of me. I don't know, it's just a great thing, man. Yeah, and she's fucking dope. Yeah, my little Lula Bear. Shout out to her. She's she's already a Georgia fan and already a Georgia fan, a rap fan. I'm hoping my next little protege. You're gonna put a microphone. But I'm not putting no pressure on her. She wants to fucking be a marine biologist, by all means do it. That sounds cool. Yeah, right. Um, so well, you know, you've also been called called like a natural dad. You said it's been like something you felt really, you know, natural doing. You've been somewhat of like a caregiver. Have you been playing like a father figure? Would you say like in your music career at all? I I think I would say father figure, more coach. Coach. Like it's funny. I uh Coach Blake. Yeah. Hell yeah. Like I I kind of studied like sports management and I really always got into the idea of coaching. Like if I wasn't gonna do music, I always thought about coaching. But I mean, you know, music is the same idea. And uh, so yeah, coaching, you know, it's it's it's trying to, I mean, even even as a producer, you're trying to get the best quality and help somebody grow and see things in themselves that they may not see.

So yeah, it it's it's working itself out as dad, you know. what I mean, like it's funny, she just started crawling like two days ago. Shout out Lula, yeah. Lula. But like I literally had like in her little play set, I put her in the corner so she could just work her legs for like early. Yeah, and like every time I go to the doctor, and they're like, that's it, because she's whole, she could she could hold herself up by like three months. Damn. And they were like, that's advanced. And I was like, yeah, that's the training. That's her. That's the training. She's mine. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. Yeah, so you, you know, you've had like an eclectic background, you've been really exposed to like a lot of people from different walks of life, you know, all sorts of socioeconomic race, you know, gender, whatever. Has that served you, you know, well, you think in music? Definitely. Um, you know, I uh it's it it to me, uh it's like my ability to I can get in a room and kind of figure out how I can connect with somebody. Um, you know, whether you be from the streets, whether you be at Harvard.

I mean, I just I always try to sit there and find a common ground or a common connection and then and then attack it from there. And uh music, you know, there's so many people for so many different backgrounds. And so like your background has nothing to do, you know. It's just where where can we connect and where can we find a night, you know, just something to start off and then from there, let's build from there. So I've always, you know, I try to like I ask questions, I try to, I'll sit in a room sometimes, just let people talk and just kind of get some that I'm like, oh, you do that. Well, I like doing that, so let's let's conversate on that, and then we can work our way back into the music or whatever. Um, but yeah, it it definitely uh I I definitely appreciate like I went to like four different high schools or five different schools over the course of my uh growing up and shit like that. And then I went to two different colleges. Yeah, you went to Hampton first. Right, I went to all black school first, and then you figured out that was not for you. Was that like what what was the reason behind transferring to Georgia? It wasn't that it wasn't for me.

I I enjoyed my two years there. Like I turned the fuck up for two years. Like uh yeah, but I thought they had like dorm curfews. They had curfews. The freshman year was curfew shit. Because I thought he left for the partying. I did. yeah, I I I wanted to go back to I definitely wanted a uh uh more traditional college experience, but yeah, insert Athens. Yeah, yeah. So I went I literally I went from all black to all white. Uh perfect on the walk right life. But I enjoyed like Hampton was was was a great experience. Like um, I got a shout-out my boy Ali Ali Kareem. Sneaking me stupid, man. He's a dope, dope uh snoot uh shoe designer. He works at uh Under Armour now. Oh nice. Oh wow. He came, he came my sophomore year, and we like I I I don't know why my mom we she let me get a house, and we just uh we burned that house to the fucking ground. You did not get the security deposit back? Definitely not The house, the house was in shambles. Uh couldn't even rent again. Like, I mean, I just had no rules. Like I had no rules then, and then uh, and then after that, you know, I like I understood the black college experience.

Like, like it was great to be there. Um, I think I wanted something a little bit more challenging, something that kind of was the real world. Like, I think a black colleges are great, but there is a there is a point where you reach and you're like, this is cool, but in the real world, it's not all black. So you gotta be able to fin for yourself. And I wanted to be a bigger, a bigger fish in a bigger pond type deal. So I was like, fuck it, let's go to Georgia. And I it's funny, I never coming out of high school, I never thought I wanted to go to Georgia. I was I was so anti-UGA. Me too. I was like, man, there's a bunch of races up there. Fuck all that. I thought it might be fun. Yeah, but then I went to UNC and it was the same, just fucking bunch of white people. Southern schools are like that. But you know, it's like you gotta figure out, you gotta figure out where you stand. And to me, it was just like, I mean, it was 40,000 kids, and it's like, how do I make an impact among 40,000 people? Yeah, and so like I I figured it out. I mean, we uh I joined this, I joined the a black fraternity over there, the Alpha Phi Alpha Man, and uh we brought that chapter back and started getting the newspaper for that and just just hustling, throwing parties and shit like that. Yeah, were you doing music at the time?

I was so I was I was literally uh going to school in Athens and then driving back on the weekends. I would go to do beat battles at Apache. Okay. Uh shout out Apache, Open mic. yeah. shows. So you helped Drez, man. Shout out Drez the beatnik, man. And Trez with the big hair, another legend, man. And you know, I hope he gets his just due in the Atlanta scene because he was one of the best hosts. Yo, we need Drez on the podcast. Drez. Yeah, Drez is is. Drez. We love to have you on the podcast, my guy. Uh, But yeah, I was driving back and forth, trying to, you know, whatever I could to get on. Um was this during the stereotypes days? Oh yeah, you know, stereotypes. Ben is the Nardwuar of podcasts. Yeah, so He does his research. So stereotypes was a duo, right? It was you as the producer, and you were locked in with just one artist, right? Yeah, so it was me and uh my best friend uh Patrick Sullivan, who was actually a uh a silent partner in playbook. Oh, okay. Nice. Uh, he's, he's a lawyer. Not so silent now, I guess.

Not so, yeah. Yeah. One More Time exclusive. Yeah, One More Time. Uh, But yeah, yeah, he was he was the rapper, and um, you know, I always knew I wanted to. We we had started doing uh making music in high school. Um, and uh like you know, you know, Barry, Barry Hefner. Yeah, of course. He was a rapper in there and Ben loves Barry. I love Barry? Yeah, he reposts everything that Barry posts. My Instagram is basically a Barry like repost to my story. Because like his brain is just I mean, I love the way he thinks. No, I really do. He's, He's he's one of a kind. And uh he so he was he was he was rapping, Pat was rapping. We had another homeboy, B Smith was rapping. Oh, B Smith, shout out B Smith. Yeah, yeah. I haven't seen him in a while. And and and we would just really the whole thing was like they were rapping, and I was like, I'm not really trying to be a rapper, but I need I need to have a role because you just don't want to be all your friends are doing stuff. It was so much fun. Yeah, it was like so. You got a cracked copy of FL Studio. I got from, from from the one and only Justin Padron. Yeah, I got shout out Padron. JP.

JP was the was the plug, the uh the uh the plug plug. He he would plug me up with uh plugs, all kinds of plugins and shit. Yeah, yeah. Plug plug. Yeah, he'd give me sounds and shit. And he just and you know, I just literally I would drive back, I would go to Atlanta and go get shit from Justin, and then I would drive back to Athens and just sit in my room and just fucking tinker and toy. How'd you meet Justin, by the way? I never knew that. Because I met y'all at the around the same time. Uh we was in high school, like high school shit. We were throwing, throwing parties, me, me, him, Barry. Uh, I mean, we was you gotta understand, like in high school, we was like the movie kids. You ever see that movie Kids? Yeah, I love that movie. We literally were just lawlessly running running through the streets of Atlanta. I mean, with no fucking There was one summer where I like I never went home. And like I was just with with Banks and Barry, we, you know what I'm saying? We had a whole house that like to ourselves, and we would just in high school. High school. Yeah. That's crazy.

Yeah. And we was cool with like, I mean, the thing is, like, we was cool with all the Metro Atlanta schools. So that's that's Druid Hills, Lakeside, North Atlanta. We had friends at Tucker, we had friends at Woodward, we had Pace, Paideia, and then and then you had, you know, we had Westlake. We had, you know what I'm saying? We were just so we would throw a party, it'd be six six, seven hundred kids. Yeah, great, all the grady kids. Yeah. And so Crim. Um, and so whenever we would throw a party, I'm talking about it'd be eight, nine high schools that would come. Wow. Um, and that's like, you know, you were just meeting people through through that, through shit like that. And so like Justin was there. We I went to, you know, we Justin be at parties and we would kick it, and then he'd be like, yo, I record, you know, I produce and record and shit. He was the first one to record us. So we'd go to his apartment and shit and record. And you know, it was it was a it was a fun time in Atlanta, honestly, because it's just like there were no rules. They're just get in how you fit in and and kind of make your way from that point. Yeah.

And so and and so who are some of your favorite like rapper-producer duos? Rapper-producer duos. Yeah, because like there's you know, there's a lot of them that have come up together, right? Right. All right. Well, I mean, uh the the OG, the greatest to ever do it is definitely Quincy and Mike. Okay, of course. Then you got, I mean, I loved Pharrell with the clips. Yeah. Um, I loved uh Yo, Pusha's new album is like getting so much buzz right now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Pusha's, Pusha's one of the hardest to do it, man. Um real street rap. I always loved like Toomp and uh TI. I always thought they were a fucking crazy just combination, of course, organized noise and OutKast. Yeah. Um who else? Those are some greats. I mean JD and Kris Cross. Like, yeah, like I mean that's an that's a hilarious one, but I agree. First of all, Kris Kross, like you gotta understand. Like, when I was, I think I was my first concert I ever went to was Kris Cross. It was MC Hammer, TLC, and Kris Kross. Wow. I was

I was five. It was at the Omni. And uh five years old. I knew right there. I hammer came out of a spaceship at the Omni, and I said, I I this is what I could do this for the rest of my life. Yeah, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Can we credit MC Hammer for your entire career right now? I mean Hammer Hammer was I knew that I knew that whole album. I knew that the Kris Cross album, I knew that shit back and forth. I was like, I go to school, with my clothes backwards. Yeah, You know what I'm saying? And like and JD is a fucking genius. I hope he's another one that like I hope he gets his just due for how dope he is. And also Jermaine Dupri and Usher, the Confessions album. Oh god, one of the most one of the greatest RB albums of all time, if you ask me. Literally, an Uber driver in New York was playing that. Yeah. And I was like, this is amazing. I had not heard that album in no, I just hadn't heard it in so long. It's so old, but I was like, this is amazing, awesome. Also, Leon Ware and Marvin Gaye, the I Want You album is amazing. Ooh. I mean, I like Damn, this guy really knows.

his dude. Great answers. That's great. I studied this music shit. Like, you know what I mean? Like, my dad gave me all his records when I was like 17, and I just sat up and just went through everything to understand it. Um, but yeah, That's dope. Norman Whitfield and Temptations, their album is hard. Damn, we should do a whole episode where Blake just names producer and artist duos. There's some great ones out there. And like, you know, the cool part about it is I love when it when a pr they can they literally you cultivate a specific sound, you know. what I mean, Yes. it's unique. It is. And I I you know, I think it's kind of a lost art sometimes. I think I mean we're starting to see it. I I it's around. I just don't, you know, everybody wants to go get, you know, the hottest thing or whatever is going on. So things tend to sound the same. But when you when you really work with a producer and an artist, there's something that gets unlocked, There's something a little bit more special, I think. Yeah. Especially because I think we're in a singles market so heavy, people are pushing singles, you gotta have hit singles. Right.

We're losing the whole, you know, producer and artist lock in and make a project together. Right. You have the time to really lock in and develop something. I think that is especially getting lost. And that to me, I mean, that's that's been my whole career. It's like I kind of gave up on you know, the single part of it versus like I just wanted to make projects because it just always That's kind of where I'm going. Yeah, I mean it's it's it's it's dope, man. It was just you know, it was a chance to really like I said, make something different or special or something that means something to you, and like just being having that chance to work with a specific artist and get to know them and interweave their stories into what you do as a um making music. I think I think that's just one of the the dopest things you can do. But I mean, there's no knock for anybody who makes hot singles because that shit's hard as fuck, too. When you when you do these projects with people, do you um do you hang out with the artists like outside of the studio? Do you guys go like do stuff, you know, and kind of actually get to know each other? Definitely.

I think that helps. Like, um, you know, gotta go like putt putt with them or something. Bro, I like I said, with like Nappy Roots is uh, you know, I did I've done three albums with them, um, you know, me with me exclusively doing the production. And I toured with them. crazy, by the way. You know, and it it like touring with somebody, it's about as close as it gets. Oh my god. It is it's like a it's like being married to someone. And so, like, I mean, half the project, if you listen to any of the projects, most of those are stories that we've experienced or had on the road. I mean, most of them literally, I'm like, Skiles, remember when we did this or skinny. Do you remember did this or skinny. Do you remember when we saw that? And like, let's bring that into what we're doing right now. Yeah, and um, it makes it, you know, it it it it kind of documents and it's it's really just documentation, honestly. Um, but I I I think it's dope when you can, you know, like I said, you can lock into some shit and you can lock into the stories about who a person really is, and and you can really get something special out of them when you can do that. So yeah, so before the nappy roots era though, it was SMKA.

SMKA. What is it stand for supermarket knife attack? Supermarket knife attack. Wow, I love that tag. Who's that? Is that Jaron? That's random ass names. Is that Jaron's voice? That's my voice. Yeah, I was like, That's you, yeah, because SMKA was a thing before even Jaron entered the picture. Before, yeah, before Jared. Yeah, yes, yeah. So what was the vision behind it when you first started? So I once I had graduated from Georgia, um, I came back to Atlanta and I was kind of like, man, I want to do this production shit. But I knew I needed help on the business side of it. Um so my boy Mike, uh Mike Wahlberg, man. Shout out Mike Walbert. Shout out Mike. Mike, we're getting you on the podcast, man. Yeah, man. Super dope business man. Yeah, man. Uh and and a music. I mean, he's yeah, just a music guy. And in Atlanta music scene, um, over the last 10 years, he's had a uh a great imprint on this shit. Yeah. So he he had just graduated from USC and um and I graduated from Georgia. And damn phone's ringing. My bad. Um, if you need to answer it.

Nah, I'll call that. Is it someone cool? It's someone we want on the podcast? It's my dad. Oh, okay. I'll call him. How cool is your dad? My dad, my dad's cooler than me. Way cooler than me. Can we ask him something? For sure. On the podcast. My uh no, literally, no jumper has like allowed the guests to like take a phone call. But if it's like a super like, I don't know. Oh, it's like it's always like a super cool phone call. I'm like, is this curated? Oh, Drake just hit me up. Yeah, let's see what he's got. No, like you know, Keed is calling, got it or something. Right, right, right. He's like, let me get Keed on and like talk to him. It's like a whole part of the episode. He's really just calling to FaceTime my daughter. Yeah, I'm like, I'm I'm sure your dad doesn't want to, I don't know, maybe he doesn't want to be on the one more time podcast. I don't know. Who knows? But he's calling, he's definitely calling to like, yo, it's Lula. Up. I want to see her. And I'm like, all right. that's literally my parents with my get ready for that. With my niece and nephew. Yeah, get ready for that. Wanna see my grandbaby. Yeah. Um so Mike had just graduated USC. Just graduated USC. You know, graduated Georgia. Right, and we went to high school together. So me and Mike, uh, we played basketball together. Okay.

But you started your own AAU team. Yeah, we did. You just like decided to start your own AAU team. Yeah, we did. You can just do that? The shockers. Did you just do that? I didn't I didn't think you could, but then Mike was like, Yeah, we did it. Yeah, we did it. I was like, okay. Our boy, Pat's mom was like, she got some uniforms and she filled out all the paperwork, and then and my my older brother was was the coach. Yeah, it's like what? And we just fucking started it. Yeah, we we had some funny stuff. We we played Lou Williams when he was in uh Lou Will. He was eighth grade. And uh my only Lou Williams story, he went, so we're we were we're 15. He's probably 13. And so we're like, well, we're playing these little ass kids. And then I was smoked, you know. Georgia's. Oh my god, they beat the brakes off us. Like Georgia, the Georgia stars, bro. Oh God. They like motherfucking monsters, bro. Like they were, they were something, something different. And uh he went fucking baseline. And uh we had a we had a uh center who was 6'6, and I remember him going baseline.

I kept being like, I know this little motherfucker is not about to raise up on this dude. I mean, he because at the time he's probably like 5'10, maybe. Okay, he fucking went baseline and he just kept rising. And I was like, oh my fucking God, he's about to do it. I my last thing to our center was like, move, motherfucker, move. And he stood there and postered him, fucking yoked him on a baseline. I'm talking about boom boom and he went baseline and yoked it on him. Just from behind the goal. Oh my god. This was for Lou. Yeah, Lou Williams. man. We pulled it out, bro. We pulled out the MLK, Lou Williams. Let's fucking go. I was wondering where you were going. I hope, I hope Georgia. I hope somewhere in Atlanta we make a statue of Lou, because he probably is He's a legend, man. I mean, we you know, we got Dominique, but I mean Lou might be the greatest. I mean, Dwight Howard's cool. Played him in high school as well. Uh yeah, I remember him at Southwest Atlanta Christian, man. I played him when he was a 6'1 point guard. Oh shit. Uh he had a really gnarly growth spurt. Yeah, oh bro.

He went from eighth grade, he was 6'1, and then the next year he was 6'9. Oh my god. Yeah. Uh but yeah, Lou Williams should definitely get uh get a fucking statue at some point. I don't know. I don't know, man. I don't know if you where you put it. I mean Gwinnett. Uh we could put it at Magic City if we want. Oh hell yeah. Uh but anyway, that man, the man's like a George Georgia legend. Yeah. Uh but yeah, me and Mike, we we played basketball together, and we was also, we threw party, you know, we we me and Mike hustled together. We definitely. So it was natural when he came out and he was working for a potato chip company. Hey, and Mike is an ideas guy, and like what are we doing? He's like, man. I was like, bro, we could start our own production. He's like, fuck it. So he was like, let's do it. So we we literally built a um a studio in his parents' garage apartment. And uh we like hustled, bro. Apartments have garages now. Yeah, his house is a little different. It's a little interesting. It's a little it's a little different.

Yeah. Uh it was kind of like the first friend's house. Uh, you know, we were in the pool house. Okay. But we uh our first project, we kind of um we didn't know nobody knew who the fuck we were, nobody had heard of me. Um but we were just we talked it up. Mike was like everywhere we went, we were like, man, we got this new project, you gotta be on this project. Like, blah, blah blah blah. We go to this at this time, like Fadia, Fadia Catered, she was doing broken bougie. So we would just kind of go to Broken Bougie and start like seeing who was moving around and who was making noise in Atlanta. And like I said, we would just talk shit up, you know, fake it till you make it kind of deal, and be like, bro, you gotta get on this project This project will be crazy. And so it took one person, first person to jump on the project that uh Grip lies. Grip, rest in peace, Grip. Grip, yeah, rest in peace, man. I love Grip, man. That's one of my favorite human beings. Um, and and and just really like uh just the uh uh Atlanta fucking legend. And uh he he jumped on it and he kind of just would talk us up, you know. I mean, he'd be like, bro, y'all need like y'all don't fuck with Blake, bro.

Y'all need to fuck with Blake. So he brought, he brought him. He was just co-signing the fuck out of here. Oh my god, co-signing the shit out of us. He got he got us to do uh at the time was this group called Proton, who uh they were like, I mean, they were they were popping, they were all over Fader and Complex, and um Fadia was managing them. And uh who else was was making noise. I mean, Sean Fallion, who's a DJ, he was he was rapping at that time. Um I mean, B.O.B. was doing his thing. Um, and so yeah, we and we he introduced me to uh I mean Big Mark. I uh we we when we were working together, he was Alien Craft. Alien Craft. And then Trim. Like full shout out. That's how you met Trim? That's how we met Trim. Shout out Trim. Yo, he played me some unreleased trim the other day. Yeah, I was like, yo, he still got it, bro. Yeah, Trim, Trim's alright. Uh so Trim had just trim was making noise on his own as well. Like, yeah, and uh, like I said, we just talked this shit out. We we hustled and convinced people to on the first thing we ever done, first time I ever done like a collaborative project at all.

We convinced all these artists to do it, and we got Motion Family to shoot the first video, which was with Grip, um Kraft and Trim. It was a song called Caddies, which was like uh it was a big boy sample. They shot the video, and we with the video shoot, we got all these people to pop up and show out. And it me and Mike, the whole time, me and Mike just kind of laughing because it's like we really like schemed our whole way to get to this shit. Yeah, a little bit of imposter syndrome. Yeah, I mean, well, it's you know, I mean, name anybody that in music, they scheme their way to get to a point. You're only as big as like you kind of perceive yourself to be. So if you it's not even cap, like if you just perceive yourself as we're here, we know we're doing this, and people gravitate towards that, I think. So you have to have that. So we did with the first the first one we did, and then the second one. I mean, we started getting like uh like Yellow Whiff got on the second one. Uh Freddie Gibbs got on one. Gangsta Gibbs. Yeah. I thought I meant. He's like still one of my favorite artists, yeah. For sure. I produced like two of his tracks with Juicy J and uh and with Smokepurpp and Crazy Bone.

Like, so it just funny. It was like it was straight production though. It was like you're the product, you were the product. I was the producer. Well, well, it started with me and uh Kyle King. Okay, who was working with BOB. Um, he was his guitarist for about seven years. Um so it started with with three of us, and then Kyle kind of as he started touring more with Bob, he it just was me and Mike after that point. And then we eventually then KELS came into the equation through Jaren. Big shout out, Kato, man. Kato won the track, dude. yeah, Kato came into the equation after that. And then we started working, you know, working the projects, and then we were also throwing shows. And the shows really were the probably the most useful things we were doing. We were throwing South by South, South by Southwest shows. We were throwing shows at Star Bar in Atlanta. And it's just like every time we throw them, like it's just would be wild. Like, I I mean, like I don't know, I don't know why they were so wild, but motherfuckers were because you had experience doing it from like age 15. yeah.

You were throwing you had a your own house to throw parties at. I can I can always throw a party. A party is is one of the simplest forms of things. I mean, I can literally get on my phone and call 100 people and probably get at least 70 of them out. But you also think it's a valuable, a live event is still very valuable when it comes to building a brand. I think, man. I be getting so mad at a lot of the artists out today, because then I'm like, bro, how the fuck can y'all not bring 60 to 70 people out? Like, like literally, if you're an artist today, step one is can you bring people out? I don't like that should be the number one thing you should learn first and foremost, is like you gotta be able to bring folks out. Throw a party, man. Do whatever you gotta do, figure it out, but figure a way to gather a group of people. That is that's an important part of this whole equation of being an artist. Because I mean, eventually you gotta gather people to come to a show, you gotta gather people to listen to your music. You have to do something that makes people want to look into what you're doing. So like parties is the simplest form of it. Like, I don't know what you gotta do, but man, every every every popping artist that I've seen over the last 10 years could throw a party.

You could literally have a video shoot and be like people show up, and there'd be a party. You can only connect with something so deeply when it's just like a piece of content on your phone, or you know, music coming out of your car speakers. When you're physically at an event for an extended period of time and you're experiencing something and you're there, I think it's you get a much deeper connection. Right. And you meet people, you talk to people, yeah, and not only do you meet artists, you meet videographers, uh artists, like you know, create like uh visual artists and all these other things that are part of the culture and part of what you need to be doing, and tapping into a you're tapping into a scene, essentially. And so oh, I mean, I have like a goal for you know, my artists of like, yes, you need to be like online, you know, cultivating relationships, but it has to be in real life too, for sure. You have to, yeah, like unless your excuse is you live in the middle of nowhere, right? Where there's not a scene, right? Maybe you do need to lean heavily, you know, more into the internet thing, Hop on some Zoom calls. if you're in Atlanta, yeah, get the fuck out of your house or your apartment and go to pop up events for like streetwear brands, go to shows of other artists, go out and do shit for sure to meet people.

Yes. Because it's funny, like the more you go to these events, you start to see the same people. Same motherfuckers, bro. But it's like even just your events, I've met so many of the same people. And it's like, it is like I may not see talk to you the first time or the second time or third time or fourth but the fifth time, I'm like, bro, I see you everywhere we go. Like, who the fuck are you? What do you do? Let's like help each other. Like, what's going on here? You know, I'll tell you something funny. The reason I even got this haircut was because it's like literally like a killmonger. It's literally like a calling card. It's better, it's better than a card. It's like you can see me and you're like, that's Blake. That's Blake. See, I'm I'm just white. Yeah, that's my calling card. That's what I'm saying. Everybody knows, well, that's a white man right there. It's not a very good calling. I like Blake's better. Yeah. How pale was that guy we saw at the club? But I promise you, people will say like they'll say they've seen you before because you'd be at events and you'd be out and you'd see a white guy. But it's an important part of this whole equation in this shit, especially in Atlanta. I mean, if you go to New York, same idea.

LA is the same thing. It's like the more people see you around, they start to be like, yo, what do you do? Yeah. Because obviously you're in the same rooms I'm in the room. And you know, and if you're in the same rooms that some, you know, that I'm doing, you obviously are doing something in this shit. And then it's like, yeah, you're not just there for no reason. Right. It's like you you could tell when someone's just like a random ass person that just happened to be there versus somebody who's like actively at least trying to figure something out. Yeah. And eventually it will come to a point where you'll ask or you'll, you know, try to connect with that person. Yeah, so give us some game as far as like, all right, if if I show up at these events, right? Yeah. If I'm trying to make it as a manager, I'm trying to make it as an artist, I'm trying to make it as a creative, whatever, right? If I show up to these events, like, what kind of tactics do you think? You know what I mean? Do you just approach people and say, like, yo, I'm Blake, I'm a producer, you know what I mean? Like, like, you know, what are some tips as far as like networking and that sort of thing? I always say this, man. Everybody, you know, you know, if you go into here, just a random ass example. 2 Chainz is listening party.

Yeah. Everybody wants to focus on 2 Chainz, but it's the other people around you. Like, look to your left or your right. Stop looking up and look to your left or right. Because those are the people that you can actually literally build with. 2 Chainz probably ain't got his his his team is set. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's not too much more he you could say to him that he doesn't already have. But everybody that's out here, whether it be a videographer, whether it be a photographer, whether it be this kid's like, yeah, I'm just you know, those are the people that literally it like this shit moves in waves, and then you grow together. And so if you're looking at all the other people around you to your left or right, they're this there, and you start chopping it up with them, you will eventually start to work shit out with the people around you. Like, I just think so many people look so top heavy and go, man, I gotta talk to the top. And it's like, man, no, bro, look to your left and your right because you gotta network laterally. Yeah, Networking laterally is key. Those are the people that you grow with, and I promise you, like, I it's so funny because the so many people that I came into this game now are executives, are ARs, our, you know, they're popping as managers, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, those are just friends now, you know what I mean?

Those are like literally like we was all in the shit together. Well, we can laugh about stories in the past because we it was just us, we didn't know what the fuck we were doing, but you know, we we stayed friends over that time, and now as now that you are in a position of power or we can do help each other out, it's like it's a homie relationship already, you know what I'm saying? And it and that shit's organic because we built from the ground up. That's such a recurring theme, man. Yeah. I mean, we've had so many people talk about that, and it's it's so key. And I think that you see these people online, even or in person that are just chasing that super clout when it's it's like a fool's errand. It is. And literally, it's like there's no way to your point that you're gonna go up to two chains and convince him that you have something to bring to the table that even if you're super dope, right? Once again, you could be a super dope producer, you could be a super dope videographer, whatever. He's got it. Right. He's got it covered. Right. But the guy that's right next to you, to your point, or the you know, the girl that's right next to you, she or he might not have what you have to offer, right? And you can, you know, come in this shit together.

And you rebuild it, it's more valuable too. Like, I think to, and it's more impressive to just to go to the top dog, and it's like, oh yeah, you connected with that guy when he was already up here. Or it's like, you know, I connected with these people that were with me, and we came up and we kind of did that. I think it shows more. And also, man, one thing you gotta realize is like the top top people in this music shit, uh, they're busy, man. So they they're like they're kind of out of touch to what's going on in certain scenes because they just they don't got time, bro. They're you know what I mean? Like true. They're they're thinking about uh things outside of what's going on or what so like you're basically getting a temperature of what the scene is like, what's going on, who's next up, who's next who's doing this, who should I be knowing? Because eventually those top dogs are gonna be like, What's they're gonna ask? Like, what's next? We gotta find something new. We gotta find something. Everybody's always gonna ask what's new, yeah, what's shiny, not true, and and what should we be looking out for? And so if you are like, oh shit, you should talk to this person, this person's dope. This kid right here, killing this shit right here.

Like, yeah, always keeping an understanding and and appreciation for that, like like those keep the the the youth and and everything else, like you gotta understand that those are gonna be the next wave of whatever's coming. And so that's just kind of like even when we did SMK, it was like that was uh the biggest thing that we did was always keep our our our finger on what was coming up next. Like there's a kid that is bubbling, or people are talking about in this little scene up here. Shit, we gotta go work with you. We gotta go find you out and get you in the studio or get you on something or get you at a show. And that's how we could always like people would call us all the time, like what well, I mean, blogs would call us, labels would call us, you know what I mean? Because we would we knew we were tapped we were tapped in. Yeah, and so you can use that to your advantage, man. It's a it's a place of power when you when people have to call you and ask you what's going on. Yeah, for sure. So I mean, SMK started off as a production, you know, company where you and you know, Kyle, and then basically just you were producing, KELS comes in, but you start dabbling in management, right? Like that's when Yeah.

So we uh bring Jaron on at that point, or yeah, we decided that like, you know, I mean well, first we had started with Kraft. Kraft was the first artist that we kind of like took on a more of a management role, yeah, not just doing the project, but also like, you know, shooting videos for him, trying to line up interviews, trying to line up shows for him. Um first artist to ever rep Georgia State that I ever saw, by the way. So I immediately mean he's also dope, but like yeah, yeah, yeah. He's wearing Georgia State gear. Kraft, is one of the dopest, man. I like he is I I really was very blessed to have him in my life. He taught me a lot about the shit. He also just as a artist to a producer, he helped me be such a better producer because he's just that fucking talented. Like he could write some of the best, catchiest records I've ever heard. Um, and he's just just one, and he's also just one of the most genuine people you're gonna meet in this shit. And you know. that's hard to come by. It is, and like tough industry.

For sure. And he's literally the reason I met Nappy Roots was through him. Um, because he was touring with them, and uh he brought them through one day. Uh and and like he was like, Y'all, like y'all, y'all gotta fuck with him. And uh they like Skinny called me and was like, We're we're pushing up tomorrow. I was like, cool. Yeah, and uh, so yeah, like Kraft, you know, like I said, it it it it started with Kraft from the management side, and then we we kind of um with Jaren, we did we did a project with him, and we were kind of like Jaren, you're dope. You just need you just need like a little bit of direction and a little bit of like let's you know, Mike was like, let's make this a whole tandem thing. So we kind of like we we started taking over doing the videos and and uh we also we teamed up with uh Ray Daniels, yeah. Yeah, um so we did like a little joint thing with Ray Daniels and our homeboy Slow who passed away. Um and so yeah, we started doing the management side of that, and we kind of we used first thing we did was uh schizo.

That's that video is crazy too. That record is crazy, that video is crazy. Yeah, shout out to 808 Blake and Mike Wahlberg. Schizo, man. That that's a that's a fucking record, man. Kato killed that shit, and uh that video shit was fun. Uh it was uh I mean it really changed the course of of a lot of paths for both Jaren and for us. Um also probably one of the worst deals we've ever done. I will say that. Jaren, that's Jaren about Schizo. Oh gosh. Jaren. yeah. On the podcast. Henry's Henry's had a few records with him. He's already been over here. You know, I've just gotta get him on. Sometimes you give up something to to to to gain something. And so we we gave up a lot. We gave up a lot for that record. Sometimes you give up a lot to gain a little. Yeah. I mean, but without like without that record, fun volume would never have come to the table. True. Um was he with Funk volume at that time? No. So he we did that. We did a deal with iHipHop distribution.

Worst deal. I was like, that sounds just like a terrible deal. Back in the day. Any deal with iHipHop sounds. I don't even think iHipHop is around. anymore. I don't know them, so I'm like, that just sounds terrible. They do own the rights to that record. Well, fuck them. Sounds like a division of Apple. Kato's probably pissed that I am talking about this. Oh God, he's gonna cry when he sees this. Um, so you know, that was your first glimpse into management. Is that kind of when you realized and identified like, yo, I really liked this kind of playing coach role type of shit that we talked about earlier? Was that yeah, you know, was it kind of automatic that you felt well? It just, you know, I I wanted to control the situation the situation a little bit more. Like, I always, you know, as a producer, you're just constantly fucking waiting. I hate waiting Tell me about it. I was talking to Skate08's manager about that shit, Nate, and he was just like, dude, it's such a game of waiting, man. producers is just like we are the most abused people in this in this fucking industry. Yeah, should we start a producer help group where it's like that really if you're feeling down?

There is called 1800. There should be a depression line for producers. 1-800-808. That shit fucking sucks. Like— Have you been waiting for your placement royalties for two and a half years? Bro, royalties, you're the last to get paid. Niggas bug you about getting getting fucking stems, and then and then and then they're like, but when you start to like say, oh, can I get my bread? They're like, oh, well, like, are you being pushy? Has your invoice gone unpaid for uh months or years? So that really that really pushed me into management. Was like, man, I'm like, man, fuck waiting on some shit. Like, especially waiting on my bread. Like, I'd rather just control the shit like i know when the project's coming out with i know when the videos are being shot yeah it sounds like because also like also rollouts too like yeah i might make i might make an insane record with an artist i'm like man yeah i love this song i want to see this song do super well but it's completely up to the artist to like roll it out correctly market it correctly and they don't have to spend money just like do it justice and i would just watch these great records that i helped that i produced just do nothing yeah and i'm like man i want to i could have been a part of that i could have helped out I mean, for sure that's why we're kind of moving in that direction a hundred percent. management side yeah I mean it's it well and you have a business mind and so do you yeah it like not every producer can just be like oh I want to be more involved and control my shit because if you don't actually have the business mind behind it you're not gonna actually succeed. Correct. Yeah, nah. so like you clearly had something in you that was already like geared toward like that mindset Right. I mean step one I'm like I'm a producer in the sense like I like like I said like I named like Norman Whitfield and like they produce with with an with a not just making a beat but like trying to orchestrate a a sound and and a and a vision for what you're doing. And I believe that like I wanted to have control over the vision of what we're doing and the sound that we're creating because like it's just if you're leaving it up to somebody else and it you know it's to be interpreted differently than what you might have thought of when you're creating this shit.

Yes. And so that was a big thing for me was like you know if we're gonna create this world together let's let it let's see it all the way through from the photos to the videos to the rollout to like certain shows to how your live show looks, how it like plays out in a live setting, you know what I mean? Yeah. I think all that shit's important. Um for sure. And so it just became it was almost like a just a natural thing of just like, you know, me and Mike were just like, man, we just need to, if we're gonna do projects, like we need to be fully immersed and involved into the to into it and make it worth it worth, worth the while and control it. And so yeah, uh, it just like and it and you know, in management, it's fun. It's it's it's annoying as fuck sometimes. It's fun, it's annoying as fuck. It's fun and annoying as fuck at the same time. He doesn't mean it, uh, clients. I mean, I tell I know clearly. I tell Metro, you annoy the shit out of me all the time. Facts. Henry hears that from me at least once a day. Um, so Nappy enters the picture because of Kraft?

Yeah, because of Kraft. So they were Kraft was on tour with them at first. He was touring with them. Um, and they heard this song Donkey Kong we did. Donkey Kong. Yes, I remember it. Uh, and like whenever he would play it with them on the road, like it would just, it would just hit harder than most of their records they had that they were performing live. He would come on and do this one song, and people would just go ape shit for this sound. Um, just because I just had first of all, that the if you ever listen to Donny on the fucking 808, is just peaking. I mean, it's all fucking. You are redlining, you ain't headlining. Yeah, you are 808 Blake. Right. I made that shit hit to the fucking max. Yeah, I was like, I don't give a. fuck. He was pushing it. And uh and so it, like you play on any speaker, it just it just blows shit. That's another thing we talked about too, though, is using shows and using live experiences as a way to kind of like audition some of your records and and you know, do you like looking at the crowd and see what works? That's very valuable.

That was one of the best times with Nappy is like literally we'd make it, we'd make a record, and then I we'd go on, we'd have a show on the weekends, or or we'd be on tour, and it was like, let's play that new shit. We try to see how it hits. Yes, and you could see, you kind of get an idea of a reaction by certain things, how things move people, how things maybe you're like, oh, it's not as it's not as live as I thought it was, or it didn't, I didn't really get the reaction that I was hoping, you know. And then and so it would it would kind of we'd go back and we were working on the project, we'd be like, Yeah, that song was cool, but maybe it didn't hit like we thought it was. Yeah, so it impacted decisions. Definitely. Okay, cool. That's so valuable, That's so cool. or it would go crazy and we'd be like, that song is dope. Let's push that one. Let's push this record. Yeah, like to we did this on Tokyo, and we uh I remember we went to UGA and shot the video at this frat house. I got that's a funny ass story about that one. Um and uh I mean if y'all want to hear that. I was here yeah. I was like, I was waiting for you to start.

So we shot it at uh I think it was the AE Pi House, which is like like that's like a Jewish fraternity. Great start. Great start. So, So we're all sitting around and it is indeed Jewish. They uh you know we we convinced them uh to let us shoot the video in there, and they were all pumped, you know, these kids. So so we at this time, like uh Skinny and Scales had just gotten this uh dab collector. This is why like it's the first time I had ever heard of dab. Yeah, this was probably 2012, maybe. Dabs were a thing, yeah. Yeah, so like and they because they they really they would spend every January, the month of whole month of January in Colorado. So they would come back with all these different weed shits, new technology, new shit to get high. they had this thing, it's called the nectar collector, nectar collectors. Yeah, they were one of the first I'd ever it's like a it's like a wand. Yeah, it's like a wand glass pipe pipe, but it's big, and you like hit. the dabs with it. So we're sitting around so before before we start shooting this video, we're all sitting around in their kitchen. Like, like you know, it's one of those big frat kitchens, and uh all these kids are like, they're like the line over here to get a dab.

So fucking long. And like all these kids like they're like, oh. So we get like so like you know, and but this is all nappy shit. This is all during a video shoot for Tokyo. Wow. And all the shit they got from Colorado. Yeah, that's awesome. They're bringing all kinds of new shit that everybody in Georgia's like, what the fuck is that? So this one girl's like, oh, it's just not shit. And she uh oh god, she goes, she hits that shit, and she's sitting there, and like I looked at like I could see scales like, oh, she's about to fall. Throw up or some shit. And we're it's like a big ass kitchen metal table. Oh god. She's like, and she's like, boom. And bro, her whole shit was just fucking leaking. And you know, and the first thing we hear is what'd you give our friend? And we're like, whoa! Whoa. I'm like, everybody, relax. This is dab. It's THC. It's THC, it's all weed. I was like, we need to get her some ice and maybe check to see if she has a concussion. Cause she's. I mean, I mean, her whole lip was split open, she probably broke her nose.

Oh god. Like, and like, and so we had to like, we we calmed everybody down because uh then I'm like, oh shit, everybody gets sued. And uh and everybody No one signed releases. she popped back up. She didn't sign a release. She had ice on her face and her nose, and she was like, I'm okay. Oh my God. We're like, that's a great story for her to tell, like for the rest of her life. She she fucked her shit up. Uh I don't know if I would tell people. Oh my god. Oh my god, yeah. So yeah, shout out AEPi at UGA. That's incredible. Whole Tokyo video is shot in there uh with our boy Joe Hopp, who's another dope engineer. Um, but yeah, uh yeah, we got this of that record. Oh yeah, going back to that record was. Yeah, was that one that like kind of proves yeah, man? We played that at these college shows, and these kids would go ape shit. And it was like, okay, we gotta put this motherfucker on the project. Nice. Yeah, businesses spend a ton of money on like focus groups and like market research, and you're basically getting that for free when you just play some new songs. Now they're spending it on TikTok.

Right. Yeah, right. Fucking TikTok. So it's the wave now. So Nappy's been in this shit. Uh not only the music shit, but they've obviously diversified into you know the brewery, Lantucky Brewing. Beer shit. Yeah, the beer shit. Um, I think y'all are shooting like content, like a TV show, maybe. Yeah, we got we got a we got a beer show that uh I created um called 40 acres in a brew. Yeah. Um so as we were touring, we would go to all these different breweries around the country. We probably went to maybe over a hundred. Damn. Um and just, you know, they would, you know, they would be like, oh, we're not brewers. we want to try some beer. And they'd be like, oh shit. So they would take us in the back and show us all the different setups and give us free beer. But it was cool. We started documenting all of it, and um we met some real cool people, and we really, you know, uh, it really started with me and Scales before every show. We would just go try to find like a brewery because it was just it's chill, it was something to do, you know, in a random ass town. But also it was it was a cool way to get a message out about a show, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like a lot, especially when you're in like a smaller town, like that one brewery, like everybody goes there.

And so if you're like show up as Nappy Roots at this brewery, everybody's like, I'm gonna see you tonight. I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna bring all my friends. And the show and the show would be fucking sold out. It's kind of genius. So yeah, great marketing strategy. And so, yeah, well, that's that's what we would do. And then we just kind of had this love of beer. We started trying New England IPAs and fucking West Coast IPAs and fucking loggers and fucking stouts and all this other shit. And like best beer I ever had is fucking Vermont. It's called Heady Topper. Shit's phenomenal. Interesting. Yo, Vermont has made their way into two episodes on the podcast. Fucking Vermont. What was the other one? Benji said his favorite show on the earth game. tour was Burlington, Vermont. Wow. And now Blake is talking about Vermont. Vermont, Vermont's fun. Shout out to you guys because y'all might be underrated. Yeah, Vermont is uh yeah, Vermont's an experience. Yeah, gotta have some great times everyone. That's that's funny, man. But yeah, I mean they've they've like maintained a you know a very uh long career so far. I mean, they're still making music, obviously have been dabbling into other things.

But so the playbook era. Okay. So you mentioned, you know, obviously linking up with Trim, I guess, you know, on he was a rapper at the time. Um and then and then Banks was around when you were growing up, too, right? So Banks, me again going this all, it's always back to like high school shit. Yeah. So me and Banks, which is kind of beautiful. Yeah, we hooped together with Mike. Okay. Um, and like, man, he's been my he's been my bro for just years. Like we we would carpool together when we were in high school and shit. We're both from the east side. Um, and when he first moved back to uh because he was in Pitt, um, and him and Barry had a company called Fab Five. They were throwing parties and shit. So he moved back um to to Atlanta, probably, I'm saying it was about 2010, maybe. And we just always we just met him just linked up. But fast forward like seven years. He had started doing he had a couple artists he was working with. I know you you you produced for uh or did you produce any for, you recorded any of uh like Ben Franklin and big Face Paper game.

Yeah, so he had some artists then, he had a studio he was working on. And I it just kind of like I had been with Nappy for a while and I was just kind of looking you know to pivot I wanted to pivot to youth I I realized you know I'd work with older artists I learned a lot but I was like I'm gonna try to take some of this knowledge to the fucking youth and work with some kids and see if you know we can get this shit a little bit more popping because it's a little bit faster with kids. Yeah, um so I you know I just kind of approached him. I was like, he had a studio over at Met Lost, and I'm like, bro, you've been doing this shit a long time. I was like, I don't I don't know why we never linked, you know. I mean, I've all I've been watching what you've been doing for years, you know. It's just you know, I just you know, I was like, would you want to make you know join up and form a management company and and see what we can grow from there? He was like, bet. that easy, just like that. Yeah, I mean, I uh so that's how playbook started. That's how playbook started. And our first the first artist was was Metro, Metro Mars. Yeah, so that's a great first artist, yeah. And and so, you know, one thing I wanted to make sure we got to talk about because I think it'll be valuable for a lot of the artists and and just you know, music uh enthusiasts out there.

So Metro has a joint venture, I guess playbook has a joint venture with Since the 80s, right? Or like a partnership with Since the 80s, and then obviously QC now as well. It's a three three three-way partnership, yeah. And so can you like break down at a high level how does that work? How does it work? Okay, um, you know, because people out there are seeing, like, hey, he's with them, but he's also with them and them, like and selfishly, it's something we might be interested in. So we shut up, Henry. Sorry. So we initially for our audience, not us, yeah, for you guys. Sorry. So we initially did the deal, did a deal uh with bear with Barry and Zeke over at Since the 80s. Um, and we do, you know, it was just basically, you know, put out a couple songs, see what we could do. They yeah, at that time they were had distribution with uh uh now it's virgin, yeah, uh with but Motown. Um and so yeah, we just kind of put out records with them and just kind of see how we could go. Um so like were they bringing the distribution to the table basically?

Yeah, we had we had we had the ability to distribute through a major, okay, but it's just distribution. It's like, you know, I mean, we're not like he's not actively signed to the major, it's just through that, just literally just distribution. Yeah. Um and so we signed, we did that probably. This was probably I would say December of 2018. Um and then uh what was it 2019? Um December 2019, we signed with with Barry and um we worked by Felicia, which was the first single we put out. Um, and that kind of you know, bubble did a little bit of noise. Uh then we shot fucking oh yeah in a pandemic. Went crazy. Oh yeah. And oh yeah, was the was the video that like uh you know, we we were trying to create this aesthetic, kind of this like just wild this kid is just this wild. It was that that sound to me is like this rock almost kind of rock shit. Yeah.

Um and so we put that shit out, and uh it got picked up by uh uh academic, and um P had seen it. And um Shut up, P. And P P text, text, uh uh Banks immediately and was like, yo like you know, like what's this? Yeah, pretty much. What's going on here. Who's this? What's this? What are y'all doing? And so, you know, it kind of started a conversation. Um, and Barry was having a conversation at the same time with coach. So it was like it was funny because we were working, Barry was talking to Coach about it, and he had he had already brought up Metro to coach. And then P saw the video. So, oh yeah. So it was like a perfect storm at that point. Right. And so it's like you're kind of attacking from both from two different angles. P and Coach come together. Yeah, and then they got this kid. Metro? Yeah, I have heard of this kid. Metro. Right. Then they got to talking between the two of them, and they were like, yo, we want we want to do a do a deal. Um and so we kind of figured it out to do this kind of three-way venture with them. Um, which is which has been great.

I mean, you know, it's uh it allows us to move still as we were moving beforehand, but we also have the the muscle of QC behind us, and and and just you know, just their their their name recognition and uh you know just being able to like I said, just have QC behind you. Is there enough equity for everybody? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's it's it's it's a big pie. It's a it's it's a big pie, but it's a, it's split up, you know. It was it was very judicial how we split things I know I don't get into specifics, but yeah, I was gonna say we don't want to like get in the pockets of the deal, but but but I am trying to understand like tactically speaking, or like day to day, right? Yeah, like you know, how is it kind of broken down, right? Like, you know, what's playbook up to, what's since the 80s up to, maybe, and then QC, right? So you guys are day-to-day, right? So Banks and I pretty much handle the day-to-day. I mean, we literally talk to Metro every day, you know, we kind of have meetings of what we want to get get done for the week. Sure.

Um, you know, songs, releases, stuff like that. We bring it up to, and then we'll probably meet with with Barry probably once a week. Um, uh Barry and Zeke, um, just to discuss our plan. And basically, I mean, from there, we just tell you, just say, yo, QC, this is what this is what we're thinking. This is kind of our rollout. These are our ideas, and they, you know, they pretty much green light it and give us, you know, they can push our stuff forward when we need them to push buttons and do certain things. Yeah, so they're kind of like the lever right, right. You know, pullers, I guess. Right. And they and like I I am very thankful that like they let us do what we what they let us do what we want. I not what we want but creative control. Yeah They, they they don't they don't push back on certain things as far as like you know, y'all got to do it this way or do it that way. That's good. They trust in um you know they trust in what Barry's done with since the 80s. They trust in what we were able to do before that to keep things moving with him and just as long as long as as long as shit is continually dropping and and he's got new material that you know no one seems to be upset right now. So what we'll see we'll see in two we'll see in two years where we are not for sure, but uh it's it's been great man the people at QC are great.

Like shout out one of our real homies is uh our girl Amber Mitchell she's she's looked out for us tremendously um you know she's helped us do a lot of things like the graduation uh the graduation what a great idea whose idea was that that was uh that was a that was it started off as a joke as most good ideas do they do like I I want to tell people like people think genius ideas come from like some like place, deep think tank or something. Man takes either you fucking at a bar or you're at a party and you're juggling around and you're just cracking them jokes and then it becomes a reality It's like, like no like we seriously could do that. Wait, do it. That might work. We could throw money at the graduation and get arrested. It's it's funny, man. Like, people don't understand. Do you realize like like putting $10,000? How how much he looked like a marshmallow man underneath that fucking underneath that that goddamn, gown. And Like I as I'm doing this, I'm thinking in my head, like, I can't believe I'm taping all this money to an 18-year-old, like a poor minor.

Like, I guess that maybe he wasn't a minor. I can't believe I'm taping this. I called Mike, I called Mike and was like, Is this legal? And I was like, I was like, Mike, what do you think? He's like, fuck it, bro. That's that's fucking dope. Let's do that. He's like, do that shit. And I was like, all right, okay. But it's like, you know, it I you know, as we were taping it, you know, it was so many things that could have gone wrong. It everything worked out perfectly. There's one thing I always tell about Metro, man. He is that kid is blessed with perfect timing. Like, I mean, there's a lot of artists that I've seen that are super dope, but they just fucking timing whenever they want to do some shit just always sucks. And I always feel for them about that. But that kid just he just things just work out for him, and it worked out. I mean, it worked out tremendously. We thought it was genius. No, I mean, something we talk about a lot is that there really is like three components, at least from our perspective, to this shit, right? It's obviously talent. You do have to be for sure, somewhat good, right? Good is subjective, but like let's just say you have to do that. Hard work, you have to be willing to put in the fucking hours. You're a huge believer in this, and I love that about you of like challenging your artist to put in the fucking work, challenging yourself to put in the fucking work, right?

So it takes hard work, but then there's that little third one. There's that luck and timing spoke on, man, and like that is huge. There's a there's there's luck, man. There's like I don't like I said, like there's so many talented people in this, especially musicians. Like, it used to be it used to be a little bit harder. Um, but now you know you got the internet, you can upload anything. So, with that said, like, you need a little fucking luck, you need something to work to work itself out. What people forget about luck is that yes, you know, you can't control luck, but you can put yourself in a position to receive. luck. You can play the odds. You can give yourself the best bet. Position yourself. which is where the talent and hard work comes in, right? Right, right. If you're not good and you don't work hard, the chances that you're gonna strike gold as a lucky motherfucker are so much lower than if you are working on your skill, working on your craft, and working hard. For sure, for sure. So, yeah, there is like a meet like this. Exactly. It's gotta be that. And so the graduation really like I mean, it like I said, it just it worked out.

Yeah, it did. Well, well, Henry, we're gonna see if this is gonna work out because we've just entered a final segment of the One More Time podcast. Blake. I know you're familiar with the show, but just in case you're not, Henry, where are we at? This is the rapid fire rampage. Okay. It's a three-part rampage. We're gonna hit you with some short answer questions. Okay. We're gonna hit you with some this or that. Okay. You just pick one. Gonna hit you with some word associations. I'm a drop one word, and you give me your first thought right back. Let's get my brain moving. Yeah. This is and rapid is the key word out of rapid fire rampage. The the quicker you can go, boom. Okay. The better you do. If you're trying to make our rapid fire rampage hall of fame, you're gonna have to have some speed. involved here. some stiff competition there. Yeah, we're getting our first ballot candidates together? Andrew Weaver was pretty good. Andrew was good. Your artist Andrew was pretty good. Shout out, my boy Andrew. Yeah, Andrew. We love Andrew. Oh, I've I've I've seen what he's been doing, man. I'm I'm excited for it. So here we go.

Part one Rapid Fire Rampage with 808 Blake, episode number 40. Let's go. Short answer. Rampage! What is 808 Blake doing in 10 years? Fuck. Damn, I'm already starting off. This is not rapid. Uh hopefully, man, hopefully, I've fucking made playbook into something that is here till for the next 30 years. That's that's my goal. I want to I I want to build a staple here, so that's my goal. Love it. What is your favorite part of songs? Which element? Chorus. What is your work life balance ratio? Uh it could be better. I definitely work way more than I work more than I probably should. With the baby now, I'm I'm learning learning the balance, but I probably work way more than I should. But I also play, I play well too.

Maybe like a like an 80 20 or like a 70 30. 70 30. I like it. What is your favorite quality about yourself? I don't take myself that serious. What is your least favorite quality about yourself? I could be unorganized. If you were arrested, what would your friends and family assume it was for? Uh maybe a DUI. That's fair. You drink a lot of beer. Blake, you have to delete three states. Oh, it's easy. Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas. Dude, he's thought about this. You can have them. I'd throw Michigan in there too. Oh shit. I've traveled to every other state. He's totally keeping Vermont. Yeah, Vermont stays. Vermont is safe. Poor Arkansas, though. And no one likes Arkansas. I'm sorry, guys. We we still love you, Arkansas. I don't know if we do, but my dad's from Alabama. Alabama's a shit state.

If you had to wear the same outfit for the rest of your life, what would that be? Adidas track suit. How many pillows do you sleep with? One. What? Okay, we'll talk about that later. How many Pokemon cards would fit inside of a refrigerator? I got baseball cards. That's before my time, bro. Okay, we can say baseball cards. I think they're the same size. Inside of a refrigerator? Standard size. 40,000. On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate your experience on the One More Time podcast so far? It was an 11.5. Part one of the Rampage. Shout out to us. Crushing it. Yeah, it was a great time. I threw that question in there. He just won so many brownie points for the Hall of Fame. Yeah, he did. he might have just walked his way right into the Hall of Fame. Even besides that, that was a great first part of the Rampage. Very good. I think you caught him off guard with the very first one. He didn't realize what was going on. Even his slower ones weren't that slow.

You're right. We've had much slower we've had that. We. Yeah. Moving on to the this or that. All right. Part two of the rampage. Rampage. Lyrics or flow. Flow, man. Cadence. Flow is 100% the winner. It's one every every time you said it. And I agree. Yeah. I mean, even your greatest songs like Tiny Dancer, the cadence is what you remember more than you the actual fucking words. Every time. I'll realize that some lyrics like were lame or cool way later after I decided I liked that song. It's like it's like six years ago, you're like, oh that's what he was saying. I thought he was talking about a mop the whole time. Exactly. Facts. Melodies or drums? Melodies. Cars or trucks? Well, I like trucks. Bowling or putt-putt? Putt butt. Liquor, beer, or wine? Beer. House party or the club? House party.

Love a dance party. Audiobooks or podcasts? Podcast. Good answer. Making sure. Or else we're gonna have to start an audiobook. I mean, we're gonna have to write a book. I tried to get the on the road. I would try to get into audiobooks. I'd be like, oh my god, this is boring. I'm about to crash this car. Organic aliens or robotic aliens? Organic aliens. Become four feet tall or eight feet tall. I'd be eight feet, man. I'd love to be eight feet. I'd smack everybody. Sit in jail for one year or lose one year off your life. Lose one year off my life. I think I disagree with you on that one, but we'll talk later. Wait, you're saying which would I rather not have? Which would you rather do? Sit in jail for a year or lose a year off your life. Sit in jail. I sit in jail. Yeah, my bad. Can you still read and like gain knowledge and who cares if you died 80 or 79? Fuck that.

I would totally rather just die a year early. I value time more than anything else. Me too. There's no money. There's no, I can't even put a value on money. But do you value time in jail? It's something. You can at least communicate with somebody. Yeah, you can read. You can read. Yeah. I'm in jail, bro. I gotta get a pen pal. Life is precious, man. I don't know. Moving on. But I I have to do it. I have a huge nightmare of jail. Yeah, I was like, I don't want to go to jail. That's why it's a great question. It is good. Live on a boat or live in an RV? RV. Give up smartphones for life or give up salt for life? I give up phones. Easy. He needs that salt, bro. He's gonna have a tablet everywhere he goes. fuck these. I hate this shit. Honestly. Battle against one giraffe sized rabid turkey or 50 turkey sized rabid giraffes. I added rabid. I noticed.

I'll take the turkey. The one giant turkey. Yeah. I whooped that turkey's ass. I would love to see that. Hakuna Matata or YOLO. Hakuna Matata. I was just singing Hakuna Matata today. Were you really? I am a Disney aficionado when it comes to uh Disney music. There you go. Like, I can I can I can go through it. Right now me and Lula are on Moana. Oh he's he's he's doing all the he's doing them again. Yeah, I mean, no, no, no. But he did all of his Before this, I was a Disney. Like, I like my my back, I like in high school, I was in musical theater and shit. Yeah, we didn't talk about that, but he was like he was, like, the leads in a bunch of the plays. Yeah, like I I like I like me some musicals. Yeah, I didn't know how to weave it in, but it's a fun fact. I would love to make a musical. one of these days. Really? I would love to do that. Like a Hamilton type shit. Would you score it or direct it? How would you do that? Uh probably score, score it. I don't know. Maybe maybe direct it. But score it. Yeah. I mean, I would love to. It would be dope. it would be one of the fun things I would just in my do my bucket list. Put it in the checkbox. Damn, playbook the musical coming soon.

Crazy. Part two of the rampage. Part two. Really good. Very good. Really good. He's maintained a pace. I'm not just saying that because of the you know, 11.5 rating he gave us. But that helped. Yeah, it definitely did. Last part of the rapid fire rampage. It's the word association. Where it comes down to the road. This is where you make or break your Hall of Fame first ballot candidate. Candidacy. Let's do it. There we go. Chorus. What wait, what am I doing here? I just first I made Hall of Fame out the window. You blew it. Okay. First word or first thought that comes to your mind. Just whatever I say, whatever. Oh, so it's a good idea. Okay. It can be anything. There's no right or wrong answer. So what what do you think of the immediately when I say chorus? Hakuna Matata. Fair enough. Hospital. Grady. Emotion. Happy. Contract. Read it.

Yeah. Big gem. Grandma. Bill Withers. Oh, such a good song. R.I.P. Ribeye. Steak. LED. Light. Anxiety. Anxiety. I don't really have anxiety. Lucky bastard. Yeah. That's an answer. Diamond. Rough. Garlic. Onions. Lil. Homie. Good one. It's the first like non-rapper answer. Yeah. Spotify. Uh. Fucking is all over, but he still uses it. But we. the beast. Gotta have it. NFT. Fatty.

Fads. Bass. 808. Salad. Ooh, balsamic. Ooh. Snake. Python. Politics. What does it all mean? Nappy. Woo. Shut up. Yes, sir. What a rampage. What a rampage. It's gonna take some serious reviewing, you know, internally amongst the board, but I think when we were considering our top rampages, he's easily in the conversation. Anyway, Blake's going down in history. No, this has been an amazing episode, man. It has. We really appreciate you coming on. Cheers. I think you had some really valuable insights for our audience. Super awesome stories. I mean, the AE Pi girl is gonna go down in history. Shout out to her wherever you are. Hit us up, by the way, if you happen to watch this. thank you for not suing us all those years ago. Yep, yep.

No, but you know, seriously, the uh, you know, the story that you've had as far as the production career you've had, getting into the management thing, wanting to do your own musical. That sounds super dope. I can't wait to see where that goes. Um, really appreciate it, man. Thanks for coming on. I appreciate you guys, and man. You guys are doing a really dope thing here, man. I I keep keep at it, keep going with it. It's it's fucking dope, man. Yeah, we appreciate it. And Henry, until next week, what are we doing? Getting out of here. I'm getting the fuck out of here. Peace. Yeah.