Rico Brooks on Meeting Sonny Digital, Music Modernization and More

He would record eight to ten songs that day and he would upload them that night. And Sonny was one of the guys that was supplying the beats. When I heard these beats and Sonny did them, I was like, get me this guy. I need to find him right now. 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 Bemo Coops to Panthers. Tomorrow distant is a part one more time. Party Sheila, one more time. They find that one more time. One more time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. I'm your host, Playback Ben here with my co-host. Henry with a three, aka The Trap Jack Black. And Trap Jack Black. Who do we have on the podcast today, my guy? Welcoming in on episode 51. We're almost at a year. Almost at the one year mark. Episode 51 of the One More Time Podcast. Legendary record producer. You know him from television, alongside Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. It's Randy Jackson.

What's up, dog? What's up, dog? Our favorite dog. I was like, man, they got the wrong guy. He was like, no, no, I manage producers. Yeah. In all seriousness, folks, he almost needs no introduction, but for those of you who are asleep out there, we got one of the most legendary music managers in the game. We got Rico Brooks. Rico. Rico. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you uh coming on the podcast. And shout out Whoa, for uh, alley-ooping this one. this one. Episode six, by the way. He was early. He was episode six? Six. Oh my god. It feels like an eternity. Yeah. Yeah. Here we are, episode 51. So Rico, I did try and book Gorilla Zoe back in the day. How did it go? And I didn't come correct, I don't think, because didn't happen. It wasn't happening. I mean Wow. He's a s he's a stiff negotiator, man. I mean, it was tough. So. Did you talk to Rico? I I literally think I did. This is back like nine years ago, man, at this point. Yeah, I was managing him, but what was the office offer? You do you remember?

Exactly. Like a dollar, amount? not enough, apparently. I don't remember, but yeah, he had a at one point he was like, This is what I want. And yeah, when those guys tell you that, you kind of gotta go with just pass, yeah, exactly. So yeah, no hard feelings, but but anyway, so you know, paint us a picture for those that don't know Albany, Georgia. Wow. Paint us a picture of like your upbringing, kind of like what what the town was like that you grew up in for those that aren't familiar. Yeah, so Albany, Georgia, I think it's a small town about two and a half, three hours southeast of Atlanta. I think this is slower-paced life coming from Atlanta. I like, I mean, my my youth, I did that's all I knew if up until sixth grade when I moved to uh Fort Stewart, Georgia, near Savannah. My mom was in the army. Um, but it it gave me a base for to be operate in. So I started off like I was in the church. I was I grew up around music. I sang in the choir, believe it or not.

Um my uncles were DJs, so it gave me like a music base, and I would just listen to their tapes, whether it was Prince or Rick James, while I like cleaned up the car or or steam. I mean, we used to iron in, iron the clothes. Um, but yeah, Albany, Georgia, I had very fond memories there. I still have a house my grandmother left to my mom, and my mom left it to me. Oh, cool. Yeah, so you know, you end up working at a record store. I feel like that was like a rite of passage for a lot of people, you know, early on in their music careers. Like, you know, working at the record store, would you agree that that was kind of like a lot of people maybe had that as part of their start? Yeah, I mean just getting exposed. Even if they didn't work there, they would go hang out there. They would go try to talk to the girl at the counter or the sales associate, and they would go there to get the latest music, and sometimes, especially in urban centers like Atlanta, we had like I was working at like three of the coolest spots. Like we had West End Mall, Green brier Mall, South DeKalb Mall, Urban Center. So like when guys on the weekends, they used to go to the mall, you know.

We would go to Lenox, but we knew we couldn't afford anything at Lenox. So we would just, and we didn't shoot it up back then. We just went and looked and just went back to Greenbrier. Back when it was a safe place. Yeah. I was like, he said shoot it up, and I was like, We're talking about the same Lenox, right? Yeah. It's a different meaning in today's Oh, yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that yeah. He wasn't doing that either, guys. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, not that. So um, but yeah, so this the record store gave me a base, and I and I just started learning like so much from reading the liner notes of the um CDs, and then like reading the trade magazines that would come there, and then meeting like the industry people from the field marketing reps to the radio promo guys bringing the artists by, you know, like just hearing the stories and seeing the guys, like the artists from Goody Mob to you name it, Outkast, and like um you just you name it Red Man might be walking through the mall or whatever, and um it really gave me like a a base foundation, you know, the music industry. It's also pretty early to have music meet business, yeah.

Fast forward to today, you're the music business guru. So you were doing that at a young age, yeah. Yeah, I didn't even know it. Like, I was just like, okay, I gotta get a job. Now my mom said you graduated, it's on you. Your turn to pay the bills. And I was like, okay, cool. What can I do fun before I go off to grad school or something? I was like, let me just go work at a record store. And that was over. I was like, This is I knew I need to be in the music business. What's like today's equivalent though? of the record store? We don't have that, right? I feel like. Um, well, we have it. It's our phone, you know, but it's not the same. I don't know if it's like uh Yeah. Sad. Sad trombone. Sad trombone. sometimes when I go to like um classes, at Georgia State, I may um go speak at a school and I have to I ask the question, have any of you been to a record store? And I asked, do you even know what a record store is? And most of the time they know what it is, but rarely do they have they visited, you know. But now you can you can see some of the things that some stores, some clothing stores have like, you know, records in there and they may have like a little CD section.

You can go to certain bookstores, they have it, but it's I don't know if there's a place that's equivalent to the to the record store in this day and age, honestly. Yeah, no, it's um it's it's definitely interesting to think about. So between your days at uh Peppermint, I guess, you know, from those early days, like what were some of those biggest lessons learned? Like either in business or just learning about the music, music industry, like what you know, what were some of those key takeaways? I'm surprised, like when I um before I started working at Peppermint music, I started, I was working at a um a grocery store in college. I worked at Kroger, and I started as a just another bagger, but uh I learned customer service. So like just to think, and then I I moved up a little like to customer service, like the front end manager or whatever. So but I learned like just to be nice to people. It doesn't cost extra, and then like the the elderly or the seniors or the mature people that would come in, like this may have an issue with the egg broken or like something missing, and I was just like make it happen and make it. So I just learned like early on, like to just like how to talk to people, how to communicate, like how to customer service, how to be nice, and those things really resonate.

Even to this day, I learned that um people would do extra for people that they really like and people that are nice, you know. You don't have to be a butthole. Yeah, it's a Good quality for a manager. You have to be able to have put out fires and avoid fires before they start and handle situations, handle people and be nice to people, I think. Exactly, exactly. So we so many times we think that we have to some people have to be tough and hard nosed. Obviously, I gave you a hard time with the little Zoe. I know. I mean, that was because my money was probably incorrect came light. But I learned that you can be um you can disagree, but you don't have to be disagreeable, or you can be on the opposing sides, but you don't have to be like enemies or something, you know. So we could be going against each other in a in a basketball game, but we don't have to be like adversarial. You know? still shake hands at the end. Yeah, exactly. You know? You can disagree but not be disagreeable. I love that. Yeah, and uh I was talking to uh some big time execs, they were like, in some deals, like you know, you want to leave like the experience, like would I do this again? Like you say, you can get hit, but you don't want to get like beat up or hurt, you know what I'm saying?

Like, so some deals get you get hit on, but some deals you get like I'm like, man, if I had to do this again, I would not want to work with this artist, and I don't like that taste in my mouth. So I want to leave that a positive experience, even if it works out, if it doesn't work out, I wanna leave let's say like if I see this guy at a bar, you know, or he's on the flat tire, he has a flat on the road, I'll be like, man, pass him, let him go, let him figure it out on his own. No, that's that's huge. I mean, I I think that like that that probably speaks to why you've had such a you know long career so far, you know what I mean? And 'cause there's people that come and go in this in this industry, obviously. So I think that like that's probably a big reason why you've stuck around and like evolved and you know, stayed relevant, to be honest, is like people want to work with you. Yeah, because that's half the battle almost, you know. Yeah, thank you. And I want to be like uh I consider myself uh a lifelong learner, a student of the game. So I'm always reading, you know, I'm always taking uh whether it's a program or a class or anything, I'm always trying to like get up or stay up on what's going on, what's trending, what's the next thing. So I just considered that I would never be I would, when people call me a legend, I honestly get like mad, not mad, but I'm like, I think when I think of legend, I'm like, okay, I think of like nothing wrong with Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

He has a great life, but I think of somebody like that's done it all, I feel like I'm still hungry. I want to do more. You know, I'm not out there like every day like I was when I was in my 20s and 30s, but I want I still have so much more that I want to do and give to the game. So that's great. Because I think I think praise, equally as you know, people hating can bring you down. Yeah. I think you can OD on praise as well. It can make you comfortable. You can feel like you did it all already. You might sit back. Yep. And I think you have to ignore the hate, you know, and the cheers and and kind of just stay focused on your grind, right? I agree. I I've seen more people um break up by success than I have by failure. You know what I'm saying? It's funny, like crazy. So, we, when we were broke, we all broke, we're sitting here. It's it's like we're just we're like a band of brothers trying to figure it out. But then when I see like millions of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even tens of thousands of dollars, I start seeing like, okay, I see what's going on. And I made a point that I was never gonna let that like try to mess up relationships.

So if certain things were going like, man, I'm like, bro, you don't have to fight over that. I've seen guys fight in relationship break over, break up over splits on a song, you know? So I always felt like there was an amicable way of solving issues versus like taking the aggressive greedy role, you know. Yeah, no, for sure. So you start managing artists, shout out block, yeah? Big block, big block. Is that the same? So is that blocking T? Yep. Okay. Yep. Legendary, man. I just like still hear that tag. Um, so you know, those are the early days for you, like you know, managing artists, um kind of you know, coming alongside him. Um what do you think that you came out doing really well, right? Because you're brand new to management at that point. What do you think felt really naturally to you? And then on the contrary, like, what was the biggest learning curve for you? You know what I mean?

Like stepping into the manager role. Yeah, so when I was with Block, um, he actually was we was like bootstrapping it. So he had like access to talent, and he had the street smarts, and then you know, um, he had like um he had an idea, and he was like, Hey, I want you to help me do this thing. So I appreciate Block for giving me the opportunity. But the thing about Block was like Block was very frugal. He came, you know, he came from a humble background, He had some streets, um, things that he was doing, so he was like, Man, I just have Rico do this, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, I'm not a lawyer. So uh the funny thing about it is I actually ended up, I was I did not like it when I had to like do those producer agreements because as long as the producer agreed on the terms that were already pre-negotiated from another lawyer, we could just change out the names, you know what I'm saying? But once they started trying to negotiate, that's when you have to revise and rev. And I and that's when we have to call a lawyer. But if they just say, hey, look, these are the points, these are the uh this is advanced, this is the publishing, and I just swap out the numbers, that's easy. If the boilerplate works. Yeah, exactly. Then we're good. If

we need to do the extra lingo. Yeah, that's what I'm like. I'm stuck like Chuck, you know. Sure, you don't want to just take that first pass. Exactly. And so um, but what I learned was like from doing that so many times that I became like actually like very good at like knowing like the deal points and what should be in certain agreements, you know. Of course, um deals have changed, like the nature of deals, like producer publishing deals have changed from like whether it was um MDRC, which is Minimum Delivery Commitment Release to like term-based deals and recoupment-based deals. But I learned all that stuff because I had to like look at those contracts over and over and over again for those early uh, for those early contracts and for those artists like Boys in the Hood, Gorilla Zoe, uh Young Jock. But also I developed a great Rolodex, you know, if you will, because so many people were coming to the to the studio. We were going out, we were doing promo runs.

I was going to every city, um, I was going to every radio station. I was hitting every hole in the wall club, you know. So I mean, I met so many people over the years that I still do business with today, you know. Yeah, no, that's that's huge. Um so like was that that had to have been taxing on you. I think in another interview you talked about like one year, you probably did like 200 shows or something. Like yeah, I think one year, I think Jock did like 170 or 180, it was a lot, and then the next year was like 150 or something, but over so it was a lot. So, and then you know, we were together like more than I was with my family, so it was taxing but I was young and I was I was I thought I was up for the challenge but what I realized too I was up for it but I realized it taught me a lot too so it taught me that that you know how we schedule our fun and schedule our work we have to schedule our rest and play too you know so like certain days I won't I won't do anything or we started giving our clients days off you know like if I know I feel it like I was listening to Nate coach Nate um for the Hawks yesterday he you know they had just came off those two play in games and then they had they won the game in Cleveland Friday night and they had to fly straight into the playoffs to Miami to go and then they would just, who's been on break. Yeah yeah so they came out there and they got they got it we all saw. So, but he was like so uh the next day he just gave me, he's like it's voluntary if you want to come in but he knows he's been in the game he's like okay let me let these guys rest and there's certain times I know like okay let me leave my clients alone and um and sometimes I just don't want to be around them they don't want to be around like you just it's something I don't know if there's a like studies have been done by psychologists or psychiatrists or whatever but something about like when you've been around a person for like like 10 or 12 days you you really don't want to see them it's gotta be some study.

Yeah so you just need to get away and I learned that just get away man just go do something um and and reset and then come back fresh. How do you do that today? Um today you just put the phone down you know say if it's Sunday you may not work you may go to a cabin, you may go to the you may swim, you may go for walks. I do like little resets too. So I start my morning off, my daughter, we may go for a walk, you know, and then um we may uh go outside and mess around in the yard. So even if I'm doing a Zoom call or or like a um like emails, I'll reset, I'll do small little resets, you know what I'm saying? Like, so I don't have to like you just don't go like I learned don't do those zooms back to back to back because you'll get zoomed out. So I just do small resets. And I I like when we go, um like recently me and my girlfriend we were out in in Vegas for Grammys, but we planned, like fun stuff. So after the Grammys, we went to we went to Arizona and did some fun stuff, you know. So big resets as well.

Yeah, we do sm and even like even if you work, if you're traveling for work, you still can plan like you don't have to leave right after the work. You can stay another day and do some fun stuff for you or go a day early. I was so mad when I would be in Paris and it was like so mad when I would be in Paris. No, like so they were like, okay, you can go to the Louvre or you can catch a flight home. You because we scheduled it like back to back to back to back. And I and I just there was no room for play. It was only work, you know. So a lot of times you go to cities, you only know the hotel and the venue, you know. So you did not go to the Louvre? No, I went, I took a picture, but I didn't go in. You know, I can't I went right back the next year and I was like, I'm on my own now, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I mean you're a big traveler, or or or it seems like you like I do like traveling. Yeah, I love to travel. I love to see, I love to experience, I love to like, because certain places like um I just I just love and I love finding new spots too. So it's just something I would go to these places and I never really got a chance to like experience these places.

So now when I go to certain cities, I want to go to a restaurant that I can only go to in this city or go to a museum that I can go only go to in the city or a garden or something like that. So I try to make that a part of it of the journey. Yeah, what's been like you know a few of your most recent trips? I would say Phoenix, Arizona. We have fun out there with with some friends. I've been hearing more and more about Phoenix people have great times in Phoenix. Yeah and I got this thing too I like to go to games in different cities, basketball games. So I get to experience different arenas and different fans. It's funny how like you wear your Hawks jersey? Yeah no I I represent Atlanta you know it's in my heart. Okay. But um yeah we talked about how someone's biggest pet peeve pet peeve on the show was wearing a jersey of a team that's not playing in the game. That's hilarious. Don't you hate that that you show up to a Hawks whoever that's hilarious. I I don't even know if I ever like seen it but I could. Oh, you've definitely seen like a Lakers jersey at a Hawks game and you're like they're not playing the Hawks why the hell are you wearing the Lakers jersey? I've seen more Lakers jerseys at a Hawks game but um that's funny. Us bandwagon you know Central Atlanta's a transient city so we know that but um so I would go to different arenas in different cities and I'd get to like see them like and some of the things would blow your mind like when I went to Oakland and uh Golden State they had was fresh off all those championships and I went and I was like man they playing this I call it like a dump it looked like an old college Oh, shit. you know it was but it was because it was built back in the day you know they have the new spot I haven't been to yet but I want to go and know it's this chase thing is crazy but you know just like each time they do another facility they they trump the old one so they top the next guys the next city stuff.

Um, but it was just interesting going there and like, man, I really can't believe like Durant and Steph and Klay. Oh, play it and cause it was like it just looked like my old college gym, man. It was not nice at all. The amenities, but it felt it had a college feel though. You know what I'm saying? It felt like I was in a like at a college game or something. It's kind of cool though. Yeah, it's cool, but like you know, you think like when you pay $200, 300 for a seat, like the guy when he leans back, he won't be like on your knees and stuff. Yeah, no, true. Or like when you That's how I feel on like a Delta flight. Or like when you get up to go to the uh, you know, to go to the facilities, like everybody had to get up, you know, because it's so tight, yeah. Yeah, or it's like the trough of urinals, right? Yeah, With, like this one giant one big urinal. Piss pot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some of these places, like, man, but some places really stepped it up. I like what they just did in Phoenix and um some places they really step it up. I love San Diego too. You know, I took the train from LA to San Diego once, and I try to do it every time I go out west. That's cool.

It's a good scenic kind of view. Because you're going down the up down or up PCH, you know, yeah, Pacific Coast Highway. Yes, That's cool. and it's just like, man, it's just like the water's going. I feel like I'm in, you know, it's like La La Land. Yes. Dang, are we gonna lose you to California at some point? No. Never. Okay. Never. Because Atlanta makes me, you know, gives me my identity. I love it. So, you know, do you end up getting introduced to Sonny through the Zoe era, right? Yeah. Because I heard in another interview, this was crazy because I forgot that he did this because Gorilla Zoe was one of my favorite artists. That's why I wanted to book him, but yeah, you know, we all know how that played out. Um, anyway, so he was doing a mixtape a day for a month. Yeah, he literally was a mixtape a day for a month straight. Yeah, he was he was literally, I don't say killing himself, but he was taxing himself. He would literally wake up, I think it was with live mixtapes, and he would record eight to ten songs that day, and he would upload them that night to be boom. Wow.

And so when you're doing that many um projects, you need what beats. And so he was and and Sonny was one of the guys that was supplying the beats. And um, and I was like, I had but through the experience with Lex Luger, when I um didn't get up and go see him when I heard his stuff, I learned that if you feel something, you gotta go after it right then and act on it. Yeah, when I heard these beats and Sonny did them, I was like, get me this guy, I need to find him right now. That's crazy. Yeah. For you know, for those that don't know, tune into another interview we did about the Lex Luger story because basically you heard Lex and you were like, damn, this guy's dope. Yeah, some shit happens where you didn't go up there, he's dealing with personal stuff, having a kid, whatever. Yeah, and then it's Lex becomes Lex and Rico had missed the boat. So exactly. Womp, womp, womp. But shout out to Lex, he still reaches out for no, that's dope. Yeah, we talk from time to time. But obviously, you you were not about to make that mistake. Nah, nah, nah.

When I get that feeling, I don't care where they are, either I'm flying to them or I'm flying them in, or we're getting on the phone, whether it's Zoom or or something, we're we're gonna make a connection and we're gonna connect. Do you deal with that outside of talent? Like, are you with that with like people, like friends? Like, you know what I mean? Like, or is it just with like kind of the talent year that you have? Mostly with talent, like, because if it's a young lady, I can't be like, uh, you know, I'm jumping on this right now. No, I definitely believe. do you feel that like intuition when it comes to like friendships or other relationships? No, purely like no, I I think um when you feel things like you like feelings are real, but they're not always facts, you know what I'm saying? So um, but when I do feel something, and I'm I call myself, I think I'm a good reader of people. I had to learn, it's crazy, like going back to the to the West End, like I had to literally learn how to how to feel and judge people, like, because sometimes people would come in the store, they'll be up to no good. And I could tell by the way, kind of like the energy that a person is coming in here, like, okay, you gotta watch this guy because this is gonna be something weird.

And and that, and that served me well, you know what I'm saying? So yeah, I have been able to like um assess certain things just by the energy that a person brings. And I could tell, like, when I walk in certain rooms, it's like, oh, this is gonna be a long night right now, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, okay, this is gonna be easy breezy, you know. Hopefully, it was the second one for us. Yeah, nah, this is good, man. Okay, yeah. That's that's dope. So, well, you know, going back to kind of that frequency of releasing. I mean, a mixtape a day. Yes. I want to get your take, because you know, obviously, I know you work with producers more so, but obviously you're super tapped in. What do you think that someone could sustain that like frequency right now? I think, yeah, I don't know, like they could do it like um like quantity-wise, but I don't know how good the quality would be. You know what I'm saying? Like, cause some people they could just do it. I don't know if they could some people just when they wrap it, some producers when they wrap it fire, like they just go off like they just make like so many beats a day. But then like when you not saying that you have to get of course it took you.

I I was somebody was telling me the story of Picasso. They were like, the lady met him and said, Hey, can you draw a picture of me? And he said, Cool. He he drew it real quick, and she said, How much? He said, 20,000. She said, It took you, you know, he's like it took me 20 years to get it. To learn the skills to be able to get it. Yeah, so so that's I want to make sure we understand that too so now if you then you're done done your 10,000 hours of course you can do something very quickly but I like it when you take your time and you do it you know I think it could be done um I d I just would be a little concern um like a little concerned about like the thought process unless you thought it out before you just completely going with the the impulse because I heard like um Snoop Dogg's first record was done like a week or two weeks or something like that but you think about Dre's energy think about Snoop's energy think about all the other guys that were in there and they would sometimes you just get in the flow and you just going. you know you could just like bang them out but then there's other times when you need you may have a writer's block or producer's block and you need inspiration and that comes from living you know what I'm saying so going out whether it's going outside or going I was hearing about stories with Jermaine, with or Lil Jon, they would take a break from the studio and they would go to Magic City or go to a strip club and then would come back and put what they the energy just saw in the club into the record. Yeah you know and I know Jam and Lewis would do the same thing like with Janet they would like talk to her and then they that stuff takes time to get to know the person that you're producing with so sometimes I feel like the best music comes I know being around like Sonny and when I was around Metro and they would be like living with Travis for like a month or two months they made like great music that you just can't it's not like popcorn music you just put in the microwave.

So because that comes from a process of being around a person and getting to know a person and like hanging out with them, knowing the nuances and you know, all the all those things that make and tick and make them move. Oh, for sure. Major. Yeah. So, you know, when Sonny was, you know, making all those beats for that like month run that that Zoe had. Was he, you know, this was obviously probably, you know, the internet of music like started at that point, right? Like, because there was live mixtapes and stuff. So, like downloading music online and for free, that whole era was kind of just really kicking off, I would say, right? Or like it was kind of at that point. Yeah. Yep. Yep. And and so, you know, from that point to now, I wanted to get your take on like how do you think the producer game has changed? You know what I mean? Because like the way that Sonny, for instance, was interfacing with Zoe. Yeah, let's just take that example to like how he would maybe be interfacing with an artist today. Like, you know, was there is there a huge paradigm shift between like how it was going and like how it is?

Yeah, I want to say this. So some of the beats that he was using was already made, and it's something he was making as he went. So, but the thing about producers that most producers have more beats than they would ever get placed in their lifetime. You know, Sonny has like hundreds of beats, maybe even thousands on computers. He's lost more beats than he's probably placed, you know what I'm saying? Like we lost like um hard drives and dropped them and they couldn't recover them. Um but um so back then the producer game, in my opinion, it was more like based on your relationship with with the artist, the manager, the A&R, the label. Um, I'm probably missing something, but like it was personal. You know, now I think we live in a we live in a global marketplace, so you can literally upload a beat to beat stars or beat club or YouTube, you know what I'm saying? Right, type beat. And then tonight, Rod Wave may go on there and say, Rod Wave type beats, and he can change your life, you know what I'm saying? I literally seen it happen.

Like my guy Lamb was telling me that you know Rod just went on YouTube and picked the beat from a guy and just like so now I think the craziest example is Lil Nas X. Yeah. Yeah. Paid 30 bucks for the for that beat. And it's diamond. So I think we live in a global marketplace. Um, and now so you're not just trying to get to the manager or the artist, you're trying to get to the world. You may not even know who you're trying to get to. You know, you're not may not even know who your customer is. So you you know what you're making, but you're putting out there, and then someone can say, hey, look, I want to lease this beat, or I want to buy it exclusively, or I want certain rights. There's so many, so many ways that you can like curate the deals. It's like it's almost like mind boggling. Like when I would go through some of those um tutorials or or through the on on site, like the phase when they were talking about how hey, how do you want to do it? How if they get so many streams, then they have to re-up the license, it's like weird. Like, so um, it's cool because now the barrier, and you know, technology is has uh increased, so the barriers to entries have never been lower, right? But to get know it to make a difference has never been harder, you know, to make because now everybody's doing it.

So I was reading the article about TikTok, they were like, don't pay your influencers because you know, now they don't make it, they don't make as much of a difference because so many people are on TikTok that unless you have like some niche market that you're serving in, and it bubbles up, that makes more of a difference than you trying to pay, like, hey Ben, here's 10,000. Can you get on TikTok and I'll do it? You will. I'll do it. So whatever it is. So I think now from then it was more of like a personal relationship. You you had to know somebody to get on to even get in the rooms or get the emails, but now you can upload it and you never know who who's um because you're on a go global marketplace. And I have customers I have clients like because I have clients that have gotten placements like one producer I beat, he got a placement with Drake because I knew Oliver so I sent him some beats and he picked one and that made Galichester you know and then Bobby Johnson is from Germany I beats is from Budapest Hungary which is like right next to uh Ukraine It's crazy. But um he sent a beat that was written to and then Beyonce wrote wrote, I mean the 7/11 that came out of that, you know, he and and it's crazy. So, like never met Beyonce and I beats never met Drake.

Yeah and look at Q Beats they're based in Europe and they're they're on everybody's album you know I don't even know they probably came to America but they don't have to be here to to make to be on like all the top records. Yeah yeah oh wow I didn't even know that about Q Beats that's crazy. Yep two brothers Beyonce I've heard of her yeah yeah that but it's it's interesting though because for someone like you who's built a career off of relationships I mean you even were saying about it as far as like you know you being easy to do business with and you know agreeable right yeah like is that are you having the shift too yeah definitely so because it's like um I would like literally go to live mixtape I would be on there or go to like like I say the line of note guys I was I literally remember um when Bobby Critical had did do it before I actually even started managing like Michael Montana co-managing him with hotel, like I would be trying to find like who did this beats, and I and I love this beat was just like so magnetic. And uh I was like literally trying to chase him down, like bro, what's up?

Let's do let's meet, let's do something. I was literally stalking this guy. You know what I was talking about. The energy we were talking about? Yeah. I literally was you were that guy. I was stalking. He could feel you could feel your stalkerish energy. He didn't want any part of uh Rico the stalker. Yeah, so um, but now I I do have to shift. So like I'm I'm getting referred clients by some of my um some of my clients current clients, they refer like new clients, and uh so I do things like that, but then sometimes I may hear or sound or I may hear or hear like some ideas that I like and I'll reach out to. But I definitely have to change, you know, even the way we shop beach now, you know, like sometimes we we have to open up the way we we do business too, you know. Yeah, how important is the referral game for you? It's very important too for me, yeah. Um, because like if if imagine just for me coming out here and I don't know you, and if we, if we didn't say, Hey, this guy's cool, it's a cool place, you know. Atlanta's can be sketchy, you know, certain times.

I'm like, hold on, where am I going? And who is this? So, yeah, referrals are I'm very big on on um referrals, you know. Yeah, you know, That's huge. I remember CNN used to have this show called Reliable Sources, you know what I'm saying? Uh it was like a news show, and they were like they would present stuff, but it would have to be by from reliable sources, and you're getting it from the source. So I'm very big on those type of things. Like, if certain if some people vouch for you, you're gonna get every, what you need. You know, it's not gonna be, but if I have to vouch, I mean if I have to vet you myself, then I'm gonna do my due diligence. Yeah, yeah. No, that's huge. Well, shout out Whoa again for yeah, major shout out for Whoa. yeah, for making us out to not sound like some weirdos in the studio. Um so one thing you talked about on another episode was the business side of music not keeping up with the creative side, right? And I think that music needing to modernize, yeah, is huge, right? Um there's tons of either like new tech or you know, new thinking.

Yep. What are some of your favorite like modernization efforts, you know, within music? Well, I love that they're um, you know, that like some of the things like I was just uh reading about the uh music collective, you know, they passed some uh some some new laws and some new bills. So I like how anything that can get clients paid, my guys paid faster or quicker, I love that. You know, that's a huge flaw in the industry. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sure. So we see like I was literally on an email today, and we we were trying to get a client paid for a record that came out like two years ago. Classic. That's horrible, right? You know what I'm saying? Imagine you go to work and then you get paid two years later. So bad. I know, right? How do you plan your life? It sounds inhumane, like it is like and it's like so you really we really need to um step that up. Uh I know there's things in place to like try to make it go faster and smoother, but we really need to do a better job, you know, um with that. Yep, no, for sure.

That's definitely for all the producers out there. Everyone's trying, okay. Or not everyone, but there's a lot of people trying on your behalf to like exactly get at this like antiquated system. Yeah, because it's like, I mean, yeah, you literally tell a doctor, like, hey, you know that surgery you did for me yesterday, like, can I get you in a couple years? You know what I mean? Exactly. And they're gonna be like, no, they're gonna send that bill. Yeah, hunt you down, the collection agency. Um, so you know, I wanted to ask, uh, tactically speaking, you know, what can a producer be doing outside of making beats? Like if if you're a producer in Hungary, if you're a producer in in Atlanta, even like what are some of the tactical things that a producer can be doing to like progress their career, right? Because this is like a build it brick by brick type of game. Yeah. But like, what are those different levers you can pull? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely believe in the uh spirit of collaboration. You know, we see most most tracks these days they have several producers on them. So if you're if you're a producer um and you're just working with yourself or by yourself or alone, um, which is fine, but um I think you may want to look at collaborating because sometimes uh some some some artists or some producers have relationships that you don't have.

You know, I recently just did uh I had met Cam who manages like Forever Rolling and a couple other dope producers. So I was like, hey man, we should get our guys together. So I linked up him up with Pull Up Lamb, and then I linked him up with um XL and one of my guys, Chase XL's one of my guys too. Beat God, and I did a record, a beat, and XL sent it over to K Camp, and then now this record is coming out on Interscope, you know what I'm saying? So it's like so you want to collaborate, you know. A, B, you want to network, you know, because that affects how you're gonna get these placement, along with just putting your records out, I mean your beats out um through multiple channels, whether it's YouTube, whether it's beat stars, whether it's beat club or other ones directly to the fan to the to the clients where they can access them. I always say they do your beats do you no good on your computer. So you want to be getting out there network. If you're in a city like Atlanta before COVID, they had like little beat battles.

I'm not the biggest fan of beat battles because they're a little scammy in it. I feel like in Atlanta anyway. I use them for networking purposes, but like if you go to a beat battle, the song that wins is probably not gonna be like the money long song, you know, hours and hours. That's a slow jam. That song is not gonna win a beat battle. But it's it could be a multi-platinum hit, right? So um you just want to make sure you're like doing those networking things, and even if it's $25, yeah, they got you for $25, but you might meet like the guy that's gonna get you a million dollars, you know what I'm saying? A million Or a hundred hundred dollars or a thousand dollars, I don't know. But uh even if you don't, because sometimes you may not do business right then and there, but you've met them and you know them. And so when you come back around, you might see them again. And people start seeing people in certain rooms that say, Hey man, I seen I know your face, and then you never know how that seeing a face becomes like a relationship, and then relationship becomes like doing business together. So though I'm very big on that.

That's kind of how I feel about college, like it's a little overpriced, but you could meet people, yeah. No, definitely, definitely. You know what I'm saying? Get all you can and can all you get. Yeah, can get, yeah. No, that's that's huge. Yeah, I mean, I I think that you know, as someone who's only been back in, you know, obviously I was trying to put on shows back in the day when we had our you know thing. But you know, since I got back into music, you know, managing producer and artists, and then doing the podcast, it's only been you know, almost a year of the podcast and like two years, probably on the management front, and I do know exactly what you're talking about, like seeing the same people, yeah. And they finally will come up to me and be like, yo, what do you do? Yeah, you know, why are you always at this? You know, I was at like a celebrity softball game on 404 day, and it was like, you know, hanging with people that I had met previously, and then they introduced me to other people because it's like you start seeing the same folks, you'd be surprised. It's like there's everyone all the same people. Yeah, exactly.

And if you have uh relationships, you're with a PRO, try to get to know your um your representative in that city. Like it's so many people I met that meet, they assigned to like a PRO and they don't know who who's the rep. And those have no idea who my ASCAP person is. Yeah, so but the thing is they have relationships too. They get offers, they get they get like things that they're they're asked to do, whether it's press stuff or whether it's um producers, because sometimes the publishers may come to them, it's like who's hot, who's unpublished? You know, you may be like, Oh yeah, I know, Ben, oh yeah, I know. You know, so you never know. So you want to make sure you you're, you're accessing like all points because you never know that what's gonna get you in, you know, get you further down the road. Yeah. No, I'm very much a believer in like planting as many seeds as you can, right? Yeah, so that one or two or however many have a chance to fucking grow into something. You know, you never know. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, yeah. And so that that I feel like is, you know, it's just those at bats, you know, exactly. It's it's being up at the plate, swinging.

You're gonna strike out a lot of times, but you you know, you never know when you're gonna catch one Wayne gretzky. Yeah, 100% of the shots you don't take. Yeah, Michael Scott. I know Kobe too, right? Yeah, and then you don't have to um like always try to like hit the home run. You can just get on base, you know, keep getting on base, keep boom, boom, boom. And next thing you know, you know, some people like I gotta make a hit. I'm like, why would you put that pressure on yourself? You want to make a hit, but I found out, like, just from managing artists and producers, like it's generally not gonna happen when you have that amount of pressure on yourself. Yeah, you know I was talking about that with an artist the other day. I'm just stressed out. We have to make a hit. You just need to make music. Exactly, right? Like yeah. If you trust yourself enough as an artist, generally speaking, you're going to arrive at something that is really solid. Yep. You know, something that you feel very confident in. Exactly. It's not gonna happen every time. And I think that artists specifically, probably producers too on the beat front. You know, you always want to make a fire beat that's gonna get placed, whatever.

Exactly. You know, you're not, you're just not, you know. Even with Sonny, he's one of the dopest producers in the world. Yeah, he's got thousands. Yeah, it's not that he probably hasn't like sent them maybe to someone or like whatever, but they just weren't it. And it has to be the right beat to the right artist at the right time, you know what I'm saying? Because when you see, like you go back to certain beats he sent, those beats were it was funny how when when a producer gets like a record or hit off of a beat, then people start going back to the beats that you sent them, and they're like, damn, this was in there. It was actually kind of fire. You know what I'm saying? But it wasn't for you, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't the time for that. So uh I know DA was saying that he was sending out beats for years. DA got that dope, and he was like, people were like like going back trying to get his old beats because he used to send out beats, and now he don't send out beats no more, you know. what I'm saying? Now you gotta hit him to get them. So do what you have or have to do till you can do what you want to do, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, That's huge. That's huge.

so you know, as someone who I would call you obviously one of the great managers, how do you distinguish between great and good? Um, as far as a manager goes. I I think um, oh managers as far as managers, just I would have to deal with based on who I know because I realized just because you see something, and I realized you can't judge it. They say judge you can't judge a book by its cover. I've been I've been around like major major artists and like and I've seen teams and you like you would think like wow, this is this artist is like, but they're like their team is like wow, this guy don't have his stuff together, you know what I'm saying? Like my my guys would be all over me if I didn't have certain things, and I was I so I learned that you can never just judge it just by what you see on the outside. So I have to personally know you, you know what I'm saying? Like, and then even then I don't know everything that you might be going through with your client, you know. So I have to can only vouch for the people that I personally work with in the relationship that left a whether it's a good taste in my mouth or a bad taste in my mouth. And but I do know certain things that like I would say, okay, I would want to do business with them again, or like nah, I would never want to, like when certain people tell me like certain, oh, this is your lawyer, I'm like, oh my, this is gonna be hard.

This is gonna be tough. And I've seen I've seen producers lose deal because certain lawyers would or certain managers, two people who can really blow the deal, the lawyer and the manager, you know. So you want to make sure those guys are right. So a good manager is gonna have like a good network. He's gonna have he or she is gonna have access to capital. Not that they should be funding your career, but they do need to be able to have access to capital. Um, so they they may not have money, but they may know somebody who does have money, right? And that's important. Cut me that check, man. What's up? you want someone with uh God dang it, Rico. Yeah. You've opened up Pandora's box here. Rico Brooks said it. Yeah, you need someone who has uh leadership ability. So when we walk in the room, like someone's gonna be the adult in the room, someone's gonna be a leader. Everybody can't be high. Like when the police pull you over, you know, somebody's gotta be like, hey, officer, you know, uh, I know you smell weed, but are you I'm driving, I'm I'm not actually not smoking, you know. I don't know if they'll go for that.

But um, those are just some of the things off the just off the top of my head. Um, some integrity is big to me, you know, like and um I'm trying to think of, see if I'm missing anything. I probably am missing some things, but just off the top of my head. No, I thought it. was interesting what you said about like, Some of the things that you maybe look at though, as like, damn, you don't have that going. Yeah, but yet clearly this major artist is trusting this manager or whatever. There must be something else behind closed doors that like they're doing that the artist is a fan of, right? So it's almost yeah. like management, there's no barrier to entry to be a manager. You know what I'm saying? Oh, I just I just said I was a manager two years ago. Look at me now. You literally can just be like the homeboy, you know what I'm saying? Or you could be like the momager. you could be the father, you could be like the guy that just got out of jail, he's looking to get he's looking, I'm looking to put my boy on, you know what I'm saying? You know, it literally there like when you go to be a like a lawyer, you know, you can't you have to be like you have to pass the bar.

First of all, you have to pass go to school, graduate, pass the bar. Like you can't just be like, I'm a I'm a lawyer today. You know? Although you were pretending to be one uh when you first started reviewing those producer agreements. I was smart. he was just changing terms, like I guess is what we do. Let's swap it out. Like Jesus said, we'll swap it out. Um that's where he got that. Yeah, got it from Rico. That song is based off a contract. Uh hilarious. That's funny but um, so there's but certain certain businesses, certain things like when people come to your house if they want to work on your roof or something, they they have to show like certain things. They have to get certain permits, like the manager, just be like, Yeah, I'm the manager. And you literally could not know. You don't have to know, you don't have to read a book, you don't have to know anything, and you'll be surprised. Like, and some people like, I'm like, How did you get this far? It's because you were around some amazing, talented people, you know what I'm saying? At the right time. Yeah, and and literally, I've literally seen guys at the top who didn't know, like they didn't even know like they didn't know what sound exchange was. Not saying I mean, it's not is there something wrong with that?

Like they didn't know the difference between like how publishing works, like they didn't know. I'm like missing a piece of the pie without sound exchange. Yeah, and I'm like, and I'm like scratching my head, I'm like, you know, you have a like a really big client, you know what I'm saying? You you probably should know some of this stuff, you know what I'm saying? But it's it's one thing to not know, it's another thing to not want to know, you know what I'm saying? So it's like if I don't know, I'm gonna ask someone who does, or I'm gonna like take classes, whether it's online, like I took Berkeley classes at online, I went to Harvard, uh, took the BIMS program, like there's the uh business, uh business of entertainment, media and sports, um, by Anita, Professor Anita, like she wrote the blockbusters book. Okay. So it's like I'm always reading Billboard. I'm gonna read it when we go home tonight. I'm I'm online. I'm always learning, so it's like there's no excuse. There's No excuse, and what you don't know in the music business, it will be held against you because they're gonna use that. They're not gonna tell you that you should have asked for this. They're just gonna not if you don't ask for it, they're just not gonna offer it.

You know what I'm saying? And you're gonna be like, and you're doing a disservice to your client. Throw it in the black box. That's true. Yep, that's true. So, as someone who, you know, I think from the outside looking in, we would all say that you you've seen some success in your career, but I think you touched on this, you know, before. How do you define success for yourself? To me, success is like doing what I love to do uh and making a living and being able to provide for my family that's my definition of success I don't go about like how many cars I have or I only have one car by the way two a car in a truck he pulled up in a range though folks don't let him fool you he didn't pull up in the Hyundai He parked next to my beat up car so stop it stop it so um but you know I realized too like when I've done like big deals I thought like when they, you know when the commission because managers only get paid off of the success of their client so if the client doesn't make money I don't make money I was like man once this clears I'm gonna feel like this but I woke up I realized you know I still felt the same I still had to eat three or four times a day I still had to do what everybody does three or four times a day I still had to like live my life you know so the money yeah gives you access to do other things but it really it really is it doesn't sustain it's not fulfilling to me like I would have money and I love it but it doesn't like it's not the end all be all for me. You love the process you love the game I love that I love the journey you know of becoming like the whole journey like I still I used to just be like on the road and not paying attention but now I really pay attention you know I really because I know like you never know when this is gonna be the last rodeo so I I really pay attention to the journey so I'm learning to enjoy the journey.

Are you as excited though every day you wake up I am depending on what I'm doing. Like if I have some projects going on like when I was doing stuff at at my house I was like really excited man you know like I was whether I'm ordering flowers or doing stuff in the basement or like or even like I may see a new have a new client. I may have a meeting with with some people. So uh maybe going on a trip, but um I don't I'm not jaded. I listen, uh I look a little more. So I'm seasoned, so I pay I pay more, I pay attention to things, you know. Yeah. Yep. No, for sure. So what are you most excited about right now? Wow. I'm uh excited to go get something to eat after this. Me too, man. Me too. Sorry for the dinner time uh schedule because I'm starving right now. I'm excited about uh So what are you gonna eat? I don't know. We gotta see, we gotta figure it out. Um something something good. Yeah, and I'm excited about uh man, it's playoff season, so I'm excited. Like I'm going to the game Friday, the Hawks.

You're always at the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're always trolling Whoa back and forth. Like they're always like showing people that look like them at the game. You're like, yo, I didn't know Rico was sitting, you know, in these seats, and it's like some just you know, Randy Jackson, you know, Rico Brooks lookalike. Yeah, that's hilarious. The same thing with Whoa, just like, you know, his hair, someone that has the same hair. Yeah. So I'm excited about like seeing how who's gonna come out, the east and the west. But I'm also excited, you know, because I always listen to new music Friday every day. You never know which song is gonna like capture your imagination and be like, boom. Like, um, I like what's going on in New York with the drill scene out of the Bronx in Brooklyn. Not necessarily the violence that has been associated with it, but just like the energy. it's a violent genre. Just like the energy, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, totally. I like um I'm just I like some a lot of the R and B stuff. Like I didn't I really like I really love I'm really happy for Money Long and what she's doing, you know, even though it's R and B, it's just like a breath of fresh air is different. You know, so um what else am I excited about?

Yeah, so I mean, as far as the roster, you know, anyone that you want to shout out or like any any projects that you're you know your roster is a part of. Shout out all my guys, you know. Sonny just came out, Sonny Digital just came out with a new single um guess what uh yesterday with SSG Kobe right yeah yeah so make sure y'all go um listen to that. yeah yeah yeah man in the video's out I'm excited for that the video looked crazy yeah it was so much fun man shooting that video like being there that was like some Kanye shit man yeah yeah yeah it was like it okay you got it yeah yeah that was people like yeah they're gonna see this and say yeah but no um um everybody's working man shout out to all my guys you know from the top you know on down you know what I'm saying yep how big is your roster if you I have partners on some of them you know so I like to so it's not just like me so I have like whoa me and we'll do Tasha like me and Tunde from LVRN we do like Bobby Johnson together you know so I have like partners on on a lot of my stuff so it it may just seem like it's me but it's actually like a team of guys you know yep managers can collaborate too exactly so I do that and I I told I recently reached out I reach out to managers too and I'm like because sometimes I I feed off of energy too so I may like say hey I'll tell a meet may meet a younger manager who has a different type of energy and say hey look let's collaborate on on trying to um see if we can find something we could work on together and I actually did that last week so uh if we if it comes to fruition then I I'll reveal it you know but I'm always willing to open and collaborate I'm always willing to learn too because just because you did it and was successful one way doesn't mean that you can't meet someone else and have success another way too look at the NBA right so many people shoot jumpers but you see guys shoot like this, you see guys shoot like that, and guys shoot like that. And if they go in, it goes in, yeah.

Counts the same. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, there's more than one way to like shoot the hoop, you know. Yeah. Now that's that's crazy. It's like for someone that has seen such a you know successful career to still be like humble. I think that like speaks volumes, man, because you know, you don't think that you know everything. No, I don't never, never. Now I'm always listening. Like when I'm on calls, I'm probably the one that's least talkative, you know. Like when we're on like uh weekly calls or calls, so I'm trying to see what what the artist is thinking or what the label is thinking or what the publishers thinking. So I'm trying to then I'll add my my input in where necessary. I don't just have to be like the um like the center of attention, you know. Yeah, That's huge. I'm glad we've been able to make you the center of attention today. Yeah, I know, right? And and you're about to really be the center of attention, Henry. Uh-uh uh uh. Is it time? It's time. Uh we have a final segment here on the One More Time Podcast. This is the Rapid Fire Rampage.

Yeah, you're gonna need to hydrate Rico. Okay, hydrate. Get another sip, maybe. This is about to get serious. I sound like the guy on one of the podcasts I listened to on on The One More Time podcast. No, it's on uh it's on Spotify, I forgot uh the guy. So are we? Not rogue, not Rogan. Uh I don't know, it's not his name, but he was he says like uh I think it's like some financial advice, like Oh, God. I know nothing about that, so it's definitely not me. Snacks, I think it's the snacks guys on there. But anyway, go ahead. So this is gonna be a three-part rampage. I'm gonna hit you with just some short answer questions first. It's like the game show portion. of the final segment here. I'm gonna do some this or that. So I'm gonna give you a couple choices. You pick the one that gravitates towards you. Okay, and then we're gonna wrap it up with a word association. I'm gonna throw you one word, and you're gonna just toss one right back top of your head. Okay. As quickly as possible. So starting off with the rapid fire rampage, episode 51 with Rico Brooks. Here we go.

And we've answered a good amount of these. It's been a good episode. Let's see. For potential clients out there watching, what boxes besides great music are the most important to be checked for you to consider managing them? Um I say like hunger. I say, oh, you know, you have to be talented, but but I realize that consistency beats talent. You know, that's one thing I didn't mention earlier. So like I really like like if guys that are consistent, they're generally if they're consistently you can't just be consistently suck. You know, you can consistently suck. But if you have it and you're like may not be as talented, but you're just you're good and you're consistent, you might beat the guy that was more talented than you because you're consistent and you work hard. Okay. Huge. huge. How do you feel about the no free beats movement? Um it depends what what no free like no free does no free mean no free, or does no free mean no advance, you know. So I've seen guys like get little or no money in advance, but if the record blows up, technically you own half of the copyright, right?

So free may mean no advance, and it doesn't mean like that it's free that you gave it away. You see what I'm saying? So we have to realize that advance is just it's an advance against future royalties. That you have to that you they will recoup anyway. That will be recouped so most a lot of people don't know that, and they just like man, they want they wouldn't give you my fee. And I've seen guys, there was a producer on we'll Remain Nameless on a project, Jock's first album. I think he wanted, I can't remember if the budget, the budget was very small for his first album because he had no success, right? So I can't remember if it was 2500 that we would that block that Block said this is what it's gonna be or 15 uh uh or 5,000. Whatever it was, the producer wanted more. I can't remember if he wanted 7500 or 5,000. Whatever it was, Block was like, I'm not paying that. So it was like, okay. He's like, take it off the album. They missed the placement. And I was like, what? So the album sold like a million copies, right? So you were fighting over let's say $5,000. and you and then you miss out like all that back end.

Yeah, so if you look at like the royalties on it on that record, and if it became a single, there's even more royalties, performance royalties, mechanical royalties, you know, now sound exchange. So um it depends on what free. I know it's free means free, but it doesn't always mean free. That's exactly what I was hoping you would say. Because to me, it's ridiculous to think that you can't just send beats out and that you you might miss the placement. Everything is most stuff is comp and it's uh it's and uh it's not it's not comp most stuff is specul speculative, it's done on spec anyway in this business, you know what I'm saying? Yes. And then we we make success together, and then you then you mess up a relationship too, because you can if you have a great relationship, you can always go back to the well, you know what I'm saying? But if you mess it up from inception and conception, it's like hard to like go back and be like, yo, I know I messed up on your first album. I know you're the biggest, one of the hottest guys in the city now. Can we work? Right, you know. Thank you, thank you for the perfect answer. That's what I was hoping.

Okay. Rico, you can choose anyone alive or dead to manage. Who would it be? Oh my God. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Oh man, I learned this is funny. I'm gonna answer your question, but I learned to be careful what you asked for. Like, I prayed to manage, like, God, let me manage these artists. I thought I said this in another interview. Then I was blessed with boys in the hood. But then I was on the road and I was in the hotel room crying, like, oh my God, why'd you give me this? So I have to be careful what I asked for because I don't know. Jody Breeze is making me do too much shit, God. I know, right? I know, right? Jody used to call me all the time. He would get locked up. I'm like, bro, call me in the morning. I can't do nothing at three in the morning. So I had to turn my phone. He's the reason why I turn my phone off at night. Oh my gosh. I put on silent. Oh man.

I'm like, if it's a problem at 3 a.m., it'll still be a problem at 9 a.m. The difference is I'll have a full night of sleep, and I can't really help you. You know what I'm saying? That's right. But then like, I can't go to sleep. You used to get no sleep. But um, if like I love Stevie Wonder, but I don't know how he is to work with. I love Marvin Gaye. I don't know how he was, would be the, you know, of course, you know, RIP, but I just don't know. Like, so that's a question. Those are good answers. Karis won, like coming up in the game. He would have just been amazing. Yeah, but I'm not sure. There's no way he would not have been a rapper. Such a fun client to work with. Yeah, generally Put you through some stuff, man. I wanna I want an artist like Khalid, you know what I'm saying? Just like seeing me. It's like, man, let's go get the money. God he's just raking it in, crushing it. He loves some, But he may be like like a beast behind closed doors, It's true. it just seems like he's like, there's no issues. He Seems effortless and like he's just floating from like big stage to big stage and millions of people. I'm not gonna have to worry about like, man, the where do we park?

Is my car gonna get shot up? You know, are we beefing with who's in town, who's in the club? I just wanna I just want to chill like man, like like big boy said, man, I don't want no trouble. I just want to sit back, relax, and watch my little kid blow bubbles, you know. Yes, love that. That's great. Rico, how many uh beats is a good number of beats for a beat pack? I used to say five to seven, you know, because that's just my opinion. I'm just talking over the over um over the years with ARs and music executives, because I don't want to overdo it. I mean, if somebody like, I'm sending you a hundred pack, I'm like, no, too much. Send me ten, ten packs, you know what I'm saying? Or or whatever, break that number down. So I say between five and seven, you know, because and also because that was the number that could go through the email without like um having to do extra, yeah, Having to do the, like iCloud attachment or like 25 megabyte limit on Gmail. Google drive. Yeah, I love that. And I hate that because what we realized, too, I realized, like a lot of artists like to listen to the beats on their phone. So you gotta make it easier for them.

Like if you and some people like they gotta download a zip and unzip the folder, it's good. You're gonna miss it. You yeah, don't make me jump through hula hoops unless you're future. You know what I'm saying? Like if you're not future, I'm not jumping through hula hoops to get to listen to your music. Yes, yeah, it's gotta be frictionless. Exactly. So they may be listening on their phone, so they could just be like boom. Sometimes you could text it to them now. Yes, and sometimes you can um you know, send it, text it to the AR or text to the manager. But yeah, Perfect. make it easy for them. Don't make them jump to hula hoops for your music, man. Nope. Rico, you are visited by the money fairy. And she says, Here's a hundred thousand dollars to spend on one of your producers. How do you spend it? Wow. Um, it depends on what the producer wants, you know. You know, so each client is different. So if they're putting out, because some producers are also artists too. They may be putting out their own projects, like Sonny's Rapping, Quay's, Quay Glover's rapping. June may be wanting to put out a producer project, but album, but produced by him. So it depends.

So we could do it on some marketing campaigns, we could do some videos, we could do like some ads. So you know, like all those things mean things and everything. So I look at it like investments and building a brand. So where you may not see a return, and initially you can never go wrong when you bet on yourself. You know what I'm saying? Even if you lose money because you're building and you're learning from it, hopefully. And if you fail, I say fail fast. You know what I'm saying? Don't take a long time. Don't take a long time to fail if you know and then see what's working and then what's not working, erase what's not working and double down on what's working. Brand is a perfect segue into this next one. How important is it for modern music producers to be making content and developing a brand? It depends on the client, too. Like some of my clients, they just want to sit back and get their royalty checks, bedroom kind of producer. And some guys like, but they're also like big name producers. Like you'd be surprised people don't even know like Bobby Johnson is actually a white guy. You know, he's German.

Like I'm not gonna lie, when I saw him on your website, I was like, yo, he's white. Yeah, yeah. See, some people didn't even don't even know that. Yeah, he's like, hey man, I'm cool with that. And then some guys, they like, I want to be out there, I want to be bigger, I want my face on billboards, I want to be in TV, I want to be on movies. So it just depends, you know, um, on the on the client and what they want. Okay. Moving into some more serious stuff here. You wake up as a moose. What is the first thing that you do? Man, if I'm a moose, all I think about is those big horns I'm just gonna knock some, you know, over crashing into some stuff. Yeah. Like he's self-conscious about his horns. So my mom, when she was in the in the army, she was actually stationed in Alaska, Fort Richard, Alaska. So I literally seen a moose before, like a real moose. You've seen a real life. moose. And they're like a bigger, like so. The car is nothing to them. So they're literally crossing the street, and they and they say it's like moose on the highway on the city. Yeah, yeah.

So and I'm like, if this thing just really wanted to do it, it could just like kill us right now, you know. It has that capability. I'm like, why would God make something this big? You know what I'm saying? With this many horns. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy. Okay, okay. But Rico, if you were an item at Walmart, what would you be? Wow. I probably want to be like maybe an item. Oh, uh there's an item, okay. Because I was gonna say, like, I'll be the cash register, so put all the money in me. That's good. That's it. perfect. Say no more. Got it. That's a way better answer than I ever could have hoped for. Rico, is a hot dog a sandwich. Wow. Until you just said that, I would historically I would have said no, but when you just said it, it technically is because it's like meat in between two pieces of bread. Done.

So yes, see, we're making you think about the real important things in life here. Rico. I know, right? I told you we're getting into the serious stuff here. Yep, yep. You're gonna love this one. How many McNuggets would fit in a jacuzzi? Wow. It depends on the size of jacuzzi. I've seen some small ones and some big ones. We'll go like general size, general size, man. Standard size, jacuzzi. maybe like I don't know, 2500. I don't know. 2500 McNuggets. Part one of the rampage. Part one. Great answers. Yes. I love the cash register with the money in it. That was a good one. That was Fire. That was very good. Yeah. This uh these next two parts will be a little more rapid, moving to the this or that. I'm going to give you two choices, whichever one sticks out to you more. Okay. Just let us know. Part two of the rampage, Rico Brooks episode 51. One more time podcast. Rampage! Front end or back end? Back end. Streaming money or show money? Show money. More beats of average quality or less beats of higher quality. Less beats to higher quality.

Home studio, commercial studio. Commercial studio. Cali or New York? Cali. Instagram or TikTok? Instagram. Hawks, Falcons, Braves, United. Hawks. Drums or melodies? Melodies. Drums or flats. Uh flats. FaceTime or voice memo? Voice memo. Underrated. Jeans or sweats? Sweats. Yes. Dogs or babies. Babies. Robots or dinosaurs? Robots. Pirates or ninjas? Pirates. No company or bad company. No company. Same. Silly hats or silly socks? Silly socks.

A store where every item is free, or a restaurant where every dish is calorie free. Store. Live the rest of your life with one giant hand or one giant ear. Ear. Hear everything, give him the big ear. A 75% chance of your producer catching a platinum record or a 25% chance of a diamond record. 75%. Safe for bet. Part two of the rampage. Part two. Great. Very rapid. Very good. He might go down in the hall of fame of uh rapid fire. rampage. Might be first ballot here. Not even joking. We'll see. It all comes down to the word association as it always does. Are you buckled up? Yes. I'm gonna shoot you one word, just the first thing back off the top of your head. This is where we get people into trouble. Uh-oh. Right. People's minds are very strange when they fire one word back. Because it's just like intuitive.

No time to think. Yes. Here we go. Rampage! Beat. Maker. Contract. Killer. Ooh. Ooh. Fire. Placement. More. Bass. Home. Billboard. Charts. Bicycle. Ride. Grandma. Love. Stress. Hate. Italy. Milan. Candy. Apple. Credit. Card. Goof. Ball. Ball. That's really the only answer to that one, I think. I don't know. We've had some weirdos on here. College. Dropout. Graduate. I'm sorry. We're going with dropout, the first answer, counts here.

God, so pessimistic. Yeah. He's thinking of the Kanye. Just watch. Just watch the dog. Yeah, genius. Yeah, it's great. Government. Hey. Lil. Flip. For some reason, did I know this is real. Yo, no, one's ever thought of Lil Flip. He's like one of the lowest flips. One of the lowest Lils. Yeah, yeah. Should have said baby, right? Although game over was like my jam back in the day. Indeed. Yeah. festival. Coachella. Kanye. West. Umbrella. Rihanna. Crypto. Currency. Love. More. Purple. Rain. Adela. Thomas. Yes, sir. What a rampage. What a rampage. What an episode. Rico Brooks blessed us with his presence on the One More Time podcast. So many gems.

So many gems. Oh my god. If you didn't catch them all, rewind this shit and listen to it over because really, really knowledgeable, man. Hella content for us too. Appreciate that. Thank you for having me. Chop it up. Seriously. Thank you. I love the constant learner, right? I because I'm someone that like I love listening to audiobooks. I love reading articles. I love just like trying to learn about this stuff because there's always something new to learn. And the fact that you've been doing this for you know a long time and you still have that attitude, is why you're gonna keep doing this for even even an even longer time, man. So like I love your approach. You got a killer roster, you guys are just crushing it still. Um can't wait to see where you take, you know, Adela Thomas. Uh, you know, amazing organization. I mean, you talked about doing like film and movies. yeah, I still got to get in that sometimes I get mad because I shouldn't have said it. I should have just did it. Uh yeah, I didn't want to bring it up because you didn't talk about it. Oh no, that's cool, though. But let's manifest that. shit. no it's crazy because sometimes like you work on stuff and it just doesn't happen that's what I realized like the beat that was there but it never happened like it's some if I tell you some of the stories like that stuff that I was working on that didn't happen you'd be like wow yeah you know what I'm saying and then like reading lifelong I want to just add this so yeah you know Winning Time is on right um HBO so I wanted to read the book before I watched the show so then you know I'm watching I'm reading the book and I'm learning all this stuff and then I'm seeing like Jerry West, he comes out today like he wants a retraction of his characterization in the TV show but it's just like interesting like because you learn so much like when you when you read you know like from guys that you thought you knew but just because you saw them on TV but there's so many more things that's behind the scenes that you don't know that made them who they are you know just like if I dug into like you guys and your history like what made you know like the little things that made you choose the path that you chose that made you become the person that you became you know you'd be surprised you know yep that's crazy but yeah I'm looking forward to seeing where you take your uh well you know your next moves right because something get something to eat yeah no to dinner that's a very literal uh description I know messing with you but on that note I'm starving too so Henry we're getting out of here right let's get out of here all right till next week peace peace peace shit like one more time one more time one more time one more time this year tripping off middle finger to the law