Redd Push Interview: Money Mu "Hittin" Remix | Best A&R in Atlanta | Troy Carter - OMT Podcast

Less announcements, man. Once you get the shit done and people see who did it, that's your announcement. I'll speak about certain shit that I'm doing, but you rarely hear me like this is what I'm doing. So the one I'm about to do, this is what's on the way. Like I'd rather just do the shit and y'all see it and y'all fuck with it. Y'all know it came from Redd Push. The One More Time Music Podcast. Genuine Conversations with Genuine People. about music. Hosted by Henry with a three and playback Ben. Find that one more time. Find that shit like one more time. Find that 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, because Henry with a knee was already taken. Henry, who do we have in the hot seat today? Welcoming in on the hot seat today. AR manager, uh trucking uh company owner as well. I am it's blue push. The best we could do, man.

Blue push. That's the best roast we got for you. That's a first. It was a tough roast. I used to do a uh you know roast at the beginning, and yeah, it was a tough one. So that one might have been a cop out, but who do you like? Has anyone said you look like someone famous? Uh I'd rather not say or we'd rather you say man. I've heard all kind of crazy shit, man. Somebody measy always used to clown me and swear I look like Sinbad. It's like the funniest. Oh, that's incredible. And I was just like, dude, I look nothing like him. So he'll always send me pictures of like the first kid movie. That was such a good movie. Yeah, and I'm just like, dude, he looks nothing like me, man. But no, I see it now, Meezy. No, you're onto something, man. Meezy would love to have you on the podcast. Yeah, Meezy for sure. Stone Mountain. But no, in all seriousness, all those accolades were true. We do have, you know, manager, AR, um, and trucking company owner. We got Redd Push. Redd Push. Don't get it twisted. For sure. Appreciate you coming on, man. No problem, man. Appreciate y'all having me Thank you. So you tweeted recently. Let your work speak for it speak for itself.

Care more about doing the work versus you know announcing the work. Yeah. Well, can you kind of unpack that a little bit? Like, you know, what what you were getting at? Yeah, I feel like a lot of people spend more time talking about what they're doing versus actually doing the work. And I think a lot of people like will use that to act like they're doing the work, but not really actually doing the work, if that makes sense. It does. So it's like, man, less announcements, man. Once you get the shit done and people see who did it, that's your announcement. Like, you know, I I I always I always build myself off of that. Like I'll speak about certain shit that I'm doing, but you rarely hear me like saying, This is what I'm doing. So what I'm about to do, this is what's on the way. Like I'd rather just do the shit and y'all see it and y'all fuck with it. And y'all know it came from real push. That's major. Now you do kind of move, you know, like well, well yeah, what is it? Real G's moving silence like lasagna. That's kind of how I feel like you move. But Yeah. Early. This is the place though. This is the place where you do have to talk about the stuff that you're working on.

Yes, you're allowed to talk about all your accolades. Exactly. This is the one place, if any, that we do need you to speak on it. What have you been up to lately? Because you know, obviously you got your hands in a lot, but like kind of where's your focus been as of as of late? Uh right now, I am holding down uh Venice Distribution. I'm the senior director, A&R over there. Um, so that's really been my focus. Repping them on the shirt as well. For sure, man. That's the game. Venice business. Yeah, I understand. And the still paid chain. And the SP, don't forget, still paid business, is Venice Business, all that good stuff. Awesome. Speaking of still paid, I got money Moo still, you know. If you're not familiar with him, get familiar with it. Get familiar. Money Moo, yeah, for sure. Um, that's really been my focus. And then on the side of that, my trucking company, of course, uh just building that out and going through the process with that. Um, I'm still throwing parties in the city, still at it, still at it. Damn. 11:45 on a Friday night, You liable to catch me there if I'm not in the studio or out of town. 1145 is fun.

Yeah, That's a good spot. So we were talking about this off camera, but kind of like reiterate what Venice is all about, you know, who's the uh you know, CEO of the company, kind of the background of the company, yeah, and you know what your day-to-day looks like as senior director of AR at a distribution company. For sure. So Venice is a brand new distribution company. Uh, we started maybe about a month, not a month, a year and a half ago. About a year and a half ago. And um, it's been great, man. Venice is like you said, a distribution company. We separate ourselves from like other distributors, like the United Masters, the Empire, because we don't really take that much volume in like everybody else. We really hand pick who we want to work with and we build with them, especially the artists who want to remain independent and really know that independent language, those are the people we tend to really want to work with and build with entrepreneurs. We teach you how to put how to put your bread in other places. We teach you how to make money in other places, whether it's sync, whether it's in the Web3 space with your NFTs, it's a little bit more stuff hands-on with Venice than your typical distribution, which is why I like them personally. Giving a little bit of power back to the artists, man.

For sure, man. Yeah, you don't need a major label no more. You don't. Once you figure out what you need to do, man, you just need a good distributor. You find you a good distributor, you in the game. Oh, it's it's definitely possible now. For sure. in the old days, maybe not so much, but like now, yeah. That distribution arm while still remaining independent on your own. I feel like is definitely a more uh common model than it ever has been, for sure. Yeah, man. Um we got. So what's your day-to-day look like? Listening to music for the most part. I'm always listening to music. I'm always in the studio, I'm always on calls with somebody. I'm always working on something. Like you know, when doing entrepreneur stuff, man. It's not really like an off day. Um, you always working on something, whether I'm on my phone, I'm texting, I'm emailing, um, I'm doing something. But usually majority of my day is listening to music. Where are you finding a lot of your new artists right now? Um scouring SoundCloud, going through some playlists on Apple. I mean, I do that, but I feel like everybody can like do that.

So it's like I try to go a little bit deeper. For me, I like to like go out in the street. I want to hear what people doing. I want to hear movements, I want to see it. You know what I'm saying? I want to be able to say, like, this person out here working his shit. I met him, I seen it with my own eyes. It's being receptive to the crowd. I'm watching the club work with it, you know? So I go out, I go to the club, social media, and then I of course I got a lot of good friends in the industry um who point me to good talent also. So uh yeah. It's always helpful. It's always helpful for sure. Are you open to people sending you, you know, music? Like are you not really? The respectfully way, if that makes sense. Of course. Like, just do it the right way, man. What is that? For those that don't know, right? I'm an independent artist. I'm trying to get my music heard by distributors, yeah, ARs. What is that right way? Because we definitely know there's wrong ways. But like if I'm out, if you see me out and about, first of all, if you see me in a club, that's not the right setting to try to have a business conversation. I would say that.

Or how about when someone in the club uh tries to play you their song out of their phone speaker? Crazy. Hey, listen to this right now. That's the dumbest shit. Because I can't hear what you're saying to me right now, man. It's like it's just the wrong timing. Like, you see me in the club, get my contact. Hey, I want to talk to you. Can we schedule a phone call? Can I send you my music? And leave it right there. Like, don't OD on it and make it the way it starts being weird. Right. You know. Um online, people can send me stuff. My email people send me stuff. I really I check my DMs for the most part. It's a lot of them, but I'll find time to go through them and just click on people's shit and just hear them out. But don't send just a link, right? Or are you cool with that? They can send me a link. I'm cool with it. Just don't send me your whole catalog. Like y'all, it's people that'll send me like 40 songs and like fuck with me, bro. I'm like, dude, you just sent me two albums. Like, yeah, you know. Yeah. Give me your top three at least that you think are good, you know, maybe five.

I think the the appropriate number I would say, you sending it out five is like I think a good max number. Yeah. You showing diversity out of those five songs. Can't can't be mad at that. For me, I I wouldn't be mad at that. Yeah. But it's not an overwhelming two-hour uh listen. Nah, I gotta be like blown away from your shit to like want to just dig that deep in out the gate. Yeah, oh yeah, there's artists that I love that will drop, you know, 15 song albums. I'm not even listening to all of them. Right. So it's just like shame on you, Henry. Y'all about to say some of my favorites, I'm a run through it, but I'm a, I'm a yeah, but that's different. But yeah, for sure. So you know, kind of rewinding a little bit. Paint us a picture of like a young Blue push, right? Like, where are you born and raised? You know, kind of what were you like as a kid? I'm born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, man. Stone Mountain, for sure. Shout out the mounds. Right around the corner. Shout out to the mound. For sure. I played golf at the mound today. For real? Yeah. Man, that's dope. And yeah, tell us what you were telling us off camera about where you live now. Oh, I still live in Stone Mountain.

I can't tell y'all where, but the significant house. Yeah, I so I I lived in Stone Mountain my whole life. When I got older, I ended up buying the home that I grew up in. I renovated it. Changed it up. Amazing. It didn't look like my family still lived there. Yeah, that would be kind of weird, I guess. Added some hardwood floors floors. You know, it's a nice house on the lake. You know, so I think that was really that was a really good thing for me, man. I really wanted to keep that house really for my family. So yeah, it sounds special for sure. Yeah. It's a nice size house. What's your earliest memory of music, like at all? I could tell you, like one of the first albums I remember buying. Let's do it. Okay. Don't judge me. I'm going to now. All of ours are bad. Will Smith Big Willie style. So much better than it could have been. Yeah, it could have been worse. I was expecting Spice Girls. Um, yeah, Spice of Your Life. Nah, I was really a fan of Will Smith that getting jiggy with it. Yeah.

Men in black. It was, yeah, that was. Oh, it was a wave. Yeah, it was a wave for sure. I mean, he he definitely like him and Jazzy Jeff like changed shit up for sure. Yeah, not to mention that summertime record. Yeah, that shit was went crazy. People still listen to that to this day. That's dope. So were you at all musical growing up? Yeah, I was. So you were in the band? Yeah. Damn, somebody told you some good shit. Yeah. What did you play? Uh I played bass drum. I played snare. I played quads. I did the band thing at Stevenson. Shout out to Stevenson. Shout out Stevenson. Yes. Um, before I ended up leaving Stevenson and went to Salem. I did a band my whole high school. So, like the uniform and everything. Uh, yeah, did the uniform, did the Rose Bowl parade. We actually got to see Drumline before it came out. That's awesome. All of the Cab County schools at that time. we had to go see it. I thought that shit was pretty dope. That is. Oh, that was one of my favorite movies. I watched that epic, like, you know, drum battle at the very end.

Like I probably watched that. The band director was in that in that in the um on the Drumline. That's why I thought it was pretty cool. So and then someone uh points out to you that they never show Nick Cannon's face and him doing the crazy drumming at the same time because they were like stunt hands. Yeah, for sure. And then you never look at it. You just ruined it for me, man. I thought Nick Cannon was this insane snare drummer. Completely false. He's a great actor. Shout out to Great. Yeah, great actor. I definitely bought that shit, hook line, and sinker. Yeah. Um, so there's a few high school homies of yours that like you're still close with that are in music, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, shout out a few of the people that that you've known from from that that era. Oh man, Meezy for sure. Shout out Meezy. Meezy, my dog, man. Meezy. Meezy go to bat for me whenever he can. He's always making moves. Yeah, man. It's like that shit be wild. I'd be like, man, if you can do this shit, I can do this shit. And it's like we constantly always on the phone with each other trying to better each other. Um is he still uh still doing Clubhouse at all?

He was the king of Clubhouse for a second there. Yeah, we really had a wave with that for sure during like pre-COVID. Yeah, because you were like co-hosting rooms and shit, and I feel like you and Measy do some stuff together. still, right? The Meezy O Estates, man. We got our show on uh XM Radio. Shout out to Hip Hop Nation. That's huge. Yeah, I forgot we did that too. Yeah, it's so much shit, man. Yeah, I forgot about the XM radio show. My bad. Yeah, that's like Troy Carter forgetting about his investments in uh STEM players. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, he did forget. You wilded that, true. I don't know how you did that. Legendary Troy. That's great. But yeah, so Meezy, who else? Yeah, Meezy, Tunde. Tunde. He's over at LVRN. Amber's over at LVRN. My boy Jay Shep, he's now over at LVRN. Yeah, because Amber co-signed you to get the uh the uh job with Venice, right? For sure. Yeah, a lot of people don't even know that. It was Amber and Tunde, actually. They both called me and was like, hey, um, Troy's looking for a new AR from Atlanta, and we told him he needed to talk to you. And I was like, oh shit.

At the time when they first said it, I was like, okay, cool, yeah. I'm gonna look him up. And I looked him up. I'm like, oh shit, this man's serious business. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Oh, that's the guy. Yeah, it was like that. So I was like, okay, cool. Guy from Shark Tank. Yeah, that's exactly what I said. I said, damn, this dude was on Shark Tank. Okay, cool. We getting somewhere. All right, bet. So um, yeah, me and Troy sat on the phone. They connected us. We sat on the phone for maybe three hours, man, that day. And I just shared with him like my whole life, my journey, what I want to be in the future, what my future plans are. And like that evening, he shot me a text and was like, send me your offer. I was like, I'll fuck with you. That's hard. He knows when he knows he knows. So so give us some of the cliff notes of that conversation, right? Like what what did you share with him that you think resonated so much? Uh I told him that I'm the best AR in the city. I got my hands on pretty much everything that moves in Atlanta. Um, what's on the way was pre planning from every aspect of it, I feel like a lot of stuff kind of goes through me or goes through my desk at the end of the day.

So I felt like I had some good value with that. And then my relationships, man, are like through the roof. I feel like I value those more than money. Because it's like relationships that get you in rooms that money can't. So I feel like I told him that. I told him I wanted my own label one day. Like AR was just a stepping stone for me to get in. But eventually I want to run my own label. Whether it's major, whether it's distribution. Um that might have been a risky thing to say, too. He might have, you know. It was, but it was the truth. Like I was like, yo, this is where I'm at. I'm also told I told him I was managing money, I still am managing Money Moo, but I told him on the phone, like, yo, I'm managing this dude, Money Moo. Cool. He's the next dude out of Atlanta. I'm not trying to drop that either. So if we can still do this with me managing him, I'm all for it. And he respected it and was like, cool. Which is huge because most like I'm even running into this as I've like put my viewers out there to secure a job in the business, right? Having your own roster of clients, they're not about that.

Yeah, because they want you to focus on the business, you know. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. If you're pulling away from so much of the things. How are you gonna drive the business? Yeah, but it was like for me, I told him my thinking was to incorporate my other business into this vintage business. So yeah, I feel like he liked that too. So that's and you're clearly doing it with the fit. So I mean, I'm assuming I'm assuming you're you're you know putting it into action for sure. That's That's dope, man. For sure, man. So you know, speaking of Tunde Day, you got your start like a lot of people on this podcast as a promoter, like that was kind of your first in the door, yeah. In the door uh promotions, man. If if you can pack out a club, why can't you promote an artist? And so it's like I went from throwing parties. If I can convince y'all to come here, I can convince y'all to listen to this person and this person. So it just grew over time. It was like, how can I keep getting bigger? And um I just went for it. I started from throwing parties to promoting records, people doing album releases, like certain labels that come and pay me to service their artist rollout campaign. Um, and I they'll fly them down to Atlanta, I set them up, have them going through clubs and stuff, meeting the DJs, just shaking hands with everybody, go do radio runs, and I developed a system with that.

And um from there, it was like, man, I gotta get in. I gotta get in deeper because what was happening was I was telling these these major labels who was next, they'll come and grab them and leave me down here. So, yeah, they'll do that shit. And I just got mad, and me and Meezy was like, bro, we not going for that shit no more. And I think we had like a whole room on Clubhouse about this, like, y'all gotta stop doing that. And uh, we just stuck together, people stuck together and helped me see it through. So I'm definitely blessed to be in the good situation that I'm in. I feel like I worked tremendously hard for it. No handouts. Absolutely. Do you remember the first party you ever threw? Like official, like, you know, I'm the promoter of this event. Like, do you remember that? Uh yeah, I remember a couple of them. You know, promoters, you don't really forget those when you especially when you like done some big shit like me and Tunde, we went to spring break in Florida and threw parties for the whole spring break for like the whole we was there for maybe like two months, I think, just throwing parties every night. That's crazy.

Man, made a killing cash. It was crazy as hell. My mom couldn't believe it. She's like you all got a venue, we got a venue, we rented it out for the whole month. Paid them. Cash. And it worked out, and that's what told me, like, damn, I might be on to something with this promotion shit. Yeah, and I just took kept trying to take it up. Every year. I try to take it up a notch. How did you do it out of town, though? Was it Atlanta people? For sure. So the first the first week of spring break was Atlanta people. So what we did was we grabbed all the Atlanta promoters. Say, hey, y'all come eat down here. We'll give y'all a percent because we're essentially the club owners. So we're gonna eat regardless. Yeah. We give y'all a percent to come down here promote it. We're gonna promote it with y'all, but y'all gonna get a percent to make money too. So now you got 40 people talking about this one club. And we just strategically did that shit every night. Mapped out all the themes, all the artists. We was the first people to book Future down there. Everybody wanted the book YC when Racks on Racks came out.

Y'all were ahead of the wave. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Um, then and then you do the first week with Atlanta people, and then the Florida people catch on. Catch on. We already had a flyers. We kept the themes every week. Pretty nasty party on Saturday. We just found Kappas and Q's for every college of the week. Put them on the party. It was all strategically ran down. I love that. Damn. That's great. Because I mean, you were like a subsidiary at one point of Sean and Tunde's shit, right? Yeah, we was all uh Team Millionaires at one point, is what the company was called. Okay. After Team Millionaires, it was it's crazy. This group called Purdy Boys. I don't even know why we named it Purdy. Boys. The Purdy Boys. It's not the best name. It's crazy. It's all right, it's still part of your history. Yeah, for sure. From there, it went to selfish. And I think um Selfish really ran for a long period of time in the city. And uh from there, that's when I went to the music after Selfish. Yeah, but Selfish was like the pinnacle of your I mean, I'm obviously you're still doing it now, but you got your hands and other stuff.

That was like the pinnacle of your promoting days, right? Yeah, that was like where all my income was coming from, was throwing parties. Like my mom hated it. She wanted me to get a real job. So then I ended up getting one. I ended up working at Best Buy, but I was still throwing parties. So I always just kept it because I knew that was gonna be an outlet for me to get in deeper to the music. So I was gonna never cut it off. Yeah, because you were doing Figure Eight Fridays, which is like a legendary event series, right? Figure eight, yeah. A lot of artists came from Figure Eight. Is that rollerblading? Nah, nah, nah. Hell no. No, I think it has no relation to that. Figure eight was like one of the hoodest clubs on Campbellton Road, but it was like everybody wanted to be there every every weekend. Everybody wanted to be there. It snowed, it was packed, it rained, it was packed. Yeah, I mean, who were some of the artists that that you know came out of that? Um like people you had pulling up. Yeah, Waka, Slim Duncan, Young Dro, Yung L.A., J Money, all that era back then was all in figure eight, Gorilla Zoe. Yes.

Um man, it was a lot. Figure eight did a lot. Shout out to everybody from Figure Eight. So did you book Gorilla Zoe through Rico? Nah. Okay. Hell no. Because I tried to book Gorilla Zoe through Rico, and I didn't come correct with the money, so I didn't get the booking. See, yeah, a lot of these artists they wanted to be there because it was just so packed, and like they knew that that was the way they was gonna get their music across. Okay, wow. so once I figured out a way to leverage that with these artists, it made the price drop. Yeah, see, I was a first-time promoter that had no like leverage in the game. So I was coming super uncorrect. No, they're gonna try you like that. They're gonna hit you with the high prices. You just gotta bring value to the situation, Absolutely. make it make sense. I'm gonna give me this low booking, but I'm gonna take you to radio. We're gonna do radio for your record. We're gonna promote it. Everybody's gonna be talking about it, and let you perform it at the hottest club on the weekend. Yeah, great selling. point. Value proposition. Yeah. So what do you think made it so successful though? Uh what? Just, I guess I guess figure eight in in general or selfish, you know, entertainment, like just you know, you know, you're promoting business, right?

Like what do you think for aspiring promoters out there, right? That want to get into the events, like what has made you successful at it? Um just trying to be creative with different themes, different ways to drive people to come out. Your social my bad, your social skills gotta be on point for sure. Um, you gotta be able to talk to people and make them feel comfortable and want to come out and spend money with you and not just get in for free. So if you've got those people skills, man, you can pack some shit out. If you know you got an influence, you know you can pack some shit out. It's an influencer, you know. Before it was influenced, social media, we were influencing in the club. For sure. That's dope. For sure, yeah. What's like your biggest L you took through your promoting days? Right? Like, is there is there some memory of yours that you're like, God bless that one fucking sucked? You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, we had a couple of those. There's a couple parties I booked with artists and like took an L on. Like, we'll spend a whole lot of money on the artists, and then it rains that day in thunderstorms and or a fight happens and it shuts down early, or just all kind of crazy stuff.

You guys gotta prepare to take that L. But I feel like you're not a boss until you take a loss. That's right. That's huge. That's right. That's huge. So it's like I took my L's on the chin. I had more W's than L's, but I feel like people gotta go through them L's. You gotta know what it feels like. Like you gotta know, like, damn, I don't need to do this no more. I felt it. Did you want to like quit after those, or did that just make you like hungrier? Uh sometimes, man. It also made me hungry, though. It made me hungrier though, for sure. Okay, yeah. And so Travis Porter was also one of the people I feel like uh coming through the figure eight circuit, right? Travis Porter, FLY. Yeah, all of them pretty much. Was the Travis Porter work that you did like alongside Charlie? I feel like you touched one of their projects, right? Like was that your first dip into AR at all? Or like you know what's crazy? I don't I don't know. I didn't I didn't count it as AR back then. Okay, what did you do on that project? It was just like us promoting it. Okay. they had an album that was coming out, and uh me and Charlie sat at Stonecrest Mall in the food court.

He's like, hey, what you all throw out the hottest parties? How can we come together and push this Travis Porter album? So we sat there and mapped out a rollout campaign, and then um we did like a movie premiere, I remember. It was like a movie premiere at the Fox Theater with them. They shot like a documentary on them putting together their album. It's like called Proud to Be a Problem, I believe that was it. Yeah, but yeah, shout out to them guys, man. Big shout out. Okay, so that so that wasn't really your your like first dip into the AR waters, really. Nah, well, it was like that. Um was it the Sairi Da Kid project, maybe that might have been your first? Sairi Da kid. Yeah, I think that's really why I got like really hands-on with that AR process because even like what helped when Walker had Oh Let's Do It, I was showing them like how to move around with it. Um, but the music side really came from me working with Sairi Da Kid at that time. Yeah, for sure.

So, what's your definition of AR? Because we had Deshaun Vincent on, you know, who's at Sony Music now on the publishing side. That's my boy. Shout out to Deshaun. Exactly, yeah. Yes, we had Deshaun. He was wasted at the Rockstar thing last night. He was. I saw him last night. Oh my god. Sorry, bro, you gotta keep it together. Yeah, shots fired if you watched this Deshaun. Because he didn't even recognize me for four takes. And I was like, bro, I just interviewed you a week ago. Yeah, that's Deshaun, man. Good dude. He might may or may not have been slurring most of his words, but anywho. So we had Deshaun on, and you know, he laughed of like there will be no bashing of ARs on this episode today. Facts. Because ARs do in this day and age catch a little bit of heat of like you know. What is it that you guys do? So, like, how do you define AR? For me, I feel like an AR is a person who really is in this in these rooms putting these records together. That are putting these artists with this artist, this producer with this producer, having the ear to choose what record to move on, which one not, which record we should save for an album, which one we shouldn't, which one we cool to throw out. You know, um, that's what I look at as real AR work.

Like, even with artist development, like going and grabbing artists from nothing and developing them, making a sound with them, you know, helping them grow with it, like the same way I'm doing with Moo. I feel like I'm growing him into an artist. We're doing the development process now. He's had a lot of success, but we're still growing at the end of the day. So that's my input on the AR. You got these other ARs who just sit on laptops and look and see who got the most streams analytic-wise, and they feel like because they fly in and just sit them down a check that they doing AR work, but it's like that ain't really shit, bro. You're real hands-on kind of guy. Definitely. Yeah, it's like you gotta you gotta be hands-on with it, you gotta build, you gotta be able to give off energy with it and be able to match it with the artists. I feel like, yeah. So, what do you look for in like an artist, you know, at this point, and like a song? Um or is that too vague of a question? Nah, I mean, I just if I gotta like the music.

Like, before we talk about any business at all, I gotta like the music. That's just getting in the door. Yeah, like if I'm not just working with somebody because they got a shitload of million views. Like, I'm not, that kind of person. There's people out here that'll hop on shit like that, not me. Um, I gotta be a fan of it. And if I'm a fan of it, I gotta then know you listen, you comprehend, you understand how the business goes, you got some kind of education about it. Um, and you want to learn this shit just as much as me. Like, I'm big on like the energy. I gotta feel like we should always be going against each other. Like, how can we both be better? And that's what I'd be looking for. Cause you got some people that just expect to get a manager or whoever, and just expect them to do all the work. Yeah. Facts. It's like nigga, nah, it ain't nothing like that. And that's why I commend Moo so good because like he's so hands-on with everything. We literally talk about every decision.

I gave him my opinion, he gave me his. Some stuff he may not see until I break it down, and then vice versa. But we had those conversations, and I think that's really important with people and artists and doing management. Is you gotta find somebody you click with that y'all can get along with. People be managing folks that don't even get along with them. That shit weird, yeah. Yeah, because having that like healthy dialogue, yeah. People think that like disagreements or like maybe you know, debate is bad, but like, no, it's so good. It's how you get shit done. Yeah, I tell them all the time, bro. You gotta be able to have an uncomfortable conversation. Yes. Every conversation not gonna be comfortable, bro. So it's like you're gonna get fired up every time somebody make you feel a way. No, we're gonna address it and handle business. Yeah, no, that's that's so true, man. Major. Um, so I did want to get this out there. How brief was your rap career? Man. And were you going by Redd Push as a rapper? I can't believe they told y'all that. shit. Oh, yeah.

I heard there's maybe a video out there that I can find. You on YouTube still? I didn't look hard enough. Some bars. Uh, I'm not gonna tell you the link. Y'all gonna find it on the phone. Yeah, I I tried a very brief search. I think that's what she should've looked up. Okay, Red Selfish? should have looked up. Okay, red selfish. That's what you should have looked up. Damn, we're going to find it and put the link down below, guys. No, we don't. But yeah, at one point in time I was doing music. Um, I just feel like I always had a thing for music, whether it was like coming from the band to me trying to rap, to me being on the other side of it. Like I always just been in music my whole parts of my life, I feel like. So I tried the music thing. I got so scared of what people would say about my music to where I never put my project out. It's the weirdest shit. That's why I decided, paralysis by analysis. That's when I knew, yo, this shit ain't for me. Yeah. Because if I can't put my body of work out and let people digest it how they need to, this ain't for me. And at the time I was trying to rap. My partner Shep was uh working with K Camp at the time, and he was like, Man, you can come on the management side with me, and then I'll show you how to do that stuff, but you gotta stop doing music.

Can't do both. And I was like, shit. All right, I'm gonna just sit this here and revisit it and you know, get deeper into the music because I feel like I can get deeper in this way, and it worked. I got way deeper in quicker on the back end stuff versus me trying to be actually be the artist. Do you think that managing and A&R'ing and you I know you said you wanted to own a label at some point as well. Is that kind of like the pinnacle of where you think you fit in the music music? Because are you happy there? Yeah, because I still feel like I'm doing music, like me putting records together, me choosing these these beats or this production, helping out with picking out different sounds and beats. I feel like I'm still doing music. I'm just not putting it out myself. Yeah. So I feel as long as I'm doing shit like that, I'm still fulfilling my dream. Yeah. So when when Shep, you know, shout out Jay Shep, by the way. Big shout out. Over over at LVRN managing uh cash, amongst I guess maybe some other. Yeah, yeah, he just got over there, but right now his main focus is BRS cash. Yeah, yep, that's dope. Um, so he was, you know, working with K Camp and he kind of brought brought

you into that that world. But I mean, you were also like starting to kind of try and figure out other things you could do, right? Yeah, it was just like I wanted to do my own thing, and um, I was always up under somebody. Um, and it was just like, yo, I want to kind of do my own thing. And at the time I was managing Cy the Kid, and he was like, yo, you doing everything, like you just need to start your own company. And that's how push started. And um, that's how push started. It stands for praying until success happens. That's what it was. And it was just like I ran with that because I asked a couple people, I'm like, Man, when you see me, tell me what you think about me. And they were just like, Man, Red, you you everywhere, bro? You be pushing for it. Like, every time I see you at an event, you at somebody's studio, you taking pictures with somebody, like, you really be pushing, bro. And I was like, Yeah, I like that.

Push. Yeah, and it just stuck with Redd Push. I love the idea of asking other people. That's like an exercise I've heard before, is ask your friends, like, what's the first thing you think of when you think about me? Yeah, I didn't want nothing cheesy. I wanted some shit that like really was really me. And um, at the time, Cy helped me put that that company together, and uh I just went forward with it ever since. So did you immediately start like did you co-manage Cy with Schweinbeck? Yeah, well, first I started off as just doing road management, but then I ended up moving and actually doing management with Diana Schweinbeck. Shout out to her. She's actually one of my best friends now. Really? Yeah, yeah. I saw you out in uh out in LA kicking it with her, I feel like recently. Yeah, yeah. Every time I'm in LA, I'm with her. Yeah, hey Diana. Schweinbeck, I think you said you do the podcast when you came to Atlanta next, which maybe is like next month. I don't know. She should be here. Yeah, she's in Houston right now. Okay, yeah. When she gets back here, love to have you on the podcast for sure. For sure.

Because she's built uh uh you know a dope little business of her own, and obviously doing what she's doing at Sync. Yeah, yeah, definitely. cool. So and I learned a whole lot from her, just that whole process with her because she got her job first. Um, so I just watched her, watched how she did stuff with Cy, and um I learned like I'm always learning some shit. I'm always a student. I never I'm never afraid to ask a question. If it's some shit I don't know, I'm gonna ask you. So, like co-management, right? I myself, you know, manage a couple of artists and I work with Henry on on the management front, right? I don't have a co-manager, but I know that it's a very successful model, right? To people that are thinking about like bringing someone on to co-manage their client, right? Yeah, like what would be your recommendations? Because it's it clearly you need it needs to work in a certain way, right? Like, so what would be your advice? You know what I mean? For me, you I wouldn't add a co-manager until you felt like you're at a point where you need assistance on managing that you know, some artists get to that level to where they need help because that manager may be doing three or four other different things. They may have other artists.

Then you got some artists like Meezy who like the only manager for Savage. So it's possible to be done and just let everybody's situation different. Um I'm a fan of doing it myself, but I'm also not against having a co-manager. It just gotta be somebody that can make bigger plays than me. I'm not gonna put somebody else in the co-managing seat that can make bigger plays than me. Or different kind of plays, maybe Yeah, or different. someone has different specialties. Yeah, like it gotta be something, it gotta bring some value to it. We can't just come into it at the same level because it's like, what are we doing? We're trying to elevate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I didn't know if it was a situation where like it was very much just like, hey, let's multiply our efforts and and divide and conquer like perfectly. Or to Henry's point, if it was like, hey, I got this covered if you got that covered, right? You know what I mean? Like there's people who do that though. Yeah, so how did you and and Diana work? Um, I handled the road and I handled putting the projects together, the music together with Cy. She handled the marketing and trying to find us funding.

Yeah. That was her. And so that's where so that is probably where your like more true AR skills started to really get to shine. For sure. It seems like, right? Yeah, for sure. You're closer to the music. Yeah, closer to the music. So so looking back at like the first project that you had your you know, hands in most, is there anything you would have like, you know, do you listen back to it ever and be like, damn, what why didn't I catch you know what I mean? Is there anything you kind of listen back to? I go back and listen to some of those records, whether it's like producers I put together, I'll go back and listen to them and I'll just be like, damn, I wish I knew what I knew now. That would be my only thing. Um, because back then I was just doing that shit off the love. Like I didn't I didn't um Shep's calling me. I don't know why he's calling me. But um his ears were burning when we were shouting him out. Yeah, I heard my name. Yeah. Um I learned so much now that I didn't know back then, like I didn't know I can get credit for these records that I was putting together. Yeah, you could win a Grammy.

Didn't back then it was I was just so happy, like, oh, it worked. I put them together and it worked. Like, okay, cool. This song is moving off of something I did. but it's like nobody knows it unless the business is done. So um, I felt like that would be the only thing I would say. Like, if you want to get into this music business, man, just learn the business. There's so many people out here taking advantage of people who don't know the business. And it's like you want to be mad at those people for taking your money, but at the same time, y'all just as green for not doing the research in some shit you want to be in. So, how does like a freelance type of AR get paid? Like points or pub or whatever. Yeah, points, pub. You got some people that I just pay you for consulting um and just helping put their project together. Like, hey, I'm I'm getting ready to drop a project. I need some help putting the putting it together, putting the rollout together. Yeah, I've done that for independent artists for a while, actually. Yeah, okay.

So that was like one of your you know, revenue streams and like the ways that you were helping? Yep. Okay. I couldn't necessarily manage you, but I can consult with you and your management team and teach them what they need to be focusing on and what they need to be doing. To manage you for a couple hours. Well, not a couple of hours, yeah, but on a month-to-month basis. Um, I'll work with people just to kind of help them get get going. My job isn't to be with you permanently, it's for you to learn from me and take this and grow. Cool. For sure. So so when does Moo enter the picture? And how? Moo came into the picture 2017. Um I was at 1145. Uh DJ Ant Dirty was playing his record, and I was like, damn, this song hard as hell. Was it hitting? Yeah. Had to be hitting. I was like, yo, who whose song is this? Like, I went up to the DJ booth. I said, Yo, whose song is this? He's like, man, it's this dude named Money Moo. He ain't here right now. I said, Where he at? He called him to the booth. I was like, yo, this shit hard.

Moo was like, Man, I've been DM'd you like two months ago. So he doesn't check his DMs. He was lying. No, I do. It's all cap. No, it wasn't cap. I do. I do. It just caught it. I didn't catch that one. I didn't open that DM. Okay. So he showed me that shit and I was like, damn, man, well, what you doing tomorrow? And like I pulled up to his crib, met his girlfriend, and um we sat there and talked, and it was like, before I talked about doing any paperwork or any like thing like that, I said, let me just show you what I can do first. And then I'm gonna let you make the decision on if you want me to manage you or not. And he was like, I respect that. Everybody coming at me want to just manage me and bring me paperwork and they ain't showing me what they can do. You the first person that came here and said that. And like we clicked. It's like since then we've been rocking. Yeah, so you recommend upcoming managers maybe to try and show some value first. Yeah, a lot of people be wanting shit and they ain't showed what they can do.

It's like, what I'm gonna hire you for to be a manager, and you ain't showed me some shit you can manage before. That's like, show me it first, bro. It's like a resume, but like show me it doing the work. If I if I didn't look at a resume, can you show me the work you've done? Mm-hmm. So, what were some of the first moves or like things that you might've done for him? You know what I mean? Um and I mean, even if it was stuff that you just like talked with him about to like get him, you know, more you know, on the social media. Really, man, Moo was really not really open to like talking to new people. Um, and I think that was really one of the biggest things we had to break, and we're still working on actually. He is kind of a quieter guy, yeah. And it's like, dude, you're a rapper. Talk to people, let them know that you're really cool as hell, you know. But he was just always so like, I'm with my gang, it's only my gang. So um, I think those are one of the first things that we did. The next thing we did was the DJ meet and greet. I grabbed all the DJs in the city, had them come meet them, play some more records, play hitting. Um, and what me and Moo did was we literally paid majority of the DJs in the city.

I felt like I'd have paid everybody. But um, we paid them to like really step on that hitting record, man, and it worked. And um, we was meeting with labels 2018. was meeting with labels. Nobody wanted to jump on it because it was like, oh, well, the song is a year old. I don't know what it's gonna do, what else he got? And um I ended up meeting with Boom Man and told him about the record, told him the movement we had, and I was like, dude, all. I need is some funding to remix this record, and it's gonna give it a whole new life. So is that part of the reason it it blew up late? Yeah, this is the whole, this is how it happened. Yeah, this is how it happened. Because I always thought that was so so strange. How uh we worked it for two years on our own. Wow. And then we ended up going really three, I feel like it was like two or three years on our own. And then we went to Boom because Boom met with me because he wanted to hire me at Authentic Empire. And uh we ended up somehow talking about Moo. Played him hitting.

He was like, Oh, this shit hard, bring him up to the spot, let him meet him. and we worked out a deal based on that record. They gave me funding for it, and um we worked it. And it went fucking bananas. Went nuts. Yeah. Way after it came out, yeah, which I love. I love that. And that show, people, man, you gotta stand on records. If y'all believe on the record, man, it the world is so big, just because it's burnt out here, don't mean it's burnt out globally. Right. So it's like figure it out, man. If you really believe in that record and you feel like the record ain't got its credit like it should, keep pushing it, bro. We four years in, we still pushing it into this day in theory, but we dropped other music, but hitting's still getting played, yeah. To this day. Oh, yeah. So, other than a remix to like rejuvenate it, right? And to like bring it back to life, what would be other ways? You know, if someone can't get the funding for the remix, right? What what would you suggest?

Just like continuing to try different content around it, yeah. What would you say? I would try different content. I would try to come up with different contests to get people involved with the record. Like we ended up giving away 10,000 to the person who could had the best verse to hit. We put an open verse up on YouTube. Cool. And whoever snapped the hardest, bro, we literally pushed up and gave them 10 bands. Um just you gotta just be creative with it, man, because everybody don't have funding, but it's like everybody got an iPhone though, so it's just like you gotta figure out your niche in it and just figure out plays, man, to make that shit work from influencer campaigns. We was paying for all that shit, bro. We didn't ask for nobody to do shit for free, yeah, so we just figured out how to go make some money. Once we made money, okay, we finna put this to it. Then we finna put this to it. Okay, we see this reacting. Let's double down on this. Yeah. So it's just like you just gotta have you gotta be with some folks, man, who know what they're doing. A lot of investing and reinvesting. For sure. But I love what you said about like if you, if you if you believe in a record, stand on that shit.

I love that. No, for sure. People give up on music too quick. They get tired, they listen if it doesn't get some like certain amount of plays or streams in a little while. it's like, Oh fucking sucks. That shit ain't nothing, man. Well, it's even worse with artists who just like have played the song so much that they just don't even listen to it anymore. So it's played out in their own heads. Yep, artists get sick of songs before they come out, yeah. And treat it like it's an old boring song. Yep. and I'm like, dude, nobody's heard this. Nobody's heard this. Yes, you have to make that separation. somehow. How important are the DJs still in your master plan? Very, very important, man. Um, I got a strong relationship with DJs because I feel like there are always gonna be a need for them. Whether even though you have all these editorials and shit like that and playlists, still got DJs out here. They're still in clubs, they're still doing private parties, like DJs matter. They gonna tour with these artists. DJ is gonna forever matter to me. And whoever says DJs don't matter no more because of the internet, you're a fucking fool.

Because it's like that makes no sense. I said, I'm, I just saw an interview, somebody said that I'm not gonna say who, but the man sat on the interview and said DJs ain't important no more. And I'm like, okay. They give anybody a microphone these days. Right, clearly, I mean, look at us too. Fucking anybody can do this. No, that's because it's just, it does seem like a more slept-on strategy, at least like with the artists that I talk to, I don't feel like they're cultivating relationships with DJs well enough. Yeah, they tripping. They just feel like, and then you got some people who just thought they can just throw money at a DJ and like that'd be it. And it's like, no, bro, you need to build. You need to build a relationship with this person. This person can continue to help you in more than just this one way. Why not build? Why not build? True. No, that's that's huge. Because you know, it's definitely something that I even, you know, it admittedly sleep on a little bit. And I think you know, I could do a better job of it on behalf of my artists.

Is that like DJs are the ones spinning the records in venues in between sets, even at shows, like you said? I mean, like DJs on the radio. Listen, these labels, they calling these DJs. What song hot? What song everybody playing? Like, bro, you gotta know these folks. You gotta be in the field. Yeah, those are the people that know what's hot. Yeah, so if they if your song's a part of their environment, then so speaking of boom, mm hmm. I wanted to settle the rumors. Are his showcases rigged? Yo. Yo, I feel like you're a credible source in this matter. You complete the fifth if you need to. Yo, he catches a lot of heat for that. I just needed to ask. I needed to ask somebody that I trust, and I trust you now, Red. Man, are the showcases rigged? No. Y'all got a hot lip boom. Oh, no. Fine, okay. I figured you weren't gonna answer, but I thought it was a funny question. Yeah, okay. So you you hinted at this throughout a bunch of your music career, you were working at Best Buy. Yeah, and you were very open about that. Some people try and hide that shit and act like they're just making all this.

First of all, shout out to Best Buy because if it wasn't for Best Buy, I wouldn't have funds to go chase my fucking dream. There you go. I still had to live. I still had bills. So it's like thankfully, my manager at my job at Best Buy saw my vision and believed my vision. At first he was kind of like, oh yeah, you're just somebody else who said they in music. But then I start having these artists come in the store and buy shit. And he like, oh wait, you really do know these people. And I'm like, yeah, man, I'm trying, I got a bigger purpose. Like, I'm trying to get up out of here. I think I'm the only person in Best Buy who came in as part-time, went up to full-time supervisor, manager, came back down the opposite way. I swear to God. He started regressing because he got deeper into music. But the more deeper in the music, you know, I didn't want to leave it because I'm like, man, God forbid something happened with this rap shit. Like, I still need it. So I literally just dropped down. And it was like, I don't know nobody else who got to do that shit.

But I'm thankful Best Buy fucked with me on that. And um, I always go back by that store and buy my stuff from there because it's just like, dude, y'all fucked with me on that. It was times I was late, didn't show up. Y'all let me leave. I had a meeting with Birdman in Miami, and I left in the middle of my shift. Wow. Like, yo, y'all gotta let me rock. Like, I'm showing y'all heat. me and we finna go down there. Me, money man, Si, we finna go down the bird. Like, so um, and it was crazy um that they did that, man, because a lot of people don't do that. And then I got Si on Black's tour, and um, I had to leave for like two months. So I went to Best Buy, showed them like the whole itinerary for the tour. Like, look, I'm getting paid to do this. Y'all gotta let me do this. Let me drop down to part-time. So I ain't gotta be here this many hours no more. Please let me do it. Let me do it. Shout out Best Buy. Damn. Shout out to that Best Buy. Shout out to the Best Buy. on Moreland. I'm not sure as a corporation they're. Yeah, if it's all of them are like that. Yeah, definitely not.

But this one sounds legit as fuck. You had a good boss. The one on Moreland for sure. On Moreland. Moreland. Okay. Shout it out. Damn. That's huge. Hey, I wanted to ask, um, because you mentioned uh at Venice, you guys are exploring the Web3 space a little bit. Yep. I'm definitely kind of interested, and I'd like to know what you guys have done. Um, so we've created a whole community pretty much on Discord, um, just showing people like different ways to promote stuff in that space. Just teaching people a lot of people are new to the space as a whole. So right now everybody just getting general information. But I like the way it's building out. We got a whole team at Venice that specializes in just building that out. And I think that's pretty dope. Shout out to them. The gang. What's up, y'all? Shout out. Um NFT drops yet. Uh we've done a few with a couple of artists that we had over there. Um we're still doing it, and it's to the point where now we're incorporating that in our partnerships with artists. Like, if you all have any thoughts or visions of doing that, we're the company that can help you see it through. Cool.

Yeah, to me that's a major plus to be on the cutting edge of stuff like that. Because it is a really powerful kind of technology, you know, putting more even more power back into the hands of artists and letting the fans, the early believers of the artists win. You got people, man, that's big on this web three space, but got maybe 10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Yeah. And it's just like, damn, like, okay, they need help in Web 2, but they killing Web3. Right. So it's like, nigga, we a company that do web two and web three. So it's like, come on in. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, man. I'm interested to see how Venice. progresses. Venice is definitely a game changer, man. We got we got a lot of good shit. Brent Faiyaz album just came out. That was through Venice? Yeah, Venice and STEM. We did a joint on that one. Oh, I mean, it's like charting through the roof right now. No, for sure. Aminé is doing good. We got Spinal. He got the number one record in Africa now. Wow. shit just going nuts.

I'm proud, man. I like the way Venice is going. Who's up next out of the city? I need to know. Money Moe. Okay, besides Moe. Money Moe, Money Moe, Money Moe, Money Moe. Believe, Believe, Believe. That's the type of manager you need I know. For sure. Moe. he's a fucking real one. Nobody else. Don't ask me who else is next as Money Moe. Okay, but can you answer? Yeah. Yeah, like you clearly got your ear to the streets. Like, what are you, you know, rocking with right now? You know, who are some of the artists that you think are are next up? Um I'm gonna say the gang. I'm going to say still paid, bro. Like, yeah. Who else is there anyone else? Who else is with still paid? Uh Mondo, he's good with the producing. Moe's brother, rubber band red, um Corlin, he's another producer. Um King of the Court. King of the Court, yeah. It's a couple of independent artists, man, that I'm that I'm looking at. I don't want to just I don't want to start naming people and people get mad that I didn't name them. So it's like Oh, man. I'd rather not name them.

But so politically correct, Red. yeah, you know, I just rather just know I'm looking, man. I'm always looking for new music, I'm always looking for new talent. And um, I ain't hard to find, man. Like. 11 45 on a Friday. I mean, I'm telling you, if if I'm in town, if I'm in town, you're liable to catch me there in a section doing my one too, for sure. So so what are the plans for Moe finishing up the rest of 2022? What's he got going on? Uh, right now we just finished up our agreement with Authentic Empire. So now Moe is gonna come full Venice. And um, we finna put out some more music, put out another project before the end of the year. Are you A&Ring it? For sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Definitely A&Ring it. Yeah. What producers can we expect on that one? Oh man, the gang for sure. Mondo, Corlin, rubber band. I got some shit with Bobby Critical. Um, it's a it's a couple.

We got a couple records to choose from, but I really like the fact that he really just been working with his producers. Um his end game is to have a whole label of his own with everybody up under it. So it's like I see the vision, I'm gonna support it. But yeah. That's dope. Still paid. That's dope. So, you know, so you kind of talked about this a little bit, but like, what's the end game for you look like, right? You know, what are you building towards? Shit. Shit. The end game for me, man, is my own label. More businesses. Um that's really it. Like, I'm gonna keep going with this shit. Every year, like I said, I try to figure out what else I can do. I'm getting into the Airbnb business next. Uh, once I get trucking on a good steady income. Um, I'm gonna go into the the uh Airbnb business. After that, I'm gonna open up a studio. Um, just I'm I really want a club too. Um I'm gonna do that just for like the promoter in me.

Yeah, I gotta get me like a lounge or something just because I know what to do with that motherfucker. Yeah, so um if 1145 goes on sale tomorrow, for a steal. I'm gonna call Troy. Hey, my man, let's go into this together. Trust me, Troy. For sure. Yeah, yeah. Off camera, you were telling us a little bit about you know Troy and kind of like his management style and leadership style and like what what he brought you on to do, right? Yeah. Kind of shed a little bit more light on like you know. Yeah, for sure. what you love so much about you know his vision and his approach and management style, that sort of thing. Yeah, what I love about Troy, man, is like he accept me for me. I feel like a lot of people take music jobs and AR jobs at these other companies, and they always gotta like turn into yes man and gotta follow a certain protocol or a certain way. And it's like Troy is like, dude, I know what you're good at. Your boots on the ground.

Stick to that shit. Don't come in here and go cubicle on me. And I was like, yo, I'm fucking with that. That's some real shit. And we've just been rocking since then, man. He kind of lets me just like do what I need to do. He sees the work that I've done. He sees the relationships that I have. So it's like he believes in me 100%. and that's somebody that I want to work with. I don't want to work with somebody who like I gotta beg and plead to like sign or get signed off on. Um before Troy. Well, never mind, I'm not even gonna go there. Yeah. We'll just pretend like it started with Troy. Yeah. Yeah. Ben wants a scoop. No, because I think I know where you're going. Um was this your previous job offer? Yeah, so it was like right before. I didn't know if you wanted to talk about that or if you could or what? Yeah, uh, it wasn't nothing bad, man. Um, right when COVID hit, I was actually in LA meeting with LA Reid at HitCo. Wow.

And um it just so happened as as I'm walking in that office, I see Meezy um meeting with somebody in another building. And I'm like, dawg, finna go meet with LA Reid. And he was like, oh, I'm finna sit in there with you. That's amazing. And I was like, L.A. Reid's like, what are you doing here, Meezy? Yeah, so it's like, of course, he knows him from uh with Savage. So it was like, oh, what's up, Meezy? And Meezy's like, Yeah, I'm in here sitting with Red, because like y'all need to hire him, bro. Like, he the man in the city, the last one left, like, for sure. And he would just sitting there just voicing it, man. And it was just like, damn. I couldn't ask for a more real friend, bro, because that shit was deep. So um, we ended up talking to him. Uh I stayed in LA for maybe two days after that. LA Reid was like, uh, get your lawyer on the phone, let's figure out a situation. Then boom, COVID hit. I think like Tom Hanks was like the first person they said had COVID.

Yeah, oh gosh. We're all sitting in the city. Yeah, oh my god. So we're all sitting at meeting. Tom Hank got COVID. Damn, what the fuck? Um, so he was like, let's revisit this. Because they started shutting everything down. The label offices got shut down. So I'm back at home, like, damn, I was right there. Like, the finish line was right there, and it's like, damn. It just fizzled out from there. It fizzled out. We tried to work remote, so I got on the phone with them, and they was like, hey, if it's somebody that you think is hot right now, let's set up a call. And um, I set up the call with Hitco and BRS Cash. He had the throat baby record going at the time. Going stupid. And I'm telling them, like, yo, this record is huge in the clubs. Everybody's playing it. By the time the summer comes, it's gonna be a smash. And his team that was on the call was kind of like on the fence about it. Like, uh, I don't know, it's too derogatory.

The clubs are closing because of COVID. So how's this record gonna work? Pretty much they passed on it. And then LVRN ended up grabbing it with Interscope, and now it's a platinum record today. Boom. Shaking my head. But it's cool, but that also showed me that that wasn't necessarily the spot I was supposed to be in because it's like I want to be somewhere where y'all gonna believe what I'm saying. Like I'm not, you know what I'm saying? That's Beautiful, actually. Yeah. You don't want to have to always fight the battle. I don't want to work. Yeah, if I gotta always sell y'all on why we should do some shit, then this ain't the job for me because it's like y'all hired me to do my job, and I need y'all to trust me on it. Yeah, damn. And um, that showed me a sign of it. And it's all respect to LA Reed, like he's an idol. Like, I still talk to him to this day. Like, yeah, bro. Every accomplishment I do, I send it to him like, bro, this was supposed to be us. You know what I'm saying? Like, but it's all love, though. It's all love. He's trying to poach you from uh Troy. Nah, no, I wouldn't say that.

He just hit me and like, yo, I'm seeing it. Congratulations. He's just proud of you. Yeah, he just proud. So it's just like, that's dope. it's no ill. Did you just send him the throw baby went platinum when that happened? I definitely did. That was some petty shit. I definitely did. That's incredible. But I knew it though, and it was just like, damn, like I gotta listen to me, man. And it's like, I'm over here with Troy, and he I'm on the phone with him, like, yo, it's this dude that I think is gonna be big. Don't look at the numbers because it ain't there yet. You gotta just trust me on it. And Troy will sit here and be like, all right, bet I'm with you. This is what I hired you for. Yeah. And it's like, dude, yeah, give me the level of trust like that until I fuck it up at least. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But so, you know, you mentioned you were kind of at like the quarter-inch line, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, or like the half-yard line, whatever you know, analogy you want to use. But you clearly, you know, that fizzled out. You had to deal with like that discouragement, you know, that disappointment, right? That shit's probably commonplace in this music game. I mean, there's you're constantly getting, you know. Man, listen, it's so much shit that I did for free, just to get my foot in the door.

Like, you gotta be hungry at that shit, man. A lot of people will like let that money get to them and feel like oh, I'm not doing this shit for free. My time I'm more important. When it's like, nigga, show it then. You want to get paid for this shit, show why you should get paid for it. I tell all my people this who getting jobs now. Like, you want them to pay you, bruh. Bring the value to the table. This is why I need to get paid because I just did X, Y, and Z. And once you do that, they ain't got no choice but to pay you because they're gonna want to be in business with you. You done showed your value. So instead of niggas asking for that shit out the gate, show your value first. Yeah, yeah, it's huge. Let it speak for itself. That's huge. Conversation's totally different at that point. I feel like I'm respected then. You gotta have the leverage. Yeah, absolutely. Well, no, I think what you've been, you know, able to accomplish just in the city. I mean, I was so excited to get you on, man, because like everything I see, you're like you are that like elusive character that's just like, oh, he's in this, keeps popping up, he's in this circle. He's over here. I met you at the AE shit.

And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I see you with Meezy, and I'm like, all right, this guy, Red, we gotta get him on to tell this story. So this has been amazing, man. No, for sure. And I think this is like the first time I really like shared all of this shit, too. Cause I really keep it to myself. I said I was waiting on my VH1 behind the music, but but a one-more time podcast will suffice. Will suffice, beautiful. And in five years, when this man's a legend, you know, 10 years when he's a legend. We back here. We're gonna come back and look at this. Oh, man. I'm excited. This one's gonna definitely go up. We appreciate you coming on, man. No problem. I appreciate y'all having me. Absolutely, Henry. Until next week. Getting out of here. We're getting out of here. Peace. Yeah. Yeah.