Scotty ATL Interview: Selling Grillz To Support Your Music Career

I remember just seeing so many people during that time coming up. Do you miss those times? You can't get caught up in that. That's a fairy tale. You gotta live this shit right now. It gotta be good then, and they gotta be good now. And then you gotta plan for this shit to be good later. Spin the rock, spin it one more time. Where hip hop meets jewelry, where raps meet grills. A real legend. It's Johnny Dang in the building. Oh my gosh. Can I believe it? I thought Johnny was of the uh Asian. ethnicity. Johnny don't look as cool as me. I like Johnny though. I fuck with Johnny, but I look cool though, you know what I'm saying? True. Shout out to Johnny though. I fuck with Johnny. If it weren't for Johnny, I wouldn't be sitting right here. So there you go. Salute to Johnny. and salute to Eddie. You feel me? And Jeffrey too, you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. Well, it was almost true, the uh intro there. We got Scotty ATL in the building. Yeah.

The real. Grills by Scotty, founder, CEO, big boss. Yes, in the house, man. So you're fresh off the, or I say fresh. The the latest biggest news, I would say, is the the you know, the whole Atlanta Hawks collab, man. Oh yeah, Yeah, massive. schedule release, if y'all haven't seen it, this dude collaborated with the NBA's own Atlanta Hawks. Yeah. Which as an ATLian, that's gotta feel nuts. Man, it was crazy. Um, still is crazy to even just think about it, you know, growing up watching the Hawks, seeing like, you know, where they come from, where they at now, and being able to collaborate with the NBA and the Hawks is major. So if I'm a young grill maker, what type of steps am I taking together? Yo, that image, that image in my head of you making the grill. Man, you know what? That's a great question. To collaborate with your with your your sports team, where you from? Yeah. Um And the Hawks are my sports team, so there we go. They follow me on Twitter, but it's not quite the same.

Well, I mean, it's it's a lot of hard work. I don't know. It was God, man. I don't even know, I can't even put it like in the shout out to big man upstairs. Shout out to the big man upstairs one time. But but who actually put the play together or how did it unfold? Right? Right. Like they hit you up, had you hit them up, being, you know, having an idea. Like, how did it actually come together? They hit me up. I was surprised. I didn't think it was real. And um, she's like, Yeah, I think we want to do grills. I was like, for real? Right. All right, cool. Like, you know, and and I didn't really think nothing of it because sometimes I I just try to stay humble about it, man. I'm gonna just keep working like I never heard it. You know what I mean? And then she hit me back and was like, yo, can you do it in a week? And I said, Yeah. What what was she proposing? Did she propose exactly as it came out? Where you did the the, you know, like the 10 or the 13 teams. 13. The 13 teams, the rollout, the schedule for the release.

They had a cool idea. They felt like we gained a lot of attention for the rollout schedule. Wow. That's fire. That's so fire. Yeah so how did the creative aspect of it uh play out, right? So she hits you up on behalf of the Hawks and the NBA, and it's 13 teams. We want you to make a custom, you know, grill for each of those games that are tied to those teams. But did you get the creative control over what each grill looked like, or did they have ideas? Like how did that all work? I'm glad you asked. So, what a lot of people don't know is that I don't only make grills, I design grills. Yeah. Which is like. So it's two different things. It's two different things. Okay, wow. See. See, companies follow sometimes what we do, we lay a blueprint for how grills can look outside of what you know, which is six top, six bottom, solid teeth, you know, open face teeth. We've done things like bars, zigzag grills, super gold. We create and design our own grills that other other companies and people like model and do.

They're innovating. Wow. Yeah. Okay. And so then you did. So I designed all the grills. Yeah, so you designed them. Designed the grills, then got with them, let them look at them, you know, and then they would they would decide, okay. Can you do this? Can you change this? Okay, cool. I'll come back and maybe design it a little different. Okay, that's good, you know. Yeah. So we did that for all the grills. Some of them were easier than others. And um, it was dope. My favorite one was the Atlanta grill, the Atlanta Hawks grill, because it's the the same design as the front of the building. Ooh. Yeah. Okay, of State Farm Arena. With the letter, the Atlanta letters. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's the same design. Is the inspiration for making grills similar to how you get inspired to make music, or are they two different creative outlets for you? He's not creative, so he needs this. Yeah, I need to know, right? Like, you know. That's a good question, too. Yeah. I'm full of good questions. He's chock full of them. No, No, no, no.

That was a good question. You know, um, it just happens. You know, it's not like a process. I don't really understand it either. You know? Man. It's just like I get it, and then I could just put certain things together, and it just comes in my head, and and and it's like a story. I can just put it together. I I know people are like this, this. This uh you can understand this. I can see it this way, it'll go together. Boom, this is the design. I could see it in my head first. Shit. So I've heard that same thing, obviously on the music side, and it sounds like that's that's maybe how that works out for you too. For for artists, I've heard that they can maybe you know record a voice note real quick. Because if an idea comes into your head, you don't want to fucking lose it. So how do you do that with a grill idea? Do you just like it? Are you like laying in bed at night and you come up with an idea and you gotta like remember it? Or nah, nah, it's not like that. It's more so like I could see a person or you know, get with a brand, and then we come up, you know, like, okay, well, what are you trying to do?

Right? Or if I'm talking to a person, I might can say, This grill I think will look cool on you, you know, just based off of their personality or what they're trying to achieve, what they want it for. I can I can design it based off of those type things. Wow. Yeah, the idea serves the product. That's that's I'm trying to get I'm trying to get you to a place. I I loved how diverse the people wearing each team's grill was. Come on now. It was like old, young, different ethnicities. Yeah. I thought that was fire. Man, it was so cool. And we and we did the whole thing in inside of the gym. Well, I guess you call it a gym. Do you call it a gym? The arena, yeah. What do you call it the arena. Oh, yeah. Well, it's a big famous giant gym. Whatever it was, We did it in there. It's a prestigious gym. It was so cool, man. I was nervous, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh my gosh. So you're there for the photo shoot and stuff. Or like you're in the video shoot or whatever.

Everything. I'm right there, because I gotta make sure it fits. Oh, yeah. We didn't have enough time. I'm Like, so in a in a normal situation, I might do the grill. And so, like, if they're like extra design, I might make sure the grill fit before I get into all, you know, doing all the designs and stuff. Yeah. We didn't have time to do that. How much time did you have? We had a week, but what? A week? We had a week. For the 13 grills. Yeah, all 13. Now, a week to do 13 grills is a long time. Okay. What? But sounds like super quick. I mean, it is, but it ain't. But like. Right. Okay. Like you could do a you could do a grill fast. Damn, okay. Right. If you have the idea. If you have a lot of things in place, you can do it fast. The idea for sure. But that, but like some of the ideas take longer than others. Yeah. And so like we we had to have like different color grills. You know what I'm saying?

We adding like all kind of like, we adding logos on the grill. So this is like two, three, four steps in, you know what I'm saying? Where I could just make a gold grill and it's over with. You know what I'm saying? So that's what took longer. Yeah. You know. So assumedly, if it hasn't already, I assume this could lead to way more opportunities for you, right? Like, even within the commercial space, like working with other brands and shit. next stop NFL, bitch. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, yeah. The freaking shitty Falcons are looking at this like, yo, we gotta get grills for our schedule. Hey man, let's go. Maybe we won't lose so much. Put me in the game. Let's go. We got a hockey team potentially coming back to Atlanta. So you know, maybe you know. They already fuck with ice, so you know what I'm saying. Maybe Nice. yo, he went. There you go. Yeah, you went to a rugby game. I did. I performed at two rugby games. You performed at rugby games? I performed I performed twice.

I was today years old when I found out that we had a national rugby team or something. I don't even know. Yeah, man. So what the fuck was that like? That was super dope. Um because I heard you said you did that, and I was like, I don't think I've ever seen a rugby match. Yeah. Nor would I know what to do at one. It was fun. Or like the rules. It was fun to be there. The people were, you know, they were really excited about the game. I I had a chance to learn about a new sport. Yeah. Um I just imagine it of like a bunch of drunk Europeans screaming loud. I don't know. It wasn't like that. It was like, no, it was cool. It was like um, how can I explain the crowd? Football without without pads is kind of the sport. Sounds dangerous. It was it was nice. It was it was fun though. Yeah, damn. That's crazy. So I want to treat this a little bit for you know another few minutes as like a grills 101. Okay.

You got like arguably the like most, you know, least least expecting candidate to wear a grill ever sitting right here. So I I want to just really unpack this whole world, right? Because I don't know much about it. Okay, All right. So first and foremost, who started the signature, like, you know, that that whole grill pose, like who was the first to because that's like the thing now. I feel like you know what everyone does the same the same thing. I can't say that I can't I know who did that from the start. Damn. Was Paul Wall involved? I don't know. Just throwing that out there. I don't know. It is a thing, though, right? I because I know what you're talking about. It's Definitely a thing. Yeah. Okay, let me ask you this: the hardest words to pronounce when you first start wearing a grill. Because I've heard some people talk real fucking funny when they first start wearing a grill. Well, so I need to know, like, for everyone watching who's about to start wearing grills. I mean, they need to know.

Don't take business away from Scotty right now. What to do? Yeah, the hardest words to pronounce. Well, your words shouldn't be hard. Oh, really? Yeah. So are they they got like bad fits? Yeah, you need to get a better fit. Okay. It's the fit tighten it. If you start if you yeah, if you start mispronouncing shit and like sounding all funny, yeah. Okay. We we test that in the shop. Okay. Yeah. All right. Get your grills tested, folks. Yeah. All right. And you have you have a shop now, right? In Los Angeles on Melrose. Yeah. Fire. Yeah. Well, we on Fairfax now. Okay. We was on Melrose. But we got a store in Decatur. Yeah. Two on Kelly Road. Okay. And we in West Hollywood, Fairfax. Fire. Yeah. Damn. Okay. Shop with grills by Scotty, man. Stop by. Man. Come on, man. Get yourself fitted. No, yeah. We'll definitely show. Yeah, we'll definitely dive into that. But Henry, this is grills 101, right? So hold on. All right. So I wanted to plug Scotty real quick. Everyone needs to know out there also. What is the best way to clean your grill? The best way to clean your grill is with a polish rag and a toothbrush.

Okay. Yeah. And let you know, if you got diamonds, you want to hit the you want to hit the diamonds or any stones you got with the toothbrush. You can get a toothbrush anywhere. You know what I'm saying? Um, and then you want to hit your you want to hit the gold with a polish rag, right? You want to hit the inside with the toothbrush. You could use warm water. Some people use, you know, toothpaste or whatever they want to use. Some people do all kind of other weird shit. Because I've seen some crazy shit. People cleaning the grills. Yeah. I feel like the basics, yeah. People, some people put it in like boiling water. Yeah, they do like it. I didn't know. if that was. I wouldn't recommend to do that. Why not? Um, I don't think that it's smart to let your gold get that hot. Oh. Gold is like it's kind of a soft metal, it's malleable. Yeah, I wouldn't. Okay. I've never done that. Okay, well, your grill, your grill's by Scotty. Yeah, I've never done that. Come on, man. No, polish it, man. Polish it. Yeah. Okay, wow. But if you want to get that type of clean, that's like a deep clean, you can take it to any jewelry store and they can clean it for you.

Okay. You know what I'm saying? Too. So probably leave it to the professionals. Yeah, that kind of cleaning. Yeah, yeah. All right. So there are two different types, right? Like permanents. Yes. Or ones that you can like take in and out? Pull outs. Pull-outs. Yeah. See, okay. So you're putting me on game. Okay. I always pull out. What? What do you recommend? Your pull-out game is strong. Okay. I don't know how it is, actually. So what do you recommend? To someone? Permanents or or uh pull-outs? Depending on what you're trying to do. What what why do people get one or the other? Well, some people believe like, like, man, some people say, like, we don't do pull-outs. They believe that permanent teeth make it more official, more authentic. Like you went all the way, like a tattoo. You know what I'm saying? Like it's permanent. It's there. You feel me? Okay. And then some people get permanent teeth for dental reasons. Yeah. Because they're yeah, my sister's a dentist. What just happened with Trick Daddy, by the way?

Did y'all see this? No. Did he get permanent teeth? He I think I he like hadn't gone to the dentist or brushed his teeth in like 15 years or something like that. Jesus. So he like got uh I think he got like veneers or gold gold veneers, I want to say, or something like that. Cause he just dope wasn't taking care of it. And they look great now. Money is it can do wonders. Damn That's dope so what's the most expensive grill you've ever made? The most expensive grill I've ever made um was around 18 or 19,000 wow for a guy he got permanent okay yeah yeah because those are thicker they're solid gold well they're all solid gold okay they're all solid gold see this is why we need the grills 101 class but oh okay this is why we're learning but it's just extra steps you know that okay need to be taken to get permanent okay okay what about what's the record for most expensive grill I don't know what's Johnny been doing I'm sure yeah I'm sure like Johnny the most expensive? he might I don't know I want to say he might even got people who might spend like 50 okay maybe so maybe more than that you know what I'm saying maybe 100 I don't know so who's the godfather of grills the godfather of grills in my opinion yeah yeah well that's why we have you on here I would say we don't care about Henry's opinion I would say Eddie Eddie the Godfather okay yeah I feel like Eddie um paved the way yeah you know for a lot of people you know what I mean so I give him his props you know what I'm saying when did grills become a thing like Paul Wall dropped that song was there was it really it had to have been before Paul Wall well can you know what I mean Can't deny that that helps Nelly like come on people started off wearing grills as a sign of royalty okay right and then it it evolved to needing gold or silver for dental reasons right and then that look cool so let me add a couple more I really don't need it for dental reasons. And then that turned into like what we have now, which is fashion.

Yeah. You know, so that's how it evolved. Wow. So people literally got a gold tooth just straight up off of like necessity. I need this. Yeah, I need this. I need to. Well, you know, like, you know, sometimes you might see a kid might have a silver cap, right? Yeah. Same thing. Wow. Yeah, same thing. When it first started out, you I need this for my dad has a gold tooth at the bottom. He had it for dental reasons. So that's where you saw it, and you were like, yo, this kind of looks cool. Well, I should probably get into this much. As a kid, yeah, as a kid. My dad been having that same gold tooth. Yeah. That's fire. Yeah. Um, all right. So how much time would you say today is spent between working on the grills business versus working on Scotty ATL as an artist? Well, working on the grills business takes up a lot of my time. I would imagine, man. Yeah.

Because yeah, he mentioned the two stores, one on the east coast, one on the west coast. I mean, that alone is a fucking time suck, right? Mm-hmm. So yeah, we're talking like 70% grills, 30% music. Where are you at? Well, I want to say maybe um that might be close, maybe 60. 60%. 30. but I do other things too. You know what I'm saying? So I could put a 10% there too, right? Yeah. And so my music does take up less, but it's growing. If you had the choice, where would you spend all your time? If I had the choice, I'd spend all the time chilling with my kid. Yo, I'm a new dad. I'm a new dad. So I say new shit. He's almost one in May. Um, but yeah. Yeah, if I yeah, how old are your kids, my kid's six. Okay, all right. So you got just the one? No, I got two kids, they twins. Twins. Okay, wow. oh shit. Yeah, so that that's what I'll do.

But like that rocked your world. No, having twins, I guarantee. Because having one was like, oh shit. They don't there's no schooling for this. All that money you put aside? There's no parent schooling, bro. Nah, nah, man. Nah, but but I like I like rocking with my kids. I like the mentor, you know. Yeah. So yeah, you seem like about the community. Yeah, man. Where what like why I get, you know, what I mean, where does that come from? Your willingness, I mean, because you had like the whole after rap, you know, program or yeah, campaign, you know, with your song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was obviously to inspire people to, you know, chase their dreams and their shit to do after you, you know, you rap or do whatever, right? Yeah. what where do you think that comes from, would you say? Um, I used to go to like summer camp, and I think that it was inspired by like a lot of that, as well as like I grew up in a single parent home. Okay, so like not having a father around, right?

Basketball, summer camp, other fathers in the neighborhood. It's kind of like you develop mentorship anyway from people, and so like that's kind of like my way of giving back. Yeah, sounds like your mom did a hell of a job. Seriously. I appreciate it. Yeah, I know everyone has their own experience, right? You know, growing up in a single parent household, in your case with just your mom. What what do you think was the one thing that you know impacted you the most because of that circumstance? Because I feel like everyone's different, right? Like some people get into street shit because of it. Some people have other, you know, things that come from it, right? Like what what would you point to as far as like just growing up with your mom? Um, you know, I got it, I got involved in in in trouble, whatever. You know, um I felt like my mom was just very disciplined. You know.

And so I learned that from her. She whooped that ass. She whooped that ass. She was a hustler. You know what I'm saying? My mom like always found ways to like hustle and make money. She would fly like to New York. So hustling might be another one. Yeah for sure. My mom was a hustler. My dad was a hustler too, but I never really seen him hustle like that. I know he was a hustler. You know what I'm saying? Did you know because he was like in the same area and you kind of heard about him or something Oh yeah, I kinda heard all kind of stories. Okay yeah that's interesting. No, I mean but you know he he he he moved like you know he could hustle so I I get it. As someone who like I said you know having a child absolutely turned my life upside down definitely for the better in tons of ways obviously it's hard as shit. So I look at any single parent now bro with just an insane amount of respect. As if I didn't already Right. But when you become a parent right and there's two of us my wife and I and we're a great team with our son I'm like I I don't think I could do it by myself.

I mean she maybe could I don't think I really don't think I could do it. I mean maybe you could do it maybe let's not test it, though. please God don't let anything happen to my wife if you get some good help, man if you get you some good help you can do it. It's about that. Yeah, man, you you could do it. That's where the whole I don't know, man. we wouldn't be interviewing Scotty ATL right now if you were a single parent that's all I'm saying I'd be at the crib, I'd be at the crib while he was asleep. Yeah I I think that is where the whole, you know, it takes a village phrase comes from, right? Of like because, you know, I mean, even with us too, bro, we still need the the village, man. Like my parents are helping, my sister's helping and shit from time to time. Like daycare. Yeah. Daycare is the biggest part of the village. Let's not forget them. It's the most expensive part of the village. That's for damn sure. Yeah, for sure. Who knew you could spend $25,000 a year on daycare? I don't know. I mean, you almost do, though, kindergarten. Yeah, I can't wait till free daycare, aka kindergarten. Ooh, blow your mind.

Yeah. Oh man. They put that motherfucker on the bus. So I just want to give you your flowers of taking this approach because as someone who, you know, I was saying off camera, like I've worked with artists and we've had a bunch of artists on here, obviously. Your approach that you talked about in another interview, I think, was about one customer at a time, one fan at a time. Do you still live by that? That same thing with your business and and your artistry today? Yeah, man. I'm still the same way. I feel like um quality is key. You know, one quality relationship beats five non-quality. Well, people gonna always share. You know what I'm saying? So if you treat people a certain way, or you handle business a certain way, you know, people gonna share that. You know what I mean? Word of mouth. Word of mouth. Yeah, I don't think enough people give that thought right in the way they move. Right.

I've even run across it just, you know, in our still growing network here. And I mean, you've been at this for a while, so I feel like you've probably run into situations where, you know, the way you handled business has come back in in a good way, and the way that some people handled business has hurt them in a negative way, right? Yeah. So for sure. Damn. No, that's so true. All right. So, you know, we mentioned that we had DJ Burn One. Yeah. The infamous Burn One. Burn One on the podcast before. You quoted that that's really your relationship with him was kind of when you started taking this shit seriously. Yeah. What about that relationship? Put the battery in your back. You know what I mean? To actually start going with rap. Yeah, what the hell was he talking about? Yeah. Right, it was a few things like so. I met Burn One. We was at uh Block ENT. You know what I'm saying?

Wow. Yeah. Legendary name. Yeah. We was at Block ENT. Gorilla Zoe was recording, and he was doing 30 for 30. I don't know if you ever remember. The ESPN shit. No, he did 30 songs in 30 days, right? 30 mixtapes in 30 days. Not even 30 songs. He did 30 mixtapes in 30 days. Yeah, Rico Brooks talked about this on the pod. Yeah. bro. Yeah. Holy shit. he was releasing them on DatPiff. Yes, the night of after having done the whole tape, right? Well, at first he started out, he had like a few minutes to go in. Okay, like in the bag. He had a buffer. He had about seven. But then, you know, I think he thought he had 10. Right. He miscounted. And so, like, man, this shit was so crazy. Like, I never seen this before, right? Shout out to Zoe, man. Yo, 30 for 30, you go. You mean that ESPN thing? This man did 30 mixtapes, dog. And so we was all in the studio trying to keep up with him recording.

You know, because he was just at once he had and then got to the seven, once the shit caught up, right? Cause you he didn't stay ahead seven mixtapes. He lost his buffer, then you gotta go. Yeah. Oh man, you talking about he was just in there just recording out of the top of his head, right? And so whoever was next, like if you wanted to get on the mixtape, and so as upcoming artists, we wanted to get on it. You know what I'm saying? You got about 10 minutes to put a 16. on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got about 10 minutes for real. You got about 10 minutes to write your shit. He was dropping tonight. And so I wasn't really that good at going in the booth like that. So that's how I learned how to write fast. Wow. You know what I'm saying? Under pressure from Gorilla Zoe. And it had to be good. Yeah. Yeah. It's like throwing your kid in the pool. That's how I got it. That's how I got. That's how I got to swim. So I I met Burn one there. So he was there producing. Burn one was there doing one of the mixtapes one night. Okay, hosting. Yeah, yeah. It was so crazy.

So me and Burn one was outside talking, you know, just chopping it up. I never really, I ain't even know him like that. So we were talking, and then um we exchanged information. He hit my manager up and was like, yo, we should do a mix, we should do a mixtape together. And so I was like, cool. She told me about it. I went over there, we did one song, it was hustling, you know what I'm saying? The song I got. And so um, after that, we was like, damn, this shit kind of special, bro. We should do a whole tape. You know what I mean? And so that's how we got started. But Byrne one charged me, you know what I'm saying. But I respected though. How much did he charge back then? I wanna say it was like three or four thousand. Oh shit. Yeah, for a tape. Shout out Burn one at the time, man. We're getting in. Yeah. Yeah. I think he. But that was like my last straw. Mm-hmm. Cause see, I had saw Burn one do shit with um Starlito. Yeah.

Yeah. Gucci. I think I seen him do shit. I well, he had the Gucci mix, but he didn't produce that. I don't think he produced it. I don't think he produced a lot of it. He just put it together though. He hosted it. Yeah. Chicken Talk. Well, I'm talking about like he produced for Yellow Wolf. Yeah. Starlito. Right. I want to say maybe Peel. I can't remember for sure. No, yeah, it's true. Um, but it was a couple more people I seen him do like mixtapes for it, and he was producing it. And so this is what we were talking about doing. So like I understood it too, though. It's like, okay, you giving me basically you charging me for the beats, and you gonna get some exposure on this shit too. So I did it. I was like, fuck it. If this shit don't work, I I don't even care no more. I ain't doing it. And it worked. Damn. Man, burn one. It's just worked. The link. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe this shit worked. We were sitting in the studio one day, and um, they were like, man, you in Spin magazine. Oh shit. Yeah, well, because I was about to ask you what definition of, Ritz. he did Ritz too. Yeah, yeah.

All them was was popping. Everybody he was doing, I was like, damn like shit. I might have a chance. Yeah, yeah. Cause I was gonna ask you, what was your definition of it working? Right. Spin magazine is a good start. Yeah, spin had to be. It ended up in Spin magazine. I thought it was joking. And I was like, for real? They were like, yo, I've never been in no magazine. It was in the real print magazine at that time. Damn. And online, top 50 mixtapes of the year. Or something like that, or top 100. Yeah. Yeah. Damn. I couldn't believe it. It's working. That's that's huge. It's working, man. So, how would you describe the era of Atlanta music when you started taking off at that point? You know what I mean? Like, what was going on? How would you describe it? Um, this shit was crazy. What year was that, by the way? Damn. Um, I want to say yeah, about 10 years ago, maybe. Yeah, sound about right. Um, Trinidad Jane was popping.

Shout out Nick, man. Sorry. I mean, Trinidad. I mean Trinidad Jane still popping, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Um, 29 was on the scene. Yep. Yep. Rara. Maco? Maco. OG Maco. Can't forget. Skippa Da Flippa. Skippa. Jose Guapo. Yes. With so many people, man. I can't even holler name here. But Bankroll Fresh. Rest in peace. You know what I'm saying? You got a song with uh Trinidad and Bankroll, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's interesting, man. I feel like what I love about the regional nature of hip hop is that you just named a fuck ton of people that us from Atlanta are like, these are legends. I mean, you're sitting here, and I'm so happy that you're here because you're a legend in the city, right? And so it's so interesting to me, just the the dynamic of being like Atlanta famous almost, right? Right.

Versus like going into another city, and it's not you know any fault of their own, but they just aren't tapped in with what we got going here and the people that we look at as just having such a an impact, you know? Yeah, because all the people he just mentioned, right? I mean, like so many people. I'm not sure. Yeah, the average person in California wouldn't know any of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just such an impact on the city. I remember seeing 21 Savage during that time too. Yeah, what was he doing? I just remember seeing him at shows. Yeah. I remember it. I remember just seeing so many people during that time. Yeah. Coming up. Yeah, yeah. What are you doing? Pee-wee. Yep. Yep. Are those Johnny cinco? Do you miss those times? I mean, to me, I feel like it's all relevant. You know, man. Like, you can't get caught up in that. That's a fairy tale. You know, life got to be, you gotta live this shit right now.

It gotta be good then, and it gotta be good now. And then you gotta plan for this shit to be good later. Facts. Yeah. Big one. Yeah. What do mean? I I definitely catch myself, for real. You know, reminiscing about college years or high school years or whatever. And like, damn, like I, you know. I I do catch myself, you know, falling victim to that. Like, are we just the old farts that we think our music is the best? Our generation's music is the best. Well, you mean like internal. No, I'm more medium personal. I just mean personally speaking. Nah, I feel you. Yeah, just just to your point. Yeah, like that's a that's a fairy tale of you can't go back to those times, no matter how good they were. You know? These times good too, though. No, for sure. Cause you gonna look back at this and be like, damn, bro. man, we were doing that podcast. Yeah, real shit. Yeah, no, it's episode 1000. And we'd be like, damn, remember this guy. So at that time, what were the tactics for building a name for yourself? So obviously getting a mixtape with someone like a burn one.

DJ Screen did some of my shit too. Okay. Me and Screen linked up. Me and Screen linked up. No, actually, too, he, but we're working on a new project together. But that's full circle shit. Yeah, me and Burn One linked up. And so Burn One was like he was my DJ, and the band was like making the music. You know how you go to the now. You go, if you go to a studio, the producer might play the song for you, so the beat already done. Sometimes he might cook it up for you right there. Burn One had the whole band in that bitch. Yes. For real. Yeah. Yeah, the five points bakery. Five points bakery. Yeah, man, yeah, everybody, and I never seen that before. So I was like, what the fuck? I was raining while they was doing that, you know. That's rare. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, definitely. I went on tour and I called Burn One. I'll never forget. I went on tour. I think I did Side by side with two. And sometimes he couldn't go with me when I was on the road.

And when you don't have the band, it didn't really hit like that. So I I started to make try to make some different type music too. So I linked up with DJ Screen. Mm-hmm. And so we started doing some projects together. We did the Jiffy Cornbread experience. And then we, you know, we did more shit. Me and Burn One worked too, though. You know what I'm saying? Um we did the Cool Again, which was like one of my biggest projects. Um and I think I think DJ Screen and DJ Drama hosted it, but Burn One did a lot of the production, if not all the production on that motherfucker. Yeah, but like as far as you know, we live in an age now where it's like TikTok is how you blow, right? Social media. Right. You started, of course. In a whole nother era. Yeah, yeah. More like the blog era. Yeah, well, crazy. Or just like, what were you doing to actually make it like that? Yeah, yeah.

Man, so like you made a record, and then um, you know, the record just had to be fighting it. And if you had a name or you had connections, they'll put you in certain on certain blogs. Okay. You know. Or some money. Or some money. You know, at that time, which I didn't really have. You know what I'm saying? Fair enough. I spent that last 4k for the for the Burn One project. Yep. So Burn One, the connection with Burn One, Burn One was like being seen on some of these blogs too. He started to get his own name. So they started watching everybody. He he would drop some with DJ Burn One with some more shit. This is another artist. Let's check him out. I used to, in high school, I was listening to his instrumental mixtapes he would drop on DatPiff and live mixtapes. I knew him for that, even. So he definitely had a name. Yeah. So that's how I kind of got into it. Blogs. Yeah, blogs.

Okay. I started studying the blog game. Got into the you know mixtapes. Dante Ross. I don't know if you know who Dante Ross is. No, but were you trapping mixtapes? Like were you selling them and shit? Like out of your car? Um gas station Because Burn One told a story about him and Gucci going to Southlake Mall or something. No, no, Greenbrier. Greenbrier. They were trapping the mixtapes. When I was with Burn One, I wasn't really doing that. Okay. So it was past that time. Yeah, I did that though. Oh, you did. At my point though. Yeah. The physical. Yeah, I did that though. Please buy this. I did that a lot. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I remember those days, man. And just being able to buy them at the gas station. Yeah. Just random artist mixtapes. Yeah. Just the bootlegged. Those are the good old days. Those were good. Nah, but but um, yeah, we did the blog shit. Dante Ross helped me out a lot. I ended up on a lot of big blogs, Fader, Nah Right, Two Dope Boyz, and then the blog scene kind of switched up. Yeah. So like the streaming or mixtapes, streaming, right? So I did mixtapes with DJ Scream.

And then when the streaming shit came around, I was with Empire. You know what I mean? Yep. When I Switched over. Yeah. And so like I I just I just studied the game though, so I ain't never tripping. This shit gonna change more times than that. Yeah. How would you say, how would you say you've adapted to the new music industry? Do you feel comfortable with how you've I feel like you know what's crazy? I feel like my music now is doing better than my music did back then. Why do you think? Because I feel like the grill so big, you know, just in general, I'm a bigger person. You know what I'm saying? Um, so people who buy grills listen to the music, you know, people who listen to the music, share it more, and I've done more stuff, been on tour with all kinds of people and shit. So I've gained fans, you know what I mean, in that in that world too. Um the complimentary business has become the marketing tool.

Yeah, yeah. Grills by Scotty is is is worldwide. Yeah. Yeah. Scotty ATL worldwide too, you know what I'm saying? But you know, I'm I'm pushing the music to get just as big as the grills. God willing, you know what I'm saying? So that is the goal still. That's the goal in everything, always to be the biggest. Okay. Yeah. Why you wanna do something you don't want to be the biggest? I don't know. Some people I feel like treat that differently. Some people might be comfortable, you know, like selling out mid-sized venues, making 100k a year, maybe. Yeah, no, I I'm reading this book. Um, and it's talking about being comfortable versus being rich. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to just be comfortable. You feel me? What do you want to be? The other one. I want to win. People act like they don't want to win. I wanna win. Is that the Hooper, like, you know, competitor in you?

Do you think? No, I feel like everybody feels like that. I don't think so. man. Deep down inside. I don't know. It's just like the cliche kind of some people aren't that competitive, bro, to be honest. Rappers rap is a competitive sport, for sure. Yes. But I feel like just in life. in general. I feel like whatever you do, there's a competitive side to you. I don't care what you do. You could be a stay-at-home mom, and you're gonna still brag that you the best fucking mom. Yeah. You think? I'm telling you some real shit. Yes. That's how I feel. Yeah. Well, it sounds like your mom could have been up for like best mom award. Hall of Fame nominee for sure. You know what I'm saying? So, what's the biggest L you've taken in music, would you say? The biggest L I took was Ratchet. I had I had this record. I have this record. Um, Ratchet came out, shit went crazy. It was on the radio, did a bunch of challenges, went like, was doing shit all over the like different countries and stuff.

And um, man, like I did tours. I went on tour with Big Boy on the record and Sleepy Brown. Hell yeah. Went on tour with Ace Hood with the record, and I ended up getting a deal, right? And so I'm like, yo, this is this is gonna change my life. And basically the deal went bad. Ah but how'd the deal go bad? I guess if you don't, I mean, you know, without you don't need to dive too into it, but just like what it didn't go through at all? No, it it went through, but like when you dealing with OPP, you feel me? Um, is that right? Did I say that right? Other people's pussy? No, other OPP. Okay. Oh, I was like, I was thinking other people's pussy, because I'm gonna lie. OPP, I think it's other people's. I was like, I don't know, I don't want to misspeak here, guys. Other people's money. Shout out to Naughty by Nature, though.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm high. You got me smoking this good weed. Yeah. I told you it was fire. Yeah, it's good. I dig it though. So basically they put some bread up to help push the record. So other people's money. That's what I meant to say. And pussy. Yeah, shout out to Dom Kennedy too. Yes. Yeah. But so when it was time to push the record more, I'm like, yo, we need to go in. The record's doing good. And and they was just, like nah, it's over with. Oh. Why am I in the position? Throw gas on this fire. I don't know. That's just how it goes sometimes. But what happened as a result of that is I started Grizz by Scotty. That was the turning point. That was me basically saying, you know what? I'll never be in this position again. So you were you were only doing music at that point then. I was only doing music. Okay. And then I started doing the grills to support my music. Yeah.

So is it safe to say your biggest L turned into your biggest W? Man, hit the hit the thing for me. Yo, that was a bar, bro. Thank you. I got a couple. Come on. Man, I don't like to give. That was a good bar, actually. I don't like to give Henry his flowers that often. My biggest L turned into my biggest W. You can use that. I'll take 1% on your next record if you use that. Jesus, now it just got weird. Oh man. That was a good bar. So the show you grills tour. Was that your first headlining tour? Or have you done well? Technically, I've done more tours in the past. Okay. When I was like moving around with Byron Wayne. Yeah. I was doing a lot of tours then, and that's kind of like where I started. Okay. I lost my job. Boom, I ended up going on tour. And I was just like, I'm gonna just taste my dreams and do this. This dude's the king of turning L's into W's. Flip that shit around. He Loses his job goes on tour. I'm like, dude, I don't think I have the same experience as you do with L's, but I would be waiting for my next L.

Like, please. Yeah. Hey man. I mean, you know, I I feel like everything happens for a reason, and sometimes you just gotta you gotta like peep that in in every situation. So yeah, okay. So so you've done some stuff in the past, but this is the most recent, obviously, headlining tour. Yeah, yeah. Show your grill if you're real. Yes. So Bun B's birthday bash at South by Southwest. Yeah. Like, you got what was your involvement with that? I saw something about that. I put that, I put that together. That was a party you threw. I threw that party, man. You really are a party. Party promoter Party promoter. It's on the list. It's kind of wild, right? Did you ever like plan to do this? Yeah. No, idea. No idea. It just happen. Wow. It's crazy, right? I don't even think it's called like party promoting. Yeah.

Maybe that's what it's called. I think it's the ability to get people at a place. Party curator. Maybe yes. Party curation. Event curation. Sounds a little better. So it is safe to say though that like you're leveraging the grills business to maybe also make plays in music, or do you try and keep them separate? Like, you know, how do you someone comes that's a rapper and wants a grill. Right. Are you having to tread lightly with like, yo, bro, like can I get a feature? Or you know what I mean? Like, are you trying to keep them separate? It's always all love. It's always all love. You know, it depends on the relationship. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Like, because I I would have a tendency to, you know, maybe try and ask for some shit too quickly. I don't know. You know what I mean? So I'm just trying to understand. It always depends on the relationship, though. He's gonna ask you for a verse after this podcast. That's all that's the only reason we had you on.

Yeah, you can't do it like this. You gotta be cool with people, man. You know what I'm saying? Cause people won't even want you in the room, you know. Well, I just wanted an invite to his party. You know what I'm saying? You want people to invite you back, you know what I'm saying? So be cool. This is a good, this is a good like some real game for all my young cats out there. Like, if somebody, have like um, you know, I guess you could say like the courtesy, you know what I'm saying? To invite you out to their event or backstage or some shit, be minimal. You know what I'm saying? So they can invite you back again. You feel me? Yeah, yeah. So, all right, my bad. Go ahead. No, no, that's a bar. No, that's a bar. And I feel like it is always interesting about you don't want to be too minimal that they almost forgot you were there. Nah, but it's not hard to. Nah, nah, nah. You don't want to be too minimal that they forget you there, but you don't want to be too maximum that they never invite you back again. So there's a balance, you know, there.

Yeah. And you gotta figure out what that balance is for you. You know what I'm saying? Like how you need to, how you need to play in the move. You know what I'm saying? So you there and your presence is felt, and you it's known that you there, right? But like if you up on game, you don't ever want to come in there and turn everybody off. Yeah. You'll never get invited again. Yeah. And just like I think just like reading the room. Am I tripping? No, you're you're absolutely right. I just feel like I I bring that up because we've had a bunch of people talk about, you know, recording camps, right? Where there's a bunch of artists and producers and songwriters that get brought into the you know studio sessions. And it's always that weird. Where do I fit in? Yeah, it's the awkward shit of like, I don't want to just be a fly on the wall so that they don't remember of like, oh, that producer was really dope, or like that artist had some good ideas. But you don't want to be hogging the ox. either. But You don't want to be too fucking much, bro, and like extra, you know what I'm saying? Let me put some game down on that. Let's hear it.

Let's hear it. All right, there's a difference between being confident and being competent. Okay. All right. When you go in a room like that, or whatever room you go in, be competent. For those who don't know what that word means, that means you fully aware, you know exactly what's going on in this realm of what you're doing. You're not just faking. it's just not an air ball. You're confident, but you don't know what you're doing. Now, you know what you're doing. So when it's time for you to do whatever you do and it stick, guess who they're gonna invite back. Yeah. He's looking at me like, guess what? Let's let that one sit. That's right, bro. Come on. Yeah. I got goosebumps. Competence, competence is is in many, is in many ways, right? Competence is in skill and talent, right? Do you actually know how to do this?

The research. Are you studying the game for real? Or are you just talking that you know how to do it and you really don't know how to do it? You you just uh you know, faking it till you make it can work maybe for some people. Only for so long, though. Come on, man. Yeah, yeah, you gotta let your skill kind of speak for you. Yeah, yeah. And do the work. And it's also, I think in these situations that we're talking about, I think that something we've discussed on here a bunch is self-awareness. Yeah, right. Like be aware of what it is that you are good at and competent at, right? Right. If you're not the drums guy as a producer, don't offer to do the drums and be okay with the fact that you're the melody guy or you're the hook guy. Thank you. You're the whatever. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, thank you for saying that. Yeah. Yeah. It's huge. It's it's unbelievable how unaware people are. Yeah, bro. The problem is artists, you know, a lot of the shit is expensive, man. So artists that are trying to make it are like, I can't pay a videographer and a graphics guy and an engineer and a producer.

So, oh, I can get on YouTube and watch a tutorial and figure out how to do this shit myself. So to save some money. Because the shit is expensive. Artists spend the most money. So I have like sympathy for artists that try are trying to do things to save costs because they're struggling trying to make it. But if you if you're not good at it, fam. Like maybe just five save up, man. Find someone do it. Be real with yourself. There are some things you could do that don't cost no money. Like going on YouTube, reading the book or linking up with somebody that knows how to do it better than you. So, in some ways, you know, there's there's kind of no excuse. You know what I'm saying? If we're talking about being in the room and being relevant, and trying to be seen, be seen by being good or being great, because you're always gonna win that way. Yeah, I think my biggest problem is I think you posted on our uh page the the like first people you need to add to your team as an independent artist, right? And it was Jason Reddick who's over at ASCAP. Okay. yeah, yeah.

So we just had him on recently, and he and he basically shared the people that you should add to your team first. And there were so many people in the fucking comments being like, I do all that myself. Yeah, it's the it's the pride aspect of like why are you like if you have to do it monetarily, yes, you can go on YouTube. Artists can record themselves, they can produce for themselves, but it's when you're like proud of that fact to the point of you're not good at those things and you're just so proud that you did that all. There's not there's not one popping artist without a team. You're gonna be the first one that does it all yourself. Yeah, it's like by all means, whatever you gotta do to get the shit done, I'm for it. If you can't afford to pay someone to engineer your session, learn how to fucking engineer yourself. I'm all good with that. Right. But don't don't like talk so like on a pedestal about that you could do all these things by yourself when you're not even doing all of them that well, to be honest. That's when I have the problem of like people not just acknowledging that it's probably not best that you're having to do all these things yourself. It's respectful. Hopefully it's temporary.

Exactly. Sometimes you got to. And I and I and I get that too, though, because I done been it's been time where I recorded myself. I produced and engineered, I did everything, wrote it, you know what I'm saying? Whatever. Got a crack copy of Photoshop and put a cover art together and all that shit. I did everything at one point. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? for real. I did. So I get it, you know what I mean? But I get what you're saying too, though. Like, I think at some point when you realize, okay, I'm I'm the best at this. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Let me put more time and energy into this because that can open up a door for all the other things that you want to do. Yeah, I mean, I I have so much respect for a lot of uh producers who used to be artists that just finally hung it up, hung it up and just admitted like, yo, I I used to be artist. I'm just I'm not the artist. Right. And it takes a lot of um just you know, confidence and you know, just self-awareness, like I said, to admit that that you're good, you're more, you know, fit for this role. And I don't think that it should be any, you know, self-esteem issue with that.

I think that it's almost it it's empowering in my mind to really like own what it is that you're good at, you know. It's also kind of the thing of knowing the job yourself before you try and hire someone for it. Right. If you don't really know the job, it's harder to find the guy that's gonna do it really well. So maybe these producers that produced first and now they're artists really know what they're looking for in a beat. You know, what I mean? They can really search out their producers because they've done it and they have a better understanding. Okay, I meant the opposite. Artists to producers, not producer to become artists. Well, either way. I think either way it works both ways. You know, just doing the job first makes it easier to find like hire for that job, I think. And I agree because it's it's almost making me think of just the music business side of it, right? Everyone loves to just shit on their manager, shit on their label. What you know, because it's like, oh man, they're not doing enough for me. They're not doing this, you're not doing that. When the fuck did you make a play for yourself? Is what is how I look at it. I'm like, do you even know what it is that they're doing on your behalf and how hard it is to create opportunities for artists that don't have shit going? That's fine.

It's like almost it's nearly impossible. Like shout out to all of you, you know, new managers out there fucking managing people that don't have shit to manage, really, and still making fucking plays for them. Like that's respectable in my mind. You're spitting. You're a hundred percent right. Yeah, no, for sure. So you've done collabs with currency, big boy, sleepy brown, you've toured with those folks or you know, a couple of those folks. You've got a successful, you know, grills business. What do you feel like you haven't accomplished yet? What I feel like I haven't accomplished yet. I think that I I wouldn't mind one day having my own festival. I think you're on to us, you're you're on to something with these parties, I think. I think that'd be dope. Yeah. I wouldn't mind having my own TV show. You know, like a reality show or yeah, something like that. You know. Um, there could borderline be a whole show about grills.

Yeah, I could do it. Just like the grills culture shit, bro. Netflix is taking all ideas right now. They're shoveling money out. So they they're trying to make anything. Blow me in, blow me in. And then and then I like to get a I like to get a plaque on the wall or a couple. of those. Okay. That'd be cool. Yeah. We need those. There's some empty wall space in your house that you want to fill. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Okay. Yeah, for sure. What about a little man? Little guy. Oh. Um. I was like, I don't know. He has twins. I'm not sure he needs to add. He knows what I mean. Uh the man on the moon right? The gold guy. The man on the moon, right? I don't know what either the either of the fuck y'all are talking about. Actually, I think I'm talking about an Oscar. I mean I meant a Grammy. Those aren't actually guys. I'm thinking of Oscar. You mean the old school record, like, you know, like horn thing? I was thinking of the Oscar that's the guy doing the thing. I mean, that too.

That too. I mean, I thought you were talking about an MTV uh music award. I ain't mad at winning the Grammy. I'll take a Grammy. Yeah. I'll take a Grammy. But it's not like up there on the list. Honestly, a festival doesn't seem that far out of reach, bro. Yeah, I like that one. With you being able to do parties, I think that could be like the the next one. Let's go. All of them I think are possible because I I believe in you, bro. But I'm saying, like, festival, like you're already throwing parties. That's like just you know, kind of leveling that shit up a little bit and one step away there. Yeah. Let's go. For sure. Well, Scotty, we've entered a final segment of the podcast. Oh shit. Oh shit. Right, Henry. Oh, fuck. Where are we at? Uh uh. What happened? Exactly. You're about to find out. Uh oh. This is the rapid fire rampage, Scotty. Uh oh. It's a three-part rampage. We're gonna start you off with some short answer questions. Are you buckled up? I'm ready. Okay, let's get it.

Scotty. And these are short answers. Let's we're good. We try to go, you know, boom, boom, bang. All right, come on. Boom, boom, bang. Scotty ATL turns out to be copyrighted. You must pick a new rap name. What do you go with? Smooth criminal. Okay. Michael Jackson's team is coming for you. Anyway, moving on. You can only go to one night spot in Atlanta for the rest of time. Which spot do you choose? Cheetah. Yeah, because you can eat there too. Nice restaurant. How much money would it take right now for me to buy your grill business? A hundred million. Man, sir. Three top things I should consider if I'm looking to buy my first grill. How many teeth you want to get? What carrot?

What color gold? What do some of the videos in your YouTube algorithm currently look like? Larry June. Scotty ATL. Curren$y Who has the best fast food chicken sandwich? Chick-fil-A. Oh, boo. Oh, God. Henry hates on Chick-fil-A, bro. Don't hate that. Don't pay any money. That's a whole other episode. You had great answers until that one. Oh my God. That was a letdown. Last one of the short answer. What is your favorite curse word? Damn. Part one. I thought he was saying damn to the question. Oh, yeah, we've had that, but yeah. No, fire answers. We've hit that one before. This next part is a this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices. Pick your favorite one.

Right. Okay. Music or jewelry. So sad. Came out swinging. Music. A great producer or a great engineer. Great engineer. Ooh. A bridge or a third verse. Bridge. Drums or melodies. Melodies. Drums or flats. Drums. Green or purple? Green. LeBron or Michael? Michael. Cowboy hats or Crocs. Neither. And finally, win the lottery or find your soulmate. Find your soulmate. Part two.

Finally, someone find he's the first one. Yeah. That didn't win the lottery. Exactly. We've had some, he's a good guy. Yeah, some like anti-love people on here, man. Everyone that I've asked that one too. I know. I was starting to rethink our guests. I'm glad we finally got one right. You had a good one. This is the last part of the Rapid Fire Rampage. It's the word association. I'm going to say one word. You just give me the first word off the top of your head. Right back at me. Here we go. Rampage! Starting with hip hop. Uh cool J. Lighter. Weed. Twin. Minds. vacation my D's. content. Pornhub. That is content that is content we're gonna have to edit that one uh uh well for TikTok maybe just put yeah they call it Cornhub on TikTok. You know what? I just seen the Netflix. I was there watching the Netflix. You were just watching porn? Nah, Netflix. Before you came in, the Netflix special. It's kind of real weird. On Pornhub? they have one? Yes, they got a new one.

I know I was there, I fell asleep trying to watch that more. I wasn't jacking out though. I ain't jacking out this for a long time. I don't be jacking out like that, though. Oh. He was truly fascinating. That's that's another story. I was gonna say, I mean, we could probably We could unpack that. Let's not. Let's not. Let's not. I'm not sure I want to. Let's move on. Rabbit Hole. Investment, money, hot, cold, sample, look nasty, rum. That's my dog. What? Rum. Oh. You sounded offended. Nah, nah, nah. Um Dominican, yeah, uh Dominican Island. What does it say? Dominican Republic. Yeah, there we go. Hibachi. Oh, um, Benihana. Alien. Don't believe. Lil B Grills.

Bye, Scotty. Let's go. This has been Scotty ATL in the One More Time Podcast. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe. Oh, no. We fuck with y'all. Thank you, Scotty. Thank you for you. Much love, man. Until next week, Henry. What are we doing? Getting out of here. Get the fuck out of here. Peace.