Wayno (EVP of A&R at Quality Control) Interview: Viral Flukes vs. Career Artists

Now it's like I need the viral moment. So I need to say the craziest fucking thing I could think of. I could fill up a fucking stadium with the amount of songs that I've only heard the four bars. Naturally, if you see success, you think, okay, I just gotta do that. So the next new artist, they like, I just gotta do that. I just gotta do that. And then when they finally get the opportunity, they get signed and all that, and you figure out that most of them aren't artists. Absolutely thrilled to welcome in today, legendary recording artist from Compton. It's the game. What the s***? I love when I don't know who he's gonna roast the guest as. Yo, what? It makes it so much better. I was like, what is he talking about? You do kind of look like the game, man. Come on. The game? LA. LA confidential. I've heard I look like a lot of people through my timeline. Let's hear it. Cameron. Okay. Ah shit. Killer Cam would have been way better than the game. Wood Harris.

Okay. Um, YG. Um, there's a few more I can't think of off the bat, but I've heard I look like different people throughout my life. We'll let the comments decide if the game is at least close. No. Nah, man. I borderline want to start over and do Cameron, bro. I'm not kidding. Nah, it's all good. Nah. In all seriousness, we have someone who's risen the ranks from the mail room to the one more time podcast folks. We got the EVP of AR at Quality Control Music QC. Wayno Clark in the building. What's good, everybody. What's up? Yo, Wayno. We are great, man. It's been a hell of a week. We've done back to back interviews, so I'm a little tired, but I'm excited for this one, man. This could be a good one. Yeah. I'm excited too. I love the talk, man. I like what y'all guys are doing. And you actually have some shit to say, I feel like. Always, man. I this my mom used to always tell me that I need to join a debate team. When I was a kid, they used to send me down south to North Carolina with my family, like all my family in North Carolina, wanted to send me back to New York because they was like, you talk too much. So this shit worked out for me.

Or talk too fast, probably, right? Like coming from New York to North Carolina, they're probably like, Yeah, why do you talk so fast? It depends. Yeah, like I can talk fast, but I don't really talk too fast. Like people who talk too fast from New York is trying to get over on you, usually. No, but so we've had, you know, a bunch of ARs on the show, and I feel like everyone's definition of AR is slightly different. It's a mystery. yeah. So I wanted to get, you know, your take on like what it is that an AR does, just so we set the stage for the conversation. You know what? I mean, what y'all said is right because I feel like each and every one of us do different things. You know, I've been around ARs who are like super duper duper in the studio. Um, I'm talking about from the lyrics to the beats to the songwriters to uh progressions, with every type of way, right? And then I've been around ARs that do absolutely nothing. You know what I'm saying? So um for myself, I say like um it's not just discovering talent, but it's like helping curate the talent to become something, you know, bigger than what you discover. Yeah, it's funny, man.

I mean, you said it best, there's a lot of ARs that just don't do shit. Yeah, but there's also a lot of A&Rs. I don't want to take away nothing away from nobody because there's a lot of people who who who do shit too. Like, like it's tons of people who do the work, and I think that like the narrative, like for up and coming developing artists who before they get signed, is like, oh, because somebody hasn't discovered you that ARs ain't doing their job, which you can't know all things at all time. If that was the case, then I hit the fucking lottery week. You know what I mean? But it just goes like that. Yeah, it's it's funny, man. We had um Deshaun Vincent, who's an AR over at Sony Publishing, and he was like, There will be no AR bashing on this podcast. Cause I mean, I feel like you guys do catch a lot of grief, right? Because there's some like bad apples, I guess, where like they aren't doing shit. So it's like it just sounds it's like a cool title. It's like entrepreneur. Is it like jealousy? I'm an A&R. Everyone's just envious. No, I think that everybody just like the perception of people who don't work, like this is my living. Like, I make a living off of music. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, that's what I do. For the people who don't make a living off of music, like their perception is based on like a movie they saw or a story that they heard, and like, you know, or what they hear on Clubhouse. And everybody there is an expert, right? So I think that um, you know, for the most part, when it comes to AR and there are people, it's like any other profession. You know what I mean? You got do those who don't, those who do, those who don't, and those who watch. And um, that's how it pretty much goes for me. Like, I don't not listening even if you ain't doing shit, if you getting six figures and you ain't doing shit, more power to you. Right? You know what I'm saying? So, you know, salute. Teach me your ways. Facts, but at the same time, it's like, you know, I I do appreciate the people who put the time into the craft. Like there's a lot of people who put time into the craft. And um, I think the biggest problem with with A&R is that with with the new artists, they think that they supposed to know everything. Like, or or if you by the time you find out you're a dick rider. Like, like, it's been artists that I didn't want to sign, and I'll just be like, oh, this is dope. And I'll find a page and I'll be like, yo, this is dope. And here come the people in the comments.

Oh, you dick riding now. Like, you you don't know nothing about this. I'm like, I don't, that's why I'm fucking showing love. You know what I mean? Like, but you can't, you can't win everything. So it is what it is. People on the internet specifically love to hold you to your original opinion. Oh, that's a fact. Like, if you said something or thought something or passed on an artist or whatever the fuck the case is, and you just change your opinion months, years, whatever time. Yeah, it's like you're, I mean, you're fucking dick riding or like you're the new dick riding now, it's glazing. glazing. That's the new one. That sounds crazy. My god. But like, it's like, come on, man. So that's what those comments mean? Yo, bro. Just realize. 12 people passed on Kobe Bryant. 12 people passed on uh uh Klay Thompson, Devin Booker, like the list goes on. It's so many, like Giannis, Antetokounmpo Like it's so many people that got passed on. You can't know any and everything. And the thing about potential is you can't have potential forever. So it's like I always look at like music as like drafting, right? It's like, okay, when you look at a certain draft class, like I've picked ones that had tons of potential, but the potential didn't meet the talent and it didn't turn into anything. And then I've picked some that have worked and are working towards being something.

So you you can't know everything. That's just not life. So the ones that had potential that didn't end up making something of that potential, what what do you think were the common themes of what went wrong? Um man, shit. How do I count the ways? I think like, nah, just just being honest, man. I think that like um even being an artist, like artists have a perception of what the music business is. And then you hear like this the industry, the industry, like it's this fucking building or something that everybody abides by and lives by certain rules. Um, some artists like money, I say money is like the biggest downfall to a lot of artists, you know. Um like everything that's happening with like Ja Morant. I don't want to divert too too quickly, but a lot of people saying he has so much money and he hasn't like accomplished anything. It's the same thing for music. It's like a a kid could make a song in the garage or in a crib, and then tomorrow everybody's offering them a million dollar deal, and they've never even had a thought leading up until that point or what they would do with a million dollars. And then with I also feel like in just in life, like, not even music, we're trained to believe that like that the word million means so much, and it doesn't really mean as much as you think it does, you know what I'm saying?

It doesn't last that long. It doesn't, and shit, a million views is not a million people. You know what I'm saying? True. It is like um, but it's it's a trick. Like it's all these things is a trick. And I think like the biggest downfall I've seen for by the ones that didn't work is like they made a couple dollars and then they thought that they was on top of the world, and it they didn't even get a chance to like really emphasis on being an artist. You know what I mean? Like uh being an artist is that in itself, is is creating art and putting it out and getting the good with the bad. A lot of them just want the money, and when the money comes and you don't know how to maintain it or build it, and that shit goes, it's like now you back doing whatever you or you're trying to live up to what people perceive of you. Yeah, you know, and that's like a slippery slope, I feel like. Oh, that's a bad place to be in. It's like trying to catch that fucking magical dragon that you know you can't do. So, you know, you kind of alluded to this. You quite literally can make a song in your bedroom on your iPhone, blow up, you know, assumedly overnight on TikTok or whatever, right? How do you, as someone who's the EVP of AR at, you know, a historic label here in Atlanta, how are you working to combat that one hit wonder, that like short-term success and build career artists?

Like, what's the plan? Because I don't I I don't care about like numbers. Like every, like, I don't look at, oh shit. Now don't get me wrong, like I I'm not against research. Like everybody, a lot of people are against research, like all research don't mean nothing. Research is just gives you a gauge on like what people are into or not, right? So, like, it's stuff that I find on research that looks really good, and then it's stuff that you find on research that doesn't materialize. So, like, I didn't like at QC we have an artist, SCY Jim, right? I didn't know, yo, is that Claudia's Claudia's artist, yeah. Yes. So Claudia. Yeah, shout out to Claudia, that's my girl. But like I didn't um I didn't personally sign SCY Jim, but like he was doing, he was always doing good on research, and every time like his uh we we would have research calls, he would always pop up. And we used to be like, we used to call him Spicy Jim because SCY, we didn't know what it meant. I didn't I didn't know there was S C Y. I thought it was saucy Jim. Yeah, I think it's stack cash Youngin or something like that. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. But um, you know, with Jim, like he just always kept coming up.

And then it was okay, the music is good. We met him and his manager, Blue Cheese, shouts out the cheese, and we had a good conversation, and it just materialized into yo, y'all got something really good going on. And that was like something that's good that's working out of research. Then you get shit with research that's just like I a flash in a pan. I I I not juggle, I don't want to say that. I go back and forth about like what what should actually be done, right? Like, because even as a business, you gotta find ways to keep the lights on, right? And I had this conversation with my man um Justice from LVRN, and like this was a few years ago, and I was like, man, do you sign like the the one hit wonder, or do you like try to build the talent like from the ground up? He's like, you gotta do everything. He's like to run a successful company, you just gotta do it all. You know what I mean? So I don't I don't get too caught up on it, but I don't really care for the the numbers and shit. Like I like stuff that um somebody being true to themselves, somebody who really wants to grow and learn and build business and rock with us for you know a foreseeable future. That's how I look at it.

Yeah, so what do you think? You know, just looking at the the folks that have had careers that have you know stood the test of time recently, like you know, are there common characteristics that you can point to of like, hey, career artists have these characteristics or these attributes, or like here's part of their story that is is, you know, similar? I think it it depends. Because every artist is like different. They like kids. Like they I'm not saying that to like down them or nothing, but they like children. Like, like everybody's not gonna be the best. Everybody's not gonna be the top of their class. You got valedictorians, you got kids that don't really do shit, and they all make up this thing called hip hop. I think like I feel like Dirk is a really, really good example because like when Dirk came out, he got signed like right before Chief Keef. Like him and Lil Reese got signed right before Chief Keef, and no ID signed them. And when you look at a uh uh um producer and executive producer, like a no ID, um, everybody was like, you signed that. But at the same time, I think that not him just being from Chicago, he just saw a little bit into the future. And um Dirk, the reason why I say he's a good example is because he's tried everything.

Like there was a point in time, people forget that like Dirk had that weird little space where it was him and Dej Loaf, you know what I mean? Like that relationship. Yeah, yeah, the My Beyoncé song. It was like Durk was like this sweet guy, and then he went to like the Chiraq Demon. And like he's just had these different um more recently, because you could look at, I feel like you could look at Drake and see the same thing. Like Drake has had like these different chapters in his life where he's the ladies' man, or he's like the the um dropping the project with 21. Yeah, exactly. You're dropping the project with future, or you know what I mean? Like, if you read in this too late, Drake, you know what I mean? Or it you got different aspects of him. And like with a Dirk, he's trying. And I said this to a few of my friends a week a couple weeks ago. When I seen him do the double XL interview, and I started seeing like excerpts around it, I was like, he's about to shift like how he makes music. And he's like, What you mean? I'm like, yo, he just said that he loves his girl. Like he he went out and said in the interview how much he loves his girl. You know what I mean? And and not only that, he started saying about how like King Vaughn, like he's been going to therapy about King Vaughn. And like when you start being vulnerable and talking about stuff like that in interviews, something's about to change.

And then he comes with the J. Cole record. It's like I just listened to All My Life, probably four times on the on the right here. I'm not even kidding. But that's a great record. It's a good record. It's a great record. But it's a shift, right? It's like, cause the thing with Dirk, I feel like it's kind of effortless for him to talk street shit. Like that's easy for him because that's his environment. But I feel like in hip hop, we don't have as much maturity as we used to. Like there was a point in time where like a Jay-Z made a the 30, 30s, the new 20, you know what I mean? Or you had like more mature versions of artists that were coming out making music when they reached a certain age, right? And then you look at those 30-year-olds compared to the 30-year-olds now, the 30-year-olds now is acting like the 20-year-olds back of that time. So, you know, I think that um it's important to kind of be very cognizant and understand that like when I get to a certain age, I want to talk about certain shit because that's gonna give you a longer lifespan. Yeah. So as someone who worked at the you know, legendary Rockefeller records, right? You've been in this shit for a minute.

You've seen the game change, you've seen it evolve. How do you feel like you're handling having to adapt over the years? Has it been a struggle for you or come natural for you to evolve as the as the game changes? I don't forget who I was when I got in. See, the thing is is I got in when I was 18. So um, like when I usually talk to uh um uh up and coming artists and their team, like I can remember like that hunger I had when it was me and the young guns, you know what I mean? And I they were already signed, you know what I mean? And me being a part of their team and just being the Swiss Army knife. I'm gonna do whatever for the for the situation. Um the way I'm I I adapt, it's just I just pay attention. I I never forget where I come from, right? Like, it's like if you're 21 years old, what I've noticed, I'm 40, right? And what I've noticed that being 40 is I meet dudes that's 21, 22, 23, 25, and they got like the same problems I had at 25 or 22 or 21. Like, especially when you come from the hood, it's like the common thing um is always poverty when you coming from the hood. And it's like what most of the artists we I'm gonna say all of them that we signed, but a lot of artists we sign are street artists.

So they the hood never changes, you know what I'm saying? It's just like the the players change. So I'll I'll talk with an artist and they'll tell me about their story, about their music, and I'm like, oh shit. Like I got I I know what that's about. And and that that kind of helps me with how I gotta position the artists or producers or writers, or how I gotta like put them in position as well. Like it helps with my job because I just never forget, like I don't forget what it's like to be 21, and you got all these amazing ideas because you want to be successful and nobody takes you serious. Yeah. I mean, so obviously over the years, it has been majority street artists. But like, what's going on with Layton Green, for example? And I mean, it is the diversity. Yeah, is there gonna be a shift in the roster? Well, I mean, we have been shifting the roster a bit. Layton Green was already signed before I got there. Yeah. But like when I got there, you know, Layton, she had took a lot of time off, you know, Layton and she knows I love her, but she's in her head. Uh, and as as every artist is, like, so excuse me, sometimes they second guess like their decisions. Like, is this song good enough?

Artists are like any other group of people. And I remember George Carlin said this shit. He said, kids are like any other group of people. A few winners, a whole lot of losers. You know what I mean? For real. Shout out George, that's the same shit as artists. Like, you know, and with Layton, when I first met Leighton, um, she was it was right before she was about to give birth to her son. And she just expressed like all of the things that she wanted to do and how she wanted to do them. And you know, for her to be RB, I never worked in RB before. You know what I mean? Like I've listened to, I grew up on RB, but I never worked a RB artist. So it was um I I helped her complete her album, you know, and what what it really was was like me just letting her have the freedom to create and then also saying, uh, I think we should, you know, work with, you know, these producers or whatever. And then once she worked with these producers, we started just filtering like the music. Like, you know, what I mean, we had a ton of music, and I was like, you know what we need to do? We just need to sit in a room and put it all on a piece of paper.

And we did that shit one time and figured out the album. Yeah. You know, so I mean, as far as like the shift with the with the um roster, we like QC, we're not, we want to do business with with with dope people that want to be a part of what we're doing too. You know what I mean? Like we're not, I wouldn't necessarily say we're not looking, we always looking, but you gotta want to be there with us as well, you know, and we're we're looking at all types of artists. Yeah, for sure. So, like where where do you think most artists are getting it wrong right now, right? So there's there's more artists than ever. There's what, 100,000 songs uploaded daily. I mean, just the amount of music being made and put out in the world is just astronomically high at this point. There's a ton that are obviously just completely getting the whole thing wrong, right? What what would you say are some common, yeah. They should chasing shit. Like that that's the thing, right? I feel like trends. Yeah, and the thing about trends is I don't have a problem with trends. You know what I mean?

Like, I don't I don't have a problem with bandwagons either. Like, I don't, I don't necessarily jump on bandwagons myself, but I think that like by the time people jump on bandwagons or follow trends, it's it's it's something that's been worked on for a long time that led for people to get into it, right? So um, I just feel like so many artists feel like they have to make a certain and it's always been like that. Like, just me growing up in New York, like in the early 2000s, a lot of people was like, you gotta have a radio record. Like, yo, you need a radio record, which is like, yo, I need to have like good enough bars, but I need like a dope R&B hook. You know what I mean? Or I need some singing, and then that shifted to singing on the record, right? And I feel like at one point in time it was just like, all right, I need to sing along with rap. Now it's like I need the viral moment. So I need to say the craziest fucking thing I could think of within four bars that will permit people to pay attention for 16 second clips of that four bars. And if that keeps going, like I can't, I can't I could fill up a fucking stadium with the amount of songs that I've only heard the four bars. Right.

And I've never listened to the song. So I think that so many artists, like naturally, if you see success, you think, okay, I just gotta do that. So the next new artist, they like, I just gotta do that. I just gotta do that. And then when they finally get the opportunity, they get signed and all that. You feel I've I've been going through it when I was at asylum, you figure out that most of them aren't artists. They just tried to figure out how to make a song right quick, made some shit that people could make a dance to or just vibe to right quick, and then you like, all right, we but we got you in the studio now. What's that? And it's like they're in the fucking headlights. That's so that's so dangerous to me. I feel like that kind of mentality, just not giving, not being able to establish a super deep connection with the artist. You know, if you you know like it's cool when they do it, there's a problem when I do it. Fuck them. What's the next bar after that? Like, people can't tell you. Well, there's no chance to like get deep with that in those viral moments. I feel like. Well, I think like for that song specifically, I did like I'm not the biggest that finessed two times, right? Like he could rap, but like I'm not the biggest fan of him, but I actually thought that that was a good song.

But like, I feel like the the, and this is just me being uh observer, you know what I mean? This is me being a consumer. I don't know what his situation is or not. I feel like the difficulty he has is because you know he spent a lot of time in prison, and a lot of his raps is that you know what I mean that banging on each other shit. Like a lot of the music sounds like that. And while it's good when you're doing a freestyle, to me as a fan, it's just not translating when it comes to making records. You feel me? So like I I also believe that when you have a certain type of skill set, you can get through that. You know what I mean? But you know, it works for certain people. Yeah, so when you said that some of these people are just basically able to make music, but they're not really artists. What what makes someone really an artist? Honesty. Um, and and I and not so I hate for people to believe that like every song, because when people talk about hip hop and they talk about like substance and all, like every song is not about something. You know what I mean? Like, every song don't have to be about something.

Like, it's a lot, like a lot of missy, I love Missy Elliott growing up. I can't tell you what the fucking what a lot of her songs was about. You know what I mean? Like, ooh, I think it's like all of that shit. Like, I can't tell you what them songs didn't have necessarily substance to me. They just was like a dope beat, some dope rhymes, and they felt good as a kid. We could dance to them, we could have fun to it. But I just I I um the honesty I mean by that is like if you know that that's your niche and you're just good at making those type of records, then stick to that. Like, I feel like um, like Busta Rhymes, right? Like Busta Rhymes, his honesty as an artist is making club bangers. I feel like A$AP Ferg is like that. Like, I'm not gonna listen to A$AP Ferg to hear like an in-depth record about his life. Like, you know what I mean? When I I wanna hear Rob with the mob. I'm doing a lot like I want to hear that shit. You feel me? So I feel like sometimes like the artists, they they get tricked a bit. You know who got tricked like that? Little B. Little B tricked himself.

Little B was doing all of that. Young Bees guy and I fuck with the bitches, all that silly shit. And they was loving. And then when he made that I'm gay album, he tried to really make a real album. And nobody, everybody, what the fuck is this, bro? We want to know the next Wonton soup. We want to know the next Ellen DeGeneres. Like, you know what I mean? And they overthink it. You know what I mean? What makes an artist like an artist is just being honest, being truthful about what it is they want to make. Like, remember Lil Tecca when he did the um, what's that shit? I got, I got, what's the name of that song? Y'all remember that's Blueberry Fago? The Fago? No, that's that's um, that's Lil Mosey. Lil Tecca was, I got black, I got white, I got uh, and so I got twin glocks, turn you to a dancer. And remember he did the genius shit, he was like, I actually don't own any glocks. Like, I don't shoot guns, I don't like it. I'm not even old, I don't even have a driver's license. Exactly. Talking about driving, cars and shit, but I think that like while people tried to clown Tecca, like I love that. That's the most dishonest bar ever been, apparently.

What do you mean? Well, I mean, if he's blatantly saying that he's completely lying, right? But that's great. I see that's what I love about music, right? I love, see, this is the thing. Only in music, only in hip hop music, I'm not gonna say music, only in hip-hop music are you not allowed to just make shit up. Like when you just make shit up, like I'm not I have a lot of friends who have done tons of prison time, killers, drug dealers, all types of shit. None of them is not no, they couldn't even be rappers if they wanted to. What I'm saying that to say is because a lot of the rappers that say they did, you ain't never I know I could look in a lot of these artists and seen they never touched a brick ever in their life. Yeah. The average, the average person in the hood never touched a fucking brick of cocaine. So when you rapping about having 60 bricks and moving them down the block and you and you look at the person like then why are you dressed like that? You know what I mean? Like it's it's kind of like a person who wears like fake jewelry, like a person who has like a fake Audemars, right? But the shit looks really good and they hop out of fucking Toyota Corolla.

Like, bro, it's, and you did not pay 160,000 for that watch and you driving in a 25,000 dollar car. Yeah. But I but I can appreciate a person who says, I brought this fucking watch because I wanted to get some numbers, and the girls in the parking lot don't know what I pulled up in. Yeah, I would respect it. You feel me? Yeah, it's honest, too. Yeah, so I would respect. I'm a back end. Yeah, I respect an artist saying, like, yo, I rap about killing for entertainment, but I'm actually not a killer. Like, I actually wouldn't kill anybody. I'm just no different than a person um playing in a film. I could appreciate honesty like that. It's super interesting. I say like hip hop is the genre where like you might get called out for that. Because any other genre, you could, you know, you could tell a story, you can embellish some details, and it's just your art. You're not getting called out for it. Sound effect. Did you ever hip hop is yeah, they kind of hold you to a standard. Did you ever listen to Another One Bites the Dust by Queen? Of course, of course. They talking about killing people the whole fucking song. I never thought none of them was killing people. Right.

I mean, don't give me, but but that's it. See, the thing about it is hip hop also culturally comes from the streets. The thing about coming from the streets though, people think that coming from the streets only means like being a criminal. To me, coming from the streets when I was a kid, like you know how they have the term outside. We just I I I went outside because I didn't have nothing to do. We didn't, we wasn't bragging about, yeah, I'm on this street. I'm in the street. Like, no, I just I ain't have nothing to do after school, so I would just go play ball, ride my bike. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because the inside and because inside was very small. Like, why would you want to stay in a fucking New York apartment that was like tiny as fuck, probably, right? Why y'all gotta do that? I'm just saying, like, come on, you giving me flashbacks of how I grew up, man. We grew up in a fucking apartment smaller than this area we in. Bro, I went to a uh a family friend's funeral. She grew up on the Lower East Side back in the like 60s or 70s. Her family had a one bedroom where she and her two siblings slept in the actual bedroom. Her parents slept on a fucking fold out couch where her kids would have to crawl over the sleeping parents to get to the bathroom, bro. It gave me fucking anxiety.

So I'm just saying, like, yeah, they were outside too. No, that's a fact. Y'all are just outside in New York, bro. The thing is, is like, you know, coming from New York, like, it depends. You know, some kids, they don't just be outside. Some kids, you got every type of kid. Like, for me, I I never really wanted to be a person in the street. It's just that, like, when I came outside, I just had influences in front of me. And, you know, those influences mixed with like you figure thinking about how am I gonna survive, right? Like, can't beat them, join them is a real thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, like all of these different aspects of life when you're a kid growing up in this environment, it makes you put yourself out there. But the great thing about that is is like that that was my social media. That's how I just like my social media was like getting on my bike and riding around Harlem. You know what I mean? Like, if I had on a good outfit, I wanted the approval of my peers. So I would make sure I ride my bike uptown.

Like, yeah, if they see this shit, they go, that's my likes. You feel me? Yeah, too. For real, that was my likes. So it's like, you know, I think that um, especially like for myself growing up in the hood, like, you know, you just want to be seen more than anything. So, like, you you especially in Harlem. Oh man, Harlem is a fucking fashion show. If they don't send a shit, if they don't see you, are you spinning the block coming back around again? Yeah, yo, you know how many. Yo, let me tell you something, bro. You know how many times I had on a good fit, I had on a good fucking fit, and I went somewhere and nobody was outside, I was sick. I'm like, damn. I gotta figure out a day when I could come back through and show this shit off. But that's just being a kid and you know, just having fun with it, you know? And but but that's the reason why I understand the kid today who like, you know, they might do a little bit extra for the clout on Instagram. Because that was my clout when I was a kid. Like you said, it's the same game, different players, different players and different strategies. That's all. Damn, man. That's uh that's that's interesting. So you're you're obviously, you know, co-head of A&R at QC, yep, exactly.

Shout out to uh Brandon, Brandon Ringo. That's right. Okay, yep. And uh, and then you also manage Duke Deuce. Yes, so we've we've talked about this a little bit. Like, is that not somewhat of like a conflict of interest when like your manager is with the label? Yeah, like I feel like I mean, yes and no. Okay, I feel like yes, on the like the rules of what people think things should be, right? But knowing the aspect of like you like who you like, you know what I'm saying, and you want to work with who you want to work with. Like, I don't um, there's a level of confidentiality that exists between you know, me and Duke, just with me and Duke and nobody else, you know what I mean? And we have a relationship as you know, manager, and I have a co-manager, you know what I mean? Tati, who I'm who manages Duke with me. Um, we have a level of respect for one another in profession as business, but then we also have a respect for one another as men. So we don't hold anything from each other.

Like, I'm very honest about what I think he should do. Even, you know, sometimes I'm not gonna say it goes directly against the label, but it's sometimes where it's like I feel like we could do things, you know, a little bit better on the label side. So it works for us. You know what I'm saying? Does it work the other way around? Is there a level of confident confidentiality with you and QC and some things that maybe you can't discuss with Duke also? Yeah, to an extent. You know what I mean? But it but it's not like I feel like the level of transparency that that is in QC, we don't hide nothing from me from one another, man. Like if you if something is bad, you gonna know. Like, you you gonna know. Smell that shit down the hallway. Let me tell you something, man. Shouts out to P and Coach. But if if P not feeling something, man, you gonna hear that shit before you could even think about it. You feel me? So it's like, um, I but we hold each other accountable in every instance. I think that's why it is work prior, and that's why it's working now. Yeah, shout out Duke Deuce one time. No, no, that's that's my guy. What a fucking artist, man.

I mean, well, I'm just a sucker for anything and everything Memphis, bro. That's my favorite sound. I have like Memphis beats. I have I listen to all like so much Memphis, man. I just gotta get Duke up here, man. Yeah, I would love that. That's easy. Talked to him. He's such an innovative artist. I mean, talk about like building something that's unique. Yeah. Um, I mean, didn't he like perform with like a live band recently at the LVRN shit? or whatever? The LVRN shit. I was like, yo, I was just blown away by him as an artist, man. Yo, what's dope about that is like, you know, I got a really good relationship with LVRN and all of that, and like that's a thing that they do. And when we did it, it kind of added a different perspective, you know what I mean, to Duke. Um, the thing with Duke is he was already Duke before I met him. You know what I mean? So what I've been able to do working with Duke is just give him a different perspective. Like, yo, like, bro, like, all right, you you you come from Memphis, you doing this, you doing that, you didn't conquer this, you conquered that. Now it's time for us to shift a bit, not get away from who you are, but just to, you know, to grow as an artist, like the same thing I was talking about prior. Like, like right now, man, we got some ideas for our next like project that we're gonna put together, and I think everybody's gonna love it because we just taking our time.

Like, we're not rushing. I think that's such an intricate part of being a producer. Can we get some exclusives? We'll manage exclusive drops here on the one more one more time exclusive, maybe? No. Oh, but what I can say is uh we are working though, we working and nah, and and when we do, we already, I'm gonna bring him up here. Let's do it. Like I would love to do that because Duke, he is an artist, man. Like people, him dancing is an aspect to his art, you know what I mean? If you really take the time to listen to Duke, he be saying some shit. Like, he has some song, he got this song um that's coming out soon. And like the beat and everything, it just sounded like a turn up song. But then one day he sat with me and told me what he was talking about. I said, I didn't even get all of that. Cause but I hadn't listened, I hadn't listened deep enough to the record, you know what I mean? But if you hear it, it's some shit to turn up to. I love those types of songs that they grab you immediately just from the sound. That's it's like the first level has to grab you first when you just kind of hear it and experience it. And then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth time listening to it, you're realizing other things and you're catching this bar, and then this bigger meanings come together, right? And it connects with you in a whole nother way.

That's right. So who's Duke's AR at QC? Me. Is it you? Okay, all right. Well, because I was gonna say, like, is it tough for you to take off your A and R hat and put on your manager hat? Nah. And vice versa, or whatever. And the way it happened was this. It was like, you know, Duke had prior management, you know what I mean? At one point in time, and I was as his A&R, he he had another AR over at Motown, and we would just do like these calls, right? We would do these calls. And the calls are just so boring. I'm talking about these calls were so fucking boring, bro. Like, we just sitting there and they're like, yeah, like, let's do this and let's do that. And one day I just like, I just, I never said nothing. And one day I was like, yo, like, that shit not gonna work. I was like, yo, that's not gonna work. Like, let's try this. Like he snapped. Yeah, no, that's what it really was, bro. It was, I just got tired. Because you know what it was? Fucking lost it. Yo, I got tired of being on them calls for real. Because we wasn't taught, it was a meeting about a meeting. We wasn't really doing shit. Yeah. So, and you know, the management is the prior was the management prior. You know, they did what they had to do, but I felt like, you know, they wasn't really bringing nothing to the table creatively or or supporting him creatively enough where he felt confident to express himself if he was on a call.

You know what I mean? And my partner, Tati, she had jumped in and we started working, and then one day, like, they was like, yo, could we have a meeting with you? I'm like, yeah, and we had a meeting. They was like, yo, we want you to manage, I want you to manage Duke with me. And Duke was like, Yeah, I want you to manage me. I'm like, for real? And like, yeah, I'm like, all right, cool. You know what I mean? So yeah, so so how much um, how much like management shuffling happens? Like what you know, like I Oh, it happens all the time. Yeah, right. I mean, you know, if anybody knows my story, you know what I mean? I was managing Davies at one time. I was managing an artist named TJ Porter at one point in time. I was managing like a few different artists in my career, and you know, when they get ready, like that's it. You know what I mean? And shout out Buddha. Oh, yeah, Buddha, yeah. I was your first client, right? That's my first client, yeah. No, Buddha, Buddha and Grants, they from New York. They from well, Buddha's from the Bronx. Grants is um from Queens, but Buddha is like, he's like one of my best friends now, but like at the time, Buddha just pulled up on me one day and was like, we had met through um Amadeus. Amadeus is a producer.

Okay. This is in the MySpace days, you know what I mean? Amadeus, he wanted to send some beats to young Chris. And I sent Chris's beats to um, I sent um excuse me, I sent Amadeus's Beats to Chris. Yeah. And uh he ended up getting Lil Wayne on the record. And this one, Lil Wayne is fucking rocket fire. Oh shit. You were the man. Well, I just I didn't get Lil Wayne on it, but I got the I got the placement. You looked like the fucking man probably. Absolutely. But I ain't get shit out of it. No, this is Wayne going into Carter 3. Carter 2 was already out. This is Wayne going into Carter 3. This is when he's doing a feature for everybody. You know, you know, and oh yeah. There was a uh video of him that just went around recently where they were talking, he was talking about a hundred features. I was on it. No, he was talking about you could change the radio station to any genre channel. And he was on it. Yeah, no, it is unbelievable. So, you know, Amadeus had told me, like, yo, my man Buddha wanna give you some beats or whatever, and we started talking. He gave me some beats, and then like this is years later, like five years later, he like, yo, I want you to manage me. I'm like, manage me? like he like, yeah, I said I don't know how to manage nobody. He's like shit.

You could do better than the dude who do managed me now, even if you can't do shit. I know I heard you say it before. I just love that, right? Because we, you know, we talk about this a lot. You can literally wake up and say you're a manager. There's no manager school. There's no fucking credentials needed. Yeah, nah, there's no idea. There's no credentials. You just had to have someone say, I mean, you could probably do better than the guy that's doing it. You know how? That's all you need. The thing was too though, I felt like, because it's it's funny, right? Like, I feel like people, when it comes to managers, they look at like, all right, who is around other people that I could get to? Said, fuck you. You should be my manager. you could just be my manager, you know what I'm saying? Even if you don't know how to do it. And I wouldn't necessarily say it was that, because I was doing AR prior to that. So I understood by this time when Buddha wanted me to manage him, I understood music. I understood, like, you know what I mean? Like how to make a record happen. I understood like putting an artist with another producer and putting another artist on that record and making something out of it. So he was right about it, but you know, even when I started managing him, we hit a wall. You know what I mean?

We had hit a wall early on because man, at this time where like Dat piff and my mixtapes, the spin red, all that shit is so big, it's hard to sell beats. You know what I mean? It was so hard to sell a beat, man. Like, I remember we had a record that was supposed to go on victory lap that ended up being J the Kiss single. Wow. I've never said that before. So that's an exclusive. There's our exclusive. We'll fucking take it. Um, but it was um, we had Gave Nipsey, my man Steve O was working with Nipsey. Nipsey. He was at Def Jam. He was working with Nipsey Steve Carlos. Yeah, Steve Carlos. Yeah, yeah. And um, we had gave Nipsey the record, and Nipsey, I remember they was gonna put Ed Sheeran on it. True. Yo, I swear, bro. Shout out to Ed Sheeran. Like somehow. Making the rounds. Always being around. Like what the fuck? Yo, the crazy thing was it was like, all right, we had the record, and it was just sitting. So I think I started managing Davies. Dave did something to the record, and then we was like, they wanted to put on the table. He's like, nah, cause we got a placement with Nipsey. And then Steve O kept telling me, like, yo, we got the record.

I'm just trying to structure it, He's like, Yo, we gonna get Ed Sheeran. When he told me he was gonna get Ed Sheeran, I'm like, oh, I'm getting out the project, like that's it. And um Nipsey's No more hood for you, yeah. Man, and Nipsey just never, you know, he never figured it out, but he they had a verse on it. So Jada Kiss is working on his album, and um we ended up, I think the record was called Ain't Nothing New. It was, I think it's Neo Nipsey and Kiss. Wow. Okay. Yeah, so that was we, you know. That's that's amazing. So at what point should an artist get a manager? Like, you know, we always ask this. Well, what's the right time to get a manager? I think there is no right time. I think you could you could get a manager, like, even if you don't got shit going, but you but the manager has to like want to do something. Like the manager can't just say, I'm the manager. Like if you the if you're the manager, you should be trying to find any any and every opportunity to get your artist more exposure, right? It's like there's no money in the beginning. Like I remember like when I first started, the most successful artist I had managed or ever managed was at the time was do, I mean, I do uh Dave East. And when I first started managing him, like we wasn't making no money, you know.

what I mean, it was just like my perspective. Like, I remember I came on, he was working on a Black Rose project, and he was like, yo, I just need a couple records to finish it. I put him with Buddha, Buddha did um the offer, and him and Grants did the offering, it ended up being an intro, and then he wanted to feature. I took him to Smoke DZA. Smoke DZA is my childhood friend. So I took him to Smoke DZA's spot. Shout out Dizza. That's my brother, legendary artist, entrepreneur. I mean, everything, man. Like we were kids talking about how we was gonna get in this shit one day. So I took him to Dizza. There's a oh Dizza has done a record with every artist I've managed at that time. I'm sure. So he did a record with so that was like that was my per that was what I brought to the table. You know what I mean? I brought that to the table, and then when Dave got like the first couple offers, right? Like, I helped him get a lawyer because I had so many relationships in the business. I didn't know nothing about having a lawyer, but I just called my friends, like, yo, this kid I got, he's about to get a deal. I need a lawyer. So they helped me, yo, here, meet with this person, meet with that person, and I'm getting them a lawyer. Like, it was just as a manager, you gotta just do whatever you can to bring the the bring more to the table to bring the artist become a bigger name day by day. Yeah, it it's gotta be one plus one equals three, kind of like you have like you have to be like, you know, you have to be contributing more than just if they were to be doing this on their own, right?

Yeah, that's a fact. Um, yeah, that's that's true. So to the and to the point, real quick of um you talk about like manager shifting a lot, I think that should be more normalized. I think it's okay to try a managers for like three to six months, like trials. Yeah. We've seen people do trials. I think people get like real like emotionally attached with each other. Bro, but I think it's cool to like, you know, just feel feel each other out if you believe in each other and just normalize, you know, trying. It's like tryouts. Yo, you know how many people be like artists right now be asking me to manage them, and I'd be like, yo, let's just get a chance to know each other. Like Yeah. I'll be wanting to jump into that shit. Cause because a lot sometimes artists who might have had bad management prior, like their expectation of you is like, oh, if I get with him, it's it's out of here. And a lot of a lot of the that's another thing to the managers, um, you know, in the defense, a lot of the success is not always predicated on the manager. If you don't if as an artist, if you don't give the manager something to manage, then there's nothing to do. You know what I'm saying?

So it's like I can't just come up with shit out out of thin air when you ain't going to the studio enough or you ain't working hard enough. If you ain't doing shit, I'm gonna find something else to do. So I just try to like feel people like that shit is like dating. Like you know what I mean? It really is. Yeah, I don't want to know if I I don't want to get you pregnant. You know what I mean? Like I'm just trying to chill, get to know you a little bit. I don't want to marry you yet. You know what I mean? Take me out for a fucking coffee, first at least. you know what I mean. Oh man, so what are your favorite uh manager artist duos? Favorite manager artist duos, yeah. Like the most power like power couples, you know what I mean? Like currently, uh just maybe of all time, honestly. All time. Yeah. I gotta say, rest in peace to my brother Hovayne. Yes. Him and Troy Ave. I was supposed to have uh Hovayne on the show. We had met at the ATT Revolt Summit. Yeah, last year. Yeah, and and like I I knew him through our mutual friend uh fame. Yeah, fame, that's the home.

Yeah, she's like my favorite person. Nah, fame is dope. Yeah, yeah. She's actually been on the pod as well. And so I had literally texted Hovayne probably like two, I don't even know, like two weeks, however long before. Yeah. I'll say he's a legend. Yeah, nah, Hovayne, rest in peace, Hovayne, but I say Hovayne and Troy. Ave. I gotta throw myself in there, Dave East and myself. Yeah. Um, who can I think of? Who could I think of? Yeah, there were a lot of zeros that came in your bank account after that. Facts. We made me got out the hood out of out of that one. Yeah, me and East made a lot of bread together. I ain't go. that's that's my guy. We made a lot of what up. Did you get uh some of the acting checks as well? Little bits of it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. His first, the first shit, like uh we did Being Mary Jane. Yeah. We did the um, what was the name of it? It was some show that was on VH1 with Tiana Taylor with Harris. That's when I met with Harris. Uh I forgot the name of it. Um, but it was like an old school hip hop show, but Dave like plays some artists. I mean, he played an artist on there. He's a pretty good actor.

Yeah, he does his thing. But um, I'm trying to think of people. I'll say producer and manager. Um, my man Matt, money making Matt. Okay. You know what I mean? Um, yeah, who's he manage? Matt Matt. Matt was on here. No. We didn't have Matt. Y'all didn't have Matt on here. Hook it up. We'd love to, but who do you manage? Matt, he got Cardiac. He got a bunch of different producers, but he um Matt works at Warner. Okay, see, I love Dre London and Post Malone. Yes. Dre, oh, yes. Like Dre London is borderline an artist. Like, he's Now, Dre is my guy. I fucking love Dre. Yeah. Um, I don't know if this counts as management, but I say Generation Now. Oh, yeah. Um, well, Neelam, my homegirl Neelam and Jack. And Jack Harlow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's so crazy for me with Jack, because I watched, like, when they first signed Jack to it, he's a fucking superstar now. Yep, yeah. So it's like just the development that Generation Now did, and then Neelam working at Generation Now, and I think she's just fully his manager. Like, I gotta give it up to her. Um, I gotta give it to my girl Erin, Erin Larson, and Playboi Carti. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I gotta give it to my sister Erin. God, Cardi is just on another planet as far as like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I gotta give it to Erin. Shout out to lady managers also. No, that's a fact. I gotta give it to my homegirl Kim. She got an artist named uh OT7 Quani. Okay. You know what I mean? From out of Philly. Like, it's so many different people coming up. Baraline and um Babyface Ray. Yes. You know what I'm saying? I gotta give it up to them too. It's it's if I forgot you, forgive me. I don't be thinking about manager uh artist duos. But did did, Baraline just start her own label, Great Day uh Records or something? I love that because I've known Baraline before she even thought about getting music. Oh wow. Yeah, you know what I mean. And just to see her her trajectory. Is she from Harlem? She's from Dykeman, so Dykeman is like borderline. It's not Harlem, it's Manhattan, but it's like it's kind of like It's the most northern part of Manhattan. So it's like it's like, and it's right next to the Bronx, so it's like Bronx, Manhattan together with Splash or Harlem in it. You know what I mean? It's a weird, like it's a it's a Dominican neighborhood, like it's predominantly Dominican, so you know um she's Dominican as well.

And like just her grind, man. I gotta give it up to her. Oh man, I I feel like just even me. I, you know, I started actually doing the podcast and getting into music a few years ago, and I, of course, just obsessed with like the music business and the industry and like who all the movers and shakers were. And I remember seeing Bearline like early on, and I mean, even just like looking at her Instagram growth, for example, it's like it's easily like 10X over the last like two years. Like, she's just popping. Like, and like she just went from like normal A&R to like senior director, VP. like owns her own label. She was, She was helping Steve O with his expenses five years ago. He's sitting at the fucking desk. They gotta give it up to push a T and Steven Victor too. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Steve. And and my last one is my my brother Rico Beast. and Rest in Peace Pop Smoke. Yes. Yeah. So obviously you alluded to, you know, you were close with Dave East. You were managing him, you know, early on, right? You know, you guys hit a lot of success together. Yeah.

You've clearly fell out. I know that you've, you know, somewhat mended that relationship and y'all are cool now. But what do you think you learned about yourself just as like a man as a result of that whole situation? That I'm him. You know how the kids say, I him, Timothy. butler, I learned that I'm him. No, for real. Like, like, I'll say, um, you know, what occurs in in this business is you got your ups and downs, your peaks and valleys. You got one day you got a lot of money, then shit, then your money get low. It's like anything else. And, you know, through that time, I second guess myself a lot. You know what I mean? Um, because when you in a position and you lose that position, you naturally going, like, instinct kicks in, like, damn, what did I do wrong? You know what I mean? And when I started like assessing and excuse me, I started assessing and going through all the things that I felt I could have did better. I I genuinely felt like I could have did things better. Excuse me.

But at the same time, I was like, no, let me get back on the fucking horse. You know what I mean? Like, let me get because the horse was still there. Now, if the horse would have fucking took off, I'd have been in trouble. But the horse was still there. It was people who were still interested in me. It was people who still wanted to work with me. It was people who like thought highly of me and just looked at the work that I had done and was like, yo, man, this guy's good and he has something, and I'm him. I feel like you're the king of get back on the horse. Really? Dude, you've gotten fired from like every fucking job you've ever had originally, but then you still managed to like become the EVP of AR at one of the biggest powerhouses in Atlanta. Yeah, I mean, yo, it's like this dude literally was getting fired from every mail room in New York City. No, no, I only got fired from one mail room. Okay, still. The second I got laid off and they rehired me again. Exactly. You know what I mean? It's like, how do you get rehired after you get fired? Cause I'm good, bro. I'm good. I'm him. Like I'm I'm fucking good. Like, like I had to really realize that because, like, and this is what I learned. Like, once I started getting into media and shit, I had to learn, like, you can't look at or listen to the internet in a bad like connotation because like people, perception might not be your reality, but perception is reality for a lot of people, right?

Like, if you look up in the sky and it's gray, you assume it's gonna rain. So people assume the worst of me. People assume that I was a thief. They assume that I was doing all type because if you don't have information, then you could just make up whatever the fuck sounds good to you. So um, like the thing about what I learned was is like, yo, just don't pay attention to none of that noise and do the work. See, that was but like I wouldn't say that's my problem. Like when I was at Rockefeller when I was younger, my problem was when I first got in, I thought I thought this is never gonna end. That's why I got my hands tatted. I would have never did no shit like this at 19 years old if I'd have known what my outcome was gonna be. I got all these tattoos on my neck because I thought I would never have a regular job ever again. And at in 2002, a neck tat was like a face tat. You know what I mean? right? A hand tat was like a face tat. That shit was serious. So, like the only tattoos you really found back in that time, and not you know, LA, they was doing all types of crazy shit, but it the most a person had was a fucking teardrop. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Like the a face tattoo was a common thing. So a hand, a neck tattoo, I was like, oh, my shit is over. Yeah, you feel me? Like, it's over for me, but I better make this work. Yeah, I had to make it work. But the thing about it was it's like, yeah, like you either go and fucking sink or swim sink. You you gotta do one or the other. You get thrown in the middle of the ocean, you either going drown or you're gonna swim the shore. I was just like, fuck it, let me swim. Yeah. No, I just think it's truly inspiring, man. I mean, thank you, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, I didn't want to dive into all that because you talked about it a lot, but like that shit is inspiring, man. It's a part of my story though, bro. So I don't run away from that shit. It's like definitely. Yeah, you can't run away from it. It's like, yo, especially if it's your truth. Like one thing, I had put put up a post like recently, and I has I was talking about my story, and I basically said, like, you know, there's no flaw. Like, you can't go and say, oh, he lying about that. He lie because I don't have nothing to lie about. You can't say, oh, he wasn't really no. I don't you you're not gonna find no pictures of me looking silly, goofy, none of that shit. You're not gonna find no chinks in my story.

You're not gonna find no bullshit in my story because it's my story. Yeah, I'm not telling nobody else shit. And I don't beef it up or try to make it something that it's not. Somebody might have a different perspective, but that's just it. For sure. So QC sold for over 300 million dollars. I ain't gonna be. No, I, I know you didn't get it done. sorry about that. Um, LVRN recently has been valued at over a hundred million dollars since the 80s is doing their thing here, like, you know, in Atlanta. Is there like healthy competition between the labels here in the city? Um, I never looked at it. That's a good interesting perspective because I never really looked at it like that. Like, for real. I am competitive to an extent, but like I really don't give a fuck about it. And and I know that people say, Oh, that's not true. Now, am I a fan? I'm a fan of Tunde, Amber Grimes, Justice, whole LVRN, LVRN team. You know what I mean? What they've done with Summer Walker, Boogie, some of their other acts like, yeah,

black. Black, yeah, black. Oh man, shout out to Black. Um, a lot of the artists that they have, like, it's amazing. Because me and Amber were brand ambassadors for Reebok. Yeah, I heard that. That's funny, man. 11, 12 years ago. Yeah, but yeah, but you were doing that obviously up in New York, probably, right? And then she was doing it down here. Well, they had a program where they just had people in different markets. They had one in Philly, New Orleans, LA. And at the same time, y'all were doing it. At the same time, yeah, there was we was a crew. You know what I mean? They had like my homegirl Katrina, she was in LA. She was a, I think she danced for the Clippers or some shit, but she was a brand ambassador. And JD Elroy, my man Dre, Dre the mayor, he's in DC. He works for Push. Yeah, exactly. Dre is like a legend there. Absolutely. So it's like I look at like them since the 80s. Barry's my fucking guy. So dope. dope. Like, for me, man, just being black, that's enough for me. I don't be looking at it like, like, I'ma keep it a hundred. When I see like people beef about who making the most money or podcast beef or all that other shit, it's it's foolish to me. Because I was poor.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm not making that up. Like, even even when I look back at my life, now my mom had a very, very great way of making us making that shit look good. But we ain't have shit. You know what I'm saying? So any dollar that I make off of music, I can't believe it. Every time. I'm like, this is real. Still feels crazy. That's a fact. So I don't be looking. Now, look, other people might say, yeah, they can't fuck with us. They can't fuck. I don't look at it like that. I look at it like, yo, listen, man. If any of y'all, and I don't know if they did, but any of the people I mentioned came from where I came from, I don't give a fuck how great you're doing. I want you to do better. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And people act like that someone else winning is taken away from you. Like they'll there's abundance in the world. We can all win. Yeah, I ain't intimidated by none of that shit. Cause I get what I get and I get what I deserve because I because I cause I'm worth it. So like I don't trip. When I see somebody else doing like what would be perceived as better, I just say, damn, how'd you do that? Can I learn? You know what I mean? I don't got no fucking ego, bro. Cause I like I said, man, listen, if you had to buy uh, if you had to spend a dollar to buy three packs of oodles and noodles, and that was your dinner for night for the night, you can't have no ego, man. Straight up. That's crazy. I'm curious if anything in your, like, day to day change

since the company sold. Did that have any type of effect or not really? Hell no, ain't nothing changed, man. Nothing. Ain't nothing changed. It was so crazy because my homegirl called me and she was like, yo, congrats. And I was like, on what? My life is exactly the same. Yo, bro, I swear I was in my bed. I was on my bed on my computer, going through emails, and she like, yo, congrats, Wayne. My homegirl G. She A&R, uh, let's start here with Yachty. Okay. She's like, yo, congrats. I'm like, congrats on what she like, you you she thought I was joking. She's like, you kidding me, right? I'm like, what? She like QC just sold. I'm like, QC sold? I'm like, what they sold? Like, she's like, yo, go on like, go on Instagram, I'm on Instagram. I seen it, I was like, oh shit, cool. I reposted it and everything. I didn't know what it was. You know what I'm saying? You don't have any equity. Nah, I ain't got no equity. Man, I'll be on a fucking island right now if I ask for equity of that shit. But D.K.os. But but I, but but for real though, like, I just was inspired. You know what I mean? Like, like when I first met P and started talking with P, he was just telling me, he didn't tell me about that, but he just was telling me about like the vision that he had for his company and his brand. And he thought enough of me to make me a part of that.

So I don't like, listen, whatever transpires through that is a win for me, bro. I'm from a hundred, I'm from 228th Street in the Bronx, and I'm from 119th Street in Harlem. Like anything after that is ancillary. I appreciate it all. So Scooter Braun's not like popping in saying hello. Hell no, I want to talk to him. What? I already been asking. I'm like, yo, can we talk to I got some shit with Duke? I need to talk to him about. We need to talk to him. I haven't met um Scooter, but I did meet Jen. Jen works on Scooter's team. Um she manages Quavo. Okay. You know what I mean? She, and that's a part of and they, you know. I think she was already working with Hybe and all of that. So I I met some of the people from Hybe though. I did, they came to the office. I had a call with them this week. Went well, but like, you know, we still all learning and learning each other and shit. And they're not trying to change anything. They're like, we love what you're doing, keep doing your thing. Yeah, they ain't. Yo, bro, they ain't tripped. They ain't say, all right, we need to put BTS on the record, which I would love. Actually, yeah, no, for sure.

BTS a baby money, you feel me? Bad Bunny. We need that. The world needs that. Right, but um, nah, ain't nothing changed, man. It's still the same schedule program. We just, you know, we amplifying our hustle. We hustling harder now. Yeah, so uh Juju McClain, who is director of producer relations over at United Masters. We had him on the show. And he said that let's say something off Yachty's album is a perfect song. Say something. Yep. A perfect song? You think so? Perfect. Yeah. Perfect is all subjective. Is there such a thing as a perfect song in your mind? Absolutely. There's tons of perfect songs. Give me an example. More money, more problems. Yeah. That's pretty perfect. Fucking um. Just the title. More money, more problems. They already were winning at that point. The intro to trap a uh the intro to um Thug Motivation 101. 101, baby. Oh no, Jeezy. Jeezy Jeezy off of uh the second album, Jeezy liked to drink. Jeezy liked to smoke, Jeezy liked to mix all my hammer with his coke.

That song is perfect. You know what I mean? I can name a lot of perfect songs, bro. It's a lot of perfect songs. What do you think makes a perfect song? The feeling you get, bro. Oh man, I tell you, like, what makes a perfect song is is like um when you hear the beat, and immediately your body feels something, and it it takes you back to wherever you were the first time you heard it. Like, I said that shit on the fucking episode. You know what I mean? Literally word for word, bro. Like, I remember like perfect song, fucking um Protect Your Neck by Wu Tang Clan. Yeah. Like, I remember like so that song came out when I was in the fifth going to sixth grade, but I remember like the reason why it's a perfect song for me is because walking home from school every day was like seven or eight of us, and everybody had a part. And we would walk home and we would fucking sing that song, walk in, and we would all sing that song. Like, I smoke on the mic, like smoking Joe Frazier, the hell of it. Like, yo, everybody had a part. So, like What was your part? I I like Inspectah Deck's part. Sure. I liked Inspectah Deck's part.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Um shout out Jack. Yeah, but it's it's so many, like, man, fucking um. I'm so jealous. That you got to like experience Wu Tang in the middle in the middle school. No, in middle school too. I didn't hear about Wu Tang until I roomed with a New Yorker in college. How old do you? I'm 32. Oh, okay, okay. So, like way late. Yeah, that's way late, you know. But I could have named every Outkast, T.I., Ludacris, GZA song, right? And and like my homies didn't really know much about that. Yeah. You know, and like, of course, just you know, Gucci and just other more Atlanta TI, you know, more Atlanta. New York, did New York then they didn't. Yeah, like not the like deep cuts. Not the deep cut, like maybe the radio hits or whatever. But well, yeah, I felt like Get Up, Get Out of Get Something by Outcast. Perfect song. Yeah. Um Killing Me Softly by the Fugees. There's a lot. It's so many perfect. But I but because music is subject, because but there's also. Those are objectively perfect. Objectively the person. But there's songs that I felt was perfect, that like didn't age well. Like, I feel like throw Your Guns in the Air by Onyx was like a perfect song for me when I was a kid, but I listened to it now.

I'm like, this song is not that good. But but at that time when I was a kid, it meant the world to me. You know what I'm saying? So it's like it's it's all about like um how the song makes you feel, man. But there's tons of perfect songs. Yeah. I feel like there's probably some timeline where if a song still feels perfect after like five years or something, then it's probably gonna just be perfect forever. Yeah. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Yeah, because it's like, I don't know. Kendrick's best album, right? Yeah. Thank you, man. Well, Yes. Damn is a very close second though. Oh, everyone says to Pimp a Butterfly. That's what I hear. To pimp a butterfly. Dude, not even close to good kid. I mean, it's not close, but it's a good one. It's a good album, but it's not, yo, to Good Kid Mad City, man. That shit, uh my best way to describe it is a Quentin and Tarantino film. Oh my God. It starts at the end.

Money Trees. Money Trees is the perfect song. Yeah, man. It's crazy because like my daughter, my youngest daughter was born that she, she wasn't even one when um Good Kid Mad City came out. And then one day I'm in a car and I'm playing um Money Trees, and she's singing that shit because it's TikTok. Because it's in the Tick Side, yeah. Yeah, that's a fact. That's amazing. Well, Wayno, we have entered a final segment of the podcast. Okay, let's do it. Shit. Buckle the fuck up, Wayno. Okay, okay. You've done great so far, but we'll see how this goes. This is the real test. Is it time already? I mean, shit. I could talk for hours with Wayno, but you know. I know this has been an amazing episode. But we have arrived at the rapid fire rampage. It's gonna be a three-part rampage. I'm gonna start off with some short answer questions. I'll explain the rest as we go. Are you buckled up? All right, I'm buckled up. Here we go. Starting with very simple, easy, peasy. Lemon squeezy. What would you like to ask God? I lied about the easy thing.

What would I like to ask God? Um why do we have to suffer? God, we had a we had a long ass studio chat about basically that last night. I stayed way too late. Why we gotta suffer? Basically, the whole why do bad things happen to good people. Yeah. Wait a minute. Nah, it was, but it's it's a lupe fiasco bar, man. Was it that? No, it was struggle, another sign that God love you. Um, cuz being poor, he said cuz being poor really teach you how to hustle. You know what I mean? Like what song is that? Um, Food & Liquor. Yeah, Food & Liquor. Yeah, yeah, which is a perfect fucking album. That is a perfect album, bro. There's perfect shit out here, man. It really is. Well, go ahead. Don't add us about this shit either. Right. Wait, no, three tips for independent artists looking to get the attention of big labels. Don't look to get the attention of big labels.

Ooh, really? Don't look to get the attention of big labels and be your fucking self. Yeah. That's my three tips. First one had to go twice. Yeah, so like you know the first rule of fight club, you don't talk about it. Wait, no, what is it? It's kind of a perfect movie, also. While we're just on the perfect shit, right? Yeah, like while we're just talking about it. This is Wayno's rampage. Sorry, man. Right. Come on, Ben. Yeah, I'm sorry. All right. Wait, you know, what is the closest you've come to dying? Oh man. Um, okay. Y'all fuck me up with that one. All right. Um, you're taking him back to some scary shit, bro. Why would you do this? Going back to the Bronx. Nah, the Harlem's actually. I've had a few instances where I could have died. Um, wow. Uh one was when I was gangbanging. It's about 18 years old. I came in front of my building, and um there was uh I was trying to catch a cab, and uh these these dudes, they had on like rival colors. I don't want to talk about what I affiliate myself with because I can never stop being a gang member.

Don't join gangs, kids. But um strike me as blue, but no. Um Jesus. Right. My bad. But but anyway, uh these dudes, they came, you know, they came up to me, and they were basically, I wasn't paying attention. And the dude went to, we call it peace in you. You know what I mean? When you give give a handshake to identify what you are. And um, I wasn't paying attention. I got my head and I turned around and he was draped in another color. And and and um, you know, I just had this face. I had this fucking face, like, oh, it's time, right? And and I guess I was standing in the street, and the dude was standing in the street, and it was like three of his homeboys on a curve, and I lit and they standing in front of the entrance of my building, so I couldn't run into my building. But I think the dude, the dudes that was on the curve, because of my facial expression, they must have thought he said the most gangster shit on the planet to me. He didn't.

He was like, nah, we just dressing like this to catch da-da-da-da. And I and when I looked at the dudes, he threw up a killer, such and such killer sign. So I looked at them, I looked, and I lived on Lexington Avenue, which it's a it's a it's a one-way street and cars is constantly coming. So I said to myself, now at this time, kids, please don't drain no fucking gangs. But when at this time, um, I looked up in the sky and I was like, I I wanted to run, but I was like, I'm gonna be a bitch if I run. But I was like, if I run, I I I don't care if I'm a bitch because I don't want to die, right? Yeah. So so while the cars, I mean the car is about to come, they get the right here, I dart out into the street. So I hear them like, yo, why you ain't do nothing? So I get around the corner, and my man Lexi, he's around the corner, him and a few other people, and I'm like, yo, Lexi, I'm like, yo, it's these dudes, they on me right now. He like, you want me to go get my gun? And then as soon as he said that, this kid runs out the runs around the corner with this big fucking 357, this Trey Pam, pulls it halfway out his coat, and he looks at me in my eyes, and he looks at like a few of us, and he's like, There's too many people over here. And he put it back and walked around the corner.

And and oh boy, yeah, you fucked me up with that question. Shit. But yeah, man, that's good. We just went back in time. Bro, my heart is like it's kind of pounding right now. bro. Nah, for real, because I I had to I had to contemplate so many things. It was like my mom, because of what I was doing, my mom was gonna send me down south to live with my my uh my aunt, and I begged her not to, and she told me to stop, and I didn't. So it was just like at that point, I was like, damn, if I had to die, like my mom would have came out the building, seen me laying in the street. It's just I I've been through a lot of fucked up shit, but that was one of them instances where, damn, yeah, it got nasty. God damn, bro. Speaking of uh speaking of .357s for this next question. Okay. Oh God. The zombie apocalypse is happening. Choose three weapons to defend yourself. Um I'm picking uh Sig. No. I'm picking a Glock 45. I'm picking a Radical RF 15 with multiple magazines. And a flamethrower.

I was about to say, you gotta have the flamethrower. Yeah, Flamethrowers. Right? Or if they had like a freezing gun. Like if they had like a Oh yeah. Yeah. Like some of these, like freeze, like I'm losing that. Freeze them up. Yeah. Burn them or freeze them. Wayno, you're an independent artist with $10,000 to roll out your next single. How are you gonna spend it? Basic breakdown. I'ma spend um a thousand on my artwork. That's a lot. A lot of artwork, huh? Underrated, yeah. Um, well, you gotta factor in doing the artwork and then like the digital. All the assets, right? So that's what cost you around. maybe. Label people, it could be ones that know that. It could be 500. He's not just talking about the fucking square. Yeah, no, I'm talking about the moving, the moving shit, all of that, right? I'm using that. Yeah, yeah. I'm spending, I'm spending a thousand on that. I'm spending like 2500 on ads, but the right type of ads, not the shits where they put you in front of somebody build, um video and your video just comes on, and like if they see it, they see it. Because you'll get the same views that the video gets, but you won't get engagement.

I'm not spending on that. I'm spending it on like on ads for um for people to see. Like I'm talking about like actual posters and shit like that. I'ma go grassroots with it. Um how much I spent three, 3,500. But I got another 70. No, I got well, I got 65, 6500. Um, 65. Let's put another 500 into them ads. So that's three. I got no, that's four. I'm tripping. I got four bands left. The other four bands, I'm gonna spend on, depending on what the single is. I I like money, so let me say my single is about money. Um I'm gonna invest some money into like giving money back. Um I'm gonna uh so let's say two bands. I'll spend two bands giving back, and then I got uh four more left. I'm gonna have an event. I'm gonna have an event uh release party? Not a real not necessarily a release party.

I'm gonna have a listen party to explain why my single is my single and probably preview some other music, but I'm gonna spend like some bread. I'm gonna give me a nice venue, spend a couple dollars on some wings and some liquor and all of that shit, and we're gonna go to work. Okay. I like it. Wait a who has the best fast food chicken sandwich? Chick-fil-A. And finally, what is your favorite curse word? Bitch. Part one. Part one. Well, can I fucking bitch? Sure, sure. Compound. Compound works. If I hit my foot, fucking bitch. Yeah. I've been on shit balls lately. Shit ball? What that? Okay, that's some white shit. Yeah, I was about to say that's some white people. I think it's like European, maybe. No, it's Australian. How do you create a shit ball? Like, it's like shit balls, man. Shit balls? Like shit balls. Okay. Yeah, that's shit on my balls. Anyway. Part two is the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices, and you pick one. This or that. Rapping or singing?

Singing. Pancakes or waffles? Waffles. Memphis sling or Atlanta slang? Atlanta slang. Give up your passport or give up smartphones? Give up smartphones. Live to 125 or a million wired into your bank account right now. Live to 125. Thank you. Can't buy time. Facts. Your full internet history released to the public or your full texting history released to the public. Internet history. And finally, a 90% chance of Memphis Massacre 3 going platinum. Or a 10% chance of Memphis Massacre 3 going diamond. I'm going with the 10. Rolling the dice. Part two. I'm going with the 10. I'm going with the 10. Fuck that. I like it. It's hard to go diamond, man. Going diamond? Gotta go for it. That'd be crazy. Because of what you said, it was what was going 90% platinum. 90% platinum. Probably happening. 10% chance we're going

multi-platinum. Yeah. 10%. To get the 10, like we at least gotta do seven. Right. So we go and beat platinum. So I like it. I like it. The last part is the word association. I'm gonna say one word. You just give me the first word, maybe two words, first thought, right back at me off the top of your head. This is where it gets fun. Part three with Wayno. Starting with hip hop. Amazing. Loyalty. Rare. Zaza. Zara. Ooh, flipped it. Content. Overly used. COVID. Real. Wealth. Attainable. Hellcat. No. Just a little fucking kid car, Man. Government. Untrustworthy.

Lil. Whoever. Yo, Lil, whoever's new EP is coming out. That's going to be fire. Cryptocurrency. Learn. Podcast. Oversaturated. Bro. Thanks a lot. Damn, wait. I mean, we should just. I mean, I don't feel like y'all oversaturated. I never did a podcast like this. Okay. This will be the last episode, folks, of the One More Time podcast. It's been a good run. It's been a good run. We ended it with a bang. I canceled their shit. We're gonna go jump off a tall building now. Right. Yeah. No, no, no. Last one, quality. Control. Okay. What a rampage.