Zeke Nicholson Interview: Managing JID & Earthgang

I don't know any other way to build a fan, like a true fan. Than that in-person experience. Than like an in-person experience. I don't know, it's like the oldest transfer of energy in history. Like people traveled from place to place to put on shows. And then I think also like just the development of our artists is so much easier when they see what they work on, and they have to translate that to entertaining an audience. I'm beyond thrilled to welcome in our guest today. You know him from Saturday Night Live and Nickelodeon. It's Kenan Thompson on the pod. It's a pleasure to be here. It's like a much flyer version of Kenan Thompson. Way cooler, actually, yeah. Kenan Thompson's actually probably like a super underrated like comedic uh savant. You think SNL's maybe holding him back a little bit? Comedic savant? Yeah, because those are such strong words for Kenan Thompson. I mean, think about thinking about working like in comedy like as a child.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like. Yeah, I guess he kind of got started so early that he deserves the title. I'm pretty sure that like the stuff he's worked on, like, we have no idea. Yeah. Like Nick Cannon is a comedic savant. Yeah. If you like know Nick Cannon's story, like he started like as a teenager. Yeah. Doing stand-up. Kenan carried Kel, let's be real. Hot takes here on the One More Time podcast. No, but in all seriousness. In all seriousness, we have one of the co-founders of one of the hottest record labels, management companies, publishing companies here in Atlanta. We got Zeke Nicholson from since the 80s. Hey everyone. Uh pleasure to be here. It's been a long time of me supposed to coming up. Yeah. I don't know. I wasn't gonna say it, but like thank you for saying it. I was in public. So it's just, you know. What made us so lucky? How do we get so lucky? Just relentless. The smile. Going at it, just keep asking. I fuck with you, both. So also it's just like I think sometimes I'm in a space where like there's so much shit going on. And uh those who know me, I'm really behind the scenes. Like I really don't care about any of the public front facing stuff.

Yeah. Uh so I feel like now I mean, I'm in like a small breather uh transitional area, so it just made sense. I think to do this now more than it did before. I just don't even feel like you're actually in a space between things, like there's so much going on. Yeah, but Bobby Boucher dropped today. Yeah, Bobby Boucher dropped. By EARTHGANG featuring Benji, both since the 80s artist. Yeah. Adam Sandler's retweeting it. Yeah, I'm fine. Come on, bro. It's fire. Jid's on like a world tour. Jid's on a world tour. How is he between things? Like this is ridiculous. Well, I think one, Jid being Jid being gone on tour. I guess that helps. That helps. EARTHGANG's about to leave to head on a couple dates with him. And I guess it's not between things, it's just that all the pre-planning that uh, me and Barry have been working on and our team have been working on, Carly David Lamar. Um over the last couple months. Like we got Mike's album out, Mike Dimes album out.

Shout out to Mike. Um, you know, this EARTHGANG project is done. We're we're about to roll them out, or we're starting to roll out for that. And you know, so a lot of those projects that we've been planning over the last probably last quarter are now here. It's kind of like these these ships have sailed, and like hopefully they're on the right. Yeah, so it's like hopefully the wind's right, you know. And the breathing area is just today. That's the window. 8 p.m. on a Monday, like that was really the only time that he had available. Barry landed from Vegas, so he's back from Vegas. So I'm like, okay, well, I don't didn't do anything this past weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh I did some house stuff with my wife, but uh yeah. Damn, yeah, man. I mean, I I just like growing up a huge Adam Sandler fan. Yeah, me too. I mean I was like, this is fucking legendary, bro. I mean, how are you? How are you? 32. Okay, I'm 33. Wait, wait, to put me on blast. Go ahead, man. No, I'm 33. You're 31. I'm the baby here. That's what I'm saying. So, like, it's OK, but Adam Sandler movies, like what? Waterboy, Lil Nicky, Mr. Deeds.

Like, oh my gosh, Big Daddy, Happy Gilmore. Oh my god, Billy Madison, Jesus. Yeah, so like uh Was that curated? That that retweet. Come on, bro. No, I wasn't. Don't even play. What's so crazy? What's so crazy? I believe him. We're our publicity company, FYI, reached out through his agency, and his agency was just like, there's no way we can get this to him. Like, just copyright this, like Disney owns the rights, yada yada yada. So, like, we thought it was, I mean, it was dead in terms of going like the traditional way of actually just trying to get him to see it. And I think it's just one of those things where, you know, the intention behind everything we've done, at least to kind of market this first single off the EP, it just led to him seeing it, you know. And that's all you want at the end of the day, right? Like, obviously, that's the perfect storm. Like, yes, we have this idea. But what's also funny, that record was recorded at the Since The 80s camp that you guys came by. So, like Benji laid the hook, gave the name, we knew the theme, we knew what we wanted to do.

Um, you know, treatment came together, Caleb Cialis uh directed the video, and it's just a perfect storm. We did the uh the movie um the video premiere and the movie night showing the Waterboy at the Terror Theater last week. Yes, uh your rollout game is impeccable. So I appreciate that. I mean, I think it's like chef's kiss. I appreciate that. So like Adam Sandler, it's chef's kiss. you know, holiday, Adam Sandler, you know, retweeting it and actually, you know, just giving the guys a shout today. It's like, okay, that's what you hope for, you know? Yeah. It's literally best case scenario. Yeah, it's best case scenario. It's like when you journaled, like, what could go right. Like, unless you know, like, can't really like you can you can plan it in terms of like this is a target that we'd like to hit. And obviously, we uh furiously tried to reach out to any and anyone from the cast before we even released it, and it was just, you know, that's just energy. So from a copyright perspective, like is that it no, I was just feeling like it was a copyright perspective.

No, it's just I just I just think like when you go through certain avenues. They have to do that. I think it's like a have to, and it's also just like there's no money involved. So like Yeah, they're like, whatever, just put it out. Drop the video, some rapper. Drop the video, cool. They paid homage to a movie that's 22 years old or something. Yeah, what are you gonna do? Go to court. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, no, I I just feel like you know, something that I I would say is one of the biggest strengths of Since The 80s for sure, as a company, is like you guys are impeccable storytellers. That's I think what we care about most. And it probably deals with uh our background of really always having to work with talent from zero, right? And um, when you're working with talent from Zero, it's very I think important to kind of figure out what story you're trying to tell. And then also, like, why should people care about this story?

You know, so um obviously you've been working with Urkang and Jid. I think it's about eight years now, it's coming on a decade. Um does it feel that long, or does it feel like a hundred years or like a year? Like, how long does it actually feel like? Um, does it feel that long? I mean, yeah, I mean, it feels like if it feels like we're approaching where we should be, but I mean, it it went fast. Yeah. You know, and fast, like I think, even in terms of just, I mean, life obviously, life moments happen. You know, we all started uh working together around 24, 25. We're all in our 30s now, so you know. Um, there's that transition of life that obviously, you know, like time has passed, but um, no, it's because there's so much stuff that I think the guys and and us as a company still have to accomplish. Um, I think we've always been like kind of purveyors of the underground and and kind of just been champions of of just no-frills talent for so long that uh for us it's like you know, you know, we're tour warriors and all those things. So I think for us, it's like, yeah, it's it's been a while, but we have so much that we haven't done.

So yeah, no, I definitely want to talk about the touring here in a little bit because I feel like you know, you guys are the definition of like get the axe on the road. Yeah, like that's been your MO for it is that's where the money is right now. It's where the money is, but also like I don't I'm I'm gonna be frank, like I don't know how like that I don't know any other way to build a fan, like a true fan. Yeah, and that in-person experience. Like an in-person experience, you know. I just made a post about this. Yeah, like I don't, you know, what what's I don't know, it's like the oldest transfer of energy in history. Like people traveled from place to place to put on shows and they they garnered fame. And then I think also like just the development of our artists is so much easier when they see what they work on, and they have to translate that to entertaining an audience. Like it's just different. Yeah, lost art, maybe. I don't know. I I just feel like it's you can't argue with the fact that if you go to a show, when you walk away from that show, you can you can just feel you became a bigger fan oftentimes, right? Like if the show is good, you know what I mean.

If I if I walked into uh anywhere and I saw someone performing, they were dope, and like I'm gonna leave with that moment. Oh, they were tight. Yeah, versus if you're scrolling and you see some good piece of content. There's just too much shit. Exactly. You're like, oh, that was cool. Next one. Swipe. You have to be dialed in because they're the only one performing. You can't swipe their performance. I can't swipe their performance. They're there. I mean, we live in obviously a super digital world. So like for me to assume that because I mean, like even the Adam Sandler moment, I think like when we first saw the tweet, it might have been like two or three hours. I think that tweet, like if you look at the views of the tweet, like it garnered however 100,000 at the time, but it only translated to like 200 video clicks, like now on Twitter, it's viral, right? On like the clip of that they saw, it might be like over a million views, but actual like translating to like people going from that tweet to the video. And that's just the the area we live in, you know?

Like now, it's not you know how hard it is to get to to make someone leave. To make some just Twitter, yeah. Or make someone leaving something. Oh, like I saw the clip. Oh, that's interesting, cool. EarthGang. Like and that's it. That's it. Yeah. And that's and that's like the That's still a win No, it's still a win a hundred percent. But that's the world we live in. It's like, you know, like you can't uh you you can't just depend on one thing to build a fan. Like being a fan is like there's a true investment. Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, I mean, do we even deal with this, right? Like, we'll have short form clips on TikTok, Instagram going crazy. Yeah, stupid. And our long form full-length interviews, they do okay, and I'm not and I'm not trying to like discount the fact that like you know, they they do yeah, what what they do, but like it's still you look at the the fucking views on some of our short form clips that you'd think like, oh, they probably want to go watch the interview now, of course. No, no, I got the piece that I wanted, yeah.

Yeah, and my life is a good one. Yeah, I got the piece I wanted. It's like man, it's like when you go uh see like certain trailers of a movie, and it's like, oh shit, I saw every part? Yeah, and then you go to the movie, and it's like, damn, I kind of like I actually saw every part. Every part that I that was worth seeing, quote unquote. That's why they put the best parts in the trailer. That's the whole thing. You know what I mean? Hey, speaking of leaving Twitter, are you on threads? I'm not on threads yet. He's not even like into social media that much, bro. I'm into Twitter. Oh, okay, yeah. You're a big tweeter. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm big on Twitter. You're big on you know, marketing artists though. So are you pushing your artists? Yeah, I mean, I think I think any artist, like like I think EarthGang is doing pretty well on threads. I've seen them pop up, they popped up on my feed for sure. Yeah, yeah. I think EarthGang is doing pretty well on threads. Good job. I think um, I think artists follow, you know, try things out, see where the community is. If you can build a community on any platform, then like you should stick to it, you know. Yeah, I think uh for me, I'll probably I don't know.

I don't care yet. Yeah, see how it plays out. I don't care, yeah. I can't see myself leaving Twitter yet. Yeah. So it's a good threads. Damn, he's a diehard. I'm a diehard. He's a diehard Twitter. It's also super scaled back. Like no DMs, no hashtags. It's not a good thing. I mean, I just had no experience with doing this, so I don't even know what it looks like. Yeah, which is where it's just kind of where it should be, I think now. I think. But for me, it's just like, I mean, I get my uh Twitter's my news source. so it's like for better or for worse. For better or for worse, exactly. And like even now it's like IG, I'll I'll be on IG scrolling sometimes, but I don't really I'm not on IG too heavy. I don't post at all, really. Do you think certain acts maybe make sense to be on different platforms? 100%. Like, do you like do you take time to think like you might do really well like on Snapchat or YouTube? 100%. But it really it really takes them to be active They gotta wanna do it. Yeah, you gotta wanna do it. Yeah. Yeah. I think like and they don't, They don't want to do it.

I I don't I don't know if it's necessarily I think you have a artist that came up in this space where shit was just different. You know what I mean? I think like shit moves so fast, like that there's always something more that they can do, right? It's hard to like. True. It's hard. I think if you really want to be artists, like obviously you have to post content, you have to post you have to be social. I mean, it just is what it is. Um, but I think having intention, I think, with what you're posting and whatever you're trying to portray goes a long way. More than anything else. So so how many conversations are you having around just content and posting and like social activity? I mean, this is a I I we're having a lot of conversations around it because how do we want to tell the story? Yeah, you know, like uh it's important. Like, how are we telling the story? Period, Like, you know. Yeah, regardless of platform. Regardless of platform, how are we telling the story? If we're gonna have uh some short form content that we're doing and tell the story, then I mean it might as well just be across all the platforms.

Yeah. You know. Um but yeah, I mean it's it's it's inevitable, like yeah. So I think we're out of the space of like where artists are like mysterious and not showing their faces, like yeah, it's funny we just had 24 hours on though who managed to kind of get away with it. Yeah, but that was still like a while ago, actually. Like it was a little bit. But no, so one of your favorite projects of last year was the Forever Story. Yes. Oh, yeah. So I want to talk a little bit. Album of the year, bro. Album of the year. I just want to use this as kind of like a conversation starter, right? Around the storytelling aspect. So, like with that project in particular, like what story were you guys trying to help Jid tell? Uh, I think ultimately Jid is an artist who has always who came in with such like a buzzworthy, you gotta pay attention to him type of uh energy around him. And you know, I felt like with the Forever story, like we, we we we told a good base of this is who he is, like where he's from, a little personality piece of what he's like, obviously played football, like some little storytelling pieces.

I think DiCaprio was more so um he kind of went into it, him and Krista went into that, wanting to make an album that really spoke to a live crowd that really was gonna wow in front of live audiences. So obviously for us, it wasn't it wasn't a huge departure from storytelling. There's obviously some pieces on that, but it's really made for energy and vibe. And the forever Story, it's like I if you the the idea, I think, not being the artist, but like in terms of just guiding it, is if you listen to the never Story and the forever Story, I'd want a listener to have a pretty decent composite of who Jid is and how he feels uh with everything that's gone on in these last three to five years now, right? Like I would want you to leave from that knowing how he feels, how the changes have affected him, how they've affected his family, and what he's looking forward to, right? And I feel like we successfully, I hope, accomplished like him having a full identity of that, right?

To where now he can go kind of wherever. Um, but there's no like super question of like who is Jid, you know. So it's almost like let's get this out of the way. It's it's not just like getting this out of the way, it's like let's make sure that this this did we close the book on who Jid is. Yeah. I kind of interpret it as almost his like, I don't want to not in a corny way, but like kind of him like showing he can do more of a mainstream album. It is. It's like his damn. Like Kendrick went and got Mike Will and did an album of like, look, I can make a bunch of songs that are gonna be bangers on the radio. I think I think for Jid, it was like it's necessary that people see and hear the elevation of where I am musically. And obviously, like a lot of people don't necessarily know this, but the forever stories, um, some of the songs are like two years old. You know what I mean?

Like, I didn't know you wouldn't know. Yeah, you wouldn't know. Like the album we turned in, save like I think Dance Now is like a late edition. There's a couple other songs that are like it's the James, not the not Sistanem, the other James Blake record, um, Lauder, Lauder Two, is a late edition. But a bulk of the album was probably ready a year before we dropped it. And I think him personally, like he dropped it when he was ready to drop it. Honestly, like he had to be really comfortable with telling that story, putting his family in front of an audience, sharing that piece of him, you know. And I think Yeah, because you guys even did like the Apple. Yeah, we went, we did an Apple thing. We went to Albany. Yeah. Georgia went to his um his you know deceased grandmother's home, where that's like his family roots. Um showed it, showed the land, and you know, obviously shot uh Cody Blue 31 there. And that, you know, obviously that takes a lot of it takes a lot of intention, but you also have to like be sure, like be 100% okay.

That you want to give this wanna give this to the world, yeah. And I think the Forever story was him, you know, saying, okay, like, you know, I'ma give as much of me to the world that people feel like they know me as an artist. And you know, I think it's I mean, obviously, it it hit uh exactly who we needed to hit. it. yeah, I mean, looking at it, like how would you rank the success of it? Um for like what your expectations were and and how it played out. Um I mean it it I mean it's it's a sold-out world tour. Like he's shit. Yeah, I mean it's okay then he sold out sorry, Z. God damn it. Yeah, sold out the States. He's selling out Europe, yeah. Sold out Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo already, sold out Australia already. So like man, it resonated with, I mean, for his core, I think it it was a it was a success. That's, I think it puts him in the in the perfect position to, you know, hopefully make that jump to mainstream.

Yeah. Surround sound is certified. Surround sound is a hit. And I still, and I still, and I still feel like, you know, we there's so much life to that song. Um, but you know, yeah, Surround Sound's a good one. No, I love that. I feel like it gave a Jid fan everything they hopefully wanted from it. Yeah. Except he should have said Pound Town on that one, that one bar. He came out and said, like, why didn't I say Pound Town? Yeah. And then I wish he would have kept stick on the album? Stick it was gonna be on there? Yeah. Did it was it on an album? It's on the Dreamville. The Dreamville. Gangsta Grillz. Yeah, it's on the Dreamville Gangster Girls, but it was actually T-Day, right? Initially, yeah, D-Day. It was initially track four. Yes. I think it was right in the initial initial early um sequencing of it. I think it was like right before Justin Time or right after Justin Time. Anyway, if you listen to them back to back, you can kind of hear it. But um, and it was we were trying to make it the first single initially off of the Forever Story.

Like that was gonna be the first single, and then we're going to go to the Surround Sound. Bro, that's coming out like I'm glad that didn't work that way. I'm just saying that would have been like I mean, I just think That's coming out a fucking guns blazing, bro. It was supposed to come out just like absolutely what the fuck is going on. Because it's not, it's stick is still a it's a complete departure from what you expect. That's why I love it, is because it's like people look at him like, oh, well, I don't want the I don't want the lyrical miracle. It's like, oh, here's a hook with one word in it, and you're gonna go crazy. Oh my god, the festival footage I've seen of this, I texted Christo So I'm like, dude, stick is like it's freaking me out a little bit, like how well it's doing. It's crazy. So I think initially that I like we wanted, and when I say we I'm only talking about me and Barry. I wanted that type of for the record. Yeah, I wanted that type of um. I mean, I think Eve too, like we wanted that type of just like pandemonium, like yo, what the fuck? Because like that, that offering was just so different.

It was such a different energy that people are used or expected to hear from Jid that um I was like, man, this is a great first just punch, and then going into Surround Sound, which is kind of more into that lane. He's floating. And then Dance Now came dance now. came probably like a month before the album. I'm glad that made it on there. Me too. We heard it immediately, and I was I was like, me and JID were in the suit, and I was like, this gotta, we gotta add this. We gotta get this on. It's going crazy still, bro. Yeah, yeah. And that's just like one of those like special, like Jid and Christo, iconic moments. They're one of my favorite duos, right? now, bro. I think they're probably like one of the most underrated like artists producer duos. Yes, bro. Christo needs to lay off the roids or whatever he's doing, bro. No, I'm talking about his working out, bro. He's like jacked as fuck. bro. I texted him, yo. My wife's on Instagram, like, chill, bro. Like stop posting like mirror selfies, like jacked as hell. I'm glad, like he's super healthy. I mean, I know he's crushing.

That's wild. Yo, so how important is it for the artist to have a very good grasp on like the vision versus just you as the label bringing them something? No, I think it's artist-centric first. It's gotta be, right? Like, if you if you like they gotta they gotta sell it, like they gotta believe in what they're selling. Like, yeah, I can I can obviously help them craft it help them help them put the environment together help them storytell but it hasn't come from them it hasn't come from them and it's not reflected in every piece of content every performance they have to live it I mean it's their work it's their art yeah now I I think it's something we talk about of just like I can give it to them but I don't think it's gonna get sold the same way yeah like it's because it's you know or just not for as long they can't it's not sustainable, right? It never comes off well yeah I don't think it comes off well typically like yeah you can only put up that facade for so long if you don't truly believe in what it is that you got going. and I think like they're not I just think like if an artist is given a vision it's different like when you're given a vision and you buy into it and it's in line with what you're already trying to do and someone just like guiding you to it as opposed to like you have no idea someone's telling you to do this and you're just doing it it's like it only goes so far. Yeah yeah so what you know what is the ideation process like right for for a rollout so you take the forever story like put us in the you know in in the position busting out a whiteboard yeah like to understand like I think yeah like how does it work I mean I think for us we all have our ideas that we kind of you know come together and kind of hash out and it's really just like uh you're trying to just figure out the I think for me I'm trying to figure out the best way and the most clear cut way to tell the story.

Um, so that's just from sketching ideas, all type of stuff. Like, and and honestly, you pretty much run with I think what seems to be some most effective, and also like not actually the easiest, like the easiest to execute, but like what you know you can execute and will deliver as as what you're trying to deliver, right? So even with um, I think with the forever story, just with the albums period for us, is we're trying to storytell throughout the album to give people moments to make sure that they still digest it to some degree, right? So obviously, Cody Blu, We wanted to fan favorite. Yeah, there was a there was a old picture that we use as a silhouette on the back of the never story for the track list. And early on, she was like, man, we should recreate this picture. So our idea was like, oh shit, let's get Ravi B, who you know hadn't shot really or directed any videos up until that point, but has done portraits from everyone from Jay-Z to Beyonce. Let's get her to not only shoot this video, this like poignant video outside of your grandma's house in Albany, Georgia, but also end it with you guys recreating that family portrait that you guys can have as a moment.

Your family can have this, but it's also like kind of that's like a piece, right? It's let's people remember Jid's uh video when we signed a Dreamville of him driving his fucked up Pontiac with Cole in the passenger seat. So Bro, we were at lunch, we were literally getting lunch, and he's had to take a call, and it was basically like, yo, like is the gold pontiac like at the location yet? Like, like okay, let's tweet it out at like 5 p.m. It was literally like just having lunch with me casually. I was like, I was stressing out, bro. I was anxious for him because this whole thing was happening like before my eyes of like this gold Pontiac. Yeah, it's like let's get these gold, let's figure out how many 2008 gold Pontiacs we can find. And how hard was that? Like, how hard was just that? It was tough because they stopped making Pontiacs, and then two, it's like Well, that's hard. And two, it's like, you know, um, the liability of buying a car and shit like that. There's like certain things that should not be tough.

Like, obviously, not It's like, okay, let's let's have $50,000 and just go buy these cars and but you know, get the cars, make sure the sound system is right, make sure someone is there with the car playing the album. Um, but to me, I knew a fan seeing the car is a moment, you know? Yeah, yeah. You know, that's, that's that's storytelling to me. That's like uh it's like okay, let's connect these dots to where you know, if you're on the journey in the Forever Story, let's make it feel complete when we're rolling this album out for the forever story. And it had been X amount of years since he had dropped even DiCaprio 2. So it's like it needs to count. So I I'm just you know walking through it and I'm like, all right, clearly you just mentioned like let's get 15,000 to buy one of these Pontiacs, for example, right? Three, okay, cool. So you know, in my mind, like, how are you weighing the like return on the investment, right? Like, is it like okay, this is definitely worth 15,000? I mean, because it's hard to quantify. Yeah, it's hard to quantify like that one level. I mean, when it's a marketing dollars, it's like, what is the intention, right?

So it's like the intention is to do a non-traditional listening event. If I were to rent out a venue, I mean, that shit could easily be 15k to rent out the venue. Ah bar the 7th. So if I'm if I'm comparing it to like what this listening party could be if I did one location, one big club, et cetera, et cetera. See, you you just blew my mind calling it a non-traditional listening event. That's what it was. Like, did you even think like but that is what it is? It's what it is. But I just heard that and I was like, oh fuck. Yeah, that is what it was. That's what it was. But so it's like, you know, so you removed that line item and transferred it to buying the Pontiacs. This is what this is our listening event. Damn. Fire. You know that's dope. I mean, there's other stuff you want to do. Like, we try to do like MTV, let's do Pimmy Rod, let's buy these Pontiacs, have them for listening moment, and then shit, let's try to see if we can pimp these Pontiacs out and give them to students who are trying to go to college. Obviously, that didn't happen, but like it's levels of storytelling that we try to do with one asset. How long can you have this physical asset and make it work?

Oh, you know, like we have some cool shit with like EARTHGANG's RIP Human Art uh EP that they have coming out, like with like we did the art show, obviously, like some of those pieces we will you know probably figure out a way to do some type of art gallery to where people can actually buy those pieces, and like you know, so it's like you want to storytell on multiple levels to where it's not just a one-time hit, at least we do, like it's not just one time you're seeing this Pontiac. Like, if I can stretch this Pontiac out five more times, yeah, that'd be tight. If I can bring this Pontiac on stage, yeah and then be a stage item, yeah. That's tight. Like figuring out ways to where, yeah, we might have spent X amount of money on these Pontiacs, but how can we use them? make it stretch? Use them, use them. Damn. It's the same reason I have a lemonade stand in the studio right now. Yeah, I mean, we've gotten so much use out of it. It just sits there collecting dust, you know. what I mean? Well, at the time we did. We used it for a lot. I know, but damn man. That's oh, that's that's amazing.

Like, just That's what makes it fun. Yeah, just just trying to maximize every movie you make. How many ideas would you say you have to go through to you know finally arrive at something, right? Like, do you have some where it's like the first thing that comes to mind just works, or is it typically like you try these things and then like you know? It depends. I think it depends on the project because like I had we had marketing we had a whole marketing plan before the album was done, yeah. We knew the because we knew the story he was telling, even though we didn't have the music, we knew exactly what we were trying to do. And there's a lot of shit we did not do, but it's okay, because some of these ideas can be repurposed for future things, you know. Mm-hmm. So I want to get back to the next marketing plan for the next album, like the Metro album. Like it's that's uh that's what I was gonna actually uh before we move on from JID's. Gotta shoot a shot at least once. Go ahead and get any type of hints, any type of anything on that project. I am beyond ecstatic for that project. I don't have any hints, but it's definitely happening. Like it's uh and it's not uh it's happening, it's gonna drop in three years.

It's like it's happening, it'll drop within a year from now. And it's not gonna be called Jidtro, right? Yeah, it's not okay. Thank God They, they, both Metro and JID commented on our post clarifying it was not gonna be called Jidtro. no, literally, we did like a news post where we were like Metro or Metro Boomin and uh you know JID are, you know, reportedly doing a collaboration album and it's rumored to be called Jidtro. Someone said though, it's an album, it's an album title. I think JID's probably tweeted and hinted against, but I mean scavenger hunt for the fans. It's not happening though. look for the title. Yeah, so I you know I do want to go back to the touring aspect, right? Because it's easy to sit here now and be like, yeah, Jid's going on a world tour to Asia and Europe and Australia, et cetera. Right. But you were putting these folks on the road before there was any sort of like, you know, guarantees or that like the money was definitely gonna work out the way it needed to, et cetera. So like talk to us about kind of you know, because you know, we're always trying to put artists on game as far as like at what point does touring make sense?

Um I think it I think first you have to figure out what's the intention of like what's the intention of you going on tour, and I'll just say like intention of like you doing a show, right? Because in the beginning, like we came up doing a bunch of shows. And like just local or local, okay. Like, you know, yeah, you know, they were on Edgewood, they would do perform anywhere and everywhere, right? And shout out department store. Oh yeah, shout out department store for sure. That's the era of Atlanta. I kind of like came into Atlanta at that time. Yes. Um, but um, man, I think like shit, it's it's a it's a huge practice tool doing a show, right? So for us, we knew that we were so weird, so to speak, compared to like what the climate was in Atlanta, that it was very important for us to kind of get these guys and important to them to be in front of as many crowds as possible to even figure out who the fuck is the audience that is gonna gravitate towards them. Like what do they look like?

What are they listening to? Where do they like to go, like what scene that is? You know, I think that's why the department store was such a crazy scene, because it was that, you know, it was it was a curate, a curated space where people were going to find new shit. Um, and you know, from that, um, we kind of had this mantra of like, yo, we gotta be Road Warriors because we're not gonna have a radio hit tomorrow, right? Like we knew that early on. Like this is a slow burn. Um, and we really modeled ourselves and still do after indie rock bands, right? Indie Rock bands that would just get in the fucking van, go play these shitty ass venues, and see what their chops were made of, right? And that was the mantra we had. Like, you know, first tour for EARTHGANG was Ab Soul in a fucking goddamn, I don't know, I can't remember. Some type of crossover SUV was six, seven of us in a goddamn car driving across the country for 40 dates, like, you know, for living out the car, sleeping six to a room.

So, you know, obviously tour gets more glamorous from that, but we came from driving from city to city. Uh so how much money did that make or lose? Oh, we that tour was probably around $18,000. Made? No. We did not make any money. Okay, okay. So spent. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So start. I just want people to know you don't have to make money for it to be worth it. We did not make Money on tour until like we were bonafide openers that we would get paid to open, like, right? Like, I feel like we didn't make money on tour in around, I'm going to say, what do I mean like, I'm not even saying we made a lot of money, but we didn't come home in the red. Okay. I think we didn't come home in the red on that on the first JID and EARTHGANG headline tour. We didn't come home in the red. But we So for that one, how did that work, right? So, you know, you know, when you do your own headlining tour, did y'all book the venues or were promoters booking you guys? We had an agent.

Okay, you had a booking agent. Yeah, we had a booking agent who How'd you find a booking agent even? we found an agent early. And it was just from relationship building, yeah. Building up our own tour history and and just um you know, reaching out. Okay. And uh we've been with Rob Gibbs since we had a booking agent. We had Rob and Gibbs We Trust. Yeah, we had we had For sure. We had Rob Gibbs. That's his Instagram name. That's his Instagram name. That's great. Yeah, we had don't laugh at me like I'm not fucking. I like it. I wasn't laughing at you. Okay, bro. God damn. It might be in Jerry Maguire. But um, but we had Rob before we signed a Dreamville. That's it. It is. I'm Jerry Maguire. Who's in Gibbs We Trust? That's another yeah, it's the homie though. That's another one. That's another one. I'm Jerry Maguire. I think he's in the city. Sorry, sorry, Gibbs. Uh but um But there's another one that's we uh uh we we had our agent before we signed um to Interscope. Um but we knew we had to be touring acts, right? Like we like we knew our money was only gonna come from touring.

But does everyone need to be touring acts now? No, no. No. Okay, no. Uh I think touring is if you ask me, do I think everyone should be in a touring act? Should be a touring act. If they want to be a superstar, I would say yes, but that's just my perspective on what I think is just the best ecosystem for artists. That's not like to me the biggest stars are touring acts. Like for sure. Like, there's no way around it. What percentage of uh let's just use you know EARTHGANG and Jid, what percentage of their revenues as artists come from touring? It's huge, right? Huge. Shit's on streaming. They don't see well, EARTHGANG's gonna start EARTHGANG's will start seeing some streaming money because they're independent now. But JID doesn't necessarily see streaming money because he signed to a major label. Um, I will say what, 70%. Wow. Yeah. That's how it is now, man. Wow. Yeah. I mean, between like, and when I'm saying touring, like touring, merchandise, like yeah, but just all the shit that comes from most of his money comes from touring, though, yeah. Being on tour.

It's the opposite of how it used to be. Yeah. Which is crazy. Six figure, yeah, like six figure goddamn uh festivals, like, yeah. Like, but he's a touring act because most of his money, his business is built off of touring. And then, you know, he has a sizable business that's being built off of branding and merchandising. EARTHGANG has a sizable business that's getting built off merchandising. They have a foundation that is going to start bringing in income. They have obviously now they're gonna, you know, publishing and things like that. So what was the biggest lesson learned from like some of those early tours to like when you started budgeting? Yeah, it's like what like logistics, logistics and budgeting and planning and and how much your pre-planning before tour like affects the bottom line. Such as what? Like, give us some examples of what they mean. I mean, as simple as uh the more you plan, the less money you spend on the road for incidentals, like for like just you just I mean, from hotels to gas to um it's like I everything, bro, like everything to mapping out when you're leaving certain cities, what cities your off days are in, all that stuff. It matters, and then super matters to how we're doing transportation like within the city, you know.

Yeah, like are we Ubering or are we driving? Because the bus can only, you know, the bus, the driver can only drive for X amount of time, you know, until you get until you're paying double for overdrive and like all those things mattered. In Europe, the driver technically times out, so he can't move the bus, right? Oh, literally, he's like illegally, He's, like it's illegal. Yeah, I remember one time we were in on the Gen EARTHGANG tour in 2018 in Europe. We were in Germany, and where we were parked at, like the show was like at this, I think we were in Hamburg. The show was outside. We did the show and we're parked at this public park. The promoter told us we could park the bus there, but we technically couldn't park the bus there. The police came. I'm outside, and I'm literally like, I tell the driver, the driver's timed out now. Cannot legally drive the bus. So I'm in Germany. And the police are like, oh, you need to call the driver's at third. I'm like, I will call. I'm calling. Me and the driver were talking.

We're like, okay, I'm gonna call, but he's like, I'm not gonna pick up, but you can continue call. And they'll just it just is what it is. Like, I'm not waking up. Mind you, he's they sleep on the bus. Like, there's a cubby. So he's just like in the in the bus. Yeah, he's on the bus. So the driver, the cops, I don't know where he's at. The cops, like obviously, he's like, okay, this kid's clearly not German. He's clearly a black American kid. I'm talking to I was gonna say, there's black Germans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a black American. Yeah, there you go. I was gonna say, it's not just because you're black that you can't be German. No, it's like, no, it's clearly a black American kid. Like, it was your lack of Sprechen Sie Deutsch. Yeah, it was it was my it was my lack of of German speaking. Yeah, it was those fucking hamburgers, and uh he was like, driver needs to move the bus, and I was like, he can't. He's like, Well, we'll have to write a ticket. I'm like, it just is what it is. They didn't end up writing a ticket, and you know, obviously they saw me call and they were just like it is what it is. And you can't like pull the bus. Can't do anything, you can't you have a like license or something to do that, I guess.

Yeah, you can't do anything. It was just parked there, yeah. Oh my god. Timed out. And the thing is, it wasn't like it was anyone's fault. I think it's on our end. Like we were told to park here, we connected the power, all this stuff. So who was handling the logistics like at that point in time? You. Yeah, it was CME. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And it was fun. I mean, like, I learned so much of touring at the time. Um now is it Q? Q for EARTHGANG, KC for for, for J. I just want to shout out the Tim and Q show. Yeah. Tim LaRue is one of my favorite people in this shit. Yeah, Tim and Q. And his co-host Q. Speaking of Nick Cannon earlier, uh they interviewed they were on Nick Cannon's podcast. Yeah, I think. And I just texted Tim, I was like, what the fuck are you doing with Nick Cannon, bro? And he was like, I know, it's it's in it's unreal. Yeah, shit sick. Yeah, damn. Okay, yeah. So now you hopefully, but are you still super involved in the uh the pre-planning? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then Q just uh you know helps execute or uh Casey. Casey's executor, and obviously they lift the the the biggest amount. Yeah, um, you know, and I think to be an efficient, uh efficient TM, like you have to know every ins and outs, all the details, hold all the cards.

German law, yeah, overtime wages for bus drivers in Germany, you know. Well that's the thing, it's usually calculated ahead of time, so you know that like the drives, the mileage, the companies are working with you, then they kind of spell it out, right? Yeah, so there's not really too much guessing game, and and Europe's Europe touring Europe is I would say it's a lot easier than like some of the stuff in the states that you have to deal with. Like, obviously, it's a bigger bus, It's like, like in Europe, bus parking is relatively common. Really? Yeah, I mean, it's Europe, so yeah, yeah, you know, oh yeah, yeah. They favor public transportation Exactly. you know, energy efficiencies. They don't have It's all the all the super simple intangibles that you don't think about from from us just being this big ass American gas guzzlers and shit. It's just like, oh shit, like oh they had kind of have the shit already figured out. Yeah.

Oh, you can connect to power right here. You don't have to go to this lot, Yeah. They're charging you $300 a month. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you were also down in uh Savannah, Georgia, yeah, hosting or being a I guess guest speaker at Pote Day. Yeah. So, you know, one of our past guests, Pote Baby, uh, you know, puts on like a summit where basically there's you know a concert, and then there's a whole day of like music education, you know, workshops, and then there's like a block party, I think on the third day. So, you know, for you, how important are like how responsible do you feel when it comes to like giving young executives and like aspiring music industry professionals, like how important do you feel it is to like give them game? I think it's just like knowledge, like knowledge of this shit is just free. Like to me, it's like gatekeep what if if you want uh a better community within the industry, like if you truly care about just community, I think um it's important to just be a part of it, like an active member of the community, you know what I mean? Like I think Do you feel like it was like that when you got into it?

Um no, I feel like there's a level, there's a level of this shit that's just kind of like you gotta know this person and that person, which I mean that's when you get the height of anything or working at a high level of anything, it's always like that. But I think when you're trying to like teach people and like educate, like it has to be very um personable, like genuine, right? Like I can tell you as much information as I have, doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. Like there's an application process that you have to apply what your experience is and and what you've learned and kind of apply it to your own perspective. And that's why I think working in music and entertainment is just so cool, because like no one really knows. Like, like no one has the fucking answers, right? We're all guessing now. Like before it was like, okay, streaming is the best tool ever for musicians, and now it's like, oh fuck, like musicians aren't getting paid from. You know what I mean?

Like, so like shit moving is moving way too fast to even gatekeep it. Like you need a constant influx of people who think outside the box, people who are gonna challenge whatever is the status quo, I think, if you're trying to innovate, if you're trying to um and then I think also for me, like it's very, I'm very big on wanting to show different pathways within working in music. Like, because I think coming up, I didn't necessarily know what a fucking manager was, right? I still don't know. I don't know what y'all do. I can see like, oh, this is label execs and label heads, and but even like knowing what jobs are to label, how that works in in respect to uh an artist, you know, and an artist team, and like I think having as much information, seeing what that looks like, you know, that's important, right? You know, yeah. It's almost like instead of taking the teaching and this is how you should do it approach, you almost just need to take more of a journalistic approach, like this is how I did it, this is what happened.

Yeah, we're all students and you know I learned a lot from people who are trying to quote unquote get in the industry, right? No, but I was just gonna ask you as far as you know, you mentioned that it evolved so quickly, like you know, like you know, one day it's this thing is the best fucking thing. Yeah, we came in like the end of a blog era, right? Yeah, we came in like I I always feel like if we were like three or four years earlier, like we'd have been huge, right? But we came in then in the blog era, transitioning in the SoundCloud into streaming to where you know at one point the biggest thing when we were first starting was like, okay, you need to be posted on as many blogs as possible. You know, you need the complex look here, yeah. Oh, you got the EARMILK ear milk look here, or you know, you're not in fader yet? What do you do? All those things were really what was garnering energy, right? Yeah. Then it became oh, uh SoundCloud trending, you know, let's hop on SoundCloud. So it's like always transitioning, like, you know, now it's like, oh, short form content, TikTok, like content creators, uh, content curators, etc. Like these are who's moving the needle.

So it's always gonna be another tool. What do you think's next? Um how do you keep up? Uh you figure out what works for you. You know, and honestly, it's the artists that gotta keep up. Like, I, I don't make the music. So no, but like, but you know, for you to guide, you gotta know what's going on. So how do you stay up on like I'm guiding what they're doing though, right? Like, if I see these guys have an affinity, like EARTHGANG, affinity for community building, where they might not um perform well algorithmically on social media, but we perform well with getting real people to do things, like so. It's like, okay, um, I don't know why our likes are down on on Instagram, but let's see, let's show this art party and see what our turnout is. Oh, our turnout is a thousand plus. We don't sell art. Or, oh, we have 300 people in a movie theater. Like, so it's like, okay, our audience cares about living within this community. And yeah, they might not be the most social media driven beings, but as long as we figure out how to work within that community, we can have them mobilized for our purposes.

Do they have a Discord? Yeah, they have a Discord, they have a Reddit. Yes, I feel like both of those, they thrive. Both those things, yeah. Like, like that is that is where they thrive Okay, so you're I'm I'm more so focused on who's the audience, who are the community members of the audience, how can we mobilize them to feel part of what we're doing? Yeah, you know. How do you find that out? If I'm an artist, um you know what what are the best ways to really truly understand? Easy, you have no fans. I think it's yeah, You're done. if I was a rapper, yeah, I had no fans I think first within base building, it's like, you know, it starts start slow. Like, I think people are so quick to be like I do this, I gotta do that. I think you gotta figure out what story you're telling, and what is the best way for you to tell that story, what medium that is, right? You know, um so a trial and error, like for artists, it's it's a lot of trial and error. I think you should try everything, especially in a digital age, like why not?

Yeah, yeah, but is it really you know, because something we've even talked about recently is like all right, who follows the podcast page, right? Yeah, and so literally we're like scrolling through our followers and clicking on their fucking profiles. Like, is that something that yeah, that's something you do. I want to know what they look like, yeah, how old they are, what they eat, yeah, what they drink, what they watch. It's kind of creepy when you think about it, huh? I mean, shit. I mean, why wouldn't an EARTHGANG fan like Adam Sandler movies? Yeah, you know, we like Adam Sandler. I'm both I both like EARTHGANG and Adam Sandler. Me too. I was like, I was way too happy actually when Adam Sandler retweeted them. Yeah, me too. So it's like, why would that not be some type of crossover? Or um, you know, I mean, I mean, for JID, it's like, um, you know, the the the community of JID, it's like, oh, these are die hard rap fans. Like, so why wouldn't they appreciate this freestyle or appreciate these rap moments that we're trying to give, right? Yeah.

Um, you know, with Mike, it's like, oh, he's a college kid out of Texas who's really uh focused on making bangers to to live to, right? So like I would not put him in those positions to like really be outside to really allow the music to live, to really put him as a beacon of like what young Texas sounds like, or you know what I mean? Like, so it's all trying to figure out what that story is within each artist and kind of how to build that up. Because it it is you do you do kind of figure it out, like Faiyaz. It's like, oh, uh why would he why would it not make sense to pair him with Cactus Shack and try to work off of that virality and and this underground scene of Ken Carson and Yeat and all these people, like why not try to figure out what makes that talk? So so let me ask you something about Mike Dimes, right? Um he's like number four trending sound on TikTok right now, and like just man, I don't know. It's like definitely like a proud friend moment to see that for you guys where it's like he's next to like T Swift, fucking bad boy.

I don't know, you know, yeah, it's crazy. It's just insane. Like, what the what the fuck's Mike Dimes being able to do that? It's just so fucking cool. I mean, but that also comes from like his day-to-day manager who brought Shout out David. Yeah, David, like Peters. Yes. Who has kind of built and understands the ecosystem of Mike Dimes to be able to kind of lead in certain directions and do certain things digitally. Like Mike's, a lot of Mike's moments have come from virality within TikTok, right? So obviously, why it makes sense. Like if you follow Mike's kind of uh journey right now, it has been largely due to success he's had on that platform and to you know viral moments within that platform. Um so for those that aren't familiar, what kind of uh content is he is he posting that is going viral? I mean, I I don't think it's necessarily just him, it's him being active on it, right? Yeah, I think it's a combination of a digital spin and figuring out ways to highlight parts of his songs, um also him being active on the platform, you know, and and us focusing on a college-age demographic that is outside, you know?

Yeah. That wanna hear this like music outside. Yeah, man. I I think it's just so underrated, man. Like, definitely somehow the title of this interview needs to be something about storytelling because like that's what I definitely fell in love with when I like came across what it is you guys were doing. And that's why like I first reached out you know, in the first place when we first connected, because it's just like it it just it means so much more than it's not a tangible thing really Yeah, it's like uh right, yeah. Man, it's like I have stopped worrying about so much about the initial impact of like okay, release, and more so focused about okay, how many people are we gathering along like in this tool? Like, How many people are like actually because word of mouth is still the biggest thing. That's why I say talk to you. It's all word of mouth. Like, so amen. You know, it's like how many people, and if you like, like I looked at the EARTHGANG video today, right? And I'm looking at the comments, and the funny thing is it's it's a bunch of people who were like, yo, I've never been in music video, but they invited fans out to the music video.

So it's like I never did music videos, so it's so crazy to see how to see my face at this second. Um and seeing how you guys put this whole video together because it's the first time I ever got to see a music video production. So like in my head, it's like, oh, for EARTHGANG for this campaign, it's to be as social and community driven as possible. Yeah, right. That is where their success lies of a group as a brand is everyone is EARTHGANG. You know what I mean? Like, and we've said this for years, but everyone is really an EARTHGANG. For JID, it's like, okay, he's on the precipice of being rap's next star. And in terms of how I think of what people are waiting to see if he can get there. So it's like, all right, there's a combination of putting him in more lifestyle spaces. Like what? Like what? I mean, as simple as like, you know, whether it's as simple as fashion weeks or as simple as um social moments that are not necessarily related to just solely music. Okay.

Like doing the one more time podcast, for example. Maybe do one more time. podcast. Yeah, thank God Henry did it. He's throwing it out there. Thank God Henry did it. You know, uh Zeke gone. So, like, you know. Playing in, he played in the MLB All-Star game last year. Uh or not the like celebrity all-star game. It might have been two years ago. But like moments that that's superstars do. Yeah. Moments that lend to him being a figure. Yeah. You know, obviously music is the base, but he has to become a figure. Yeah. When you're mainstream, you become a figure. Um I mean, even how's he dealing with that type of stuff? Uh I think it's coming to like his own uh comfortability with like what that means for him. He's come because I think it's it's a portion of it is figuring out how I want to go about that. Yeah. You know, because it's a lot different than just like performing at a big festival. It's completely different. It's like throwing out a pitch at a fucking MLB or whatever. game. How big a celebrity do you want to be? Yeah. You know, and then like what do you want to do for a

celebrity is different, right? So what are you gonna talk to Jimmy Fallon about? Yeah. All those things. Or the one more time podcast, guys. I mean, you know, I think for him, you know, he's he's gone through that transition, and and I think having this album out is like a weight on shoulders. It's like, okay, now I I can move to this next phase and and be very strategic in where I'm going, who I'm seen with, like where I'm at. Um, you know, and that's kind of the next phase, I think for him. It's amazing, man. So you guys started since the 80s in what 2017? And at the end of 2018, we officially started since 2018. Okay, and so let's let's do like a on the podcast, like how it started versus how it's going. Like what are you most proud of? Would you say? Um, I'm proud that we're still going. Yeah. Like a lot of people don't know. Like, I met like So are we? That's that's honestly like I met Barry when I was 16. Like okay, wow.

Like, so we were working together, and then in 2018, it was me, Kim, Barry that that came together to form since the 80s. Because she's obviously started her own company, Third and Hayden, so not just me and Barry, but um I I'm proud that we're still going and that we still have that energy to like really want to be in this shit, right? Um how's it going? I mean, I think uh I think it's it's going, you know. I think for us it's figuring out how to scale up. Because it's only literally it's me, Barry, our executive assistant team member Carly, it's three of us. And then we have you know, junior managers with like David Peters and Lamar. Shout out Lamar, yeah, one of my favorites, and David too. Yeah, so it's like Bro the fact that you have like those types of supporting cast of like day-to-day managers, like so it's like, you know, it's still a super fucking small boutique. Like we still work off, we still trapping the out of wherever we're working out of, right? So I think for us scaling up, I know we're you know, we're looking to do uh uh kind of get our our ducks and row and get this studio house, just like Hito Studio House to really be able to house over town and be like another um another pillar of community building within Atlanta. Um it's going well.

Like, I think you know it's going. So for for the outside looking in, right? Like you're like, okay, JID's about to be, you know, potentially rap's next biggest superstar, EARTHGANG's got that. So we'd love that to happen. Yeah, EARTHGANG's got this amazing community. Mike Dimes is crushing, the rest of your you know, roster is doing great things. Like, you'd think that just every day would be like you're so inspired, you're so ready to do it. Okay, I just wanted to get like a reality. I just wanted people to know that like even when you're operating at the fucking highest level, there's still probably days where you're like, fuck this shit. man. I don't think we're operating at the highest level yet. Okay, but I know you're saying it. You're playing in the big leagues, whether you you know yeah, it's because like bro, this shit is like this shit is tiring, and then like also it's easy to be very critical of just how shit is, right? Like what do you mean by that? Bro, this is a million tricks being ran. Like, you know what I mean, like in order to gain popularity, like yeah, like it's not based on music and talent. It's not the industry's not like it's not based on music and talent.

You know, so it's easy to get depressed if you think about that being. true. If you're coming into the big industry and thinking that it's solely music and talent, you're going to be very depressed. Long gone are the days of a record label signing a bum on the streets with a beautiful voice. I mean, you guys saw you guys saw the iShowSpeed shit. Oh. it like happened with speed. Yeah, I mean, he just performed it at Rolling Portugal. That's so sad. He's just, you know. I mean, shout out to him as a live streamer and stuff. Yeah, so it's like, you know, when you think about all the things. So is Kai Cenat's album coming soon or uh what? I don't know. Probably, right? But but I think I think when you're when you're when you're thinking about everything that you're up against working with musicians today, it's like okay, I gotta now I gotta compete with these stream with streamers. I gotta compete with content creators. Like, yeah, yeah. It's not just about the music, right? No. So yes, I have to be inspired. Thank you, Adam. You know, for this morning, it's like, okay, cool.

Like art. I kept you going. Yeah, art, art speaks if you allow it, the opportunity in the space to allow it to speak. So, you know, I work in music because I enjoy music. And but it it it does get daunting when your music is just I mean, because it's music business, so it's really relegated to just data. Like, you're following data, like you're following charts, you're following streams, you're following all the shit so you know if you just if you're looking at trending up trending down or algorithmic places playlisting here or ad spend here all the shit is advertising like truly yeah so you know it's easy to get just uh I don't know if it's necessarily just overwhelmed but just kind of just like what the fuck is the point you know on some days right yeah but you know I uh that's with anything I think oh yeah I mean dude, join the club with you know how many times I've it's a big puzzle specifically I've wanted to like stop doing this like like too many times I thought one time you were like I think I think I don't know if I got this much I just fucking but that's the thing right like I don't want to ask another fucking question like yeah So, like it's fun it's a puzzle and I do this shit you know because I enjoy being able to do this and taking care of my family like more than anything else um I just needed people to hear that like it doesn't get it really doesn't get that much easier when no it doesn't get much easier it's probably actually harder when you're at the level that Zeke's operating at than like when you're first starting even though you think it's so hard when you're first starting out When you first start out it's like you really appreciate the the small wins yeah we just talked about this, bro. and I think when you have a base built you kind of you have to like remind yourself to appreciate those moments right like so absolutely if you don't remind yourself appreciate that moments you're always constantly looking to the next thing, you know. And I think it's all about the journey.

It's all about the journey, yeah it's like and that's what storytelling is. That's like, you know. Absolutely. Well, Zeke, we've entered a final segment of the podcast. Oh shit. Oh shit, Henry. Oh shit. Where are we at? Are we here? We're here. I mean, I hope we're here. Zeke, this is the rapid fire rampage. Rapid fire rampage. Yes, sir. Oh, he's tapped into it. Let's go, bro. It's gonna be a three-part rampage. We're gonna start with some short answer questions, nice and easy. Are you buckled up? Ready to go. Buckled up. He's chilling. Oh, yeah. He clipped it in there. No, he's the type that doesn't buckle his seatbelt on the plane when they're like, please, buckle your seat, you know. Tray table down. Yeah. Nah, I'll put that shit up. He's still got a seat back, and you know. I might have my headphones on, but I'll put that shit up. Okay. I don't believe it. I'm gonna start with a layup here, just to kind of ease into it. Yeah. Zeke, what is the best podcast in the world? Uh it's one time podcast. Well, one more time. We'll take that. We'll take that. We'll just edit it into one more time.

It's one more time podcast. Okay, yeah, we'll edit that part. Yeah. Editors, get that. Honorable mention. NFR, NFR, honorable mention. Sure. They're probably better than us, bro. It's okay. It's okay. Well, they're not giving gems to artists. We have a different lane. I know. I love them. I love them. Zeke, a lot of artists are selling their catalogs right now. What is the number for Jid's catalog right now? So we can't sell it yet. We don't have enough. We need we we need more catalog to make more money. It's 750 million right now. I wish. If it was 750 million, we would have sold it. No, but like what would you sell it at is the question. Not what is it worth. What would I sell it at? What would you sell? You could go high? What would I? Yeah, I mean, what's hopefully Jid would agree, but like let's just take your opinion. What did uh 100 M's? 100? Yeah. What did I do? 50? What'd you do 50? Shit. No, I did 50. I don't know. Shit. He had number ones and everything. It's true. Fuck. He had Country Grammar, bro. That's what I'm saying.

He had rye with me. Yeah, I would do 50. I would do 100. He had over and over again with Tim McGraw. yeah, like what? I would say 100 just because 100 just sounds like a good number. Okay. Sure. 100 M's. Zeke, what are three things an independent artist could do to get the attention of Zeke Nicholson? Uh running to me in the street. He is one of those guys. In person. Run to me in the street. Um like say they want to get signed to since the 80s. Mm. Badger me for three years and improve. Consistency. Okay. Consistency. I mean to say I badgered him for like I mean at least months. Maybe a year. I don't know. Um, put out dope shit. Yeah. That worked? Yeah. You can only wear one outfit for the rest of your life. Yes. What is it? Um, it's uh some since the 80s shorts, uh, some a pair of ground sneakers, um, one of my mini koofies, uh, my since the 80s chain and a white t-shirt. I thought you were just gonna describe your outfit.

I was almost there. You just switched white t-shirt with blue. Because I wouldn't wear black shorts, I'd probably wear like green shorts. Okay. How many different colors of the Since 80s shorts do we have? We have blue, red, and black. I need some, bro. Yeah, I'll cop. Yeah. Zeke, you have $5,000 to roll out a single for an independent artist. Brand new. It's not enough money, but yeah. No, it's not. But working with what you got and being as creative as you are. Yeah. How give us like a general breakdown of how you spend it? Um, Damn. that's a good question. Uh $5,000. That's it. That's it. Five. Five G's. I am. And some artists are listening to this, like, I don't have fucking $5,000 to roll this. out. $5,000 to roll it out. Um what is it? A single or album? Single. A single? Okay. I'm gonna spend uh $5,000 total on paying. Damn, how many people wanna pay?

I'm gonna pay. I love this 250 people to tweet the single every day for 30 days. Ooh. I just made that up. No, but I like that. It's genius. That might be cool, yeah. Yeah. So just micro influencers. Yeah, yeah. Dude. Yeah. Like, do that, y'all. Like seriously. I don't even know that would work, but no, but just it obviously depends on the artist. But the concept in general of the thing. Yeah, I would be, yeah, I would just pay them to tweet it out every day. Yeah. If I said, if I said I will give you X amount of dollars, and probably high schoolers at that. Yeah. Which is almost better. They'll take it. Yeah. Sure. Because they probably have more followers than like a 20-something year old. And I said 250 people, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what I do. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you said um, when I said 5,000, you immediately said not enough. Is there a number that you think? No, no, no, no. It's just not enough to what I would want to do. Yeah. What's your what's your average? Like, how do you feel comfortable with a single? You need like 25, 50, 100, 200. No, no, no.

I mean, it just depends on like see. First, when you said single, I really was thinking a whole project. Like, I mean, I think a good 50 ball would allow me to do what I would want to do creatively for just the project. But I mean, bruh, what's so crazy about the music industry is that you can spend millions of dollars and it doesn't work. Yeah. So like your budget doesn't necessarily dictate success by no means. And that's why that shit is so funny. Yeah, like like me having not spent millions of dollars on a single, I can still tell you that. Like, if it was that simple, then major labels would never lose. Yeah, other artists. would lose. If it was purely a dollar amount that made a single successful, we would all spend it. Yeah, they just like every venture capitalist would just invest in singles. That's why that shit's funny. That's why that shit's hilarious. Exactly. Like everyone's like, because I remember in the beginning, I was like, man, if I had X amount of budget, like shit, we would make this shit. And then you get the budget and you're like, oh shit. Oh, wait. That's not how this shit works. Right, right.

We just spent how much and didn't make anything. Yeah. Okay, moving on. This next one's a bit of a philosophical question. Yeah. Since tomatoes, as we know, are actually fruit. Yes. Ooh. is ketchup a smoothie? Is ketchup a smoothie? Um do all smoothies have ice. Ooh. I would say no, because I just like smoothies have ice in them. I think they do. Yeah, they do. I think you need ice for sure. I think they got some ice and maybe some like ice cream or yogurt in there. Creamer or something, so ice definitely need ice though. So definitely need ice. And cream and ketchup, maybe could be a smoothie. Could be a smoothie, yeah. Or enjoy the tomato, the ketchup? I mean, enjoy the tomato, the ice and the cream. Because you would blend it up, yeah. Right. And it would be fine. Sounds awful. That sounds disgusting. Last one of the short answer to this is the Cosign Corner presented by Guayaki Yerba Mate. Give us a couple artists you're excited about, not on since the 80s, just some people that you're really hyped up. Cosign Corner. South African artists, uh named Blackie, another South African artist named Anati.

let me see. Uh artists, I'm excited about. I gotta pull up my phone. Yeah, yeah. Who you been listening to? Who's in the recently played? Who are you trying to poach? Um who have I been listening to? Damn, I'm like, what's going on in South Africa? Yeah. Do we need to do we need to tap into South Africa? A 100% you should. Shit. Okay. Um Damn. Ira Star. who were you just listening to in the car? Remo. Yeah, Remo's amazing. But what who were well, the girl. Oh, the sign of Drake. Oh, yeah, she's fire. There's a girl signed to Drake? Yeah. What's her name? I can't remember. Yeah, there's a girl signed to Drake. Shout out to the girl signed to Drake. Sure. OVO's leading female. I think Blackie's incredible, I think Anati's incredible. And I mean, anything. What kind of music are they making? Uh, Blackie's a rapper. Okay. Anati's a

savant. Seriously, like Santi Savant. I promise you, like the melodies are crazy. Um I'm gonna need you to make sure I spell that right when I type it in Spotify after this. Um yo, it's crazy. Every time someone asks me this, I go blank. But my most listened to artists, like literally probably the last six months is Remo. Really? Shout out Remo. Yeah. Yeah. Part one. Okay. Part one. Part one, doing well. Doing well. Some good uh some good gems in there. The tomato smoothie still has me kind of like wanting to barf, but that was that's fine. kind of threw a wrench in the whole thing. Yeah, it's just to ruin just to ruin the podcast. Have you guys Googled tomato smoothie? Like, have you ever uh this is Henry's I'm gonna I'm gonna ask the next probably like five, ten guests first, and then we'll deep dive into it. We gotta gather it. Sandra's tomato smoothie is a real thing. Oh, there you go. God, yeah. I mean, people eat like bugs and stuff, so I figure that that's I mean, people drink tomato juice, so 100% tomatoes. Yeah, true. Yeah, just add some ice and is it a bloody Mary then though? Ooh.

Or do you need vodka It's got vodka. Yeah. Part two is the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices. Pick one. Starting with Pittsburgh or Atlanta. Uh I'd be remiss and not say Pittsburgh. It's too, it's too important to my uh background. I mean, me, Crystal, Benji, Q. Yeah. Wiz, Mac, Will, Fuck. Edan, like, that's a that's just it's just too important. Do I need to list all the Atlanta fans? Did you just list all the cool people from Pittsburgh? We can do that too. Yeah, I was like, I mean, that's just no. No, that's like your crew. I know. You you like knew Mac and Whit. I could go, I could go Mel, man. Like, if I went to go like super, like if you really did your deep dive and went like super early, We did. the Chronic, like you'll see Pittsburgh producers on there. Okay. But no, it's too Shout out to Berg, bro. It's too important to like your come-up. My come up to say For sure. You wouldn't be Zeke Now, where would I? I mean, if it was living, like I would.

Yeah, you're never going back, huh? But it's part of the story, and he's a storyteller. I love it. Rapping or singing? Uh rapping. Chorus or verse? Uh, chorus. Managing producers or managing artists? Artists. TikTok or YouTube? Uh damn, TikTok. Spotify or Apple Music? Spotify. Label or manager? Label. Singles or projects? Projects. And finally, leave since the 80s and start a country label or leave the music industry. I'll leave the music industry. She's not doing the country thing. Miss me with that Morgan Wallen. I'm not leaving. If I'm done with since the 80s I'm done with music. Fair enough. He's not starting from the ground. He's loyal. Not happening. Last part is the word association. I'm gonna say one word. Just give me one word right back off the top of your head. Here we go. Oh yep, there it is. Starting as always with hip hop. Booties. That's what I think of when I think of hip hop.

Perfect. Color. Uh green. Brand. Brand. Since 80s. Breakfast. Secrets. Hookah. Mint. Contract. Uh contract. Ooh. The first thing I think about contract, I think about a lot of money. Okay. Yes. That works. Studio. Etiquette. Pickleball. Fun. Waffle. House. Cricket. Sandwich. Strip club. Once. Lil. Scrappy. Podcast. One more song. Yo, Lil Scrappy has me dead, bro. That might be a first. That's definitely a first. I want to say someone else. No, it's a first for scrappy. Oh, yeah, it was gonna be scrappy, but I almost said Tyler, but you said Lil, so I just had to go scrapy.

Yeah, I didn't go low. Yeah, yeah. Facts. Shout out to Mateo. Yeah, shout out to Mateo. Since the 80s. Since the 80s, bro. If y'all didn't get some fucking game from this shit, we can't help you. Literally, don't listen to another one. Hell yeah. Holy shit. bro. I appreciate you guys. Man Appreciate you, man. Super fucking gems, bro. We love it. Thank you for coming on. I know it took a while, but I'm really glad that you finally came through. Thanks for still. Yes, of course, man. Of course. Persistence. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe. We do this shit every week with people like Zeke. So we appreciate you coming on. And Henry, until next week, what are we doing? Getting out of here. Getting the fuck out of here. Peace. Peace, y'all. Thanks, guys.