TheARTI$t Interview: R&B is NOT Dead

So I mean, should we call you like the cover queen at this point with how many playlist covers you're on? Cover girl. How does that happen? Just the genuine support from the platform. Do they ask you for a certain picture? Do they just like choose one? It just popped up. Like I didn't even realize it. No. They just did it. Yeah. Like my manager sent me like a screenshot of something on the Spotify, and I'm looking. I'm like, okay, maybe it's like that because that's the picture on my Spotify. So I went to the regular Spotify app and typed in the playlist and saw my face. Welcoming in on the One More Time podcast, winner of season three of American Idol. It's Fantasia in the finale. Fantasia. Oh my God. That's fucking crazy. Can you believe we got Fantasia? Bro, I didn't know she was still making music, to be honest, but I'm glad you got her on the pod. Listen, this is what we do at the One More Time Podcast. We have a dear friend of the One More Time Podcast. Newark, New Jersey's finest.

We got the artist. The artist. Not just any artist. The artist. The fucking artist. And don't forget the money sign is the S. Absolutely. Just in case you're tripping. How is that with do you ever have to like tell people how to type that in on Spotify or whatever? Yeah, I do, but like, there's a thing where like even if they type it without the dollar sign, they just put an S. You show up. I'll still show up. Oh, beautiful. So that's that's a blessing. That is such a blessing. Dude, imagine. Dude, imagine if you had to type in the dollar sign. Dude. It'd be tough. I don't want to live in a world where we have to type the dollar sign. Me neither. I want ASAP Rocky to show up with the S. Yeah. And I want the artist to show up with the fucking S. Oh my God. All right. So I wanted to talk to you about and just kick this off with like how are we feeling about the state of RB right now? Oh, I'm feeling great about it. There's a lot of new RB acts on the rise. They go that's going crazy. And I just feel like there's so many like magnitudes of RB right now. Like you got the upbeat RB, then you got the the painful RB, and you got the 2000s RB coming back. So it's just a lot going on with RB right now.

I'm so proud to be a part of it, and I just can't wait to see where it goes. Because I'm not saying this, and Henry, I don't think is saying this. No, I'll say it. There's some people out there. It was a lull. No, there's some people that are saying RB is dead. Right. What do you say to those people? What do you say to those people? As you can see, RB is very much alive. It's alive and well, motherfuckers. It's alive. Don't sleep on RB. Definitely not dead. I was never an RB fan, and I catch myself listening to more RB in the last like year or two than I ever have in my life. I'm not even kidding. Man, the real is starting to surface. Yeah. This is where the real feelings come from. For sure. So we like to do like rapper drafts, right? I don't think we've ever done an RB artist draft. But if you had to pick a team, a starting five of RB artists, who's making the artist's team? Um, Summer Walker. Um, Usher. Oh, sure. Damn. Jasmine Sullivan. Sure. I'm going Lauryn Hill. Oh, that's a

that's a tricky one. I feel like a lot of RB artists could be classified. They float. Yeah. As other things. Yeah, for sure. They teeter back and forth. You could say Michael Jackson almost is RB. You know what I mean? It's like it's kind of um for the last one. Let's go with Mel. Let's go. We're gonna go with Chris Brown. Wow. Yeah. That's a fire team. That is a good team. I like that. I like that. What about you? Do you have any additions? Oh no, I don't, I don't feel qualified to give my to get my RB uh artist draft right now. No, no, no. No Luther, no, no Marvin, anything like that. No, no. I mean, I've been tapped into her, as you know. It's like it's been pretty much playing all the time in the studio. I think the artist is on Ben's list. Seriously. Yeah, no, honestly, you might be. Who's the who's like the current queen and king of RB though? Who's at the top right now? Is it Jacquees for real? Is Jacquees- Is he- He claims that title. I don't know. I don't once again not qualified enough to tell him he's not. But who's the king and queen of RB right now? Oh, the king of RB.

I'm going with Usher. Still. Still. Still. And he's like dropping against, and it's just like, bro. Did he drop and we didn't know? Yeah, he just dropped the song like two weeks ago. How would we know if we didn't know? Yeah, he he's yeah. Usher. He just dropped a song with Summer? Summer and oh my god, who else is on that song? It's called Good Good. Summer Walker and uh you might know. And 21 Savage. Okay, yeah. Really? Thanks to my production assistant fame and the giving me all of the hints. Yep. She goes, Too much. What? Too much. I was like, I don't know. I get, the only thing I have is 21 Savage. It sounded weird though, right? It was like Summer Walker Usher, and then she's 21. she's singling 21 Savage, like 21. Damn. Oh, Usher is making a comeback. Yeah, and the queen. Yeah, who's the queen? Ooh. Is it Summer? Summer is crazy, but I'm not gonna give her the queen. Oh, she doesn't mean it's summer. She doesn't mean it. Yeah, no. I love her, bro. She she knows. She checked the DM. she knows.

Yes. Queen, I'm gonna go right now. I'm gonna go SZA. Yeah. I'm gonna go SZA, but I'm not gonna lie. Victoria Monet is up here. She's my queen. Monet, yeah. SZA is my wife, catch me, catches me looking at SZA's page a little too a little too hard sometimes. I'm just going to admit it. I'm looking at her page, too. Yeah, I mean, you know. Don't judge me. I love the comparisons of her to future. She's like the tox, the female, like toxic artist, you know. Like I love it. I know. I know she's like an RB future. Oh man. So what what do you think that you, you know, this is your chance to pop your shit. Like, what do you think that you're bringing to the genre? Oh, I think I'm bringing like just a sense of difference to the genre. I don't have like the typical RB setup, you know. Like, I feel like I'm myself, and like I have fun with my music. Like, I don't, I don't structure my my songs the way people would expect a song to be structured.

Like, I feel like I do what I want with it. And I feel like, you know, it's I feel like I'm bringing that. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm not gonna lie. Your song structure, even with chosen, who we were talking about, is like you're, you know, it's like my favorite song off the new project. It really is. And it really is Henry was like, there's no beat drop. He's like, the beat doesn't ever end up dropping. So like I do feel like you're doing some unique things where it's almost going against the like technical, this should this song should be this way, technically speaking, or something, which is really cool. It's not even on purpose. Like, that's just how I feel like when I'm in the studio creating, that's just what I feel. It's what I want is what I it's how I want to work. But I'm working on, you know, you know, tapping into to the things that people probably would expect to hear, but still having my own style with it. God that's a big thing. That's such a we just talked about this paradox of like being original, but yet like being familiar enough that us as consumers can still recognize know what's going on, and like we know, if we're expecting it to be a certain way, sometimes if it's not that way, we're a little bit like throwed off. Right.

Yeah, but it's like how much how much do you morph your sound to to kind of fit that mold, but still you still want to always maintain obviously your artistic integrity. Absolutely. You want to be yourself, but if you can, you know, be yourself this way as opposed to this way, and it will do this much better. Is that worth it? Yeah. It's it's tough. So as of the time that we're recording this, Archives has been out for one week. Yep, one week today. y'all, for one week, one week today, y'all, go to the name archives. Archives is the newest project from the artist. Yes, yes. And I mean, it's a phenomenal body of work. Thank you. I'm like super excited about it. Super proud of you guys for putting that that you know project out. So walk us through some of the the making of the project. Like, where did you record most of the songs? Like tell us about kind of the the actual making of it. So majority of the songs were recorded in Miami. I had to like a quick trip out there and I did three songs that's on the project. Yep.

We did it in like a day and some change. Oh wow. Um, and as I was just traveling like to different states, just handling some music business and stuff, I would get in the studio. And at the time I didn't like have it set, okay. I'm working on the project. I was just recording and singing the things that I was feeling at the time, the things I'm healing from and everything. So, like a couple months ago, maybe like three, four months ago, I decided all right, let's do a project. So we just been mapping it out, and I've been I've recorded so many songs this year. How many? I'm not, I can't tell you. I don't even know. But like I've recorded in Miami, LA, over a hundred France. I wouldn't say over a hundred, but close to enough. I tell you that I have like I have enough for like three projects. Okay. Damn. So full songs, like, yeah. Yeah. songs, yeah. Two songs. So as like the time was like coming down, I just like we were picking the songs, and I was just basing it off like telling a story. Like, so it starts with heartbreaking, you know, confusion with frustrated love and sober, and you have beneficial that kind of taps into like the toxic kind of thing. Little SZA-esque.

Yeah, you know. And then we go with uh, you know, love out loud and fly you out. Those are more I like fly you out, that's one of my favorites. Yeah, like you more upbeat feelings, and just you know, again, like I said, real experiences, by the way, every song. So I was gonna ask how much uh because you know, artists, you're you know, you're artists, right? So it's it's okay for you to be kind of like you know, dramatizing stuff, like you know, embellishing exaggerating, embellishing. But yeah, I was gonna ask if like these were all kind of based in reality. Nah, yeah. Every song on the project is like based off of real experience. Wow. Like I feel like as an RB artist, like there's only but so much we can get away with. Like, I feel like you kind of have to be real with it for people to feel it. Like you can just, I mean, you can make up stories like that, like that works too. But for me, I feel like I do best when I'm just like just be for just be real, man. Just be you. It's gotta be easier to perform those, not only live, but also when you're recording them in the studio, it's gotta be easier, right? Like you just feel it, and it's just like it's just a a different, like something different just comes over you.

Like the way you sing it, the way you're moving, the let's go, let's go. Just keep let it record, let it go. you know what I'm saying? Like you just, you're just more locked in to it. It's almost like instead of, oh, what should I say here? It's like what happened in this situation. What actually just happened. Yeah, right. I would say the trickiest part is trying to make it rhyme sometimes, right? Yeah, and if I went through that, but like how can I make it rhyme with this word? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This this isn't like a biography novel, unfortunately, where you can just you know spew out sentences. They do have to sometimes rhyme. That's yeah, how music is consumed a lot. But not always. No, for sure. For sure. We're talking about Spodioti, Dopealicious. It's like a Spoken word. Yeah, it looks like Spodioti for sure. But yeah, they're just like talking on the beat. And it's fire. Yeah. No, absolutely. How do they do that? So one thing we talked about recently is which artist went to record. Oh, Kanye went to Italy, yeah, I think to record his newest project. I think he's there right now.

Or he's there right now. Whatever. Who cares about Kanye? We're here with the artist. But but the reason why we want to We love you, Kanye. The reason why I wanted to I don't know that we do that much. But he's a legend. Um, but so for us, one thing we want to talk about with you is like when you go to all these places to record, because obviously you're from New Jersey, you know, you've got business partners here in Atlanta area, but you recorded a bunch in Miami, and you were saying, like, you know, obviously you recorded in France. Like, how important is that like recording in different environments for you? Oh, the change of scenery. Like, I'm real big on like emotions and stuff like that. So certain places put me in certain feelings and it take me back to certain things. So the traveling, I feel like has really helped tremendously throughout this recording process. Like getting out of my old my old area, getting out of my comfort zone, most importantly, because personally, like I had a hard time at first recording with new people, but now it's like I don't care where I go, let's find a studio. What what so were you were you nervous?

Or like, you know, what do you mean? Or you just felt like you know, they don't know me. I don't like, who are these, I don't want to tell them my story, uh you know, at first. That's how I was at first, but like I've gotten really comfortable with being vulnerable and it got me here. Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, you know, we just said that how important that is to be creating outside of your like just mundane, regular, normal environment, right? Because I'm not saying you can't get inspired, and I'd love to get your take on how you do stay inspired when you are in like home base mode, right? Because you can't necessarily just fly all over the world all the time to record, especially as an independent artist. A lot of our audience is like independent artists and producers that are trying to, you know, create with what they've got. So, like, how do you find that inspiration and that creativity within you when you're just in your normal fucking routine, you know? Um, honestly, outside of like my regular inspirations, like you know, my my family and just the people that I look up to as artists, like I feel like when I hear a good beat, that that inspires me. Like, yeah, I'm so big on that.

Like, I have to feel it for me to record on it. I'm not just gonna record over anything. Yeah, so like when I'm in the house just doing nothing and I'm listening to some beat packs and I feel something, I gotta go record. Yeah, I just feel like I have something has to be said on it, like you hear this. That's how I feel. Like, something has to be said. I have a question for you. So this is a big thing about like artists these days. I feel like in modern times will hear a beat and like it, but if they don't immediately start writing or start recording to it, artists will get just the beat becomes stale to them so fast, right? So, like, are you able to kind of like if you know you like a beat, kind of sit with it longer, or are you the type that you need to like get something out immediately? I'm a little impatient sometimes. I like to get right to it, but I've had moments where I've had a beat and I've had, you know, I've felt good about it, and I started saying things over it, but then maybe tomorrow my my fit my mood isn't the same, so the beat doesn't feel the same. Another beat that exactly.

It hit you in that moment in that time, and you were feeling it then, and you might, yeah, play it tomorrow, and it doesn't feel the same. So lately what I've been doing, I've just been going to the studio. Like, even if I get a beat pack right now, I'll listen a little bit. But you wait till you're in the studio. There's a microphone right here. And it's like, play the beat. I like that. Record. I wait until I'm in the studio this way here. There's no, I'm not overthinking it. I'm not, you know, I'm just there. I'm just in my creative space and nothing. Bro, that's the vibe now. Like, no one's fucking, okay, this is the beat. Next week I'm gonna write to it. Next week I'm going to like record to it. There's no more of that. You know what I mean? Well, and and I think just me, once again, not as the creative here in the in this circle is like, I think the reason is is because as a consumer, the vibe that you're setting and the emotion and the feeling and the passion and the vulnerability to your point that that's coming through the record, that's almost more important than like writing the perfect song. Yeah. So, like, yeah, if you hear something, you could technically like listen to it in your headphones and write it and then wait till you go to the studio next time and you sing your ass off, whatever, right? But it's not gonna be the same.

Right. As like if you hear that shit and you and it hits you a certain way, that you can deliver that like vocal performance that that has that passion and that has that like that you know, intimacy and that vulnerability that that that's what we that was what we crave as listeners, right? That's gonna just hit different every fucking time. But you're sacrificing the crazy like writing you could do the technical, like if you really spent a bunch of time to like craft the perfect song, yeah, you sacrifice that. Yeah. So it's like which is the one's more important. The way that I work, like, so I write my songs after the fact. So I'll go in and I'll get melodies, I'll start putting words, and then I'll write my song like that. Like, that same day I work but that same session, yeah. You do like mumble tracks? Do you do or you just freestyle melodies kind of without words? I like I like I free it all depends. Like I I've had times where I I go in there do a little mumbles, but lately it's been like I'm freestyling melodies and words. Like I know what the beat is making me feel.

So I'm saying a few words that that I'm feeling, then I go back and like, okay, I got a story for this. Yeah, this happened to me. I'm, it's easy. Let's do it. Yeah. And I'll knock it out. Yeah. I like that. But like it's never like a oh, okay. I go in the studio, did a song. Okay, the song is done. No, like I'll record it, it sounds great. I'll go and sit. You know, okay, this could sound a bit better. I can be a little more lyrical here, you know. So it it all depends on how I'm feeling. Like, I don't know. It sounds like that's a good hybrid of like you're getting the emotion and the feeling of the first listen, but you're also getting the like the editing and the making it better of like not just freestyling a whole song and it makes no sense. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You kind of get the best of both worlds that way. Yeah. No, I mean yeah. I'm always curious though, like some of these songs have really deep meanings and like their, their stories that you've experienced, there's shit, there's shit that you've been through, you know what I mean? So, like, did have you ever like I don't know, this sounds weird, but like have you ever like fucking like teared up or gotten mad or like you know what I mean?

Like this one time I made a song, not only did I cry, but the engineer cried, my manager cried. Oh shit. We were in the studio crying. Oh shit, dude. Seriously, uh that's what I'm like thinking. I'm like, dude, if they're real stories and then the music is with it, and it inspired you to tell that story through through the song, I can't I can only imagine that you're gonna start like reliving all of that that emotion, whether it's once again, you know, sadness, happiness, like you know, scared, whatever emotion it is that you're confused, you know, all of that stuff that you're kind of crafting in the song. Like, I can only imagine that it's gonna pour out a little bit, you know. That's crazy. I've teared up in one session in my life. Shout out East Rich. I think I know the session, yeah. Shout out East Rich. It was one of the rich mixes. Yeah, yeah. Damn, man. That's crazy. Sometimes you just that that's amazing. So, who did you work with throughout the creation of this you know, archives project? Oh, one of the biggest people I worked with throughout this process is Troy Taylor.

Troy Taylor. The legendary for those that aren't familiar. Oh, Troy Taylor, he is a legend, y'all. If y'all know Trey Songz, then y'all should know Troy Taylor. Right. Right. Right. He worked with like everybody, like Patti LaBelle, Rita Franklin, like everybody. What was it about working with him, other than of course the accolades? Of course, he's talented, right? But like point to something else, maybe that you learned or that you, you know, kind of like embrace through the creative process you know, with Troy. We like giving our listeners game. So putting people on game. Because obviously, yeah, working with someone that's got platinum records and got Grammy noms or whatever it is, all the accolades that Troy has, right? But like for you specifically, kind of what did you take away from that? Um, for one, him being there, like he didn't even mention anything. Like, but if anybody didn't know him in there or whatever, he didn't make it known who he was. And I respected that a lot. And another thing too is he remained himself while not trying to alter who I was while we were there. Like he allowed me to be myself while still teaching me as we're going, as we're recording.

Like, he's teaching me new ways to place melodies here and there. And oh, we gotta make sure your ad libs are here. We gotta let's record that six times so that you know, like it was just so many things I learned. And I was a little nervous at first, like watching videos, like he like it looked like he could be a little aggressive or whatever, but like that's his passion. He's passionate. He literally wants me to win. Like he wants me to win. God, you need those people around. I'm so blessed that I met him. You need those people. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh, man. Because I mean, I just was talking about this uh on an Instagram live or something with our audience. It's like, man, if you can find someone who wants this as bad for you, almost as bad as you should want it yourself, like that's the most beautiful fucking thing. It's like when I found, you know, Henry, it was literally like, you know, just perfect chemistry as far as like I wanted him to win with whatever it is that you know he had going on with his producer engineer career. And then it was like when I started working with some artists and shit, he was like, you know, giving free sessions to my artists and free beats and all this free mixes and all this shit to like help me win.

Then we started this podcast together, and it was like, yo, we're just pushing each other and shit. Shout Like me and fame. Yes, yes. Shout out to Fame Combs in the building. Shout out to fame. A one more time alumni. One of my favorite interviews, probably because she's actually one of the only people I'm friends with in this music industry. Shit, but that's fine because she's a fucking hustler. And oh my god, I love you. Speaking of people that want you to win and like wants me to win, and oh my god, that it's almost so obvious to me when you meet someone like that, you can't help but also want them to win. Absolutely. That's like the that's the part about it. That's the whole thing. It's like if you if you are getting someone's corner, they're naturally like the more you give, man, it comes, it really comes back. It really does. It comes back to you. For the people you want to be surrounded by, you know? Yes, the people that are just shitheads, like that's not gonna come back. Choose choose your people. No, no, and it's fine, but it's just like there is something about that where it's like it's a two-way street for for people that like actually mean something to you. And like there's a reason why fame was like a long, I mean, we interviewed her a long time ago, it feels like at this point.

On the pool table. Yeah, exactly. Shout out the the fucking pool table, the podcast table. Still in the building. Yeah, yeah. Ben called it a podcast table. Yeah, as if people wouldn't notice it was a pool table. Yeah, there was pockets in the side and balls laying around and cue sticks and shit. But no, I mean, you know, the fact that like it was a no-brainer for me to be like, oh my god, like I I love this new artist that you're working with, and like to get you on the podcast is is awesome. So I appreciate you coming on. Thank you guys for having me, man. Yeah, absolutely. So I think that what's been so fun to watch as once again, just like a a third party here to this to this whole rollout, is like all the different things that have been involved with releasing this project. Right. You guys have done an incredible job. I mean, something we talk about all the time is like the music is one thing, but the way that you're rolling it out to your audience and and to the public is just almost more important. It's almost more important. And I think you guys are like, yeah, and I think that you guys are really doing a great job. So I just want to kind of walk through some of the components. So, like and you came in here like posting an Instagram Reel.

She literally, she literally dropped another piece of content right before we started about a visualizer video, I think, that jobs, for example. So that's like that's all that's just one component, right? So you mentioned maybe like three to four months before the project. Like, how far in advance did you start actually planning to release this project? If we're being honest, yeah, like really honest. Yes, let's do that. I'm gonna say like a month. Oh it's a little bit shorter of a timeline than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. It looks very well planned. But still, that's a good, that's a good amount. Some people are three days, two days. Yeah, when we knew we wanted to do it, like it was like, all right, well, we gotta put our all, Like, there's no, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. We're not just gonna halfway do it or do it a little bit, like we're gonna do it. Yeah, and and so what is the what is the planning phase look like? So obviously, you know, you've got your your partner in crime, fame off camera here. And so, like, what are y'all doing when you decide that you want to, you know, drop a project, right? What what are those preparation sessions, those planning sessions, what you know, what do those look like?

Well, the music, like is is on me. Like my manager, she's like, yo, got get in a studio for me, do whatever it is. You gotta do like she doesn't really have any worries with me being in the studio, but as far as like content and creating content, like the resources that we've been blessed to have, like we've been planning things out. I'm flying to Atlanta to shoot content, you know, by people that my management went and found for me and stuff like that. So that's kind of how it goes. Like my manager, she gets deep dives into things into certain people. We say, okay, they'll be good for the brand, they'll be good for the business. All right, let's see how we can figure out a way to help amplify what we got going on. The one more time podcast will be good for the rollout. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is gonna send you straight to the Grammys. Um, but I no, but I I I think like, you know, even looking at release week, I think the the mantra was like we we sip, we're I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it in justice.

What was it? Oh, on Wednesday, we sing. shut up, Henry. Jesus. On Wednesday, we sing, yeah, Thursday, we paint. Yeah, Friday we stream, yeah, and Saturday we drink. Yeah. So that was so we had uh the opportunity to perform at SOBs. Ah, looked so fucking legendary. It was crazy. I'm still not over. I would have never been over it. Smith's no, not Smith's Old Bar. That's here in Atlanta. SOBs here. This is New York's SOB, bro. The fucking legendary SOB. I mean, shout out to Smith's Old Bar here in Atlanta. Smith's old bar is legendary to me. But like I'm from it, I'm born and raised. But like, no, dude. Like, it's not the same. Okay, sorry. Sorry. I'm learning here too. That was beautiful. That was a beautiful... yeah, yeah. We'll talk about that as soon as you get, you know, kind of wrap up this rollout for the week. Thursday, I did my own like paint and sip. Yes. You know, play off the artist part of me. Yeah. And I invited people to come. It was a beautiful turnout for that too. Nice. Beautiful turnout. People came out, they painted. Wine. They listened to the project first. They got a chance to listen to the project.

And um we had, you know, we shared some champagne together. We just had some, we had a good time. It turned into a little party. Yeah. Sure. On Friday, the project came out. Yeah. Stream. Yes. No, no other activities planned besides you streaming on your fucking phone. Yes. Yes. Every platform. You got an old phone in your drawer, pull it out and put it on repeat. Yes. And then Saturday we had like a hosting at a club in New Jersey at like a lounge in New Jersey. Yeah. And people pulled up for that too. We listened more to more songs from the project there and we just celebrated, you know. Yeah. With the glass. Yeah. Celebrating, but still streaming the project. Absolutely. Yeah. On repeat in my pocket. Right. Is it playing right now in your pocket? No, no, no. It's not playing right now. I've got it playing right here. Yeah, yeah. Um, no, I I just think that, you know, there's been so much to this rollout. I mean, you've done, you know, interviews, you've done um, you know, live performance videos, you've done music videos, you've done you know, visualizers, you've done live events, you've done all sorts of things. And I just think that even looking at her release week, everyone out there, like looking at even just the release week of that like you know, back to back to back like events and things that really just provide that like experience for us.

Like, we gotta remember this for some reason. And I mean, you're competing with the summers and the freaking sub big scissors. I mean, they're you know, you're competing with all these folks. So it's like if you can rally people around you because you're staying consistent and you're giving them unique things to to connect with you on, like that's what it's all about. Like, I just saw that schedule and I was like, yo, even the release week, which I know is just like scratching the surface of what y'all have done and and even what's coming up, you know, over the next few weeks. I was like, yo, every independent artist, like, yes, SOB is legendary. So maybe if you can't get SOBs, you can find some place to do a live show. Literally to perform the album. So, like, you know, finding that type of venue, doing the paint and sip that fits in with your brand. If you're a skateboarder, do some skating, you know, event, what you know, well, whatever the fuck it is that you do and that you like and that your fans can relate to, use that shit. Yeah, it's it's right in front of you.

Use it, and then host a party at a lounge. I mean, that's pretty much the last thing you can do that anyway. everyone can do that. Everyone. There's plenty of lounges looking for hosts. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, so no, I just I just think like taking a page out of out of your playbook is just so important for these independent artists out there because like you're you're doing this shit independent right now. Like, no label, no paid promo, none of this, you know, shit that a lot of organic support, Jim, support a team that believes, supporters that believe. Yes. Not paying paying Kai Sonat to like play it on stream and shit. Yeah. So, so so you know, the I do want to talk about the SOBs because you know, even though Henry thinks it was for Smith's Old Bar, it was for Smith's Old fucking bar, though. Yeah, I feel like I'm like throwing shade at Smith's old bar. Yeah. Chilling out. If we if we ever wanna do an event there, they're gonna be like, dude, we heard you talking shit and saying we weren't anything compared to the SOBs in New York. I'll make the call. Yeah, can you call them, please? Um, but no, I mean, for anyone that is in New York in our audience, they know SOBs. Anyone honestly, I don't know why you don't know SOBs, but we're gonna talk about that later.

Yeah, I'll show you later. Yeah, exactly. Right. Um, what what's like preparation for a show like that look like for you? Um, man, I'm not gonna lie, that was like my first one with a band and everything. So yeah, so that's different. I'm having band rehearsals, you know, things that, you know, little mishaps coming up. So, you know, there was things throwing us off a little bit, but you know, we stayed focused. Uh had a couple, I had like maybe three band practices prior. Yeah. Um rehearse people getting merch together that we did that. Oh god, that's a headache. Right. We going over the set list, the set list is changing, you know. We sure it was it was a lot of pressure, but I'm proud to say that I have people around me that we just we want it and we're focused. Like we're locked in. Yeah. So there's nothing that has came our way that will slow us down or stop us, you know? Yeah. We're gonna take it and use it as another brick for the foundation that we're building. So brick by motherfucking brick.

Amen, man. That is the mantra we're living by around here too. I know. I'm gonna get it tatted too, because I I literally have adopted that from fame for sure. So I feel like everybody has. Like people be commenting on my post now brick by brick. Yeah. I know it's cause they see. Exactly. That's pretty cool. I'm gonna I'm gonna just get a brick of cocaine on my cheek. Why? Why do we have to do this? So we have matching bricks. Not that brick, y'all. are not for me. We're talking about foundational bricks for long career. A brick of cocaine is a foundation. You start with a brick, you up it to a kilo. Or is that the same thing? I don't know. I don't sell cocaine. That was a joke. Sorry. If the podcast doesn't work out though, we know where Henry's going. We got that clean shit. Call me. Yeah. Um, so do you get nervous before you go on stage? Oh, every time. Yeah. Like I'm really trying my best to work on it, but it's just like, you know what? I just deal with it. Yeah. A few bathroom runs. If you get nervous, you know what I'm talking about.

Yeah. For sure. Hell of bathroom runs. Yeah. But like I, you know, once I get on stage and once I get the first word out, it's just like you kind of black out. You black out in the moment. Like you barely even remember doing it. Like, no. Remember all of it? I do. Does it slow down? Is it the opposite? What does it feel like? It just like it's like an adrenaline that just pumps. Yeah. And it's like when I know my last song is coming up, I start to feel like a little sad. because, like, man, I want to keep doing it. I want to keep going. I hope They say encore at the end, so I can keep going. That's like a junkie on his last fucking, you know what I mean? No, for real. I love it so much, man. It's like you on Instagram Live. I want to stay on longer, but my son woke up. But I'm tired and I have to wake up early because I have a child. No, I mean, uh, you know, just for me, we've talked about this before, but like, is there anything better than the crowd singing your lyrics? No. There can't be. No, especially when like I go to cities. So, like, shout out to my boy KB Mike. He had brought me out on um his tour at first, and then he brought

me out when he went on the tink tour. And like I was in cities that I've never been in. Like Detroit. Yeah. I'm in Cleveland. I've never been there. And I'm go and I perform and like they're singing the song in the crowd. And it's just I could have cried. But I'm I'm waiting until I go to the Grammys to cry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I cried yesterday on the podcast, but I mean, yeah. It happens, man. It was so, it's just so beautiful. And it just like, wow, like, yeah. It just, it just, it's like more confirmation for me. Yeah. That like Does it kind of make it real. It makes it so real. Yeah, it's just like you realize what you're doing. Because you just see a number on Spotify, you know, it doesn't really mean as much as seeing the people like reacting. No, I mean, for me, I just I've seen you before. I know you're a star, I'm a fan, whatever, right? But to see the SOB's footage, I'm talking lights up on the phones. Everyone's singing.

Everyone. This isn't like the select few that might have known you at the Tink and KB. I don't talking people flew in from LA, Chicago. They're driving hours away. For you. For you. It's so crazy. I'm so grateful. Yeah, like I'm getting, yeah, that's fucking crazy. So I just like got goosebumps. I can see them. No, I swear. That's that's literally amazing. Um, so I mean, should we call you like the cover queen at this point with how many playlists? How many playlist covers you're on? I mean, like cover girl. I mean, cover girl, yeah, cover queen. I don't know. I think cover girl is taken. Yeah, already. So, like how does how does that happen? Like, you know, realistically, just the genuine support from the the platforms. Like, do they ask you for a certain picture? Do they just like choose one? How does that work? For Spotify, it just popped up. Like, I didn't even realize it. No. They just did it. Yeah. Like my manager sent me like a screenshot of something on the Spotify, and I'm looking, I'm like, okay, maybe it's like that because that's the picture on my Spotify. So I went to the regular Spotify app and typed in the playlist and saw my face.

Wow. I started going crazy. And then for another playlist, they um they reached out. They reached out to management. Like, you know, we want to use her for the RB playlist. Send over some press photos, and it's just like, man. Crazy. Oh my God. Crazy. The one that's the surprise one where you're just on there, that's fucking crazy. Like, at least you're prepared for the other one. Like nothing. Like, if I would have never been paying attention, I would not know. You might not have known. Like, why is this song streaming so well? She goes and checks. Like, probably because my face is on the fucking cover. It's crazy. You know, it's like cover photo the artist. Yeah. How many play? How many, uh, how many editorials are we on right now? 20 or more. Oh, shit. Oh. So damn. Oh shit. Yeah, shit. God, proud dad moment over here. So that pops. Oh, my God. I don't know. I guess I'm more like an uncle because I'm like, fam. I'll give you cousins. I don't know, cousin.

Cousin Ben? Yeah, because Uncle Ben's rice. Uncle Ben is nice. So, like. That's Spider-Man. It is. Uncle Ben, right? Yeah. that's Spider-Man's Uncle. I thought it was the guy. He's the one that said, With great power comes great responsibility. Oh, I thought it was the guy with the rice. Uncle Ben's rice. Who has the rice? Like, you know, it was Aunt Jemima and then it was Uncle Ben. I don't know. And Uncle Ben's right. Okay. Well, y'all don't know what the fuck I'm talking about at this point. All right. So that's fun. Um so you know, we talked about the release week, but like on release day, what's what's your what's your mental state like? Who's streaming? I'm like, yo, are y'all streaming? You're like checking the spider stats and shit? Not yet. I'm trying to like, I'm trying to like be patient. I'm itching too, though. Like, oh, I can't wait to see. But yeah, uh, release day is just like, all right, what do we let's see? What are we gonna put out today on every platform to get them to keep streaming? That's really what it was like for me. And just like uh like a anticipation thing, being that the week had already been going so great with the support and the love and the feedback from the people listening to the you know the project while it was unreleased and the show turned out. So the release day, I'm just like, okay, let's see.

Yeah, yeah. Is it like a weight off you a little bit? Like, do you feel like you can breathe a little bit or not? Not even like now the work starts. I felt like, yeah, like let's see. Like, I feel like this, you know, it's gonna be like it's this is the moment that you know we've been working toward and for. It's like, all right, we gotta take this up. So release day, I'm just like, all right, what do we do next? Right. That's uh it's really just another day. Yeah. Right. And and so obviously, you know, when you're on what Fresh Finds fresh finds cover, you know, other playlist covers, and or just on the playlist in general. I mean, is it safe to assume that like maybe people started calling, labels saw that maybe hadn't seen before? I mean, like, you know Or not even, maybe how did it actually impact the business? It's been more people coming back because we had a lot of a lot of you know calls and everything when sober went viral the first time. Okay, but it's like they weren't believers for real at the time.

You know it was just all about sober. It's like, okay, cool, you did one song. Yeah, but now that they see what's going on, it's like, yeah, they're calling back. Damn. Hey, we're just following up. Um, we'd like to. Hey, right. Literally. Sorry, this sorry, this was in our this was in our junk uh folder. I don't know how we missed this email. Yeah, yeah. yeah. yeah. Damn. Okay, so so how long, how long before archives dropped had the sober video gone viral? And so for those that aren't familiar, you did a major stage performance of Sober, which is on the Archives project. Yes, sir. It went absolutely fucking bananas on the internet. By the way, I don't know what that means. What does that mean? Because it looks like there's an artist named Major Stage. No, it's a platform, dude. Yeah, it's like a platform. Yeah, well, there's an artist page for it on Spotify. I know because that's just what we should be doing, probably. Don't judge me. I'm just trying to learn. I'm just saying. Do your fucking research, bro. I'm I'm on the podcast learning right now. Damn. So when the artists come on their platform, they'll drop the music that's recorded from the platform, like on a Cool. Yeah, it's just a genius business model of like let's monetize this fucking thing that we just did.

Yeah. So we have to do that. I thought it was weird that they were like a collab artist on the song. I know it's smart. I guess. I mean, they're making money off of it. No, it's yeah. Probably, right? Like, I don't know the I don't want to be in your pockets, but like I'm assuming there's some sort of something going on. They don't just let that happen. It's mutually beneficial. Yeah, but okay, so so how long before the project dropped, did that go viral? It started going viral in January, and obviously it just stayed afloat. Just you you still probably get people like it, yeah. Yeah, they love that one. That's what's nuts about a viral video. I'm not gonna lie. So we've had you know, we you know, we've been blessed to have several videos recently that have you know done six, seven figures or whatever. It's great, and it yeah, it's amazing. And it's it's wild how long they last. They last. I'm like, how did they fight? How who how is this popping up still? It'll stop moving and then like pop back up?

It'll catch some new wave. Have you noticed that too? Absolutely, yeah, a few times. It's like the the the platform pushes it out again randomly where you're like, well, what did y'all why did y'all decide to do that? Or how did that happen? Yeah. Yeah. But we did talk about the whole viral thing. I don't know, Henry, if you want to like bring up what we what we were talking about off camera and just like get her perspective. Yeah, I think it's interesting. The long and short of it is you know, a lot of people in recent times that go super uber viral, um, tend to crash and burn. It tends to be a negative thing. And we're taught to like make content that reaches the widest audience, and you you want to go viral so the most people see your shit, but it's like, is that hurting people, or is it just exposing people that maybe aren't quality, or is there good viral and bad viral? It's like you know, do you you want to go viral, right? I mean, yeah, that's that's like always the goal to reach you know the biggest artist audience you can, but like with my moment, my viral moment, like I said, thankfully, like I have the team that I have because we didn't take that moment and just start acting crazy. No, we took it, we let it be what it was, and we started to make a plan.

Like we started to plan for the future. We didn't just jump on, we didn't just drop a project right away because okay, they're streaming this, they're gonna stream that. It's like we took our time, we stepped back, we we appreciated all the love, and we kept you know the content going, and we just yeah, we just came up with a strategy. Yeah, because like you said, you can crash and burn. Yeah, we're taking that moment and we're trying to maximize off of it, and I feel like it's it's doing great. Like a lot of people, they come and say, Oh, found you from your sober video, but the song on your project resonates so much. I'm so happy I found you. That and that's what that's what we want. Conversions like that. Yeah, do you feel that's wild? I would have just jumped. I'm sorry, I would have just been like, drop the fucking project. We got 90 fucking songs. Let's go. Do you feel pressure? Like, uh shit? I need like I need to go viral again. Like, is there this any type of pressure like that? Or are you good still just with the brick by brick? Nah, I don't feel any pressure to go viral again. That's probably. healthy. Because Ultimately, I want I I want them to love me. Yes. Not because I'm going viral, but because they love my work, they love me as a person, my personality, and I want them to come out to shows. That's the that's the biggest thing that these super viral people they don't translate into selling tickets.

They don't sell merch. They just have uh stupid plays on one song, and it doesn't ever like result in anything substantial. For me though, I'm trying to understand. Like, I would assume all of the major stage live performances, they do tons, right? Like, there's a lot of artists that come on here, and I don't on that platform, and I don't think that all of them do the numbers that you do. So, like, can you look at the sober video that you did with them and point to like why why do you think that that you know? I I I feel like I don't know, man. Like a lot of people, they just like the feedback I got is more about the song helping them heal and them resonating and just feeling like I made the song for them. I feel like that's why it went viral. Yes, like a lot then it was a lot of comments like, oh, you can sing, I love your voice, I love your voice, but I feel like it's just a balance of both, like, and then God, man, like God's timing. Like, I've dropped so many songs before. Shout out God. And the first time I'm like shout out God for sure.

For sure. Yeah, The first time I'm like super vulnerable, like, don't even care how the person will feel when they hear this, the person that like made me make the song. Like the moment I like stepped out of my comfort zone and really tapped into like the things I can do that happened. Do you mind explaining um what the song is about? Just for those that aren't familiar, it's about a female that I dealt with in my life for some time who uh like literally played in my face. Like, I thought we had something great. You know, that's that's what it looked like. You know, we all in love, meet the family. She met my family, we having fun. And then one day she hit me with the yeah, I'm gonna give my ex another chance. I'm like, whoa. And then even after that, like, so the the sober song comes at at the after effect. So after all of that happened, and after I I you know, I tried to forgive her for it. She came back thinking that she still had the same lead way that she had before with me, the same access that she had before with me. And that's when the song came from.

Like, I'll be damned if I just let you try to walk all over me. I'll be damned. Like, and that's not happening again. Damn. So, yeah, still got love for though. Hope you hope you're doing well. I hope you're doing well. But it but it's over. But like, don't come crawling back to the artist now that she's on playlist covers. I mean, I'm just saying, everyone wants a playlist mama, you know what I'm saying? Playlist mama, yeah. I just I just made that term up. I don't know how I feel about that term I just made, but we did it nonetheless. It's sitting okay with me so far. So I I we'll see how it ages at the end of the episode. Um, so I I think you know, you've talked a lot about like the vulnerability, and I think that was what that's what I related to most about sober and about honestly a lot of the songs on the project was that vulnerability. And you talked about this in I think a piece of content recently or a tweet, I don't I don't remember where I found it, but like you did mention that like the vulnerability on these records is different, and it's not the same that you've done before. But for me, I I kind of dug back into your discography, and I mean, I feel like you've been doing that a little bit.

I mean, you you know, let's talk a little bit about like the song Dear Brother, because I I found out about that song doing my research. Facts, yeah. Right, you know, rest in peace, long live your brother. What was your brother's name? Jaleel. Jaleel. Yeah, rest in peace, Jaleel. Because like when I found that this wasn't your first time really being vulnerable on a record. Right. I mean, you made a song that was paying homage to you know, losing your your sibling. And I mean, even with that song, I feel like I could have dug a little deeper. But at the time I made that song, it was still kind of fresh, me losing him. So it was kind of hard to really tap in. But I I went back and I got another song for him too. Okay. We'll probably be on the next one, hopefully. Okay, cool. Yeah, okay. So so for you, even though from the outside looking in, it was a vulnerable song because it was about the subject it was about. Right. You even look at it still of like, yeah, I didn't even scratch the surface. No, yeah. Okay. Yeah, like, damn. Like, yeah, so it was like I was never like scared to talk about anything I went through, but it was just like getting to the nitty gritty parts, like the parts that'll make you choke up or tear. Yeah, it's like talking about the basics.

Yeah, my brother died. You know, but like not all, like, we was this, that's my you know, so you know it was a bit more superficial of a like version of what was actually going on in your head, like you didn't pick the scab of like yeah, might not have even fully processed everything yet. No, I don't think so. I no. How quickly did you make this song from when he had passed? Um I made that song that the following year. I had I made a song, I got like three songs for him. So the year he passed, I made one, but it's not like out nowhere. I still have it in my files somewhere. I'm actually gonna go play it and listen to the. So I made that one, then I made one a year later, and then I made one this year. Beginning of this year, I made one, yeah. Yeah, no, because I mean, just talking about like, you know, crying in the studio. I just can't imagine what like I I do, I just hear these like real life stories of stuff like that, where artists are like pouring out real life, just anyone that knows what it's like to lose a sibling. I mean, you know, I lost my aunt and it was to suicide, and it like fucked me up to the point of like it really changed my life.

So I can't even imagine like losing my sister or losing a parent or you know, losing a child, whatever, all these traumatic experiences. So, like for art, I just I want to give artists their flowers when like they're putting out that art that has to do with yeah, because it's like it's not easy at all. No, I can't imagine it is and society doesn't talk about a lot of this stuff to begin with. And so thank God for musicians and artists that put it out in music for us to consume because I feel like we're not having that dialogue enough with just our regular friends, you know what I mean? Um, so like I just appreciate you being vulnerable enough to like put out that type of song. And I think that if you do have more in the in the vault, like it's coming soon, man. Gotta keep his name alive no matter how much. Yeah, and I think it's interesting to see like the right when it happened, the year later, then a little further, kind of like perspectives. Oh, yeah. It's kind of interesting too to see like how your perspective is moving. Yeah, you know, how it changes over time.

Yeah, because definitely over time you're gonna, you know, have a different perspective on on the situation, right? It's like there's stages of grief. I'm at it, exactly. I'm at a way, I mean, because I mean, you know, Henry even lost his mom. So it's like sorry for that, man. Yeah, it's you totally understand what it's like to lose someone that's so close to you. You know what I mean? And it's like you're at a point where you're processing it probably way differently on a day-to-day basis, and you're able to look at it from a different lens or through a different lens, you know what I mean? So yeah, that's that's I we appreciate that as listeners because seriously, thank you guys, man. Because we're going through it. Everyone's going through, you know, everyone's going through it. Exactly. You might hear that song and obviously relate to you know, having lost your mom. I'm I'm looking at it having lost my aunt. Other people who haven't lost someone are looking at like, oh god, they lost their job, like whatever. Or just or just how would I feel if I lose that? How will I feel when I do because that's inevitable? We're gonna lose someone, sure, exactly. And then it's just like even if they didn't lose someone, but let's say they have a sibling and the relationship isn't the best. Like my music is like, yo, heal.

Go talk to your loved one. Yes, go make it right with the person that you know you want to be with for the rest of your life. Yes, go get right with yourself. Like it's just yeah, man. That's why I'm in. I feel like that's my purpose. Like, that's my purpose from God. Like, that's huge. And I hope you continue to deliver on that purpose for sure. So you know, we talk about the whole brick by brick thing, and I think that that is basically a testament to like this is real life artist development happening happening right before our fucking eyes. No pun intended artist development, you know. Thank you for that. Um makes it a lot uh, you know, nice, funnier around here. So I I feel like you're doing it the way that it has to be done in today's music industry, right? So a lot of people think that it's the responsibility of the big record label to develop artists, they don't do that shit anymore. Yeah, they don't, yeah. No, no, it's your fucking job, along with whoever it is that you can surround yourself with, your team, man. Your team Talk about your team.

Yeah. Gotta make sure you have a strong team. Like, yeah, a strong team. A team that believes in you and believes in the vision for everyone. Like, my like, for me, it's not just about me. It's about everybody. Fame. Andy, Zoo, Kev, my videographers, my supporters. It's about all of us. Like, I don't just do it for me. You know, like you really gotta be selfless when when when when building your team, like, yeah. Independent artist is a funny word because the biggest independent artists have huge teams. Yeah. Yeah. And it also like independent is such a fucking lie in the fact that it sounds like you're actually doing it alone when you're just not doing it with a quote unquote label. It's like you're doing it still with support. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, no. Yeah, I have my I have my support. Like outside of my team, I have like my family, like my moms and my siblings. Like, they come to everything, they know every song, they sing every lyric.

Like, that's that's very that's needed, you know? Yeah, and then with my team, it's just like, yeah, they they I just love our team. I feel like we're crazy, like, but we do everything ourselves, though. You know, like we don't get any help, like we don't get any help, any funding, like everything we do it. Yeah, you know, and it can be done. It can be done. But it does take you you have to find the people that are willing to support you in the beginning stages because like there's plenty of people that only will work for uh a certain amount of paycheck, whatever it is the case may be, but there's plenty of people out there who are super talented people that will help you in your early stages of your career. For sure, and I think that like you've found a really great support system. So and I'm I'm blessed, man, because they believed what nobody else did, and that's the biggest thing for me. Like they didn't wait for sober, those are the ones you keep around. They helped me get to sober. You know what I'm saying? Because a lot of people will approach you now. Those are the ones you keep for sure.

Absolutely. I'm never getting rid of my dogs. Yeah. Big intro, man. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the intro, right? So let's let's talk about the the process of like you. I hate like saying it this way, but kind of it is like getting discovered by the people that you're you know now working with, if you will. So I had seen something on Instagram, like uh submit, submit your song, you know, to be invited like to the studio or whatever. But I'm thinking that when I submit my song, I'll get free studio time. Because at the time I couldn't really afford studio time, you know. So I submit my song Secrets, and I was already following fame on Instagram. I don't even remember how I found her. See, somebody tagged her. I don't, I don't can't remember. I would have to like go to my Instagram. She looked important. Yeah, something. I don't know. Oh, I knew she was important. I don't even remember how I followed her either. I think she was in a picture with Diddy's sons at the time. There you go. I think that's how, yeah, it has to be like on the beach or something. I would have to go look. That sounds like fame.

I think so. So with some fruity drink in hand, you know what I'm saying? And some money, maybe like a stack of a hundred. You know what I'm saying? money spread. Nah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, she definitely had some money. So I submitted my song, and I got an invite to the studio or whatever. And when I got to the studio, it was, like 50 other people in there. I'm so confused. Oh, man. I'm so lost. I don't know what's going on. I'm like, fuck it, I'm here. I'm here for the session. Literally, I'm not about to do this. They're like this isn't that's not it. Right. So I'm standing in there, and then um, I'm just standing around, and fame came out of the studio room, and she was like, Oh, I've been waiting on you and pointing at me. Oh shit. I'm starting to start sweating. Oh shit. What the fuck? What's going on? So um, like while I'm in there, I'm just like talking with everybody and I learned like, I ain't no shit manager and everything like that. manager and everything like that. I'm like, cool. That's fire. Like, all right, cool. For me. So then I did like a little interview in a different room. They just asked me you know, some simple questions, where you from, whatever. So then I went into the main room.

It was like fame and like maybe six other people, some videographers, uh, her team at the time or whatever. So I'm playing music for them. They loved it. I left, and the next day they had me back at that same studio. We did my song Closure. The first song we did together. We did that in one session. She had you know, producers pull up. You know, we in there, we locked in. They stayed with me the whole time. And from there, we just we just we just stay, you know, together, like we stayed together. Did you ever think that like that was going to happen that way? Like no, yeah. At the time, like I'm not, I'm not thinking anything. Like, I'm not expecting anything. I'm not looking for a manager, like I'm just doing anything. It's such a bizarre. I'm just singing and putting it out. Yeah, because it's such a bizarre story, right? Nobody likes the same story. It's so funny. It's literally she thought that she was just getting a free block of hours for a studio session. Like, I really did, and then now you can't get rid of her as your manager, you know what I'm saying?

You're stuck with her. Yeah, God bless her, man. Yeah, right. Literally. So, you know, throughout this artist development process, because obviously that's kind of how you, you know, got discovered, you know, and started working with fame and and the team, but like, what would you say are maybe the the few things that you feel most proud of when it comes to your own development, right? Like what's what's been developed? I feel like my consistency has been developed. Major like I used to think I could just post a song and that's it, and it was just gonna go crazy. Jokes. You guys You guys fucking wish. Right. I learned. You guys fucking wish. No one cares about your one post out now. Yeah. No one fucking cares. Just dropped. Oh fuck you, scroll. Damn, bro. Not literally. That's how people feel, not me necessarily. Oh, okay. It sounded a little bit like you gotta be more clever than that. You do for sure. So the consistency, what else? My consistency, my um because you're consistent as I would like definitely tip my hat to the consistency. Thank you, man. That's something Werbo's proud of too.

So content creators, if you're a podcaster out there, that shit's important too, because it's not just to do with the music, like anything. You gotta be on their fucking ass. Like, yeah, because we have short attention spans. All right. I feel like what also developed was just my artistry in general, like the way I make my music, the way I sing my music, and just me like living in that artist mode all the time. Like I even tell people, yo, just call me artists. Like, don't even call me Erica, because Erica's my real name. Just call me artists. It's like I'm feeling more confident in myself as an artist now. I feel like that that was definitely developed, and I love where I am right now. And I I mean it could get better, of course. Like, it's always a way to be better. So yeah, consistency and just my artistry in general. Who did you the second one? Because the consistency is almost like objective of just like how consistent are you being, right? So that that that I get. But like where do you think that confidence came from, right? Like how did you develop that?

Did you like study other artists? Did people like pump you up and motivate you? Or like you know, how how did you shift that mindset, right? Like it was a mix of the support I was getting, plus the way it just felt being in the studio. Like it started to feel like yo, I belong here. So yeah. Start to lose some of that imposter syndrome, man. Yeah, like no more, like none of that. We don't have time for that. Yeah. Go in there and handle business. Yeah. Yeah. God, the imposter syndrome's so real. I literally was talking about this with our our uh you know community is that man, I still feel that shit. Yeah, we're a hundred and shit, 150 episodes almost in, and like, you know, five figure followers everywhere, and you know, million views under our belt, million accounts engaged in a month, whatever the fuck, all the vanity metrics, but it's like I still feel like a fraud of a podcast or something. No idea what we're doing. Yeah. Yeah, so

It's real. No, but it's real. Uh so I I you know, even someone like you who like started to maybe, you know, see some success, like streams were going up, followers are going up, like you were working with people you probably had never thought you'd be able to work with, like a Troy Taylor, for example, like and still to be feeling that I totally get it. So the the second you can overcome that, that's gotta feel like freeing, you know? Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's still like I said, it's still like a work in progress, you know. Of course, because like everything didn't happen so fast, but it happened so fast, like, you know, with just me traveling and new supporters around. So it was like I had a time maybe like a maybe like two months ago to a month ago where like it wasn't really much going on. So I had that time to just sit and you know, process everything that happened and just take that time. Like, and it's so crazy how it happened, Time is so perfect because it happened right before the project. So I feel like that time was needed for me to be ready for what was to come. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, absolutely.

I'm curious about you when you say your songwriting and just the way you make music has developed. What's different about the average studio session now versus maybe like three years ago? Like what structurally, like are you? doing different? I would say, like, for one, the time. I'll be in the studio all day. Especially like if nobody's trying to kick me out. Yeah. I'll be here from sun up to sundown. Yeah. Um, and just like I feel like if you listen to a song from before, like just lyrically, like, I just you I feel like you can just hear the the confidence, you can just hear the difference. Like I talk about situations better now than I did before. So it's almost an intangible, it's like inside of you almost. Yeah, like like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I feel like you know, the time, just the time passing, like all of that just played a big part into everything. You know, like, yeah. Yeah, and it's definitely easier said than done, but like even me um feeling more comfortable here, like asking questions and keeping conversations going and like being on camera, and like you know, to your point, being the actual artist that you're you know, signing up to be, you know what I mean? Like that, like when you can flick that switch on, that's when it starts to get fun.

You know, what I mean? yeah, I'm having mad fun. Yeah, that's when it starts to get fun. of, like, oh shit, I'm really out here doing this. I'm having mad fun. Yeah, no, we're loving it. Well, we have entered a final segment of the podcast artist, okay. Henry Ben, keep him entertained. I I didn't bring the thing. This is where you get to shine and you totally fucked up. Shout out to Henry. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, so what are you most excited about though coming up? I'm most excited about what's to come. Like, like I did, you know, we had a strong first week, and I'm just looking forward to what each week is gonna be like. Like, I'm just although I'm looking forward to like okay, what the next six months will look like, I'm also like excited, okay, what is tomorrow gonna look like? It's like lately every day we've been waking up to something new. Yes. Something something more motivating, something more like, all right, that happened, bet, let's go do that again, but twice the time. It's literally like a a book or like a or like a TV show I'm watching right now. That's what it feels.

I'm like on today's episode. On today's episode, the artist is on two playlist covers. On today's episode, the artist is I feel like season two just started. Yeah, right. You know what I mean? That's the kind of the where we're at. Summer Walkers co-signed the artist. Like that's how I feel. Like it's like today's episode or something, you know? So yeah, I totally get it for sure. So are you good now? Yeah, we're good. We're here. Like, you got, I mean, he only has a few, I mean, he's got a lot of jobs. I did it, and I like we won't talk about it. Just I get a pass for this. Yeah, okay. Don't just don't let it happen again, you know what I mean? Artists, this is the rapid fire rampage. Let's go. Everyone's favorite segment. It's broken down into three parts. I'll explain them as we go. We're just gonna start with some short answer questions. Are you buckled up? Yes. Okay, here we go. See, but it's on. That's right. You can ask anyone alive or dead. One question. Who is it? And what do you ask? I'm gonna ask. I'm gonna ask Bill Gates for like 10 million dollars.

Hey, Bill. Like, Bill. Hey, Bill, let me hold something. We're bringing RB back. No, let me get some money. Artists, three tips for other artists trying to make better music and get noticed. What would you tell like someone just starting? Be yourself, be consistent. And if you're religious, I would say put your trust in God. Right. Even if you're not, just like try it. You know, it might work. Just have faith in something. Yeah. Yeah, have faith. This segment is called Ideal Audio. We're gonna craft the perfect song. You can pick two producers and three artists for to make the perfect song. You can be one of the artists. I would hope she would want to be. Give us two producers and three artists, one on the hook, one on the first verse, one on the second verse, and create the perfect song. All right, so for producers, I'm going hitmaker.

Yes. Perfect. And Troy Taylor. Oh. For artists, I'm going. Who would I want to open up this song? Brent Faiyaz opens us up, opens up the song. Oh, come on. Heat. I go in the middle of the song. Okay. And Summer Walker closes us out. Jesus. Sounds like a Grammy to me. Yes. It sounds like we should record. It's like it's gonna happen. We might be manifesting now. We might manifest that. Just saying. Yeah. Make it happen. I know Brent Faiyaz is manager. All right. Well, yeah, let's get to it. I'll actually have a connection of summer too. I don't know. I know his friends. Okay. You know what I mean? Let's move on. We can get to him. We could get to Brent Faiyaz. All right. Let's get to him. Getting to Brent. He's two degrees. If you could steal anyone's voice, who would he be? Jasmine Sullivan. Damn. She's she's thought about that. Yeah. Clearly.

I was quick. Like Jazmine, watch out. You want to know what I saw her perform live not too long ago in Oh my goodness. Like I loved her already. Where'd you see her? At the Prudential Center. She was on tour. She had took um, it was supposed to be her, Queen Naija, and Jhené Aiko, but Jhené Aiko couldn't make it, so it was her, Ari Lennox and Queen Naija. Tone stiff was there as well. Yeah. Yeah, shut up. That's how you pronounce Jhené Aiko? I haven't... listen. Everyone says it different. I was like, Jane, Eko? I don't fucking know know how you pronounce that. That's wrong. When I meet her, I'll find out, let you guys know. Okay, but Jinnah Janae. For this, uh for this next one, we're gonna need your phone. If you could pull that out for us. Okay. And um, we're gonna open up the gram. Okay. And you are going to read us your last DM. Oh. My last DM is this project. That's crazy.

This project surpassed the vibe check. So proud of you, gang. Oh is that a screenshot of them listening to it right there? Yeah, it's a screenshot I'm listening to. Fire. They tagged me on their story, but damn. Listen, it doesn't get much better than that. Yeah. So it's some like juicy gossip. Yeah, I mean, she didn't reply to my last DM, but it's okay. Yeah, I mean listen, let me tell you. After today, hopefully, maybe. No. Let me tell you something, man. It gets crazy. It gets crazy. Believe it. Okay. Too crazy for Ben. I don't know. I mean, whatever. Jesus. Thought I was part of that. But then I was like, I thought I was part of the family at this point. You're family, man. We hadn't done the interview yet, to be fair. The last part is the Cosign Corner presented by Guayakí Yerba Mate. Artists, this is your chance to just shout out a couple of people that are upcoming that you're really excited about. Just shout out some up-and-comers that us and our audience should check out. Shout out my boy Fergie Baby out of Harlem. Suburban's going crazy. Big intro. Oh, my Well, I wouldn't say uh Amari Noel.

I wouldn't say she's like upcoming. She's, you know, she's up here already. Shout out to her. Um, another one, another one. All right, Khaled. Well, she's she's been putting God did in all of her posts. Cappuccino. nothing pops up right away to my to my to my head. I will have to look. Because I've been so like focused on my music, I'm not gonna lie, I haven't really been focused so much. Yeah, is there like any like a producer, videographer, any other creative designer, anything else? That's kids. I'm gonna shout out shout out my boy Loaded Up Carl. Yeah. Out of Miami, shout out my boy Bobsled. out in Atlanta. Yeah, I feel like loaded up Carl was on like a bunch of the records, right? Yeah, we did three and all three made the project. Yeah, fire. That's why I was like, I definitely recognize the tag like that. Yeah, he's he's he's he's he's good though, like he's great, he got music like Kodak Black, Lil Durk. That's an impossible rate as a producer, by the way, to make three songs and they all make the project. That's like it's 50%, right? Is it 50 is still too high?

bro. Is it Six songs, how many songs is it? 10. Oh, 10. Sorry, 10 songs. 30 percent, yeah, yeah. It's pretty good. Okay, that was part one. Very good. Part one. She's doing great. Very good. Yeah, I'm very impressed. Let's see how let's see how it evolves into the this or that portion. I'm gonna give you two choices. All you gotta do is pick one. Do you think she's Hall of Fame, like eligible so far? For sure. Depends on the last two parts. Okay, cool. Starting with harmonies or ad libs, harmonies, hooks or verses hooks, but I'm a verse person, so man. TikTok, TikTok or YouTube? TikTok. Early morning meeting or late night session. Late night session for sure. Margarita or backwoods, margarita me, please. Damn, we should have had tequila on deck, right? That was your job. That was a she was happy about that one. I love margaritas. She's getting one after this interview, right? Amen. Clear the sample or drop it anyway. Cleared a sample.

Oh my gosh. We don't need no problems. No problems. She's like the only one that's answered that type of question. But not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie. If the sample is a bit big, I'm dropping it. So a little bit of both. There's a dollar amount that she's not asking over. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Musk or Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg. And finally, change your name for a favorable, a favorable record deal with Universal or remain independent. Remain independent. Fuck that. I'm the fucking artist. Wow. God Damn. Wow. Y'all can't change me, UMG. Wow. Fuck y'all. I love that. No, not me. Well. Nah, yeah, nah. Yeah. Not fuck UMG. I didn't mean it like that. No, he meant it. He meant that shit. Yo, stand 10 toes down, bro. I didn't answer the question. Nothing's changing. Yeah. For sure. I love that. Very fast part two, as well. Damn, bro. It's all coming down to this final. part. This is the word association.

Artist, I'm gonna say one word, and all you gotta do is say the first word off the top of your head right back at me. Okay. Here we go. Starting with RB. The artist. Bro, that's the first time you haven't done hip. hop, bro. I know, I changed it. Just because she's an RB artist doesn't mean you can't. have said hip hop, bro? Can I do my rampage? She's literally always said, and like always, hip hop. That's always really first word, and he just changed it. You're literally fucking up her hall of fame run right now. So well, you just fucked it up by changing the first word of the third part. So moving on. Yeah, well. Hurricane. Katrina. Ranch. Dressing. Cryptocurrency. I don't know. Me neither. Podcast. One more time. See? She did her homework, bro. LeBron. James. Lobster. Tail. Gray. Burgundy. Fax machine. Copies.

I don't know. Barbie. Movie. Lil. Wayne. Art. Let's go. Someone got the fucking last word. You've been on like a O-fer streak, bro. That was. Dude, she got the archives at the end. She's a Hall of Famer. Speed impeccable. She's a fucking Hall of Famer. All three parts. Bro, she's a star. That was amazing. She's a star. All right, Kaz. Wow. Yo, appreciate you coming on. Nah, thank you. You are a family. Even though you didn't respond to my DMs. It's fine. Um, as always, please salty. Please like, comment, and subscribe. It helps us out a lot. Subscribe. And share this interview with a friend if you fuck with it. And hey, click that fucking. Oh, I just muted my mic. Yo, hey. Just stay muted. And hey, click that fucking bell too so you get notified when we upload new videos. Absolutely. And until next week. Fucking bell. Until next week, Henry, what are we doing? We're getting out of here. We're Getting the fuck out of here. All right, man. Love. Go stream archives. Peace. Thank you.