Courtney Stewart Interview: Managing Khalid & the Art of Relationship Building

What qualities does Khalid possess to actually become like a superstar? He's one of one. He doesn't follow the trends. He sets them. He's unapologetically himself. If you want to be great in music, you have to be the best version of yourself. He was like, I'm not just gonna be an RB artist. I'm not gonna just be a pop artist. I want to break all the barriers of genres when people look at me. I'm gonna be genre-less. People can't put them in a box. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the One More Time Podcast. One more time. One more time. one more time. We're gonna have fun. But I'm I'm grateful to be here. So thank you all for the invite. But I'm also excited all day. I was thinking about what is my intro gonna be from Henry. So let's do it. I'm gonna pitch it right to you.

What better time? The One More Time podcast has covered music. We've been covering TV and film lately. Oh God. But we're diving into sports. Ladies and gentlemen, welcoming in right now, an exclusive interview on the One More Time Podcast with Chad Ocho. Cinco. Oh shit. Oh my God. I gotta cut my eyebrows off now. Yeah, exactly. I would have taken it there for sure. Holy Shit. Did I deliver? You delivered. Okay. I'd totally go into sports if Chad Ochocinco was our real first interview in the in the sports arena. It's kind of like peaking early though. Where do you go from there? I don't know. Yeah, that's it's like getting the Drake interview first. But um anyway, shout out to us who just got a Drake repost. Congratulations. Casual. Yeah. Um, but no, right here on the One More Time podcast, we have manager of a diamond selling artist. We got a diamond Selling manager on the podcast. Come on, man. Let's go. Bro, you need to update your website. Anyways, we got Courtney Stewart on the podcast.

Court. Court. What up? Bro, like your website has to be updated. What does it say? I gotta get it. It's like locations, like two times platinum or something, and it's like, oh yeah, it's times five. It's diamond. Yeah. I got to get on the team. Seriously. I have to, man. But no, so you know, this guy's obviously super manager, um, just an entrepreneur, philanthropist. I feel like you do so much cool shit, man. Um, so really cool story. Really excited to have you on. We haven't had someone um who's managed. I mean, shit, I last I checked, Khalid is the 53rd most streamed artist on Spotify in the world right now. So it's like we're we're talking like next level global superstars. And without dropping a lot of music lately, yeah, absolutely still up there though. Yeah, when his last album dropped, he was number one most streamed artist in the world Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So but I did see new music on the way. It's happening. It's Khalid. 2024. Oh yeah, for sure. Full length album. Oh, yeah, it's happening. You heard it here. Bro, can't wait.

It's such a flex when your top five on Spotify all are over a billion streams. Right? They're all over a billion. Yeah. 10 digit clip. Insane. I was like, well, these are all like the greatest songs of all time. It's so many numbers. Yeah. It's just so cool. Um, all right. So I do want to just, you know, have some context for our audience as far as like just the the origin story uh of you and and Khalid, right? So let's talk about just like how you even discovered him at first, and we'll kind of you know go from there. Yeah, for sure. So it was uh myself and I was managing a couple producers at the time and a mutual friend. Um, and came across his music on SoundCloud. Soundcloud. Yeah, he's a military kid. So um at the time he was living in El Paso. And man, I heard that voice, and I was like, what is this? And then then also the lyrics. I like listened to like some early-on stuff and got on a plane, flew to El Paso. He was still in high school at the time.

Met his mom. So how old was he? He was 17. 17. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And met his mom, and we we just hit it off right away. And I was just so blown away by his vision. He knew exactly that he would be the person that he is today. He just needed help getting there. And I was like, I'm in. And his mom, she said, I just have one request. He just needs to graduate from high school first. I said, cool. That's super reasonable. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was I went to his high school graduation. That's amazing. It's you know, the rest is history. That's amazing. So, like, what stage was he at though in his career, right? Like, obviously, you said you found him on SoundCloud, but like, did he have any buzz at the time? Like is he just I mean, locally in El Paso from really from SoundCloud. Yeah. But it it wasn't like a huge demand at the time. Yeah. Yeah. And so where were you in your career? Because obviously, you know, we were talking off camera, like, obviously, Khalid wasn't, you didn't just like bust out, find Khalid, and then like your music career started. So, you know, where were you at in your career at the time?

So you were managing some producers as well. Yes. But like what had you done prior to even discovering him? Yeah, so um Bobby Valentino was the first artist that I managed. I managed him for for a decade. Wow. Wow. Um, yeah, so you know, shout out to Bobby V. He's the person that really gave me my opportunity to to like get in the game on the management side. If like if I just kind of go all the way back, um he was in a group called Mista. Okay. They had a song called Blackberry Molasses back in the day. Um, it was a teen group. Okay. And I I was like the unofficial fifth member of that group. I used to go everywhere with them. I mean, we were like 13 years old. I did see something about you, like maybe wanting to be an artist or something. Yeah, for sure. In your like management story, and I was like, oh God, I didn't know, I didn't know how that was actually playing out. Yeah, man, I was definitely in my artist bag. So I mean, it was it was cool for me going up. I'm an I'm an Atlanta kid. I grew up in Southwest Atlanta. And so for me, seeing things on MTV and like BET, like growing up, like that wasn't attainable because all I knew was like my neighborhood, you know. That's all I knew of Southwest Atlanta.

I didn't I didn't think New York was a real place. I didn't think LA was a real it was like foreign countries. It's Narnia. Yeah. But sometimes I go there and I don't know if you're real, you know, to be honest. Yeah. But but you know, that's just me like seeing things on TV. Yeah. But um I I I would say when like Kris Kross got discovered at Greenbriar Mall, which is five minutes away from my house, I was like, oh, I could do this because it was an attainable dream versus just like seeing things on on MTV or BET. That made it real. Yeah, it made it real for me. And with Bobby having the success of being in Mista, They had the song Blackberry Molasses, and the cool part about that is they were signed to organize noise. Oh so like literally, I'm 12, 13 years old. I'm in the dungeon. Yes. You got Outkast over there, Goody Mob over there. Yeah. KP who's been on the pod. Yes, right. Shout out. One of my favorite episodes.

Yeah, man. Like the young KP who probably didn't even know that he was A&Ring at the time, but he was putting incredible albums together. I think he actually said that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like I I was I was in those rooms. But at the time I was so young, I didn't even realize how great it was. Give us one story from the dungeon, bro. Come on. Like just one that's like cemented in your brain of like, just give us something, man. It's honestly the shock value of just like when when Player's Ball came out. Yes. And I it was around the holidays because it was like uh uh it was on like a Christmas compilation album that Laface put out. Ridiculous, yeah, but amazing. Yeah, and just like me being like, I was just with those guys. Right. And then you you see them. You didn't even know. I mean, I I I knew they were a group, but I didn't exist. during that time, they were just grinding, they were just making records. And like I said, I was a kid, I kind of had to just be quiet because I wasn't a Mista, you know. I was just like happy to be there.

Like those are the homies. They're like, yeah, just roll with us, you know. How bad did you want to be in in the group? Like really bad. So bad, bro. Really bad. Put me in, coach. Yeah, come on. So so bad. She's waiting for one of them to just drop out or like get an injury, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm like, please. Second string quarterback. You know, and and back then I'm like, I could be the guy that like talks on the track. Because you know, back then they had the deep voice guy that'd be like, yeah, girl. You could just skits. Yeah, I can I'm like, I don't even have to sing. I can see it, man. You could have been. And you still get publishing for that thing. You could have been a star, man. Yeah, man. So like that was uh, I think that was the greatest experience. Had to be. Yeah. And then, but it also made us very humble because from then Bobby decided to go after his solo career. Yeah. And we went to North Atlanta High School. That was like the school of performing arts for APS. So if you want to, it was like the Atlanta version of fame, you know. So if you want to, if you wanted to sing, if you wanted to dance, if I was in theater because I like acting.

You were a thespian. Yeah, I was a thespian. I knew there was something about this guy. Say to a thespian, girl, me too. Is that an actual bar? That's a Drake lyric. I I switched it a little bit, but it is a Drake bar. This is a Drake themed episode automatically. Okay. Just keep them coming, bro. I got you. Just you just sit there and think of the next one. Yeah. I'll keep talking to Courtney. Shout out to Drake, man. Come on. Come on, man. Shout out to Drizzy. Big shout out. Yeah. So um So you're at the art school. Yeah. And Bobby V's there too. Yeah, yeah. He goes there. He wasn't there for the full four years because he was in the group. They had a tutor and things. Um, but he Oh, he was really, they were really doing it then. Oh, yeah, yeah. They were really doing it. Yeah. So um, so like he he came back, I think for senior year. And yeah, and I our we had a studio set up in his mom's basement. We like hustled up some money to get like an MPC and some keyboard. Some KRK. Yeah, you know, just like a cool, like your first setup. So Yeah. We were making beats. And so our biggest inspiration at that time was Timbaland. It's,

like when Timbaland made like one in a million, and crazy part about it is he we know how iconic he was during that time, especially for like flipping his beats to doing everything off beat. So funny story. So we're like on the MPC, like trying to do beats, and we're like and then we'll make a track and then play it back. But the MPC puts the the drum beat on beat. It quantized it. Yes. So we're like, yo, how is it like we're trying to figure out how to do this off beat, but it quantizes it. Thank you for that. Sure. Yeah. How is he fucking overcoming this MPC magic? Like, and so we were like struggling for weeks, and then we finally found out you have to change the tempo. I think it was like from 116 to 132, something you have to quantize it. Unquantize it. Yeah, Yeah, and we finally did that, Wow. and then we were able to make Timbaland like beats. So you're still trying to be a creative then. Oh, yeah, A hundred percent. You're like Bobby V, we're gonna do this too, like I'll be your I'll be your producer.

I don't know what the you're just not even knowing. I was like in my rap bag. You were trying to rap. Yeah, I was trying to, so he would do songs and he'd be like, yo, come in here and put some bars on it. Yeah. Yeah. And then I went to went to college and uh Alabama State University. And from there, shout out ASU one time. One time. On the hoodie. Let's go. Gotta represent. And Bobby went to uh CAU Clark Atlanta. He stayed in Atlanta. But it was cool because Alabama State is in Montgomery, two hours away, and it's a smaller town. I'm from I'm from the A. So it's like I went down there and I was able to just take over. Yeah. You know, and it and it and it was it was super cool because I was making mixtapes and projects in college and using that money to like uh throw parties, and at the parties I would play my own music. So it was always a grind. I worked at the radio station, my my major is um radio, uh television, film, and um communications. So I would like make songs, sell the mixtapes, throw parties, play my music at the parties. Then I worked at the radio station and then tried to like finesse my music at the radio.

So bro, every single successful executive in music, I swear to God, has a party promoter background. You got to. Why? Hey man, because that's what a culture is. You can get it's you've proven that you can get people together in a place. And in a place that's a battle. Excited about the thing that's whatever's happening. Yeah, I mean, and and it, and it's good too, like to build community and it's and it's a hustle. You know what I mean? Scooter, that's what he was doing here. Like scooter have all the kids at Emory, Georgia Tech throwing to parties. So true. Seeing those pictures he posted after the Usher halftime performance. I was like, I don't think I've seen a Scooter Braun, like, throwback photo in a while. And I needed that. Yeah. I was like, that's amazing. You look ridiculous. Like, holy shit. He was balling though. His clothes did not fit. You know what I mean? Like, that was the swag, man. I know, bro. And like, shout out Scooter. He's a fucking billionaire or something. I don't know, There you go. Yeah, so I can't really. He's like, he's this fucking guy, on One more time podcast talking shit. We need to retweet.

Come on. Come on. Scooter. One more time podcast flames Scooter Braun for throwback photos. I'll make that clip. Stop fucking around. But yeah, so I mean, at what point do you hang up the jersey, bro? Like the mic, you know, like I'm not it. I'm not gonna rap. I'm not sure. It's not even hung up. He's doing it. So he's rapping still today. Honestly, it was the time where things got really serious with Bobby's solo career. Yeah. And he was like, dude, you should just you should manage me. And I was like, should I? He was like, yeah, like you're really doing it now. It's like the same thing with Kate. You just don't realize that you're doing it. So he gave me that opportunity. That's when I hung it up. And it was just such a great time. I just, I just have, I'm so blessed, man, because at that time we did a deal with DTP through Def Jam. And they had a joint venture with um, they had a joint venture with Def Jam. And so, like having like Shaka and Jeff as mentors was great. But then that was the time when Jay-Z was um the president along with LA Reid.

Oh shit. So what's funny is interesting time, huh? Yeah. So like I would go to New York and just literally just live in the office up there. Why not? And all of the people now that were interns now, they're like running companies. They're they're they're popping. It's insane. So it was really cool because somebody who I idolize, you know, I'm like, like Hov, Tata, Jay Brown, they're really just like right there. It was it was the same thing as me being in the dungeon, but now I'm just a little older, but I'm still like, oh my goodness, that's Jay-Z. Like he's in the office working. And there's not dirt on the floor. Right. Yeah. Like, like he he's really, he's really working. But you know, I'm a little timid. So I what I did was I built relationships with a lot of the people that I'm close friends with now who were the interns that were of my age group. And you know, people like at that time it was all about radio and it was all about you know, TV. Yeah. 106 and park. You know, so I built all those relationships. I knew every program director, every urban radio station and rhythmic radio station across the country.

They were like, make those guys your friends, make those people your friends. So I I built my Rolodex up. I did the same thing with like MTV and BET, and I was able to actually be a great manager and help to propel Bobby's career. So relationship building and relationship management. Like, I don't think people actually value them. Uh I feel like everyone hears about it, like, yeah, you gotta build relationships, you gotta build relationships. But like it's literally the only, it's like the only it's it's everything. It's the only thing that matters. Don't don't don't try to be the smartest person in the room. Nobody cares about that. No, they they really don't. You have to be the relationship person, be good to people, be the most likable person, be the most likable person. Make you know relationships with the assistants, with the janitors. Yeah, don't, don't you gotta think about it? The person that runs the company, everybody's on, on on on them, you know, everybody's trying, but what about that person's assistant? Go befriend that person, build a relationship with that person because that's gonna help you to get there.

A lot of people try to not intentionally, but you just overlook the the smaller people. But those are the people that you want to build relationships with, cultivate relationships with, because especially over time, they're gonna they're gonna rise. So how do you do it though, right? Like just for someone, is it just a natural thing, you think for some people? Absolutely. Just sit down and have a conversation with someone. Yeah. If if if you're at a label, if you're at a publishing company, I mean, I don't care if you're a Starbucks, like go up and just have a conversation with someone. Find some common interests. There, there's common ground. But like when I was talking to you earlier, I was like, who played golf today? Yeah, you know, it wasn't intentional. And then now I'm like, oh yeah, bro. We're talking about handicaps. And now clearly yours is lower than mine. And he's gonna smoke you on the course next time. And I'll hit you up and be like, let's go play a round. But but it's just though, it's those type of things where it's like, how can I have natural conversations with people, not feeling like I'm trying to get something from it? But just have a natural come and and and build a natural relationship and a natural bond.

And then organically, we'll do some some business together. It'll just happen organically. But you got four four hours on the course, like we're gonna end up talking about some things. Exactly. But but but that's the key, I think, right? Like people who aren't good at relationship building really approach it as like I'm trying to meet this person because of a very specific reason or outcome that I'm after. Right. And like I'm just saying, I I kind of approached it that way in in in some past lives, right? But like in in the current state of what I'm trying to do, the amount of people I've met, just by like, I mean, shit, KY Engineering, who we just had on the podcast. My bro. Yeah. Yeah, fucking legend. He's the one who got us the Drake repost. Drake's coming back, baby. Let's go. I told you he's the theme. That's the theme. But so the way that I even met KY was Suave, who also was on the podcast. And did it on our show? On our show that we just put on, he hit me up being like, hey, I want you to hear my new album. Like before it comes out, pull up to the studio. I'm like a dad of two.

I'm tired at night. Like, I don't like to go to the studio. But he was like, come through, man. Come through. So I go, and KY just happens to be there. There you go. And I didn't know that. I didn't even know who he was. He's in the room with me. I didn't fucking know who he was. You haven't heard Bustin' At Him by Waka Flaga? No. I'm just K. KY engineering. No, but like, he just he just introduced himself as KY and like I didn't, or he might even introduce himself as his real name. Like his government. I don't even know. And so, but that's what I mean is that it happens so unexpectedly. Yeah. And if you expect it to happen, that's when like it doesn't happen all yeah. But do you do you guys think people like, because I think some people are just not like you're naturally better at that. You suck at it. I'm just not that good at it naturally, bro. So like, can you get better? at it? Yeah, Should I like practice? No, don't practice, but if you approach someone and you're intentional about that, know everything there is to know about that person. So at least when you when you come up to them, like, oh yeah, what's up, Henry? I'm a big fan of the pod,

But know the name of the pod. Don't, Don't call it like the wrong name, the one time pod. Oh, we've gotten that. We've literally gotten. Oh my God, people have sat in your seat and said that and gotten the wrong name. Yeah, I mean, look, before I did the pod, I I watched like 20 episodes. I binge watched a lot of because I'm not gonna believe it. I'm not gonna like I'm I know about the game that we're gonna play at the end. But, but, but, But but see, that's the thing. That's why you're so good. You you have to be prepared. No, but that's why you're good. Some people email me and be like, my name is Courtney, so it's like a uh it could be a girl name too. Some people beat me, hey Miss Stewart. I'm like, I'm never responding to you. Like, you're you're you're not doing your research. If you looked into me for five seconds, when I first came in here, Ben was like, yo, Alabama State, you stay representing your school. You did your research. Absolutely. So so if you are. We know about your $200,000 donation, by the way. Writing big fucking checks. I'm just trying to hold some money. That's the only reason I got you on the pod.

We need an investor in the podcast, bro. Let's go. Yeah. So I'll put on Alabama State. Let's go. Yeah, man. I'll wear whatever team you want me to support, bro. So so if if you because I get it, everybody has different skill sets, right? So if you are that person where you're like, I'm not really uh a conversation kind of person, but okay, at least know about the person that you're gonna approach. Yeah. So and and that will impress them. Like if somebody comes up to me and be like, hey, you managed Khalid versus somebody like, hey man, I I saw the the 200,000 donation you made to Alabama State, I'm gonna be way more impressed with that person. Yeah, because it's a given that I I work with Khalid. Yeah, that's a given. That doesn't impress me. But to know that I went to Alabama State and I donate money to know that I have a foundation and what my foundation is about, to know those things, I'm like, and that doesn't take someone that's uh a super like community person, just takes doing some research. See, I'm I'm good in conversation, like in person.

I'm bad at like follow-up and like you're not a good communicator birthday. and you're not even responding quickly to texts and like I don't know. Nah, it's it's definitely tough for you. But all right, so you know, getting back to you, you know. So you you obviously have been doing the music thing. Yeah, so you find Khalid on SoundCloud, right? He's this young kid from Texas, right? Like, what were the first moves, right? So, like, y'all decide to work together. Yeah, what what do you do with the kid? Because like he, I mean, I think you've said this before in another interview, but like he was pretty like one of a kind, like you didn't really know where to necessarily put this kid, right? Like, so what what did you do? With with him, I knew that the power was in his voice and the songwriting. So the first thing we did was let's get in some sessions and let's make some more music. Let's see where you take this. So he came to Atlanta, and that was and on that Atlanta trip. That's when he wrote location. Oh wow. Yeah.

So he wrote that on, on the trip, and me actually seeing him in action. You're the real deal, bro. Yeah, you like you are phenomenal. One of one. And and and I knew it. And I like challenges. So like I'm not gonna take on anything that's not a challenge. That's all I'm about. So with him, you're you're you're a black kid with this amazing voice and this amazing songwriter ability, but I know you're a pop star. That that's what I know about you. Did he like that? Well, or did you tell him that? You don't have to explicitly. I I I really didn't even tell him that. Yeah, he told me that he didn't want to be in a box. Because, you know, he he he's young, so he grew up on on festivals, on playlists. Like, like he doesn't, genres isn't in for his age group, that's not even a thing. Yeah.

They listen to everything. His his taste in music is so diverse, he puts me on all the music. Yeah, you know, because his taste is so diverse. He loves folk music. He loves pop music. He loves, I mean, you just play a song. You can be the the this most left field song. He's gonna know everything about about that song. But I think that also placed him being a military kid because he lived in Germany for like five years. He, He he's well traveled and he has all these different walks of life. So I think with how he grew up, he was like, I'm not just gonna be a R and B artist. I'm not gonna just be a pop artist. Like, I want to break all the barriers of genres when people look at me. I'm gonna be genreless. Yeah. And that's something that I'm proud of that we've accomplished because people can't put them in a box. Yeah. How did his age impact your approach, right? Because you were managing Bobby V.

He was, I assume, a similar age to you. Right? Yeah. So how did like Khalid being so young, how did that impact it was it was perfect. Yeah. Reason being because I had the experience, but he understood youth culture. And so what we would do is he would lean on me like, bro, because I'm like a father figure to him because of the age gap. And he'll be like, like, what, what do you think about this? And he would really take my advice, but then I'm like, yo, like, what do you think about this? I'm learning as much from him as he is learning from me. It's perfect. Two-headed dragon. Exactly. And like one time, one more time. Let's go. Hit it. Love this guy. Yeah. I replaced I replaced the Drake with the party alone. And it's a Drake episode. Why the fuck you switch it back? I'm gonna switch it back to the Drake. Oh my God. Shout out Drake. Yes. Come on, the theme. We gotta keep it going. Yeah, he's gonna repost us again for sure. So so one of our early moments where we butt butted heads, um, but but it was great, right?

Um his, I think his Twitter got hacked or something. And it was on and it was on and it was on a Friday, and he called me and he was like, yo, you I need you to get my Twitter got hacked. I need you to fix this right now. And let me call up Twitter. Bro, like, chill out. No, you need to get this fixed right now. I was like, bro, chill. Like, it's Friday, like I'll do it Monday. And like we had this big back and forth. Oh, that's a long you try to wait three days. Yeah, but what I didn't understand is he grew up on the internet. Like, I I give two shits about Twitter, Instagram. Shout out to all of y'all, TikTok. I don't care. Like, it's I didn't grow up in in that, so like I'm I I don't really care that much about it. But for him, that's his life. He grew up on the internet, bro. He was fiending to get his Twitter back. So he needed to get that. And so I I got it done, but then when we said, How'd you get it done? I can't, you know, a couple couple of phone calls.

Rolodex. This guy. Rolodex. Rolodex. yes. How high does the Rolodex? It's a fat Rolodex. Can't fit in his pocket for sure. Yeah, so yep. So I got that done. Damn. Um, and so curious. And then when he he and I had a conversation about it, he was like, Court, like, you gotta understand. Like, I I grew up on the internet, like, and I was like, dang, I really didn't think about it like that. So we have a lot of conversations like that to help us to get on the same page and help us to be a good team. Yeah. What if he had a random thought on a Saturday afternoon? You know, he's gotta let people know. No, for sure. So there we go. So at this point, you know, you'd obviously be managing Bobby V. Do you think that your management, I'm sure you're a type that like is always learning, but like from a core like function of a manager, do you feel like you kind of had the manager thing down by the time that Khalid entered the equation? Or did you like learn something like extremely valuable through the Khalid process that like you didn't really know as a manager? You never have it down.

Okay, because the game is changing. Yes. When I was managing Bobby, it was all about radio, television, in stores. We used to sign CDs in stores. Oh my God. Good days. Yeah. Good days. With Khalid, it's the beginning of streaming. It was it was post-napster. So it was a whole new model to the business. So I have to pivot. I have to adjust. Of course, I had relationships, the Rolodex, and I have the vision to do things, but it's this business is forever changing. Yeah. If I would have been stuck in those ways, wouldn't have been, I wouldn't have been able to be successful with Khalid being kind of stuck in those ways. So I had to adapt. Yeah, that's so valuable. Like you never should ever think that you just have it down. No. Because it is always changing. And I think Rico was maybe one of our earliest episodes of the show. Shout out Rico. Brooks. Shout out Rico Brooks, my bro. Yeah. He said, I am I will always be a student of the game until the day he dies. He will be learning, he'll be reading articles, he'll be figuring it out.

Yeah, this dude reads more music business worldwide articles than anybody on the planet. Yeah. Every edition of All About the Music Business. For sure. So, you know, obviously you recognize like the just sheer talent, right? Like this kid was just an incredible artist. He's off the charts, man. Off the charts, just talented kid. But we know, or we think we know, that like that's not necessarily good enough. Yeah. So, like, from an intangible perspective, right? Like, what qualities does Khalid possess that made him go from just like this super talented kid with an amazing voice and amazing knack for songwriting to actually become like a superstar. He's one of one. He doesn't follow the trends. He sets them. He's unapologetically himself. And if you want to be great in music, you have to be who you are. You have to be the best version of yourself. Like Drake, our our our running theme.

Nobody can do Drake as good as Drake could do Drake. He's so good at it. Sure. You know, like of course, he inspires people, and people make Drake-like beats, Drake-like songs, but it's not better than what he does. Nobody does future better than future. So true. Migos, when they had the whole, you know, the cadence. A lot of people tried that. Nobody could do it better than them. So you have to be one of one. And I get it right now. We're in this virality, you know, TikTok era, but you gotta be able to stand on originality in order to separate yourself from the rest of the pack pack and have lasting power. One thing I pride myself on is every artist that I work with, it's it's lasting part, uh, lasting power. I work with with Bobby for a decade. Khalid and I have been together for like since 2018 now. So, and an artist that I'm developing, you know, we talked about Wynn earlier.

Like, shout out to Win. Shout out, yeah. Portland's. finest. The one. The one, the one. Not the two. Not the fucking two. Not the two. And once again, she's one of one. She is, bro. It's it's nobody like her. When I started working with her, and for context, um, she's a she's a white female hip hop artist from Portland. Yes. That's just crazy by itself. So good. but bars out of this world. Crazy. And and she she's literally one of one. And and I told her, I said, this is gonna be a challenge. So hang in there with me because in the history of music, there's never been a credible white female hip hop artist. That's so true. You know? The odds are stacked incredibly against her, bro. And but she she understands that. And that's why she sat in her bedroom since she was like 14 and memorized every Nas lyric because she knows once it happens, the internet is gonna come after her. But that's why we're not skipping skipping steps.

We're we're taking the steps and not the elevator. Cause when it happens, she's out of here. Yes. Yeah. Man. But like, so for someone like Wynn, who's like, I feel like she's just on that cusp of like, you know, she's on that bubble right now. You know what I mean? Like she's about to, she's about to take off, but like it's still it's still boiling, you know what I mean? What what are those conversations like? Right? Like she's probably hitting you up, yeah, being like court, like right now is consistency. Yeah. Because the internet moves so fast, you really you really can't take breaks these days. So my thing is you have to figure out, okay, I'm doing a project. How do I maximize and get as much out of this project? So let's talk about this. People have come to me like, man, listen to my album, and uh I listened to it in the 16 songs. I was like, don't put that album out. Because if you put that 16-song album out, it's gonna be old in a week. Yeah, all right.

What I would do is I would split that up. I would do two EPs, right? You do do an eight-song, eight song, or do do, or do do three. You know, split it up. And okay, when you put the project out, you need content. Shoot a video for every song. You don't have to go spend a lot of money, shoot it on your iPhone, call the homies, y'all shoot video. Then do remixes for every song. Because nowadays you don't know what version is is gonna go off. You know, do do an acoustic version, do the slowdown. Sped up. Sped up version, slowed down version, get all of your versions off. You gotta be able to maximize off of, you know. So people like you'll drop a four-song EP, but it's amazing if you think about it, how much you can maximize off of four songs. Yeah, because you can do content, you can shoot a music video, you can do all these different versions, and you you continue to put that out. You continue to feed your audience and build your audience, and you'll look up, and you and that those four songs, three months, you could have been consistent with content and alternative versions, and then you drop your next four songs, right? And then after that, you drop four more songs, and you'll look up and you were consistent the whole year.

Do you think do you think people give up on their songs too quickly? Absolutely. I think so too. Yeah, you you you got you gotta who was that the interview I was watching there talking about that on the one more time podcast? One more now that that was a different pod, but it was someone Cole Bennett, kids take over. I forgot who it was, but yeah, they I mean one week. It was it was like a big start, and they were saying, like, no, it was Tyler. It was Tyler the career. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he that one's viral as well. Yeah, it went viral. He was like, You idiots, like y'all, y'all like giving up on your song? Like, no, posted to your story one time. Post the cover art. Yeah, yeah. Like, like you can you can't. You you can't you can't give up on it because especially now. See, TikTok is it's discovery, it's all about discovery. And so except for UMG artists, yikes. Too soon, bro. Too soon. Is Khalid UM G?

No. Okay. He's safe. Yeah, we're we're we're in the safe zone. Okay. Hilarious. Oh Lord, I was like, I should know this, but I hope he's not on UMG. Yeah. Oh yeah. But but but yeah, I mean, if it could be a song that you I mean, and we've seen this historically over the last couple of years. It's an old song that somebody recorded. Happens all the time. That just catches a wave. So crazy. Yeah. So I mean, you gotta keep promoting your stuff. Has that happened for Khalid? No. Really? Yeah. None of his just smashes have had like another wave. Oh, well, actually, I'm lying. Yeah. Like, like I was like, what? That'd be surprising. That was insane. Young Dumb and Broke had like a big viral moment. Because of the Elton uh Spotify singles one? Yeah. Bro, that's what got me back into Khalid. Yeah. But but hit his catalog, his catalog music is just so great. You know, because like people love like the nostalgia of American teen. It's the best album. Thank you, bro.

I'm not even kidding. And like ever since I knew we were doing the pod, I've probably listened to it like six, seven, eight times. So good from front to back, bro. It's so good. Yeah, man. Like so many smashes on there. For sure. And then even with Free Spirit, like we've been in like meetings with the label, and I mean, he because he was at the forefront of streaming and his audience, he has that young audience. So they just they stream, stream, stream. So his catalog does really well, you know, because of that. So shit. That's why he's 53rd in the world without even a new pro. I mean, and and he's a feature just beast. Yeah. I mean, and and favorite song, bro. Favorite song remix, the Tucy joint. Billy Eilish one. Yeah. Fucking Benny Blanco and uh Halsey, East. Ed Sharon. I mean, this is just a feature beast. Yeah. And we just toured with Ed this this summer. Yeah, how was that? It was amazing, man. Ed is the goat, bro.

And is there a huge overlap between the audiences, or did he like get you think gained new fans? Or how did that look? I I think he gained some new fans, but I I think there was a lot of overlap though, because I mean, it's it's that mainstream audience. Yeah, you know, and so even if someone wasn't like a Khalid fan, they walked away enjoying his show. Yeah, yeah. And then and then Ed brings Khalid out during his set as well. For the yeah, they perform um, yeah, they perform their song together too. So that was great. We're in stadiums. I mean, it was those moments again. Like, I felt like a kid again. I was like, oh my god, yeah, like we're really like in stadiums, sold out, like Ed's fan base is insane. Insane, bro. It's gotta be 60,000 people, and then in New York, he did like two Met Lifes. He he broke records, dude. And and and it's just with him and the guitar.

That's it. I'm like, I told his manager, I'm like, Stuart, y'all are like rich rich. Yeah, bro. Because like the production, he they don't spend a lot of like he has he has his foot pedal and he has this guitar. And six that's it. Like one mic? One mic, not a lot of lights. Because that comes out of the artist's budget. Hell yeah. So this is the type of shit we need. Like, you know, should our audience ever get to be like operating at this level? This is the goal. Like the reason we're interviewing this manager of a global superstar, guys, is because we want you guys to be global superstars one day. And I need you to understand that comes out of your fucking pocket. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So people like Travis Scott don't give a shit. Yeah. He wants to make shit look insane. That's the time. That's awesome. But I'm just saying, to his point, that's why he's bringing it up like, oh, oh, y'all saved millions per show. Like, okay.

Man, I wish my production could be this. Yeah. But but Travis, he spends a lot on production, but his merch numbers are insane. Through the roof. He's it's insane. Yeah. So okay, so I, you know, I just want to even like compare and contrast like the relationship and status of like when where she's at in her career, where obviously like Khalid is at in his, right? Like, how similar are those conversations and or like approaches and the moves that you're still making, right? Versus how different they are, right? Like, just talk to us. Because I assume there's still some like general just core themes of like we talk to when the exact same way that we talk to Khalid about these types of things, but then what's different? I just think that the level of the conversation is different, but the conversation is really the same because it's about feeding your fan base. Khalid started playing, you all came to the show at vinyl. He played, he played that venue on his very first tour. So it's really about, yes, you have this huge world out there, but you gotta play to your core.

And that's what me and my team, you know, preach to everybody. Because it's like building a house. Like you want a strong foundation. Because other fans, they're gonna come and go. But if you have that, like Khalid's gonna be able to tour for the rest of his life. Yeah. And even like I told Wynne, like, she'll hit me up sometime and be like, yo, like this is a great festival, like we should do that festival. I'm like, they're not there to see you. So you're gonna kind of get lost in the sauce. Let's let's do, let's be intentional, and let's go and get in a van and play 300 cap rooms. And I don't care if 50 people show up. That's 50 fans, and you're gonna blow them away, and they're gonna go tell somebody else, like, yo, you need to check this person out. Because that's marketing these days. Like, we market on social media because what do we all do? Everybody has group chats and we send each other memes. You know, we're we're on, we're on IG, and it's like, yo, I came across this artist that I love. We're marketing the artist now.

So that that's really what it is. It's like, how do we it's how do we get into a place where that foundation and that core fan base is that we're building is becoming our marketers. So, what would you say the split is between nurturing current fans and trying to discover and get new fans? How much time it like is what's the time designation? 7525. In favor of current fans. Yeah, that's that's wild. That's a big one. We don't do enough of it. I don't think so. We don't do enough of it even. I think it's the opposite. Yeah, 75. As content creators, even, and you know, we're trying to build brands, we're trying to build audiences the exact same thing, whether it's we're slinging episodes of interviews or we're slinging songs. It doesn't matter what we're what we're what we're selling. Um, yeah, I don't think we do enough of that. Because this is the thing. Once again, like having champions and having a voice, that's what's gonna help you to scale. That that that's that's your marketing right there. Like you said, you interviewed artist, he said, pull up at the studio, KY was there.

Like, it's just like this whole natural progression. Because I think, and it I mean, it's nothing wrong with trying to to, you know, we all want to scale our businesses. We all want to scale our fan bases. But to your point, serving your current fans can scale it. Right, they're gonna help you. They're gonna help you to scale it. You're not only are you firming up your relationship with them, but they're telling people, and you actually are growing right. The odds are almost way better, actually, that if you tell me about something that you like, yeah, versus me randomly seeing something because it goes viral, or this, that, and the third. I'm gonna, I mean, most times I'll trust you. You you know what I mean. Sometimes I'm like, I don't like that anymore. Likewise. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, that's what word of mouth is the that's the best marketing. Like, if bro, if you text me and be like, yo, check this out, I'm gonna listen to it because Ben sent it to me. Yeah, and you know, like that, that's just kind of what it is. And when we have our group chats and our friend groups and everything, that's what it is. They're like, yo, check out this new artist win.

Like, she's fire. They're gonna listen to it. And then at that, like they're gonna go back, listen to the catalog, and they're gonna become fans, and it's gonna just continue to grow from there. You just you just gotta be willing to take the the the stairs and not the elevator. And and and I know it's tough now because it's it's viral, viral, viral. But I get calls every day like, yo, this artist is blowing up on TikTok, they need a manager. I'm like, uh no thanks. Because that's not the business that I'm in. Oh, that's fire. Okay. All right. So just just kind of looking back like to the you know trajectory that that Khalid's been on. So obviously, like relatively unknown, undiscovered, El Paso, hometown buzz, SoundCloud a little bit, whatever, to now playing sold-out stadiums with Ed Sheeran and you know, his top five on Spotify had billion plus streams, right? What were some of the most like just looking back, right? I don't know how often you do this, but like what were some of those like pendulum swinging moments, right? Of like just this happened and shit really moved.

Are there like a few of those? Yeah, when he on when we put out the second album, Free Spirit, and he did his arena tour, um, but like by himself, and he sold it out. We had Clara open up for us, and um, you know, she she's a you know building building artist, doesn't really have like a huge fan base. Um, but he sold out a full arena tour essentially by himself. Wow. And and and we had multiples too. Like we did two MSGs, um, you know, two staples. I mean, it was you know, then we went to London, we did like 402s, went to Australia. We did, it was Australia was massive. And that moment, I I really had to just kind of step back and pinch myself, yeah. Because I said, This is unreal. Yeah, yeah. So the live performance is very important as far as like building connections.

Because the thing is, like, when you see things on the internet and you see numbers, I mean, it's just like numbers on a piece of paper, but then when you see the fans, it's like this is real. You can't just swipe the fans away. Yeah, you you just you can't. When you see the pandemonium, I mean, when you go to his shows, fans the he goes on stage at 8 p.m. Fans are out there at 8 a.m. sleeping bags. Crazy. When you see that, it's like, oh my goodness. And I just have I it was times that I just had to pray, bro. I'm not gonna lie. Because I'm like, God, this is this is unreal. So when the stakes are that high though, like, did you feel it? You know, like, because I mean, you managing someone who's on arena tours, like, even if you're not the tour manager, I'm assuming you had helped. Right, right. No, we had a whole team. Yeah, from a whole tour management like perspective. But still, like the stakes get higher, bro. Yeah.

I mean, so like, how did you personally deal with that like elevated pressure, right? Like, cause Bobby V was going crazy, you know, no shade to him. I'm not saying that he wasn't like, you know, a star of his own, but like selling out arenas, yeah, it's a whole nother ball game, bro. So how did you like personally adapt or you know what I mean? Like for sure. I mean, honestly, I I just try to, I just try my best to continue to grind and don't not take it for granted. That that because I have a understanding, I've been in the business for so long, and I know that it's peaks and valleys. I know what's given away, uh given to you can be taken away just as fast. So I I keep my team humble. And and Khalid organ, like he's a very humble person. You know, it he he never got out there and thought that he was better than the next person. Because this shit could end in a heartbeat. That's just what that's just what it is. Especially the internet.

You get canceled tomorrow. Oh, yeah. So as we were, as we're having all of this success, it's just about being humble. Back what we're talking about earlier, treating people right. When I walk in the label, I still, it's still the same thing. I'm going to talk to the assistants. I'm not walking in like, yeah, like I'm Courtney Stewart. Like, of course I can go straight to Peter Edge. But like, I talked talk to the younger people. Khalid just did a um a listening for for his album because he kind of wants to get a feel. And he was like, yo, I don't I only want people at the label that's like 30 and under. If if you're you're over 30, then I was like, I can't come. He was like, You're over 30, can't come. That's ages. But it's but tomorrow, I wouldn't have been able to go. Damn right. Because that's why I didn't get invited, right? It was you knew I was over 30. Okay, now it makes sense. I didn't get I thought the invite was lost in the mail or something, you know. Yeah, right.

And so proverbial thing, I don't know. Yeah, so we just did that a couple weeks ago, and and it was great because it was a lot of interns there. It was a lot of people, like assistants, people that got their first label job. And like, that's the stuff that you have to do, man. I mean, even when you get to those levels, you you you can't walk around and act like you're untouchable. Well, because those are also gonna be the people that are like the worker bees that are actually getting the shit done for you. There you go. And so it's those executives. I mean, no shade to executives, they're clearly moving the needle too in their own ways. But like the interns are the ones that are they're putting it, yeah, putting in the work, like the real fucking like ground level. Yeah, ground. So you yeah, so you want to embrace those people, you want to be likable to those people as well. And to answer your question, while while we're on tour selling out arenas, it's just keeping that same energy where it's like we're happy to be here. And even with Khalid, he I mean, people people see that it's real, they see that it's authentic, that he cares about his fans.

And he he stays after the um after the concerts, talks to fans. I mean, it it's it's a real, it's a real love for him. And I get it, man. You make all this money, you have all this success, and some people forget about that. And it'll come that day where you have that valley, and then it's gonna be kind of tougher to climb back up versus if you treat people good and along the way, and you look up, like you said, that same intern is now a big executive. If you shit in on them years ago, they're gonna remember that. But if you were nice to them and you might be going through a tough time, because I went through plenty of tough transitions and pivots throughout my career, but I was always solid with people. People always be like, Man, Court, man, he he's a good guy. So people answer the phone for me, even if I don't, if I'm not hot at the time, because that that's the thing with this business, you're not gonna always be hot. Yeah, and you know how flaky this game is.

It's like when you're not hot, people are not answering the phone. But it but if you've been a if if you've gone through your career and just been a good person, then people like, yo, like Ben, what's good, bro? Yeah, you know, because just because you're solid, it's so true, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, shit, even me having only been doing the podcast now, we've been doing it what almost three years, I guess, right? Two and a half. Two and a half years, 200 episode coming up, so yeah, exactly. Crazy. Um, even me, man, having seen like people that we interviewed early on that are now like elevating their careers, or people that I met very early on are now like rising the ranks like within labels, and they're getting director level and SVP AR levels of like people that were, you know, directors before, right? So yeah, like it happens like quick. Those people you don't know who they're gonna become and who's gonna be in what you know position of power, you know what I mean? Um, but and on the flip side, you know, they came on our podcast when we weren't shit, they gave us a chance, yeah, and now we got the Drake repost. One more time.

Bring the theme back around. Bring it so let's go. So I feel like you obviously have a great network of managers, I would assume. So, you know, that Rolodex has got to have at least a good amount of you know, peers of yours on the manager side. What are some of the different types of managers, would you say? So in this day and age, there is a good business for people going after viral acts. Yeah. So there are now that's like a niche thing. It's not for me, but there are some managers that I know from a business standpoint that's doing really well, catching viral things, running it up, and then they'll move to the next hit and run. Yeah. Whoa. It's kind of dirty. Kind of want to do it. I was like, shit, bro. 20% of this for six months. Exactly. 20% of that. Keep scrolling, keep scrolling. Yep, keep scrolling. So there's the like find the next viral thing manager. Yep. Okay, and then what else we got? There's like managers like myself that's passionate about artist development. Yeah, I like I like finding things early and actually putting in the work to develop things from the ground up.

You're kind of like an AR manager, too. Yeah, yeah. Recognize talent. Because you know, I was a creative. That's how that's how I started off. So it's still in me. And then it still like plays to my inner child. Yeah. I would say this other kind of managers that are that are that are building businesses just out outside of just artist management where you know it's it's bleeding over into like film and television or publishing, even like publishing, yeah, all of those things. Yeah, because like do you do any of that or is it really okay? Okay, so you also have like a publishing arm and got a pup publishing arm. Um I had a joint venture called Keep Cool with Me and Tunji. Yeah. Um how about just from a uh personality style? You know, what would you say the different like personality styles are that you you know come across in different managers? I mean, there's some managers that that are aggressive, yeah. Yeah, and that there's some that are a little bit more laid back, and then there's some that's a little bit more of a hybrid. Yeah, yeah.

What's yours? I'm assuming the laid back hybrid. You're hybrid. You gotta be have a little bite in you. You gotta have a little bite in you. Can you can you see it so you can turn it on? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Damn. What's something that's gotten you kind of on the You don't have to give like the specifics, but just like paint the picture of the situation, like what what what would get you on the aggressive front, would you say? I just think people not being open-minded to ideas, to to concepts and things like that. Yeah, so the label wasn't having an idea of yours. No, I I thought the artist didn't want to do content. That's where my mind went. Shit. Yeah, no, no, no. I I would say especially just with older people. I gotta be on kick what deal dealing with dealing with like younger artists. Cause I mean, look, the young artists, they're the culture. They they drive the shit, man. They have the ideas. Like they're the real they're the ones that's keeping this going. And I think it's a little disheartening when a 60-year-old is like, yeah, I don't really think that's a uh a great idea.

And you don't know shit. And my my my thing is like, yeah, like let's be let's be open-minded. Let's let's let's think let's try it. Yeah. And that's the kind of the great part. What I like about the music business now is you can you can try shit. Yeah. You can tease some. So easy. Yeah. You don't have to spend a million dollars to make this song and promote it. Like, no, you can post it funny. Who is it that talked about, you know, like tease three songs and the and the fans are the become the ARs? Yeah. And oh, they really like this one. Let's drop this one and put the music video budget into this one and shoot all the content to this one. Exactly. Why not? Why wouldn't you do that? But we talked with T Ron Thomas, who just won Grammy Songwriter. Shout out to T Ron. Shout out to Ray Daniel. Yes, exactly. He talked about how the fans come last. His no, his theory is that the reason why music is maybe maybe subpar these days is because we're allowing fans to be the ARs. So how much does someone like a Khalid, how much, you know, like stake does he put in the fans' like opinion about what he's gonna put out? He he he definitely leans on his fans.

Okay. Um yeah. I don't see why you wouldn't. Because I totally disagreed with what he was saying. By the way, T Ron, I love you. I just was sexy with you, but like how's it so par if everyone likes it? You know what I mean? Is that is sexy red subpar? Everyone loves it. I don't know. Well, don't answer that. I mean, look, this is Khalid's manager, bro. Don't be talking about sexy red on this podcast. Just saying. I mean, this this is the thing, right? I think you just have to understand your base, right? Because Sexy Red does have a fan base in the audience, you know? And she is doing a great job at feeding her audience. It might not be for this person right here, but she's found found out how like to feed her audience. Now, how we're talking about scaling, now what she needs to have to do is work on scaling. And she's doing that. They just shot a video of her, Drake, and Scizor. Yeah. She likes went into labor during the video show. So kidding me. So it's you with two of the biggest artists in the world.

Okay, cool. Now let's let's be smart about our next steps. Yeah. And she's like, she's indie too, right? I wouldn't, I wouldn't fucking doubt it. I think she's with a major. Yeah. I mean, so like, shout out to her. She she's doing a amazing thing. So if you like a song, that's subjective. Yeah. You know, because some people are like, this is the greatest time for music. When we were growing up as kids, and when I was listening to rap in my bear room, my parents are like, cut that trash off. Oh, yeah. You know? But it's it's it's also they were listening to Al Green and Marvin Gaye, which are great, but I was listening to like Doggy Style, the Snoop Dogg album. Which years labeled later, is that I mean that's a classic album. Yeah. So Lottie Dottie's one of my favorites, yeah. So like I I would never shit on like sexy red, whether I listen to her or not, because she has a fan base. People love that, and she's doing it, she's doing a great job of like fit, you know, feeding that fan base. It's not for you.

I'm not saying it's not for me. No, I'm saying like she doesn't need you. She doesn't need you as a fan. Yeah. Or me or you. Like, it's just so you're saying she's good, she's gonna drop a classic album, is what you're saying. I mean, she she she could. I don't look honestly. I'm so unconvinced. He's like saying this, and he's like, I don't even believe myself right now. I I look I can't put it, I I can't put it past her. You know, because the thing is, and this is to like all the creatives out there, if you if you're growing, you know, like Hove when he put out Reasonable Doubt, which was a classic, so good, you know, yeah, but I mean, blueprint, that's great. He he he grew. I mean, even and even if you look at like some of the Atlanta artists like like Gucci, who's like a a freaking legend, right? I prefer burr print to blueprint. Yeah, there you go. Good comparison. He really does. But like, but I mean, he he he's grown. Everybody grows. So I I I you know, when you say, can she make a classic album?

Like, I'm not I'm not counting that out because she's gonna grow. She's gonna make more money, she's gonna have more life experiences. Good example is what I'm listening to right now. Uh 21 Savage. Yeah, that guy has grown. For sure. I'm listening to that album on repeat. You know, strange is here. He trains me. When we work out, he's like, yo, I'm putting on 21 because you work out when you when 21 on, like, you work, you it's a great workout. Yeah, you get a couple extra reps, yeah. Absolutely. But but but like I'm so proud of 21. Shout out to Mezy, his manager who came up with us as well. You have kid hitch. We need the Measy interview, bro. Yeah, he verbally agreed to me. At the cheetah. At Cheetah. And for Sunny Digital's performance. And he's this is the side of town. Exactly. He's unbelievable. We haven't had him on. It's so sad. So he actually, the reason he agreed is because I told him we shoot in Stone Mountain. Yeah. I'm there. And you know, just like Atlanta history, you guys, like, I love you all a lot because I'm from I'm from the SWAT, Southwest Atlanta. We we don't we don't go east.

Right. It's just kind of like Atlanta thing. Like at about like Canler Road. It's a cutoff. It's a cutoff. It's like a force field that his car couldn't drive through. Yeah, like my circle. Like I'm from Ben Hill. So it's like Ben Hill, Cameron Road, you know, Martin Luther King, Adamsville, Bankhead, like that whole like Southwest Atlanta thing, you know, South Side, Old National. Once 20 gets to 285. Yeah, so turn around. I've gone too far. So when Ben Tav says Stone Mouse, I'm like, that's out of my jurisdiction. I'm always so nervous to tell people like where the studio is at because it's like some people they don't live on the east side. They're like, that's gonna take me an hour to get here. Yeah, but but but back to 21. That's that's a great example of growing. I I think this album is a classic album. This album is fire. Hot take. Yeah. Hot hot take. I like it. Yeah. I like it. Letter to my brother. Yeah. Bro. Yeah. So you want to talk about growth? And 21 started off on like some real like street shit, the way the sexy red has, you know, is starting off.

So it's possible. It's very possible. Yeah, yeah. You're not counting her out. No, hell no. I'm not counting out nobody. Yeah, okay. And anybody that sits up here and you know, and you know looks into their crystal balls. Yeah, and be like, bullshit this person isn't gonna do like don't don't listen to those people. Yeah, you know, all she has to do is just you know, if I was her management team, like stay down, feed your fab base, and then grow. You know, evolve. You know, your music can't stay the same. You know, hove the classic line. If you want the old hove, you know, buy my old album. Buy my old album. So so you you just have to continue to evolve and and grow. And she she can do it. So I'm I'm rooting for her for it. She needs to for sure. So speaking of classic albums, obviously American Teen is an absolute classic smash. Um, you know, his albums after that, um, amazing, right? Free spirit, etc. Um how does how do you tie how much pressure is there to like follow? Continue to follow it up, right?

A lot of pressure. Yeah, like yeah, tell me about how Khalid approaches that, right? Because he's clearly the artist that has to like get this music out, you know, of him and like with his collaborators, et cetera. Like, so how's he feeling, man? Of like this album that's coming out now this year. How does he feel and how does he deal with that pressure of like shit? My classic albums, you know, are in the past so far. Like, how do I how do I bring them something new, refreshing, like something that still stands the test of time? Like, so for this album, it's this process because we're like literally in it. Um, it is it's gonna be really interesting to how we approach that, some of the strategic plans that we're coming up with. Cause when he did American Teen, of course, that took off, and then we did Free Spirit, they were like back to back. Yeah, 2018 and 2019. He broke, he wrote that album while he was on tour. So this is the first time that he actually had a break because it was like, yo, like, bro, you're just on top of the world, and you know, like you might need to like kind of chill out a little bit and let people miss you again. Live a little life, too.

Live a little life. I mean, the pandemic was kind of a blessing in disguise because everything shut down. And so that gave him a chance to like really just sit down and learn, like grow and experience, like you made all this money, like go buy some stuff. You know, I saw I saw the fucking cards, yeah. And it's in his recent post. I saw the fucking cards. Like, go go live life, enjoy, you know, time with your friends. Like, go go actually live, because that's what's gonna give you something to write about. So he so he took his time to write this album. And that's why I'm so excited about this project because he has grown and involved so much, and he really just took his time. And I feel like his fans are really gonna appreciate it. I feel like new fans are gonna really appreciate it when they hear the music because he he really just very introspective project where he just he was able to have some life experiences, and that's stuff that he hasn't had in the past because things things were moving just so so fast. How how like nervous is he, or like you know what I mean?

Like what kind of emotions is he feeling like leading up to this? He's excited, man. Excited. Yeah, it's it's more he's like the break was cool, but fuck that. Yeah, I'm ready. Yeah, I'm ready. It is it's more anxiety from excitement than anything. Sure. You're talking about a kid that had a vision since he was in high school. Yeah, yeah. He's ready for this. He he he's so he's so ready for it. Man, we're ready for it. Yeah, go ahead and say the name of the album real quick. I wish I could tell you. Come on. Wait, I wish I could tell you. No, that's it. Oh, shit. Shit, that's the name of the album. One more time exclusive. No, that's not the name of that. I wish I could tell you, Khalid, coming 2024. Man, all right, Court. Well, I appreciate you coming on the podcast. We have entered a final segment. All right. That's such a let's go. I'm ready, I'm ready for this. I know, man. He's been preparing for this all week. Preparing preparation, man. It's not even that often that they know it's coming. So it's actually sad how many people haven't seen. Yeah. Who just agrees to do an interview? No.

You can't and comes to a suit. Who just comes somewhere? Yeah. Not even. I guess that it does go back to the network, though. Most of the people now are like friends of past guests. So I guess they're kind of just blindly being like, yeah. Well, that guy did it. Also, this is at the very end, so there's probably plenty of people who watched an interview, put it on and didn't get to the last, you know, an hour. Yeah, but I know, but me personally, I'm not going into any situation blind. Yes. I'm not gonna embarrass you. That's why you're at the level you are. And I mean, our guests obviously have all reached you know great levels of success. That's fine, but like you at least get that. That's like something you should definitely do. So all the creatives out there, fucking watch the interview. Why do your research? Yeah, just do your research for sure. D-Y-O-R. Well, I don't have to explain to you that this is the rapid fire rampage. Let's go. Don't have to explain that it is three parts. You know how they're gonna go. We're gonna start with the short answer questions, as usual. All right. Starting with on a scale of one to ten, how legitimate is the Travis Kelsey Taylor Swift relationship? Damn.

That that kiss looked real. It did, right? If it's if yeah, I loved it. I agree. I I I gotta give that a uh a nine point nine. Wow. I mean, on the on the kiss Richter scale, it's definitely a 9.9. Yeah, I mean, if it's not, they're selling it. Yeah, that's I because it's it's hard to like sell that. They were tonguing, like it was yeah, it was a real deal. It may be real, it'd be a real deal. What do you think? I think I think Court just convinced me. I think it's real, I think it's real. Yeah, for sure. It's crazy. Um, okay, moving into a little more serious. Give us the top three areas where you think managers can be better managers. Where are people missing the mark? Having real conversations with your talent. What do you mean? Can I like that? Sounds very nebulous. Like just give us like a slight example of this. Okay.

Because you all have to be honest with one another. This is an art form. And so I think it's a lot of ego stroking. I think people don't say what they feel. And I think that artist and manager have to get on a level where we can agree to disagree sometimes. We can keep it real with each other. And that's just so important. But I see a lot of times, especially as artists start to blow up at the beginning, they keep it real, but then when they blow up, you know, the pendulum kind of shifts a little bit, right? It's like the artist has the leverage and the deliverage and the power. So anything that they say, and then people are just sit there and be like, you're right. You're right. But that's the worst thing that you can do to someone is be a yes man. Yes. Yeah. I think what our power is we'll argue to the point of like almost fighting, but I I church every moment of it, Ben. Exactly.

Because it'll just because it is respectful in nature, right? It's like I am passionate about like my opinion right now, and I understand that you are with yours, and we're just gonna to your point. Sometimes agree to disagree. Right. And you're gonna get some, and then you're gonna let me have some. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be an argument, right? That that's what we gotta understand. For us, it does. Yeah, I mean, but yeah, that's cool. But that's just how we do it, yeah. Yeah, it's how it's hot, just how you do it. Yeah, but yeah, you don't you don't have to walk away like you know, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we just got into a this big fight. We never say that, we've never said that ever. No. But we but we always are. It's hilarious. Okay, um, this part is called ideal audio. Okay. You may have seen an episode with this, but we are going to craft the perfect song. Yes. You can enlist any songwriter, live or dead, producer, alive or dead, artist, yeah, artist on the hook, artists. He gave a crazy thing. I don't think he didn't beat that. You have to try. You can get a little selfish if you want to play. So we can start where? Where are we starting?

Let's do what I mean. It depends. Do you want to bring in a songwriter? Like an engineer. Who do you want to bring in? You're just making the perfect song. All right. So let's let's start with. We'll start with producers. All right. Good place to start. Yeah, because they they make the music, right? That's what they do. All right. Um dang. I like this question a lot. Okay, I I hate to steal KPs on this one, but I I gotta go Quincy Jones. Yeah, yeah. Is the default. Yeah. KP does not own the right to Quincy Jones in the ideal audio. And he wasn't the first one to say that. That's what I'm saying. Like, he didn't. He didn't trademark that one. I was thinking like through my mind, I'm thinking like, like, like, of course, Yay and Pharrell and Timberland, like just something my favorites, but I'm like Quincy Jones. You don't get better than Quincy.

You don't. Yeah. So yeah, we got we got Quincy. Okay. Um, what's what's next? Artist on the hook, artists on the verse. Yeah, we're going Khalid all day. Of course. Yep. Just the whole. Just Quincy Khalid. Is that is that it? There we go. Ideal audio. There we go. Done. Done. Maybe win on the second verse. Okay. Okay. But I would like to know. Does as someone who is such a strong songwriter, does Khalid work with writers often? Nah, not really. Wow. He's interesting. Kind of inch. I mean Pop Star. He he writes, what he writes is real. And so, I mean, he has collaborated with songwriters, but it has to be so organic. It can't be a setup session. It's almost like the homie. Yeah. It'd have to be like suggest a line. Right. Yeah. But he, everything he writes is real. It comes from like real life experiences vicariously through other people. Like he he's he's not um, he's not sugarcoating anything.

Yeah. Shock coating. Quincy Jones, Khalid. That's it. There you go. Who gets? Sorry. So we need to get it. Court, what is something about music managing and just the industry that you would like to see changed? Okay. That's a good question. Um, I would like to see. All right, I'm I'm gonna use this as far as because I want to speak out to to the people that that are really watching this. You can look at this camera. Okay, this camera right here. I was been looking over here. Okay. The corner one is okay too. You can look wherever you'll look right here. But I would say, especially for young managers, right? More mentorship. Because mentorship is very important. Um, I wouldn't be where I am today if it isn't for Shaka Zulu, if it isn't for Jeff Dixon, Tango Hay, um, who runs Compound, he has Neo. Like, I I remember the instances where I couldn't afford to, you know, buy my food, but like those guys will be like, yo, I'm gonna fly you to LA and I'll be in a meeting with like all these big executives. So I know as like a young manager, you want it so bad because I wanted it so so bad.

But don't be afraid to have mentors, and even if if you have a great artist, like don't keep it all to yourself sometime if you have someone that's trustworthy. Of course, you don't want to be with a snake that's gonna steal your artist. But if it's someone that's trustworthy that's giving you good advice, don't be afraid to bring them in on it. Because you're gonna get to the level that that that you keep working, you're gonna get there. And I think mentorship is just so so important, especially being young, because I I was there where I wanted all of the praise. I wanted people to know that I did it. But it it was people like Shaka, like Jeff, like Tango, and I'm missing other people as well, that were really there for me that taught me the game. And that's what I try to do now.

I try to bring other people in meetings with me, like young people. If I'm going to, I don't care if I'm in a meeting with the head of the label. I'll bring like some young people with me, be like, yo, these, this this is my team right here. And because that helped me so much. Just I I didn't need to be in a meeting saying anything. I just need to sit there and be quiet and learn. Yeah, yeah. So mentorship. Fire answer, man. Both accepting it as a younger player in the game and both offering it. Offering it as a senior player. Yeah, we we have we have to do that, man. Love that. Yeah, Court, you've just purchased the new Tesla AI robotic personal assistant. Whoa. Okay. That is not a real thing, but I'm inventing it. Oh, I was like, shit. Sounded kind of real. It'll do anything though for you. What are the first three tasks that you put it to work for? What do you immediately set it to do?

First three things that personal chef. Got it, gotta eat good, gotta keep it healthy. Yes. Um I hate to drive. So to be my driver. Tesla actually already has that, so that's great. Yep. Mm-hmm. So personal chef, driver, and what would the last thing be? Hit the music real quick while I'm thinking. Chef driver, and what what can this robot do for me? Um the only limit is your imagination. I don't know, Ben, you gotta help me out. What can this driver do for me? Uh I just wanna I just want to eat good check your emails or something, maybe. AI already does, yeah, yeah. True. Could type out responses that you could like glance over, confirm, and send. There you go. That's the third type of thing. Type your replies. There you go. All right. Based on what you think. Thank you for the help.

Thanks, Andrew. I was born. There you go. Yeah, but I I I have to eat good, so you know, that's important. Yep. You just started managing a brand new artist, no followers on social media, no connections, but the most fire music. Yep. This is kind of like the Khalid story almost, but like maybe this will be better, like in clip form. Okay. Um, what are the first three actions you guys take together? We're gonna get in the studio. That's the first thing. First, we're gonna we're gonna make some fire music. So it's still all about the music. All about the music. Still all that's like people do get it twisted, especially if you're trying to build like career artists. Like it's still about the music. Yes, man, bro. Come on. What are we doing it for? I think people think that like as much as we talk about content, I think people think that we don't think it's all about the music, but like it's all about the fucking music. It starts today. I mean, content is important, but you gotta have fire music in order to support the content. Yes. That's it. I agree. So we'll say content second. Okay.

Make some fire music, you know, build some content, and then after that, we're gonna super serve our fan base. We're gonna even we start off at 20 fans. We're gonna we're gonna go on Twitter and be like, yo, meet me at this mall. So good. Yeah. No one does it. Nobody. No one does these. But like Tizo being on FaceTime with his fans for eight days straight. Yeah. Gotta love it. That was just amazing. I I was just like, yes. You gotta love it. That's why he's winning and gonna win if he keeps doing shit like that, super serving the fans. He's gonna keep winning. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. We have to do we have to do better, bro. A little more. So like we're gonna for sure. We're gonna talk better. Right after this. A great khite, a great Khalit song, by the way. What is? I said better. A great Khalit song. Oh, better, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's one of the top five with a billion and a half fucking streams. Yeah, we we know, man. We know it. Last one with a short answer. Court, what is your favorite curse word? I try not to cuss, but um He's such a good guy, dude.

I said I try I've cussed a little bit on the pod. Maybe I guess it's like damn. Okay. But damn is such a like biblical one, you know. It's like damn in hell. Damn it, dude. It don't really count. You know what I mean? It counts. Damn, damn, damn, damn. A classic song. So good. Oh my god. What are you guys' favorite outcast album? Oh my gosh. Mine's AT aliens, but good one. Maybe Equipment Eye. Yeah. They're all good. Any of them. They're all good. Except maybe Idle Wild if you count that, but even that was pretty good. You know, whatever. Anyway. Uh moving on to part two. This is the this or that. Okay. Two choices, you pick one. Here we go. RAM! Starting with Kendrick or Kanye. For what? There's no further context. No further information. We're gonna go for fashion? We're gonna go yay.

Okay. Politics? Never mind. Um TikTok or YouTube? Um YouTube. American teen or free spirit. Damn, that's a good one. American teen. Okay. Wasn't that good? You answered pretty fast. Uh drums or flats. I don't eat them. Pescateria, man. Oh yeah. Do your research, Henry. You didn't know that shit. I know. I didn't have that in the notes. But like, which do you feel like you would? It was like a filling. It's not a question. Move on. It was like an impossible. Ben, I will mute your mic right now. God damn it. Damn, he really muted him. Yeah, this is one of my favorite things to do. We'll go flats. Okay, in your background. Okay. In your background. Couldn't you have said like crab or shrimp? I don't know. Anyways. Hard rock or k-pop. K-pop. Rich or happy? Happy. Thank you for answering that quickly. Yeah. He delicked disgusted at you for actually asking it too. And I'm so proud.

You can be rich and miserable is terrible. Yeah. Some people are like, oh, we're crying my Lambo. I'm like, you're a fucking dumbass. Sorry. Anyway. That's the worst cry in the world. I've been passionate about that one. Yeah, for sure. Silly socks or silly hats? Silly hats. Discover new artists or binge your favorites. Discover new artists. And finally, go full-time rapping and singing or leave the music industry. Full-time rapping singing. Dude, he's going back on the mic, Henry. Did you like you can tell he still wants to make it, bro? Uh C Stu, or like, what's the rap name? C Stu. I had a couple. One was John Doe. Ooh. Yep. Oh, God. That was one of them. How do we feel about that one now? Um, yeah. I don't know. It could have been a lot better. I don't think I like it. And and then uh and then one one a lot of a lot of people who know me like back in the day, like they kind of took like uh instead of court, it was like coat because being from Atlanta is like kind of the southern draw around. Yeah, instead of like instead of Courtney, it's like coat.

Yeah. So any time somebody like yo, coat, I know of somebody that's known me like a long time. Long time. Okay. But like coat love was like a name. And that's a lot better than John Doe. Yeah. It is better. Yeah, it's better than the John Love. No, yeah. For sure. And like people now that see me, they'll be like, Coat Love. I'll be like, yeah, you've known me for 15 years. Oh, that's the same. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. To maintain this relationship. Exactly. This is like put it in the notes. So look, let me run time. How do you spell coat? C-A-O-C. Move on. Okay. This last part is the word association. I'm gonna say one word. Just give me the first word off the top of your head. Gotcha. You know how it goes. There's no correct answers. Think everything through, so you know you might have to hit the button for me. I'm just unacceptable. Just go fast. This is the one thing the one section that you should not think. We do not want you thinking about it. No thinking aloud. No thinking. Just fast. Alright, let's go. Quick. Rapid. Rapid face, not the slow snail rampage.

It's not. Starting with hip hop. He's already oh my God. Stop. Just move on. Coat Love. Coat Love is failing us. The first thing I thought about was no, like hip, like hip-hop since 19. Go ahead. That was the first thing that I thought of. That's what you should have said immediately. As in the person? Yeah. Yeah. I just thought I just thought of him. Is it hip hop since 1978? Yeah, it's his Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. He's a legend, too. It's the first thing I thought about. That's fine. Festival. Large crowds. Vinyl. Keepsake. Taco. Tuesday. Election. Oh. It's the year. It's the year. It's the year. It's the year. That's what I feel with the election. It's the year. Okay, I'm not gonna say anything that might give you your answer anymore. Okay.

Super Bowl. Taylor Swift. Cannabis. Weed. Hopscotch. Jump. Passport. Travel. Ninja. Turtle. Atlanta. ATL Shouty. Telekinesis. What the fuck is that? OnlyFans. Thirsty. Lil. Boosie. Right. Hand. Let's go. This has been Courtney Stewart. Coat Love. Court. Joe. Josinko. Oh show. Man, if y'all did not pick up game from this diamond-selling super manager, I really think this is not the right platform for you at this voice. Or maybe we suck at our jobs. I don't know. It's possible. But appreciate you coming on, man. As always, please like, comment, subscribe, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcast, leave us a five star review. If you fuck with this interview, we are here each and every week. And until next time, Henry, what are we doing?

Getting out of here. Get the fuck out of here. Peace, y'all. Peace. One more time. Hey.