JRich Interview: The Business of Engineering (Offset, Yeat, Lil Yachty)

That's why I'm so big on like teaching, you know, musicians about how to build their credit, how to make an LLC so they can write certain expenses off. I have a passion for knowing where all the money and music comes from. Learn. Fail. Learn. Try. Don't wait. I saw a clip from the offset set it off Atlanta show. And it looked absolutely fucking bananas. Yeah. Like I was blown away. Man, it's an amazing thing to be a part of, man. He puts a lot of hard work into everything he does. He is, you know, focused, you know, and I'm just happy to be a part of it, you know. So yeah, for sure. So like the set it off album was was that the because he, you know, he only has three, I think, solo albums or two solo albums, even? Because he has the one with uh Father of Four.

Father of Four was before that. Set it off. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, because then there's the other one that's at the collab project. right? Yeah, with Way Out. Yeah, so did is this is this your first time engineering? No, I worked on Father of Four. Oh, you did? Okay, so let's let's maybe like compare and contrast like those recording sessions. Obviously, you know, were you new to set at that point? Like how I guess how deep were y'all in to working together with that, you know, project. That was 2019. Yeah. Five years later, or sorry, four years later, 2023, set it off. Let's just like kind of like compare and contrast how different those those projects were. You know, like when you go through different eras and you can appreciate both eras. yeah. You know, it's like I've worked with a lot of artists, you know, so I've been around and you know, I have also like, you know, been in the grind and gutter uh with a lot of artists, but when I got with offset, it was like a professional level that I had to kind of like catch up to. You got called up to the majors.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You were you were in the, you, you know, you were in the farm league. You were doing your thing, probably. I was doing my thing, you know, and I'm The Minors. Pretty well known like with the artists I work with. It was like, you know, things I was doing, but it was just like the speed at which he records at. Mm-hmm. I had to catch up to, you know, um how, you know, professional, like, like, how like you want to be in the studio every night. How have you had to kind of like be on go to a different level? So I feel like Father of Four, like I had to kind of catch up and like learn him, and then like set it off was different. Cause after that, I've already like worked with him. We're kind of in a groove, and it was like, you know, we kind of spent a lot of time on the different records we worked on. And like it was like a good, it's a special kind of relationship that you got with set it off because the time that was really put into like some of the records, and like, you know, like uh it's definitely a special place. But it like Father of Four is always home.

It's like, okay, you know, this is this is the origin story. Yeah. Did you find yourself uh not having time for some artists when you started locking in when he wants like a 12-hour session every day? Oh no, like it's kind of like every engineer kind of like locks in with an artist at a certain point. So it's like you have an era where you're working with this artist, or like I have an era when I've worked with Jotty when I did uh Lil Boat with him on a lot of records, and we were working out of an apartment, and I have my era when I was working with Yeet a lot of times in the beginning. Or there's certain errors you have where you kind of locked in and engineers get to know the personality of an artist and like, you know, y'all kind of lock in and get some good work in. I want to maybe just like for our audience who's a lot of aspiring artists, I think like understanding maybe what are some of the like unique things about each of those artists' recording processes, right? So like let's maybe look at like Yeet, Yachty, and set, right?

And let's just think about maybe just something about their process that's very like unique to each of them, right? When I met Yeet, he had like a hundred followers. Like uh, I was more so coming in on his, like a manager, kind of like helping Yeet. you. You get what I mean? Like you're helping build his process versus fitting into a process that's like. Yeah, like not I wasn't really recording him. I'm the kind of guy that was like, yo, here's the template I use. How'd you find him? I was still working with Yachty at the time. And uh he reached out and we were just I I checked my DMs and he sent me a record, and at the time I was rapping. Okay. And that was kind of like my play, like when I first started engineering, because I was like, I'm gonna get myself some features. Yeah, like I was a rapper, and I was like, when I met my mentor, he just passed away. His name is Stank Phrase. He's tatted, I mean, big phrase is tatted my face. It says Stank Phrase.

Oh wow. Because he taught me how to engineer. And where all my friends were like rapping and like under him and working with him, and I kind of came to him like, yo, instead of just I rap, I'm trying to rap, but instead of just, you know, uh saying when you gonna let me rap on your beats, like let me rap on your beats, like what can I do to help you? Like, you know, so he was like, yo, you can engineer for me. And you know, that one thing led into me like trying to, you know, always offer more to to artists or people that I want to work with or be a part of. So like when I would work with different artists, I would be like, you know, like uh engineer you for free. I pay for the studio time, but just like But I get a 12. Give me a feature, like, shout me out, shout my tag out on the record. Yeah. You know, like I was just trying to, uh, and that's something I preach. It's called cash or credit. It's like so many people would be focused on the cash, but I realized, like, yo, I can't really charge people for engineering if I don't have my name out there. So any popping artists, especially like in the SoundCloud era, the beautiful SoundCloud era.

Oh, like all of them. The glory days like I would work with Fonny, I would work with Yachty, uh, me and Swag Hollywood and Richie South had a tape. Like, I was investing my own money, like just trying to work with any artists like coming up, you know, and that's why I would fuck with Yeet because I was like, oh man, he's hard. Let me. pay for features. Well, yeah, what'd you see in him? He was just hard. He was just hard and I'm not gonna lie. He worked for his shit. Like, I was like, yo, maybe you should do the do engineer yourself so you don't have to do, no. He engineers himself. He probably makes his own beats. Like the man was working so hard. There was a time I remember I pulled up on him, we was talking, and I was like, yo, how many songs you did this month? He showed me his catalog. he did like 120 songs in a month. 120 songs in a month. And then I we would like release records. So I was like, all right, we're releasing this record.

And me, I'm trying to like invest money, and I'm not really having money like that. So I'm like, man, you're gonna drop the record before I even can put money to help you, or we gotta get it mixed in master. He's like, man, fuck all that, man. We I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping, I'm dropping. So like where he's at is a testament to his hard work and ethic. Hell yeah. Well, I know it's a little late in the episode, but folks, we got Jay Rich on the podcast. Let's go. Let's go. I was like, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't find a place to like dodge in there, you know what I'm saying? It was like it's like double dutching. But no, obviously, you know, you heard the man. I mean, you know, engineering for some of your favorite rappers. Um, you just an entrepreneur at heart, too. I feel like you just really love business and trying to figure out how you can help people, right? And obviously, like, you know, make plays for yourself too. Uh you know, former quasi manager to Yeet, who now everyone knows and loves, right? Um, so yeah, this dude is a legend in the city. We're blessed to have him on the pod right now.

We are blessed to have him on the pod. Um, but no, man. Just here to give game. Just here to give game. That's what we do here. Yeah. So what was your favorite, you know, memory from working on set it off? Because it sounds like obviously Father of Four has a you know special place in your heart, but like is there, you know, one I just love because he just took his time. Like he. how long did he take? I think we was recording for like a year or two. Okay. And I just remember him, like first time he was like, bro, I need you, let's let's let's lock in, create some real dope shit. And like we would record so many songs, and he'd be like, okay, we got a track list, and then he'd be like, you know what? Nah, we need to go even harder. It would just, it was just working on a different level. Like, people don't know he like, you know, like organized a lot of the instruments himself. Like we had instruments come at it. Like, you know, it's kind of cool to like, you know, when you could really bounce ideas off with the artist that really wants to be a part of the whole process. So he's open to that.

He's you're doing a lot of that back and forth kind of with him. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it like also with like vocal production? Are you giving feedback on takes? Like maybe you could say that one better, that kind of thing, or does he kind of know? It's both. Like sometimes I'll be like, you know, let's do that one over, or sometimes he'll be like, you know, we'll record it 20 10 times and he'll be like, one more time. You know, so it's one more time. That's where the name comes from. That's where the name comes from. Yeah. Thank God he just we didn't pay him to say that folks. I promise it's not everything. But no, I I I think that's an interesting topic I wanted to definitely touch on, right? Is like, you know, you've been four or five years. Maybe six, seven. Okay, wow. Okay. So at what point do you feel like you really earned his trust? Because I feel like what Henry's saying, you actually commenting and like throwing in suggestions, like I I would assume you maybe didn't come out the gate. Especially with an artist who's already at that level. You know, you didn't help build him up. It just comes with time, man. You come with time, and then you know, you also can't be like a scared engineer either, but it just comes with time and like, you know, reading the room and and and knowing, you know, when you build your trust with and that and that goes for any artist.

Like, is that just people skills? Yeah, it's just having good people's skills. It's like, you know, when I work with Yachty, it's the same thing. Or, you know, when I work with any rapper, it was like, you know, you just gotta take your time. Because at the end of the day, you know, in a lot of situations, you know, you have to recognize that okay, this artist has already achieved so many things without me. So maybe instead of looking at what, you know, I need to teach this artist, or what I need to put this artist on game, because I'm such a creator, like, you know, maybe I can learn something too. Like, you know, so like it's the same thing with engineering. Like, like engineers, um, I feel like should work so much more together because the engineer that just started yesterday could find out a short key that you never knew about and you've been engineering for 10 years. Change your whole fucking world transforms the session. Change the whole fucking game. Yeah. Like one of the uh short keys that I learned. Let's say you just press play, right?

And the artist decides, like, okay, we're just gonna start rapping. And you didn't even see it coming and you thought you missed it. But if you press three and record a little space in the end, it doesn't, you can drag it down and then pull it back and get the whole tape. Go back in time. I do it all the time. Yeah, it's just like, yo, what the fuck? Because all you do is press play and press play, and sometimes you're thinking they're just listening. But they just start rapping. Or they might start mumbling and then but and then you could just tell after being locked in with the artist, like, oh, they might want to rehear that mumble, or you know, that might be a take they want it. And they'd be like, you know, you you just press and play, and next thing you know, they're like, keep that. And you're like, wait a minute, three, yeah, record and drop it, go back in time. Go back in time, and I kept it. So yeah, that's massive. I use that all the time. That changed my game, like at a point where I thought I was like, oh man, I know everything, but no, I feel like everyone that we have on here is always trying to pick up game from like the younger generation or like the new generation, right? Because sometimes you're just stuck in your ways and you just have a way of doing things, and it's it got you to a certain point.

So it is almost like maybe I don't need to look out, you know, well, you know, look around and see what else other one, you know, other engineers are doing. But I mean, that's just not true, you know what I mean? So all the greatest, I feel like are always trying to learn from their mentors, but also trying to learn from honestly, like their mentees or like people that they, you know, see that are coming in the game, right? And these kids coming up now that are just born with like iPads in their hands and they're just they're like playing Fortnite and shit and they're just so fast and they're coming in engineering, they can like just do the craziest, like, you know, we're competing with them now. That that also works with artists. Like my whole thing that I really crave to work with and work on is like what's coming next, you know, like what's going on. Like, um, for instance, somebody that I like working with right now is uh Tony Snow. Oh, yeah, we love Tony. He's a hard Atlanta artist. So like whenever I can work with him, I don't charge. I'm just trying to lock in. And like, um, my brother JR director, he has this uh thing called Real One, and he does a he did a project with him. So I'm like, all right, cool, let me tap in.

But I love tapping in with JR because he's always telling me like what's going on, like the whole way with Anisha right now, Yep. and like Spook and like the rappers going on. Yo, Spook did a guest performance at our concert. Yeah, that's hard. Like, I'm trying to be in and all that. Like he was the first one to put me on to like boss man D Lo like like six, seven months ago. So I'm getting around my guys, I'm listening to the project, and then next thing you know, he starts going crazy. So it's like I'm I'm a big fan of like, yo, everybody tries to network vertically. You need to network diagonally. Try to get to someone that's like popping now, like try to offer your services, try to, you know, maybe buy them some studio time, you know, when they'll really need it and appreciate it, you know, instead of waiting until someone's a big ass celebrity with a label budget. they don't need you anymore. And you're in your DM, then their DMs talking about, you know, uh uh please, I I have a of a degree, I'm I'm pretty good. Like, like help me.

Like man, it's it's huge what you're saying right now. Like, I don't I don't think you understand. Like being willing to place bets on people and like take risks. Yeah, like that's huge. The fact that you're open to buying rapper's studio time when you should be being the one hype, like you know, in the tradition in the stereotypical traditional way. Like, but I feel like if you're if you're creative with your business, this is something we talk about all the time. It's like y'all are creative with your art. Why are we not thinking creatively when it comes to the business side of things? Like that's an investment on your end. I I used to do it all. I remember back in the day, I used to do power shoots. Am I supposed to know that? Power shoots is when you get a bunch of photographers together and they take pictures of whoever, right? So what I would do is I would find artists that I would think, you know, are gonna come up or like would appreciate a free power uh photo shoot from uh a big photographer. Yeah.

So a lot. And then what I would do is I would invite the public so they could be in the mix and like be taking pictures around these artists. So like I had Saha the Prince come to one, I had uh 21 Savage. Actually, that picture on his first mixtape. Yeah, like that was done at one of the power shoots. Uh really? Bro, let's steal this idea. This is a genius idea, J. Rage. We're getting All the big rappers to show up. Like so. smart. Or maybe we can do it one more time. I know. Should we just try and cut him out of his own fucking business? Since he said one more time, I think we made it. happen. We almost just cut him out, bro. Yeah, yeah. We were so close to cutting him out. But Everybody was there, like, uh, I think Jacquees came and it was so easier than I thought. Like, yeah, like why wouldn't they want that? They it's it's it's about providing value. That's how you get people to show up and shout out to Keys open doors. Like, like like I'll hit her. She's the We love Keys. We're texting with her today. She's a reason why I kind of got in the game too. Like, I remember seeing her, she was managing like Fat Kid's Brother at the time. I was in college, and I was super eager.

The two nine days. Yeah, and I was like, yo, I'm trying to get in the game. She was like, uh you should intern at Mind's Eye, you know? And like Mind's Eye was like this graphic design t-shirt place, and like from interning there, I would get free studio time. But like I'm like, I'm rapping, but not really that dope. But let my friend had just got signed by Waka Flocka, Brick Squad Monopoly, Blair Masquerade. I was like, yo, I can give free studio time to you. And then that turned into Southside and Lex Luger and Deb Anthony needing to use Mind's Eye so they could do some stuff on Watch the Throne or some shit, you know? So it's just creating value, you know, and and just being there and creating those relationships, you know, that can turn into, but like and placing those early bets, like you said, like I mean, it's a guy that you know who will buy a shit coin looking for the 100X. That's the same thing as like betting on an artist early, you know. Like I will definitely buy a shit coin.

It's easy to buy NVIDIA right now, but like, you know, I don't know what you're fucking talking about. It's it's a company that makes chips, you've heard of it. Oh, I thought you're talking about shit coins. Well, that's shit that's in the stock market. You went from shit coin to a real company. Yeah, that's the guy. How? why am I supposed to follow that? logic? Because one of them is, you know, shitty, and one of them is, like, big blown up. It's like fuck. shitty and big gone crazy recently. So he's bet he's betting on the little guys because those have the potentially the biggest returns. It's About investing. So yeah, so was it super calculated at that point, or were you just like having fun, or like, you know, where was your mind at when you were starting to try to like put all these plays together, right? Like just hustling. You just gotta keep hustling, like try to be a dot connector and add value, you just. Um and that is what I've always been on. Like not being too proud, you know. At times I done had to be an assistant on the road. At times I done had to wait long hours.

At times, you know, you just gotta be ready to put in the work. Yeah, something we've you know talked about. I can't remember who the fuck said it, but basically it's 190 episodes, it's okay. I know. I don't remember what. But but but the gist was basically like there's too many rappers or even just, you know, creatives in general, or people in the music business that try to put on this front of like they've already made it and and they're not able to humble themselves and pay, you know, maybe play those roles, right? It's just like the entitled nature of it's in I think it's maybe specific to hip hop and rap a lot at the time. I'm gonna just be honest, but like the entitled nature of people who are like just getting started and like trying to figure shit out, where they think that they only need to do it this way because that's like what they see at the highest level or something. But like when you're trying to build something, yeah, all that being cool, you you know, like trying to do all that, that's cool. But my whole thing is you got money or do you not? Did you win or do you lose? Are you putting numbers on the board or are you not? Are you staying at the crib or you outside?

You know, so like and that comes with you know, just keep hustling, like all that, all that fake facade of what's going on. Like, I don't I don't get into all that. Like, yeah, is we is we helping people? Is we is we making good music, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Willie Joe from Generation Now said there's a lot of picture taking ass rappers or something. Like, I feel like that's the thing, man. It's like that was a good one. E even managers, ARs, people that like are in the music business. There's so much facade when like no one's doing like the work sometimes, bro. I don't feel like enough results are actually happening. Yeah, I still don't feel like I know enough or I've done enough. Like where do you feel like you're lacking still? Like, you know, what I mean, you know, where's your focus at on like how Jay Rich can get better right now? Because you've obviously come a long way. clearly. Yeah, for Sure, for sure, for sure. Uh, but you know, I want to diamond record. I want to win a Grammy for being a good engineer. Oh, wow. I wanna, you know, I want, you know, I want to just keep working, man. I want to be multi-millionaire, you know.

So, like, gotta keep hustling, put numbers on the board. What's the best part of your job? Uh, there's no set schedule. That's the best, but that gives me anxiety, bro. No, it's it's the best part. I like schedules. But he can make his own schedule. I like schedules. Yeah, like a company gives you your schedule. Yeah, I'm super focused this week. So I'm getting up at 6 a.m. in the morning and I'm working out. Uh, but next week. Maybe I need four days off to chill and reset. You know, what I mean, I can do that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. And the best part of my job is traveling. How do you record on the road? What's that like? Oh, yeah, you gotta have that set up. What is the road set up like for you? And and I guess set or any other? these days. I feel like you don't need a whole lot though, right? I mean, you little interface. Actually, I met 40 on the Migos Drake tour. Uh, and he sat me down and he gave me like a list of a cool ass like road set up and was just Breaking it down. So it wasn't like that serious. Well, yeah, but that's fine.

I think people need to know. Yeah, what was on there. It's a good pair of headphones and an Apollo. Yeah, he kind of broke it down to me. Was like, yo, man, it's this is what we use. It's not that serious, you know. It pretty much boiled down to just being like some regular shit. Like you get your two eights or whatever speakers you want. You want to bring a sub, you know, you want to bring two headphones, headphone splitter, you know, you bring your little interface, your little Apollo, you good to go. You get what I'm saying? It's funny how reverse I've gone in my engineering career. I was always the guy like, oh shit, new plug-in. You know, I kind of fall for the marketing, like this is gonna level up my engineering. Now I gotta pay this monthly subscription, add this plug in to my repertoire. If I'm gonna stay the best engineer, I need and now all of a sudden I have like 50 plugins from 25 different manufacturers. Yeah. And as I've gone along, now I'm more on the lines of like, shit, logic stock plugins, pretty good. They're pretty good.

And if I forget my iLok somewhere, they're still gonna work. If I want to stop paying for half of these, I can still get the job done. So just really looking at like what do you actually need? How do these things actually work? Understanding like the fundamentals of what every plug-in does, you realize that like even the guys at the very top have pretty basic like vocal change. And and and to me, it's like I like recording more than I like mixing. Why is that? I like making the record with the artists, coming up with the creative for the record, you know, how the record is formed, you know, like you got a little producer heart in here. You know, like drops or how we're gonna do the vocal production, like going back and forth with like, yo, where's the what's the hook gonna be? Or like, you know, what do you how do you feel if I put this right here, you know, and then it's kind of like all right, let you mix it. You know, you know? All right, see you tomorrow. Yeah, like I like being with the artists and we like kicking it and vibing and being the creators in the session. You know, like I feel like, you know, that used to be, I guess the producer, but now it's the I don't feel like the recorded engineer gets enough credit sometimes Were there producers at this point.

No, I feel like I feel like it's always like, oh, if you're a recording engineer and you don't mix, like, yeah, yeah, what the fuck is you doing? You're a studio intern. Yeah, yeah, it's like, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know. what I'm saying? There will be no recording engineering slander on this podcast. Yeah. We stand with our engineers. No, but he's right though. Like, these days, It's true, man. These days, the typical recording engineer is making production decisions. They're not getting points. And the mixing engineer might get a point before the recording engineer, but really the recording engineer and the artist, they like True. I think it's thieves. They got the vibe that they handed to the mix engineers. Yeah, That's crazy to me. the recording engineer is with the artists all the time, and they're with them every day. And they're that the recording engineer is normally the the person thugging, like, yo, I'm on the road with you. Uh I got all the hard drives Oh,

yeah. Those hard drives are the most important part of this whole thing. And just your presence in the studio has a greater effect than emailing the mixing engineer the files. Yeah, they email back a cleaner version of the same thing. That's not just discredit the amazing mixing and engineer. Of course. Oh, yeah. Like, I love those sessions when it's like the mixing engineer, the recording engineer, and people are putting their heads together. Like, you know, shout out to Baines and TZO that uh mix set it off. I love those guys. I feel like the Avengers. Every job has a certain amount of respect. Like, you know. But they're all important. Like, even, you know, and and it's kind of like that. That's what I think about. Even like, you know, there's a lot of unsung hero songwriters or, what do writers get? Oh, sure. Writers get writers. So, like, you know. Trash when it comes to respect. They don't even get their fucking name on the Spotify credits. Most times. It's disastrous. Like, you know, or AR that puts it all together. Like, you know, like, yo, you guys should work with this writer, and you need to be working with this producer, and it comes out to be a hit, or let's get this person to mix it.

And so you used to always want to be in AR, huh? Yeah. I mean. Do you still want to? Is that I kind of always like had an eye for talent because that was how I did my engineering. Like, I had uh with Frays, Stank Frays, R.I.P. Frays. R.I.P. We used to open up a lot of studios and would work. And I and that's how I got became, you know, even more of a hustler. Like, okay, we gotta pack this thing out, you know. But then I started realizing I didn't have any credits. So, like, when we kind of did our own things, I met this person named Too Official. Too official. Too official. It's the GOAT. Um sounds important. He was kind of like how I got my start in QC. He had me like doing promo runs for Rista Kid, and he would always like put me into the game to like record a session. So he hooked me up with this studio and was like, yo, you can stay here. I just need you to record my artists, and then from there, I got a job, and then I was like, you know what? I have a job, I'm gonna record artist for free. So that's how I started working with Yachty. Bro, doing free work in the beginning is so clutch.

Like, yeah, I feel like everyone has worked for free. You know, in the beginning, but not everyone has that luxury. It's kind of the thing, but then get a fucking job. Yeah. I hear you. Because I just look, man, that just goes back to the whole like entire. I mean, dude, we're we've done a lot of shit for free. Sure. Let's just fucking call it what it is. Like, yeah. We're not charging people to come on to the platform. We're editing shit for free. We're doing a lot of shit for free. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um we interviewed Bankroll Got It. Uh great producers based in LA. Their whole model is they built a very nice studio. They make sick beats. They bring people in for free. They never charge for session. They pay an engineer to sit there and record. Goes back to what he's he's done, bro. And then, you know, so these artists, these big artists are, you know, if they can't get into like a label studio one day, it's like, hey. Boom, we got bankroll, free session, hard beats. They provide liquor and candy and snacks. The vibes are immaculate, bro. Like, who wouldn't want to pull up to bankroll for a fucking session? And then from there, from Yachty, I was able to like charge like the people in my DMs now.

It was like, okay. Oh, he he works with Yachty. Oh, And then my name would be like might be in the fader, or my name would be on the tags. Yeah. I started buzzling. I remember I work with Gleesh a lot. Well, Gleesh, what? Yeah, I did pew pew. Yeah. Um that's a throwback. Yeah, you can hear my tag on that. Oh, shit. Engineer tags underrated. Underrated. But like they would put it on there. Should everyone have one? Should every engineer have it? I think it's a little tags are just. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I I feel like, you know, listen to my story and then figure out what you are gonna do. Oh, yeah. To get on. Like, don't just listen to me and be like, you know, that's what I gotta do. This is my story. This is what I did. You don't have to do what I did, but whatever you do to get on is gonna be something you do. Yeah. You get what I'm saying? Man, Everybody is always like, okay, let me pay somebody real quick. Let me do this quick collab or boob. It's about consistency, just like y'all.

Y'all have 190 episodes, and y'all have dropped one every week. Yeah. So that's the resume for success. It's about find something, stay down, work, knock it out. I feel like something that I want us to do, and even though I'm the like guilty culprit here, as far as like looking left and right at what other people are doing and be like, oh, well, they did it this way. Like, maybe we should do it like that. I don't feel like we take enough risks either. And like not being afraid to just like throw our fucking tag on there. Because no one was probably throwing engineer tags. Um had you heard it? I would be so cool with the artists, they would like say my name or like that. Yeah, that's the KY engineering thing. too. And I would take it and put it in the front of the song. Or like, you know, like I think Yachty said my name in an interview, and that was my tag for a little bit. And then one time, Rome Fortune just in the beginning of the song was like, Jay Rich better wake up and record this. And that that was trending for a little bit. Were you sleeping? Yeah. But worst engineer. ever, Jay Rich. I'm actually known for sleeping in session as the sleep walker engineer.

That's your moniker. Nah, like I work so hard that I might be. He record with his eyes closed. I, yeah, I can record with my eyes closed. I promise you I can. That's why he needed that short key, bro. That's why he needed that shit. Yeah, exactly. I'm on to you, bro. But I'm not gonna lie, you ask anybody. It's almost crazy to see me working the studio. Am I lying, Andrew? Am I lying? This guy works. This guy works harder than any person that you know. Hardest worker. I believe it, bro. He has to sleep at some point. So, like, I might be recording this all and I might, as soon as I can sleep while you're trying to figure out what you're trying to rap. Yeah. And then once you're ready to record, I record Wow. I'm Sleeping while you're it's crazy. That's a superpower. People have seen it. It's crazy. I gotta see that, bro. I think my skill is that I always keep the music playing. Mhmm. I Always start it back. Yeah, I do all my editing while I'm recording. So like you you can't even, you know, notice. It keeps the vibes high. It keeps the vibe going.

I might put drops in there while I'm recording or whatever. How fun is that? It's super cool. That's gotta be the best. And it kind of like, and they hear it, you know, without you having said anything. They're like, oh, that was hard. What was that? Yeah, keep that. And you might be trying to like come up with a bar, and then you hear a couple drops in before it's time for you to rap, and now you're in the mode to like. Oh yeah. I'm in the mode right now. Yeah, that's good. Okay. Damn. Well, I was gonna ask you what your superpower was as an engineer, but it sounds like sleeping while recording. Yeah, that's a good one. I had a question. It's answered. Cross it off. Cross that one off the list. Um, but no, so one thing we talked about with I think it was Landstrip Chip, um, you know, who kind of wears multiple hats, songwriter, producer, artist, obviously, whatever. It's just about how you need to interface with like the various personalities and characters that might be in a studio session. So, you know, you already mentioned it. Sometimes you're gonna have, of course, the artist, sometimes you might have the manager, the AR, the songwriter, the producer, the homies, the girls, the whoever the fuck, right? Like, how do you go about managing those like various stakeholders within a studio session, right?

I just make sure I'm on point. Let me make sure I get to the session early. Okay, cool. If the songwriters come in, where is, you know, let me be on it early? Did the songwriter already work on some beats? Do I have them already? Are they loaded up already? Do I know the tempo? Do I know the keys? Like, you know, all right, do I have the a cappella of what the songwriter did? You know, do I have the instrumental what the songwriter actually wrote to? So that if the artist wants to write to, I mean, rap to it, it's easy. You know, okay, cool, all right, cool. A&R sent some beats. Did I already listen to all the beats so I know which ones to play because I kind of know my artist more than you know, uh, other people, because that's what the recording engineer's job. You know, you gotta do how many people are trying to get beats to you for offset? A million, like, you know, but I got a few beats though. But it's always cool though. Damn it, Henry, now's not the time, Henry. Now's not the time. Seems like a perfect time. But it's not just Offset, like, shoot your shot, bro. Shoot your shot. I'm doing a lot of sync opportunities right now, like, I post them on Baton. What's that?

It's like a a new app that just came out. He said that so like I was like, I was supposed to know it. I don't know Baton. Yeah, what's it's a new app? Sync opportunity app. No, no, no. It's an app to where it makes it easier for me to like post different opportunities or for people to send me music. Oh you get what I mean? Okay. So I I I got a profile on there, and then like I post a lot of sync opportunities and stuff like that. So since engineers, since we don't get percentage of a record, I'm always trying to make some money. Like, so if I could place some sync records from producers or artists with some extra records laying around and I can make a couple thousand or whatever I can make. Hustler, baby. You know, because bro, yeah, without making royalties, there's no making money in your sleep. Like, if you get a hit record, you know, you're making money in your sleep while people stream it. Engineer, you know, or sync. If you're not recording Royalties, yeah. Or mixing a record, you're probably not getting paid. It's tough. I gotta think. Well, imagine if I uh record a record, right?

And the label pays me with, you know, probably a couple hundred per record or whatever for a day. You know. And let's say that whatever. He didn't want to drop it, bro. What's the rate? What's the day rate, bro? What's the day rate? I want a 12-hour session with Jay Rich tomorrow. Well, actually Talk to Andrew. Actually, uh, when I first started on my own, like before I even dealt with the label, yeah, I built my built my name up with Yachty. And um Chris Williams, he was like my man's at the like, he's still my best friend, but he was like, yo, let me put you out a website. So he put my website together, and while I was working with Yachty doing like he was just shouting me out and stuff like that. Yeah, he was like, let's put your rate up there. And I was like, man, I kinda wanna be booked day rate, you know, just booked at a time to make it easier for me, because if not, I might be just cancel working with this big artist just to do two hours. It doesn't make sense.

Yeah. So I I jumped off the porch with $1,500 for 12 hours. Oh shit. So I would take the money. It's a nice day rate, bro. Yeah, yeah. It's a nice day rate, I would take the money and have to still book the studio time. Yeah, but you know, I found cool studios that would be like, yo, I'll charge you this without an engineer. So we put it up on my website, I swear, and like a couple days we were just sitting on the couch chilling, and it's like ding, ding, ding. Like, and that's when I was like, okay, cool. I love that sound. That's the sound of money. bro. Money's calling, baby. I want to hear that. But what I was really saying is like an engineer could get paid for a song, right? And let's say that song goes double platinum or mainly, we're just talking about one platinum. Because there's a plaque for each platinum. And every time you want to buy that plaque, it's like three, four hundred, maybe seven hundred dollars. I hate hearing these.

I hate hearing this, bro. We've heard this so many times about plaques. I'm like, uh, I got an invoice right now for plaques. I want a plaque. I will too. But like, fuck, bro. Why don't they fucking provide them? What's my invoice right now for? It's like $10,000? $10,000 for my plaques. And so it's like, if I pay for the plaque, I'm gonna go in debt because of how much I gotta pay for the song. Right. Right, right. Especially if I like it. If you want all of your plaques It takes nine times platinum right now. Yeah. You know, so and then they're they're only letting me buy up to seven times platinum. And I'm like, yo, I why can't we just skip to nine times so I wanted to buy it again? Yeah, they're like, nah, it don't work like that, or the label doesn't move like that. And I'd be like, what? The label doesn't move like that. You know, uh, but this is my most recent invoice for for plaques. And I was the exact number, man. Oh my god, $9,157 for plaques.

And and Andrew, they said the price is going up, right? Everything changes. all the time. Meaning, like, that's what you would have to pay to get every plaque. That's what you would have to pay. So that's why... To get the plaques. That's why I'm so big on like teaching, you know, musicians about how to build their credit, uh, how to make an LLC so they can write certain expenses off. Yes. Oh, that's why I'm so big about track it, so you can get your Yeah, what's track it. Talk about Track It. Talk about Track It, bro. Yeah, Track it is a great platform, you know. Um, I met Andrew uh through a mutual friend of mine. Shout out to Andrew in the building. Shout out Andrew. My boy Joseph Hines put me um put me into uh contact with Andrew at Track It, my boy Joseph Hines. What it is is like uh Andrew would talk to the record labels for me, you know. Like, okay, cool. If I have an invoice, uh sometimes you might not know how to work Uniport. Or sometimes you don't want to be the person to talk about this uncomfortable situation about getting paid.

Like, okay, cool. Track it steps in, talks to the label, goes back and forth, you know, and then helps you expedite your payment. So um a lot of these labels put you on net 90s, net 60s. Like I was working for explain what net 90 even means. Net 90s means you have to wait 90s. 90 days, three months before you they even start processing for you to get paid. Not for you to immediately get paid. Yeah. Like I remember I was working for a label. We're working on it 90 days later. We're working on it. Like, I remember I was working on a label, and they was like, uh, all right, submit this so you can get paid. I submitted it. I was like, all right, I'm working, waiting on my money. What's going on? You're like, okay, yeah, We'll be here tomorrow. Mind you, I'm still spending uh gas money driving out there to record this artist. And then at the same time, I was being modest. I would drive out there, I would wait around and kick it with the artists, you know, and then sometimes the artists might not record. So when the artists didn't record, I didn't even submit invoices for that day.

Oh, I do that. We know you do, man. We know you do, bro. So then I'll sometimes I'll go out and you know, I think my rate was like 35 an hour. So I'll go out. Oh, we only recorded two hours today, or we only recorded one hour today. You were honest Abe about this shit. Yeah, yeah. Because I didn't know the idea of like what a day rate was. Like it was I was losing. Like so when I met Andrew, he was like, Well, other engineers and labels get paid on day rate or other, this is how it works, or boom, boom, boom. Kind of also teaching you the game. So then it kind of made the conversation less comfortable. I mean, a lot more comfortable when they were talking to the label and just helping me get paid and then also getting advanced the money uh so you don't have to wait. That's huge. Wait those net uh means a lot. That's the biggest thing. That's actually the biggest part. You know, because I got borderline the biggest part. Like I got a son, you know, I got bills to pay, you know, like and then a lot of times you'll see these, you know, big time uh engineers working with big artists, but it's like, yo, you know, where's your where's your foundation at home? Like, where's your crib at?

Where's your you know car at? Where, Where's your money at? You know, like where's your the way he asked that last version of the question? Where's your money at? You know, and it's like and it's like almost it's like the artist might not even know, like, okay, you you you might not even know how it works to even tell you. So it's your responsibility. A lot of these engineers get mad at the artists or like try to put a lot of you know guilt on the artist to figure out something that they should be on themselves. The artist doesn't want to be involved in it just as much as you don't. And they're like, yo, do I have to pay you? Or oh, the label can pay you? Oh, cool. Go to the label. Maybe it comes out of their budget. Yeah. It's still coming out their budget, but it's like the same thing as like not paying out up front. It's like, oh all right, cool. You know, so it's like you gotta you kind of know what the game is. So like me with Andrew kind of let me know like okay this is how much people normally get paid. This is what these engineers are getting paid.

This is what you should kind of be getting paid. This is you know this is how Uniport works this is boom boom boom kind of made it easier for me. And then you know after talking to them and becoming partners with them, business partners with them on it, we kind of were talking about it and I was like you know health insurance is real important for engineers and we need to find a way to provide that to engineers who are in need because we're on the road and our health needs to be important you know because you're you're on the road doing these late night sessions you don't have time to eat right you might not have time to work out you might not have a good sleep regimen you might be in another city and get sick and you might need to go to the doctor real quick you know you might not always be able to go to the doctor in your neighborhood or city. So it's a very unhealthy career in like a lot of ways. I'm gonna be completely honest. Sitting still for 12 hours in smoke filled rooms drinking eating out late night all the things you just mentioned right then you're tired as fuck you're not working out like it can't find a recipe for success when it comes to, like, being healthy. Labels don't provide this shit, you know, they want no part of that, so now we offer it through TrackIt. so like that's huge. So now I get a health stipend every week and to pay my health insurance and uh it's wonderful.

That's crazy, man. Yeah, I think the thing I love them, you know, we were talking about about this a little bit off camera. Like, I think the thing that I also loved, you know, a lot about it is it's almost that like education and community building side of it too. Because, you know, like you said, engineers just don't necessarily know what the fuck someone else is getting or what they could be getting, right? It's just like a lack of of knowledge and information. And I feel like we're not transparent enough as just industry people. I I mean shit, I don't think there's enough transparency amongst like podcasters and content creators about like how much money there is to be made and how you can make it and like the the norms that exist or like ways to go about doing business and all the other just nuts and bolts of things, right? That's kind of like always been my passion. Like I've taught a lot of people like, oh, what? You didn't know there was YouTube publisher or you do that's why like I have a passion for knowing where all the money and music comes from. Like I wrote a record for a small artist and it ended up doing like pretty well. I was like, yo, like where's my money at?

You know, like where do I find the oh, you gotta, oh, oh, you're not supposed to sign up as your own publisher because that means you have to go collect it under ASCAP. Like, they're not teaching you this stuff where like there's so many people who, even though they're expensive, they don't know how to get their plaques. They're like, uh uh, how do I even get their plaques? Oh, you gotta get certain clearances from different labels to even get your plaques. Really? Yeah, they have to approve you. Oh that's how you get your plaques. So that's another thing that I'm working with Andrew on. Like, yo, we need to come up with a process where people could come to us and be like, you know, hey, I need to get my plaques. Okay, we'll handle the communication for you and your clearances on your plaques for you because we have certain connections to network. That's dope, man. It's just, it's just like kind of like you said, it's so much. And what I want to motivate people is there's there always people being like, um, you know what I hate? What do you hate? Everybody wants somebody to teach them something. Yeah.

Like, go learn. Go read a book. Like go online. Go Google. Why do you need a help of hand? Why do we gotta put this info on TikTok for you? Yeah, everybody. Why can't we put out a course? Like, hey, bro, I would have did that, but you ain't taught me yet. Like, what? Like, you're a grown man. Like. It's overwhelming though sometimes, I think. just to like play devil's advocate. I'm also a firm believer in exactly what you're saying. But for the record, I'm like, have you even looked it up? You know what I mean? And tried to figure it out yourself. Man, I remember uh I know I probably told the story before. I remember I worked on a record with uh Yachty and K Supreme. And on SoundCloud was going crazy millions. Really? And during the studio session, damn um Brandon's like, yo, you're going so crazy on the engineering. I'm gonna give you a producer I appreciate it. Boom, boom, boom. So I saw it going crazy on the internet. You know what I did? I didn't even have that much money.

I bought a bus ticket to New York. I Googled the SoundCloud office. I went up there, knocked on the door. Hey y'all, uh, y'all got this song on this platform. Um, Brandon said, I got a bus ticket to New York. What's going on? What? I was like, I was like, you know, what's going on? They was like, you know what? You paid me with a check or hey, is uh Mr. SoundCloud available? I'd like to talk to him right now. Like you talk to Mr. Cloud. And a lot of people can attest for me doing that. Not only did they set me up a meeting to sit down with people, um, but they also taught me how the payment works for SoundCloud. I was able to help other people get paid from SoundCloud, like Famous Dex, like other producers that even know that was a check from SoundCloud directly. Like, how does getting paid from SoundCloud work? Well, it was kind of like an admin when they say admin deals or like SoundCloud, they'll pay you. Or there's like something called YouTube Publishing.

There's another check out there that you get from these kind of plays. on services. Yeah. So it's just like, they're not going to blow you up about it. They're not promoting it. Nope. They're not telling many people about it. At the same time, it works both ways because once an artist is getting paid from the platform, they promote it more. So it was like almost like when I was making a lot of a lot of connections I make, or when I do things, it's always a win-win. Like, oh, like So it sounds like, it's like the photo shoot thing. It's like, yo, you want to connect me as the famous next team? Fucking sure. Like, you know? Yeah, because they they probably didn't have the the you know direct relationships with the artists. Or whoever, it's just all like it was all love. Like so it's always like, don't wait. Like, learn, fail, learn, try. He knows that by being a DJ. Like, you know, yeah, you I failed a lot. I love he calls you a DJ. Well, we bonded over both being DJs earlier. I know. Yeah, yeah. But it just hits home for me. We're a fucking degenerate, yeah.

Oh, I know he is. I just met you, but like, yeah, yeah. Y'all do seem cut from the same cloth, you know. But we both engineered, play golf, and trade crypto, so and drink lots of whiskey. We had a few shots before this. I don't know what they're talking about. He can neither confirm nor deny. But uh, you golf, shout out to Eastside Golf. Yeah, the guys, yeah, for sure. Yes. Yo, so I I heard the term. I I actually went on live stream last night and I was trying to get like questions from our audience, and I heard the term loudness wars. Do you know this? Of course. Okay, well, yeah, I didn't. This is an age old. I thought people were fucking with me. There were so many suggestions of questions. Like someone said, ask him about if he uses a lunchbox. Yeah, for like an Outboard gear. Outboard gear. I was like, what the fuck's a lunchbox? I thought they were fucking. I thought they were fucking with me. So loudness wars. Okay, you want to stay with that? yeah, I just want to start with loudness war. Well, lunchbox is just adorable.

I want to touch on that one. It is. Thank god. They're adorable. Okay. They are. So you know the classic piece of outboard gear. What does that mean? Yay big. What's an outboard gear? Physical piece of gear. Man. Like, you're talking to a fifth grader. Like, I'm a I'm not even a fifth grader when it comes to that. I'm like. So these plugins, these digital plugins, they're all based on real gear. Most of them. Okay. Not all of them. Most of them are based on real physical things that Boxes. with like tubes in them and cables and crazy shit. Yeah. Crazy shit. Typically, like, you know, pretty long. Okay. Heavy. You know. Yeah, I'm with you. There's these mini versions of it. These little little tiny guys. You get a lunchbox that can ho house like five little versions of all these things. And maybe for that road setup, um something like a lunchbox. Was that on 40's list? A lunchbox? Nah, nah. They're kind of niche. Then it's bullshit. I mean. 40 was kind of just like, 40 saw a young kid that was like, yo, I need to like. You had no idea.

Yeah, I had no idea. He was like, let's just start off easy. Get a laptop. Yeah, he was kind of like- two speakers, Two headphones. Like, he kind of took the nervousness out of it and like let me know. Yeah. Like, stop overthinking this. Yeah, he gave me the basis, like the setup, and like I got it on my phone. Okay. But lunchbox, needless to say, was not on it. No, the lunchbox, I don't even think um was a thing. Maybe when he told you this list, that might have been even yeah, before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But uh lunchbox is definitely a thing. Okay, they're dope I think I used it for a home setup that I did for Kwondo. Okay. We got a lunchbox. Um, but yeah, they're pretty cool. Okay. All right. So loudness wars, where do you guys stand on this? I heard there's basically like can you describe it for like you know, people that don't know what the fuck I'm talking about? So, okay, essentially, humans have this dumb thing in their brains. Okay, we do, where they perceive louder music as better. Mm-hmm. So this war started where people were making their music louder and louder and mastering it hotter and hotter and louder and louder to make it seem better.

Okay. What happens when you make your music that loud? What happened was what no, what happens when what is still happening? Oh, okay, present. When you master your shit that loud, you're losing your dynamic range. So your dynamic range is the difference between the quietest part of your song and the loudest part of your song. It's all it's just all loud. It's all so fucking loud. All the loudest. And you lose this like beauty, the the beauty of like when your song gets quiet and then it's down here, and then it gets big and you feel it feels bigger, right? Because you had this quiet part in relation to it. So now people are just squashing the shit out of their songs to compete. It sounds good in the club, and um, there's this whole debate on like, you know, is dynamic range more important or is loudness more important? So is dynamic range or is loudness more important? Which which side of the fucking picket fence do you stand on this? Is that the I don't think that's the right thing? To be honest, I mean, you know, you you gotta kinda um teeter the line, you know what I mean? I knew it.

I knew he was gonna say that. Somewhere in between, so politically correct. It's true though. You gotta teeter the line, you know, because it's also like, you know, what you hear, and it's also what the artist hears, you know, because if you want more chili on your hot dog, and I'm making you a hot dog, I can't be like, that's no more. No more chili offset. Or whoever wants it, you know, it could be just a regular client, you know. Like so many people, like I think engineers so are like sometimes they're like so like I'm right, they're wrong, like that. Sometimes you miss something that the artist is actually trying to say, like, oh, wait a minute, I hear what you're talking about now. Like, you get what I mean? You gotta like really pay attention because they might not be able to communicate it to you in engineer terms, like they might be saying, Oh, it's the EQ and really it's the compression, or really it's this when it's that, you know, or and people forget that mixing and mastering is subjective at the end of the day. Some people have, you know, their taste.

Engineers all have a taste in how they mix. Exactly. There's no correct way to mix and master. Exactly. You have your taste, you hire an engineer for their taste. Exactly. So how much of what you sounded off? Yeah, come on. How much of what you do do you feel is like super technical versus super based on like feeling and vibe, right? I'm the I'm the vibe master. So you're not even worrying about that mixer. You you handle that. I'm gonna make sure it sounds good. I'm gonna make sure where did we record it at? Could where your vocals cool? Do you have your pop filter up? Do you know where you clear? Uh where you peaking? Yeah. Were your headphones too loud? Is the artist happy? Is the artist happy? You know, that's really what it is. Like, I would notice different things, like, okay, what's my artist's favorite drink? Or let me make sure that it's in the studio. Or what's offset's favorite drink? Uh orange Fanta. Ooh. I fuck with that. I'm fuck with that. You know, might want to have an orange Fanta ready for him to drink, you know, when he's in there already.

Or, you know, I think when I was with, you know, Yachty, he likes candy and and and shit like that. You just gotta be able to, you know, like just create the vibe and like you're in you're just a vibe. You know, a vibe still isn't like a rock in the room. You don't want to be, you know, too still or too big. You know, you you're just the vibe. You're the wave. Oh. It's funny because engineering, you could either be like a great engineer could either be like invisible, like you're a great engineer because we didn't even notice you were there. You just everything flowed perfect, or you could go as far as having your whole thing that you are, your sound or your way of working, and neither one is really right or wrong. But you could potentially just be like an invisible engineer is sometimes a good thing. But someone's got to set the vibe. The vibe is always there. It's like what kind of vibe are we in? Yeah. You know, are we recording in that vibe? Ooh.

Ooh. Okay. Is it a rap song? If it's a rap song, we record it fast. I don't want to start you too far back, you know. But if this is a deep beat and you need time to think, and I could just feel it because we connected. You've been rapping, you've been rapping. Okay, let me start it back so you can hear the whole play from the beginning of the hook. So you can hear it. You don't even have to tell me to do that sometimes. I just know I can feel the vibe. Like, that's more so what I'm going for. Like, okay, oh, you're still trying to get this bar. You you might not even remember what we've been rapping about this whole time. Let me just start it back for you. Or that's a big one. Like starting it over for context when artists start to lose the idea. It's like, all right, let's play this from the very beginning and remember what we're doing here. That's a big one sometimes. Damn, bro. I feel like I'm ready to get in my next studio session, bro. Just rip some shit, bro. We'll talk about uh a discounted day rate with Jay Rich maybe after the cameras turn. I cannot afford him, bro. No, no, no. Even at a significant discount. Jay Rich is not gonna be my engineer.

But Henry, I hear you. We've entered a final segment of the podcast. Let's go. Yeah. Everyone's favorite segment. Jay Rich recording me as a rapper just sounds like a lot of things. I'd watch and like comedy. I'll shoot content. This is the Rapid Fire Rampage with Jay Rich. It's gonna be a three-part rampage. I'll explain them as we go. We're just gonna start with some short answer questions. Let's get into it. Let's go. Starting with, what is the greatest music business podcast on the planet? One more time. Let's go. We're gonna edit that to where you didn't have to think about it at all. Who's the greatest recording engineer on the planet? Hold on, hold on, hold on. It's on the tip of my fucking tongue. There was one guy.

No. We'll get back. Yeah, we'll come back to it. I don't know. yeah. But you know, back to the episode with Jay Rich. Yeah, sure, sure. What is he doing? Um software company? I don't know. Yeah. Exactly. Shout out to TrackIt. He's probably proud of that answer, actually. Like, you should have said something a little more degrading, you know. Probably, yeah. That's like a good idea. So that was stung a little bit like it stung for us. Yeah. True, true. God damn. Anyway, um, you kind of asked half this question, but I'm gonna read it. What's your favorite and least favorite part of engineering? Come on now. You know, there's some. At least not getting a percentage. Ooh, yes. Okay. He's like, wait, why did I have to think about that? Yeah, that was an easy answer. And favorite? Uh just that bond you create with that artist, like, especially being that uh a recording engineer. It's just a different kind of bond you create.

I love that. Jay Rich, give us your three quickest tips for leveling up your engineering skills for a beginner engineer out there. Uh get your business in order. Big. You know, get your business in order. That is like, you know, get your LLC, uh, business credit, you know, make sure you're with TrackIt. Yes. You know, things like that uh would really help you. Number two, focus on networking. You know. Uh a lot of things are out there. You know, if you're a part of ASCAP, ASCAP sends like newsletters out. I love their newsletter. You know, you could pop out, don't be afraid to go join shit and like network. You know, it's not that hard to be a part of the Grammy shit. So you can vote, like, just do your research and you know, network and what we were talking about earlier, like networking diagonally. Don't be afraid to like uh work with people uh for free or like put your 10,000 hours in. And the third tip is get a job.

Dude. Like, Don't just focus if you're like, don't be so artistic where you're thinking, like, oh man, fuck getting a job. I don't I'm doing this because I can't, you know, uh, because I don't want to get a job. Because if you're thinking like that, then uh to be honest, uh engineering is a way harder job than any nine to five to me. So you're thinking wrong. You're actually signing up for another time consuming job that could be a lot more, you know, stressful than you think. So, you know, don't put too much stress on yourself. Like, if you're just starting out and you just got your equipment and you just graduated school, like just keep learning, like and just take it, take your own route. Like, I I think I went to school like after I was engineering for a big time artist, and I still went to school to learn, like, never be afraid to keep learning and humble. Yeah, for sure. Always be humble, like, you know. I love that.

The getting a job thing is huge, bro. I know. Dude, everyone's everyone's too good for that. Thinks they're so fucking cool because they're a starving artist only, and it's like, I promise you, that's not cool. I can't afford anything. Yeah, you're not working. And it's not that hard to learn about credit in taxes. You you'd be surprised. Financial literacy. There's so many benefits of you know, having that credit card or like business credit. So once you get that money, you can hang on to some of it. Important. All right, Jay Rich, we're going back in time to the day that you first started engineering. You could tell yourself one thing on that day. What would you tell yourself? Uh, the day that I first started engineering. Yes, you're not you're tapping on your shoulder in the past. I'll tell myself, uh, get ready. Actually, my story is kind of funny. My first day engineering, my uh mentor, Thay Phrase, he's a producer. He was uh we were working with like Auntie Deb and like all of them, and he was like uh telling everybody I was his engineer, even though I wasn't an assistant.

Hell yeah. So he's like telling everybody I'm engineering his records. Like, so one day he calls me. We built a studio at his house in the basement. So one day he calls me, he's like, yo, um, I need you to record Gucci Man. He's coming over. So I'm like, what the fuck? So come over, you know, I'll roll up a blunt, and you know, um, Gucci Man goes in the booth, he takes my blunt. Sounds like Gucci. Yeah. And then that was him. That was my uh I think I was in that seat for a total of, and every engineer knows about the infamous tap on the shoulder when you gotta get up and let somebody else do it. So I was probably in that seat for like 10 seconds. And if I could tell myself anything, I would tell myself, like, hey, man, it's gonna be all right. Don't worry about this about this Gucci thing that's about to happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's gonna work out. It's gonna work out. Shrug it off, soldier.

Yeah. Trust me, it's not gonna go great. Like, you'll be all right. Yeah, like my girlfriend at the time was like, you're not even doing anything down there. I'm like, fuck. She was right, bro. Low key. But look at you now, bro. Look at you now. That's right. That's right. On the One More Time podcast. Let's go. Let's go. Jay Rich, what are three plugins you can't live without? Um, I'm an old schooler too, so some waves in the mix. No. Um cool little air damage dynamic delay. You know, I really love uh that dynamic delay, you know. Ad libs get that a lot, I bet. You know, moving. Uh, when you're creative, you know, where would we be without verify? You know, verify. Yeah. Some of the air work. Where would we be? Type of shit. Yeah, and uh I don't know. Uh there's so many.

They're always like coming out with the new I know. The new of the new of the new, so version 4.5. Yeah, like so. I mean, I guess auto-tune. Oh, that's yeah, no, that's a good one. That's actually a very good one. It's a great one. Sure. Okay, last one of the short answer. This segment is called How Many Times Have You Said It Today? And your word is bro. Uh like 12. 12. 12, 12 bros. A light 12 bros. I think it's average. That's like a bro an hour, bro. Because I say bro. I got a lot of friends. I'm so happy that I did that. I didn't mean to do that, but that was pretty funny. It's two in the same hour. You better slow down. That's like all I've said to. I don't even usually say, bro. I don't know about that. Do I say bro?

Check our text after this. Okay, I yeah. If I'm being condescending towards you, I'm probably like, bro. It's usually not a good thing if you said that. You've already said it seven times. Yeah. That's more than. Yeah. If he's pissing me off, it's bro. What the fuck are you talking about? Bro, bro, why are you saying that? Nine times. Okay. The bro counter over here. Oh, there's ten. God damn it, Jay Rich. Stop at 10. All right. If you go to 11, I'm cutting your mic off. Okay. I'm Just saying. This next session is the this or that. I'm gonna give you two choices. You pick one, very simple. Let's get into it. Starting with rapping or singing. Engineering. He was disgusting. This could be an interesting section. Compression or EQ? EQ. One takes or punch ins. One take. But if you need to take a breath, it's okay to punch.

Yes. You do one take and then punch in like where you the one take started getting bad. Who doesn't love a good one take? Of course. We all do. It's that makes the engineer's job the easiest thing in the world. Yeah. Wow. But when you're trying to one take like too far, and it's like, hey, it's okay to breathe. Like true. It's true. you know. Yeah, yeah. Um snares or claps? Snares. In studio or at the show? In the studio. Noon session or midnight session? Noon. But I mainly do midnight session. Sure, but sure. I'm trying to be home. Yeah. In my bed. Heard that. Yeah. I could never do midnight session. Home studio or commercial studio. The commercial. They always bake cookies and stuff. Oh, yeah. Is it Doppler that always cooks the home cooked? Well, I'm always on the roads, Paul, but uh yeah, Doppler, I've heard. They do. They do the cookies. I've heard about their cookies.

Fresh baked. Yeah. In recession. Does Doppler even exist anymore? studios and cookies? Studios. PSA. Stop having only chocolate cookies. I'm looking at the camera here. Sugar cookies. You want sugar cookies? You gotta have the option. I don't know. What'd you think I'm an animal? No oatmeal though. No oatmeal. No oatmeal. Just an animal. No oatmeal raisin? No. Chocolate chips and like cookies all the time. It's a little sugar. Okay. You might get the session for the artist you want to work with just because of your cookies. That's the real game. That's the real game of this whole episode. All right, that's the hook of the episode. Yeah, we found it. Okay, last one of the this or that. Become a full-time rapper or leave the music industry. Am I a successful full-time rapper? That's up to you.

Yeah, that we can't see the future, I don't know how good you are. Jay Rich. I mean, you used to rap. Jay Rich is a good rap name already, so that's pretty good. I'm a full-time rapper. I can't really leave to it. I mean, at least you can engineer yourself. Facts. Yeah, for sure. Save a lot there. Okay, final section is the word association. I'm gonna say one word, and you just say the first word that you think of off the top of your head as quick as possible. Here we go. All right, let's do it. Starting with hip hop. Jay-Z. President. Obama. Eclipse. The other day. Microphone. I don't know. I think this is because this is in front of me, but uh SM7B. These look like SM7Bs. Yeah. They're like fake SM7Bs. They're fine. Uh cake. Cake? Cake. Red Velvet. My favorite.

Purple. Drink. Base. Mint. Never had that one before. I did have made a new word out of it. Golf. Eastside Golf. Only fans. I don't know what that is. Never heard of that. We're not the cops. Okay. I know we're white, but okay. We're not. Henry looks like a cop. We get it, but like. Only fans are not illegal. First of all, what are y'all talking about? Whatever. All right. He just treated us like the feds. I mean. More like his girl, but yeah. No diddy. Anyway. Hey, yo. Why did that enter the chat? Oh man. Okay. We got some editing to do. Keep it moving. All right. A few more. Giraffe. How do we go to that? Keeping him on his toes. Giraffe.

Oh, yeah. Uh, there's like a giraffe Manor in like Africa. I always want to go to. Okay. Yeah. Sounds about right. Studio. Um, track it. Lil, Tekka. That's so funny. For some reason. Off. Set. Let's go. It's it. I was gonna do that, but he already said drag it two ago. So this has been your favorite engineer, Jay Rich. Yes. What a visionary, too, bro. Yes. Overall, hustler, entrepreneur. Like, I love your style, man. Love your energy. Love the perspective you have, man, on just the music business as a whole. If y'all didn't pick up game, you should stop tuning in week in and week out. This has been the one more time podcast. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe. Follow us on Spotify Podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a five star review. We are here each and every week. Until next time, Henry, what are we doing? Getting out of here. Getting The fuck out of here. Peace, y'all. Hey, Party one more time.