The Real Story Behind Atlanta’s Iconic Patchwerk Studios with Curtis Daniels III

On this episode of Butternomics, our host, Brandon Butler, sits down with Curtis Daniel III to uncover the real story behind Patchwerk Studios, the legendary recording space that helped shape the sound of the South. Curtis breaks down how he built a world-class studio without outside backing, earned trust across the music industry, and stayed relevant for 30 years. From working with Outkast and Jeezy to running a studio with zero debt and 26 employees, Curtis shares game for creatives and business owners alike. He also opens up about the importance of standards, customer service, and raising the bar, not lowering it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's so many people in the music industry complaining about
what's going on right now, but they were in a
position where they could have changed it. I'd be like,
who's the person that came behind you? Who did you train?
Who did you mentor who did you teach? Who did
you employ? To feel that seat can do it the
right way. I got people to studios, thirty, we got engineers,
there's twenty one. We trying to move it forward and

(00:23):
not leave a big gap. Yeah. I don't want to
be sitting there and it's still about me in six
to ten years.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Everybody. Welcome to the episode of butter Nomics. I'm your host,
Brandon Butler, founder the CEO Buttery Tal and today we
got somebody special in the building. Man, Like you know
there there are some places in Atlanta that they're not
just legendaries, they're magical. And if you grow up in Atlanta,
you know what I'm about. You know about this place.
I'm a I'm about the name.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Man.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
There's a good chance to just damn near. Any of
your favorite artists and any your favorite songs have come
through this place, have come out of this place. And
today we're gonna get into it. Man, we got the
one and only mister Kurs Daniel, the third of Patchworks Studios.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
How you doing this morning, man?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Man, I'm doing great. I'm smiling.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Look at you. Man.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's very rare that stuff stops enough so you can
sit down and hear stuff like that. I always hear
people going on shows and they always talk about that.
It was a good intro, and I'm excited. I mean,
if you if you know that much and you about
to tell these stories, I'm here for it.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Hey, man, Look I appreciate you pulling up. Man, So
this is what we're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I mean again, Patchwork is definitely I don't know y'all.
I don't know if y'all have historic plaque. I'm just
saying we need to get like historic plaque or something
out there. Man. That because because again most of the
most of the classics, especially from Atlanta just all over
the place have come out of that that studio over
the years, man, and y'all have done some amazing stuff.
Like I said, it's not just legendaries magical, but what
I did, so what I do with all my guests, Man,

(01:51):
I love this. People say, you know, tell me about yourself,
give me some background doing a little different over here.
You know, we got we got a little tech infused
than what we do. We mix it up so well
that I went on chat cheapt oh lord, and I said,
Chat GPT, write me a quick bio and introduction of
mister Curtis Daye the Third. And this is what it
came back and says, I'm gonna tell you what chat
is saying about you.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
You tell me talking about the studio or me? You okay,
I've never even googled myself. Man, we go, it talks
about this a little bit, and you tell me it's
the right person. It's the right person. I double checked it,
so we got me say this real quick. So one
time I had two Airbnb properties in the Atlantic station,
probably for like fourteen years, and I never knew that

(02:31):
people was reviewing me, and so I was considered whatever
you call it, a superhoust. And then one day I
clicked man, like fifty reviews of people saying nice stuff
about me, and I never knew that. So I'm interested
in what this chat GTP had to say about me.
I want to hear it.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Well, you know what, that just shows that you do
good work. You do good business. If you're doing good working,
you don't even know what people saying good stuff about you.
You know, fulks to be nervous about the bad stuff
like you, like I ain't got nothing to worry about.
But when you pull it up, you got all these
five star reviews. Man, Like that shows that shows what
you're really doing over there. Brother. So this is what
it says. This says mister Curtis Day the third is
co owner and driving force behind Patrick Recording Studio, at

(03:10):
legendary Atlanta institution that has shaped the sound of hip
hop for over three decades. Under his leadership, Patrick is
recorded and mixed music for out artists like outcasts, Ti,
g Z, Beyonce and hundreds more, earning more than two
hundred Golden Platinum plaques along the way. We'll begin as
a small studio space in nineteen ninety five is going
to a state of the art facility known for technical excellence,

(03:31):
creative energy, and its deep ties to the Atlanta music community.
Beyond the booth, Curtis also leads I Do Music, a
nonprofit that helps expiring artists and industry professionals gain knowledge
and tools to thrive in music, whether he's running sessions,
mentoring the next generation, or organizing Patchwork's annual music festival
in five k. He remains focused on one mission, building
real community through music.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
I agree with that, that's on point.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe in helping people. Man,
we want to be great. Three decades man, it's emotional, man, honestly,
I mean I just be telling people it's a joke,
but yeah, thirty years and they like to me. I
always say they like dog gears because dog gears are
multiplier by seven. But you know, we've been dealing with

(04:17):
all kind of special clienteles, so it's been a grind. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's real. I'll be looking at that. I kind of
like the way I give a perspective of every year
when we celebrate. I literally just make a post and
write out every year nineteen ninety five, ninety six, literally
just write it out, and then when you see it,
it kind of it means something I look at each

(04:39):
year like a championship banner. So every year I go
into the arena and update it and hang another one
up there that were sitting up there, and then I'm
most happy about it because it's super hard to kind
of be considered one of the best in the country
or in your region, but it's even harder to stay there.
And I feel like we've been we've been sitting up
there for a minute. So yeah, it's real.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, man, Look, there's there's there's some places that again
are just like iconic legendary.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I think Barry Gordy in Detroit back of the day,
you know what I'm saying, Or Nashville and people think
I'm like yo, they're like Atlanta Patchwork to me is
like one of those places where just legendary and music
has come out of.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Yeah. Yeah, you like you may be thinking like where
that One of the bigger studios is Abbey Road, where
the Beatles were at, and I was blown away. Probably
about six years ago. They called me from Abby Road
and they were trying to get some advice and try
to figure out how we were doing all the things
that we were doing, because he said they were running
into an issue where people were viewing them as a

(05:40):
historic place, but they weren't getting a lot of younger
and new people, and people thought that they were inaccessible.
So we talked about some of the stuff that we
was doing and I was just shocked that they knew
who we were, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
And I was cool, what do you think some of
the secret sauces behind it? It makes it makes it
so special? Is an attention to detail? Is it? You know?
Is it something in the water over there? Like what
makes patchwork different?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
I mean for us, I tell people, it's kind of
like we really didn't come in like everybody else, meaning
that a lot of these studios and organizations were funded
by either a record label or a production deal or
artist or producer or something. But they took somebody else's money.
Somebody else funded it. We didn't do that, and so

(06:24):
it kind of it reminds me like one time I
was over in Bermuda. We were Jamaica to Bermuda, and
it was a huge difference. I'll tell people. When we
were in Jamaica, when you go outside the walls of
the resort, it's a lot of people running up trying
to get you to get donations and do different stuff.
And Bermuda wasn't like that. And I asked the guy,
I said, man, what is that? He said, Man, we

(06:45):
were never we were never slaves here. The people from
Bermuda were bought over by the King and Queen to
be carpenter's electricians, trade people at very low unemployment and
highly educated. And so for me, I always be like, man,
we never slaves, kind of like not to desensitize that,
but we never took nobody else's money. We didn't get

(07:06):
any money from a record label. We didn't have a
super producer that was on our staff that was making
people come over there, or a super engineer. So our
stuff has been different because it wasn't given to us,
and we literally built it from when you hear people
say we started in a small house, we started in
the house, and so ours is different because we didn't cheat.

(07:27):
We did it the hard way and it took us longer.
And like I tell people, it's like a tree man.
Most people want to get a full grown tree and
put it in the ground and as soon as the
storm it blow over. We was growing our roots, you know,
for the first ten to fifteen years, so that when things,
when storms come, it might blow the fruit off the tree,
but it just replenishes it. So we we different. Our

(07:49):
foundation is different. And so just like they tell somebody
that somebody the most dangerous things, people think are is
beneficial of somebody that feeds you every day, But I
tell you, the same person that feeds you every day
as the one that can starve you to death, right.
And we never let nobody feed us. We got it
on our own.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
What do you remember most about that time back in
you know, ninety five, when y'all launched from a small house, Like,
what things do you even? Sometimes these are kind of
connect the dots looking backwards, So like, what things do
you see now from where you sit to where back
in nineteen ninety five? Maybe because you were so much
in it you didn't notice, but like that was kind
of the seeds and some of the magic that they
have given y'all over three decades of success.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, the first thing that I noticed, or that I
looked back and see that we were we were doing
things that I maybe didn't know the terminology or what
it was, but for instance, I knew who our customers
were and who they weren't. And so at the time
I'm twenty three, I used to love going in the
au Center. I came here because of the freak Nick,

(08:49):
so I was at every party. But even when I
went to the party, I went to the au center.
I would never hand the flyer out or a business
card or brochure because I was like, no matter how
much they liked the studio, these aren't our clients. So
that was one thing, and so we always just did
For thirty years we still haven't done an ad or commercial.
We just did direct marketing to the labels producers and

(09:11):
stuff like that. So that was huge. I always say
the biggest part it ain't knowing who our clients were.
It was knowing who they weren't, so I didn't waste
time with them. The other thing that we did our
very first you know, client was outcast and it was
by way of organized noise and DD. But when I
look at now, what people do these businesses by suites

(09:34):
at these games hockey, basketball, football, and they take their
clients out to entertain them and woo them and get business.
Well I didn't know we was doing that, but that's
how I got organized noise because they were Falcon fans
and I ended up having to get like twenty three
tickets from Bob. We went to the game, set them
in the front row, Bob Gaden Jersey signed it. We

(09:55):
went back to the studio and started working. So those
two things, Like when I look back, I said, man,
that's what people be doing now. Yeah, they identify their clients.
They don't waste time on people who I mean, I'm like,
these girls look great, but man, no matter how much
they like this studio, they ain't my customers. They don't
have the money to pay, and so I didn't waste

(10:15):
that time on them. So those two things I think
are crucial. The biggest thing is realizing who weren't our
customers and I didn't waste time on those people.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
So who are your customers in Like what kind of
clients and customers do you like to you know, primarily
go after.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
So my customers now are basically their artists and producers
that basically they always say they've tried to do everything
on their own per se, like they've tried to record somewhere,
they tried to mix somewhere, they tried to master somewhere,
and people like their music. They be like, you dope,
But sonically their records ain't hitting they when they put

(10:53):
their songs on, it won't shake the rear view mirror
in their car. So my customers come to me after
and untried everything. They like, I'm dope. I know I'm dope,
but my sound don't sound right. So I usually get
people that have been fumbling around trying stuff. They figured
out who they are and what type of music they're making,
but sonically they need help. So we always look at

(11:15):
it like there's a technical side which we profile. We
always say the customer is responsible for the creative stuff.
They bring the creative, but it's our responsibility for the
technical and the sonics. So my customers are people that
have been working in home studios paying thirty five fifty
five sixty five dollars an hour. All their friends think

(11:35):
they dope, but when they go from that Rick Cross
record today record, it falls off and they frustrated. So
now they're like, man, I just need my sound right,
and they come to us for that.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
How's that is that? Now? Is that your background?

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Like?

Speaker 2 (11:48):
How did you get to that place to where you know?
Not only again, people come out sometimes kind of say
like there's a certain sound that comes out of certain areas.
It just kind of feels a certain way, Like how
did you develop that over the years trialing there?

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I mean, you know, we our rooms weren't built properly.
That's why we know so much now, I mean, but
but I knew it wasn't. I learned that it wasn't.
And I always tell people that I believe that there's
a place for every room. I think the issue is
when you overstate your capabilities. So again I knew what
we couldn't do, so we started off telling our clients

(12:22):
we're only a recording studio. We don't do any mixing
or mastering. Our rooms are tuned, we can't really hear
the records. So we just did a whole bunch of recording.
And then some of our clients they would like the
way our rough mixes sounded and they would be like,
we want to use this, So we started kind of
doing that. But again, we never overstated our capabilities because

(12:45):
I didn't want to be like, hey, we're a mixed
studio and then they go to this world class facility
that's really a mixed studio and compare it. Then they
would have something negative to say about us. So we
just stayed in our lane. Again, we knew what we
were good at. So our first goal was to become
the best recording studio in the Southeast. That's it. And

(13:06):
then you know, once we got known for recording and
people began to trust us and like the way we worked.
Then they start saying, hey, man I wish y'all would
do mixing, so we don't have to go over here.
So then we added a mixing room so we're recording
and mixing. Then people would be like, at this time,
man I wish y'all did CD duplication. We started kicking

(13:26):
out three thousand CDs a day. Then our clients was like, man,
y'all doing the recording, the mixing, and you're doing the CDs.
We like working with you. We wish y'all would do
a mastering studio, so we added that and then the paperwork.
So my thought was, let's be great at something like
they always tell people the grocery stores put the meat

(13:47):
on sale to get you in the door, and then
they hit you over the head with the wind decks
and the cleaning things. So our calling thing was we
wanted to be the best recording studio, and then we
wanted to build trust with our customers. And then if
we sell in studio time and they like us and
they see something else in there, they want to buy it,
and then we provided that. So typically the only way

(14:07):
we're here thirty years, and I can probably tell you
we only really do seven things. And the only way
to get me to do another thing is if my
customers keep demanding it or saying that I wish you
were from this service.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah. No, that's how you build it out. I think again,
even when it comes to you know, with you from
a content we do from a content standpoint, right, Like,
it's one thing for me to guess what people want,
it's another thing for me actually ask people right and
listen to what the audiences and people are amazed. It's like,
well how did that hit? I'm like, well, here's the thing, y'all.
By definition, that's actually what marketing is like. Marketing is

(14:41):
actually listening and doing the research and understanding what your
audience wants and then giving it to them. You're taking
it to the market. People a lot of times get
marketing and advertising confused. You know what I mean, it's
two different things. Marketing is understanding what your customers want,
making that product, doing the research, the design, whatever. That
is the service you know, getting, whether it's mastering or

(15:02):
CD duplication unders I'm sure you were asking them questions absolutely,
what about you know mastering? Do you want to do
what about CD duplication? Do you want?

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Right?

Speaker 2 (15:10):
And then when you literally create a thing for people
and all of a sudden it jumps off. It's like, yeah,
because I knew they wanted this. That's the marketing side.
And if you're doing the marketing right, the promotion advertising
is a whole lot easier.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
And so it sounds like y'all hit the mark on
the marketing side and really listen to your audience a lot.
And that's what built that trust. And that's why you
got outcasts and Organized Noise and these folks coming to
you all right out the gate because you really built
those relationships. Like what have you learned about relationships? You know?
Over the over the last coming.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
They like I said, our first relationship meaningful was you know,
was with D D and Organized Noise. And again we
came in saying we're a new studio. You guys been
recorded in New York, LA and Miami. We don't know everything,
but we're willing to listen and learn and give you
guys every So when she would be like, hey, studios,

(15:58):
you got to have a runner, we would get the
runner to go get their food. Hey, they need a
place to smoke. We made a smoke room. Hey man,
you got to have video games. We did that. She
was like, you need vending machines. That killed us. We
got some vending machines. And then you know, we had
a situation where one of our engineers made a mistake
and they I think they erased one of Kujo's versus

(16:20):
and Rico Nem didn't want to come back, but because
of the relationship, Didi was like, give them another shot,
and we made it past that. But the relationships matter
all the time, that's what it is. And so for us,
we came end up game realizing that we don't sell
studio time, we sell customer service. And I would always
be like, anybody gonna look at us and they're gonna

(16:42):
be like, oh, we can be two young black dudes,
get a pretty girl, put them at the front desk,
and buy the same equipment. The only thing that's gonna
separate us is our personnel and our customer service. And
so I'm big on relationships. I mean I don't run around,
you know, talking and doing a whole bunch of this
or whatever. But if there's a relationship there or I
know somebody, I'm big on that. Like even for our

(17:04):
like we do events and people with DM ME was like, Hey,
I got a food truck. I want to do y'all
next event, And I will reply is that I appreciate that,
but I don't know you. Yeah, like I'm gonna I'm
gonna give the money or spend the money with somebody
that I have a relationship. Now we can get there,
like you can come by the studio, we can sit
down talk, you can invite me to something, or you

(17:25):
can come to some of our other events. But everything
for me is relationship based.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, that's where it goes from, and that's that's the currency. Man,
how have y'all kept kind of this again? It's the studio,
I mean it's gotten. I mean I've been over there before.
It's not a small space, you know, but it still
has a kind of a home court feel a little
bit like how y'all kind of kept that home court
field in a home court advantage even if you all
have expanded the studio in the services cheers.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You want to go where everybody knows your name right
and they're always glad you came, and the problems are
the same, and so it's kind of like important. That's
why I still go to work because some of these
younger people aren't gonna know, and they ain't gonna acknowledge
and ain't gonna respect some of these legends that are
walking through the doors. I tell people, I remember one
day I came up in there and I seen Cool

(18:10):
Mode and one of the poor righteous teachers in the hallway,
and the young people didn't know who they were man,
so they couldn't really give them the risk. Not like
they was disrespecting, but they didn't know. The other day,
I'm in there and I see a lady walk by
the hallway and the engineer hand me a session report.
I read it, they says Jennifer Holiday. I looked at him.
I said that was Jennifer Holliday. He said yeah. I said,

(18:31):
I ain't saying nothing. He so nothing. So yesterday she
called to book more time, and I'm like, who's this
shoes like this Jennifer, I said, the real Jennifer Holiday.
She's like, I said, man, next time I see you,
you know what I mean. I want to get whatever
a picture. But there's so many people that are kind
of coming back around that were our earlier clients. They
were our earlier clients. They were doing good. They had

(18:53):
the music industry, they get out and then they kind
of don't understand what's going on because they hadn't been
keeping up with the latest tren. But those relationships and
that trust that they have with me, I get to
plug them back in on this digital stuff, the coding,
the registration and stuff like that. So for me, it's
important I'm there Monday through Friday, back in the office

(19:13):
doing like ten nine thirty to two two thirty. But
what's important about me being back in there is I'm
back having the posts of my customers. So literally, when
I'm in there, if it's slow, I look at the
session report, I'd be, Oh, this person did a new
client deal blue blue. I call them, Hey man, it's Curtis.
I'm one of the owners at Patchwork. I see you
did your first session here, and they'd be so tripping.

(19:34):
I'd be like, how'd you hear about us? And they'd
be like a man, everybody, I said, how'd you hear
about us? What made you come here? Hey man? Was
it easy to book studio time? How was your engineer?
Did we start on time? Or whatever? So I'm like you.
I think certain people are scared to ask certain questions
because they don't really want to know the truth. But
I'll be calling people and trying. I'd be like, that's cool,

(19:55):
but tell me what we did wrong or what we
can do better, and they'd be like, nah, it was great.
You know. So when you said that, that resonated that.
Always say that an important question to ask yourself. Do
you matter? And you know if you matter that if
you disappeared with people care, let anybody miss you. And
I feel like if we did go away, we would

(20:15):
be missed. You know.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
I remember when we kind of first started buttering. I mean,
the platform has grown a lot, but I think maybe
we had you know, I don't know, three five hundred
followers or something like that. And I actually put out
a post one time and was like, yo, like we
wanted we want to we want to know why do
y'all like butter why are you following? So I fill
out this form. ILL link to a form and I
called you and I got maybe I don't know, fifty

(20:48):
people to fill it out and I called I went
into an office and I called them and they were
like I was like, yeah, this is Brandon from Butter
atl They were like, what, Like, you really called me.
I said, well, you filled the form out, you put
your phone number in it, like yeah, like how did
you find the platform? What made you follow us? What
made you sport? And again, because you don't know, And
that's what I'm saying, right, like actually taking a moment
to just get some of that information, just hearing it

(21:09):
from people and really understand it, because that's the best way, honestly,
just to get information, to actually have those conversations and
talk to people.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
And you would only do that if you care, right,
And that's kind of like one of the underlying things
of the successful businesses. Do you care? Like I actually
care about our customers and our clients, and I actually
think that we care about their music more than they do,
because sometimes it's just good enough for them and they
get the minimum, but we there to make sure that
it's done right. And you know, one of the biggest

(21:38):
things that I like is here we thirty years in,
but those records that we did twenty five years ago,
they're still performing them and they sound excellent, which means
that our attention to details stood the test of time.
I mean, we're older and we might go back and
listen to the Aisley brothers or some Michael Jackson and
be like, man, these records sounding amazing back in the day,

(21:59):
but now we're we're that place that's putting them records out.
And like when you speak on a historic space, I
did the people. James Brown manager called me and he
told me that they had made that his studio and
Columbus or wherever we're from, like a historic place. So
he gave me the information to get one of them
historical markers put outside the studio. But it's a lot
of it and I hadn't got around to it. But yeah,

(22:22):
I think it's important that we do need to do
that at some point. Yeah, I mean we we haven't.
At our thirties, we will get our first proclamation, so
they're going to do one from Fulton County in for
the city of Atlanta. But at thirty years in, we
hadn't got any of that stuff yet. And it don't
bothered me.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Well, y'all been busy doing the work.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
A lot of times you look up and you realize
it and you're like, you know, I don't mind getting
a little little love, little shout out.

Speaker 1 (22:44):
Sometimes I felt that when you did the intro, I
was like, man, I don't mind getting a little love
every once in a while. Yeah, you're right, man.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Y'all y'all have y'all have grown up alongside a lot
of amazing artists you know from again from from g Z,
the Ludicrous TI, and like many more, Like what are
you think helped the studio and patchwork grow alongside those
artists and not those artists necessarily outgrow Patchworks.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
I think, just like what we was talking about before
we started rolling, as we invested in the company, any
money that we made, we upgraded the gear, we upgraded
the technology, and we stayed abreast on the cutting edge
stuff like that or whatever. So you know, we we were.
I look at studios in three ranges, like a home range,

(23:27):
a mid range, and a world class facility. In the
first room that we ran was kind of like a
mid range facility, and I felt like we was getting
our lunch eight on both ends. I felt like we
was getting ate up by the home range studios and
the big ones. I felt like people were doing as
much as they could at home, and then they would
skip over the middle and go over here. So I
had told Bob at the time that we got to

(23:49):
get out of the middle, and it's kind of like
the Bible says, the worst place to be is Luke
warn either be all the way out or all the
way in. And so he made the investment, you know
what I mean, And he believed in what we were doing,
and I think it changed what was going on around
here because prior to us making that investment into that
world class facility, if I was just looking at the

(24:11):
credits on some of these earlier albums, they were in
New York and LA or Miami. They had to go
there to mix these records and master them. And it
wasn't until we kind of got to stay here and
these type of engineers that look like us, so like
you know, the other people will be like eight o
eight is distorted. You're like, nah, that sound fun, that's
that trap eight o eight or whatever. So bringing it home,

(24:33):
I think they'd always tell people, if we ever laid
it out, you should do BP and AP, which means
before patchwork and after patchwork, and see how it changed
the sound. It's gonna line up. It'll line up right
on top of it when things start changing around here.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah, man, And I don't want people to think that.
I mean, obviously a lot of people are gonna associate,
you know, patchwork with again like rapping, hip hop and
a lot of iconic stuff. But y'all do a lot
of stuff, man, Like I mean when you were telling
me about you were corder a violin album for Minister
Lewis Fairkhn. Like, just give people maybe a little bit
more idea of the scale and scope of all of

(25:08):
the stuff that you all do there from like a
music standpoll, because again, it's not just yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
We've done staying, We've done Annie Lennox, We've done share,
We've done one direction, We've done justin Timberlake. We do
a lot of different genres. We've done some country stuff
as well. But as far as what you're talking about, yeah,
we the first ten years I was focused on becoming
a brand within the music industry, and after the tenth year,

(25:35):
I was like, I want to focus on more being
like a household name, and I felt like the way
to do that was to bring people into the studio,
and so we started doing events where the general public
was invited in like our I do music, our workshops,
our podcasts and stuff like that. People don't realize how
studios were before we were there. Most of them were

(25:56):
owned by artists or producer back by a label, and
if you didn't have any affiliation with that particular person,
you couldn't get in there. The studios weren't open to
the public. We opened them up, so we started doing
events and bringing regular people in so they can see
all of this stuff. And then now our model is
the studio model. I mean most of the studios that

(26:17):
have come after us, either the owner or the architect
came to sit down with me and ask questions and
I showed them how we did things. But yeah, it's
a pivot to do to bring the people in. And
like I said before, you still if you ain't signing
to Social Death, you ain't really getting the JD studio
back then, if you wasn't on rowdy records, you wouldn't

(26:39):
getting in Dark and if you wasn't signing the face,
you wouldn't getting into the Coco. And if you didn't
know Bobby Brown, you couldn't get into Bosstown. And so
we came in as a one hundred percent commercial facility,
and we positioned ourselves as Atlanta Studio. So even when
we had people coming from out of town like cash
Money or nas or jay Z or whatever. Instead of

(27:00):
going to somebody else's studio that you're in competition with.
You want to be able to anchor down in a
place that can become yours while you're there for those
three weeks. And so we've just always looked at ourselves
as Atlantas we belong to the city. And it ain't
really me or it wasn't Bob's or nothing. This is
Atlanta's studio. It's patchwork. And so the weird part about

(27:21):
it now is that a lot of the studios have
gone back private. So our bigger studios, Doppler was our granddaddy.
Somebody bought that and they were going to turn it
into it like a wrecking yard, but they pulled all
of the gear out and they rent out rooms with
people and Silent Sound Tip bought it, so now it's private.
Dark Future bought it, so now it's private. Bobby Brown

(27:44):
Studios on by Stink only, Okay, So it's private. And
so all these places are reverting back to being private,
and so it's interesting, you know, and we're still sitting
there just hustling, you know what I mean. It would
be nice to I think it would have been cool.
I remember one point when Polo was hot and they
wanted to rent our studio for a whole year. Jimmy

(28:05):
Iveen flew down. Another dude flew down with them. They
came to the studio and they wanted to rent the
studio for a year, and I told them no, and
they didn't understand why, and I said, you're gonna kill
my client base, you know what I mean. If all
these people called me and can't get in the studio
for a year, they ain't gonna call me no more.

(28:26):
And I believed in ourselves to be like, we can
book this room up on our own. I don't even
know one person to give me this money or whatever.
So it was interesting. And then a lot of other studios,
I'll be seeing them bragging about clients that they got
and they don't realize that they called me first and
I told them no. I told them like, you can't
smoke in here, so go somewhere else. And then they
bragging that they got future or Lil Wayne, and I'm like, well,

(28:49):
I told them to get out, you know what I mean.
So it's cool. And then yeah, we ain't really trying
to be that trapped out facility because we have judges,
we have attorneys, we got Kirk Franklin coming in, you
know what I mean. We got kids, tours, we got colleges,
we got all these different things going on throughout the day,
and we ain't trying to trap it out. And so

(29:12):
sometimes they don't understand that, like why we can't smoke
in here and why we can't stand on the table,
And I'm like, it's bigger than rap man. We're doing
other stuff throughout the day. And I keep saying, it's
weird where it's seeming like so many people when they
go places, instead of elevating to the new place that
you went to bringing yourself up, it seemed like they
want to pull everything down to where they operate. And

(29:34):
I don't want to do that. And I'm like, man,
you're not finna come in here and act like you
at your house or your homiees house and trap this
place house and not observe all the rules. My expectation
is that when you come here, you need to raise
yourself up because we want to be great, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, yeah, So it's always interesting, man, Like you know,
I've noticed that in general, right, A lot of times
people think because they're you know, paying for a service
or paying for a space. They can kind of do
whatever they want to do in it. I remember one
of my my favorite quotes is by Snoop Dogg, and
he kind of talks about just himself as an individual, right,
and he's saying in the quote, basically what he had
to realize was when he kind of got to a

(30:10):
certain level, what he couldn't do is he couldn't to
your point, he couldn't fill the gap down by going
and getting people and bringing them up like he couldn't
he couldn't reach back. He would tell them, y'all got
to step up to where I'm at. And I think
I'm hearing kind of the same thing. It's like, look,
we were in that space, we were doing a certain
kind of thing. But as we've gotten, as we've grown up,
we've evolved, our client client base has gotten more diverse.

(30:32):
We're doing different kinds of things. Like when you come here,
there's also just a certain way you got to move,
And there's nothing wrong with That's the role with setting
that expectation because again, the results speak for themselves.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yeah, and I hear people all the time. I can
listen to somebody and they talking to their homie, they'd
be like, we're going to the studio today, and were
going to the studio, but they'll be like when they
go on to us, they'll say the name and they'll
be like, nah, nah shady, you got to be here
on time they charge from the time professional studio. We
ain't doing that no more. And so that was always cool.
Is that, man, that's the expectation that we can operate

(31:06):
at that level. And so we've never branded ourselves as
a black owned studio or a minority owned. We never
got any money from the city. We don't have any grants. Man.
We are here working and were trying to be great,
you know what I mean. So if people want to
operate on it, I'm not coming down. It's my pride
to tell people to get out. I want the reputation

(31:26):
to be that they don't play, which is what it is.
So like I'm supposed to go today and go meet that.
I probably shouldn't say this, but Tip been calling me
about three times and he's asking for my help with
his facility. And I've office approached probably about five years
ago from Jesu's people to help with his place and
one of the things that Jeezi said. He's like, man,

(31:48):
I don't want nobody else to do it but you
because I respect you. He's like, man, you wouldn't let
snoop smoke up in there. He said. I tried to
pay you to smoke up in there and you wouldn't
do it. And that's kind of how I want to operate.
So it's weird for me. I'd be like, I'll be staying.
The craziest thing is these dudes want to come through
your place and tear down. They want to go to
your clubs and stand on couches, get on the bars.
But if you ever look at their house, they got

(32:09):
these all white rooms that you can't go in. They cars,
you can't wear your jeans on or whatever. And so
I'd be like, man, it's a trip, Like you want
to come tear my stuff up, but when you go
to your house you want peace or whatever. So we
I just refuse to operate like that. And it's it's
been cool that the people that I thought was upset
they actually respected ten twenty years later they come back

(32:32):
and be like, that's how I want my stuff run.
I don't want my stuff trapped out and so it's
a true I seen two Chayes one day. He's like, man,
I ain't been back to the studio, Kirk, because you
won't let me smoke in the room. And I was
sitting there thinking like, I ain't never asked you to
come back, Like not like that because I like him,
but I was like, I'm not out here solictening asking
people to come work at the studio. It's kind of like,

(32:55):
we got rules, we got morals, and we got standards,
and this is what they are. They've been for over
thirty years. And they'd be like her, it ain't playing man,
he ain't gonna let you do it.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
And I'm cool with that, And again it's not it's
because there's a certain kind of work product that you
want to put out, and it's about having pride. Like
I said, you go to the people's houses, they tell
you take off their shoes and they come into their house.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, and they do You ever see him smoking weed
on the breakfast club? Right or yeah? Act like they
can't get up and make the morning show, but they
can get to the breakfast club at six in the
morning and they're not smoking, they not vaping, they not
doing hookah. And and stuff like that. So that's why just
telling people if you want to operate at a certain level,
like you said, don't drop down because they're a superstar,
make them step up to where you are. I'm big

(33:37):
on that.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, man, Now you know you just mentioned Jeezy and
I know you know they recorded TM one on one
at patch work, you know, mixing, mastered it, and now
you know, twenty years later they're doing it, you know,
with the orchestra and all this stuff, and you know,
how do you feel like when you see something like that,
the evolution of a you know, from where that was
when it first started, to like now being at the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and doing that same kind of music.

Speaker 1 (33:59):
So I'm gonna give you I'm trying to figure out
how to best say this without saying too much. So anyway,
when they I saw when they were going to go
to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. And at the time, Solomon
was kind of management and working with Jez. Solomon used
to work for Puffy. We used to run justin'e. So
I pick up the phone and I say Solomon, He said,

(34:21):
what's up? I said, don't let that performance die? In
that or in that symphony. He said, what do you mean.
I said, don't you let that y'all getting all this
stuff together with this band and this orchestra, don't you
let it die. He's like, what do you mean? I said,
you need to record? He said, Oh, they got all
kind of engineers there. I said, those engineers are for
the front of the house. Their job is to make
sure it sounds good. And the symphony orchestra, we need

(34:44):
to send our engineers there to capture that for you.
So he agreed. So we ended up sending our engineers
to go to some of the stuff. We caught a
rehearsal because we need to isolate some of the maybe
the harps and stuff like that. And then we went
out and recorded it at the orchestra. And that's all

(35:04):
I can say about that. When is this episode coming out?

Speaker 2 (35:08):
We got we got a couple weeks and it'll be
got a little time.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Yeah, a lot twenty six.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
It's gonna be dope, all right, Okay, I can't wait
to see it. I can't wait to see it. Man.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
But but but but again, it's it's with him, you know,
just like the you know, probably like about a week
ago he texts me at like six forty five in
the morning, top of the day, and I'll be laughing
because when we first started our relationship, it ain't no
way he was getting up at six forty five. When
we first started our relationship, every time he came to
the studio, it was like thirty niggas well. It would

(35:41):
change the like literally, if you ever wanted to know
what it felt like when the energy in the room changed,
it was with them and BMF and when they would
roll it it would just tense up. Man. And now
he comes over there no later than twelve in the
morning by hisself, and it's such a different person, and
I'll be having to tell him. I'm like, man, you

(36:01):
done grew up. And it's cool to be able to
Like I saw him doing an interview and he's like, yeah,
you know, Tupac Nam they had a run of four
to five years. They died early. We never got to
see what they was going to be like at twenty years.
So now he's celebrating twenty years on that album, and
look at where he started to who he is now.

(36:22):
And that's cool to see that, biggie. We didn't get
to see him. We didn't get to see pac you
know what I mean. But Jeezi as a you know,
spitting that type of rap. It's cool to see him
evolving who he is. And even some of the other
clients like Waka and Gucci and Ludacris. Just to see
these people grow up and mature is really cool. And
then to be able to still be around operating at

(36:43):
such a high level that they still use you to
do some of their projects as an honor.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, man, And I mean over the years, y'all have collected,
like I said, over two hundred you know, golden platinum plaques.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
That they make us pay for.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
They make y'all pay for them. Like what is what
is that? What is that wall mean to you? Like
when you see those plaques, what does that mean? You
do any of them stick out more than other ones,
whether it's the moment.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I mean, there's a couple because they gave them to me,
so only two people every day. So Lil John, he
gave me his plaque. He brought it over there and
he picked the space that he was so happy that
he put it on the wall. So and you come
there and you see that little John plaque. He put
that there. And then jeezing them speaking to him. They
gave out like an appreciation plaque probably like six years

(37:27):
of who was really influential and playing a part of
that first album. That's the only plaque in the studio
they got my name on it. The other one say
Patchwork or whatever, but they gave me that particular plaque.
And then we got an Outcast plaque that went diamond,
so it did ten million. And then we got Waka
No Hands plaque that went ten million. But the Outcast,

(37:48):
the Waka ten million is a single and it's been streaming.
That Outcast man. They sold over ten million CDs at
twenty dollars. That one right there means something to me.
And then my favorite ARTI we got a Tupac plaque.
So if you walk in the studio, it's probably the
biggest plaque there. It sits underneath these lights that shine
on it. And I love that plaque.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah yeah, getting ready to throw this thirtieth you know,
anniversary event, you know, and why are you making it
in a festival? Like what do you want people to
walk away from Patchwork feeling like that day?

Speaker 1 (38:32):
So on the twentieth anniversary, you know, I asked people
what should we do. Everybody like we should do a
concert or a party. I said, man, I just be
thinking that like concerts and party They to me, they
tear people down, like you drink all night, you gotta
drive home, you tired or whatever. It's not putting nothing
back into people. So I only ever did the five

(38:53):
K because I felt like it was healthy. My concept
was patchwork, we run the streets. Let's really get out
in the streets. So we did five K where we
had over three hundred, mostly black people running the streets
of Atlanta. We started at the front or whatever, and
we come to the thirtieth and they keep saying, man,
we need to have a concert or a party or whatever.
And so one of the guys that used to run

(39:14):
the record label told me he would do it, and
so I agreed to it, and I said, I'm gonna
do the race. You gotta do it. And of course
he ain't did anything. Nothing nothing. I had to get
the guests, I had to work out the deals, I
had to get the sound or whatever. So I feel
like I got hustled into it. But the goal of
it is one is free parking. Right. I don't have

(39:36):
any VIP sections. You know what I mean the artists
is gonna be amongst us, food trucks and all this
so so good food, good drinks, good location, good people.
I just wanted to feel like patchwork, feel like home,
feel like everybody can come out there. You can bring
your kids, you can bring your dogs and just have
a good time. And literally we were gonna give the
tickets away, but we have this. We turned our I

(39:58):
Do Music into a nonprofit and so we're just telling
people donate five dollars to I Do Music, which is
tax deductive, We're going to give you a ticket. I
think our most expensive thing we had was a table
that hold eight people backstage, and we sold them for
sixty dollars. So it ain't about the money. I want
to take the money to cover the expenses, and then
next year we have a bunch of people, like yesterday

(40:21):
we had Georgia Tech with twenty eight kids come and
do a tour. We may have some private schools that
bring a bus, give people lunch, come do a tour.
And then some of the minority schools, you know, they
riding and cars that come down there and they can't
really do lunch. My goal next year is to raise
enough money through I do music where we can sponsor

(40:41):
at least three to four different schools that come to
a tour of the studio and we can pay for
it and buy them lunch and help help with the transportation.
So that's how we kind of want to get back
to spending a round. So yeah, So we did an
event the other day that the feedback is like, it
just feels good. We did a Vinyl party, brought in
pastor Troy rock O, the Young Bloods and some executives

(41:05):
and Fable and playing records off of Nyl and I
felt like it recharged the artists because that was, like
I keep saying, most of the diehard fans never get
to be that close to them and usually sitting at
the top of the stadium and all this stuff. And
so they got to eat with them, they got to
talk to them, they got to take pictures, they got
to listen to their music and hear the stories, and
all everybody keeps saying is thank you. I needed that.

(41:28):
It felt good and so if we can achieve that
with the with the music Fest, I'd be happy with that.
I want people to walk away feeling appreciated, valued and
recharged and ready to ready to move forward.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah, now you mentioned I do Music. That's your nonprofit
has been around for fourteen years, Like what exactly does
that do to help kind of bridge the gap with
these classes and the case.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
So under Patchwork, I felt like we got pigeonholed as
a hip hop and R and B facility, and I
felt like, I do Music opens it up. Everybody body
does music, doesn't matter the genre, the color, whatever. So
we had that brand going, and then we started doing
all of our educational things underneath I do Music. So
anything educational, workshop, podcasts, masterclass, different events, tours and stuff,

(42:15):
we did it under I do Music, And so I
wanted to make it kind of more nondescript and not
so hip hopish, not so rappish and stuff like that
and kind of open it up. So that brand does
that for us. So the mission statement of I Do
Music is to educate and empower artists and musicians worldwide,
just that simple. So that's what we're trying to do

(42:36):
with it. And then it's weird, you know, I get
so many people. You know, we coming up on thirty years,
so we were at twenty nine years when we established
is that as a nonprofit and it's like, man, I
feel like it's Snake's coming out. There's so many people
that be like this, like I already know what our
reputation and our goodwill is in the community and what

(42:56):
we did. So it's kind of like sometimes a lot
of people they'll start their nonprofit, they got to go
get all these people on their board to give them credibility,
and then you kind of starting out without a reputation.
And so some people have said, I did it the
other way, where we done work for twenty nine years,
built a reputation. We already been doing this stuff in
the community, and now we have a physical location that

(43:19):
belongs to us and we set up a nonprofit. Everybody
keep coming up to me trying to partner with me,
but they're trying to partner with me because they want
to make money off of it. And I'm like, our
board is me, my wife, Mike, and his wife. Mike's
the other owner. I don't need the hype. We actually
want to help. And so it's so many people keep

(43:40):
trying to rush me into doing things and I'm like, well,
that's the wrong reason. I don't care if these grants
are they're giving out money right now. We actually want
to help our people, and so that's what I'm looking
to do for it. And so, like last year, I
had to fill out a form. It was funny when
you did you fill out the forum. At first it
was kind of asking like how much money do you
expect to make any and I was like, shit, nothing, Yeah,

(44:04):
I make no money, man, what you mean? Somebody will
give me some money? And so like last year, we
had to add up how much money we collected, and
we collected about eighty seven hundred dollars and I was like,
off some bs, like we didn't really do anything, and
it made me feel good. And that's why I keep saying,
is like I got my own grade scale. I'm not

(44:24):
operating off of everybody else. If my video get a
hundred likes, I think I did great. If three hundred
people watch our podcast, I'm like, I'm not comparing it
to somebody else. So in my world, if somebody gave
us eighty seven hundred dollars over the course of the year,
and we use that money to sponsor kids to go
to our workshops, I feel like we unstoppable, you know

(44:45):
what I mean? So yeah, next year we should be
queued up well we can do some real fundraising and
then start making some bigger impacts in the community. That's
to go. I'm trying to stay away from the suckers, though, Man,
I'll try. It's hard, bro.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Look, I get more people give me up about can we partner?
Can we talk? And you know, I always ask people
it's like it's like, you can't. It's a big word
and you can't put Obviously, if you're coming to me,
you're come for a reason. And I recognize that there's
a value that we provide. But like what a lot
of people don't always talk about is what value they're
going to bring to the table. Like you can see
that it comes across in like a very transactional way.

(45:21):
And well, I tell people it's like, look, you can't
put the burden on me to figure out how you're
gonna help me. So when I ask people people say
I want to partner with you, I say, well, what
does that mean? What does that look like?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Like?

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Tell me, like we gotta get on the phone to
talk about Just tell me, like what is it? Because
I can make that determination. But like what I what
I can't do is and I've done it before, and
I'm like, yeah, I just I can't. I can't figure
out where you can fit in at if you know
what I do and you know what Butter does and
you're aware of it, of it extra job, YEA given me.
I got plenty of stuff to do.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
So look, I can I say this one thing that
just we're we're new in that space. And so we've
had other people of color that come and say, hey,
we got a nonprofit and we want to do this
thing in different cities where we get studio time and
bring artists in and record. And I'm like, okay, well
what you want me to do it? They you want

(46:12):
me to donate the studio time. And I was like, man,
come in the office so we can talk. I said, listen, man,
I think you looking at this and we as black people,
be looking at these nonprofits wrong. I said. So you
got your status based on your said you're going to
do something for the community and offer a service that

(46:32):
the government don't. So they giving you money so you
can go do that. I said, So you have the
ability to raise money, you know, for your causes. Why
don't you go out there and raise money tell your
people that hey, I want to do this for the
kids and put them in the studio and raise money
and come to me and pay me. Yeah, yeah, come

(46:52):
to me and pay me, because that's what the other
all these other nonprofits that ain't black, they write a
check to book the studio time for the people. So
I'll be trying on the tea. Sher I said. Listen, man,
we can help you. We can create a campaign and
have people donate to the nonprofit to cover the stuff.
But we get these nonprofits running around begging the people
that we know to give up the most valuable asset

(47:14):
that makes them money to give away to you. What
do you got the nonprofit for to raise money to
help people? Right, yeah, you raise money to help the people.
Bring me the money and pay me. Stop stop coming
around asking for people for free.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Man. No, you know, I love that, and it actually
makes me kind of want to ask you to just
you know, especially being in the music business, being in
this space, being in the studio space again, you're dealing
with everybody from artists to you know, the managers and
the companies and the labels, and you know, I'm sure
it's some interesting characters out there, you know, all on
those sides of it. What kind of mindset, you know,

(47:49):
does it take to stay successful amongst all that in
that space.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Kind of stand neutral, like you know what I mean.
That's what they always say if they talking about me,
that courages ain't too high, he ain't too low. You
don't get too mad, he don't get too angry. I
may get angry behind the scenes or something with my
staff or something, but that's never in front of anybody else.
But it's just my mindset, my degrees in psychology, and
so I operate from the standpoint that everybody is doing

(48:15):
the best that they can with what they have. And
I operate from whenever I meet somebody, they have a Hey,
you have to work to get to be in the
c you have to not turn into work, you have
to skip class, you gotta fail on the test, you
have to work. I'm gonna give you the benefit of
the doubt and then it's up to you where you
end up. So that's kind of like how sometimes I

(48:36):
just talk to people when they start being talking crazy,
Like there's a lot of times in before the people
in New York used to talk crazy, and I'll pick
up the phone, I say, hey, man, listen, I own
the studio or I'm the manager at the time, and
I don't talk to my employees like that, So he
ain't gonna be talking to people like that down here, man,
And if you want to talk to people like that,
you should go somewhere else. Yeah, and we just fix it.

(48:57):
But when I do that stuff, like I tell people,
would you mentioned these artists and producers that are famous,
The worst thing that you can do is try to
have a conversation like that in front of other people,
because they look at the other people as an audience
and they finna put on the show. So I can
have that conversation if I pull them in the office
or call them off site, and I can kind of

(49:18):
tell them something and don't do it in front of people.
But I tell my staff, don't you go in that
room and try to tell him something in front of
twenty people, because he's gonna give you a show. And
so I just try to pull it off to the side,
or like if they getting too rowdy in front of
a bunch of people, I'd be like, oh, they putting
on the show. Let me just get off this phone
or let me let them have this space, and then

(49:38):
I'm gonna pull them off to the side, and we're
gonna have a real conversation and we're gonna eliminate that,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
I love that idea that everybody starts off with a A
and you gotta work to get a B or see.
I think that I might borrow that. I think I'm
an borrow that one from you. You know. I love
that perspective, like when it comes to just lessons and
how you kind of operate, Like for the for the
new artists, for the artists that you know are launching
now that want to emerge, that want to grow and
to be successful, what's one kind of like studio habit

(50:07):
that you would tell them they need to adopt as
early as possible in their career.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
I think that they need to spend more time in
the studio, and they need to spend time in the
studio with more than just themselves. Like all of that
great music was like when these people were going to
the studio and it be twenty thirty people in there
most of the time. Back in the day, they would say,
book a studio at eight o'clock and then they would
leave at midnight, go to the club, and then they
would bring the club back to the studio at two

(50:32):
in the morning, and if them people was partying and
feeling good about them records, they knew they had good records.
I feel like music is being made by themselves. And
so when these people kind of isolate themselves, they get
more money. Right, So, now they got a movie theater
in their house, they don't go to the movie theater.
They got a bowling alley in their house, they don't
go bowl They got a shift, they don't go out

(50:52):
the restaurants. And then they not in public. They get
so detached that they not feeling what's going out there.
I think it's a disservice for us. Like I keep
saying that we show up and kind of cheapen things.
What benefit does it do you as a producer or
artist to say I made that beat in five minutes.

(51:13):
I ain't right my rhyme. I just went in there
and said, whatever, okay, well, now the record labels like
what I need to give you ten thousand dollars per
song for you just told me you can take that
radio shack microphone or record it in your house and
get a beat from your homeboy. No other industry does that.
We'd the dumb it were the most ignorant people. We

(51:35):
lower the value into all of the places that we
go to, And so I don't like that, like the
country people be like n We wrote this song, we
worked on it for twenty years, we brought twenty musicians in,
we was in the studio, we rewrote it, we demoed it,
and all that stuff. So for me, I've seen people
make a mistake. You get a budget from a record

(51:55):
label and you try to be cheap on it. You
bragging that, hey, I did twelve songs and only spent
ten thousand of my budget. Guess what the label do.
They'll put your stuff on the shelf and say, we
really ain't investing it. Then we can get rid of them.
Now I see Mariah in them. They spend so much
money that the album has to come out. So you

(52:16):
making a mistake by going around trying to talk down
the studio, Talk down the producers, talk down the DJs,
talk down the videographers, talk down the publicists. So they're
not invested in you, so they can just get rid
of you. So I would just say, man, you need
to spend more time talk up your craft, stop belittling

(52:37):
you didn't just write that song. On that day. You
thought about it in your car for twelve days, then
you went in there and said it. But I just
think people got to be a little bit more intelligent
of like, who are you helping by making it look
like you made this movie on your iPhone in twenty minutes.
Nobody's gonna give you any money for that.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yeah, I think people definitely gotten caught up in them.
I don't want to call it the mass production of it,
but I remember reading this book. It was called the
Future of Music and kind of talked about, you know,
it's gonna be the people that you know bring more
to the space. I remember I was talking to my boy,
mister Hanky one time and I was telling him, I said, man,
look respectfully, man, I'm gonna blame Little Wayne for some

(53:15):
of this. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, Bro, Like,
Lil Wayne was making so much music and it was good.
All y'all thought it was easy, you know what I mean,
y'all thought everybody could do the same thing, and everybody
started kind of copying what he was doing, and like
that was his lane and he was amazing at it.
He could literally sit there and to your point, not
necessarily write stuff down, come out with twenty thirty songs.
But all y'all thought y'all had to do the same thing,

(53:38):
and you realize that there's a big difference between you,
Wayne mad.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Some artists think they you can't all disappear for ten years,
come back gonna be there. She's special, he's special. But
he was in the studio. We had a three year
round with cash Money. Yeah, they were doing eighteen hour sessions.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
That the part they don't hear about. That's the part
they hear about. They think, yeah, it was just all
you know, I always say the hard you know, the
hard part is making it look easy. But people focus
on the easy part. But to your point, you.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Know what I think they always tell people if you
think about how hip hop kind of first started, if
you think about it, a lot of times, like the
song Lottie Dottie in the show, it was only a
single with a B side, air being Rocky in My
Melody and I'm President. These people didn't believe in rap,
and so they sought out the best people to do it.

(54:27):
They was like, man, if we're gonna spend all this
money to go on the studio, by these reels do
all this stuff. They filtered through and only let the
best people, but they were so dope they only let
them do two songs, and then if them songs popped off,
they spent the money to do an album. Then they
put them albums out and they start making money. And
other people looked at it like you said, and was like,

(54:49):
I need to get me a rapper, and I can
do that, and it just got oversaturated with less talented people,
whereas before there was a barrier or entrance to get
in it. And so one of the things that always
say that our industry is suffering from is that there
aren't any standards to be in it. So you can

(55:09):
have somebody that's the president of a record label that
never graduate from graduated from high school. I can have
I have people that call me about listing to studio
on websites and I'd be like, I'm not going on
there because you don't have any standards. The dude they
got a studio in his house, he gonna say, I
got the number one studio in Atlanta, and you're gonna
put it up there. And like I tell people other

(55:29):
industries like hotels they got a one star, they got
a two star. They got a three star, four and
a five, and you got to meet certain requirements to
get in there. Our airlines are kind of slot it,
you know, when there's a low price carrier, when there's
a premium and whatever. But in this music industry, we
don't have any standards. And so when somebody says a
song is recorded, is it properly recorded, you don't know.

(55:51):
Is it mixed? You don't know? Is it mastered? You
don't know? Is it a recording studio? Every studio on
there on Google that you said you did our home
we number one on the regular thing. We ain't pay
for no ads, so we show up number one. But
if you look at the ones that's up there that's
paid for, they say number one studio in Atlanta. And

(56:12):
so you know, our stuff. We just need some standards
and our stuff. And I think that some of us
need standards in all of our industries for what we
do with everybody, like even all this stuff now and
I see stuff be calling stuff university and they're giving
out these phony degrees and master classes and did stuff
like that. Man, y'all just being loose with that stuff,
and it's devaluing it, which is what I kind of

(56:34):
hate to see from us. It's like whenever we show up,
we lower the value.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
One thing I always kind of notice is like, especially nowadays,
it seems like everybody wants everything to be okay all
the time. And I tell people that, no, that's not
the case.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Bro.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Like it was funny. I was I was out, you know,
with a restaurant this weekend, and you know, I was
there with my parents and like, you know, we were
having brunch and like, bro, the DJ is just like
playing it. Look, I love rap.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Music loud, probably, but it wasn't even loud, bro.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
It was every unedited version of any song you can listen.
I'm like, Bro, I got my kids in here. Yeah,
I got my parents in here. Like I don't have
a problem with rap, but like I heard more cusswords
around them, and I'm like and even just the self
awareness to be like, you know what, maybe I should
play the clean version. YEP.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
So it's funny you said that. So I went to
Michigan State, right, and Draymond Green went to Michigan State,
and I always be about to be like when I
see him, I'm be like, you gotta stop, because I
got a daughter that she's eleven or twelve now twelve,
just turned twelve, and I don't listen to any I
don't even already listen to no rap music in front
of her or whatever. Less it's the old school because
they weren't recussing. But I'll be like, man, i'd be

(57:49):
listening to you doing interviews and in the middle of
your interview you just start cussing. What are you doing?

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Man?

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Like it's kids listening to this stuff, like we listening
to you and you saying smart stuff. But right in
the middle of it, I didn't My wife be like, man,
what you listening to? And I said, man, I ain't
know he was finna cuss like that. So I think
that like you saying like, so, even when we do stuff,
if somebody is in there older than me, I'll tell
the DJ play all clean versions, don't you be Like

(58:15):
when you they come to the festival, I said, it's
comfortable for your family, for your kids and dogs. If
you hear a dirty version, you come get me. It
won't it won't happen. And it's like, man, I don't
know why people don't care, and but it's weird that
you picked up on that because I would have been
the same thing in the restaurant, like, man, what are
you playing?

Speaker 2 (58:34):
It's interesting, man. I mean even I had a buddy
of mine and like, you know, I learned a lesson
because I think, you know, like an entrepreneurship, you know,
like unlike like like music. You know, there's certain people
the kind of people like look up to and so
like Gary Vee like does a lot of stuff in entrepreneurship,
and like you know, he'll curse and do like stuff
here and there. But I had a buddy of mine
and he was making content, he was putting on LinkedIn.
He was cursing everything, and I said, I called him

(58:54):
one day and I was like, hey, bro, you got
to stop cursing on LinkedIn. I said, because I get
why you're doing it, and I understand you, and you're
a very smart person. But I'm telling you as a
person that you respect. Bro, You're not Gary Vee. Right,
he can get away with that stuff. You can't. When
you say it, people are gonna look at you differently,
and they're not gonna hear. They're gonna hear that you
drop the F bomb for no reason in the middle

(59:15):
of your sentence, where you could have so no again.
I think it's just this weird space for in right
now now. Everybody wants everything to be okay all the time,
and I don't. I don't come from that.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I would challenge you to go on our Instagram and
find me a song because I got on the girls
about posting the dirty version of the song. Yeah. I'm like, man,
what are you doing? You don't know who looking at
this stuff? And when I click on it and you
playing this dirty verse. That's even when people I be
looking at people that do their highlights for their kids. Man,
you got this music all loud and all this stuff.
It's we ignorant. Oh. I keep telling people that they

(59:48):
did a job on us for four and the years
they got us, we party in no matter what, Man,
we partying. When the kids born, we partying, when the
kids die, we party, and when we get married, we party,
and when we get a divorce party, and when we
buy a house, we party, and when we go bankrupt.
They tricked us, man, Our people is just like I mean,
I'll be looking at it. They had a video at

(01:00:08):
the airport they doing the boots on the ground and
the airport. Man, there's so much stuff going on in
the world and we still party. Ignorance is bliss.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
And I'm living in it. Man, We'll look. Look, I
gotta ask you, man, fast forward ten years from now.
You know, a young engineer, what do you want them
to say about patchwork when it's all sitting there, Like
when they walk in there for the first time, you know,
it's y'all forty year anniversary. And this person again, he's
coming in here, he's heard about it, and he walks in, Like,
what do you want him to say about finally being
in that space?

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
We get that now that it's people's dream and aspiration
to get there, and I'm conscious of it. I would
want them to feel like we lived up to it.
Like that's the biggest thing now. The other thing that
as we move on, you know, I always tell people
I look at us it's kind of like an institution,
and always say that an institution's success is determined or

(01:01:04):
measured by the success of its alumni. It's so many
people in the music industry complaining about what's going on
right now, but they were in a position where they
could have changed it. I'd be like, who's the person
that came behind you? Who did you train? Who did
you mentor who did you teach? Who did you employ
to fill that seat and do it the right way.

(01:01:26):
So my biggest thing is that in ten years, like
I'm looking at him, I went to school with his mom.
I got people to studios thirty, we got engineers as
twenty one. We trying to move it forward and not
leave a big gap. It's important for me, like I
tell people, I say, y'all can do all the stuff
that y'all want to do. Y'all can go work over here.
You don't never hear me complain. I see you go

(01:01:49):
over here, you go do this, you go over here,
you spend your money, you do this. But when your
niece and your daughter want an internship or a job,
you're sitting on my couch. You need to sport these
people that are supporting you. And we don't. Never we've
never gone around and asked nobody to come to the
studio or come back or whatever. And people make assumptions

(01:02:10):
that you straight. But these people like I just hired
a person that's a guy. He worked for me. It
was his first job. He's like, you have my first
industry check. He was dropping his son off. He went
to cau he going there. He brought his son and
I said, you're going to see au. He said yeah.
I said, when you start, he's like, I'm coming back
in two weeks. I'm like, you want a job, he
said yeah. I said, all right, said I'm giving you

(01:02:31):
the job based on your daddy. I said, now, listen,
you're gonna be here four years. You bet. I don't
expect to see you in McDonald's, burger king or whatever.
When you leave for spring break and come back, you
got a job. You leave for the summer and come back,
you got a job. You get your class schedule and
tell me when you're going to be in class, and
we're gonna make a schedule where you can come here
and work. That's what I want. I don't want to

(01:02:52):
be sitting there and it's still about me in six
to ten years, you know what I mean. I'm trying
to get there. There's a thing where, like I said,
I think it's Mike a cameraman and this is Kenai
where they have all these ideas, which is good, and
they have the energy, but we got to stay around

(01:03:13):
to teach them how to turn those ideas and convert
that energy into a business, so that they can sustain.
My biggest respect for people. He was talking about Maya early,
and I love Maya because he employs black people. I
don't care about how what your watch look like, what
your car look like. That doesn't impress me. I can

(01:03:33):
like you, but I probably still won't respect you. I
respect people that employ people, and so we always have
twenty six people working at the studio. I've never missed
the payroll. If you work at the reception that's at
the studio, you will never feel the call from a
bill payer saying I'm calling for a pass through bill.

(01:03:53):
That's what's important to me. And I got to be
able to encourage the younger people that have this energy,
these ideas because I was that person. I came out
of school at twenty three and I thought that we
can build a studio. I didn't have anybody telling me
that we couldn't. My parents never told me that we couldn't.
So for them, I'm never really telling them no. But

(01:04:14):
I am being like you said, show me what it's
made sense, Like, hey man, you want to do this,
let's do it. Or tell me how it's gonna work. Okay, well,
how's that gonna turn into? And The biggest thing is
we can do everything, but is it sustainable and is
it gonna pay for itself? If not, what's the purpose
of doing at one time? I'm not here for the height.

(01:04:34):
So I'm trying to collaborate with younger people. We got
engineers in there. There's twenty one twenty that's coming out
of school. The issue with the younger people is that
it's more of a hustle to me. What I'm saying
is it doesn't matter if it's my industry or anything.
Their idea is I'm gonna go to this place and
use this place to get information and go start my

(01:04:56):
own stuff. The forty acres is valuable when it's all
put together. When it's broken up into one hundred yards
or a hundred yards a hundred yards, it ain't really
worth nothing. So we get people that come in, we
train them, we teach them, we get them to a
level where they're professional, and then they run off and
they want to steal your clients. They want to steal
your customers. So think about how many people for thirty

(01:05:17):
years is they coming in there saying, hey man, you
can just call me directly, and I got to set
up at home that's old. So then as the older person,
it makes you not want to pour into the young
people because you already know that they just trying to
take your stuff and go do something on their own.
So it's weird like he's here because I went to

(01:05:38):
school with his mama, So then I don't have to
worry about him. The guy that I gave a job
on the spot, his daddy worked for me and live
with me. I know what type of kid that he
worked with. So I'm trying to find young people with
morals and characteristics that want to come and work and
be a part of something, not come steal from you.
And they don't look at it like they're stealing. And

(01:06:00):
I tell them, I said, man, if you're working in
the shoe store and the Jordan's cost two hundred dollars,
why are you taking a phone call from the god
saying can I come by a six thirty and give
you one fifty? You stealing?

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
And so I'll be looking at people for us. I'll
be like, well, give me a list of your clients
before you interned here, and they don't have any. And
then I say, okay, this is your clientlest whose client
is that they literally think that they're their clients and
that's the stretch, and that's where it's going to be
a rub in our industry. Like I tell people, the
biggest threat to the recording studio is the engineer, and

(01:06:33):
the studio was built for the engineers. That's crazy. While
y'all lying to people telling people that you can do
the same thing at home, but you know that you
can do a better job in this room because you
can hear better. So it's an interesting thing that we
built our business around engineers and for most people. I

(01:06:53):
had a friend that own a smoothie King and she
wants to sell it because of the employees. It's like
they've been there on Instagram, but they won't post nothing
about the store. Everybody think that they own entity, their
own brand and their own business, and they killing the
bigger things that can support all of us.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Yeah no, look, trust me, I see it, and I
think you know one of my one of my rules
I have is like, you can't work for me until
you work for me. I say that people all the time. So,
like what I want to do is I want to
find people. I want to understand, like, yeah, what's your
work product? Like like I might give you like a
little small project. It might it might seem insignificant, right,
But what I'm paying attention to is, Okay, how are

(01:07:30):
you gonna handle this project? How are you gonna get
how are you gonna give it back to me? You
know's information gonna come back organizing a spreadsheet? Or are
you gonna text it to me? Like it doesn't matter.
Like I look at little things like that, and when
I find people that do good work, they have a
good work product, I'm like, yo, you keep them around.
Oh yeah, you keep them around, you know the way
my dad always taught me. He's like, look, man, life

(01:07:51):
is like a bus. You know, everything's like a bus.
Some people gonna ride with you all the way to
the end. Some people gonna get off. They might get
back on. That's why I tell my daughter all the time.
But in the day, though, you do the finals. People
that have you know, good integrity, you know, good quality.
Nothing lasts forever. But while you're here, you know what
I mean, Like, you know, are you just here to
just take it extract or are you're leaving something behind
or pulling something back into it? Because to your point, man, yeah,

(01:08:12):
we're in this space now, where everybody, everybody thinks they
can be their own bass so they can run their
own business. And I said, there's a lot of y'all
that should be number two's, number sevens, number fifteens in
companies and really learn how to work or that's just
where you're supposed to be at versus like everybody has
this boss mentality, you know what I mean? Like everybody,
Look all y'all ain't built for this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
Trust men. They know what account money, they don't know
what account expenses.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Man, I'm telling you, man, look, Curtiz, Man, this has
been an amazing conversation. Man again, Man, Pat's work has
done just it's an iconic place. You know, I was
staying earlier, man, Like people talk about you know, Hitsville
and and you know, Grace Slaying all these other places.
You know, I definitely think that this is you know,
the iconic, you know, legendary spot where just so much

(01:08:56):
amazing music is happening Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
I appreciate us getting them now. As I keep saying,
I said, Man, I guess people gonna wait till we
go out of business to talk about us, and they
tell us how great we were and all this stuff.
It's just like I said, a lot of times, you know,
people take it for granted, but like I keep saying,
we're not just open, were thriving, and you know, we're
still doing great work and I'm proud about that. But
these things, you know, are landmarks. And you know, every

(01:09:20):
I'm looking back at my last interviews, I feel bad
they five years ago, twenty five, thirty and whatever. But
who's to say that we're gonna be here for thirty two,
thirty three, thirty four. So I appreciate you shining the
light on us while we're still here and actively working.
It means a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, man, got getting they flowers? Man, you know everybody like, look, man,
people starting to trip on lebron a little bit. Man,
I'm like, bro, Look, longevity is a thing, and to
still be performed at that certain level, say what you
want to say about it. It says a lot because
a lot of things have come and gone and so again,
longevity is a thing. You know. Employing people is a thing,
Like I said, I think there's a status. It's like

(01:09:56):
over ninety percent of black owned businesses don't employ one employed,
you know, So again, like it's just doing all those
things or whether it's I do music and putting back
in and helping them, like you know, give people opportunities
and kind of bring up the next group of engineers too.
Like that's just something I think is extremely important as
that to your point, you know, we got to also
make sure that when we're building these things, we're putting
the people in place that are gonna come behind us.

(01:10:18):
And that's something that how you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Gonna complain about all the stuff when you didn't Yeah,
you didn't teach nobody how to do it. That's where
the gap is is that it's these older I ain't
gonna say older people, but these these people that were
sitting here. You was at the label, You was the
an R, you was the president. You now you get
you lose your job. Now you want to complain about
how they're doing stuff. You was in a position to

(01:10:42):
change that. It's crazy. Yeah, y'all shut up with all that.
If you ain't changing, I don't want to hear.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
Heymen, you look you're right on that, brother, trust me. Man,
Before we got out of here, man, just tell everybody,
for those that you know, give them all the things. Man,
how can they get in contact with patchwork?

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
They?

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
How can they get this stuff over there, you know,
if they're ready for it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
Yeah, yeah, even if you ain't. Man, you know, I
do free consultations, so you can always go. We owe
school and we knew School. So our website works. Www
dot Patchwork, dot carm Our. Website is not a template either, right,
it's a real website and so that works and we
respond to it. So you can go through the website

(01:11:24):
and get information on how to be an intern. You
can get information on I do music. You can get
information about our thirtieth anniversary celebration, and then we have
you on social media at Patchwork Studio, and then the
longer form content is on our YouTube page. And like
I said, my goal is I don't charge for consultations.
I'm trying to find people that want to be in

(01:11:45):
the music industry and I'm hoping you come sitting down
and talk to me for free. Before you get robbed,
I'll be feeling like we may lose one of our
most talented person If there's a parent that's hyped about
their kid, they're invested in them, they want to put
them in the studio, and then they run it to
a jankie producer or engineer or a studio that take
their money. We never knew what that person was gonna be.

(01:12:06):
So if you listening and you hear this, you can
go on our Instagram or just call us four or
four eight seven four nine eight eight z A nine
eight eight zero crazy stat We turn in thirty. We
never have voicemail. We answering that telephone and were calling
you back. We taking your call. We ain't hiding from you.
If you're riding up and down the street, man pull up,

(01:12:26):
I mean you may not. If we're busy and got sessions,
we may can't walk you through. But if it ain't
nothing going on and I ain't busy, we're not gonna
turn you away. We're gonna let you come in the building.
We're gonna give you some information, and then we'll tell
you how to set up a proper appointment so we
can address any concerns that you may have. But my
thing is we're here with our arms open. We're not
up here like this. We're not trying to keep people away.

(01:12:48):
I'll be on my staff about that. I'll be like, man,
why are you talking through people through the door. We
got a door, then another door. They can't get past it.
Stop talking to people and leaving them outside, buzz them
in and bring them in the building. That's what we
I mean, I'll be in there in the morning when
I be opening up Brandon. If I open up at
tea in that phone ring at like at nine to
fifty three, at eight fifty three, I literally be like,

(01:13:09):
I'll be breaking my net to get to that phone,
because that phone. I remember one time they emailed us
at four thirty in the morning, and it turned out
we ended up doing all of the Spanish versions of
what's her name? Na Si Alexa? Okay man. I thought
it was a jankie email and I answered it because
I always say speed kills. But I'll be running there
in the morning the phone be ringing, I'd be like, man,

(01:13:31):
this could be somebody trying to book a month. Yeah,
And so we're serious about it. So if you call
email or text, if you want to get one of
my employees in trouble, you get me on the phone
and tell me you sent the email or called up
there and somebody didn't call you back. And that's probably
like the worst thing that our employees can do to
get in trouble with me is not be responsible to

(01:13:51):
our clients.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
Hey man, we'll look again. Brother, Thank you for pulling up.
We appreciate you. Congratulations on thirty years here all years,
thirty more and beyond and what that's it? We out y'all.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
That's the podut peace.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your hosts
Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be on the show.
Send us an email today at hello at butteronomics dot com.
Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by
Casey Pegram, with marketing support from Queen and Nikki. Music
provided by mister Hanky. If you haven't already, hit that
subscribe button and never missed an episode, and be sure

(01:14:26):
to follow us on all our social platforms at butter
dot atl Listen to button Nomics on the iHeartRadio app,
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