September 6, 2023 • 21 mins
In this exciting episode, we delve deeper into the incredible journey of Dallas Austin, the GRAMMY® Award-winning producer and music industry icon. Dallas shares the pivotal moments that shaped his career, starting with his mother's unwavering support for his passion for music. He opens up about the mentors who inspired him to create his record label, Rowdy Records, and the valuable lessons he learned while transitioning from being a music maker to running a record label.
Host IG:@itstanyatimeGuest
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash small Biz to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You want, you want people to determine and that a
bit of what they do.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Obviously, you know, it's an artist if you you know,
because everybody can have talent, But if they don't have
a determination to want to beat and want to be
an artist and want to be the best artist they
can and want to be better than the other artists
that's out there, then you kind of just you know,
tooling your thumbs and listening to something cool.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But it takes that takes the artists to really desire
to beat and to be great.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You know that, then they work really hard because people
don't realize how much work it really takes to be
an artist. You got to be cut out for it
for real.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You're listening to Money News powered by Greenwood, a finance
podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business
and more. I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and
media personality Tanya Sam. Each week we talk with guests
who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
(01:10):
how they are making their money move. If you're someone
who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
right place. So open up your notes app and lock
us in because this podcast will give you the keys
to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth, and abundance you
so rightly deserve. Before we start the episode, I'd like
to remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
(01:33):
me on all things social at It's Tanya time to
stay locked in to new episodes. Okay, so this is
this is like super interesting because you've made a whole
bunch of money, you lost a whole bunch of money.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You were like down and out.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
How do you like, do you remember being like curled
up in a ball or is it more you have
this mindset that you're just like I don't work my
way out, Like I don't have a choice, Like how
do you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's a lot of pressure you curl up in the
ball first?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Okay, Okay, thank you for the realness.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
You can't drink it out of you.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It ain't gonna work ain't nothing gonna fix it because
you still got the problem. So that's just just that's
just you know, you got to say, Okay, let me
start thinking about how and let me let me put
that in the forefront. I want to get out of
the situation. Put that in my spirit, let me put
that in the way I'm thinking about everything is I'm
working for, you know, to get myself out of something
(02:28):
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And you'll be surprised.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I mean, you know, money creates comfort also, so when
you're uncomfortable, it's probably the best way.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
To be for you to get to work, right, That's right.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
So that feeling alone, that gutted feeling, and then I
couldn't go after the guy. I couldn't go after, you know,
I was just it was just one of those things
where you're super pissed off, super hurt, you know, but
you gotta pull you, you know, put them blue straps
up and say, okay, well it's only two ways to
go and go down.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, and we're not going back down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Wow, those are those are hard lessons to learn really early.
I'm still curious about just like your early journey. So
we've talked about money and how sort of you've had
a range of ups and downs, made a lot, lost
a lot. Let's go back to the beginning parts of
your career. So you're growing up in Atlanta, you just
want to make beats. I love that your mom said.
(03:22):
She was like, wow, I guess I'm going to support him,
which is a lot in those early days, because there
wasn't you know, there wasn't a lot of representation of
like how my youngs.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Were you sixteen at this point?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, I was just going to like not go to
school and make some beats. So talk about how you
the beginning the beginning days of your career, so you're
just in the studio talented creating music.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I was, you know, I had asked my mom every
quick started off asking my mom as a kid, every Christmas,
give me a give me a keyboard, and every Christmas.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Get me a bigger one.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And when I finally got up to one that was
big enough, which is like twelve hundred dollars, they had
to finance it for five years.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's not just amazing, Like showed up to your mom
who was like, I will pay wherever I can out
of my little tiny track from working at where was
she at I don't know well.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And Columba said, this time she had a little soul
food restaurant and we lived connected to the restaurant in
the house. It was like a you know, makeshift bedrooms
in the back and you know, just country soul food slot.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Got to go down to the country, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And I was so determined to get out of there
for one.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
The floor.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So but what happened was my brother he came home
one day and broke my He threw my keyboard and
broke it because I was ignoring him. That's it, I'm leaving.
And my aunt lived in Atlanta, so I said, you know,
that's it. I'm either going to kill him or I'm
going to go to the Greyhound bus station. So I
went to the Greyhound bus station, which is next to
my mom, which is next to the restaurant.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And the good place to have a restaurant right next
to the bus day.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So I was I was just like, I'm out of
here and I'm going to Atlanta to live with my
aunt and I'm gonna be a big record producer.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I can't do that. This guy broke my keyboard.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So my mom was like, your trip and you're not
going to Atlanta because you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Broke your keyboard. I'm at the bus station. I'm crying.
I'm mad, but there's no buses.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Going because it's late.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So she said, I know you're stubborn. Come back home.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You don't want to stay here tonight, think about it,
and then if you still feel that way, you got tomorrow,
but don't stay here to night. So I was like,
all right, So I go home, get up the next day,
I look at my keyboard, go back to the bus station.
But I go downstairs and get a little money out
of cash reler ship.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Over to the bus station.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It was like, are you serious? People are gonna leave
me here? And I'm like, I got to get out
of here. I can't stay at the house no more.
I can't be a big record producer. He broke my
keyboard and there's only two keys are broken off the
top of everybody. I was being super dramatic, and she said,
all right, we'll tell you what.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
If you're that determined, then give me a minute to
sell the restaurant. I'm going with you.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And she said give me six months, and I moved
to Atlanta and we'll go up there.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Wow, that's what we did.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Mom, talk about the Believer.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And she sold her restaurant and y'all moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Moved to Atlanta and that's when she started working at
PO Folks. They moved the old National Highway. And you
know what's crazy is, you know, just being in school
and meeting people is how it really got connected around Atlanta,
and I mean around College Park at the time, and
it was way smaller because it wasn't that many people doing.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So go back, this is before me. I grew up
in Canada.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Like I want to know, So you're in College Park now,
mom's move got there, she's.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Making food and who are you meeting?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Like, tell me about these early days of Atlanta because
this is this is the.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah I started was I was.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I was in high school and it was a band
and the band was called Princess and Starbreeze. And I
ended up meeting the band because they you know, they
wouldn't the same high school, but they had a little
bit of fame going.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
They were like a local band that was playing around,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So the lady Joyce Rbie from Climax ended up coming
from La finding them and then signing them the Motown.
So I'm running their lights every day so I could
use their equipment at night when they do shows. So
I'm probably fourteen at this time and running their lights
coming home doing that shows. That's why I didn't want
to go to school.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And then as I got to be about fifteen sixteen,
because as long as they would.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Pick me up to go to the studio, I couldn't drive.
I was old enough, but I was bad as hell
on keyboards, you know. And by the time I got
old enough to drive.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Wait, I gotta ask a watch. Were you all self taught?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Keep going. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I would just put on records every day and play
along with them and act like I was in the band,
like I was in Prince's band, like I was in
the time I was doing George Clinton like. And what
was crazy too, is my mom had and my mom
so food restaurant because the auditorium was down the street
where everybody played that everybody came here to eat. So
I've seen all these people like George.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Clinton and Lino, Richie the greats.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Just in my mom's restaurant, you know. So that was
even more inspiring to me. Like I feel like I
was always close you know, stuff that played for James Brown.
So I got out on the road with him when
he played guitar. So I got out on the road
with them when I was little, and so she just
knew I was surrounded by music enough to be as
determined as I was. And by the time we were
(08:31):
out here and I got you know, by the time
about sixteen, I think is when I met Jermaine, about
sixteen or seventeen, I met Jermain Deprix because he was
the only other producer that was young, that was doing
stuff and he was down the street on own National
and we started being friends way back then and so
but again it was small. It was just only us
(08:51):
trying to due. We thought like mcd and Raheem, the
Dream and all them was huge because they were Atlanta superstars.
We didn't know there wasn't the world superstars.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
We thought, you know, this was the world, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And back then in Atlanta, the athletes and probably local
drug dealers had all the money.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Too Yeah, the athletes are really flashy, like Dominique and yeah,
but an are. Yeah, but we didn't I think once
we once, I once, I was like by the time
I started doing another bad creation, and I did a
few things before that. But by the time another bad
creation hit and Boys and Men hit, then Criss Cross
(09:38):
wasn't too far behind that. You know, me and Jermaine
just kind of I've been doing this our whole life together.
We all, all of us didn't start running the business
because we had we had to have record started getting
big and then when you know, we started getting ripped off,
you start getting the tax problems, and you start getting
all that. You're forced to learn your business, whether you
like it or not.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Let's talk about the learning the business.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Because you're young and all of a sudden you've got
this influx of money. You you know, you're trying to
build out studios and when you think about the cost
of building out million dollar consoles, I mean that dramatically
decreased now. But how did you learn the business? Like
who were the key people that were instrumental in being
you know, mentors to you from a financial standpoint, like
(10:23):
p and ls all those crazy words where you're like,
I just want to play my keyboard.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I was like, it was interesting because you know, Clarence
Avon godfather music back at the early age, because you know,
you start making money in the business.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You started meeting everybody quick.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
By the time La Re and No Face moved to Atlanta,
we started getting cool because I was doing on TLC records,
and so then La said, well, hey want you you know,
why don't you once you start a label and you know,
it could be a street division of the Face if
you want to. I'm like, oh man, I don't want
to do that. I still just want to play, you know,
run around now, you know. So he's like, yeah, well
you can sign rap acts and sign stuff like your
(11:03):
friends whatever.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So I was like all right. So I came up
with Rowdy.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Then, and then it became, you know, the infrastructure became
because Ariston had funded us, you know, being well, now
you have a label and now you have funding. So
I'm like, all right, cool. But then instead of being
an office inside of the Face, the whole thing moved
to New York. So now I'm twenty twenty to twenty
(11:28):
one with a full on office in New York with
thirty five staffing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I would go up there when I would go to
New York.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Plus I'm from down here, so I was like, I
was really uncomfortable in New York.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Back then it was different.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Being you know, and then the music and then pulling
up at the office and your black Lincoln and getting
out and you're going upstairs. So I would go upstairs,
go to my office, and go straight back to the
office and just play music being there.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
By myself, right.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And then one day when my staffingers came in and
said excuse me, can we talk?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
They're like, you like everybody, And I said, wow. She said,
because you have.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You have your whole staff on pins and needles because
you never talked to anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And I was like, oh, she said, you might want
to have a staff meeting. Oh that's me okay, but
like to learn this.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
You know, this is like big business. Now you're like,
am I What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Like someone has to tell you, because if you haven't
seen it, how.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You So I never got to really see that where
you and so I went.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
I remember that day going to the staff meeting and they, okay, well,
this is your president, you know, because you own the label.
This is your president. That's your head of A and R.
That's your promotions girl. That's the marketing department, that's this,
that's finance, that's publicity, that's like. And so I'm like, wow, okay,
so my my job is to go be creative, right,
bring creativity. So I did that for a while in
(12:52):
New York, and then I didn't want to be in
New York anymore. LA had signed the outcast to the face.
So I was like, well, I'm doing what happened a
label in New York. I don't want to do this.
So and I was about at that point, we were
probably about seven million dollars in debt.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
WHOA, let's get into the DUTs seven for building out
the studio and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, we really just from Arista, you know, like from
and they say, look, we're going to fund you each act.
Was like, have budgets of like five hundred thousand to
record each act. Right, you have the thirty staff members,
and then you have the office in New York.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You got insurances for all them.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
You got Now, I mean, this is the thing you
got to spend to grow. But it goes fast.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
And this has been going on for years now, so
like you know, about three to four years, so it's
a couple million bucks a year. You got artists, you
got marketing, And then I decided, like, dude, I don't
want to be up here.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I don't want to do.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
This, and so Clyde Davis was like, well, you know what,
why don't you take Rowdy with you to Atlanta? And
I'm like, oh, you don't understand. I don't want to
do this, Like I don't want to be cooped up
here doing this, like and it's just like not at
this point in my life. Maybe later he said, hell,
let's come on, I tell you what. We'll wipe the
debt and let's start over. So I was like, well
(14:14):
that's a little bit different.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Wait wait, wait, back up. So you had.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Almost ten million dollars of debt on the bucks you
went and you were like, I'm not happy.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I want to leave New York.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I want to go back to the South and build again.
And they were just like Jeanie made the deck go away.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, they didn't want to.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
At that time, the way the music industry was is
la and faced way at Ericas at Arista, Clive had
did a thesis that said, hey, if you were power
to the black producers in the community, they'll bring you
all the other music and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Kind of set up a light label.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So it's most like he didn't want to lose me right,
and hits at the time too, so to be on
his team and half hits outside of him. He didn't
want to give up that and the investment that he
had already made in it, you know. So he's like, look,
let me just let's start over.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
If you don't want to make.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It hip hop label, whatever, just take it to Atlanta
and then you do it. But then I moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And wait, what year is this too?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
This is ninety two?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, ninety two, and give me some context of some
of the music that you're putting out right now, because
it's jaw dropping, y'all.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well that's like, well, actually that might have been a
couple years later because the inter Powded the Bag was
nineteen two, So right, like ruing the TLC what you know,
the first TLC album, the first Boys to Man album.
And when I when I because I didn't want to
sign pop stuff throughout it. I want to sign all
rock and roll. So I had like Fishbone and all
these crazy bands that I signed. And finally, when I
(15:45):
moved to Atlanta, I said, okay, well I got to
do something that is gonna you know. Now, now I'm
a little more business minded, because of right, but.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
I still had a you know office on the floor
downtown across from the newspaper, and I still had you know,
still had staff, still had the whole kind of thing
going on. So I was like, all right, well, I
got to find somebody that we really know how to,
how to you know, make money off of, and that
we can't be designed a punk band, right yeah, So
(16:19):
that's when I found Monica and then fine, yep, we
started making records on her first album with double Platinum
off the bat, and then that started to readjust everything
you know, and so she between her and then that's when.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We really started to be because.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It was in Atlanta at that time, so I can
still go to my office, go home, go to the
studio down the street. I started my publishing companies then
because I would sign writers and producers and then have
them work on the Monica project with me, I haven't
work on all the body stuff, also have them work
on all the other stuff. So I started publishing companies
at that time also that and so everything was in
(16:58):
full just full light song, you know what I'm saying.
And again, because the music industry was so different, we're
making you know, if you sold a million records, then
you're generating you know, twenty million, almoste hundred million dollars,
right depending on what the.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Crisis of it was.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And so it was making a label so much money
that all of us had that set up. I had it,
Jermaine had it, the Face had it. And it was
just the boom of the producers at the time, like
the real record company. I mean that was a real
you know producer boom and age.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
They didn't want to miss out on it, so they
would come and give us joint ventures. And that was
the first time that they had done that, even at
a record company. You know, give producers joint ventures like that.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, but you guys were delivering.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
This is the thing like when you're hot, you're hot,
you're finding all the talent.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
You kind of had a gift for it. What is it?
You know?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I think you definitely have proven you have a talent
for spotting rising stars and discovering new talent. What qualities
do you look for in potential artists or even you know,
some of the people who are working for you under
your published thing, Like, how do you spot them I.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Think it's the same you want. You want people that's
determined and that a did of what they do. Obviously,
you know, it's an artist if you you know, because
everybody can have talent. But if they don't have a
determination to want to beat and want to be an
artist and want to be the best artist they can
and want to be better than the other artists that's
out there, then you kind of just you know, tueling
(18:27):
your thumbs and listening to something cool. But it takes
that takes the artists to really desire to beat and
to be great. You know that, then they work with
it hard because people don't realize how much work it
really takes to be an artist. It's just like you
got to be cut out for it. And especially now
because the the access to what the artists have now,
(18:52):
whether it's like Spotify, you got to Spotify for artists,
you got to have your Apple Music for artists, You
got your Amazon for artists. You gotta have your TikTok,
you fill your Instagram, your you.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Gotta engage with your fans.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You gotta make shorts this not tell them what you're doing,
what you ate for breakfast.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Plus also be a great musician put out content.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
It's a lot, it's a lot so and it's really
you know. But it's the same thing in business though.
If you find people that's really just determined, you know,
and you have the same like minded division within your company, then.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It doesn't feel like work.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
So we have a passion for and that you love
to do, and then that starts to generate some money
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But I feel like for our for our industry boom.
We came from the era.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Where but it was you pufful bad boy and we
were rowdy and Jamaine was so so deaf uh in
the face, but everybody was into kind of that was
the entrepreneur era. Like it was like, you know what,
let's stop if they're wearing, if we're wearing, telling me
he'll figure closing all our videos. Why don't we just
make our own clothes, you know, or if we're doing
(20:01):
you know whatever. We started to catch on and I
think it was the first kind of raworld producers thought
that way. All of us always doing other stuff, always
had other businesses.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Always that multiple streams of income, whether it's clothing, brands,
liquor brands. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we
helped you make your money move. Please share it with
your community, Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio
and Apple podcasts. Follow us on social media at Greenwood
and visit us at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial
(20:34):
tips and remember, money Movers, If this.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Were easy, everyone would do it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
apply it to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Make sure to.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Tune in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Until next time,
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash small Biz to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
You want, you want people to determine and that a
bit of what they do.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Obviously, you know, it's an artist if you you know,
because everybody can have talent, But if they don't have
a determination to want to beat and want to be
an artist and want to be the best artist they
can and want to be better than the other artists
that's out there, then you kind of just you know,
tooling your thumbs and listening to something cool.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But it takes that takes the artists to really desire
to beat and to be great.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
You know that, then they work really hard because people
don't realize how much work it really takes to be
an artist. You got to be cut out for it
for real.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You're listening to Money News powered by Greenwood, a finance
podcast dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from
the world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business
and more. I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and
media personality Tanya Sam. Each week we talk with guests
who are making significant strides in their fields and learn
(01:10):
how they are making their money move. If you're someone
who's looking to make your money move, you're in the
right place. So open up your notes app and lock
us in because this podcast will give you the keys
to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth, and abundance you
so rightly deserve. Before we start the episode, I'd like
to remind you to check us out at gogreenwood dot
com and follow us on social media at Greenwood and
(01:33):
me on all things social at It's Tanya time to
stay locked in to new episodes. Okay, so this is
this is like super interesting because you've made a whole
bunch of money, you lost a whole bunch of money.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
You were like down and out.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
How do you like, do you remember being like curled
up in a ball or is it more you have
this mindset that you're just like I don't work my
way out, Like I don't have a choice, Like how
do you navigate that?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
It's a lot of pressure you curl up in the
ball first?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Okay, Okay, thank you for the realness.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
You can't drink it out of you.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
It ain't gonna work ain't nothing gonna fix it because
you still got the problem. So that's just just that's
just you know, you got to say, Okay, let me
start thinking about how and let me let me put
that in the forefront. I want to get out of
the situation. Put that in my spirit, let me put
that in the way I'm thinking about everything is I'm
working for, you know, to get myself out of something
(02:28):
like that.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
And you'll be surprised.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I mean, you know, money creates comfort also, so when
you're uncomfortable, it's probably the best way.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
To be for you to get to work, right, That's right.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
So that feeling alone, that gutted feeling, and then I
couldn't go after the guy. I couldn't go after, you know,
I was just it was just one of those things
where you're super pissed off, super hurt, you know, but
you gotta pull you, you know, put them blue straps
up and say, okay, well it's only two ways to
go and go down.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, and we're not going back down. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
No.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Wow, those are those are hard lessons to learn really early.
I'm still curious about just like your early journey. So
we've talked about money and how sort of you've had
a range of ups and downs, made a lot, lost
a lot. Let's go back to the beginning parts of
your career. So you're growing up in Atlanta, you just
want to make beats. I love that your mom said.
(03:22):
She was like, wow, I guess I'm going to support him,
which is a lot in those early days, because there
wasn't you know, there wasn't a lot of representation of
like how my youngs.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Were you sixteen at this point?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, I was just going to like not go to
school and make some beats. So talk about how you
the beginning the beginning days of your career, so you're
just in the studio talented creating music.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
I was, you know, I had asked my mom every
quick started off asking my mom as a kid, every Christmas,
give me a give me a keyboard, and every Christmas.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Get me a bigger one.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And when I finally got up to one that was
big enough, which is like twelve hundred dollars, they had
to finance it for five years.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It's not just amazing, Like showed up to your mom
who was like, I will pay wherever I can out
of my little tiny track from working at where was
she at I don't know well.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And Columba said, this time she had a little soul
food restaurant and we lived connected to the restaurant in
the house. It was like a you know, makeshift bedrooms
in the back and you know, just country soul food slot.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Got to go down to the country, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
And I was so determined to get out of there
for one.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
The floor.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So but what happened was my brother he came home
one day and broke my He threw my keyboard and
broke it because I was ignoring him. That's it, I'm leaving.
And my aunt lived in Atlanta, so I said, you know,
that's it. I'm either going to kill him or I'm
going to go to the Greyhound bus station. So I
went to the Greyhound bus station, which is next to
my mom, which is next to the restaurant.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And the good place to have a restaurant right next
to the bus day.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
So I was I was just like, I'm out of
here and I'm going to Atlanta to live with my
aunt and I'm gonna be a big record producer.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I can't do that. This guy broke my keyboard.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
So my mom was like, your trip and you're not
going to Atlanta because you.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Broke your keyboard. I'm at the bus station. I'm crying.
I'm mad, but there's no buses.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Going because it's late.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
So she said, I know you're stubborn. Come back home.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You don't want to stay here tonight, think about it,
and then if you still feel that way, you got tomorrow,
but don't stay here to night. So I was like,
all right, So I go home, get up the next day,
I look at my keyboard, go back to the bus station.
But I go downstairs and get a little money out
of cash reler ship.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Over to the bus station.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It was like, are you serious? People are gonna leave
me here? And I'm like, I got to get out
of here. I can't stay at the house no more.
I can't be a big record producer. He broke my
keyboard and there's only two keys are broken off the
top of everybody. I was being super dramatic, and she said,
all right, we'll tell you what.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
If you're that determined, then give me a minute to
sell the restaurant. I'm going with you.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And she said give me six months, and I moved
to Atlanta and we'll go up there.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Wow, that's what we did.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Mom, talk about the Believer.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
And she sold her restaurant and y'all moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Moved to Atlanta and that's when she started working at
PO Folks. They moved the old National Highway. And you
know what's crazy is, you know, just being in school
and meeting people is how it really got connected around Atlanta,
and I mean around College Park at the time, and
it was way smaller because it wasn't that many people doing.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
So go back, this is before me. I grew up
in Canada.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Like I want to know, So you're in College Park now,
mom's move got there, she's.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Making food and who are you meeting?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Like, tell me about these early days of Atlanta because
this is this is the.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah I started was I was.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I was in high school and it was a band
and the band was called Princess and Starbreeze. And I
ended up meeting the band because they you know, they
wouldn't the same high school, but they had a little
bit of fame going.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
They were like a local band that was playing around,
you know.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
So the lady Joyce Rbie from Climax ended up coming
from La finding them and then signing them the Motown.
So I'm running their lights every day so I could
use their equipment at night when they do shows. So
I'm probably fourteen at this time and running their lights
coming home doing that shows. That's why I didn't want
to go to school.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And then as I got to be about fifteen sixteen,
because as long as they would.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Pick me up to go to the studio, I couldn't drive.
I was old enough, but I was bad as hell
on keyboards, you know. And by the time I got
old enough to drive.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Wait, I gotta ask a watch. Were you all self taught?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Keep going. It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I would just put on records every day and play
along with them and act like I was in the band,
like I was in Prince's band, like I was in
the time I was doing George Clinton like. And what
was crazy too, is my mom had and my mom
so food restaurant because the auditorium was down the street
where everybody played that everybody came here to eat. So
I've seen all these people like George.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
Clinton and Lino, Richie the greats.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Just in my mom's restaurant, you know. So that was
even more inspiring to me. Like I feel like I
was always close you know, stuff that played for James Brown.
So I got out on the road with him when
he played guitar. So I got out on the road
with them when I was little, and so she just
knew I was surrounded by music enough to be as
determined as I was. And by the time we were
(08:31):
out here and I got you know, by the time
about sixteen, I think is when I met Jermaine, about
sixteen or seventeen, I met Jermain Deprix because he was
the only other producer that was young, that was doing
stuff and he was down the street on own National
and we started being friends way back then and so
but again it was small. It was just only us
(08:51):
trying to due. We thought like mcd and Raheem, the
Dream and all them was huge because they were Atlanta superstars.
We didn't know there wasn't the world superstars.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
We thought, you know, this was the world, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And back then in Atlanta, the athletes and probably local
drug dealers had all the money.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Too Yeah, the athletes are really flashy, like Dominique and yeah,
but an are. Yeah, but we didn't I think once
we once, I once, I was like by the time
I started doing another bad creation, and I did a
few things before that. But by the time another bad
creation hit and Boys and Men hit, then Criss Cross
(09:38):
wasn't too far behind that. You know, me and Jermaine
just kind of I've been doing this our whole life together.
We all, all of us didn't start running the business
because we had we had to have record started getting
big and then when you know, we started getting ripped off,
you start getting the tax problems, and you start getting
all that. You're forced to learn your business, whether you
like it or not.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Let's talk about the learning the business.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Because you're young and all of a sudden you've got
this influx of money. You you know, you're trying to
build out studios and when you think about the cost
of building out million dollar consoles, I mean that dramatically
decreased now. But how did you learn the business? Like
who were the key people that were instrumental in being
you know, mentors to you from a financial standpoint, like
(10:23):
p and ls all those crazy words where you're like,
I just want to play my keyboard.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I was like, it was interesting because you know, Clarence
Avon godfather music back at the early age, because you know,
you start making money in the business.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You started meeting everybody quick.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
By the time La Re and No Face moved to Atlanta,
we started getting cool because I was doing on TLC records,
and so then La said, well, hey want you you know,
why don't you once you start a label and you know,
it could be a street division of the Face if
you want to. I'm like, oh man, I don't want
to do that. I still just want to play, you know,
run around now, you know. So he's like, yeah, well
you can sign rap acts and sign stuff like your
(11:03):
friends whatever.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
So I was like all right. So I came up
with Rowdy.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Then, and then it became, you know, the infrastructure became
because Ariston had funded us, you know, being well, now
you have a label and now you have funding. So
I'm like, all right, cool. But then instead of being
an office inside of the Face, the whole thing moved
to New York. So now I'm twenty twenty to twenty
(11:28):
one with a full on office in New York with
thirty five staffing.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I would go up there when I would go to
New York.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Plus I'm from down here, so I was like, I
was really uncomfortable in New York.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Back then it was different.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Being you know, and then the music and then pulling
up at the office and your black Lincoln and getting
out and you're going upstairs. So I would go upstairs,
go to my office, and go straight back to the
office and just play music being there.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
By myself, right.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
And then one day when my staffingers came in and
said excuse me, can we talk?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
They're like, you like everybody, And I said, wow. She said,
because you have.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
You have your whole staff on pins and needles because
you never talked to anybody.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And I was like, oh, she said, you might want
to have a staff meeting. Oh that's me okay, but
like to learn this.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
You know, this is like big business. Now you're like,
am I What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Like someone has to tell you, because if you haven't
seen it, how.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You So I never got to really see that where
you and so I went.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
I remember that day going to the staff meeting and they, okay, well,
this is your president, you know, because you own the label.
This is your president. That's your head of A and R.
That's your promotions girl. That's the marketing department, that's this,
that's finance, that's publicity, that's like. And so I'm like, wow, okay,
so my my job is to go be creative, right,
bring creativity. So I did that for a while in
(12:52):
New York, and then I didn't want to be in
New York anymore. LA had signed the outcast to the face.
So I was like, well, I'm doing what happened a
label in New York. I don't want to do this.
So and I was about at that point, we were
probably about seven million dollars in debt.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
WHOA, let's get into the DUTs seven for building out
the studio and.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, we really just from Arista, you know, like from
and they say, look, we're going to fund you each act.
Was like, have budgets of like five hundred thousand to
record each act. Right, you have the thirty staff members,
and then you have the office in New York.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You got insurances for all them.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
You got Now, I mean, this is the thing you
got to spend to grow. But it goes fast.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
And this has been going on for years now, so
like you know, about three to four years, so it's
a couple million bucks a year. You got artists, you
got marketing, And then I decided, like, dude, I don't
want to be up here.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I don't want to do.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
This, and so Clyde Davis was like, well, you know what,
why don't you take Rowdy with you to Atlanta? And
I'm like, oh, you don't understand. I don't want to
do this, Like I don't want to be cooped up
here doing this, like and it's just like not at
this point in my life. Maybe later he said, hell,
let's come on, I tell you what. We'll wipe the
debt and let's start over. So I was like, well
(14:14):
that's a little bit different.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Wait wait, wait, back up. So you had.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Almost ten million dollars of debt on the bucks you
went and you were like, I'm not happy.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I want to leave New York.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
I want to go back to the South and build again.
And they were just like Jeanie made the deck go away.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, they didn't want to.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
At that time, the way the music industry was is
la and faced way at Ericas at Arista, Clive had
did a thesis that said, hey, if you were power
to the black producers in the community, they'll bring you
all the other music and.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Kind of set up a light label.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
So it's most like he didn't want to lose me right,
and hits at the time too, so to be on
his team and half hits outside of him. He didn't
want to give up that and the investment that he
had already made in it, you know. So he's like, look,
let me just let's start over.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
If you don't want to make.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It hip hop label, whatever, just take it to Atlanta
and then you do it. But then I moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
And wait, what year is this too?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
This is ninety two?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, ninety two, and give me some context of some
of the music that you're putting out right now, because
it's jaw dropping, y'all.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well that's like, well, actually that might have been a
couple years later because the inter Powded the Bag was
nineteen two, So right, like ruing the TLC what you know,
the first TLC album, the first Boys to Man album.
And when I when I because I didn't want to
sign pop stuff throughout it. I want to sign all
rock and roll. So I had like Fishbone and all
these crazy bands that I signed. And finally, when I
(15:45):
moved to Atlanta, I said, okay, well I got to
do something that is gonna you know. Now, now I'm
a little more business minded, because of right, but.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I moved to Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
I still had a you know office on the floor
downtown across from the newspaper, and I still had you know,
still had staff, still had the whole kind of thing
going on. So I was like, all right, well, I
got to find somebody that we really know how to,
how to you know, make money off of, and that
we can't be designed a punk band, right yeah, So
(16:19):
that's when I found Monica and then fine, yep, we
started making records on her first album with double Platinum
off the bat, and then that started to readjust everything
you know, and so she between her and then that's when.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We really started to be because.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
It was in Atlanta at that time, so I can
still go to my office, go home, go to the
studio down the street. I started my publishing companies then
because I would sign writers and producers and then have
them work on the Monica project with me, I haven't
work on all the body stuff, also have them work
on all the other stuff. So I started publishing companies
at that time also that and so everything was in
(16:58):
full just full light song, you know what I'm saying.
And again, because the music industry was so different, we're
making you know, if you sold a million records, then
you're generating you know, twenty million, almoste hundred million dollars,
right depending on what the.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Crisis of it was.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
And so it was making a label so much money
that all of us had that set up. I had it,
Jermaine had it, the Face had it. And it was
just the boom of the producers at the time, like
the real record company. I mean that was a real
you know producer boom and age.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
They didn't want to miss out on it, so they
would come and give us joint ventures. And that was
the first time that they had done that, even at
a record company. You know, give producers joint ventures like that.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, but you guys were delivering.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
This is the thing like when you're hot, you're hot,
you're finding all the talent.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
You kind of had a gift for it. What is it?
You know?
Speaker 1 (17:49):
I think you definitely have proven you have a talent
for spotting rising stars and discovering new talent. What qualities
do you look for in potential artists or even you know,
some of the people who are working for you under
your published thing, Like, how do you spot them I.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
Think it's the same you want. You want people that's
determined and that a did of what they do. Obviously,
you know, it's an artist if you you know, because
everybody can have talent. But if they don't have a
determination to want to beat and want to be an
artist and want to be the best artist they can
and want to be better than the other artists that's
out there, then you kind of just you know, tueling
(18:27):
your thumbs and listening to something cool. But it takes
that takes the artists to really desire to beat and
to be great. You know that, then they work with
it hard because people don't realize how much work it
really takes to be an artist. It's just like you
got to be cut out for it. And especially now
because the the access to what the artists have now,
(18:52):
whether it's like Spotify, you got to Spotify for artists,
you got to have your Apple Music for artists, You
got your Amazon for artists. You gotta have your TikTok,
you fill your Instagram, your you.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Gotta engage with your fans.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You gotta make shorts this not tell them what you're doing,
what you ate for breakfast.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Plus also be a great musician put out content.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
It's a lot, it's a lot so and it's really
you know. But it's the same thing in business though.
If you find people that's really just determined, you know,
and you have the same like minded division within your company, then.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It doesn't feel like work.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
So we have a passion for and that you love
to do, and then that starts to generate some money
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But I feel like for our for our industry boom.
We came from the era.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Where but it was you pufful bad boy and we
were rowdy and Jamaine was so so deaf uh in
the face, but everybody was into kind of that was
the entrepreneur era. Like it was like, you know what,
let's stop if they're wearing, if we're wearing, telling me
he'll figure closing all our videos. Why don't we just
make our own clothes, you know, or if we're doing
(20:01):
you know whatever. We started to catch on and I
think it was the first kind of raworld producers thought
that way. All of us always doing other stuff, always
had other businesses.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Always that multiple streams of income, whether it's clothing, brands,
liquor brands. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If we
helped you make your money move. Please share it with
your community, Subscribe and leave us a review on iHeartRadio
and Apple podcasts. Follow us on social media at Greenwood
and visit us at Gogreenwood dot com for more financial
(20:34):
tips and remember, money Movers, If this.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Were easy, everyone would do it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So take the lessons you've learned from this episode and
apply it to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio
podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Make sure to.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Tune in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the
Money Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too
can have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Until next time,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.