June 6, 2024 • 40 mins
In this episode of "I Hate This Industry Podcast," we delve into the recent allegations against music mogul Diddy and the broader implications for how we perceive and idolize public figures. Join us as we discuss the shocking revelations and the subsequent impact on Diddy's legacy. Our hosts share their personal reflections on Diddy's influence in the entertainment industry and the difficult process of reconciling admiration for his professional achievements with the disturbing personal allegations.
We'll explore the debate sparked by Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy on the importance of separating the individual's actions from their public persona. Is it possible to appreciate someone's professional contributions while condemning their personal misconduct? We examine the role of celebrity worship in our culture and how it often overshadows critical societal issues like domestic violence, patriarchy, and power dynamics.
Our discussion also touches on the broader issue of accountability, especially for those in positions of power and influence. Can, and should, we continue to support individuals who have made significant positive contributions if they are also guilty of serious wrongdoing?
Join us for a thought-provoking conversation that challenges the way we view celebrities and the importance of holding everyone accountable, regardless of their status. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of fame, morality, and social justice.
Sounds Of The Week: "Please Don't Cry" by Rapsody
Darrell & Steven dive into the world of Rapsody. Darrell recounts his introduction to Rapsody through the Sojourner record with J. Cole, while Steven highlights the impact of her albums like Eve and Layla's Wisdom. We break down her artistic progressions, her jazz-inspired sounds, and the unique way she taps into the femininity of hip-hop. Drawing comparisons to Kendrick Lamar, we discuss how Rapsody carves out her own space in the industry while drawing direct correlations to her inspirations.
INDUSTRY TIPS OF THE WEEK:
đź’ˇ Build a reliable team. Hire people who want to do the job and have passion, experience and a skill set for the role!
5 important players you should have on your team:
đź’ˇManager - Handles the inner workings of your day to day operations. Has a vested interest in the growth and success of your career.
💡Lawyer - Handles all legal matters within your operations. Looks over contracts and gives legal advice and consultation as to what’s best for your career.
đź’ˇAgent - Negotiates the best opportunities for your career.
đź’ˇCameraman/Editor/Copy Writer - Handles all the camera work, editing and copywriting for the content creation on your team.
💡Content Creator/Social Media Specialist - Makes sure all the content is prepped, ready and aligned with your brand. Specializes in understanding how algorithms operate on different social medial platforms. Has their finger on the pulse of what’s trending and what to stay away from on social media.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the I Hate This Industry podcast.
(00:18):
I am your host Darrell Reese Jr.
And I'm Stephen Almeida.
Together we dive deep into the chaotic, the controversial and the downright crazy world
of the entertainment industry.
That's right, Steve.
Every week we bring you our unfiltered, unapologetic take on the latest happening in the culture,
music, movies, television, everything in between.
(00:40):
Whether it's the latest Hollywood scandal, the hottest new release or the industry's
dirty little secrets, we're here to give you the inside scoop with a heavy dose of
humor and a pinch of sarcasm.
We don't pull punches and we don't sugarcoat.
If there's one thing that we promise, it's to keep it real.
We're not afraid to call out the BS and we celebrate the brilliance.
(01:01):
So if you're tired of the fluff and looking for a fresh perspective, you've come to the
right place.
Buckle up and get ready for a roller coaster ride through the glitz and the grime of the
entertainment world.
And don't forget, we love hearing from you guys.
So if you want to join the conversation, our social media will be listed below.
All our channels and things of that nature.
(01:21):
So let us know what you love, let us know what you hate and everything in between.
Hit that subscribe button, leave us a review and share the love or the hate.
We're here for it all.
Now let's dive in.
This is the I Hate This Industry podcast.
TMC, let's go.
Hey, everyone listen to this, please.
(01:42):
So it was good though, bro.
How you been?
What's your week been like?
It was good, man.
Man, I've been all right.
Been all right.
Been working on this film.
Like I've really been, I've really been locked in on this film and this story because I had
to take, I had to take 10 steps back as far as story and script wise because last year
the script was done, but I was just looking at it, revising it.
(02:03):
I was just like, ah, I got to take it on.
As a filmmaker, stuff just changes and there's no timetable on the film process, especially
developing the film.
So yeah, I've just been working on the story.
I think I finally got, I think I finally got that in between.
It's the middle climax part that was my issue.
(02:25):
I think I finally narrowed that down.
You're talking about the foundation film?
Yeah.
I love the idea.
The idea is great.
And I'm a big fan of universes as well, like creating this universe where everything links
together and you could tell all these different stories and connect it to this core idea.
And I think what we had, what you had is, was great.
(02:47):
But my issue had always been the story just needed to be tightened because as you start
creating something, the ideas develop almost every day when you're trying to like, okay,
I want to do this.
So you start, what becomes tighter on one part becomes loose on the other end.
And then you have to come back at some point and tighten it up or rearrange everything.
(03:10):
And I feel like as we were running through ideas, those ideas get stronger and the original
concepts become weaker.
And it's like, okay, at some point you got to hammer down on what this core idea is.
And then storytelling is also a skill set that takes work and development.
You know what I mean?
Oh yeah.
We not telling the same story the same way as we were two years ago or three years ago
(03:33):
when the idea first, the inception of the idea.
I haven't revisited my script in a while.
I know I got to go back and tighten things up.
But yeah, we got to chop it up about that.
Oh yeah.
We discussed that off camera.
Yo, 50 sold the rights.
Yeah, I seen that.
(03:54):
Is he the biggest bully in the industry?
I think so, man.
I think if you look at the 50 Cent projects from Power to BMF to Ghost, and every one
of those have an antagonist in those stories, and he plays his own antagonist in Power.
(04:15):
He plays Kanan.
And you can look at the way he developed the antagonist role.
We often cater to that.
And this is 50 in real life.
His antagonist roles in his films and in him in real life, he's a bully, he's aggressive,
(04:36):
he's the Omega, he's the Messiah, he's dead in real life.
He came into the industry that way.
Right.
And that's how, that's really how we was introduced to 50.
That's how I was introduced to 50 through the beef with Jaru and throughout the album
battles with him and Kanye.
So yeah, that's how I was introduced to him.
(04:57):
You know what's crazy?
And look at this generation gap.
You got introduced to 50 through that Jaru beef in that era of him.
I got introduced to 50 through How to R.O.P. where he was just coming at everybody in this
industry.
His introduction to the game was this guy who's just poking at every artist that was
kind of on top and had a, I mean that had a buzz and had a name and he was just coming
(05:22):
for them.
And I remember this interview that came out years later with Jay-Z, was it Memphis Bleak
who was talking about it?
And he said that Jay told him, Jay had them all in the room in the studio and was like,
yo, y'all better figure out what y'all gonna do because 50 is coming.
I remember one time walking in the studio, Bleak Beans, everybody was in there and I
(05:46):
was like, man, I'm telling you, man, y'all better, y'all better, y'all got a chance right
now just flood it, put out a lot of music because 50 cent is coming.
And four months later in the club hit and it was over.
I remember hearing about that.
All these years and then you seen how he was with the Bleak Ross Beans.
He's a comedian, he's funny, he's petty, but his issue with Diddy has been for a while
(06:14):
and it's at a point now where it's crazy.
He has this documentary, it's called Diddy Do It.
That's the name of it.
I ain't really seen the name of it.
That's crazy.
The name is Diddy Do It, which is wow.
But even though I'm laughing, there's nothing funny about that video that surfaced with
(06:38):
Diddy put his hands on Cassie.
Oh yeah, that was.
Your thoughts on that.
Because I'm not ashamed to say Diddy is somebody I looked up to and I respect his business,
accolades, what he's done in the industry.
You can't take that away from him.
That was a big motivating factor for me as an entrepreneur in this entertainment industry.
(07:02):
But I can't support that.
It's just some things I can't support in a person.
I don't think the accolades and the work ethic, I mean those things can be separated from
the man himself and his actions and the things that he does on a personal level.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I kind of looked at him the same way as far as him doing Revolt, him having
(07:23):
to deal with Serac and throughout the Bad Boys situation.
I always looked at it as a sense of motivation.
Like, okay, that's how I look at it.
It was just strictly that.
I never really just looked at him a certain way.
I always heard rumors and rumblings and things like that on social media, but that's all
it was with that.
(07:43):
And Charlamagne and DJ Envy had an interesting back and forth of like Charlamagne was like,
he looked at Diddy and people look at Diddy as an inspiration or motivation and things
like that.
And Envy was like, well, we don't know, we can't look at these people like this because
we don't know them as a person and things like that.
(08:03):
I only look up, like he would tell people who he looked up to.
And then Charlamagne, Revolt, he was just like, of course, they only show you what they
want you to see.
We don't know these every day.
We don't know what they're doing every day.
So we only like, quote unquote, idolize or be motivated about what they show us.
(08:25):
So it's the same with me with Nipsey, it's the same with Kanye and Jay-Z.
Like only, I'm only motivated by what they show us.
We not, I'm not idolizing him as a person because I don't know him as a person.
I don't know that.
So yeah, when that video dropped, I was just like, damn.
I was watching and I was like, damn.
(08:47):
And like, yeah, so it's a terrible, it's a terrible situation, terrible situation.
I was just like, the way he was talking before the video dropped, as if it, as if we just
got to wait and see or the truth shall come to the light.
Like man, the truth came on the camera.
So like we seen it, the truth right there.
(09:08):
And then we like, okay, are we forced to believe everything that Cassie has said about the
situation and our mind instantly goes to, okay, like what she's saying, like, okay, damn,
a lot of this shit could be true.
A lot of it could be.
A lot of it could be.
It's rough, but at this point with everything that came out, with that video coming out,
(09:33):
it's hard to, it's hard now to say, oh, she's just making things up or maybe things are
exaggerated.
And that's cool because when you have proof like that, it's like you lost the guilty until
proven, no, innocent until proven guilty, you lost that now.
Now you got to deal with it being like, you're kind of guilty and all the other things just
(10:01):
kind of have to get proven or not.
I saw Charlemagne said something that I agreed with and I think it is a take that a lot of
people won't agree with, but he said that we have to, because this is true in our culture.
He said we have to separate the problem from the celebrity because we do live in a culture,
(10:26):
especially here in America, we do live in a culture where there's a lot of idol worship,
a lot of celebrity worship.
And we care more that it's ditty than the actual problem.
And I think that's something that definitely has to be highlighted where it's, yeah, it
being ditty is impactful because of his status.
(10:49):
But the bigger issue is the abuse, is the fact of wealthy men having this toxic relationship
with power and control and money and everything.
I think when it comes to that situation, man, I think we shouldn't focus on the individual,
(11:09):
we should focus on the issue.
Because I think what happens a lot of times is because of the celebrity, we get lost in
talking about the celebrity and not talking about the actual issue.
The issue is domestic violence.
The issue is exactly what I just said about men not going to do the proper work on themselves
and they're dealing with a lot of pain and a lot of hurt and unhealed trauma and they're
(11:30):
projecting that pain and that hurt on the other people.
The issue is patriarchy, right?
Because as long as you have a system where men feel superior to women and they're dealing
with that pain and they're dealing with that hurt, they're going to project that, we're
going to continue to project that onto our women.
So I think those are the issues that we should be discussing as opposed to talking about
the individual.
And we tend to do that a lot as a society.
(11:51):
We get lost in the celebrity of things as opposed to, okay, what are we here for?
So I think that's the bigger conversation because it doesn't just happen in entertainment.
It doesn't just happen with guys like Diddy.
What do you think about the rumor being that it was because he was trying to tarnish the
Serac brand, not the Serac brand, the company that owns Serac.
(12:14):
So you're trying to buy NBC?
Yeah.
I mean, with that situation.
I think Diago, that's the name of the company.
I ain't really heard too much about that.
At the end of the day, if you look at Diddy from the bad boy era to now and the fame and
(12:42):
the power that he's got, even before Serac, like he was a nasty nigga before then.
You can almost see the demeanor.
You can almost see the look on his face.
When people talk about these Diddy parties, from Joe Button's standpoint, I don't know
how they're related to him now, but I'm cool with this guy.
(13:03):
I'm in the party.
There's no cameras.
Whatever wild shit he do, I'm going to just sweep it under the rug.
I'm going to laugh with it.
I'm going to do this and that.
And then I'm going to just go off about my day.
There's a lot of people that have seen wild shit within the Diddy circle that didn't say
anything at all.
It's tough when it's in the public eye to separate the good from the bad.
(13:29):
But the reality is whether he's a piece of shit of a human being or not, or whether he
just... And I can't say that because maybe he's different today.
That's also from a long time ago, that incident.
Doesn't help that he lied about it.
But he might not be that person today.
He also did a lot of good.
What was that Dave Chappelle bit?
(13:50):
I love this bit because it's so real.
He was talking about Bill Cosby.
He makes this reference to what if there's a superhero who saves people.
He rapes, but he saves.
I have a superhero you love because he's stronger than Superman and he fights for truth, justice,
(14:11):
and the American way like Superman, but more than Superman.
He beats up Mexicans for no reason.
The Texan's like, you got my attention.
I said, man, this motherfucker's so strong.
He can fly and do all this great shit.
Only problem with this guy is he can't even activate his powers unless he touches a woman's
(14:32):
vagina.
Not a long touch, just a couple of pats.
He said, well, what's the problem with that?
I said, well, the problem, sir, is that our hero is not a handsome man.
And he's often short on cash.
So whenever trouble breaks out, he has to run around the city and convince women to
(14:53):
let him pack their vaginas.
Please, miss, that building's on fire.
Can I pack your vagina quickly?
People are dying, but he can't tell them exactly why.
Get away, you're gross.
Please, miss.
People are dying.
Just a couple of pats, oh, gross, get away.
(15:16):
So he rapes them.
I know, I know.
That's the dilemma for the audience.
Because he rapes, but he saves a lot of lives.
And he saves way more than he rapes, and he only rapes the saves.
(15:39):
But he does rape.
The point of the joke is saying, do you condemn them for the bad?
Because if you take them away, you remove the person who's saving people.
And he was using that as an analogy for how our society judges people.
He clearly uses an extreme of, we remove the good that they do, and then you're just left.
(16:03):
And if you take that person away, you're left without the good that this person has done
to the community or for the community or for the people.
And then they're no longer in the community to continue to do good things for it.
So are you hurting the community?
You know what I mean?
So it's like, that was kind of the, it's a great talking point, a great conversation.
(16:23):
But that's a more serious conversation for another time.
What else we got on the docket?
So Please Don't Cry, Rapsody.
Yes, indeed.
Let me pull up the track list, man.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
Wait, Rapsody?
I was introduced to Rapsody a few years ago when she did the, I think it was a Sorggiano
(16:44):
record with J. Cole.
So you ain't, you never heard that first album?
Uh, no.
Oh, bro.
The first Rapsody album I heard was Eve.
Oh, nah, man.
You got to go to the joint before that.
You know what?
Let me go back.
The first song I heard was Oowee.
That's the first one I heard.
Okay.
(17:05):
Okay.
Yeah, man.
You got to go to the Layla's Wisdom.
Oh yeah.
I heard a little bit of that.
I heard a little bit of that.
I'm looking at the track list.
Bro.
Layla's Wisdom?
We were filming, um.
I got to save them on Spotify.
That's crazy.
We were filming the Zaki music video, Her Mantra.
Her Mantra music video when that, around the time that album came out and that was all
(17:32):
we played on set, bro, for like those two days.
Please don't cry, bro.
It's, it honestly gave me, and she's always given me, I hate comparing, but she's always
given me Kendrick vibes.
And this album sounds a lot like, it's like her version of Kendrick.
You know, of Mr. Morown, the Big Steppers.
Yes, yes.
I've been playing with her all year.
(17:54):
And I hate to, I hate to compare her like that because rightfully so, she's in her own
category or her own lane, but it's hard not to make the obvious comparisons.
Oh yeah.
In how she stacks her vocals and the content of the music, the progress, her progressions
are so crazy.
And one of my favorite things about her music is the crazy progressions in her songs.
(18:18):
And it's very Kendrickish, very jazz inspired a lot.
She taps into a lot of the femininity of hip hop and rap and of people and of human.
But when we're talking strictly about the music, she, I love that she draws this direct
correlation to her inspirations.
(18:40):
You know what I mean?
Right.
And that was a good, that was the name of that album, right Eve?
Yeah, it was a dedication to the women.
Like a lot of the tracks on that was titled after women that was inspired by.
She was like that on Layla's Wisdom as well.
Not as far as the tracking, but as far as the content.
(19:02):
This album was nothing, nothing less than amazing.
Man.
When I, cause I didn't listen to it when it first came out, I really just wanted to hone
it in and just focus on it when I had the time.
So I think I heard it a few days ago.
Like when I text you about it, I heard it a few days before that.
(19:25):
I didn't realize it dropped until you, until you text me about it.
Oh yeah.
When you put it in the notes and I was like, oh, I gotta go.
I spent the whole next day listening to it the next two days.
Oh yeah.
Cause I watched her Joe Budden and her interview with Joe Budden and the Burfus Club.
Then I dove into the album.
It was on Joe Budden's podcast?
Yeah.
Oh shit.
(19:46):
I didn't watch that.
I think it's on YouTube.
I think they released it on YouTube.
I gotta check it out.
But yeah, I went diving, dove into the album.
I really didn't have no expectations for it cause I knew the type of artistry, I knew
the type of artist rap shit it was.
So I was like, okay, I know I'ma love it.
But then I dove into it.
(20:06):
I got halfway through and I'm like, man, this is, this is truly an experience.
She's taken me through like a, through a movie, like one of my favorite movies or something
like that.
She's taken me through an experience and a montage of stories, things she's been through
in the past, things she's going through now, how people label female hip hop and the correlation
(20:32):
between her type of music and a rapper like sexy red or ice spice and things like this.
She dived into that and that realm too.
But then I kept listening to it and like you said, had that jazz feel.
And then I heard like a, maybe a voice in the background and I just kept diving into
it and I checked the production credits and it was produced, like a few songs where a
(20:56):
lot of, a lot of songs were produced by Black Odyssey.
Yeah.
Are you familiar with Black Odyssey?
Yeah, of course.
And I was like, I see it.
I see it.
Cause I think she was on Black Odyssey last project or one of his projects before.
And I was like, I see his touch.
I see his feel and what he did to this record.
(21:17):
And I was like, man, it's just truly brilliant from just not only in an album standpoint,
but just creating a moment.
Cause like just me personally, when I'm working on music, when I'm working on film and an
album, I like to create moments around the content to where we not just giving you the
music, we're giving you more than that.
And we're going to put you through this cinematic experience.
(21:40):
And that's what she did.
That's what she did with the album.
And it's largely narrated by Felisa Rashad.
And I was like, man, just like just hearing her voice throughout our lifetime.
And I just like up until now, I'm just like, she has, cause I was just watching Creed the
other day.
(22:00):
And I was just like, man, like that was like a perfect intertwined that she could have done
with the album.
I was like, man, this is not only genius, but this is truly, truly, truly, truly a beautiful,
well-crafted project.
And I can't wait to listen to some more when we get out the car.
(22:21):
Oh yeah, man.
That's all I'm listening to.
Since it came out, honestly, digesting it is, and I've only listened to it in the car.
I haven't even listened to it in headphones.
I've only been bumping it in the car and my car has noise cancellation, right?
So when I have the windows up and everything, you don't hear much of the outside.
(22:45):
Like the, how they call it, the cockpit of the car has this noise isolation feature.
And my sound system is awesome.
So it's like, when I listen to music in the car, it becomes an experience.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's just very immersive, right?
And then got the LED lights all around the car.
(23:05):
So it's like when I was bumping it, man, I was just in this zone.
And it's what you say is very true, man.
It transports you.
Like it's such an experience listening to it because putting albums together is a lost
art.
Like it's in hip hop these days.
I can't speak for other genres because I still listen to other genres and they make an incredible
(23:29):
album.
You know, hip hop seems to be this, at this point where we've lost a lot of what crafting
an album is because of playlisting and where we're at, where releasing singles is kind
of the thing to do because people are trying to benefit more from the music than crafting
(23:49):
these cultural and impactful projects.
I'm not speaking for everybody.
I'm just talking about kind of mainstream, what's really being fed into the mainstream.
So you have an artist like Rapsody who put, she put this project and from the beginning
is cinematic.
It immerses you almost instantly.
(24:10):
With the skits in between, with the just, there's a temple with this album.
That was starts off to where it goes, you hear the climax of the album, you see where
it declines, you see how she brings it all together, the concepts, the ideas, the cover
art.
There's a line, I forgot what she, I don't know, I can't remember if it was a skit or
(24:31):
on one of the records where she mentions she feels like she's been wearing this veil and
that album covers her under the veil.
You know, it's like, it was just this amazing storytelling.
Storytelling at its finest, man.
What's your favorite record off this project, man?
Oh, D&D.
Do not disturb.
(24:52):
D&D?
Oh yeah.
That hook, bro.
Woo, that hook, man.
I was feeling that way that day.
So when that record came on, I was like, damn, man, she just captured exactly how I was feeling.
I love 3AM.
I'm Erykah Badu, Fnatic.
So that record is, I love it.
(25:12):
Look what you've done is fire.
Asteroids is crazy.
They're all good.
Stand tall.
Where's the diary of a mad bitch?
Man.
Oh yeah.
Man, she was talking that talk on that record.
He shot me.
I love how she took that Bob Marley melody and that and flipped it.
That was cool.
It's not one of my favorite records, but I like the record.
(25:35):
You know what I mean?
I was like, this is a really dope, what she did was really cool.
And it was a good highlight on, you know, police brutality and the police shootings
and everything.
She has a line.
I can't remember.
Maybe you remember what record is on.
She said these industry plants, I eat them like Dr. Savy.
Oh, I don't remember the line.
(25:56):
I can't remember the record.
I can't remember the record.
I can't remember the record.
Well, she said that I was like, yo, she's like, I just heard that like the other day.
She's going crazy, man.
She was going crazy.
Album of the year for me so far.
Oh yeah, definitely.
So far.
And as far as like you look at albums different, I look at albums different and especially
from the standpoint of us putting out music and things like that, we look at it totally
(26:22):
different too.
And I look at this as a source of inspiration for what I'm doing.
I was listening to this and I was like, damn, like I got to go back and yeah, I got to go
back and repolish some stuff and things like that with the album I'm working on.
And just man, it's just, it was a truly beautiful gift that I can see this one being one of
(26:48):
them albums I just go to for the rest of my life.
I really truly feel like that.
I love when music does that.
I love when music, when there's things that come out that make me go, oh shit, man, let
me be better.
Let me get better.
Let me get a little more creative.
I feel like everybody's streaming, streaming, streaming.
People was like, yo, everybody was telling me like Saint, for example, he's hip hop,
(27:11):
straight hip hop guys.
And he told me, he's like, yo, people are not buying albums.
You feel me?
And it's even weird because they have to ask you, like they ask an artist, like, do you
want hard copies?
And if you do, how much do you want?
To put money behind the hard copies sometimes just really doesn't even make sense these
days.
You know, it's all about the streaming.
(27:32):
Physical sales versus digital streaming.
And I kind of want to throw in the impact.
I guess you weren't really around for the physical sale era, right?
Like physical albums, like buying music, right?
No, like CDs, yeah, CDs.
Well, yeah, I guess that's what I mean.
(27:53):
What was the, do you remember the first CD you bought?
I think I've asked you.
No, not as far as that, no.
Like as far as just buying CDs, no.
The first and only CD I ever bought was Victory Lab.
No way, for real?
Yeah.
Like I wasn't like, I wanted this CD, like I wanted this CD.
And like I said, when I wanted, like as far as the physical side of the music, like it
(28:15):
was just, I was just dialed in on one person.
Like you see Victory Lab vinyl, like vinyl right there.
Like that's, I was only dialed in on that.
And I just got into, like two years ago, I just got into the point where I want to start
collecting more vinyls.
Like right now I got J. Cole and Nina Simone.
I got the collection.
(28:36):
Sultane, oh yeah.
I got the Mac Miller NPR.
You see that top one up there?
That's Caroline, the Outkast single.
Right.
That's just a single, right?
And that vinyl particularly is created by Mass Appeal.
And it has like the Caroline, Would You Be My Valentine, like written in lipstick on
(29:00):
the actual vinyl.
Oh, that's dope.
That's dope.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a record store near me that I'm going to visit soon.
And I want to get more into it.
Like I said, I only got Nipsey, J. Cole, and Nina Simone.
Vinyls are expensive, my brother.
Oh yeah.
I got, there's over a hundred dollars in vinyls on this wall right now.
(29:22):
Oh yeah.
So that's as a music connoisseur, Vinyls are.
It was crazy saying that I spend, I would never spend, and I used to buy CDs, right?
I was a CD guy.
I used to go to Virgin Megastore down in Times Square.
I used to class.
I got, you know, I got arrested, but I got picked up by Truancy in high school for going
(29:47):
down for buying the Kingdom Come album.
I got, the only time I ever got picked up by Truancy for cutting school, I was in Virgin
Megastore.
I had to have this album the day it came out.
I go down there and I'm just, I bought the album already.
I have it, but I'm listening in Virgin Megastore.
You have these stations where you can listen to music.
(30:08):
And I was just standing there listening to that.
Even though I had it, I should have left.
I was just in there.
I loved hanging out in that store because it was a music store.
And this cop just taps me on my back, on my shoulder.
I turn around and I'm like, oh fuck.
I was a consumer.
Some out of a movie or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was a consumer of albums, right?
I bought music, but I would never, I wouldn't spend $30 on a CD, right?
(30:32):
Some of these vinyls cost me $30.
But that goes to show that an album on streaming costs what?
At maximum $10?
Yup.
$11, $12, right?
$11, $9, $11, $9, $9, yeah.
So streaming it costs even less.
I mean, depending on what you pay monthly for your service.
This wall is proof that people spend this much money on an album.
(30:58):
This album alone, this Nas album, ran me $27.
That's a vinyl.
If you don't have a vinyl player, you can't even listen to it.
So the impact of a physical sale, I feel like when you can physically touch something, there's
a different value to it.
Especially when you craft it to be kind of like that Caroline vinyl I showed you.
(31:19):
The style of it, the uniqueness of that particular vinyl, those become collector pieces and collector
items and that you can only get that with a physical copy of something that you have
to spend money to, and a higher price at that than what a CD ran you back in the day.
Where digital sales, that digital sales, it just don't hit the same.
(31:41):
And I'm saying as somebody who used to buy physical copies and who buys vinyls, there's
just something weird about it, not weird, just something that is not satisfying as a
consumer.
I feel like as a generation in what we're heading into now, I see a lot of people advocating
and leaning more towards the vinyls, like getting that coming back as far as like, because
(32:06):
it's an experience.
What's old is new again apparently, and cool again.
For the first time since the 80s, sales of vinyl records are now outpacing CDs.
People spent around $230 million on vinyl during the first half of the year.
It's almost double what was spent on CDs.
But more physical CDs were actually sold.
(32:26):
Vinyl just made more money because it's more expensive.
People in the industry say vinyl isn't just like a thing of the past anymore, and no,
it's not going away anytime soon again.
When I first bought, like you was there when the marathon went on.
When Nipsey-
And we ordered it at the same time.
When they first dropped that gold limited edition vinyl, like when they first dropped
(32:51):
this, I told you I was like-
You just touching it like that?
You got no care for you.
Hey, this shit's strong, bro.
It's stable.
You're not supposed to touch it.
I handle my shit with gloves when I play.
I be holding it on the sides like this.
I usually do that.
But yeah, like when this shit first dropped, like I told you, I was like, bro, I got to
(33:14):
get it.
The second they dropped that link, I had to.
Me and you bought it at the same time, I remember.
Oh yeah, like just clicking the album when it first come out, just buying it.
Of course, I do that more so to support the artist.
I'm 100%.
But if I'm buying your CD, your merch, or your vinyl, I'm looking to indulge in an
(33:42):
experience that I'm going to live through forever.
I'm going to live through out there forever.
So like me personally, when I drop the foundation album, I want to have limited finals.
Like maybe whatever the limit they let me get, maybe if it's 20 or 10 or something like
that, I want it to be an experience to where if you got this, then it's something I want
(34:06):
to live forever within you.
So I want to do this segment on this podcast called Industry Tip of the Day, man.
Or Industry Tip of the Week.
So the industry tip of the week for this week would be build a reliable team.
hire people who want to do the job and have passion, experience, and a skill set for the
(34:30):
role.
So five important players you should have on your team.
Manager, that's someone who handles the inner workings of your day to day operations, has
a vested interest in the growth and success of your career.
A lawyer who handles all legal matters within your operation and looks over your contracts
and gives legal advice and consultation as to what's best for your career.
An agent who negotiates the best opportunities for your career.
(34:53):
And a cameraman, editor, and copywriter who handles all the camera work, editing, copywriting
for the content creation of your team.
Content creator and social media specialist that makes sure all the content is prepped,
ready, and aligned with your brand, specializes in understanding how algorithms operate in
different social media platforms.
Has the finger on the pulse of what's trending and what to stay away from on social media.
(35:15):
See, as a creative, if you're the artist, if you're the talent, it's hard to do everything.
A lot of people do and we live in a hybrid time of this industry where one person does
so many things.
But that you can reach a lot more success having everything compartmentalized.
So you have a manager to handle all the things that all the business end of things and all
(35:40):
that so that you can kind of focus on the talent.
Lawyers, a lot of people don't have lawyers, man.
A lot of people don't have lawyers, which ends in shitty contracts and bad deals and
you get robbed or your business being misplaced.
So get lawyers, people get lawyers, agents.
I think a lot of people overlook agents because I think people feel they have to be at a place
(36:04):
of like no variety already to have an agent and you don't like get an agent to lock in
deals for you.
You know, you can pay agents.
You know what I mean?
Pay an agent, get an agent on your team that that's out there negotiating and bringing
you opportunities.
The cameraman, see, cameraman is important today because you need content is king today.
(36:26):
So you want a cameraman who's always shooting and recording all the time and ideally get
you a cameraman that is an editor and also a copywriter because you don't want to pay
a cameraman, an editor and a copywriter.
Is that if that person is also somebody who specializes in social media, that's a plus.
(36:47):
But you essentially want a social media department on your team and somebody who handles all
that because social media and the trends and everything is forever changing, damn near
every week.
So you want somebody who's on top of that, who's posting.
Like it's hard to do all that and then be concerned with making sure your social media
presence is alive and active and current.
(37:09):
I mean, yeah, to piggyback off that, as far as from my position, I'm sure you can relate.
There's been, I'm not going to say there's been times.
There are times now to where we have worn the hats of all those things.
And even times now, like I'm going to say this on the tips aspect, it's easier said
(37:31):
than done.
And a lot of people revert to wearing many hats because it's cost efficient and they
don't really look at it as, okay, I'm mentally being worn down on things like that.
And if we had the money, if we had the funds, we would do that.
But it's also feasible as far as finding someone that you know, a friend or someone that's
(37:55):
eager to learn that you can find a way to teach them the ropes a little bit.
They're eager to just seek knowledge and things like that.
So, okay, I want to get in video.
Like, okay, let's start with your phone.
Let's start with this.
Then let's gear up.
Let's build up to where we can get a good quality camera.
(38:19):
And social media is just all about just seeking, like it's really just all about seeking the
knowledge and just being willing to learn, just willing to want to do it.
And if someone truly wants to do it, they're going to do it.
Certain things you just can't teach with that.
So yeah, it's very, very important and very, like it's very vital to have those things
because it makes the ship run smoother.
(38:41):
It makes every one job easier to the point where we can climb the ladder even faster.
We can climb the ladder even further to the point where we're not faced with roadblocks.
Like we have this project that we're working on, but damn, we don't have a cover writer.
We don't have anyone to shoot these videos.
Now we have to outsource to someone we don't know.
And now we have to cater to what they do and rather than intertwine what we have going
(39:07):
on.
It's best to have people in house that are all on one accord.
And within that, you can be able to reach all your, like majority of your goals even
faster.
Like it's easy, like the job and the road is less difficult when you have people along
with you that's helping you up the mountain.
(39:29):
So we know firsthand.
Like what you were saying is like find people who are willing to put the work in for that
success, get people who are at the beginning of their careers, you know, find that team
and you could build up, but take care of your people, whether it's offering them a piece
of the business, whether it's offering them a piece of the project that you're working
(39:50):
on, whether you know, all these things, whether you're working for their career as well as
your own, because it's not always about that.
It's about experience.
It's about longevity.
And yeah, man, I think that I think we good unless you want to keep building on something
else.
I think that's about it, man.
I think that's about it.
Like we touched on some good topics.
(40:13):
We can touch on some more next week.
This has been another episode of the I Hate This Industry podcast.
We'll see you next week.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the I Hate This Industry podcast.
(00:18):
I am your host Darrell Reese Jr.
And I'm Stephen Almeida.
Together we dive deep into the chaotic, the controversial and the downright crazy world
of the entertainment industry.
That's right, Steve.
Every week we bring you our unfiltered, unapologetic take on the latest happening in the culture,
music, movies, television, everything in between.
(00:40):
Whether it's the latest Hollywood scandal, the hottest new release or the industry's
dirty little secrets, we're here to give you the inside scoop with a heavy dose of
humor and a pinch of sarcasm.
We don't pull punches and we don't sugarcoat.
If there's one thing that we promise, it's to keep it real.
We're not afraid to call out the BS and we celebrate the brilliance.
(01:01):
So if you're tired of the fluff and looking for a fresh perspective, you've come to the
right place.
Buckle up and get ready for a roller coaster ride through the glitz and the grime of the
entertainment world.
And don't forget, we love hearing from you guys.
So if you want to join the conversation, our social media will be listed below.
All our channels and things of that nature.
(01:21):
So let us know what you love, let us know what you hate and everything in between.
Hit that subscribe button, leave us a review and share the love or the hate.
We're here for it all.
Now let's dive in.
This is the I Hate This Industry podcast.
TMC, let's go.
Hey, everyone listen to this, please.
(01:42):
So it was good though, bro.
How you been?
What's your week been like?
It was good, man.
Man, I've been all right.
Been all right.
Been working on this film.
Like I've really been, I've really been locked in on this film and this story because I had
to take, I had to take 10 steps back as far as story and script wise because last year
the script was done, but I was just looking at it, revising it.
(02:03):
I was just like, ah, I got to take it on.
As a filmmaker, stuff just changes and there's no timetable on the film process, especially
developing the film.
So yeah, I've just been working on the story.
I think I finally got, I think I finally got that in between.
It's the middle climax part that was my issue.
(02:25):
I think I finally narrowed that down.
You're talking about the foundation film?
Yeah.
I love the idea.
The idea is great.
And I'm a big fan of universes as well, like creating this universe where everything links
together and you could tell all these different stories and connect it to this core idea.
And I think what we had, what you had is, was great.
(02:47):
But my issue had always been the story just needed to be tightened because as you start
creating something, the ideas develop almost every day when you're trying to like, okay,
I want to do this.
So you start, what becomes tighter on one part becomes loose on the other end.
And then you have to come back at some point and tighten it up or rearrange everything.
(03:10):
And I feel like as we were running through ideas, those ideas get stronger and the original
concepts become weaker.
And it's like, okay, at some point you got to hammer down on what this core idea is.
And then storytelling is also a skill set that takes work and development.
You know what I mean?
Oh yeah.
We not telling the same story the same way as we were two years ago or three years ago
(03:33):
when the idea first, the inception of the idea.
I haven't revisited my script in a while.
I know I got to go back and tighten things up.
But yeah, we got to chop it up about that.
Oh yeah.
We discussed that off camera.
Yo, 50 sold the rights.
Yeah, I seen that.
(03:54):
Is he the biggest bully in the industry?
I think so, man.
I think if you look at the 50 Cent projects from Power to BMF to Ghost, and every one
of those have an antagonist in those stories, and he plays his own antagonist in Power.
(04:15):
He plays Kanan.
And you can look at the way he developed the antagonist role.
We often cater to that.
And this is 50 in real life.
His antagonist roles in his films and in him in real life, he's a bully, he's aggressive,
(04:36):
he's the Omega, he's the Messiah, he's dead in real life.
He came into the industry that way.
Right.
And that's how, that's really how we was introduced to 50.
That's how I was introduced to 50 through the beef with Jaru and throughout the album
battles with him and Kanye.
So yeah, that's how I was introduced to him.
(04:57):
You know what's crazy?
And look at this generation gap.
You got introduced to 50 through that Jaru beef in that era of him.
I got introduced to 50 through How to R.O.P. where he was just coming at everybody in this
industry.
His introduction to the game was this guy who's just poking at every artist that was
kind of on top and had a, I mean that had a buzz and had a name and he was just coming
(05:22):
for them.
And I remember this interview that came out years later with Jay-Z, was it Memphis Bleak
who was talking about it?
And he said that Jay told him, Jay had them all in the room in the studio and was like,
yo, y'all better figure out what y'all gonna do because 50 is coming.
I remember one time walking in the studio, Bleak Beans, everybody was in there and I
(05:46):
was like, man, I'm telling you, man, y'all better, y'all better, y'all got a chance right
now just flood it, put out a lot of music because 50 cent is coming.
And four months later in the club hit and it was over.
I remember hearing about that.
All these years and then you seen how he was with the Bleak Ross Beans.
He's a comedian, he's funny, he's petty, but his issue with Diddy has been for a while
(06:14):
and it's at a point now where it's crazy.
He has this documentary, it's called Diddy Do It.
That's the name of it.
I ain't really seen the name of it.
That's crazy.
The name is Diddy Do It, which is wow.
But even though I'm laughing, there's nothing funny about that video that surfaced with
(06:38):
Diddy put his hands on Cassie.
Oh yeah, that was.
Your thoughts on that.
Because I'm not ashamed to say Diddy is somebody I looked up to and I respect his business,
accolades, what he's done in the industry.
You can't take that away from him.
That was a big motivating factor for me as an entrepreneur in this entertainment industry.
(07:02):
But I can't support that.
It's just some things I can't support in a person.
I don't think the accolades and the work ethic, I mean those things can be separated from
the man himself and his actions and the things that he does on a personal level.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I kind of looked at him the same way as far as him doing Revolt, him having
(07:23):
to deal with Serac and throughout the Bad Boys situation.
I always looked at it as a sense of motivation.
Like, okay, that's how I look at it.
It was just strictly that.
I never really just looked at him a certain way.
I always heard rumors and rumblings and things like that on social media, but that's all
it was with that.
(07:43):
And Charlamagne and DJ Envy had an interesting back and forth of like Charlamagne was like,
he looked at Diddy and people look at Diddy as an inspiration or motivation and things
like that.
And Envy was like, well, we don't know, we can't look at these people like this because
we don't know them as a person and things like that.
(08:03):
I only look up, like he would tell people who he looked up to.
And then Charlamagne, Revolt, he was just like, of course, they only show you what they
want you to see.
We don't know these every day.
We don't know what they're doing every day.
So we only like, quote unquote, idolize or be motivated about what they show us.
(08:25):
So it's the same with me with Nipsey, it's the same with Kanye and Jay-Z.
Like only, I'm only motivated by what they show us.
We not, I'm not idolizing him as a person because I don't know him as a person.
I don't know that.
So yeah, when that video dropped, I was just like, damn.
I was watching and I was like, damn.
(08:47):
And like, yeah, so it's a terrible, it's a terrible situation, terrible situation.
I was just like, the way he was talking before the video dropped, as if it, as if we just
got to wait and see or the truth shall come to the light.
Like man, the truth came on the camera.
So like we seen it, the truth right there.
(09:08):
And then we like, okay, are we forced to believe everything that Cassie has said about the
situation and our mind instantly goes to, okay, like what she's saying, like, okay, damn,
a lot of this shit could be true.
A lot of it could be.
A lot of it could be.
It's rough, but at this point with everything that came out, with that video coming out,
(09:33):
it's hard to, it's hard now to say, oh, she's just making things up or maybe things are
exaggerated.
And that's cool because when you have proof like that, it's like you lost the guilty until
proven, no, innocent until proven guilty, you lost that now.
Now you got to deal with it being like, you're kind of guilty and all the other things just
(10:01):
kind of have to get proven or not.
I saw Charlemagne said something that I agreed with and I think it is a take that a lot of
people won't agree with, but he said that we have to, because this is true in our culture.
He said we have to separate the problem from the celebrity because we do live in a culture,
(10:26):
especially here in America, we do live in a culture where there's a lot of idol worship,
a lot of celebrity worship.
And we care more that it's ditty than the actual problem.
And I think that's something that definitely has to be highlighted where it's, yeah, it
being ditty is impactful because of his status.
(10:49):
But the bigger issue is the abuse, is the fact of wealthy men having this toxic relationship
with power and control and money and everything.
I think when it comes to that situation, man, I think we shouldn't focus on the individual,
(11:09):
we should focus on the issue.
Because I think what happens a lot of times is because of the celebrity, we get lost in
talking about the celebrity and not talking about the actual issue.
The issue is domestic violence.
The issue is exactly what I just said about men not going to do the proper work on themselves
and they're dealing with a lot of pain and a lot of hurt and unhealed trauma and they're
(11:30):
projecting that pain and that hurt on the other people.
The issue is patriarchy, right?
Because as long as you have a system where men feel superior to women and they're dealing
with that pain and they're dealing with that hurt, they're going to project that, we're
going to continue to project that onto our women.
So I think those are the issues that we should be discussing as opposed to talking about
the individual.
And we tend to do that a lot as a society.
(11:51):
We get lost in the celebrity of things as opposed to, okay, what are we here for?
So I think that's the bigger conversation because it doesn't just happen in entertainment.
It doesn't just happen with guys like Diddy.
What do you think about the rumor being that it was because he was trying to tarnish the
Serac brand, not the Serac brand, the company that owns Serac.
(12:14):
So you're trying to buy NBC?
Yeah.
I mean, with that situation.
I think Diago, that's the name of the company.
I ain't really heard too much about that.
At the end of the day, if you look at Diddy from the bad boy era to now and the fame and
(12:42):
the power that he's got, even before Serac, like he was a nasty nigga before then.
You can almost see the demeanor.
You can almost see the look on his face.
When people talk about these Diddy parties, from Joe Button's standpoint, I don't know
how they're related to him now, but I'm cool with this guy.
(13:03):
I'm in the party.
There's no cameras.
Whatever wild shit he do, I'm going to just sweep it under the rug.
I'm going to laugh with it.
I'm going to do this and that.
And then I'm going to just go off about my day.
There's a lot of people that have seen wild shit within the Diddy circle that didn't say
anything at all.
It's tough when it's in the public eye to separate the good from the bad.
(13:29):
But the reality is whether he's a piece of shit of a human being or not, or whether he
just... And I can't say that because maybe he's different today.
That's also from a long time ago, that incident.
Doesn't help that he lied about it.
But he might not be that person today.
He also did a lot of good.
What was that Dave Chappelle bit?
(13:50):
I love this bit because it's so real.
He was talking about Bill Cosby.
He makes this reference to what if there's a superhero who saves people.
He rapes, but he saves.
I have a superhero you love because he's stronger than Superman and he fights for truth, justice,
(14:11):
and the American way like Superman, but more than Superman.
He beats up Mexicans for no reason.
The Texan's like, you got my attention.
I said, man, this motherfucker's so strong.
He can fly and do all this great shit.
Only problem with this guy is he can't even activate his powers unless he touches a woman's
(14:32):
vagina.
Not a long touch, just a couple of pats.
He said, well, what's the problem with that?
I said, well, the problem, sir, is that our hero is not a handsome man.
And he's often short on cash.
So whenever trouble breaks out, he has to run around the city and convince women to
(14:53):
let him pack their vaginas.
Please, miss, that building's on fire.
Can I pack your vagina quickly?
People are dying, but he can't tell them exactly why.
Get away, you're gross.
Please, miss.
People are dying.
Just a couple of pats, oh, gross, get away.
(15:16):
So he rapes them.
I know, I know.
That's the dilemma for the audience.
Because he rapes, but he saves a lot of lives.
And he saves way more than he rapes, and he only rapes the saves.
(15:39):
But he does rape.
The point of the joke is saying, do you condemn them for the bad?
Because if you take them away, you remove the person who's saving people.
And he was using that as an analogy for how our society judges people.
He clearly uses an extreme of, we remove the good that they do, and then you're just left.
(16:03):
And if you take that person away, you're left without the good that this person has done
to the community or for the community or for the people.
And then they're no longer in the community to continue to do good things for it.
So are you hurting the community?
You know what I mean?
So it's like, that was kind of the, it's a great talking point, a great conversation.
(16:23):
But that's a more serious conversation for another time.
What else we got on the docket?
So Please Don't Cry, Rapsody.
Yes, indeed.
Let me pull up the track list, man.
Let's go.
Let's do it.
Wait, Rapsody?
I was introduced to Rapsody a few years ago when she did the, I think it was a Sorggiano
(16:44):
record with J. Cole.
So you ain't, you never heard that first album?
Uh, no.
Oh, bro.
The first Rapsody album I heard was Eve.
Oh, nah, man.
You got to go to the joint before that.
You know what?
Let me go back.
The first song I heard was Oowee.
That's the first one I heard.
Okay.
(17:05):
Okay.
Yeah, man.
You got to go to the Layla's Wisdom.
Oh yeah.
I heard a little bit of that.
I heard a little bit of that.
I'm looking at the track list.
Bro.
Layla's Wisdom?
We were filming, um.
I got to save them on Spotify.
That's crazy.
We were filming the Zaki music video, Her Mantra.
Her Mantra music video when that, around the time that album came out and that was all
(17:32):
we played on set, bro, for like those two days.
Please don't cry, bro.
It's, it honestly gave me, and she's always given me, I hate comparing, but she's always
given me Kendrick vibes.
And this album sounds a lot like, it's like her version of Kendrick.
You know, of Mr. Morown, the Big Steppers.
Yes, yes.
I've been playing with her all year.
(17:54):
And I hate to, I hate to compare her like that because rightfully so, she's in her own
category or her own lane, but it's hard not to make the obvious comparisons.
Oh yeah.
In how she stacks her vocals and the content of the music, the progress, her progressions
are so crazy.
And one of my favorite things about her music is the crazy progressions in her songs.
(18:18):
And it's very Kendrickish, very jazz inspired a lot.
She taps into a lot of the femininity of hip hop and rap and of people and of human.
But when we're talking strictly about the music, she, I love that she draws this direct
correlation to her inspirations.
(18:40):
You know what I mean?
Right.
And that was a good, that was the name of that album, right Eve?
Yeah, it was a dedication to the women.
Like a lot of the tracks on that was titled after women that was inspired by.
She was like that on Layla's Wisdom as well.
Not as far as the tracking, but as far as the content.
(19:02):
This album was nothing, nothing less than amazing.
Man.
When I, cause I didn't listen to it when it first came out, I really just wanted to hone
it in and just focus on it when I had the time.
So I think I heard it a few days ago.
Like when I text you about it, I heard it a few days before that.
(19:25):
I didn't realize it dropped until you, until you text me about it.
Oh yeah.
When you put it in the notes and I was like, oh, I gotta go.
I spent the whole next day listening to it the next two days.
Oh yeah.
Cause I watched her Joe Budden and her interview with Joe Budden and the Burfus Club.
Then I dove into the album.
It was on Joe Budden's podcast?
Yeah.
Oh shit.
(19:46):
I didn't watch that.
I think it's on YouTube.
I think they released it on YouTube.
I gotta check it out.
But yeah, I went diving, dove into the album.
I really didn't have no expectations for it cause I knew the type of artistry, I knew
the type of artist rap shit it was.
So I was like, okay, I know I'ma love it.
But then I dove into it.
(20:06):
I got halfway through and I'm like, man, this is, this is truly an experience.
She's taken me through like a, through a movie, like one of my favorite movies or something
like that.
She's taken me through an experience and a montage of stories, things she's been through
in the past, things she's going through now, how people label female hip hop and the correlation
(20:32):
between her type of music and a rapper like sexy red or ice spice and things like this.
She dived into that and that realm too.
But then I kept listening to it and like you said, had that jazz feel.
And then I heard like a, maybe a voice in the background and I just kept diving into
it and I checked the production credits and it was produced, like a few songs where a
(20:56):
lot of, a lot of songs were produced by Black Odyssey.
Yeah.
Are you familiar with Black Odyssey?
Yeah, of course.
And I was like, I see it.
I see it.
Cause I think she was on Black Odyssey last project or one of his projects before.
And I was like, I see his touch.
I see his feel and what he did to this record.
(21:17):
And I was like, man, it's just truly brilliant from just not only in an album standpoint,
but just creating a moment.
Cause like just me personally, when I'm working on music, when I'm working on film and an
album, I like to create moments around the content to where we not just giving you the
music, we're giving you more than that.
And we're going to put you through this cinematic experience.
(21:40):
And that's what she did.
That's what she did with the album.
And it's largely narrated by Felisa Rashad.
And I was like, man, just like just hearing her voice throughout our lifetime.
And I just like up until now, I'm just like, she has, cause I was just watching Creed the
other day.
(22:00):
And I was just like, man, like that was like a perfect intertwined that she could have done
with the album.
I was like, man, this is not only genius, but this is truly, truly, truly, truly a beautiful,
well-crafted project.
And I can't wait to listen to some more when we get out the car.
(22:21):
Oh yeah, man.
That's all I'm listening to.
Since it came out, honestly, digesting it is, and I've only listened to it in the car.
I haven't even listened to it in headphones.
I've only been bumping it in the car and my car has noise cancellation, right?
So when I have the windows up and everything, you don't hear much of the outside.
(22:45):
Like the, how they call it, the cockpit of the car has this noise isolation feature.
And my sound system is awesome.
So it's like, when I listen to music in the car, it becomes an experience.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's just very immersive, right?
And then got the LED lights all around the car.
(23:05):
So it's like when I was bumping it, man, I was just in this zone.
And it's what you say is very true, man.
It transports you.
Like it's such an experience listening to it because putting albums together is a lost
art.
Like it's in hip hop these days.
I can't speak for other genres because I still listen to other genres and they make an incredible
(23:29):
album.
You know, hip hop seems to be this, at this point where we've lost a lot of what crafting
an album is because of playlisting and where we're at, where releasing singles is kind
of the thing to do because people are trying to benefit more from the music than crafting
(23:49):
these cultural and impactful projects.
I'm not speaking for everybody.
I'm just talking about kind of mainstream, what's really being fed into the mainstream.
So you have an artist like Rapsody who put, she put this project and from the beginning
is cinematic.
It immerses you almost instantly.
(24:10):
With the skits in between, with the just, there's a temple with this album.
That was starts off to where it goes, you hear the climax of the album, you see where
it declines, you see how she brings it all together, the concepts, the ideas, the cover
art.
There's a line, I forgot what she, I don't know, I can't remember if it was a skit or
(24:31):
on one of the records where she mentions she feels like she's been wearing this veil and
that album covers her under the veil.
You know, it's like, it was just this amazing storytelling.
Storytelling at its finest, man.
What's your favorite record off this project, man?
Oh, D&D.
Do not disturb.
(24:52):
D&D?
Oh yeah.
That hook, bro.
Woo, that hook, man.
I was feeling that way that day.
So when that record came on, I was like, damn, man, she just captured exactly how I was feeling.
I love 3AM.
I'm Erykah Badu, Fnatic.
So that record is, I love it.
(25:12):
Look what you've done is fire.
Asteroids is crazy.
They're all good.
Stand tall.
Where's the diary of a mad bitch?
Man.
Oh yeah.
Man, she was talking that talk on that record.
He shot me.
I love how she took that Bob Marley melody and that and flipped it.
That was cool.
It's not one of my favorite records, but I like the record.
(25:35):
You know what I mean?
I was like, this is a really dope, what she did was really cool.
And it was a good highlight on, you know, police brutality and the police shootings
and everything.
She has a line.
I can't remember.
Maybe you remember what record is on.
She said these industry plants, I eat them like Dr. Savy.
Oh, I don't remember the line.
(25:56):
I can't remember the record.
I can't remember the record.
I can't remember the record.
Well, she said that I was like, yo, she's like, I just heard that like the other day.
She's going crazy, man.
She was going crazy.
Album of the year for me so far.
Oh yeah, definitely.
So far.
And as far as like you look at albums different, I look at albums different and especially
from the standpoint of us putting out music and things like that, we look at it totally
(26:22):
different too.
And I look at this as a source of inspiration for what I'm doing.
I was listening to this and I was like, damn, like I got to go back and yeah, I got to go
back and repolish some stuff and things like that with the album I'm working on.
And just man, it's just, it was a truly beautiful gift that I can see this one being one of
(26:48):
them albums I just go to for the rest of my life.
I really truly feel like that.
I love when music does that.
I love when music, when there's things that come out that make me go, oh shit, man, let
me be better.
Let me get better.
Let me get a little more creative.
I feel like everybody's streaming, streaming, streaming.
People was like, yo, everybody was telling me like Saint, for example, he's hip hop,
(27:11):
straight hip hop guys.
And he told me, he's like, yo, people are not buying albums.
You feel me?
And it's even weird because they have to ask you, like they ask an artist, like, do you
want hard copies?
And if you do, how much do you want?
To put money behind the hard copies sometimes just really doesn't even make sense these
days.
You know, it's all about the streaming.
(27:32):
Physical sales versus digital streaming.
And I kind of want to throw in the impact.
I guess you weren't really around for the physical sale era, right?
Like physical albums, like buying music, right?
No, like CDs, yeah, CDs.
Well, yeah, I guess that's what I mean.
(27:53):
What was the, do you remember the first CD you bought?
I think I've asked you.
No, not as far as that, no.
Like as far as just buying CDs, no.
The first and only CD I ever bought was Victory Lab.
No way, for real?
Yeah.
Like I wasn't like, I wanted this CD, like I wanted this CD.
And like I said, when I wanted, like as far as the physical side of the music, like it
(28:15):
was just, I was just dialed in on one person.
Like you see Victory Lab vinyl, like vinyl right there.
Like that's, I was only dialed in on that.
And I just got into, like two years ago, I just got into the point where I want to start
collecting more vinyls.
Like right now I got J. Cole and Nina Simone.
I got the collection.
(28:36):
Sultane, oh yeah.
I got the Mac Miller NPR.
You see that top one up there?
That's Caroline, the Outkast single.
Right.
That's just a single, right?
And that vinyl particularly is created by Mass Appeal.
And it has like the Caroline, Would You Be My Valentine, like written in lipstick on
(29:00):
the actual vinyl.
Oh, that's dope.
That's dope.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a record store near me that I'm going to visit soon.
And I want to get more into it.
Like I said, I only got Nipsey, J. Cole, and Nina Simone.
Vinyls are expensive, my brother.
Oh yeah.
I got, there's over a hundred dollars in vinyls on this wall right now.
(29:22):
Oh yeah.
So that's as a music connoisseur, Vinyls are.
It was crazy saying that I spend, I would never spend, and I used to buy CDs, right?
I was a CD guy.
I used to go to Virgin Megastore down in Times Square.
I used to class.
I got, you know, I got arrested, but I got picked up by Truancy in high school for going
(29:47):
down for buying the Kingdom Come album.
I got, the only time I ever got picked up by Truancy for cutting school, I was in Virgin
Megastore.
I had to have this album the day it came out.
I go down there and I'm just, I bought the album already.
I have it, but I'm listening in Virgin Megastore.
You have these stations where you can listen to music.
(30:08):
And I was just standing there listening to that.
Even though I had it, I should have left.
I was just in there.
I loved hanging out in that store because it was a music store.
And this cop just taps me on my back, on my shoulder.
I turn around and I'm like, oh fuck.
I was a consumer.
Some out of a movie or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was a consumer of albums, right?
I bought music, but I would never, I wouldn't spend $30 on a CD, right?
(30:32):
Some of these vinyls cost me $30.
But that goes to show that an album on streaming costs what?
At maximum $10?
Yup.
$11, $12, right?
$11, $9, $11, $9, $9, yeah.
So streaming it costs even less.
I mean, depending on what you pay monthly for your service.
This wall is proof that people spend this much money on an album.
(30:58):
This album alone, this Nas album, ran me $27.
That's a vinyl.
If you don't have a vinyl player, you can't even listen to it.
So the impact of a physical sale, I feel like when you can physically touch something, there's
a different value to it.
Especially when you craft it to be kind of like that Caroline vinyl I showed you.
(31:19):
The style of it, the uniqueness of that particular vinyl, those become collector pieces and collector
items and that you can only get that with a physical copy of something that you have
to spend money to, and a higher price at that than what a CD ran you back in the day.
Where digital sales, that digital sales, it just don't hit the same.
(31:41):
And I'm saying as somebody who used to buy physical copies and who buys vinyls, there's
just something weird about it, not weird, just something that is not satisfying as a
consumer.
I feel like as a generation in what we're heading into now, I see a lot of people advocating
and leaning more towards the vinyls, like getting that coming back as far as like, because
(32:06):
it's an experience.
What's old is new again apparently, and cool again.
For the first time since the 80s, sales of vinyl records are now outpacing CDs.
People spent around $230 million on vinyl during the first half of the year.
It's almost double what was spent on CDs.
But more physical CDs were actually sold.
(32:26):
Vinyl just made more money because it's more expensive.
People in the industry say vinyl isn't just like a thing of the past anymore, and no,
it's not going away anytime soon again.
When I first bought, like you was there when the marathon went on.
When Nipsey-
And we ordered it at the same time.
When they first dropped that gold limited edition vinyl, like when they first dropped
(32:51):
this, I told you I was like-
You just touching it like that?
You got no care for you.
Hey, this shit's strong, bro.
It's stable.
You're not supposed to touch it.
I handle my shit with gloves when I play.
I be holding it on the sides like this.
I usually do that.
But yeah, like when this shit first dropped, like I told you, I was like, bro, I got to
(33:14):
get it.
The second they dropped that link, I had to.
Me and you bought it at the same time, I remember.
Oh yeah, like just clicking the album when it first come out, just buying it.
Of course, I do that more so to support the artist.
I'm 100%.
But if I'm buying your CD, your merch, or your vinyl, I'm looking to indulge in an
(33:42):
experience that I'm going to live through forever.
I'm going to live through out there forever.
So like me personally, when I drop the foundation album, I want to have limited finals.
Like maybe whatever the limit they let me get, maybe if it's 20 or 10 or something like
that, I want it to be an experience to where if you got this, then it's something I want
(34:06):
to live forever within you.
So I want to do this segment on this podcast called Industry Tip of the Day, man.
Or Industry Tip of the Week.
So the industry tip of the week for this week would be build a reliable team.
hire people who want to do the job and have passion, experience, and a skill set for the
(34:30):
role.
So five important players you should have on your team.
Manager, that's someone who handles the inner workings of your day to day operations, has
a vested interest in the growth and success of your career.
A lawyer who handles all legal matters within your operation and looks over your contracts
and gives legal advice and consultation as to what's best for your career.
An agent who negotiates the best opportunities for your career.
(34:53):
And a cameraman, editor, and copywriter who handles all the camera work, editing, copywriting
for the content creation of your team.
Content creator and social media specialist that makes sure all the content is prepped,
ready, and aligned with your brand, specializes in understanding how algorithms operate in
different social media platforms.
Has the finger on the pulse of what's trending and what to stay away from on social media.
(35:15):
See, as a creative, if you're the artist, if you're the talent, it's hard to do everything.
A lot of people do and we live in a hybrid time of this industry where one person does
so many things.
But that you can reach a lot more success having everything compartmentalized.
So you have a manager to handle all the things that all the business end of things and all
(35:40):
that so that you can kind of focus on the talent.
Lawyers, a lot of people don't have lawyers, man.
A lot of people don't have lawyers, which ends in shitty contracts and bad deals and
you get robbed or your business being misplaced.
So get lawyers, people get lawyers, agents.
I think a lot of people overlook agents because I think people feel they have to be at a place
(36:04):
of like no variety already to have an agent and you don't like get an agent to lock in
deals for you.
You know, you can pay agents.
You know what I mean?
Pay an agent, get an agent on your team that that's out there negotiating and bringing
you opportunities.
The cameraman, see, cameraman is important today because you need content is king today.
(36:26):
So you want a cameraman who's always shooting and recording all the time and ideally get
you a cameraman that is an editor and also a copywriter because you don't want to pay
a cameraman, an editor and a copywriter.
Is that if that person is also somebody who specializes in social media, that's a plus.
(36:47):
But you essentially want a social media department on your team and somebody who handles all
that because social media and the trends and everything is forever changing, damn near
every week.
So you want somebody who's on top of that, who's posting.
Like it's hard to do all that and then be concerned with making sure your social media
presence is alive and active and current.
(37:09):
I mean, yeah, to piggyback off that, as far as from my position, I'm sure you can relate.
There's been, I'm not going to say there's been times.
There are times now to where we have worn the hats of all those things.
And even times now, like I'm going to say this on the tips aspect, it's easier said
(37:31):
than done.
And a lot of people revert to wearing many hats because it's cost efficient and they
don't really look at it as, okay, I'm mentally being worn down on things like that.
And if we had the money, if we had the funds, we would do that.
But it's also feasible as far as finding someone that you know, a friend or someone that's
(37:55):
eager to learn that you can find a way to teach them the ropes a little bit.
They're eager to just seek knowledge and things like that.
So, okay, I want to get in video.
Like, okay, let's start with your phone.
Let's start with this.
Then let's gear up.
Let's build up to where we can get a good quality camera.
(38:19):
And social media is just all about just seeking, like it's really just all about seeking the
knowledge and just being willing to learn, just willing to want to do it.
And if someone truly wants to do it, they're going to do it.
Certain things you just can't teach with that.
So yeah, it's very, very important and very, like it's very vital to have those things
because it makes the ship run smoother.
(38:41):
It makes every one job easier to the point where we can climb the ladder even faster.
We can climb the ladder even further to the point where we're not faced with roadblocks.
Like we have this project that we're working on, but damn, we don't have a cover writer.
We don't have anyone to shoot these videos.
Now we have to outsource to someone we don't know.
And now we have to cater to what they do and rather than intertwine what we have going
(39:07):
on.
It's best to have people in house that are all on one accord.
And within that, you can be able to reach all your, like majority of your goals even
faster.
Like it's easy, like the job and the road is less difficult when you have people along
with you that's helping you up the mountain.
(39:29):
So we know firsthand.
Like what you were saying is like find people who are willing to put the work in for that
success, get people who are at the beginning of their careers, you know, find that team
and you could build up, but take care of your people, whether it's offering them a piece
of the business, whether it's offering them a piece of the project that you're working
(39:50):
on, whether you know, all these things, whether you're working for their career as well as
your own, because it's not always about that.
It's about experience.
It's about longevity.
And yeah, man, I think that I think we good unless you want to keep building on something
else.
I think that's about it, man.
I think that's about it.
Like we touched on some good topics.
(40:13):
We can touch on some more next week.
This has been another episode of the I Hate This Industry podcast.
We'll see you next week.
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