April 18, 2024 • 21 mins
Discover the unsung hero of Atlanta's music scene as we honor the indomitable Rico Wade, co-founder of Organized Noize. Wade's mastery in elevating the unheard voices from the SWATs to stardom echoes the strategic insight of business moguls when it comes to identifying and nurturing hidden talent. This episode is a heartfelt celebration of the man whose mentorship birthed icons like OutKast and Future, and the profound impact his guidance has had on shaping not just careers but a cultural movement.
Venture with us into a world where the potential in every individual is not only recognized but unleashed to its fullest. The episode draws striking parallels between the approaches of visionary leaders across industries, from music maestro Rico Wade to tech titans like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. We unravel the art of talent development and the ripple effect of empowering those around us. Join me, Zettler, as we bid a fond farewell to a hometown hero.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
His impact on Atlanta culture is singular.
Rico Wade gave a group of youngmen and women faith to be the
best version of themselves.
He provided a market correctionfor wasted human talent, giving
credence to the notion thatindividual agency can move
mountains.
Every single one of hischart-topping pupils were not
(00:23):
only outrageously gifted, butthey were unique.
His efforts to salvage theseneglected and marginalized youth
in the Swats gave themgenerational economic mobility,
gave society an immeasurablecultural and intellectual boost,
delivered to the worldinnovative music and provisioned
(00:43):
the way for Atlanta to enact acomplete takeover of the rap
industry for the past 20 yearsand reigning as the hip hop king
of the court, showing no signsof giving up the rock anytime
soon.
I am Zettler, fourth of hisname, host of the Atlanta
formula, and in preparing forthis episode I wrote down a lot
of notes and points that did notmake the air.
(01:04):
Hopefully the essence willstill get through, for it is
truly difficult to properlyhonor a generational figure,
your police precinct?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, uh.
Tales of Atlanta of old.
Tell you just how we speak.
Where you from.
What number is your policeprecinct?
Uh.
Tales of Atlanta of old Swats.
Tell you just how we speak.
Town 4.
Where you from.
Cozone.
What number is your policeprecinct?
Uh, yeah, uh.
Tell you just how we speak.
Town 4.
Town when you from.
(01:41):
What number is your police?
Priest?
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
There was a book I purchased about six months ago
on the humbug.
I started reading it, as is myhabit.
I put it down in favor of other, more urgent reads.
But when news hit April 13th ofthe death of the legendary Rico
Wade, I got to thinking andreflecting and suddenly I was
(02:17):
jolted back to this neglectedbook.
Wade, one-third of OrganizedNoise, along with Ray Murray and
Sleepy Brown, didn't write anautobiography, nor did he have
any biographies published abouthim, at least not yet.
But if there was a book thatdistillates his core competency
to the world, it is this booksimply called Talent, written by
(02:40):
Tyler Cohen and Daniel Gross.
This tome is about the art andscience of talent search and
features testimonials andinsights from Titan luminaries
such as Sam Altman, peter Thiel,mark Andreessen, eric Schmidt,
malcolm Gladwell and the like.
Yet this book draws a straightline to the genius expressed by
(03:02):
Rico Wade.
Wade's ability as a founder,connector and motor of
extraordinary talent was secondto none.
This is no simple feat and whenI reflect on his impact on the
spheres of influence, an impactthat ripples magnificently
outward through Atlanta and tothe world beyond, it is
remarkable how much his career,his life, reflected many of the
(03:24):
book's central tenets onrecognizing, building and
leveraging talent.
There will be other orationsand other in-depth perspectives
about his approach to music,marketing, his cautionary tales
and the like.
In this space, however, I'mjust going to focus on his
prowess as a bridge, a connector, gifting the rhythmic sounds,
(03:46):
culture and sentiments ofSouthwest Atlanta, swatsworthy,
initiated to the world and, likethe figures mentioned in the
above-mentioned book, way'smusical footprint is immense.
Tlc, with over 65 millionrecord sales, is the highest
(04:08):
selling female group of all time.
It was a cash cow for manypeople.
They blended pop, hip-hop andR&B, along with some iconic
fashion along the way.
It was groundbreaking on timeand it influenced the sound of
future artists and groups.
Outkast, who boasts hip-hop'sbest-selling album and is
(04:31):
arguably the best music groupever Grammys galore, awards
galore.
Outkast, goody Mob, the quartetof Cujo, timo, big Gip and
CeeLo, also known as NorrisBarkley, who, while not as
commercially successful as Kaz,are regarded as critical
trailblazers in the Atlantasound.
(04:53):
Killer Mike, who just won threeGrammys, who put out arguably
the hip-hop's best album lastyear and whose skills as a
gifted orator is regarded secondto none by many, future burst
upon the scene unheard of some13, 14 years ago.
He is currently, as we speak,enjoying a run of sonic glory
(05:18):
with his partner in crime, metroBoomer.
And I say crime because, intaking a cue from one of Killer
Mike's bars, they left thosetracks as corpses yellow taped
up, motionless.
They killed it with their twoalbums set.
We Don't Trust you and we StillDon't Trust you.
I'm not sure if there's anofficial count printed, but
(05:40):
Future has got to be by far themost chartered and hit producing
Atlanta rap artist ever and,studying these books over the
past few days, I am amazed athow these principles and stories
closely paralleling some of themoves Wade made.
This provides anotherconfirmation that greatness
(06:01):
leaves clues.
There are a few points I want toemphasize in our short time
together, because his lifeleaves food for us to grow, and
I could not sit this one out.
Anyone who knows anything aboutme knows how much I am inspired
by the Dungeon family.
To me they representbrotherhood, mentorship, making
something out of nothing.
(06:21):
Enrico Wade symbolized theconnector giving of himself to
build his brother.
You can't do anything butrespect that.
So my first point is this we allhave an imperative to build our
own talent and recognize it inothers.
There's this notion, prevalentamong us, that developing an eye
(06:44):
for talent is reserved for aspecific domain of people.
This is rubbish of the absolutedegree.
Anybody can and should availthemselves to talent spotting
and cultivation, because justabout everyone is on a quest to
find talent in others or to showoff their own.
Many of you are entrepreneursor entrepreneurial-minded, so
(07:06):
this episode is especiallypertinent to you.
Identifying underrated talentis a complete net positive.
There are no downsides to thisbehavior.
Discovering diamonds in therough is, as Cohen and Gross
puts it, one of the most potentways to give yourself a personal
(07:27):
or organizational edge.
They continue.
Talent search is afundamentally optimistic
endeavor based on the premisethat there is always more value
to be found in our world.
But finding this talent isitself a creative skill, akin to
music or art appreciation.
It cannot be done byboilerplate interviews,
groupthink algorithms, studyingPowerPoints or simple formulas.
(07:53):
When you look at the mosteffective innovators, initiators
, creators in history, they wentthrough significant pains to
bring in the best talent to workalongside or for them.
There is no outsourcing thistask.
Talent to work alongside or forthem there is no outsourcing
this task.
The best recruits often comefrom networking and direct
connections rather than throughagencies or unengaged third
(08:14):
parties.
Elon Musk is said to haveinterviewed no fewer than 3,000
people for SpaceX.
I was talking with one of thebroskis recently and you know
who has built a multimilliondollar company.
I don't say that to brag, I'mjust bringing home a point.
He shared that he has beensuccessful in bringing in A
(08:35):
players by emphasizing to themthe allure of being a key player
of a purpose driven team,rather than a mere call in
somebody else's operation, whichis consistent with the best
practices of the best founders.
Enrico's Dungeon, similar to YCombinators and the homie just
mentioned, and other successfulstartups, talented individuals
(08:59):
were surrounded constantly bylike-minded peers and by
like-minded.
They were misfits,nonconformists and rebels, but
that's okay because time aftertime, this has shown to greatly
improve worker productivity andsatisfaction being there.
Peter Till speaks of howstarting a great company is a
conspiracy to change the world.
(09:20):
He writes that he studies howwell the founders know and work
together as much as thetechnical abilities and
complementary skill sets of them.
Steve Jobs stated in a speechto Stanford students in 1987
that recruiting is the honcho'smost important job and should
never be sacrificed at the altarof anything.
(09:41):
Rico Wade shined in this area,with him and fellow organized
noise founders Ray Murray andSleepy Brown being aligned,
complementarily and trustinglyin their mission.
Ray was the hip hop head,sleepy was the soul singer and
Rico was the visionary.
They knew their roles and werecool with it.
This is key.
(10:02):
So Pete Rico Wade was not amusician per se, yet he had a
hand in crafting some of themost iconic hits.
We have ever heard how Rico wasenergetic, fast talking and
seemed to have read DaleCarnegie's how to Win Friends
and Influence People cover tocover at least 10 times.
That doesn't necessarilytranslate to musicianship.
(10:23):
So this is where one leveragestheir core talent to build up
another talent.
And this is the second pointwhere you are deficient in an
area, don't languish.
Lean into your God strength tobuild up your other attributes.
When you hear people describehim, hustler comes up often.
(10:44):
Hustler is synonymous with highagency.
When it came to putting theDungeon family on, rico was high
agency all the way.
So he did what other greatfounders do to close any talent
gaps he applied his brain to thetask of learning technology, to
the task of learning thetechnology of his product, which
(11:06):
is music.
In doing research for thissession, I came across many
origin story interviews with himand in almost all of them he
speaks of his relentlessapplication towards learning the
production tools crate digging,understanding drum patterns.
He spent endless secondscopying the admired works of his
New York contemporaries.
This is a common growth tacticthroughout founder culture.
(11:28):
There is no better way to learnhow something works than trying
to reproduce it.
Great writers do it all thetime.
Kobe, rest in peace, with noshame, openly admitted to
stealing other players' moves.
As a teacher, I steal fromother educators all the time
(11:50):
Repetition, repetition,repetition.
It's boring, but I promise youthe results aren't.
Edwin Land, the creator ofPolaroid, said of the ability to
concentrate over and over againmy whole life has been spent
trying to teach people thatintense concentration for hour
after hour can bring out inpeople resources they didn't
(12:11):
know they had.
In this modern world.
It is full of infinitedistractions.
Everything we interact with istrying to get us not to
concentrate.
The late Charlie Munger takes astep further, saying he
schedules time just to think.
Most people schedule themselveslike a dentist.
(12:34):
It's so easy to get so busythat you no longer have time to
think and you pay a huge pricefor that.
Venture capitalist Bill Gurleyhas an equally stanch take on
this.
He says be obsessive aboutlearning in your field.
Hone your craft Constantly.
Understand everything youpossibly can about your craft.
Consider it an obligation.
(12:55):
Hold yourself accountable.
Keep learning over time.
Study the history.
Know the pioneers.
Strive to know more thananybody else about your
particular craft.
You should be the mostknowledgeable person.
It is possible to gather moreinformation than someone else.
One major point that this bookTalent puts forth is the
(13:17):
importance of exposing yourselfto the highest levels of talent
in your area as early aspossible.
There is immense value inhaving a very talented tutor or
mentor.
Rico constantly found a way toput himself in front of more
talented producers and musictechnicians, and he greatly
(13:38):
benefited from this.
And for the last point, thedenouement of this presentation
and this is the part thatactually got me this is the
reason that I am structuringthis episode like this, because
this part hit me this much Raisethe aspirations of the people
(13:59):
around you.
Raising the aspirations ofother people is one of the most
beneficial things you can dowith your time.
This was a point made in thelast chapter of Talent, and I
mean it's.
You know, it's intuitive right.
The more that you hold otherpeople around you to a higher
way of thinking about their life, you know what I mean.
(14:23):
We can't underestimate howlittle people may think of
themselves.
We can't underestimate howlittle people may think of
themselves.
There is an ongoing crisis ofconfidence in many human beings,
even in the best of times.
Me, as an educator, I'mconstantly telling my students
to strive to believe that theyare smarter than they think they
(14:45):
are.
My own children.
Right, try to be a yardstickfor quality and just.
You know we can't assume thatour best friends, our best
workers, co-workers, actuallyknow what they're capable of,
because very often we do not.
(15:08):
Sometimes we need nudging inthe right direction to realize
our full potential.
And the thing is and this iswhere I quote Cohen and Gross
when you raise the aspirationsof an individual, in essence you
are bending up with the curveof that person's achievement for
(15:29):
the rest of their life.
Wow, let me repeat that You'rebending upward the curve of that
person's achievement for therest of their life.
I mean, I think back to justbeing around my grandparents and
me, being exposed to theirscholarship and being around
(15:51):
them, around their colleaguesand their co-workers, and see
how people treated them, andI've benefited immensely from
that.
That's what Rico Wade did foreverybody around him.
You know, to me that means alot.
That says a lot about anindividual.
(16:14):
You know it's one thing for youto seek, you know, your material
gain, glory, pleasure and funwithout the, you know, win-win
aspect of helping others.
But it's another to tie yourfate to those around you, those
who are younger than you,looking up to you.
And there was no guarantee thatit would happen.
(16:38):
I mean, it had not happened foranybody prior to he's breaking
new ground.
That's a lot of weight.
That's a lot of weight, jackConnector.
Figures can't be distilled intoa formula, because these people
arise due to a need.
There are a confluence offactors that determine
organizational success, luckbeing one of them, and Rico's
(16:59):
life placed him uniquely suitedto hone the abilities of those
around him.
He recognized such and embracedhis role like he was born for
it.
He made a choice to buildhimself, by lifting others, a
true founder's mentality from aplace where music opportunities
were so scarce or nonexistentreally, he had Miami Bass.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He had Dallas, austin he had.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Jermaine Dupri, but their music was not swats per se
.
You know what I mean.
How Rico Wade was able to ablyraise aspirations of those
around cannot fully be explainedin any book.
Connective figures can't bedistilled into a recipe, mainly
because these people are contextdependent or, stated another
(17:46):
way they arise due to a need.
There are confluence of factorsthat determines any
organizational success, luckbeing one of them.
Sure, he was fortunate to haveKaz Killer, mike Big Rude,
future CeeLo and TLC in hisorbit, but those cats are just
as lucky to have him, if notmore orbit, but those cats are
(18:10):
just as lucky to have him, ifnot more.
Ceelo is right, he is ProfessorX, the telepathic Shifu in
X-Men.
Like Professor X, with hisschool of young mutants, rico
Wade provided a safe haven andhope to abandon misfits and
castoffs and launch a dynasty.
There's this book calledMultipliers how the Best Leaders
Make Everyone Smarter, by LizWiseman.
(18:30):
It's a bestseller and endorsedby a bunch of people with
prefixes in front of their names.
Despite the pump around it,though, I find it to be very
informative.
Wiseman has a chapter in thereentitled Talent Magnets, and I
want to end this episode with apassage from there.
In any organization.
There are talent magnets peoplewho attract the best talent,
(18:52):
utilize it to its fullest andready it for the next stage.
These are leaders who have areputation not only for
delivering results but forcreating a place where young,
talented people can grow.
They are accelerators to otherpeople's careers.
Grow they are accelerators toother people's careers.
(19:12):
The cycle of attraction beginswith the leader possessing the
confidence and magnetism tosurround him or herself with top
talent or A players, sheer rawtalent and the right mix of
intelligence needed for thechallenge.
Under the leadership of thetalent magnet, the genius of
these players gets discoveredand utilized to the fullest.
Having been stretched, theseplayers become smarter and more
capable.
A players become A-plus playerswho are positioned in the
(19:35):
spotlight and get kudos andrecognition for their hard work.
They attract attention andtheir value increases in the
talent marketplace, internallyor externally.
A-plus players get offered evenbigger opportunities and they
seize them with the full supportof the talent magnet.
In their quest to assemble thefinest talent, they are blind to
(19:57):
organizational boundaries.
They see multiple forms ofintelligence everywhere.
Talent magnets live in a worldwithout walls and without
hierarchical or lateralrestrictions.
Instead, they see talentnetworks.
Wiseman goes on to categorizetalent magnets by four major
qualities.
They look for talent everywhere.
There's one.
(20:17):
They find people's nativegenius.
They utilize people at theirfullest.
They remove the blockers.
They remove the blockers.
It's a 30 page chapter and itreads like a strength finders or
personality analysis of oneRico Wade.
Perhaps in another life, inanother place.
He spearheads the growth of aFortune 100 company, leads
(20:45):
shareholder meetings and becomesthe darling of New Yorker think
pieces as the innovativemaverick executive.
But then we wouldn't be able toexperience any of the hundreds
of songs and cultural shiftsthat has shaped our lives over
the past generation.
And here's where I'll closeRico Wade, ultimate hustler,
talent magnet and multiplier, anendless optimist that made
better career paths more vividand more attainable to those
(21:07):
around him through the force ofhis personality and being A big
dog from the clay of SouthwestAtlanta with a real founder's
mentality.
Rest in power, rico Wade.
Of the Dungeon family, yourlegacy reigns.
Shout out to the productionteam Maydale Ray and Wynn on the
track.
Shout out to the productionteam maydale ray and win on the
track.
Shout out to coach collectorfor the brand vision.
(21:30):
It's been real being back withy'all until next time.
This is the atlanta formula.
Thank you, bye.
His impact on Atlanta culture is singular.
Rico Wade gave a group of youngmen and women faith to be the
best version of themselves.
He provided a market correctionfor wasted human talent, giving
credence to the notion thatindividual agency can move
mountains.
Every single one of hischart-topping pupils were not
(00:23):
only outrageously gifted, butthey were unique.
His efforts to salvage theseneglected and marginalized youth
in the Swats gave themgenerational economic mobility,
gave society an immeasurablecultural and intellectual boost,
delivered to the worldinnovative music and provisioned
(00:43):
the way for Atlanta to enact acomplete takeover of the rap
industry for the past 20 yearsand reigning as the hip hop king
of the court, showing no signsof giving up the rock anytime
soon.
I am Zettler, fourth of hisname, host of the Atlanta
formula, and in preparing forthis episode I wrote down a lot
of notes and points that did notmake the air.
(01:04):
Hopefully the essence willstill get through, for it is
truly difficult to properlyhonor a generational figure,
your police precinct?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, uh.
Tales of Atlanta of old.
Tell you just how we speak.
Where you from.
What number is your policeprecinct?
Uh.
Tales of Atlanta of old Swats.
Tell you just how we speak.
Town 4.
Where you from.
Cozone.
What number is your policeprecinct?
Uh, yeah, uh.
Tell you just how we speak.
Town 4.
Town when you from.
(01:41):
What number is your police?
Priest?
Hold on.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
There was a book I purchased about six months ago
on the humbug.
I started reading it, as is myhabit.
I put it down in favor of other, more urgent reads.
But when news hit April 13th ofthe death of the legendary Rico
Wade, I got to thinking andreflecting and suddenly I was
(02:17):
jolted back to this neglectedbook.
Wade, one-third of OrganizedNoise, along with Ray Murray and
Sleepy Brown, didn't write anautobiography, nor did he have
any biographies published abouthim, at least not yet.
But if there was a book thatdistillates his core competency
to the world, it is this booksimply called Talent, written by
(02:40):
Tyler Cohen and Daniel Gross.
This tome is about the art andscience of talent search and
features testimonials andinsights from Titan luminaries
such as Sam Altman, peter Thiel,mark Andreessen, eric Schmidt,
malcolm Gladwell and the like.
Yet this book draws a straightline to the genius expressed by
(03:02):
Rico Wade.
Wade's ability as a founder,connector and motor of
extraordinary talent was secondto none.
This is no simple feat and whenI reflect on his impact on the
spheres of influence, an impactthat ripples magnificently
outward through Atlanta and tothe world beyond, it is
remarkable how much his career,his life, reflected many of the
(03:24):
book's central tenets onrecognizing, building and
leveraging talent.
There will be other orationsand other in-depth perspectives
about his approach to music,marketing, his cautionary tales
and the like.
In this space, however, I'mjust going to focus on his
prowess as a bridge, a connector, gifting the rhythmic sounds,
(03:46):
culture and sentiments ofSouthwest Atlanta, swatsworthy,
initiated to the world and, likethe figures mentioned in the
above-mentioned book, way'smusical footprint is immense.
Tlc, with over 65 millionrecord sales, is the highest
(04:08):
selling female group of all time.
It was a cash cow for manypeople.
They blended pop, hip-hop andR&B, along with some iconic
fashion along the way.
It was groundbreaking on timeand it influenced the sound of
future artists and groups.
Outkast, who boasts hip-hop'sbest-selling album and is
(04:31):
arguably the best music groupever Grammys galore, awards
galore.
Outkast, goody Mob, the quartetof Cujo, timo, big Gip and
CeeLo, also known as NorrisBarkley, who, while not as
commercially successful as Kaz,are regarded as critical
trailblazers in the Atlantasound.
(04:53):
Killer Mike, who just won threeGrammys, who put out arguably
the hip-hop's best album lastyear and whose skills as a
gifted orator is regarded secondto none by many, future burst
upon the scene unheard of some13, 14 years ago.
He is currently, as we speak,enjoying a run of sonic glory
(05:18):
with his partner in crime, metroBoomer.
And I say crime because, intaking a cue from one of Killer
Mike's bars, they left thosetracks as corpses yellow taped
up, motionless.
They killed it with their twoalbums set.
We Don't Trust you and we StillDon't Trust you.
I'm not sure if there's anofficial count printed, but
(05:40):
Future has got to be by far themost chartered and hit producing
Atlanta rap artist ever and,studying these books over the
past few days, I am amazed athow these principles and stories
closely paralleling some of themoves Wade made.
This provides anotherconfirmation that greatness
(06:01):
leaves clues.
There are a few points I want toemphasize in our short time
together, because his lifeleaves food for us to grow, and
I could not sit this one out.
Anyone who knows anything aboutme knows how much I am inspired
by the Dungeon family.
To me they representbrotherhood, mentorship, making
something out of nothing.
(06:21):
Enrico Wade symbolized theconnector giving of himself to
build his brother.
You can't do anything butrespect that.
So my first point is this we allhave an imperative to build our
own talent and recognize it inothers.
There's this notion, prevalentamong us, that developing an eye
(06:44):
for talent is reserved for aspecific domain of people.
This is rubbish of the absolutedegree.
Anybody can and should availthemselves to talent spotting
and cultivation, because justabout everyone is on a quest to
find talent in others or to showoff their own.
Many of you are entrepreneursor entrepreneurial-minded, so
(07:06):
this episode is especiallypertinent to you.
Identifying underrated talentis a complete net positive.
There are no downsides to thisbehavior.
Discovering diamonds in therough is, as Cohen and Gross
puts it, one of the most potentways to give yourself a personal
(07:27):
or organizational edge.
They continue.
Talent search is afundamentally optimistic
endeavor based on the premisethat there is always more value
to be found in our world.
But finding this talent isitself a creative skill, akin to
music or art appreciation.
It cannot be done byboilerplate interviews,
groupthink algorithms, studyingPowerPoints or simple formulas.
(07:53):
When you look at the mosteffective innovators, initiators
, creators in history, they wentthrough significant pains to
bring in the best talent to workalongside or for them.
There is no outsourcing thistask.
Talent to work alongside or forthem there is no outsourcing
this task.
The best recruits often comefrom networking and direct
connections rather than throughagencies or unengaged third
(08:14):
parties.
Elon Musk is said to haveinterviewed no fewer than 3,000
people for SpaceX.
I was talking with one of thebroskis recently and you know
who has built a multimilliondollar company.
I don't say that to brag, I'mjust bringing home a point.
He shared that he has beensuccessful in bringing in A
(08:35):
players by emphasizing to themthe allure of being a key player
of a purpose driven team,rather than a mere call in
somebody else's operation, whichis consistent with the best
practices of the best founders.
Enrico's Dungeon, similar to YCombinators and the homie just
mentioned, and other successfulstartups, talented individuals
(08:59):
were surrounded constantly bylike-minded peers and by
like-minded.
They were misfits,nonconformists and rebels, but
that's okay because time aftertime, this has shown to greatly
improve worker productivity andsatisfaction being there.
Peter Till speaks of howstarting a great company is a
conspiracy to change the world.
(09:20):
He writes that he studies howwell the founders know and work
together as much as thetechnical abilities and
complementary skill sets of them.
Steve Jobs stated in a speechto Stanford students in 1987
that recruiting is the honcho'smost important job and should
never be sacrificed at the altarof anything.
(09:41):
Rico Wade shined in this area,with him and fellow organized
noise founders Ray Murray andSleepy Brown being aligned,
complementarily and trustinglyin their mission.
Ray was the hip hop head,sleepy was the soul singer and
Rico was the visionary.
They knew their roles and werecool with it.
This is key.
(10:02):
So Pete Rico Wade was not amusician per se, yet he had a
hand in crafting some of themost iconic hits.
We have ever heard how Rico wasenergetic, fast talking and
seemed to have read DaleCarnegie's how to Win Friends
and Influence People cover tocover at least 10 times.
That doesn't necessarilytranslate to musicianship.
(10:23):
So this is where one leveragestheir core talent to build up
another talent.
And this is the second pointwhere you are deficient in an
area, don't languish.
Lean into your God strength tobuild up your other attributes.
When you hear people describehim, hustler comes up often.
(10:44):
Hustler is synonymous with highagency.
When it came to putting theDungeon family on, rico was high
agency all the way.
So he did what other greatfounders do to close any talent
gaps he applied his brain to thetask of learning technology, to
the task of learning thetechnology of his product, which
(11:06):
is music.
In doing research for thissession, I came across many
origin story interviews with himand in almost all of them he
speaks of his relentlessapplication towards learning the
production tools crate digging,understanding drum patterns.
He spent endless secondscopying the admired works of his
New York contemporaries.
This is a common growth tacticthroughout founder culture.
(11:28):
There is no better way to learnhow something works than trying
to reproduce it.
Great writers do it all thetime.
Kobe, rest in peace, with noshame, openly admitted to
stealing other players' moves.
As a teacher, I steal fromother educators all the time
(11:50):
Repetition, repetition,repetition.
It's boring, but I promise youthe results aren't.
Edwin Land, the creator ofPolaroid, said of the ability to
concentrate over and over againmy whole life has been spent
trying to teach people thatintense concentration for hour
after hour can bring out inpeople resources they didn't
(12:11):
know they had.
In this modern world.
It is full of infinitedistractions.
Everything we interact with istrying to get us not to
concentrate.
The late Charlie Munger takes astep further, saying he
schedules time just to think.
Most people schedule themselveslike a dentist.
(12:34):
It's so easy to get so busythat you no longer have time to
think and you pay a huge pricefor that.
Venture capitalist Bill Gurleyhas an equally stanch take on
this.
He says be obsessive aboutlearning in your field.
Hone your craft Constantly.
Understand everything youpossibly can about your craft.
Consider it an obligation.
(12:55):
Hold yourself accountable.
Keep learning over time.
Study the history.
Know the pioneers.
Strive to know more thananybody else about your
particular craft.
You should be the mostknowledgeable person.
It is possible to gather moreinformation than someone else.
One major point that this bookTalent puts forth is the
(13:17):
importance of exposing yourselfto the highest levels of talent
in your area as early aspossible.
There is immense value inhaving a very talented tutor or
mentor.
Rico constantly found a way toput himself in front of more
talented producers and musictechnicians, and he greatly
(13:38):
benefited from this.
And for the last point, thedenouement of this presentation
and this is the part thatactually got me this is the
reason that I am structuringthis episode like this, because
this part hit me this much Raisethe aspirations of the people
(13:59):
around you.
Raising the aspirations ofother people is one of the most
beneficial things you can dowith your time.
This was a point made in thelast chapter of Talent, and I
mean it's.
You know, it's intuitive right.
The more that you hold otherpeople around you to a higher
way of thinking about their life, you know what I mean.
(14:23):
We can't underestimate howlittle people may think of
themselves.
We can't underestimate howlittle people may think of
themselves.
There is an ongoing crisis ofconfidence in many human beings,
even in the best of times.
Me, as an educator, I'mconstantly telling my students
to strive to believe that theyare smarter than they think they
(14:45):
are.
My own children.
Right, try to be a yardstickfor quality and just.
You know we can't assume thatour best friends, our best
workers, co-workers, actuallyknow what they're capable of,
because very often we do not.
(15:08):
Sometimes we need nudging inthe right direction to realize
our full potential.
And the thing is and this iswhere I quote Cohen and Gross
when you raise the aspirationsof an individual, in essence you
are bending up with the curveof that person's achievement for
(15:29):
the rest of their life.
Wow, let me repeat that You'rebending upward the curve of that
person's achievement for therest of their life.
I mean, I think back to justbeing around my grandparents and
me, being exposed to theirscholarship and being around
(15:51):
them, around their colleaguesand their co-workers, and see
how people treated them, andI've benefited immensely from
that.
That's what Rico Wade did foreverybody around him.
You know, to me that means alot.
That says a lot about anindividual.
(16:14):
You know it's one thing for youto seek, you know, your material
gain, glory, pleasure and funwithout the, you know, win-win
aspect of helping others.
But it's another to tie yourfate to those around you, those
who are younger than you,looking up to you.
And there was no guarantee thatit would happen.
(16:38):
I mean, it had not happened foranybody prior to he's breaking
new ground.
That's a lot of weight.
That's a lot of weight, jackConnector.
Figures can't be distilled intoa formula, because these people
arise due to a need.
There are a confluence offactors that determine
organizational success, luckbeing one of them, and Rico's
(16:59):
life placed him uniquely suitedto hone the abilities of those
around him.
He recognized such and embracedhis role like he was born for
it.
He made a choice to buildhimself, by lifting others, a
true founder's mentality from aplace where music opportunities
were so scarce or nonexistentreally, he had Miami Bass.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He had Dallas, austin he had.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Jermaine Dupri, but their music was not swats per se
.
You know what I mean.
How Rico Wade was able to ablyraise aspirations of those
around cannot fully be explainedin any book.
Connective figures can't bedistilled into a recipe, mainly
because these people are contextdependent or, stated another
(17:46):
way they arise due to a need.
There are confluence of factorsthat determines any
organizational success, luckbeing one of them.
Sure, he was fortunate to haveKaz Killer, mike Big Rude,
future CeeLo and TLC in hisorbit, but those cats are just
as lucky to have him, if notmore orbit, but those cats are
(18:10):
just as lucky to have him, ifnot more.
Ceelo is right, he is ProfessorX, the telepathic Shifu in
X-Men.
Like Professor X, with hisschool of young mutants, rico
Wade provided a safe haven andhope to abandon misfits and
castoffs and launch a dynasty.
There's this book calledMultipliers how the Best Leaders
Make Everyone Smarter, by LizWiseman.
(18:30):
It's a bestseller and endorsedby a bunch of people with
prefixes in front of their names.
Despite the pump around it,though, I find it to be very
informative.
Wiseman has a chapter in thereentitled Talent Magnets, and I
want to end this episode with apassage from there.
In any organization.
There are talent magnets peoplewho attract the best talent,
(18:52):
utilize it to its fullest andready it for the next stage.
These are leaders who have areputation not only for
delivering results but forcreating a place where young,
talented people can grow.
They are accelerators to otherpeople's careers.
Grow they are accelerators toother people's careers.
(19:12):
The cycle of attraction beginswith the leader possessing the
confidence and magnetism tosurround him or herself with top
talent or A players, sheer rawtalent and the right mix of
intelligence needed for thechallenge.
Under the leadership of thetalent magnet, the genius of
these players gets discoveredand utilized to the fullest.
Having been stretched, theseplayers become smarter and more
capable.
A players become A-plus playerswho are positioned in the
(19:35):
spotlight and get kudos andrecognition for their hard work.
They attract attention andtheir value increases in the
talent marketplace, internallyor externally.
A-plus players get offered evenbigger opportunities and they
seize them with the full supportof the talent magnet.
In their quest to assemble thefinest talent, they are blind to
(19:57):
organizational boundaries.
They see multiple forms ofintelligence everywhere.
Talent magnets live in a worldwithout walls and without
hierarchical or lateralrestrictions.
Instead, they see talentnetworks.
Wiseman goes on to categorizetalent magnets by four major
qualities.
They look for talent everywhere.
There's one.
(20:17):
They find people's nativegenius.
They utilize people at theirfullest.
They remove the blockers.
They remove the blockers.
It's a 30 page chapter and itreads like a strength finders or
personality analysis of oneRico Wade.
Perhaps in another life, inanother place.
He spearheads the growth of aFortune 100 company, leads
(20:45):
shareholder meetings and becomesthe darling of New Yorker think
pieces as the innovativemaverick executive.
But then we wouldn't be able toexperience any of the hundreds
of songs and cultural shiftsthat has shaped our lives over
the past generation.
And here's where I'll closeRico Wade, ultimate hustler,
talent magnet and multiplier, anendless optimist that made
better career paths more vividand more attainable to those
(21:07):
around him through the force ofhis personality and being A big
dog from the clay of SouthwestAtlanta with a real founder's
mentality.
Rest in power, rico Wade.
Of the Dungeon family, yourlegacy reigns.
Shout out to the productionteam Maydale Ray and Wynn on the
track.
Shout out to the productionteam maydale ray and win on the
track.
Shout out to coach collectorfor the brand vision.
(21:30):
It's been real being back withy'all until next time.
This is the atlanta formula.
Thank you, bye.
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