October 9, 2024 • 20 mins
Our host Darriel Roy interviews Canadian rapper & singer, bbno$
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for watching.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands
that help you to live your best life and give
you confidence. As always, I want to kick out your
morning with some motivation and advice to help you to
feel inspired and energize to start your day today. I
want to talk about the importance of understanding that you
are more powerful than you think. The reality is life's
(00:22):
challenges can often discourage us or make us feel that
we have no control over our circumstances. Of course, there
are some things that are surely out of our control,
like the weather and other people's actions or behaviors. But
there are many things that we have one hundred percent
control over and which dictate the quality of our lives,
which is our attitudes and how we respond to life.
(00:43):
Successful people understand that there is great power in their
beliefs and actions. They walk through life harnessing their personal power,
knowing that their mindset and core beliefs shape their reality. Remember,
your greatest power lies in having a great mindset and
believing you can achieve anything you've set your mind to.
You were the director, producer, and scriptwriter of your life,
(01:05):
and you decide how the story goes as the scene goes.
You have the power to change your life and all
you have to do is decide. Next up on the
show is Canadian rapper and songwriter Baby No Money.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Alex. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I'm good. How you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I am doing amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm excited to have you on the show. I'm a
big fan of your music, so it's exciting to have
you on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
But before we get into your success as an artist,
Baby No Money, let's bring it back to the beginning.
I know that your mom encouraged you to play the
piano at a young age. So why did you develop
a passion for music?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Wow? You really? You deep dove on the podcast or
the interviews.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Interestingly enough, I don't really like fall into making music
and falling in love with making music very fast. Like
my brother he made music when he was in high school,
and I was like, oh, this is cool, this is interesting,
but I never really like found a passion for it.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But I started writing poetry.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I broke my back and then I started writing poetry
and basically the poetry just turned into lyrics whether.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Or not, like, because like poetry is kind of like open.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
To interpretation, and I was never super super good at
like articulating how I was feeling, but I could articulate
how I'm feeling through nothingness, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So basically I use.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Music as an outlet if I'm having a really bad day,
Like I'll just like line up a session and just
go make music. It's like a coping factor mechanism. But yeah,
basically started making music. I was never that musically inclined
as a homeschooled individual, and my mom homeschooled me. I
feel like I was more readily available to like learn
(02:49):
at a different rate or learn at a different pace,
and that I think gave me the ability to have
a lot of creativity and like uniqueness as a person.
So then that personality comes out via my music because
it's just like me accentuating Alex as much as possible,
which is what maybe no money basically is.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's amazing that you use it as an outlet to,
you know, express yourself. I know that you wanted to
be a professional swimmer, but an injury held you back,
So tell us about that period in your life and
how you navigated through that.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
So I feel like not many people understand the psychological
effects of injury. So I ended up proceeding and after
I brought my back, which is what I just said,
after I broke my back, I ended up proceeding to
go get a degree in kinesiology because there was something
that not any textbook could ever teach you about, actually
(03:44):
being empathetic about physical ailments, because no one can actually
feel that. You can't walk up to a client or
a patient and be like, hey, like I can feel
your pain, but if you've been through a traumatic injury,
you can feel their pain. You can be like it
doesn't even matter if you don't actually have anything wrong
with you, you are struggling. So it's like there's way
(04:06):
more of a psychological like precedence that it sets on.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Your like everyday life and quality of life.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
So basically I just went to school because I wanted
to learn about it, because I knew about it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It didn't really set me back.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Actually, it actually put me in a really good headspace
to be safer with my body and like do things
that I exclusively wanted to do, and through breaking my back,
I had a girlfriend she cheated on me, and then
I ended up deciding to become an artist because I
had so many feelings that I couldn't actually articulate, and
(04:43):
I think I poured it all into music. And I'm
in this place today on an interview with you, so.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I like that you poured your emotions into something positive,
because I mean, going through an experience like that, as
you said, could be traumatizing. You can feel really isolated.
So I love that you put it into a positive
way and that it actually made you a success. I
want to talk about your success. I know in twenty
sixteen you started posting on SoundCloud and you started getting
millions of views. How is it seeing that people were
(05:14):
really connecting with your music and you as an artist?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Sometimes I still have no idea. Frankly, you know, I'm
obviously so blessed to be in the position I'm in,
and obviously I always want more.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I always want more. Everyone always wants more.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You know, Like that's just like the capitalistic tendencies of
the human being, and like also another tendency of a
human being that is like, oh, I need to just
constantly work North American culture, do I know why and
how I ended up actually believing in myself enough. No
idea that it was illusions of grandeur for sure, you know.
(05:56):
And I just was like, I'm having fun making music.
It makes me feel good. It doesn't matter if it's good,
and I did it all for the right reasons and
just basically from the get go, I was just like, Dan,
this is something I want to do for a very
long time and I know that deep down, and.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That was kind of it. I just started.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I just fell in love with the art of making music.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And putting music out, and yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
It's interesting because it's like kind of serendipitous and it's
so simple, and everyone's always.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Like, oh, how did you do it? How'd you do this?
How did you do that?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
But I literally just made music and put it out
and I got better over time.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So yeah, well, you followed your passion. I feel like
when you follow your passion, that's when amazing things happen, right,
and because you're doing things for the right reason success
the line, so sometimes that just happens. And I want
to talk about some of your hit singles, La La
La and De Mammy It Boy. I mean I think
you've received four hundred and ninety five million streams on
Spotify for Indomam and over almost a billion for.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
La La La. What do you think the secret to
your success has been? If you can name three things?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I mean, I'm always trying to do something new for myself.
I make music. I think I have good taste. I
think that's it. I think that's really like it boils
down to I understand what makes a hit record, and
I f like, like you like I can go listen
to a hit song and be like, oh, this is
why it's so far, Like this is why people like it,
(07:32):
and I feel like I have a good understanding of that.
Sometimes you know, like my music doesn't hit, but it's
also like time and place, like there's so many small
little factors that make a big song bigger or a
good song big.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I'm just always been like a proponent of like, if
it feels good, if it makes you feel something, it
will it'll make other people feel something too. And I
think that's just like that's the fundamentals. It's kind of
like when good It's like when someone asks you, like,
what type of food do you like and you say
good food. Yeah, you know, it's kind of like objective.
(08:12):
When you make a song that is like objectively like
enjoyable to listen to or or it makes you feel something,
then no one, no one can bring.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
That down, No one can tell you otherwise. Like then
even if people.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Like don't like the song, people like anyone can be like, nah,
there's something.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It evokes the feeling and invokes emotion.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Whether or not it's like a sad emotion or a
fun emotion or like I want to go up and
go for a walk emotion. That's something that I've been
able to recognize in my music. Sometimes I'm like, oh,
I really like this song, and I really think this
is where it's gonna hit, and I double down on
songs and basically I just got good at marketing sometimes
and then you get lucky.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's it a lot of luck.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, speaking about marketing, I like that you connect with
your fans on like TikTok, you do funny videos on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So how is important?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
How important is it for you to connect with your
fans on social media?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
See if I could connect with every single fan all
at the same time, I would because that would be dope.
I would be able to have like a hundred millions
of people all in one singular place at one time.
It would be amazing, but it's hard. I mean, like,
I also I'm an advocate of.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Doing the least.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
On social media in order to have it be a
vessel for people to hear my music. Basically, I use
social media as a means to an end, and I
think I think it allows me to like have a
little bit of like a healthier relationship with it, even though,
(09:50):
like obviously sometimes I get frustrated. Sometimes there's this sometimes
there's that, I think, just being able to connect with
my fans.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
The reason why you may think that is because I'm
so easily accessible, Like you can look at my page. Oh,
it's really just some dude that like loves the internet, yeah,
and loves being goofy boy. And that's it, Like, and
he also makes music. Someone someone just posted me on
something on on their Instagram story and it was this
(10:20):
girl saying, why can't people just understand that this guy
is just a goofy online kid that objectively makes good music.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
That's that's that's really, that's really it, like and it's
It's kind of crazy because sometimes I'm like, damn, I
actually do make dope music, whether or not like it
means anything. It doesn't mean anything, but it's just all
fun and all fun games.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Like it's really good walking music.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
If you ever want to go to go for a
nice woggle, listen, listen to some Baby, No Money and Alex.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Many Canadian artists find it really difficult to break into
the American market.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
How do you think you've been able to do so well?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I mean there's also just like the population. I like,
there's bound to be at least ten times more artists,
and then there's ten times more ours. It's just ten
times more potentially successful artists as well, so you know,
I'm actually still not that big in America. I would
say it Boy was my first song that actually did
(11:20):
move the needle a little bit in the American market.
I feel all like at a Mama blew up in
like Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and then La La La
blew up in like all the South Americas. So it's
cool where you can see music in how it like
transgresses through like a culture or like a like a
region of the world. But I mean, like I'm obviously
(11:42):
speaking relatively modestly here, like I've actually been able to
do something pretty dope stuff with my my career in
my life.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
So how do I How did I do it? I
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
This is it's also like the proponent of just like
just make some good music even if you don't like
my music.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I don't care. I like my music and I think
it's good.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, it's already of the time, and it's that's what
is important. If you can make music that people can feel,
that makes them feel something, then then you're you've already won.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Okay, that's all that matters.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
And you know, especially with in this day and age,
like social media and TikTok, like it's so so it's
it's so like almost unrewarding to a point where if
you post something and it just doesn't do well, it
literally doesn't mean your song is bad. It's just it's
not getting picked up in like a mathematical equation that
they have like devoted four hundred tech people on their
(12:38):
on their sales side to understand why.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Like tech might not work.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So, uh, you know, it's interesting being an artist in
this day and age's just like it's I'm not only
an artist. I'm a personality. I'm not only a personality
and an artist. I'm like a content creator. I'm not
only all of those three. I'm also Alex and I'm
also working on myself, like emotionally.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And it's like I am dealing.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
With like five full time careers and it's super interesting
because I never expected being an artist to be like this.
So but at the same time, I got to count
my blessings. My parents are proud, my family's healthy. Right now,
I think I'm healthy. It should probably get a couple
of things checked, but hey, we're alive and alive, and
it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Well, hopefully you're not Baby No Money anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Hopefully you made some money, right heah yeah yeah yeah.
And I wanted to talk about your new music. I
know you're dropping new music on Friday, so tell us
about it.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So with the success of it, boy, typically what would
happen at least for me, this is like very Baby
No Money style of cadence of type.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Of music that I would release. But basically, let's say
I put out like a like a soul song.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
The next song would be like a ballad, and then
the next song after a ballad would be like a
drum and bass record. So I've always I've always been
very very invested in just doing something new every time,
but this is like the first time I've done something
very similar, like almost not copying, but like just similar,
like the idea, the concept, everything is like pretty similar.
(14:12):
So it boy very upbeat, fun song with like a
female vocal sample. And then this new song called two,
I got like a kid's choir on it, and it's
very very upbeat with a crazy beat that's almost I
would say, leaning more towards like a Drummond based slash
like UK inspiration. And it's cool because there's similarities, but
(14:35):
they're very different ones more like alternative ones, more pop.
And I think I shot like the greatest music video
I've ever shot, without question, baby no money music music video.
So it's called two. In every two seconds, there's a
new shot, so it's mayhem. It's absolutely it's like an
(14:55):
actual movie. It's like like four and a half days
of like nineteen hour days back to back, and it
was absolutely exhausting. But I'm really proud of it. I
really hope it connects. And that's basically it. That's all
I can do is ho.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well, we're excited to see it. Your song. It boy.
You talk about being the gen z Eminem, and I
know that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I think Eminem reached out to you directly, right, he
sent you a DM.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Tell me about that. That's that's pretty epic.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It was pretty sick.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I mean, like obviously growing up, I had no expectations
of ever being able one being like a successful musician
and two and then having Eminem reach out to me
so kind of fascinating, you know, like how how how
the world works like that? I always when I wrote
that song, I was like, I wonder if he's going
(15:45):
to hear this song? So it was very like, uh,
serendipitous once.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Again, that's amazing. I mean that must have been a
proud moment. And you know, Alex, I created my platform
to inspire, to lift and really to showcase success stories
like you. Is that anything is possible if you have
a dream, a vision and passion. So you know, for
anyone that's watching that, maybe is you know, they're working
hard on their goals, but they're not seeing things progress.
(16:11):
Maybe they're getting discouraged or they're losing hope. What would
you say to inspire and uplift them.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Are we talking about like an artistic perspective or just
like that just.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
For anybody, you know, because I know for you, you know,
I'm sure when you were, you know, pursuing your dream
as a swimmer and then you know, you had an
obstacle hit you, I'm sure that you know it took
a lot of resilience to get through that. So maybe
there's someone that's going through something like that, where you're
going through a difficult time and they don't see the
light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Yeah, I'm trying to think of like because sometimes you
can give too much advice and it doesn't do anything.
But honestly, what I would say is, like I would say, fundamentally,
my main thing is it's like life's gonna beat you down.
You just have to keep getting back up and like
(17:02):
no matter what it's, it's not nothing is going to
be easy. And like life is exclusive like once you
get past like an age of like thirteen, life is
exclusively an obstacle that you need to figure out how
to manipulat in your favor basically, And I think just
accepting that and being like okay with like where life
(17:24):
takes you and de attaching and depersonalizing from like all
the errors and the mistakes and the heartbreaks and this
and that, Like you just got to be like I am,
I am who I am, and I'm going to do
the best as I can and everything that I do
and show up because no matter what, every single person
(17:45):
on this planet is trying.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
To do the exact same.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Obviously, there's some takes where some people are googoo bananas,
but uh, I'm talking about the general public of people
who are trying to be like a like a person.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So just never give up.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Really, it's really it like, if you believe in something,
you believe in yourself, just never give up.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I think that's great advice and it's simple advice, but
it's so true because every single successful person that I've interviewed,
it's it's really they.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Didn't give up.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
They just kept going, They followed their passion, they had
a relentless belief in themselves and eventually things clicked. And
that's literally what they say is they just never gave up.
So I think that's simple advice, but it's accurate advice.
And Alex, what else are you working on right now?
What else are your current projects.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
So I have a clothing line called fun Job. I'm
working on that right now. We've done two drops. It's
like an intro to high fashion with a very fun,
colorful play on it that is like baby, no Money
a FID. So it's very fun, upbeat, goofy and we
do like like a drop every two months.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So that's really fun.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
It's a lot more difficult than I expected it to be,
making like really high quality garments an easy task.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Don't recommend it.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Other than that, Like you know, I'm really working on
myself basically for the past. In the past three hours
before this, I was like crying, working on myself, like
I did therapy, and I feel like the hyper stigmatization
of where therapy is at right now, I think there,
(19:24):
I think everything is a little too over therapized and
everyone speaks about it too much.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
But I do think it's it's.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Never too late to like repair a relationship that is broken,
or repair like your your well being as much as
you possibly can so you can be the best person
you possibly can for the other relationships in your life.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So that's what I'm working on too.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I'm obviously I got like a hundred songs in the bank,
just like kind of filtering through, just trying to make.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
The best of the best of the best so.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I can make really an incredible album. But other than that,
I got some music videos on the way, I got this,
some song singles. Just trying to really hone in being
a little bit more intentional and just like fall in
love with doing what I do more and more. That's
kind of what I'm working on right now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Amazing. I like that you said you're working on yourself.
I think that's so important. You have to work on
yourself because the quality of your thoughts and your mind
is really the quality of your life.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
If you don't have a good mindset and you're not
working on yourself, then life is not going to be
good no matter how much success you have. So I
like that you said that. I think that's very important.
But congratulations with Alex and all your success. It's really
nice to see a fellow Canadian doing so well, and
we hope to have you back on the show soon.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, anytime, call me out. Whatever works.
Hello and welcome. Thank you so much for watching.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This shows all about giving you insights and showcasing brands
that help you to live your best life and give
you confidence. As always, I want to kick out your
morning with some motivation and advice to help you to
feel inspired and energize to start your day today. I
want to talk about the importance of understanding that you
are more powerful than you think. The reality is life's
(00:22):
challenges can often discourage us or make us feel that
we have no control over our circumstances. Of course, there
are some things that are surely out of our control,
like the weather and other people's actions or behaviors. But
there are many things that we have one hundred percent
control over and which dictate the quality of our lives,
which is our attitudes and how we respond to life.
(00:43):
Successful people understand that there is great power in their
beliefs and actions. They walk through life harnessing their personal power,
knowing that their mindset and core beliefs shape their reality. Remember,
your greatest power lies in having a great mindset and
believing you can achieve anything you've set your mind to.
You were the director, producer, and scriptwriter of your life,
(01:05):
and you decide how the story goes as the scene goes.
You have the power to change your life and all
you have to do is decide. Next up on the
show is Canadian rapper and songwriter Baby No Money.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Alex. Thank you so much for being on the show today.
How are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I'm good. How you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I am doing amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I'm excited to have you on the show. I'm a
big fan of your music, so it's exciting to have
you on the show.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
But before we get into your success as an artist,
Baby No Money, let's bring it back to the beginning.
I know that your mom encouraged you to play the
piano at a young age. So why did you develop
a passion for music?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Wow? You really? You deep dove on the podcast or
the interviews.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I'm afraid.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Interestingly enough, I don't really like fall into making music
and falling in love with making music very fast. Like
my brother he made music when he was in high school,
and I was like, oh, this is cool, this is interesting,
but I never really like found a passion for it.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But I started writing poetry.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I broke my back and then I started writing poetry
and basically the poetry just turned into lyrics whether.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Or not, like, because like poetry is kind of like open.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
To interpretation, and I was never super super good at
like articulating how I was feeling, but I could articulate
how I'm feeling through nothingness, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
So basically I use.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Music as an outlet if I'm having a really bad day,
Like I'll just like line up a session and just
go make music. It's like a coping factor mechanism. But yeah,
basically started making music. I was never that musically inclined
as a homeschooled individual, and my mom homeschooled me. I
feel like I was more readily available to like learn
(02:49):
at a different rate or learn at a different pace,
and that I think gave me the ability to have
a lot of creativity and like uniqueness as a person.
So then that personality comes out via my music because
it's just like me accentuating Alex as much as possible,
which is what maybe no money basically is.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's amazing that you use it as an outlet to,
you know, express yourself. I know that you wanted to
be a professional swimmer, but an injury held you back,
So tell us about that period in your life and
how you navigated through that.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
So I feel like not many people understand the psychological
effects of injury. So I ended up proceeding and after
I brought my back, which is what I just said,
after I broke my back, I ended up proceeding to
go get a degree in kinesiology because there was something
that not any textbook could ever teach you about, actually
(03:44):
being empathetic about physical ailments, because no one can actually
feel that. You can't walk up to a client or
a patient and be like, hey, like I can feel
your pain, but if you've been through a traumatic injury,
you can feel their pain. You can be like it
doesn't even matter if you don't actually have anything wrong
with you, you are struggling. So it's like there's way
(04:06):
more of a psychological like precedence that it sets on.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Your like everyday life and quality of life.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
So basically I just went to school because I wanted
to learn about it, because I knew about it.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It didn't really set me back.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Actually, it actually put me in a really good headspace
to be safer with my body and like do things
that I exclusively wanted to do, and through breaking my back,
I had a girlfriend she cheated on me, and then
I ended up deciding to become an artist because I
had so many feelings that I couldn't actually articulate, and
(04:43):
I think I poured it all into music. And I'm
in this place today on an interview with you, so.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I like that you poured your emotions into something positive,
because I mean, going through an experience like that, as
you said, could be traumatizing. You can feel really isolated.
So I love that you put it into a positive
way and that it actually made you a success. I
want to talk about your success. I know in twenty
sixteen you started posting on SoundCloud and you started getting
millions of views. How is it seeing that people were
(05:14):
really connecting with your music and you as an artist?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Sometimes I still have no idea. Frankly, you know, I'm
obviously so blessed to be in the position I'm in,
and obviously I always want more.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I always want more. Everyone always wants more.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
You know, Like that's just like the capitalistic tendencies of
the human being, and like also another tendency of a
human being that is like, oh, I need to just
constantly work North American culture, do I know why and
how I ended up actually believing in myself enough. No
idea that it was illusions of grandeur for sure, you know.
(05:56):
And I just was like, I'm having fun making music.
It makes me feel good. It doesn't matter if it's good,
and I did it all for the right reasons and
just basically from the get go, I was just like, Dan,
this is something I want to do for a very
long time and I know that deep down, and.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
That was kind of it. I just started.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I just fell in love with the art of making music.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
And putting music out, and yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
It's interesting because it's like kind of serendipitous and it's
so simple, and everyone's always.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Like, oh, how did you do it? How'd you do this?
How did you do that?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
But I literally just made music and put it out
and I got better over time.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
So yeah, well, you followed your passion. I feel like
when you follow your passion, that's when amazing things happen, right,
and because you're doing things for the right reason success
the line, so sometimes that just happens. And I want
to talk about some of your hit singles, La La
La and De Mammy It Boy. I mean I think
you've received four hundred and ninety five million streams on
Spotify for Indomam and over almost a billion for.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
La La La. What do you think the secret to
your success has been? If you can name three things?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I mean, I'm always trying to do something new for myself.
I make music. I think I have good taste. I
think that's it. I think that's really like it boils
down to I understand what makes a hit record, and
I f like, like you like I can go listen
to a hit song and be like, oh, this is
why it's so far, Like this is why people like it,
(07:32):
and I feel like I have a good understanding of that.
Sometimes you know, like my music doesn't hit, but it's
also like time and place, like there's so many small
little factors that make a big song bigger or a
good song big.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
I'm just always been like a proponent of like, if
it feels good, if it makes you feel something, it
will it'll make other people feel something too. And I
think that's just like that's the fundamentals. It's kind of
like when good It's like when someone asks you, like,
what type of food do you like and you say
good food. Yeah, you know, it's kind of like objective.
(08:12):
When you make a song that is like objectively like
enjoyable to listen to or or it makes you feel something,
then no one, no one can bring.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
That down, No one can tell you otherwise. Like then
even if people.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Like don't like the song, people like anyone can be like, nah,
there's something.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It evokes the feeling and invokes emotion.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Whether or not it's like a sad emotion or a
fun emotion or like I want to go up and
go for a walk emotion. That's something that I've been
able to recognize in my music. Sometimes I'm like, oh,
I really like this song, and I really think this
is where it's gonna hit, and I double down on
songs and basically I just got good at marketing sometimes
and then you get lucky.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
That's it a lot of luck.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, speaking about marketing, I like that you connect with
your fans on like TikTok, you do funny videos on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So how is important?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
How important is it for you to connect with your
fans on social media?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
See if I could connect with every single fan all
at the same time, I would because that would be dope.
I would be able to have like a hundred millions
of people all in one singular place at one time.
It would be amazing, but it's hard. I mean, like,
I also I'm an advocate of.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Doing the least.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
On social media in order to have it be a
vessel for people to hear my music. Basically, I use
social media as a means to an end, and I
think I think it allows me to like have a
little bit of like a healthier relationship with it, even though,
(09:50):
like obviously sometimes I get frustrated. Sometimes there's this sometimes
there's that, I think, just being able to connect with
my fans.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
I think.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
The reason why you may think that is because I'm
so easily accessible, Like you can look at my page. Oh,
it's really just some dude that like loves the internet, yeah,
and loves being goofy boy. And that's it, Like, and
he also makes music. Someone someone just posted me on
something on on their Instagram story and it was this
(10:20):
girl saying, why can't people just understand that this guy
is just a goofy online kid that objectively makes good music.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
That's that's that's really, that's really it, like and it's
It's kind of crazy because sometimes I'm like, damn, I
actually do make dope music, whether or not like it
means anything. It doesn't mean anything, but it's just all
fun and all fun games.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Like it's really good walking music.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
If you ever want to go to go for a
nice woggle, listen, listen to some Baby, No Money and Alex.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Many Canadian artists find it really difficult to break into
the American market.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
How do you think you've been able to do so well?
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I mean there's also just like the population. I like,
there's bound to be at least ten times more artists,
and then there's ten times more ours. It's just ten
times more potentially successful artists as well, so you know,
I'm actually still not that big in America. I would
say it Boy was my first song that actually did
(11:20):
move the needle a little bit in the American market.
I feel all like at a Mama blew up in
like Indonesia and Southeast Asia, and then La La La
blew up in like all the South Americas. So it's
cool where you can see music in how it like
transgresses through like a culture or like a like a
region of the world. But I mean, like I'm obviously
(11:42):
speaking relatively modestly here, like I've actually been able to
do something pretty dope stuff with my my career in
my life.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
So how do I How did I do it? I
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
This is it's also like the proponent of just like
just make some good music even if you don't like
my music.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I don't care. I like my music and I think
it's good.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yeah, it's already of the time, and it's that's what
is important. If you can make music that people can feel,
that makes them feel something, then then you're you've already won.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Okay, that's all that matters.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
And you know, especially with in this day and age,
like social media and TikTok, like it's so so it's
it's so like almost unrewarding to a point where if
you post something and it just doesn't do well, it
literally doesn't mean your song is bad. It's just it's
not getting picked up in like a mathematical equation that
they have like devoted four hundred tech people on their
(12:38):
on their sales side to understand why.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Like tech might not work.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
So, uh, you know, it's interesting being an artist in
this day and age's just like it's I'm not only
an artist. I'm a personality. I'm not only a personality
and an artist. I'm like a content creator. I'm not
only all of those three. I'm also Alex and I'm
also working on myself, like emotionally.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And it's like I am dealing.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
With like five full time careers and it's super interesting
because I never expected being an artist to be like this.
So but at the same time, I got to count
my blessings. My parents are proud, my family's healthy. Right now,
I think I'm healthy. It should probably get a couple
of things checked, but hey, we're alive and alive, and
it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Well, hopefully you're not Baby No Money anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Hopefully you made some money, right heah yeah yeah yeah.
And I wanted to talk about your new music. I
know you're dropping new music on Friday, so tell us
about it.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
So with the success of it, boy, typically what would
happen at least for me, this is like very Baby
No Money style of cadence of type.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Of music that I would release. But basically, let's say
I put out like a like a soul song.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
The next song would be like a ballad, and then
the next song after a ballad would be like a
drum and bass record. So I've always I've always been
very very invested in just doing something new every time,
but this is like the first time I've done something
very similar, like almost not copying, but like just similar,
like the idea, the concept, everything is like pretty similar.
(14:12):
So it boy very upbeat, fun song with like a
female vocal sample. And then this new song called two,
I got like a kid's choir on it, and it's
very very upbeat with a crazy beat that's almost I
would say, leaning more towards like a Drummond based slash
like UK inspiration. And it's cool because there's similarities, but
(14:35):
they're very different ones more like alternative ones, more pop.
And I think I shot like the greatest music video
I've ever shot, without question, baby no money music music video.
So it's called two. In every two seconds, there's a
new shot, so it's mayhem. It's absolutely it's like an
(14:55):
actual movie. It's like like four and a half days
of like nineteen hour days back to back, and it
was absolutely exhausting. But I'm really proud of it. I
really hope it connects. And that's basically it. That's all
I can do is ho.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Well, we're excited to see it. Your song. It boy.
You talk about being the gen z Eminem, and I
know that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I think Eminem reached out to you directly, right, he
sent you a DM.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Tell me about that. That's that's pretty epic.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
It was pretty sick.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
I mean, like obviously growing up, I had no expectations
of ever being able one being like a successful musician
and two and then having Eminem reach out to me
so kind of fascinating, you know, like how how how
the world works like that? I always when I wrote
that song, I was like, I wonder if he's going
(15:45):
to hear this song? So it was very like, uh,
serendipitous once.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Again, that's amazing. I mean that must have been a
proud moment. And you know, Alex, I created my platform
to inspire, to lift and really to showcase success stories
like you. Is that anything is possible if you have
a dream, a vision and passion. So you know, for
anyone that's watching that, maybe is you know, they're working
hard on their goals, but they're not seeing things progress.
(16:11):
Maybe they're getting discouraged or they're losing hope. What would
you say to inspire and uplift them.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Are we talking about like an artistic perspective or just
like that just.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
For anybody, you know, because I know for you, you know,
I'm sure when you were, you know, pursuing your dream
as a swimmer and then you know, you had an
obstacle hit you, I'm sure that you know it took
a lot of resilience to get through that. So maybe
there's someone that's going through something like that, where you're
going through a difficult time and they don't see the
light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Yeah, I'm trying to think of like because sometimes you
can give too much advice and it doesn't do anything.
But honestly, what I would say is, like I would say, fundamentally,
my main thing is it's like life's gonna beat you down.
You just have to keep getting back up and like
(17:02):
no matter what it's, it's not nothing is going to
be easy. And like life is exclusive like once you
get past like an age of like thirteen, life is
exclusively an obstacle that you need to figure out how
to manipulat in your favor basically, And I think just
accepting that and being like okay with like where life
(17:24):
takes you and de attaching and depersonalizing from like all
the errors and the mistakes and the heartbreaks and this
and that, Like you just got to be like I am,
I am who I am, and I'm going to do
the best as I can and everything that I do
and show up because no matter what, every single person
(17:45):
on this planet is trying.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
To do the exact same.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Obviously, there's some takes where some people are googoo bananas,
but uh, I'm talking about the general public of people
who are trying to be like a like a person.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
So just never give up.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Really, it's really it like, if you believe in something,
you believe in yourself, just never give up.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
I think that's great advice and it's simple advice, but
it's so true because every single successful person that I've interviewed,
it's it's really they.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Didn't give up.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
They just kept going, They followed their passion, they had
a relentless belief in themselves and eventually things clicked. And
that's literally what they say is they just never gave up.
So I think that's simple advice, but it's accurate advice.
And Alex, what else are you working on right now?
What else are your current projects.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
So I have a clothing line called fun Job. I'm
working on that right now. We've done two drops. It's
like an intro to high fashion with a very fun,
colorful play on it that is like baby, no Money
a FID. So it's very fun, upbeat, goofy and we
do like like a drop every two months.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So that's really fun.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
It's a lot more difficult than I expected it to be,
making like really high quality garments an easy task.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Don't recommend it.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Other than that, Like you know, I'm really working on
myself basically for the past. In the past three hours
before this, I was like crying, working on myself, like
I did therapy, and I feel like the hyper stigmatization
of where therapy is at right now, I think there,
(19:24):
I think everything is a little too over therapized and
everyone speaks about it too much.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
But I do think it's it's.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Never too late to like repair a relationship that is broken,
or repair like your your well being as much as
you possibly can so you can be the best person
you possibly can for the other relationships in your life.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So that's what I'm working on too.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
I'm obviously I got like a hundred songs in the bank,
just like kind of filtering through, just trying to make.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
The best of the best of the best so.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
I can make really an incredible album. But other than that,
I got some music videos on the way, I got this,
some song singles. Just trying to really hone in being
a little bit more intentional and just like fall in
love with doing what I do more and more. That's
kind of what I'm working on right now.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Amazing. I like that you said you're working on yourself.
I think that's so important. You have to work on
yourself because the quality of your thoughts and your mind
is really the quality of your life.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
If you don't have a good mindset and you're not
working on yourself, then life is not going to be
good no matter how much success you have. So I
like that you said that. I think that's very important.
But congratulations with Alex and all your success. It's really
nice to see a fellow Canadian doing so well, and
we hope to have you back on the show soon.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, anytime, call me out. Whatever works.
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