Alright, alright, alright.
Welcome back again people to the third episode of the Sovereign Music Podcast.
We are here with a very good friend of mine actually, a man who really shouldn't need
no introduction by this time.
But welcome to Airklipz.
Alright, my brother, please.
Glad to have you here.
Please like, obviously I've been doing a few interviews, going through a few today, you
know, with a few different people.
But I always start off by getting people to introduce themselves and what they do, because
I don't, I can't put the words to it sometimes, you know what I'm trying to say.
Well, okay, so I'm a clips, rapper, producer, and just general creative I'd say.
I mean I get involved in a lot of creative endeavors, build studios, you know, basically
a lot of creative stuff.
But then rapper mainly, I do love rap.
Okay and so would you say that rap is what you're typically known for then?
Or would you say there's something else that brings people, brought people to your music
before rapping?
I think it's, well because I'm a big cannabis and vape enthusiast as well, you know.
I really, I do shout out a lot of vape related stuff and you know, I'm a very big cannabis
advocate for legalization and stuff.
So that is also part of my whole legacy I guess.
That does maybe have a 50-50 effect on why people come to know me sometimes.
And that being said, when did you, I know this question already, but when, can you let
them know when you first got into music, what got you into music, what was the thing that,
what was the first thing you did, like was you started rapping first, did you start making
beats or?
Definitely started rapping first.
Started rapping, oh gosh, I can't even remember how to say it.
Honestly I think I was about maybe 15 or 16, maybe 14 or 15 when I wrote my first rhymes.
I think I recorded my first demo take when I was about 16.
If I remember right, yeah, about 16 I recorded my first demo take.
So yeah, I've been rapping a long time, that was probably like 30 years ago now.
And what is it that got you into the rap though, what is it that, what was that moment that
you say that you could look back on and say, hey, you know, somebody played with this or
I watched this advert or something like that maybe?
It was a combined amount of stuff.
I think it was just the whole total weight of like underground New York rap in the 90s.
I think I remember discovering Nas.
I discovered Nas, I discovered Mobb Deep, discovered like all these artists in their prime just
releasing music and I just wanted to do it.
I knew that that's what I wanted to do.
I remember just hearing the entire Queens Bridge, Jesus, the whole Queens Bridge was
quite inspirational.
And then what would you say was like a big break moment for you or a moment where it
doesn't have to be early.
It could be later on in your career, but what do you think is that that moment in which
you thought everything was going to come to a head or you thought everything was going
to really take off or, you know, maybe it was some eight mile shit, like you were, you
know, I should have said to you, like this is the night, you understand that, I'm going
to spit these bars.
Like, you understand that.
What was that?
What would you say like was that moment for you where it was like, hey, I really want
to take this stuff seriously?
Well, I guess it was like it was a transition moment for me.
It was like I've been doing music for a long time and I've been doing music with my friends.
And I remember there was a point where I think I had to realize that like it was just not
so much that I had stopped me doing music with my friends, but that I had to concentrate
on doing music by myself as well as doing music with other people.
And that was a moment when I started working on the Single Speed Project.
And that Single Speed Project was the turning point in my career, I think, where everything
became a bit more serious to me as opposed to, you know, me kind of maybe just trying
to do it with, yeah, do it with my friends and like, you know, have this whole group
because we were like underdog records at the time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was a transition from Underdog Records to the stuff I did after that.
That was kind of the Single Speed Project and yeah, that was the transition moment.
Do you think kind of with saying that that every rapper kind of goes through that?
Because I'm sure at some point every rapper links a producer and that producer kind of
becomes their dog for that moment in time and they're part and they're making stuff
together and like you said, maybe it's a crew or man them that are rapping or one's making
beats, maybe one's a DJ, one's a dancer or whatever, next man's a graffiti head, you
get me?
So do you think that with the rappers in particular, they are the ones who are more inclined to
be loyal to that situation until it is like, hey, everybody is, you know, separatist-ing
almost.
Not in a separatist because you know people don't want to break up friendships or whatever.
You think it's only the rapper that's always left with that, left with the last pick of,
because he always needs beats in it.
He's always left with the beat and something.
I don't know, I guess in terms of the longevity of the career, artists, the rapper can tend
to be the one who's like longest still trying to do it but overall I think that the motivation
is the same for artists or producer or like yeah, if it comes to a head, it comes to a
head.
Then if you're still going, you're still going, you know, I guess it just depends on your
love for the craft.
Like as a rapper, I've seen rappers quit as well so I guess yeah, the longevity just
depends on you as a person and probably how much you love doing what you do.
Like for me it was always, I think I came to that crossroads at single speed like I
say and it was the point where it was a kind of disillusionment where I realized I had
to look to myself and say would I keep doing this if I was never to make any money from
this going forward?
Because at the moment, at the point of Single Speed, I had put a lot of money into music
and I was like looking at myself as an adult and saying this is costing you money.
It's not like you can't look at it logically and say this is making you money, it's costing
you money so are you willing to keep it costing you money going forward?
And I had to look at myself up and down and say yes I can because I love doing music more
than I, you know, more than I wouldn't love doing whatever I would do with that time when
I wasn't doing music so.
And that kind of brings me to the next question which is again around like what was, when
you're thinking this, this is obviously a point of friction isn't it?
That is hey, well can I afford to do this or not?
And that then goes into the realm of am I making a return?
Do you understand?
Is it paying for itself?
Yeah.
Yeah?
So what other problems would you say that you came up with during that time or came
up again sorry during that time of hey I want to take this seriously because obviously you
start off, when you're spending money on it already, you're already spending money on
it but then when you decide to take it seriously, although it's like okay I love to craft, it's
still also I need to spend more money on it because I'm now taking it more seriously and
I still need to get a return.
Do you understand what I'm trying to say?
So what would you say was there any other things that maybe you faced at that time to
say I'm going to be able to make this into a profitable or just a pay for itself thing?
I guess that the main problem was up at the time, up till the time when I released Single
Speed which if you check my catalogue you'll realise is that Single Speed was the first
project I, I had Parachute Life 1 which was on iTunes and the streaming services but that
was with another distributor so like I think Single Speed was the first project that I
actually put out with Distro Kid you know I was like putting that stuff basically you
know more independently than I was before and that's when I started working with my
promoter Trevor Devine, shout out to Trevor Devine, he's the one that put me onto Distro
Kid at the time and just like you know from that point on I was able to see streaming
as a viable thing because before then I think streaming for me was just something that seemed
very exploitative and it still does if I'm honest, it's just the money you're paid for
your streams versus what people were paid for actually buying albums which is where
I got into the game just at the point when buying albums was just dying off and streaming
was just taking up so it was kind of like hard to be one of the artists that was just
seeing that album money go and not being able to grab it you know.
So would you say that DistroKid was the way that you kind of or would you say it was the
first time you had dealt with monetization outside of the physical realm then would you
say?
It wasn't the first time but it was the first time independently because before that I'd
had some stuff but with the you know not like it was with Distro Kid which was just personally
me as an artist.
And what would you say like the first what would you say is the first part the main kind
of things that you came up against again just on the monetization journey itself like and
I mean that from the whole of the time you've been doing this.
I'd say the main problem you come up against is just the which is it's very weird now because
I've come a long way in the fact that I started my music before YouTube and I watched YouTube
come and like become its thing and then you know like and the main problem I see now with
the whole industry in terms of making it for independent artists is just the fact that
the algorithms have been hijacked by the big labels and the big you know the big music
industry you know and heads have been able to kind of put a stranglehold on what people
see and what people can hear and so when at the beginning of YouTube your friend down
the road could make you know I remember that little Geordie rap I don't know if you're
ever a Geordie rapper for those kids out in school it was it was it was terrible you know
but it went viral there were millions of hits you know I mean and for what YouTube was that
was what YouTube was at the beginning was the fact that your mates could just make a
video and it could go viral well I think the record companies did not like that and so
the fact now is that you just can't do that anymore you know it's so hard for there to
be a crept in Conan like there was back then you know and that's the point I see that's
really hard to monetize so ever since the monetization became quite serious where it
became like okay people are actually making money off you know the streaming platforms
and off YouTube you see that the returns are so low now that the squeeze is on on your
algorithm for any any streams that you get and it's really hard to see like where an
artist like me used to put out a video and get you know on average you know like I'd
say like a thousand two thousand views because that was the like surrounding reach that I
had now I'm seeing that same amount of viewership being squeezed and it's just it's almost you
can just see it it's like the machine you know they're just kind of like trying to
take away from an independent artist because you just don't have the revenue or the budget
to pay for the same type of basically you're paying for the clicks and you're paying for
the ads exactly it's just pay to play and that's what YouTube is that's what to a lesser
extent and I have to give you know it's I mean everyone says they're the demon but I
have to give Meta props because they're actually the lesser demon in this race because they
pay more they limit your reach less you know as an artist I have definitely noticed that
I think the funny thing is right so saying this to Akme earlier on right and is because
really Facebook is Facebook is the kind of marking of that error because MySpace blew
up and created the whole error right like before that it was obviously Kazaa, LimeWire
you know so and so forth so but MySpace blew up the whole thing of doing music creating
a page blah blah blah blah right and then Facebook I think the devil part of it is that
it's the amount of data they understand it's the amount of data that they're taking right
but I think that as you said I think for someone who's selling something or visibility wise
on Facebook right shall we say visibility wise on Facebook Facebook's already got the
most users it still has the most users right so so in essence it's not necessarily or could
not be necessarily that they're not they're not suppressing us hard but it's just that
because it's more users there's more leakage to to actual groups of people who resonate
with whatever you're doing you know I was going to say to you see I agree with that
I fully agree with that and that might be actually one of the reasons but that doesn't
account for YouTube because YouTube has more users than Facebook no no not in terms of
users Facebook has the most users as far as I'm aware like the most users full stop right
all of the social platforms that's crazy so YouTube the traffic YouTube has I think the
most traffic yes I think like because you remember YouTube you don't have to be a member
to watch videos okay so it's the most streamed site let's say or the most watched video site
that's true people watch the most videos or consume the most internet content on YouTube
right but it's funny because because again we were speaking about this earlier is you
kind of go from the MySpace times yeah so Facebook kind of doesn't take over MySpace
at the beginning but MySpace kind of you know becomes a bit boring yeah yeah a bit boring
a bit still in terms of UI user experience right so I remember that so it becomes a bit
boring right and but MySpace what Akme said was quite funny MySpace actually had the best
UI yeah not UX yeah yeah but best UI yeah because you could actually code MySpace right
so you could use MySpace was like a free server yeah free website free web domain everything
for free and you could have your own stylized players on there and build your own page so
where we are now is almost like where we're coming back to is that MySpace everywhere
we need this freedom platform again yeah but you see I think the problem with MySpace and
the problem with MySpace coming back now is that the the pervasiveness of like a Spotify
has become so normal yes so ubiquitous that like you can't go back to uh this is the problem
I have with like I've had websites over the time but it's like just people just don't
interact with music the way they used to like the product just isn't the product as it used
to be what that the what you're what you're basically doing as a musician is competing
for like three to two to three minute attention spans people which is basically a song but
then you can consume a song at the same time as you can consume you know like a funny video
so if you merge those two together that's what you generally have now where you have
like memes and like like TikTok videos basically with music at the back and that is basically
competing with music videos yeah yeah music directly yeah yeah yeah yeah and so once you've
got that then you've got a very hard market to try and yeah because it's like it's like
as we called it back then you know Encarta days yeah multimedia in it right you know
you used to buy a PC back then it would be you're buying a more you had a standard PC
and you had a multimedia center right or a multimedia PC you know you got your CD drive
yeah SD card slot or whatever it was right so so there's a big difference between would
you say especially from the hard copies right because this is another question I was going
to ask you like are you still engaging or do you still have a desire to engage in physicals
and hard copies does it make sense in today's world for for artists to still engage with
those well you do well put this way I you know very well I started off selling CDs I
started off printing off CDs and selling my own CDs and trying to distribute my own stuff
and it's hard work it's hard work shout out to Mike GLC you know I mean people like that
you know made that work but I wasn't one of those people that could make it work I always
found at the end I'd have way more CDs than I needed and then by the time I'd have those
CDs I couldn't afford to keep them and I'd have to either give them away promotionarily
and then by the time you give them away then people start wanting to buy them it's a real
vicious cycle in terms of storage and printing and like keeping so with CDs I think I've
kind of given up on CDs totally now and then visibility as well and then who's got a CD
player as well yeah but when it comes to vinyl vinyl now has taken on a very very different
very very different aspect where people are actively seeking out vinyl you know like I've
got my Bandcamp and someone ordered some vinyl the other day you know I mean I was actually
quite shocked and you know the recent releases of vinyl that I've put out mostly on gold
on the mixer but I've released one recently now with Akme we've got to a point now where
the vinyl is actually selling which is quite weird so yeah I'd say that would be the vinyl
would probably be the only physical medium I don't know if people are actually listening
to the vinyl which is the thing that I don't think is happening because I have a lot of
vinyl myself and I don't necessarily listen to it I keep the vinyl for it's but that's
what I'm trying to say I think it's like with vinyl people have something tangible yeah
as they can buy it and have that sentimental feeling yeah and it's something to say that
I support this I supported it yeah I was there versus you know you just stream an artist
a thousand times and then you have your at the end of every year you get your your Alchemist
biggest fan you know on Spotify you get that in your roundup but that doesn't really say
it like I have this album or I went to the concert and look at this you know memorabilia
I got from the concert I think at the end of the day fans still want that the fact they
don't get that I think it leaves most fans not fulfilled with the whole artist fan experience
and so that's why the fans that actually go to gigs tend to be the fans that are more
invested in artists and fans that tend to spend money and tend to keep the artistry
alive everyone else tends to think it's just something you consume for free you know like
in a different sense of like so it's like a difference kind of like the fact between
fan mentality and then also artist engagement because really and truthfully our artist our
artist starts the ball rolling by being the one to engage first yeah so then it is how
do people react yeah right and again you know the question is as we're saying with digital
technology now it's down to visibility right even back then it was down to visibility but
now as you said we've got enhanced visibility but just as I said about Facebook there's
more fish in the sea you know I should have said to you right so you know and I think
like yeah if you look at like Big Nasty I think he's the perfect example of what I'm
saying here where a lot of people a lot of people know Big Nasty as TV celebrity they
know him as the guy from the memes the guy from the you know a lot of a lot of people
don't realize he's actually a rapper yeah yeah yeah yeah and we see that happening
quite a lot of lot of situations where people kind of get to that the kind of point of fame
like existential fame like outside of their local or their their their county and then
to the nation and then from the nation to overseas you know because of the borderless
nature of the internet people are seeing you know we're laughing at their own about the
emotional damage guy you know but so these things they just spread across the internet
and so so when what would you say for yourself has been like some of the models that you
see work in terms of artists being able to monetize like we had a debate on Twitter spaces
a few weeks ago about direct to consumer yeah yeah and would you say that this is the new
not a new thing but would you say is this the avenue that artists should kind of where
you're maybe going with stuff now yeah I'm definitely going direct to consumer but I'm
taking it even a bit deeper in that I'm I'm trying not I'm aiming as direct to consumers
possible you know I'm trying to take it in my one and two and three and four fan basis
of directly trying to engage with you know the people that engage with me on a one-on-one
basis and obviously that's not realistic if I was to exponentially have a growth burst
yeah suddenly and I have tens of thousands of fans but at the moment you know it's quite
manageable and I can you know say like you know I can engage on a one-on-one basis and
kind of directly sell to the people who are directly supporting me as opposed to trying
to sell to a much bigger brand of people who are not necessarily sure of what you know
they need from me as a creative if you see what I'm trying to say so it's kind of easier
for me to be able to almost custom create what I do based on what I like to do based
on what the people who like my work like to consume you see what I'm trying to say so
again that sorry just to put a finer point on it and again because of the nature of the
podcast as well but so what you're saying is is again are you reckon that artists should
be focusing on fan engagement via let's say community building yeah because this is where
it all is 100% right now whether we're talking let's say we're going to online or what's
coming next yeah it's still it's about people yeah right because you know we we talk about
this all the time right that you know the old school thing and we'll talk about this
with Tommy Tommy D right so shout out to Tommy D as well right so so it's about this Tommy
because he wrote that book A Thousand True Fans right and we were saying that you know
back in the day it was like 10,000 true fans because you had to have a lot more fans to
be gold or platinum or to be able to really reach out into the wider world because you
didn't have to steal the net and a million people right so so it's that we've come from
this thing of okay 10,000 fans yeah to really break even and then 1,000 fans now because
we've got the internet and we've got all of these other things but now really truthfully
it is it is the road to 1,000 fans isn't it because it's yeah if you if you're one guy
that listens and two guys as you said that are satisfied and another girl and then this
person and that person and you've got 10 people and then that 10 and 10 more people 100 you
understand yeah and and because this is direct to consumer everyone and I think I did speak
to me about this but it's like everybody is um consuming and then also uh purchasing yeah
also sorry sorry sharing sharing yeah the value in what they're valuing right so everyone values
similar things however the artist values the listener's ear yeah right and the listener
values the artist's attention right or intention right so so as the artist puts something out
you know this listener who really values the artist is going to give back by the only value
that they know which is the currency right like in their pocket right um and if not then
maybe they want to collaborate with the artist hey I can do something for you because we
because we find a lot of time as artists that the people who we expect around us to be able
to do certain things not that they can't but we end up kind of bumping into people along the way
who just say hey I'm going to do this for you right yeah because I value the tune or I value
the beat or so so would you say music on a shared economy is a better model than music in a give and
take give and take because a shared economy is more like we know that we're giving and taking
yeah and a give and take economy is like hey the artist I want your ear yeah and um and I also
want your money and or for labels it's definitely I want your money right yeah and then for um for
the consumer it's like hey I just want free stuff yeah I just want free tickets you know you know
yeah I think I think definitely definitely the model has to change in terms of that
but then also I think like it's it's also it differs from country to country I think as you
go culturally because you when I've been to America I think they definitely have a paper play culture
just generally it's expected you know where um I think generally their public expect less for free
they always expect that they're gonna have to pay for something at some point if it's good that's
their only their only prerequisite is that it's good and then once it's good they want to pay
in our society here in England it's a much different culture where we expect it to be free
then we expect it to be good as well and then expect it to be amazing and then we'll pay for it
yeah yeah you know and that's the the different cultures that I kind of you know tend to see but
then I think as in terms of a model going forward it's definitely one where as an artist I definitely
I definitely am seeing a lot of improvement in terms of fan engagement and I'm seeing a lot of
growth in terms of like yeah just appreciation and like you say fans willing to do stuff other
than money just to show support which is like really valuable and what about music rights like
in your time what what what what kind of stumbles or things have you come across with music rights
hurdles or things that you just thought hey I just don't even get this I don't know how to
manage this how have you managed that over time as well what is it for you right because rights is
is later it's money later right where you need to think about how you're setting yourself up
at the beginning to have that money later and we could say that yes streaming is a form of it
because streaming is really just paid for the rights of people listening but
managing the actual rights of your music and being able to get the most out of it
well I'll be honest with you I can't I can't be I can tend to be very lazy when it comes to my
my songs because I make quite a lot of music and so I tend to batch register and so I might start
at the end of the year and just like you know start like PRS and everything I've done for the
previous year and realize that there's like seven albums I haven't registered but usually I tend to
let it bulk up because you know the money doesn't you know go anywhere as long as you report
as long as you have the tracks out you know you've kind of basically copyrighted it by
being out there and then once you register it then you can backdate your payments anyway so
in terms of like in terms of getting PRS money it's been quite they have been quite good
I have no real complaints with PRS they pay when they pay every now and then but
I would be saying that about every kind of like every now and now and then like again you know
obviously sovereign music podcasts we're also focusing on the current burgeoning bitcoin economy
what's going on with crypto currencies and the the way that artists are able to to connect let's say
and have also their payments under their control so again like with some of the platforms that you
used again as you said PRS takes you know a quarter right every quarter right you know PPO
same thing right it's like I think it's like two times a year now with PPO right so it's like
with dish joked and all the other platforms again it's a similar thing right because of
you know you they've got to process your payments or their numbers and then they've got to send it
to your paypal and then you know they've got to now do whatever you've got to cash it out and
that's got to take however many hours and you have three or four middlemen sometimes in between
yourself and the payment that you're supposed to receive for these these streams or royalties
that you're supposed to receive for these these streams or royalties and and there's also people
taking a cut as well right like termite teeth isn't right yeah so so um so what would you say
then like uh going forward into the kind of like new kind of age of payments where people do you
think that is this is something an area that artists should be exploring like even if it isn't like
okay they're going to explore bitcoin but do you think they should be exploring you know um
the web free i say that with a bit of a but the web free uh because that's what bitcoin really
actually did is it is payments on the internet that is is is instant it's verifiable it was near
instant very viable you know that does the no middle so artists removing them the record labels
and removing some of the distribution shadiness yeah and then also now removing any kind of
friction on the payment side what do you think about what do you think about how this is going
to progress going forward do you think more and more artists will start to employ or employ sorry
you know the use of let's say nfts or other ways of getting around these things oh like i say like
you know me like i've always been i've always been a proponent for the fact that the artist should be
more in control of the financial day-to-day of what they earn so that they can see genuinely whether
they need half of the people who take the cuts that they do um especially when it comes to like
stuff you show me you know you'd be one of the people that show me a lot of the stuff when it
comes to monetizing um through the crypto space um it's definitely something that artists have to
look into because i mean you're already going to put your music out on various streaming platforms
in a non-competitive manner you know you're going to have your stuff on deezer you're going to have
your stuff on spotify they're not competing with each other it's like if you've got to use all they
are but they're competing with each other your music isn't competing within their space yeah yeah
yeah so i'm trying to say so one listens to your music on deezer or they listen to your music on
spotify the only thing that changes is how much you get paid if you see what i'm trying to say
but you still get paid now that means that putting your stuff on these streaming platforms which are
outside of those especially because a lot of them pay a lot more money you know when when you look
at it like down to the per stream you know an actual value yeah so i think it's a no-brainer
it's a no-brainer for artists and in fact if if there if there's a way to make them the dominant
force i would maybe probably even advocate for taking our music off of like spotify isn't it off
of the because there's a very um exploitory nature very exploitative nature to the especially spotify
payment system which well as me and you were talking about and as you've been going around
quite a lot online it's it's kind of when you say exploitative it's it's this is put us into this
all right cool so so right i said this to jd over there and this is quite funny but um with uh you
have like this era where people were not recording as much and i'd say that's like you know the pre
two pack era right yeah people were not recording as much and that two pack and certain people that
weren't recording that much later became the way of doing things right yeah because if we're going
to talk about let's say in levels like levels and again this is no disrespect to anybody outside of
this but pat kind of set the pace of you brother you need to be recording this like like this like
all the time like 24 seven and abundance to the point that if you die you got an extreme legacy
right i hear you i hear you on that and then i was going to say that the next the next uh the next
kind of real big iteration that we see of that because i'm not talking about again anybody in
between is like yeah great they were doing hard work i mean i wasn't saying that there wasn't
other people recording tons of material but pac's legacy made it prominent that you had to record
like crazy and then the next person between for me anyway my eyes is between pack but what was it was
50 50 was like you have to record and put the shit out like crazy do you understand what i'm
trying to say to you right like because if you don't put the shit out you know get rich or die
trying was the name of the first album and all that them g unit law was doing at that point was
like they were dominating you equal to the chinese man he's trying to sell you the the dvds and the
cds bro and it's like 50 g unit mixtapes bro i think definitely it was a work great thing though
yeah yeah i think what what both of those guys had in common was not necessarily like
um i don't know what to say but but basically what they both had in common was like they both
were willing to work as hard as they needed to to make the impact that they knew that they needed
to make yeah and i think that's just genuinely lost in most industries anyway that's not just
music in general like that's that type of work ethic is just a dying thing in general just in
general people don't generally think they need to work as hard as those guys work together they
get and i think we both understand that that's not true you know like the real people who actually
make it like the drakes of this world you know like i'm not really a big drake fan but you have
to appreciate that to get to where he is that's putting the level of work you have to put in the
level of work yeah obscene level of work you have to be in so many places on a day but the thing is
don't you think even though the culture of that is is kind of died out it's been exacerbated
by the major platforms because the major platforms now because you you know you speak to a lot of
guys you see a lot of video online where they're like oh it's a consistency game right which is
half true because it is a consistency game it is that you need to have stuff coming out yeah and
you need to actually you know stay relevant kind of thing right but at the same time don't you
think that these platforms they help to promote this free content again free content quick content
share share share share lifestyle and you end up blowing your whole fucking load bro just to be
able to get through the gate you guys i think it's 50 50 it's the 50 50 the the platforms and the
artists themselves because the artists from from back in the day have been way too quick to chase a
trend before any of this set off you know like if it was like every artist in america started to do
southern music if it was you know like if it was all the world starting to do drill music because
it was popular in the uk you know like there's always been a thing of artists chasing trends
and i think that's 50 50 with the industry knowing that artists would chase trends and you know
leading the conversation in a certain direction as well as artists just you know kind of being
like a bit of uh i don't know what the work would be but it's like a mindless following situation
that seems to happen sometimes in artistry so i wouldn't i wouldn't always blame the platform
in all honesty i blame a lot of times the artists themselves because it's the same with spotify i
mean like i say it's very exploitative but we're all on it we all are still on it you know regardless
of the fact that it's exclusive if we all took our music off it and put it on let's just say title
not that i'm saying titles better but they pay more you see what i mean we would in one fell swoop
you know yeah of course i mean the platform station the platform i mean i think the movement
is that you can't it's almost not impossible but it's it's very highly unlikely that everybody's
gonna band together to just do that all at the same time in one go however right i think what
we're saying here is that over time it's starting to wear down on even the newer artists that are
born in that era right because right now let's say the younger artists right they're all to them
you can't tell them that there's any other way than this right yeah and the ones that do know
about let's say the nfts bitcoin cryptocurrencies those are the outliers from that group yeah because
they are doing something different they're not following the mold so but then you also have
those who are consuming right so the ones you are consuming are in this kind of like young age group
yeah yeah they they're used to just pay subscription and then you know what you're
talking about by stuff yeah so stuff like the vinyl and collecting and then that and then they
get a community element i think the reason why that wins out so much as well is because
especially with when it works with younger people is because young when you're younger you're more
impressionable so it's it's i want to be a part of this you know understand right and i think that
that's why artists that are doing that director self model with that community element are able
to win because those younger people that are coming in and listening to that to that they are
saying hey you know like this we're part of this this is this is like you said the vinyl they will
buy it because like hey i've got this special thing this this old disc that my granddad used to use
which you understand right like but but i've got it and that makes me a part of this new trend did
you understand right like even if the trend hasn't hit tiktok yet or whatever it's just because
you know these younger people that do discover it they're like hey this is is actually pretty
cool yeah right so so yeah so so anyway so without going too too far off of it yeah right um when it
comes what about with promoters like with shows right is there do you think there's a friction
between because there was also that era where people were faking a lot online to try and get
bookings and promoters were a lot burnt by these guys who were hey we've got 10 million followers
yeah and they're like five men turn up to the show you guys so so do you think that like um
first of all have you had any bad experience with promoters and do you think again that with the
technologies whether it be bitcoin blockchain or the current web 2 technologies do you think that
this is something that can be used to kind of help the show promote our bookings game as well
um yes definitely i'd say for me personally the art of promotion is dying a very quick death
it's not going the way it should be and very very few people are actually using the whole promoting
thing as it should be going like most people now can do their own promotion within like
within like you know like if you know what you're doing but then like i've always been an advocate
for a rapper should just rap and a promoter should promote you should be able to you should
be able to rap and do your thing to the best of your abilities and then be able to pass off your
product to a promoter who takes their cut and makes sure that they you get the right exposure
but right now that is almost not the case you know there's very few promoters doing like bespoke work
for artists to make sure that they get out there and so i see definitely there's a
there's a niche in the market open for someone to either create something or
almost i don't know i've always said almost create maybe like a promoter to artist interface where
promoters can write the right artists that they want to support and champion
and artists can find and pair up with the right promoters that you know be right for their product
but as i see it right now it's one of the real problems in the game is promotion for independent
artists it's the real Achilles heel is getting yourself out there so
and then coming to those agreements as well and actually getting paid where the promoter sticks
around to pay you right that's another that's another topic
so you'd say with promotion is partly to do with the fact that the artist is the promotion now
the artist does the promotion but also with the fact that there needs to be a level of trust
between the artist and the promoter because the artist is obviously not going to trust
if the artist is doing the promotion while he's got a promoter he probably doesn't trust the promoter
he's just a very hard worker right like but then if there is a break in trust between the
artist and the promoter then the artist doesn't want to do shows the promoter doesn't want to pay
right so so um so definitely like a trust thing and and definitely i feel that from my personal
view that this can be that problem is a problem that could definitely be fixed using the technologies
and different methods yeah definitely um all right so before like we get to any kind of wrapping up
what we want to talk about is more about what you've been doing recently and some of the stuff
that you've got coming up um you know the the brand new so so first of all just tell a little
bit about what you've been up to for let's say the past couple of months last year or so where do
we start jesus christ it's been busy it's been very very busy so I guess I'll start with the main
project of note which I'm still promoting very hard which is a product i dropped on um boxing day
last year um the equinox ep the Micall Parknsun ep that was certainly produced by Micall Parknsun
really really um really um blessed to be working with hip-hop legend UK um we've just recently
dropped the video for the first single I'd say um censorship um dropped that on YouTube and
probably got like uh it got censored basically got um got age restricted and got um
um yeah in the comments so yeah um that's out and then since then this year i am on a mission
to do what currency did in what year was it i can't remember what year the currency released the
release the project every month oh i can't remember what year i remember i remember you
was telling me yeah but they had every year every month he had like the name of the month
or something so similar to kind of like so just like crooked out 50 yeah 50 mix tapes so like
you know I've got a product so first product I dropped this year was um unhooked with kisser beats
I dropped that in January the same time in January I uh I was involved in the Nyark and gold on the
mixer group projects which I've got out there once or always and the other i can't actually
wrongly know it's just escape my memory and then February I had um I released a group project with
has ice from the midlands from Wild Samson one of my favorite artists in the UK we released a
group project on Nyark as well um and then in march which is um last month just gone i released
a ep capital a with acne beats and now April we're in now next week I've got a project dropping
on Nyark called real music r e e l music that would be the fourth project of the year I've also
got a project in the next month with um uh SilvaGrey yeah and an angle beats as well so yeah a lot
of music coming out the real music also is a lot of feature from yours truly yeah i mean so
yeah exactly yeah so so um so just uh obviously because me and you have been discussing obviously
outside of the conversation just some of the platforms do you can you remember any of the
platforms that have spoken spoken about that really are interested in using the Bitcoin
crypto economy crypto world or I think WavLake you did yeah yeah you've um um
showed me some stuff like WavLake and I've looked up some stuff but then they do look very
attractive if I'm honest so I'm probably going to be trying to get set up um there very very soon
probably in the next week yeah yeah so again to the people that's going to be listening on fountain
right now um you'll be able to find Airklipz's anywhere on the bitcoin blockchain or more
you'll be able to find some of Klip's material coming up on WavLake, WavLake I know
you're going to kill me for that but um but probably very very soon um and I definitely
know Airklipz is is around a ton a ton a ton of great artists who are like doing some some great
things so it's going to be crazy to see some of that collection actually like make it over to
bitcoin and you start exploring you know what's going on in in the beef of the world and looking
forward to it you know ordinals and all of the rest of it right so um and for the ones of you hey
ordinals yes you know people do like music still no matter whether it's on ordinals or not or if
it's on a piece of toilet paper bro so you know just have to deal with it right but um but yeah
all right cool listen let them know where they can they can get at you yeah like where's the places
that they can find you online and um basically um if you search all social all the social media
platforms a i r k l i p z Airklipz you'll find me google my stuff I've got you know I've got music
on all the social media platforms you know all the dsp's I'm out there as well so yeah um follow
me and um stay tuned for all my new music coming up yeah cool cool people see you on the next one
you got thanks for having me
you