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Alright, alright, alright.

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Welcome back again people to the third episode of the Sovereign Music Podcast.

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We are here with a very good friend of mine actually, a man who really shouldn't need

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no introduction by this time.

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But welcome to Airklipz.

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Alright, my brother, please.

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Glad to have you here.

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Please like, obviously I've been doing a few interviews, going through a few today, you

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know, with a few different people.

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But I always start off by getting people to introduce themselves and what they do, because

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I don't, I can't put the words to it sometimes, you know what I'm trying to say.

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Well, okay, so I'm a clips, rapper, producer, and just general creative I'd say.

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I mean I get involved in a lot of creative endeavors, build studios, you know, basically

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a lot of creative stuff.

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But then rapper mainly, I do love rap.

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Okay and so would you say that rap is what you're typically known for then?

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Or would you say there's something else that brings people, brought people to your music

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before rapping?

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I think it's, well because I'm a big cannabis and vape enthusiast as well, you know.

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I really, I do shout out a lot of vape related stuff and you know, I'm a very big cannabis

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advocate for legalization and stuff.

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So that is also part of my whole legacy I guess.

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That does maybe have a 50-50 effect on why people come to know me sometimes.

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And that being said, when did you, I know this question already, but when, can you let

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them know when you first got into music, what got you into music, what was the thing that,

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what was the first thing you did, like was you started rapping first, did you start making

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beats or?

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Definitely started rapping first.

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Started rapping, oh gosh, I can't even remember how to say it.

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Honestly I think I was about maybe 15 or 16, maybe 14 or 15 when I wrote my first rhymes.

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I think I recorded my first demo take when I was about 16.

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If I remember right, yeah, about 16 I recorded my first demo take.

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So yeah, I've been rapping a long time, that was probably like 30 years ago now.

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And what is it that got you into the rap though, what is it that, what was that moment that

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you say that you could look back on and say, hey, you know, somebody played with this or

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I watched this advert or something like that maybe?

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It was a combined amount of stuff.

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I think it was just the whole total weight of like underground New York rap in the 90s.

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I think I remember discovering Nas.

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I discovered Nas, I discovered Mobb Deep, discovered like all these artists in their prime just

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releasing music and I just wanted to do it.

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I knew that that's what I wanted to do.

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I remember just hearing the entire Queens Bridge, Jesus, the whole Queens Bridge was

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quite inspirational.

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And then what would you say was like a big break moment for you or a moment where it

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doesn't have to be early.

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It could be later on in your career, but what do you think is that that moment in which

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you thought everything was going to come to a head or you thought everything was going

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to really take off or, you know, maybe it was some eight mile shit, like you were, you

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know, I should have said to you, like this is the night, you understand that, I'm going

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to spit these bars.

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Like, you understand that.

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What was that?

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What would you say like was that moment for you where it was like, hey, I really want

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to take this stuff seriously?

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Well, I guess it was like it was a transition moment for me.

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It was like I've been doing music for a long time and I've been doing music with my friends.

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And I remember there was a point where I think I had to realize that like it was just not

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so much that I had stopped me doing music with my friends, but that I had to concentrate

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on doing music by myself as well as doing music with other people.

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And that was a moment when I started working on the Single Speed Project.

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And that Single Speed Project was the turning point in my career, I think, where everything

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became a bit more serious to me as opposed to, you know, me kind of maybe just trying

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to do it with, yeah, do it with my friends and like, you know, have this whole group

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because we were like underdog records at the time.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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It was a transition from Underdog Records to the stuff I did after that.

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That was kind of the Single Speed Project and yeah, that was the transition moment.

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Do you think kind of with saying that that every rapper kind of goes through that?

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Because I'm sure at some point every rapper links a producer and that producer kind of

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becomes their dog for that moment in time and they're part and they're making stuff

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together and like you said, maybe it's a crew or man them that are rapping or one's making

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beats, maybe one's a DJ, one's a dancer or whatever, next man's a graffiti head, you

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get me?

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So do you think that with the rappers in particular, they are the ones who are more inclined to

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be loyal to that situation until it is like, hey, everybody is, you know, separatist-ing

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almost.

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Not in a separatist because you know people don't want to break up friendships or whatever.

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You think it's only the rapper that's always left with that, left with the last pick of,

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because he always needs beats in it.

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He's always left with the beat and something.

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I don't know, I guess in terms of the longevity of the career, artists, the rapper can tend

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to be the one who's like longest still trying to do it but overall I think that the motivation

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is the same for artists or producer or like yeah, if it comes to a head, it comes to a

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head.

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Then if you're still going, you're still going, you know, I guess it just depends on your

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love for the craft.

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Like as a rapper, I've seen rappers quit as well so I guess yeah, the longevity just

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depends on you as a person and probably how much you love doing what you do.

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Like for me it was always, I think I came to that crossroads at single speed like I

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say and it was the point where it was a kind of disillusionment where I realized I had

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to look to myself and say would I keep doing this if I was never to make any money from

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this going forward?

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Because at the moment, at the point of Single Speed, I had put a lot of money into music

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and I was like looking at myself as an adult and saying this is costing you money.

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It's not like you can't look at it logically and say this is making you money, it's costing

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you money so are you willing to keep it costing you money going forward?

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And I had to look at myself up and down and say yes I can because I love doing music more

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than I, you know, more than I wouldn't love doing whatever I would do with that time when

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I wasn't doing music so.

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And that kind of brings me to the next question which is again around like what was, when

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you're thinking this, this is obviously a point of friction isn't it?

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That is hey, well can I afford to do this or not?

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And that then goes into the realm of am I making a return?

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Do you understand?

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Is it paying for itself?

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Yeah.

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Yeah?

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So what other problems would you say that you came up with during that time or came

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up again sorry during that time of hey I want to take this seriously because obviously you

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start off, when you're spending money on it already, you're already spending money on

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it but then when you decide to take it seriously, although it's like okay I love to craft, it's

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still also I need to spend more money on it because I'm now taking it more seriously and

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I still need to get a return.

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Do you understand what I'm trying to say?

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So what would you say was there any other things that maybe you faced at that time to

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say I'm going to be able to make this into a profitable or just a pay for itself thing?

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I guess that the main problem was up at the time, up till the time when I released Single

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Speed which if you check my catalogue you'll realise is that Single Speed was the first

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project I, I had Parachute Life 1 which was on iTunes and the streaming services but that

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was with another distributor so like I think Single Speed was the first project that I

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actually put out with Distro Kid you know I was like putting that stuff basically you

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know more independently than I was before and that's when I started working with my

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promoter Trevor Devine, shout out to Trevor Devine, he's the one that put me onto Distro

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Kid at the time and just like you know from that point on I was able to see streaming

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as a viable thing because before then I think streaming for me was just something that seemed

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very exploitative and it still does if I'm honest, it's just the money you're paid for

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your streams versus what people were paid for actually buying albums which is where

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I got into the game just at the point when buying albums was just dying off and streaming

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was just taking up so it was kind of like hard to be one of the artists that was just

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seeing that album money go and not being able to grab it you know.

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So would you say that DistroKid was the way that you kind of or would you say it was the

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first time you had dealt with monetization outside of the physical realm then would you

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say?

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It wasn't the first time but it was the first time independently because before that I'd

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had some stuff but with the you know not like it was with Distro Kid which was just personally

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me as an artist.

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And what would you say like the first what would you say is the first part the main kind

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of things that you came up against again just on the monetization journey itself like and

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I mean that from the whole of the time you've been doing this.

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I'd say the main problem you come up against is just the which is it's very weird now because

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I've come a long way in the fact that I started my music before YouTube and I watched YouTube

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come and like become its thing and then you know like and the main problem I see now with

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the whole industry in terms of making it for independent artists is just the fact that

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the algorithms have been hijacked by the big labels and the big you know the big music

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industry you know and heads have been able to kind of put a stranglehold on what people

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see and what people can hear and so when at the beginning of YouTube your friend down

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the road could make you know I remember that little Geordie rap I don't know if you're

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ever a Geordie rapper for those kids out in school it was it was it was terrible you know

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but it went viral there were millions of hits you know I mean and for what YouTube was that

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was what YouTube was at the beginning was the fact that your mates could just make a

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video and it could go viral well I think the record companies did not like that and so

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the fact now is that you just can't do that anymore you know it's so hard for there to

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be a crept in Conan like there was back then you know and that's the point I see that's

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really hard to monetize so ever since the monetization became quite serious where it

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became like okay people are actually making money off you know the streaming platforms

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and off YouTube you see that the returns are so low now that the squeeze is on on your

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algorithm for any any streams that you get and it's really hard to see like where an

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artist like me used to put out a video and get you know on average you know like I'd

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say like a thousand two thousand views because that was the like surrounding reach that I

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had now I'm seeing that same amount of viewership being squeezed and it's just it's almost you

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can just see it it's like the machine you know they're just kind of like trying to

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take away from an independent artist because you just don't have the revenue or the budget

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to pay for the same type of basically you're paying for the clicks and you're paying for

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the ads exactly it's just pay to play and that's what YouTube is that's what to a lesser

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extent and I have to give you know it's I mean everyone says they're the demon but I

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have to give Meta props because they're actually the lesser demon in this race because they

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pay more they limit your reach less you know as an artist I have definitely noticed that

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I think the funny thing is right so saying this to Akme earlier on right and is because

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really Facebook is Facebook is the kind of marking of that error because MySpace blew

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up and created the whole error right like before that it was obviously Kazaa, LimeWire

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you know so and so forth so but MySpace blew up the whole thing of doing music creating

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a page blah blah blah blah right and then Facebook I think the devil part of it is that

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it's the amount of data they understand it's the amount of data that they're taking right

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but I think that as you said I think for someone who's selling something or visibility wise

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on Facebook right shall we say visibility wise on Facebook Facebook's already got the

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most users it still has the most users right so so in essence it's not necessarily or could

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not be necessarily that they're not they're not suppressing us hard but it's just that

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because it's more users there's more leakage to to actual groups of people who resonate

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with whatever you're doing you know I was going to say to you see I agree with that

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I fully agree with that and that might be actually one of the reasons but that doesn't

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account for YouTube because YouTube has more users than Facebook no no not in terms of

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users Facebook has the most users as far as I'm aware like the most users full stop right

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all of the social platforms that's crazy so YouTube the traffic YouTube has I think the

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most traffic yes I think like because you remember YouTube you don't have to be a member

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to watch videos okay so it's the most streamed site let's say or the most watched video site

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that's true people watch the most videos or consume the most internet content on YouTube

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right but it's funny because because again we were speaking about this earlier is you

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kind of go from the MySpace times yeah so Facebook kind of doesn't take over MySpace

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at the beginning but MySpace kind of you know becomes a bit boring yeah yeah a bit boring

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a bit still in terms of UI user experience right so I remember that so it becomes a bit

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boring right and but MySpace what Akme said was quite funny MySpace actually had the best

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UI yeah not UX yeah yeah but best UI yeah because you could actually code MySpace right

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so you could use MySpace was like a free server yeah free website free web domain everything

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for free and you could have your own stylized players on there and build your own page so

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where we are now is almost like where we're coming back to is that MySpace everywhere

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we need this freedom platform again yeah but you see I think the problem with MySpace and

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the problem with MySpace coming back now is that the the pervasiveness of like a Spotify

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has become so normal yes so ubiquitous that like you can't go back to uh this is the problem

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I have with like I've had websites over the time but it's like just people just don't

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interact with music the way they used to like the product just isn't the product as it used

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to be what that the what you're what you're basically doing as a musician is competing

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for like three to two to three minute attention spans people which is basically a song but

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then you can consume a song at the same time as you can consume you know like a funny video

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so if you merge those two together that's what you generally have now where you have

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like memes and like like TikTok videos basically with music at the back and that is basically

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competing with music videos yeah yeah music directly yeah yeah yeah yeah and so once you've

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got that then you've got a very hard market to try and yeah because it's like it's like

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as we called it back then you know Encarta days yeah multimedia in it right you know

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you used to buy a PC back then it would be you're buying a more you had a standard PC

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and you had a multimedia center right or a multimedia PC you know you got your CD drive

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yeah SD card slot or whatever it was right so so there's a big difference between would

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you say especially from the hard copies right because this is another question I was going

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to ask you like are you still engaging or do you still have a desire to engage in physicals

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and hard copies does it make sense in today's world for for artists to still engage with

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those well you do well put this way I you know very well I started off selling CDs I

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started off printing off CDs and selling my own CDs and trying to distribute my own stuff

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and it's hard work it's hard work shout out to Mike GLC you know I mean people like that

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you know made that work but I wasn't one of those people that could make it work I always

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found at the end I'd have way more CDs than I needed and then by the time I'd have those

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CDs I couldn't afford to keep them and I'd have to either give them away promotionarily

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and then by the time you give them away then people start wanting to buy them it's a real

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vicious cycle in terms of storage and printing and like keeping so with CDs I think I've

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kind of given up on CDs totally now and then visibility as well and then who's got a CD

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player as well yeah but when it comes to vinyl vinyl now has taken on a very very different

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very very different aspect where people are actively seeking out vinyl you know like I've

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got my Bandcamp and someone ordered some vinyl the other day you know I mean I was actually

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quite shocked and you know the recent releases of vinyl that I've put out mostly on gold

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on the mixer but I've released one recently now with Akme we've got to a point now where

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the vinyl is actually selling which is quite weird so yeah I'd say that would be the vinyl

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would probably be the only physical medium I don't know if people are actually listening

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to the vinyl which is the thing that I don't think is happening because I have a lot of

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vinyl myself and I don't necessarily listen to it I keep the vinyl for it's but that's

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what I'm trying to say I think it's like with vinyl people have something tangible yeah

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as they can buy it and have that sentimental feeling yeah and it's something to say that

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I support this I supported it yeah I was there versus you know you just stream an artist

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a thousand times and then you have your at the end of every year you get your your Alchemist

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biggest fan you know on Spotify you get that in your roundup but that doesn't really say

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it like I have this album or I went to the concert and look at this you know memorabilia

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I got from the concert I think at the end of the day fans still want that the fact they

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don't get that I think it leaves most fans not fulfilled with the whole artist fan experience

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and so that's why the fans that actually go to gigs tend to be the fans that are more

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invested in artists and fans that tend to spend money and tend to keep the artistry

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alive everyone else tends to think it's just something you consume for free you know like

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in a different sense of like so it's like a difference kind of like the fact between

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fan mentality and then also artist engagement because really and truthfully our artist our

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artist starts the ball rolling by being the one to engage first yeah so then it is how

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do people react yeah right and again you know the question is as we're saying with digital

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technology now it's down to visibility right even back then it was down to visibility but

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now as you said we've got enhanced visibility but just as I said about Facebook there's

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more fish in the sea you know I should have said to you right so you know and I think

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like yeah if you look at like Big Nasty I think he's the perfect example of what I'm

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saying here where a lot of people a lot of people know Big Nasty as TV celebrity they

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know him as the guy from the memes the guy from the you know a lot of a lot of people

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don't realize he's actually a rapper yeah yeah yeah yeah and we see that happening

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quite a lot of lot of situations where people kind of get to that the kind of point of fame

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like existential fame like outside of their local or their their their county and then

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to the nation and then from the nation to overseas you know because of the borderless

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nature of the internet people are seeing you know we're laughing at their own about the

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emotional damage guy you know but so these things they just spread across the internet

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and so so when what would you say for yourself has been like some of the models that you

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see work in terms of artists being able to monetize like we had a debate on Twitter spaces

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a few weeks ago about direct to consumer yeah yeah and would you say that this is the new

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not a new thing but would you say is this the avenue that artists should kind of where

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you're maybe going with stuff now yeah I'm definitely going direct to consumer but I'm

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taking it even a bit deeper in that I'm I'm trying not I'm aiming as direct to consumers

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possible you know I'm trying to take it in my one and two and three and four fan basis

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of directly trying to engage with you know the people that engage with me on a one-on-one

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basis and obviously that's not realistic if I was to exponentially have a growth burst

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yeah suddenly and I have tens of thousands of fans but at the moment you know it's quite

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manageable and I can you know say like you know I can engage on a one-on-one basis and

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kind of directly sell to the people who are directly supporting me as opposed to trying

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to sell to a much bigger brand of people who are not necessarily sure of what you know

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they need from me as a creative if you see what I'm trying to say so it's kind of easier

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for me to be able to almost custom create what I do based on what I like to do based

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on what the people who like my work like to consume you see what I'm trying to say so

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again that sorry just to put a finer point on it and again because of the nature of the

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podcast as well but so what you're saying is is again are you reckon that artists should

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be focusing on fan engagement via let's say community building yeah because this is where

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it all is 100% right now whether we're talking let's say we're going to online or what's

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coming next yeah it's still it's about people yeah right because you know we we talk about

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this all the time right that you know the old school thing and we'll talk about this

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with Tommy Tommy D right so shout out to Tommy D as well right so so it's about this Tommy

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because he wrote that book A Thousand True Fans right and we were saying that you know

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back in the day it was like 10,000 true fans because you had to have a lot more fans to

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be gold or platinum or to be able to really reach out into the wider world because you

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didn't have to steal the net and a million people right so so it's that we've come from

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this thing of okay 10,000 fans yeah to really break even and then 1,000 fans now because

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we've got the internet and we've got all of these other things but now really truthfully

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it is it is the road to 1,000 fans isn't it because it's yeah if you if you're one guy

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that listens and two guys as you said that are satisfied and another girl and then this

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person and that person and you've got 10 people and then that 10 and 10 more people 100 you

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understand yeah and and because this is direct to consumer everyone and I think I did speak

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to me about this but it's like everybody is um consuming and then also uh purchasing yeah

295
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also sorry sorry sharing sharing yeah the value in what they're valuing right so everyone values

296
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similar things however the artist values the listener's ear yeah right and the listener

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values the artist's attention right or intention right so so as the artist puts something out

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you know this listener who really values the artist is going to give back by the only value

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that they know which is the currency right like in their pocket right um and if not then

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maybe they want to collaborate with the artist hey I can do something for you because we

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because we find a lot of time as artists that the people who we expect around us to be able

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to do certain things not that they can't but we end up kind of bumping into people along the way

303
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who just say hey I'm going to do this for you right yeah because I value the tune or I value

304
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the beat or so so would you say music on a shared economy is a better model than music in a give and

305
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take give and take because a shared economy is more like we know that we're giving and taking

306
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yeah and a give and take economy is like hey the artist I want your ear yeah and um and I also

307
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want your money and or for labels it's definitely I want your money right yeah and then for um for

308
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the consumer it's like hey I just want free stuff yeah I just want free tickets you know you know

309
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yeah I think I think definitely definitely the model has to change in terms of that

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but then also I think like it's it's also it differs from country to country I think as you

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go culturally because you when I've been to America I think they definitely have a paper play culture

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just generally it's expected you know where um I think generally their public expect less for free

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they always expect that they're gonna have to pay for something at some point if it's good that's

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their only their only prerequisite is that it's good and then once it's good they want to pay

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in our society here in England it's a much different culture where we expect it to be free

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then we expect it to be good as well and then expect it to be amazing and then we'll pay for it

317
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yeah yeah you know and that's the the different cultures that I kind of you know tend to see but

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then I think as in terms of a model going forward it's definitely one where as an artist I definitely

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I definitely am seeing a lot of improvement in terms of fan engagement and I'm seeing a lot of

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growth in terms of like yeah just appreciation and like you say fans willing to do stuff other

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than money just to show support which is like really valuable and what about music rights like

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in your time what what what what kind of stumbles or things have you come across with music rights

323
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hurdles or things that you just thought hey I just don't even get this I don't know how to

324
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manage this how have you managed that over time as well what is it for you right because rights is

325
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is later it's money later right where you need to think about how you're setting yourself up

326
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at the beginning to have that money later and we could say that yes streaming is a form of it

327
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because streaming is really just paid for the rights of people listening but

328
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managing the actual rights of your music and being able to get the most out of it

329
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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

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my songs because I make quite a lot of music and so I tend to batch register and so I might start

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at the end of the year and just like you know start like PRS and everything I've done for the

332
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previous year and realize that there's like seven albums I haven't registered but usually I tend to

333
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:10,880
let it bulk up because you know the money doesn't you know go anywhere as long as you report

334
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as long as you have the tracks out you know you've kind of basically copyrighted it by

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being out there and then once you register it then you can backdate your payments anyway so

336
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in terms of like in terms of getting PRS money it's been quite they have been quite good

337
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I have no real complaints with PRS they pay when they pay every now and then but

338
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I would be saying that about every kind of like every now and now and then like again you know

339
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obviously sovereign music podcasts we're also focusing on the current burgeoning bitcoin economy

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what's going on with crypto currencies and the the way that artists are able to to connect let's say

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and have also their payments under their control so again like with some of the platforms that you

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used again as you said PRS takes you know a quarter right every quarter right you know PPO

343
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same thing right it's like I think it's like two times a year now with PPO right so it's like

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with dish joked and all the other platforms again it's a similar thing right because of

345
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you know you they've got to process your payments or their numbers and then they've got to send it

346
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to your paypal and then you know they've got to now do whatever you've got to cash it out and

347
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that's got to take however many hours and you have three or four middlemen sometimes in between

348
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yourself and the payment that you're supposed to receive for these these streams or royalties

349
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that you're supposed to receive for these these streams or royalties and and there's also people

350
00:31:58,080 --> 00:32:06,880
taking a cut as well right like termite teeth isn't right yeah so so um so what would you say

351
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then like uh going forward into the kind of like new kind of age of payments where people do you

352
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:20,080
think that is this is something an area that artists should be exploring like even if it isn't like

353
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:25,600
okay they're going to explore bitcoin but do you think they should be exploring you know um

354
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the web free i say that with a bit of a but the web free uh because that's what bitcoin really

355
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:42,400
actually did is it is payments on the internet that is is is instant it's verifiable it was near

356
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:50,400
instant very viable you know that does the no middle so artists removing them the record labels

357
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and removing some of the distribution shadiness yeah and then also now removing any kind of

358
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friction on the payment side what do you think about what do you think about how this is going

359
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to progress going forward do you think more and more artists will start to employ or employ sorry

360
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:17,200
you know the use of let's say nfts or other ways of getting around these things oh like i say like

361
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you know me like i've always been i've always been a proponent for the fact that the artist should be

362
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more in control of the financial day-to-day of what they earn so that they can see genuinely whether

363
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they need half of the people who take the cuts that they do um especially when it comes to like

364
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:41,040
stuff you show me you know you'd be one of the people that show me a lot of the stuff when it

365
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:49,920
comes to monetizing um through the crypto space um it's definitely something that artists have to

366
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:55,920
look into because i mean you're already going to put your music out on various streaming platforms

367
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in a non-competitive manner you know you're going to have your stuff on deezer you're going to have

368
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:06,240
your stuff on spotify they're not competing with each other it's like if you've got to use all they

369
00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,400
are but they're competing with each other your music isn't competing within their space yeah yeah

370
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,480
yeah so i'm trying to say so one listens to your music on deezer or they listen to your music on

371
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,640
spotify the only thing that changes is how much you get paid if you see what i'm trying to say

372
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:26,080
but you still get paid now that means that putting your stuff on these streaming platforms which are

373
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outside of those especially because a lot of them pay a lot more money you know when when you look

374
00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:40,560
at it like down to the per stream you know an actual value yeah so i think it's a no-brainer

375
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:47,440
it's a no-brainer for artists and in fact if if there if there's a way to make them the dominant

376
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:52,960
force i would maybe probably even advocate for taking our music off of like spotify isn't it off

377
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of the because there's a very um exploitory nature very exploitative nature to the especially spotify

378
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:07,920
payment system which well as me and you were talking about and as you've been going around

379
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quite a lot online it's it's kind of when you say exploitative it's it's this is put us into this

380
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:23,200
all right cool so so right i said this to jd over there and this is quite funny but um with uh you

381
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:30,560
have like this era where people were not recording as much and i'd say that's like you know the pre

382
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:37,040
two pack era right yeah people were not recording as much and that two pack and certain people that

383
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:43,920
weren't recording that much later became the way of doing things right yeah because if we're going

384
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:48,960
to talk about let's say in levels like levels and again this is no disrespect to anybody outside of

385
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:58,080
this but pat kind of set the pace of you brother you need to be recording this like like this like

386
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:05,360
all the time like 24 seven and abundance to the point that if you die you got an extreme legacy

387
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:12,400
right i hear you i hear you on that and then i was going to say that the next the next uh the next

388
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:17,280
kind of real big iteration that we see of that because i'm not talking about again anybody in

389
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,280
between is like yeah great they were doing hard work i mean i wasn't saying that there wasn't

390
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:29,200
other people recording tons of material but pac's legacy made it prominent that you had to record

391
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:35,680
like crazy and then the next person between for me anyway my eyes is between pack but what was it was

392
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:40,800
50 50 was like you have to record and put the shit out like crazy do you understand what i'm

393
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:45,040
trying to say to you right like because if you don't put the shit out you know get rich or die

394
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:50,880
trying was the name of the first album and all that them g unit law was doing at that point was

395
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:57,440
like they were dominating you equal to the chinese man he's trying to sell you the the dvds and the

396
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:04,560
cds bro and it's like 50 g unit mixtapes bro i think definitely it was a work great thing though

397
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:10,080
yeah yeah i think what what both of those guys had in common was not necessarily like

398
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:17,520
um i don't know what to say but but basically what they both had in common was like they both

399
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:22,480
were willing to work as hard as they needed to to make the impact that they knew that they needed

400
00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:28,160
to make yeah and i think that's just genuinely lost in most industries anyway that's not just

401
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:34,320
music in general like that's that type of work ethic is just a dying thing in general just in

402
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:39,360
general people don't generally think they need to work as hard as those guys work together they

403
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,800
get and i think we both understand that that's not true you know like the real people who actually

404
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:51,200
make it like the drakes of this world you know like i'm not really a big drake fan but you have

405
00:37:51,200 --> 00:37:55,840
to appreciate that to get to where he is that's putting the level of work you have to put in the

406
00:37:55,840 --> 00:38:03,280
level of work yeah obscene level of work you have to be in so many places on a day but the thing is

407
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:09,920
don't you think even though the culture of that is is kind of died out it's been exacerbated

408
00:38:10,720 --> 00:38:15,760
by the major platforms because the major platforms now because you you know you speak to a lot of

409
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:21,840
guys you see a lot of video online where they're like oh it's a consistency game right which is

410
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:27,360
half true because it is a consistency game it is that you need to have stuff coming out yeah and

411
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:34,000
you need to actually you know stay relevant kind of thing right but at the same time don't you

412
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:40,400
think that these platforms they help to promote this free content again free content quick content

413
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:46,640
share share share share lifestyle and you end up blowing your whole fucking load bro just to be

414
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:53,200
able to get through the gate you guys i think it's 50 50 it's the 50 50 the the platforms and the

415
00:38:53,200 --> 00:39:00,080
artists themselves because the artists from from back in the day have been way too quick to chase a

416
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:07,280
trend before any of this set off you know like if it was like every artist in america started to do

417
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:12,800
southern music if it was you know like if it was all the world starting to do drill music because

418
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:18,240
it was popular in the uk you know like there's always been a thing of artists chasing trends

419
00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:24,800
and i think that's 50 50 with the industry knowing that artists would chase trends and you know

420
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:30,400
leading the conversation in a certain direction as well as artists just you know kind of being

421
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:36,160
like a bit of uh i don't know what the work would be but it's like a mindless following situation

422
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:41,600
that seems to happen sometimes in artistry so i wouldn't i wouldn't always blame the platform

423
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:46,640
in all honesty i blame a lot of times the artists themselves because it's the same with spotify i

424
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:53,440
mean like i say it's very exploitative but we're all on it we all are still on it you know regardless

425
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:58,240
of the fact that it's exclusive if we all took our music off it and put it on let's just say title

426
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:04,560
not that i'm saying titles better but they pay more you see what i mean we would in one fell swoop

427
00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:10,160
you know yeah of course i mean the platform station the platform i mean i think the movement

428
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:15,840
is that you can't it's almost not impossible but it's it's very highly unlikely that everybody's

429
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:21,280
gonna band together to just do that all at the same time in one go however right i think what

430
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:28,240
we're saying here is that over time it's starting to wear down on even the newer artists that are

431
00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:35,280
born in that era right because right now let's say the younger artists right they're all to them

432
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:39,760
you can't tell them that there's any other way than this right yeah and the ones that do know

433
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:45,680
about let's say the nfts bitcoin cryptocurrencies those are the outliers from that group yeah because

434
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:52,080
they are doing something different they're not following the mold so but then you also have

435
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:57,520
those who are consuming right so the ones you are consuming are in this kind of like young age group

436
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:02,560
yeah yeah they they're used to just pay subscription and then you know what you're

437
00:41:02,560 --> 00:41:08,640
talking about by stuff yeah so stuff like the vinyl and collecting and then that and then they

438
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:13,920
get a community element i think the reason why that wins out so much as well is because

439
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:19,680
especially with when it works with younger people is because young when you're younger you're more

440
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:26,720
impressionable so it's it's i want to be a part of this you know understand right and i think that

441
00:41:26,720 --> 00:41:32,320
that's why artists that are doing that director self model with that community element are able

442
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:36,960
to win because those younger people that are coming in and listening to that to that they are

443
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:42,000
saying hey you know like this we're part of this this is this is like you said the vinyl they will

444
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:46,880
buy it because like hey i've got this special thing this this old disc that my granddad used to use

445
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:52,960
which you understand right like but but i've got it and that makes me a part of this new trend did

446
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:57,680
you understand right like even if the trend hasn't hit tiktok yet or whatever it's just because

447
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,240
you know these younger people that do discover it they're like hey this is is actually pretty

448
00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:11,680
cool yeah right so so yeah so so anyway so without going too too far off of it yeah right um when it

449
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:16,000
comes what about with promoters like with shows right is there do you think there's a friction

450
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:21,920
between because there was also that era where people were faking a lot online to try and get

451
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:28,320
bookings and promoters were a lot burnt by these guys who were hey we've got 10 million followers

452
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:37,040
yeah and they're like five men turn up to the show you guys so so do you think that like um

453
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:42,320
first of all have you had any bad experience with promoters and do you think again that with the

454
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:48,400
technologies whether it be bitcoin blockchain or the current web 2 technologies do you think that

455
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:54,320
this is something that can be used to kind of help the show promote our bookings game as well

456
00:42:54,320 --> 00:43:02,640
um yes definitely i'd say for me personally the art of promotion is dying a very quick death

457
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:10,080
it's not going the way it should be and very very few people are actually using the whole promoting

458
00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:17,200
thing as it should be going like most people now can do their own promotion within like

459
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:22,640
within like you know like if you know what you're doing but then like i've always been an advocate

460
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:27,200
for a rapper should just rap and a promoter should promote you should be able to you should

461
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:32,160
be able to rap and do your thing to the best of your abilities and then be able to pass off your

462
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:37,440
product to a promoter who takes their cut and makes sure that they you get the right exposure

463
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:44,320
but right now that is almost not the case you know there's very few promoters doing like bespoke work

464
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:50,320
for artists to make sure that they get out there and so i see definitely there's a

465
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:58,080
there's a niche in the market open for someone to either create something or

466
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:05,040
almost i don't know i've always said almost create maybe like a promoter to artist interface where

467
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,880
promoters can write the right artists that they want to support and champion

468
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:14,640
and artists can find and pair up with the right promoters that you know be right for their product

469
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:21,200
but as i see it right now it's one of the real problems in the game is promotion for independent

470
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:25,920
artists it's the real Achilles heel is getting yourself out there so

471
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:31,680
and then coming to those agreements as well and actually getting paid where the promoter sticks

472
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:36,160
around to pay you right that's another that's another topic

473
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:44,720
so you'd say with promotion is partly to do with the fact that the artist is the promotion now

474
00:44:44,720 --> 00:44:51,120
the artist does the promotion but also with the fact that there needs to be a level of trust

475
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:55,840
between the artist and the promoter because the artist is obviously not going to trust

476
00:44:55,840 --> 00:44:59,600
if the artist is doing the promotion while he's got a promoter he probably doesn't trust the promoter

477
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:08,240
he's just a very hard worker right like but then if there is a break in trust between the

478
00:45:08,240 --> 00:45:12,400
artist and the promoter then the artist doesn't want to do shows the promoter doesn't want to pay

479
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:19,840
right so so um so definitely like a trust thing and and definitely i feel that from my personal

480
00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:25,440
view that this can be that problem is a problem that could definitely be fixed using the technologies

481
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:32,080
and different methods yeah definitely um all right so before like we get to any kind of wrapping up

482
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:37,840
what we want to talk about is more about what you've been doing recently and some of the stuff

483
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:44,400
that you've got coming up um you know the the brand new so so first of all just tell a little

484
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:50,720
bit about what you've been up to for let's say the past couple of months last year or so where do

485
00:45:50,720 --> 00:45:57,600
we start jesus christ it's been busy it's been very very busy so I guess I'll start with the main

486
00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:04,560
project of note which I'm still promoting very hard which is a product i dropped on um boxing day

487
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:13,040
last year um the equinox ep the Micall Parknsun ep that was certainly produced by Micall Parknsun

488
00:46:13,040 --> 00:46:21,840
really really um really um blessed to be working with hip-hop legend UK um we've just recently

489
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:30,560
dropped the video for the first single I'd say um censorship um dropped that on YouTube and

490
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:37,200
probably got like uh it got censored basically got um got age restricted and got um

491
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:45,760
um yeah in the comments so yeah um that's out and then since then this year i am on a mission

492
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:51,520
to do what currency did in what year was it i can't remember what year the currency released the

493
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:57,280
release the project every month oh i can't remember what year i remember i remember you

494
00:46:57,280 --> 00:47:01,680
was telling me yeah but they had every year every month he had like the name of the month

495
00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:07,680
or something so similar to kind of like so just like crooked out 50 yeah 50 mix tapes so like

496
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:13,840
you know I've got a product so first product I dropped this year was um unhooked with kisser beats

497
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:21,280
I dropped that in January the same time in January I uh I was involved in the Nyark and gold on the

498
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:27,360
mixer group projects which I've got out there once or always and the other i can't actually

499
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:34,240
wrongly know it's just escape my memory and then February I had um I released a group project with

500
00:47:34,240 --> 00:47:41,040
has ice from the midlands from Wild Samson one of my favorite artists in the UK we released a

501
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:50,960
group project on Nyark as well um and then in march which is um last month just gone i released

502
00:47:50,960 --> 00:48:00,800
a ep capital a with acne beats and now April we're in now next week I've got a project dropping

503
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:09,280
on Nyark called real music r e e l music that would be the fourth project of the year I've also

504
00:48:09,280 --> 00:48:19,760
got a project in the next month with um uh SilvaGrey yeah and an angle beats as well so yeah a lot

505
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:26,000
of music coming out the real music also is a lot of feature from yours truly yeah i mean so

506
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:33,600
yeah exactly yeah so so um so just uh obviously because me and you have been discussing obviously

507
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:39,200
outside of the conversation just some of the platforms do you can you remember any of the

508
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:45,360
platforms that have spoken spoken about that really are interested in using the Bitcoin

509
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:51,840
crypto economy crypto world or I think WavLake you did yeah yeah you've um um

510
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:57,760
showed me some stuff like WavLake and I've looked up some stuff but then they do look very

511
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:06,080
attractive if I'm honest so I'm probably going to be trying to get set up um there very very soon

512
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:13,200
probably in the next week yeah yeah so again to the people that's going to be listening on fountain

513
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:20,240
right now um you'll be able to find Airklipz's anywhere on the bitcoin blockchain or more

514
00:49:20,240 --> 00:49:25,520
you'll be able to find some of Klip's material coming up on WavLake, WavLake I know

515
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:32,720
you're going to kill me for that but um but probably very very soon um and I definitely

516
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:38,880
know Airklipz is is around a ton a ton a ton of great artists who are like doing some some great

517
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:44,000
things so it's going to be crazy to see some of that collection actually like make it over to

518
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:49,760
bitcoin and you start exploring you know what's going on in in the beef of the world and looking

519
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:54,960
forward to it you know ordinals and all of the rest of it right so um and for the ones of you hey

520
00:49:54,960 --> 00:50:00,000
ordinals yes you know people do like music still no matter whether it's on ordinals or not or if

521
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:05,200
it's on a piece of toilet paper bro so you know just have to deal with it right but um but yeah

522
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:11,040
all right cool listen let them know where they can they can get at you yeah like where's the places

523
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:18,240
that they can find you online and um basically um if you search all social all the social media

524
00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:26,960
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

525
00:50:26,960 --> 00:50:34,880
on all the social media platforms you know all the dsp's I'm out there as well so yeah um follow

526
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:42,640
me and um stay tuned for all my new music coming up yeah cool cool people see you on the next one

527
00:50:42,640 --> 00:51:08,400
you got thanks for having me

528
00:51:12,640 --> 00:51:13,360
you