The 2020 college football season has been defined by the unusual due to its happening amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the season has taken its most unusual of turns, as perhaps the sport’s greatest rivalry game will not be played for the first time since 1917.
According to a statement released by the University of Michigan, this weekend’s matchup against Ohio State will not be played due to an uptick of COVID-19 cases in Ann Arbor. It marks the second weekend in a row that the Wolverines will not be able to take the field due to the internal spread of the pandemic, as the team’s game against Maryland last week was also canceled.
The Michigan-Ohio State game has been officially cancelled. Michigan announced an increase in COVID cases this week.
In a statement, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel called this “disappointing for our team and coaches,” but stressed that the university’s No. 1 priority is making sure everyone is able to remain healthy. The statement also clarified that Michigan intends on playing as soon as it is cleared by health officials.
The Buckeyes had previously won eight games in a row in this series, including a 56-27 victory over the Wolverines last weekend. This year, Michigan was set to travel to Columbus to take on fourth-ranked Ohio State, and it is unclear if the Buckeyes will canvas the college football landscape with the hopes of finding a replacement game to help bolster its resume for the College Football Playoff selection committee. In an added twist, this should mean that the Buckeyes are ineligible for the Big Ten Championship Game next weekend, as the conference’s guidelines state that teams must play five games in order to participate, but there have been rumblings that this rule could be changed. If not, the Indiana Hoosiers would earn the distinction of participating in the game.
King Von might be gone but his work lives on. In the bone-chilling video for “Wayne’s Story” — shot before Von’s death — the late Chicago rapper details a mutually destructive cycle of violence that has even more weight, considering how he died himself. The song, which comes from Von’s final album, Welcome To O’Block, finds Von telling the story of “Shorty,” a young friend from the block, and his downward spiral into a life of crime. Unfortunately, the first one to pay the price is Shorty’s cousin, who dies as a result of his actions.
The true tragedy, both of the song and of Von’s life, is that neither Von nor his semi-fictional subject can see how they contribute to their own destruction. Or maybe they can, but they both feel stuck as if there’s no other choice. Shorty’s story is yet to be concluded by the end of the video but in real life, there is no “to be continued…” for Von.
In the weeks since his death in Atlanta, Von has been memorialized, both by the actions of his peers and admirers and by musical appearances with collaborators like Fivio Foreign. His album, Welcome To O’Block, re-entered the Billboard 200 and charted within the top 10.
Indie music has grown to include so much. It’s not just music that is released on independent labels, but speaks to an aesthetic that deviates from the norm and follows its own weirdo heart. It can come in the form of rock music, pop, or folk. In a sense, it says as much about the people that are drawn to it as it does about the people that make it.
A recent episode of Indiecast was all about the many live albums of 2020. The latest release from Arctic Monkeys is a career-spanning performance at the legendary Royal Albert Hall that was put to tape in June 2018. Spanning 20 tracks, Live At The Royal Albert Hall simultaneously captures the band’s infectious live energy and inscrutable “cool” factor, especially on classic AM tracks like “Do I Wanna Know?” Plus, proceeds from the album’s sales will benefit the organization War Child UK, which aims to protect and support children affected by war.
Deafheaven – 10 Years Gone
With touring off the table in 2020, Deafheaven instead decided to celebrate their tenth anniversary with a live-in-studio LP, featuring songs from throughout their first decade as a band. It’s everything you’ve come to know and love from the black metal shoegaze outfit’s studio recordings, but with the dialed-up intensity of their live show.
The Network – Money Money 2020 Part II
It’s been seventeen years since The Network, Green Day’s mysterious masked side project, released their debut album Money Money 2020. Now, the band has returned for a brand new LP to celebrate the prophetic title of their debut. Featuring a staggering 25 tracks, Money Money 2020 Part II is equal parts synth-pop and ’80s-inspired new wave, with tracks decrying the Trump family and anti-mask crusaders during the pandemic.
The White Stripes – The White Stripes Greatest Hits
Almost a decade after their break up, The White Stripes have cataloged their legendary career in a new greatest hits set. Although the tracklist is far from a chronological recollection of the band’s discography, it’s a good reminder of just how exciting and innovative the duo could be at the height of their powers.
Ryan Pollie – Museum At The End Of Time
The latest release from Ryan Pollie is 15-minute ambient visual album, designed alongside two leading video synthesis artists. Together, the team patented a new technology to assist with meditation or mindfulness exercises, a groundbreaking way to listen to music that provides a shortcut to a sense of calm and relief from anxiety. Museum At The End Of Time is an entry into the world of calm.
Tigers Jaw – “Lemon Mouth”
2021 is quickly approaching, and with it comes a new Tigers Jaw album. “Lemon Mouth” is the latest preview of the band’s latest effort I Won’t Care How You Remember Me, a shimmering alternative rock track that features Breanna Collins taking on the lead vocal for yet another exciting promise of what’s to come from the full LP.
Orson Wilds – “Stand Up”
On their first single after signing with a major label, Canadian duo Orson Wilds deliver one of the most anthemic indie rock jams since Arcade Fire dropped “Wake Up. “It’s the type of song that instantly grabs you and doesn’t let up until the final notes fade. It’s an exceptional promise of what’s to come from the duo, who is currently at work on their debut full-length album with producer extraordinaire Will Yip. The track’s b-side, “Mothers Daughters,” is pretty exceptional, as well.
Jenny Lewis & Serengeti – “Unblu”
Jenny Lewis has had a relatively quiet 2020, with a few standalone releases here and there. The latest of such releases is a collaboration with Chicago rapper Serengeti, a downtempo number featuring hushed vocals from both collaborators. “Unblu” is said to be the first of a handful of collaborative tracks that the duo recorded remotely during the pandemic.
The Wonder Years – “Out On My Feet”
To celebrate ten years of their breakthrough albums The Upsides and Suburbia I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing, Philadelphia punks The Wonder Years returned to the mindset of 2010/2011 for a pair of tracks that were recreated from notes and demos of the era. “Out On My Feet” is the heavier of the two new tracks, but still incorporates everything the band has learned to fine-tune their craft in the subsequent decade. The result is a track that will please old-school fans, while also charting a path forward for the band as they embark on their next decade.
Claud – “Soft Spot”
Claud, the first signee to Phoebe Bridgers’ newly minted label Saddest Factory, is gearing up for the release of their debut album, Super Monster. “Soft Spot” is the latest offering from the LP, a warm track wherein Claud sings of dealing with unrequited love and the mixed emotions that come with it.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Fifty years is a long time, Holiday House sat quietly on that beach
Free of women with madness, their men, and bad habits,
… and then it was bought by me.
— Taylor Swift, “The Last Great American Dynasty”
People love to project their own feelings onto Taylor Swift. Nothing illustrates that better than “The Last Great American Dynasty,” the best song off her eighth album, Folklore, and one of the funniest songs she’s ever written. I heard a writer I admire describe the song as “smug,” and that made me laugh, too. How many young women are in the position to buy historical mansions? How many old men have I endured bragging about their multiple homes since I came of age? When I was a college student in Malibu trying to grow into my madness, Taylor was hurtling from esteemed country songwriter to the slightly more terrifying role, most famous pop star in the world. We probably both listened to a lot of men drone on about their big houses. “Dynasty” is a dig at them, along with her haughty neighbors, not to mention the media speculation that constantly chased down her holiday parties there. But, it reads like a celebration. It’s not smug, it’s hilarious.
Going back to the projection — this is something that both Swift and her multitude of overzealous-though-often-justified fans have had to learn to cope with over the last few years. The ride was never rockier than when a celebrity feud painted her in an increasingly negative light, and the initially lackluster reaction to her bristling, exterior-focused album Reputation threatened to unseat her. For anyone who cared about Taylor Swift, The Person, the fallout of her feud with Kanye West, and later, Kim Kardashian, was more troubling than an apparent impact on album sales or awards. Deeper than that, the feeling that a vicious narrative conveniently left out relevant facts in order to portray the subject in the worst possible light is a hard one to bear, even for the head that (arguably) wears the crown. Following Reputation’s big beats and lyrical daggers, a quick about-face righted the ship as Lover’s floral, rose-colored haze landed critics, and the public, back on her side – even if history will likely reveal Reputation as the stronger record of the pair.
But after the warm interiority of Lover, and a discography built on laying the hardest moments of her personal life bare, Swift needed a new strategy. She’s found it and then some on Folklore, a record that has finally surpassed Red as the best album in her sizable discography, a seemingly-impossible feat that Taylor zealots have worried at for years. Consider the new approach in motion: Instead of writing an interior-focused song about her relationship to Holiday House, her neighbors, or dated ideas about “new money” and women buying property, Taylor pulled in decades of history to make her point. This is a Folklore tactic that re-establishes just why her songwriting eventually turned her into a massive pop star; she’s a master of knowing when to share blueprint details, and when to leave space for a listener’s emotions to move into the house.
In a dour year full of death, despair, and the bad kind of absurdist hedonism, the space and light of Folklore changed the tone of music in 2020, not just for certain listeners, but for nearly everyone. It was a signal of potential, a gleam under a dark door, a reminder that quarantine, as endless as it may seem, is not forever. There will be an after, the album argues, appearing as a kind of preparation for it. If country twang, shiny pop production, vocal fry, or distaste for beat-driven bops have ever kept you away from the music of Taylor Swift, then consider Folklore a formal invitation to join the ranks of those who swear by her melodies. Folklore is an album for those dense enough to think Ryan Adams’ version of 1989 was better, its shimmering folk and timeless production choices all but guarantee any hurdle to listening, enjoying, and relating has been formally removed. This too can be read as a joke, if it wasn’t so important to establish, in the midst of this summer’s darkness, that there are still beautiful things.
Folklore remains a deeply-felt, idiosyncratic album that only Taylor could’ve made, but there’s a sense of remove that has been absent in her earlier work; it’s more like a new collaborator in the room than anything has been subtracted. It seems she’s finally come to an understanding of her place in the canon, a quiet wisdom bred in the isolation of quarantine, or perhaps credited to the newfound stability of a loving partner (and, apparently, inspiring musical collaborator). Though, none of this growth came easy. Halfway through the record, a song called “This Is Me Trying” is one of the only tracks she’s ever written that directly addresses mental health, and she explicitly notes in a recent concert film, Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, that it’s a song about “mental illness, addiction, and suicide.” What might’ve once taken an entire album to address is now just a three-minute flashback, a truncated sadness that simultaneously illustrates the most insidious thing about mental illness, the way it steals other potential narratives from us.
Trauma necessitates self-focus, the brain stuck on a loop in pain sees only its own agony. Folklore casts a much wider net, with narratives that grapple with healing and moving on from the past, and most of the pain portrayed here is seen in a distant rearview mirror, or gently reimagined through the lens of other people’s lives (“Betty,” “August”). This is music that contextualizes what Taylor’s personally been through, naming feelings rather than real people in songs that capture moods (“Mad Woman”) and consequences (“My Tears Ricochet”) instead of literal play-by-play moments. The result is that those who haven’t been able to connect with Swift’s music in the past now have the necessary room to do it, and those of us who have literally grown up with her can proudly acknowledge another step in her own growth. Folklore isn’t just the best album of 2020, it’s a marvelous unraveling of everything she’s ever been, and a brilliant reckoning with who she wants to become.
Chris Stapleton’s first album since 2017, Starting Over, has been out in the world for a few weeks. In order to celebrate the 14-track effort, Stapleton brought his track “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” to a rollicking performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Broadcasting from his cozy home studio, Stapleton gave a revved-up rendition of his song complete with a captivating guitar solo. “And mama always set a good example / Daddy always gave me good advice / Jesus tried to steer me in the right direction / But the devil always made me think twice,” he sings with his signature smokey vocals.
While Stapleton’s Starting Over was his first LP in three years, that’s not all the singer had been working on. Back in 2019, the singer made a very quick cameo in Game Of Thrones where he got the chance to play a White Walker. “I was like, you know, I would gladly fly to wherever in the world just to be a small part and get to watch that show going down,” he said about the opportunity. “They were gracious enough to let me come participate that way.”
Watch Stapleton perform “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” on The Late Show above.
Starting Over is out now via Mercury Nashville. Get it here.
James Harden is still not at Rockets camp as the team had anticipated his arrival this weekend and when he didn’t show they called it “a setback” to their plans. The superstar guard has made it abundantly clear that he would like a trade, with his entire focus in recent weeks being on getting to the Brooklyn Nets.
The problem with that plan is, with two full years left on his contract, the Rockets are not in the same time crunch as previous star trade requests and, as such, have refused to lower their price in trade discussions. Houston still wants an All-Star caliber player in return, along with significant draft compensation, and that is not something Brooklyn is willing to match right now, as their likely package includes good players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, and Jarrett Allen, but none of those fit the All-Star/All-NBA bill.
As such, there has been no apparent traction on trade talks with Brooklyn and Harden has decided to open up his request to other teams, provided they are also contenders — including the Philadelphia 76ers where Daryl Morey now runs things — per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon.
After it was clear there was no traction in talks with the Nets, Harden expressed to the Rockets that he would be agreeable if a trade with the 76ers materialized, sources said. Harden also indicated that there could be other teams that fit his criteria for a preferred destination, a source said.
The question remains as to whether Philadelphia or any other top contender would be amenable to sending the Rockets the return they desire in a Harden trade, although the Sixers certainly have the ammunition to do so should they so choose. Ben Simmons has been the name most have expected to be the Rockets top target in Harden trade talks, although to this point Morey has not been willing to split up his two young stars in discussions, per MacMahon and Woj.
Among the issues facing a Harden trade are teams wanting the superstar to be willing to agree to an extension — which he turned down from the Rockets earlier this offseason that would’ve made him the first NBA player to earn $50 million a year. Still, as the season approaches, one can expect talks with some team to at least enter the “semi-serious” phase, and we will learn exactly how uncomfortable Houston is willing to make things this season if they aren’t offered a monster package by someone by opening night.
Railing against cancel culture is practically Ricky Gervais’ calling card at this point, and he didn’t disappoint during a recent interview where he blasted Twitter outrage for costing people their careers. While sitting down with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett for their SmartLess podcast, Gervais unloaded on how the popular social media site has elevated mass voices that the British comedian argues shouldn’t be elevated. Via Mediaite:
Gervais went on to describe cancel culture as a form of “road rage,” adding, “It’s things happening too fast that you can’t take back. People dig in and people want to be heard. People want to feel they have an effect. It’s why people heckle a comedian. They want to feel they were there. Now people are heard.”
Gervais also blasted the validity of Twitter backlash and the way it can result in a person being canceled. “An idiot stands next to a genius on Twitter and it looks the same,” he noted. “It’s the same font.”
While the existence of cancel culture is hotly debated, and it’s no secret which side of the argument that Gervais sits on, he did offer some nuance on the controversial subject. The comedian agreed that criticism is valid and people have a right to not support an entertainer — to a point. “They’re allowed to not buy your things. They’re allowed to burn your DVDs and they’re allowed to turn the telly off,” Gervais said. “What they’re not allowed to do is to bully other people into not going to see you.”
As for being cancelled himself, Gervais isn’t at all concerned and has a back-up plan if necessary. “Who’s gonna cancel me? Twitter? YouTube? If I have to, I’ll go to Hyde Park and stand up on a bench and shout sh*t.”
Though Chloe x Halle had put out their debut album The Kids Are Alright in 2018, 2020 was undoubtedly their breakout year. The sister duo put out their mature LP Ungodly Hour this year and ever since, they’ve been getting some major gigs. They’ve performed on various late-night talk shows and awards ceremonies, and they were even tapped to sing the National Anthem at an NFL kickoff. Now concluding a whirlwind year, Chloe x Halle brings their slow-burning music to NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series.
Seated on a not-so-tiny desk, Chloe x Halle harmonized their soaring melodies backed by a full band and a string section. They kicked things off with their track “Don’t Make It Harder On Me” before moving into “Baby Girl,” which they wrote as a reminder that “whatever happens it will be okay.” Finally, they rounded off their set with “Do It,” “Ungodly Hour,” and “Wonder What She Thinks Of Me.”
While their Tiny Desk concert capped off a busy year for the two, Chloe x Halle recently revealed that they were criticized for their “complex” sound before being signed by Beyonce’s record label. Speaking to The Guardian, Chloe said, “People would tell us what we were creating was too complex for the average ear. I feel like that’s so not cool to tell two young creatives who are pushing the boundaries, especially when we’re in a world where everything’s so manufactured exactly the same.”
Watch Chloe x Halle’s Tiny Desk performance above.
Ungodly Hour is out now via Parkwood Entertainment. Get it here.
Rudy Giuliani might be grabbing all of the attention (and for good reason) during Trump’s post-election fiasco, but behind him, there’s a smirking lady lawyer member of Trump’s “Elite Strike Force.” That would be Jenna Ellis, who’s stood near Rudy for the hair goo and every other recent adventure, including his audible gas-passing (complete with Jenna side-eye) during a Michigan hearing. That’s the same hearing where he asked a woman next to him to take off her mask, four days before testing positive for COVID-19, and given that Jenna sits next to Rudy, oh boy.
Axios reported on Tuesday morning that Jenna had “informed associates she tested positive for the coronavirus,” which upset a lot of people since she attended a West Wing Christmas party (where people brought their families?) on Friday. She undoubtedly acquired the virus as part of her work on the Elite Strike Force (and likely caught it from Rudy, and yes, there are more fart jokes), but she believes that she’s doing God’s work. Via Raw Story, here’s what Jenna had to say to Fox Business when asked how she feels about people thinking she’s crazy for pushing the “election fraud” conspiracy into lawsuit after failed lawsuit:
“You know, my life is in service and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so whatever anybody else says really doesn’t bother me… and that’s ultimately at the end of the day, as long as I know that I’m pursuing truth and I’m doing the right thing for God and my country, that’s all that matters. So that’s what gives me my optimism and my hope.”
Her words stand on their own in terms of being truly bonkers, but it’s worth revisiting Jonathan Swan’s Axios report. He wrote that Jenna would neither confirm nor deny “test[ing] positive and that some senior staff weren’t happy,” Jenna responded that Swan was “rude” to text so late in the evening (after midnight). She added, “You must be more informed than me because I haven’t heard that,” and then she stopped responding when Swan asked if she denied having Covid-19. “Rude” might apply to a lot more in this situation than texting after midnight, but alright.
A long time ago, one of the biggest criticisms of hip-hop by music traditionalists was that the new genre didn’t use any “real instruments.” Condescending rock snobs thumbed their noses at early rap producers’ use of drum machines, samples, and turntable mixers, deriding them for using technology in place of honored tools like real drum sets, guitars, keyboards, and whatever other sounds could be used to make popular music.
We’ve come a long way since then; rap has become one of the most popular genres in the world and more often than not, the two styles have informed each other. As one incorporated new technologies, the other began to rely more and more on live instruments and musicians to embellish and build on the once-simple formula established by producers of old. And one group of musicians stands at the forefront of innovation in hip-hop: 1500 Or Nothin.
Established by musician/producer Larrance “Rance” Dopson and singer-songwriter James Fauntleroy in the early 2000s — along with Lamar Edwards and Brody Brown, as well as Kenneth “Bam” Alexander Jr., Alexandria Dopson, Charles “Uncle Chucc” Hamilton, Carlos “Los” McSwain, and Jeret “J. Black” Black — 1500 Or Nothin began as a band and quickly expanded into a do-everything collective of musicians, producers, songwriters, and videographers generating content for the biggest names in music, from Jay-Z to Justin Timberlake.
However, simply being one of the low-key biggest names in music wasn’t enough for James and Rance. Seeing a need not only for skilled musicians and producers in the music world but also for business-savvy ones, they decided to turn their double-decade level of experience into a curriculum preparing working musicians for the real world. They established the 1500 Sound Academy in their stomping grounds of Inglewood, California in 2018, partnering with entrepreneur Twila True and instrument manufacturers like Roland to provide state-of-the-art equipment, practice rooms, and recording studios to students participating in their six-month certificate program.
Students learn the business from working musicians like “Air” Jared Selter, an award-winning sound designer and producer, jazz revivalist Terrace Martin, production duo Mike & Keys, and Fauntleroy, who has written hits for Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, and more. The curriculum includes everything from networking to contracts — the importance of which has been highlighted several times over the past year. The building even has a performance stage, where students can jam out to their hearts’ content after classes.
The Sound Academy doesn’t just teach musicians the business, though. It actually helps them find positions within it and thrive. While many starry-eyed aspiring producers often see themselves accepting Grammys for producing hits for Kendrick Lamar, the Sound Academy shows them hundreds of other opportunities for lucrative behind-the-scenes work that mainstream fans may not even be aware of. The Academy is building, slowly but surely, a community of artists who can rely on each for support, even after they’ve completed their courses.
In an interview over the phone, Rance says his goal is to help make musicians “unemployable.” While that sounds counterintuitive, what he really means is he wants to ensure that they have all the tools and know-how to work for themselves so they can create their own opportunities and ensure their longevity. While some elder statesmen would rather withhold that information to curtail future competition, Rance, James, and the rest of the 1500 collective sees themselves as empowering artists in an industry where knowledge is power.
What was the process of beginning the 1500 Sound Academy?
I’ve traveled around the world. I got like three filled passports. So I’ve been able to pay attention to a lot of the problems around the world in the entertainment business. So I always kept notes of that. James, at that time, was writing for all the biggest artists in the world to where we were just gathering information and solving problems and seeing what was going wrong in the music business and how could people like us, as writers and producers, be treated fair. It was just a lot of things we didn’t understand about the business that we didn’t think was right.
We just wanted to create our own curriculum with expert opinions, because in the music business there really isn’t rules for this. Due to the fact that it’s a new day and age of technology, everything is new. So everyone does music differently and we just want to be a blueprint of what the music business is today in the fairest, high-level way.
What would you say is probably the most important thing for a young, up-and-coming artist to know about the music business?
We try to teach you how to be unemployable. I tell people all the time, it’s really about being able to create a thought and for it to really happen. So I tell people all the time, the only thing people can do is license my thoughts and ideas as partners, just because I understand how powerful it is when you understand and know all the rules to break the rules.
Our school is the school for that, to literally teach you everything from the music business to emotional intelligence. We have songwriting classes, financial literacy classes. It’s everything at a high-level, so you can at least know how to do everything on your own and you’re learning from industry professionals that are really in the business today
What’s one thing that you’re surprised that people don’t know about the music business when they come in?
Publishing. Really understanding the music business, the publishing, the royalty system, and how it really works. And just learning how to be a good person. Ninety percent of the business is just being someone cool, to where you can do business with your friends when you get to a certain level. Also, not reacting to emotional and low-level things to where it’ll ruin your opportunity. I see a lot of that in the business. You’ll make an emotional reaction, where if you really thought about it and just took your time and relaxed, that could change your whole life. It’s really simple things.
Speaking of making music with your friends, you have one of the most impressive lists of friends in terms of people you’ve worked with and people who do business with you. Who was the first person that you worked with that you were just utterly starstruck to be sitting in as a musician or engineering or producing for them?
Well, when I first started, I got my first hit when I was 17. I’m 36 now.
But I would have to say, Snoop Dogg. Between Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. They gave us our first opportunity. We were blessed to have the opportunity to work on “Show Me What You Got” with Just Blaze and Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. They really opened the door and it gave us an opportunity. They were like our uncles that loved us, so they really protected us and taught us a lot about the music business and I just appreciate them for that.
What is the importance of having live musicians on deck? What do they bring to the production process that you normally wouldn’t get from a sample or a synthesizer?
It’s really like if you want food in a microwave or if you want food from the oven. There’s a big difference. Food from the microwave, you can hear it. Food from the oven, you can feel it. So it’s a difference. People could tell that you care. People don’t even realize when they hear music and when they move, it’s because they’re feeling it and not even realizing it. That’s one of the secrets to us being the producers we are. We know how to mix everything in one to make all genres happy.
What things have changed the most since you started?
Well, thank God, we really understood branding at an early stage, because one of the most powerful things for branding is word-of-mouth. So I was the guy, every day, wearing a 1500 T-shirt. Every award show. Every time you seen us, we really wanted to let everybody know who we was and create a brand for ourselves. And now it’s much easier. I don’t have to wear a T-shirt every day, because you know who we are.
Then, we were learning the rules. Now, we’re breaking the rules and helping other people learn the rules too, so they can break them. And that’s the most important part. That’s why me and James went through it, man. That’s why I wanted to build the Sound Academy — to have a place where we can really train these people because I’m getting calls every day.
There’s opportunities for movies and TV shows and award shows. Every single day that they’re calling me for business. But we have to make sure we train them right to where they can deal with superstars and deal with an emotional person and know how not to react and know how to just be a good person where you can stay memorable — for them to call you again for the next gig and just to keep favor with your name. That’s so important and that’s what changed.
To that end, I would really love to know where some of the 1500 Sound Academy students ended up.
They’re on fire, man. Some of them have been in Kanye West’s choir. They’ve been touring. We got some working for Young Thug. We got a couple of people working with Roc Nation. After you graduate, you’re one of us. So when there’s opportunities and we know that you could fit the job, it makes total sense for us to call them and hook them up. I still have sessions and bring our students to my studio sessions and just show them the real experience. Because to know is to experience and we just want to really teach them hands-on so they can actually see it and be inspired. All it takes is one time or one conversation to change someone’s life forever, so we want to keep building those opportunities.
Speaking about opportunities, what were some of your favorites from over the years and what drew you to those opportunities in the first place?
Roddy Ricch’s Tiny Desk concert. I just executive produced Trippie Redd’s album that came out. We’re working on Justin Timberlake’s new album. I know James is doing Bruno Mars’s album right now. Jeezy album comes out Friday. I worked on that. We’re pretty much working with everybody right now in the business. Today I have to do a show with Roddy Ricch and we’re doing AMAs with Lil Baby and I’m the musical director for that. We just did Megan Thee Stallion. All her shows and her award shows, I’m the musical director for that.
You’ve done a lot of interviews over the years. You’ve talked to a lot of different publications. I’m sure you’ve heard every question in the book. But every artist has that one question that they wish people would ask them that they never heard because it’s something they want to talk about, but nobody ever gives them that opportunity.
Why there are only like two superstars and why are there so many artists that don’t make it. I know the answer. You want the answer?
Go for it.
I learned this from one of my close friends, Big Bob. He’s a guy that taught me and Nipsey Hussle and a lot of other people about branding. You got to know the 22 immutable laws of branding. It’s a book. It’s called [The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product Or Service Into a World-Class Brand]. If anybody says they’re a business person, but they don’t know those laws… They have to know these laws.
If you miss number nine and number 16, your whole business can fail. You don’t even know why it’s failing. So it teaches you things like every brand has to own one word in the hearts and the mind of the consumer. So let’s say if I say FedEx. If I say FedEx, the first word in the mind that they own is overnight. So if I say your name, if I say an artist’s name, what is the first word they own? What is your cure for the world? Am I going to listen to your music when I want to work out or when I want to go to sleep or when I want to just chill or when I ride in the car? You have to figure out what is your cure.
It talks about stuff like a new brand never sells advertising. That’s the one mistake every label does when they tell their artists, “Say, ‘Hey, go buy my album, go buy my album.’” And that’s the number one thing you’re not supposed to do. It’s called favorable publicity. Favorable publicity is when you have other people talking about your album. That’s what you want to get people to do.
There’s a guy named Clayton Christensen I think everybody needs to really study. He created the word disruptive innovation. When you really understand that and figure out how to create your own category, your own words, your own market to where there’s no traffic in your own lane, that’s when you can really differentiate yourself and then have people talking about you. Because it’s about being the news seven days of the week and if you can’t be in the news, in the conversation of people, it’s not going to work. It’s about being a sensory brand. You have to cover all the senses. You got to be able to sell every sense. And when artists figure that out, then they’ll have some money and they’ll be successful. The end.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
