Whats good King Pin? Where are you from and How long have you been in the music business?
Im blessed and highly favored thank you for asking. Im originally from Miami, Ive lived in Tampa, Jacksonville, New York, Detroit, New Jersey but I call Atlanta Home now. Ive been in the business over 10 years.
How did you link up with Team Bigga Rankin/Core DJ’s?
I’ve been quoted in the past, “Chill The Million Dollar Man (Free Chill) found me, Tony Neal (Core djs) Co-signed me and Bigga Rankin Signed me to a Life-Time deal.
We created Team Bigga Rankin (An oxymoron if you will, a team named after one person.) so that all of the people that the OG blessed could come together to change the world or the Rap game at the very least.
In your opinion what do you think about hip hop today VS Hip Hop when you were coming up?
I think the ones hollering Hiphop is dead are old and bitter and scared of change. Hiphop is a sub-culture… more like a lifestyle. My biggest problem with the current state of hiphop is simple… where are the voices of our culture? Where are the leaders of our youth? You can go on youtube and search Tupac and for every dope video you will find an even doper interview with him. We don’t have that. Who will be the voice of this generation 10, 20 years from now. When I was coming up we didn’t have the overwhelming amount of rappers we do now. You see keep in mind hiphop is about 40 years old… We wanted so bad to be accepted by the mainstream that when it happened we lost sight of the prize, we were blinded by the diamonds and gold… The deeper you get into the entertainment business you start to see how much of a dog and pony show it really is.
A lot of artist today don’t understand the importance of real marketing & promotion. Why is investing in proper marketing and promotion so critical to an artist success?
Ogilvy once said” the only product that doesn’t sell is the one that is not advertised.” Without marketing and promotion and branding how can you expect to appeal to the consumer when your competition is marketing and promoting to them. How important is branding… you can buy a cup of coffee from the gas station for $1.29 in a plain white cup. Put that same coffee in a star bucks cup and it is now worth $3.29. Most people dont see the value in it, because un like a traditional investment where you put money in and get money out, marketing is not that way. Most people see it as a “waste” or “non-beneficial” …. ask Mcdonalds how important marketing and promotions are… They used to be a fast food chain, now its a real estate company… They sell poison and we know it, but when we are on the go and are hungry, we line up with money in hand… ever seen any fat unhealthy unhappy people in a Mcdonalds’ commercial? And you wont. Always young healthy happy vibrant people getting happier when they bite into that triple bypass on a bun and wash it down with liquid diabetes they call sweet tea. You (the artist, labels etc..) are a brand, the only way to build that brand is by marketing and promotions. Never give the consumer the option to accept or reject, tell them they love this because everybody else does…. The consumer is much like cattle, they go where you lead them, even to slaughter.
Branding another big topic in the music business. Explain why developing your own brand is just as important?
Like i stated previously. you are the brand!!!! If people can’t trust the brand, if they are not familiar with the brand, then they wont support the brand. Name brands in the eyes of the consumer mean quality, a higher standard, they only invest in what they know and are familiar with… If you don’t develop your brand you will always be the spokesperson for someone else. Be your own brand, build you brand, establish its worth, and enforce it. The fact is until your brand has any value your music won’t.
When making a decision to become an artist, producer, DJ Etc what are some of the first things they should do when building a budget?
That ugly word…BUDGET, The biggest things to do are…
– Have a realistic Gameplan
– have the proper personnel to execute that game plan
– Learn the term “Cost of doing business”
– Learn the difference between paying for a service and paying for support.
– When trying to calculate a budget be realistic and play devils advocate. (Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, its life, try to plan ahead)
– Research people and their companies THOROUGHLY
– Dont build a budget off of wants, build it off of needs. what do we need to keep going vs what we want to make it look good while we are doing it.
What are some of the common mistakes you see in artist today?
The sense of entitlement or this attitude of fuck yall imma do this on my own. That will never happen. In this business most artist want to be rescued so someone else can do for them what they would never do for themselves which by law of the world puts them at a disadvantage from the gate.
Paying for support or spins etc… Once the money runs out so does the support.
Not having their business in order…
When a Client locks in a service for example single distribution, take us through the process of pushing their music?
I wont give you the recipe, however our business is transparent. When an artist reaches out for a service we start with the basics, Service the record. its not what is being sent its who is sending it. Ive been blessed to have helped some people get results as of late so our service is in high demand. gather the feedback and build your plan of attack based on the information you have gathered, feedback, spotify numbers, shazam numbers, pandora numbers, soundcloud numbers, radio spins (if applicable) etc…. Without this info how can you know where your support is? how will you know where to go first…. When building a house you don’t just start hammering wood together and stacking blocks. you clear out the ground, pour the foundation then start building. The key to success is INFRASTRUCTURE!!!!!
What advice would you give to anyone looking to be successful in this business?
ADVICE? UNLESS YOU ARE READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING, DONT DO IT. YOU CANT SKIP THE STRUGGLE….
Get a Lawyer, Publicist, Accountant and Distribution in place before you do anything else. If you don’t have the money for it, than this isn’t the business for you.
When your son wants to play high school football, he’s gonna need a physical, insurance, cletes, gloves, visor, mouthpiece, gotta drive to practice, gonna have to feed that growing boy, the more he eats the bigger he gets meaning new clothes, etc…. if you cant afford the basics then you can’t get your ass on the field and play. Same principal with music, if you cant afford the basics, you cant get in the game to play….. Its not on me to believe in you enough to invest my own money, i beleieve in me enough to invest it in me, thats why i can produly proclaim that I am the BEST at what i do, and no one can contradict that statement. ALL FACTS NO FLEX
Any shoutouts? Where can we find you online?
SHOUT OUT AMG, for believing in me enough to throw me the keys to the bentley and tell me to do me. SHOUT OUT my family without my wife, my support system i wouldnt be able to focus on winning, she takes care of home while i handle business. SHOUT OUT Bigga Rankin, the closet thing i have to a father, my business partner, mentor and best friend. SHOUT OUT The Promo Vatican, Breezy, Bigg DM and the rest of my brothers and sisters, Tampa Mystic, Dj Cube, Dj Tephlon, Dj Ace, Black Bill Gates, Steve Chavez, Brian Sampson, Ghazi, Datpiff, Livemixtapes, Mymixtapez, Virdiko man the list is endless… yall may not have enough space in this magazine….
my number and email are the same and wont change 678-542-6768 / strongfamilyinfo@gmail.com Twitter @rapjuggernaut IG @rapjuggernaut Facebook/rapjuggernaut My schedule is public info. Google me..
Be on the look out for Big Cuz, Cool Amerika, Prophit, Casa Casa, Coca Vango, Bigga Rankin got 100 more mixtapes coming, just stay tuned, we are coming bigger and better than ever before…..
