The Deep Relationship Between Music & Tech w/ Bryan Michael Cox

taking ownership wherever we play. A two thousand nineteen Nielsen reports stated that African Americans spend more time consuming video on their smartphones compared to the total population, saying black people spend nearly thirty hours a week on websites and apps on their smartphones, more than three hours more than all consumers as a whole, and we over index on

YouTube and Facebook. I asked Charlemagne the Guy about what it takes for black people to not only see technology as a medium for consumption, but a new wealth opportunity, a place where we can build. I think the biggest land might actually is the information right, Like, how many people are really thinking about being in the tech world. We're quick to download the latest you know, at will download Twitter, the Instagram, the facebooks to TikTok's, you know

whatever it is where where where? We're so quick to be consumers, But how many people are actually learning coding? You know? Like, how many people are taking advantage of that? So to me, I think the biggest land mine is just lack of knowledge on what it is we're actually consuming all the time. You know, it is realizing that you don't have to just go in there and you know, you know, buy some clothes, you can own the store. Like,

I think that's the biggest thing. That's the biggest land mine is just lack of information like who's gonna be the the cool black tech guy that makes other black kids want to be in the tech world, Like who's gonna be the man that they see make a couple of billion dollars and be like, oh, I need to get into techtus. We're visual people, you know. You see one Lebron, everybody want to be Lebron. You see one Drake now, everybody want to be Drake. So it's just like,

who's gonna be that in the tech world. That's why you know, people like Robert Smith was so important, you know, That's why people like you know, even a Byron Island is important because I just feel like black kids need to see them and realize what are their stories? You know, how did they get started? What fields were they in too? That made them who they are? Because you know, we're like I said, we're visual people, so once we see them and we'll be like, oh, well, maybe I need

to be in that space. The biggest thing that we can have is ownership. Nowadays. This isn't a new concept, like this is an old concept. This is what you know. Elijah Muhammed has been talking about owning your own you know, doing for self, like like, this is what Marcus Garvey like, this is what they've always told us that we need to do. I just think that we're the first generation that actually has the resources and the knowledge to be able to make those ownership dreams or reality. I'm Will

Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money. Now I'm gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black and building or simply using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you. People are saying that there is value in creating the tools, and I think full all, like, yo,

let's go after let's get after it. But I think that the way that this Internet and people are able to give money and break themselves in the Internet, I think that that's just opened up so many doors for people as Brian Michael Cox, music producer and songwriter responsible for more than a hundred million album sales, thirty five number one hits, and twelve Grammy nominations, including nine wins. While he's less known for his business and entrepreneurial prowess,

people are starting to take notice. He owns the production company and in that music label to send the first a clothing line Nerds Get the Girls, and partner with Studio Linked to create both the vs T, which is a virtual synthesizer, and a masterclass where he teaches production

and songwriting lessons. Brian has been the friend of mine for closer twenty years, and I wanted to get his thoughts on the deep relationship between music and technology that many of us may not fully appreciate, and how black people are in the perfect position to create new distribution channels for our creativity, channels that we can own. You know, if we think back to the you know, the earlier stages of like recorded music, you know what I mean.

People don't like to use the word technology when it comes to like things from the early twentieth century, late two dight century, but that l a a nineteenth century, but that was technology, so if you know, when people had the advent of record players, the advent of vinyl, the advent of you know what I mean, the all the way down to the you know seventies, you know, furniture, stereos and I mean, all that stuff is technology. So

you think about how we used to record music. We used to recording music straight to vinyl, you know what I mean, and they would take that vinyl president and go duplicate that vinyl, you know what I mean. Um. Then it evolved into you know, recording, you know, recording studios with four track recorders and eight track recorders, the sixteen tracks and then do what I mean um throughout the years. So every ten years there's always been an

advancement of technology. It's anonymous with music, you know what

I mean. So you think about the sixties. If you if you are familiar with the Beach Boys, and there was a record you know that they made that was like changed the whole wave of how people recorded music because the leader the Beach Boys was laying on all these sounds, because they had all this access that they never had before, two different tracks and multiple tracks, um, and he was able to put all these different things into this you know, into this into this music that

changed the way people made music. Um. You know, technology has always been synonymous with music. Um, you fast forward to you know, in the seventies where it's eight track nal cassette becomes a huge thing because now people are able to do portable you know, it's the portable cassettes.

You know, people have Walkman's the whole thing. And in in the eighties when they introduced us to this, to the compact, this concept and how that changed the whole you know, landscape of the music business and all of this is technology that always that's been developed. You know that that has been developed you know what I mean, or or been in development for decades, you know what I mean. It just kind of as as things start

pushing forward. I feel like technology leads to music. Right. So, um, when things become super digital in the in the late seventies early eighties, technology lad that you know what I'm saying. So you go to the studio. Now you're able to record things digitally. There's digital audio tape, there's digital you know recording uh consoles, there's digitally you know, there's digital outboard gear that's making the sound crisp you know, more crisp.

All of that has to be developed, you know, do all of that was developed to enhance uh or to progress the the trajectory and recorded music, and then how do we put this stuff out? So then if us not, technology has to lead the way of how the things are released. And I feel like, because we've been especially me being a music business, we don't really view it like, oh, well, we're part of the technology business, but what we are if we understood exactly, we don't mean how things go,

why things are the way they are. We're part of that business too. And I feel like now we're in a space where people are starting to really really realize that technology and music have always been synonymous and now we can see it being synonymous through the advent of the internet. Um in the way that people are able to release music, market music. Um. You know, there are

no more gatekeepers per se. So I think the gatekeepers it's kind of what what kept us from noticing the actual connection that technology and music actually have, you know what I mean. But now there's no gatekeepers now, man, It's like it's it's it's literally the wild, wild West right now, you know what I mean? And I don't think it's ever going to go back. I think you know, you can't really put up you can't really control the

World Wide Web. Man. Yeah, let's let's talk about that, that trajectory of production, because you know, I've had the pleasure of seeing you work in the studio, and you're working with you in the studio, and you know, if you to your point, you know, if you rewind fifteen twenty years, you know you're working with dats and you know, because you know all that kind of stuff, and now it is you are equally almost have to be good at programming as you are if you have to, if

you know how to play at all, you don't even have to know how to play an instrument. You have to know how to program, program and instrument. So talk about technology from that lens and the music production side, Like how much time are you learning? Are you spending learning new software? Oh? I mean, I'm I'm I'm like right now. That's the beautiful thing about Quarantine, And I've been able to really dive into software that I was like, Oh, I'm gonna get to what I bought it. I'm gonna

get to it. But when you're actively working, you kind of just use what you've been using, and for me, you know it. The shift from Logic two Ableton was a hard shift because I was in the middle of projects when I made that shift, you know what I mean. So learning able to and the missed me making you know us your album? Want to miss me making a Monica album. It was difficult because I couldn't totally. I couldn't totally just shut Logic off because I was in

the middle of making records. But I want to learn this new thing, so I would take time to learn able to to do you know, do my little online classes and all that, you know what I mean. But I couldn't totally just shut logic off. Um. In this quarantine, I've been able to just shut things off and say, yo, I want to learn fl So I'm gonna shut um Ableton off for two weeks because I don't really have any proper day lines, and if I do, I'm using pro tools, which I would never not use. Proteols like

my tape machine, so I'm using pro tools. So if Jermaine send and me, you know, um, you know stems from his ANPC to do overdubs, and I just do that stuff in pro tools, and I just protess just like a live you know, a live tape machine versus versus programming and proteols. Even I'm still programming, but the way that I approach it, it's like, oh, I'm using

pro tools as a tape machine. So I'm playing things live down in the protels, I'm over the side down, do my copy and paste, send it back to j D. And That's how I've been working. But as far as my my actual digital audio workstation, I've been trying to stay away from Ableton. I've been really trying to lead on i FL so I could learn. You know, it's easy, It's really easy. But the hard part was being able to shut ableson off, you know what I mean, So

being able to show ableson off. I've been able to really dive into FL and now I'm diving in the cue base this week. Um, So it's like, really, you know, it's it's helpful when you're not in the middle of projects per se, you know what I mean, Or you have the end of project where the end of Busher's albums, so everything has been in pagement overdubs and drops and stuff like that. It's not a whole lot a lot

of writing. You know what I'm saying, which is basically, I'm just in production mode when it comes to the susu alum right now, um, and I do all that stuff in pro tools. So so you're spending in OrderIn the mind of time, just just learning how to work new software, navigate, navigate, solt there, which is programming. And I don't think we we don't. We don't correlct the two because we're being creative and we use as a tool like, oh, this is just our tool to create music,

but it's literally programming. And the way that I view, like people who use fl I view it kind of like how kind of how when I was coming up, right when we was coming up in elementary school and the middle school, you know, Steve Jobs is something very very revolutionary right by you know, you knew that you couldn't really compete with Corporate America at the time. You know, you know IBM was was the was the standard. You know, Dell was the standard. These were the standard PCs and

Corporate America. Right, so if you introduce Apple to Corporate America, they you know, there was some resistance. But what do you do You say, Okay, we're going to raise up the next generation of computer users. So if we can't get into these big corporate offices and put a put us corporate officers who put our systems to elementary schools and middle schools and the high schools, you know what

I mean. So my first computer I ever worked on a regular basis was an Apple to e. You know, as a little kid, that keyboard, that Apple two keyboard is the same exact keyboard that we use right now on our back and pros, you know what I mean. So what happens that as the program as a kid, like my first computer I touched was an Apple two years So as they developed and you get older and you and you go to different schools, you you you you go from middle school to middle school to high school.

By the time I got to high school, McIntoshes were every high school that I you know, that we that I knew. So in my high school, I used mcantoghies. So you graduated high school and you know, my twelfth grade years when I when love grade years, when I first started using like music software, Apple was the only company that was really making software for music, you know what I mean. Yeah, So, so as a creative I'm like, well,

I'm using Apple. So to this day, as afforded two year old person has been amused me for twenty some years, all of the used Apple products, you know what I mean, if they you know, unintentionally or it might have been attentional on his part, but on our part on intentionally creating their own consumer right. SOFL is that same exact thing, right, So think about this now, I use Apple, I'm an Apple user, right, But the average person in the corporate world,

they're using PCs. Right. So if you have a PC in your in your corporate world and um um um, and you're my age and you might have gotten married young or you might have you know, a young child is seventeen eighteen, you know, fifteen years old, you know, and I only compute at the houses a PC and they want to make music. WELLFL was giving, they were it was free. I feel used to be free. Yeah, I'm saying when you were you back in the day, ten years ago, fifteen years ago, FL was free. It

was a free download. So if your mom at a PC and you couldn't afford a Mac, of question, you couldn't get a Mac because Mac was popping. You know, you pick tootho app with your mom. That's computer already. I'm a download FL and I'm gonna start making my little beats on FL. And people kind of shunned FL initially professionals, you know, because it was it was like a game, almost in a video game, the way that we viewed it then, right, But what we didn't realize

was happening is that they were basically building the future consumer. Now, all those kids that were making beats on FL fifteen years ago are top hop harder producers. Now. FL is the number one dog, you know what I mean. And the business right now, all these kids that are going to do is program. A lot of our musicians they just learn how to program, and they still don't even understand that that's what they're doing. I think that the kids trying to connect to that's to let people know that, yo,

you're a computer programmer too. Yeah, so you can actually not just make beats and program. You can create this ship, you can create something. You can actually do something with this that's way bigger than what you e meant you're

even thinking you're doing, you know, So that's that's good. Yeah, And that was my next question because I remember when Fruity Loops was like men, you like, that's trash or whatever you needed you needed a big building with big NPCs, big keyboards, or you was not really doing this thing.

The music industry impresses it when it's convenient, right, So there's a level of embracing it now because you can get records done for a fraction of the costs we were making records, I mean, but in the same breath we were making records for the practics and the cost that I pressed this is you making records for you know, I mean, so it's just a now, um, it's just they they recognize and when it's convenient, you know what

I mean. Now you can go get you can make a hit record for under that the hounds and hours, you know, I mean, if you you know, you've got to get the right creative person, you know, because everything you need in your laptop man, everything you know, your tape machine, your sounds, your you know what I mean, your environment, isn't it? You can now and then you can make the music, write the music, make the music,

record the music, mix the music, master the music. Then if you want to just be some super creative ship and you and you know, you can afford the camera, but to say you can afford the camera and all that ship, then you could say, let me look at a camera or use your phone, you know, people using their iPhones making music using the iPhones, and then you can and then you can you can edit, you know, you can make your video, edit your video, you can

colorize that joint, all of it. You can do everything that you want with this laptop. And now you can put it out so that as you can say, yo, I'm going to go to tune core or go to dist your kid or whatever. Put my package together, put the album out, of the video, out all that ship. Like literally, if you could do every single thing yourself, which I think about when I was coming up and trying to send demos to like you know and ours and stuff like that, like bro, like it was impossible.

It literally isn't possible. If I could just make music and put music out the way that these kids can, I would have so many albums out back then, you know what I mean. But it's just it wasn't available, but now it's available, and the record of the major label system has become almost a little bit obsolete, or it could be it could become obsolutely I think that where major labels to be uh uh coming handy? Is

there like banks now? You know, I wonder if it's especially you know, in the types of environments were living now people are working from home. You know, is the big studio a thing of the past in a way, and maybe for for the past several years, it's been you know, on the on the dowards slide, but I remember taking taking a hit. It's taking a hit. And you know, I remember when you could you could just have a studio in your house and that was looked

down upon. You needed to be at Doppler or you needed to be at you know, all these big studios. And to your point, people, you you can do all this on your laptop. So do you see, um a transition happening to where we're going back to the basics of like, look, we're getting the garage set up or the basement set up, and we're just gonna do all this stuff in this smaller footprint. I mean it is, I mean that's where we at. I feel like the

studio business is definitely taking a hit. Um. You know, you can see definitely see in New York City really really heavy in New York City because that's where student business was a real thing up there, and it's not anymore, you know what I mean. Um, In Atlanta, a lot of people just have their own studios, so it's you know, people are you know, people stop kind of booking studios some years ago. Now, I mean, you still could book studios here, but it's not like the business wasn't really

like the past couple of years. It's been like anyway because everybody has their own spot, right um l A is the only place where the studio business is still you relevant, and I think because there's a lot of just you know, when you're doing movies and you're doing you know, when it's a big town like that, it's a you know, a lot of what they're doing is

UM based on that. I think. I think that for the most part though, when it comes to making music, people people make their own masters at the crib, the quality is high because the you know, the access to UM to to being never an immediately manipulate the sound properly is it's easy now, you know what I mean, It's easier to get access to that type of stuff. So UM, the senior business definitely took a hit man,

you know what I mean. You know, I'm I'm still a person that enjoys going through the studio um because that's just where I come from, you know what I mean. But why these kids they don't you know what I mean? Like like if you ever seen these kids go to the studio, like you know, they don't even understand. They only use student for the speakers. Literally, like how high school the studio and I would have to rent all this gear if it was a process, you know what

I mean? Like these kids, it's an ox cord laptop and speakers. That's it. Don't even the board, don't get touched nothing, and just plug up is the stereo you know, fader on the board with the ox cord and they do beats. They make their beats like that and this is chump wow. You know it's really it's really a new day from gods to that. The Black Growth Network from Blavity, Inc. Provides Black small business owners and entrepreneurs with the funding, resources and network needed to stabilize and

growth the business. And you're invited to join our network of startups, angel investors, and vcs, which can open the door to even more funding and opportunities like pitch competitions. We're building black economic empowerment together. Check it out now at Black Growth Network dot com. That's Black Growth Network dot com. If you are subscribed to the Afro Tech newsletter, are you really about that life? All the exclusive content and subscriber only promotions can only be secured by becoming

an afro Tech insider. Join for free now and joint dot afro tech dot com. Cox has been in the music business in more than twenty years, and he's seen a lot of people come and go. He's navigated a stellar solo production career and still today produces alongside one of his mentors, Jamaine Decree. He's a highly regarded DJ uses his digital platforms to further embed his name in the conversation in these leveraging his relationships and cultural capital

for business success. So I think about, um, the things that you've been able to accomplish in the business world. So, I mean, you've successfully in a couple of different verticals, transition from not just being seen as a creative but also a businessman and like so a couple of years ago you had the trophies of Virtual synth Um, the producer mind Master class and nerves, get the girl's shirts,

you know? And so how how have you seeing your road and being respected as a businessman and not just a creative I mean, for me, I feel like I just I'm a person that had utilizes all the tools that are there. Right, So I kind of feel like one day I woke up and said, Yo, you know I have some some you know, I have some traction or I have some bandwidth when it comes to social media? Right, how do I turn? How do I make this benefit what I'm trying to do? You know what I'm saying?

How do I make the social media and the world wilde where benefit what I'm doing? You know what I'm saying? Um? And how do I get these people who come to see me? Um? How do I engage them? And how do I make them say? You know what? I how bout that? You know what I'm saying? Like, what what do they want from me? Right? And so being that you know, the music business you know can be um, it's also a very very you know, uh, this lifestyle

could be a lifestyle business too. So it was like, what do I like, you know, you know, I wear what do I wear? I wear? T shirts? And sweats all the time, So let's figure out. Like I was like trying to do a clothing line, I'm like, I don't want a little line, Like what does that like? You don't it doesn't feel authentic? What's authentic to me? Right? I will teach as the sweats for the most part, So let's let's start there, you know what I mean. Um,

And that's where Nurse the Girls came from. Um um, and just the whole lifestyle ship is just like, Okay, me creating a vs T and virtual synth makes sense because people come to my Instagram or my Facebook or my Twitter to see me create or to hear what I'm creating, and that's what people buy into, you know what I mean. So it's like, okay, well, let me create a tool that I use that I know people are gonna go, you know, because I mean I do

what happens. I started doing these brand partnerships and started saying how I was selling somebody else's brand, you know what I mean, And they were like really really really on me, like you know, whether whether it was working with a KAI, whether it was working with Native instruments, was working you know what I mean? Artist other brands and and and looking at their bottom line, you know, uh shift because people are like, oh well if Brian

is then now I'm gonna buy it. It sounds like, okay, well, let me create something that that I own, that people would that people could use that I own, and I use that people would use, and we came up with I didn't do. The partnership is still a link for trophies and it's been great because you know, it's a business that a lot of producers I think a lot of people don't even think about, you know what I mean. Um,

And we're doing well, we're doing great numbers. And then of course my partnership was still only led to us doing Producer Mind, which is some always wanted to do. I was wanted to grow massive class was trying to figure out how to do it, and we came with the constitute Producer Mind. From that, we have my own only myself. We guys. They told him we gots got storage and we have some people on that that's really

you know, killing it. So you know, it's just I'm I'm just you know, you have to be in a space where you have to have multiple strain aims of income. But I also want to do things that are that are compatible. Two to the brandom of trying to build you know, particularly to like your your vs T. I was I had this um talk with Charlemagne the God, and we were talking about how we've been incredible consumers of the technology that's come out of Silicon Valley and etcetera.

And his point was, you know, we have to start creating these so not just being the biggest you know, influencers on TikTok and Instagram, but we need to be in the room building those things. And you did that with the vs T. So, but do you think other people in your industry have recognized that, Yo, this is there's a bigger opportunity here than just making a record, but creating the things that helped create records. I think

now for sure, you know what I'm saying. I think the past maybe you know, two or three years, people are saying that there's value in creating the tools, you know what I mean. Um, And I think people are like, Yo, let's go after let's get after it, you know what I mean? Um, I guess it just it would take it takes time for people to you know, just kind of see past there immediate you know, fruntal vision, you know what I mean, Sometimes it takes time for you

to see the panoramic view, you know. Um. But I think that with the way that the way that this Internet and people are able to give money and break themselves in the Internet, I think that that's just opened up so many doors to people, you know what I mean. I think that's opened up a lot of people's eyes, um, and they're trying to figure out, even if they don't know what they're doing, at least they're trying to figure out, you know what I mean, what if this panoramic do

look like in uh? Um? So I do believe that I believe I believe that people are trying to figure it out. Could could we see a day where we have like micro distribution platforms because I think about you know, um, you've had the Spotify ees of the world, You've had the titles and the Apple Music and even like on my Apple TV. You know, like Disney broke off to create their own app, and now then you can't just get that on um inside the other apps that were there.

Could could you imagine the day where December first has its own distribution outside of a Spotify or an Apple or a Drake Ovo or Kevin Gates, Brad Winners, a social cause. You could you imagine the day where or what has to happen to for that to happen to be successful. I feel like we never saw Spotify or Apple Music coming, you know what I mean, We never

saw a title coming, you know. I mean I feel like I feel like based on like with Jimmy, I've been with jim being realized that the record business was over as we knew it, the regulars, we as we knew it was over. When he went to go meet with the guy from Intel, was like, Yo, how do we stop piracy? How do we just win? You know, Lime Wire? And you know all the shop was just running rampant, and the guy, the guy Intel told him, you know, sometimes man like businesses, businesses change man Like

sometimes it's not a bad idedn't get out. I'm saying, like, it's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea beginning. You don't want to be the last guy selling the CD, you know, man um So he was on that way before any of us knew what was happening. Right, So now we're in this stage of the business where this is this is this is it. This is where people

consume musics, where they get it, you know. So of course the way that the music is distributed, you can disrupt that ship at any given point, you know what I'm saying. Like, for example, Dame Dash has his own Netflix, his own version of Netflix right right now. Now, how many subscribers he app we don't know all that, right, we do know that he has his own Netflix. Basically he's creating his own content for it, and it's all new content, is all content you only get on his ship.

So really, that model already exists. It's just he hasn't blown up yet. You know, it's somebody's got to break that mold though to your earlier point exactly, so who's going to be the first want to do it? Damn Dash the first want to do it? And who's to say that he won't have a show. Finally, that makes people say, yo, like that's why we Netflix, Netflix have Aungers New Black. That's what made people come to Netflix,

you know what I mean. There was content that people wanted to see that they could only get on Netflix. That's how people was like, well, I gotta strip the Netflix if I'm gonna get on New Black, I gotta subscribe, you know what I'm saying. So Dam is on the right path. He's only one step away from creating something that people are going to want to watch so bad that they're going to they're gonna go and subscribe. Same

thing with Title. Right, Thinking about Title, the one thing that Title does, that Apple Music and that Spotify and none of us because people do, is that there's original content that you can't get nowhere else, whether it's drup Champs, whether it's you know, Elliott and beat out with it with the Rap Radar podcast, whether you know what I mean, that people want to see. So if you want to see if you're not gonna see on Apple Music, you're not gonna see it on Spotify. You're not gonna see

another thing You're only gonna see on Title. So guess what If you want to see Drink Champs, you know on before everybody else sees it. If you want to see the Rap Radar podcast, if you want to see the exclusive Beyonce uh content, exclusive jay Z content, if you want to see that Street is watching is on Title, Like you can't get them no world, see what I mean? You know, So it's like if you want to see that ship, then you gotta you gotta go to titles.

That's why titles. You know, they are gonna be a force with this thing because they understand that that they create content that people want to go see, you know what I'm saying. So it's not like going on YouTube and just to see of all kinds of ship that you can see whatever you want to see. It's like, so you have to beat less things. So the question was, will there be people with their own distribution, you know, outlets when it comes to digital. I think it's already happening.

And people just gotta believe in themselves to just jump out there, Like Damn Dash believes in himself. Crazy because he's out there by himself right now, you know what I mean. But he sees it. He's like, yo, if if, if Netflix can do it, and nobody knew geta funk about Netflix. Nobody know by Netflix until they have some content people wanted to see it that I want to get your take on, like generational wealth and longevity, because you know you're not You're not talked about this before.

It's like, it's not always about being like the hottest thing in the moment, you know. And I but from the industry perspective, the people who last in this what has been the things that they've leaned on to last? Well? I got, you know, some really really incredible advice that I got early on that you know this is that this thing is um. This thing is a marathon. You know what, I man, it's not a sprint. Um. And I related. I connected with that statement, um, because I

you know, I wasn't much of an athlete. But when I you know, the one sport that I was really good at was track and I ran a long distance and people will be like, yo, how how do you How can you run across country? How can you run? You know what I mean? And for me, it's just it was about pacing, and you pace yourself. You know, you know where to pay yourself. You gotta know whin to kick, you gotta know when to fall back, you know what I mean. You know, the thing about a

cross country is patience. And when somebody, you know, somebody told me that early on in my career, like, yo, in your life is a marathon. I got connected with that because it was like, Okay, it's like running across country, you know what I mean, no, when the kick, you know what I'm saying. You know when they fall back, pace yourself. You know, you can feel when your legs start shifting, when you start losing energy and your legs and you have to but you have so much further

to go, and you want to win. You know, you want to win the race. But you're like, yo, if I pushed now, I know at the end, I won't have it. So let me, let me, let me fall back. These three guys may feel like they're beating me right now, but in about three minutes after I get the proper after I recoup. You know what I mean. With this light jog I'm doing, I'm a kick and when I kick him out, you know what I'm saying, And then

I don't go, you know. So it's just, um, life is a marathon man, and it's just you have to know when the kick, when they fall back. And then another thing is that Quincy Jones said something the documentary that was I was. I mean, I've watched the documented a hundred times and I think out of all the time I watched it, this thing sticks out the most every time I watch it. He says that take care of the valleys. You know what I'm saying, The hills

will take care of themselves. Mhm. Right when you're up. When you're up, you're up. Everything that you want, everything that you need in life will be imported to you when you work. You know what I'm saying, Because everybody wants to be with a winner. The problem is when the valley's hit, and we all have values. The problem is when the value and that's what sheally a bad

attention to. And that's the thing that I feel like people when you start making money, when you start really really doing you know, well in this business, um a lot times you're gonna pay attention to when valleys hit. We don't know, you know. We think that the Highs are gonna be Highs forever, you know what I mean. The checks will keep coming. I'm gonna keep doing these projects.

I'm gonna keep you know what I mean. It feels like it's never gonna stop, and then all of a sudden, it fucking stops, you know what I mean, And it stops, and you haven't prepared for the valis. You haven't taken care of the valid um. You left everything up there at the Highs and now you're in the valley and you ain't got shipped and you're trying to figure your way, you're trying to figure your way through. Um, those are some hard lessons how I learned, you know what I mean? Um,

I'm looking for me. With the advot of the Internet and the aving like Instagram and social media and things that nature, during my valleys, I was able to find another way to be relevant, you know. Um, but it's still hard still, you know, it's still difficult, you know, in because when you're such you know, such a high you know what I mean, for such a long time too, you know what I mean, and then the day we feel like, okay, well, year five, it's gonna definitely I'm

a hit about Oh no, you're eight. I don't know, you know the ten years you know what I mean? You know, ten years, twelve years without really hitting a super low, you know what I mean. You feel like you're almost feel invincible in that low hits. If you haven't prepared for it, then you know it's gonna be it's gonna be a difficult, difficult path for you, you know what I mean. Easter Ray has this quote where she said, you know, come up with the people around.

You don't always try to get this put on, you know, thinking we have a tendency to try to network up, but it's really about networking across and those are the people you need to build with. What do you say for people who only want they want to get to Brian. If I can get to Brian, then I can then I can get there. Right. If I can get this

person to hear my demo, I can make it. I feel like there's value in that to a degree, right, because somebody can always help you, um, manifest your dream, you know, I mean a lot of times it may take somebody who has a little more leverage in whatever fields you're trying to get into, you know what I mean. Um, But I will say this, the majority to help I've been able to I've been getting in my life for the past fifteen sixteen years have been directed from people

that I came up with. Whether it's the Shakazulus, whether it's the Delicia Butterfield's, whether it's the you know Johnson's, whether it's you know what I mean, Chris Higgs. Like these are people who Chris Hicks was a little heat helping me. He put me on. But if we look at it. You know, we talked about it all the time, like we were learning that we're learning together, you know what I mean. You know, I didn't go to a

cloud day this, you know. I mean it was like we were you know, Chris and Noony and Ryan they we were all learning together, you know what I mean. Um? So I look at the people around me and the people who's who helped me, the Ryan Glovers, the new Needs, to Chris Hicks, to Terry Rosses, Um, we were all they were definitely ahead of me, but they were Jimmy Ivy, you know, they couldn't just kind of check and just

saved my life. We had to literally work, you know, learned together, and I needed them to guide me to get to those places, you know what I mean. Um So I would say that, and then I looked at my peers like a Folicia Butterfield, Christie Henderson, Um, you know, um, and any help that I need, I could just reach out for them. I mean, that's my network and we

came up together, came from nothing. That's my network. So I always tell people your net worth determination net worth right, so at the day, yeah, you could like it, moving up is a is a good thing, you know what I mean, if somebody can help you, who's who's who's in position to help you? If if a you know, if you're able to get to a puff or get to a you know, be cox whoever right, you know

there's a that's cool, you know what I mean. But at the end of the day, I can help you get the point B. But the people that you surround yourself with all the worts is going to be your your direct you know, your direct anchor. You know what I'm saying, Because you don't even call me for every little thing. I can't call Claude Davis for every little thing. So I can't call you Ivan or not. You know, I can't call you know what I mean, anything anything.

I gotta issue in that want to bounce off anybody as I bounce off. I could call Chris Easy. I'm called Alicia Easy. I could call j Q Easy. I could call John Tay Easy. You know, I mean, these are all people that we all came up together. So Scooter, who's you know, he's the guy, but but we came up together. So my relationship with Scooter is very different than the Irish person relationship Scooter. So if I need

anything from any type of perspective, I could just call him. Um, that's a relationship that I've built that nobody knew school you know, who knew that he was gonna be the guy here the becoming you know what I'm saying. But that's the ship that I had. And we were friends before all of that, and he holds that near and dear because he knows that I don't. I'm not I'm an opportunist when it comes to him. We're actually friends because we both didn't have shipped coming up, you know

what I'm saying, And we came up, you know. I mean, so you know the importance of having people around you, of creating your network around you is I mean, it's necessary because you might you know, if you don't, you know, when the valley is hit and you out there by yourself, who yeah, my valleys hid. I was. I was in a good space because I was out there by myself. I have people who came up with and we can help each other, lean on each other, you know what

I mean. Brian Michael Cox my brother, I know your long time man. I appreciate you. You've always been a real I feel like I grew up around you, so I appreciate you man more than you know. Well. I appreciate you, my brother. Thank you. Black Tach Green Money is the production of blackt The afro Tech is produced by Morgan Dabon and me Will Lucas, with additional production

supported by Love Beach, STEPHANIEA Vogu and Rayveneerport. Special thank you to Michael Davis, some cars of van Yan you know like the wine and yes that's his real name, and Creka Green. Learn more about Brian Michael Cox and other tech disruptors and innovators at afro tech dot com. Go get your money, peace and love,