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We really have a fun guest that we want to get to right here at Bloomberg Technology.
Yeah, we've actually just really set him up. We got to look at what happened over the last few days when it comes to the music industry. Phil Ackman looking to sell a stake in Universal Music Group, just days after the asterdam listed company rejected a takeover bid by the hedge fund billionaire. We got with us an expert in the music industry, someone who had a very long relationship with a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. We're talking about hit Boy.
Yep. He is three time Grammy Award winning artists and a producer's known for shaping the sounds of jay Z, Beyonce, Naw's, Drake and so many more. Welcome, Welcome, hit Good Got appreciate y'all. So this is all about technology. How are you thinking increasingly about technology and its impact on music?
Well, I started in music like using take I used a program called fl Studio. It was called Fruity Looms back in the day where this FL studio now. And you know, some of the biggest hits of origin racing in hip hop and just popular music have been made on fl But when it first came out, people were kind of like, oh, it's just like a computer program. It's not serious music making. But you know, tech is a it's always gonna advance.
Man.
Con is that where we are with AI today because people could actually just create you know, what they think of as Yeah, you know fruity loops using AI? Yeah, is that music?
It is music for sure.
You know, you still have a person having to prompt and it can't just press a button and prompt itself. So just you know, imagination, I feel like it's at all time high. If you have a great imagination and you use that in your work, you're going to succeed.
But here's the thing. Isn't it all trained on music that's already out there?
So well, not all of it, you know, there's some people that train it on certain you know, different ways, but you know, however, it's done like I feel like, you know, when MEDI came out, the person that studied the keyboard the piano for twenty years and learned gruves and melodies was like, what is this MIDI thing? You could just import notes and then make it sound like me?
Like you know, so you're not worried about a loss of creativity in this era at all, Not at all.
It's a boom, not an own music even created without technology, just trained on all the music that we've kind of got in our brain.
Percent.
Yeah, for sure, Hey talk to us about we want to go back to universal eighteen years right? Eighteen years? Yeah, but you decided to go off on your own? How did that change what you can do? Man?
I feel like I've been just empowered to the maximum capability, like you know, just like being in that deal for eighteen years, I always kind of felt like I had a black cloud over me, and as many hits as I did make, I still feel like I wasn't in my complete right mind because that was always lingering. But now I'm completely free, and I got all these tools, in all these this knowledge I've gained over the years, I feel unstoppable.
So what did that relationship prevent you from doing?
From making the amount of money I should have been making and just progressing through my deal for or you know, the amount of work I put in.
But was it the right thing for you early in your career?
I guess so, because I'm here right now, Bloomberg.
Do you know what I mean?
So you know that also to struggle to grief, you know, the grief, like it just it led me to this place where I'm I'm just like I feel powered up.
You know. Tell us about this solo album that you've got coming out. Software update software up there. I love the name tell us though, Like what this means to you.
It's beyond just the music, you know, it's like updating yourself as a person, just moving better, dressing better, living better, whatever it is to update yourself, you know, on a daily basis, do that, you know, working out whatever it is, eating right, Like just you know that you got to update the software, just.
Like a computer.
What's it like going from somebody who's known as a collaborator, you know, Carol mentioned a few and the people you've worked with, Kazi, Beyonce, Nov Drake and more to doing this to doing this solo project.
To be honest, it doesn't feel any different because I'm just a creative. I get the same excitement and the same high when I'm making a beat as if I do a verse or if I engineer for a big artist. Anything I'd do creatively that gives me that spark. I'm enjoying it.
You know, what's a message you would like to send to people with this album? Just got about thirty seconds.
To lock in UPDHL software.
You know, just look inside every day and just look in the mirror and get better.
Hey, very briefly, is on YouTube what my space was to you in the beginning of your career? Ten seconds?
Yeah, I would say so for sure.
You know I can just fire off as much as I want you on YouTube.
Well, thanks for spending time with us. Definitely really cool. Good luck, good luck to the album. Show for a second to hit poy here, Grammy winning artist and producer