CZM Rewind: The Indie Artists Guide to Running a Campaign

Media.

What up, Y'all's that very special week of cognitive dissonance of Thanksgiving and morning at the same time of being fully aware of the absolute fallacy of the story of Thanksgiving, while at the same time being knee deep in some collar greens, mac and cheese.

You know what I'm saying.

We do a dope like friends given thing where we fry up the turkey, I batter it up, you know what I'm saying.

We shoot it up with.

All kinds of good juices, you feel me, and we make stuffing like waffles.

It's real out here.

And since you know my mother in law, you know she from Acapoco, and you know ain't no such thing as Thanksgiving and Acapoco. And they figured out how to make a turkey like edible. They do an anti lot of style, So it's turkey come out to cover the anti bot of sauce niked It's incredible anyway. So it's this week of cognitive dissonance. Shout out the tongue the tribe man LA's native tribes. So I figured I ain't gonna work neither, So let's let's throw in this rewind selector.

I feel like I tried to warn him.

I wish he would have listened to my show because I tried to warn him out how this was gonna play out anyway.

So we're gonna rewind and select.

Top of the Indie Artists Guide to Running the Campaign, and I'll see y'all next week where we'll talk about uh, he wasn't outside Part three?

All right?

Uh, I hope you don't overindulge, and I hope may your uncles not fight each other the politics shall.

All right? So, look, this is a.

Incredibly busy and wild like news week that I'm living right now that you're obviously living right now. If right now is you hearing this as I'm recording it, you know, but you know since time is relative. My right now was your right now, but now it's not now, dude bars anyway, it's the week of fours.

Oh my gosh, dude, don't be so on the nose, you freaking nerds. Oh my god, it's shut up anyway.

I don't know what was wrong with me, but this week between the two Justins, the lit twenty one year old on freaking discord, no less breaking into heavily protected Pentagon secrets. You have said because you all dudes don't understand the Internet.

So when you've got like an it dude putting stuff on discord, now I'm nervous that we're gonna see some sort of congressional hearing where somebody's gonna try to explain what the hell discord is.

We really need to think about these requirements to be in Congress. Between that Sudan shooting, it's just a crazy, crazy, crazy week. But I, however, had two pretty dope hip hop things I got to be a part of. There's event called ryan Fest out in our festival pip Pop, but it's during the same week as Coachella, which is like pretty dope. One is to show how large freaking the market is for Music is in Los Angeles.

But yeah, a lot of the ogs so like Souls.

And Mischief, Dilated People's, the Homie Blue and Exile Project, Load master Ace, you know, dead Press, just real like some underground indie hip hop stuff. And then also we did a reunion we as in me and the crew. I came up with this crew called tonal Rats. If you're interested in my other lives, yeah, go check us out. Who's called tonal Rats. Anyway, we did a reunion show. We hadn't been on stage together in the last like maybe fifteen years. I'm the like the cruise multi generational.

You feel me.

I feel like, man, if I could inspire some of y'all you know who got some good sense and maybe want to see, you know, can imagine a better future that if I could, you know, install some confidence in you that, like yo, you know, you might actually.

Be able to pull this off.

You feel medn't like man, we then we've done good work, you feel me, and.

Of course sell a couple of ads. You understand what I'm saying.

Let me let me be real with you, I'm saying, you boy got to eat anyway. Yeah, So independent artists guide to running for office. Why I feel pretty qualified to do this is because I've been an independent artists for a pretty long time. I've been on a major label. I've been released from a major label. I got a major label holding on to some masters. Like I feel like I've had all of the experiences. I've had great experiences,

Now?

If you're an artist, you know probably you're gonna start off local at any open mics, whatever gigs you can get. You can build enough as much of a fan base as you can via like the Internet, whether it's you know, YouTube, social media. You can have a million, million, million followers right, a million streams, everybody loves it. But if you can't get one hundred people in the room, it's not sustainable.

Does your city mess with you?

Because before you can go national, if you're not popping in the hood, you not popping in your own neighborhood, you have no foundation. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, which I'll get to after this, or ways to make it work in your favor either way, but specifically I cite to you as an example, the two

Y'all. I don't know what these boys are, you know.

How I know they popping, and they own hood messed with him because they was back in the day. They city sent them right back, like, I don't care if they're not. You are, dude, this is our champion. Do your city mess with you? And that's what happened to Justice. They city mess with them. They district's met with Memphis and Nashville mess with the two Justice all just because you think you the state legislata, well, you know the rest of the city, rest of the state, don't mess with it.

Don't matter. I got a fan base. My fan base gonna keep me popping.

I live in a city like Los Angeles where you can have an entire, humongous, great career without ever leaving Los Angeles. I can name a ton of artists like that who out here no matter where they go. I mean, they fill in rooms everywhere they go, and everybody know every lyric to every song.

And it could work if you cool with just being here.

Now here's the flip side of them.

Now here go rule number two. Okay, just because your city mess with you, that don't mean the nation mess with you. This could work to your advantage if you down to just be like, no, I'm just gonna lock down this area and you know, set my set my crown in my throne in this region and we good.

This is all I like, this is where I want to be. I'm comfortable here and I'm on top of the world.

You think of like ah, I think Kawhi Leonard like I don't know why that food left Toronto? Like you the Ran Cat ain't no other NBA teams up there. If you was cool with he, he wasn't cool with it.

He won't to stay.

But again, just because your city mess with you, that don't mean the nation mess with you. Let me give you an example. I was on tour with some homies in twenty twelve. It was a big, one of the biggest tours I've ever been on. It's called then Unashamed Tour, and it was I mean, like, yeah, two tour buses you know Arenas.

It was pretty crazy.

I had never played Arenas and we would be on the bus and most of the brothers on the tour were from the South.

You know where.

It was, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Cashville, Murphyville. I say Cashville because there's a black part of Nashville that y'all don't recognize it.

Even even some one of the one of the brothers from Florida. You know what I'm saying.

Like, let's not forget that Florida is still the south, right, So me and two other artists were not from there.

Our taste is very ratchet. You feel me.

Now. When I say ratchet, I'm talking like Calie, West Coast underground, grimy dirty you feel me? Or East Coast backpack rap.

You feel me?

Like I'm not into the or I wasn't at the time, really like I didn't appreciate nothing coming out unless you was outcast or ti you know what I'm saying. A scarface, but scarface sounded like Oakland of me, you know what I mean. So anyway, I wasn't into that these brothers

I was like, what are these songs? And they were like, oh, this all we're crazy in the club.

I was like, who look little trigger finger, like like who are these people?

What are these songs?

And since again they Texans, they had a way that they would freestyle, and since they was all from it, it was such a vibe.

They would be like I'd have came down a OUTA came through.

Ay, gotta d down, Hey, i otta drink bro sitting at the table, heya jay, Hey the mic hey. And I was like, you're as a West Coast MC. I'm like, y'all cheating. We didn't get to rap like that when we freestyl I mean you you had to have styles for miles kickback, dip back like God revivd fools, who stepped I wrapped the West flipper track, crack your back of tunnel, where like you had to like style it out.

They could just Ida came down, Hey, Ia came through.

Hey.

I was like, oh my gosh, what is this. I didn't know who none of these artists were. They was kings where they were To me, I was like, these are the most obscure.

Names.

So just because you pop it at home, don't mean you're gonna pop across the nation. It take very special people to pop across the nation. There's a million gangster rappids. But like there's something that I would name out here that y'all would be like, I don't know it is. But if I say Drake Snoop and Pop, y'all would be like, yeah, is it?

Was?

It? The machine that's a part of it, right, that's absolutely a part of it. Don't get me wrong. But there was machines behind plenty of artists. Y'all don't know who they are, you know, above the lawyers. That's what I thought, had a great machine behind them. Now when you look at the South, it's like, you know, why did the screwed Why did DJ screw stuff work? Why did the screw tapes work? Why did it start a freaking movement? That whole lean and chopped and screwed movement

But like when you.

Look at the tde roster, the black hippie thing, really, any one of them could have popped. Any one of them could have been Kendrick is if we're just talking talent, and if you ask among them, they all kind of feel like abs. The lyricists Abs so out They're like, no, he's He's the one barring off. Kendrick could write songs, his ear was unmatched. He was ready for the national scene. So why is he on the list as like the one, two three artist of a decade and not school boy Hugh?

I don't know.

It's not talent. It's just listen, just because you popping at home don't mean you gonna pop across the world. Who do I say this about? In politics? Ron DeSantis? Oh, he popping at home. He got a little bit of buzz across the nation. But just because you popping at home don't mean you gonna pop across the nation. I don't know if he got it, because in my mind, it's like one of the other rules you have to ask, which I think can may fit into number two, But

You kind of need that ability. But does that play in stadiums? Are you?

I mean it's dope? Regional you popping in Florida? You got that Miami based down you know what I mean? You got that getting thirty y'all getting stirty real good down there. You know what I'm saying. That's for the young folk. They you know, you get thirty with the best of them. Won't get thirty everywhere. That's not what's happening everywhere. Now you're gonna take that regional sound out outside, may not pop. I experienced that myself, you know what

You know what I'm saying, lyrical miracle. They was looking at me like.

Uh, what's he talking about?

Bro By show too.

I we went back and flipped that setup and was like, Okay, I need to give y'all some riding music, some with some more choruses. Boy, I was one of the greatest lessons I learned in my life, was like, listen, bro, just because it worked down here, you know, don't worry, don't mean it's gonna work everywhere else.

You better learn how to learn from other people. And that's what I did.

I learned how to learn from other people make music a little more palatable for the rest of the world, while at the same time repping your city because you can't lose your brand. You feel me, But you gotta like, just because you popping at home, don't mean you popping anywhere else. Now, how do you make that work for you? If you're not popping at home, there's plenty of people

Think about that.

If you're like, you know, you're a left leaning politician in a red state, or you're a right leaning popelitician in a blue state, you probably not popping at home, but when you hit the road, you might find like.

Dang, I got a gang of fans out here.

I could use this for my advantage, and then you get the rest of the country riding for you. And then you could turn back at home and you come home a superstar. You could do that, and then the rest of the hood they come back and they like, dang, they start acting like they mess with you, or they come out the woodworks to being like, no, I've always liked y'all, always like you.

You know who could do? You know who did that? Was Merse.

This again, this is underground wrap stuff. Y'all go look up Mercy a legend that's funny from a group called Living Legends. Merce was just like he would just move. He's like, all right, I'll go on tour with Atmosphere and do the rhyme sayes thing.

He did this.

The Felt albums would slug from Atmosphere like he did the the projects.

With Ninth Wonder.

You know, like I'm naming all these people because if you know, you know, if not Google, So the Merse and Ninth Wonder records like they're I mean, these are like so he came back home triumphant, and.

It was like all city merse, you know what I'm saying.

He's like, okay, well yeah, you know, sure, put on the paid dues and the rock the bell festivals. Like he's just he's a household name now. But sometimes it's like when the city don't get it, sometimes you got to hit the road. So there's a way to do that too. Like, if let's say your city don't mess with you, there's a way to go. Get go, get the fans somewhere else, bring them back home. Marthie Taylor Green doing that, they don't really don't really mess with

Because the machine can only do so much.

You gotta have that thing, whatever that thing is, you gotta have it now. Rules four and five, Questions four and five. You want to do it after this break?

All right, we're back.

Number four, which I personally feel is the most important, okay, for artists, for politicians, for anybody who's trying to do something publicly, but specifically as we're going into this election cycle, and I want y'all to know this as voters, to know and to understand the game that's being presented to you. Here's the truth. Number four. Perception is reality until it's not. Say it again for you. Perception is reality until it's not. All right, let me unpack it.

Maclamore pop it tags? That guy?

Now, I seen Maclamore's meteoric up you know rise, especially because he was just a part of the Pacific Northwest hip hop scene.

He's a great guy.

He's an incredible rapper, incredible, you know, And popping tags is a It's a pop song. It's a it is a brilliant pop song. You can call whatever you want, you know what I'm saying. I don't know how old y'all are, Like, there's a level of corny to it. But of course it's a pop song. It's supposed to be. But was he styling on that that he's styling on it? You know what I'm saying, I'm not gonna hop in the car and blast it. You feel me that, But I don't hate the band. Like the Heist was a

Was wrong with music industry.

It is not his fault because the boy could rap, and like I said, he's a good guy to the point of where he knew it shouldn't have went to him and sent the text, and the text got screenshot. It sent out like man, you should have won this, this is really yours. He said to to Kendrick y'all, that's the right thing to do. Doesn't matter. Perception's reality. Now ten years later, eleven years later, it just there's nothing he could do. Man, Like, you're just perception's reality.

Now.

I say this as someone that's just a consumer of music.

I don't know the guy, right, this is just me. This is not my taste.

A lot of people like him, you know, Please please hear me when I'm saying this, This isn't no distract or nothing. I'm not trying to throw it in shade. I'm just saying it's not my thing. Now as a commentator of culture, he's kind of in.

He's in the corny box.

Now.

A lot of people disagree, but he's kind of in the there's not really much you could do about it, like you're just you're kind of in that. Then the Megan situation kind of pushed it more into like, now this is just weird. There's so much like massage and war in there, Like it's just at perceptions reality. Man, I don't I don't know on the other hand, NBA young boy who again not my thing.

It is what it is.

The industry tried to like blacklist the boy he liked the second most streaming artist. Perception is reality. It's what we perceive him as, right y'all know ice Cube, I mean, of course he oh oh man now, but like you know, Nwa ice Cube. You know, Man went to like usc for cinematography, like he's a fully educated perceptions reality. Trump

Man?

It shows is dope. Man, it looks like it's you know, a whole ocean of people. You take a photo. Maybe you had one show that was like during a festival, and you take a good angle of that, so like now you got the one huge crowd photo and shot in there. But those weren't your actual shows, your actual shows. You know, they still looked amazing, but that room only held fifty people. So the perception was first all this

Friend.

First, Usually the fan is like, dang, I got lucky, I got to catch this dude at this small thing. Or sometimes you like dang, am I am I tripping? Like or maybe I'm tripping, like maybe I just went on the off night. But eventually you start realizing, like, you know what, actually that food just got really good photographer and now reality's reality. You really not popping like that.

It's not real.

You heard of the phrase astroturfing. You should have because I've talked about it on this pot. But let me remind you again. Astroturfing is this is how you get if there is a million people at that show, how you get people there or that that rally, how you get people there's like a Craigslist ad or like a group on when you pay come and feel this this thing to make it look all grass roots, they give you signs.

That's not real. That's not real power.

Real power is what you and I have where you could text somebody right now, set it many times and been like, hey we're finna do a barbecue. You know, little backpack giveaway at the park this weekend and a hundred people show up, that's real power.

Oh what in a thousand people?

That's okay, because a thousand people's not real power, that's not really they're not really there for you. But the hundred people that are really there, they really there. Now use that for your advantage. If you're the artist and you can get eighty five people in.

A room, that's dope.

You can get eighty five people in a room, doc get their email addresses. See if you could get down yourself a little like text messaging service app where you can like start sending them discount coupons, like do coffee meetups, like like get involved.

Now.

Sometimes you know, of course you should, you should have some sort of like safety precautions. I've been in a situation where i found myself a little too open and warm, and I've had to put some boundaries around some folks. But the point is, you don't bemoaned, you don't fake it. Perception is reality until it's not. And once that bubble is burst, hopefully you learn. Man, don't fake it till you make it, maam, because sometimes you don't get to make it.

Just look at it.

Truthfully where it is, where you are, and what you need to do. Because you can fake streams, you can fake photos, but you can't fake ticket sales, and you can't fake votes they make because they want you to think they can, but you can't fake votes. These people gonna vote for you or not. You need to give them a reason to all right. Number five two more. Number five is be very picky about who you around.

Now.

I feel like there's a rule for everybody, you know, But when it comes to artists sometimes, like you know, you're going on tour, you're doing features, popping up at parties, just all these different things, and some of those things can be transactional, like in the sense of, you know, you pay a artist, you know whatever, thousand dollars to hop on a song, or they pay you up you know. Sometimes like you know, when money get tight, you're like, yeah, man, let me do this feature.

It's like twelve hundred dollars. You don't jump on this thing.

But like, because sense perception is reality, if you do this song with this artist turns out that fool's a pedophile jo saying, or the album ends up being trash, you are now forever connected to that album and that artists, So you gotta be real picky as to who you willing to shake hands with. You know what I'm saying, because that stuff sometimes can come back and bite you. Every I don't know. I don't know no politician that ain't never been in that position. I mean, that's the

If I was a GOP, I'd be the snitch.

I'd be the one feeding in papers because like that man got a death grip on your y'all can't do nothing you will do, You can do nothing, your party can't go any direction.

That man don't want y'all to go.

He got a death grip on thirty four percent of your constituents. So to me, I'm like, y'all got a gift because y'all can somehow finally shake loose of this man, and you don't have to do it. You should be sliding brag all kinds of documents you feel me to be like, and you can get on the camera and tell everybody like, no, listen, whoa we don't know. This is just a woke mob trying to destroy you. You could tell her you could play the game as much as you won't. You feel me, but like cause that

You can't.

You thought you could wait it out. You know what I'm saying, y'all can't wait it out.

You feel me?

So if I was, Look, if I was I was, I'd be like yeah, or just this is just this is a halt. It shouldn't happen anyway, brag how that at me? You have to work, man, Let me slidech you something right quick. That's what I would be doing anyway. You gotta be careful who you do, who you do these features with, who you do these songs with. You know what I'm saying, who you put your name next to, and then who you hire?

You feel me?

I think a lot of times like as an artist, you want to come off like you got more going on than you do. So then you hire you you know, you think it's growth, but like all growth and good growth, you know, it's a it's a horrible way to say it, but like you know, some growth is cancer.

You feel me, that's a tumor. That's not growth.

You know, you gotta really think about like every move you make and is it really going to be Is this a growth that's a good growth? You know, So don't hire people you don't need, don't get in a situation. Don't spend money you ain't got, foods bee sip, spending all kinds of stuff on on on ads and on

You understand what I'm saying.

I remember, I mean I'm gonna go back to DeSantis, Like you know, I hate to go back to that dude, but I think really for real, for real, like a thing that he got to think about. Like and it sucks because it's a Republican talking point, but it's it's actually like it's a good point. What if what if he waited until twenty twenty eight? What if he did? I mean, then you ain't got this monkey on your shoulder. You feel me, you're not running against the guy that

You don't even want to.

You don't even leave in you being swayed by the crowd, you know, leading from behind. No, you gotta you gotta be the person you trying to be so you can do the things that you're trying to do.

Now, granted, I'm assuming you.

The type of politician that has some sort of moral standard, that has some sort of conviction. Now, if you just in it for the power, ignore everything I'm saying up say go get go, get your bag, Go get your power. Be as devoid of.

Any of these things that you want to be.

But if you really actually believe in the stuff you're trying to believe, and you really think you could you could make this country better? You got a plant where you want to grow, invest in things that you think will lead towards the things, and I understand the nature of the game.

It's just like in music.

The nature of the game forces you to carry yourself in a certain way that if you're going to reach a certain type of success, you have to play the game in a certain way.

Or you could be like, forget that.

I'm gonna play game the way I want to play it, and it's gonna work the way I want to work, and I'm gonna bend it to my will. Maybe shoot your shot. Hopefully it works. So in conclusion, the six things that any politician can learn from independent artists. Number one, ask yourself, does your own hood mess with you? Number two, just because you popping at home don't mean you popping national. Number three ask yourself, why me and not them? Perception

Happy election season, y'all.

Hood politics.

You know, I don't know why I ain't thought of this before, but you know you could use promo code hood for fifteen percent off on terrorform coolbrew dot com. Like I forgot I own that company, and this is my pod. Y'all, go ahead and punch it from a coldhood. If you in the cold Brew, get you some cold brew, Gonna get you some coffee. Yeah, Like, I can't believe, I ain't think it is still right now.

Yo, y'all.

This thing right here was recorded by Me Propaganda and East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California. This thing was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by the one and the only Matt Awsowski. Y'all check out this fool's music. I mean it's incredible. Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman for cool Zone Media. Man, and thank you for everybody who continue to tap in with us. Make sure you leaving reviews and five star ratings and sharing it with the homies so we could