#141 - Kyle

like you guys like yourself. There was the guy who looked like he should be in like a fifties movie with the glasses. Uh, fucking gorgeous looking guy with the hair you would make musical. No, no, he kind of he was kind of like the GZ that didn't make it, the GZ that didn't make it. Gorgeous looking guy front of the fifties. Oh you mean do you why? D you why? And then futuristic and like you know what do you why? Though? Is actually he's doing he's doing

some cool ship. Yeah, he's doing his thing. Do I do you? I? But I just remember like that it's kind of like you know, like because I was real cool with Futuristic at the time, and so like I would kind of always see your shit and his shit, and but like independently you kind of got it out the mud. So you know, there's a lot been going on with you, man. Yeah, yeah, what brought you back to kind of leaving the major label system and getting back to what you what you know best? You know what?

For me, it was like when when I when I partnered with you know, a major, It was a cool experience because it's like, damn, you know, you have his budget for everything. Everything you're doing is coming out at like the top tier things. But you start realizing pretty quickly, like there's not much that they can do for your music to like explode at this this expectation that they've set you at now, you know what I mean. Like, really all of my success was organic as fuck, you

feel me? Like my marketing advice from people I was working with was to do this, you know what I'm saying. And it's like, well, you're getting paid for this, and they're no shit, they're getting paid a lot for that, you know, and and you got to recoup whatever they're getting paid exactly. And so and it's no like shade to them at all, because my time working with Atlantic

was awesome. But I just realized, I'm like, oh, financially, it makes way more sense for me to just do this thing myself, because that's all they're asking me to do anyways, Just be you and hopefully something pops off. But if it doesn't pop off, we're gonna be like disappointed, you know what I'm saying. And now it's like being independent. I'm getting back to just making music because I think

it's cool, not because you're chasing. I'm chasing some sort of smash and especially for me, the smash record they want me to chase is like a diamond song, Like you know what I mean, Like I cannot repeat that success for you at the drop of a dime. And also I don't want to spend the rest of my career trying to repeat that for y'all, you know what

I mean. And then also like just all that goes into that, right like like in the major label system, they're going to force you into the studio of people that you don't want to be with and all that, and then they're going to maybe force the song to drop that you might not feel crazy about. But then they put all this fucking money behind it, and then you're like, well, what what the fuck? Like I gotta fucking that comes out of my fucking that you add

to my balance? Yeah, yeah, one one, that's adding to my tab and then two it's like really and and me, I'm like, I'm I'm really easy to work with, Like I'm impressionable, right, Like I'm nice, I'm easy going, and I'm like flowing with it. And now I'm noticing that like the team I've built, you know, is sort of pushing me in a direction that it's not necessarily good for me. It's not healthy for me, you know, Like

it's not healthy for me as an artist. Like I was put here to make music and to like honestly go against the grain. It just so happened at this one moment in time, me going against the grain became the popular thing. But if you ask anybody who's ever worked with me, I'm always in the studio trying to do whatever is most left. That's just how I operate, right, you know. And so when you have this whole building behind you and it's like nah, we going left, They're like, no, Kyle,

fuck go right, man, go nah, I can't you know? Yeah? No? Was it like because when you have a record like I Spy, which is like, like you said, it's diamond, It's not diamond, but it's going to be diamond. It's like seven crazy going eight times insane and it streams like two hundred and fifty million times a year. It's insane. It's like one of those insane hit record anomalies. And was it like a curse? And I mean, obviously you're

gonna love the money, you go love the head. That shit put a lot of money in your pocket, But like, is there a curse? That's the reason I can go independent. I never need to be with I probably never need to be with a major again because of that song. You know, it's amazing, And it's like that's where my true joy is coming from, me being able to do art the way I want to do it, not because I do it to make money Financial Pillow exactly. Yeah.

But do you think, like, just in terms of like Atlantic's perspective, when that's like your first I mean, I guess kind of your first record with them, If you feel like and it's like a diamond song, it kind of like the expectation now is like exactly, So it's like no matter what and that, and you're like, yo, I'm like an artist, I do like cool artistic shit. Yeah, I'm like I got here for a reason, but now I'm those guys are going to have you be like, yeah,

well we got to follow this up straight up. And that's why I don't like take anything away from them and what they're trying to do. I think just for me, like the situation just no longer fits what makes what

brings me joy, and that's what life is about. You feel me having as much joy as possible until you finally are no longer here, and I think, yeah, it just didn't add up for bringing me joy anymore, because it's like y'all, one, you're like, our idea for how to pop this off is just to me to shoot tiktoks, like I can do that all my own straight up,

thanks to the advice. Thank you for the advice. Then two, it's like okay, yeah, that that song that y'all want me to follow up is like a once sent a generational song, Like, so I can't dedicate the next five years of my career to just trying to put that on the board. I'm not gonna have fun. I need to be able to go just do shit I want to do without feeling like I'm letting y'all down every time. Like I said, like now we're going left fucking God

please right, Nah, I can't. It felt like there was a couple of records that you dropped that like felt very forced. Yeah, you know, and I I agree. The thing is with me, I can kind of make any kind of genre of music, right, And that's not like trying to big myself up too much. It's just the truth, you know. I mean, like I can go in the studio with any person from any background, any language, anywhere in the world, and I'm gonna make a slap with you.

So like I'm always down to try some shit. But I'm realizing, oh, I'm trying this and y'all are excited about it because you're just thinking dollar signs and that's not how our is supposed to be. Made you feel me like Quincy Jones told me, And it's the truest thing. The moment you're in the studio and you start thinking about money or you start thinking about financial success, and that's what you're talking about. God gets up and leaves, And if God is not in there making songs with you,

what makes you think it's gonna be hard. It's not. Everything that's fire in the world is fire because God helped it be lit like that, Like, if he's not in the studio, which you making music, it's not gonna slab And the moment you start focusing on my money that she's not gonna slap, so it's like, yo, yeah, just some of those records, I felt like, we're we're doing this because I'm so nice and I'm trying to appease this. Y'all just want another massive, massive song, and

it's like I can't. I can't spend my time doing that. And it also like obviously the situation was probably very beneficial because it, I mean, when you're on a major there is a notoriety that comes with that. There is a you know, and I feel invisible and like, you know, shit, you got into the acting game. The Netflix movie was super dope. Yeah, I'm just trying to remember that. I just remember you puked yes after party after parting. That

shit was great. It was like realistic too. It was like kind of like it was like low key, like a little like Davish before Dave. Yeah, you know what, it felt very like almost like a bio pick or something. But the only thing is it was really close to my life. But I think that was just the star as aligning. Like the kids supposed to be maxed that's one thing. Like his dad's supposed to be in the Marines, that's another thing. It was like the East Coast version

of my actual life. You know, his manager being like this other white dude that is his friend from where he's from. It's like Nolan, you know what I mean. It's like very yeah, It's like it's like the New York version of me. The like I thought that movie was great. Are you doing more of that? Like are you gonna be doing more acting and stuff? Like yeah, yeah,

hell yeah I did. I was. I was lucky enough to be in this uh Russo Brothers movie called Cherry Fire starring uh yeah, starring Tom Holland, Michael Gandalafini, Sierra Bravos, the two named Forrest Good like Spider Man's in it. So it's like, yeah, I mean the movie's already out. I haven't seen this. Yeah, it's already came out of Apple and by the way, Tom, That's why, because who's got my dog? My dog? Shout out to Apple plus

ted Lasso's gas. Yeah, ted Lasso's Hey, Cherry's gas. I'm gonna check it out my free my free Uh what was it? The free trial ran out? So I was like, all right, well I knocked out ted Lasso. Now I gotta sign up. I'm too busy watching you get a fire stick and just call it a day, bro, Just go on, bro, I got over that ship. Cody trying to link sloading being all fucking slow. I'm like, dude, I'm just gonna pay for everything. What am I doing?

You'd be like thirty minutes into a fucking bootleg link on your hacked fire stick and this ship would freeze. You'd have to find a new link. It was not for sure, pay for the ship, man. Just just pay for keV. You got it, bro keV, you have it, you got it. I have every everything else. So I'm a fucking paramount. Plus watching Apple plus Yellowstone right now, get Apple plus you watch Yellowstone. I do. It's it's tight. It's kind of like the real it's kind of like

the real, like cowboy version of succession. That's all it's succession with like guns and more alcohol. That's like, that's Dunton is a fucking gangster ass bitch. She's lit. She's lit. It was like it's like Sons of Anarchy on on horses. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it gives me succession vibes too. Yeah, because the family aspect, and yeah, I'm still a touch of racism in there. It's kind of like there's like this, It's like it's like the Salt Bay, like just enough little It's a

great show, but let's see. Yeah, it's a lot of white people in Montana. Then you got the one black guy who's in the bunk house. Yeah, you know what the thing is, Bro never says ship. I'm like, yo, he doesn't say ship. He's just there just like we need, we need, we need a black like diversity. Just give one black dude, put him in there. I don't have him say nothing. But I do love the show. Hey, Yellowstone, I love the shot. I think it's fine. Kevin Costner's

from Compton. Kevin Costners from Compton, but Kevin Costner also is from Ventura. What Yeah, I didn't know that. You know, growing up in Ventura, you like everybody's like Kevin Costner, he's like the most. He went to Bay High School. He went to the high school that my fiance went to. Wow. I actually met Kevin Costner before, like in Inventura. Yeah, Inventura.

We were doing like this venta like little I think it was like a benefit concert, and all of a sudden, this like kind of like security guard type dude walks up and it's like, hey, you know, Kevin Costner is like here, and I'm like shit, Kevin content like, yeah, right there, Like you can say hi to him. It's almost like an invitation to say what's up, but not like Kevin cost wants to say hi to you, Just

just so you know he's right there. You can talk to him, like oh shit, you know, I'm kind of nervous. I walk up. I'm like yo, uh keV. I was like, it's nice to meet you, manmind It's like, yeah, I know you are. He's like, yeah, you're mister Ventura now, and I like, wow, cry bro Kevin Costner called me mister Ventura. You know it's crazy now that that's like a title somebody has. But if anybody can give that

title out to something, yeah for sure him. Yeah, as much as like Kevin Costner is a legend, feel the Dreams Dances with the Wolves. If I meet Kevin Costerer today, I'm calling him John Dunton, even call hi John. Yeah, but that's even more lit because that means he's still Like if if somebody can look at you like an actor, Dunton, can I get a photo straight up as an actor? If somebody can look at you and call you your character's name, like, your shit is smacking right then and

there in the moment, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, it's crazy because I'm on you know now, I'm on the radio every night in Ventura shot out to Cue and Mambo and those guys and sir. But I went and had lunch, like downtow. Venture is a vibe. It's yeah, come on, it's a big vibe right there. Yeah. Venture is kind of like a special place because it's very it's like anywhere you USA type vibe. It's just very small.

It's like the last small. It's like the small it's the only like small town vibe you can catch in like southern California. To me, that's like really like special and it feels like it's own place. There's no place like vent and when it's like twenty five minutes past Calabasas or something, Yeah, exactly, it's here, like it's really here, but it's not here. It's its own world, you know. Yeah, no, it's it's ventur is a vibe man, Like I feel like a lot of people who like, you know, ma homi.

Joey Boy would always tell people like, yo, man, you gotta start telling people to like, you know, have weekend trips to Ventura, like you know, a little staycations and shit stay wait, who's this Joey Boy used to do. Joe Boy. He used to be on the radio out there. Okay, Joey Boy, stop stop giving up the secrets. Brouh. Don't don't wonder nobody going up there. We trying and keep this ship to ourselves. I'm sorry, keV. You can come. Only the Dallas Cowboys are allowed. Yeah, facts, Oh yeah,

I used to watch it. I used to watch the cowboys over there all the time, like a practice and whatnot. Remember one time I walked up to Terrell owsed to get like an autographed ball, and he kind of just like gave me like a wave instead. Now it's like wow, fuck you too, Fuck you, bro? Did you get anyone to sign that ball? I got Mike Vandage yet that sounds familiar, but I'm not sure exactly what he did. Mike Vantage was a kicker for the Colts that ruined everything.

So oh yeah, not as cool as t O, but I tried. What's up, y'all got to interrupt the Bootleg cap podcast. We have a brand new sponsor. Hmmm, and I love this sponsor. I've been giving them my money for a long times. About time they gave some back. My Bookie. Yes, that's right if you are a gambler. If you're not a gambler, let me tell you, my

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that they will match. So you deposit a thousand, they match a thousand bet anything anytime, anywhere with my Bookie. Let's get back to the podcast. So you didn't grow up so you're very optimistic kid. Okay, so you grew up a RAMS fan, though I grew up a RAMS fan. Yeah, which is interesting because most people in LA or in this southern California region, obviously there are og Rams fans because the Rams used to be in LA for a

period of time. Shout out Eric Dickerson. But yeah, but if you're one of them Rams fans, like you can't you must have gray hair to claim yes, like straight yes, or like a bunch of tattoos and like yeah, I'm like I know, ah, this guy's this guy's in there. Yeah. But then but but what, I've been to a lot of Rams games this year, and I feel like I call them Rams bros. Yeah, Rams bros. Yeah, because they're like, you know, they've lived here for like six years, they're

in Santa Monica or Vantage. Yeah, they're like yeah, yeah, they kick it at Bungalow or whatever. That game there's a football game, Bro, LA's got a team, fucking Rams, let's go up. Yeah. There's a lot of those, for sure. And then there's Yg who was a forty nine er fan. Yeah, there's a lot. And see this is the thing about this thing about the forty nine er thing, right, It's like there's a lot of especially people my age, like what the fuck else were you supposed to root for

that entire time? No? For sure. Luckily enough, my family is from Saint Louis, my mom, my dad. Like, when I was a little kid, we were watching the Rams, especially because when I was a little kid, they were Lit Warner, Kurt Warren Turf, straight up Bro Marshall, Fall, Isaac Bruce like that. We were killing it. So I

was watching all that shit. But all my homies were all Niner fans or Cowboy fans, which is yeah, because I can imagine in like in the eight oh five, it's a lot of Cowboys fans because calla Cowboys fans are Raiders fans. Cowboys fans are the most delusional fans in all sports. Straight up. They don't they don't realize how much they suck. They're crazy, they're creaty. I actually am not even mad at the Cowboys. They're fans fucking suck. Yeah. No,

they're fans are trash. They're fans treated like they're on a dynasty run right now, and it's like, no, y'all are not. They're really not. So are you? Obviously you're feeling good about the Super Bowl? Yeah, of course you're gonna be there. Have you to spend thirty eight thousand dollars on a ticket? Lock? No, because you know I have season tickets for the Rams. Yeah. And I looked up like my seat. I get my seats at like

face value, you know what I mean. And I looked up my seat and that shit is thirty nine thousand dollars a piece. Oh, I got two of them. And I looked at my I was like, baby, we're not going. I'm sorry. You know, if you know some other dude that got in like you might want to hit him up because we're not going. Yeah. No, it's crazy because even if I could, like, you know, obviously, if you

have season tickets, you're not getting super Bowl tickets. But I'm selling if I have fucking Rams tickets, I got them a face value for some reason, I'm slinging them things. Yeah, well they don't give you that option, right, I would have loved to sell my ship for thirty eight thousand and not go. Of course, when you have season tickets, you don't have access to the super Bowl tickets. That's true. Yeah, you see how cold that is. You don't get access

to the Superman Rams. I love y'all, but I have a problem. Okay, it's backwards. Yeah, so talk about the new album. Give me the meaning behind the title got You. It's not so bad. Yeah, my new album was basically like, it's just a word of affirmation. It's not so bad. It's like some I tell myself a lot, because in the middle of that pandemic, it was like, damn, life really sucked, at least from I know for everybody, but like from my own personal experience, like I was really

really hating, hating, life. I just dropped to see you when I'm famous. It's like, in the middle of the pandemic, I can't go tour, I can't go do shit for it, right, It's like just a lot of whack things at once. But I'm truly an optimist, and I believe like at any given moment, you can either see the world as a fucked up place, so you can see it as a beautiful thing if you pay attention to small things

in your life that are actually meaningful. And that's why I was just telling myself, I'm like, dude, it's not so bad. Like it's not so bad. There's a bunch like I'm in this situation with this label that I don't like, you know, Like it's like I can't promote myself or do anything in the middle of the pandemic.

I'll know what to do. But I started focusing on things that just genuinely brought me joy, and I started realizing how much I don't need this situation with this label, how much I don't need all this promotion and you know, and this tours and these festivals and these things I thought were completing my life so much. It's like, no, I need to like make music and have fun, and I need to remind people that all they need is joy, right, And so that was that was a meaning behind the title.

It's just a word of affirmation that was helping me. And then with that, when I started making an album, it was like this low fi album and like it was sad shit. It was like beats to study too. I was for real interest music. I just throw that shit on. There's like like one where like Homer's yeah yeah yeah, so but I'm in there were like top tier producers like playing like low fi beats, like yeah, were about to do this shit. They has like two

sounds in it. They're looking at me like no, we're not, you know, but I was really I was really like on that. And then I realized, like, bro, that's not the superhero version of yourself that you claim to be, you know, like you claim to be somebody who's going to help somebody forget about their worries and about their shit and like, look on the brighter side. So don't you dare drop this sad ass album in the middle of all this sad ass shit, bro. And so I

went up. I left La. I went to Miami because La just was like so sad at the time. We really took COVID. Not that we took it serious, because we should all take it serious, but we kind of took it overboard, yeah a little bit, you know, a little bit. We took it a little overboard, and Miami was kind of doing a complete opposite. I went to Miami. I was like, this is amazing. Yeah, me too. I was like that, I feel like life is normal again. Straight up. Life was normal out there, and it just

was like kind of like an escape for me. And I went out there and I made as much turned happy music as I could, and I did it in an environment where I had fifteen people in the studio, which I never do, right, And that's why when I hear this album, I'll go out to the club or

something like that, which I never fucking do anyways. But then I'll go out there and I'll hear it played with all this other exciting music and it fits right in for the first time, you know, because a lot of my music is always so personal and so just me by my side studio. This shit is vibing because I did it with like fifteen people in the studio, Like, Hey, what's up? Y'all. I'm Kyle. I don't know none of y'all, but I need to have a really good time right

now because like it sucks back home. Let's make an album. And that's sort of how we did it, you know. That's how I've been in the studio with Game a few times last month, and there's a lot of fucking people in there, man, rappers be operating. No, No, I've been to a lot of sessions over the years. I mean maybe thousands, not a thousand, maybe a thousand, maybe

like five hundred. But if you've been to thousands of sessions, I mean, you know, were like I have a couple of artists I work for a week, but like the Game had like a legitimate, like fifty sixty people in the studio, and I wanted to guess I was gonna be like it was a lot bro Yeah, and like maybe like five of them were actually contributing to like the music. Yeah, people hitting houka, fucking drinking. Like I'm like,

this ship is fucking crazy. It's like playoffs in here. Yeah, the fuck is going to see there's a path look for me. Like I always thought that that shit was weird, but I thought it I think it adds, like for him, like wherever he is creatively right now, Like that's like that now it is juice. It helps because like yeah, like for me, like I always thought that she was weird. I'm like, how the fuck can y'all focus about like telling like this really personal story in front of all

these people? And that's the key though, Like when you have other people in there and music is loud on two big ass speakers, everything you're doing is impacting their mood. So if you turn around and you see these sixty people all just fucking chilling on their phone, like you know, if their vibe is fucked up, that's because the music you're making is not geared for entertaining large amounts of

people at once, you know. So it's like a cheat code kind of in a way, Like you need to have other people in there and you captivate their vibe. Like my fiance she's a DJ, right, and the homie that an r this project, just Demmy, is a DJ, and so I have them set up in the lobby right with two big ass speakers and mixers. Now y'all are going DJ in the lobby, And so when people walk in to the studio. Yes, wow, people, Keaton is making them a drink. Right, every sixty minutes, everybody in

the studio needs to take a shot. This is a rule. If you're not taking this shot, you're leaving, you know what I mean, unless for whatever reason you don't drink. It's party religion something like that. But they're gonna take the shot because we're making party music. We're making music to help people forget about their problems. So if you don't want to be in here where the studio is at,

well we're making in the lobby. There's loud ass music and you're taking a shot out there too, So everybody is entering this sort of zone of like this is a party, you know. Side note, I wish it was kind of the SoundCloud days because you could just throw the lo Fi album out just to just just to see, just like yo, let's I mean, the LOFA album is there. I could put it out like I right, I can literally do me a hardcore like fans are gonna be in the comments like, yo, we want to hear the

fucking Lofi album. Man, I'm be like, I'll give it to y'all. It's sad, yes, but you know, do you feel like now that like, you know, because when you were independent, the industry was way different, right, Like it'd be fair to say that you built a lot of your following on YouTube, right straight up? Yeah, yeah, but like just in general, you know, back then it was you could still purchase stuff on iTunes. They're streaming wasn't as big in what that was like what twenty thirteen twelve?

Being independent now that the industry has changed so much, is like are you having to still kind of I mean, you know the music industry. You have very smart people around you, but like, what are the things that you're practicing now to try to kind of repeat the success that you had, you know back then. That's a really good question. I think the industry has changed big time. I think back in the day, it was about like brand personality on YouTube, right because the YouTube is a

video of this guy. Do we think this guy is cool? What's his story, what's he look like, what's he from? You know, like you capture all these things and everybody so heavily on YouTube, and now in the streaming era, it's kind of more like, all right, does this sound out of these fifty thousand songs? I listen to does it capture me? And so I think the name of the game now is really focusing on your micro fan base,

right you them? Yeah, your fan base is this? My fan base is this, Like I'm a very famous person, Like I walk your monthly listeners are fucking huge on spot when I walk down the street, Like people are going to recognize me type shit. Now, dually, you're also very unique. People are like, oh, it's the guy with

the great hair. That is what I'm talking about. Ya, So it's here and then, But I can't focus on this in today's world, right, I have to focus on this, this smaller amount of people that are really into everything I do. I engaged, engaged, I need to super serve them. They're buying merch there, they're buying everything, They're keeping things afloat. I need to super serve them. And as I'm super serving them, something will raise its hand and then appeal

to all these people. That's how you do it. And that's kind of what I notice in today's independent game because the music is easy to make. The music don't cost nothing to make, you know, So it's about dropping as much quality product as you can to these people who fuck with you and then kind of the something breaks out of that awesome then you're on. Yeah, but those people are gonna be keep your lights on. They're

gonna exact bills. I would tell every artist that, I'm like, yo, if you've got a core fucking fan base, like feed them what they want and then something's gonna break through. Exactly. You're independent, like it only makes sense. Like you know, at the end of the day, the name of the game is to support yourself off of music, straight up, support yourself off of songs. And in the streaming world, that's what you do. You upload the song and he

immediately starts paying you. In the YouTube world where I came from, it's like, no, you build as big of a brand as you can and you go on tour and that's what pays you. Music didn't pay nobody, right, you know. So now it's like, and these people love you, they'll listen to everything, so give them is much as possible in tapping with them, like I'm on Patreon, I'm on Twitch, I'm on Patreon, Discord, I'm on all that shit because these people, me and them, we are friends.

I haven't heard of many artists on Patreon, so kind of because obviously in the podcast space, it's a lot of podcasts creators that go on Patreon. It's kind of like only fans, but without Pussy and Titch exactly. Yeah, it's only fans with I would be a hyper sexualized yr. So like if you you know, like if you have a Doupe podcast, you might some people will have be on Patreon and they might do a bonus episode. Yeah, they might have, Like you might get the episode before

everyone else, type, shit, how do you use it? So what I do is I just give them the music first. If I have a song that's coming out next month, they have it right now, you know, like not for nothing. And I know this is gonna piss people off. They had the album like a day and a half in advance, the whole thing, every song, mastered, the whole shit, and I gave it to them first. I'm not getting none

of them plays recorded. I'm not none of that. You know, those streams aren't counting for anything except for their excitement and their enjoyment. So I try to give them as much as possible first. And you're monetizing that probably at a better rate. There, you're monetizing streams damn yeah straight up. Yeah, fact, like yeah, fuck the streams, like these people are paying how much you charge a month? Five dollars a month? Yeah? Is there different tiers or just one? There's different tiers,

So what's the highest tier? I believe the highest tier is fifteen dollars I think, And it just comes with higher levels of access, you know, more shit I can give you before I can give it to anybody else. That's big. Get enough people doing that, there's you know, you get enough people doing that, and once again, you don't have to worry about taking no advance from nobody,

you know, being in some shitty loan situation. And really really what it was for me too is realizing, oh, I'm massively successful in music, right, Like I Spibe is a billion something stream song, you know, maybe going towards two or some shit like that. You know, playing with me as like was five hundred million streams, Like Hey Julie is another Golder platinum record. Like there's massive success. But in order for me to be truly like rich as fuck, I need to be doing all that shit

independently by myself. You know, it's real. That's how you actually reach like masterpiece status or somebody like that who's genuinely wealthy off their music. You need to just do it yourself. And in today's world, I have these people who are supporting me, who love me, my homies right this, my family, who're gonna keep things afloat no matter what, whether I'm up down sideways. And then I have all this endless amount of music that I can release what

I'm having to go through, all this yellow tape. I can just drop record after record after record, and when something waves its hand to the masses, cool and all of the money exactly exactly. And all I gotta do is make tiktoks honestly, because I can imagine, like, okay, so hey, we got to stuff the podcast man real quick. Appreciate y'all for watching, really mean it. Subscribe, like leave a comment if you're one of those dickheads who leaves

the column. You're always interrupting the guests because it's my fucking podcast, and I don't know i'd like to talk to anyway. Hey, shout out to odd Socks man, they've been our sponsor from day one. We go hard for odd Socks always, man. Literally go hard for my wife, and I go hard for odd socks in different and same kinds of ways. You know what I'm saying, because sometimes I go hard in odd socks. They do make boxers,

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bootleg keV. That's one word, bootleg keV. Alltogether at checkout twenty percent off odd talksoficial dot com. Go show some love and let's get back to the interview. Atlantic Records like we just saw. I mean, there's been a lot of people just not even Atlantic, but just specifically, like the major label game is, like there's a reason why

companies like Empire are thriving. And you know some of these distro companies that offer label services because they're giving you like a serious, like, shit, you got more of the chunk of the pie than anyone then them, and that's how it should be. That's and I would say too, sorry, I'll get your finish go ahead. I would say too, I'm not anti like company, you know what I mean. I'm anti royalty shares and master ownings being so in favor of this company for you to essentially still do

all the work. Yeah, because there's people who like, you know, if you do a major label deal and they give you thirteen percent of your album, that's like amazing, that's like whoa. People are like, oh, you're killing it. But that's like not even a norm. Like some people like they'd be lucky to get eight points on their own shit, which is crazy. If you get smacked like that, I would. You're now you're pulling up to the office ready to

It's like what do we do well? You know, like yg just talked about it on the Bronze Shit, he was on the Bronze HBO show and he was saying how he's never made he's never got a check off

his royalty yet, Like his whole career is crazy. It's just advance, advance, advance man, And that's cap because that shit is crazy, bro, because when I think about somebody like YG, like me being from southern California has been a literal staple in my like young adult life since I was like fifteen, for sure, right since I was a child, like we wanted to dress like YG, listen

to YG, b like YG. For somebody to be that successful for so long and still never gotten a royalty thing, like, it's fucking so ridiculous because as rich as he is, he's had to have made them ten times. It's just that it's that advanced thing, right, It's like, Okay, if I turn in an album, I get, you know, whatever you worked out individually, you know. So it's like some people, I don't know. I think. I think like the industry

is starting to smarten up. Artists are starting to realize, like I know some people who will just pass on the advance and be like, no, I'm good, like you know, do the service. Yeah yeah, no, it's crazy. So that's dope. So are you just doing straight tune core, straight distro kid or not? So we're doing so I'm like still uploading, yeah, uploading things through like distro Kid and stuff like that. But still I'm working with a company that's really just

my managers and it's independent and they're they're my managers. Yeah, and they're pitching to Spotify and pitching to playlists and shit like that, and that's all we're doing. That's dope. That And then all the same services that like a major company was doing or hiring out. I'm just going to those people because you solo and hiring them myself. Right, I'm hiring the press team, hiring the digital marketing team, like there's still a team around, but there's no reason

why you can't pay for it for yourself. Also, hello, not even a major label can guarantee a spot on a fucking playlist. All they can do is fucking pitch it as well. Now they might these people might listen a little bit, you know, well, they listen way stronger. I'll say that I'll do with even me putting this album out, I'm like, oh, y'all are listening way stronger to that. Like, like I said, I think all companies, I think that they're awesome. I just think that what

they do is awesome. I just think that the business needs to be way more in favor of the artists because so much of the job is way more on the shoulder of the artist. All I gotta go on Instagram and make the ship. You gotta be fucking on TikTok. You gotta be you gotta do everything, and then they're just gonna come through with a canister gasoline. And then once you have the fire, Once you have the fire,

you got to start to fire yourself, exactly. So when I was just like, if I got to start to fire myself, my gym and needs some more this money, exactly, And if I start to fire myself, I'll just go fuck with somebody else and just be like, oh look I got this fire, Now put some gasoline on it. For this this is what I'm offering you a fraction of the thing to put the gasoline on it. And that's make it make sense. But you got to get out of that first situation to even have the power

to do that. You know, I'm really not anti company, I'm anti the business of how much they're taking on it Was it easy for you to break away? Like did you just fulfill your contractual obligations or did you ask to leave? I asked to leave, and it's and it's and it was it was easy to break away because, like I said, the people there like like we have a good relationship, Like I love them, they love me. And it was always easy to work. It was never like static, Like I never had like let me a

fuck the label moment. I never did that because they're people. They're people doing their jobs. You know, that's it. They're really just people doing their jobs. Just the business of it wasn't right. So I'm like, yo, you know. And by the way, my song was so massive that my fucking advance checks are crazy. So do y'all really want to do? You want me to turn another album? And you want me to turn me another album and you come me to this bat ass check? What do you

want to do? You know what I mean? Because and I was also kind of like making low five music at the time, probably like look y'all want this now fire album or what? Yeah? Nah, we don't actually, And it's cool because I kind of want to move on too, So it's like it's love. You know. It was good. It was It was actually really seemless, really easy. That's dope, man. Yeah, Well the albums I've heard horror stories. Are you doing anything else that you could talk about coming up? Yeah, bro.

I mean, first of all, yeah, album is out. It's the hottest album of the year. Okay, it's just listen. I mean it is January, it's February. So far we got the hottest album. And yeah, I'm going on tour for this album and the tour starts in March. So are you excited to get back on the road. Fuck, yeah, I'm excited to. I'm excited to just see the people when they went back to the music and I haven't

done that so long. And like, as you noted from like twenty twelve, it is kind of when I started my independent grind that whole time was just supported by like ten people, thirty people, one hundred people, four hundred people, a thousand people, five thousand people, forty thousand people out of show who are connecting, like, and your live show is dope as fuck, Like I think the first well, I feel like I might have saw you a south By. I think we first. I don't know when we first met.

It was like twenty twelve or twenty thirteen. I think it was south By, But there was a when you opened up for g on which tour was that that was the uh you had like inflatables and the uh these things happened to her and I had these big ass palm tree and yes, yeah on the boogie board. Yeah you came out on the boogie board. Yeah yeah, yep, yep. So yeah, it's just I mean, congrats. The tours March March.

How many dates? I think it's like thirty dates. Oh shit, you're out here, bro, come on, man, man, it's in a while because it's what been at least two and a half three years on the road. Three Yeah, at this point, it's been three and a half years since I've been on the road, which is kind of like a fucking time for text portal. You know, it's almost like my career. I'm doing have like a career, I'm

doing my thing. It's like going, then COVID happens and fast forward three it's like three years up and disappeared. Do you know do you find it easier now? Because like, you're someone who came up with a cult following. I feel like sometimes when you have as much success as you had with a record, it's easy to kind of

deviate away from like those people you were talking about. Yeah, did you feel like I've seen it happen with a lot of artists, right, Like I don't want say names, but you know people who just had huge records, but they kind of came up a certain way. Did you feel like it was a little bit harder for you to kind of super serve your like og hardcore fan. Yeah, you know what It's like, this is a perfect analogy.

It's like, imagine you throw a party, right and you're all there and it's a party and everybody loves it.

We have this, we have this Kyle super Duver Gang party going on, and it just those people are there, and then somebody leaks to address and then twenty thousand motherfuckers show up and then you and now all these people are in the party and you have to pour all of them drinks, and like it seems like to your core fan base, like, oh, maybe he doesn't care about us as much, because when they come to the Kyle concert now now the same way you said the

RAMS bros Are coming to the Rams game. When they're there, now their shoulder to shoulder with the Kyle brothers fucking going exactly. So I think that it's not that it was hard to super serve them. I mean, well, it was because there's yellow tape. I got to go through with the records I'm releasing and all this shit. So I think it was a little harder to connect with them, just them. But that's what's so great about to play something right now. I feel like I'm back to like, Hey,

what's up y'all? Oh my god, that was a blur at COVID all that shit. Like I love y'all and I love you guys for letting me just make music and be me. I'm so ready to do that with y'all again, you know what I mean. That's dope. Well there it is. Man, appreciate you pulling up. Go get go, go check out the album. Check out the album. It's not so bad. It's out right now. Tom Holland a nice guy. Tom Holland is that's my homie, shouts out Tom. He is the coolest. That's like your peeps. Huh that's

my dog. Yeah, he's great. Like I hang out with him and in Day at the same time. You know what, I actually only kicked it with in Day once. It was at his It was at his uh. He had like it was like a movie. After it was like a really really tiny, little gathering, but I got like super lit so nice. I think I embarrassed myself. Actually, I think I like tried to get on a table and perform my sp or some ship. It was like, Yo, you guys want me to do I spy because I'm here, Yeah,

do it. Hey, I'll be here by the way. The song right, yeah, y'all know the song. Yeah. I was like smashed, so yeah, but now he's he's great. Every time I'm in London, he shows me a good time. And like at a best Buy in Atlanta, no way. Yeah. She was in line in front of me and she had this really tiny, little white security guard but he looked like he's a murderer. Yeah that's that real. That's how you know you're cracking. Security guard looked like a

normal bro. But I was like, uh. I was like I just finished like euphoria and I was like, hey, he's a day I fuck. Would you like? Yeah, they should give you a fucking Emmy for that ship, you know. She was like, oh, thank you, thank you. I was like, all right, we'll go buy your hard drive. Yeah yeah, there it is. Man. Shout out to the Hoummy Kyle. Go check the album out. Bulet Cash Show boom, Let's Gone fire,