What up. It's Ace. Catch you on the Bootleg Cab Show.
Bootleg cap Podcast Special guests in here. My guy Ace. If you guys do not know who Ace is, big time manager in the music industry, Manager's Corday managing Turbo. Who else you managed?
Tommy Genesis? Okay, Tommy Genesis, A couple other couple other developments.
So how did you get started in the music industry because you're from Boston.
Right, Yeah, I'm from New Bedford, Massachusetts. Man, it's like forty minutes south of Boston. I had a mutual friend, her name is Susante James. She was living in Miami at the time. I was going to school in Florida, and we had a mutual friend of White Club Jean Ah. Yeah, yeah, so White Club out of concert down in Miami. I came down from Daytona Beach to kick it with Susie on her college campus, Lynn University at the time. It's in Boca Raton, Florida, went down and watched class in
Miami at the film One. Me and him just connected backstage. We like, just you know, he's he was just cool as fucking He took a genuine interest to me. I was a school at the time. I was playing scholarship basketball, so I wasn't even the music industry but play Saint Andrew's University. No, but through Cooking University at this time in Daytona Beach.
So you were going to school in Florida.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was playing scholarship basketball.
That's great. So you ended up meeting white Cliff just through her. Through her, I just fucked with you and from there. From then what happens with white Cliff?
I went back to school. This is like my with my sophomore yet we just stayed in touch. Unfortunately, he was running for president haiti, Oh.
I remember that? Yeah, I forgot he did that?
Yeah bro?
What year was that? Was that?
Like eight? Yeah? Nine? Yeah?
Oh nine?
So he lost, right, he dropped out, he got shot, and he was just like, I'm good.
How do I not remember why Cleiff getting shots?
Like the president of that time, you know, it wasn't really that that.
Important trying to kill white Cleft.
I mean, that's important, but like what the fuck?
Yeah, assassination attempt on one of the members of the Fuji's and the other guys in.
President for it, what the fun? Maybe there's some lineas between the two.
Who knows the conspiracies anyway, So continue he was running for president at the time.
Yeah, he was one of the president at the time, and he was just using me as like his young eyes and ears for the landscape where music was at because even though he was in politics, like it's like he's still he's still a musician and he was out of his deal Sony. You know he had that song with with Akon and Lil Wayne that was a smash. I'm gonna tell you who told me Cash moves everything around me? So get down down the bills. The sweetest girl, the sweetest.
Girl, sweetest girl, sweetest girl. I remember this.
I remember, okay now that what she was.
Remember it was like the last kind of like radio record.
Yeah, yeah, it was the last one. Yeah, I remember so like he had that record and like this is like two years later when I met and he was just like this is one. Like it was cool to be independent. Remember, like YouTube like took over TV and it was the forefront and the centerpiece of all contents.
Like right now, you're really it's really like the when it's cool to be independent though right now for real, everybody wants to be indie.
You get it out right now. The labels on the DSPs, they're like squeezing the juice side of like everyone kid no, but it's like it's like but it's like if you upload your music to distro Kid, where's it going.
To go then?
And you're paying for your own ads? Like, how are you gonna get into the playlist where you get visibility for the first twenty four to forty eight hours, playlists actually work. After that, it's just visibility. But visibility is everything awareness.
I think l Russell's done a good job getting on playlist. That's one guy, Russo Core you know.
Tell me what what's the iron even both of those names you just mentioned.
I know if you guys who are doing very well we work together on Distro Kid and on.
But if you look at if you just look again, I'm gon use this word.
I don't want to get well, we'll get to all this. But okay, why CLEF.
Twelve, this is why? Like being independent was like cool, like you had like you know, funk volume you have okay, yes, yeah, volume wave and tis strange music and like it was you could be independent at the chance was like acid rap chance that was.
Both him and Chance were independent.
Is yeah, even mac Miller like was Roster, but like that's independent, Like rostro was independence. They weren't the time, you know. But in any case, I was just like putting cleft onto like what was happening at that time. Like j Cole was like, you know for this like Friday night lights, Ga, you know what I'm saying, like
section eighty Kendrick and Ship. So I was just keeping him privy to like who was popping and what was going on and b the time, like my senior year came around, like I've been playing ball my whole life and at a high level, I just got to like burn down, tired of it. It's not being fun because it became a business to me in our age. So I reached out the Clefts and I was like, Yo,
I want to be in the music industry. Would you want to be like my an R. I'm like yeah, that's like I was searching the consultants in the music consulting in an R kind of fitsed an exact description of what that is. And he's like, Okay, don't call me when you graduate. I'm like, dude, I'm in college, Like I can go play pro overseas. I have a degree, and it's like, you're like, that's my like stamp of reassurance. When I got out of college, it's like call me when you graduate.
I'm like, I graduated today. I quit.
Yeah, bro, so I fucking I did. I mean, I graduated. I just I went out to New York to his crib. We chopped it up and kicked him more, and then I just started making back and forth trips from like Massachusetts to New York. She's getting in the studio and he was working at Daddy's house.
Were you at a I saw? The only time I saw white Cliff live was rare animally at south By Southwest and like two thousand and fourteen.
I didn't go with him, man, I remember that, but I didn't go.
It was just on stage with a guitar. Schoolboy Q opened and it was fucking gnarly. It was like White Cleff with a guitar and like a basement in Austin.
Just yeah, nah, he's an incredible performer. Roads he plays every instrument.
He's a beast man.
Well but yeah, no, I mean in short for him, that was kind of how like I got him. It was just like I got him with Clef. I was like, once I was working with him, I was just bringing in all of the people who were like my peers who I was a fan of, right, but they are
fans of why Cleff. So because I'm there, Pier and I'm young, and I'm able to bring them in studio with Cleff and put them on records and curing videos and all types of shit, like they're looking at me like I'm lit because they're like this is a legend and like this is the guy who's next to him Ace, And he relied on me to do that, and he gave me, fortunately, he gave me his platform in the green light to be able to just speak on his behalf,
currate anything around him that I thought was dope, youthful and what was in because he was a little disconnected from Right. So I built a lot of my relationships from originally utilizing clubs likeness in my positioning around him. But then those relationships as time would pass, like I continue to add value to them and they became a relationship with my own.
So how do you end up linking up with the YBN kids because you obviously I met in the mirror through you. Yeah, Corde through You told me about cord shit. You were like, there's this kid out in Maryland. Here's a SoundCloud link. Yeah, before the freestyle.
So crazy, Bro, you know what's crazy yet, that's a fact you really like you really were the first person who like, outside of like me of course, like work with him. You were the first person who was on corday for because no one even knows that the first music got heard from Cordiyo was a SoundCloud thing. Brow. I know.
You send me a link and it was like it was before any of those videos came out. It was before he was out here.
Yeah, I just want to see your opinion because you were super supportive of the YBN shit. You always supported us, so I wanted your opinion. That's so funny though, Bro, you really were the first one on him. Now, I got a call from my boy he's a OG James, he's a lawyer, and he was like, yeah, I got this kid. Actually it was from my boy Byron who called me first, who was working with us O Management
at the time. He was a part of management. He's like, Yo, me and James have this kid YB in the mirror and he needs you know, he needs a manager, Like he's about to be on the road and he's leaving tomorrow.
Was it his mom was involved at first?
Two? Right? His moms was just always around my business. He's just like that's her only child. She just like couldn't let him leave home. But I was about to go on like a five day road trip with Denverrick just to go fuck off from party with Coco. He was on tour with with fucking Dizzy. Sorry, I bet we're about to jump on the tour of us to go party in Denver Salt Lake City, Vegas. And I got that call and I don't even know who I mean it was. Bro. I was pretty much actually about
to be done with the music industry. I was about to just stay on the brand's side of ship and in corporate. I was just tired of like hustling so much. Bro. And then I got that call and he's like, yo, uh it's a it's a it's a California leg of a tour and he needs someone who helped. I'm like, yo, I'm about to I got plans though, I'm like abo
to just go fuck off. And he's like, all right, Well, I'm just telling you, like, this kid's doing a million views a day on YouTube right now for his first of a video, and whoever we put out there is probably gonna end up bonding with him, and that's gonna be like the solidified position, right. So I was like, give me five minutes, hung up stalking a con call. I'm like, yo, yeah, I checked them out and I'm like, oh, ship, like eight million views and nine days on this video.
At the time, yeah, it was And if you remember, a million views for a video at the time was still like kind of like that was traditionally like a big record for an artist if you had a million views on YouTube, for sure. It's not like we hit the SoundCloud wave right after that. If you remember when people could do a million views in the day, but Cole Bennett kind of changed that.
Yeah, now, the YouTube shit was big for sure.
Yeah, before that, if you had a million views, that was a big record. So for him to have like eight million views and nine days, I was like, yo, I can't miss this opportunity. So I met him at the Montre on like an hour later, it's like one in the morning, found out that we didn't have a bus driver. It was a shitty van. I was gonna have to drive it. I had no license. I showed back up for I was there like five in the morning, jumped in with like five of these like little wild
young kids. Now, Mirror was super cool. He's pretty quiet. He didn't know what the fuck was happening. Bro, Like, this is all happened so fast, and we went on like six city California run like kind of like the shittiest talents in California, like Bakersfield, Yes, Fresno was one. It was like, what what's what was it? Now? I let the no that I let this local. It was like Oxnard, No, that's a pretty cool time to be it was Stocked was one of them. No, Modesta was
one of them. And then it went way up into Humble County, bro, like where people don't even go. But we bought. And then we came back down into Arizona, so we bonded. We go real close and the rest of his kind of history, bro, Like you know he mia moved in with me.
I know he was living with you.
I had the hype man whose name is Glizzie. I had not mere had many j I had our DJ living with us. Bro. I had like five of these little niggas living in my love Jesus with fucking two dogs. And then that mel went and bought a dog from Jazz Prince and it was a it was with.
You when he was fucking black China.
Yeah, I made the phone call, like, I called TMZ to pull up on him outside of the bowl in alley Wood, China. Yeah. I was on a plane players to take off. He calls me. He's like, yo, what at the bowling alley because he was fucking with China for like two weeks. But I'm like, you know, we gotta get this out, bro. I was just like, this is like gold, Bro, you're fucking China. Like Jay's all
skinny and it's like eighteen. So I'm like, yo, at some point, you just gotta let me know when y'all are in the public and I'm gonna do what I gotta do. He calls me, he's like, Yo, I'm at the bowling out of China about to leave. I was like, Yo, I need you to hold her there for ten minutes. I'm gonna call Temz to have them pull up. He's like, a, YO, I don't know if I can hold her, but I'm gonna try. My plane's want leave in like five minutes.
So I'm like, Yo, where you guys are. He's like, man, we're going off the left entrance, out the side that goes into the parking lot. I need you to go out the other side, the other side, on the street side, and this bush is there, teams He's way, he said, I'm gonna redirect the hold on. I'm gonna call it right back. My plane took off. So now I'm sitting there in the air waiting right WiFi kicks in him like thirty minutes he texted me. He's like, YO, my bad.
He's like, Yo, they got it. They got it. They all jumped out. She's pissed. I'm like, that's perfect. They got it thought. He's like yeah. I was like, what did you do? He was like I just asked like I didn't know what was going on. I was like, what did she do? He's like, she just kept on walking. She's pissed, though, Bro, I'm like, Yo, it don't matter. We got it. Yo. The next day, so I'm flying across country right to New York. So I land in New York off of Red Eye. So it's like six am.
But it's like three am in La y'all. Like I take a nap in New York because I'm jet Like I wake up like nine am. It's already everywhere on like all over the fucking media. About like six seven am, it was fucking everywhere.
That's such a weird problem child for real. I wasn't he eighteen?
It was eighteen. Oh my god, he was eighteen. Yo J was knocking him down. Bro, I'm not gonna lie. Jay hit everything. Bro Jay's hit more. Yo Jay's hit every bad bitch and in black, in brown American hip hop culture. Bro Jay's hit him all. Bro, Interesting Jay's hit him all you have, you know, almost Adeny chick. You can think of who's popping right now in the female landscape.
Rat Almighty J's been.
There, Almighty J. Almighty Jay's the man. What a list, He's the one.
I can't wait to talk to him.
And he's still on a run. But now it's just like it's way more under wraps because he's under wraps.
So at what point in time did you uh? Because obviously there was the YBN split, Corday dropped the YBN from his name. Everyone's still cool, you know, everyone's still kosher. But like you kind of just dove in with Corda. So what was like the the like, obviously Corday's fucking you know, generationally talented guy's great, great kid. Like what was it about Corday that made you want to like really focus on him as a client.
Like once I already was working with all three of the guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was focused. He wanted to be great. He wants to be great. He still does. But I'm saying, like I noticed that from the very moment that I started working with Corday, our conversations were different than what I was having with Jay and I Miir, you know, And I mean look to like Jay and Amir's defense, Like Namir never like wanted to be like
a professional rapper. Noamir always made music eve when he was younger, but like he didn't have like that like that bug, you know, like that burning desire to be Yeah he wants to be famous, yeah yeah actually yeah, and he got famous and then it was just like he's like what the fuck do I do now? And everything was happening so fast. Namir always just wanted to be a kid. He just wanted to be famous while
doing it right. The industry doesn't really allow you to do that once you have a real demand, like it becomes a business. So he struggled with that. Jay always just wanted the fun bitches. So like once he achieved that, once he was successful with that, it was hard to keep him focused. Corday always was like he would wake up and go to sleep just talking about like music, ideas, idea and like what's the next step, and like, Yo, I did this, I did that. I'm going to meet
with this person. I was networking with this person, said this person hit me up, Yo, what do you think about this record? Everything was just music music, music, So he was focused.
Was it his idea to do the Jake Cole reply?
It was. We were living together at the time. He was living upstairs in my loft. He came downstairs one morning. I woke up. He came downstairs and he's like, yo, I was thinking, mind you, I never.
Even heard the Jake Cole nineteen eighty five.
Yeah, I never heard nineteen eighty five. He came downstairs like, yo, you know the nineteen eighty five record by Jake Cole. I'm like, that's why I was a new project. I ain't heard it. He's like, well, basically, it's like he's touching upon like how this new era of youth and rappers and kind of like what you would consider me the sound cloud era. He's like, my generation, how everyone's kind of lost and a lot of the mistakes were
making they're not going to last, you know. I feel like making a response for that on behalf of like my peers and my generation and the youth explaining to him and even just those who represent that older generational mentality, like this is why we do this. Why don't you looking at from our perspective? And I'm like, sounds dope, but I never heard the original, so I'm just supporting. H'm like, go do it. When he came back and played me the record, I still never heard the gen con.
I was just like, Yo, this is wild. The narration, Yeah, I was just like the narration of it is bridging, like this separation in this gap that was becoming like really really obviously that talent was all aware between traditional.
Right of course, yeah that was like SoundCloud shit, and it was like yeah yeah, And I mean there wasn't even anybody who was doing real.
Rode from the new school at the time, nobody, nobody was making traditional hip.
Hop for sure.
Yeah.
He was like, wait, this kid's eighteen and he's fucking rapping over eminem Yeah.
Yeah, So I was like that all that collectively kind of was what made me really really focused on cord because I have a job to do, and quite frankly, like people in my position, we empower those who allow us to do our job and who see their who take their job seriously.
What is like for people who don't know what a manager does in it? Like a role like yourself? What is like your duties as a manager, like for people who are interested in maybe getting into the music industry or you know.
I think that the job description itself has a few kind of unwavering core responsibilities for everybody, right, no matter what client you represent, because it does vary every clients, but managing relationships. Managing relationships first and foremost. Right, you don't even have to like your manager. If you're doing your job as an artist and your manager is good at managing relationships, you guys can be extremely successful together,
you know what I'm saying. Because as an artist, it's like you're the centerpiece, Like you're you're the engine of the vehicle, Like what you do determines if it goes up. If your manager is good at managing relationships, he's likable, he's dependable, he's charismatic, he's genuine, he's friendly. He does good business by thinking about what the other party is getting out of every equation, not just where you guys are getting, so that people see him as fair. You
guys can be great together. That's first. Second, I think that your manager has to have if you're managing a this is difference, right, Managing a rapper is different if you're managing an artist, right, then I think that there has to be a vision attached to it because there has to be a long term goal, not just near sighted accomplishments as the focus when you think of rappers, right, and this isn't to discredit anybody, but this is just like if this is just a fact, there's country artists,
pop artists, reggae artists, hip hop artists. Right when they say rappers, it's kind of because like rap is the evolution of hip hop. It kind of created its own image almost like its own genre. It's like it came kind of with the evolution of production, right, like not necessarily baselines, but like eight o eights and scent pads and different things like that. And then the concepts in
the subject matter of what rap talks about. Hip hop stems from like black and brown people coming from like inner cities in just places in America where your voices couldn't be heard, it didn't fit a certain political statue of economic stature. So through breakdancing and graffiti and song form, people would listen now DJ yeah, people would listen now. But then rap is the evolution that where it's like it represents black and brown people who have now achieved
those things that we didn't have. Now now you have well, now you have money. Now you have a political stature. So it's like we can talk about different subject matters like cars and wealth and all these different glorified things we never used to see raps like the El loose and hip hop. So I feel like, if you're managing
rappers the landscape of what that lifestyle entails. You can be in the clubs like you can do features for money, you set set up bags bro like in like yo, motherfuckers get rich all here, and I love that shit.
That's what I love about how hip hop is evolved to rap, but in some of the other genres the traditional genre is of like hip hop, country pop, you know, reggae, R and B whatever, there has to be kind of a more long term goal that's attached to it because those are not cash out genres like rap has become right, and that's why rap is so saturated. It is because there's enough money in it to satisfy everybody.
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Did we tell you that because I know you're a fishing Did we say that? Oh? I had them say yeah it was the gap?
Yeah yeah, But like it's like not all like I think, well, I think most people, like most artists or rappers would be like how much is it? Yes?
Yeah, yeah, some gap on you know what I mean. So I think that the responsibilities coming out to just like having like a long term vision for where you guys want to go, because now it's kind of going to serve as your moral compass that allows you to know what's right and wrong for you, for your business
and for the image of the artists. Again, just focusing on like the low term and goal and not near set of accomplishments, right, And then I think I think just like yeah, bro, just no, only had knowingly how to work cohesively within the team, right, So your representation of the artists. So it's not just managing relationships, it's
understanding the functionality of teams. So if it's a label, for example, you got no the difference between your A and R. You got no difference between that role and your product manager, your admin the executive vice president of A and R versus the ones who do research your music video commissioner, you know, the legal department, the president versus the CEO, you know versus.
You know, because you're kind of like you're also kind of the liaison too, between him and the label, right when it comes to certain communication.
Like, yeah, you're kind of the liaison between the artists and everything. Yeah, ultimately, and that's why it's so important for an artist and a manager to be on the same page, just psychologically and also in terms of like the orientation of your goals, because you're speaking on their behalf. If you guys are on the same page, you're gonna have a lot of false narrative conversations on their behalf.
And eventually those types of convos and narratives get back to the artists, and that's an artists say, wait, why didn't I know about this? You didn't tell me this?
The manager's having conversations behind my back. Yeah, yeah, all kinds of shit.
Yeah, So like when the conversations represent the artists best, those conversations never get back to the artists because it's fluid, you know what I'm saying.
Like, transparency is important.
Yeah, and when something's wrong, you know, like you know, it's like a DJ and also an entrepreneur and you know many other things. If you have relationships now like little artists, if you're talking to their managers, you know, where it sells is coming from the manager or not the artist.
Oh for sure, it happens a lot because.
The manager is not it's not upholding the representation of the artists that you know personally. So when it's clear and it's concise, it feels consistent in or.
It'll feel like There'll be times I'll be talking to like some guys managers and I'll be like, dude, listen, man, there's guy's clearly putting a whole out on top of whatever he's quoting me so he can put it in his pocket. But like, it happens.
And I think that's the other thing too, dude, Like to be real with you, Like again, rap is different because like it's just such a lucrative industry where there's so much money.
Yeah, and it's a cash heavy business. So he says, Yo, I could tell this promoter twenty five and get my artists twenty Yeah, for sure.
But when you're dealing with almost any other genre and it like that you like.
That was just yeah, that was just happening with a big artists who's a female where she found out that like she was like whoever she was doing parties with, Like I think it was her road manager was just like taking.
Yeah, lots of bread off the top. Yeah, And I really do believe that, like money is what focusing on money, putting money for is what ruins businesses. Like you have to focus on.
Purpose and like all that shit will come.
It does as long as you don't put it first. Because at the end of the day, no one pays you money because you want money, right. People pay you for a service or a byproduct that you're selling. So if you focus on the quality of your service where people feel like they either can't get it anywhere else or that you just do it better than most.
That's what The New Sun's owner just made news because he u the Sons had like a deal with like Bally Sports for the last like five years, so if you didn't have cable, you can watch Suns games in Phoenix. Yeah, and he's like, fuck that, I want my ship to
be free everywhere. Yeah, So now the Sun's like you can watch like I think starting next season, Like, wherever you're at, you could either stream Suns games for free, you don't have to have a league pass, or if you're in Arizona, it's just on the fucking normal channel three. So like, and he said, I just heard an interview. He was like, I don't give a few He's like, I give a fuck about the fans. He's like, because like the short term money doesn't matter, like I'm gonna own this team forever.
Yeah.
Other thing to remember to build diehard fans. I want the more people who watch the game, the more Suns fans we have, Like what are we doing here?
And the other thing to a member is right like and I'll draw a comparison in lineage what I'm about to say, even with sports, like you brought the Suns. I'm a Celtics fan, right, Go look at the Celtics five years ago. Go get the Suns five years ago. Right. Look at any rapper, any hip hop artists, any pop art, just any act. Go look at any corporate business, any brand. It takes five years to build a strong in identifiable business.
Or Branda because five years ago they went to the Eastern Conference finals.
Though go look at what who in the Celtics.
That was the year that Kyrie was hurting and they went to Thestern Conference Finals. Really mm hmm, I was twenty eighteen.
You went to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Yeah, and lost to Lebron James.
Right, but well, in any case, go look at the place.
No, no, no, but nobody expected that and it was kind of like a it felt like it felt like when the Hawks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago, nobody was like well, and also I think, no, the Celtics have built.
My point is we have a team that belongs to us now, though Kyrie was a traded player.
Like everybody's drafted, everybody's Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum and those.
Until time to developed those plays. I'm saying, squad, it's felt like Robert Williams like four years of Jason Tatum.
And six or seven years ago, but it's like, what the fuck is Danny Ainge's doing with all these picks?
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Devin book. So my point is like it's the same thing with artists, bro, Like even if you see like a success that seems to just like come out of nowhere, like why be in the mirror, like in the like a yeat or something like that.
Five years is going to tell you where it's really yet, it's either gonna tail off because you didn't through the necessary things, break by break to make sure that you were building something sustainable, or it's going to completely start to catapult an in calling because you did all the groundwork to build something sustainable. Now you're seeing the foods in your labor pay off. So I think that as a manager like you have to you have to be
focused on that because ain't nobody bigger than the program. Right, There's no such thing as elevators. They go up just as fast as they come down. You gotta take the stairs because the only way that you can fall off we literally infinatively is if you choose to. You gotta go back down those steps. You have to make terrible decisions on your behalf that sends you back down them. But you built it yourself, break by britt, so at least you have that option.
I think that's like obviously, what you guys have been building with Corde, it's like it's a fan base, it's a twenty year plan. It's not a you know, fucking short sighted I just when I think of Cordea, I'm like, well, Cornea will be here, and I feel like he'll be here forever. So it's like, you know, a lot of these guys, I can't say that about Yeah.
And the hardest part for the artists, I'm not.
Sure anyone's gonna care about y Eat in three years. I could be wrong, I could be wrong.
I'm this guy's crazy.
I just don't think anyone's gonna care. Personally, seems like a nice.
I love you. You know what I like about ship, Leff, You get to just say what the fuck you want.
Nobody can fire his music's fucking terrible, but if someone likes.
It, I like, you know what I like? You know the thing that.
Somebody likes Yeat, somebody likes Playboy CARDI all this ship is just going over my head. I'm under my head.
What I think is super important too.
It all likes Yeat heat sucking piece, yeh yeah, oh this guy, this guy's a fucking but.
You know what, I think it's super important. I think this is so important. I think this is the fucking reason why we have so many trolls. Also because it's like little white kids who don't know anything about.
They're gonna grow up. They're gonna be twenty one and they're gonna be like, I'm a little old for this yeat ship.
Oh yeah, and then they're gonna still be posted on like that, no id. But like oh my grandma I said, the reality is this conceptual music that's made with intent and purpose. It's always gonna outlast the ladder. And the reason why is because he's young kids who adapt to shit so quickly. They're young minded, they don't have responsibilities and not going through real things. But as they get older and they have bills, they're going through real relationships.
They're not gonna still want the same microwavable shit.
Yeah. They need things that get them through the times and relate to them during the times that they're dealing with, and who they're gonna turn to the things that they once criticized and turned a cheek to that they didn't understand at the time. And that's why you have the Scissors and the janni Cos and the Lizzos and the Kendricks and the j Coles.
They outlast everybody for sure, because it's quality. Yeah, I mean I always say that.
Because people are always gonna go through the same troubles, tribulations, life experiences over and over. They just have to reach a certain age when it clicks in, and some people hit it earlier than others. But it's gonna click no matter what. It's inevitable.
How do you see AI affecting what you do and or just the music industry as a whole.
I mean, bro, you know it's crazy cord. They put me onto this website where I forget the name of it, but like you can type in celebrities and you can ask questions, is about those celebrities?
And I take the question is it chat GBT?
I forget that one.
Yeah, that's the main one. Yeah.
I typed the question about an artist and I said, like, what can this artist do? I put the artist's name, I said, what can this artist do to elevate their career? Yo? The four responses that came back were so fucking on point that I'm like, yo, A I can put mantages out of business. I just can't show up physically.
I feel like they can make it. I feel like they're gonna end up like someone's going to figure out how to make AI produce records. There's going to be an app where like you could just be like I want to beat that sounds like this and uses this riff and then they're just gonna make a beat like it's coming.
But you know the problem with AI, AI can't AI is predicated purely on data and the pure injection and consumption of analytics. It's never going to be able to form an opinion. So and we we're a lot of work where nobody has the answers. It's it's just a current. It flows and it changes and tomorrow this can be a trend and the next day can be a trend and the only way to keep up with that is if you, as a human being are actually in tune or something.
And that's what we're always gonna have over technology is free thought and opinion. Free thought opinion, and you're never gonna be able you can put a price on that of value, because that's why we all have a job, you know what I'm saying, Because to certain degrees, we're all experts in some way, shape or form, some more than others, some lesson others. But like we're doing this professionally, you know what I'm saying. So if not experts, we're
definitely professionals. AI is not a professional it's the consumption and injection of that and data. Data can be wrong. Machines are always wrong at some point, And who you're gonna blame, Like an artist at some point is gonna sit there and look at it, like you you're putting my fucking career. Yeah, you're putting my career in the hands of technology. Like what would you.
If you're like a listen, there's an up and coming artist they're fucking in Saint Louis and they're like, the guy got a local buzz. They don't have a manager. What would be a fair percentage for that up and coming artist to give up to a to a new manager?
What would be fair?
Yeah, Like, cause you know, we always hear about people getting taken advantage of. We always hear, like, you know, they're shitty production deals that happen. There's like if you're like, like, what would be like a standard fair percentage for a new artist to give to a manager who maybe has some experience to kind of without them getting kind of like bent over, you know, because I hear some crazy.
Shit percentage artists to give a brand new manager.
Yeah, no, no, not a brand new. Like let's say rapper X has thirty thousand monthly listening is running around whatever hometown getting five hundred to one thousand dollars to do. A club has a song kind of doing all right on TikTok no management, someone approaches them, what would you say is like a fair uh number that that they could get what they want without getting taken advantage of, because what is the industry standard between like ten twenty, fifteen fifteen.
Okay, fifteen, ten minimum twenty on the high if you're doing ten, you should usually have a partner because then you're ever doing ten your co manager because then like both you gouts split ten and the equals the max, which is twenty twenty.
You gotta do a lot.
You gotta be you got to be bringing a lot and a lot in.
So between ten and twenty, depending on the cerch.
Fifteen is safe because like if, for whatever reason that hopefully is fair and justifiable, the artist decides that they want to decrease your percentage, there's wigga room for you to come down between from fifteen to ten is the floor, but also there's wigga room for you as a manager where you can may justify going up if you're just
fucking crushing it, you know what I mean. There's also a Wiga room where, like you know, you may want to bring the day to day manager and give them five percent so that you can grow as a manager. You can accomplish more things with your time instead of being spread thin, and so the artist has someone around all the time to be able to handle the small nuts, small that you're overqualified to be able to handle. Even though you can handle it. We only have so many
hours in the day. Where do you want to apply your focus? You know, you should be doing on the things that only you are capable of doing around that artist and bringing somebody else in who's qualified to consider themselves a manager, but not quite for a percentage where the artist is kicking more out of the person.
Are you how involved are you with the high level high level?
I mean me and Corday like we're partners, which is yeah, that's his brand, it's his label. We just did a pub deal with Posts.
So he just I mean I just saw like a high level Puma.
That dropped right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we.
There they are.
I mean I've been wearing them.
But those are sick. I don't have any, but they're nice.
I thought I put you on the list for him.
No, I'm not on any lists.
Yeah, we've been with Puma for four years. Shout out boom. We've we actually have the longest current activity with Puma. Yeah, of any of their music artists. That's big indoor seas. Uh so you know it was. It was something that we were working up for two years, between the designs, the business of it, the roll out, the planning and shit.
But yeah, it's dope. We did a high level Puma capsule clothing collab and it went through nationwide distribution and foot lockers all throughout the country, even in Puerto Rico, which was tight. Yeah, that was tight. So, I mean we're just focusing on making like small strategic moves in terms of like the collapse we do because it's really early still the brands two years ago. Cordet's been in
the music industry for four and a half years. So as the artist gets bigger, everything around them does as well. So we're on the rush to try to like explode the brand. We just want to start building the story in terms of like where you see it, who we align with. So it's sexy, it makes sense. And you know, as we continue to grow, as he continues to grow,
the brand will with it. You know, Dreamville was an idea, right and then it became a label, and when it was big enough to sign artists, and then they developed a festival and clothing line and now Dreamville is, like, you know, it's a very serious, multi million dollar brain in business.
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I had to do that early on when Amos Court that shit was wild just because like.
Because I feel like sometimes I'll see you and there's be no security, it's just you. Yeah, So I guess Ace is just kind of the the last the last line of defense.
Yeah. It ain't fun though, because it's like, you know me bodyguard is like just like level it, like yo, come on, yo, like yo, we're just trying to do this, Like can y'all move? I don't know, you just cheat people with respect, you know, people always reciprocated in return. You know. Bodyguards ain't out there for that. Then they're
like look intimidating, be intimidating, neutralized. But when I first started, when I mere unfortunately we couldn't afford to have like a professional bodyguard on retainer, so like I wasn't really the bodyguard. I was just, like I guess, like the big brother, a parental figure who was just like moving him around as such. Right, And and this is like in the very early stages, like in the first few months,
you know what I'm saying. It was mad unsettling though, because I'm trying to do business and like do my job, and then I also have to be like having my head on swift. We're looking at like who's looking and watching because he folked a lot of negative energy. Bro, he's talking about guns and shooting people and killing.
The music video. Yeah, first time I met him, I was like, Bro, you're a good kid.
You're a sweetheart.
I was like, I was like, bro, you're a good kid.
Like so, like that type of energy. Had a lot of other young niggas pulling up, And it's always the young niggas in every city who everyone's shooting and doing dumb shit because they have all that time in their hands, right, you know, So those are the That was the shit I was dealing with early on, was like looking at the looking at the eyes of like five hooded up sixteen year old is watching our sprint van pull up, or looking at him in the crowd, not cheering, not celebrating,
not joining in on the crowd interaction. They're just there just to talk shit and say fun. Why be in at the end of the performance? So Jesus, yeah, it was a wild time. It was fun though, because like at the end of the day, it's like, even though shit does get real, I have no choice but to look at it for what it is, Like, you guys are fucking kids.
For sure. You know what I mean, what's coming up next?
Man?
Anything you want to promote or I know you you you obviously just signed Turbo, which is a big, big deal.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm a partner at Range, which is we're a management company. There's like, I think twelve of us, and then we have a you know, a really really dope staff, like I think like sixty individuals who all come from different labels and companies and things of that nature. And yeah, we just started working with Turbos, So I'm
working with him now, and you know, he's dope. You know, Diamond Diamond, credited producer, crazy tons of plaques and he's working on an album, oh you know, his debut album, which is very very premature stages, but it's something that he's gonna be working on. We have a really really dope single coming out. I can't say with who. When I say we, I mean Corday in June, June sixteenth.
I think it's gonna shake the world. It's it's not just us, it's kind of I can't really say what it is without giving us h much information, but it's something that's.
Really big deal coming.
Yeah. Yeah, it has like several parties involved that make it something that's like really monumental and special. For June sixteen, that's happening corde As a tour taking place domestic. It'll be announced, you know, it'll be in the fall and then go over seas the world toilets and on the horizon.
But yeah, bro, just just working and just you know, honestly, Bro, it's if you talk with anybody but any a and r any manager, anybuddy who's want that fashion like you, it will be the same thing if I ask you what you have going on, it's all the things you're doing now. But you just have to keep it going. You to keep working at it because everything is just like one foot in front of the other. You've never really arrived, you know, so there's there's no finishing. So just continuously working.
Bro, there it is.
You know what I'm saying, What are you? What do you got coming up? keV? What are you working on? No one ever asked you questions? Man, I want to ask about you know.
Man, I'm just you know, trying to rack up the radio stations on the syndicated show and up.
The club Baby Club eleven eleven, Arizona. What made you want to open the club.
It was an opportunity that is, like I wanted to open the club. It was just an opportunity that fell in my lap. That was a slam dunk of a gamble as it could be.
Some homies, some good friends that you have a relationship were opening the club and they saw like no.
So one of my close friends had reached out to me, my boy Corey, and he was like, hey, there's an opportunity here. I'm not going to do it without you and Daveon if you guys are in, you know, we figured it out. We kind of Yeah, it was just a it was like a slam dunk.
Yeah.
So it was like, I mean i'd be because I had turned down opportunities to be a part of clubs in Phoenix before or in Arizona rather, but this particular opportunity was like the other parties who were involved, Yeah, it was just there was like a missing just I mean, look, there's no hip hop clubs. I mean in Scotstale, all the hip hop clubs got closed was done international clothes. There was a there's a small st there called Pretty Please,
which is like a fucking shoe box. But there was really nothing else going on, So it was like, damn if we do this the right way, and super Bowl was coming up. Yeah, so it's like, shit, super Bowl's next year.
There's something else happening in Arizona next year. I was just texting you about when I found out super Bowl just happened.
But I think Final Force that's what.
It is, the Final Four. Oh dude, you're gonna.
Final Force come in. We get spring training.
You know, it's like two weeks of games.
Spring training is you know, a month and a half. There's a lot of shit, But yeah, I.
Like about you. Kevin djaying is I think DJing in terms of like one of the core forms of art in music, it's the hardest job to be it's the hardest job to be successful at by way of making a real living. Now, I'm not talking about being able
to afford bills. I'm talking about like to the point where like you can continue to progress and you can make the type of money that we all hope to make one day and to be able to acquire things that we want, just not that we need, and where you don't have to worry about bills because DJ's all the time and the last people to get paid. When you look at the overhead costs of a club or a festival, or even if you're looking at artists, dude, like you look at it, it's like how much is this DJ?
Is dope, but like how much do it cost? Okay? Cool, we can go find another DJ who'll do it for less. And that's the problem. It's almost like graphic designers.
Yeah, you guys had hit me up to be Corde's first.
DJ, Yeah, I would have loved that. I would have been tight.
I just was like, I can't do it, man, I got too many.
What I mean, you look when artists are just starting, but we couldn't afford you. Somebody would jump in. It
would have been tight, you know what I mean. But my point is I love what you're doing because like you're like the ultra entrepreneur because you've been able to take DJing as just kind of like the identifiable aspect in the core of what you do that made everybody give a shit, right, And then from there you're like, Okay, if I'm in the DJ, what's the next step of how I can how I can generate something that's lucrative, Like it's okay, let me get the radio. Then you
get the radio. You're okay, cool. Radio now is transitioning to podcasts. Let me start a podcast, okay cool. So now if I'm on radio and I'm interviewing artists because I have relationships with them, what's the next step? Let me bring them to a club.
And Hannibal is calling, Let me give you my phone real quick fire.
How do you know that number? Without his name popping out? Oh, it is popping up. We're with them. And so I wanted to tell you because I don't think anybody's ever told you this one, bro, but you deserve to hear it. It's dope. You've been able to make a business out of yourself instead of a byproduct, but a business out of yourself. And and there's several different verticals of the bootle like Kevi.
Bra trying to run it up.
Man, it's hard to do that, bro, It's hard to do that.
That's like pure entrepreneurialism. That's the word, right, entrepreneurialism. Yeah.
I might be buying another clip too. I'm sorry, I might be buying another club too.
I need it on that one. I need it on that one, bro, Yeah, need.
I can't tell you what city. But it's in California to Modesto. I'm actually now I actually start doing nights out there next Monday. I'll be the night show in Modesto. Y.
Let's Hannibal, Yes, Hannibal man? You was you was in our video for R and P bro R and P. Well Cordey Anderson bat it was in acting fucking crazy.
All right, Well listen, Ace go follow Ace with tr G.
Oh, people call me, it's just pp L call me Ace.
Boom my guy. Appreciate your brother, Yes, sir, Hey, we gotta wrap up an interview brought to you by Hard Dean Las Vegas. Appreciate you'all watching. Hey, don't forget when you go to Vegas, you gotta go to Hard Man. It's the craziest dispensary you'll ever walk into. It smells like fucking heaven in there. All right, get in that uber when you hit Sin City, tell him take me
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