¶ Indie Music and Record Labor Insight
Welcome to Vegas Circle podcast with your Paki , Chris . We are people who are passionate about business , success and culture and this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who make it happen . On today's podcast , we're going to delve into a CEO's insight into indie music and record labor building and music engineering .
We're welcoming back to the circle the CEO of StraightLace Entertainment . We have International GT . We also have his close mentor , Marty Grammy Award winning mixing engineer , Mr BonzaiCaruso Caruso . So welcome to the circle , fellas . Great to have you back .
Thanks for having me . Great to have you in the circle , man .
First we got to start off . Congratulations on the new release man . The new project . Man , it's going crazy , right now Night of the Wind .
Yes , thank you , guys , you were at the listening party .
I sure was man . I'm excited to see it tuition .
But happy for the night of the wind . It came out November 3rd and it's on an all streaming platform . So , yeah , everyone check it out , yeah .
How does that feel , man ? All that damn hard work , man , because you were probably at least two years putting it , probably longer than that right .
No , no , no it was probably like a year and a half , two years , okay . Okay , because I kept changing things and mixing it and taking songs off and putting songs back , so I was just undecided where I wanted to go with it . Once I got it down down , it was ready . It just went right by .
But it was interesting because leading up to the album I put it out . We were ready for it to come out and I was just sad . Maybe I needed to do something else . It's always that maybe it was something else I needed to do .
That's the perfectionist , yeah .
But once it was out and the people loved it , I'm like , all right , no , it's fire man and I'm not just saying that because you hear it , man . It's straight up , thank you .
Who decides what's on the album when you put everything together because you got a great project , but who decides what song and says , okay , this is it . This is the story .
It's me .
It is you .
And it was tough this time around . That's why I brought my dad here today . He usually A&Rs my albums because I'll do everything and send it to him and let him listen to it . But he had a stroke two years ago so he had to learn to talk , walk everything again , so this particular album was like me , okay .
And so .
Courtney came around , so then she was just sitting in the studio to at least listen , because usually I would like send everything to my dad and just have him tell me oh yeah , this is good , nah , I don't say that , okay . And then once he had the stroke , it was like all right , I got to do this .
So , that kind of like made the album take longer than normal , because it was like I stopped for a while , then I came down here and was with him . Then it was like he still always asked about music . It was like that .
He remembered that so consciously . That's the stuff , okay .
So he was in the music party .
That's what I meant . He was in the wheelchair then .
So he still couldn't really walk , so like you saw him here today walking around so seeing that progression . So it was kind of like making the album seeing him come back to life again . That's a powerful feeling .
That's a powerful feeling . You're kind of like building that CD right . You're kind of , you know , coming around you usually start with like the title of the CD and then fact the songs around it , or do you put together a bunch of songs and put them on the album . Like what is that process ? Like ?
Is the whole point trying to tell that story , or is it kind of just ?
But this album . It was like that I actually had this title during my last album when I did Time , I already had the name Night of the Wind , so then I just started building the songs around that title .
Oh yeah . So that's kind of cool because it helps you tell that story . It's like a book , right ? You put together that book title and then you know I'll line it out after that . That seems like a pretty Because I was watching a lot of Kobe clips Like because I was hurt man when Kobe died Like that was my guy .
Like I used to wear Kobe's when I played basketball in high school , like so when he died , like I just I was watching a lot of Kobe clips During this time . So , even though skits and album is Kobe , but it was me finding like post game interview , so it wouldn't be stuff that the NBA could get me , so I would find stuff like that .
So all those clips is Kobe talking through my album . That's pretty cool . Yeah , that's Kobe . I don't even know that . Okay , yeah .
That's what's up , man . So how did you guys connect , man ? We got jump bring Banzai in here , man . So if I listen to the don't know , Banzai is the real deal .
Oh yeah , legends of legends .
Like I just want to give a shout out to some of the engineering projects he did on Method man and Mary J Blige , all I need right . Mariah Carey's heartbreak , Just name a few . Welcome to Jamrock with name of Marley the Tories BIG , Ready to die . So we , we in the presence of a legend . I noticed your mentor too .
So how did you guys actually connect and build this friendship and mentorship ?
Thanks for having me here .
Yeah , I appreciate it .
Yeah , it's been about 12 , 10 , 11 , 12 years now .
Okay , yeah .
¶ Music Production and Streaming Royalties Evolution
I was a little bit here from New York City and someone was telling me about Glenn's talents and he was making beats and producing stuff at the time and you know up and coming guy , and so we linked up and he would come to the studio and sit down on my sessions and I knew he had the ear for it because I was listening to his tracks and they were , they
were bad they were all really awesome , and so then , yeah , he would even come out to my sessions in Miami a couple of times at inner circles place at Circle House , okay . And then he went on to full sale to get a degree there and just blowing up since then .
That's a long career . Yeah , you kind of went through . You know a lot of different avenues and a lot of different players and you know in the industry , you know what kind of that you know evolution been like for you , kind of starting at the beginning , and obviously your career , I think earlier you mentioned , was around 40 years or so .
So how has it kind of seen that evolution go over the early ?
80s when I started in New York . Yeah , Just especially on the technology side with the advent of digital audio , you know , the transition from analog to digital in the mid 90s it was really an interesting time for music and music production and sound of songs and stuff and yeah , so it's been an interesting ride . Yeah .
You guys see what's happening with Streaming right , like we talked about before and I know you probably saw it Snoop talking about doing a billion streams on Spotify and only making about $45,000 . How do you guys feel about it ? What's the creative ?
way to . He didn't give context to that .
I'm so happy to ask you this , so what ?
does that mean ? I mean .
Okay he .
He could have been a part of a song that made billions of streams , but what was his percentage ? Okay , and if he was a feature on the song , he may have only gotten 5% of that song , so then that would equate to 45,000 , but if you own more of the song , you get a billion streams .
You're making millions , I'm glad see , I knew this is what I wanted to understand , Okay they just pay you for the feature , right ?
so say , it's like I want you on my song $45,000 , regardless of how it performs .
Okay , so it all depends on what his paperwork was .
I thought that was a little off-tempo . Billion streams .
So , what was the point of ?
saying it was just because you , because he's been like Talking about like the streaming process and how they need to change streaming numbers , so I think it was just another interview of him talking about it . So it's like and the this year-ends like streaming numbers have come in . So I think it was just a talking point To say oh , I only got 45,000, .
But if you only getting 2% or 5% , Then that's what you get , and it's still 45,000 . The only dual feature is not like you had to promote it . You didn't have to pay for marketing and all of that . So you still may 45,000 do something .
They're probably took you 30 minutes , yeah and what's your kind of thoughts on me ? Because I'm one at Instance right .
For your big name players it is kind of worse because you can go sell million CDs and make a lot more , but for the indie artist that's trying to come up is actually better because you get bigger exposure without having to sign to those Labels and things like that and you don't necessarily have to sell that much . Yeah .
So kind of , what's the your you know thought on that process ? Is it something that you're proponents of ? Do you think that it's good for the industry , or something that is not necessarily great ?
Yeah , I think it's good , but there's so many different platforms for you to go viral , whether it's tick tock , whether you have a dance to go with it , there's so many avenues for your music , to get noticed and to to blow up in terms of you know numbers and and then get , and then keep that momentum going .
You know , yeah , essentially , you say tick tock , right , that we would plan on doing Dances for an actual social media platform is crazy to me , but that's literally what they're doing to drive traffic , or you're making it for a specific game or a movie or anything like that . But I wanted to backtrack just a little bit about Spotify , right so ?
Or Apple or whatever , can you kind of share ? What I listen is what that really looks like , so it's the paperwork , right so ? So you , you're independent artists , right , like yourself , or nipsey , or or , or , let's say , young doff , right , mm-hmm , how does that work , are they ? Are they licensed in their song to Spotify to play ?
Or how does that really work ?
Yeah cuz that's just a DSP is like Spotify and title and now music and so you basically they're distributing your music out , but really tunecore video , whatever Platform that you choose to upload your music they send the music to the DSPs with Spotify , apple and all of that Got it .
So you set up all of that like splits , you have like split sheets , so like on the song blessed up on my project Mm-hmm Banzai was a part of that the Marco and my guy Smitty . So we you have to input the splits on your deal , like on tunecore or whatever you use first , and then they upload the music .
So then that platform is handling like the business side . That makes sense .
So it's just all about the logistics of what would house setup .
Okay , and it's like automatic , like just kind of on tunecore , you can put a man in like cuz like that particular song .
It was like 25 , 25 , 25 . So and it pays us individually .
That's pretty cool , so we don't even have to deal with any of that .
It's set up and it's like six ways to be paid . It's different ways to be paid because you have sound exchange . You have your PRO , which is BMR , asscap , okay . You have BDS bands , which media-based when your songs on the radio . So it's like so many different avenues of ways you have to register your music so you really can be paid .
God , and so the record labels . A lot of times the reason that they make $51 million a day and stuff like that is they have all those Registrations , are all of those thousands of songs ?
Yeah , that makes sense , got it and they got the reason . They got to be able to make sure , and all the whole , the whole setup . So how does it work with you being you won six Grammys right from not mistaken , yes , okay , nominated for 11 . Can you share some of the Grammys that you , that you , actually won ?
three with Steven Marley mind control Revelation part one and part two Damian . Marley Welcome to Jamrock and Stony Hill from two years ago . Wow yeah , those mostly all through the Marleys .
Yeah , their records . That's powerful man . Yeah , how did you ? How do you connect ? Like , how do you get in those circles to be able to be part of that particular project ? Like how does that work ? It is somebody you knew from back in the day , or how did they bring you in ?
Well , with those guys specifically that I had done this record in 1995 with this girl , diana King called shy guy .
Okay , it was ended up in a movie bad boys with yeah , of course , I think they're working on another one right now , if I'm not mistaken .
Yeah , I think yeah so yeah , so it was called shy guy with Diana King and that record came out and that's when they heard it and they loved the way the record sounded .
So that's when .
I got the call from them right after that record came out and we started a relationship of working together since .
And it continues to this day and that's powerful , so you still get the string , no matter how it continues to keep rolling . That goes into you guys because of the break , how you were breaking everything down , right ?
Is that how it works , with being Grammy nominated and being part of an actual recording Really depends on what capacity I'm involved as an engineer , if I'm producing , or writers , if you're if you're right a part writer and you own part of that publishing , then you you're in on those splits . Then you receive those royalties .
But a lot of times , like your , is work for hire right , so you get your fee . You get paid to be on the record , whether you're producing , playing on it . You get your fee and then that's it . You know you're not entitled to writers About royalties . So really depends on what role you play got it .
Is that what they try to do ? They try to always pay the fee so they don't have to do that . Royalties forever Is that kind of the norm , or is it norm to do the royalty part ?
really depends on . You know the person's input and why you're at the table being part of this record . You know you wrote part of it . You wrote some of the chorus or the verses or some of the lyrics or the beat , for instance .
And they'll you know , so you own you're rightfully owned a part of it Got if you're just coming in to touch up something or it really depends on the role You're playing and what you're hired for you got it how you guys feel , like because you guys are in a lot of rooms right with helping people produce , like being a critic too right because you got very
sense about your music , like are you able to tell them like , look , this sucks , like you need to go back to the draw board , or is it more of like , hey , I got a job to do it , I want to just get it done and get it out ? Is there a mix of both ? I'm trying to be honest .
I love that , because it's hard to sit there and just let them do it wrong , but I'll do it in a joking way .
I'm not rude in there , Like I'll do it and make them laugh about it .
And make their fellas in whoever's in the room , like they all be in there laughing . So I'll do it in that way to lighten the mood , to tell them OK , maybe we can hit this a little better .
Yeah , just stay positive .
Keep the light up , keep the energy up , inspire them .
Try to get the best performance you can out of them . Yeah .
What are you guys seeing now , meg ? What are you guys excited most about ? The music industry now and what , everything that's happening , because this change is so fast . Man , what's exciting for you guys now ? Jeez , that's a hard one to answer , because you know it's that we don't really know .
It's that unknown territory so to speak . And it is exciting and it's so much going on with the way things become viral and the way things do blow up , whether it's through a film or through an advertisement or through just word of mouth , or because you were on somebody's record as a feature , and then you blow up with your own release later afterwards .
Yeah , I'm excited for R&B . Ok , r&b is making a comeback .
¶ The Future of Music Industry
Like this year , I felt like I only recorded maybe like three or four rappers . Like I recorded Benny the Butcher Shout out to Benny here I did a session with Nelly , but it wasn't like a lot of rappers . I did tons of sessions with R&B artists this year , so that was interesting .
Especially being in .
Atlanta , I would just . But I feel like because all the court cases and everyone being arrested . It's like the rap slowed down in Atlanta . It's like not how it was years ago out there , where it's like constant . I feel like the R&B artists are starting to make their way back around .
You know , when you mentioned that , I actually just read an article about that . They were saying the rap industry is kind of like taking a stall out . There really hasn't been a lot of new people .
It's kind of older people that have been in the industry for a while that are starting to just not really put out a lot of music because they're already well off , Because they I don't want to say the wrong thing , but the powers that be have made it that way .
Gotcha , don't just scream to you . It's , they've set it up for us to fail now . It's not conducive for us to keep it going , like all the power players . Because this is the thing .
The major labels they care about the master recording , but the subsidiary labels , like all the OG labels , back in the day they made stars , they made those albums and then they sold those masters to the major labels and then they went out there and sold the record . Now you cut those labels , those guys out , and now they're just directly to the label .
Now you have a bunch of people that's like well , we don't know what to do creatively , we handle the business . So when you cut those guys out to make more money , but then you're making weaker stars because you're cutting the people that really develop the talent and make the albums , you're cutting those guys out .
That makes sense . That sucks to me . Yeah , that's rough . That really sucks to me .
Because my thing is , if you look at the top 20 artists that sell the most records from any genre Adele , taylor Swift , beyonce , drake when have you seen them making TikTok videos ? When have you seen them facing the camera on Instagram ? When have you seen them on the radio rapping and singing and tap dancing ?
You have it , but they tell all the other tier of artists you need to rap on the radio . Black Thought went on . What was it ? Sway and rap for like 10 minutes and Jimmy Fallon made him a book when he came back to the show of like how long the rap ?
100% right .
And his album came out and he went triple Styrofoam . That's crazy to me . So rapping on the radio , who does it benefit ?
The radio , the radio .
But they could play your song and give you a BDS being that'll affect your bottom line , but they'll have you come rap a verse on there . For what ?
Yeah , it's got a risk to you , but they didn't make Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish come on there and sing or rap .
They didn't make .
Drake do it . But they're selling Diamond and all of these records and making billions of dollars on tour and they're not doing the song and dance . So why are you telling the rap genre you got to go do that .
So , I'm glad you brought that up . So like somebody like a LaRussell , right you know him .
Oh , yeah , definitely .
Director consumer concept Killin' it right , doing it . I think he's building concepts in his backyard , or whatever . Is that the way to go then , if you're independent artists , is this director consumer Hitboy and his dad just did that with the new project .
His dad just came home from prison . They did the project . You can only buy it from them or get it on J-Pay . J-pay is the tablets in prison . Get outta here . I remember doing sessions with Fetty Woffin .
Hitboy is what they did with Nas Nas . Okay , yeah , yeah .
So he just did the project with his dad . It's out now , but you can only buy it directly from them .
I didn't even know it was out Okay .
Yeah , you can only get it from them directly , like out to Trump . Or you got to get it on J-Pay because his dad was in prison all those years , so he paid it where the guys in prison can get it , or you buy it from them .
But how would you know that ?
I didn't know that he was doing that Well you got to be tapped in because it's one of them things . When Nipsey was selling his album for $1,000 , everybody wasn't listening to Nipsey back then , but the ones that were tapped in he made 100 grand off the people that were tapped in .
So that's how they're looking at that approach Like , okay , we build our true core fan base that's going to believe in us , regardless if we don't Spotify or any of that , and we'll just cater to them .
Okay , that's , I think , the future of music because the way the labels are moving , it's like do I want to get taken advantage of , to get this small amount , or do I want my set of fans that every time I drop I know I'm going to make a hundred grand , 500 grand , a million ?
If you have your set fan base , can you think If you get 10,000 dedicated fans spending $100 with you ?
Yeah , that's a lot better than trying to .
You know you bet on yourself you bet on yourself and I noticed that was what . I think what Ryan Leslie did that years ago . Right took all his music off all the platforms and went direct to consumer . I think he was like a super phone super phone , yeah , concept , and he's a big tech guy and that's interesting . He would say that .
So how do you guys feel about ? Like truth , right , speaking truth in your music , like obviously fat Joe came out . He was a lot of 95% of his rap spirit . How do you feel about ?
because you're a truthful guy and you speaking about truthful things well they saying that cuz they trying to avoid Rico's cuz the stuff that they talked about their music could get you that's what they like oh .
I'm getting away from that lyrics now yeah , it's more of that , then like oh , I'm lying people scared of fat Joe like .
I get it , I get it , I get it . Everybody definitely get Rico's . But that's a hilarious . I wasn't even thinking about that at all
¶ AI's Impact on the Music Industry
.
So yeah , you know to shift the gear a little bit you know you guys , both , you know , just graduated from full sale , you know , moving in your engineer degree . You've been in the industry for a long time and we talked about the change of the industry a little bit , and one I think that we all know is impactful .
Specific to audio is like the artificial intelligence , right , this is something we now you can get digitally master anything in two minutes . Right , it's very where before you have to get a professional engineer to do those things . How have you seen that impact ? You know you guys , or how are you utilizing that and in your future , do you ?
How do you anticipate that helping you , or is it gonna be a detriment ?
yeah , that's a good question because it really , you know , there's so many aspects to it , because didn't someone just release a Drake record ? Yeah , not really Drake . Yeah , yeah , I think there's an enemy and he just did an interview with a sheet on with sunglasses .
Oh yeah , he just did an interview with Ray Daniels on his podcast . He has a white sheet on a sunglasses and he's on there talking like yeah , you know , I still wrote it , but it's Drake voice like that was probably Chris . That was Chris on there . That was hilarious . Yeah , I didn't know that . I didn't know that about it .
Yeah , yeah , that's crazy technical aspect of it you know with with plugins and mastering . You know the AI , you know can have AI , you know get your sound up to par where you wouldn't be able to do it as a beginner yeah so it's a tool , but it's gonna be interesting to see how it you know how it influences everything .
Yeah , ai doesn't have a soul it doesn't have developed ears thing about . He's been doing this 41 years . I'm not even 40 years old . He's been developing his ears for 40 years . That muscle memories yeah , so in the frequencies that we can hear , because we're constantly listening to the same thing over and over again .
That AI is just gonna give you one blanketed sound like this is it ? This is rap , this is country sound , whereas we're going in each individual thing with our spirit and ideas and we're doing that to those songs . The delay effect that he does on welcome to gemrock and on those records I can't do that . That's the bonsai , like always .
Tell them that ain't a delay that's the bonsai . So he created that , so I can't do that .
That's how do you like educate the next you know round of artists ? Right that you know , if I'm coming up now and I have no money and I can't before the engineer , I'm gonna go to AI . Right , I'm gonna get that cheap amount . But then that's my education on engineering . And how do you get those people at the beginning to really understand ?
you know the bonsai effect right and how that is important that's up to the individual to want to learn that skill , to be able to do it themselves instead of rely on , you know , software or AI to do it . To really know how to do it themselves and why it's important and how it affects songs and you know how it's all energy .
So you know where does the song need a lift and where it's like a good DJ knows when to yeah , keep everything rocking knows when to calm it down . So , everyone you know , just read your audience , so to speak , right you guys do a great job of explaining it , you could tell you exactly why would have had a bar .
Just want to change this a little bit because Audrey 3000 , what was the reason for this flute album ? Right , because he wasn't making no money on . I mean , he's making ridiculous amount of money with outcast yeah , cuz love .
Below is the highest selling rap album of all time , so why would you do another ?
but like , why would you do that right ? Like , is it a way to kind of flip it a little bit , because I don't understand the business play that I ?
mean , that's where it's creativity is right now , like it's . He just has to get that out . Yeah , eventually he may rap because thing nice without out my 50 he just say one do another album without . Yeah , maybe he had to get that out of his system to then transition back yeah cuz I've been listening to love below a lot lately , like the last two weeks .
It is crazy . My son is three . He loves that album . He's like put on that that three thousand and he loves the album and it's like jazz and R&B , but that album is fantastic . I think it's probably hard to do something again after such a masterpiece . Like where do you go after doing something ?
that actually because think it's been .
It came out with 03 . Oh , easily by 02 , 03 , yeah , and 2023 . I'm sitting there like , oh my god and it could rock right now .
Right now like , oh my god , do you hear what he's ?
doing like so . It just took a long time for people to catch up . And I mean , it's getting the rewards at one album of the year and it's only been two . What hip-hop albums ? Lauren Hill and that album to win album of the year at the Grammys , yeah , and it's the highest selling album .
So they're getting the accolades , but I think it's just hard to follow up something that's something that's special .
Are you guys happy with the music is in ? You do a wide range of music . Are you happy with where we're at an industry and where it's going ? Is that something that you you are happy with or are you kind of disappointed with some of the directions because of , obviously , the big part ?
I think it's about so you know with the conglomerates right that they can kind of bully the system but I mean overall I'm happy with it , but it is a little concerning and disappointing in some areas and some genres , but you know I still keep my ear to the street with you know up and coming new creative .
You know these young kids coming up with great ideas and just put now . And you know using their influences from when they you know from today or when they grew up and the hybrids they're coming up with , right , with beats and lyrics and melody , yeah , you know . So I remain optimistic . Yeah , that's what's up . Yeah , how about ?
you , man , I mean , I feel the same way . I think , just how sports teams need veterans , I feel like artists need veterans . He's my veteran , so I'm more in line with the old school because I have true mentors , whereas they're out there freelancing in this .
The Wild West is good ideas , but if you had a veteran that could say , oh man , if you could do it like this , keep doing your thing , but if you can refine it like this , it could be over the top . That's what everyone had . All the greats had that person in the studio .
So I think we need those veterans and people with that ear to be able to help coach these kids , because still let them do what they're doing , but just try to give them the right direction to make sure it's all the way A1 . That's lacking , because everyone's looking at the bottom line and not caring about the actual art .
Yeah , it's almost like there's an isolation of groups . Right , you have the old school , the mid school , the new school . It's almost like they try to just pigeonhole everybody in these individual categories instead of bridging the gaps a little bit more . We talked about that with you know , eddie Mack , and vinyl and new DJs right .
Vinyl cornered new DJs , very different , but there's no bridge .
But it's so cyclical Exactly what's old is new again , because these kids today are rediscovering the 90s 100% . The 90 sound before was the 80s and it's very cyclical in that respect .
It's funny you say my kids a little . They listen to a lot of the old songs and I'm like how do you even know it ? Because of the TikToks and the YouTubes and everything .
It's going to come back , so you can't isolate it so much because , you have to be able to because , it's going to come back around and then you're going to be caught holding the bag on it .
It's kind of uh , sure , with us being a business show , I want to start first with International GT . But what would you say to somebody ? I know we asked you just before , but a lot has been happening . What would you tell to somebody that wants to get in business for themselves now and has a dream ? What would you share for them ?
A nugget you know for them to maybe start with , or whatever your perspective is on business .
¶ Pursuing a Passion, Favorite Restaurants
Be an Indian before a chief . Like , really learn how to be a part of a team . That's why intern is so important . Love that . Like , if you know how to serve , you can definitely go out there and lead , but you got to know how to serve first , like .
So I feel like learning from a good mentor to know really how to do it , before you just jump out there , because Music it's not a fast thing , like you're not gonna get a lot , and because you don't always make a lot of money , you gotta really love doing it . And how many people gonna stay doing it ?
If you , oh , I'm doing it this year , next year , this year and you're not making millions of dollars , are you gonna stay down and keep working ? So you gotta really love it . Like , whatever you're gonna do in life , it doesn't even have to be music . I would say love what you're doing Really , dive in and research what you're doing . This is your life .
Before you just jump out the window and say , oh , I wanna be in the business , any business . Like . I would say really love what you're doing Really , research it and be an Indian before the chief .
Love that . Yeah about chew bonds .
Exact same thing .
It's a good way to put it , because if you were really passionate about stuff what's in terms of music , for instance , or it could be cooking or painting , whatever it's putting in the work , really putting in the time to discover what it takes and it takes time and it could lead you like , for instance , with music , you wanna be a producer right and studying
production skills it could lead you down a different path . Or you're a guitar player or a drummer and you study your craft , but it could lead you . That path could lead you in a slightly different area so it's like Glenn said put in the time , be passionate about it . That's what it takes , yeah .
No , I love that , and I was listening to Michael Rubin talking a little bit about that too . He was talking about work-like balance and he was like , basically , screw the work-like balance , because especially when you're doing music , you gotta be so focused and locked in , especially when you're trying to put a project out .
Unfortunately , the work-like balance is put to the side . So I love that with your analogy . We always ask everybody about restaurants . Man , what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas now that you give us a gym ?
I mean , I've been here an over a year , yeah , but watching you guys' page I wanna go to Golden Steer .
I never been here Shout out to Amanda Check out Amanda . She's a great lady man , great business . It's been like almost 70 years , yeah , I've seen that place my whole life being from Vegas , I never was like , oh , let's go there .
But , seeing them on your show and then going on their page , I'm like we've been missing out , you're not following them , following them . I am no every time .
We've had so many people hit us like , okay , we can't get a reservation , can you hit a band ?
directly man .
So that's awesome , man . What about you now that you've been living here for a while ? So what ?
restaurant would you recommend ? It really depends on what type of food ?
of other food ?
I'm Italian .
I love Italian food . Okay , love Italian food also .
I'm feeling Prasheco . It's over on Eastern and , like Pebble in Henderson , Love that kitchen . Danielo is the chef there , it's great , I haven't heard of that before , so I'm checking it out . Love Japanese foods , sushi . There's a little place not far from here in the neighborhood here , called Soho Japanese great quality , awesome . So it really depends on Thai food .
There's a Thai place in Henderson too called Pink Cow .
I think it's called Pink Cow . Oh , Pink Cow , yeah , yeah On .
Eastern there they're great , so it really depends on what ?
There's some gyms , man , Good stuff man . I don't think anybody's mentioned those three . No , no , no , so go to see a shout out to them , man , but we're gonna check out the three that you just mentioned . What else are you guys working on right now together ?
I know you guys got a new project or something you guys are working on , or Did you talk a little bit about Bless Up ?
was actually a song . That's a part of his rhythm series for his strand .
So he has a .
Banzai Karuso .
Banzai 14 , marijuana strand right now . Oh , that's what was on your album , yeah .
How did you put that together ? Okay , so that's his new strand .
so it's in Oregon and .
California right now and it's coming to Vegas Okay .
So in the spring , right , yeah , it'll be here in the spring , okay , yeah you're killing it , Dan .
Get into cannabis industry , so that's what you're in in that space .
So we're simultaneously releasing a rhythm series album , glenn's on . The very first one , called Bless Up here . This just came out a couple weeks ago , so we've got a bunch of tracks we're just gonna keep releasing for the rhythm series . That's part of the brand Banzai Cannabis brand . So yeah , that's one of the projects .
Another one is Tribal Seeds , the album I've been working on for about a year , year and a half now , just about ready to drop that .
It's about 17 songs on the album .
It's a really excellent album that'll be out in February . I believe . The Mortimer album is coming out soon . I've been working on that for about a year . That's a great record that should be out in early spring or in the next couple of months . Samurai just dropped his album . I've worked on a bunch of tracks on that which just came out .
It's called Strength , I believe Some great tracks on there .
So , yeah , some of the latest stuff . Yeah , this is hands of all the stuff , man , very blessed . Yeah , that's awesome , man . Well , I get it , man , I appreciate you guys , man . Oh , let me shout out Jay Brown too , because he gave me my first number one . That's what's up . Okay , the song .
My Whole Heart . We number one on Billboard three weeks in a row .
Congratulations , man .
So that was my first time ever going number one because I've gotten gold in platinum plaques , but that was my first time number one on Billboard .
So shout out , jay Brown , my Whole .
Heart and that's like a classic Motown sounding song . So it's like he's a young guy doing R&B so it's like to get a song like that and I recorded and mixed it , so that's a good one and it was with Carvin Haggins and he's like a super legend Philly legend writer Like you . Look at his discography and it's like crazy .
So I got to like he actually came to Atlanta from Philly and brought his whole team . That was my first time actually seeing a real R&B record be made . That's what's up with that . Like they had producers in there playing . They had a vocal coach in there like holding down the button saying shake it like this they had the writer there .
Oh , I don't like that line . They'll change it right there , so it's like it was seeing a machine happen and I'm there just recording but they're like taking my input . So it was one of those things where you can be a part of the input . So like all the like delays and reverbs and all the stuff going on , they just let me do my thing .
They were like oh you're a part of this . Cause . Then I can like sing the key to them so they get a kick out of that . They like oh , you know the key , like doing this long enough . So , just being a part of like a real R&B , and Soraya's project came out . I did her whole project , flutter . She's on Kingdom Business and was on Empire .
I did her whole project . So it's dope . I'm doing albums with R&B artists but doing like one off with rappers .
So it's interesting , that's . I'm excited to see that . Yeah , that's exciting . I didn't even think about when you said R&B , because now Vegas is getting all these residencies back right .
Josie Lydde , I can't even voice the band .
It's been here for a minute and then I think I was trying to remember .
Wootang's coming .
Wootang's coming , so it's exciting time to be . I love the music and I love seeing all these different projects , especially with what you've been able to do with Night of the Wind . So I mean , support them , man . It is great things .
And I know more Grammys coming your way and Grammy coming your way , so can you shout out your social handles and everything Did you ?
Yeah , everybody follow me . International GT you know it's International GT everywhere . And straight lay C&T . And I want to shout out Full Sail . You know that's still Alma Mater . Now Shout out Banzai , get the Banzai 14 . And yeah , night of the Wind . Check out Night of the Wind .
Appreciate you , man and Banzai .
I know we put your handle up too , but yeah at Banzai Caruso on Instagram and Facebook James Banzai Caruso and . Banzai Caruso . There's two of them , those are the two main ones I have and .
LinkedIn as well . Awesome , man . Well , we support you guys , man . Definitely check them out , check us out at VegasCirclecom and subscribe with us , man . So we appreciate your time .
Thank you for your questions . Have a nice day . Thank you , man . Appreciate it , love it , appreciate it . Thank you . This is follow the .