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My experience after record deal (warning)


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section wild 'ish
  

 6 years ago '17        #1
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My experience after record deal (warning)
 

 
How I got signed and turned off by the music industry. This is long. I broke it up into sections for easier skimming.

A lot of people on this site talk about the music business, gossip about artists, speculate, etc. I usually don't talk to specifically about my experience in the music business but since it's Christmas I've decided to give a brief story of my time as new artist, what I learned, and what ultimately led to things not working out the way I had hoped. I'm going to be as concise as possible. The full story would be a novel.
 
(Short background)
I started making music in 10th grade with high school friends. Starting out making beats on fruity loops now known as FL studio. I then began singing and writing songs. A friend of mine named Arnold showed me how to record with Sony Acid Pro. Arnold would go on to be an early founder of the Student Hip Hop Association at VCU (SHHO). (Everything I would ever record to this day would be on ACID with various high level plugins). From 2002-2005 I would hone my raw ski1ls. I graduated HS in 2005. Life became much more difficult. Despite being an honor roll student I didn't go off to college. I instead got a job, an apartment with my girlfriend. Times got extremely difficult as she had trouble keeping a job. I went from working at Sports Authority to selling Toyotas, to Detailing cars. I quit making music to work about 60 hrs a week detailing cars. I pawned my microphone, mixer, etc. for gas money. While detailing cars at the Mercedez dealership in Fredericksburg, VA I met a dude named Guy who would constantly talk about music and it ignited the flame again within me. I decided for my 21st birthday I would go buy my microphone again and start back recording. I linked up with a high school friend named Rashad who made beats. We began recording together because a member of his church worked for Sony. He expressed interest in hearing what we had. Sadly, weeks into us working together again, Rashad passed away from a freak incident. He was put into a coma and they couldn't wake him back up. I vowed to myself to continue making music for him and me. As times grew harder I continued working long days and recording when I got home.
 
(The Hooks)
One thing I was really good at was writing hooks, choruses and stuff. I was a member of soundclick.com and on their I developed relationships with up and coming producers. Around 2008 or so I had the idea to start selling R&B hooks to producers who would then sell them to rappers. It was a good business. I made about $12,000 in a year doing that. Met a lot of dope producers. I was at forefront of digitial underground age of music. My producers I worked with would sell beats to a lot of huge artists today including Kendrick Lamar, and Wale. In fact, Wale's first producers Best Kept Secret were one of my first clients. I remember talking to him on the phone and him telling me how good of an idea it was to sell hooks like that.
 
(Home Life)
With me working so much and being so focused on music, home life began to unravel. In 2009 my first child was born. A boy named Jaylen. Later in 2009 I married my longtime girlfriend through justice of the peace. I also began taking online classes to get my bachelor's degree. That was really important to me. The easiest way to cope with all of these stresses was alcohol. Drinking started as a way for she and I to have fun together, but as she started to grow tired of my workaholic lifestyle drinking together would turn to me drinking alone as she went out with friends. A normal day for her meant takign care of the baby until 5pm when I would come home, we would go to the gym, then I would work on my online college work, then immiedately after I would work on hooks for rappers and also my own music. That's not good for relationship. I would continue this nonstop for a couple years.
 
(Getting Attention)
My music was starting to get people's attention by 2011. I had done so many hooks that a lot of random rappers and producers knew me and would talk about me. On producer I worked with a lot named J-Rum even got me linked to his manager Dale, who flew me out to Oakland to shoot a video for a hook I did with their artist Colb De Lion.
YT
image

That was my first time on an airplane. After the shoot his manager expressed interest in signing me. He was working on a new label with backing from legendary hip hop head Eric B. When I got back home I was back to my routine. I was invited to be an artist on an up and coming R&B compilation called "R&B Street Anthems Vol. 1." The song chosen was "Supernova."
YT
That spot would eventually change my life. I would go on to link with a couple other manager types who were local to Fredericksburg area. One of them who was "Wobble" artist V.I.C's road manager got me on the phone with an A&R who wanted my song "Where I Belong that I had wrote and performed." This is before Beyonce line danced to "Wobble" and made it a hit. He used to hang out in Fredericksburg a lot before the song took off. I still hadn't signed any paperwork with anyone, it was all just good faith work. Dale who was J-Rum's manager linked me with Eric B and Charlucci Finney who would commission me to write songs for possible placement. I began writing for Aaron Hall who was supposed to make a comeback like Charlie Wilson did. The main single I wrote for him was called "Arrive." I would go on to take the song back for later use.
YT
I wrote a lot of songs for them and made some decent up front cash for it. I wrote so many songs and hooks it was dizzying. Made official placement submissions for artists like Kelly Clarkson, Rick Ross, TI, Fabolus, Enie Kocie, Day 26, Chris Brown, and more. Meanwhile, I hardly performed live. I was a true studio artist.
 
(Getting Signed)
Up until 2011 I never signed anything with anyone. I kept posting my own music online and all of a sudden people started asking me to sign stuff. Remember that R&B compilation I told you about? The A&R for that album was a guy named Trey Carn. He was in LA. He liked my music so much he always would hit me up just to keep me motivated. In 2011 I wrote a song called "Sophisticated Lady."
YT
When I posted that song on YT he really started getting excited. He sent my music over to an entertainment lawyer in LA who then sent it to Top Notch Music. They liked it and wanted to meet me. At the same time, J-Rum's Manager Dale finally wanted to officially sign me to a management deal. Trey had gotten in my ear so much that I had pretty much commited to sign with Top Notch pending our meeting. Top Notch asked me to fly to LA in late 2011. There was one catch. I had to pay for a 1/3 of my ticket. Top Notch and Trey Carn paid 2/3. I thought that was weird, but I took the chance anyway. I took the money out of my rent money and flew to LA for 1 day and flew back to make it to work. I didnt' get any signing bonus or advance. I had a production deal with Top Notch Music, and I was back at work. Dale was pissed off. He called me yelling at me, saying I made a huge mistake. The thing about music biz people is they don't really tell you things up front so you are clueless as to what they have in the cards. Dale and Lucci told me they had my deal all set up with Eric B and that they had a connect that would walk me into Atlantic Records. Funny sidenote is Lucci also told me he was at a basketball game sitting next to Lil' Wayne and played him my music and Wayne loved it.
 
(Music Video Time)
So now I'm signed to an indie label. It wasn't just any indie label though. The owner and also my manager (yes he was double dipping) was a huge radio guy for all of the major labels. He had plaques in his office for big time records. If you don't know what radio guys do, I can give a cla$s on how radio works later. In December of 2011 the song I wrote called "Sophisticated Lady" was chosen to be my single and we shot a music video out in LA. We shot at MacArthur park, a hotel, and that lightpole exhibit near where Biggie was ki1led.
image

That was a sh*tty experience for me. I wasn't really comfortable on camera. I was just a kid who detailed cars and made music in my apartment and all of a suddent I'm thrust into the set of a music video in LA. i remember they gave me some vodka to calm me down. To this day I hate watching that video. I feel it was rushed.
YT
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