How BBNo$ Makes $300,000 Per Day | Being Broke, Cashing Out, & Getting Screwed

you dm'd us and you said I am the one who has no money it's baby no money tell us how do you have no money SW it a I am the purest form cheapest human being ever I can turn around and be like here's $40,000 for a music video let's go blow it go make art I don't think I spent $40,000 on myself in the past 4 years so what do the finances look like today like getting 10 million streams on Spotify the r that was making from streaming royalties and online like plays what so Garfield took one of my songs and used it as their trailer and I was like out in Japan like and I checked my phone I was like boom $300,000 just like that like you kidding me Garfield I I'm aiming to do this like 33 stop tour in Europe and it will net me negative $127,000 so why do it you give your fans an experience and their fans for [Applause] you dm'd us and you said I am the one who has no money yeah well it's baby no money right yeah right so you're the baby that has no money yeah tell us how do you have no money so basically I grew up in a family that my dad's an immigrant parent and the financial concept of what we grew up in in like the complex is like you put a house over your head and you feed your family that's it it's money is there to like be a protective measure and I think it just really distilled into me I don't know I remember in high school I when all my friends would go out they'd be like hey we're going to bring some money and like go like party and then eat at McDonald's I would bring nuts because I knew that they were high in fats so I wouldn't have to have as bad of a hangover I wouldn't drink Chase because it was too expensive like I am the purest form cheapest human being ever like I bought I bought like a 200 pair of jeans and all my friends are like dude what the is wrong with you and I'm like I don't know I still F econ like I just can't spend money I have like a weird psychological like AIX or suffix I don't even know of like just the inability to spend money I'm the exact same way I it doesn't seem like that but everything I buy is designed around making money everything so if I can't make money from it or get it at a good enough deal like I was talking to Jack about there's a car I don't really want the car car but I'm like hey if I get this car at this price I can't say no to it then I have to do it because it's worth so much more and I'm not going to lose money I see every purchase like that everything I don't know what it is I don't know if the you know sometimes I'm like I should just fly first class cuz it's literally going to kill my body and time is the most valuable asset so you know you got to weigh out the options but it's like sometimes I just don't know why I have this block and I see my brother for instance and he he lives in Copenhagen and every I feel like perspective uh like a living perspective in in Europe is like you work to live whereas in America you live to work and he's he's always pressed me on it he's like dude go buy me beers you you got to go buy me beers and I'm like dude I don't know I feel weird doing that like I like if I'm not if I'm not getting something out of it like it should be 50/50 or something like that you know what I mean I don't know what it is I I've been like talking to my therapist about this [ __ ] too and it's it's been like an interesting uh Dynamic that I've had to find with like every single person that I like work with like you know uh I hired a basically a bunch of my friends because why not just hire your friends and be closer with people that you love and it's like weird because then you have like this power Dynamic with with financials and then it's like I'm just like I usually just call my friends I'm like all right how much money do you want just tell me and I'll just give it to you I don't really care and it but it's it's weird because when it comes to a financial perspective with with my job I can turn around and be like here's $40,000 for a music video let's go blow it like go make art and then $40,000 I don't think I spent $40,000 on myself in the past four years like I just I I don't know what it is is there anything that you've started to splurge on because I think it's pretty safe to say that you have money now I mean with 10 million Spotify monthly listeners I don't know what you're doing on Apple or YouTube or all of that stuff you have to have money now is there anything that you're finally allowing yourself to splurge on uh nice food that's it it's like what is nice food to you oh like I'll go for like triple Michelin double Michelin not there yet really nice food wow there's something the that you know like sharing like really really nice sushi with people when you know all the experience is the exact same flavor profiling in your mouth all at once there's something to it I don't know what it is and it's like sitting down with like ID or friends and being like all right we just spent like $500 $600 a person holy crap and we're just like looking at like this small little cracker on a plate and you get like 30 or 40 different plates and you're just like I get zero enjoyment from that really very little get anxious about the price he can't enjoy himself if he knows he's spending a lot of money yeah see I get that I definitely get that but food I don't know it it broke through I I don't know maybe I've done too many Hall we got to we got to take you down a notch and show you like all you here in Vegas $30 all you could eat sushi or there's a poke spot that's really really really good for like $17 that to me is like better than the really expensive meals that I've eaten it's not like like don't get me wrong if there's like a $1 Taco call me crazy like it's probably going to be better than like a $50 $60 Burger someplace or somewhere else you know what I mean like I totally think that there there's that but I I don't know for some good reason like just going out with a bunch of friends and really splurging on some like a meal is like I earned this and it that's the feeling I get at least but I will totally appreciate like I still love McDonald's like you know when you go to McDonald's you get a m gang bang I don't know if you yes M chicken and McDouble put them together so busting and like I grew up on that so it's like when I go back and I'm like oh you know what guys let's feel terrible for the rest of the day and you put him in gang bang together and you're just like wow this is disgusting we should go get one I I'd be D but you were mentioning too that was surprising that like technically you're kind of homeless like you don't have a place anymore yeah I'm like I'm like a nomad it kind of sucks I don't know I don't really have like another perspective like basically I live with my parents in Vancouver if I were to be home one it's because uh whenever I was home anyway I I own this apartment downtown Vancouver and I was just like I could I could stay here or I could just be with my parents for like four days the only time that I'm in Vancouver so I just decided to sell it because I was like there's no point of owning this and sold it actually made I made $25,000 on it after after years after like this is after everything like paying for a new roof like all like the fees and everything so I ended up making some money on it which was sick and I was like dude before you know before I was 30 I already sold the appartment that's great um you know great accomplishment so basically I live with my parents and I rent kind of in LA but I don't really like stay anywhere it kind of sucks I don't really know else to say other than it's just uncomfortable sometimes cuz I'm like I would love to have the longest I've ever stayed in a place in the past four years was like 2 months so I I don't really have any like regularity or like a like a schedule for instance so like hotels all the time hotels airbnbs like other people's couches just like just living it's it's weird but it's also like everyone's always like how do you only travel with like a carry-on I'm like well I don't I spend a lot of time in airport I don't want to spend an hour like waiting for a bag and or potentially being way longer than an hour so it's like you know time time is money right so so what do the finances look like to day like getting 10 million streams on Spotify like could you break us down like we know nothing about in this sort of Industry we can also guess guess like how much 10 million monthly listeners so your Spotify check only I'm gonna say what do you think gr I'm gonna say per month with 10 million monthly listeners 175,000 bucks a month no dude I'm going to guess like $500 a month from Spotify what uh okay so 10 million streams there's so many 10 million monthly listeners so M listeners it's it's interesting because it's a very deceiving uh statistic or analytic because actually doesn't matter like it literally doesn't mean anything right because it's like for instance the weekend biggest artist in the world Off streaming Revenue off this off that you know he's the most streamed artist this the so a monthly listener is someone who comes back and listens to a song twice within a month so basically I no idea so basically what that means is you can have a lot of monthly listeners but not a bunch of daily streams whereas like uh this Collective or these these two dudes called boys they have about I think 14 15 million monthly listeners but they have like 10 million streams a day I have 10 million monthly listeners and about 1.8 to two million streams a day so it it really only matters with the amount of actual consumption rather than the the fan listening more than so the like their fans are listening like five times six times whereas my fans are listening like once and how can you figure out that statistic or is that only like in the dashboard for it's in the dashboard so so basically like every million streams is about3 $3,800 so if I was streaming about 40 I think I stream about 48 to 49 million streams a month on average so it's like about 50 so so 100 it's it would be about 150,000 but I don't I don't own all the royalties some songs that are doing really well for instance one of my songs one of my biggest songs ever la la la I sold that song when it was like taking off and I only own 25% of it from a label also labels there's so many smoking screens like there's so many extra hidden fees like it's for sure like every distribution is like they're they're scraping and every single company will do this typically I would say on an average song I end up having about on average like 60% from my whole catalog of the royalties on the master side so I would be making about like $2700 out of these $3,800 per million so I make about like 5 to 6K kind of flat a day approximately now all of this reminds me that the future of business is really uncertain because if you ask nine different experts you're going to get 10 different answers from the bull 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netsuite.com again netsuite.com with the link Down Below in the description netsuite.com slist thank you so much netsuite for sponsoring this episode and now back to to the podcast I make about like 5 to 6K kind of flat a day approximately all right you're close I'm way off $500 a month that is an abysmal guess that is that is $500 I was like that's he has a little bit of money clearly I I had it in my notes Here a million streams is $33 that's crazy well a million streams a million streams on YouTube on like on like streaming of a song is way way lower the CPM on YouTube is like kapoot it's garbage and it really also depends on where it's being streamed so for instance like India the Spotify subscription is oh true it's like 30 cents in India so every stream from India would be way less worth whereas like in America it's like $15 a month or some I don't know I don't I don't even listen to music really I don't I don't I don't even have a Spotify account sorry are you kidding me yeah I don't I like legit have yet to use it what how do you listen to music I don't really listen to music what what do you listen to I actually don't really listen to music just full what about like a podcast or like I just kind of like chilling cuz my life is always music it's always thinking about like whenever I listen to songs I like it's kind of like Finance it's like when someone talks about Finance it's like that's on your mind and when when I hear songs I'm like why is this song big I need to like analyze the song whereas like I can't even listen to it anymore obviously some songs I'll come on I'm like whoa this is really good this is super catchy I like this this like the synthetic sound here is really nice like it's so well mixed but I don't really like consume it as I used to and I think that's just like a product of my envirment like a job kind of when you're listening to music yeah but I mean it's also it it also distills feeling for sure uh but it it's it's definitely less than it used to um where was I so going back to the money thing so on YouTube a million typically equates to about $700 so let's say you do a million on every single platform you're going to be looking at like what's a million on like all the other ancillaries probably another like $2,000 so you have like 3,800 2,800 and then if you do a million on all of these streaming platforms so like let's say you have like 5 million total streams on the publishing side this is where it gets really complicated publishing has mechanical royalties and mechanical royalties is what that is is like it's a royalty that I'm also not the most educated on this like people literally have their whole lives collecting mechanical royalties for like publishing companies it's ridiculous but basically it's like on these streaming platforms they have these uh performance royalties that go out to all these publishing companies of like songwriters so if they're is three people in the room and we write this song it's kind of it's called Nashville basically what it is is you split it three ways so we compose the song together so 33 33 and I will just typically take 34 because it's just easier to split it up that way obviously um so that 800 would be split 33 33 33 uh and that's just a mechanical and then you have like syn royalties you have like if someone uses it in the movie you have like extra royalties coming in there is like so many un unspoken nuances and and like small little Revenue generators in music that is like it would blow your mind it just depends on where it's played played in a TV show it pays this paid in a movie it pays this and they all have different splits so Garfield took one of my songs and used it as their trailer and I was like out in Japan like sitting in a in a beautiful Forest I was like man I love Japan and I checked my phone I was like boom $300,000 just like what just like that kidding me and I was like ah Garfield I with you did you know that was coming no no no so it's just like it's just like basically they reach out and they're like we want to pay for this but the thing is I own 21% of that song on both sides so 21% of 300,000 is what is that like 67,000 um so $67,000 but I didn't do really anything I just made the song and luckily the song became a hit but you see how like all these extra streams and revenu just keep on coming in too hot to handle has used my songs all the time and like Love is Blind use my songs and then they they pay royalties they pay out like a licensing fee so you get like $5,000 just like that randomly boom and you have agents that just negotiate this completely detached from you you don't even know they're doing that then just randomly on a day you'll just typically Mondays and Tuesdays I'm like come on come on come on come on like raw and then I'll just get an email or like a text from from like my publisher like anr guy and he's like hey we got a big one I'm like movie let's go for dinner boys and that's kind of it it's sick and that's just like one con that's like one small little Avenue and it's interesting and really really cool too because people make careers just out of that where they're like I'm a syn writer so I will make songs there will be like a sync pitch and be like hey we have like an action movie with Dwayne The Rock Johnson and we need Bing Bang Boom Boom type music so people will be like a composer will be like all right let's try it so he goes in the studio and makes like a a song that sounds like what they want and then you might get it and you might not and they'll do it a buy full buyout of like $100,000 and like people have full lives like that and it's like such a small little factor of what music is and it's like you can compose this compose that for ads and it it's it's actually really cool once you like see how the the the the backside of the music industry is it's like really really enjoyable there's so many so many avenues that you can create from so why does it seem like a lot of musicians say it's a horrible industry to be in and it seems like just like the top .1% is reaping like almost all the revenue well I mean okay so on a touring perspective it's a nightmare so the AAA artists they clean up like that's you know like Beyonce's out here doing like a $100 million in a touring Revenue like Olivia Rodrigo was the highest grossing artist of our decade more than Taylor Swift well a new artist like a new generation artist was $190 mli Million Dollar on her last tour and basically I was just telling you about this subtronics guy basically like if you don't get to 5,000 capacity shows which I'm going to be honest I've been grinding my ass off for the eight eight nine years it's hard like you need a ton of hits like a string of hits or like crazy controversy like crazy this crazy that and you just got to be on the ball 247 and like really cultivate that fan base if you don't do that and you tour at like a two ,000 to 3,000 capacity like tour and you want to bring production and try to make it a cool experience for your fans you are always in the red I'm I'm aiming to do this like 33 stop tour in Europe and it will net me negative $27,000 so why do it because you give your fans an experience and their fans forever and that's it and like the only reason why I'm able to do this anyway is because of them it's it's really just a Pat in the back and like sometimes I'm like volunteering it's exhausting and you're like volunteering volunteering huh uh and I've done it I've done it for so long like I this just this year like I'm selling I'm on track I just listed a tour recently like like a week ago and we sold out Toronto probably the fastest I've ever sold out a show ever and I felt like I was like whoo this is things are on up this is great uh and I'm on track to make like probably $40,000 $50,000 on a tour that's going to gross like a million but there's just so many expenses so it's just like a really really interesting Dynamic when you when you see the back end you're like yeah my understanding is that they'll pay you like a big amount for one night but then it's up to you to then pay out like lighting and security and like you know all the miscellaneous stuff with that so there's something called a guarantee typically that's like how most people take it you can do like dollar one deals at the door where it's like you basically rent the venue and you just take all the risk whereas a guarantee is like I guarantee you $25,000 in your pocket and then you you budget the tour off of that so you can have like a bus so it's a little healthier for you you can go to bed and then you bring lighting lasers you try to make an experience or as cool as an experience as possible my main goal is try to make like a musical out of my music for the next tour so my fans are just going to make he really tried um because the bar is really low in rap music to be real um but I don't know like sometimes I get frustrated because I'm like I don't really want to tour not make any money anymore like it I've been doing it for like eight years basically so I'm just yeah kind of tired of that but at the same time it's also like who the [ __ ] gets these experiences and it's like it really is as cliche and corny as it may sound when I'm on stage and I see that many people just smiling and like giggling I'm like wow that's that's crazy like I can actually distill happiness in people and I have the ability to I always wanted to be a doctor I went to school for kinesiology before I did music and I just wanted to help people and the ability that I have to to reach people and like actually emotionally touch them in a way where my music is I can say PE poo poo on stage and people like yeah and uh you know I think they just get me in a deeper level and they just want to be there to have fun and you know have an experience and and kind of like forget what is now for them and be in the moment dude is a blessing so if I have the ability to do that lose some money at the same time but like harness and be able to like nurture my fan base like that's that's the main goal here so I think that's super super nice of you and also like aware of you to be able to take the hit to be able to provide for the people that provide for you yeah totally and on top of that I just got to say like I wasn't expecting you to be so upfront about all the numbers and everything and to be honest like as YouTubers we're very familiar with like how much YouTubers make or how much streamers make or that whole sphere but we have no idea how much like musicians make cuz it's not talked about that's I appreciate your transparency when it comes to like musicians numbers because a lot of people I'm sure like basically all the viewers right now have no idea are completely surprised you get a check just for you know from Garfield like that on a random Monday morning well that I mean like yeah that so edamame was one of my songs like that s that s balls hanging L yeah so that song was like the number three or fourth biggest SN song like in 2022 2023 so that means basically I was like waking up every other week with like a sink it wasn't as so synchronization so basically you you it's like Garfield is like oh we need a trailer audio boom sink at aame bing bing and he's just like driving or something I don't know if it's like if it makes he'll syn the the the sound team on their on Garfield or Pixar wherever it is will be like this is the budget we have and hit up uh Sony ATV like Sony my publishing company and be like we want this song in this trailer that's it so I would just wake up some days with people using my music or like uh one time we got a sink with a CarMax for one of my songs called Bad to the Bone and it was like a llama just like head out the window just look looking at the camera and it was like yeah Bad to the Bone basically and they just used that portion of the song and I was like all right cool and CarMax paid me and Taco Bells paid me like Mountain Dew's paid me it's like kind of sick yeah it's really dope do you ever find it intimidating that like you have to keep topping yourself like you have a good song and now it's like what's okay how could I make something better than what I just made so I was really struggling with that in the beginning of covid uh I had la la la and that song was stratospheric obviously did not expect that song to get that big um you know that was like right in the beginning of Tik Tok and it it's almost at a billion streams now and just one of those experiences where I was like oh this really happened like I remember I was sitting in my bedroom I just like started crying I was like dude my phone is blowing the up right now like this is crazy like this is real and my mom like walks in with some apples and it's like you good I'm like yeah I'm good this is right after I graduated University like I cross I crossed the stage went to the hotel my sister was like yo why are you not coming to lunch with us like you just graduated like celebrate with the family and I was like no I got to drop the song it's going to change my life and then like two days later it exploded how did how did you know that song is going to be so big is a feeling yeah I don't know I played it live for a couple times and like people could recite the hook like immediately it just banged like everything like the mix sounded perfect I don't know I remember also I hook HED up with a girl the same night I made it and I showed it to her I was like yo I made this hit it's a hit I made a hit like I did it and she's like it's cool and I was like whatever and then she called me like after it blew up she was like you told me this song was a hit how did you know I was like I no like I I I I actually have no idea I just told everyone and I just spoke into existence and it just happened how much do you think that song gross just in everything cuz I imagine like you said every other week you were getting sync and on top of that the billion downloads that it's done do you get a plaque or anything for a billion uh I think Spotify will actually send me a billion plaque cuz I think there's only like I think there's only like 1,200 songs at a billion or something like I don't know maybe not even that many uh so so edamame was the one that synced weirdly la la la was way bigger of a song like culturally than edamame was but it didn't SN at all it's because I feel like this this the edamami this song is so driving and it's like when you want to buy something you you just want to be like sucked in and edamame I feel has that punchiness like really like upbeat fun happiness whereas like la la la is just like more of like a weird meshed pop song that no one really has heard before so la la la I don't know how much that song is fully made to be honest um so when you sign into a record label you never really know how much they spend on it I'm honestly like I think I'm going to audit Columbia because walk us through that like when you sign a record deal because you hear so many people saying they got ripped off by their record company even Limp Biscuit I think is suing whoever their their publisher record company was because they said like they made no money from certain songs or like from certain albums I'm still independent so I I I I own all of my masters so basically whenever I'm like wiing kids checking out I'm going to be like all right guys I'm out I'll sell my whole catalog for millions of dollars ideally I'm like a Bruce Springsteen in a couple years you know the vi he just sold his catalog for like $250 million everyone's doing muchie sold his yeah it's ridiculous it's up hundreds of millions hundreds of millions it's it's Insanity the Jackson sell I think Michael Jackson I think the be bought Michael Jackson or no Michael Jackson bought the Beatles yes I think that's one bought one bought the other and they were really upset about that deal yeah I don't know we're going to put a list of some people that have sold their catalog the numbers are ridiculous it's ridiculous but I mean it's Evergreen I think the consumption just keeps on going up I mean obviously like the OG OG OG OG hits like will always be hits you know that would be cool to be able to buy a song like that that would be the ultimate Flex like I'll I own that song sure I mean I have a bunch of songs that don't make any money because they're just but my musical career started basically from just like Gamers using my music on YouTube so I never clicked the content ID like copyright thing cuz I was like I want people to use my music like I want people I want to encourage people to use my music and that was like kind of like a a a grounding point for the the basis of building my career and uh yeah I still to this day I just went to twitchcon recently and had a really good time there and I I met so many people that I've never fully met before that have used my music in their like intros or outros of their gaming videos and be like bro I love you and I'm like I love you man it's so appreciated because I'll tell from my perspective that there have been times where I've used a little clip just like 10 seconds like a little background clip they claim the whole video and I have to go back through and like edit that out and it kind of ruins it a little bit or videos where I've included like a reaction to something in context and they claim the whole video Yeah well so I don't own all of my music la la la I still have a 5-year license with Columbia um a lot of my music with my friend young gravy is all on Republic uh so I don't really have full jurisdiction over what happens there and I can't really get those claimed because I ended up selling the rights of those songs but at the same time like all the music that I have on my Spotify that is not capitalized so it's like all lowercase that is my music so how does a record deal work the misconception is record labels are bad I don't think they're bad they just can't work that doesn't have a flame there's it it's like it's like if you have a financial adviser and he's like hey so we're going to need some money to like make some money and he's like and the people are like nah go make me money with no money how does that work it doesn't work so if you're working an artist that just isn't working and you just up and signed the wrong guy because you thought he could have been the next pop star then you're going to get dropped and then the the artist is probably going to get super pressed because we're like I signed this deal and nobody's help me out like [ __ ] brother I don't know why I brought the UK accent out there but uh but you see what I mean they're basically just a bank but when a song is ripping and they just want to roll their keyboard down with $600,000 to Market a song I'm all hands off I don't care because when when La laa blew up really hard it was doing like 4.8 million streams a day so that was making like $20,000 a day just default I don't know what the they did I when I sold it to them it was doing a million streams a day but I don't know what the they did they spent $650,000 I don't we don't literally just says marketing expense $650,000 and I'm like whatever it helped my career so much that like I will take the deficit of making money there for a very long time because I can make money in other avenues so I used to view music as which made me way more anti- label I used to view my music is the only Revenue generating principle because in in University I was releasing songs I was like making $4 a day $8 a day $16 a day and I was like oh this is like where I'm going to make all my money so the revenue that I was making from streaming royalties and online like plays was the only money that I was making and I that was like basically the only money I made for a very long time because as I was saying like touring you don't really make money until like the past year and a half I've been profiting on touring not nearly as much as some other people may but uh it's kind of like leveling out to 50/50 now so basically now I use the I use my music as an Avenue and a tool and a marketing tool to get people to my shows and to get people to care more about my my business basically the issue I had with record labels is I was so afraid of giving up 855 to 90% of all the royalties that I was making in the offshoot chance that they know actually what to do and how to Market your songs but because the music industry is becoming so Democratic because social media and uh labels are basically being like uh feet held to the fire a little bit yeah and like labels are like cleaning up their whole roster like just firing like firing everyone because they don't have the power anymore it's not monopolized like you can't you can't tell the world that this new song coming out on TI talk is going to be the next big hit it just doesn't work like you need people the people make the decision and the people people make all of the right decisions when it comes to the songs and like when you hear songs and it's like a small little snippet and the rest of the song sucks or the rest of the song rocks it's cool because it's like that's what the people want that's what the people want and it's not yeah it's not monopolized anymore and it's it's actually it is beautiful but it also makes it really [ __ ] annoying for an independent artist because you're like okay do I want to try to market the song or do I just want to put it out and see if anything happens and wait and if it doesn't move on to the next one I don't know that's interesting I wonder then how many artists are trying to curate their music to be just that song that's used for like a 10-second clip I heard you mention in another podcast the song million dooll baby and how that song I mean you couldn't go like three reals on Instagram without hearing it and that probably completely changed this guy's life insane like monthly listeners like my favorite artist Rex Orange County never and he's been making music for such a long time not hit that amount of monthly listeners and this guy did it with I mean I don't want to say one song but effectively to my knowledge it was like one song so so yeah that's that's the thing is monthly listeners is very deceiving because it doesn't actually mean anything you can have you can have the biggest song in the world like cranking like doing like 15 million streams a day and nobody will come to your show because nobody cares they just want the song they don't care about the artist so that is like that's that's where like the turning point is like getting the the the subconscious of of of society to be like oh I [ __ ] with that person and it's like how do you develop a story and how do you develop a personality that people can attach to that draws them and draws them in enough to come to the show or like buy the merch or or you know like do all the other business perspectives that are not just songs but like I do totally think that H slice is really talented so he he's going to be he's going to be here for a really long time and I'm I'm happy to have heard his onong I like it a lot although really quick before we go into that you might have noticed that the iced coffee hour has grown a ton over the last year we've surpassed a million subscribers we've had big guests on like Jordan Peterson Michael sailor and Ben Shapiro and we're even about to surpass a billion views the point is a lot has changed over the last year and if you're running an e-commerce business you could probably relate whether you're looking for better efficiency during The Hectic holiday seasons or your business has just outgrown your old shipping Solutions you need ship station to help you scale your business shipstation integrates with over 180 popular e-commerce platforms marketplaces and carriers helping you achieve exceptional shipping efficiency plus with features like automated shipping tasks you can manage orders from one easy dashboard and enjoy discounts of up to 89% off UPS DHL Express and USPS rates saving you money while delivering faster over 130,000 companies have grown their e-commerce business with ship station and 98% of those customers who stick with ship station for a year become customers for life so lead your e-commerce business into a smarter future with the shipping software that delivers switch to ship station today just go to shipstation.com for a free 60-day trial again that's shipstation.com with the link Down Below in the description thank you again to shipstation for sponsoring this episode and now let's get back to the podcast is there an algorithm to game the system for music or like a formula that you could follow I heard there was a clip that I saw it was like a DJ that was talking about it and he said that there's essentially a lever that can be pulled if you pay enough money a lever that can be pulled to make a song go viral but I'm guessing you would say that's not true that's not true no matter how much money you throw at it like okay I mean if I was a trillionaire okay and my like let's say I was a trillionaire I had a I had a son he was like I want to be a rapper dad and I was like I got you then yeah like I'll throw a billion dollars at a [ __ ] song it's going to go ape [ __ ] you know what I mean I'll just pay every single literally every single YouTuber to use it and it's going to go up or you just pay the producers like an obscene amount of money like the best producers no producer that that makes no difference really yeah cuz you can make a song I could we can make a song right now that could be the biggest song in the world we should do it at the end well I mean maybe uh I I just don't like it won't be the biggest song of the world cuz I'm not that great fundamentally like I'm I'm fine I just kind of figured out a loophole uh I just figured out what people kind of like and what I'm good at and I just double down on it constantly and I'm just like all right I know exactly the type of music that I would listen to if I were to make it again and I'll just double down and I'll double down I'll double down what I found really interesting is that a lot of the biggest artists don't even write their own songs like they're written by like a Benny Blanco like like someone like that where they could you know maybe collaborate or just buy a song um what was the guy the ABA M Mike he was talking about making a song for Bieber and like that was his song he shows himself playing it oh it was love yourself I I think it was love yourself he made a song and then Justin I think plucked it uh the the super super if I was your boyfriend yeah it was that okay that makes sense yeah so songwriting is also another Avenue to become successful I've been hit up to write songs for people for sure I just like don't care cuz I don't like doing things on spec which is like hey if you do this you might get this and I'm like I would rather just make a song for myself who cares like yes I'm not the best songwriter in the world I've met some songwriters and some artists that I'm like what the [ __ ] am I doing here you know what I mean like you're like you I try pretty hard to make music for sure you know I'm like racking my brain and I've seen like DOA cat make a song or just jokingly make a song and I'm like dude this is more fire than my whole catalog and she just like sits there and it's like sick so it's like there are some people that are just objectively like super super talented and are hit makers is that something that could be learned or do you think you're born with a the ability to be able to hear songs no it's definitely a muscle okay I mean I would say five years ago every song I made was like a seven out of 10 six out of 10 let's say modestly or whatever now every song I make is at least an eight out of 10 and that's because of just like what I know and it's like your taste keeps on evolving whether or not like the song will explode I think your taste keeps on evolving and you just get better because I can take every single aspect of a song of like one of my big songs I can take an aspect of it and be like what made this song Popular oh this part and it wasn't because it blew up on Tik Tok it's just like the feeling it gives you during that moment when you listen to it just grab it put it on this song another song that did well grab that put on the same song and just basically have a full set of songs or full set of a song of all the good parts of a song all the good flows all the good Melodies just put all back on one song It'll Do Well Do you ever worry that AI is able to do that at some point in the future and like create the best song and it kind of frightens me a little bit but at the same time like there's so many imperfections in my music that AI won't make so it makes it less real I also do think I wholeheartedly believe that like people will use AI for every other reason other than art and people will get bored of it people will get bored if it is just straight up AI art and if there won't be like a Revolt like we need no more AI art but people will just be like I'm not that down for this and I I think that's just going to be like the general conscious of the society people of of people being like you know what I think I'm done with that we don't need this let's just like actually support a real artist but what if they couldn't tell because I could see the movie industry like at one point being like hey we want movie industry maybe unless there you can tell you can tell the movie industry right now is like getting hit by Chad gbg scripts it's pretty bad sometimes I watch movies I yo I walked out of the Joker movie I heard it was like miserable it was abysmal yeah and like look art Direction great don't get me wrong acting incredible but like for two and a half hours nothing happened and it was just awkward I was like I think they just went to the Home Slice went way too AV on guard on it and was like we need to do something even more different and it just went way left field and it did not resonate I don't think I don't know I see a lot of that like with musicians I feel like a musician they make a few albums like when they're starting out then they make two albums that just blow up and then they're like I'm really artsy I'm going to try to come up with something that's like super unique and different and then it's hard for me to actually enjoy that like I've seen that I feel bad saying these names with like Kendrick Lamar like good kid Mad City was incredible one The Greatest Albums ever even I hate saying because I love I in fact I met him randomly outside of the restaurant that I used to work at Tyler the Creator oh he's great he's dropping a new album he what he's dropping a new Al chrom acopia which actually sounds really good it looks wolf is like I think a a masterpiece it's like a 10 out of 10 album but I feel like after those blew up they're like I need to go a little bit more unique and different and you know get all artsy and poetic which is great like I support trying new things but it always seems like a little bit much do you see that I mean I kind of have it with my music I mean like everyone's always like I want the old baby no money I want the old this old Kanye all this but you're developing new fans every single time M and you know I just put a I literally went from like a drum and bass record a drum and bass adjacent house record with like Topline Bas that sounds like everything from the UK to a heartbreak song which was fire yeah and it's good it's a good song like I I like I really like it it's it's really like raw and powerful and emotional but it's like it doesn't [ __ ] matter if you can make a song and you can make any type of song a decent song then do it like I I totally agree though like sometimes as people like try going way too heady with it okay for instance so the the Heartbreak song there's there's a lot of aspects in that song that I would say I would basically do in a normal rap song anyway it's like some of the cadences are just like really upbeat rapping I get insecure when I am not when I leave space on a song that is something that I just a lot of producer friends that I work with they're like stop rapping so much the song will do better and I'm like nah it just makes me insecure but it also sucks cuz I I kind of set myself up for disaster when I'm performing live because it breath control is really difficult when I'm like rippity rapping like on stage for an hour and a half and I'm saying like poems and poems and poems and lyrics and bars uh so that's that's something that I like struggle with is like leaving space in a song or like trying to be more artistic in that regard but something I will do across all my music is just fill the song out with lyrics because I know I like it and I know my fans like me and if my fans like me they'll like my songs and that's that's it I'm just putting my personality into my songs and they can resonate with it rather than just trying to do something completely left field every time which is cool it's really it's experimental but I just don't think it does anything for me because I know I don't like doing that I like it when the each album is like adjacent to the other it's not the same that you're trying new things and you're experimenting but it's not completely detached from like the style that cultivated you that audience yeah totally I've been working on figure out new voices like uh a lot of my songs are pretty like monotone it's like balling and the and I keep in that tone a lot because I'm probably just insecure about my other voices but you know like how Kendrick Lamar on yeah yeah how he goes like high pitches say hi brother what's good brother he do that the he does a lot of that stuff and that's the reason if you look at all the really successful rappers they all have different voices H ye Eminem like Drake Drake's [ __ ] dude Drake pulls out a UK accent sometimes and then like a Jamaican accent bro it's like interesting does a lot and Kendrick does a ton and it's it actually I didn't realize this until recently but it really makes a difference having different voices do you have any checks and balances or people that you know that have their fingers like really on the pulse where you show them your music and they're not just like oh yeah dude that's fire that's going to go bang or do you see any artists that you think have just consistently over time just nailed it every single time because I imagine if you're like making music and you're passionate about it and you're like really loving it like people are just going to be like oh yeah that's fire unfortunately sometimes I wish I had some more Yes Men because sometimes I like n that [ __ ] sucks man I'm like [ __ ] uh so I'm I'm I'm set on that do I think I make the best music in the world no do I think strike of Genius sometimes I'm like this song rocks yeah God bless when I made it boy I remember I ordered an Uber and we we made this other song and we were working we they just started the beat and I was like yo this beat's fire as [ __ ] and he was like yo lay something on it before you get in the Uber and the Uber was waiting and I you know when they text Uber he's like hey I'm here M then I just literally went up to the microphone the first thing I said was i t b o y b b n o do yeah that's me yeah that's right and they were they just bow turned were like yo that's fire and then they were like he what's the next lyric and I'm like I don't know jenzy Eminem and they were like that is so [ __ ] stupid and I'm like hell yeah let's run it I'm not even gen Z and then we ran it and then I sent all my friends the song and one of my like best buddies my DJ I sent it to him he's like this is the best Hoke you've ever written I promise you this song will blow up all right and then I just like I buckled my feet down finished the song and we just yeah it did well so and it's easily the most turn up song I have live this song is I I play like a an orchestral introduction to it and then I'm like the only reason why you guys are [ __ ] here is to tell your parents that you're [ __ ] oh God damn Legend like get your [ __ ] dicks up and like I just like scream into the microphone and yell at them I'm like get your and uh yeah they just lose their mind it's just everyone's literally everyone's jumping they're all yeah it's really cool um so when when you make a song like that you could feel it and it actually invokes a feeling of like hey I want to move or like hey this makes me feel sad that feeling is infectious I don't know if only musicians can like see it for the first time but you know when you hear a song you're like damn this is fire I promise you other people feel the exact same way and that's probably why a song will be big just infectious I don't really know how to explain that's like I like Rick Ruben a lot and I listen to his interviews it's incredible he has no musical training whatsoever doesn't know music theory nothing he just has an ear and he's like if I like it I have a feeling other people like it too yeah and that's it that that that that really is it it's like and it's kind of like people are like what type of food you like and I'm like good food it's the same thing it's the same concept it's cuz maybe maybe you don't like good food as I like good food per per se but like I'm not going to say no to a $17 poke Bowl where I know it's going to be good as [ __ ] yeah for me with food by the way a good analogy is like you know how your smell influences the taste of the food yeah for me it's money how much does it cost that influences the taste of the food the cheaper it is the better it tastes the cheaper it is the cheaper it is no matter what or the more T the more free it is the better it is doll when I free [ __ ] oh I love free [ __ ] what kind of free stuff do you get as a musician kind of like if I re okay you know RX bars I love RX so good so I have DMS with them of me sending voice notes they hey guys I'm like a huge fan please get back to me I really want some product and I'll promote you guys and I promote them and I like literally tell my fans I'm like please spam them I really love an RX bar like they they cold turkey me but basically I've gotten I think the coolest thing that I've gotten for free was a steam deck it's like it's oh it's like a game it's a Game Boy basically from from the the company like valve and steam and I've been playing that all the time on planes and stuff it's super super nice we got Jack in the Box for free really yeah Jack Jack commented on a video because Jack Jack's name is like oh it's a Jack In The Box well I would talk about it so we used to have a vlog Channel I would talk about Jack in the Box all the time I love Jack in the Box I think it's underrated what's good there first of all everything the tacos are amazing so I growing up like I would definitely so I had like very little money personally growing up and so I would go to Jack In The Box they had two tacos for 9 I would and I ran across country so I build up an appetite I would go spend $4 get eight tacos feel awful afterwards but also just love eating them they're amazing the meat is questionable you don't know where it comes from they definitely fry the entire Taco it's not healthy but it is like it's it's love yeah they sent us they sent me $500 debit card to Jack In The Box yeah and it's like it's called VIP Jack cash I go through the drivethru like hand it over them they're like I have never seen anything like this ever before it's been three years and I still have money on it really yeah I mean fair enough shout out Jack in Theos yeah shout out Jack the so you got the steam deck for free is there anything else that like huge brands are just like here just take it like audio equipment I would imagine no no audio equipment is like it it stays and lasts forever so like no one they're not going to give you anything unless I was like triaa you know what I mean uh I might I don't want to jinx it but I might be getting a Chipotle black card no oh okay I got to show you what I just sent Jack holy I I want to jinx it I I I I like I maybe even cut it out you should literally just bleep bleep I want this in there because if in the offhand chance like we talk to ble probably every other episode oh my God that's it it's not it's not the Black Card anymore it's the wood card that's fire we talk about Chipotle nearly every other episode we shout them out I spend $16 there basically every single day Chipotle if you're watching this I love you Chipotle all three of us will always talk about you trust me you know I hope that people listen to this and go byy Chipotle I recommend it it's healthy send us your cards please price yeah it's a great it's a great price it's a great value it's a great value span for sure walk me through like a day in the life of a musician just I know your every day is going to be way different but let's just talk like an average day how often are you in the studio per month okay so I usually do Studio work like making music in a very sporadic it's it's like two or three months I'll just be like [ __ ] it like let's make a ton of music and then I kind of just choose all that all the good music that I've made let's say I make 100 100 songs and I'll take like seven and I'll be like okay we're gonna we're gonna Market these seven songs I really like these seven songs uh I'm going to shoot music videos I'm going to do this I'm going to do that and just hope for the best with these joints I used to in the past like do tons and tons of music making because that's all that's all I had like I was just making music constantly um but now it's like more formulaic it's kind of like very like structured uh cuz if I have a tour coming up I have to like prep music because I want I want people to show up and want want to give them new music to hear and to find enjoyable to when I do the shows what else uh so a typical day let's say okay when I go back November 1 I'm going to be in La my typical day would be I wake up do a little bit stretching go to the gym come home figure out what I'm going to do in that day of like do I have a session if I have a session at 3 which is music session I'll make music then I'll work with my team of like content strategy for the next week or something like that and then go make the session go make the song hope for the best in the studio and then come home rinse and repeat for weeks and then one off day we'll be like hey we have a show on the 12th so we're going to fly to Mexico City and hang out there for a couple days I'm doing a show in Mexico City and then I will fly back to LA or go to another place and just make content with people and doing those shows in like the oneoff and Mexico City are those worth it financially or would you say that's more so cultivating the audience so oneoff shows College shows festivals that those are worth it because they have a ton of production already and it's sometimes it I would say 9.6 times out of 10 it's not a bad look uh or 96% of the time is not a bad look um sometimes like the festival will flop or not sell tickets and then you're just like kind of left shitless you're like well I didn't have the ability to Market this but sometimes like people can like post a video If there's like no one at your show and be like wow bro fell off I've seen that with a few like rappers like I swear I saw that with like like L baby so or something tickets right now ticket sales are the lowest they've been in 35 years why do you think that is Tik Tok brain people don't care people want stimulus now why would you go to a show where it's like an hour and a half of of your day an hour transiting probably where you're like oh I have to go like listen to these songs in person yeah there's obviously a lot of people that probably don't that way too but think about the younger generation and also there's a lot of people who like probably don't even see it because social media is so alienating now it's too much for people like is it not too much for you guys definitely is it's not good for it's for my brain so I I'm similar to you like I try very hard it's a conscious effort to limit it yeah yeah I've seen a lot of them cancel shows like ah we can't do these show we just didn't sell enough tickets be the cost though well no it's like cost but it's also just people aren't selling tickets I I don't know what it is luckily thank the gods my American tour cuz I was worried I was not going to sell any tickets I don't know just everyone around my Camp the people that I know just aren't selling tickets and I was like a [ __ ] man but we like blew out 10,000 tickets in a week which is sick for me like that's way above average my my agents texting me he's like bro really proud like this is this is sick we're on the up like amazing he's like you're really blowing out tickets like this is going to be great news for all the promoters and all the buyers of like festivals so I'm going to be able to do like Festival shows and get bags there um but yeah I mean things things on on my side are are great so so Google estimates her net worth at 3 to five million is that accurate where do they get that number from are they just guessing I don't know how they make these numbers uh it's it's not accurate but um low or is it is it high hey man we come we come we come the game we sometimes don't know how to play uh but I don't yet I've never fully understood it of how they would make this assumption um I think if I wasn't independent I would probably have less than that number hypothetically I don't know uh one of my largest decisions that I I would say is a mistake is when I had la la la I didn't sign my album that album that I had I didn't spend a penny marketing it because my ALG algorithm my name was so fueled just like fueled in all social media like I uploaded a video on YouTube and I did like 7 million first week because the next thing you upload when you have a banger is going to do better because the algorithm I don't know fundamentally what it is but so when that happened I was like all right like uh I'm I'm going to do it my way but I I [ __ ] up and I didn't spend a single penny on marketing that album where that album could been ginormous if I spent $1 $200,000 what do you spend the marketing on just like getting creators to make content doing this just like developing out the story as well so like if I had a $200,000 budget I'd probably spend like probably spend like $20,000 on like third party marketing teams to get like real big blog editorial posting so it feels real so you can just use that content you can get like a magazine post and be like yeah I'm on a front cover magazine even though the magazine doesn't do anything so it signals to the fan you're like oh I'm cool I'm real and then I would if a song goes crazy you run it to radio so radio is a completely tertiary basically dying format but if you have a song on like pop pop pop pop radio and it's going crazy you're making million dollars a week like you're making a [ __ ] ton of money from the publishing side so that's only if a song goes crazy and then and then really like I send the rest on a bunch of really epic music videos like developing out uh the the story of the album The the likeness of the album the the the uh creative Endeavors and and just putting more money into that so people can dive deeper into it and then really 70 60% of the marketing budget just drop it on like Instagram reals or people having making Tik Tok posts yeah and like when you see a little a little smoke come up when you that's the thing you got to be really really opportunistic in music and when you see a little smoke bubbling or like a bubble you're like oh we got to spend because you might miss you might miss it in a millisecond so how do you recommend someone who wants to get into the music industry to start let's just say they they they're making their own music they they are you know in their parents bedroom just getting started how do they blow up well so this this guy named David I don't know you know David in the closet yeah in the closet so this guy I think his song is like 1.5 billion now he made a song like on his [ __ ] iPhone and it's ginormous like triple quadruple Platinum the homie was like making music in the fortnite closet like legit he was a fortnite streamer and it was like [ __ ] it I'm going to make music made one of the biggest songs of like 2022 2023 I don't know when it was on his iPhone you can just put music out you never know what's going to hit and yeah his whole life changed like siza brought him on tour and just just like that and he's young he's super I think like 18 still yeah like when that song came out I think he was like 16 or something like that yeah and there's like he uploads like photos of him and his I think a little sister or a little brother and they're just like making new song and I think the brother's like or little sister I don't really know it was like seven wow and it's just like dude what like so how does he get traction to that is he just posting it on YouTube did he use his audience Tik Tok the Tik Tok is really what blew up um I don't know if he used his audience I have no idea like there's a void in there but the thing is is like when you upload a song and you're just being yourself on social media it it will hypothetically resonate someone something that you said you were like are people making music for like Tik Tok moments I think if you just try to make a good song it might go on Tik Tok it might not but even if it doesn't go on Tik Tok if it's a good song people are going to listen to it that's it like how have you been so strategic in marketing yourself I feel like there are very few artists that go on as many podcasts as you go on that like that are so active on social media that that like I mean you collaborate with a bunch of like YouTubers and stuff like that and as I'm scrolling reals like like I'll see you all the time like were you strategic in that area or just is that kind of just you taking every opportunity it's kind of like me taking every opportunity uh but I also like have kind of branded myself to just be low effort and it works sometimes sometimes it definitely does not work and it really misses Tik Tok is [ __ ] as well but uh I feel like a lot of the time it's just like the lower the effort the better the results I just see a lot of like the really popular artists as well like Kendrick Lamar or Drake or Daniel Caesar Rex County like they're just completely gone they're recluses like they don't go on social media they don't go on podcast they don't do anything and then they just show up every once in a while with an album yeah I mean there are different types of artists I think I kind of live in a space where I'm a little bit new aged uh and I have to promote my music for it to be heard kind of thing I also could just literally put a song out and just not touch it I could totally do that but I like I like the challenge I I I like thinking about it and being like you know what I would love for this song to be huge because it means a lot to me or something like that uh sometimes it gets incredibly frustrating and like there's too many people speaking and I'll just like be like what the [ __ ] but uh most of the time it's very in when it works and you know it's like what's the point of doing something if you're not going to do it to the best of your ability I think that comes across as like something that is very like a like a heart point of my of my brand and it's a very uh accessible for people to be like oh he's just like he's just a literal idiot on social media that's that like kind of makes good music it's cool so that's that's my take on it I guess it's interesting when you mentioned that you were bigger in China of all markets I heard you say that recently China dude it's so ridiculous China I was in university and I got a DM it was like right during like midterms week and I was like man I don't know if I can do this music [ __ ] anymore it's really not working like I was genuinely going to give up and this I was also doing a copious amount of adol because I'm not an academic um I wouldn't recommend it guys uh so I got a DM from this this girl didn't follow anybody but me on Twitter and was like hey you're famous in China I'm like shut the [ __ ] up like what do you mean she's like no I'm being serious I'm like huh and I had a foreign exchange student in at my in my class and I was like yo like do you do you know this like app called net e and like wongi and like 163 music and he's like yeah and I was like do you know like do you know like what this means and I was asking him like what all the analytics were and he's like wait this is your song and I'm like what do you mean and he's like dude this song is huge I'm like really and then we just like became friends after that and he like helped me get WeChat helped me get WBO and a bunch of social medias and then there's this dude named loose out in out in Shanghai and I was like I made a fan group on on WeChat and so many fans poured in they were like my phone was like buzzing off the woo and I was like holy [ __ ] I remember just sitting there with my roommate Kyle and and Daniel and we were just like dude what the [ __ ] is going on with my phone like I couldn't use it because I was like and I I texted this guy loose I was like what's up like everyone's telling me to hit you up he's like cool let's do a tour and I was like really and homie scammed my ass so hard like we sold out six capacities all like 900 plus and I went from doing midterms not selling literally doing a show in like T BC with like One Singular person like one person to doing 900 capacity sold out shows like drunk off my ass being like [ __ ] it let's party and like didn't even know my DJ didn't even know to DJ like we were just winging it so hard and uh at that point he gave me like $2,000 for all these shows and I think he probably pocketed like 100 Grand uh but at that time I was busting tables and I was like all right this is sick and I'm like I'm making more money I would have made than busting tables playing my own music in China I'm going and I went and it was like the greatest experience of my life like it was lifechanging for sure like people had tattoos of me out there I was like what the [ __ ] is going on I remember the first show I turned around I looked at Dan my DJ and I was like bro what the [ __ ] is going on and people like wow I'm like bro uh so that was like the first like whoa moment uh and then everything honestly everything after that kind of just became normalized because I was like if if my music can be so impactful in China like it has to be able to be impactful out here and I was just like I got to keep trying and then my homie young gravy blew up and then it was just like we I just kept trying sto stopped partying started waking up at like 400 in the morning started drinking coffee I just started really giving it my all so what song was that it was a song called yo-yo Tokyo which I only had had out in North America for like not long like not long like very short uh it was like a week and then I don't know the Inception of how so basically what happened was this this guy 16th birthday Jackson Jackson ye Jackson ye he danced to one of my songs in a two song choreograph like setup and it was just one of my songs so I have no idea who recommended it I have no idea if my music was popular right there prior but soon as he danced I went immediately viral that was basically it although really quick before we go into that even if you think it's a bit overhyped AI is suddenly everywhere from self-driving cars molecular medicine to business efficiency if it's not in your industry yet it's coming fast but of course the problem is that AI requires a ton of speed and computing power so how can you compete without cost spiraling out of control that's why it's time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud Oracle Cloud infrastructure or our sponsor oci oci is a blazing fast and secure platform for your infrastructure database application development plus all of your AI and machine learning workloads oci costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking so you're saving a ton of money not to mention thousands of businesses have already upgraded to oci including MGM Resorts specialized bikes and fireworks Ai and right now Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half when you move to oci this is for new US customers with minimum Financial commitment and the offer ends December 31st 2024 so see if your company qualifies for this special off offer at oracle.com again that's oracle.com with the link Down Below in the description thank you so much Oracle for sponsoring this podcast and now let's get back to the episode how was it performing in front of that amount like 900 people after previously only performing in front of just like one or 10 dude I had I got water on the cdjs and I had to do push-ups for like 30 minutes it was it was a joke I had no idea what the [ __ ] was going on was it freaky for you it was like this is funny you know like it was like this is so not what it should be but I'll take it so it was kind of like a really really eye opening experience that I was like oh maybe I do have the ability to do something like this and I think it really gave me the driving factor of being like I have to do this like something is telling me I think once I saw some dude no [ __ ] have baby no money tattooed on his neck I was like okay you [ __ ] up like so hard did you tell him that he made a mistake I think so okay uh but I was just at that point I was like I got to do this like religiously like at least for him so he doesn't make a goddamn terrible ass mistake but yeah it was a very very interesting experience that I don't know I would love to ree that again cuz it was it was so like unexpected but at the same time I was making music and I was like I really hoped this would happen and then I think the second time I ever felt something similar was when I had la la law it was like about time like it took me two and a half years later after I blew up in China it took me two and a half years later to have La La La in North America and that was like my first big stamp of approval in in America and in North America like rest of the world and at that moment I was like okay I made it like I for sure made it how much do you make and then scrap and just don't post well when you when you dipped out for a minute uh I was like I basic make like 100 songs and I'll put out like seven WAOW yeah I scrap a lot it kind of sucks cuz like I used to be way more down to just put everything out but then I realized being more intentional and like actually putting out exclusively bangers people will be like oh I know he's putting out a like a like a hitter so I'm going to go back and make sure I listen to it for the first time but how do you know that those songs don't really hit with an audience wouldn't it be better to have like a like an in-person test group of like 20 people 20 big fans play the music and just have them rate it and if they like the song Maybe you you test another group um I mean like the yeah there's testing groups and stuff but you never know like you literally never know I mean I remember my videographer I sent him la la la and I was like yo we should shoot a banger to this one this one's going to be it I promise you I promise you and he's like I don't like this song at all he's like I don't even want to shoot it I'm like okay don't worry about it didn't shoot the music video and then we shot the music video cuz it blew up we had to make a music video has like 700 million plays on YouTube and I'm like bro you [ __ ] up that would have been like the biggest gamechanging asset for your like directing career for sure ever but I mean that's just the nature of things that's how it goes I know for us and just for myself there are some videos that I put so much time and effort into that I love the video and I post it just terrible other videos I'll make on a whim and they do really well even though I think it's not not the best video just for whatever reason it did does well so I I did this video with this uh Tik tocker guy uh content creator guy named Justin ye and it's like super sick it was for the song called two the one I was talking about the music video and he did like a very DIY setup like made paintings do this and I honestly when I watch the video I'm like this is so sick like it's really cool but it just like doesn't do well on an algorithm and it just makes no [ __ ] sense anyone would look at this video and be like yo this is so sick like great job this is really cool and it's like the formatting or like the file type or or the video type the video quality type will hinder the the video and it's just like it's kind of interesting because it it it puts a weird perspective on content creators Minds that is like I have to kind of fit into this pole or this this this line of how I make music and how I deliver it or how I make content and how I deliver it and I think it's kind of like washed a little bit bit of people's full-blown creativity and I think I think it's like reducing the standard of quality across the board and I think people are just getting more and more okay with just like mid tier everything so walk me through grinding for years and then having the song La La La that blows up what are the next few days like what is your phone like does is it just constant just iMessage barage did you get any DMS from people you idolized oh yeah I remember I remember like the the last day okay so basically Y2K was going to get this record deal and when he was getting this record deal he was like we can't let this song Drop we let song drop on streaming were were [ __ ] basically what'll happen is he might lose his deal so I was like all right I'm going to work my ass off so I worked like 14 hours of just like send sending out people memes to post about the song basically and then what happens at this moment uh I call my ex and I'm like I have a hit basically and I call my manager and I'm I'm like dude we got to get this song to go up we're [ __ ] the next morning it goes up I fly I take a red eye to New York we sign it just like that and I just remember like right after I signed it we went for beers and I was just like damn about time like it like it it felt like I was like I was like about [ __ ] time I've working my goddamn ass off for like 5 years in North America and I had no no recognition really and I was like for the first time ever I felt like it just made sense and it was it was cool because I think it was very validating that I knew that song was going to be a hit and I was just like so convinced I was just like [ __ ] it I got to make this song a hit and it was a hit and then like all the other songs I put out like two before and two after they all did great and it was just kind of like a springboard effect that like took me up a lot and uh yeah it's been a really interesting experience there's highs and lows Peaks and Peaks and like lows and whatnot but I wouldn't I wouldn't change it for the world sometimes it's really annoying that I have to make content all the time but um what's the what's the worst low sometimes I I do too many shows and I like burn myself out really hard uh burnout is so real being a touring act I think like just not having regularity in your schedule really is is tiresome um yeah I think I think I've I've been to the point where I'm like oh I'm so pass burnt out I'm just so in Burnout that I don't even recognize it sometimes and then it just like gets like double down and then I'm just like cooked I just sometimes like sit there and I'm like and I want to do things but I just can't I like I'm at capacity and I also think I have ADHD and a bunch of like a of other things but uh I think that's probably the lowest it's been was recently how do you date as a music is that something that's like easy is it difficult is are there different challenges that come along with that uh it's pretty cooked I'll be honest I remember this this guy David I just bought my apartment and we just had la la la and it was like October I don't know 10th and we're walking back into my [ __ ] apartment I remember this vividly and he's like yo you know dating for you is [ __ ] for the rest of your life and I'm like God damn it [ __ ] stupid uh and it's true it's it's it's it's a little difficult for sure I that's the one pillar in my life that I don't really have fulfilled and that's the one pillar in my life that I've always wanted I just wanted like some normalcy with like love and affection and feelings and whatnot uh but I mean hey I wouldn't be I wouldn't be in the position I was in if I was dramatically in love I think and I also wouldn't switch it for anything so what makes it so difficult you think it would be like really easy no like what's the hardest part about it maintaining a relationship I am a serial monogamist and I believe out of a place of trust and love I want to build a family basically but it's just like yeah I can go and get laid what was that going to do for me doesn't make me happy you're like I don't want that but it seems like it'd be easy to find a relationship too yeah easier but it's but there's all at least historically in the past for me there's been like these weird Dynamics where I just don't like it I I I want a dynamic that we're both growing together rather than like swapping back and forth like the power sh kind of thing and I'm you know interestingly enough like I go on tour I'm the one that's insecure so I have a bunch of [ __ ] I got to figure out myself cuz I kind of neglected all of my emotional well-being for like eight years to do all this music [ __ ] and I feel like I'm kind of like lightly emotionally stinted but I'm working on it now so yeah uh but at the same time what's what are you insecure about if you're on a on a tour is it like the time difference and not spending time with someone I I don't really know sometimes I don't even know what need in a relationship uh but I I'm I'm I'm gathering recently that I haven't yet met a person that wants to take a relationship as serious as I do and I like I want I want to find a connection that I really like love and find fulfilling and I think a lot of the time the sometimes we view connections as like uh potential Dynamic where it's like probably not healthy or we're like oh this is fun this this is great but I have yet to meet someone that kind of checks all the boxes and actually wants I've met people that have checked boxes and don't want a relationship or a committed relationship but I have yet to meet anyone that wants a committed relationship and has checked all the boxes obviously yeah God [ __ ] bless if I meet someone that's perfect that's perfect I'm you know there's someone out there for me for sure I'm I'm not too too too worried uh and one of these days they will come around for sure it's just like would be doer sooner than later kind of thing I got this is completely like a 180 but I have a question about your hair your hairline is immaculate do you take any sort of thing for your hairline and on top of that like the beard it's the perfect beard I I am so hairy I have a lot of hair but it doesn't grow in perfectly like your beard and mustache do I jack you're really going strong with the compliments look I know you're single I'm single too we can figure something out here no I'm just trying to understand there like how did do you like Derma roll or is there like a are you guys going to co-parent I want to be a dad I do literally nothing to my like nothing it's the worst thing you could have told well obviously like I I I shaved a bit today like I you know I got to clean it up a little bit uh but for hair I don't use shampoo or conditioner nothing I just let it go greasy and just let it grow up so I actually did that for like two or so months because I heard dandruff is generated from drying your your hair and then it like starts accumulating and then you dry it out again to fix the dandruff which does it but temporarily and then it starts accumulating again but if you get past that Crux then over time you won't have the dandruff is that what you experienced is that actually true uh I don't really deal with dandruff I just like I I remember I was in high school my brother was getting all like hipstery and he's like yeah don't wash your hair bro and I just sto washing my hair what the smell doesn't smell bad starts naturally cleaning itself legit smell it if you want get it man all right yeah you can lean over the table yeah yeah don't SM that that's like that's a good musk it's not even it's not it doesn't even it's not that it smells like nothing but it's it's a musk you know like a good yeah very manly anyway I we got to change the the course of this conversation I'm outing myself guys I'm straight there have been questions people think that Graham and I are like dating that's not the case that's dope um okay I have a question about private venues Justin Bieber was paid $10 million they're not it might be confirmed I don't know but it's been widely reported that he was paid $10 million to perform at a pre-wedding celebration for a super wealthy like billionaire family one of the wealthiest people in in Asia have you ever been offered like a private venue thing or is that like something that happens I'm so curious cuz $1 million to perform probably likees ridiculous it's Justin Bieber and also no like Justin have you seen Justin Bieber live either of you guys no no incredible like I always was like oh it's Justin Bieber cringe I saw him live and I was like oh like he's perfectly in key like every every word he says is perfect it's perfect like I always I always was just like you know what like all these girls like Justin Bieber you know whatever he's probably just cute but he's so unbelievably professional it's nuts uh have I done like a super private event I've definitely done private events but not to that extent obviously like 10 if I was making $10 million for a private event black cards would be on me for sure uh I've definitely done private events I mean they they typically do pay better but they suck it's not as fun well yeah definitely not cuz no one's like singing your music no one's like actually there for you you're just like that that is that is like the wife's dream and he's like all right I got you like I love you here's 10 million doll uh but I mean I would have loved to go to that wedding sounds like a [ __ ] blast I think it lasted over like several days to that wedding did it really yeah oh my gosh I mean $10 million man that's a lot yeah it's so interesting that he would still do that [ __ ] for $10 million 10 I mean private jet like and they'll make it so easy on him I think he just showed up performed then left so it's like maybe 24 hours maybe 30 hours for $10 million yeah apparently he left right afterwards I'm pretty sure some some of it was posted on TI talk not the concert itself but like his wedding and I believe it lasted like a week that's so far a week long and when I get married I'm two weeks yeah all the Grooms men got AP watches but like this I think it was like the skeleton AP yeah because they posted a photo of like all the aps together like in a circle so you really know all the lore damn we [ __ ] suck we should we need an I would love yeah what about features is there a lot of money in features have you doing features yeah or like do you pay other people to come on your on your how's that how's that economy work typically I really like just doing a song where it's like I meet them I meet them and I'm like I actually Vibe with them and then I'll send them a song and they'll do it or something we I did this song with the young Bay ages ago we ended up getting uh whiz whiz CA yeah whiz CA uh I got whiz CA on it and uh wow how did I like whiz what I'm likeif dude yeah my brain just turned off I this is uh so we ended up getting him on it it was like 50 Grand but like I had no communication with it this wasn't my song they like uploaded it they did everything and yeah he kind of made the song a little cooler but it didn't really do anything 50 Grand to get wh wh CLE on a song yeah but this was like this was like four years ago when he was a lot more popping interesting cuz I think I think he probably had a couple kids and I was chilling who's somebody that you would love to collaborate with on a song I've always said like Fel Williams or Missy Elliot just like Elliot just like the Legends yeah that' be really sick um but as as far as I'm like more contemporary uh there's this girl named Le yeah dude I love her music like I don't think we would make a song that makes any sense really maybe but there's something that her music has is just that is eon's better than everyone else's it's so beautiful it's so pretty and like uh charismatic it also like the the visual imagery comes across perfect in her music like you can listen to a song you can just like see it in form of a Disney movie it's weird no she's awesome that that would be that would be really cool uh I'm really curious where you invest your own money like do you save it do you invest it somewhere I have a saving principle of like at least minimally 70% like that has been since day one I started working at my dad's store like super super early on uh so I've been saving about 70% minimum uh but honestly it it equates to about like after my net probably like 80 90% I don't SP I don't spend any of my [ __ ] money um and then I just honestly I I I could be doing a lot better financially I have like probably 5 or 10% in like kind of high risk or like Risk what you call that like individual stocks in crypto yeah stuff like that uh during the crypto pump in like 2021 I ended up doing pretty decent and then I poured it all into Bitcoin Co so I have like five coins oh good it's pretty dope and then I have like probably like 80% 85% locked away in just like high interest High interest oh like yeah oh you're not what about index funds no I just don't do that why uh my dad and I we just have this principle where it's like safety just full-blown safe that might be a little too safe because you're losing some purchasing power to inflation and the the downside you're getting taxed at your at your normal tax rate just keeping it in the saving that's like the least optimal thing that you could do yeah well it's better than just a non you know what I mean nothing totally I I I don't disagree with any of you guys but I also like I don't like looking at my money that much so my dad is just he kind of just does it for me and I'm like happy that he has like a portion in my business you might want to look into a financial adviser or or something I do have a financial adviser but not listen to him he like only does like crypto [ __ ] that's not a financial I don't know honestly that's like that's like your friend's neighbors like older brother to be real to be real I feel like if I spend more time on my music in my business I understand well yeah that's the highest Roi in that yeah but I'm just saying when you start getting into seven figures the amount that you're Miss like just for for perspective on this the market is up like 25% this year 25% milon million that's $250 you know, per million that you've missed out on theoretically this year that you would not be taxed on until you sold so there's there's a lot that's going on there okay that you really should pay attention to because just if we have another 20% year at some point in the future you know five million it's a million dollars you're aware index do you know what an index fund is like kind of kind of just haven't really spent too much brain power on that and I probably should you don't need to spend any brain power I'm talking just just get a the only financial advisor you pay them by the hour and you just say tell me what to do or just invest what you recommend on my behalf it'll take you probably under an hour like and and the hour like finding someone to that one hour will make you I'm guessing probably millions of dollars over the course of a few years easily millions of dollars for one hour of your time it's it's because we have a lot of people just Eber private venue thing right there okay we people I me hon I've been meaning to have a long discussion with my dad because I just feel like fundamentally we're not doing enough with the money uh you guys are heard okay thank you if you have any questions I mean just let us know yeah but we could try to point you in the right direction for like you know someone to talk to on this like a professional but it's very easy it's very simple and as long as you're not planning to spend it in the next like 10 15 years you'll be able to write out any sort of like fluctuation in the market there there's a chance listen there's a chance you lose money over the next like 10 years yeah long term it's highly unlikely like the risk reward is like this amount of risk for like that much reward it's worth it and I like if you don't like looking at it I like an auto invest feature so every week it just pulls out of my savings and just puts it in there and it can even be for you like a very negligible amount of money just so you can see it over the course of even like a year and be like I like this I like how it's working even if at the end of a year it's like 20 grand you know yeah honestly I do have to do a little bit more diligence with that regard because I feel like a lot of the time I uh kind of just turn a blind eye and just my dad is really happy doing what he's doing and I'd like to include him because that's just the most important thing and he's he's the most risk adverse person I've have ever met in my life and I kind of I kind of like don't mind it but doing a great job saving that amount of money and putting in a high you saving account like that is over way worse you could be way worse no I could be just not doing anything with it spending all the money yeah and I don't spend anything I yeah we have all of it locked away kind of thing but I mean I could take it out and play with it more but I just I need to slow down my business like mind and then I can start working on that for sure I just yeah yeah get someone else too because I hope that your your mind doesn't slow down anytime soon because you could continue to utilize that yeah where you're at now you could be 10 times over the next like five years but at the same time you know 5 years 10 times that's nuts I don't even want that but whatever you want I mean I appreci I appreciate appreciate thing is you're not wasting your money it upsets me when people aren't optimizing yeah dude I definitely need I definitely I definitely need to optimize a little bit for sure but my bro my my financial advisor dude or like the guy who like got a financial no [ __ ] texting me he's like hey yo should we invest in skib toilet he's like the movie's about to drop and I was like oh my [ __ ] God bro like did he I woke up and that was like one of the first texts I saw like 6:00 in the morning I was like what the [ __ ] and you're like yes SK toilet come on who is this guy H his you don't have to say name his name is John has he gotten you good return yeah he's got me he's got me huge plays like he'll be like yo give me 15K and he flips it to like 100 something dude it sounds like a pump and dump group I'm not going to lie like that's but it's like an actual firm did they say like firm do they no it's not firm there's no way is it firm's do they say oh baby no money bought this no I don't think so okay it's definitely not P it's definitely not pumping and dumpy okay is he on Twitter I mean he's definitely kind of on Twitter uh but I mean hey I mean dude I mean if he's making you money you know yeah keep the amounts that you're sending him like okay well let's talk let's talk off the books let's talk off the books cuz boys got to make more money you got to change your name to Baby Got Money Baby has yes money has money yeah no money yes money yes I don't know well boys that was great for the thank you so muching on the show uh we'll link to a bunch of stuff down below in the description including our new song that's coming out so music video do you want to shout out anything like you have like you know tours coming up or uh end of November I might have a new song out if I do have a new song out go listen to it if I don't go buy a ticket coming to my shows it's probably sold out of that time uh love your parents and your family amazing thank you guys for watching until next time time