In 12 months, I could be running my own music management company. For those that don’t know, my business partner Mike & I currently manage an up and coming hip hop artist, Sonny Bamboo. He is one of the most talented unsigned artists out there today. You can check out some of his music at www.myspace.com/sonnybamboo. We have been working with Sonny for about 2 years now, and are trying our best to figure this whole music industry thing out. The music industry is at one of its lowest points ever, with record sales declining by the day. The advent of the internet has allowed so many more artists a way to be heard, but it has also hurt many of the major labels out there. Now I am not a huge supporter of record labels as it is, as over the past few years of being involved in the music business, I have heard many horror stories of people getting f’d over by major labels. But as I have learned, it is so difficult to make it in the music business going the independent route. To be honest, Mike & I first got involved with Sonny not only because we believed in him, but because we saw the potential to make a ton of money if he ever got signed my a major record label. But we really did not know what we got ourselves into when we first started this whole thing. Back then, we were naive entrepreneurs who thought because we had made one business successful, everything we touched would turn to gold. Well I can admit that that is far from the truth. We didn’t really realize how much harder this whole music thing is when you are doing everything on your own. Running a full time business, being a full time student, wanting to have a social life, etc. has kind of hindered our ability to focus our time and efforts on Sonny. We have invested more money than we ever thought we would, but to date, we haven’t seen anything out of it. But, we have made a ton of connections along the way, some of which could lead to bigger and better things down the road. The best connection by far is D., who ownsa big music management company. His company manages, among others, Kanye West. You should probably stop reading my blog now if you have never heard of Kanye West. D. has also managed Lil’ Kim, Lauryn Hill, and The Fugees. He currently manages one of the biggest up and coming hip-hop artists, Izza Kizza, who is signed to Timbaland’s label. Mike & I had the chance to meet D. in person this summer when we drove out to his apartment in Jersey City. All I can say to describe the feeling of when we walked into his apartment was “Wow”. Not only did this guy have a baller style apartment, but he had a ceiling literally lined with Gold & Platinum plaques. Considering this was one of the first connections we made in the music industry, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Long story short, he is a really cool guy. He built his management company all on his own, and he had a ton of good advice for us. Ironically, like 2 weeks later, he was coming to Baltimore for the weekend to come to Virgin Mobile Fest, a weekend long huge concert at the place where the Preakness is held every year. This was one the sickest concerts I’ve ever been to. I went for only the last day, which had Bob Dylan, Nine Inch Nails, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye among others. Kanye was scheduled to close the show. There was an insane crowd there, and one of the craziest things I can remember was waiting for Lil’ Wayne to perform, and all of a sudden, I see D. and his sister on stage. My mouth literally dropped open. I mean, I guess I knew he would have the hook up considering he is boys with Kanye. But it was still pretty crazy to see him on stage pumping the crowd up before Lil’ Wayne got on stage. On a side note, Weezy’s performance was ill, especially when he brought Kanye on stage for “Lollipop”. The crowd literally went apeshit. But Kanye’s performance was on another level. For those of you who have seen him in concert, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The dude is one of the most talented artists out there today. Not just in hip hop, but in every genre of music. And he puts on a ridiculous show. He went all out, and it was a truly amazing performance. Although the guy is a dick, I have mad respect for his abilities. Haha, now that I think about it, I have a couple of crazy pictures saved on my computer from this concert. Check out these blonde girls who were making out hardcore before Wayne’s performance. They were getting crazy cheers from the crowd obviously.
I also found this video I have of Kanye performing “Jesus Walks”. I’m such a giant that I pretty much towered over everyone in the crowd and I was able to get some pretty sick video of his performances. I think Kanye went like half-crazy while he was performing this song. Check it out.
Anyways, after our meeting in the summer, D. kind of dissapeared for a while, and we turned our main focus back to BtownMenus.com. But we recently got back in touch with Daniel, and I actually had a long phone conversation with him last night. Among other things, we talked about me interning for him for free for 6 months or a year. I think this would be pretty cool. What better way could I get involved in the music industry and make connections? I have been thinking a lot lately about whether or not this whole Sonny thing was a good idea. But I really would love to get involved in the music industry, and I feel like working with Sonny combined with interning with one of the biggest managers in the hip hop game would really get my foot in the door. But is this the best route for me to go? The music industry is in such shambles right now that I feel like this is a terrible time to get involved. Record labels aren’t really signing many artists because they have no money. Then again, if we can blow Sonny up, we will have a proven track record of knowing what it takes to get an artist big through the independent route and I will have instant credibility to sign other artists. And if I went to work for D., my ultimate goal would be to first see if I like the whole music industry thing, and then if I do, to make enough connections that I could eventually branch off & do my own thing. But I’m also questioning the music route because we have tried to implement as much of the stuff as D. told us to do, but it is an every day struggle. Sometimes I feel like no matter what we do, Sonny is never going to blow. And that would be a devastating thing for us, because we have invested a lot of money, time and effort. But it would also be an absolutely devastating thing for Sonny. I can say without a doubt that he is one of the most hard working artists out there today, and he puts his heart & soul into his music. At this point, I not only want him to blow up for us to make money, I more want him to blow up because I have a ton of respect for how much passion he has about his music. I would put him up against any other unsigned artist today. Period. He not only writes amazing music, but he is one of the best battle rappers there is in the world. Check out one of his battles, and see how he just murders his opponents with his words:
He is an absolute beast when it comes to the battle scene. And I’m not even saying that because I manage the kid. Read some of the forums and blogs and search around for his videos and you’ll see that most people within the battle scene feel the same way. The more I think about it, the more working for D.’s management company sounds like an awesome opportunity. But I just don’t know.
