SPEAKER_06 1:45

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Today we have the pleasure of interviewing William Will Power Washington, a Columbia native. Will Power is an Atlanta-based producer and entrepreneur. Will Power is the founder of Super Hot Beats, Bandwidth Studios, and a co-host of the Free Game Podcast. He has worked with many artists such as Eminem, Wiz Khalifa, Big Crit, Travis Barker, Cody Shane, Yellow Wolf, and Josh Waters. So thank you for so much for joining us today. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

How y'all doing? Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_06 2:18

Good, good.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Good, good, good.

SPEAKER_06 2:21

So, of course, we have you know our all of our guests on today. So you might hear from me, uh Skip, DJ Ann Wood, and Mike.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Dope.

SPEAKER_06 2:31

So tell us a little bit about yourself, Well Power.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

I'm a record producer uh by trade. I've been producing for 20 something years now. I I grew up in uh Columbia, South Carolina, so I claim that as home. I'm actually a military brat though, so I moved to uh South Carolina around 92, I think it might have been, and just kind of, you know, lived there until 2002. And throughout that time, that's when I got into the music business and just kind of, you know, grew up out there and, you know, learned what I learned. From there, I moved to Atlanta and, you know, a lot of stuff in between there. But I ended up in Atlanta, and uh my career just kind of took off here in Atlanta, and I've been producing now all that time.

SPEAKER_06 3:24

So I listened to your podcast, the Free Game Podcast, and I saw that you were a military brat. So you said that you moved around a lot.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:32

What was the most interesting place that you that you lived so far?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

I had two really interesting places. I I lived in Fort Polk, Louisiana for a little while, and that was just a really cool place because I was, if you can imagine, I was uh in my teens, early teens. So that's where I kind of just started having fun and like exploring and getting to know myself. And uh, had a lot of great friends there, and you know, that's when I got into sports and just my life just kind of, you know, took a turn where I was growing up, and then South Carolina would be my favorite place. I, you know, that's where I broke my teeth into music. Started out singing out there when I was really young and was in this really semi-famous group back then. We had a group called Beige a long time ago, and then I went on to another group called Pop 55, and I just kind of I loved it because it was the place that like really, it just really helped me, you know, to explore my my my music needs, you know what I mean? So I would say South Carolina for sure. I graduated from Almo High School and uh even in sports, I excelled in sports out there and just you know, I just loved it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:50

That's the first thing I've ever heard. Someone say South Carolina is the their best thing.

SPEAKER_05 4:58

Like I spent most of my life trying to get out of here.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

And then I realized it's actually pretty damn cool and the people cool. Yeah, I will say, you know, that like I, you know, I left because I did run into I did have a ceiling. You know what I mean? I I definitely hit a point where it wasn't much else that I could do in South Carolina, but you know, it was like a great battleground for me. It was a great testing ground. Like South Carolina is where I learned how to, you know, produce my music. It learned that's where I learned how to open a studio. I was like one of the first people in town who had a commercial studio when everything went digital. When I started producing in South Carolina, I had a storage unit out on uh Fernandina Road. And at the time, those storage units were going for like $40 a month. And the back half of it was a storage unit, and the front half was an office. And the office used to have a um two-hour uh timer on it where you could only turn the lights on and the air on there for two hours and it would cut off. Well, so we I ran I rented one of those and set up my whole studio in there, and we rigged the light thing to where it wouldn't cut off at all all day. I know for a fact that I'm the reason that those U-Haul units are now like seven, eight hundred bucks a month. Wow. But I was literally the first person to do that, and I created just an you know an ecosystem for music there, and I was for a long time, man, I was like a you know, pretty much the only guy outside of Strawberry Skies that had a functioning studio and was making bank, you know. Like I could proudly say I made like 88 grand that year, my first year in business out there, just selling beats. And yeah, that's a legit grown-ass job. Yeah, it was legit. It was super legit. And it was 2001, 2002. So if you can imagine, like that was super good even back then.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

And my business just kept growing, you know. The word got out in the streets that I was over there producing, and luckily I had some, you know, pretty decent beats then. So, you know, I just I parlayed that into getting another unit out there, and we turned that into my booth. So I had an office space that I ended up making the control room, and then the one next to it, I ended up turning the whole office into like a recording booth. And then I ended up getting a third office because after we did the music, everybody was like, Well, I got these, I got these songs, but how do I put them out? So we ended up doing graphics and and videos and photos, and we just ended up turning it into a full service operation.

SPEAKER_03 7:55

And yeah, and that's why You were like, you were like uh you were looking at like Hicksville, USA.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I was, uh you know, it's crazy. And and you know, a lot of people do not know that that started in 2000. That's when I, you know, you know, I broke my teeth and all of that stuff then. But even today, like my business, I still have the same business model, just on a larger scale here in Atlanta. And so, so yeah, man, it was definitely South Carolina for me as a as a young, and that was the place that helped me realize who I am and what I want to do in my life. So that's why it's so important to me.

SPEAKER_06 8:33

How old were you at the time?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Then I was early 20s, man, shoot, yeah, like 21, 22, something like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:45

That's something like I don't know, I don't know about all of y'all, but when I was growing up and interested in arts and music and all of that, there was always voices that were like, you know, you gotta, you gotta find something that you're gonna make money at. And if you if you're in your early 20s doing exactly what you love doing, making a grown-ass income, like that's that's the dream. You ain't gotta be superstar. You just have to do what you want and get paid.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah, like being a being a producer now is like the normal conversation. It's a normal, you know, title. People are familiar with it now. Back then, bro, imagine going home and me telling my mom and dad that, you know, I'm not going back to school, I'm not going back to work, this is what I'm doing. And, you know, rap music at the time was like a uh a hell nah to parents. And so, yeah, it was it was super different then. You know what I mean? Like they weren't familiar with it. Like they were like, what are you talking about? But you know, it took a long time for me to be able to prove it. But you know, once you start sustaining for yourself and you're able to pay your own bills and buy your own cars and do whatever it is you want to do, people start to change the way they see it. And, you know, I don't I didn't know then, but I was right. And now it's real easy. We always have great conversations about what they thought was stupid back then, and now they just kind of respect me for you know the choices I made back then.

SPEAKER_05 10:21

Coming. Yeah, you know, because that's the other thing, you know, because this is this is right about the same time that me and Kev were were making music, right? Yeah, this was this was that I remember. You know, at that time it is there was this wave coming of everybody being able to produce their own stuff, everybody being able to have a legit kind of, you know, a halfway decent sound quality just out of what they could build themselves. And it seemed like in itself, that self self-distribution wave had not quite hit yet. And uh but you kind of you kind of set yourself up to be one of those grassroots people that gets that done.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Yeah, well, I was lucky because before, so, so right around 2000, 2001, I went, I took the journey to New York. I left South Carolina in hopes to make it as a producer, and I went to New York and worked for Sylvia Robinson, who was over um, she owned Sugar Hill Records.

SPEAKER_05 11:25

Yeah, about to say, isn't that in that uh Sugar Hill gang, the first recording?

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, yeah, man. Yeah, it was it was it was probably my most learning experience ever in the music business because I sort of got ripped off. You know, I I got a whole publishing story that happened to me there. But the part that that I took with me was I went there and she put me in this room, she gave me the B room of her studio, loaded it up with equipment, I had everything I had ever dreamed of in there. And I was in this building with like 10 other producers, and that was our job. We went to work in the morning and we made music all day, and at the end of the week, we had to turn the music into her, and her company would shop the music for us, we'd get placements, and that's the that was the business. You know, unfortunately, like I said, you know, I signed a really bad contract with her, and so I didn't end up staying very long, but I was there long enough to learn the business, and that's what gave me the idea to come back and put that same play together in in South Carolina, except I just didn't have other producers. It was just me. I realized at that point that like being a producer is a lucrative job that you could, you know, people will pay you for what you do.

SPEAKER_06 12:49

You found value in it. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:53

So as a music producer, you play many roles, such as uh scheduling sessions, supervising performances, and bringing the artist's life to ideas. What would you say is the toughest lesson you've learned pursuing this career?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I think the toughest lesson for me has been finding the artist that can withstand what it takes to do. Yeah, so so like I said, when I went to New York, I was I met Yellow Wolf there, which a lot of people don't know. That I met Wolf in 2000 and brought him back to South Carolina when I came back. We were all over the Carolinas just trying to get on. And we didn't we didn't get signed until 2010. So we're talking 10 years. Yeah, and when and when I tell you, like, yeah, super downs, super downs. Some ups, but way more downs. You know what I mean? And but we got on together. And so what that taught me was how to just like have some stick-to-it-ness with an artist and how to develop it and how to change the sound and pivot when things aren't working and yada yada. So, fast forward, you know, I have a you know, I have a moment of success with Yellow Wolf. We're doing really well. And so as a producer, my you know, my my platform, my my visibility is up, everybody's checking for me. And so now I'm sort of a popular producer, you know, out of nowhere. And I'm looking for artists. And I had this incredible artist who started with me out of South Carolina. Her name was Nikia. She was incredible. And we were we killed it, we did as much as we could do during that time. And but there was a moment when things just didn't work out for her. She didn't want to, you know, she was getting older. There were just other things she wanted to do. She was in school, yada yada. So that kind of ended. I went out and found another artist from South Carolina. I was working with this girl, um, Mary Liz. Brian Phoenix, yeah. Like we went, rebranded her. We went through this whole amazing transformation of music and style and everything. And as soon as we put out the music, then it was like people in her ear, and it just everything changed. That ended up, you know, breaking down shortly after that. I had another artist. I had uh, who at the time I was uh dating this artist's mother. So I ended up developing this artist, Scott Morales, who was, you know, we started working with her from age 14, and she's like 20 something now. And but all of these moments are just trying to find people who who get that it doesn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

You know, it's not a VH1 special where somebody just hears your tape exactly, writes you a check.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Not at all, and it's extremely expensive. Now, mind you, every single person that I've named in this is, you know, I'm not naming them to say anything bad, but definitely just pointing out that like the process is real, and the process is also expensive. So for me, you know, that's the hardest part. Like, that's a challenge to find an artist that is just going to be down and not be tainted. Because I, you know, one of the things that I found out quickly in the business is as soon as you start to get hot, then you start to have, you know, those who think they can do more than you, they come and involve themselves or they get into the artist's circle. It's like you have to guard that kind of stuff. And it's like, people trying to poach your artists. Yeah, they try to poach your artists, they try to poach your ideas, they try to, you know, they they try to gatekeep opportunities. Because sometimes they don't want what you have, but they have something that you don't, and they use it as leverage. That's true. You know, and so like it would be like, Kev, it'll be like you, let's say you know the president of you know, RCA. He's like your cousin, your first cousin.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Like instead of just finding a way for us to do that fairly, like you would just be like, you know what, you gotta come sign with me in order for me to take this in.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

You know what I mean? And how are you controlling? Yeah. And I'm not always mad, I'm not always mad at artists who don't know and see opportunity, they become opportunists in it, but it's not always fair to those who are like on the ground and grinding with you. So that's the hardest part. You know, a lot of people have the conversation of is the person a star? Is the person not a star? I'm not so much into that conversation because I know that you could, if a person really wants something, you can develop that. You know what I mean? Like that comes with practice. That comes with, it's just like anything else. Like, you know, you can have an athlete that's naturally talented, but like if he doesn't know how to read a playbook, then we we're in trouble. Right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 18:03

And sometimes putting yourself on that level, like if you start swimming in a bigger pond, then that motivates you to be a bigger fish. Right.

SPEAKER_06 18:12

So I have one last question. So, as a producer, what is one thing that every song must have for it to be solid?

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Oh, that's a good one. I think it has to have a you know, great melody. I think it has to have relatable lyrics, and I think it has to have um great a great rhythm section. Like something to make people move or something that creates emotion, you know. And that's I mean, every song doesn't have drums and rhythm, so but but you you kind of see where I'm coming from, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Um the rhythm can come from somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah, it can come from somewhere else, yeah. Like if the song flows a certain way, and you know, you people just need to be able to identify emotionally to it, you know. And I think that's really all it takes to make a great song. I think people overthink it. I think when people start to use the word hit song, it gets weird. You know. Especially now. Like, what does that mean? Yeah, it doesn't mean anything, really. And it never has. And that's the funny thing. Like, you know, as I've grown into this industry, like I understand that the workings of it now. It's never really been about the song, it's always been about the placement and the marketing of the song. And, you know, and and you know, what what brands were attached to it. Like, you know, Whitney's big Whitney Houston's biggest song, that I I Will Always Love You song, it was huge because of the bodyguard movie. Like, there was things that were attached to it that just made it amazing. You know, I mean, it was amazing, of course. Yeah, but like, you know, it was so much more that went into it. And so that's the other part of working with artists and new artists that, you know, they just think because they did something dope that the world's gonna love it. And with Mary Lid, with Riot, that's sort of what I what I went through. I think there was this high expectation of like a huge amount of success after the first release. And it was like, no, we just this release wasn't supposed to do nothing but tell people we were here. That's it. It wasn't okay, it's not supposed to change your life, it's supposed to, you know, create a buzz. And so that's what goes into songs. I didn't want to get off too bad.

SPEAKER_05 20:35

You remember the ear gasm? Oh no. Man, we used to talk about this back in the day. We used to talk about every song has got an ear gasm moment. Every good song. Yeah. It might, it might be the bridge, it might be the hook, it might be the little baby crying in the background, a Timbaland track. Like, but it's one little thing that makes you go, that song right there.

unknown 20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Um, I think that you, you know, as you work, you you you find those moments. I think that's the goal. You know, the goal is to have something infectious in every record. That's why hooks are so repetitive these days. You know, it's there's not much else people can do besides repeat something sometimes. And, you know, and that that helps. But I think I think it all depends on the genre, it depends on the artists, it depends on the fan base. There's so many things. Like, because I'm not a big fan of some of the new hip hop, but I understand it. I I fully understand it. I'm like, listen, this is tribal music. These people are like, they don't care. They just want to, they just want to get in the zone and feel it.

SPEAKER_06 21:43

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

You know, whereas, you know, in my era, it was, yo, you had to have lyrics and bars, you had to say something I wanted to hear, and you know, whatever. But I also have moments where there were some stupid songs that I just loved to death. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 21:56

You know, so they do, they get inside you, they bring you to the place that that person was trying to generate. It's definitely energy work.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

Exactly, exactly. And I think um, just with that said, um, when it comes to music, I know music is a lot more than, you know, than mute notes, frequencies, chords, and beats. You know, we also got to look at things like the progression of technology, you know, like things like how streaming versus downloading, how that's impacted our lives recently. And of course, you know, just like cultural and political events um that shape the sound and the music that we listen to. So in a world that's mostly digital, how how does where is music made influence how it sounds how it sounds? Like, so like you said, like back in the day, you running out the um U-Haul space versus being in a home studio versus being in like a um fully fledged professional studio.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Yeah, I think the one thing that's just you know that's a part of all of this is the computer. Like, as long as you have a computer, you have a studio. Like, there's nothing that can keep you from making music if you really want to these days. Like, you know, I mean, bro, they've got this stuff so it's so dope now that like you can literally, as long as you have your phone, you can still create. And so I just love it. You know, I think that instruments will always be valuable because for till the end of time, people want to feel instrumentation. They want to hear a guitar. They would love to, they love when people play piano. We we just we love that, but today the new instrument. Is your your dog. It's your it, you know, like I I think that where they took music out of schools, they should replace it with technology and music in schools because it's the new thing. Like one and the same.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

It should be like a stem.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

It's the same thing. Exactly. Like, yes, if you want to learn guitar, then yes, add that to your arsenal. But if you learn how to program, that's just as good. But if you understand music. Yeah, if you understand music. And and honestly, even if you, even if you don't, if you're just a extremely creative mind, you still can make dope music. People might not fully get it right now. You know what I mean? Because I think with technology, theory is sort of the next thing that's kind of endangered, becoming endangered.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

I guess. Music theory is in danger.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Music theory, yeah. And I I don't agree with it. I don't particularly like it. I hope that theory survives. However, it's no different to me than like whatever the hell an NFT is. You know, like it's like people just understand differently now. You know what I mean? And so what I would never call a chord or a note that makes sense, some kid is making a banger out of that. And that's, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 25:11

So you know what that reminds me of, though? It kind of reminds me of like avant-garde jazz. They took that line where they were playing notes in between around notes that weren't really notes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Absolutely. And a lot of that came from people playing with really skilled musicians, but not really having a whole lot of classical training that locked you into that mode.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Well, just imagine, imagine what we would be thinking right now had sampling not become a thing. Because we would do, we wouldn't even probably wouldn't even be having this conversation today if like if there wasn't an exception musically for sampling and resampling. Like people were making making making noises out of other people's, you know, um stuff.

SPEAKER_05 25:58

So I have no instruments, I have no musical or uh instrument skills, but I'm still gonna make this because the the idea is that exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah, and I think that that's that's totally what's going on now. Just a way more vast amount of information, tools, sounds, all of that stuff is available to these kids now. And like I spend every single day of my life just trying to keep up and reinvent myself as well. You know, I try to stay away from that the conversation of don't do that.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Yeah, yeah. How hard is it to continue to stay up on the technology? Because like, speaking of like you being able to use instrumentation without any theory, like they have programs now where you can sing the sound and and it will play it for you. So how do you keep up with all that technology?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I just keep kids around me, man. That's it. Real tough, bro. Like, I really do have a young group of people around me, man. Like, I've got my professional crew, which is you know, my age group, but man, I love going and hanging out with these young folks, man. And you know, I don't go to clubs and all that. I just mean like in my studio, like I I totally encourage try anything. And then let me know what that was. You know what I mean? Show me how you did it. That's what I'm interested in because I already know that like so many people, you know, fell off because they didn't care to look into what that is. Like, I'm so trying to figure out NFTs right now, like I'm so trying to get I don't want my label, I don't want my entity to be a dinosaur in like two years. Yeah. Because we're still we're still counting on streaming and this, that, and the third. Like, luckily, our era, we have seen so much technology. Like, we were gonna digital. Yeah, like I tell Josh all the time, I'm like, bro, I was here when the email started. Like, we didn't know what that was, and now all of a sudden, we really can't live without email. You know what I mean? And and and you know, my era, we've seen every ounce of change come through technology-wise. And so the beauty in that is we know to not let that get away. So, yeah, I spend a lot of time just listening, researching. You know, some of it I I just hate, but you know, most of it I'm just trying to figure out how did y'all do that? What does that really mean? Like I was late on the Coinbase, and you know, the I'm still trying to.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

And I shoot myself in the foot. I I was on it. Yeah. And uh, people thought it was crazy. And man, I had my doggy coin set up so nice and it got rid of it because everybody was talking trash, but I was like, moving into something more secure. And bruh, I lost out on a quick, quick middle right there. Lost in the middle. Yeah, bruh. Somebody bullshit. Somebody bullshit, man. I was on it early. I've been like, because like you said, like I try to stay up like with what the other kids are doing, right? I mean, I feel you. Like, I'm down with crypto and all. I just had that crypto. I had that crypto about three years ago, man. I had Yeah, but what's DogeJet now? 65 cents? Nope. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying from where I had it at. So for like a million dollars, though, you would you would have to have so many of them coins. Like. No, that's how many, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I was on it to the point where I had over, I had millions of dough of dog coin, or dogecoin, and millions. But yeah, yeah, beyond that, because that hurts my feelings. That messed me up. But yeah, you have to stay up the breast on what's going on.

SPEAKER_06 29:31

So, how do you feel about streaming versus downloading?

SPEAKER_00 29:34

I love streaming. I love streaming. I missed, I'll tell you, I miss downloading because you could really quantify your reach with downloading. With streaming, not so much. But I love streaming because no matter what, every time it gets played, you make money. Like, I use this, I use this Michael Jackson theory that I just kind of talk about it sometimes. Like, just imagine if Michael Jackson's music was streaming from day one.

unknown 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

You know, like, so he went out, he sold 100 million records, but like that's it. I mean, how many people all over the world were playing that track? Yeah, like if they could have got paid every time they played it, as opposed to every time that they bought it, he would have probably been the biggest, the biggest star ever. You know what I mean? Like, even still. Now his streaming numbers are still ridiculous. But, you know, but he actually sold a hundred million copies of his music. And that's I miss that, but I don't, I don't, I don't, I definitely thinking streaming that is a better platform. Now I I think it's it's really screwed up the way they pay, but whatever. You know what I mean? You can't, like it's I don't even know how they would quantify it. But but I have songs like I have um I have music out that I put out in 2012 that I still make three, four hundred bucks, you know, a month on. Wow. And I have no idea. Yeah.

unknown 31:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

I'm gonna tell you, man, it's crazy. And that's another reason why I'm trying to hit another hot streak, because what I found out about those is you know, once you once you have a run and artist and an artist is doing really well, as a producer, you gain fans as well. So like if you just get a third of a fan base of an artist because of being their producer, that's really lucrative for you. And what I learned over the years is how to how to make 50 different things happen when you're hot. And that helps you sustain when you're not so hot. You know what I mean? Yeah, I I pride myself on just being able to sustain. I've been in this thing a long time, and I'm still I'm still, you know, important to the culture. And so that's my goal. My goal is to not ever not be, you know, I don't ever want to be counted out because I found ways to stay important.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

Well, we're gonna parlay this over to uh uh a different subject, but still related to your career as a creative. We always have positive recollections of early success, of course, despite the tough times and all the work that you have to do to create your vision and bring it uh to fruition. Could you describe um to us your very first industry placement and how that changed your perspective on having a career in the music industry?

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Um yeah. My first, my first, it wasn't even like a the record didn't even come out. Oh no. It didn't even come out, but it was my first. This was my first, there was this group called, man, what was the name of this damn group? It was T-Pain's group. It was a girl group that T-Pain had. Oh, geez, man, I'm blowing it. I can't remember the name of the group. Anyway, T Pain's artist. We had this record called Check Me Out that we produced, and I was so excited about it. Sophia Fresh was the name of that group. Yes. Oh, Sophia Fresh. Um, and it wasn't, it was terrible. The song was terrible, y'all. Like, I can't even at the time it wasn't. At the time it wasn't. We were all excited, man. But that's what helped boost it for me. It helped me understand because this was also my first considered to be a first major placement at the time. And it was also my first big record, big opportunity outside of like Yellow Wolf, who I was. I was only working with him. Like he was just my guy. We were working you know together to do it. And I hadn't stepped outside of that much, other than my own, you know, my own people. So it was a big deal. And going to T-Pain's house to record the record and just being in this environment, it just, it really just like amped me up. But my my official first placement was when we did the Trump Music Project in 2010. That changed my life because we did it. We uh Yellow Wolf and I just decided to go and do it. And we brought it back to KP Kawan Prater, who was who's a world-renowned AR record guy who, you know, he was a he found T.I., he was a part of Outcast. This dude's got the most incredible discography and just history. But we brought the record back to KP from just Yellow Wolf and I just running off and going and doing this project, and we blew them away. And it was right at that blog era. It was at the height of the blog era. And we put the record out. It wasn't a major deal, it wasn't nothing at the time, it was just a mixtape. Man, that damn thing went crazy, bro. And and like within we put it out on the first of on the first of the year 2010 by South by South by Southwest. That's when he got signed. Like he his shows were so crazy, he got booked for like 15 shows that year. Gosh damn. As soon as he touched ground down there, bro, he was show to show, like sometimes three shows a day. And they flew him directly to Jimmy Ivine's house from that, from that. It was um a number of good shows. It was insane. And and you know, if you know, if you ever you know looked into Yellow Wolf, like he's a rapper, but he's really a rock guy.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

So he's like, so he's rapping and going crazy, but his show is like a freaking mosh pit rock, rock, rock show, man. It's insane. So um, yeah, so so yeah, that changed it, man. And that was it. It was from that point, like I went from you know, nobody knowing me, man, to like the entire record industry going, who the hell did these beats? And man, my stock went up quick, bro. And luckily, I was already a lifer, you know, in music. Like I had already decided 10 years ago that I was gonna be doing music. And when I started getting calls, I already had 2,000 tracks in my catalog, waiting to play for people. You know what I mean? I already had a sense of business about me, and you know, I didn't have to rush into a bunch of situations because I was already like ready for it.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

So you're understanding, and this is what's cool to hear, since you like said, as you said, you're a lifer in it, that changed the way that you experienced your first taste of what people quote unquote could call success in the music industry. So, what advice can you give to people who haven't had that experience, who weren't lifers, who weren't prepared to be ready for this? Like, how how should they um situate themselves to be ready for their success if they hit it?

SPEAKER_00 37:31

You know, that's a loaded question because the internet has ruined, in my opinion, it has ruined what the experience is for people. Because every everybody, you know, it's you the record industry's trash, don't do this, don't do that. You know, uh you want to keep your masters. Just it's so many incredibly crazy conversations out here. All these opinions from people that don't yeah, half of these people have never done anything, don't have anything to show for. It's just it's so bad. But for me, I just think you have to approach the music business the same way you would any business, and that's you have to commit to it. Like it's not a secret. It's it's commit to it, go through it, fail at it, win at it, fail at it again, win at it again. You know what I mean? It just never, it's not going to be perfect no matter what. You know, yeah, like people, you know, I'd listen, like I saw a little meme that uh the other day with 50 Cent, which is somebody I I would listen to because he has so many accolades to like prove that it's worked. But he was like talking about publishing deals and how you know all these kids are like, I'm not doing a pub deal. And he's like, bro, if you're a broke kid from your neighborhood with no opportunities in front of you and you're talented, and someone offers you $200,000 to do to write songs for a living, why wouldn't you take that? Like, you don't take it, you're afraid because you're not going to, you're not committed. You only blow deals when you don't dedicate yourself to winning in the deal. You know what I mean? Like, bro, you when I signed my bro, when I signed my publishing deal, it was ridiculous. Like it's, you know, as I got in the business and learned it, I found out that it was a trash deal. Like, I got like 150 grand for my first deal. It was like the craziest like commitments. I had like a five or six commitment deal, which means 10 or 12 songs, fully, fully written songs. Like, you can't, you know, because a like if I like let's say I I want to do a one-song commitment, and all I did was produce the song, that's like not one, that's 0.5 because I'm only half of the song.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

Half of the song, yeah, see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

You understand what I'm saying? So if I sign on for a five-song deal, I really need to turn in 10 songs that I wrote half of the song on. So my deal was crazy, man, but it was almost 200 grand, bro. Right. Like I'm talking about what, like a year's work, two years' work? No, don't they sign you into like they do these in commitment phases. So it's like you do the first commitment, and then you can move into a second commitment. So my my deal was a three commitment, three, I forget what it was, but essentially three years. Like I had to do this three times to move into three different phases of my contract. But each phase was more money. You know what I mean? But you're talking like 200 grand for three years' work. That's not terrible. That's not terrible. It's not, it's not when you're ready to bust it out.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

It's incredibly hard though, if you're not going, if you're not dedicated to it and gonna get it done. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 41:17

You're not looking at it like it's a job. Yeah, like it's real work.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

The first thing people do is go, like, it's really hard to get major placements. Yeah, it is, but not when a company just invested 200 grand in you and it's in their best interest to help you get work.

SPEAKER_05 41:32

Right. Point, point, yeah, point.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Exactly. So the first thing you do is you build a relationship with them people at the company, bro. Like on their phone every day. Like, hey man, what's up? Who's working on the album? I got two songs for that one. If you like to send it, okay. Like, I all I did was get to work, man. I built my relationships. And man, I've flipped my deal probably four times. Wow. Yeah, because like think about it. I like with Yellow Wolf. So my first album, I did, I did five albums with him with no less than 10 tracks per album. So, so so the way this works is I got, you know, if my commitment is five, that means I gotta have 10 records, right? Does it matter if they get selected or not? No, it does matter. They have to come out. The records have to come out. But I had 10, I had 10 on every album. So I'm going back like, hey, Bray got another 200. You know what I'm saying? And and that's it. And so you do that, you do that, and then, and that's just the publishing side. You have to remember that they also pay you, the label pays you advances for producing the records, which is also another couple hundred grand, you know, depending on how many records you do. You know what I mean? So, like, nah, man, like I hate when they tell people that stuff. I'm like, just commit to the work. To the work. Commit to the stuff.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Yeah. That's what it seems like. That makes sense, though.

SPEAKER_05 43:13

It's inside of you, and you have to get it out. You know, like like if somebody steals all of your money that you made off of one track, you make another.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

I mean, it's but you don't keep making tracks.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Exactly. None of that really matters when you are committed to the win, bro. Like, it just doesn't, it's setbacks, bro. Those are all setbacks. I feel like if I didn't get a if I didn't get a shit contract, excuse my my cussing. Oh no, we cussed all the time. Yeah, if I didn't get a shit contract from Sylvia Robinson 20 years ago. I think I was in documentaries about that. Yeah, she was pretty bad. I mean, you know, God bless the dead. I hope, I hope, I hope she's good. But um, but yeah, man, like that taught me early what I never wanted to go through again. So I just uh I looked for that and I tried to avoid it. That was it. I was mad, but I wasn't mad enough to not go home. So this is what I did, y'all. I signed this publishing deal with her. She took everything. So I was in a contract for almost five years where I couldn't, anything that I did, she was gonna get that publishing, right? Right. So all I did was went home, set up a whole new company, and every song I wrote for the next five years, I put in my partner's name. Smart. So I still beat, I still beat it.

SPEAKER_03 44:47

You see, but you said, but you that's that's your point that you made. You have to be committed to the win.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Commit to the win, man. Commit to the win. And honestly, had I got a big placement and she took it, that still wouldn't have hurt me. Because a big record is a big record, man. Like people, people change when you start making the money, bro. Like, you know, I hate it. I hate hearing it these days. Because like an artist will be like, man, I want all my masters. I'm like, but what you gonna do with them? What would you do with them and why do you want them?

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Like you're gonna know what you're gonna do with them.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

You don't even are you paying for everything? Are you footing the are you doing this yourself? Because that's the only way to have ownership of something is if you're doing it. If you're not doing it, bro, quit talking crazy. Like, try to own the part of it that you did. So if you wrote the songs, then own the writer part of the song, own the publishing in the song. Don't worry about the master because the master is the part that the label is paying for. They did that part. Let them do their work. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 45:54

It's like it gets so it's so so the business is more compartmentalized than what people think it is.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Absolutely, man. Every piece of a song, man, is a different business.

SPEAKER_06 46:06

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

The producer. So this is how songs used to go. Because now songwriters are also wanting to get paid for the song. You know, they want to get in on the royalty split. But originally, the reason a song was broken down the way it was was a person would come in and play a song on a piano. Write a song from front to back on a piano, right? So that person would get 100% writer's credit on that song. So they didn't have to split that with a producer. It was nothing. The song was written by Lionel Richie. You know what I'm saying? Lionel Ritchie wrote the song, okay? Then Lionel Ritchie knows though that this song ain't going nowhere in piano form. So he gotta go call Quincy Jones. So Quincy Jones goes and puts together this entire band, and he pulls in the greatest, this, that, and the third, and he found these new kids in Europe that's got this sound that nobody else has, and woo-woo woo. And they produce the record. So they don't get in on the writer side of the record. They're the producers, which is why they get a royalty on the record, and the writer doesn't, because the writer has the writer's side of the record and the producer has the royalty side. People don't get it, bro. It's a business on every piece of this. Everybody is their own entity. Now, then you run into people like myself who has figured out how to become 90% of my own entity. Like I'm a threat. Yeah. That's what I was about to say. I'm a person they don't like to see coming because you gotta get you gotta cut the whole check to me.

SPEAKER_03 47:51

Yep. They take 10%, you take 90%.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

That's it. And that's all you're working to do. You're working to build yourself up to be the most of the pie if you can. Or if your strong point is songwriting, be the best damn songwriter you can be and find ways to grow that business. You know what I mean? If you can't get in on the royalty side of a record, then be okay with that. You still can charge.

SPEAKER_05 48:19

I mean, there's people that wrote songs back in the 40s and 50s that they grandkill's still making money off of. Because people still redo them, people still cover them.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

It still is what it is. And so, yeah, man, it's an interesting business.

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Nah man, I appreciate that, man. That's uh that's uh let's say a hundred million million dollars worth of game right there. That's a good drop. We need because like people, they get like you said, they they pay attention to the internet, they don't do any background, they don't research, they don't even ask people that are really in the business, but they get all of this feedback on what's going on and what they need to do going forward from people who haven't really had a chance uh to do it properly, or who as you can tell too, and this is the point that you made, and I'm gonna keep I like the point, keep pressing it. You have to commit to the win. I know these people ain't committing to the win. You can tell like some people just don't have that work ethic, that drive, to and to want to learn. Yeah, they think they do. They think they do.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

And they do. You can always tell. Like I, you know, real quick too. I'm sorry if I'm rambling, y'all, but I just had this situation with a songwriter, man, who they just don't they just don't understand the way a song is put together. So we we produced this record for a girl. I was the producer, I was hired to produce it, paid to produce it, so I did. And then I called in one of my favorite writers and introduced her to the situation, and they wrote the song, yada yada. Anyway, the splits came out for the record, and I'm just a fair guy. I don't, my original thought in any record is split everything down the middle. You know what I mean? I never really to avoid weird, odd conversations. There's two ways to split a record to me. It's what I like to call the Atlanta way, and then the Nashville. So the Nashville way is if you're in the room and you participate in the song, then the song gets split amongst everybody right down the middle. So if it's three of us, then you know, 33 and a third. You know what I'm saying? Whatever. Doesn't matter who produced it, doesn't matter who wrote it, you just split the song. You know what I mean? That's the Nashville way. The Atlanta way is 50% is the producer, 50% is the writers. So if it's three writers, they gotta split their 50%. Oh wow. Yeah, you know what I mean? And then the and that and then the producer side of it is 50%. It's basically just music and lyrics, is the way they do it in Atlanta. Gotcha. Both of them are common too. Like it's not like any of these are the wrong way to do it. You know, um it's just a way. It's preference, right? But whenever you didn't, like, let's say you leave a session and nobody talked about the splits. My initial uh my initial approach is always Nashville, because then you don't have a whole lot to converse about. Conversation, yeah. Like, bro, I don't know who the hell did how much, so let's just all split this record down the middle. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 51:15

And it acknowledges it more as a group effort, too. Yeah, it does. It was the Queen movie. The Queen movie when they were talking about, you know, the the the baseline, right? That baseline made the track. Yeah, it doesn't matter if that was the simplest part of it, that made that track.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

Yeah, I know what you're talking about, remember?

SPEAKER_00 51:39

Exactly. And so, and yeah, but like me and this girl, we ended up like pretty much falling out over it because you know, she was just, you know, adamant about getting more than the other writers because she did this much. And I'm just like, dude, I you have to talk that out with the people who wrote the song with you. You know, we ended up I I pretty much ended up just being like, you know what, have it your way. But what she doesn't realize is like that's it. That's it for for what we're doing. Yeah, because there's so many things you have to consider in these situations. It's like one, you know, you were brought into the session reference-wise. Like, so I it was a reference, I referred you to this job, which this is relationship based off the top. Yeah, you know what I mean. Now, like I said, I'm not saying she's wrong in wanting what she wants, because I'm okay with that. But like I always suggest that when you're in the sandbox, play fair.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

Yeah, like you would want anybody to deal with you.

SPEAKER_00 52:49

Yeah, right. You want people to come back. You want it to be lucrative to them, so they'll work for you again. Right. Now, mind you, here's the key, here's the key to this conversation. I got 60-something placements, major placements under my belt. She has zero placements in her catalog.

SPEAKER_06 53:06

And she break the bridge.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Like the bridge is now the bridge is just gone. It's like I don't know what they're thinking. Like, talented probably will still succeed. I'm happy that, you know, but I just feel like nobody's teaching these kids, man, how to present themselves in professional settings like this because it's essential to your career.

SPEAKER_03 53:31

Yes, to your success. You have to essential, yes. There's social skill, like your social skill, you gotta realize there's a long-term play, and that's part of committing to the win, is knowing that it's not just like you said, it's not gonna happen tomorrow, not in five minutes. You gotta put some grind to it. That means effort and work and concentration.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Like, bro, Kevin, that would be like you introducing me to this play you were talking about earlier, man, and then I get in there and decide that like we're gonna do this the way I want to do it. Not the way Kevin just told me that this is supposed to go. Right. You know, like I'm up in the DJ J, like just talking reckless to people. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that would be that. That's the way it is to me. You can't do that.

SPEAKER_05 54:13

You have to play in the sandbox with everybody, and then there will be a time where you become what you want to become, and then you know, it is what y'all think that part of this is just because, like, like the I guess the overwhelming media idea that you get about the music industry, the entertainment industry as a whole is that it's dog eat dog, and everybody's gonna screw you over, and everybody's gonna try to take everything from you. And so if you're coming into it as a kid that hasn't any kind of like real business experience kind of thing, you just are prepared. I gotta keep my masters, they're gonna fuck me over.

SPEAKER_00 54:50

Yeah, man. Listen, let me, I just, you know, I hate it because it's not true. Yeah. Um, there are definitely, definitely some crooked people, crooked entities. There's a lot to look out for. However, and I'm gonna say this to my urban music makers, and I hate to even use the word urban, I'm gonna just say it, man. Black creators, you know, those of us who know we didn't come from, you know, trust funds and things like that, where everything matters went financially to us. You know, if you come from nothing and you're coming into a multi-billion dollar industry and you want to become successful in it, you have to have the mentality to play ball. Like, stop worrying about stupid shit. Because it doesn't matter, bro. Like, what you're gonna argue with me over a percentage in a song that might not even come out. Very true. When you could be working on the next one, or or even stupidly, you want to argue over percentages of a song that we know is coming out. That makes no sense to me. I'm like, listen, man, I I I want everything I think everybody should fight for fairness. I don't think anybody should be a sucker. But I've seen so many people blow plays over stupid things like a percentage or two. We're not talking about 30% or 50%. We're talking about, bro, I want 27% instead of 23. What? Well, we're cripping now. Like now we're getting ridiculous here. So I I just have taught all people who work with me, listen, we include everybody on a song. Like, I'm probably one of the few people that I know of, because I mean I'm pretty sure a lot of people do it, but I'm my engineer gets 5% on records with me. Yeah. Because without him, I don't have any final finalization on my records.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

And that might be a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 57:04

It's make or break it. And so, you know, what's what's what's the difference of 45% to me? Like 45% to me versus 50% really doesn't change anything to me. Right. I feel like, listen, that 5% man is feeding my homeboy who's gonna always be down with me now because he knows no matter what we're doing, I got 50 placements, 50-60 placements, he got 50-60 placements.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

That mentality there is investing in your people. That's I don't know if that's an old school mindset or if it's just not taught anymore, because it seems like that makes sense. It's not a European mindset.

SPEAKER_00 57:45

Exactly, bro. It is, bro. It's really our own people sometimes. Like we tend to crab in the barrel energy, bro. And it's like, guys, get out of that space because if you ever play sports, bro, you don't, you know, any type of team, any type of team sport, bro, teaches you you can't win by yourself, bro.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

So that's really it, man. It's like I just I just try to approach everything like, listen, man, what's the big win? How do we win? You know what I mean? If it means that I, you know, that I can't have something in the situation that I thought I was deserving, then let's negotiate. And, you know, like I said, fight for what's real. Don't be a sucker, but at the same time, don't blow the plate because it compromise.

SPEAKER_03 58:30

Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that moves us well into our next next question. Sometimes, in order to commit to the win and make it happen, do what you need to do to move forward, you sometimes have to go ahead and move from where you're at, change your scenery, flip things on people so that you can grow more than where you were at before. And um, I know what your situation, uh especially being from Columbia and moving from here after you built so much to Atlanta, and I know you talked about it a little earlier. What suggestions would you give to somebody who's interested in making similar moves? And how are you still connected to people back then?

SPEAKER_00 59:06

So I'm not comparing myself to this person. However, man, Jesus left home, man, before people believed in him. You're right. So if if if my Lord and Savior, you know what I'm saying, can't get up and go to get the word out, then I think that's proof enough that like that's what people should be doing. Like, if you like work your work your system, bro. If if it's working in your hometown, then work it until it doesn't, and then start to consider how to go about getting to growing it. You know what I mean? Now, the beauty in shit today is there's the internet. So you could still be in Columbia, South Carolina, man, and taking over the whole world. If you if you know what, if you just know how to do it. You know what I mean? But I suggest going to where your industry is. If you want to get in the music industry, then you need to go to Atlanta, you need to go to uh California, LA, something. You gotta find where the industry's popping. Just so you can be around the other people. Yeah, you need those connects, you need to know those people. It's not about you no more. Like if you're talented, then boom, you did your part. But what you gonna do with it? You know, and that it's that. If you want to be successful in technology, bro, you gotta go where people are investing in technology, where people are learning and teaching. You don't stay in Columbia if there's no tech world there. You know what I mean? If the, you know what I'm saying? Movies, if you want to get into movies, you have to go where they're shooting movies now, bro. Like, you're not gonna get a part in your favorite show if you're not where they shoot the show. Right. So it's really just some simple, it to me, it's just really simple. Now, this is the part that people get tripped up on, man. If I ever catch a person wearing designer clothes, like in Columbia, South Carolina, if you're wearing Gucci and you're driving uh a Hellcat and you rap, and you still in South Carolina, and that's where you that's where you always are. Shame on you. Because what it cost to get that Hellcat and what it cost to wear that Gucci, you could have had 10 plane tickets to just drop into the places that you want to go to become great. You don't have to move, you don't necessarily have to move. Like I used to tell all my homies, man, I still got homies, man, that never decided to leave Columbia, and I'm okay with that because I hope they're okay with it. But I know for a fact that some of the talented people that I knew in Columbia, had they left with me or came after me or just left at all, those people would be tremendously, tremendously more successful than I even was, because you know, they were that much better than me. But they didn't want to leave, man. And it was like, bro, how are you gonna let a three-hour trip in a car be not, you know, ruin destiny?

SPEAKER_06 1:02:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:23

Crazy. It's destiny, man. Like, bro, you could drive down here once a week. If you just came to Atlanta on Friday and left every Sunday, bro, like you would meet enough people, make enough friends. You could pull up to bro, Atlanta's so crazy, you could pull up to just brunches and walk out of there with contacts.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:45

Yeah, and that works. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

Good gracious. It's that gracious.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

Like, bro, this is a city full of amazingly talented, get into the money black people, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:56

And opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:58

Opportunities, left and right, everywhere you go. I don't care what you do. If you a if you're a trainer, bro, you can get rich in this mug. Dang, man. If you're a physical trainer, bro, if all you want to do is teach people how to run on a treadmill and lift weights, you get your Instagram pop in, you find you three or four, you know, real quick, you find you three or four like influencer girls, man. You know, that's already done paid for their body. Put that on your page and take credit for it, bro. And you go you out here, man. People gonna, I'm trying to tell you what I know, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:36

So what's your vision for bandwidth with your studio?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

Um, my vision is very clear for bandwidth. We are working right now to become the next. Not I I hate to say this, but we are the next Lafay's records. Um I don't mean it in the sense of I'm trying to do what they did. I want to have the impact that they had. I'm a human.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:02

The face made me proud to be from the South.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

Yeah, that was what it had. That's really what I'm working on, man. Like, I want to be known for quality artists, quality music, quality mixes, quality branding, quality marketing. Like, whenever somebody says bandwidth, bro, I want people to be like, oh, that's that's the shit I'm going. I already know it. I already know what this is gonna be. You know what I mean? Like, I want to get to a point that if I introduce an artist, like all fans of our brand will be invested in that artist just because they know what we stand on. So the same way LaFace was, bro. As they said Tony Braxton, we asked no questions. When they said pink, what? Y'all got a white girl? What we ain't asked no questions. You know what I mean? When they said Tony Rich, we was on it. When they said outcast, we was on it, it didn't matter because we knew that them black people down there was excellent. And whatever they was doing, we wanted to be in on that. And to this day, 25, 30 years later, man, like them, they we still talk about them. You know what I mean? Those artists are still staples in this community.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:19

Yeah, so to start um wrapping things up, because we have another podcast to record. What projects are you working on, or can we see you on in the future?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:27

Um, working on Josh Waters right now. Um, he's my flagship artist, and um I'm super excited about this kid. He's from uh Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and he's got a single out right now called Cyclone, and it has gone, it is almost at four million plays. Wow. It's insane.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:45

Y'all touring, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:47

Uh yeah, we just toured. Um we did a self-um-funded tour because the song hit a million plays in like a month. And we just instead of panicking, we just went right into like survival mode and was like, let's get on the road and see what happens. You know, it's COVID season, so like we were scared, but we still did it. And it was amazing. People came out, you know, the shows were like, um, we did like hundred, hundred cap venues, so small venues, but we were, you know, we averaged 50 to 75 people a night. Some places were, some places filled all the way up to, you know, we to capacity. Atlanta had like 300, it was like a 300-person show. So that one was a big show. And a few other cities did really well. So, but yeah, it's Josh Waters. Y'all can go check him out, man. He's really dope. Yeah, see, and so and that makes sense. Like, uh, that's what we were doing. We just wanted to bring, like, and that was what, two years ago? Yeah. See, so that's the that's the stick to it in this man. He's the perfect artist for me right now. Like, he's kind of like the he's creating a blueprint for what I want in artists, not necessarily in genre, but definitely in commitment levels and all of that kind of stuff. So there's that. And then um, I'm just back, I'm back um producing full time again. I don't know if you guys have had a chance to see my Instagram page, but like every day practically I put up the new beat. You know, I've been getting my reps back up. I'm doing, you know, anywhere from three to six beats a day and just really cooking. So man, every day I try to post a new one. So just to kind of build up that consistency and content. And already, man, you know, I'm saying I've already gotten three placements. I just started doing it the first of January, and I've already gotten three placements this year. So um they're indie placements, but I still got them. It is what it's crazy because my phone's been ringing. I've got managers hitting me, like telling me about these sync opportunities. So I just, you know, I took a few years off to build the studio, build the brand, build the label, and this year I'm finally getting back into producing. So uh expect to see me get this. I'm gonna get it off this year. I'm just letting y'all know.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:05

Interview now. Drop your social media information, how people can contact you and your podcast, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:15

Yeah. I'm on uh all social media as W L P W R, Miss Willpower. And that's pretty much it. If you want to book, and if you oh, oh, and at bandwidth, B N D W T H. And if you want to book at bandwidth, it's booking at bandwidth.net. But all of we're all over social media, so we're real easy to find. And uh anybody want to get in contact, we're always looking for producers, we're always looking for artists, and we're always looking for engineers. So if you know anybody that's you know trying to get in the system and figure it out or learn or just be around, let me know.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:51

Yeah, definitely. This is what we guys.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:55

Well, that'll wrap it up for us today. We're we're um happy to have our guest today, Mr. Will Power. We appreciate having you on here, giving us some game, talking to us for as long as you talk to us, and going in depth about things as well, explaining a lot of uh misconceptions and whatnot that a lot I know a lot of folks have. But uh man, just from everybody here at the Hilltop Glove Podcast, uh signing off. We want to say happy Saturday to everybody, Tamia, Mike, Skip. We appreciate everybody, man. Y'all be peaceful, be safe out there, and watch out for that freezing rain tomorrow. You're gonna be up here driving if y'all don't have to, especially 985. All right now. Peace.