Dajon Tee | THG Episode #38

[00:00:00] Ta-Myia: Hey, y'all welcome back to another episode of the Hilltop love podcast. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Ms. Day. John T Dayshaun is the Orangeburg South Carolina music manager post and promoter. In 2008, she became the CEO of Dijon T management and music management company. Working with local recording artists in the south.

He was also the co-owner of Pyrex Baddeley and she focuses on artists develop. Registering music, properly promotions and live reviews. Thank you for joining 

[00:00:32] Dajon Tee: us today. How are you? Good morning. Good morning. I am good. It's finally getting hot outside. You know what I'm saying? So I'm feeling.

So I definitely want to thank 

[00:00:46] Ta-Myia: you for joining us today. I did a little bit of research about you and I love the fact that you're from the south orange bird. I was born in Orangeburg. So shout out,

[00:00:58] Dajon Tee: but can you 

[00:00:59] Ta-Myia: tell the audience [00:01:00] a little bit more about you and your upbringing and who you 

[00:01:02] Dajon Tee: are as an. Sure. Well, first of all, my name is . Like she said, I'm from Orangeburg, South Carolina. Who's trying to see, where should I start? So data privacy management is my management company. We are based out of South Carolina.

However, we travel everywhere. You know what I'm saying? Like we're all over the place with it. Pirates, battling. The biggest battle league in the south right now, like really, really, really making ways outside of all of the good stuff though. I'm a mommy of two. I'm a super dork. I love to read. I love to travel.

I'm an Aquarius. So I sit by the water and chill a lot. I'm really, really big on like astrology, good stuff like that. So when I get in my grooves and I'm feeling myself, sometimes I'll get on Twitter and I'll do horoscopes and stuff like that. Pretty doggone accurately, but I host events. I promote events.

I do a lot of stuff. Like this is always the hardest question for me. Growing up though, [00:02:00] I was a kid who was always go buy music. Music has always been a part of me, no matter how old I was. You know what I'm saying? Like it all started, you know, like most typical black kids, it starts in the church on the church choir.

But I knew I had a, I had a problem when I remember getting ready to join the church choir. Right. My mom asked me one Sunday. She says, Keosha, you want to get on the church? I looked at my mom and I said this in Kurt Franklin. And they looked at me like, what's wrong with this child? But it was something about that music, you know, it was something about the energy and the groove that he puts into his music type thing.

So it was like, I want to be a part of that, you know? By the time I got to middle school, I was playing instruments. I play five different instruments. I did marching band color guard, all of that good stuff. Went to college for sociology. Started my master's program for social work, all of this good stuff.

And through all of this, I'm still kind of not fulfilled. I'm still kind of sitting back like. This is [00:03:00] cool. That's great. What do you do? My mama got her degree find him because she won't let me have y'all. She said mommy's got her degree on the wall and everything now, but what's making me happy. Like I love working in mental health.

I love working at the prisons, but there's a component still missing. This is not life. And then my younger brother. Well, Gordon, he's an artist, very, very, very amazing artists, very different. He started actually jumping out, doing the music thing. When he went to Denmark tech, all he started singing and taking his classes.

You know what I'm saying? He started traveling and rapping and doing all this stuff. And then one day he came to me. He's like you should just be. And I'm looking at him like, yeah, nah, nigga, that's not what's up. I know you should be fine manager. Like you have it, you have the gift. Like, and I trust you.

I don't trust anybody else. So I decided to take it. I decided to give it a chance. And then we did another show and that's when Freeport daddy came along and he's like, look, you got it. So you're going to be my manager. What I'm [00:04:00] like, what are, y'all getting this from? But they saw something in me and I'm really, really heavy on.

Push people to that potential. If you see somebody that you love that could possibly be great at doing something, man, push them. Cause they might not even know that they're great at it. You know? So I, I appreciate those boys for pushing me in. We started in 2018 and here we are now in 2022, looking forward to a lot of different things.

So that's just a summary of how this thing all began for me and where I came from the trenches. 

[00:04:34] Mic: So you, don't, you, you talking about this, this never feeling like you've reached your full level of potential and stuff. What's your sign 

[00:04:42] Dajon Tee: Aquarius. Okay. Listen, 

[00:04:46] Ta-Myia: my mom is an Aquarius, so y'all are precise, you know, setting, you know, y'all know a lot and y'all will tell 

[00:04:55] Dajon Tee: people a lot [00:05:00] like that.

And you guys are. Facts. And it's like, we feel drained when we can't be in our creative space. That's the worst feeling in the world for an Aquarius to not be able to be, 

[00:05:12] Mic: oh, thank you for my wife is an Aquarius. And I'm finding her creative spaces, like a, something that I'm always pushing her to do because.

It is necessary. 

[00:05:25] Dajon Tee: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:05:35] Ta-Myia: I can hear the level of energetic missing in your voice. So I think that's great that you're doing 

[00:05:41] Dajon Tee: what you're doing 

[00:05:43] Ta-Myia: well behind you to push you out your comfort zone. Like you said, so. Well, your brother. 

[00:05:49] Dajon Tee: Is it your little brother? Older brother? My younger brother, 

[00:05:53] Ta-Myia: the brother. Okay. How did you actually meet.

[00:05:57] Dajon Tee: Well, you know, Donny's from Orangeburg tube. [00:06:00] So I can honestly say like when I was in high school, you see daddy's older. So when I was in high school, like Donnie was like one of the ballers around here in Orangeburg, you know what I'm saying? So like to know him, I ain't going to call him by his government or whatever, you know what I'm saying?

So watch him play it all day because I went to Edisto. So to watch him play it, or w was like, you know, like, Aw man, these boys, like, you know, and then. Over the years or whatever. My sister actually went to school in Orangeburg. So like being with my sister out and about, because she was my oldest sister, you know, so being with her out and about and stuff like that I got introduced to a lot of these different people that she went to school with in dining just happened to be one of those people.

Hadn't seen him since I had been in high school. No, none of this good stuff. I moved back home. After I graduated from coastal, I moved back home and. I was working with another company at one point, we were doing some events and Donnie actually came out of the blue, cause I had already seen him working with MMR and everything, you know, so I already knew that he was really, really still on the scene doing his thing.

He's he's [00:07:00] immaculate at what he does. So I saw that he was still on the scene doing his thing. The company I was working with. I think we were at a time where we were getting ready to throw a competition or something, but Donnie actually reached out and became one of the sponsors for that event by pressing on some CDs and stuff for us.

You know what I'm saying? Giving a shot to one of these up and coming artists who may not be on that level just yet. And from there, like once he came out to the event and he kind of saw how I conducted myself, that's when he came up and he was on something, you know, let me be a part of what you got going on.

Like w what you're doing. I see how you move. And I like. Let's let's move forward. Now he's gone from being my, one of my first art, his very first artists on Dayshaun team management. So he now being the actual ANR development coach on. That's why that y'all 

[00:07:45] Ta-Myia: get to 

[00:07:46] Dajon Tee: grow together because I love it. I still, my whole team is still my day one team.

So I think like, as far as business, especially when you're talking about a business where you're dealing with multiple personalities and you're dealing with people who are in and out and indecisive all the time to say that [00:08:00] I still have my original team. From 2018 says a lot for my work ethic 

[00:08:05] DJ And ?: work ethic and your character, because I know we had a discussion with a gentleman who's been in the music business for a while about having to deal with, like I said, those different energies and people coming in and out and to have a solid team.

I know that has to be a big plus. 

[00:08:20] Dajon Tee: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I would have been kicking the bucket if it wasn't for them.

So like 

[00:08:27] Ta-Myia: you said, you grew up listening to Kurt Franklin. What other music inspired you? Because I know when I grew up listening to Kurt Franklin, I was thinking in the car, like it was mandatory. Like we couldn't leave, get 

[00:08:39] Dajon Tee: out of the car until we finish, you know? And it wasn't like no church rock either.

Honey, we lit and they're like, this is 1 0 3 0.9, baby. Okay. Stop remit. When I started to see him putting wrappers on gospel songs, it was something about that. It kind of changed my life because I always felt like music is a [00:09:00] universal language. It does not matter what language you speak. When a song comes on, we all speak whatever language that rappers feet.

It's universal. So coming up for me, you know, it started with the Kurt Franklin and all that good stuff. Let me say to my dad and my mom loved music as well. So riding around in the cars with them on trips and stuff like that tuned in to 1 0 2 0.9 and 1 0 1 0.3 and stuff like that. I'm like, oh my God, I'm tired of hearing this stuff.

But as I started being able to make my own choices and my own decision site thing, it was like, dang, I missed this. You know, like it, it helped me be able to be able to call samples out and people's songs and stuff, even down to the beach. You can slide something in there. If you want add that's not yours.

I know where it came from, but I'm gonna use little Wayne and cash money fan. I am a diehard. I will fight you about my little Wayne. Okay. I was that kid before a Z lyrics.com. I was that kid sitting in my room with a note. And a [00:10:00] boombox, I'm going to listen to two bars. I'm gonna press pause and I'm gonna write them two bars down.

Then I'm gonna press play and I'm gonna do it until I get to the end of the first. Then we going to run it back and wrap it and make sure I wrote down the right lyrics. Like I was selling lyrics at school for 50 cents or a dollar a pop when crime mob hit the scene and nobody could say diamonds verse, oh baby.

I was selling that at school at lunch for 50. And when we get on the bus this afternoon, we're going to wrap this thing together.

So it's like, you know, like from little Wayne, Cash money. Like even before little Wayne, the big timers, like what juvenile first dropped. Huh? It was something about that whole Southern new Orleans swag that caught a hold of me. And to this very day, I am still a huge fan. No matter how they separate, I'm still a huge fan because it's just watching how they build.

Sociology is really, really, really what triggered this off of me. You know what I'm saying? Because I get to pay attention to [00:11:00] behaviors, to patterns, to different things that understand it. So like to watch how different companies come together, stay together and grow. They had little Wayne since he was nine years old, nine to 12 years old, you feel what I'm saying?

That's a grown grown man now. And he still just as prominent. So just being able to follow that all the way through, like I pour a lot of that, same love, those same things that they went through, those same different trial and errors and get Awaiz. And let's try this as I implement a lot of that into what I do today, because it works no matter what we say as fans on the business side at work.

[00:11:35] DJ And ?: Yeah.

[00:11:40] Ta-Myia: So like you said, you grew up listening to music. What age were you when you actually decided that music, 

[00:11:45] Dajon Tee: the music scene needed to change? 

[00:11:48] Mic: Sounds like he was managing people on the bus. 

[00:11:50] Dajon Tee: Right. You know what I'm saying? I have to go back and charge,[00:12:00] 

but I think it clicked for me. I think it clicked for me when I started doing concert band, to be honest, that's a good question. I think it really clicked for me when I was playing instruments and doing concert then I, like I said, I went to Edisto. So if you don't know, that's a predominantly white school, especially back then.

So being a black gifted child, And a band that was making waves. The way to edit those band was at the time it was like, you know what, okay, we doing this, not to mention all of our band teachers when I was coming through, they were all black. So they really, really express to us how powerful what we're doing is how powerful it is to know how to read the notes on the paper, how powerful it is to be able to compose and transcribe music.

And I'm just sitting here like, yo.

Yeah, I'll just go in and stuff. This kind of cool. Okay. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I'm just a super nerd. I'm a chill, I'm chill. [00:13:00] And then when I started traveling and we would go to these concert band auditions and region then, and we would go to all these different places and you see all these snobby behind kids.

I'm trying not to curse. I was, I got a bed. You see all these Dhabi behind children and they're all kind of looking at you like, Hmm. My instrument is shiny than yours. I got more buttons on my tool, but then I got up and I'm looking at them like, baby, you got to Boothbay. Okay. You ain't stuff he'll gain will be out on declare.

And there's like, it, it was more than music. I realized really, really early. I had to have been y'all maybe seventh to eighth grade. I realized at that point. Music alone with no words can real life change the world. This thing can bring us together. It can separate us. It can make us understand the same message in the drop of a dime.

This thing has the power to do whatever. Then I went to that March. And I started seeing [00:14:00] show style bands versus the traditional course that I was used to. Then I got introduced to the drum and bugle Corps. Then I got introduced to the studios. The I've been a recording artist since I was 12 because I church choir actually dropped the album when I was little.

So I think it was called strawberry studios in Columbia, something. Yeah, well, that's why I recorded for the very first time at the age of 12 or 13 years old. I w it's not a fact I had to be 11 or 12. I wasn't even a teenager yet. And we went into the studio. Y'all it's a moment. I see visually, I had to close my eyes and I, cause I see this moment changed my life.

We were recording a particular song. Our rendition of Jesus loves the little children and for some odd reason when we got ready to record and they dropped our beat, it was like four pitches. Now back then. I ain't know no better, except for this, what we supposed to be seeing. So literally shout out to Ms.

Ophelia, Darby, that woman. I literally remember watching this Darby look at those [00:15:00] engineers and producers. She took about two or three minutes to try to fix it. They couldn't fix the issue as Darby came back and all you see was them hands. All right, this is what we gotta do. I need you to sing this, that you, the significant you to sing this pit y'all to sit down and y'all, can't sing that pitch.

She literally in five minutes, reconstructed that song. And when it came out, It was probably more beautiful than the very first time we heard this song. It was amazing. And right then and there, I knew in my heart, even if I don't do this for the rest of my life, music has to be a part of me in a bigger capacity than just being a listener that changed my life forever.

[00:15:39] Mic: Grief story. You mentioned the five instruments. 

[00:15:44] Dajon Tee: I play clarinet. I played French horn. I played mellophone. I started learning how to play the trombone only because I thought that was cool. Like you just move your arm around and it works. And I also played a baritone.[00:16:00] 

I mean, so 

[00:16:03] Ta-Myia: being in music and, you know, being able to control that the company. How do you feel about the way music has changed over, over the past 20 years?

'cause like you said, you grew up listening. So I just want to see how you feel because music 

[00:16:24] Dajon Tee: is changing, unpopular opinion. I love it because music is supposed to be reflective of the world around you. And it's like, we want so badly to box these new artists into what we're used to from the nineties, what we're used to from the eighties.

So this ain't real music no more. Oh, this ain't love news old. This ain't supposed to sound like this. That's what you let your kids listen to. Excuse me, baby. In 1991, I was saying F. Okay, so you not going to fuss at me, you for this shot on the right hand side, talking about how thick this lady is, because I don't know if [00:17:00] y'all was listening to these, these mens in the sixties and seventies, but they was, they just didn't curse.

The language was different. That's the difference? Y'all I really feel like that's the difference is the fact that. Over time. It's not that necessarily the music changes at that. Censorship was lifted. It's that, that my mom was listening. Watch her mouth, it got lifted. We stopped caring about what the next man think or what the next man expected us to do.

And we started using our platforms to really get our messages across, like for a while coming through the night, that's all you saw. It was black power, everything from the colleges to the shows, to the clothes, everything it was for us. And by. And then you go into the two thousands and you start seeing other people see through the scene.

You start seeing weird stuff, like, hold up. This, come from, you started seeing stuff like with Destiny's child, dry bootylicious. When I was in elementary school, delicious got added to the Webster's dictionary. [00:18:00] You started seeing stuff like when the hot boys dropped blink, blink, blink, blink went in the dictionary.

You started seeing things where it really made a difference in people. This was what 11th grade will. Little John drop that read a book, but the song was so ridiculous and the video was so bad. I promise you, you know, every word to that song though. Cause it worked, he told he chose a scheme and it worked.

So I feel like honestly, As far as the way the music, the sound of the music has changed is I do feel like it grew. However, I do feel like it's become a little generic because now it's like, producers are not being creative in finding those samples and those artists niche anymore. They're going in there.

And they, they just going off of something that they had last week. This might stay on from last week. I ain't finished doing this. Let me add this to it. Now, everybody walking around sounding the same while their message is totally. So I really feel like the music has gotten more [00:19:00] expressive. It's gotten more.

This is me. This is how I feel. And I'm putting this in your face and you can accept it or you can not accept it. But I feel like we need to take a step back into those studios with our engineers, our producers, and our musicians to also show them that, you know, we still appreciate you to what you do as a grand part of what we have going on without you putting your, your life, your feelings, your emotions into these instruments that you guys are on.

It's not too much that we can switch up. So I really, I like it. Like I don't, I, I'm not going to sit here and say, I ride around listening to most of these new people. Cause I don't know, half of them name hold on. People be on the front of them. Double XL cupboards. Half of the time I deal with artists from the youngest artists that I've been working with lately is about 13, 14 years old.

The oldest artists signed to me is in his mid thirties. You see what I'm saying? So I literally have to be able to explain. Some [00:20:00] of everything and understand a little bit of everything. And at first, like I talk trash about this niggas booty. I don't want to hear that, but then you listen to the words and it's like, oh my God, he's gone through so much.

You gotta be, open-minded like more or the story. Cause I know I might need bird walking, but the moral is you gotta be open-minded to accept this new music because it's not what we're used to. It's not censor. Like we used to, it's not made for mommy and daddy to play at the cookouts for your aunts and uncles from up north.

Cause they came to visit. It's not, that's not what it's for because nine times out of 10 mommy and daddy, when you play it second about. Hi, you had put me out and told me I wasn't going to come back to your yeah. That person was about you. You know, so it's, it's, it's different, but I do enjoy all forms. I really, really do.

Like I listen to every genre, even country music, I hated country music at one point because it was. To me depressed. And it had a lot of underlying nonsense and I just used to be like, oh, [00:21:00] now I can really tap my foot and say, okay, they done came up out the hole. That's what I'm talking about. So it's, it's, it's really, I don't think it's reflective so much as what we're going through now.

I think music is down expression of self and not necessarily the world.

[00:21:19] Mic: Yeah. And part of that is because that we have this ability to like one person can talk to any other one person on the planet. It's just about finding that right. Person thinking about the censorship issue that you were talking about. I don't know where I heard this originally, but I love it. And I use the hell out of it.

Now quit telling me that my culture is obscene.

[00:21:42] Dajon Tee: Facts facts, facts. If I 

[00:21:44] Mic: say I love y'all motherfuckers,

[00:21:51] Dajon Tee: but you know, what's crazy about what you just said. I love that you said that like, that's probably going to be my favorite point in this interview, honestly. [00:22:00] Do y'all know how much hell I catch when people love to hit me with a whole, all these girls out here to work in and showing their bodies and doing this, that, and the third.

And we want someone to marry you. You want somebody to take you seriously? And every time they do that to me, I opened my phone and I started just, I just typed in Africa because I know when I was little, I remember opening my books and it was just titties right there. And it wasn't a porn and it wasn't a sex book.

That was my culture. I can recall seeing even the men walking around with nothing, but these underwear type garbage, that's just covering up. They meet and they bloody Christ. And nobody cares because that's the culture, these African ladies over there with these dogs, baby, they don't want them fangs in circles and it don't have nothing to do with the men standing around watching.

It has nothing to do with the people around that's watching. It is literally a celebration of whatever they're celebrating and sometimes it ain't even a celebration. It's simply a Richmond. But you [00:23:00] bring it over here. And the other people have sexualized these kids and these people in these gesture so bad that I can't even go outside with my chocolate legs out, baby, with somebody thinking I'm catfishing for a man.

No, I love my big dark skin laser, my sneakers. I don't care if you look. And I really feel like if we could get away from expecting that a woman or a man is supposed to do X, Y, and Z, or expecting that all cultures are supposed to believe in reacting, do all the things the same way we ain't going to be.

No. We're never going to get anywhere because we all are different people. We are all different people. We all come from different backgrounds. We all do different things. We all have a different way of life. You see what I'm saying? Like in that point right there, I promise you I've been fighting that with since high school.

Every time somebody say something like that, the first thing I would say is you need to find your ancestors, cause I'm sure she ain't single in Africa.

[00:23:59] Mic: Well, you know, if, if [00:24:00] you, if you grow up not being like sexually repressed and told that every sexual urge is like a sin, then you don't have to freak out every time you see a little bit of booty,

[00:24:14] Dajon Tee: would 

[00:24:14] Ta-Myia: you start the Dayshaun team management 2018? Could you explain to the audience what services you offer? How does someone create a music management company? Like what hardships did you face? And do you feel like you bring something new to the table as a, as a woman?

[00:24:33] Dajon Tee: If my artists could have heard that question, they would die laughing right now. This is literally the hardest question for me. Y'all all right. First part of the question, the services are offered. Management cost management consultations. And just to kind of give a little brief summary on each one with a management consultation, before you can come to me and say, Dijon T I want to be on your ride.

You got to give me something to put on the roster. So I'm just not going to book you [00:25:00] or, you know, sign you because you're an artist. We need to have a talk. I need to see what you got going on. You need to let me in the background of your stuff so that I can analyze your numbers. See what your demographics and your logistics looking like, maybe because of you, ain't got nothing going on it.

You're not the supply that's in demand. There's nothing that I, as a manager can do for you because I don't create careers. I manage. I do artists consultations. So like for those artists who are developing, who's looking for how to get to that next level, or even to just get the least bit of notoriety.

I kind of showed them different resources, different tools, different techniques to kind of get out there and be seen. Not only that, but I actually come up with a development plan with them. So we'll sit down, we can do a little, chop it up, chop it up. And I actually fought bill help. You build a full development plan from where you are.

I don't expect you to be where little Gordon is. I don't expect you to be with Freeport doubting your fame. Oliver emote shatter is I expect you to be where you are, Mr. XYZ. So I'm going to help you get from there to here. And if your goal is simply [00:26:00] to go from rapping to just performing, okay. That's what.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm going to go with you step by step. And even with those after that initial meeting, I kind of keep in tech with you. I keep in touch with you to see what you got going on. Management compensation auto.

Oh. And with the artist's consultation as well. I make sure you are signed up on all of your platforms to make sure that you argue in all of your royalties. So your, your PR roles, your BDS systems you're sounding to everything that makes sure your money is coming to you the way you're supposed to.

I make sure I take care of that. And I. I'm real heavy on stop paying people to do everything and learn how to do it. Even if you pay somebody, cause you don't have the time to do it, please at least know what you're looking at. So that when that person say I did my job, you can go look and say, yeah, you did do your job or no nigga, you did not do this.

The fucking. 'cause a lot of, a lot of artists become inferior and I try to, I speak life into them. I try to let artists know you are in control. Nobody when you [00:27:00] are an artist is in control until you sign a label and you better know what you signed because you're still in control. But a lot of them don't understand that point until you done pop them upside the head after they didn't took a big deal.

Are these consultations management consultations? I do shows, so I do concerts that showcases everywhere from city to city, state to state. I've literally done showcases down in Tampa, Florida, Miami, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, senior. We're getting ready to go to California next month. The biggest show I had in South Carolina, I had 51 artists perform my smallest show in South Carolina was probably 20 artists.

I have worked in a matter of, but yeah, I've worked with over about six, 700 different artists. It's crazy. From the shows. I do interviews. I used to actually have a show on YouTube. It's called what's the TSC. I haven't really messed with it too much lately because that'll wrap literally came in and took over my life.

Like my rising battle rapping my leagues, rising battle rap was so quick. I was like, oh my God. [00:28:00] Do some time management, which is something else I kind of teach artists about too, is time management. You can have all the time and money in the world, but if you don't know what to do, wouldn't you still look, I got to teach somebody to organize their time and their careers and stuff like that.

This is really a hard one because I, like I said, I'm Aquarius, y'all I'm insatiable. So any time I feel like there's something out there that I need to know how to do before I call somebody else to do it for me, I'm going to try my hand in for. Like, I love to be in the know I'm very inquisitive. So pretty much anything that y'all can think of either.

I know how to do it. I do it. Or I'm learning how to do it. Like I just really don't stop. Like it's dope. I do platform distribution as well. So artists who have singles and projects out there that need them dropped and they don't necessarily know how to work in distribution platforms or what they even mean.

I can take care of that for you. I have a DJ on my team, so me and him tagged team a lot, we host a lot of different parties at different places together. I actually [00:29:00] do these interviews a lot. I do a lot of public speaking for artists and for like young girls and stuff like that, like. Yeah. I don't know.

This could go on forever girl. You 

[00:29:09] DJ And ?: sound like yo, who sounded like you were getting tired of explaining everything. Yo, you do. 

[00:29:13] Dajon Tee: You can listen. Cause I'm over here thinking like, what else, what else you definitely missing? So back here thinking that we can stop. Sounds 

[00:29:20] Mic: like you've just been watching the whole industry and then every time somebody didn't know how to do something and they were like, oh, I don't know that you just started.

[00:29:30] Dajon Tee: You just explained to me. Yes, yes, yes. Celia. I mean all of us through this stuff, you know, I absolutely love you. Yes. Do you know how many people look at me crazy. When I try to explain to them, my motivation people always went, oh yeah, you gotta get out. You follow this right here is the such and such success.

I don't learn from people's successes. I learned when they fail. Yeah, I learn when you're successful around me. I'm going to congratulations, baby. You already doing that? There's no need for me to move that way. [00:30:00] You are not resource to me. I can send people your way. Let's get this back in the back ground.

Oh baby. I learned from your failures. I literally will sit there and I could be helping you and be a part of the failure. Let me add that because I'm never afraid to fail. You can't grow. If you don't fail, if you don't make mistakes I like to be in the field, so I'm the type of person. And if I'm watching you and I'm seeing where you're fumbling, and I can see where you could perfect this thing, as soon as you get to that part, I'm jumping in a little.

Well, if it already failed, I'm going to come back and I'm going to bring you back in and say, Hey, let's try this this way right here and see what to do. I, ain't gonna never take nobody stuff and just run off with it. But I will come to you and say, I got an idea of how we can make this work a little bit better.

Like I actually read a lot of books and stuff. And even in these books, I just be looking like this was written in the nineties that ain't going to fly now. Yeah, maybe I need to rewrite this book, honey. You know what I'm saying? And not to say that I'm perfect, but I'm a perfectionist. So [00:31:00] I do my best to make sure that anything I'm involved in are anything that's attached to me is as close to perfect as perfect can get like.

You are the first person in these past few years who has who's even said that that understands that like I was working, the reason deja, I team management came back and I don't tell this part of my story off. And that's how I know you really hit a point. I don't tell this part of my story often, cause I don't like to bring my past too much into my current, but.

I was working with a whole different company before I was known as deja because they, John actually is my government and that's my middle name. So we'd be like, what's your real name? That's not a real, yes, it is. I tell them my first name, it's on my birth certificate, but I was working with another company really close.

You know what I'm saying? I was just learning, I didn't know anything about throwing events. I didn't know anything about throwing parties. I didn't, I didn't know how to do none of this stuff. You feel me? And they bought me. But I started seeing them do so much fucked up stuff to artists show. I couldn't take it.

[00:32:00] I was watching these artists get clown. I was watching these artists get scammed. I was watching these artists get overcharged for an event. I know damn well. They weren't going to be number five people at, I was sitting here watching people create fake. And say, oh, we got this artist coming through. Cause they got bills due.

So if you pay him three, $400 to sign up for this event, that ain't even real, he made his bill money and you still waiting on the shoulder pop off. Like I watched this and instead of putting that person on blast, instead of falling out and doing all that, I distance myself from the situation and Dijon, see management was born, it was born on the shoulders of someone who literally took their time to fuck artists over every chance they got.

I learned from every mistake he made. I learned from every failure that I watched them have. And I built my company and everybody who was involved on the business side of that, when it all came down to it, it was just me still standing. And now they're all over here. Like where are we going next? [00:33:00] 

[00:33:01] Mic: I think that's the difference from when you were like, I mean that, that is the traditional entertainment industry that we all have watched slash views about, you know, like, right.

Like that's, that's what, like every come-up movie you've ever seen on VH1 is, is somebody screwing over the artists. Right. But nowadays I feel like, and I wanna, I want to dig in a little bit on this because like, at least the past 10, probably the past 15 years there has been this major overhaul in how we all consume content, how content gets produced.

What makes a person relevant? And if you're just replicating something that somebody else has done, you can't catch those waves. You know what I'm saying? And I feel like hip hop in particular is something that has always been an underground force. You know, it, it was conceived, born and raised underground because it was a counter-culture to what was already going.

And even when it becomes mainstream and people start [00:34:00] making money off of it and that kind of thing, it's like the heart and soul of it is still from people who are like on the come up on the hustle, trying to make that Trek that nobody's helping them with. Right. Right. And, and, and it becomes more about, you know, well, what's your following?

How many, how many subscribers you got? What's your reach? I dunno. So I just, I just wanted to kind of pick your brain a little bit about, you know, how important this moment is, where you see this going. So how do we cultivate an environment where the culture can grow while people are still getting paid, but also we kind of maintain independence and self-determination, and don't just get swept into like following the next fad, 

[00:34:41] Dajon Tee: honestly.

I don't know if time will ever go back. Not right now because the biggest issue and I talked about it in my off the porch interview, the biggest issue was that the money has taken the place of the network and the lessons. These artists don't have to be good no more. You can have a [00:35:00] bag and pay your way on to the industry, baby.

And I thought the goal was to get paid by the industry. So why are you paying your way to the industry? So what I'm saying, like. I'll never understand how these artists get mad and they get I'm talking about live it because a DJ says, Hey, you gotta pay me a few dollars to spend that tray. And it's not even because that DJ is being greedy at the time.

It's because that's what the culture has become. Everything costs a dollar. It don't cost love it. Don't cost support no more. It don't cost talent no more. It costs a dollar. And it's like, it's two sides of the spectrum either. You got it. Or you broke. If you got. You can buy that. Look, you can buy that sound.

You came by tomorrow, but you can buy to look and you can buy the sound. And there's going to be some dumb ANR out there who see a bag on your head and boom. You can go buy the million views on YouTube. And if the ANR who that's, that's booking, you don't know what to look for to find out that half of them [00:36:00] is VSU and bots as well.

They're not going to understand either, you know what I'm saying? Like I hate, I really do hate how everything has to be about. Oh, do you have over 10,000 followers? No nigga. That's why I need you. You know, as a million people heard that song, it has a million people heard your other song, your other artist songs that's on the shelf yet.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like one of the biggest things, like, yes, I do feel like I have something different because I'm very interactive with my people. A lot of times when you step out to these concerts, these shows, when you talking to people who sit in positions like. They don't, they're not as open.

You're not going to get as much out of them. They're going to let it be known that I am king and I'm standoffish. And you have to treat me as such me on the other hand, I'll get on stage and I'm a party with you. And then after we finished party, and I'm gonna go tell you that that's almost as baby and let's work this thing out, you know, that's, 

[00:36:59] Mic: [00:37:00] that's the original hip hop.

That's the original. You know DJ at MC running stuff, oh, you y'all have rhymes with that feeling, show him because that rhyming was just like a fun thing you did as you walked around, it wasn't necessarily like I'm going to write out 16 bars and throw this out and you know, you in battle rap. So you, you obviously under see this and understand this and see it and try 

[00:37:24] Dajon Tee: to culture it.

And that's another thing too. Like music is always been a strong point, but. It made me an even tougher. 'cause now I know how to put together and listen to and understand those haymakers, those punches, those bars, all of those different things that work together to create that true hip hop sound. I know what I'm looking for now, and it's thanks to battle rap.

So when you put those two together with some stuff with it, with the person that's knowledgeable in the background of everything else going on, you kind of get a different picture. You know, like most people, like I say, most people, their only goal [00:38:00] is to me. Their only goal is to be famous. Cause I always ask artists, what do you want out of this?

You want to be wealthy. You want to be famous or do you want to change the world? Johnny eco prime example, she is really healing the world through music. Half of the people don't even understand that all of her songs includes those singing bowls and those different things that healed the body, not just your ears, it heals the body.

I don't understand that if you record your music in different frequencies, you get a different market of people that ate late. It is going to drag you down. It is going to make you speed. It is going to make you turn up and have the time of your life. But baby, you gonna sleep like a baby when you get home as drained your body and your mind, as opposed to those people who know the difference in the EQs of music and their music is mixed out as close to 417 Hertz.

Or other different frequencies because they hit certain frequencies in the body that particular one hits right in the pineal gland. It's a vibration. If you put two phones in your [00:39:00] hand, play Jack Janiah eco in one hand. Right? Play anything else in your other hand, you're going to feel the difference in your hand, but they don't do enough educating nowadays.

So nobody knows what they're doing. 

[00:39:12] Mic: Let's let's talk about that for a second. Cause this is the first time we've had a guest that actually brought this up here, but so you, you tuned for 14, you say 17 or 17. Okay. All right. So four I've always heard 4, 3, 2 is a good solid one. And then of course the mainstream is four, four.

Oh, what we're talking about folks is basically that back in the day, when, you know, orchestras and such were traveling around. The tunes session, like when everybody's tuning up on the stage was basically everybody was tuning at the same time to be in pitch with each other. And then at some point in history, everything got standardized and it got standardized to something that sounded mathematically, right.

Like 4, 4, 0. And that's not the natural resonating pitch of phones in 

[00:39:59] DJ And ?: existence. [00:40:00] 

[00:40:01] Mic: Right? Yeah. So, so 

[00:40:03] Dajon Tee: you know, not to cut you off, but you know, the best way I explain it to people. 'cause, you know, you gotta make, have you got to break stuff down and nigga turn sometime to make, so make sure that people get that part.

If you ever seen the five heartbeats number when they was sitting in the studio and that meeting kind of went and everybody went crazy in the studio. That is the part, right? Every time I explain this to an artist, I always use that as an example, because as a kid growing up, I never knew why they hell.

Everybody's like when they hit the spot. And then as I learned more about music, I said, oh, that's what they were waiting for. It was the fine tuning and that final mix and master before it got distributed. Okay. Makes sense. Now 

[00:40:44] DJ And ?: it makes the music 

[00:40:45] Mic: have power. It's 

[00:40:46] Dajon Tee: so important. Just like I teach the difference between a stereo sound versus the digital.

I encourage my artists. Get your stuff on vinyl, not just a CD, not just a jump drive, but here that difference with that vinyl baby that's straight stereo sound right there. That's his periods. It [00:41:00] gets, 

[00:41:00] Mic: yeah. Every time you export your track as a MP3, and you've got to sit there and like adjust those sentence.

That is, that is data. That is, that is sound. That is being cut off so that you don't 

[00:41:10] Dajon Tee: hear it. Yeah, that's the best part of it though. Being knowledgeable all the way around. Like, I, I don't think I'd be able to just sit here and manage and do paperwork and stuff. Y'all like, I really love the studio sessions.

I love the build sessions. I love being able to watch the producers build these deets. I love watching the engineers go in and take out something as small as a breath or a pin drop. I love the intricacy of what music can do when it's done. 

[00:41:37] DJ And ?: Man man, you pass it. You know, I like, I just like hearing you talk about this.

But I have a question for you and I always had this question. This is something that's like, you know, a bone meal, meat and bones, but I mean, meat and potatoes stuff rather. How do you, how do you create a music management company? Like what was your process? Like what paperwork. Right? So could you explain [00:42:00] that to our audience?

Because I know this is something like, like, first of all, you're giving us a lot of background information. Like you said, you are not like most music management folks that we talked to. Like you you're pretty straightforward. So background wise, you can't steal it. Yeah. You can't, you can't 

[00:42:14] Dajon Tee: steal your, I tell anybody in a heartbeat.

I can give you my recipe, but you can't cook. 

[00:42:19] DJ And ?: Yes. Yes. I agree. I agree. You come with a different, with a different field. So like, did you do like paperwork wise? Like, did you have to register an LLC? Like how did you create that thing from the. 

[00:42:33] Dajon Tee: I so, boom, right. Jumping out the gate. The first thing I did, because I'm not gonna sit here and lie to y'all.

I did not license the company until a year, but I'm going to explain why once Lou Gordon and Freeport dining for pretty much attacked me and beat me up and said, Hey, we're going to hold you hostage until you'd be our manager. I was like, The first thing that I did, if I didn't know how to do anything else, I got them on paperwork.

I might not have all my paperwork yet, but [00:43:00] let me make sure that you sign this dotted line real quick, because what I don't need is for me to put my all into this and then you back out, or you run away from us, you feel what I'm saying? So I had to make sure I locked in my artists. From there. I started educating myself and being more familiar with different resources that can help meet, not just the artists, because as a manager, you need coaches too.

You need knowledge too. You need people who can pour that same life and energy into you as well. So I had to kind of get out there, learn a different, little different little things, like simple stuff, as far as like how to get booked at the club, how to negotiate certain cars. What does this mean? What does that mean?

What does my artists, what exactly is my damn job? Okay. Like I had to figure out because nobody was willing to tell me when I started and she, and she put the touch on it about, you know, being a woman. It's a little different when I jumped out my job, like I said, I, during the summertime called a provocative, what have you?

I don't care. I [00:44:00] love short shorts and sneakers. I love to step out and I like to show some skin. I'm a beautiful dark skin woman, and most dark skinned woman who got a little meat on them may be a little insecure. So I'm the one that walks around like babies want that thing and be okay. So knowing that about me and knowing my personality, you already have.

Don't play with her type of mentality about you feel what I'm saying. And then I stepped into a ring with my knowledge. That's already gonna make you look at me crazy. Cause it's like, who the hell is she? And why? You know, all of this already, like stop this, you know? So my biggest issue stepping into when I was trying to learn is that everybody at that time, Outside of Chalan Rogers, who is the CEO of things.

The game records right here from Columbia, South Carolina, amazing individual who does not mind being in a resource for me. You know what I'm saying? Outside of watching her really do her thing out here. I didn't really have any females to watch. I didn't really have any females to approach. So I was going for some of these other male managers who [00:45:00] already had artists popping, you know I'm big on trying to, you know, stay away from certain things.

So I don't call names, even though I be wanting to work when I would approach them to try to do work with them or when I wanna approach them on some, Hey, can I have a sit down with you? Like, what's your, what's your fee for a consultation. I just kind of want to have a studio session sit in and kind of watch you work, or, you know, can I pick your brain for like an hour?

I'll pay you for it type thing. And it always turned into, can I get smashed and return nigga? No, no. You know, like, and it was something that I really had to fight for a while because some of the people that I wanted to work with the most, they seemed so genuine coming off. They seem so genuine coming off the game, but they weren't really genuine like that.

They really had alterior motives. You know what I'm saying? Once you get to this point, I'm going to do this for you. You have to return something to me. So I really had to find my lane and. I really had to find my [00:46:00] lane and I had to ground myself, like, okay, who are you going to be? How are you stepping that what's going to be your mission and how you're going to accomplish that mission?

How will you respond to this? How will you answer that? Are you going to be the proactive type or the reactive type? Do you con do you have emergencies ready and ready to go in the background, ready to solve these problems? Type thing? Like what type of manager are you going to be? Are you going to cling onto your artists and let them carry it away?

And you just say, yeah, that's my artists. Or are you going to really take the forefront and go crazy? And it took me. Some weeks sitting down, like, all right, what are we doing here? So once I got all of that in mind, I figured out who I wanted to be. Cause I cannot lead somebody if I'm not where I need to be.

So once I figured out exactly where I wanted to be mentally, who I wanted to be and what I wanted the world to see you. Oh, yeah, we went up, we went up at that point. From there I started actually getting into festivals and stuff like that. I still hadn't licensed a company yet because my [00:47:00] biggest thing that I had already known about business monopoly is one of my favorite games.

And when you actually learn how to play monopoly and not just play monopoly, Your mind becomes a beast when it comes to negotiations and stuff like that. So literally I would play monopoly on advanced against the computer every day. And the one thing I learned is you want to put a company out of business, you got to double the business and you got to do it better.

I learned that in the first few years, it ain't no profit, it's all hustle. So I wanted to prove to myself before I put a hundred something dollars. And so just the paperwork I wanted that at least prove to myself that I'll be here a year from now. And if I'm here a year from now, we going to get our paperwork and we're going to do this thing.

Right. Because otherwise we ain't hear you're from that, not have spent this money. I'm cussing all y'all niggas. Like y'all going to give me $50 a piece for that license. You know what I'm saying? So it was more so I took my time because I had to prove it to me. I didn't really have. Some steps and a process.

[00:48:00] I didn't really have anybody in my ear saying, Deshana you need to go do this. You need to handle that. Take care of this. I literally had to piece this thing together on my own. Once I was able to get make it into the next year, by the time we made it into our first year, let me say, because for that first year we were shows we were on the road.

At least three, four days out the week, the state, the state I'm talking about what? No flying wasn't no, nah, we had $20 in our pocket to get to Charlotte to do this show and we had $5 left between everybody to make it back home. But God dammit. We're going to show ass on this stage. And while y'all on that stage showing up, I got everybody promo material in my bag, walking around, you know, little garden here.

Here you go. Here's the QR code. It's symbolic tapes over there on the table, go grab them. I was a promoter, you know what I'm saying? But I was a promoter who knew that I was looking for something more. I didn't really come to a full structure. That's why this question is always hard to answer. I didn't really find the full structure [00:49:00] until rest in peace.

We lost one of our biggest artists, the only plug when I lost plug it really, it changed. It made my work ethic different. It made me go to paper and say, step one, step two. Because if I want to leave a legacy behind, I got to show somebody how to do this thing. The same way I did with grace, with courage, with enthusiasm.

I can't leave them out there in the water to think that they just don't figure it out because nobody let me there everybody. Let me just figure it out. I made terrible mistakes and lost thousands. If I can help you not do the same thing. You see what I'm saying? So, yeah, I didn't really have any set stuffs.

I literally, this thing was all trial and error and find it. Now I'm licensed. My paperwork is licensed. I'm taking different master's classes like with Taylor Swift's original manager, people like that. My artists I've had three artists signed to equity distribution, which is rock nation's distribution company.

We are actually going to LA with them next month. For a rail Carter, who is the director of ANR for rock nation. We are going on his culture [00:50:00] tour next month in LA we've had billboards up and down every major city you can think of. We've had billboards in those cities. Like I found a new way to put it in your face.

And it started with me having to be the face of my brand instead of my artists. I'm trying to step back and let them do their thing. We branded we in your house, we own your T's. You feel what I'm saying? Now I'm sitting back and I'm letting my artists grow and do the thing. Dang, 

[00:50:24] DJ And ?: man. Bravo make the robot.

Bravo, 

[00:50:29] Dajon Tee: Bravo, 

[00:50:30] DJ And ?: man. All right. So. I know we are getting up close to the hour, so I didn't want to get into some of these questions before. Of course we, we let you give our audience, their your, your information on how they can follow you on social media, et cetera, and see what's going on with you.

But man, this is always a big question. I always like to ask people who are in. In the industry, especially in South Carolina, we have a diverse and a very talented pool of artists in our state, but normally we always ended up [00:51:00] getting exported out to somewhere else to, you know, grow and become big. And part of it is because our market is so small, but we have the talent, which is crazy.

Like we have so many people. We were famous, et cetera, come from South Carolina. Like how do we, and I, and I liked that you do this between, especially between Orangeburg, Charleston and Columbia, bridging that gap between South Carolina, South Carolina artists, so that we can create and work together instead of staying in our separate silos, like how.

How do we do that? And, and, and could you name some things that you're doing so that our audience can understand what, what you're doing to be a part of this, but bringing those, those artists together so that we can create our own markets. So we can make our own money here in the state as well, instead of just exporting our culture.

[00:51:46] Dajon Tee: This is one of my favorite questions I wish you would have asked us. And when I had time to get into.

All right, let me speed up my talk. Cause this is going to be a faster, so, boom. Right. I really feel like the problem is, again, it's not [00:52:00] the artists, it's the people that are in the positions that I'm in, who are not bringing them together. They want to be the, I am that for my area. They want to be the, I started this, I doing that instead of being.

I began, let's go type of situation. I didn't even know that that was a big issue until DZ McDuffie had hit over a million on Worldstar and YouTube and everything. And then I moved to Dillon and I opened the club in Dylan. Right. And these, he dropped in the club. I'm going crazy. Singing my life away.

Nobody else knew the words. This is a year after this shit has hit a mil. And am I holding the hell up? Y'all don't know who BZ McDuff. Cause there might be like, this song is hard though. And I'm like right then and there I threw my first show two months later. Cause I realized the problem is Carolina don't know, Caroline don't know who the hell is in the 8, 4, 3 is broken up.

So fuck. You got Myrtle beach, Florence and all that. That's one word. Charleston is a totally different world and they all ate for three in between those two parts of the 8, 4, 3 is us Columbia [00:53:00] Orangeburg and all of that good stuff. So what I started doing was I stopped doing shows at one place and I started going city to city, state to state, and I'm taking artists with me from all the different places I didn't visit.

When I dropped, I dropped compilation. Mix-tapes you know what I'm saying? So I'm taking. Ed. I take about 10 artists from every part of our state and I put them on a compilation tape. The first one is 60 K views. I do live reviews. My lab review shows I haven't done them in a while, but my lab review shows go crazy between IgG and Facebook, the least amount of viewers that I get combined because they be cutting me off and shit, but the least amount of viewers I might get is.

I've had 10 K viewers on the night before you still what I'm saying? And it's international from Switzerland to Australia, to Israel, I'm talking about people send me use it. They call my phone. You feel bad. So that's really my mother. I wish I had more time to actually elaborate. Cause that's really one of my favorite questions, but it's personality.

It's personality. My personality radiates. You can be next to me or you can be just like y'all out through these [00:54:00] heads as you still don't feel like you're in the same room with me because that energy is every. Yes. Ma'am I feel your energy girl. Thank you. Thank you for waking me up this morning. No problem.

I, cause I had to get right. That's why I told you, let me finish and I'll get my baby. Right. I had to slap my pony tail on and laid off and just because of, I feel good, I'm going to feel good and I'm going to make sure everybody around me feel the same way, man. 

[00:54:25] DJ And ?: Yo, we have to do a part two. I didn't know yet, because like you said.

As I said, just to be honest, you know, Freeport, Danny, that's one of our dudes. And I know since you worked with him, we may have solid. I know you're solid in this interview. You were so open and honest with us. I do want to come back cause we do have some more questions, but of course we are limited a little bit by the time this one is.

So I do want you to actually finish up with just explaining to our audience against some of the projects that you're currently working on and how they can find you on us on online or on social. 

[00:54:57] Dajon Tee: Okay. Currently my artist's look, Gordon, he's [00:55:00] working on Bernie Rose's part two. That'll be dropping really, really soon.

We've got a lot of projects in the works right now with equity distro. That's the, that's the platform he drops through. And I'm actually working on getting my other artists there. I'm planning a few showcases as well as concerts. Cause my biggest difference showcase, I opened it to all artists concert is hand picked type situation.

So I am working on a few of those that I'm getting ready to drop. Boring low Gordon is currently doing a residency actually at crown station in Charlotte, on Thursdays with RACI Rapson on the dope stages or whatever. And he rocks the, his, his of performance is crazy. Me and my DJ DJ, big Sal, we're getting ready to do another compilation Satan really, really, really.

So we've already started pulling into music for that. We've got LA in March with the Royal Carter culture tour. Yeah, pirates battling. We just had one of the biggest cars ever with coffee brown. We had, most of the flux in the building could score. Like it was a beautiful situation. Anything else if I need to have it going on, y'all need to DME and say, deja, this is what I need, baby.

And I'm gonna make it happen for [00:56:00] y'all. You can find me on Facebook. At Dayshaun T D a J O N space T E if I'm in Facebook, jail over there, it's queen key top side. Cause I'm usually in Facebook jail. Sometimes I G deja on that team management. And then on Twitter, which is my favorite because that's where I'm the most is going to be at deja.

Gotcha. Yeah. Cause it's 

[00:56:22] DJ And ?: what it is popping on. All right. That makes sense. I'll make sure to get you up and we'll get that following going on there, but. Man again. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking to you today. Thank you for joining us, giving us some time out of your Saturday to catch you early in the morning and have this good conversation.

But like I said, we're going to have to definitely do a part two. So we can continue this on the flip side and get some and pick your brain about some more things. I know my brother, especially has some questions about the battle. League and also some, some work life and time management items. So we'll definitely have to pick your brain again.

Other than that, this will conclude our episode today, the Hilltop glove podcast. We want to thank our [00:57:00] guests Dayshaun T for joining us today. And we will see wall on the next episode of the Hilltop glove podcast piece.