SPEAKER_00 1:46

This episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast is sponsored by Turntable City, located at 202 Suite A, West Main Street in Lexington, South Carolina, where you can find vinyl, records, albums, and everything in between. For more information about selling vinyl CDs and tapes, please visit their website, www.turntable-city.com, where you can download the sound of turntable with free DJ mixes, remixes, and instrumentals. Be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram at Turntable City.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Welcome to the Hilltop Glodcast, where Skip and DJ and Watt interview guests and discuss topics such as business, current events, and pop culture. The motivational podcast for the hip hop millennials.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

And of course, I'm here, you know, my brother from another mother, Mike. And today we're gonna be talking. So and today we're gonna be talking with um Ja Freedom. J is a Charlotte-based music producer, DJ, host, taste maker, and creator of the Frequency 360 collective. One thing I realized, Ja, when we started putting together this interview and start like doing research for it, like I've always known like you, you, like you're a serious instrumentalist, but I didn't realize how serious of an instrumentalist you were. So when I was going through your um band camp, uh and like I was reading the bio, it was very interesting. It said, I make music, I meditate, I love love, I hate bad things. And I think this is great. Excellent communicator. Excellent. Like he just explained everything right there. And I was like, you know what? That is exactly hell. Like he didn't take it take a paragraph to explain who he is. I see that. And I know one of the things that I thought was um really cool was just the amount of different projects that you've created over the years. Of course, I follow you on IG and on Facebook, and I see just like things you put out like on a daily basis, but I didn't even realize like you have like full collections of instrumental projects and works just independently, just outside of just that normal like posting on IG and Facebook. And I know things like that take a lot of time and effort, and it shows dedication to your art. So if you could um just tell us about your journey into music and even just talking a little bit about Frequency 360.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Sure. Well, music is kind of something that I grew up in. It's it's my family is has always been musically inclined. So like I have older family members who did gospel groups. My father was a minister, and so we grew up playing instruments in the church. So the one of the memories my mom always would talk about is that me being like two or three years old, crawling into the kitchen and pulling out the pots and pans and banging on them, you know, when I'm like two and three years old. So drums are my first instrument. My my uh younger brother plays the piano, my other brother he does art and music. So just art creativity has always been in my family. I have cousins who were like the old school traveling black gospel groups, so they were doing that. So music has always been uh part of my life. Like my dad would tell me stories. And uh, like I said, I'm a I'm a PKMR preacher's uh preacher's kid, so my dad uh wasn't always saved, and that's one of the things he he would always uh talk about his his early life, and he would tell these stories about James Brown and Jackie Wilson and all these cats, and you know, I didn't believe him at first until I read one of James Brown's autobiographies, and uh he he described something that my dad had told me as a kid in detail in the book, and I I went and went to him and I'm like, hey, you know what, I apologize. You know, I didn't know how uh you know that you know sometimes you know your parents be exaggerating stuff, and uh that was not the case. So and he always encouraged the music and creativity for for us. So like if I wanted to, you know, take guitar lessons, he would pay for guitar lessons as you know when excuse me, he was going back to school and uh they would have these concert series, and he knew I loved music, so I'm the only black kid and at these orchestral presentations because he knew I just love music of any kind, as he would take me. You know, it'd be the two little chocolate drops and all these, you know, looking at these concertos, and you know, I'm sitting there just just and just uh mesmerized by the different types of music, so it would be just it wouldn't just be black music, it would be just any type of music. So he would take me to indigenous music for like India, or and my I was also raised by an a Thai and Chinese lady, but it was my second mom. So I grew up listening to that type of music, so so Thai and Lao music. So music was always an integral part of my life, just because of my family. And you know, I I come from the uh old school block parties and where people were playing Zap and Funkadelic and Rick James, you know, on big house speakers outside, where that I think that's that's a lost art too, where this music was an everyday piece of of what you did every day. So that's that was that's kind of like my journey in music. It's always been kind of there for me, and it gave me an outlet for creativity or feelings that I didn't understand at that time. So while I'm not the greatest at every instrument, I've I like to touch them all and see what they sound like and you know bang out on them. Or, you know, I just hear things in my head, like I can hear if I'm just out and about and I hear a pattern in rain that and I'm like, hey, do you hear that? Do you hear that? Like, what are you talking about? You know, personally hearing it. You know, it's just once you get in tune with certain things that you can just it's a frequency, and it kind of takes us to a frequency. So I I've done music for like a really long time, music, art, you know, not just music itself, but I I bel I'm a firm believer in art is the is the pressing forward button of any society or culture. You can gauge a society and a culture by its art. So a lot of times we have a separation in art, whether it's food or painting or music, and we we tend to separate them all, but it's all art, you know, photography, filmmaking. It's all art. And I've been doing music and collaborations with artists for such a long time, and I moved to Charlotte, and I didn't really notice that there was a uh a disparate amount. There's these all these disparate groups because I used to travel a lot. That's what brought me to Columbia because you know, when I was just came down to to the south from where I'm originally from, I would just go to shows all over the place or beat battles all over the place just to meet people and to just get different vibes. And what I noticed in Charlotte is that you had all these different groups that they could be together, but they just don't. So I said, Well, let me start putting all these different types of people in a room together and see what happens. And it just really turned out to be really, really awesome and built a lot of partnerships, it built a lot of relationships and some copycats. Uh, but that's you know, that's par for the course. Uh but it it it it was it's always been something for me to be, it's one of my superpowers, is I'm a networker and I'm good at putting people together. And I just kind of use my power for good. I sat in a room pacing in front of my my girl's house when one day and said, you know what, I want to put something together that's really dope that no one's ever done before. And she sat and watched me pace in a room for two days until I came up with the idea and concept for Frequency 360. So she's awesome. She's actually sitting right behind me, making sure I don't say anything crazy. It's not the wrong thing. And so what motivates me uh uh today to create is that it's in it's intrinsic, intrinsic within my spirit. If I wasn't creating something, I would I would hate myself. So I have to be constantly making something, whether I'm sitting sketching, or doodling some melodies or singing or trying to put some people together or tasting some new food, always creating because I cook too. That's obviously that's another thing about creation.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

And you know what? That is right. You do cook. Yep. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I've seen you post yeah, some pictures of like some different meals and stuff like that. You don't just stick with one thing. It's not like you're like, because you know, some people are just like they're purely like meat people and carnivores, and everything they do is that doesn't have bacon or it doesn't have a piece of steak on it, you know, they don't cook it at the same time. You aren't necessarily like a v a vegan either. So yeah, it's the yeah, like to say you eat like a regular person, at least that's how I like to say it. I could be most of y'all mamas.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So don't try me.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

It's one of the things about creative people is like a lot of times we're involved in so many different things because we're trying to um kind of express these things through whatever medium it takes to do it. Uh one of the things I want to talk to you about, though, is you know, the idea of being a creative entrepreneur. And, you know, when I mean, particularly for me, it's always been hard when you're kind of like utilizing your talent and your art and then trying to generate income off of it, but also stay true to that. You know, it's it's almost like if you're if you're really tapping that void and you're really, you know, getting that creative, it it's it's almost like you're a conduit for it. And then every time you turn around, you know, just my personal experience, every time you turn around and try to make income off of it, then there ends up being uh nibbling away at that at that core thing. You know, so but it's but it's definitely like a blessing to make money off of what you love doing. And so it's still always one of those things that we're trying to balance as to like, you know, how much of this is our art and how much of this is income. And I know that you had you know an experience with with transitioning from corporate America into pursuing your passion. And I know that's like just terrifying for so I wanted to know if you could if you could kind of share some of those experiences about your transition. I know you you just talked a little bit about how Free Frequency360 got started, but if you've got any kind of insights or advice you can give to other creatives who are struggling with this also, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Okay. Well, there's no one way of doing it. And we were having a conversation about this. I don't know how controversial I can be, but I'll be a little controversial, especially for black creatives. We have a an apprehension of starting businesses or being entrepreneurs because we're taught uh for so long that you know you have to do X, Y, and Z, you know, get a job, work for the man, work for 50 years, and then retire, and then buy a boat. Right. But the people who are are unlike us, they don't necessarily have those uh brackets put on them. And like what I have friends of mine that are Caucasian that they're taught to do follow your passion, follow your dream, you know, and you always have something to fall back on if you if you want to. And I think for us as as uh black or minority entrepreneurs, we we let fear dominate most of our decision making. And you you you can't be afraid and you can't be scared now. Is everything going to be perfect? No. Will you have lean days? Yes. Will there be days where you say, Man, I wish I hadn't done this? Yes. But then there are also those days where you have seen someone smile, or you someone comes up to you and say, Man, you changed my life. Or, you know, you have that that ball and out month where it's like, whoa, I'm rich.

SPEAKER_05 14:56

Everything just lines.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah. You know, so you you I think for most entrepreneurs is that you have to get out of your own way. You can't be uh afraid of a few different things. Okay, one, you can't be afraid to fail. Two, you you can't be afraid of what people think about you, and you can't be afraid of what the circumstances are going to be and what happens next. Once you get past those three things, then you know you you start having a fearlessness about what you're doing, and you can go from there. Now, am I saying I'm the the most successful person that I know? No. I know people way more successful than I am, but I'm one of those people that if I have an idea, I I will make it happen. You know, I'll make it happen. That's good.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

That's good. And I I also think like like if you are the most successful person you know, then you probably need to meet some people. Right. Right? Like you're networking ain't right then.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Correct. Exactly, exactly. And I think that, and I think one of the things that you said that really caught me was that when you first start talking about it, is a lot of times as a coach, we've been conditioned, especially by like those that came before us, not necessarily to play it safe, but it's like, well, this is what I know worked for my cousin, or this is what worked for my uncle or my aunt, right? These are the things that work. These other things, these things that you're trying to do, there's risk to it. I know a guy that tried to do this, or I know somebody that tried to do this, and they aren't successful, or they're broke, or they don't have a retirement, or they don't, you know, or they don't have any needs. Right, right. Exactly, exactly. And you see that a lot of that, especially within our community. You know, it's like, okay, well, you know, it's like, and one of the first things is like you said, it's always about a good job, you know, and that was like a big thing. It's always about having a good job. So even like exactly trust your employer to look out for you, like that's gonna happen. Yeah, it happened anymore. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. So yeah, so I think that's something that I think our generation is really starting to kind of address. It started to kind of stay, you know, go at go out on their own, which, you know, before, you know, before our parents, you know, because of the limited opportunities that were there societally speaking, they had no choice but to be entrepreneurial. So you're kind of seeing a return to that. And so I think that's um pretty dope.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah, and I and I I was lucky enough to see, even though I didn't understand it at the time, but black entrepreneurs growing up. So my my godfather owned a floor shop, and his brother owned a tailor shop. And so there were other black male entrepreneurs that I that I actually got to see. And so when you see other people who don't have fear and say, well, I'm gonna make this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna follow my passion. And like I said, you doing flowers is a creative endeavor. So you would think a black man owning a flora shop, you know what I mean? But it's creative and it's it's beautiful, and it's it's showing that you can take whatever your art is and monetize it. Now, I'm not telling everybody to go out there and quit your job tomorrow because your circumstances may not warrant that. But if you have an idea, no matter what it is, and you know what, not everyone needs to be uh a musician, and that's one of the things that about frequency too is that I wanted to make sure that when we're looking at music, we're not just looking at one particular aspect of music. If we're looking at being a chef, we're not looking at one particular aspect of being a chef. There's so many different ways that you can make money and that you can monetize those things that you don't have to be the person in the forefront. So uh, you know, musicians need managers, musicians need people to manage their day-to-day. You know, producers need more than producers need people to help them with their gear, you know. People, uh chefs need people to source their ingredients. So there's different avenues that everyone wants to look at the most glamorous piece of the puzzle, and that's not always the most lucrative piece of the puzzle.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

Yeah, yeah. A lot of times there's a lot of money being made that we don't see. And even if you're, you know, one of the things that I've tried to do in my life is if there's some area that I don't know what I'm doing in, then I try to get somebody to pay me to be in some kind of circumstance where I can either like do that with a little bit of a safety net to fail, or just watch them do it properly so I can learn it. You know, like every job is kind of like you finding a way to fill in another piece of that puzzle.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yep, one 100%. And, you know, we can't be ashamed to be able to say that I don't know everything and that I can turn something over to somebody else. Now, one of the things that I do, I can say about myself, and it's just my background, because from my my my corporate back background, is that we did a lot of Six Sigma and uh Black Belt, just basically looking at causation and see what makes things happen. And and it's if you look at at least trying to understand what an aspect of, I don't have to be the greatest at it. So for example, uh video work, right? I'm not I'm I will never profess to be someone who's great at video, but I know enough and I've taught myself or been around enough folks to understand where I have a working knowledge of it. So that way when I'm talking to someone who does video, we can um have a conversation on the same level. So I can express what I need and they understand what I'm saying. And so that's one of the things that as uh creative entrepreneurs, you have to be a little bit you have to be able to give up some, but then also be able to learn some at the same time. So I need to learn enough so where I can communicate to someone else who may be better at what I what I need, so that way I can level up. So if you are a uh photographer, for example, you're gonna be around other photographers who are better than you, but you have to understand that language so that way you can get the information and disseminate it for yourself. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 21:49

That's very true. And I think one of the things, especially when it comes to starting out as a creator, especially if you're trying to make money off of it, is you gotta understand, you gotta be, you gotta learn, like you gotta get inspiration, you gotta get instruction, you gotta get, you know, knowledge from somewhere. And one of the best ways to do that, of course, you know, people do stuff, you know. You have like YouTube, you know, YouTube is like a university now. Yeah, you pretty much learn anything off of YouTube. But there's something about, like you said, making those direct connections with people in areas in which you, I guess in areas or at least doing things you at least you aspired to do. Um or the skill skill-wise. And I think that's always been beneficial. I know when it can when I started out um doing photography, one of the things that helped me out tremendously was when I started connecting with people and actually like actual photographers, like people who've been shooting professionally, and not even people that shoot exactly what I wanted to shoot at the time. Just people who've mastered that craft, have experience in it. A couple months ago, we actually interviewed um a guy by the name of Um Crush Rush. Um he's a he's a photographer here in Columbia. And he was probably one of the first people to sit, sit, that, sit me down and to show me how to use this program called Lightroom, um an Adobe to edit pictures. Like I didn't, like I just knew I was, I was just like, okay, this is what you're supposed to use to edit pictures. And I was going on YouTube, I was checking and stuff out, but it wasn't really clicking to me. And I remember one day, and this is how our irony of it was I was actually in a studio session, and he actually came through the studio session because he does percussion and stuff too. And so we were laying down a track for. But he saw me in the corner working on some pictures, right? And he looked at it. He's like, okay, well, he's like, I already see where you're messing up at. You need to do this, this, this, and this. Yeah. And he changed the turbs and he broke it down to be like he explained to me like the white, like the difference, like with white balance, highlights, you know, all these things I didn't really take in consideration or I didn't know about. Like he actually gave me the official names and terms for them. And he told me the importance of why you adjust those things. Or if you add too much, you've added too much black here, this is what it does to your shadows. And so things I just, I just had no idea about. I just, but I know I don't want my pictures to look good. But he explained to me the exact terms and the reason why I make those adjustments. And from there, man, like my editing as far as photography changed overnight. But it was because I was able to, like you said, link up with people who are already in that profession that are already doing it to where I can learn something.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And you're oh, and you were open to learning. I think what what kind of separates kind of the folks from my generation and some of the newer, newer creative entrepreneurs is that they don't necessarily um not saying that everyone has to have the same path, but you have to build off the backs of the ones that came before you. Because if you don't know uh what it took to get to where that person is, then you're you're gonna make the same mistakes. You're not going to understand fully what your process is. You know, we have these folks like like I said, when I was in in corporate, you'd have these folks coming directly out of uh college with no, they would have book smarts, but they have no practical practical knowledge of, say, the programming or the processes, and they would try to make changes on things, they would come in and they would break things all the time because they didn't they didn't take the time to understand the process to get to where it was at the time. They're just thinking, oh, this doesn't work the way I want it to, I'm gonna change this, this, and this, not understanding the things that happen behind the scenes. So I I think that like you're saying with your example, you uh had to find out, okay, this black looks like this because of this. So now, now that I know the the baseline information, I can get creative with it, but I and I know the basics. And a lot of people want to come in and try to dunk and they can't shoot from the free throw line.

SPEAKER_04 26:27

Right. I think a lot of that comes from just like the capitalist entrepreneurial kind of environment in America, like breeds a lot of fake it till you make it. And you know, like that's the only way that people are gonna give you money, is if you give them a hundred percent confidence that you know how to do all of this. But then in the creative realm, it's it's like so much more important to be humble and soak up everything because part of this whole experience is that everybody's got a little piece of the puzzle. And if you're really trying to put it together, you gotta know and understand what's going on from all those points of view.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Mm-hmm. Because you're not an island, you know, and you can be the most talented person in the world, but everyone has a team. The people who are the most successful have a support system around them.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

That's exactly it. And I think a lot of people don't even realize the importance of that. I know that's something I was talking about with a friend of mine earlier this week, is just the importance of having, like you said, when it comes to creatives, importance of having a team and having people. You don't necessarily have to agree with each other all the time or be, you know, like, but at least from the point of like collaborating with each other, working together and supporting each other to kind of build value and to push what your movement forward or whatever the group is doing as a collective forward. And it just kind of, and it's just the reason why I think, especially with in our community, especially with black creatives, I know that's something that I've seen over like the past couple of years is a lot of times people can become, I don't want to say necessarily territorial. Yes. But yeah, we'll just say it. Like, yes. It's like when it like it's very territorial. And it's it's surpr and it surprised me initially when I first um started like getting involved in that environment and in that community and really seeing it, especially when it comes to things like events, it comes to like partnerships, it comes to especially working outside of the community too. I guess like mainstream community, you know, just when whatever city or, you know, I've seen it and I've seen how it seemed, it's like it's like people can be pitted against one another, because it's like there can only be like one black guy creative in this zone, you know, in this town or in this zone, right? He's either one or the other, and you gotta take your, you know, and it's like they pit, it's like it's like people kind of get pitted against each other.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

But they keep teaching us about scarcity and lack, and that there's enough for everybody. There's more than enough for everybody. And but we also have to take a look at looking at different ways because if if 10 people are trying to do the same exact thing, you got 10 people doing the same exact thing. You know, you have to look at different avenues, different income streams, different ways of getting your message out there that other people aren't doing, and that's why people are so territorial, is because they're they're afraid of branching out besides of what they feel is comfortable.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

That makes me get controversial real quick, Kev. Oh, go ahead. I I'm gonna just say that that that thing that you're talking about, that influence, like that's that's just that is the influence of imperialism. That is colonialism. That is the idea that you have to dominate and suppress everything else around you to get to the top. And that's not that's not the culture that we want to exist in.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

That's just where we are. No, I agree, man. Like, because it's something I've just and I know like, and I can speak on Colombia, right? Because I live in Colombia and I consider myself a part of that community. And I've seen it, and like, and I've seen it so much at Columbia to where it's like it is it's insane. And I don't think the people that are always involved really understand it. I guess because maybe with the way I grew up and how I see things, I kind of I've always looked at those cultural dynamics, like as far as like from not even from a racial perspective, but like you said, from that imperialistic type of mind, you know, like, okay, you have these people, it's like people outside the culture, they're coming in to, okay, this is kind of cool. This is interesting. Let's kind of support this idea. Right.

SPEAKER_05 31:15

Let's try it.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Yeah, exactly. And I've always noticed that. And it's like, and so when I go, when I used to go places and I would meet people, I could immediately now when it's, and I'm just being honest, I could go, okay, this is like the person that's like the money person. This is the person that brings the money to the table. So they gotta keep this person kind of happy or saying this person's good graces to keep the money coming. It's okay, I get it. That's how the world works. I'm gonna go about my business. And so, and look, and like just like with that being said, I just always felt like we gotta emphasize just like collaboration, especially among like black creatives and creatives of color. And I think that's the dope thing with Frequency 360, is that you guys, that's your focus is encouraging collaboration amongst creatives. Like that's like that's that's what it is. Like everything about it, like I remember, I think it was 2019 around Thanksgiving. You had the interview with um Cedric Emoja. Yep. And I remember it was it was an amazing interview, but I remember everybody else that was in there as well. They were other creatives. And but they were there not only to support you, but to support Cedric as well. And I think that's the dope thing because a lot of times for people, they're like, if it's not specifically about me or what I want to do, I really don't have an interest in it.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Mm-hmm. Well, that I have sermons about that, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Yeah, and I thought that was that's what's and I thought that was the beautiful thing about it. And that's why I said, like when I was telling you um a couple days ago, I was like, you have an amazing gift as a connector when it comes to linking people, linking and connecting with folks, especially, and I think this the ice, the um icing on on top of the cake is you're able to do that outside of your city as well. So it's not like you're somebody that when you go to this city, you talk to him. Like, no, people over here also know you. People over here also, you know what I mean? And that's like a gift to itself. And a lot of people don't really um under, uh can really appreciate that sometimes. But what that says, how important do you feel is it for like black creatives to um just regularly collaborate with each other? And why is it needed today?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Okay, well, it's important for black creatives to collaborate with each other because one iron sharp art iron sharpens iron. I know that's super cliche, but it's very real. You get to learn from someone who may have a skill set that's completely different than you and open up something in your own brain that you never thought of before. It's not biting. I'll be around, you know, piano players who are 10 times better than I am, but I'm learning, you know, and you know, in exchange, I'll help them with drum program because I'm better at drum, I'm really good at drums, you know, or I'm really good at laying out melodies. Or if I'm out somewhere and I see an artist that's really dope, and I you know what, this person's looking for an album cover. Let me put you in contact with them. I think you guys would would match, but then you build relationships and uh friendships and networking, and that's where it all comes from. And because one, as as uh minority creatives, we have very even though black people are not monolith, we have very unique experiences for ourselves. So, you know, Jill Johnson, who went to you know an art institute and you know became an artist, is gonna be different than Jamal Jackson, who started doing graffiti on the wall and then became a big artist. As a black creative, I'll have more in common with Jamal. Whether I went to art school or not, it's because of our common uh understanding of the art and where where we're coming from, as opposed to Jill, you know, who came up through you know a particular art school and learned how to do things the perfect way. I I think that what you were talking about before about black people being territorial or just minority creatives being territorial, it is hindered a lot of our growth because we are afraid of becoming bigger collectives and becoming stronger together. Because we've got five artists putting out quality work or five photographers putting out quality work. Say, hey, I can't do it this week when I pass it over to my man. And so somebody didn't have to uh search for it. It just makes more sense that you all know each other and you all get better because the tide rises always at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

I think you just spelled out our philosophy with the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

Yeah, because that's essentially what we do. So, of course, you know, COVID is something that's been going on for a while now. That's been like the main theme of everything in the world recently. Of course, now things are starting to, I guess, come back to some, I guess, resemblance of normalcy. What do you feel like? Because I know over the over the past year or so, one thing I've seen is a lot of people doing things like Clubhouse, Patreon, and people have been meeting collaboratively through these um platforms. But what do you think in-person events and activities are gonna look like post-COVID, especially for creatives?

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Okay, for me, I know that for the Frequency 360 live series that they would bring in the creatives, that's gonna change. If I bring it back, it's gonna change. Uh, one location is gonna change, but then I think the way that I'm gonna do it is gonna change too. One of the things um that I I I made sure that I did when I had those events, and I'll and I'll kind of for the people who don't know what the Frequency 360 live events were, so I would bring in creatives from different types of creative outlets, from business owners to superstars to regular local people just getting started. So we've had Macio from De La Sole, X from Red Nubian, Mike G from Jungle Brothers, Andy Castanis is one of the biggest business owners in Charlotte. You had some of the guys from Soul Food Sessions or that are if you know James Beard, or James Beard chefs, just a little bit of everybody there, just in a room in a bodega on a Saturday afternoon, drinking, cracking jokes, and telling people about their life story. So that way you can learn and people of ARs from different labels. So it was to teach people not only about how you got there, but how you felt when you got there, the ups and the downs, the good and the bad. You know, uh a lot of times that people look at uh the wins only, but I learned just as much from the quote unquote people who failed, and because I say quote unquote, because if there are people out there that have gotten deals that have made movies that aren't super famous, but they've done much more than the people complaining or addissing them have done. Which is crazy. Oh, he ain't done nothing, he's a failed musician. But what have you done? Nothing. You sitting there talking bad about somebody, and I like to sit and listen to those folks and find out what's going on. So one of the things about Frequency Live is that I never I did a couple of podcasts for it on audio, but I wanted to make sure that it was something that people went to go see. Because I filmed them and I and I recorded them. But I'm like, you know what? I I want it to be there's a different experience that you get from seeing something live and in person. And because you can actually interact in a different way. Podcasts are great, right? I love podcasts, but for this particular thing, when that that particular thing that I was doing, it needed to have been something that was an experience and not just archive data.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like there is there is uh energetic feedback that you get from being in the same place at the same time with people and talking about similar uh ideas.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Definitely. And it's a it's a joined experience that you have with the 20, 30, 50, 100 people in a room that you'll have forever. You know, and it's something that's that's very unique. So I think that post-COVID, here's a good and a bad thing, right? The the good thing is that it's opened up people to creative entrepreneurship, right? More podcasts, etc. The the bad thing about it is is that that not everyone is good. And not everyone is doing it for the right reasons. So you have a lot of these celebrities who know, oh man, I'm bored in my house and I'm doing these uh podcasts now, and they're terrible. You yeah, they are terrible, they're just famous. But you know, they they they're they're bad, and so it's kind of like uh you have to weed through the particular things to find the better stuff, you know. It's like there's a bunch of fast food now post-COVID, so I think that a lot of the wheat and the chaff is gonna get separated over the next six months, you know? Because they a lot of these folks are not gonna be able to consistently put out content the way that people consume content now. I'm not gonna name any names, but there's one particular podcast that's made by this semi-famous person, right? But the thing is, it's it's never every week. And so I just forget about it. So he'll do like two two or three weeks in a row, and then nothing. Might probably two or three weeks. And like, ah well, I just forget about it, you know? Yeah, um, that's what's gonna happen. The wheat and the chaff are gonna separate. So the people who really take their time and move forward, those are the ones who are are going to last. I'll give you an example. So in in podcasting, you know one of the biggest and the originators of the the the big black podcast is from Charlotte? Didn't know that. The black guy who tips, he was one of the first ones, and I didn't know he was from Charlotte. He was, I was gonna, he was on my list to get for uh frequency. But that's someone who is a black creative who took a leap of faith, and it was in Charlotte. Now that I didn't know the wheat and the chaff, they he's been doing it for so long, but he was like the originator of the the nerdy black big podcast. That is dope.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

That kind of brings us into another thing. Um, you know, over the past few years, really probably over the past decade or so, we've really been following the development of creative hubs, creative entrepreneurial hubs. I know when I was coming up, you know, there was a lot of video production work out of the area around Atlanta. And so the the Carolinas were feeding off a lot of that. You know, we're we're in Columbia, so Columbia is always trying to be Asheville or Greenville. That's what it is. You know, we want to have cool creative stuff, and it just takes years and years of people working on it to get there. I know one of the things that Kevin was sharing with me recently was about the Raleigh Durham area and how that's really been uh a hotbed for black creatives in particular. And I know that you are doing some work like this trying to develop Charlotte. I think Charlotte is probably a little bit farther along than Columbia just because of size and volume. But I kind of wanted to know what it's been like for you trying to build these communities. It ties right back into your work with Frequency 360. And, you know, if you think there's you know more opportunity for the Carolinas to keep developing these kind of networks.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Yes. Well, it's been it's been easy and difficult at the same time. I'll tell you something that man, I'm I'm spilling the beans on some folks. I'm trying to say this in a really nice way. Say it however you can need to say it. This is for black business owners. Black business owners, I I need you guys to take a page and how we were talking about earlier about fearlessness is that you have to be fearless and understand what it takes to move forward in your business because we've been taught to be so guarded in what we do. So we do the same types of parties, the same types of events over and over again. So it's been difficult to build similar communities in Charlotte sometimes because I would go to black businesses or black nightclubs, and I have a more difficult time in setting up events there than I would at some of the white clubs I dealt with. Because I would present the the white clubs with this is what I'm gonna do, this is amount of people that I bring in. I would I would say, hey, this is what I got, give me you know two months and I can build up something here. And I would say eight times out of ten, they would do it because they looked at it as an opportunity for them to make money and to spread further. And these are clubs that are bigger than the black clubs that go to, but I would go to the black clubs first, and I would always have a difficult time in either getting communication or they try to charge me so much money to uh start the events, and it's like, but that's I'm looking for partnerships, I'm not looking to pay you money to do something, but I'm looking to build something together so that way we can both make money. And I I think that's one of the most difficult things, especially with some people in our community, is that we're looking for a quick come up instead of the long-term um monetary goal or cultural goal or the community goal. And I think that's one of the separations in in Charlotte and Raleigh Durham has actually seen a lot of progress because they realize that they do need to work together. And speaking of the six degrees of separation, one of the one of my best friends is one of the founders of Black Wall Street. Uh yeah, so like I talked. To him the other day, and we're looking at doing some things and possibly relaunching. You may have to strike that. But uh, we're looking at expanding it. I want to expand it to one of the things I've talked to him about is having a hub in Columbia. And so that Durham. Yes. Yeah. So when we have the big one in Durham, there there's like little mini ones in the Carolinas. And I'm all about expansion and looking at different ways of cooking the same gumbo, but making it uh spicier, a little bit more delicious. You know, there's always ways of doing that. I think the Carolinas can develop a creative entrepreneur network, but we have to get out of our own way. And that's the Carolinas, North and South Carolina, because everybody wants to be the big dog. Everybody wants to be the number one. We're all cogs and wheels. Like, you know, the hands on the watch and the gears on the inside of the watch are equally as important for the watch to work. So it doesn't matter what the size is, it has all of it has to work together for that watch to to give you good time. So, you know, I know I'm not the biggest promoter in the Carolinas. I know that I'm not the most successful uh sync person in the Carolinas, but I do pretty well, you know. But I know other people that do just as well or better than me, but I'm not looking down on them and I will partner with them all day. I will partner with promoters all day because I know that if we work together, we can do more than just me by myself a lot of times. Because I may have a skill set that person doesn't have, or they may have a skill set that I don't have, and that way we can all move forward. But if we get out we have to get out of our own way, because like I said, I don't have to be the top dog. When Frequency360 first came out, I made it a point that nobody knew it was me. It was an entity, and it was not attached to me by name at all. Because I didn't want it to be uh because you know, you have haters and you have lovers. I wanted it to be on its own merit. And once we get out of our own way and just say, hey, we're all here to help each other, then we can really develop a creative entrepreneurial network business. Because, you know, in five, ten years, say if I have a storefront and I need a photographer, I know you and you will take care of that for me. And I have to think about that. You know, if you know someone who is doing an ad campaign for Wrangler jeans, say, hey, I know Joffrey does scoring, I'll I'll call hey Joffrey Man, this guy's looking for something for uh scoring for a commercial. You take care of that, but it's it's no ego, it's nothing. So everybody's helping each other out. And you know, I don't know if you guys watch Roland Martin or not, but he's been really going in on advertising dollars for black businesses and how we don't get the money. The money is out there, we just don't go get it. And there's enough infighting for us to to keep us where we are. It's just like I I'm tired of that. I want to, it doesn't matter, hooker crook, whoever I gotta work with, I don't get offended by anybody as long as you don't say anything bad about my mama. We good and let's let's work together. And and you know, and I'm I don't mind pushing boxes or carrying crates. You know, if you need if you need me tomorrow, say hey Javre, you know, will you come and we're setting up this photo shoot? Can you just hold this light for 10 minutes? If I'm free, I'll do it. You know, because I I know that it if you need the help, uh I'll be there to help you because people have done the same thing for me. And people forget that all the time. And I think that's another thing about uh community is that people get to certain levels and they forget what it took them to get where they are. And so it's big I and little you. Like, no, I'm always going to be someone who is grateful and thankful for the people who have taught me, the people who give me opportunities, and I'm not above sweeping a floor, I'm not above like I'm a DJ gigs, right? And I'm one of the clubs, and I'll give a shit a shout out to Patres. I would break down the equipment at the end of the night. No DJs would do that. And so every after that, any time I would come in, all my stuff would be set up for me automatically. Maybe not have a drink ready. Because I I wasn't I wasn't too big, you know, even though I'm getting paid to DJ and I could uh could have just left, I'm not too big to get and you know, do stuff with the quote unquote regular people because guess what? I'm regular people too.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

Yeah, there's definitely something to be said for folk that jump in and just help out however needed. You know, particularly when you're talking about productions and stuff, man. Like if somebody, if somebody who is is part of the organization, part of it, has no problem being a grip, like that's that's that's that's some honorable position right there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

Exactly, exactly. And one thing I can speak with firsthand just from working with you in the past is I remember when I met with you for the first time. Because I think uh we met in passing back in the day here in Columbia, but when I came up to Charlotte and I met with you up there to Bodega, one of the things that was interesting about Tip Top was I remember like when we were trying to set up the event and do like set up the event that we were doing through Becon. I remember, like I said, I remember you weren't even, I think you were supposed to be out of town that day we did the event, or you were busy doing something. But you were essentially like key in us being able to connect with Scott. But then the day the event was there, you still stopped in to check us out. Because I didn't even think you were, because I remember when we were talking to you, you was like, Yeah, I got this and that to do. It was like, oh, okay. So he's not gonna, you know, he's not coming through, whatever. And you still had enough time to come by, still to chop it up with us, ask like, hey, if y'all need anything, you know, this is what you need to do with stuff like that. And like I said, that was very like, and we definitely appreciated that. And so you were, and I could definitely attest to what you said firsthand. Like you're the type of person that does follow up and those detailed things, those supportive things that you don't even necessarily have to do, but you go out your way to do that. So I can't attest to that.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

Thank you, man. Hey, uh, you know what? I had people do it for me. And that it's it's it's really, really important for me to let people know how I really feel about them. Because it's good or bad, you know, I've gotten in trouble sometimes because I say say exactly what's on my spirit at the time sometimes. But, you know, at least you get you're getting the 100% authentic me all the time. So you see me doing this, hey, I'll be there, you know, you know, I may, because that day I think I had to drive to Atlanta. And I was like, you know, I'm gonna come here first, just make sure that you guys are good and think you need, you know, before before I head on out. But I I don't mind doing that because people did that same thing for me. People have taken care of me in ways that I I can only, you know, that if I wrote it down in a book and reread it back to myself, I wouldn't believe it. You know, so I uh it's just me giving back to just the community and people in general. Now, well, I fight, yes. I'm I'm a terrible human sometimes, but I I try to keep it on the up and up and keep it good 95% of the time.

SPEAKER_03 53:17

Definitely. Well, I guess on the next question I have. Well, one of the things of our podcast is we like to shed light on other aspects of life for creatives. You know, just people who are generally just journal hustlers, movers, and shakers of our age. Um, especially when it comes to family responsibilities. For example, Friday night when I was working on this podcast, like prepping the questions. I had my daughter, I got an eight-month-old. She was like crawling, like crawling around me, spitting up random, all kinds of crazy stuff. This whole time of typing up these questions to try to be serious, right? Like the research. But with that being said, it's like, you know, work life balance is important for all of us to be successful. What tips or suggestions would you give to someone seeking a better work life or balance as a creative entrepreneur? As a matter of fact, she's crying right now in the background. Let's see, rest.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

Um rest. I'm gonna be completely honest. For a while there, I was substituting my health and I was substituting peace of mind sometimes for always being on the go. And I never gave myself an opportunity to rest until I actually broke down, like mentally, physically, everything, because I'd been going, going, going, going, going, going, because I'd I'd seen some successes, and but I would never recognize and sit back and realize the things that I'd done, you know, and I was always looking for the next thing. It was like another ha, you know. I gotta do something else. I'm not having done enough, haven't done enough, haven't done enough. And when you never rest, you don't get better ideas, you don't your body will break down, your mind gets worse. You know, I would say that's you you have to give yourself time to rest and not think about things. And you know, I have to give it up to to my girl again because she she made sure after a while, I was like, look, I've seen you go for days without sleep and be on the road for three or four days at a time. You you need to rest. And so now I have to take regular naps. I never understood that naps were so great until like last year. Naps are amazing. So that's that would be number one. Number two is to spend time doing things outside of what you do. So if you are a photographer, you know, go out and do some pottery. You know, if you're a musician, go out and go dig some plants up or something, you know. Live go out and live life because if you make your job or your creative endeavors your main focus, you're pretty boring. Most people don't like to be around boring people.

SPEAKER_04 56:04

You're gonna burn all that fuel that you need to do that. Like you stop having you, you're right, you stop having creative ideas. Been there. This is something that comes up regularly on our on our show that you know people are always expressing that need to self-care, to take, take breaks, find other things that are unrelated to your you know, your main medium, I guess, you know, whether whether you're you're getting paid for it or not, but whatever you're producing, you gotta you gotta find some alternative breaks.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

You have to. You have to. Because uh, I mean, everybody has that one friend that is passionate about something and that's all they talk about, and you hate them, you hate being around them, you love them, you know, like the the crossfit people or the new vegans. Yes. You can eat quinoa, you can eat quinoa, and then you don't have to eat beans anymore. Hey Billy, why are you eating that hamburger? You know, you love them to death, but you know, you don't like being around those people, so you just can't be that person, you know. If if if if you own a computer store and oh, you talked about computers all the time, people would stop hanging around you. You know, just just live life, live your experiences, be be well-rounded. Um that sometimes you won't have balance though, you but you have to realize that like I I I create in spurts, like Kevin was saying, that you know, I have a a lot of different projects, and under a bunch of different aliases, it's because I do it in spurts. So I'll have an idea, I want to do a jazz record and I'll just work on a jazz record for a week. But then after that, I just won't I won't look at music for like two or three days. You know, so it's all at spurts. So you have to also learn when you can create and when you can't create. Beating your head on a wall. Yeah, beating your head on the wall. I'll uh I'll give you I I love telling this story because it's it's very true, and I use it all the time. You can use it for any type of creative endeavor. Is that my art teacher in junior high school was my dad's cousin? So it was hard for me to uh call him by his real name because we call him Lebo. And so I'm in class, you know, trying not to call him Lebo. You know, but he he said one thing about art is that art isn't about adding more, it's about knowing when to stop. He said you can always add another cloud, you can always add another tree, but you have to know when to stop. You have to know when you're finished with it. That's the most important thing. And that's the same thing for music, that's the same thing for photography, the same thing for cooking, because you can add too many spices to it to your state, and it's disgusting. You know, you gotta know when to stop.

SPEAKER_04 59:12

That's interesting too, because a lot of times when we see something that is like, you know, people at the apex of their creativeness, not all the time, but a lot of times it's it's a very stripped-down version. You know, like they're they're only using, you know, like a hat and a snare and one kick and some other sound, and that's it. Or you know, they're using like one line to draw this whole occurrence in a in a visual piece, you know, but it's it's it's like that is key, like knowing how to strip it back and just do as much with as little.

SPEAKER_05 59:48

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 59:50

It's very, very, very true, man. Like so uh we've been talking a lot about the these different uh ways to uh collaborate and and interact and team up with other people. So what projects you got working on currently?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

Let's see. Uh right now I have about four alias projects that I don't want to name them all because I don't I don't like people knowing that they're me. That's fine. Some are like lo fi. I've got some jazz, some ambient stuff, some orchestral stuff. Right now, I'm looking to use sync work for TV and movies. So background, background work. But right now, there's I have a finished album called Kahlo that will probably album deciding whether or not to put it out on vinyl, uh, but it's jazz interpretations of Frida Kahlo's visual work. So this will be the third. Yeah, that's a dope. Yeah, so there's a this is the third in the series. The first one was called Bascot, and it's uh musical interpretations of Bascot paintings. The second one is uh Omoja, which Cedric Emoja is their audio interpretations of his page. They're all on Spotify. I'm also looking at launching uh a couple of different projects for poets, thinking about relaunching Frequency 360 Live, but in a different iteration. Also, sell art-inspired and creative entrepreneur-inspired merchandise at frequency360.com. It's F-R-E-A-Q-U-E-N-C-Y 360.com. There's also another project that we're going to be doing in regards to food that's going to be coming up pretty soon. So within the next six months, just follow me on Frequency360. You'll be able to see uh the things that are coming up in regards to that. And I just talked to one of my chef friends, and we're thinking about doing a uh monthly in Charlotte where we pull up one of his food trucks in one of the the they're gentrifying this black neighborhood, but it's a really dope corridor that's still us, and we're gonna do live music and food and show movies once a month just to make things kind of cool in in that uh area. So always looking for different ways of show showcasing art in non-conventional ways. Yeah, that sounds dope.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:09

All of that sounds dope. You mentioned you mentioned uh the Frequency360 website. Is there any other like media that you want to put out there, ways that you want people to contact you, get in in connection with you? We'll go ahead and post it on the on the site with the podcast and whatnot. That's hilltopglove.com for everyone out there.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

Hilltopglove.com. Sure. If you want to follow me on Instagram, it's Joffrey on the beat. There, I usually, because um I'm always making music, I do remixes of hip-hop songs or I'll do beats on that. That's really hip-hop specific, even though I'll post up different things. That one is mainly for that. I do have a band camp, it's Joffrey on the beat as well, where you can get remixes. If you're DJs, if you want some exclusives, some exclusive remixes of popular songs, then that's the place to go. I'll do it for the DJ, because I'm a DJ as well. So I'll make like these really cool remixes, like I did Roxanne, Roxanne, Roxanne by UTFO and Roxanne Shantae, but I uh clipped it with Roxanne by the police.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:19

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:20

That's great. Yeah, they give away to the DJs because that's something you can play, then other people are like, whoa, what is that? You know, so you'll be able to find that information uh there on my on my band kit. But I give away t-shirts all the time, people follow me. I give away music all the time if you follow me because I I don't look at the people who follow our music as quote-unquote fans, they're family, because a lot of people I talk to on a regular basis, or we become friends, or I listen to their music, or you know, they pass my music along to other people. So I send out the messages to people every once in a while. If you follow me on Bandcamp, I'll be like, hey, thank you guys for supporting me. If you email me your address, I'll send in three people out t-shirts, and I just send them out t-shirts because you know, I it's a thank you to them for supporting me. And people forget that you know we're all here because of other people, and so I don't mind, you know, taking time and answering people's questions or chopping them up with them for a few minutes, or they say, Hey man, I got a song, we listen to it, I'll go and I'll listen to it. You know, I'm not too big because like I said, I know people that are way bigger than I am, than I'm friends with. And I I'll never get a big head, whether you know I sell a million copies of a record or ten copies of a record. I'm still the same person. Same person that'll fix you a sandwich in the middle of the day. I'm also the same person if you talk about my mama, I'm gonna kneecap you.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

Dope this dopeness. Well, like I said, um with that being said, we're gonna go ahead and put a put a close or close of this episode. Um once again, we appreciate you uh joining us today, um Ja, and stuff. We look forward, like I said, to continue with um chop it up with you know, of course, work with you in the future as well. And Mike, did you have anything you wanted to say?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:24

Man, I just you know, I just really appreciate you being on, sharing what you're doing with us. Look forward to seeing you know more things coming out of the Charlotte area, more things coming out of the Carolinas in general. You know, let us know if there's anything we can we can do in Colombia, help out with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

And you're talking about poets, we we know some poets. Just one of the things that I can say about myself, if if I say that I'm gonna do something by hook or by crook, I'll I will try to make it happen. And so if I say that, hey, look, in the next six months, we're gonna do something really dope in Colombia. Guess what? We're gonna make do something really dope. All right, that's good. I'll grip. I'll move boxes.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:04

That's exactly it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:08

Other than that, that's this. That's it for today's episode of the Hilltop Glove Podcast. Make sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other platforms. Also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Hilltop Glove.