EP. 22: TRAVIS SCOTT VS JOHN SUMMIT, SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY, & MORE

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Let me just check on uh on Spotify. We are live, we are recording. Thanks for listening, guys. Happy Tuesday. Let me just check quickly. Let me just check. Everyone is a DJ. How do we always lose track of what number we're on? Yeah, 22. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Episode 22, guys. You guys are 22. What? Yeah, but there's so much going on all the time. That's why we never get it right. It's the label, it's all the shit every day that goes on with the label. Then, you know, someone's in Ibiza, then you know, Wes is hungover on the weekend. We missed the recording, and then it's Tuesday morning, and here we are.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Yeah, so as soon as we finish recording now, I need to clip it. I need to clean it up, upload it so you guys can enjoy this podcast. But let's get into it, man. Everyone is a DJ, episode 22. Please, guys, leave a like, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you're watching on YouTube, leave a rating on Spotify, leave a comment on Spotify. We're back, we're back, we're consistent again. Two weeks, two weeks in a row. I know we missed uh one week, two weeks ago when I was in Ibiza. We almost missed this week because Wesley was having too much fun in Toronto. He went to see Major Major Laser. Now he's fixing his camera. You know, Wesley always has these issues. We'll figure it out though. Tell us about Major Laser, bro. Tell us about Major Laser. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

I mean, Major Laser, first of all, the the connection there is obviously Ape Drums, Club Record, like that remix. So hit him up. I've never been to a major laser show in my life, man. So I was like, yo, I want to chop it up with Ape. I didn't care that much for Major Laser, obviously, because you know, I'm an Afro House, Afro Tech head. But um showed up with an industry friend of mine, and um, you know, it's was at this really cool venue called Cabana, um, which is only open in the summertime in Toronto. It's a pool um pool club, it's like 5,000, 6,000 people. The venue's huge, right? So I pull up, you know, we're waiting, Major Laser comes on, Diplo is there, the other two are there, no ape drums, bro. So I'm like, where's this guy, man? Where's this guy?

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Damn. So you were texting, you know what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Well, I was like asking around, yo, where's ape drums? Um, you know, those guys come in hot, a lot of energy, a lot of you know, attitude. Um, and bro, honestly, it was one of the best performances I've ever seen. Ever. It was amazing, bro. Amazing. That good. Yeah, yeah, that good, that good. I mean, it's just the energy that they bring. Like, you got Diplo behind the decks, they've got two vocalists, two dancers. Um, obviously would have been two DJs if if um if Ape was was there too, but they're just like bouncing around, man. Like, and the booth, the booth in this club is kind of like in the middle of the club. Yeah. So they have a stage at the front of the booth, and they have a stage at the back of the booth, right? And in between is like kind of like a really small VIP area. Um, so they're bouncing around like the whole time, bro. The crowd's going nuts, the sun is out. Um, and like the thing about Major Laser, bro, is they play all kinds of genres. So they played, you know, some house, some techno, obviously the big tracks from their catalog as well. Um they played some, they played some Drake, um, you know, to hype up the crowd. But it's a very like interactive experience, right? It's like talking to the crowd, singing to the crowd, you know, taking breaks, um, hyping up the crowd. Um, so major laser for the win, man. I totally get it now. I'm I'm a converted, lifelong fan. It was sick.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

I mean, I've I've always been into the more kind of performative shows where they engage with the crowd, there's someone on the mic, there's a DJ, and and it's quite energetic. I mean, people know this about me, or they don't know this about me, but I love being in Mosh Pitts. Like really, oh mate, like I love being in Mosh Pits. I love when it's like do you know do you know Sheck West? You know the rapper Sheck West, right? So in London he had a show when he was hot, right? Mo Bamba. Yeah, and that album, like crazy when he released that album. But he came to London, did a show in this small club in West London, and of course, like the energy in there was insane. We were just fighting the whole time. But one of my one of the best nights that I've had. Shark West. And yeah, I just I just love you know, obviously, I love the more kind of chill after house sunset y vibes, but there is a place for the mosh pits, there is a place for the energy, there is a place for for those types of shows. Yeah, but also like it's it's I mean, I did that when I was early 20s, so it's different, right? It's different, it's different.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

But I think you know, for me, I'm very, very particular. Like, okay, like uh like a vocalist, Shaq West, I'd be down, you know, but there's a lot of times when you just have some DJ yelling on the mic, and like I really hate that a lot of the time, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:19

But it's a different, like if if they're singing their lyrics, yeah, then I'm fine with that. Yeah, if you're just adlibbing, if you just you know like one, two, three, you know, like I I really hate that. Yeah, but that's Major Laser though. Weren't they doing that?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Yeah, but like you know, it's it's it's circumstantial, right? Like they they are, but then they're singing, and um I don't know, it's like like this venue, right? So this venue is one of those, it's a very, very commercial venue. You know, they're not booking any underground artist. You know, every year they'll have 50 Cent, he'll come perform. Steve Aoki, DJ Pauly D pulls up once a year. Poly D, wow. Yeah, Paul I D. I can't believe that guy's still going, bro. But um, he is, and Toronto love him for some reason. So it's like that kind of venue, very Vegas style, Vegas, Vegas bookings. Um, but yeah, man, it's like, you know, like a Steve Aoki is like one of those where he's on the mic the whole time. Poly D, I probably assume, is the same.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, one thing I'm noticing more and more as electronic music becomes more unified, and is I feel like you almost need a PhD now to like dissect between genres. Um their DJs and the the culture, EDM culture, it's so different to Europe. Like how they how the DJs um perform, how the crowd reacts to them, how the shows are are set up. Yeah, you know, it's so different, man. Like I couldn't tell you the equivalent of a poly D. Or even Shaquille O'Neal, he DJs. But in Europe, like what's the equivalent of that? I couldn't tell you, mate, like Tiesto? No, man. Like it's it's totally different, totally different. But there's there's still massive DJs and massive names in America only. I'm not sure, but it's like I couldn't tell you of a yeah, what's the what's a poly D equivalent in in Europe? I can't I can't think. It's different, man. It's different. It's like it's a different uh different DJ culture, slightly different, you know, not too different.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

But it's it's it's more, yeah. The thing is, I think in America it's more for entertainment, right? It's like you have entertainer, DJs, performers, whereas I feel like sports as well. You know, like the commentary, like American commentary compared to you know, European commentary on football games and things like that, we all know is different, and it's just that cultural, like how they ingest experiences is just a different, different thing, man.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

So could you recognize or did you know most of the songs that they were performing? Major Laser.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of like Major Laser, you know, I wouldn't say a large majority of their catalog is relatively old now. I think their biggest moment was probably like 2015, 2016. You had Lean On and you know, those kind of tracks from that one album. I forget the name, but um, a lot of those kind of kind of tracks. They have that track with Justin Bieber as well. Yeah, huge track. Everyone is like singing. There were a lot of OG fans there too, like with old major laser merch and you know, those kinds of things too. So I think they're they're kind of becoming a more you know, of the era, I guess, group. But one thing I will give them massive credit for is the new edition of um the chick. I should know her name because now I'm a major laser fan, but she is super cool, man. Like super nice chick, very nice.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

She's from London.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Really?

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yeah, yeah. She's uh London, London talent. But yeah, someone, funny enough, someone was mentioning in uh talking about her very recently, and they were like, Yeah, she's she's like super cool and she's killing.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah, yeah, great stage presence, great vocalist. Like, so shout out to them, man. Great edition.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Diplo, though I've gotta say, before we move on to to another topic, Diplo. Been DJing for years, ages. He did a post maybe two days ago about his journey. Not sure if it's you know if he was kind of reflecting because it was his birthday or whatever, but yeah. No, okay, it was because he reached the top hundred artists on Spotify. Right. So he posted about that on Instagram. And as he's kind of talking about the journey, he's sharing how many different like artists pro uh artist projects he had. You know, he had Diplo, of course, he had Major Laser, he had like three, four different ones.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

And it's just crazy to just experience that and see that and and read about that. And also, it's just like what drives someone to have so many different artist projects who have so many different um ways of expressing yourself, right? Yeah, most artists do one, but to do three, four, five at the same time. Impressive.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

He had the one with Skrillex as well, right? Jack U. So Jack U.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Jack U, major laser. He had one I forget the name, but it was like he had two more, bro, and it's crazy. It's just like this guy is nuts.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

One one bone to pick I have with Diplo. I might get in trouble for saying this, but bro, horrible tattoos, terrible.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

He doesn't give a fuck, he's always topless. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

I mean, guy's in shape, he's killed it career-wise. Doesn't matter, right? Yeah, run club as well. Yeah, there are people with signs in the in the crowd being like, yo, Diplo Toronto, run club. People are there for it, man. Sick.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

It's an empire, man. It's an empire. That is uh that is the goal, you know, one one day at a time, one day at a time. But uh, I think someone else who's doing very well right now, John Summit.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Have you did you see what happened with John Summit in uh in Monaco?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I saw I saw a bit of it, man. You wanna tell us the story? What what happened again?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

So apparently he's playing in Monaco, and I'm assuming Travis Scott was due to play before him. But of course, Travis Scott, you know, superstar artist, he comes when he wants, he was a bit late, and he just stormed the stage. And mid-set, mid-John Summit set, he was just on there and demanding for the music to stop and for his set to begin. So yeah, it was quite uh, I guess, commotion backstage and arguments and energies were high backstage, but it's all over social media, mate. Like TikTok, Instagram, this is like the you know what everyone's talking about. And um, yeah, I think yesterday John Summit posted on Instagram uh just a photo, and he was like, and the caption was it's lit, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

It's lit, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

It's lit, that was the caption, so that's that's going viral. But yeah, man, what do you think about that? Like it's obviously Travis Scott in the wrong, most people would say that, but look, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

I I think um yeah, there's a courtesy to to this. I mean, imagine as a DJ, like if you're late to your set and like you know, next slot opens up or the guy's like, you know, filling in for you, doing you a favor, if you just storm on stage and you know, rip out his USBs, like you can't you can't be doing that, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:13

That would be the equivalent of like okay, imagine because obviously, listen, we have to be real. Although you could argue it doesn't matter, but Travis Scott, one of the biggest artists in the world. John Summit, huge DJ. Not a lot of people don't know John Summit.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

You know, no disrespect here. I mean, in the DJ space, there's no one at the level of Travis Scott. So what would you say? It would be like let's say it would be like uh like a black coffee just demanding for someone like who? Sam Ajna to just stop playing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah, no, exactly, man. And like that doesn't really happen in our in our world. Um but like it's interesting that you say who would be the biggest DJ that's not that sort of at that celebrity status. Maybe like in my in my head, it may it might be like a Fred again, just because he's the only DJ, uh he's a live performer, but let's call him a DJ that I've seen at an arena. Um massive arena of 40,000 people. Um, but then again, you have all the EDM heads, the old old school guys, you know, they do big shows, Stevie Oaky, Swedish House Mafia, whatever. But I don't like you can be doing that, man. Even if you're late, it's like, you know, coordinate with you know the production crew. Hey, what's going on? Can I jump on? Somebody goes, taps John Summit on the shoulder, being like, yo, wrap it up in ten minutes. You can't just like storm on there, bro.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Travis Scott, though, is also like his brand, and he's got this kind of um attitude. Attitude. He's got this attitude, he's got this attitude, he's got this energy, rebel, this rebel energy that he just does what he wants. Anytime I see a video of him, especially now that you know everyone's in Monaco, this and that, he's always like performing for the camera. Like he's never chill, he's like it's just like, bro, like just be a normal person. Like you don't always have to be on. Like, and I mean the topic here is respect, right? I think in the DJ space, I don't think I've ever seen you know, and I've been in this industry for six, seven years, but I've never seen something like this happen where someone just stormed the stage, and obviously it's different because you have to kind of so with the John Summer situation, he was obviously on the decks and the stage was in front.

unknown 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Travis Scott just went in front, right? So it's not like you have to kind of get him, push him off the decks, you know, so it's different, yeah, easier to do. But stuff like this doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Right. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen, but yeah, man. Not looking good for Travis Scott, not looking good at all.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I mean, look, I don't know. I've I I I think Travis Scott generally is a controversial character. I mean, I don't know if you ever watched the Astro World documentary.

unknown 16:28

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Yeah. So like, since I kind of watched that, I was like, okay, my guy has some things to work on, you know.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah, I mean, they were saying Travis Scott is not a person that, you know, has got other people's uh best interests in mind all the time, right? So not surprising, not a surprising situation, this one. But yeah, it looks good.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Another another uh another Monaco kind of topic to to touch on is did you see where Black Coffee was playing? In Monaco?

SPEAKER_02 16:59

No, where did he play?

SPEAKER_01 17:00

So, like, there's there's um like a sign over the racetrack, right? One of the um, I guess, sponsorship signs that go over the racetrack, the cars go underneath. Black Coffee was playing on top of one of those signs, just playing a set there. No crowd. I mean, I'm sure there's crowd on either side of the track, right? But he was playing right on top of the racetrack. Pretty sick.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Man, man, Monaco. Yeah, the thing is about like seeing all the content from Monaco this week. It's just the money that these DJs were getting. Like if you were lucky enough to get a gig to get uh an opportunity in Monaco this week, yeah. Kudos to you, but yeah, it looked like everybody was there, you know, the who's and who, the who's who's the you know the important heads were were all in Monaco this week, man. Looked crazy.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

So who do you think is like a Monaco suited DJ? Obviously, black coffeeing being one. John, for me, Travis Scott doesn't really belong in in that world. It's a world of elegance and you know, whatever. But from our DJ world, who do you think would have been a good addition to to the Monaco Grand Prix?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

I mean, everyone that I saw, Rampa.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Rampo's there. Uh who suits the any Afro House DJ, mate. Afra house is just Afro House speed, like it's just the Monaco vibe. I think I think that sound just works for Monaco for me. So yeah, I mean there's so many names that we can say, but I think any Afro House DJ would um but was Shimza there. Shimza did I see Mamutor on there?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I know I know Francis was there. Um he was at least watching the race. I'm not sure if he played, but I know Francis was there. Um I'm not sure about Shimza and Mammood though.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

But yeah, you're Rhodus. I would say someone like Eurotis, I could see I could see the Mujo. So Mujo was was active again in in Santrope at Pablo. Remember going to Pablo?

SPEAKER_01 19:21

That was great to see, man. Like back back home, back in the the old days, man. I'd love to go back to Pablo, I'm telling you, man. That was a great, a great spot.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

It looked packed as well, man. It looked like popping off. Yeah, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be in south of France for a wedding in a few weeks. Uh a place called Cassis. Uh but yeah, I mean Saint-Tropez, no place like it. No place like it. Again, I think you need to reach a certain uh net worth to really enjoy it. You know, it's not like Ibitha where you can kind of you know make your way through Mikonos even harder, I think, than Ibita a little bit. But Sandra Pay, it's just like if you ain't got it, just don't even Don't bother. Don't even yeah, look that way, man. Don't even look that way. Sick place, sick place. We need we need to go back. We need to go back.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah, that was that was a good one. I mean, speaking of speaking of Francis, Mammout, and and Shimza man, you saw their their set together in in Isemble Zamna. I think we need to give them a name.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

The three of them because they played they played at ADE together last year, I remember. Yeah. And that was a moment. Also, like it's it's I don't know who like came up with that uh with that trio and and linked them up. But it works man. I don't know, I don't know. Like it's it's it's you know Mahmood, stage presence, Shimza. You know, it's got the obviously DJ skills. Yeah, Francis again brings that energy. It works and it's again, they probably will start to play Mohousy stuff, but they do keep it quite afro usually.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Yeah, they do. I think I think I wonder if it's a strategic play from them where they're working on planting a seed for a trio experience in the future, potentially. Because I think the synergy between the three of them really works, and now like concept has been proven for a second time in a row. I would probably assume just you know, Francis's business acumen, I think he's probably. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Francis is always thinking.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, great, great business document, brand, very brand focused, and he's an expert at that, which is why he's been so successful. But I also love the you know, a part of the reason things are so viral from the Zamna thing is it did you see how Mahmood was was handing out Dolma to Backstage, people in the crowd, he had the big pot, like a proper Turk, you know, sick.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

You're just handing that that that stuff out. He's been active though. Even um he went back to his hometown, did a set for for his village and people where he's from, his social media, man, top tier. Him and him and Huguel, I would say like just top-tier social media. Um, I know there's a lot of obviously boost that goes on, but in terms of content, original content, and how they're consistent with it, very, very clean, clean, and uh it works well. But people love Mahmooth, bro. Like his content, the engagement on it, if you just look at any video on there, crazy performs really, really well, so he's got a good audience.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

You know, I think before he kind of burst on the scene, he I think he was probably so powerful in Turkey, and he kind of built this this Turkish army, this Turkish following. At least that's what I've heard, right? And then he kind of transitioned and used that to, you know, step onto the international stage, and he hasn't slowed down since then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Interesting. Yeah, I'm not familiar with his background, not familiar with I mean, I know some tracks, but I would say before two years ago, I wouldn't couldn't tell you. Yeah. Um but that's the way to do it. I mean, I'm even looking at someone like Luch now and his strategy.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Building a strong, solid fan base in Mexico where he's from. Right? Throwing parties that are doing really well in Mexico, selling out, doing all these cool experiences at home. And then once you you've proven that you can do it at home and you have that foundation, you t you take it global. Um Strategy, man, strategy's so important. Strategy is so important. I feel like we need to take a take a page out of the book, figure out how to how to own how to own the UK.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Or Canada with the club. And uh and take it globally. I mean, even looking at no art now, no art. All the shows that they're doing. Insane, insane. Again, the music is there to back it up.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

But yeah, they're probably having the biggest year in 2026. What do you think? No art?

SPEAKER_01 24:57

No art. I mean, it's it's it's definitely another's year. Um I think they've set the precedent for what sound is popular for at least this summer. You know, we're gonna see a lot more releases like that. And I mean, that's that's just something that I've been experiencing running Afrohouse Feed for, you know, the last six months. I feel like I've kind of been struggling. I know we talk about Afro House, um, it's not dying. Like I wanna I wanna clarify that up to everybody that's been listening, but there's been a shift in the adoption and kind of sound being put out by non-Southern African artists, a lot of international artists, you know, stepping on and moving on to something else. But, you know, as a as a content creator that's responsible for documenting the culture, the last six months have been challenging because of that shift, right? It's like a lot of artists who I used to love to post about that, you know, were Afro when they started, you know, they've shifted. Take a look at Alex Juan Moojo's definitely made a big shift away from Afro Afro. He's onto something else. And, you know, there's we could sit here and talk for the next 30 minutes about who was and who isn't anymore in in Afro. Um so it's an interesting space to be in, but definitely another is is leading the charge, long story short.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Agreed. Yeah. Listen, we could let's let's do a strategy session now. Yeah. On Afro House Feed, right? Yeah. A page like Afro House Feed, I mean, you've said this, not me. How would you describe the last six months of the page?

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Uh I mean, you know, first and foremost, being really real, you know, being a human that has, you know, a full-time day job, a label, a podcast, and then obviously the page, that's where I started. It's definitely taking a back seat. Um, but I feel like I needed maybe a bit of space to think about what is the future of the page. Why did I get started in the first place? And you know, there's things to consider, right? Like there's there's a few other pages now that are doing really well. Um, you know, they've got hundreds of thousands of followers, they're a lot bigger than me on Instagram. I'm still the biggest on TikTok. Put some respect on my name. Um, but I think um I think what I really want to start doing is because of these conversations we've had about the shift away from, you know, on an international level is to kind of go back to the roots and build the following that I started with, right? So it started with the OG kind of South Africans, Southern Africans, the real hardcore fans, yeah, and kind of go back to start focusing on documentation of Afro House generally and not just chasing virality, you know, by posting kind of music and sh-I mean Shimza, Shimza's part of the culture. I'll always post about Shimza Coffee, obviously, but you know, so many other names that a lot of other pages have got really big on posting. I think that long term, I mean, shout out to those guys, they're doing something great, but I think long term they're they'll start to lose their engagement because those fans have now moved on to a no art or you know, those kinds of sounds, right? So strategically, I want to get back to the roots, you know, posting about wherever and wherever it's happening, you know, new sounds that are pop popping up, especially ComTech, you know, those kind of things. I wanna I want to get back to it.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

I think I think I think what you're what you're saying is is right and and you're spot on. There's two sides to it. I think there is the side that is changing and moving to this new sound, but also there is a big audience that wants Afro House to still succeed and still thrive and still want that content. And you know, when when you see um people criticizing the commercial Afro House and how it's made by a certain type of person and and it's it's saturated and overconsumed, right? The people in the comments are agreeing with that, and those are the people that I think want that throw back, or no, maybe not throwback, but you know what I mean, that that uh that original sound and and still for the success of Afro House.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

So although engagement might drop, I think that means that the content now has to tell a different story and tell a different message. What the message is, I don't know, but yeah, you almost just have to like yeah, provide new content because obviously in the past year, everyone's sharing black coffee, everyone's sharing kind of music, everyone's sharing the same content. Some people are even sharing different artists, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

I think the thing is it's it's a really, it's a really I mean you you kind of know this, right? Is you know, not necessarily you're experiencing the same thing, but you know the game. It's like you can think about something you really like, right? Like, you know, we're talking about this earlier. There's this guy who is going viral now, his name is Black Peace, South African guy, he does uh insane DJ tricks on an iPad, right? But he's playing like real, real Afrotech music, and it's sick, right? But then I know if I post that, I like it, I think it's important for the culture for people to see, yo, check out this guy, he is dope. But I know the engagement is gonna be probably pretty shit if I'm gonna uh be honest, right? But I can go and post a Zamna Isimbal clip, and you know, I'm gonna get you know thousands of likes and you know, a bunch of comments, and then you know, tens of thousands of views, and you know that's great. So it's like there's two sides of like how you approach the social media game is you know, you virality is important for the brand, for the growth, for everything like that. But then um I want to go back to kind of being a culture observer. There's only one of me where you know that's how I started, the only one documenting the real, real Afro House. And I definitely let it get saturated because I was chasing virality, but also global scene made it challenging. So um I want to go back to the roots, you know, being South African and getting in touch, you know, with that whole world again, um, and making it about like that sound and that audience who really believes and you know doesn't give a shit about what's going on in Europe or Miami or whatever, and make content for those guys, right? And beyond uh beyond just posting a viral DJ clip, you know, getting into the news, we talk about that often and and other kind of stuff like that, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:29

But also it's an interesting time because now we're starting to see who who's really an Afrohouse fan and who's just kind of riding the wave and just here for a moment. I think I think that's that's a good thing about what is happening in the shift is um the people that actually like the sound and they're not just going on beatport top 100 to find their tracks, but they're actually doing their own research and understand the sound, go to events and they they they go to more like more underground events and and are really in it. Those people are really um revealing themselves, which which I think is a great thing. I think it's a great thing.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

But um I totally agree, man. I mean, guys, like last week I'm building a new playlist as kind of like a test. So I was going through the beatport top 100 Afrohouse songs, and you know, about 30 songs in, I messaged Manu. I was like, what the fuck is this? This is garbage. I mean, Huguel dominates it. Shout out to Huguel, great artist. He actually has some pretty good songs, you know, now that I actually went back and listened. But I get I get why he's fame, but that's Hughel's chart. It's no longer Beatport top 100 Afro, it's top 100 Huguel, um, which is cool. You know, the world sees it that way. Beatport's a global platform, but you know, there's a whole you know subsection of artists that I want to start to highlight. You know, somebody I'm really on right now is Donkey Boy. Shout out to him. Fucking great producer, different sound, great energy. Um, and you have all these cool cats doing dope things out in in different parts of the world. You know, nice, nice in South Africa. I think is really cool. The Skelum, Chelso, Sharky, those guys are sick. So nice, nice. Not nice. Nice, nice is the brand. It's an events brand, it's run by, you know, those boys, um great DJs.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Oh, see, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that that's the plan. Get back to that. Obviously, you know, also getting into I think, I think, I think.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

I like that we're talking about this because again, it's an investment, it might not work now. But you've done this for enough time that you know that out of a hundred videos that you post, as you perfect them, one is gonna fucking go. And then once that goes, you adjust the strategy to that one video, and you're like, okay, this is what people want. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh, this one, you know. This is how content goes.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

So trial and error, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Yeah, yeah. I think you know, there's other pages that are also doing well and they're putting out good content. But right now is the time to give the real Afro House fans what they want, and not to say you can't do both, you can't do you know the more viral clips.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Oh, you have to, you still have to, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Oh, you still have to, of course.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

But also, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

It's such an important conversation, bro. Like, everyone's talking about it every single day. Everybody's talking about it, and people want to hear from people like you and I, but especially pages reporting on it.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

So yeah, exactly, man. Exactly. So, I mean, that that's the game. I mean, that's what I want to start doing, and I think uh that's how you know you you you also need to think about brand longevity, right? Like we talk about this at Club and in our own personal brands, like brands need to long be long lasting, and if you're a brand that is, you know, just jumping on trends consistently, you're eventually gonna run out of steam, right? So that's that's where my head is at. Um new phase of Afro's feed coming soon, guys. Keep an eye out, like, share, comment.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Hey man, it's it's uh you know, we gotta say it's it's it's quite expensive to be featured on the page. So come through me, I'll give you a good deal. I'll give you a good deal.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, hit up, hit up Manu, bro. I also I still got so many DMs on Afro's feed, like yo, Manu, how much for a promo? And I'm like, what's up, bro? But it's cool. It's cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:53

I actually don't mind it at all, bro. I mean, out of out of all the things that you and I started, I think Shaker. I know we stopped it, but Shaker by now would have been on some some decent numbers, man.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

I think we need to revisit Shaker because you know the feedback in the beginning was was so good. I think the concept was fresh, you know, high volume news, um, you know, documentation, right? So I still want to do that.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

There's a couple pages doing that. There's a couple pages doing that. I think I think what no one is doing, what nobody's doing, I think it's more original content. Like no one is doing original content, no one is like kind of investing time and a bit of money to create content. Yeah, like there's so much that happens in this scene. There's so many conversations that you can have. Having a platform, a media, afra house, melodic, whatever, indie dance. You have to say indie dance now, but that covers all of this. I think on repeat, on repeat comes close to it now. I think they do a good job. Oh, they're sick. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

I like their page. Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

On repeat, they they have more of a newsy angle to their content. Afrohouse crew, again, I know that you're a competitor, huh? Yeah, but I mean I feel like it's almost like they're staring at that type of content and it's gonna come. You know, they're almost at a half a million.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yeah. I mean, that guy listen, I I forget his name, but shout out to him, bro. Because I think, yeah, he he is exceptionally hardworking. Um, he's also got Electrack, so he's got two pages. Um, and you know, I admire I admire his content. I know for sure he's definitely figured out the AI game, which is on my list of to-dos for Frafro's feed to to help with the workload. It's not that I think I'm I want to be lazy. It's just, you know, as I mentioned before, their life, life is busy and there's all kinds of shit going on. But uh he's figured that out. And yeah, he's killing a man. It's been good for the mu it's been good for the scene, good for the sound, good for the growth. Um so yeah, he's a competitor on paper, but you know, for for the scene, for the community, um, he's done well. And then, you know, you look at Afral's community. I talked to the the owner of that. Sometimes he's a Turkish guy as well, and he's like, Yeah, dude, it's hard to keep up. I'm getting older now. I've got a job and I've got this going on, and you know, things slip through the cracks, but hey man, that's life, you know.

SPEAKER_02 39:38

I mean, listen, there's the business of social media, especially music content. There's so many DJ pages out right now. I mean, we have a spreadsheet of hundreds of them, and some of these pages make tens of thousands, you know, euros, dollars, pounds a month.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Of course, you've got to start it from somewhere, you have to be consistent posting multiple times a day. But how you package it, how you structure it, how you kind of have your look and feel. Um it's it's all like it makes sense and it's it's it's worth it if you put the time in. What does it take? What would you say it takes like one, two years before you kind of see a return on investment if you if you start a music page, DJ page?

SPEAKER_01 40:41

I think it's it's been harder now than than it ever has been um to start a page. You know, in the beginning it was a lot easier. I think we got in at the right time. But you know, I have friends doing all kinds of different content styles, not just music. It it's a lot of investment to get your first 1k and then 10k. And we saw that with Club Record, right? Like Club Record to get to 10k followers, I think is a massive achievement in in modern Instagram, but it took a while. Like, how how far are we in now? Two years in.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Um boosting, we we don't boost anything.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

And back in the day, I think by now we probably we would have been. Should probably boost though, I guess, in club. We should, man. We should. Listen, I I I used to boost a lot on Afrohouse feed, and it was, you know, it's great for the page. My two cents with boosting is that if Instagram puts you into this algorithm, I believe it's a conspiracy theory. Okay, they put you in an algorithm of spender. So you boost, you boost, you boost, your content does well, you know, growth is good, growth is good, and then there's a hard stop. And then your page is that.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

But they say they say you should never use the Instagram boost feature. Always go meta ads, always um use the ad.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

I just I disagree, dude. I I I had a great experience.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

You have less uh you have less control, right? On on who sees your ads. Yeah, yeah, just less control.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

I I guess. But that I don't know, because you can you set up an audience in meta ads, right? And then you can use the same audience, you have access to that labeled audience in the boost section, so you're not just like spraying and praying, you know. I don't know. Interesting. I'd worked for me. I'm maybe I'm biased, bro. Like, you know, I'm not a professional.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

But have you tried both?

SPEAKER_01 42:30

I've tried both and uh boost it way better for me. But it's been a while now, maybe things have changed.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

And and with the boost you can add a link. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

But I was not boosting for off-platform engagement, I was boosting for profile views, views and followers. So different different target, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

But if I'm selling ticket if I'm selling tickets or you know, promoting a playlist as two examples, I probably would not boost. You know what I mean? Or like whatever. Like anything off platform to to uh a destination URL, you would probably use an ad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

I mean I'm seeing artists now, they boost even if they're posting like lifestyle content, you know, if it's just uh even if it's like a DJ gig gig carousel wrap-up um post-event gig carousel, they'll boost that. If it's just them they're weak and it's just lifestyle content, they'll boost that. A lot of it, yeah, it's a lot of DJs are doing that, and I and I get it, it's a numbers game. You know, your your Instagram is your CV now. If if promoter sees it, they want to see how many followers you have, and and that has a lot of value. So I understand that. Yeah, the content game right now, it's it's a tough one. I have to say, man, it's it's extremely tough. Alright, so to end the podcast, we have a we have a game to end the podcast. I'm gonna ask Wesley, I'm gonna give Wesley a list of genres, and he's gonna tell us whether they're very hot, hot, or cold.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

And this is based on this is based on you know the current climate of of the dance industry, electronic music industry. So I'm gonna give you these genres and you tell me if they're very, very hot right now, if they're hot or cold.

SPEAKER_01 44:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

All right. Okay, first one. Deep house. Indie dance.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Very hot.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Melodic house techno. Very hot. Disco, indie disco. Hot. I'm a piano.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Cold man, cold. Tech house. Very hot, very hot.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Alpha house. Love, but just hot. Dance pop?

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Just hot.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Just hot. There you have it, guys. Let us know in the comments what you guys think. What is the hottest genre right now in electronic music? Is it indie dance? Is it afraid house? Is it tech house? Is it deep house? Is it melodic house? Techno. Let us know in the comments, but thanks for listening to episode 22 of Everyone Is a DJ. We're back next week. Peace. Peace, guys.