Music Influence, Collaboration Process, Marketing Platforms with Baby Genius | IN THE MAKING Ep 3

In this episode I sit with Baby Genius one of the most talented music producers you will soon to know and long time friend from College. As we catch up we discuss his journey and passion of music coming from Detroit. We discuss his process and how he goes about on collaborating with artist in the studio and also the marketing side and ways to go about promoting your music and more! Enjoy as we bring good vibes and helping information to anyone in their journey. #inthemaking 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jayla Simmons, Honor of Jamie State Ball. I've been blessed with the opportunity to help so many amazing people gain exposure and have traveled to so many places along the way. I want to continue that by allowing athletes, coaches, and others that I've crossed paths with to share their personal journey. That is what I present to you in the making.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

You're here with Jalen Simmons. We got a special guest today, Austin Apsley, Triple A, baby genius, one of the coldest on the beat. Came down from Louisville, Kentucky, and we're here, man, live in action. Finally get the link up again after a couple years, and uh yeah, about to just discuss, you know, his progression, um, you know, just life in general. Just, you know, give you guys some advice, some gems that we could drop for you that uh uh hopefully help you in your life.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Absolutely. And bro, it's been like what nine years since we hung out.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Man, good nine years, man. Just keeping in touch, though. You know, I know life gets busy, so we're here, man. Yeah. So we went to Brig College together. Um, he was roommates with one of my basketball teammates, Corey Wise. Um, Corey Wise would come up to me, talk to me about uh, you know, this guy's just in the room making beats all day. Every day. And I was like, shoot, I rap a little here and there. So I was like, let me go see what he's doing. And he had the whole setup, the KRK. Yep. Yeah, full studio in the dorm room. That was the best, man. Yeah, those good times.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

A lot of crazy times with the I know. I didn't even have a mic stand at that time. You had to hold the mic to record. I remember. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Had to hold the mic. We ended up even performing at Jazzy Nights. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

So we had some good moments, man. There's a lot to dig into with that one because that was like a whole process for an album. My first album I ever put out. Like, I guess quote unquote put out, but uh yeah, that was uh something I always wanted to do was make a project. Um it's a lot harder than you think. It takes time.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

What what are you looking at like going into a beat? Are you starting off with the drums? Are you starting off with like a saxophone or something? You got a sample that you have? How do you it's honestly just a vibe.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I just like sometimes it's the craziest thing in the world. Like, I'll wake up in the morning and I have a sound in my head. And it's like, dang, okay, I think I want to go put that down. So I might just go lay down a melody and just leave it. Maybe the first thing in the morning before I do work, before I even drink my coffee or whatever, put down the melody, leave it. I'll come back to it that night and uh I'll put some drums on it. But then if I do like because I do music Monday every Monday now, right? That's dope. If I do uh music Monday, sometimes I'm in there and I'll just lay down a drum pattern, and again, I'll just leave it and move on to something else. Uh other times, lay down a drum pattern and then add a melody to it and just fiddle with it, fiddle with it, and then something comes out of it.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

So is that daily you have like a set time every Monday, or is it just for Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

So that's like my goal for this year, especially to try to make Mondays the best day of the week. Because oftentimes you get done with the weekend, you're like, damn man, start all over with the week, and I'm like, no, I want it to be like, I'm super excited for the week to start. So I always try to do the most that I can at work. Um that way I can come home, hang my hat, be like, wow, I had a great day. I can actually feel good about doing whatever I want to do tonight. I'll get a bottle of wine, I'll make myself a good meal, and uh I'll just start making beats, I don't know, seven, eight o'clock at night until sometimes one, two in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

You gotta work the next day or have you? Oh, yeah, always. What time do you have to get up after that?

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Ah, 8 30. It's not a big deal. I mean, I work from home, so it's not like I gotta commute or anything.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, that's nice.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Yeah, yeah, it's nice. It's uh so it made Monday's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

So man, tell tell the people just like a little bit about more. Um, I mean, you don't have a lot of rele released stuff. Just kind of talk to them and just discuss like your game plan and your thoughts that you want to do these next couple years to, you know, elevate, you know, get into that level that you want to get to, whatever that is, whether it's marketing or just still on your beats.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Um, so I've been spending the last six months just trying to rebrand. Um college was like, you know, do whatever I can do with music and do the best that I can with what I had, because I didn't have a lot of resources, you know. But now that I've got a career established, I'm building my studio up every year, I'm adding stuff to it. Um it's really starting to become something. So my plan, hopefully, I mean, plans change, but uh I'm trying to roll out uh some beat tapes. I don't really know how I want to do it with uh marketing though. Um I do have my brand solidified now, but it's on the hush hush. I really struggle with releasing my stuff, so I have to make sure that it's absolutely what I want it to be before I show the world because the world open it's like a first impression thing. You only get one first impression. Yeah. And that's like super anxiety for me. And so I'm gonna have to bite the bullet at some point and just start rolling it out. But as of late, I've just been stacking beats.

unknown 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

How many how many years have you been making beats?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Since 2011, 2012. I think it was 2012.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

So that was the college and caught you started. It was in high school.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

I actually uh my buddy Kevin in high school, he torrented uh FL Studio for me. So I had this hacked version of FL Studio and he put it on a flash drive and I put on my laptop, and that's how I started. I just started looking for like uh drum packs and filling with like different melodies because I didn't really know anything about making music at the time. I was just diving into it. Then I got ended up getting it on my iPad, making the most whack stuff you could possibly make, thinking that it was dope. And uh yeah, and then college it really started picking up. Um my freshman year, I didn't really mess with music that much. You know how Burea is, man. Freshman year is well.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

You gotta be re yeah. Um it's a lot. You got a labor program. A lot of people don't know we gotta do what was it, 10 hours?

SPEAKER_03 7:11

You had to do 150 hours a semester.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

150 hours a semester was that equate about 10 hours a week.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

Yeah. And on top of that was like the rigorous academics and playing sports, you played basketball, I played golf, and uh so putting music in there was tough. Um, sophomore year I really got into it though. That's when I met D. D Shack. Shout out D Shack. Shout out to D Shack. Um, that's such a crazy story. We met uh in a communications class, public speaking. I had to do like a 30-second presentation about something that I love to do, like a pastime or whatever. So I was like, I love to make music. At that point, I've been doing it for like a year and a half, not great, but I've been doing it. And um, like I had enough, I think I had like 20 beats made, ready for recording or whatever. And uh D came up to me after that class, after the presentation, was like, You for real make beats. I was like, Yeah, I can see him too. Like, asking, like, are you do you really make beats? I'm like, yeah. Uh he was like, Where do you live? I was like, Danforth. Turns out we lived in the same suite.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03 8:19

Right down the hall from each other.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

Oh, great flat.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Yeah, and uh He's from Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Y'all from the same place?

SPEAKER_03 8:24

No, he's from West V. Okay. He lives in Huntington.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Um, I don't think he lives there anymore, but he's still in West Vite. But uh Yeah, I went to his room with um a USB drive and I just gave him the stick. He came back to my room in 30 minutes and was like, I already got a hook to the song, let's make it. I was like, oh my god, what's really beat?

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Yeah it was crazy. Which beat did you check? Yeah. Uh how many beats was on there?

SPEAKER_03 8:46

I don't know. I think I put like four or five on there. Okay. And uh he ended up making our first song that we made together Shocked the World.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Did you show me? I think you did show me.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

It's the first one on my SoundCloud that's like at the very, very bottom. That was so long, I think that was 2013, fall 2013.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah. That's sweet. It was awesome, man. And so, yeah, like the progression has just been. I'm not trying to take this too seriously, but it's a hobby. I love to do it. Uh, but the more and more that I get into it later in life, I'm like, I'm trying to monetize this, I'm trying to make some money off this, I'm trying to cement myself in an industry that's so saturated. Yeah, that's so hard to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah, explain a little bit about that. I know they got people always put their beats on SoundCloud, YouTube, you know, uh, there's a couple other areas, iTunes sometimes. How do you really mark? Well, and there's another one too, I forgot, but it was a couple of them. But how do you know where to put it at? Like, how do you know?

SPEAKER_03 9:44

I'm still figuring that out myself. I think SoundCloud is whack. Like, you not I did the whole SoundCloud thing, and it's just to me, it's got such a bad image to it. Like SoundCloud rappers. First thing you think of when you think of a SoundCloud rapper is like, he's whack.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah, he's not he's not serious about it because he doesn't have his stuff out on right.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

It's just it's a legit platform, but it doesn't lend to credibility in my opinion. I mean, people do it can blow up on SoundCloud, but now you've got stuff like TikTok and like Instagram Live and all that stuff where or the stories. I mean, I don't have social media like that, but that's where it is. That's marketing now. I could put my beats on BeatStars, which is like a beat platform. That's the one I was thinking about. Yeah. Um, or like United Music, and it's cool, like they help you with websites. Um, like you can create your own website, and you're you're basically running your own music company at that point, selling your own music, and they help fuel the marketing for it. You gotta pay for it, but uh I mean that's an idea. I don't know. I haven't really come up with a full-fledged plan. Right now I'm just stacking the content. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

How many songs, if you had to guess, do you have in the vault right now? Like ready? Yeah. Or just like drafts in all? Um drafts and all. Thousands. Thousands. Oh man, off the bat. Yeah. Over the I got a one terabyte hard drive. Oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

There are thousands. I don't know, but that's like over the years, man. Like I did a um, I don't know, it was a few weeks ago. I went back to some of the first stuff I ever made, and I'm like, it's cringy. But it's a sense of appreciation too for how far I've come. And it's just like anything, like you with basketball. It's you start off, you can't even hit a three, but you do it every day, and you're 51% from the field for the season. So yeah, I don't know. I I'm gonna keep it going. I'm hoping the progression uh uh escalates exponentially. Uh it's just getting there.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Um just staying down. Yeah. Being able to stay, that's one of the toughest things. Talk about like just talk about being able to stay consistent, man. A lot of people have passions, a lot of people have things going, but you know, work takes over, maybe they have married life, kids, whatever that is, kind of discuss like what keeps you okay. Every day, or every Monday, I'ma drop a beat, or every moment I get in a dorm room, I'm gonna drop something. Like what gets you like it like what drives you on that?

SPEAKER_03 12:29

It's a feeling of like I don't know how to explain it. It's like, alright, you listen to an album for the first time, and you just hear a banger on there. Never heard the song before, but you know it's just it's incredible. And you're gonna be vibing to it for however long, months, years. I get that feeling when I make a beat, and it's just like I never expected it to turn out how it turned out. It's the greatest feeling in the whole world. There's no other feeling like it, in my opinion. And I'm playing it on loop, just vibing in my in my studio or whatever, or if like I'm in the shower, I put it on the JBL, and it's like that feeling, it's like I made that. And guess what? I can do that again tomorrow, and it'd be something completely different, and I'm still gonna love it. So it's just chasing that every time. And it's very therapeutic too. I could I can go in there and lay down the stupidest drum pattern, and it it's just an idea, maybe experimenting with uh a kick, or um you know, doing something crazy with the i hats, adding crazy reverb or whatever. And it's like an outlet. It's like journaling through music. That's the best. So that's what keeps you motivated, like it's an escape from everything.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, just in your zone, yeah. Every day. Alright. Now discuss the nicknames. Like where you where did you get triple A from? I know you transitioned now as baby genius, right? Yep. Now discuss a little bit about you know how you get in your names and you know how'd you get to this point to you're now baby genius.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

So triple A, I mean, all my initials are A's.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

So that's was that Austin?

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Austin Alexander, absolutely. Okay. Yep. Um, I've been called Triple A my whole life by everybody. Um when I was a kid though, uh, my stepbrother played hockey all over the place. Um I think he used to do travel hockey, I can't remember, but he was in the City League too. And uh it was uh this is my stepbrother. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

What was his name? Uh his name is Braden.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Okay, Brayden. Yeah, he's cool. Um But uh on his team, like I used to travel with them or go to practice or whatever, and there were players on his team, and I was always a smart little kid. Like I was the smallest one, but I was smart as hell, and so they called me Baby Genius. Like all the hockey players called me baby genius. I bring my homework to his practices.

unknown 14:57

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

How much older were they, did he? Two years. Two years, okay. Yeah. Um, so that always stuck with me. Um and then like in college, people make so many nicknames out of my last name, it's crazy. Um a lot of people can't pronounce it right the first time. So uh a guy I met in college, his name's Christian. Uh I did a couple songs with him. Uh out of my last name, he used to call me Ape. So then like that stuck too. Everyone that I did music with would call me Ape. And so, uh, yeah, like I've had so many nicknames throughout my life, but uh transitioning from triple A to Baby Genius, it just feels yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

So you already had Baby Genius in the back of your mind. I'm not sure. But you're but people are already calling you AAA.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Uh it was a very niche group of people who called me Baby Genius, but that always stuck with me in the back of my head. I'm like, that's so fitting. What a great nickname. So and then I just rented it.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Uh just now, just how are you able to get that keen sense of music? Like, what are you listening to? Are you listening to the bass first? Are you listening to like saxophone or like some guitar or like going into a beat or a stylistic, like, what are you looking for?

SPEAKER_03 16:16

I never I don't look for anything. That's the best part, is like I'm completely open uh to whatever may enter my mind, but like when I listen to music, I'm not actually like most people who listen to music they listen to the words, which makes sense because that's the it's the artist. First brush through, like Metro Boomin's album came out last year. Amazing. I listened to all the beats. I didn't even listen to the music, like the vocals or anything.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

He did, he made an instrumental.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yeah, he attached it to the album. I love that. That's what I went straight for. That was my first listen to the album. And I I like to just not necessarily critique, but just see what different producers are doing, um, their production styles, maybe different production takes that they take. Like, I'll analyze the hell out of a kick drum. It's like, what do they do? Did they uh overly compress it? Did they add distortion to it? Did it like some overdrive on it? Um, or why do they keep it so low in the mix? Like, what does that do uh for the vocals when they come in? And it's like uh I can't ever normally listen to a song. Like, just a radio song comes on, I hate it. I don't listen to the radio anymore. It sounds terrible. Yeah, like the same 10 songs. But uh, but no, I was actually having a conversation with my cousin a few months ago, and uh I get super frustrated. I listen to songs, and the beat is so simple, and it's like a number one hit. And it's like I'm thinking to myself, oh my god, I could do that. How come I haven't done that? And uh, you know, like he and I actually got into really deep discussion about that. It was like, well, if you could do that, then you would have already. I'm like, that's so true.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

That's exactly how it goes. A lot of people have great ideas, but no one brings them to existence. Exactly. You gotta, yeah, you gotta, you know what I mean? I so many people I've there's so many times where I've heard like people be like, oh man, I I I thought of that. I had this, but it's like if you don't create it, then yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

And he opened my mind too to he was like, uh when I listen to a song, he's listening to it completely different. And so he was kind of frustrated with me at the time because I'm listening to it, and he's like, Man, I love that line. I'm like, I didn't even hear it. What did it what did they say? Yeah, and he's like, Are you even what do you like? But it's just how my mind goes because that's how I get ideas. Um, I try to adapt them uh into my own style or whatever. That's the hardest thing about making music, too, is like you've got people like uh Just Blaze, one of my favorite producers ever. The drums for Just Blaze are insane. He uses like live drum sounds and he samples them and cuts them up, like chops them up, and they sound so good, they're incredible. Um, one example is like if you were to listen to The Lord Knows by Drake. That's a just one of my favorite beats.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Unbelievable. One of my favorite beat songs that take care.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

Yes. Oh my god. Um, and then on Wale's album, uh, what is it called? Gifted. Uh 88. That's a Just Blaze. And they're live drums. And the best part about it is say, like, Wale's performing that in concert. They're gonna have live drums on stage. It sounds just like Just Blaze.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

So it's like I love that about a producer who like uh captures such a specific area of music and makes it their own, and then now they're known for that.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Wow, that's dope. It's it's the unsure sound that they all have.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Yep, and that's what makes them great. Yeah, like no one else you can replicate it, but you can't be that person. Yeah, it's not original. No.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Are you do you have anything specific in your sound that you feel like is you know common in all your songs?

SPEAKER_03 19:59

Uh there's a commonality for sure. I have an organizational structure that I tend to stick to when I'm uh trying to orchestrate how I want the intro to be, uh, what I want the bridge to be. Um I'm trying to switch up outros, um, but I'm still looking for it. It's a tough thing to curate, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Like you gotta have that knack of like, okay, this is it. It's and some people haven't found it yet. Even in rap or whatever, yeah. You know, people are always like you even told me, like, people are always looking for that sound. Like, yeah, you gotta, yeah, once you hit that pocket, you can just go. Like the baby is like one of the best, I think, at like just having his own pocket. Like, he's always every beat, every song I went, it's pretty similar, but like it'll have his mix, but he always has that uh, yeah, he got his own lane.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Um but see the thing with the baby in my mind is like he sticks to the same type of beat of the punchy sub. That punchy sub 808's come in, and he can carry a beat like that. Yeah, so he knows. Um I don't wanna put myself in a corner like that as an artist. Like uh, for instance, DJ Mustard. You hear a DJ Mustard song, you know it's him. He don't even you don't even need to hear the tag. It's because he's curated his own style to the point where it's so recognizable, you'd be crazy not to know unless you just never heard him. Yeah. It's the same thing, even if you want to go outside of hip hop like Metallica. Metallica has such a signature sound as a heavy metal band, like you know a guitar comes on if it's Metallica. Red Hot Chili Peppers, same thing. It's like, I don't know. I want to get in that lane where people are playing my music and they're like, Oh yeah, that's a baby genius beat. That's just so hard to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah. And people gotta have I guess you gotta listen to it enough times to be like, okay, yeah, this is him.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yeah, and that's the same thing like, okay, that why I'm trying to stack my stuff is before. I even start rolling it out. Um I want to be able to create uh a similar energy in every song to where it's like, oh yeah, this is I know this beat, like I know this producer. It makes sense. The hardest thing for me though in releasing stuff is how many people do you know that play music or listen to music can relate to an instrumental?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yes. That's tough.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

How many people are just chilling there listening to instrumentals? They're not.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

They're absolutely not. So I'm trying to cater to a very, very small audience of artists who are just like, okay, I'm trying to find some beats. Then again, any artist can go on YouTube and get a whatever type beat and pull it up, and then that's it.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Always do those like the young thug and the type beats. Yeah. Little baby type beats. And I don't know if that's like a good. Because they do get a lot of clicks. They do. But I'm trying to figure out like that's all it is. I hate it. Yeah. Because everybody, honestly, you can go through. Of course, you have similarities in that beat, but overall, it's like, okay, uh, I can see future on here. And then just drop it.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Future type beat. And it's like, no, I want it to be like, oh, this is a baby genius type beat. I'm not an anything type beat. Like, I'm not gonna. It takes away from the actual beat maker. Yeah, it's in a sense. There's no originality. Yeah. It's like, I I don't ever want to put myself in a box like that. So I don't do it. I I get why people do. Um, because it definitely boosts views, it gets their numbers up, um, it shows their creativity. But in my opinion, they're just making the same thing that everyone else makes. That's why it's a tight beat. You know? Um stick whatever name you want on the beat and just post it. And then let other people figure out what type of beat it is. Yeah. You don't tell them, let them figure it out. Because it's gonna be different for so many people.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Always. And it's so many, it's so many beats that you could put you could think of so many artists that can go on that beat.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

And it's like, don't bother yourself into one. I see you want to get the clicks and all that, but man, music is universal.

SPEAKER_03 24:14

It's so universal. I mean, think about the mixtape era, uh, the dedication series. Lil Wayne has shown everyone he's you can't put him in any box. He's gonna destroy whatever. He's made uh cover songs better than the original so many times in the dedication mixtape series.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:32

So it just goes to show you, it's like imagine if that artist was like, oh no, this is uh a Rick Ross type beat. Lil Wayne can't rap on this is for Rick Ross. You never get that song from Lil Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Never, never even think about, yeah. Right. Or any person, any artist who has similar simil similarity traits to another rapper, and they're going through like, oh yeah, I I flow kind of like gunner. Yeah, they're looking up gunner beats, and it's like, yeah. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

I mean, you can find them forever. Yeah, you can scroll through a hundred pages of gunna type beats. But I mean, what do you want to be gonna or do you want to be your own artist?

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Yeah, I want to be my own artist. I don't want to be uh knife wonder, even though that'd be dope. Yeah. Uh I'm gonna be baby genius, so yeah, I'm just uh I'm gonna constantly curate, try to curate my own sound. That's the hardest thing, too, about uh producing music is like you have the beat side of it where you're actually making the music, and then you've got the production style as well. It's endless, it's so vast that it become overwhelming. You can go down any road, any direction with a song, uh you kind of just gotta pick one and go with it. And uh when it comes to like production, um I like to uh uh intentionally make stuff sound weird. So in the intros of my songs, we were talking about this earlier in the car. I like for an art or anyone to who listens to my beats to be like, what the hell is this? When they first hear it. Like it's weird. Like it sounds like it'd be the intro to a pop song or something. Or it could be like bongos or whatever, and then transition after eight bars into something that's just like banging. Yeah, yeah. I love that. A lot of those slow transitions climax up, yeah. Whoa, like I'm not even expect that transition to happen.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Those are the best.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Yeah, I love that. Uh so I'm still trying to fine-tune that.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Talk about uh what's transition and talk about into just like the music we were listening to growing up. You say you're from Detroit, yeah. Um, you know, kind of tell them like where in Detroit and you know how you grew up music-wise.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Okay, yeah. Um I grew up in uh uh like the Metro Detroit area in a place called Dearborn Heights. Um I was like seven minutes from Detroit City limits, somewhere around there. And uh my mom uh always told me growing up that uh she knew I loved music because when I was a baby, I'd be crying my ass off, and the cops theme song would come on. No bad boys, bad boy, and I would just stop and just look at the TV like aw. So uh watching cops at four? At like two. I love that show for some reason. I love the theme song.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

That was a great show.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Um but no, yeah, uh, I had a lot of influences, musical influences growing up. Uh my dad played a lot of rock, a lot of 80s, uh 90s. Um but then like the the country grammar days, like 2000, now he comes out of country grammar. Oh, yeah. That was the same time that you had like the now hits CDs, you know, like the mixing. Yeah, I had like that first one. My dad got me that first one. Oh, yeah. And so you have like a cornucopia of just different hits from the 2000s or whatever. Those are great, those are the best.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Yeah, the hit CDs, top hit, top hits for sure. Volume one, volume two, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

But then like I had um I was really into like grunge rock, like uh Nirvana and uh Godsmack and Metallica, and I mean uh me and my stepbrother used to play uh street hockey, and we'd have the radio cranked on the Detroit rock station. But on the inverse, on the flip side, uh my cousin was the one who really put me onto hip-hop like very early on. Um he was really big into Jay-Z. So Jay-Z drops the blueprint, and then Blueprint Volume 2, and the black album.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

A lot of black album. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

It's one of my favorites, and uh Eminem in that era, of course, um, and 50 Cent. Yeah, and so I would go over his house all the time on the weekends. We loved hanging out together as kids. He's more of a brother to me than anything. And he put me on to so many different artists. He still does to this day, man. It's so crazy. Uh but yeah, like all my music influences is from all over the place. Like uh you never know what you're gonna catch me listening to. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Let's talk about um just collabing with other artists and you know, whether that's on the producer side, the artist side, rapping, RB artists, whatever that is. Just kind of discuss like your flow and you know how you work with others.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

So uh my experience generally working with artists is they they want me to tell them uh what kind of vibe I'm getting when I'm making the beat, or like where my head was when I was making the beat. A lot of times, like uh when I work with D Shack, I'll name the beat something that just it captive I'll I'll name it something that captivates it. Like the one we listened to earlier was cosmic. It was like that smooth um afro beat. It's cosmic to me because it's just like it's very spacey, it's airy, there's a lot of reverb. But he'll take that word cosmic and he'll make the song around that word, just the name of the beat.

unknown 30:09

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

Yeah, and so when we're when we were in studio together a lot, um I started to understand his process. Uh a lot of times, like he'll write a hook for a song and he might get stuck on a verse. Go to the next one. Like, we we won't stay stuck for very long when we're working together. Um we might have like six drafts of incomplete songs done by the end of the night.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah, just because we're hopping.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Is he just doing like a hook here, a verse here on each beat on each?

SPEAKER_03 30:41

Yeah. Okay. But once he gets like zoned in, he'll finish the song in like 30 minutes. It's crazy. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

It's like he can lock in and just So when you when you're in the booth or when you're in the studio with another artist, are you um Are you observing just how they work? Very observing. Yeah, very observing.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Yeah. Um I always tell artists before I start working with them, like, listen, I hope you're uh open to like constructive criticism. I hope you have an open mind of like if I have an idea, you're not gonna get uh offended or hurt at the fact that I'm like, I don't think that sounds good with what you're going for. Can we try something else? And it's doing that up front has been very successful for me because we can get on the same page really fast. Like I'm all about artistic freedom, do your thing, man. A lot of times they're doing something that I can't see, like we were talking about earlier with visions, like I can't see their vision. So I have to rein myself back to be like, oh, okay, well, you know what? Just let them do their thing and let's see what comes out of it. And if at the end of it it still doesn't, it's not cohesive with what we're working with, then I'll be I'll say something, be like, hey, maybe we should tweak this, or maybe you should use this word instead and it'd fit better in the flow. And uh yeah, I I've never met an artist that didn't appreciate that. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

And then um, so are you presenting beats to them like hey, I like your flow, I think this beat'll work, or are you just going off whatever they're trying to go off of?

SPEAKER_03 32:11

A lot of times, uh especially if I've never met an artist before, they'll just come in and I'll just scroll through the Rolodex, man. Like uh I play so many different vibes for an artist that comes in, and once they pick one, I kind of get an idea of what they're looking for. Uh I mean, just like we were listening to earlier, I've got so many different sounds. We went from like this poppy RB all the way to a trap beat that was nasty. It's like so I can let's just traverse it.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Stay inversive.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Yeah. Yeah. Um that's that's generally how it works. I I have had one person come in and be like, just play trap beats. Just play all the trap beats you at. It's like, okay, I can do that.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah. Some people already know their pocket or know their flow, so it's just like yeah, yeah, whatever you got in the arsenal. Just keep it going. Yeah. And just um yeah, if you can just uh like give the people uh well actually yeah, you say you didn't have social media, so talk a little bit about um about that on just like where you're at with the media, uh just marketing yourself, and you know, just discuss a little bit about um the things that you're doing to, you know, organically get your following and get you know bring that talent in.

SPEAKER_03 33:30

I hate social media so much. I I don't have it. I think I stopped using social media back in 2018. Uh just not good for my mental health, but I understand the business side of it too, of like you need a platform uh to boost yourself because everybody's on social media.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

I know you talked about with similar artists and kind of going off their vibe also. Um just talk about the complexity of like, hey, just add it in. Okay, I just want to add this little guitar in here, I think this will sound good, or punch in this word right here. Kind of get like how were you able to do that aspect without rapping?

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Uh it's really just um going off of the artist's energy. Um I like to I hear stuff just like the artists hear stuff, but we're gonna hear something that's completely different. So it's all about just an open space being able to rebound off of each other. Uh and that to me is really how you come up with the best product. I mean, if you look at song credits uh for all your favorite songs, a lot, at least in hip-hop, I know, uh, a lot of times the producer is gonna have um song credits for writing. They all like whether it's like writing actual words or organizing uh like the bridge over the hook, like what DJ Khaled does. Like DJ Khaled bring all the artists together and he'll just organize all the songs. He'll produce, he's not making the beats, he'll bring in Metro Boomer to take Keith for some beats.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Ah, okay, he's just bringing in everybody collectively. Yeah. Is that still producing, or what is that? That's producer.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

That's still a beat maker per se, but he's definitely a producer, he's really good at it.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah, just bring collabs together and making sure they work and mesh together.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

And I mean, he's doing the overall production too with his engineer.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Yeah. Okay. I mean, people always say, like, what does DJ Khaled do except for yell on the mic?

SPEAKER_01 35:18

And another one. And another, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

So uh how many we the best do we need from DJ Khaled on every album? Um, but he really is putting in a lot of work. It's uh they don't know the behind the scenes, it's a lot. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

So there are different aspects of beat making or or making music.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

I mean, uh beat making and produ production are two separate things.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Yeah. Uh you get into production, you're dealing with EQing, uh compression, leveling, uh side chains, parallel compression. Like it's so much. And I mean, we can get into the nitty-gritty of that, and it takes that's a four-hour long podcast for I mean, it bore people to death, but it's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Um anything coming up to where you're marketing or yeah, just discuss a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_03 36:04

I I'm not a huge social media fan. I've been off social media for a few years now. Um it just it wasn't ever really for me. It didn't serve any sort of useful tool. Um, and as far as entertainment, like it really wasn't even that entertaining for me. It was I was struggling with like a comparison game. For instance, like on Instagram, seeing all these people doing this dope stuff, and they're younger than I am, and I'm thinking, like, what are they doing that I'm not doing? And then one day I find out like the people that I'm comparing myself to, number one, that's terrible practice. Don't you can't compare yourself to anybody. You shouldn't, because there's no comparison. Everyone's different, everyone's got their own journey. Click that. Uh and then I just I don't know, man. I saw one day that this guy was leading the the like a fake life. All the stuff that he was posting on Instagram wasn't even real. Like he was on yachts, they weren't even remotely associated with him. He was just running them out for clout.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Yeah. And so then I realized, like, oh, I'm actually hurting myself more. I need to get rid of this. But then on the business side, like my cousin was telling me the other day, he's like, the best way for you to promote your music's on TikTok. It's like people are getting discovered like crazy right now. TikTok. TikTok challenges. Exactly. And you know, if one of my beats were to be played on a viral TikTok, that's it. That's money. I can't stand TikTok. I'll never have TikTok. I would have a TikTok if someone else ran it, but I'm never gonna use it.

unknown 37:41

Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

Um I've considered doing Instagram because like I could do Instagram lives for when I'm doing like making beats. And I feel like that would be super dope just to engage with people so they can see the behind the scene behind the scenes process if they're interested. Uh and I'd like to make that a part of like Music Monday. Because I'm gonna be doing it anyway. Why not stream it live? Uh I thought about Twitch as well, but Twitch is really saturated. More of the gaming side, isn't it? Um there's actually a a huge music side to Twitch now. Um it is gaming, like there's there's a lot of game stuff on there, but um I'm talking like I actually know a lot about Twitch. I never been on. But uh this is just all secondhand from what other people have told me. Yeah. Um but I do understand the need for a social media presence when you're trying to sell a product. Especially a product like this where uh the only engagement you'll get with artists generally is through social media. Yeah, for sure. Um I just I know that I need help with it because I'm not very privy to social media marketing tools. Um that whole game is above me. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah, and then um just two final questions. Just um the first one is uh just name like a couple like maybe top five of your favorite producers, uh beat makers, whatever you have. Just uh who are your top five right now?

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Uh top five, I would say uh Just Blaze, uh Knife Wonder, Jake One, Metro Boomin. Oh yeah. Uh and um Boy Wanda. Yeah, I'd say those are my top five. Nice. They're all so unique. Yeah. Honorable mention of DJ Mustard. Yeah. He's hard.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Insane. There's so many artists out there, man. It's it's just so many sounds, so many collabs, and like so many vibes. Like, you can't go wrong in that aspect, man.

SPEAKER_03 39:42

Man, that's like the hardest thing to ask me, is like, hey, who are your top five favorite artists? It's like, bro, don't ask me that. Yeah, it's not. That's not even fair. I can't do that. It's too many. You mean like right now? Because tomorrow it's gonna be different.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Exactly. So, where do you see yourself in five years?

SPEAKER_03 39:57

Musically? That's a tough one. Um It's a good question, but it's hard to answer because I don't know what's gonna happen a week from now. Um I'd like to have I'd like to build up my studio a lot more. I'd like to work with a a wider range of artists. Um I'd like to put out uh an actual project. Um Me and D Shack have been working on a project for like a year and a half, two years now. Um and I would really like to get that finished. One day we will. Uh I put D Shack through a lot because I'm very uh anal about putting stuff out. Like it's gotta be it's gotta be it. You only get one first impression. Uh, and I always want it to be the best. Like he and I have 10 or 12 songs already made that no one's heard. So I would like to get that released. Um I'd like to do a compilation album, kind of like my first album that I did. Yeah, uh Uncontested. It's a solid album. Um I won't be on this next one. Not doing that.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

You don't want to spit anymore? No.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

That's that's over with. I only did that because it the verse needed to be filled. Yeah, for sure. Um, but yeah, uh, and then you know, I like to branch out uh musically, so solidifying my sound, number one. Uh, and number two, going into things that I'm uncomfortable with.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Um taking leaps of faith and just that's the only way you grow. So and then final question What do you want the people to know, like through your journey, like in the making of your journey? Like, what do you want people to know, or what do you want, you know, a lesson or a gym that you have that you know you want people to hold on to as they continue their journey?

SPEAKER_03 41:52

I feel like this is gonna be really cliche, but I think about this all the time. But once end, I think it's once end. Consistency is key and complacency is a killer. If you can stay consistent, you you can't fail. Failing is stopping. You might not achieve whatever you wanted to achieve at that point in time, but you keep going, you haven't failed anything. If anything, you've learned something. That's the best part about consistency. Complacency is to say, uh, well yeah, this is good enough for me. Like I'm cool in this lane. You're never willing to switch lanes. You're never gonna grow, you're never gonna improve. New opportunities are dead to you at that point. Uh and everyone else who's around you, who you're so to speak, competing with, are gonna pass you bar none. So consistency is everything, complacency is a killer.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Yeah, that's great. And that's it, man. Jay Mixtape in the making, Austin Absley, baby genius. Um, looking forward to what he has and what he's in the making of, man, because he he has some amazing beats, and you know, I can see the vision, I see the progression, and you know, let's just keep growing, man. And uh great to have you.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Thank you. Yeah, you can't find me anything, but uh like no social media, it's coming, but uh just don't forget the name, baby dude. Don't forget the name.