Kwesa The Artist: From Street-Life To Spiritual Sounds - I Will Not Lose Podcast - #0054

Transcript

[00:00:08.270] morning good evening good night good afternoon don't give me copyright flag though no no no you
[00:00:15.380] can cut this out i sounded like a zombie just yeah in order to grow you gotta have like some
[00:00:26.310] kind of goals what's going on what's going on bro quays to the artists live in the building
[00:00:34.480] yes sir appreciate you having me cool i'm just gonna roll off the intro and then we'll get
[00:00:38.600] started man for sure what's up what's up what's up good morning good evening good night good
[00:00:42.760] afternoon, whatever time you're listening in, wherever you're listening from. Could have been
[00:00:47.590] anywhere in the world, but you're here. Let's take a moment. Recognize that it's now, right now.
[00:00:53.720] Whether you're right now is running, working, driving, playing, flying. Be thankful we're
[00:00:58.500] alive, baby. We got another breath in our lives today. We're blessed. We're here with our glorious
[00:01:05.220] guests. And as Winston Churchill reminds us, success is all about going from failure to
[00:01:10.080] failure without losing enthusiasm. This man has been on a crazy ride, wildlife, absolute legend
[00:01:18.960] in the area in terms of content creation. His name is amongst the greats. So we're going to talk a
[00:01:24.240] little bit about his story, what led him, what inspires the music, and let you know where you
[00:01:29.520] can find some stuff like that. So we'll just have a conversation. This is not a promo. This is not
[00:01:35.680] radio show or anything like that but i'm a huge hip-hop fan i'm a huge fan of your work since i
[00:01:42.800] met you that was uh interesting i was at a client's and you were shooting a wedding there
[00:01:48.980] yeah yeah america's hotel and i saw the footage for that that came out great thank you thank you
[00:01:54.020] yeah that was um that was just like a random you know i'm like that when i'm out i spot other
[00:01:59.680] people that be shooting and stuff they got gay and i always step to them yo what's that yo you
[00:02:04.080] shooting this oh okay you know so i noticed you had your gear out too so you know yeah yeah working
[00:02:11.240] but that's crazy so now you do a ton of content creation yeah where did it come from from there
[00:02:19.260] i mean was it always was rap always a creative outlet because you you touch so many different
[00:02:24.860] dimensions between the animation between the videography of uh just rap videos for the stuff
[00:02:31.560] that you do animation stuff is really cool but also commercial videography you know you're traveling
[00:02:38.450] the country i love to talk about that a little bit too um well it started out out of necessity
[00:02:46.340] i mean i've always had the idea of wanting to do stuff sorry about that i always had the idea of
[00:02:52.020] wanting to do stuff but um it came from a necessity like um i have went through a point in my creative
[00:03:01.540] journey where I had got so accustomed to having studios and producers and stuff like that and
[00:03:08.020] when I didn't have it no more I knew I still I had stuff I wanted to say and do and I wasn't finished
[00:03:15.260] so I just said you know I might as well just start this on my own just figure it out on my own
[00:03:20.360] and I went through like a little a little slump of depression because I couldn't create
[00:03:24.840] you know I'm saying I couldn't create and it was just like I didn't have that
[00:03:28.220] that natural outlet that i have been so accustomed to and um my wife brought me a camera but she
[00:03:36.580] didn't know she just when she wanted to surprise me with a camera so she just grabbed the first
[00:03:41.960] camera she saw anything yeah yeah but it didn't do video it only took pictures so i had to i had
[00:03:50.160] to be a photographer for a minute i had to be a photographer for about a year to build up not
[00:03:57.370] just resume but just stack money from photography gigs and my very first photography gig was when
[00:04:03.970] genuine came out the um um main gate main gate yeah i knew the promoter me and the promoter used
[00:04:10.960] to work together and he was just like yo you're doing photography now yo i want to hire you to do
[00:04:15.660] and i was just i just hit the ground running with it i was like once i saw that my first gig like i
[00:04:20.920] wasn't even a photographer right yeah yeah i barely knew how to work the camera i was still learning
[00:04:27.020] right and when i saw that i was like nah the sky's the limit with this you heard yeah yeah yeah so i
[00:04:34.160] just did that for a little bit until i was able to buy my first video camera and just went off
[00:04:40.440] from there what camera did you get what was your first video purchase it was a nikon okay i forget
[00:04:47.400] what model i ain't have it long it was a nikon and then what would you what'd you start shooting
[00:04:54.480] right away yourself just myself just different little random things to learn and then one thing
[00:05:00.000] i learned from the rip was like oh because the footage was mad shaky i thought i could just hold
[00:05:04.060] the camera yeah yeah yeah and the footage was like mad shaky so then i was just like nah i gotta
[00:05:09.680] figure it out so then that's when i started diving into youtube videos and i saw okay i need to get
[00:05:14.580] x y and z to accommodate this too so were you doing it commercially while you were doing your
[00:05:21.020] own stuff as well too did you have like birthday parties and and stuff like i was shooting photos
[00:05:26.860] for stuff like that the photography really got me on my feet for the videos but you know what i'm
[00:05:31.820] saying because that's easy you it's easier than videography to me it is so i was doing people's
[00:05:39.330] graduation photos i was doing um just birthday pictures for people and some some artists that
[00:05:46.810] needed photos for their um for their cab for themselves i was doing that type of photography
[00:05:51.770] work and um the video the video stuff i was mainly focusing on myself because i wanted to master it
[00:06:00.130] first before you know what i mean yeah and i had did a little special once i got me a little
[00:06:06.180] i call it a a prehistoric stabilizer before we had the three axis point gimbal ones yeah yeah
[00:06:14.360] right or was it just the weights yeah just the weights i got one of those and i just put up a
[00:06:19.960] sale uh uh created a flyer for a special i was doing 150 videos and um only one person took me
[00:06:28.100] up on it only one person and he went he not even from the area he's from new york and he just
[00:06:36.040] reached out to me and he's actually doing things things now like he um he's like got co-signed by
[00:06:44.620] jadakiss a couple other people nice nice so he was my first client you know what i mean and i went up
[00:06:51.890] it could shot the video at the nice big house in the in the um in the poconos and um my whole
[00:06:59.440] family went my wife and my kids because i ain't have a license then and i ain't want to drive up
[00:07:03.480] into the poconos with no license yeah i ain't doing that and the kids was little so we all had
[00:07:09.460] to go but they probably loved that though seeing the stuff i mean my son's 13 but ever since he
[00:07:14.600] was little every time i was doing stuff with the video and everything like it's within his memory
[00:07:19.420] he'll recall he'll be like you remember when we had the light and the camera was shaking and
[00:07:23.760] i had it uh i had a camera clamped to a table while they were playing with toys and stuff like
[00:07:29.780] that i think the videos are still out on youtube somewhere but it's nuts with with whatever
[00:07:34.720] profession you go through there's trials tribulations along the way but especially
[00:07:40.220] with the creative industry i mean there's anybody the the barrier to entry especially now i mean
[00:07:47.480] anybody can can do it with with cell phones you can create cinematic quality stuff you know like
[00:07:54.560] i beg to differ yeah i beg to differ i'm i'm like really against everyone thinking cell phones can
[00:08:00.420] that stuff looks great on your phone or when you want to use it and like blow it up and put it on
[00:08:07.780] a tv screen or a actual computer monitor or in my case the lighting isn't there you're right like
[00:08:18.200] the lighting isn't there yeah they're shooting 8k like it's it's a marketing tactic 8k doesn't
[00:08:24.760] exist and we could get into that because i'm a nerd i'm a nerd so you know what i'm saying
[00:08:30.620] so you know we can have that conversation you know it doesn't exist but the barrier to entry
[00:08:37.040] for what they could do for i mean you're still talking about a thousand dollars for a phone a
[00:08:43.440] thousand dollars for a good camera so you're not comparing apples to oranges but even editing on
[00:08:49.960] a phone i mean you try to do that five ten years ago now like you just slide transitions on top of
[00:08:55.440] stuff it's yeah it's for sure the the market is moving more towards people being able to pass
[00:09:02.120] And the truth of the matter is, is where, where nerds, most people don't.
[00:09:07.220] And this is one thing I had to learn.
[00:09:08.480] Like most people don't see, they don't notice.
[00:09:11.980] Like when I switched from green screen to this, it was the same background.
[00:09:16.460] So there's people probably still looking at old green screen footage.
[00:09:20.380] Like the average consumer doesn't notice little fine different things.
[00:09:27.080] Like the, the, uh, the AI blurs the background out when you do a cell phone footage.
[00:09:31.880] shot something on a cell phone and like at first glance like if you're really looking you could
[00:09:36.600] look around the edges and see but at first glance it looks like you got a a clean shot crazy lens
[00:09:42.380] and uh but the average person when they see a quick shot the music video is not going to be like
[00:09:50.320] oh that was ai generated or something like yeah for sure i mean i don't know you're not going to
[00:09:55.740] sell a twenty thousand dollar commercial shooting it on a cell phone unless you got a ridiculous rig
[00:10:01.980] and it's not even a cell phone
[00:10:04.040] at that point. You still need to stabilize
[00:10:06.060] it. You're not just whipping your cell phone
[00:10:08.060] out and pulling crazy stuff. And the crazy part is
[00:10:10.040] they sell gimbals for the cell phones
[00:10:12.220] now too.
[00:10:13.820] I even thought about getting one.
[00:10:16.200] You should definitely get one. It's easier
[00:10:18.260] than pulling out the whole Blackmagic
[00:10:20.220] rig when you're just trying to do
[00:10:21.500] either a little social clip or something.
[00:10:23.920] And that's what I go through because Blackmagic
[00:10:26.280] did an update where you could shoot vertical
[00:10:28.000] with the Cinema
[00:10:30.200] 6K. So I'm like,
[00:10:32.040] Oh man. Do I really want to do all of that? Like I don't, I'm,
[00:10:36.850] I'm against all of the, the algorithms or whatever,
[00:10:40.210] but you know how everybody has to do like the rapping videos.
[00:10:43.050] And I hate that because a person like myself,
[00:10:46.850] I don't knock nobody that's doing it,
[00:10:48.630] but I'm creating every aspect of my content. You know what I'm saying?
[00:10:52.850] I'm producing the music. I'm recording the music.
[00:10:55.930] I'm engineering the music. And then when it comes to the video,
[00:10:58.870] I have to shoot the video. I have to edit the video.
[00:11:01.290] I have to score, do different things, Foley effects if I really want to get crazy with it.
[00:11:07.270] You know what I mean?
[00:11:07.770] I'm doing every aspect of it, titling, all of that.
[00:11:11.790] And then having to post it.
[00:11:15.090] So that's why I don't post a lot.
[00:11:17.110] Because my Instagram following is much more engaging.
[00:11:22.710] You know what I mean?
[00:11:24.390] I have a few people on Instagram.
[00:11:26.790] They're like, yo, man, you need to do more of these videos like this.
[00:11:28.830] And I'm like, bro, I don't have the time to do that.
[00:11:31.290] i got two hands and plus like you said i'm doing client work at the at the same time as well you
[00:11:37.810] know client work is real it's where the bills is you know it helps pay the bills put food on the
[00:11:43.590] table so well do you ever deal with like perfectionism or do you feel like it's a hold
[00:11:48.510] back are you all the time like all the time all the time that's what i'm going through now is
[00:11:54.050] because i was going through my hard drives i got like three or four hard drives right i'm going
[00:11:59.210] doing bro i got music sitting on hard drives from years ago and i'm like what am i doing with this
[00:12:04.390] music why is this just sitting here i got videos that i shot because i was learning different types
[00:12:11.810] of video i was learning vfx i was learning you know animation and all that for some years before
[00:12:18.880] i actually popped out with it because i was i've always wanted to learn that i just never knew
[00:12:24.200] about how to do it and you know youtube university shows you how to do everything so then i have hard
[00:12:30.540] drives full of stuff and i'm just like why is this sitting here because i'm i deal with that a lot
[00:12:36.740] like i don't think this sounds right to me i don't think this sounds right and that's a fine line
[00:12:42.120] because something may sound good to you i mean something may sound whack to you but somebody
[00:12:47.840] else may think yo that's right right that's fire yeah it's a it's a line between i mean i i do
[00:12:57.310] i'm not gonna preach on perfectionism because i deal with it enough myself but at least with uh
[00:13:03.410] with the podcast i let myself go a little bit with it like i got this will be episode 53 or 54
[00:13:13.270] Congratulations.
[00:13:14.270] Thank you, man.
[00:13:15.170] There's one or two filler episodes, but for the most part, you got 30 to 60 minutes of solid content every other week for going back as you scroll.
[00:13:26.070] And there's times where I'm just like, ah, I don't want to, like, the whole point of getting this was to not do the whole green screen.
[00:13:33.490] But it's freeing because people are still like, it looks great.
[00:13:38.430] And I'm like, all right, it gives me that creative outlet.
[00:13:41.050] I think it's important that you said that you go through a depression when you don't create like that's real.
[00:13:45.830] Not enough people talk about that, about having like if you if you look at a kindergartner and you ask in the kindergarten classroom, how many kids draw?
[00:13:54.710] Every hand goes up. Every year you ask that the hands go down and down to the point where, you know, you're in high school and you're almost weird if you're spending all your time drawing.
[00:14:04.350] you know what i mean like you gotta you gotta be drawing cool shit you can't just be letting
[00:14:09.410] your creativity go and do abstract stuff so i like to see that like my son's in a performing
[00:14:16.110] art school it's like to see that his school is built he still learns regular curriculum but
[00:14:22.010] choir is a part of his like instead of gym he's in the studio you know oh that's dope yeah that's
[00:14:30.330] he's got opportunities
[00:14:33.050] to perform. He performed at Radio City
[00:14:34.870] Music Hall. He opened up for the Rockettes.
[00:14:36.950] Got to go up there. Man, that's dope.
[00:14:38.990] It's super dope, yeah, man.
[00:14:40.850] At 13. What? At 13?
[00:14:42.730] Oh, man, the bar has been set so high
[00:14:45.130] for him. No, and he had the opening
[00:14:46.930] solo. Shout out to his whole choir.
[00:14:49.130] They won the chance of going
[00:14:50.810] there, but he opened up with
[00:14:52.310] Hallelujah, the solo, and then
[00:14:54.750] the choir joins in with them and stuff like that.
[00:14:57.430] Oh, that's fire.
[00:14:57.850] Yo, that's fire.
[00:14:59.970] Congratulations, man.
[00:15:00.810] Yeah, man.
[00:15:01.410] I'll tell him he watches the podcast.
[00:15:03.850] I'll tell him you said it.
[00:15:04.750] So shout out to Jaden.
[00:15:05.830] Yeah, absolutely.
[00:15:05.910] That's dope.
[00:15:07.050] But it's nice that the kids have some sort of creativity.
[00:15:12.290] So fast forward, you stuck with that.
[00:15:14.730] You kept sharpening your skills.
[00:15:16.850] And then you won an award.
[00:15:18.870] Was that two years ago?
[00:15:20.910] Yeah, I won.
[00:15:24.230] No, that was last year.
[00:15:26.110] The Allentown Film Festival?
[00:15:27.530] That was last year.
[00:15:27.850] Yeah, because it was the first year.
[00:15:29.190] That was last year.
[00:15:30.510] I won two for Stay Dreamin'.
[00:15:36.200] I mean, Still Dream, sorry.
[00:15:37.240] Still Dreamin' on my All Praises Do album.
[00:15:40.740] It's a song about a dream I had years ago.
[00:15:45.100] I was in jail.
[00:15:45.780] I had that dream.
[00:15:46.900] And one day I woke up.
[00:15:48.100] When I made the beat, I wasn't going out to make that song.
[00:15:51.440] I was making beats for my album, and I heard the beat.
[00:15:55.220] And I said, this beat reminds me of a dream.
[00:16:00.960] So I said, yo, it'll be dope if I do a song off of that dream that I had, because I've
[00:16:05.660] never forgotten that dream.
[00:16:07.440] Yeah.
[00:16:07.700] So it was like, I'm going to make this song.
[00:16:10.700] And I wrote this song.
[00:16:11.720] The song came out dope.
[00:16:14.450] I'm going to look it up.
[00:16:15.530] It's streaming now on all platforms.
[00:16:18.050] I'm still dreaming.
[00:16:20.230] Yeah, we'll play it a little bit later, and I'll throw the video up over top of it.
[00:16:24.690] So I kind of sat and just listened to it.
[00:16:28.670] Like, truthfully, what I do a lot of times before I even make music, if I want to make a song sometimes, I'm trying to stray away from that.
[00:16:36.610] But I really shouldn't.
[00:16:37.770] I should keep the same process is I'll make the album cover first.
[00:16:41.970] Yeah.
[00:16:42.450] I'll do the single cover first and sit there and listen to the beat and say, you know, because I'll make the beat first.
[00:16:50.860] Then I'll make the cover and just say, like, what would I like?
[00:16:54.060] What would I hear on this?
[00:16:55.360] You know what I mean?
[00:16:55.960] and so um i'm sitting there listening and looking at the cover and um i just like yo i think this
[00:17:05.270] should be like an abstract dream like because i don't know about anybody else all my dreams have
[00:17:10.390] always been in color you know they used to say oh people dream in black and white i've never had a
[00:17:15.250] dream that was in black and white all my dreams yeah it's colored now that i think about it yeah
[00:17:19.410] all my dreams sometimes it'd be cgi yeah yeah i go to sleep playing a video game and i'm like
[00:17:25.910] For sure. Sometimes the dreams get crazy. I can't recall a dream I ever had that was in black and
[00:17:31.450] white. So I was when also I said this, I need to do something that looks like an abstract type of
[00:17:37.290] dream with just a bunch of random images, but still, still you can make out certain things
[00:17:44.440] that goes along with the overall tone of the dream. And that's how I came up with the video.
[00:17:49.400] i remember that specifically the going into the basement you have the um you know you're
[00:17:56.620] yelling in the streets um the imagery for the song and just for the dream in general like you
[00:18:05.820] almost feel the fear of the dream like it's really it's something that sticks out and i know like
[00:18:11.060] i'll have dreams and i'll remember how i felt when i woke up but i don't remember the exact
[00:18:15.120] dream unless i sit there and really think about it but when you have that one where you remember
[00:18:19.400] like the full five minutes or whatever it is and you can recall it and go from there that's uh
[00:18:25.600] that's that stuff um you have a strong spiritual connection you know absolutely something you work
[00:18:33.660] on something that you preach was it always that way you raised in the church i wasn't raised in
[00:18:40.560] the church but how i ended up in the church was um when i was when i was young i didn't live with
[00:18:48.130] my mother i barely knew my mother right and i don't recall my mother ever giving me a gift
[00:18:53.390] the only gift she ever gave me was a little bible and she wrote a note in it one day i remember what
[00:19:00.450] the note was when i'm one day that might come to me in a dream or something with them what was
[00:19:05.030] you know i might open the bible one day and god would let me know that was the note but
[00:19:09.330] that's all she ever gave me so i believe that that moment that's when that spiritual seed was
[00:19:14.770] planet in my life my name is Swahili it's African it means born on Sunday which I was born on Sunday
[00:19:20.850] and um growing up in life you know I came from a broken home you know in the South Bronx my
[00:19:28.840] parents both died when I was 12 they died in the same way they died five days apart from each other
[00:19:34.220] so I went to live with my aunt in Staten Island who lived in Park Hill which is which is pivotal
[00:19:39.420] to my story right because she lived in Park Hill projects at the time when Wu-Tang well she lived
[00:19:45.020] since the 70s but when i went out there i moved out there in the mid 90s when they were on when
[00:19:52.700] they were on their their stuff you know what i'm saying this was 19 i moved out there in 1995.
[00:19:58.140] now now i used to go out there all the time to see my aunt you know because my family's tight
[00:20:03.260] so i wasn't in the rap before i got exposed to wu-tang i was all michael jackson
[00:20:10.060] and R&B music as a kid
[00:20:12.580] because my father was a singer.
[00:20:14.580] So I was always into
[00:20:16.420] like Michael Jackson
[00:20:17.280] really growing up
[00:20:18.240] and I'll never forget it, yo.
[00:20:19.700] I'll never forget it.
[00:20:20.680] I was at an after school program
[00:20:22.140] in the Bronx
[00:20:22.800] and they used to put on
[00:20:24.180] Video Music Box.
[00:20:25.240] For those that don't know,
[00:20:26.380] Video Music Box was
[00:20:27.580] the rap city of New York
[00:20:30.080] back in the days.
[00:20:30.980] That's where you saw
[00:20:31.640] your rap videos at
[00:20:32.640] because MTV wasn't playing it.
[00:20:34.840] So we had Video Music Box
[00:20:36.360] and we was watching
[00:20:37.340] Video Music Box
[00:20:38.340] and these dudes was i had just learned to play chess and these dudes was on a chess board they
[00:20:44.260] was live they had um um stocking caps over their face with hoodies and and just that w was just
[00:20:51.460] like yo that's ill what is that yeah yeah yeah yeah so that's how i got introduced to hip-hop
[00:20:58.280] so then when i moved out there i was telling somebody recently i was like y'all like the
[00:21:03.780] avengers and all that now but wu-tang was like the avengers back then they were superheroes
[00:21:08.180] like everybody that lived in the projects then was like oh that's just ray oh that's just ghost
[00:21:13.160] and i was like are you kidding me that's ray corny chef what are you talking about that's just ray
[00:21:17.940] that's ghostface killer and i used to like i used to go to the stores on store runs for ghostface
[00:21:25.140] baby mother just because that was ghostface baby mother she said what all right tabby what's your
[00:21:30.980] name is tabby tabby what you need i'll go to the store so that started me right and
[00:21:37.960] rhymes i wrote my first rhyme to the cream instrumental in park hill projects
[00:21:41.940] yeah it's just ever since then so getting on the spiritual is like i've always been one i came up
[00:21:49.150] in a time when you rapped about what you really lived the people that like actually showed me like
[00:21:54.610] a hip-hop structure and stuff like that you did like yo you gotta rap what you're living
[00:21:58.350] so every i always rapped about my content always been about where my life was at that particular
[00:22:05.430] a moment in time i never been like a fantasy rapper yo i got you know this standing third
[00:22:11.110] when i used to go by killer shame a lot of people don't know me as that now but back in the days
[00:22:15.510] when i was known as killer shame that's because i was heavy in the gang life i was still in the
[00:22:20.310] street culture i was still hustling and scratching and survive so my mindset was still lit but then
[00:22:27.350] once i you know with the children with the kids settled down the wife family i kind of had to step
[00:22:33.430] back i was like all right you're not living that life no more you know what's life look like for
[00:22:37.950] you now and life is you know i'm in church you know i understand that god allowed me to go through
[00:22:43.240] everything i went through to tell my story you know what i mean sorry i ain't mean to go but
[00:22:50.340] that's it you didn't mean to what to run on they said so that's perfect yeah that's perfect no man
[00:22:56.260] i can relate i feel like uh god puts people in my life with this podcast and different stories to
[00:23:02.620] tell because i'm praying last night i'm thinking about today and just putting everything you know
[00:23:08.000] it's one thing to have all the technical stuff right and okay make sure the cameras are charged
[00:23:13.420] but it's also like okay we're creating something people will download this a year from now you know
[00:23:21.700] what i mean you never know where this conversation goes so you want everything to be right you want
[00:23:26.040] to make sure that the the you know you pray over the words that we speak you know not to get um
[00:23:32.540] crazy with it but you let guy i let god guide the process and guide the people that i put together
[00:23:41.720] and i'm selective with who i have on the show as you should be you know um but it's it's always like
[00:23:48.720] the the connections you know there's guests that i've had that i'm in their texts every other day
[00:23:56.320] now you know it's made a real connection so it's uh it's dope stuff man it's dope stuff
[00:24:01.700] and that's good if you're that's a good path for your life to be on it's a peaceful path
[00:24:06.700] you know what i mean like you can sleep good at night it's a lot less anxiety um at least when i
[00:24:15.250] i remember before i had a relationship with any sort of higher power whether you call them god
[00:24:21.650] or whether people you know um i have conversation with people who don't have a relationship and they
[00:24:30.720] can still be calm. They can still be intelligent people, you know, but, um, I feel so much freer
[00:24:39.860] just knowing that I have the right intention behind the content that I create the businesses
[00:24:46.900] that I help, you know, every time I try to be like, Oh, I'm not going to design anymore. I'm
[00:24:51.820] going to just go and get a warehouse job or something like that. It's like somebody will
[00:24:55.960] come along that really needs, you know, they just saved up enough. They got their LLC and they have
[00:25:01.180] a couple left over for a logo and they're like i need your help branding this and then yeah you
[00:25:07.260] know i've done those stories three four years ago you fast forward and those people have grown the
[00:25:12.160] business to something crazy and they're like i believed in it because you designed this logo
[00:25:18.300] like that's the holy spirit you know what i mean like that's that's inspiring that's like all right
[00:25:22.820] i'm gonna take this gift and put it out so if you've been blessed with the ability to do it
[00:25:28.760] audio and visual and pull everything together as well as the the choreography the costuming
[00:25:35.800] things like that like that's the one thing you threw in there when you were saying everything
[00:25:40.340] you do was uh oh the the dolly or what was it um i can't think foley effects yeah foley effects
[00:25:48.490] i was like foley effects yeah that's wild so i had one for still dreaming but i also won for
[00:25:57.490] going rogue which was a dope experience because we were in the 19th street movie theater and my
[00:26:04.200] work was on the big screen that's why i touched on earlier i said you could tell the difference
[00:26:09.520] between cell phone because people that put submitted stuff that was on the big screen
[00:26:13.840] and cell phone you could tell the quality it was a huge quality shift okay i went to um i knew that
[00:26:20.420] it was a certain way that you have to export video footage for it to be on the big screen
[00:26:26.520] like that so i already had done that when i submitted it so i found out about the um film
[00:26:33.600] festival i was in starbucks you know the starbucks downtown i was in there and i just happened to
[00:26:38.720] look at their bulletin board and i saw allentown film festival so i went i looked at it i said oh
[00:26:43.660] i'm going home right now to put something together and i went home this was after still dreaming and
[00:26:49.100] going rogue was already out and circulating yeah and i was at that time i was doing an inspired
[00:26:54.200] documentary series i love documentaries so i was doing something called inspired um so i went home
[00:27:02.040] and i'm like starting like all right i'm gonna do this i'm gonna try to do this and it didn't
[00:27:06.920] turn out the way i wanted it to turn out for a film festival so i was like oh man i don't know
[00:27:13.000] i was like well maybe actually i talked to my cousin my cousin jeannie she did several works
[00:27:18.920] she's a script supervisor you know so she did some work with some on some on some projects and she
[00:27:24.890] work with some people too so um i talked to her she said cuz you don't have to make nothing new
[00:27:30.490] she said you got all this fresh stuff like what do you mean you got to make something new and i
[00:27:34.410] was like yeah but you know i want to give them something brand new how to something she's like
[00:27:38.250] cuz just so i started looking at stuff so i said i maybe i could do going rogue and maybe i could
[00:27:45.580] do still dreaming and maybe i could do one of the episodes from inspired which i did that didn't win
[00:27:52.400] because the documentary that won was amazing it was like it was always great i was looking i was
[00:27:58.480] looking to clean up but that documentary is about traveling musicians who um every day they do all
[00:28:06.770] their stuff a husband and wife traveling musician group they do all their stuff in their car and
[00:28:11.870] every place they stop they just pull up hop out and put on the show and then why they put after
[00:28:17.170] they put on the show all they access is people just sign the car so they got signatures they
[00:28:21.870] went to every state yeah every state even hawaii they couldn't take the car to hawaii they do that
[00:28:27.710] with the money they make off the music or they nah they was doing that with they had saved up
[00:28:32.350] money and saved up money okay with their jobs and that's what they did and they took they took up
[00:28:37.470] when they went to hawaii since they couldn't drive there they took a piece of the car off
[00:28:40.990] and took it to hawaii with them and had people sign it that's fire that was fire so they they
[00:28:48.250] won because that documentary i've been talking about they had to sleep in the car in vegas
[00:28:51.890] because it was super hot.
[00:28:54.790] So they parked in the parking deck
[00:28:56.110] and slept in the car.
[00:28:57.350] It was crazy.
[00:28:58.130] It was a dope document.
[00:28:59.070] The car got broken into.
[00:29:00.270] People stole equipment.
[00:29:01.970] But when they,
[00:29:02.790] when they story started getting out,
[00:29:04.590] people started,
[00:29:05.230] you know,
[00:29:05.570] sending them bread like,
[00:29:06.530] yo, that's fire.
[00:29:07.250] You know?
[00:29:08.230] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:09.050] So that was the one I lost to,
[00:29:10.530] but the other two was like,
[00:29:12.630] yeah, it was undeniable.
[00:29:15.320] That's fire.
[00:29:16.480] We're going to play,
[00:29:17.440] we're going to definitely play
[00:29:18.660] Still Dreamin'
[00:29:19.260] so people can get an idea.
[00:29:21.160] Did you,
[00:29:21.560] so you just uh you just applied it wasn't something that you had strove for for a while
[00:29:27.700] you gotta sign it's free to sign up like um certain certain film festivals be free to sign
[00:29:33.770] up certain ones you gotta pay but it's not a crazy price like even like the tribeca film
[00:29:39.450] festival that was like what 50s 50 or 75 dollars to submit into that that's not a lot you know
[00:29:46.090] what i'm saying to put you to get that look you know um if i if i didn't have this project that
[00:29:52.090] i was working on for the the client that i had um i would have had to put together something
[00:29:59.050] to send to tribeca because that's a great look you know what i'm saying yeah so just to to do it
[00:30:05.590] it's funny it's like uh the awards or the recognition do help you get over imposter
[00:30:12.470] syndrome because especially when you're a perfectionist i know you're looking at something
[00:30:16.610] that someone else created you see it perfect and you're like man like especially the levels you
[00:30:23.120] know when you see things that you just don't know how to do like it's one thing when you watch a
[00:30:26.980] commercial yeah you could tell the lighting and you could see how they put it all together but
[00:30:31.600] then you see some vfx or something you're like i have no idea how they did that yeah it's kind of
[00:30:36.780] disheartening to
[00:30:38.920] your own skills. You either go and
[00:30:40.940] hit YouTube University and learn
[00:30:42.860] how to do that effect and break that barrier
[00:30:44.840] down, or you're like,
[00:30:46.820] man, the levels to
[00:30:48.840] this stuff. You know, funny
[00:30:50.780] you said that, because I've been
[00:30:51.880] scratching to figure out how they did this effect.
[00:30:55.180] And the new
[00:30:57.300] movie on Netflix about
[00:30:58.540] the hackers, when the world
[00:31:01.220] comes to an end. I don't know nothing about Netflix.
[00:31:03.700] Oh, there's a movie about hackers. I forget
[00:31:05.240] the name to it. I forget the name of it.
[00:31:07.040] But the first shot is amazing.
[00:31:10.440] And I don't know how they did it.
[00:31:12.140] It's like the way the camera is.
[00:31:13.760] The camera starts out like in a drone position, but then it's constantly moving and panning
[00:31:18.900] and it gets in the car and it pans in the car while the car is driving and everyone
[00:31:24.340] is faced to the backseat, out the backseat, back and stay centered in the front.
[00:31:29.920] I was like, how did they do that shot?
[00:31:33.220] How did they do that shot?
[00:31:35.260] And I'm still trying to figure it out.
[00:31:36.740] It's a wild drone.
[00:31:37.200] So it wasn't a drone because you could tell because the drone would give like little hairs would be flying and stuff like that.
[00:31:44.920] And I don't know.
[00:31:45.840] It definitely wasn't a drone, but it was just crazy.
[00:31:49.460] I don't know.
[00:31:50.020] Maybe they did it in Unreal.
[00:31:51.560] I see you messing around with that.
[00:31:52.760] I think they did do it in Unreal because Unreal just did an update where you can add a dolly in your shots.
[00:32:00.300] Yeah, that's fire.
[00:32:01.320] You know what a dolly is, right?
[00:32:02.480] Yeah.
[00:32:03.060] The thing that...
[00:32:03.800] Yeah.
[00:32:04.140] So I seen that, so I said, oh, I think they did that with Unreal.
[00:32:09.380] They might have.
[00:32:11.220] But does it do the depth of field and everything?
[00:32:13.800] It does all of that.
[00:32:15.120] You can change the lens, the type of lens that you use, and all of that.
[00:32:19.720] I mean, after effects, you've been able to, when you set up, it's called a 3D camera.
[00:32:23.040] When you set up the 3D camera, you've been able to change the lens and stuff.
[00:32:27.140] But that's revolutionary for it to have an actual dolly.
[00:32:32.020] That means you could take a static shot, put it in Unreal.
[00:32:35.440] Yeah, my mind's going wild.
[00:32:36.840] And it's set up like, and it'll look like, so that's fire.
[00:32:41.260] I don't know.
[00:32:42.160] I'm excited about all the new content creation.
[00:32:44.800] I was just on Mike Fursetto's show on 88.1 inside the 610 on FM radio.
[00:32:51.180] It just aired last night, actually.
[00:32:52.520] Not at the time of this episode drops, but at the time of recording.
[00:32:57.540] And he was asking, how do you feel about AI?
[00:33:00.260] you know are you scared it's it's releasing jobs i said well first off by the time this episode
[00:33:06.420] airs sora is gonna be ridiculous like you've seen uh google's new joint um it's not a replacement
[00:33:16.160] it's like a new tool i don't know it's not a replacement i think that we we agree on that
[00:33:22.060] i've seen us go go back and forth on the book about like uh how you use ai what sort of ai
[00:33:29.910] i mean without getting into the intellectual property and like the morality of it and
[00:33:35.670] everything like this like a lot of people think ai i i will say this sore is starting to be what
[00:33:42.230] people think ai was like a year two years ago like they thought you just type something and
[00:33:48.010] then out comes this animation and it's not that it's not that it's far from that i tell people
[00:33:53.230] that especially when i drop the ai video people like oh you just did ai you just used ai i don't
[00:33:57.410] I'm like, yeah, I did use AI for it, but you have to be really, to understand the description
[00:34:04.670] that you have to use, to understand like you have to give it detailed information, type
[00:34:10.730] of camera shot you want, type of camera you want to use, type of lens, what type of shooting
[00:34:16.360] style it has to be, how, what you want it to do and everything.
[00:34:20.060] Set the shutter speed and shit.
[00:34:22.040] You got to do all of that.
[00:34:23.040] Yeah.
[00:34:24.040] not just okay i want this i want a ninja swinging the sword no you you have to be very descriptive
[00:34:30.960] with it yeah i had um your past two animation and there was a huge difference between the first one
[00:34:38.020] and the second one yeah even just the length of the shots yeah the that was the one thing that
[00:34:43.200] really stood out to me like uh the first one was kind of like little clips that blended together
[00:34:48.460] and it was visually cool yeah but in how to kill the devil there would be like a whole 15 second
[00:34:56.740] clip yeah of the camera panning and going through there and i was like yep i don't i don't i didn't
[00:35:02.300] even go to youtube university to try to figure it out yeah like i know some of it's with filtering
[00:35:09.060] some of it is actual camera shots some of it is generated but i was just like um to to do it with
[00:35:17.600] the story i'd have to think you probably did the animation first you didn't have the music
[00:35:24.350] i am then like there's yeah you had to have right i did the animation first and then when i did the
[00:35:31.940] animation i've said okay just can't this is like what can i do with this and i said something i've
[00:35:39.230] never done i said just narrate it so just narrate it so it took me what 10 minutes to write the
[00:35:45.650] narration so i said that i wrote it and i just recorded it and then um actually no i didn't
[00:35:53.160] record it in the software i recorded it in my phone i got the um um lavender i got the yeah
[00:35:59.300] the lavender i always say lavender i don't call it lavender but the lavender mic and my phone
[00:36:05.740] bounced the bounced the file straight over to the um editing software and then edited the audio and
[00:36:13.640] put it right in and it actually it that's how i know like like i wrote it to the to the um to the
[00:36:21.200] music beat or not that's not even a beat that's instrumentation so i wrote it to it so that way
[00:36:28.900] it could fall or end of like certain climatic parts of the story it could be the you know the
[00:36:35.940] the rise in the meat because i look i learned on certain several master classes that the audio
[00:36:42.640] plays an important piece when you're doing stuff because it sets the tone it sets the emotion
[00:36:47.880] so that's why i was like okay and then when it came out i was like oh this is fire
[00:36:53.160] this is fire i was so excited when i put it on i just dropped it i wasn't supposed to do that but
[00:36:59.040] i did you just dropped it i just dropped it maybe you gotta maybe it's a sign you gotta do more
[00:37:03.620] stuff just straight off the inspiration and drop it i um i don't know i i deal with like not put i
[00:37:12.470] i barely post i barely post i keep up with the clips and stuff like that but in terms of like
[00:37:17.990] what's going on with my life i might post like once every three months here's what i've been
[00:37:21.930] doing for three months but um it's uh it's like a different game it's creating for keeping people's
[00:37:29.390] attention versus having a long form content like i created a podcast that people will check back
[00:37:35.770] in and listen to a full episode you know what i mean like you have to earn people's attention
[00:37:40.730] like that to have something that that they could go from there but just the clips the little one
[00:37:47.330] minute two minute like cutting those up that's like an art in itself trying to be able to take
[00:37:53.250] you know four minutes of conversation squeeze it down to 60 seconds still have everything make
[00:37:58.650] sense still sound natural and then you're literally doing that so somebody could go like this for six
[00:38:04.430] seconds and go from there like so i i struggle with the algorithms i don't i don't like that
[00:38:12.650] we have to create based off the algorithms i was um having this conversation with phase one
[00:38:17.790] other day shout out to phase one yeah um i told him i said i was trying a different approach this
[00:38:24.020] year because i and i said i was going to try the algorithm approach um now don't get me wrong i did
[00:38:30.390] see the notice the spike in the streams i did notice the spike but it takes like he's he made
[00:38:37.710] a valid point it takes away from you being creative if you have to create based off the
[00:38:43.390] algorithm like a like okay the algorithm says you have to do this you gotta do this you gotta do
[00:38:49.150] that i feel like the market is oversaturated with those um and with those um videos with um
[00:38:58.030] you just pull up and just wrap and it has the captions at the bottom of it yeah i feel like
[00:39:03.730] it's so oversaturated with that now everybody's doing that with the glitch effect and it and i'm
[00:39:10.150] like creatively we're getting lazy well it's it's funny you say that because big studios are hiring
[00:39:19.760] editors to make it look homemade and make it look social and there's a difference between somebody
[00:39:25.620] with lighting and a microphone and they're putting this content together versus somebody
[00:39:31.740] just holding their phone out and doing it right because anybody could get the captions yeah people
[00:39:36.680] look at the video and they think oh it's about the captions but it's like no they had the lighting
[00:39:40.620] they exported it right like you said you got to export it right for social first of all you got
[00:39:45.100] to have the right project settings to even get it vertical like i i try i do the um i oversee the
[00:39:54.460] the video ministry in my church and they were like oh can you just take the um certain sermons and
[00:40:00.940] and um make them like reels and stuff like that i had to tell them the difference between posting
[00:40:05.420] the real and posting the post because i don't handle the church's social media somebody else does
[00:40:10.540] so i'll send them a clip and i say posters as a post they'll post it as a reel because in their
[00:40:16.300] mind all videos are reels so they'll post and then the shot is off i said no that shot is off because
[00:40:22.620] that's a 16 by 9. well if you're going to post that as a real it has to be 9 by 16. you have
[00:40:28.540] to flip it and then they were like i don't get that so i was like so what i'll do is i'll send
[00:40:33.420] it to you in this certain settings and i'll highlight it real pose because there is a
[00:40:40.620] difference and people that don't know that don't know like it's a lot of tech specs differences to
[00:40:46.730] it you know well just pulling a 16 by 9 video and turning it into a 9 by 16 clients hit me up
[00:40:53.690] they're like can you turn this video into and i gotta put you on to there are some ai tools that
[00:40:59.230] help with tracking the camera so if you have like a somebody doing a sermon panning across the stage
[00:41:04.990] this ai will switch it create a new sequence in 9 by 16 and it'll track the camera and create
[00:41:12.270] little keep frame so that it's steady moves with the person that would take forever you can create
[00:41:21.440] a 16 by 9 into an until 9 by 16 is what you have to do is once you export it well you already have
[00:41:29.680] it at 16 by 9 when you create the 9 by 16 um um project you have to scale you have to mess with
[00:41:38.030] the scale and the positioning of the shot yeah yeah you have to reposition it i found a tool
[00:41:43.970] that does the repositioning automatically it's pretty good you still gotta mess with it a little
[00:41:49.130] bit but that's what i'm trying to explain to people that the ai revolution looks like a lot
[00:41:54.770] of creators just doing more creating yeah like the you know how much stuff i would love to create
[00:42:01.250] that i'm just like there's just no time like it would take me three weeks and i drop every two
[00:42:05.850] weeks like if i wanted to edit that and put something crazy together but um if i get time
[00:42:12.590] with this i'll put up a video so people know what the hell we're talking about we're talking about
[00:42:16.790] 16 by 9 9 by 16 yeah yeah yeah people just get that they like to view video on their phone
[00:42:22.990] and you can't ask somebody to turn their shit sideways right like just asking the viewer to
[00:42:29.110] change the way they view so shout out to all the content and video creators that are dealing with
[00:42:34.990] uh video not being horizontal it's just something that you gotta change but you've uh how has your
[00:42:43.450] music did you always do production and rap did you just i learned i had to learn everything it
[00:42:48.910] took me a few years you know it's crazy i almost i used to lease beats off the internet lease them
[00:42:54.370] or rip them well however i was able to do it um i used to do that so i was while i was learning
[00:43:02.470] production right and i was working on my first self-produced album victory i was working
[00:43:12.000] and i could not figure out the production aspect like with the looping and stuff like that it just
[00:43:19.430] kept skipping when it looped i just couldn't figure out how to make it not how to make it a
[00:43:24.270] seamless loop and i was just i threw a tantrum one day i was like i said i'm done i quit i'm not
[00:43:30.760] doing this no more forget it it's over and i went upstairs and threw myself on the face
[00:43:37.640] literally threw myself face down on the couch it was laying there and then my wife was just like
[00:43:45.860] so you're just gonna quit and then i felt like a bum right because i was like yeah i was like all
[00:43:51.460] right let me just i was like well there's one thing i didn't try let me go try that and that
[00:43:55.660] one thing i didn't try the click click for me i figured it out and then i've just been off to the
[00:44:00.850] races there because i knew how to chop this i figured out how pretty fast how to chop the
[00:44:05.170] samples that was real but i could not figure out how to make the loop i could not figure out how
[00:44:09.730] to get it to i figured out you know so then once i did that i was like oh it's off to the races now
[00:44:15.670] now i could actually you know work on this project for real great stuff that's dope man that's a
[00:44:23.560] perseverance man oh yeah that's what this that's what it's about with a lot of stuff but you go
[00:44:29.480] through most creatives go through like emotional roller coasters uh you are creating for somebody
[00:44:39.240] to judge you know that's exactly what we're creating for not just judge not just judge
[00:44:49.100] but um you know people look the music to escape sometimes they want to hear music to take them
[00:44:58.540] places and they don't that's why i'm real cautious on like who i do music with because i don't
[00:45:07.330] compromise on my messaging you feel me i know that there's people that really depend on me musically
[00:45:13.980] it ain't a lot it ain't millions but it's still somebody that you know because i get people that
[00:45:18.950] send me messages yo your music because because listening to you made me want to keep doing made
[00:45:25.580] me want to keep going musically it set me to to create and um or i may somebody may be going
[00:45:34.210] through some a situation and it's those messages right there that's like you said when somebody
[00:45:39.310] may come along and spend some money with you for to create something when you're ready to be like
[00:45:44.790] ah just forget it and it's like i go through that with music sometimes i feel like ah man i don't
[00:45:49.890] want to because you get caught up in the the the yoke that they have on people of likes and views
[00:45:57.780] and i had this discussion with somebody all the time i said views don't dictate your impact man
[00:46:03.580] those views are dick those views are based off of algorithms and how much money you spending
[00:46:09.790] you know what i'm saying because if you're not spending if you're not spending that much money
[00:46:14.850] with the people that control the the platform then they're gonna make sure your your views get
[00:46:23.420] at the bottom of the tank to make you feel it causes something mentally like they really sat
[00:46:27.260] down and did a whole thing with that you know so you got it causes something mentally you think oh
[00:46:33.000] i have to spend money with them because i refuse to i mean unless it's something that i'm really
[00:46:39.120] trying to to really get out there which is like yeah there's nothing wrong with spending a little
[00:46:46.550] money i don't like i'm so stubborn yeah i don't i don't i'm so stubborn sometimes to my own
[00:46:53.090] detriment right because i feel like this is a scam like i know i understand what they're doing
[00:46:59.930] with the algorithms i know why they're doing the algorithms like that to make you be a slave to
[00:47:05.570] have to spend money to in it so i just like you know i trust in god gotta get my message to whoever
[00:47:11.570] needs to hear it that's fair you know whoever needs it because i don't look at music as a hustle
[00:47:17.650] i don't look at music as you know a nine to five is my job but much of my career i make music one
[00:47:25.410] because i love it and i make music because i know god gave me the gift to make music that i have to
[00:47:30.870] use it you know so you know i hate to turn when people say serious artists you know oh you know
[00:47:40.140] I got an awful special, you know, for serious artists only, you know, like everybody's a
[00:47:45.640] serious artist.
[00:47:46.720] I don't think I ever saw that.
[00:47:48.340] I've heard serious inquiries only.
[00:47:50.400] No, no.
[00:47:50.940] They, they, they kind of doing away with that.
[00:47:52.820] Cause to me, that term was offensive.
[00:47:54.680] They kind of doing also, if I'm not spending money with you, I'm not a serious artist.
[00:48:00.210] Like, you know, that doesn't make, there's people that put blood, sweat and tears into
[00:48:04.070] their music that build it out the mud.
[00:48:06.290] Like me, I invest in equipment.
[00:48:09.330] like i got some equipment you know what i mean and i'm looking at another piece but that doesn't
[00:48:15.250] so but because i'd rather put my money into my equipment other than putting my money in your
[00:48:21.030] pocket now i'm not a serious artist you know what i mean because i'm not you know it's just like
[00:48:29.580] it's just that that whole term and i get it i get i get both sides of that because serious artists
[00:48:35.850] is people that invest in their craft that do this that do that and a third that work hard
[00:48:40.010] but there's also the other side of it that people that invest in their craft and do this but they
[00:48:44.610] may not want to spend money with people like i saw somebody i came across a dude on instagram
[00:48:51.140] another day he's doing his marketing the old way he's out printing up um postcards flyers
[00:49:00.490] posters and he's going out the old street team way hanging them up hanging them up all around
[00:49:07.640] his city and i watched him saying he's like i can't he said he's doing it that way because it's
[00:49:12.860] cheaper to do it that way than to pay somebody to get your exposure up and i said i might not
[00:49:19.340] shoot i might take a page out of his book and start doing that there's nothing wrong with it
[00:49:24.500] yeah that's because that's why that's that's fine but he's a serious artist but he's not spending
[00:49:28.820] money with everybody that says oh serious artists only but you're at you're at shows where other
[00:49:35.460] artists are performing you're putting yourself in places where you can network and meet with people
[00:49:40.180] you know what i mean we had a conversation after we met each other at empower 610 day i think we
[00:49:45.220] saw each other on facebook before that but you that's marketing like marketing yourself you know
[00:49:52.970] what i mean like there's a reason why my llc is tony ortiz the designer it's not an ego thing you
[00:49:57.770] know me it's not it's not an ego thing it's just that people think of it as okay he he does that
[00:50:05.090] like when i had a business name an llc nobody could pronounce it nobody knew what it was they
[00:50:11.190] were just like tony you know what i mean tony and nano um so it i don't know you back to the whole
[00:50:22.130] like how you choose to do it or if it's cheaper if you invest in it or whatever the one thing i'll
[00:50:27.570] tell you like facebook is pretty much telling you serious artists only when they're like all right
[00:50:33.320] you could now to defend them you could spend five dollars a day you know what i mean you could spend
[00:50:39.920] what you spend on coffee and get real results they created the platform that puts you in front
[00:50:45.280] of people like that so that's that's why i said that's that's different because if if if they
[00:50:52.520] created the platform i get it that's your platform you set the price you know what i mean but it's
[00:51:00.180] not it's like even on instagram that's like i'll boost the post every now and then it's not it's
[00:51:06.020] not um it's not a a two months asset like you said you could drop for every release you could
[00:51:12.580] drop spend twenty dollars and get you and get more people to see it you know what i'm saying
[00:51:18.060] it just depends on what your goal is if your goal is to get people to see it you could figure that
[00:51:22.660] out yeah i work with people that invest ridiculous money in the marketing but they also invest in the
[00:51:30.040] system behind it they invest in the website they invest in tracking the conversions yeah that's
[00:51:35.320] they pay for a whole no definitely but i mean it's like you could do all that you could do that
[00:51:42.400] stuff without going that whole they're spending sixty thousand dollars a month on paid advertising
[00:51:48.240] But here's the thing. Twelve hundred percent return. They put sixty thousand in the month of February. I'm not going to say who or put their business out there, but they made back twelve hundred, a little more than that percent return.
[00:52:04.360] So that's fire. They're going to do that again this next month. I think the fact that these tools are available for artists that if you want to set up, like if your goal is downloads, music downloads, you know, like I'm going to invest.
[00:52:19.000] i i invested in a commercial for my marketing business i'm gonna boost that and target people
[00:52:25.900] just because i spent money for it like it's not just uh it's not just a post you know what i mean
[00:52:33.460] like it's something to to push but it's it's hey it's don't go don't go spending thousands of
[00:52:41.320] dollars just for likes i don't endorse that at all just for likes that's that's what that's what
[00:52:45.220] i'm talking about because you do if if you're gonna invest your money it has to make a return
[00:52:50.380] not just for some dopamine for don't just be spending all this money just for a dopamine fix
[00:52:57.500] that's that's what i'm saying let me clear that up that's what i mean because you have to mark
[00:53:01.740] as anything you're gonna have to market your stuff properly but um um i know somebody that
[00:53:09.230] recently just told me they're spending 150 a month on boosting their posts right and i'm like
[00:53:18.940] like that that just is just totally i feel like i need a marketing team or somebody that's an
[00:53:27.760] expert in that because i'd like to focus solely you know my one of my monikers is the creative
[00:53:33.480] genius i just love to create i want to focus on creating i enjoy because most people got to enjoy
[00:53:40.800] like i enjoy recording mixing and all of that i enjoy editing and animation and stuff like that
[00:53:46.960] as a kid i always used to wonder how i used to get radios and take them apart and put them back
[00:53:51.600] together you know what i mean just because i wanted to know how it worked on the inside
[00:53:56.400] or i wanted to see how they made it you know what i mean and i figured out ways to create makeshift
[00:54:02.000] radios i figured out a way how to record in high school on my tape deck that had the two the dual
[00:54:08.580] tape deck, one to play and one to record. And I had a Walkman and my radio had a built-in mic.
[00:54:14.700] So what I did was I used to loop beats at the end of hip hop songs. I used to let the beat breathe.
[00:54:20.460] I used to loop it and then create the whole instrumental. I'd grab an instrumental tape
[00:54:26.340] and put it in my Walkman, play it over the mic while the beat is playing and just spit my rhymes
[00:54:32.560] and then make my own mixtape. Where's the kids doing that with today's tech?
[00:54:38.100] like they don't even know how to use a file manager man yeah looping you made a sampler
[00:54:43.040] yeah you made a yeah i did that on so many hip-hop beats yeah that's dope that's a little
[00:54:49.660] little the fade out oh man no i think it's important for people to create music and hip-hop
[00:54:58.040] for people you know um i took a break from that a while back but even then a little track i put
[00:55:06.500] out last year with my buddy um people said hey that like one person's like i don't even like
[00:55:15.510] rap and i play that on my way to work like it just inspires me it does stuff like that i'm like all
[00:55:20.290] right that's cool it's cool to have a gift it's it's almost selfish to not do it i don't do it
[00:55:27.650] now because i just don't have the time my son wishes i rapped but um like if you're not gonna
[00:55:34.920] make money off of it what's that he wishes you rap oh yeah he loves dude he loves my son loves
[00:55:40.540] the stuff that i do he loves the content i create and he thought it was dope when i put the little
[00:55:46.040] music video out and did stuff like that we built this for him i got the the mic over there but we
[00:55:51.900] built the little sound and i got the interface and nice we uh i want to teach him the art of
[00:55:58.140] recording like the goal is not to have a perfect recording like when you know what is in a big
[00:56:04.120] studio you can't just recreate that for less than like twenty thirty thousand dollars to do
[00:56:10.060] everything right and have a have everything soundproof but no i like uh ever since he was
[00:56:16.260] little i was always like you can create you can be out there so why wouldn't i be on youtube and
[00:56:22.500] do the stuff that he wants to do and show him like it's possible you know empower him to i give him
[00:56:28.540] cameras and stuff like that and it's weird i it'll and he'll listen to this when he's older
[00:56:34.720] it may click for him soon because that's about the age that i started putting together an old
[00:56:40.220] 80s stereo system and learning how to record and learning all how to where you got to be from the
[00:56:45.700] mic and all that stuff uh but i didn't have other than my parents having equipment like an old
[00:56:52.440] receiver in the basement yeah they weren't like yo here i'm gonna give you mad equipment to learn
[00:56:58.060] this or do this so i might be doing it wrong with my son i don't know i don't know no it's different
[00:57:03.840] times you know i you know my son loves my setup at home he's always like coming to sit in my chair
[00:57:10.940] and he he already told him this is your inheritance i said whatever i build here is your inheritance
[00:57:17.000] and he's like he's like geeked off that act he was like yeah this is gonna all be mine and i'm
[00:57:21.960] like he's already making plans with it that's dope already taught him the password for my
[00:57:28.360] computer if he needs to like and he's helped me one time i was away and i needed to get something
[00:57:34.040] out of my computer i needed to have it sent to me so i had him on facetime and i walked him through
[00:57:39.940] it like where to find the file at and how to send it to me he knew how to do it which i thought was
[00:57:45.860] really dope so he loves the mic when i got my my show hooked up and everything he's like oh you got
[00:57:52.040] one of these mics like he wants to live stream yeah he wants to that's all he wants to do but
[00:57:58.320] he's young you know my son's about to be 13 in a couple days so he doesn't know yet what he wants
[00:58:06.110] to do like right now he's going through this huge basketball phase that he wants to do so but he
[00:58:11.310] made like i didn't know i i wanted to do videography and animation and all of that until i was 30
[00:58:19.490] yeah i didn't know that i want to do my my my cousin who was my best friend used to tell me
[00:58:26.020] for years we need to start doing our own beats we need to start doing our own production um he
[00:58:32.240] passed away almost 10 years ago but i know he would be so proud that's why i go so hard because
[00:58:38.660] i remember those conversations i used to argue with him about that and i used to tell him man
[00:58:44.040] listen you got to learn all that people that doing production they know how to do that people
[00:58:51.170] went to school for that he was like we could learn it and i'm like we can't learn that man i don't
[00:58:55.790] want to focus on that man i just want to rap i don't want to focus on all of that yeah here i am
[00:59:00.970] now i i won't say it's mastered but i've i've learned a lot you know and i and i've somebody
[00:59:09.520] spoke some life into me recently a producer who i've gotten beats from he said yo you surpassed
[00:59:17.680] a lot of people he said production wise he said you nice with the beats now and to have a season
[00:59:24.480] product that's what he does like you know what i mean that's what he's a producer that's what he
[00:59:28.560] does for him to tell me like yo you surpass people and you're nice and we'd like i was like man that
[00:59:34.560] means a lot bro i didn't let that he just said it like casually but yeah yeah i was like yeah
[00:59:40.520] that's like what that's that that imposter syndrome man it's an imposter syndrome you know
[00:59:46.820] you're dope you know the stuff it's just the creative in you that questions it it's what
[00:59:50.760] always drives you to create something better at least that's what i think it is with me it's like
[00:59:55.520] i won't let crap slide you know what i mean but i think it looks crap i think i think my show looks
[01:00:03.460] like crap i'll put it out there you know there's all sorts of stuff i want to fix i don't like
[01:00:07.820] these damn creases like there's all sorts of stuff that i'm like it bothers me but then um
[01:00:13.500] with someone and they were like your show looks one of the best like it's a great looking show
[01:00:21.120] the clips everything looks professional and stuff like that so then that's that little
[01:00:24.720] like that's the dopamine that you chase like somebody in real life telling you hey i saw
[01:00:29.980] your show hey i i grew something from that just like i reach out to you when i was consuming when
[01:00:35.680] i was going through uh your podcast we haven't even talked about that but shout out to grown
[01:00:40.040] man talk is that season two coming season two is coming i'm waiting on my um my location is
[01:00:44.940] about to change so once my location changed i'm moving soon and so once i move and get a better
[01:00:50.400] location then i'm gonna really really go hard on it i don't like my my location for the podcast
[01:00:58.050] document the movement got the gopro right there oh i have been i'm tripping i have been oh word
[01:01:06.400] i have been the whole process and everything for it so but when it's time to actually move and
[01:01:11.560] i'm doing a whole documentary now i just woke up just like i want to do like a full length
[01:01:16.480] doc until i haven't came on a title yet but i have a theme that i want it to be just all that
[01:01:24.660] and and that entails with everything that i do a little aspect of every part of it
[01:01:30.400] you know what i wanted to write a book but maybe i'd do something more on the
[01:01:35.400] the film and the stuff i don't know i never bounce back after losing my camera and stuff
[01:01:42.070] like that i just went i had a whole yeah i had a whole bag with the nikon and um i didn't have
[01:01:50.820] like a i had a cell phone stabilization in the bag but it never left the uh it never came back
[01:01:57.940] from the baggage check or whatever oh i told my wife don't check this bag i like check your purse
[01:02:03.880] don't check this bag but uh you could tell you know when you could just tell a bag's expensive
[01:02:09.920] Yeah. I had my camera get left on a tarmac and I was watching YouTube again about how do you travel with expensive gear, right? So I had to buy a case, a special hard shell case, insulation and all of that. And they said, everybody said the same thing. They put Apple trackers in them.
[01:02:37.910] Yeah, yeah. The AirTags.
[01:02:39.230] the air tags so i brought me some air tags and put them in there i landed at abe and i check i'm
[01:02:45.190] waiting that baggage claim for my cameras to come down off the shoot and i look i'm keep refreshing
[01:02:50.830] the location and it's still showing that it's still in charlotte and i'm like oh wait what do
[01:02:57.190] you mean this is it's one o'clock in the morning what do you mean my bag is on a on a saturday
[01:03:02.090] what do you mean my bag is still in charlotte oh man i was livid but yeah i was able to get it
[01:03:08.990] Didn't do the, didn't do the, the air tag thing. I learned from there, but I just eventually I do, I do enough editing where people send me footage. I do like enough business with the motion graphics that, you know, a camera, like a tool, like actually going and shooting a wedding and stuff.
[01:03:27.010] i'm not the guy for that like i've i've done it but i don't want to be known for that and i'm
[01:03:33.690] selective just like the podcast with the work that i create too like i only have so much time
[01:03:39.490] and that's already filled so absolutely we got to be creating something dope like it's
[01:03:45.030] i'm not in a position that i need to take like a you know a 20 design or a 30 design
[01:03:50.210] just because it's something and i'm bored that day like that was a while ago but uh i do want
[01:03:58.280] to give some people an idea we had a great conversation i'm gonna start to land the plane
[01:04:02.600] soon i see one of the cameras died oh but uh we could play some music um i want to start with that
[01:04:10.080] still dreaming and you need me to set the goal it looks like that one was about to die it looks
[01:04:15.730] like oh no it's not no it's they i'm looking at the timer is good to like 120 so okay start
[01:04:22.650] landing the plane but we'll close out with still dreaming this is the award-winning track and video
[01:04:28.630] produced by quesa the artist here we go sorry i'm multitasking here you're good
[01:04:34.610] and I remember
[01:05:22.980] trick me telling lies to convince me put out a stack of tarot cards and tell me my future
[01:05:27.820] and my heart knew it was witchcraft don't let it confuse you when she spoke her lips dripped with
[01:05:33.500] honey didn't quite understand what she was saying no it felt funny suddenly a sign appeared for the
[01:05:39.980] love of money her face shattered then i started running there's no escaping no matter how far i
[01:05:45.780] ran she was still chasing made my way to a musty basement i'm still dreaming
[01:05:50.460] It was all kind of sin blood stays on the wall. Listen dog. The vibe is grim little reconnaissance
[01:06:10.030] I walked up the steps the hairs on my neck beginning to slowly erect
[01:06:14.110] I progressed felt like I was flirting with death wooden floors made an airy noise. I'm holding my breath
[01:06:20.400] A foul portrait depicted murder torture, hung on the wall with inverted crosses, made me sick, now I'm feeling nauseous, a bunch of witches performing wicked offerings, a fire breather doing santeria, noticed me immediately, I was surrounded with demons, yeah, with big bulgy eyes, attacking from all sides, tossed me out a window, that's when I began to fly, realize this is spiritual warfare, guidance for the lost, yeah, the power of the Lord's hand,
[01:06:48.600] The demons begin to look at me with pure confusion
[01:06:51.940] No need to fear them, this is only an illusion
[01:06:54.620] A long clock, I snoozed it, not at all conducive
[01:06:58.240] They say that sleep is the cousin of death
[01:07:00.620] Fuck up in a jail cell and covered with sweat
[01:07:03.680] Horrible nightmares, yo, they hard to forget
[01:07:06.720] The true fears, while I produce this, I'm still dreaming
[01:07:10.950] I'm gonna talk
[01:07:15.260] Impuzzled
[01:07:27.670] You know, I wrote that song
[01:07:42.910] I mean, I had that dream
[01:07:44.270] When I wasn't even living a church life
[01:07:46.790] I had that dream. I was in Rikers Island. You know, the intro part when I said, when I started off, told my made love to my wife and all that, that was just the creative side of it. I didn't want to just like go straight. I figured out how can I start this? So I just started it as if I went to bed naturally. But the whole aspects of the dream is the true story.
[01:08:05.150] that's why I said in the
[01:08:07.830] last verse I woke up in the prison cell
[01:08:10.210] covered with sweat horrible nightmares
[01:08:11.810] they be hard to forget
[01:08:12.890] because I literally was
[01:08:15.370] on Rikers Island and I woke up
[01:08:17.890] and was like this is crazy
[01:08:19.290] and out of all the dreams I've had in my life
[01:08:22.090] that's the only one that I've always
[01:08:23.790] remembered was me running
[01:08:25.350] like the demons threw me out the window
[01:08:27.750] and I thought I was going to die but I didn't
[01:08:30.050] I just like floated and I landed
[01:08:31.750] on my feet and I was just like I felt
[01:08:33.790] powerful for real and i was just like oh god is real god is real so i don't it's many different
[01:08:41.070] interpretations for that dream but i wasn't when i had that dream i wasn't even nowhere close to
[01:08:47.160] living for god not even think that wasn't even on my to-do list i mean that's not really your
[01:08:53.800] decision of course i know that now yeah i know that now but yeah he was there yeah he was there
[01:08:59.820] that's dope man
[01:09:01.740] that's super dope
[01:09:02.380] appreciate it man
[01:09:02.940] so where can the people
[01:09:03.820] find you man
[01:09:04.560] we shared a little bit
[01:09:05.480] of the award winning
[01:09:06.320] still dreaming video
[01:09:07.460] definitely go and check out
[01:09:09.220] uh
[01:09:09.780] how to kill the devil
[01:09:11.600] go and check out
[01:09:13.160] what was the one with the
[01:09:14.360] what was the most recent
[01:09:15.380] singles you got
[01:09:16.160] you go ahead
[01:09:16.920] since it um
[01:09:17.900] how to kill the devil
[01:09:18.780] is out now
[01:09:19.600] um that's
[01:09:21.120] um still dreaming
[01:09:22.760] and
[01:09:23.920] how to kill the devil
[01:09:25.160] is to me is my opus
[01:09:26.540] those are my two
[01:09:27.660] two opus
[01:09:28.720] but I'm still creating
[01:09:29.660] Sincerely Yours
[01:09:31.640] is my latest video
[01:09:33.880] that just dropped
[01:09:34.800] and I'm still currently
[01:09:35.720] in the process
[01:09:37.300] of working on
[01:09:38.320] Purpose
[01:09:40.460] which is my latest single
[01:09:42.460] that just released this week
[01:09:43.720] so I got a lot of
[01:09:45.320] fresh content out there
[01:09:46.660] right now
[01:09:47.080] but you can follow me
[01:09:48.040] on Instagram
[01:09:48.780] at
[01:09:49.980] Queda Artist Music
[01:09:51.620] K-W-E
[01:09:52.980] I'm sure you probably
[01:09:54.200] edited and put it
[01:09:55.100] in the bottom
[01:09:55.660] so I don't have to say
[01:09:56.460] and spell it out
[01:09:57.160] like they used to
[01:09:57.760] back in the day
[01:09:58.360] right?
[01:09:59.660] But there's people that listen to audio that download it, so definitely spell it out.
[01:10:04.120] Okay, so follow me on Instagram at KweTheArtistMusic.
[01:10:08.360] That's K-W-E, The Artist Music.
[01:10:12.400] And yeah, you'll find all my links on my setup there, my website link and everything.
[01:10:17.580] Man, I have everything there.
[01:10:19.460] When I'm doing my animation stuff, I refer to myself as the creative genius.
[01:10:23.660] That's just my thing.
[01:10:26.740] You know what I mean?
[01:10:27.420] um i just i don't know man i like that i like to think outside the box we came up in the music
[01:10:35.120] video era right remember when michael jackson used to drop a video everything stopped tv stopped
[01:10:40.200] everything shut over this michael jackson got a new video we gotta be throwing the discs in the
[01:10:46.360] black and white uh i can't remember which man i was so young yeah i was so young so i like to
[01:10:54.080] think like i like to think out the box video visual wise and it's somewhat in my writing
[01:11:01.440] in my writing too i've always had that it's so many ideas if i could have two of me like
[01:11:08.380] somebody that can actually hold the camera for me i would have a lot more video music videos
[01:11:12.720] yeah the ai's coming the ai's coming but also dropping their legend of the martyr
[01:11:20.160] Oh, absolutely. How did I forget Legend of the Martyr?
[01:11:23.440] I was waiting for you to drop it.
[01:11:25.680] Legend of the Martyr was my first AI-assisted video that I did. And a lot of people, I don't
[01:11:31.460] know if you noticed, I somehow got it to go with the beat. But Legend of the Martyr is one of my
[01:11:40.500] favorite joints. Yeah, so I got Legend of the Martyr out there, How to Kill a Devil, Sincerely
[01:11:47.060] yours it's my three recent singles and they're all you know some heaters some heaters and um
[01:11:53.320] purpose just released so i'll have to check that out then is purpose out now yeah purpose came out
[01:12:01.280] put that out on tuesday i will close out with that play it and then uh go from there it's on
[01:12:08.530] spotify it's everywhere on every major streaming platform quays of the artists bad i found it here
[01:12:17.060] all right this is purpose grace of the artist this has been another episode of i will not lose
[01:12:21.420] thank you for staying tuned thanks for having me man definitely man talk soon yes sir
[01:12:27.660] devil come around he be lurking waiting war for my soul i really survived that life can't believe
[01:13:25.700] he chose me to god my niggas to christ uh purpose i understand my calling i know my purpose i
[01:13:35.760] understand my calling i know my purpose i know my purpose i know my purpose i understand my calling
[01:13:43.080] i understand my calling i know my purpose i know my purpose my higher calling was lying dormant
[01:13:54.300] the rain was pouring was in the game from the night to morning my mic performance is real
[01:13:58.800] reflective i'm interested to bring this message to those affected i'm well respected the lies
[01:14:03.620] detected i'm really him everything that i say i am survived some hard times way before i became a
[01:14:09.420] man, was God's will for me to navigate through a harsh field, beyond ill, the way my life
[01:14:14.600] nurtured this bar scale, the Lord used my pain, to be the voice of change, we all got
[01:14:19.440] a choice to make, mine was ministry over fame, I find myself, I line the cards I'm dealt,
[01:14:24.890] crying at the God to help, went to war at the commonwealth, kept my blicky on the shelf,
[01:14:29.550] right where my bible at, recited scriptures at times, before I fired that, drunk off cognac,
[01:14:35.460] no license, swerving in a Pontiac, heading to the Bronx with some grimy cats,
[01:14:40.000] Never thought I'd elevate out the slum.
[01:14:42.220] Most don't make it where I'm from, I'm giving praise to the sun.
[01:14:45.300] Our life's a death in the tongue.
[01:14:48.840] Praise the Lord, this is second to none.
[01:14:51.100] Yeah.
[01:14:51.620] I know my purpose, I understand my calling.
[01:14:54.600] Beneath the surface, my God is working through all this.
[01:14:57.620] I know my purpose, I understand my calling.
[01:15:00.480] I know my purpose.
[01:15:01.860] I know my purpose.
[01:15:03.180] I know my purpose, I understand my calling.
[01:15:06.460] Beneath the surface, my God is working.
[01:15:09.420] I know my purpose, I understand my calling.
[01:15:12.200] Thank you for listening to another episode of I Will Not Lose Podcast.
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