keep it real with yourself & Others

The music industry and the music business are two different things. Plenty of artists thrive without a label. But if you don't understand royalties and rights, nothing else matters.

Joe details his journey through depression and how he worked through it 🙏

Nas and Biggie (Notorious B.I.G.). and 1994: ‘Illmatic’ vs. ‘Ready to Die’ Two debut albums drop from two rappers who were destined to become hip hop/rap icons. Neither was a star yet. Both were still struggling. Each bet on a specific approach and formula. Study this clip. It’s one of the most honest and revealing clips of two the most important rappers in the history of hip hop/rap music, right at the junction of one of the most important moments in hip hop/rap history. New York at this time was still grungy, gritty, and raw. I was *outside*, tearing through Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx, and Queens. Lots of clubs were poppin’ throughout the city. The Nicks were in the finals… and there was a major battle of rap albums going on: ‘Illmatic’ vs. ‘Ready to Die.’ In this clip, you can catch a hint of it. Two rappers poised for greatness. Two distinct styles. One, more street disciple lyricist; the other a smooth crowd pleaser with witty lyricism. Both albums were instant classics! But the sales battle was won by Biggie. In fact, the lower-than-expected sales of ‘Illmatic’ would be one of the reasons that Nas would aim just slightly more “commercial” on his follow-up, ‘It Was Written.’ (An album many argue is better than ‘Illmatic.’) Still, here, we see time suspended. Two would-be icons fully aware that they were in the heat of the battle for the crown of New York. Each aware that some slice of the crowd favored one over the other. Biggie’s recipe for ‘Ready to Die’: Blend raw, street-witty rap with radio ready production and showmanship. This established a blueprint many rappers still use to this day. By contrast, with ‘Illmatic’, Nas went for the jugular with just straight raw, mega-tier rap and lyricism and an assortment of beats from an A-Team of beat pioneers. In this clip, you see that Nas earnestly wants the crowd. But much of the intricacy and style of what he’s saying is being lost on the crowd, just going over the crowd’s head. But he never folds, rhymes through it. He believes his poetry is deep; he *knows* his poetry is deep. Then Biggie grabs the mic. He’s not earnest. Confidence on 10. Almost like there’s no effort. He *knows* he has the crowd, even if his rhymes aren’t as lyrically deep and potent as the rhyme Nas just basically wasted on half the crowd. He knows that *his rhyme is going to go over better with the crowd. What we see here isn’t just hip hop/rap icons on the cusp of the stardom. We see a battle of forces, a battle of *formulas*. This contrast in this moment revealed something then just as it does today: A mega-tier lyricist like Nas (from the rhyme school of Kool G Rap) can adapt to and flourish over radio friendly/mass appeal production. But a raw and catchy, crowd-pleasure lyricist like Biggie couldn’t quite do what Nas did. But he didn’t need to. Biggie admired Nas’s rhyme talent. Biggie himself would’ve told you, if he was being honest, that his lyricism didn’t possess the upper gears that Nas’s lyricism could reach. But biggie was a better showman. Nas admired Biggie’s presence and mass appeal. He wanted that same appreciation. And after ‘Illmatic’ failed to move more than 500k units when it first dropped, Nas knew he’d have to borrow some of Biggie’s formula if he was ever going to sway the crowd…

Steve Jobs gave a 15-minute speech at Stanford in 2005 that still changes lives today: "Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories." Story 1: Connecting the dots "I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months. I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made." Steve shares what happened next: "Because I had dropped out, I decided to take a calligraphy class. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the space between letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh, it all came back to me. It was the first computer with beautiful typography." He reflects: "You can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path." Story 2: Love and loss "At 30, I got fired from Apple, the company I started. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone. It was devastating. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley." Steve explains what saved him: "But something slowly began to dawn on me, I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over." He shares what came next: "Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. During the next five years, I started NeXT, started Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple." His advice: "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." Story 3: Death "When I was 17, I read a quote: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' Since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something." Steve shares why death is such a powerful tool: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." He concludes: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." His final words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Three women connive to steal from the bank, see what happened at the end

Lil Wayne speaks on today’s pressure in music and how fast people switch up: “They want it, and they want it now, and they want it great every time… and if it ain’t great every time, they forgot that you were ever great.” (via Not Just Football with Cam Heyward)

Most awkward award show moments 😳

Mark Cuban says the music industry is built on the algorithms & speaks on where things are headed via @billboard

PERSPECTIVE 3/20 Available everywhere Music made by Real HUMANS

When was the last time you just sat with yourself? No scrolling, no planning, just silence. Try it today.

Lil Wayne speaks on how quickly fans will switch up on an artist

Kevin Hart tells Mark Cuban the story about how he had the chance to turn $75,000 into HUNDREDS of MILLIONS by investing into “Uber” when it first started but declined 😳

Lil Wayne explains why he doesn’t listen to music from other artists

Afroman really said “y’all raided my house, so I dropped a music video with the footage AND monetized it.” 😭 Only in America does a police raid turn into a rollout strategy. The charges got dropped… but the streams went UP. That’s not just beating the case—that’s turning it into passive income 💀📈🙌🏾 #thursdaynews

TMZ reports that former C.O and current plus-size rapper ‘Rick Ross’ sent a cease & desist to Remy Ma after her network previewed a movie trailer about a corrections officer turning becoming a rapper You can't make this up

Anybody can run an ad. LaRussell turns the ad into a real connection and that’s why the fan sticks.

On a previous #TeawithGaryVee I was asked "My 13-year-old son recently started a faceless YouTube shorts channel. Do you believe in the faceless YouTube trend, and if you were 13 today, what would you be doing to make money online?" If you have a question for me, drop it here garyvee.com/questions so my team can add it to the next Rapid Fire Q&A and follow me on garyvee.com/whatnot

OG Nya Lee keeps it 100: She turned down an Atlantic Records exec's advances... and it cost her the bag. 💼❌ No sleep for the deal—real ones stand on principles. Watch the full clip! 🔥 Who's been through industry BS like this? Drop a 💎 if you respect the hold. youtu.be/lqML4KB5CNM?si… Watch now #OGNyaLee #MusicIndustry #NoSleepForTheDeal #DiamondTestedEnt #RealTalk #HipHopTruth

Jay-Z on Reasonable Doubt (2006). “If it’s not one of the best albums of all-time, it’s absolutely the realest of all-time…”

THIS IS FOR THOSE WHO DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE: The Rock said that he walked into his BOSS's office and respectfully asked his boss who the top earner was and how much the THEN top earner, Stone Cold was making. His boss told him Stone Cold was making $1M. When he heard it, he decided to ask his boss for $2M. Vince McMahon, his boss told him that it's not a problem, but he should first take some time to go learn about how the business worked. Told him to make sure to learn the whole economics behind it and then report back to him after some time for them to finalize. After learning about the business, THE ROCK comes back to his boss and says: “Alright, i now have a better understanding of the business and the costs of running it. For that, give me the same $1M you give stone cold. I’ll probably make $1.5M total from bonuses anyway.” Meaning: ▪️$1M = guaranteed (no matter what happens) ▪️Extra $500k = small bonuses he expects His Boss then smiled and told him, he'll actually make $15M that year... Vince McMahon knew two things: 1. The business was about to explode 2. The Rock was becoming one of the main reasons money was coming in So when he says: “You’re going to make $15M” He’s not increasing the salary. He’s just pointing at everything outside the salary. Ticket sales. Pay Per View buys. Merchandise. Global deals. Basically: “The $1M is just for showing up. The real money is from what your presence generates.” That $15M is what happens when: ▪️ Arenas sell out because of you ▪️ Millions pay to watch because of you ▪️ Products move because of you Salary pays you for being there. The real money comes from what you bring in. And once you’re tied to the money coming in, not just the work going out… Your income multiplies.