Achickwitbeatz presents ⁠the Instrumental Intel podcast⁠, bringing you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news & tips, insights & interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm EST on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠.
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Instrumental Intel Podcast

Achickwitbeatz brings you information instrumental to your artistic career including music industry news, insights, interviews, and beats for your inspiration. Listen on Saturdays at 7 pm ET on ⁠⁠⁠Grander Radio,⁠⁠⁠ Achickwitbeatz.com⁠⁠⁠, and your favorite podcast platform.

Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:00
Hey, thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I'm your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I'm glad that you've joined me today. Today's episode has got just a little bit of music industry news. Of course, it's got instrumentals produced by me for your inspiration. And later, my special guest, RayBone Jones, will be coming to join me, talking about lessons in longevity and turning your passion into a legacy. So it's going to be a great time.

00:25
Before I go ahead and drop that first beat, I gotta give a shout out to my home station and a radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And with that, let's go.

11:21
Alright, I'm back with the music biz brief. Of course, towards the end of the year, the news cycles start to slow down a little bit, but do have some interesting tidbits for you first up. Universal Music Group and Amazon Music have renewed their global licensing agreement, ushering in what UMG calls Streaming 2.0. This partnership aims to enhance artist fan engagement through exclusive content, new product innovation, and artist-centric royalty models that benefit established artists and combat streaming fraud.

11:49
The agreement also highlights Amazon's expansion into audiobooks and livestream content, aligning with both companies on safeguarding human artistry and addressing challenges from AI-generated music. Next up, Audius wraps 2024 with a new licensing deal with ICE, which is the “International Copyright Enterprise”, a hub that represents over 330,000 rights holders. The multi-territory agreement ensures royalties for music used globally on decentralized music platforms.

12:16
This follows earlier deals with Cobalt, Ascap, BMI, and others, solidifying audiences' commitment to supporting artists and sustainable growth in digital music ecosystems. Alright, and finally, Def Jam Recordings is stepping into the FAST, which is “Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV” arena, with a new music-focused channel on Tubi, launched by UMG's Mercury Studios. So this marks Def Jam's 40th anniversary, and the channel will feature a mix of long and short-form content.

12:44
The move aligns with the broader rise of music-themed fast channels, following efforts by Warner Music Group and others to expand into ad-supported streaming. Alright, that's it for this episode's music news. I'm gonna take a quick pause for the cause and then I'll be right back with my special guest RayBone Jones right after this. Keep it locked!

20:29
Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, blogs, blogs, podcasts, themes, TV, film, commercials, and more. Once again, that's achickwitbeatz.com. That's A-C-H-I-C-K-W-I-T-B-E-A-T-Z.com Let's make something happen.

20:59
Thank you so much for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I'm your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz. And I'm excited to say that I have in the virtual building with me today, RayBone. I mean, one of the illest DJs I've ever seen, just so ill with it. And, you know, for years, I've seen like the viral posts that went on with the, ‘Disco Doesn't Suck, You Just Can't Dance’ [Shirt].

21:25
But yeah, if you could, well, first of all, let me say thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and talk with me. But if you could just let the listeners know a little bit, you know, who is RayBone Jones, like how you got into DJing, your connection with music and all that good stuff. OK, so what up doe to everybody? Can everybody hear me? Oh, yeah, you good. All right, good. What up though again, everybody from Detroit?

21:53
from all of the states, all over the world. I'm glad to be here. Glad to have you interview me. And it's a lot of things that you and maybe the world can figure out from me that, you know, they've been asking and wondering. And I'm willing to.

22:22
disclose a lot of those things. So, I've been DJing now for over 40 years. My music production, I can say, will probably start at

22:48
underground and getting everything together, I would probably say maybe about 98. Um, I really didn't start, really start pushing everything out until maybe like early 2000s. Um, that's when, uh, maybe I said maybe about 2000.

23:11
or three after I had my website. It's still, it's not up, that was in 2000s, that was decades, 2000s. But yeah, I'm currently doing music now, currently DJing. I'm getting back into traveling.

23:41
Um, music production, uh, I just released, uh, another EP on, uh, moves and grooves.

23:55
That's my second compilation, no second EP on moves and grooves. I'm featured on a compilation from Theo Parrish collaborating with DJ Kicks. And the title of the track I did is called Green Funk on compilation.

24:24
That's a beautiful compilation. If, if you haven't had it, you should pick it up because a lot of good Detroit artists, uh, new artists as well, as opposed to veteran or OG or legend artists, if you want to call it. So he has a mixture gumbo of, you know, new talent, old talent, and then some other talent that, uh, he decided that he wanted to put on the compilation.

24:54
Beautiful. All right, so you say you've been DJing for over 40 years. Do you remember what your first DJ set was like and how that felt to actually play? Well, my, okay, was it my first professional or was it my first just, you know? Whichever one meant the most to you. Well, both of them meant the most to me. Okay, we can talk about both then. Okay, that's good.

25:24
The first one was my very first one and that was for, not, okay, it was a friend of mine. Now we can say girlfriend, but we weren't dating and nothing like that. You can say like, you know, cause now, you know, back when I was coming over to say girlfriend, that was just a female friend you had that was a girl. Right. But.

25:53
Anyways, she had a sweet 16 birthday party and she asked me to DJ. And of course this was with Rutgers. And so I played her birthday party. Everybody had a good time amongst our age and the parents.

26:17
That's gonna be so shocking because, you know, they usually, you know, y'all do your birthday party and we gonna go ahead and y'all we come out and replace whatever needs to be replaced and check up. But it was so funny because the parents started dancing and so along with the kids. So that was cool. And that was something that was really like, you know,

26:44
intriguing to me because I already had a passion for music because of my parents. You know, they were very heavily involved in music, you know, when I was younger. So, uh, you know, now I'm getting to that point and now I can see like, okay, this is really something that I do enjoy and it's something that I can wow, you know what I mean? And, um, so.

27:14
From that point doing that for her that was my first very first You know party in front of people You know cuz now you know You know you can get a laptop with technology. You know that's different, but you know with with going back then and like Really realizing like I could really do something

27:41
You know what I'm saying? And people really enjoying exactly the type of music I'm doing and how I'm doing it. So that was a plus. And I, I believe the second time. Was when I was older. And I had the opportunity to play again.

28:10
at my early 20s, maybe like 21, 22. So now I'm leaving, you know, the teenage status and I'm old enough to go into like bars and clubs now and rock it on the next level. You get what I'm saying? Because we're adults now. Yeah.

28:37
And that was a beautiful thing too, because now that lets me know that, you know, from the little boy that I was doing something to now becoming a young man that I could still, you know, the passion and what I was doing, everything was on its way. And it was right. Okay, man, that sounds like a good feeling. But yeah, especially to be able to get.

29:05
the kids and the adults dancing at the same time. Like that's, that's no easy feat. No, it's not, no, no. Because, because, because think about this. And it's so funny now, because when you look at the younger generation now, and then now their parents is trying to get into what, you know, their kids are, you know what I mean? As opposed to, you were younger and we're trying to get into what our parents were, you know, listening to. Yeah.

29:36
Yeah, so okay. Speaking of parents, you mentioned that they were heavily involved in music. What did that look like as a kid coming up? Like, how did that get ingrained in you? Kind of watching and observing what they were doing. Well, it goes back to saying, like, with them, as me being, like, a little kid, my dad might be at work, mom's at home.

30:04
and she's cleaning up, cooking dinner, getting everything together, and she's playing her music on the record player while she's cleaning her house, while she's cooking dinner, and all of those things, right? Yeah. So as a little kid, you're listening to that, you know what I mean? And you're helping along, and you know. And then when my dad got home, he would...

30:33
play some of the records he would play, or if my mom would hang out with her girlfriends and it's just me and my dad, and he might wanna put on some records. Or it's just about the parents to just switching up, putting on what they wanted to feel and what records that they wanted to jam to or just vibe to. And think about what my parents was at.

31:01
they were not just parents that like kind of stuck on like one genre of music. You know, I mean, so I had my parents were well rounded in music. You know, whether it be jazz, whether it be soul, funk, groove, disco, they listened to

31:30
a lot of other artists that were out of their realm of listening to music. You understand what I'm saying? I know exactly what you're saying. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, and which was a good thing because that taught me how to appreciate music that's outside there.

32:00
funk, jazz, groove, you know what I mean? To what I was normally the typical. You know what I mean? So, you know, so it just helped me grow and love music in a lot of different genres than just being stuck in one or two genres of, or this was different.

32:26
popular music that, you know, we should be listening to if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. I personally feel like, uh, especially for production, that's incrementably helpful. Yeah, that definitely helps. That definitely helps in production because, you know, uh, yeah, it definitely helps in production because you can go in so many different directions and.

32:51
so many different ways and your creativity level can be just so heightened, you know what I mean? As opposed to just being, you know, stuck into maybe one or two or three genres of music and then or just one, you know what I mean? Right, um, because I've had discussions like this with hip-hop producers before where, you know, sometimes that's what people just tend to listen to and it's

33:20
You can make better hip hop if you listen to more than just hip hop. Yeah. Like you got to expand your palette. Well, and this was so funny that you, you mentioned that is because now it's a whole totally different ball game. But back then, um, even when I was coming up, you know, you had a lot of hip hop artists and they started.

33:48
This is like early hip hop I'm talking about. They understood, you know, a lot of range of music from their parents. Yeah. So they could sit back and listen to their parents' records. And then they knew what certain parts to sample. And those records, a lot of times that they would sample.

34:15
They were kids coming up listening to those samples that have been great samples and those older records. Yeah. You get what I'm saying? To where now they have made hits out of them and some of those hits are still decades strong. Right. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So.

34:43
Yeah, it's kind of funny. One of the first rap songs that I remember my mom kind of liking was when Run DMC collaborated with Aerosmith. Yeah. You know, like, yeah. Prime example. And that was, that was, see, once you started getting off into that, and then that was a, when they did that, that was a experimental project for them. And that was, and that was the reason why that

35:13
was I think one of the iconic songs from them is because, you know, they wanted to ranch out their sound. So it's almost kind of like we build into making noise in the US. And we want to have our sound and our act get exposed to a lot more.

35:43
Yeah. So it's about growing. So they can just come with like, you know, the regular stuff. So they had to come with some rock to add a lot of more flavor into. It's about being versatile. Sometimes you can't always just stick with the same thing. Right. And that's what I'm saying about is being exposed to so many different type of music that you can

36:13
understand how you can move. If that makes sense. Yeah, that's a really good way to put that. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So, you know, because I think that a lot of the, the producers that are more successful actually understand that. So, you know, and having those conversations and trying to get people to, you know, dream a little bit bigger. Yeah, yeah, it's really cool that you Yeah.

36:42
Yeah, you have to because that's the only way that you're gonna that's the only way you're gonna elevate. Yeah, you know, you have to you have to dream bigger and you have to have the passion. You know, I'm saying, and if you don't have a passion for it, you're not gonna dream better. You're not gonna dream bigger. You know, I you can say, well, you know, I made these beats and I'm making beats and everybody like your beats is hot. But how are you getting

37:10
the people around you and beyond to hear your beats, to understand your beats, to say that, yeah, you hot. Right. Yeah, and especially, you know, by absorbing more, it kind of gives you a little more texture, which kind of helps you stand out, because I mean, there are a lot of people making beats these days. So how do you get people to listen to you, you know, if you're still doing the same thing that everybody else is doing?

37:39
Exactly. You're not going to stand out. So I have a quote for you. All right.

37:46
quote is if you have more you can do more. See I'm saying so if you have the more you have around you and the more you observe the more you can do better.

38:04
because you had so many options to go in whatever direction you want to go. You know what I mean? So like with me, like, I mean, if I wake up in the morning and I'm feeling like kind of jazzy, mellowy, you know what I mean? So that might, I might do a jazz or, you know, something on that. If I get up and I'm hype and this and that, or if I'm feeling that way.

38:34
I'm making a hype track. I'm making a uppity dance track. You know what I'm saying? So I'm not just, okay, I'm getting up and I'm gonna make a track. And it's just gonna be, I just made that track. Right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And that's what I try to get a lot of people to understand is that, you know, okay, you can make a track. That's making the track. But.

39:01
When you really put more of your creativity and your passion into your track, you start to understand and let people understand where you're coming from and how you come in. You know what I mean? And then everything else, you know, falls into place. Hmm. Yeah, that's beautiful. Um, could you talk a little bit about, um, you know, so you started with DJing.

39:29
And then once you expanded into production, what was that particular transition like for you? Was it, you know, just inspiration struck? Like, how'd you begin to produce after you started DJing? Okay. Well, I'm going to tell you this, uh, production while I was DJing, um, it was always there, but it, it wasn't as serious at the time because.

39:58
Um, I was so caught up into DJing and I'm here, there, here, there, here, there on DJing. But I, I was still working and developing, you know what I mean? Uh, my, uh, production situation because I had a lot of my peers that were getting on to that. And they were like, yo.

40:27
you know, dog, you need to follow this flow. But I'm like, I feel you, but no, I'm gonna be the DJ from Spill. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. And then once I started seeing them start really putting projects together and start building and start, you know, elevating on that next level, I was like, whoa, maybe there's something I need to really look at again. And, you know.

40:56
And it worked out, you know. It worked out because I saw that and, you know, they tapped me on the shoulder, you know what I mean? Because they ain't really have to say this because we were a match. It's funny thing about it, y'all. Whoo! That era, that era after one. I'm gonna, okay, we're gonna say this.

41:25
in that era with one Kevin. Eddie. Greg. One, one, all the big, the Belleville three, why Kevin? There, then you got Craig, then you got Eddie folks, Blake Baxter, and the list goes on, but it stopped.

41:54
after them and they should have been because they had a whole bunch of soldiers and a whole bunch of people that was under them that they should have brought on that was sweet but now over time them people still are going to break through and they have brought through broke through you get what I'm saying yeah the generation of

42:24
The next generation outside of the big three, out of outside of their generation, the next generation was three chairs. Yeah, so that's my generation and that's our generation. You see what I'm saying? So, you know, Kenny, Theo, Marcellus, Rick Wilhite, we all knew each other.

42:54
Gary Chalice, all of them under. We saw what was going on and we was a whole totally different beast. That was coming next. The next wave that the world and. The they weren't saying. They didn't see until they saw. You know what I'm saying? Yes. So that's how.

43:24
You know, all of that, you know what I'm saying? All of that spawns in, I guess, a period called time. You know, as things elevate and things move on. You know? Yeah. You said they didn't see until they saw. I kind of wanna slow walk that one a little bit because,

43:53
You know, you know, on social media, you see people often complaining about people from where they're from, not appreciating their artistry. Everybody always blames it on their city. But if you notice every single city says it. So, you know, if you could. No, no, no, not to cut you off, but you wonder why every city says it. It's universal. But yeah, there you go. There you go. Yeah. There you go. So it's.

44:22
It happens in every situation that is happening. And it takes people to come together to say, you know what?

44:42
F that. Yeah. Okay. I was going to say the original. Be light with it, but you know, F that because now we can't worry about that. We got to worry about the future. That's the past. That's why I have and I have no problem. I told you that from day one when I first met you and you told me you was working on beats.

45:11
Yeah. You hear me? And do you remember what I told you? I do. All right. And look where you are. And look what you're doing. You get what I'm saying? That's the positiveness that we need to pass on to the younger generation or just to our peers period to wake this situation up. You know what I'm saying? You know, because

45:40
We have a lot of great talent in all of our pockets. I don't care if it's just Michigan, I don't care if it's Ohio, I don't care if it's New York, I don't care, even if overseas, I don't care if it's even South Africa. Look at how South Africa is coming out. Yes. When nobody even thinking about South African with dealing with this house music or whatever genre and how all these other genres they are.

46:09
coming up with. Nobody saw that. I seen it, but nobody saw that until it was actually laid down. Look at all these people in Japan. They following us from hip hop, to our culture, to, you know what I'm saying, to house music, to techno. You get what I'm saying? Absolutely. And then now once they figure they have

46:40
locked down or got a certain mass of followings or doing certain things that now they figure they can change what they started off with and then leave us to be floating out in the sea. Yeah. You know, seeing a lot of that lately. Yeah. But that's because we have become lax. And that's because we have become loose.

47:10
And we have allowed them to come into our hookup on being genuine, thinking that the genuine is gonna be reciprocated back. You know what I mean? So it's almost kind of like you invite somebody come over and now they see how you living and they see how you doing sh**. And then now they taking it and now they running with your sh**. And then they blowing up and you like.

47:38
I wasn't even trying to do all that. I, you know, you know who I'm saying? Right, yeah. So, you know, yeah, so that's what a lot of this situation and everything is looking at now, today's time. You know what I mean? And I think that a lot of people need to get back into that ram.

48:09
Because once you have a lot of those people get back in that round, we can control what's going on. We can take back or at least have some type of control. Yeah. To, you know, make things go forward the right way. Absolutely. Um, man, I feel like this.

48:34
was 30 minutes and went by so fast, a little too fast. So I'd like to, you know, just throw it out there. I want to do a part two with you again, sometimes. You do part two, part five. I don't care, baby. I love it. So, yeah, but before we wrap up, I want to make sure that everybody knows, you know, where they can follow you, keep up with what you got coming up, because you said you got some more releases. So, yeah, if you could reiterate that, we could get from you and where we can find it.

49:04
Okay. So, uh, right now I have, uh, 21 releases and that's proud to say, I'm long overdue for albums. So I might have to do some two pocket issues and do it. Because the thing of it is I've, I've been out here and I just love the music so much and I've just been, you know,

49:34
just trying to get my music and my vibe and everything out into the world, to where I ain't thought about an album. And the tracks accumulated up and I'm like, oh yeah, I got to do a double album. But outside of that, album is coming. And then, yeah.

50:03
And, you know, amongst other things, I have a birthday party next year. It'll be my 50th, 55th. I'm sorry, 55th. It'll be my 55th birthday. That's my stars. That's my star. But it's going to be a TV.

50:30
Grand River in Detroit. And then I'm doing the following Monday, part two, which I'm glad that my birthday month is very short because I party all the month of my birthday. So part two will be at the Woolbeards Pub in Detroit again. I will be playing that party. I will be playing like old school funk groove.

51:02
soul type of thing, vinyl. These two young brothers, they are approaching maybe 20 some years that they've been doing this. It's been off the chain, it's free. TV, which will be February 7th, which is actually my birthday.

51:29
And so I got a good lineup for that. And, you know, hey, 2025 is going on, it's popping. I'm going to continue putting out music and, you know, hopefully I get in contact with Joel and we'll be doing something again, you know, because now they got it up and popping.

51:55
because the time they brought me up, it was, it was, it was good up and popping at the time they brought me up for my birthday. But I'm so proud of them because they have been a tight knit for me to move and provide something in Kalamazoo. That's really.

52:25
not provided. It was provided, but it was kind of like, okay, it's starting to slow down. But now it's coming back and it's coming back very beautiful. And I'm so glad that I knew them and know them. And the fact that I showed them this is how I do stuff in Detroit.

52:54
day and brought them in on that to experience that and now they can take that and bring it to you guys up in Kalamazoo. So beautiful. With their late night social event that's Detroit. Okay. That is Detroit and they are bringing it up and I just wish that

53:24
everybody tunes and you tools and y'all work together. Y'all that'd be my happiness. You hear me? Y'all intertwined together and y'all get a big syndicate up there and make it happen. That's the beauty that I wanna see. Yeah, I'm here for it. Yeah, you hear me?

53:54
Yes. All right. Y'all pull it together. Y'all got the workspace. Y'all got the crowd. Y'all got the connections. Make it happen. You know what I mean? Make it happen on what you want to do and who you pulling in and what they do. And y'all could do it on separate different nights. If it's not going to, you know, you can combine a night or you can do different nights.

54:23
But that's what y'all need up there because y'all are very in tune with music up there on all levels, all levels. And especially the KZOO, y'all got it and y'all know it's just about y'all putting the pieces together like chess and working it out.

54:50
to where all of y'all can thrive up there and be beautiful. Yes, I appreciate that for sure. Yeah, it's rich here. The music culture is deep. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. Oh, that's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm telling you, you know how many times I've been up there. Yeah. And you know, it ain't just because my daughter up there and she went to school and now she's staying up there, but I enjoy y'all, period.

55:20
Yeah. I ain't get the hell out of y'all. All of you man, for real. And everybody like, well, hey man, when you going back up there, can I go up? No, don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. You're saying it's my adopted city, right? Yes. There you go. And then I can choose who to bring on either side or whatever. So if you need what you're doing, if you want to do some hip hop or whatever.

55:49
I make sure I bring the right guys up there and we're joining them all in. I make sure you hear me. Yeah, that's dope. That's what's up. Cause I love all of y'all up there for real. I love K-Zoo man. Y'all are the issue. Yeah, it's mutual. We love you too. Yeah. Y'all always been there. Even when I was younger and hearing, you know, uh, my older peers talk about K-Zoo with all that we going up to K-Zoo. I was K-Zoo. Thinking it's a zoo up there.

56:19
I know it was Kalamazoo. That was the intent. Yeah, I had a friend tell me once. Yeah, it sounded like a place that got koalas. Right, I got the zoo. You know what, this guy there, this guy there. I'm tired of the train zoo. I'm tired of Belle Isle Zoo. That ain't serious. I went to the zoo, you know what I'm talking about. No, then I get up there, oh, this is the zoo. They are partying. It's totally tight, but you know, right. Right.

56:48
Absolutely. All right. Well, yeah, I just want to thank you again. Can you drop your socials real quick so that way everybody can know where to follow you? Uh, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all of this, Raybone Jones. You can Google Raybone Jones and YouTube, but you have to play with it. And, and this is what is when you play with it. You have to play with my name because

57:17
certain things will come up a lot more. Because I dropped the DJ name off of RayBone. So instead of DJ RayBone, I'm RayBone Jones. And I've been that for a while because of, you know, this technology situation going on and everybody's calling themselves DJs. So I didn't want to, I mean. But.

57:44
If on YouTube, play with my name, you can do DJ Raybone, you can do a space, whatever, but however you play or you put in Raybone Jones, however, whatever, which one comes up the most on YouTube, you got it. Spotify, I'm on, I'm on, I'm on everything, baby. Everything. You know what I mean? But, but, but if people want to just pull me up, you just have to kind of play with my name. That's all. Because, you know,

58:14
certain things, you know, when you switch certain things on social media or in the media, sometimes it take a while for everybody to be like, oh, he changed that or he took that off or whatever. You know what I mean? But you can catch all of my information on that. I just got on TikTok and my dog is clowning me.

58:39
She's crying because she's already like, you're supposed to be on this, you're supposed to be on that. You know how it feels. Right. Yeah. You know, man, you've been doing this for this, and I'm doing this, and I'm doing this, and I'm being bad, and you know. But so just play with my name on all social platforms, and you got me. Oh, great.

59:04
If you Google me, all that stuff overseas and all that stuff, all that stuff is going to pull up. All right. Perfect. Well, thank you again. I'm already looking forward to next time. All right. And then maybe the next time, uh, I have my haircut and we can do, uh, uh, a video. Yes, we'll do that next time. Maybe I can be in the studio and play around with something too. Ooh, that'd be beautiful. Yeah.

59:32
Okay we're gonna have to do that sooner rather than later. Alright, thanks a lot. Alright, that's a wrap for this episode of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer Achickwitbeatz. And once again I want to thank you for tuning in. I want to thank my special guest, Raybone Jones. And of course I'd like to thank my home station, Grand Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And I will see you in the new year so you know where to find me. Till next time, tune in, tell a friend, I'll see you then. Peace.