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

Special Guest: djkage

00:00
Hey, thank you for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I'm your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, coming to you from Kalamazoo, Michigan, halfway between Detroit and Chicago. And I’ve got a show lined up for you today that's got music industry news, instrumentals by me for your inspiration, and later, my special guest, djkage, will be coming to join me. So it's gonna be a great time. And so before I go ahead and drop this first beat, I gotta give a shout out to my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And with that,

00:29
Let's go.

[BEAT BREAK]

12:22
All right, I am back with the music biz brief. First up, Triller is courting creators through a new website called savemytiktoks.com, which offers to backup TikTok content and upload it to Triller. Users can connect their TikTok accounts, save their videos, and transition to Triller, though the process is more complex than advertised.

12:48
While Triller hopes to gain ground, many creators are steering audiences to establish platforms like Instagram or YouTube instead. Meanwhile, Triller faces challenges including declining stock prices, legal troubles, and its recent hire of a former TikTok executive as CEO. The January 19th TikTok ban deadline approaches, but its future still remains uncertain.

13:10
Next up, Anthropic has settled parts of a lawsuit from music publishers over alleged copyright infringement by its Claude AI model, accused of distributing song lyrics without permission. The agreement, approved by a federal judge, requires Anthropic to maintain guardrails against copyright violations in its AI training and to collaborate with music publishers to address potential issues. The publishers, including Universal Music Group and Concord, claim Anthropic used lyrics from over 500 protected songs without licenses.

13:40
A ruling on a requested injunction to bar Anthropic from training future models on protected lyrics is expected soon. Also, Warner Music Group has started 2025's music catalog sales with a major acquisition, buying the catalogs of Italo Disco label DWA Records and its publishing arm, Extravaganza. The deal includes iconic hits like Corona's 1995 classic, The Rhythm of the Night.

14:02
Warner plans to promote the catalog globally, highlighting opportunities for local genres like Italo Disco to find new life in the streaming era. Next, UK consumer spending on music subscriptions grew by 7.8% year-over-year in 2024, reaching around £2.02 billion, which is about $2.58 billion, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association, or ERA for short. This growth includes Spotify's price increases for premium tiers.

14:30
UK recorded music hit its highest ever annual revenue of £2.39 billion, which is about $3.05 billion, surpassing CD-era peaks, though it's still below 2001 levels when adjusted for inflation. Vinyl sales also saw a 6.2% increase while download revenues declined 3.2%. The ERA highlighted the growing dominance of digital subscriptions in driving the entertainment market's growth.

14:55
Also, the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) has launched the State of Live, which is a nationwide study to measure the economic impact and challenges of independent venues, promoters, performing arts centers, and festivals across the U.S. Open from January 7th to February 18th, the survey will contribute a national report and 50 state-specific reports set for release on June 23rd. The study aims to highlight the value of these spaces as cultural and community hubs to secure the needed recognition and support.

15:25
So I'll be sure to keep you posted on that when the information starts to roll out. All right, and Apple is kicking off 2025 with updates for independent artists and fitness enthusiasts. Apple Fitness Plus has added new music-focused workouts featuring tracks from Janet Jackson, Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay, and more, alongside fresh content like yoga, meditation, and celebrity-led time to walk sessions.

15:47
Meanwhile, Apple's Shazam platform has begun unveiling its predictions for rising artists across genres using its data-driven insights and editorial expertise. Last year, two-thirds of predicted artists made Apple Music's daily top 100 in 150 countries, highlighting Shazam's influence on breaking new talent. Alright, Burning Man 2025 faces uncertainty as organizers reveal a $14 million shortfall in funding needed to confirm this year's event.

16:14
The CEO attributed the gap to sluggish 2024 ticket sales and increased charitable donation targets. Despite cost-cutting measures, including staff layoffs, the nonprofit still needs significant philanthropic support. Ticket details for the August event, which typically draws 80,000 attendees, remained undecided as fundraising efforts continue. It kind of gives you an idea of the state of festivals if an event as big as Burning Man is suffering.

16:39
Alright next up, Spotify's new Partner Program touts enhanced monetization and growth opportunities for creators, but let's pause before celebrating. With Spotify's 640 million users, the platform's push into video podcasts, complete with ad-free options for premium users, might seem creator-friendly, yet it's a calculated move to compete with YouTube, the one platform known for paying artists fairly.

17:03
Helping Spotify corner the market risks further eroding fair compensation for creators as Spotify's payouts notoriously fall short. While this program promises flexibility and new revenue streams, the question remains will creators benefit or is Spotify simply expanding its control over our content at our expense? Not to mention, Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek just sold another $27.8 million worth of company shares on Wednesday, January 8th, keeping with the trend of hefty executive

17:33
stock dumping. In case you're wondering, he sold a whopping $568 million since his first sale in July of 2023. Alright, and finally, this last news story is kind of a word to the wise. Travis Scott, SZA, and Future are facing a copyright lawsuit from Roc Nation signed artist Victory Boyd, who claims their track Telekinesis copies her 2019 song, Like the Way It Sounds.

17:58
Boyd alleges her work was shared with Kanye West, who passed it on to Scott, leading to its incorporation into Telekinesis, a hit from Travis Scott's Utopia album. Despite being credited as a co-writer, Boyd asserts that she never authorized the song's release or use in an ad campaign by the AP Luxury Watch brand. She seeks legal action to halt further use and claims substantial infringement on her original work.

18:21
So with that being said, you know, make sure that when you're creating and collaborating that you have the proper agreements before you start to release something. In this particular case, she said she didn't want it used in the commercial. They did it anyway. So depending on how things play out, she might actually have a leg to stand on. But it's just a reminder, no matter how close you are with someone, you know, make sure that all the paperwork is in place before you move forward. All right, and that's a wrap for the music biz brief.

18:50
I'm going to take a quick pause for the cause and then I'll be back with my special guest, djkage. Keep it locked.

[BEAT BREAK]

28:37
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.

29:07
Thank you so much for tuning in to instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Chickwick Beats. And I'm excited to say that in the virtual building with me today, I have the one and only djkage, um, man, he does some of everything, DJ, producer, engineer, video director, you name it. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff, but, um, first of all, I want to say thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule to come and talk with me.

29:36
And if you could give the listeners like a little bit of background, you know, who is djkage, how you got involved with everything that you do. And where do we even get started without going through the whole bio? But honestly, like in elementary and high school, I started with the drums and music. And then while in high school, evolved into DJing and house parties, making mixtapes and selling them at my local job.

30:01
linked up with DJ Polo, who was a great mentor. And then I went to college. And then in college, the DJing is what paid my way through college and afforded me to be able to actually DJ not only at Ferris State where I went to school at, but Grand Valley Central. So I was like, you know, being able to headline at all these different schools. So that was a cool thing. But then when I graduated, oh, and during college is when I started to pick up engineering. So like, Brutal Loops came out, you know, so software was heavy. So being able to...

30:30
Have a studio without a studio being able to do it in your dorm room is what made that accessible and that was by having You know going to college. I got my first computer first computer first thing I put on is music engineering software So started up producing in college as well. But then when I came back home after school, I noticed that By being away, you know the scene and exploded here you know just far as like d12 is big and so that like the Detroit scene was bubbling up and

30:58
dreadnoughts and all this stuff. So I kind of had to build my name again as a DJ here because up there I could walk down the campus everybody, what up cage? I have no idea who that is, but I put my hand up say what up though, but then coming back here was totally different. It was like, you know, having to start all over again, but doing so. Then I put all my you know kind of

31:21
tools into my bag and while I was at school, I also was there for television digital media production. So that's where the video stuff comes in. So I'm just a multimedia school of all trades, you know, if it has buttons, that's my jam, right? So, and so then being able to put all that together, but we

31:41
As we may have discussed before, I'm not an in front of the camera or an on the mic type of person. I've always been a DJ who produces MCs, a producer who produces artists, or a videographer or a director who works with other artists. But being in front of the camera is always kind of a nerve wracking, even this conversation here, a little nerve-wracking kind of situation for me. But I'm so comfortable behind and being able to produce direct,

32:11
whatever it takes to do it. So then, like I said, when I came home, then opened up everything as a one-stop shop to everybody. So, you know, started working with artists and doing everything from producing their beats, then doing their engineering and recording, to then shooting their music video. So I could, you know, from an artist, one-stop shop, that's kind of what I became. So over the course of that, many projects have come up and we can start to get into all that. But that's basically how it all began and what I do.

32:41
story. First of all, I do want to say that that's really awesome to be able to do all those things and you know because a lot of times it's kind of hard to put things together on the artist side of it. So yeah, you got to find somebody for this, somebody for that. So the fact that you're offering so many things in one place is just phenomenal. So you know, tip my virtual hat to you for that. But so yeah, you talked about how you kind of got started in it. When do you think you first kind of

33:10
knew that music was going to be a part of what you do. Like.

33:14
you know, what were some of the musical influences that kind of drew you into the industry? Man, well, I grew up with just music was always in our family. You know, I have cousins and uncles and aunts, the Aminoraz who do African drumming. And so drumming was just always around me, African dance. So all of this was always a heavy influence. My dad used to have a turntable, not turntables, but he had a turntable. And my first memories of music was him.

33:44
and putting the record on a turntable and putting that needle on the record. And so I was so fascinated by that, that I would, I remember as a kid, just sitting at a turntable, going through my aunts, my uncles, all of their records that were just left behind at like my grandmother's house, let's say. And I would just sit there for hours, going through all these records that were before my time, just listening to everything. And I would just sit there doing that. And that happened just as a kid. And then who knew that...

34:10
You know, the technology kind of came about as I grew up with it. So things became available along the, you know, along the way. But even when it wasn't accessible, as it may not have been affordable or whatever at the time, things, creativity still came into play. So like my first the story about my first turntables is, I don't know if you remember those those triple triple. Everything was in one box. It had a turntable on the top. It had a radio. It had two cassette players in the middle.

34:40
like a box. So I had one of those and a friend of mine had one of those and we cannibalized them and took the turntables off the tops of them, bought a Radio Shack mixer that had the four channel up and down mixer and put that together as a first DJ set just to be able to get into it because of the stuff we had but we also had engineering capabilities. As a kid you always kind of opened stuff up and learned how it worked.

35:05
figuring that out, the two of us together, we were able to build our first turntable set from that. And that was Pauly Dog who helped me with that. But then he became a rapper and then I became kind of the DJ based off of creating the thing. And that was like the first thing and that was like pre high school, high school area. Wow. And man, I will say and I'm noticing, you know, it's kind of coming back a little bit. I really miss that era with the rapper-producer duos.

35:30
You know like that. Oh, yeah. It's lucky when you can when you can have those relationships And you know I'm not always you know even with no matter who's in the studio. I'm always gonna give you You know I'm not another person just you come in. I'm just gonna hit record you're done I stop and then okay have a good day I'm always gonna at least give you a piece of what I have if I hear something or you need something along the way or You ask something. I'm always here for you, but the DJ MC relationship I've been lucky to have a couple of those and one of those

36:00
Actually projects coming out right now is Grand Design 3 with Mike Phelps. And that's one of those where, you know, we sit in the studio and...

36:10
hash out beats. Sometimes I have beats that I'll create and they're just to me, they're the they're the starting, they're a starting block. That beat isn't something that's you know laid in stone and and in concrete. Sometimes we'll start with that as a foundation to break it down, change it, change the speed, change how it begins and it's all based on kind of what he's writing and stuff like that too. So it works both ways. What he's writing changes what I do in the beat and then what I do in the beat helps what he's doing you know writing. So yeah. True collaboration.

36:40
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's phenomenal. Yeah, okay, so like even when you're talking about building, you know, taking the turntables from different pieces to make something, I feel like that's kind of like the essence of where Hip Hop started. You know, just kind of making do with what you have and making it work so you can make something special. But I do know that you do more than Hip Hop.

37:04
As a team, I'm in Kalamazoo, so we're halfway between Detroit and Chicago. So a lot of times there was this club that had a team night. So a lot of times we'd get Detroit DJs down. So man, to see the legit competitions and stuff that would kind of pop off impromptu, I really loved that era. So can you talk a little bit about...

37:31
You know how you kind of dabble well not dabble, but you know do the electronic thing, too So I was lucky that as the DJ especially when I was in college

37:40
I was lucky that the era and the records that I was buying at the time and I'm one of those DJs that started as a DJ with the OPs was Jit and Chicago House and the mixing of the two together and Detroit House of course, I mean, of course, Detroit Techno and all that stuff. But Detroit Techno and Jit Music, all of this was happening as I was a DJ. So I was bumping DJ Assault. And of course, one of my hugest musical DJ influences that you asked earlier, you may have asked earlier was The Wizard.

38:10
radio. Listen Wizard was how I knew I wanted to be a DJ, Jeff Mills. But playing music was like, you know, the records that were being released was like by DJ Godfather, DJ Assault, all that stuff that was coming out of Detroit. Of course, the original Cybertron and all the stuff that we already had that I was, you know, lucky to get my hands on by going to the record shops. And so that was my foundation as a DJ. So then when it

38:39
coming into the 2000s, so Hip Hop is at its best, at its peak. So when it came to producing, and all your friends around you wanna be rappers, that's kinda where the Hip Hop side of the producing led, but I always had that techno rhythm in the back of my head. So at some point, I began this series called Jitz. Right now it's on Jitz 4. And it's, all my music is available digitally, streaming, and parts one through three,

39:09
were always available on these platforms. But as a DJ and as a DJ who started on vinyl, man, just, and as somebody who's always produced other artists and seen them have success with the projects that we've worked on, I've never necessarily been an artist myself. Of course, the collab projects were like, grand design was probably like the closest to it because there's an obvious relationship we're trying to project that here's a DJ, here's the rapper, but you know, I'm.

39:36
I talk with my hands, I don't speak, I don't rap, I don't do anything like that, so Phelps still gets the center stage on that. In Jitz, everything is usually always my production, so I still feel like a huge part of all of it, but when it comes to Jitz, it's something that I feel like I'm totally crafting. Even though when I have collaborations on it, it's still something I feel like I'm adding the pepper and the salt versus this other series I have, De-Imports.

40:02
which is me producing all the tracks. And between volumes one and three, I've worked with over a hundred Hip Hop artists and musicians in the city.

40:12
But even with that project, I feel like those songs are more their songs. I let, I send them a bunch of beats and let them pick whatever beat they like. Those albums are almost dictated in the beats on those songs and dictated kind of by what the artists decided to pick. Whereas Jitz is I'm crafting that and then picking, Hey, June slow. I got this one track that I have on this album that I'm working on. Would you like to feature on it versus, Hey, here's these tracks. Pick what you like. So.

40:37
There's a different relationship between like those kind of projects. So with Jitz 4, I'm totally, you know, that's me. I feel like that's my project as an artist myself. And then finally getting to be able to put it on wax with the help of Archer Records. And man, I'll tell you something about having an LP. I've been a DJ, you know, 20 plus.

41:01
And I've had music on every platform available. I've been lucky enough to be at Shari Bari and TechTroit, a lot of stages in Detroit, but nothing open doors or open relationships like until you get that LP, especially as a techno and a house DJ. Like having that album is like a stamp of approval here and that will get you in, or get you kicked out too, because you can produce a wack album and they'll be like, all right, yeah, thank you for coming. But man, if you really put your heart and soul in it.

41:30
And you put and putting and getting something physical like that is almost like that stamp to certain people, even though for me, I've always felt like I've always proven myself through just the events or the production and stuff like that. But man, you create something physical like that and it just changes parts of mine. So I found so I've been blessed to.

41:53
get a collaboration with Rub-A-Dub in the UK. So I have distribution in the UK with this record. But then when it comes to the US, I'm doing it all myself. So every time I'm traveling or I'm in another state, please believe I'm stopping at record stops and making relationships and asking them who is on the same wavelength with them. And I contact them and I've been able to, you know, see my album in over 20 stores in a couple of states.

42:20
It's moving along. So I'm extremely proud of it, as you can tell. You should be. That's incredible. Congratulations. I get what you're saying too, about, you know, actually having that LP, like being able to hold it in your hands. I feel like that gives people a different relationship with it. You know, even from back in the day, you know, going shopping, like to be reading the liner notes or something while you're listening to it, like.

42:45
And I know you were able to attach to it a little bit more. So yeah, what you're saying makes perfect sense. I have yet to actually do that. So yeah, I know that that's a lot of work, a lot of dedication that goes into that. So yeah, congratulations. You should be proud. But keep it on your bucket list because it is totally worth it. And then I was lucky enough to work with, I'm also a semi art collector. I mean, it's also based with the art that I collect is usually people who are artists.

43:13
in other forms as well. So like looking in my room right now, I have Sheefy McFly who is great, but he's also multimedia. I also have his LPs on the wall and some of the other stuff he's created, but then like Loki who is a rapper, but then also does art and I've got some of his art up here and uh.

43:31
waffles up in here. So when they came to crafting the cover for Jitz 4, Escada Gordon was somebody that Dark Lord Escada, I think he goes by, so if you get a chance to look him up online. I shot him up especially because since I've been doing at least since Jitz 2 to 4, he's been doing the covers for me. And Blacksmith, another artist who was in Coldman Young,

43:57
he told me a story. He went to his cousin's house and his cousin had the album. And he was like, what? You got the album? And his cousin didn't even know that Blacksmith was on the album. So his cousin didn't know his cousin was on the album. And then he asked his cousin, well, uh...

44:15
what made you get it? He said, Oh, I really liked the album cover. And he ended up loving the album too, but that's what caught his eye was the, uh, the album cover to get it. And he didn't even know his cousin was on the album. So, but it was crazy how it still drew it, you know, still drew it. And he still ended up with it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it really is an art form in itself. Um, you know, especially when it can kind of convey the vibe of, you know, what's to come. So yeah, I do remember, man, I really miss like, I mean, I know we still got like record stores, but, you know,

44:45
where you could go, they had the records, they had the CDs, they had the tapes, what do you call those, little Maxi singles or whatever. Yep. Like yeah, that was a special era. But yeah, something about being able to connect with it, holding the physical in your hands and admire it. And of course, actually listening to vinyl, the surface noise is just a beautiful thing. That adds the texture. It does, texture, that's it. Even with...

45:12
Because as a DJ today, I've obviously moved, and I still do LP sets every blue moon, but I've obviously moved into the digital era. So I have controllers and especially when doing sets with multiple DJs, it's so easy to do your hour, bring a controller in and take your controller out. But so I've moved to the digital form, but what did you just say? Cause I was reminding me of- You know, about the texture of the vinyl. Oh, right. So even with the-

45:42
So as a DJ, I'm in digital form, but I still play a lot of like, JIT music and techno from that era. Cause it's still some of the hottest stuff today on the dance floor. I haven't repurchased the MP3s. I've really just recorded the albums, my original albums that I had. And maybe one or two of them had a skip and I had to probably like fix that post. But man, something about still having that crackle. So when I DJ and I play those songs, I still have the crackle and everything on it, even though I'm in digital form.

46:12
Nice. Yeah. So, okay, you did mention the ease of, you know, doing digital, especially, you know, DJing with multiple people. Yeah. But what would you say your favorite thing is about, like, DJing with the actual vinyl when you do get to do it every now and then? Well, it is, you really have, there's a different attention. There's a, see with...

46:39
Man, with digital, you can almost mix anything with anything these days. It doesn't matter the tempo, the original tempo of anything, everything can be matched, whether you use sync button or not. You can still, if you know your math, you can still match a 160 with a 80, and then being able to take the stems and all that stuff. And so you can almost create anything out of anything, but when it comes to vinyl, you really have to know, you have to know beat matching. There's just a different.

47:08
a different level of education to really pull off a good set. So it pulls from a different part of your brain. And so you really, you know, you pay more attention to the beat matching, to the vibes, to how things interact, how one track interacts with the other versus now it doesn't matter because you could take something out before you put it together and before the audience hears it, you know, pre mix it.

47:30
So it doesn't matter what the two songs are. You can be so creative that way, but, and it's not like it was harder, but it created a different kind of creativity.

47:39
that made you have to be more creative, I guess, because it's a little bit harder and you don't, it's not the ease of a, you know, one button and hitting a couple of things. But I do love the digital era because you can almost, you know, the creativity is limitless, even though some people will put the absolute wrong things together. You see online, people are putting like, some of the stuff, I don't wanna say name of things, cause you know, but yeah, but the vibe of that, the,

48:10
It's harder to explain, but it pulls from a different creativity, man. Yeah. And yeah, you gotta know your stuff. And so having those four crates, that's what you start with back in the day. Doing a party, you needed a minimum of four crates of LPs and a couple of them Hip Hop and a couple of them house and man, you could do your thing. Wow. Yeah, okay. That makes sense. It's almost like it's triggering a different part of your brain, that you gotta kind of snap into action.

48:38
Yeah, do you know exactly what you mean about putting the wrong stuff together? I feel like I see a lot of that. Yeah. I get kind of mad at the algorithm. Like, Hey, what made you think I wanted to see that? But, and the fact that people are doing that there. And that's the other thing too, with vinyl and even what you get from even digital DJs, but the right DJs is that they curate their own lists. They're not using a lot of people who are coming up and.

49:05
haven't had the opportunity to even maybe they're new and they haven't had the opportunity to curate their list yet but they're using some kind of service and everything is at their fingertips and therefore because everything's at their fingertips they're not curating they're just playing kind of even if not what's right in front of them maybe just the top 40 then and we're already already hearing that so there's nothing you know

49:29
make it memorable. Yeah, nothing special. Then they may be good at beat matching and putting those songs together and carrying a tune, but it's something different when somebody's creating and curating an experience and able to pull stuff from any era and have it still surprise people. Right. Yeah, that makes sense.

49:56
So, all right, you know, we talked a little bit about the DJ and the producing. Can you tell us a little bit about when you do your video directing? Kind of how you, I guess, maybe find your inspiration or present ideas to the artists that you're filming? Yeah, it always, it's a collaborative effort. Sometimes you have artists that have absolutely no idea what they want to do. They just send you the song and say, hey, what do you think? And then you say, hey, well, what's your budget?

50:26
It's not always about budget, but sometimes for me, one of the first questions I ask is also think of what do you have access to? Like you may have an aunt or an uncle who has a store, you may have a mechanic somewhere that you have a relationship with or a barber at a barber shop. So you try to find stuff like that first, especially if you want to be on a location or something or if you feel like that. But you always want to find out just what you have in your...

50:53
What do you just have access to that you wouldn't have to pay for right away? You know, what can we do with that? Sometimes that's the way to go. Sometimes a song will hit you and you say, okay, all I need is a black room and a white light, you know, artists sitting here and it's a mood, right? But, and then sometimes the artist has an absolute clear vision of what it is they want to do for every scene and where they want to be or, or just it's a location.

51:18
hey, we're having a party, just come to this party and make sure that you capture good stuff and make a good video out of what we have and have live at this event. That way it's alive and the video feels, you know, nothing made up, but actually what we do. So it comes from many different angles and you could attack it many different ways. And those all come from the collaborative relationships with the artists and how they wanna do it or, you know. Okay, I find that fascinating.

51:47
I'm one of those people that, you know, I believe that that's an art form in itself. And that's never anything that's been a strong suit of mine. So like anytime I watch it, I'm always kind of, you know, curious. Like, man, I wonder how they came up with that. That's so perfect for this song. So that's really interesting to hear. Yeah, because just like we were talking about cannibalizing those turntables to create some turntables to be able to make something. Okay, we want to do a video. And sometimes, you know,

52:16
They got me there, but that's what we could do. But I'm not just gonna say, okay, we're here and we're on a porch. We'll look around based on the song. We'll try to at least find stuff, like I said, that's accessible, whether it's stuff that they have access to, or stuff that's just in the city, iconic spots in the city. But then a lot of people use those. So you try to find what I like also is like buildings with textures or certain lighting or just...

52:43
something that has a look to it that's not the obvious. Everybody uses the fist. Everybody uses the spirit of Detroit, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So you try to just find other elements of Detroit. And it ends up working, especially if you've lived in the city, you can kind of come up with a lot of these things. But it gives you also an opportunity to look around and explore your city more.

53:02
find those elements and I've found things along the way that I never even that I may have driven past a hundred times but until you're like really looking on that street and go oh I didn't know that statue was there and looked like that right I mean just Bella alone I found a whole bunch of stuff that I had no idea was there and I've been going there my whole life you know but wow so it takes being open yeah just kind of noticing you know the things around you you know that's really dope

53:27
So you don't have to have a huge budget to make it happen, but sometimes that's what lends to the creativity is, okay, well, you know, I'd rather be in a Lamborghini. I had one artist tell me one time, hey, where's the, cause you know, he paid a certain fee to have me there and bring the lights and everything. But then he was wondering, where were the cars and the women in the jewelry? I go, bro. What? Like, as if I had a trailer of a car. Right. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Like, bro, like, first of all,

53:57
Usually that lifestyle, you know, you portrayed if you actually have it, but if you want to fake it till you make it, you know. I can tell you a place where to rent it, I can tell you a place where to hire talent for this and that, but man, it was so crazy when he was like, well, when are you bringing the cars and all that stuff? Bro, that's not exactly how it works.

54:24
Yeah, I don't even know how I would have responded. Like, just mouth agape staring like, are you serious right now? Wow. Yeah, it's funny. Well, you know, I have Photoshop, so I mean, we can... And that's the cool part too, is that talking about growing up with the technology, like even though I graduated years ago, but things have changed and progressed so much since then, you don't stop with that, even that knowledge that you gain.

54:52
And even at school, it only teaches you so much to a degree. For me, it was like just teaching you how to learn and how to, and a lot of other things too, but how to continually just do it on your own and especially working in technology, there's a lot of doing it on your own cause you have to stay on top of it and sometimes these things aren't accessible to you. Sometimes there's a piece of gear out and equipment out that is in your wheelhouse, but it costs a hundred thousand dollars and you're like, well, I think the only way to practice.

55:22
get on that is to actually own that and that may not be, obviously, you know, a lot of that time isn't accessible, but I've been also blessed that in my career, I worked for a corporation for 16 years and then started my own business. And then I was lucky enough to turn an employer into a client. So in those situations, I absolutely I've built

55:46
a couple streaming studios for a couple of, cause that's the other thing. So besides the videography also, you know, I'm getting into the streaming world. I built streaming studios for automotive companies. I probably can't say the name at the moment, but for automotive companies and then when they have their events or streaming broadcasts that they do for internal broadcasting and training, I would be the tech, the AV tech that comes in and, and or AV director that directs the room.

56:13
and they'll usually have a producer and a writer and all that stuff, but I just have to take care of all the tech and the people who are running the tech with me. And in those cases, I've been blessed to still stay a part of the current technology and the more expensive pieces of gear and getting my hands on that stuff by, you know, having cool clients every now and then. But you know, yeah, so that's a really cool thing. But the bummer part of that, which is why I'm still, I'm trying to dip in and out of it is that

56:41
You sign NDAs, you're not really allowed to, you know, I Instagram all my gigs and all my projects that are coming in, my personal video projects, but that kind of stuff, we're not allowed to share, talk about it, you know, so it's as much as I would like to. It's harder to really promote that stuff. But that stuff and that industry kind of just works with it, with within and it's word of mouth. So that's kind of how I build with that. But man, I am lucky enough to be a part of that stuff, too.

57:11
That's so great. Yeah, I get that. That's gotta be hard when you just kind of want to tell everybody guys guys Look who I'm working with Right, you can't. You can't even show it. You know, you can't show the vehicle or nothing like that. So it's all a secret Right. Yeah, those NDAs Yup But alright, I'm looking, man, time was going so quickly. So I gotta offer again You know, I'd love to have you come back for a part two sometime

57:39
Yeah, because I got a bunch of projects getting ready to drop right before the summer, just real quick off the top of my head if I could shout them out or couple them out. Absolutely. Now I can think of. So be on the lookout for Grand Design 3. That's basically, and most of these, obviously I've produced all the tracks on all these, but something about that Grand Design 3, like I said, is a more personal relationship and how we craft that project and the way we build that. And so Grand Design 3 with Mike Phelps, be on the lookout for that. But the E-Rich Finesse.

58:08
Finesse Music, Fidel Cass, oh yeah that's another cat that I've been working with since high school. Be on the lookout for the third album we got coming out called El Jefe. I've got a special project or a couple singles with Boog Brown. Oh yeah, wonderful peoples. Alexis Alon, got a whole project with her getting ready to drop and I know I'm probably forgetting some stuff but man that's

58:38
Go just check out everything djkage, all one word that you can check out. I already have streaming on all the platforms. And if you go to youtube.com forward slash djkage, you'll see all my visuals and you can get access to all my musical projects through there as well. So just try to check that stuff out if you can. Hey, that's what's up. Thank you so much. And everybody, please make sure that you check him out. Follow him everywhere you find him.

59:08
And yeah, I can't wait to do this again. This was great. Man, Achickwitbeatz. It's always a pleasure. And I look forward to the next time. And continue your success in everything that you do and continue to do. Like I said, I've been able to hear some of your previous interviews. The one with D.S.Sense was awesome. She's good people as well. So just continue to keep doing what you're doing. And I wish you much success as well.

59:30
Thank you. All right. That's a wrap for this episode of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz. Once again, I'd like to thank you for tuning in. I'd like to thank my special guest, djkage, for coming on and sharing his wisdom and information and knowledge. Of course, I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Great shows going on there. Make sure that you check out granderradio.com. All right. Until next time, you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend and I'll see you then. Peace.