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.
Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube Audiomack & SoundCloud, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Download the Grander Media app to listen to Grander Radio on the go.

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

00:02
Hey, thank you for tuning in to Instrumental Intel. I'm your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz, and I have a special episode for you today. I am featuring some conversations that I've had with radio station owners, DJ Milk D, owner of Yurrrp Radio, Doug Sims, AKA DJ Metro, owner of Grander Radio, and Fabian James, co-owner, along with Tigmatic Whitaker, of Going In Radio.

00:28
So it's going to be a great time. I'm excited to be bringing this episode to you. And before I go ahead and get started, I want to give a shout out to my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And then I'm going to take a quick pause for the cause and then we'll dive right on in. Keep it locked. 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,

00:57
vlogs, 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. I'm here in the virtual building with the one, the only DJ Milk D.

01:21
I've had the pleasure of having you on the previous show, Music Marvels. But now that you're here, if you could just give a little bit of a background of who you are and how you got into music the way that you are now. Awesome. Well, thank you for having me back first and foremost. Well, of course, I'm DJ Milk D. I live in Richmond, Virginia, originally from South Jersey.

01:51
So once was a northerner, now a southerner. Fell in love with music at a very young age. Thanks to my big brother, Derek, I call Double D, first introduced me to music. As far as DJing is concerned. I always had an ear for music, but the DJing is what changed it all.

02:19
as well as break dancing because I was also big into break dancing because I like to dance and I think that's what kind of is cool because those who know me I just don't stand there as a DJ. I'm always dancing and moving as I'm DJing. So that all comes from when I was younger, break dancing.

02:48
thinking I was Michael Jackson mixed with Prince. Started actually my own company in 2018 called Bourgeois Entertainment LLC. My last name is Bourgeois. So I said, hey, you know, it has a good twist, even though it's hard to spell or pronounce, I should say. Maybe when I was younger, it was hard to spell, but

03:18
The pronunciation is always a conversation piece. And I said, Hey, I'm going to make this the name for my traveling DJ company. So back in 2018, I got my LLC and I've had my foot on the gas ever since. Um, started DJing when I was 11. Of course, uh, life happens and you kind of stray away from it.

03:47
But I picked it back up in 2018 and like I said, I haven't stopped. When the pandemic hit, I was DJing online with another radio station and that's when my brother and sister-in-law was like, hey Darrell, know, we can do this or you can do this. And we started Yurrrp Radio, which is

04:16
Y-U, three Rs, and a P, radio.com. Our radio station, in my opinion, is very unique. There's so many internet radio stations out there, but I feel like we're different because of the wide variety of music that we have. It's a 24-7 radio station.

04:45
The genres is so wide. It's not just, you know, R &B or rock and roll or hip hop. It's everything. And I feel like music you just don't hear anymore, you would hear on my radio station. So for the listeners out there, if you've not tuned in to your radio,

05:15
I hate to say you're missing out, but you have an opportunity now to go and check it out. Matter of fact, you know, took what beats you tuned into the radio station. I'm going to interview you now. What do you think of dirtradio.com? I love it. Mainly for the reasons that you express. One of my favorite things, though, one I love also when you, you know,

05:44
have a chime in and talk, feel like I'm actually there with you and not just like tune in online. But yeah, one of my favorite things is I guess the way that you blend songs, like you can see the connection and your transitions make sense. So it's not like it's different enough to be unpredictable, but then, you know, like as soon as you get into it, I'm like, ah, I see what he did there.

06:12
Okay, that's connected because of this and this person used to work with this person. So yeah, like you have an art to it. And yeah, that's my favorite thing about tuning in. So yeah, I love how eclectic it is. And you can tell that you know your stuff by how you blend. Oh, thank you so much. Means a lot to me. I try my best to reach every listener.

06:41
You know, because there's an option for people to message me or us to the studio. And I try to, you know, accommodate everyone who's tuned in. I do have my favorite genres, but I try to relate to everyone. So thank you for sharing. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, with that being said, could you talk a little bit about, and I don't mean like give away your trade secrets or anything like that. You can keep that.

07:11
tucked away, but you know, a little bit to the art and how you approach what you're going to play. Besides the audience, which, you know, I can't see, you know, like when I'm DJing, you know, a corporate event or wedding or even when I'm on Carnival Cruise Line in the studio, I can't see one, of course. So, you know, when people

07:39
hit me up and say, hey, this is so and so from Louisiana. You know, I'm like, OK, I got to play some music from down south. It might be Lil Wayne or it might be some Zyko, you know, something like that. If somebody says, I'm from Miami, you know, I'm thinking, you know, like Khaled and, you know, things like that, you know, some Brayton.

08:09
Um, but off of that, I go about how I'm feeling. So, you know, even going to work in the morning or coming home in the evening, um, however I'm feeling at that moment is what I play in the car. So it's the same, uh, when it comes to the radio station, um, I will create a playlist, um, even

08:37
for like a wedding, you know, I go through the the regular routine, the traditional formalities of a wedding, but then when reception takes place, I basically can play what I want, but I also kind of play like how I'm feeling. maybe that's a bad example about a wedding reception on how I'm feeling. So I read the crowd. So I'm gonna go back to

09:07
the car and things like that because for a wedding reception you do have to read the crowd to see who's out there. But like you like hip hop. I like hip hop too. That was my first love. I'll say okay. You hear the same stuff on the radio. No knock. Drakes and those artists out there or

09:36
Even R&B, know, nothing against Beyonce or whoever. I try to play something you just don't hear anymore and then I try to balance it out if that makes sense. I might play some Run-DMC but then I may come back with like some, you know, like Drake like I mentioned or...

10:04
I may play a little Jill Scott, you know, and then I may come with some J Cole or some Beyonce or something. I just try to be different, but also I balance it on how I'm feeling when I'm DJing or when I'm in a car. So yeah, just the vibe I'm feeling.

10:34
Now today's show was about Prince. So Prince has so much music. I was feeling, you know, in the beginning, just like some mellow Prince. And then I picked it up with some erotic city and things like that, you know, just on what I'm feeling, you know? Yeah. And so, yeah, I think

11:03
Can't help but wonder if that's why your sets resonate with so many people because you're playing how you're feeling. So you've still got this authenticity about what you're doing, even playing the mainstream stuff and knowing when to do it and then to balance it out with something else. Yeah, I gotta say, I imagine that that's why your sets resonate so well.

11:29
Thank you. Yes. Balance is so important. When you're playing music, you don't want to go way left and not bring it back to the middle before you get to the right, for example. I know a couple of weeks ago, I played a lot of hip hop, but I tried to play some 70s, know, some Sugar Hill. I went into some 80s, know, Beastie Boys.

11:59
You know, and I went into like some biggie in the 90s. But I stayed hip hop for a while. Then I went back to the 80s. I think you were on one time. I played like light. I'm a big MC like that. know, Oh, yeah. Some boogie down. Yeah, I'm a big KRS-One fan. You know, oh my gosh, Criminal Minded. Oh, man.

12:28
And then recently, you know, I'm just thinking about DJ Red Alert. He was following him on Instagram and, you know, stuff like that. He was talking and it just made me go back and I'm thinking about, you know, DJ Red Alert when he was young, you know, he was bad, man. Yeah, you got me thinking. Oh, you got me thinking about those classic hip hop tunes. Oh my gosh,

12:58
They just don't make music like that anymore. They don't. I, um, you know, I confess recently that, you know, some people are like, oh, you know, what do you think about this new stuff? And I do check it out from time to time. Cause you know, I gotta be aware. You gotta see what people vibe into and whatnot. But 90 % of the time it's either in the eighties or nineties in my car. Like that's just.

13:24
That's what I gravitate towards. I will check out some new stuff. Sometimes a little early 2000s or whatnot. But yeah, that era was definitely something special. And one thing that I really appreciate about it now is because I was so young coming up through some of that stuff that I knew it and I liked it. But listening back on it now with a better awareness of the world,

13:50
You know, and kind of getting to relive that stuff, but have a deeper understanding now that I'm older and you know, like, man, yeah, that era was just something else. I'm partial to it too. Fire. Yes. And see, yeah, I have a daughter that's, um, 26 and it's something that's 23 and you know, they can't relate. Um, I'd be telling them, said, guys, man, this is X, Y, and Z. he was like, okay, dad, you know, but.

14:19
Man, this generation wouldn't be where it's at if wasn't for those pioneers, even though they sound nothing alike. You know, some of this stuff gives me a headache. you know, as a DJ, I mentioned earlier, you have to reach a crowd, which means, for those who don't know what means, is you know your crowd.

14:46
You can't play your favorites and expect to be actually DJ again, you know, this word of mouth can make you or break you. So, you you got to, you got to read the crowd, know your crowd. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I've actually been to events where, and I don't remember the specific songs, but I mean, he was playing something that had the dance floor just packed, you know, like one of those

15:15
hustle type songs, I can't remember what was popular at that time, and immediately went to a slow song. I've never seen the dance floor clear out so quickly. And it's like, yeah, that's a good song, but maybe everybody doesn't want to hear that right now. So yeah, that's a really bad time. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I did remember who that DJ was and I started avoiding events.

15:44
Yeah, because it can put a bad taste in your mouth, you know. I have a wedding to DJ June 1st and how I got this job is, know, the person, the father, you know, knew me from a previous job, but he contacted me not just because he knew me, but he knew of my style.

16:11
And he said when he got married, the DJ was lousy. He was like a robot. He had no energy, no life. says, no, I see your videos and how you're bringing all this energy and your variety of music. And he said, I told my wife, we got to hire Milt D for our daughter's wedding. So here we are, you know, June 1st, I'm doing that wedding and,

16:41
I'm hoping to, uh, you know, rock it because whomever is there can possibly ask you down the road to do their event. might not be a wedding. could be an anniversary or corporate party or something. So, you know, word of mouth, like I said, is crucial to kill you or make you. Yeah. So, you know, with that being said.

17:07
He's witnessed you seeing your videos and all that. And was like, yes, we have to hire him. What, I guess, maybe tidbit of information would you give to anybody listening that, you know, might be getting ready to be a DJ or just starting off? But, you know, I guess about being brave enough to be your true self and let your light shine when you're doing what you do. Well, you just said something really key, you know, being yourself.

17:38
Um, you're trying to be a DJ or you are a DJ because you love music or you love to entertain. So why not try to give your best shot on both of those? Meaning, know, show your energy, show your love for the music and for your craft, and

18:05
Don't be afraid to be yourself. First and foremost, when you look in the mirror, you see you. Don't look in the mirror and pretend you're someone else. I stay in my lane. So be the best version of yourself. I have in the virtual building with me today, Doug Sims, AKA DJ Metro.

18:34
I mean, anybody that's been listening knows that, you know, anytime I shout out, say Grander radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Well, this is the man behind it. So yeah, I'd like to, first of all, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to come chat with me. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Give people a little taste of who Doug Sims AKA DJ Metro is and how you got into music and some of other things that you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh,

19:04
I consider myself a worldwide kind of guy. You know, I try to pick up on this, pick up on that. I do a little bit of this as they say and a little bit of that, right? You know? Musically, music has been in my blood, you know, since I was a kid. I mean, I started making mixtapes with the cassettes years ago. You know, I was 12 years old selling mixtapes or whatever the case is. Everything from

19:34
breaking down radios, putting radios back together. Every album that came through the house, I read all the liner notes while I'm listening to the music. I listened to the full album and definitely reading the liner notes, getting to know who all the producers were, arrangers, and of course the artists themselves. But yeah, going back to selling the tapes and then, you know, ultimately doing basement parties and...

20:01
high school parties and things of that nature. So, you know, I've been just been listening to music all my days and, you know, even DJ it overseas. was overseas for three years and always played music over there and DJ'd at different clubs or what have you. So music has just been, it's been a comfort zone. Let me say it like that. So I've always been attached to music no matter what. Love it. So, okay.

20:27
You mentioned you were DJing overseas for like three years while you were over there. What would you say would be one of the most, I guess, distinctive differences that's kind of stuck with you when you recall that timeframe? You know, I would say overseas, the crowd, they really love heavy beats. You know, at that time it was, was beat-driven and,

20:52
You know, of course you had like, just think about the sounds of Soul to Soul and Lisa Stansfield and people like that. The beats were the driving force of the music. You know, so Run DMC, you know, that was, I had such a great time over there in Germany. Run DMC album came out with that Raising Hell album. And when I tell you I had so much fun and that Raisin Hail album just turnt up the club every time.

21:22
See now I've always kind of had this feeling that it was a good thing that I was born when I was born because during that era, like I know I probably would have been a hot mess at the club all the time. Like man, the music was just top tier. Yeah. You know, back, back there. mean, music is music is great now, but it's just something around that late eighties, early nineties kind of music that just, I mean, it's.

21:52
It separated itself from all the other years. You know what I mean? Yeah. And everything had energy. Like, even the quote unquote slow songs still had something for you to groove to. I, it was just, yeah, what a time to be alive. Exactly. Exactly. And people still reminisce over, you know, the nineties as far as hip hop is concerned. You know, that's the golden era right there. I don't think there's ever going to be another era to surpass that era right there.

22:22
No, not at all. And I'll tell people all the time, especially when people complain about mainstream these days. like, I couldn't even tell you, it still the 90s in my car. And I'm riding half the time. I'm playing 90s hip hop. Right. Yeah. So, you know, that brings me back to something else that you said about listening to the music, looking at the liner notes, because that was one of the things I used to love to do. You know, we didn't have the internet to scroll while we were doing all this stuff. So that was a source of entertainment.

22:52
Yeah, I feel like that's kind of a lost art. Mean, you can find the information online, but it's not really the same as holding it in your hands. Right. Right. And, know, reading the liner notes, it acclimated me, I guess, word to say to this project has this particular producer and musician, then two albums later, you see them on somebody else's album.

23:20
And doing the arrangements and so forth and so on I mean you can think about producers of course you have the great Quincy Jones You know he did everything but you have Bernard Wright who's another one then you go to the jazz arena you have–I'm sorry Bernard Wright did his thing, but he's also a accomplished jazz musician And he's on everybody's jazz stuff and then you have Patrice Rushen. That's another one She did so much work on everybody else's you know stuff

23:49
So it's just, when you read the liner notes and you get to know all these different musicians, Paul Jackson Jr. Now he's a jazz guy, but there is not a jazz album that came out that he wasn't on, that he wasn't a part of. Yeah, that's incredible. you know, cause there were a lot of names that I had kind of gotten introduced to that same way. one of them,

24:15
I not to mention that this time since he's going through so many legal issues. I remember, you know, like Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, names, the way throughout there. And yeah, so then it's like, okay, well, this person has this sound. That's when I started to kind of pick that out. I had no idea that production would be a path that I would take one day. Right. But, you know, just kind of studying who was doing what and how they were making the sounds was just so interesting. So.

24:42
I think with your connection to music like that, how do you think it shapes when you DJ or how you select the songs that you choose, depending on the audience? I know it kind of varies, but. Yeah, it depends on the audience. know, it depends on the timeframe of the season as well. You know, I think that summertime calls for a different sound, you know, than a wintertime.

25:11
And you know, summertime is, is, is heavy beats flowing, you know, smoothed out and you can, like to blend R and B with the hip hop, you know, so some hip hop is just a little bit too hip hop for me. know what I mean? So one, this, this is the type of hip hop that I like today. If you think about Rick Ross, his music is so crazy. It's great.

25:41
His, but it's so smooth. know what I mean? I love Rick Ross's music when it comes to hip hop. Um, even, even future future has some great music, you know? Um, so I just like, and I, I just love blending the two together. Gotcha. Yeah. I feel like, especially in that area, uh, era that we were talking about earlier, there was a lot of blending. mean, I guess it still happens today.

26:09
But not so much. feel like a lot of the singers kind of sound like they rapping and a lot of the rappers kind of sound, but like in that era back in the day, you know, it's still kind of distinct, but it worked together so well. Right. Right. I remember the first time and I can't remember who was the first artist to do it, but when rap was first introduced to hip hop.

26:32
You know, you would sing the R&B song and then all of a sudden somebody would start rapping over it. I was like, whoa, now you can't get away from it. You know? Yeah. Yeah. So that was whoever thought about that transition was a genius. because it definitely stuck. You know, like, yeah, that was another thing I really liked about that era. So.

26:58
You know, like every R&B song that was at least a single typically had a rap verse on it. Right. Exactly. Or, you know, lot of rap songs had singers on the hooks. So, yeah, it was always like a nice blend. And, you know, that's actually one of my favorite things to do when I do actually create is to kind of do both and don't consider myself a singer by any means. Right. But that's not going to stop me from doing it, especially if I hear a melody in my head. Exactly. Exactly.

27:28
So yeah, um, especially as a DJ, have so much respect for DJs because personally, as much as I love music, I know that I couldn't DJ because I wouldn't care about reading the crowd and all the little nuances that y'all got to do. So yeah, can you talk a little bit of like what that's like for you? Um, you know, how you're able to, read what's going on and adjust and adapt and keep the people vibing. Well, you know, you, you definitely have to see what.

27:58
moves them. You know what I mean? So let's say you're, there's a transition period. You may start off slow, meaning not slow music, but more mid-tempo kind of things. And you see how the crowd reacts to that. And then you may pick up the pace a little bit or what have you. And then you kind of go back and forth between R and B and hip hop, old school hip hop, old school R and B.

28:23
And just try to feel in the beginning what the crowd is picking up on. And if they're picking up on that old school and some of that new school hip hop, oh, that's, that's the way you run it then. Because you can play, you can play a new cut today and you can rock it and rock it and rock it. But if you come back with a banger of an old school joint, oh, they're going to just jump up. It just puts me in the mind of, of, of that song, jump around, jump, jump, jump around, you know?

28:50
And so when you throw an old school joint in there, that was a banger. The crowd is going to definitely get hype, you know, and you just kind of, you just kind of read it that way. That's the way I read it anyway. Okay. That makes sense. Um, you know, I've been to, I guess, occasions or events to where sometimes you could tell that, know, they weren't necessarily reading the room, but they probably had a playlist in mind.

29:14
So, you know, you see everybody out there kind of hustling, stepping, and then all of a sudden the slow song comes on. The crowd just clears out. yeah. Yeah. And that's one thing that a good DJ will do. He will forget that playlist. You know what I mean? Just, forget it. A lot of times you have to, I mean, you can have your playlist, but a lot of times what I like to do, I just come off the top of my head because I can hear a song and then I can hear a song that'd go really great with it.

29:44
that'll move the crowd. And then I'll just bring it in and so forth and so on. And just keep it going that way. But it's okay to have a playlist. I just don't like having it right there in front of me trying to use it. You know what I mean? Yeah, that makes sense. It's just a reference, you know, to get to a certain point. Because if I'm trying to go from 106 beats per minute and I need to get up to 120 something, then I can see what all music fits in.

30:14
I like to work within a 10 point range. So if I can go from 110 to 120, I can blend those in with no issue. saying that the song transition and the pitch won't be so far off.

30:36
That is one of my biggest pet peeves. Yeah, you know, sometimes you might be scrolling social media and feel like have all these fire emojis under like, OK, here, that's the wrong pitch. Right. Yeah. I was like, maybe it's just me. So it's funny that you say that. Thank you for confirming that. I'm not just in my head about I hate that so much. Yes. So, OK, you know, you've.

31:03
at all this experience with DJing, exactly what led you to begin Grander Radio and doing your own thing. the radio thing, I was actually in radio for several years. And while I was working at a radio station, I told the owner, said, hey, I'm going to go ahead and start my own online radio station. And he was okay with it. He didn't give me any grief or anything. He was like, okay, cool. That's fine.

31:33
And, um, so I let them know and I went ahead and I started doing it. And, you know, my genre that I listen to more so these days is R and B, Neo Soul and things of that nature. So my biggest show at the time was called Liquid Lounge Radio. I mean, anybody that fit in the genre of Neo Soul, of course, the R and B, that's what I played. And I still play that, that show still goes on today.

32:01
But I started it because I wanted to introduce, got this, I really got tired of hearing people say or sing all this song was Geo Scott, Erica Badu. I'm like, there are so many artists out here that fit into a neo soul or smooth groove kind of sound. So I wanted to introduce them to a lot.

32:29
of different artists that are out there that are doing really great and putting out great music and great sounds. Awesome. Yeah. Shout out to the show that you're doing on the other station. Cause yeah, you gave me my first on air, uh, radio interview. Oh yeah. Cool. Yeah. had done like some, some internet radio before, but yeah, that was my first time being on air. So it's kind of fun to be able to flip the script this time.

32:55
Right. Question you about what you got going on. Yeah. So that's pretty much how I got into it. just, you know, at the station, you know, they have a format that you kind of have to play at radio stations, but I wanted to introduce other music because like I say, being overseas for three years and all this music that's underground and untapped and not mainstream.

33:23
but there's some awesome music out there. mean, it's a lot of people there just now getting hip to like Eric Roberson. Eric Roberson is the number one independent artist out there and people are just now getting used to him, but he's been out there for years. Yeah. You know, so, I mean, you you can look at Raphael Sadiq. That's another guy that is a super producer that doesn't get enough credit, but he's a super producer, but he puts out crazy, awesome albums.

33:51
and songs and collaborates with everybody and writes for everybody. know, and regular radio plays its top radio cuts, if you will, whatever they're pushing on radio. But going back to my album days when I was younger, there are so many songs that didn't make radio that were bangers. You know what I mean? Yeah. Straight banger. So so listening to a whole album or trying to push a different

34:20
song is more so what I like to do introduce the audience to, Hey, this is an awesome song. It's like Wayne Brady. People have never heard a few cuts by Wayne Brady. Wayne Brady can jam. Cause what, um, I know I used to watch who's line like way back and he was always singing on there. So yeah, like

34:47
Right. It sense. Like when's the album dropping? Cause yeah, they never let him get through an episode without singing. Without singing it. Now, and, and, and, and, okay. Remember Tommy Davidson from In Living Color. And he was, he was always doing that. The man is a jazz artist. He has two jazz albums out right now. A lot of people wouldn't know that though, cause he's not in the mainstream, but

35:16
Those are the people that I go for because they put out awesome music. Yeah. I think what you're doing with that is so important, uh, primarily because I'd say I'm an old millennial and Gen X. was an era where we didn't have to dig that hard to find stuff. Right. If it wasn't on the radio or whatever the case may be, when your cousin came to visit, they brought you tapes like.

35:44
We were used to good stuff just coming at us. And I think that that's why a lot of times we're the group that complains about mainstream because now we got to go find it. We got to work harder than we had to like in the nineties and whatnot. So, right. Yeah. I think what you're doing is really important because that mindset is still there. Even though they know they got to search for it, they don't want to. So they need someone like you to show like, Hey, this is what's going on. There's still some good stuff out here. It's great to shine a light on it. Like how you doing?

36:12
Thank you. you. Yeah. Music is my happy place and I love finding different artists or even artists that have the music that's not being played or oversaturated on radio. Oversaturated. Yeah. Cause you can listen to a Drake, you know, five times in one hour. The radio will play a Drake five times in one hour, but to find... like right now, Ray Khalil, is it worth it?

36:41
It's like my jam. Now, a lot of people may not know this, but Rae Khalil, you know, she's in California. She's a young lady, but she was on that show Rhythm and Flow with T.I., Cardi B, and Chance the Rapper. And then two years later, she came out with her album. And a lot of people know Anderson Paak, so she's actually signed to Anderson Paak's label. But she can flow. She's nice.

37:10
Yeah, see, like, yeah, what you're doing is important work. And I hope, yeah, the listeners know to make sure that they check in to all the other stuff that you're doing, you know, outside of instrumental Intel. But yeah, you've got an important task that, yeah, I hope most people understand exactly how important what you're doing is. Because especially even from an artist's perspective, it's kind of hard when

37:40
you know you've got good stuff, but nobody's shining the light on it. So you might have like a handful of people, but you know, you probably deserve to be a little more well known. Right. So yeah, on both sides from the listener and the artist, it's important work. I have back with me in the virtual building today, Fabian James. Grammy-nominated, Billboard-charted, singer, songwriter, producer, arranger. I'm kind of scared to say producer because I'm

38:07
I'm being interviewed by, you know what saying, the first player to do so. don't want to, you know what I'm saying? I don't want to act like I'm competing with her because I'm actually not when it comes to that, but yeah, absolutely. Uh, manager extraordinaire, uh, DDS management and also the co-owner of a new radio station that's, uh, that's been going on for about a month now, uh, going in radio, uh, which I call on with, uh, my business partner, Tiggs Maddock. Oh, right. Well.

38:31
You know, since that's the most recent thing that's kind of new since we've talked specifically that people might know about, could you kind of give a little bit of background as into going in radio, how you got started with it and what you're trying to accomplish? Yes, absolutely. Well, going in radio was, it was a brainchild that was brought upon by my business partner, Tigmatic. Me and him was both with a situation with another radio station. I don't want to mention the name, but.

39:01
They kind of played us, you know, so to speak on some things and whatnot. They sold us some dreams and and it came out to be something other than that. So when we got from up under that situation, Take Maddox brought it to my attention that, you know, he came up with this idea like, know, Fave, you know, with your connections and the people that you know, the people that you talk to on the daily and the people that I talk to and the people that I've met in my time of doing my podcast show. Why don't we just put our heads together? Pause.

39:28
and start a radio station. I was like, you know, I got to sleep on a little bit. got to, you know, kind of, cause I got a lot going on, you know what saying? I'm not trying to brag, you know, I'm blessed, but at the same time, you know, radio station is a big responsibility and I wanted to be sure that that was a way that I could carry. So I told him, you know, I'll sleep on it, meditate on it, pray on it, which is what I do with everything that I do. And of course talk to my wife about it before I make the decision.

39:55
Because you know, she's the but she's the ultimate boss lady, you know I'm saying so I gotta run things past her before I say yeah near anything again I would say roughly like the next day like four in the morning. I called him and told him let's do it So we started putting the progress through You know got the logo and everything kind of set everything up Like I say, this is going on for about a month now. So we're doing pretty good with it We're doing pretty good. Our listeners is growing as of the last time I checked analytics on Thursday

40:24
our listeners has went up 444%. That's incredible. Congratulations. And also we have listeners that's coming in from Alaska and Canada. And you know, other places too, but of course, being where Alaska is and Canada is, that's kind of big for us because that means that, you know, our reach is kind of expanding a little bit. So we're kind of, uh,

40:52
You know, we're definitely proud about that. All the other places and cities and states within the United States that's listening to us, we appreciate you. Salute to each and every one of y'all. But when you hear about certain places that didn't tune into our show, even as far as Song or Two, that's huge for us because that shows progress. And for us to be about 30, 31 days into it, that's a lot of progress. So when you're a child of God, you know, he protects his children. So that's what that's all about. Yeah, that is incredible.

41:20
So, okay, as you know, most of the people that listen to the podcast are involved with music in some way, or form, some form of creators. And so for anybody that's thinking, okay, how can I be on, know, are you accepting any submissions? What advice do you have for them and how can they possibly do that? Absolutely. As of right now, and I don't know how long we're going to be doing this, Queen.

41:45
I can't lie to you. So I don't want to give you a date and then have to fall back on it because I, you know, I hate to, you know, give out false, you know, dates and stuff like that. But right now we're doing free submissions for any music, either clean or dirty. You can send it into our email address, uh, going in radio 365 at gmail.com and also in the caption because of the fact I like to give credit where credit is due. Uh, if you're sending your music in because of the fact you listened to this podcast and you heard this interview.

42:13
Please put that in the caption so I can know, so I can let Queen know that you know, okay, it's because of you that this artist is on and they had this excellent music that's on the radio station and we're playing it right now. We got a regular rotation. Also, I would strongly advise for everybody to send their music in, make sure all your music is registered. So that way you can get, you know what saying, what you need from the spans and stuff like that, because it's not just about people hearing your music. You also want to collect what you need to collect off of your creativity. So you don't want to do anything unless you're a...

42:42
agreeing to do something for charity purposes or what have you. And in a lot of cases, a lot of people take advantage of that, but that's a different story for a different day. But, you know, whenever you're doing something creative or whenever you're doing anything, you want to be properly compensated for it. So just make sure it's that. But definitely sing your music in. We'll listen to it. We'll let you know what we think about it. We'll spin it. And like I say, we're not quite sure how long we're going to be doing it free, but we're doing it right now. So that's also our way of introducing ourselves, but also

43:10
saying thank you to the artists for trusting us to sing your music songs for us to play for you. So that's the reason why we're doing it right now. Yes. Are there specific genres that you're kind of highlighting right now? We're looking for everything. Gospel music, jazz music. I had to kind of go back and forth a little bit with my business partner about it because I'm a big rock fan as well. My favorite all the time.

43:31
rock group is Queen. you know, anything that got Freddie Mercury on it, I'm playing. I had no idea. That's awesome. love Queen. Queen, when Bohemian Rhapsody dropped in the movies, I was the first one there. I was the first one there. I had my popcorn and my cherry Pepsi. I was ready.

43:54
Because I already knew that was going to be an excellent movie. When they won the award, my wife thought I was going crazy when they named my man to win the Oscar for that. Because I knew how beautiful that movie is and I got extra excited when I heard that they're making a sequel to that movie. Oh, no, I didn't hear that. Yeah, it's going to be following Freddie Mercury's last days. Basically, directly after the first one, basically his last few days and when he succumbed to

44:22
you know, to the disease that he had or whatever. Yeah. So they're working on that now. OK, no, I didn't know that. Yeah, that was a phenomenal film. Great movie. movie. Great movie. Phenomenal band. yeah, I feel you on that. So talented. OK, so you accepted some of everything right now. That's awesome because like a lot of the listeners kind of do a little bit of everything. Kind of eclectic. So, yeah, even I guess in general, even if it's not specifically

44:51
for your station, but since you now own a station, do you have some advice on some do's and don'ts when artists submit music in general? Well, we're only doing it because as of right now, we're not affiliated with anybody, within the next, I would say within the next 90 days, we'll be affiliated with our radio, so we won't be able to accept any music with any profanity on it.

45:16
But that's bringing me exactly to my point. When you submit music to radio stations, you don't want to have any kind of profanity in it at any point in time. They will not listen to your music. If they hear it, they're going to stop it. They're not going to play it. A lot of them not even let you know the reason why they're not playing it. They're just not going to play it. So you want to make sure that all your music is clean. You want to when you go into the studio or you record and I know and I tell my artists this, so trust me, this isn't

45:39
You know something I'm just telling y'all, I my artists this too, when you go into the studio, record something. I get it, you want to get everything off your brain on the record, but at the same time, have that engineer, figure out some alternative words for them curse words, or figure out some creative way for it to be kind of hedged out or whatnot. Just make sure that you have a radio edit before you leave out of that studio. After the mixture and mastering is done, make sure you have radio edits for it. And also for those artists, me and Queen kind of talked about this off, you know, off the interview, but

46:09
how people feel like that the DJs is a dying art and I want to say to that I don't know what fool told y'all that because the DJs are still the medium between an artist and the industry because DJs still breaking records out here. I managed a DJ for six years. DJ Reese, out to my boy DJ Reese, the official DJ for Lil Durk and Tink. He broke Lil Durk's record. L's up.

46:39
You know what saying? So he broke his record in the club. And you know, I'm not going to necessarily say he was 1000 % directly the reason why Dirk broke, you know what I'm saying? Became the artist that he became. you know what I'm saying? Free Lil Dirk till his backwards. I know he going through some time right now. He's definitely in my thoughts and prayers. I met that brother a couple of times. Very good brother, very good brother. But at the same time, if it wasn't for Reese playing his music, a lot of people wouldn't have got up on it. And he wouldn't have gained the momentum that he gained.

47:07
DJ is a vessel. Anything that deals with the music you have to the DJs, the podcast, the radio host, the radio station, stuff like that. All of those are what you call a Vulture on it all creates one big thing. So you have to utilize those to example. And I just hate this, this microwave age that we in where people want to just go straight to something they don't want to put in the work. I say a person that says that the DJ isn't

47:34
is a dying art form, that's because of the fact that y'all lazy and y'all don't want to do the footwork. Because that's what it's all about. know, ingratiate yourselves with the DJs. Go to these places where you know your favorite DJ is going to be at. Introduce yourself to them. Ingrate yourself to them. Because one thing I know for a fact about a DJ, because I manage one, they don't like when you just run up on them and just push music in their face. Because that makes them feel like they're a machine. Play my record. that DJs, you got to...

48:01
I know this is gonna sound kinda crazy, but it's kinda right on time, given the fact we're in the month of Valentine's Day. You gotta date him a little bit. You gotta talk to him a little bit. You know how you're doing, DJ? How's it going? You again? Yeah, you saw me the last three places you was at. Yeah, how you doing? I'm actually an artist. I actually have some music to submit to you. Do you mind giving me your email address or your social media or your IG? You know what I'm saying? So you gotta do that. You gotta put the work in. You gotta put the work in.

48:29
You gotta put the work in. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience. I know how this works. Because the DJ will take your music from you and they won't play it. So that's what I'm saying. You're kind of at the mercy of the DJ, but you ingratiate yourself with them. They understand how this goes. They understand what this is about. But if you're showing gratitude and appreciation to them, a lot of them will do more good for you than bad. So never eliminate anything in the conquest of you getting to the Grammys, because that's what a lot of people want to do.

48:56
They want to be there. They want their music to be heard. They want their music to be, you know, moved to. They want their music to be touched by. In order for you to do that, you have to follow the proper steps in order to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's an excellent point. DJs are so important to music culture. And I think that the people who feel like it's a dying art form, they're only watching what they've seen like on mainstream where they show...

49:23
You know, I don't want to call anybody out in particular, but the person who messed up at Coachella that one time was like one of those major festivals. So yeah, if you just see somebody with their hands up in the air and you think that that's what everybody's doing, then of course you're going to think that. But like you said, you got to get out there. There's so much more than on social media. So to actually be making those contacts in person, you can actually see how rich that is. And yeah.

49:50
Cause I owe a lot to a lot of DJs who have spun my music in places that I've never been. So that's not the reason why I've been in those places where I can see, okay, my son's been Shazam in South Africa or, that's because of the DJs. I don't know anybody there personally, but the DJs are doing it. You know what I mean? Right. Right. And like you said, DJs go everywhere. DJs get booked everywhere. Like,

50:17
You know, Sean Mack, you know, which is a very good friend of mine here in Chicago, he's world-renowned at this point. DJ Sean Mac, he gets booked to go to Puerto Rico, Cancun. You know, he goes all kinds of different places in DJ. And he plays a lot of his, especially a Chicago artist. He plays a lot of Chicago artist music while he's in all these different places. So just like Queen said, can you imagine somebody in a country you've never been? People you've never met before, you've never laid eyes on.

50:46
is hearing something that you created on your own. That's a beautiful feeling. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. I got a Grammy nomination. everybody, I walk past people, walk around people, and I hear certain songs that, you know what saying, that they listen to, that I had a part in being created. And I get emotional sometimes. I'm going to lie to you. I'm tougher than tough, but I still have a soft part to me. So I get really emotional sometimes because it's like, you know,

51:14
I was part of that process. still remember being in the studio. I still remember us joking. I still remember us being tired, but we couldn't go to sleep because he wouldn't let us get out of studio until the song was completed. You know what saying? That process, know, putting the grind in working and it didn't come overnight. know, like I said, I'm not going to mention the artist's name on the show, but Queen know who's it is and what not. And, know, he, you know, he was when it came to music.

51:42
He was very, very strict. He was very, very strict. A lot of people throw a lot of different names on. He was passionate about his music. Very passionate about his music. And his music had to be as close to perfect as he could before he would even consider putting it on his record. So imagine the type of hours and the type of, you know, take one, take 52. Like, I'm going throw all of y'all out of here. You know what saying? So you had to go through that, but.

52:09
It's cool if you know I'm saying if you're built for it, you can take it. You know what saying? You have to understand that it's hard working to it. I'm on a podcast with one of the premier producers that I've ever ran across. And I know for a fact that it took time for her to perfect her craft in order for her to be the type of producer that she is. She didn't just wake up one day, you know what? I'm gonna be a producer. No, she had to put work into it. That means looking into things, researching things, practicing things.

52:37
That didn't sound right. Let me do it again. So you got to put the work in. It's not going to come overnight. Trust me. This stuff y'all see on social media, it's a facade. And I know a lot of people ain't going to tell you this. Let me, let Uncle Fabe the people for a thousand with y'all. It's a facade. A lot of stuff that y'all see is a product of a lot of hard work. We just make it look easy.

53:03
You know, it's so funny that you actually mentioned research because not a lot of people think about that, especially when it comes to production. But that's what I had to do. Like, I didn't know how to operate a lot of stuff. But I mean, of course, I like pressing buttons and whatnot, so I could figure some stuff out. But most of it, I had to go find it. And yeah, it's it's you're right. A lot of people see stuff one way and they don't recognize that they actually have to work to get to the position that they want to be.

53:32
And that's another reason why I think jealousy is so weird because it's like, can't be mad at somebody for doing the work that you didn't want to do. If they're getting the results that you want, you got to go after it and do it. Yeah. It's, it's, it's the jealousy thing. it's this industry is so, I love it with everything in me, but I love it because of the fact that I love music first and foremost. you know, music is, I know a lot of people talk about music, but

54:00
And I feel like Queen is like this as well. Music is in me. everything that I do, have to implement music in it. If I'm cleaning the house, has to be music on. You know, if I'm going over my emails and text messages, there has to be some music on. You know, when I'm doing this, when I'm doing that, I have to be listening to music. if music isn't playing, music is in my head. I'm always thinking about this, things to write, things to arrange and stuff like that, which is, you know, to some people be like, be like, yeah, you a nerd and stuff like that. But it's like when it's in you.

54:28
It never leaves you. It's always there with you. But you know, it's also something that has to be developed as well. You know, I graduated from Columbia College, you know, vocal performance and business management. You know, I had to put in a lot of groundwork. There was a lot of shows that I did that I didn't get paid for. There was a lot of background gigs that I didn't do that I didn't get compensated for. But just the exposure purposes, just meeting people, you know, so you got to put in a lot of work and you know, everything ain't going to be all ain't going to be automatic.

54:58
you know, gratitude or compensation for it, but you have to understand that you're always taking steps forward no matter what you do. You just have to continue to do it and you can't, you can't give up on, can't be, I'm tired of doing this and stuff like that. It's going to be hard. There's going to be a lot of dark days. Yeah. And there's going to be a lot of lonely nights, but trust me, you know, you get out of this, what you put into it. So that's the best advice I can give you. Oh, speaking of advice. So you mentioned that.

55:26
you're accepting all types of genres. But as far as songs go, you know, we kind of talked about this ahead of the interview. But for people who are thinking maybe you're looking for a trending sound or what's popular in mainstream music, what do you have to say to that? The best advice I can give you is and this isn't a flex. I just want to put that out there as the caveat before I go into this.

55:55
I had a conversation with a young lady who some of y'all may know, y'all may not know, but she may not be all that big to some of y'all, but Ms. Sylvia Rhone, who is the CEO and owner of RCA Records. She's a legend in the music industry. And she told me when I submitted some information her about one of the artists that I was plugging, she was like, you know, Fabe, this sounds pretty good. I like what you're doing. I like how you go about doing it.

56:20
You know, you come very highly recommended from the person that introduced me to you. She's doing a good thing, but to be dead honest with you, I have tunnel vision right now. So right now my only focus is on Travis Scott. And the reason why my focus is on Travis Scott, even though I have a lot of other artists on this record label is because not only is he a multi-talented, you know what saying, lyricist and producer, he don't sound like nobody else that I hear out here. I know everybody come out here and that, you know,

56:49
Chris Brown is killing it right now. He's doing his thing. That residuals album, that residuals single that he has is phenomenal. You, you hear a lot of these different artists out here doing something, but I'll tell you something. The record labels isn't looking for the next. They're looking for the first. They're still looking for the first. So you trying to sound like him, you trying to, you know, sound like Trey Songz, you trying to sound like Summer Walker, that's not gonna work for you. They already have them.

57:18
So what they're looking for is a first version of you. So here's a few things that Uncle Faye will pass on to y'all. And like I say, usually I charge for this type of advice, but because of the fact I'm on my family show, I love her so much. I appreciate it. Much gratitude to her having me back on. This is my second time on this show. Hopefully the second of many other times I'll be back on the show, because I got a lot of stuff to say, but we'll just keep it in this pocket right now. I've had labels tell me this as well. It's always best for you when you're writing.

57:47
to have multiple songwriters in a room together, create with other people. So instead of just one songwriter, let it be a group of songwriters, let it be a creative. And by me being an old school guy, what I relate that to when a person from the label told me that was, and of course I'm showing my age in this because this was back in the early 90s, the swing mob. A lot of people not familiar with the swing mob, but the swing mob consisted of Devanté Swing, Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Ginuine.

58:17
Now you notice all the names that I say, you like, oh, yeah, I know them. was good solo artists. Yeah, but they came out as a group. Devontae Swing went off and got with Jodeci. You know what saying? Him and his brother got with KC and Jojo and they created Jodeci. Jeannie Wine went off and did the things he was doing. Missy Elliott. Yeah, she was, you know what I'm saying? All the way. Exactly. Exactly. Doing features and stuff with people and stuff like that. But then she went off and did her own thing. And we all know what Timmy was doing because he's still doing it.

58:44
But it all started out as creative and it wasn't necessarily a group. It was just a bunch of creators in a room together making dope, hot music. So that's where it comes from. So that's a lot of things that labels would recommend that artists do. Just be a group of y'all in a room together, sitting down and writing things. Hey, I'm Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels.

59:11
Visit achickwitbeatz.com for resources for artists and instrumentals in various genres available for songs, vlogs, 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. All right, and that's a wrap for this episode of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz.

59:41
And I want to thank you for tuning in. Once again, as always, I appreciate the guests for coming on and sharing their insights. And I'd like to thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Make sure you come back next week. I got more goodness lined up for you. So, till next time, you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend, and I'll see you then. Peace.