Instrumental Intel - Ep 9 From Pause Tapes to Present Day with Daneja Mentale (6-29-24)

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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.

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Transcript Generated by Riverside

00:01

Thank you for tuning in to instrumental intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz. And I'm so glad that you joined me today. I got another show lined up for you that's filled with music industry news and of course beats by yours truly. And my special guest for today is Daneja Mentale coming through for a discussion about music from pause tapes to present day. So it's gonna be an excellent time and I'm really excited to get into it.

00:27

And of course I've got to send a shout out to my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. And you know what? I think I'm just going to go ahead and drop this first beat for y'all. And yeah, let's go!

14:34

Hey it's the Achickwitbeatz and I'm back with the Music Biz Brief. Today we've got some highlights from some of the stories that have been buzzing around the music industry so let's get started. Our first story of the day comes from Spotify. Recently the streaming giant has made a strong stance against quote-on-quote inauthentic streaming behaviors. Spotify is now urging artists to discourage fans from using automated methods like bots or scripts.

14:58

to inflate their stream counts. While Spotify claims this move is about ensuring fair play and maintaining the integrity of its platform, some critics argue it's more about reducing payouts and controlling financial obligations. So essentially they're saying, encourage your fans to stream your music, but keep it genuine. Speaking of fees and fairness, next up, SiriusXM is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly misleading consumers. The suit claims that SiriusXM's US music royalty fee

15:27

which adds an extra 21.4% to subscriptions cost is deceptive. Unlike other music services that include royalty fees in their advertised prices, SiriusXM has been adding this fee on top, leading to higher costs for users. Plaintiffs argue that this fee is a core business expense and not a government-mandated charge, and they're seeking to have it included in the advertised prices and they want over $5 million in damages.

15:52

While Sirius XM battles it out in court, another legal storm is brewing in the realm of AI and music. So the Recording Industry Association of America, better known as the RIAA, has taken legal action against two AI startups, Udio and Suno. These companies are being sued for allegedly using copyrighted music without permission to train their AI models, creating realistic songs from user prompts.

16:16

So the RIAA argues that this practice undermines licensing fees and poses a significant threat to the music industry's business model. So this case could set a major precedent for tech and AI sectors regarding copyright and fair use. And I'll keep you posted as I get more information as it rolls out. And as AI continues to shake up the music world, YouTube is in talks with major music labels to license songs for training AI tools.

16:43

This initiative is part of YouTube's effort to compete with TikTok through its Dream Track AI tool for YouTube shorts. While YouTube offers financial compensation to the labels, they still need to persuade many artists who oppose AI-generated music. So this highlights the ongoing tension between innovation and copyright protection. Shifting gears to another legal battle involving artists and royalties, a group of songwriters

17:11

The plaintiffs argue that PRS charges high administrative fees to smaller songwriters while favoring more successful artists. They claim these policies create barriers for writers to license their music directly, essentially subsidizing conditions favorable to major acts. Of course, PRS denies these allegations and they plan to defend their practices in court. And now let's move to the story about concert tickets and consumer rights.

17:37

A California district court recently rejected Live Nation's arbitration clause, calling it crazy and unconscionable. The court criticized the fine print and arbitration agreement, stating that the users were not adequately informed about Live Nation's switch to new era advanced dispute resolution. This ruling comes amid the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster and following a recent data breach scandal. In a related development involving Live Nation.

18:06

Live Nation's board, including CEO and CFO, are being sued by a shareholder over the DLJ's antitrust lawsuit against the company. So the lawsuit claims that the board's anti-competitive practices and misleading of shareholders about cooperating with federal investigators have harmed investors. So this suit alleges collusion with Oakview Group to avoid competition. Of course, Live Nation denies all the allegations, but they continue to face significant legal challenges. So...

18:35

Again, keep you posted as more information rolls out. They've been going through it lately. Alright, so that does it for today's Music Biz Brief. We're going to take another quick break and we'll be right back with special guest Daneja Mentale, so keep it locked.

30:25

Hey, I'm a Achickwitbeatz, multi-genre music producer and strategist to indie artists and labels. Visit at 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 at Achickwitbeatz.com. That's Achickwitbeatz.com. Let's make something happen.

30:55

All right, thank you so much for tuning in to instrumental Intel. I am your host, music producer, Achickwitbeatz. And I am so excited to announce that I have in the virtual building with me, music producer, just all around artist and creative, Daneja Mentale. So, you know, real quick, you've been on Music Marvels before. But now for this audience, if you could just kind of give an introduction like who is Daneja Mentale and how you got kind of pulled into music, if you will.

31:27

Um, I've been known as Daneja Mentale for the past 20 plus years. I started off as MC Joby D and that was something that, you know, that's from the eighties, every, um, I thought I had an MC at the name, you know, at the end, or with an initial, you know, at the end. But, um, I pretty much just started off, um,

31:54

as like just helping with DJs that were in the local area. And I started to get more into Hip Hop around the age of 11, 12. Then got more serious with writing as I got older. As far as production, I started doing production at the age of 14, doing the pause beat tapes, where you would take a cassette.

32:22

deck or if you had a double cassette deck and we just continuously looped the same part over and over. So I did a lot of that in which I still have a lot of those consets to this very day. Wow. Yeah. So I started doing that and then I started linking up with a few people around the area. This guy by the name of Wanda Menaez and Harold Jordan.

32:50

who are known as the Hustlers back in the day, and who they connected me with. A couple of members from the R&B group Basic Black, KB, Kelvin Bradshaw is one of my mentors. Around the time they got out of their jail with Motown. So I've been doing beats for years and became more serious as a writer around 95, 96.

33:19

Okay, okay. That was an interesting era for music. Who would you say were some of your influences around that time? Oh man, around 90, I say around 94, 95. Even though at the time I wasn't a big fan as I am now, Nas is one of my influences. Lyrically, people like Large Professor, Pete Rock,

33:49

see who else at the time uh RZA was a big influence because I love the abstract sound and as far as uh R&B uh or pop music Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis those are like

34:06

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to me, musically, is up there at the top. Even, you know, even though they're not hip hop producers, they're at the top of production in general. Yeah. They, they dabbed into every type of sound. They, they, they, they put everything into their music, you know? So, um, they're at the top for me.

34:33

Yeah, you know, it's funny because even though you say like they're not hip hop per se, but like a lot of that energy was still there, like even in the R&B and pop tracks somehow. Like, yeah. Yeah, especially with a lot of the Janet Jackson albums around 89 and going forward, you know, you go back and you listen to Rhythm Nation. It's like, they were like the R&B version of

34:59

The Bomb Squad, which is another favorite production team of mine. Okay. Of course, Dre, DJ Premier, you know, you know, I mean, can't leave them out. Right. Yeah. So, okay. When you had said that some of your inspirations, like you're even more of a fan now than you were back then.

35:22

I was just having this conversation recently, matter of fact, on this particular podcast about how when I was younger, you know, it was a lot of good hip hop and stuff while I was coming up. And while I would listen to it and enjoy it, you can only understand so much at certain ages. So it's almost like once you kind of experience life a little bit more and then go back to reflect on it, it's almost like that music kind of hits a little bit harder.

35:48

because you're recognizing some of the stuff that they did that maybe, you know, I guess being in the moment or too young to understand how impactful it was. It's almost like it's more fun to revisit it now. Wouldn't you say? Yeah. I, as a matter of fact, I go back and, and being in it, I collect a lot of vinyl albums. I go back and I listen to the old joints that I never got a chance to experience when I was a kid. And a lot of it, I was always doing punishment.

36:18

So I didn't get a chance to listen to a lot of those albums. So I go back and I visit those albums and the albums I did have, I go back and revisit to absorb them a little bit more because like I said, you understand things more as you get older. And then there are some albums I have in my collection and I'm like, what in the world was I thinking? Why did I think this was dope?

36:46

But you know, I take it all in because I was just talking to somebody recently and they were talking about how good hip hop was back in the day. Yeah, that's true. But we also had some whack joints too. Yes. And we had our guilty pleasures back then. So I look back and I was big on 2 Live Crew back in the day. So I wasn't bummed.

37:14

Half of what I used to listen to back then, but I still have those albums because that's a part of my, you know, my, uh, my coming up age, you know? Yeah. Yeah. First of all, let me say I was way too young to be listening to those, but I didn't even realize, I didn't even realize how much I knew until, um, well, we had, uh, the rock, the, the SiriusXM subscription and Rock the Bells.

37:43

One particular show they did where it was just pretty much like a homage and I'm like man I know this one. I'm rapping along to the words. I'm like, I know this one, too I'm like man, I was way too young to be listening to this but I'm not gonna lie some of that stuff still goes hard when I was watching the Freaknik documentary and Scarred came on I ‘bout lost my mind. So yeah, I mean granted Pleasures, but some of this stuff still hit I'm not even gonna lie

38:11

Yeah, and rest in peace to brother Martez from Tulio. Yes, yes. We all became Facebook friends about a year ago. And I didn't know he was living here in Alabama. Oh, wow. I was talking to Prince Rakeem, and he was telling me about that, and I was like, wow. Incredible. I was definitely rest in peace there. Yeah, absolutely.

38:40

And so, okay, you named all your influences like through the 90s. And I mean, since you've been doing this for a while, what would you say, or let me try to find a way to word this where it's not so loaded, what's up? What are some of the biggest changes that you've seen happening in the industry from the time you started until present day? Um, the access to new music.

39:09

and the rapid pace of the releases now. Back when I was a kid, you waited for a new album to drop on a Tuesday. There were ads that were posted in several magazines and some billboards. And you...

39:34

the anticipation of waiting to get that album was just like, oh, I can't wait till this album drops. Now it's like, you see an album dropping like, when was this supposed to come out? It's no, well, I put it like this. Some artists, it's a shock. Like, oh man, I didn't know this drop, I gotta go cop that. And then there's some albums that dropped as a surprise to me, like,

40:03

Okay, I mean, you know, but it's a, it's a double-edged sword to me because I feel with the with the ease of access.

40:19

You have many artists that are out there, they're able to put their music out whenever they feel like it. They don't have to wait on a middleman, they don't have to wait on a label to tell them to put it out. Right. That's a good thing. I took advantage of that as well. And I love Distro Kid. Won't speak on Spotify too quick.

40:44

because that's pretty much has been like a meal in the coffin for a lot of people yeah uh do the streaming sales like you're you're making all these streams and you're only getting 0.03 cents per stream yeah i feel very unfair so um the shady part of the music industry is always going to be there no matter what but it's going to have to take the artist and the consumer

41:13

to change that. If they don't unite on that and change it, it's always going to be the way that it is the evil empire of the industry. But I really loved, like when Little Brother came out for their last album and it dropped, that was like, wow, we haven't seen that in years because everything drops Friday.

41:41

or drops at midnight on a certain date. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, it builds up a little of anticipation, but it's not as, uh, it's not as, how can I say that? Um, it's not as exciting as it was when we were younger. Yeah, I agree. And, um, when you said that, that made me think of a tweet.

42:04

that Phonte had done like some years back, the same like, you know, Tuesday, you need the music to get you through the week. And, you know, by Friday you already done. So it was like people haven't had enough time to sit with it, DJs and whatnot. So yeah, I totally agree with that. And speaking of artists that, you know, can do what they want and just drop stuff, I noticed that, so I do a lot of combing through Google alerts, all that stuff to find out what's happening in the music business.

42:32

And I recently came across just a flurry of articles, one after the other. Titles were slightly different, but all of it was, where's Beyonce? She dropped Cowboy Carter and we haven't seen or heard from her. And it's like, well, yeah. I mean, she just got done touring and she dropped an album. What more do you want? Now people are actually expecting like, you know, you to just kind of come back to back to back. And like you said, we used to have to sit with stuff and especially as a kid.

43:02

You spend your little check, your whole check almost go to whatever CD or tape you might've purchased. If you don't like some songs on the track, on the album, you're going to sit with it for a while. Because you're going to spend your money and you listen to it more. Where nowadays, yeah, you don't have that. But yeah, just the entitlement to artists is just wild these days. It's so crazy. And it made me think of this dude that was on my friend list on Facebook.

43:32

uh, no, call his name, but, um, he hit me up and his thing is he likes to archive material from an artist that's like recorded earlier on and there's a lot of my material I will never put out because one, it wasn't good, two, the quality was garbage and three,

43:59

in my opinion and maybe in many other people's opinion it was whack. So if I don't like it, I'm not putting it out, you know. So he would hit me up and he would constantly say, well, yo, I want you to send me some of your old stuff. I'm like, no.

44:19

I'm like, I'm not gonna put it out for myself. Why would I give it to you? And then you get mad and then you use that as some form of leverage. No, I'm not gonna do that. It got so weird that it was this picture I put up. It was me and my mom. One of my cousins sent it to me. And I had seen this picture since, gosh, since I was like 15 years old. And at the time my name was D-Lyrical.

44:48

And I changed it because I found out there was a rapper from, I think from Miami. His name was D-Lyrical, spelled the same way, so I changed it to Daneja Mentale. But I had a cap on that had D-Lyrical across it. And all I did was just post this picture and it's like back in my D-Lyrical days.

45:09

and do was like, man, you need to put all that stuff out. And I went to your web page and I'm disappointed you didn't update anything. I'm like, who are you? And why are you, why do you feel like it's important that I give you my old vintage material? Right. Who are you? Who? It's entitled to your art. Oh my God. And we ended up hitting Tifa from Infamous Syndicate.

45:39

He hit her up as well. And she and I had a discussion about it. I'm like, who is this weirdo, yo? So I'm like, I'm gonna block this dude right now. Who was that crazy? I'm like, I'm not gonna put out this wack stuff. Why am I, you know, yeah. Right. Man, that is wild. And you know, it's always kind of hard.

46:09

the first time encountering people like that, because it's like, oh, cool, a fan. But then they go a little bit too far, and it's like, all right, maybe too much of a fan. But again, you might need to put some distance here. Yeah, and it's crazy. Like, one person that asked me about my bass music, he realized I really wasn't putting out as much hip hop. And I told him, I'm kind of like,

46:35

shifting back and forth. But when I feel like I need to put out hip hop, I will right now. I'm just doing the electronica. And he was like, well, I guess bass music wins. Not necessarily. So I was like, well, that was bomb. But you know, I'm an artist that does what he wants to do. I'm not assigned to anyone's label. You know, so I do what I feel. I put it out because that's what I feel like doing. If you catch on, that's fine. If you don't catch on, that's fine as well because

47:05

It's going to be someone that's going to like it. There's going to be someone that's going to hate it. Either way, it's out there for you. You know, but, um, it was just crazy. And he was like, tell me, well, I think you may need to do this and do that. To the next album, I was like, you know what? I took that advice one time and I paid a very big price for following that advice.

47:31

and someone who never supported the album in the first place. So here we have an, I had an album sitting out there and it's collecting dust because I decided to take the advice from someone who never supported it in the first place. Wow, man, that is a, first of all, thank you for sharing that because I think everybody in music at some point has probably had some story.

47:57

similar to that to where they kind of feel bad, but yeah, the cautionary tale is real. You had mentioned about like, you know, you're being an artist and you're doing, you know, what you're feeling drawn to do. So with that being said, you know, what have you been drawn to lately? If you could tell us a little bit about what you may have been maybe working on, having the works are coming up. I'm working on an album which

48:26

I've been doing this one for about four years. I've been dealing with a lot of personal things. So that's been kind of like the roadblock that I've been facing. Plus I have been trying to get back into photography a little bit more too. But the name of the album was originally called the Underground Experiment, which I changed it because a lot of the songs I recorded or

48:53

had written were like very somber, very sad. They dealt with a lot of the subjects like on greed, relationships, pain, you know, pain, a lot of the sad things. And I'm like, I don't like this. And I decided to change it. I kept some of the songs and I scrapped a lot of others. Like, oh, I would,

49:20

recycle the verses from certain songs into new versions. So the album that I have now is entitled, It's Not Me, It's You, or Maybe It Is Me. Originally it was just, I first had it as, It's Not Me, It's You. And when I did the photography for it, really I didn't even plan this out. It was basically, it was basically me

49:49

looking at the photos I had taken, they were like silk portraits and all. And I liked what I had done with the photos. And the front cover is me just sitting on the floor with a boombox, listening to some cassette tapes, and just like I'm minding my own business. And then the back cover is me in the same room, but this time,

50:16

It's like I'm screaming out. So that's where the other part, or maybe it is me, part comes in. So it is now, it's not me, it's you, or maybe it is me. So it's a very personal album. And.

50:39

It's gonna deal with a lot of personal situations I've experienced and like I said, mental health, being aware in mental health month. And I didn't wanna focus so much just on like hip hop, the topic of hip hop, even though there are some songs on there like Real Hip Hop Part II,

51:08

Don't let this rap-ish fool you. What's another one? Popularity Contest. That's another one I wanted to talk about because with Popularity Contest, it's like you're looking at how people spend more time worrying about two rappers beating each other and all that, but you got all this other great music, you know, just like with the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef. And...

51:37

people focused on that so much that there were people actually saying hip hop is dead because of this. No it's not. I am, yeah. Y'all think y'all focused into two people when there's millions of rap albums out there that are great. Yes. I'm feeling this new Rapsody album. Y'all spent more time and energy on that. Y'all forgot this woman dropped a dope album.

52:07

But I have songs like...

52:12

Monster part two, his pain, because when I did me and my music back in 2018, I had this song called Monster, which was focused on physical or sexual abuse towards women and what you know, the pain that they go through along with this in their lives. So when I did part two, I wanted to focus on the pain that men go through that.

52:41

many of us are afraid to even express because society has it where we're supposed to be strong, macho, we're supposed to just have this rough around the edge mentality at all times. But a lot of people don't realize the strongest men in the world are the ones that got to show their emotions, the ones that got to bring it out into the open. That's a strong man. He expressed what he feels in his heart.

53:10

That man cries and gets get it out of his system. That's a strong man. But being the way society is, it's hard to express that. But I've never shied away from the topic. I express it no matter what. I don't care what people think. So I'm going to know I'm going to talk about that. That's what's up. And it's definitely needed. You know, so for anybody that might be out there listening now.

53:38

What kind of advice would you have to offer them if, you know, they kind of have stories that they want to share, but they're afraid to just kind of be vulnerable and pour it into their art?

53:51

I can't say I'm the best advisor, but I will say this. Find your happy space. Find the things that make you happy. And put your all into those things. You know, don't use it as a mask. Use this as your platform, your palette to create and invent. A lot of times I will write stuff.

54:19

that you'll see posted on Facebook. And it's not even for a song, it's just I write in rhymes in most cases, and that's how I get out what I'm feeling. And you might see it be random, no title to it, and that's just how I get out. A lot of times I don't talk to anybody, because I hate for...

54:45

I hate for what I'm going through to pull them down. They may be going through a good day. I don't want to pull their energy down or they may be having a bad day and I don't want to make them feel worse. So what I do, I pour it all into my music. And if anybody wants to know what's going on with me, that's their, that's their resource right there. And that's just the way I do it. I I'm sure there are other alternatives, but that's just how I get it out.

55:16

Hey, what's up? I think just put your heart into the things that you love and express through there. If you paint, you know, you draw a color, whatever, put it through that. You write, put it through that, you know, and just it's just like going to the altar and leave it there. Mmm. And that's how I did it. Yeah, I love that. That's excellent advice. Um, you know, I've had times where there's been some stuff that I've

55:45

recorded or performed or whatever the case may be. And somebody said something to me later like, hey, I was in that exact situation. It felt really good to hear this. And in my mind, I'm thinking when I'm making it, I'm probably the only person in the world that's ever had these thoughts. But so often you find that you're not. And just by having the courage to go ahead and do it, you never know who you could be helping. Right. And you never, you should never feel like

56:15

uh that you're being weak by doing that is strengthen all of that so um when you when you put that out when you express what you feel you're showing the world your strength even though they may look at it opposite and yeah and to be honest it don't matter what they think it doesn't matter because this is this is what you have to live with and this is how you get through it all

56:45

Right man that's that's a sound bite right there. So yeah I noticed that time is definitely staring us right down smack dab in the face but before we close out I want to make sure that people know exactly where they can follow you social media platforms whatever you use so that

57:16

Well, you can find me on Facebook, of course. You can find me on the Daneja Mentale. Or you can find me on the Bad Joby. That's my alternate page. I'm on there every now and again, posting the content that I usually don't post on my main page. I'm on every streaming site right now. And I'm on Bandcamp as well. So if you wanna get the...

57:43

Downloads directly from there you can get it as Daneja Mentale or as Quad Control Station if you're into the electronica music, see uh…there are some other-- and I'm also on YouTube and YouTube music. So I'm also working with a few other people to expand what I'm doing, hopefully I'll get back into selling merchandise again

58:09

I had a little drive-riding, but hopefully, you know, I'll be back on it. Okay. All right. Well, that's what's up. Make sure that you check him out everywhere that he mentioned. And before we close out, I just want to know if there's any, you know, kind of final thoughts you want to leave with the audience or any special shout outs. So you can do that at this time. I'll take it as I'll take a quote from Jazzy Jeff joint.

58:40

Love what you do and do what you love. I think listening to that song, The Love of the Game, it has the greatest advice ever. Love what you do and do what you love. Hey, that's what's up. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Right. I appreciate you bringing me on board and it's always a pleasure, you know, chopping it up with you.

59:08

Yes, likewise, and I hope that we can do this again sometime soon. This is just part one. No doubt. No doubt. All right. Thank you so much for sharing your time, story and wisdom with us. Appreciate you. Peace. All right. No doubt. Peace. Peace. All right. And that's a wrap for this week's edition of Instrumental Intel. I've been your host, music producer at Achickwitbeatz, and I'd like to thank you for listening. Of course, I thank my home station, Grander Radio out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

59:37

And as always stay tuned for more updates and insights into the music industry and all the stuff that's been going on with the biz. And remember whether you're navigating streaming platforms or understanding your rights as an artist, knowledge is power. So keep creating and stay inspired. Until next time you know where to find me. Tune in, tell a friend and I'll see you then. Peace.