The central theme of this podcast episode revolves around the multifaceted nature of personal and professional development, particularly in the context of creative pursuits. We delve into the significance of understanding one's current circumstances and aspirations, acknowledging that each individual's journey is unique and subject to various layers of complexity, including emotional and psychological factors. Furthermore, we explore the essential role of structured support in navigating these challenges, whether that be through coaching, mentoring, or collaborative efforts. Throughout our discussion, we emphasize the importance of building a solid community that fosters artistic integrity while managing the realities of the business landscape. Finally, we share insights drawn from our experiences, underscoring that success is not solely the product of talent, but rather the result of strategic relationships and unwavering support.

Takeaways:

• The duration and structure of coaching sessions depend on individual needs and circumstances.
• Effective sessions often involve dialogue and interpersonal communication to foster resolution.
• Creative projects require strategic support to successfully navigate through their development stages.
• Building a community is essential for artists to maintain autonomy and power in the music industry.
• The importance of supporting artists with a solid team cannot be overstated in this competitive landscape.
• Understanding the complexities of the music industry is vital for young artists to thrive.

Links referenced in this episode:

• blackgodsfather.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Alicia Keys
• Crucial
• Peter Edge
• Jodi Gerson

Again, at first it depends on where you are and what it is that you're trying to work on.

And then we kind of determine like the length of time it's gonna take and also the level of support.

You know, is it just like, okay, you know, I'm trying to like reinvent where I'm at, get closer to my real purpose in my work, et cetera?

Or is it like, you know, how much layer of, how much layer of trauma's there?

Like self worth issue is there?

Insecurity and anxiety is there?

How much is it?

Just like I'm birthing a creative project and I just need some support around the strategy and framework of how to move that through.

It really, like depends on where the person is and how the sessions are structured as a result.

But it's gonna be X number of time based on what we're working on, and again, based on the amount of kind of coaching, advising, mentoring, teaching versus strategy versus healing energy sessions.

You know, it all kind of depends on where you're at.

And then we would structure that like X number of times a month we're going to meet and here's how we're going to do this, and here's the journey and the process, the methodology we're going to work through as a result.

And so it varies.

Got you.

So these, a lot of these sessions.

Involve sitting down and talking, basically.

Yeah.

Which is the best way to resolve most things.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of sitting and talking and then there's work in between.

And then sometimes you're just laying there and receiving like some energy work, you know.

Okay, so.

Yeah, it, yeah, exactly.

Maybe you're sending me something, you can be sending me music.

And we're going back and forth and listening and we're talking about that and, you know, it depends.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So how, how did you begin working with Alicia?

Alicia Keys?

I don't know her.

Yeah, we, we knew each other since we met when we were four at a mutual friend's party.

Halloween party.

Very soiree, actually.

No, but she, she lived in this.

She lived in this building in New York City.

It was an artist building.

And my uncle lived in that building and her mom and my uncle were close.

And then she was close with my older cousins and then they were in like a girl group when Alicia was 9.

And my cousins were like older than us, like 15, 16 or something like that.

And so we just grew up around each other.

Like, I thought, I have a big family I thought we were cousins for the longest, and then I found out we weren't.

But so we were just around each other.

And.

Yeah, what happened was.

What had happened was I always wanted to be an artist.

I always wanted to sing and dance, all that stuff.

But my dad was like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.

That's not your path.

That's not for you.

I don't want you in that business.

Cause his brother, the one who lived in the building, was a musician and sort of struggled, and he saw him go through it and heard his stories, and he was just like, no, not my baby.

Yeah, yeah.

So when we were, like, 16, teen, though, you know, my uncle knew.

My uncle knew, and he was my mentor, and he really, like, stuck up for me with my dad, his brother, and was like, no, you have to let her do this.

And I hadn't told Alicia about it.

Cause she.

What happened was she got a record deal.

And, like, I was both, like, super excited for her, but also, like, I didn't want to tell her that I wanted to sing, too, because I thought she would have been like.

I thought she was going to be like, oh, you just want to sing?

Because I want to sing.

And that's not even, like, her way.

But I was all.

I was super insecure about it.

Like, she just not thinking.

I'm like, oh, me too.

I want a record deal.

So I didn't say, yeah, yeah.

And one day, like, my uncle called me up.

He's like.

He's like, hey, Erica.

I'm like, hey.

It's like, I got Alicia and Crucial here.

Crucial.

Crucial was her partner at the time.

And.

And I was like, oh, hey, y'all.

What's up?

And he was like, Alicia.

She was like, yeah.

He's like, erica sings.

And she was like, what?

What do you mean?

What do you.

What are you talking about?

He's like, no, she, like, sings, and, like, she wants to sing.

She's like, how have you never told me this?

You know?

She's like, when can you get here?

So on my next, like, school break, I came to New York, and they had this little spot in Harlem, this little, you know, studio, and we just record.

And it was like, boom.

You know, they were building this Crucial Keys concept, and it was a production family, and da, da, da, da, da.

And so I was like, let's do this.

It's Crucial Keys.

And so we started just writing and making music together.

And it was like, maybe like, a crew of, like, five or six of us.

And that was going on and so we did that for years.

And it was like Alicia, because she had the deal already, so she was going to come out.

And then we were all working on our own demos and also working on the first album.

And so then we were going to each, like, strategically, you know, submit our own demos and get our own deals and come out.

We would be the crew Ba ba ba.

Yeah.

And.

And then she came out and, you know, we had been.

Again, we've been working on this.

I mean, we had moved multiple labels at this point.

By the time the album came out, we'd been through three different labels and.

Wow.

And then it just was like, it went from zero to like a gazillion, what seemed like overnight, but we had been working on for years.

And he was just like, hey, can you come on the road with me for a few weeks?

Cause one of our other friends was supposed to go as her assistant.

And I was like, yeah, sure, that'd be cool.

Cause I was working on my demo and everything.

And then three weeks turned into six weeks and the road manager left and I was like, oh, I could do that gig.

And then I became the road manager and then her manager was like, you should be my day to day person.

So like, all of a sudden I went from working on my demo to being like management, and that was.

That was that.

Okay, so how long, how long was the process before, like, while you guys were shopping the deal to actually becoming the phenomenon that was her debut album?

Well, she'd been working diligently and hard for many, many years, so.

And I wasn't a part of shopping the deal and I was a teenager, but her and Jeff and you know, her publisher, Jodi Gerson, and her A and R Peter Edge, like, it was, you know, they were the ones who, you know, if she signed at 16, the album, you know, I don't know, it's 15.

We were 15 or 16 and then the album came out when we were 20.

So it was a five year process.

Right, right.

Gotcha.

Yep.

Was there ever a moment where you were like, I don't know if it's gonna actually happen or did she ever feel that or you guys are just.

It's a matter of time.

Because there was just.

No.

Yeah, there was no.

I mean, we were in, like, we were in.

We had a record deal.

Do you know what I mean?

It was just like.

She was already writing for other artists too, right at that time.

Yeah, there was some of that going on, but it was just like, like she, you know, when you saw her do her thing behind a piano live.

It was just.

You hadn't seen anything like that.

There was no doubt.

There was no doubt.

Yeah, yeah.

It just, you know, we just like eat shit for a minute.

That's all.

It was worth it.

Yeah.

And then, I mean that from road manager, that journey continued for a number of years and you're, I mean, still growing up at that time.

So.

Yes, you've done a lot of things.

You've worn a lot of hats.

How much of that experience came directly from the works?

I know that you, I'm sure your roles changed over the years from road.

Yeah, all of it.

I mean, I literally, yeah, I played, I played every possible role you could imagine.

And it was cool because none of.

We know.

Nobody knew what we were doing.

Not even her manager, quite frankly.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, he never managed somebody at this scale.

So he wasn't like, okay, here's how you manage, here's what you do.

It was just like, you're gonna figure it out, you know, so it was a very fake it till you make it type of thing.

And, you know, I was responsible in managing and we were touring and I mean, people were, you know, the sound guy was like 50 and I was 20.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Wow.

And so we were like, you know, in my little like Juicy Couture jumpsuit, people were just like, really, aw, you're so cute.

You know, So I had to like, I remember I go to the production office and they'd be like, fuck, da, da, da, da.

So I was like, okay, fuck.

Fuck.

I gotta say, fuck.

More noted.

You know, I was just like, you know, figured it out as I went.

But because I grew up in a, in a really business minded home, my parents are both were, you know, successful entrepreneurs.

I was comfortable in business, but I was also like, but I'm supposed to be an artist, why am I doing all this?

But I was good at it.

And again, I got to learn from the ground up.

Sometimes we would go to a club gig and I would be standing there like, security, you can't come in.

You know what I mean?

Or I'd be like, or whatever.

So it was cool because, yeah, I learned all the jobs on the way, you know, on the way kind of like up.

And we grew together as a team through the years.

And so it was, it was really cool to be able to see it from all those different angles.

And luckily also the great thing about Alicia was that, you know, like, she's still with Peter Edge, who was her A and R when she was 14 years old.

Peter is now the CEO of the label.

So it's just like so many of the relationships, you know, we've grown up with these people and so we.

Most of the relationships around her things, people have changed, of course, but there's a good handful of like, long term relationships, which is really rare.

And I would say that's also kind of what sets like Alicia, like, what put her in the.

In a good standing.

Because I think a lot of artists who really do struggle with some darkness, like, they don't have good support around them, you know what I'm saying?

And so I think that's like, that's like one of the most critical things, I think, for any artist in this business.

Like, you need some real solid people around you to help you.

Like, her mom is like, no joke.

She'd be like, what?

You know, you better check, you know, like, you don't mess with Terry, you know what I'm saying?

Like, type of thing.

And, and I were, you know, she and I were super tight, and I always kept it 100.

Like, I'm not known for not keeping it 100.

So it's like she had the right mix of people around her and a lot of people don't have that.

It's like, yeah, totally.

Oh, that's such a good idea.

You should definitely drive your car off a cliff.

That's gonna be epic.

You know what I mean?

So it's like, if you have people like that around you just yesing you and not willing to tell you the truth, you're in for it.

You're in for a tough ride.

Wise words.

Wise words.

What are some of the bigger challenges that you came across, especially in those early days entering the music industry?

I think it was just in the early days, it was just like learning the game, you know what I mean?

We just didn't really know what we were dealing with.

And it, you know, like anywhere there's, it's just, there's like understanding the politics, you know, what is the game I'm playing?

You know what I mean?

You know, you don't know the rules of the game until you get into it.

And the industry is a game indeed.

So I think that was just the hardest part, just feeling like really green and not knowing.

And then with each album cycle, it's like, you know when you show up to freshman year at school and you're just like, I think I look cute.

You know what I mean?

Sophomore year, you're like, yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm like, okay.

And then junior year, you're like, oh, oh.

And then senior year, like, I own this shit.

This is my house.

You know what I mean?

It's like over time, you're just like, oh, I got this.

But, you know, you're kind of learning the.

So it's just navigating all of that.

And, you know, my biggest, like, the place where I felt like the most was protecting the integrity of her artistic vision and while managing the business expectation.

So I like, sort of sat at that intersection of, you know, taking like something that, you know.

You know, putting capitalism on top of art.

How did, how did you do that?

How did you protect the integrity of her and her music, the vision?

Well, I think to me that was why I was there in the first place, because I didn't.

I didn't aspire to be in the music business.

I wasn't like, trying to.

I didn't have an aspiration of climbing up the rungs of music to be like an all star manager.

I never even fucking wanted to be a manager.

I was there, like, somehow.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm saying, like, this was a accident.

So basically I was like, that's my sister and you have me up if you think Imma let you come for this, you know, vision.

But I know how.

Protection.

Yeah, yeah.

So I can, like, figure out how to maneuver this.

So that was, that was the only reason I was there was to protect the integrity of her vision.

Period.

Wow.

From your experience, what words of advice could you pass down to somebody coming up the next 14, 16 year old that's trying.

I know the industry's changed a lot too, but what would you share with them?

I would just say, like, the most important thing that an artist can do right now, the current state, is create your own community.

You know, with all these digital platforms, it's like, you don't need.

Because the thing with the labels is that the business model is really jacked up.

They're having to change.

They've had to do some shifting with more legacy artists who, like, you know, but like, this whole thing of, like, owning masters and, you know, first I would say watch the Black Godfather on Netflix.

Yeah, watch that.

So that you can understand what this business is about.

That's one thing I would say.

Yeah, yeah.

And then I would say, you know, you want to build your own community because you want to have as much power as possible.

You don't want, you know, people like, oh, they're going to make me famous, you know, how many friends I have who sign record deals and their catalog is owned, They've never seen the light of day and they never will.

There is no guarantee that signing a record deal is going to get you anything.

And now with digital, you have all the power.

So you gotta have amazing songs that people love.

That's never gonna change.

It's always about the song.

So get great music, find great collaborators, et cetera, and then just build your community online.

And it doesn't take much to.

To get, you know, you can release all your music on all the DSPs at one time.

You don't have to have a deal at all.

So it's just like, true.

Build your community, find the good people around you.

And then, and then people are going to start knocking on your door.

And you want to make sure that you, again, have those people around you who are going to have your back.

And I just want to say the people around the people, the ones who are there to have their back, like, that's such an important role.

And not everyone is meant to be the star.

Sometimes you're meant to be the shepherd and lead from behind and support somebody in that.

And that's an extremely important role.

Extremely important role.

Like Alicia's assistant was like, such an important role.

Like, there's no.

Everybody played a part in that success.

And so I think that there's also multiple points of entry into music and multiple skill sets that are needed.

And so people should also not just be myopic about, like, I got to be a star, you know what I mean?

Like, write songs, write dope songs, but you just got to build.

And right now, with online.