- In today's DailyVee, this is a sit down I have with
GoldLink who is an incredibly interesting artist out of D.C.
And I thought we got into some really interesting shit here
for artists in a certain place.
If you are kind of winning
right now, you better watch this thrice.
(downtempo electronic music)
- How long have you guys been together
on the management side? - Oh-five?
- The get.
- [Man Offscreen] First mixtape came out in 2014.
- Love it.
- So the year before that. So we've probably
been together for four or five years.
- Love it. How long have you been paying attention?
- [Man Offscreen] I actually probably met you in 2014.
I mean he's been killing a lot of shows right?
So even though you didn't have this smash platinum smash
- It's the same old shit. People that know know.
People that don't, it's the same old shit.
It's like watching the music awards last night
and I'm like, this is literally five years ago shit.
Dudes are singing songs they wrote four years ago.
You know? When you gotta hit that much middle America.
It's the same old shit. - Exactly.
- SoundCloud, Spotify, right? It's just the same shit.
- [Man Offscreen] (mumbles) You know selection people?
- Yeah.
- [Man Offscreen] He's really the first
rapper to really fuck with that and to also
get their support so all of those producers who
are a little more experimental, a little more
wave went straight to him.
- So what's coming next, what's the next move,
what's the next project or how're you strategizing?
- I guess the thing for us right now is like,
we've built so much culture to this point, right?
- Yes, right.
- The thing about it is, now that we got
the platinum and that became our time
and possibly like a double platinum,
we want to transition this song Crew that
we're going on Fallon to do tonight and
transition that into a new single.
Also on the backhand we want to do
personally, I want to start investing and
start working on that.
More so, it's expanding the culture
outside of music because we did do,
we kept doing music- we're great at that.
We want to show people that
we're more multi-faceted and do things,
if that makes sense.
- Are you concerned about going too fast
before you really put the flag into the music?
It's the same shit I'm always doing.
I want to go on- this is a great company
and I've built a big-ass company
I can't wait to do what I'm doing next,
which is buying brands and do it.
But I'm always, did I really? - Exactly.
- How many hit songs?
How many hit projects before you could have the...
As soon as you move, you're trading off
the equity you made in music.
And you've got this much equity versus
the whole womb being full.
It's a really interesting thing to your point.
- The transition has been so, - Gradual.
- But it's so genuine.
- You know what the problem is?
This is the toughest moment for this entire crew.
Because you've been hitting it hard
for so long, now you're on that next plane.
You've been thinking about the next plane
from the beginning, let alone for the five years
and now the question is, do you move too quick;
it's interesting. - Right, and that's the thing.
- You're independent, right?
- No, we're with RCA. - You're signed.
- Yeah and that was a process.
- Anything I can help with?
Obviously you guys having some sense.
Anything specifically?
- To be honest, - Please.
- I think right now, it's funny that you say that
because him especially, all of us are
in the process of that transition we're talking about.
Even for example, we're trying to get into
modeling but more so, image consultant.
We've met with, what is it, the Society Models,
that have Adriana Lima, they represent
Kendall Jenner, like those kind of people
that we met with.
So we're doing these things but even
having the conversations with these people about
how brands don't know what the fuck they're doing
like Louis Vuitton doesn't know what the fuck
they're doing, New York doesn't know.
We don't know what the fuck we're doing.
So for that, we just talked to him on the train
when I was coming up here,
we want to do a plan, where we actually sit down;
what is our agency?
What do we want it to look like?
What is that we really, really want?
And when we figure that out, we fill up
those spaces in between times.
Until we figure that out...
- Let me give you a piece of advice,
what you want- is to gather as much attention as possible.
- Okay. - You guys are all so,
look at you, you guys are all young.
You have forty, fifty more professional years?
Be smart, we're all going to be living longer.
I'm going to be sitting courtside at the Knicks game tonight
some 67-year old white dude with Yeezy's on
and a 30-year old girlfriend is going to sit next to me.
Life is long, people get confused.
So to be really frank with you,
I love your answer and obviously
we don't have a lot of time;
we have to go do Fallon,
so we need to chop it up again together.
I thought I was going to D.C. for some stupid reason soon,
but none the less, it's easy.
I love... - Did we do Under Armor?
- Yeah we did that eight months ago.
- Some Baltimore stuff?
- [Man Offscreen] You were like, a model in their ad.
- Why, because you're pretty?
- I don't know, I guess!
(laughter)
- Anyway, none the less,
- [Man Offscreen] Experience with modeling...
- Here's what I was trying to say,
take a step back, just for you to chop up
with each other like what the fuck was he saying?
Just food for thought-
my point of view, if you've got the moment in music,
and I'm going to start doing more of my own homework,
I've listened obviously and it's great,
by the way, whether it's modeling, or music,
or fuck, I don't give a shit,
Gap, that's why I love social so much,
gather as much attention as you can
as much as you can because you're going to trade on that
to your point no matter what comes out of
your guys' collective mouth we're going to
start a beverage business,
we're going to create our own label,
we want a Beats by Dre moment,
it's going to be that fucking rad-ass fly thing.
Whatever the fuck, you guys are going to say,
all of it is going to trade on one currency- attention.
The fuck am I doing?
I'm just gathering so much attention and
then I get to deploy it, my K-Swiss collab
outsold Future and the Weeknd
that makes no fucking sense,
this much sense because I have more attention
than people realize and my attention is deep.
Those guys have way more attention than I do
but it's scattered on other things and
there's connection, that's fair, but
that's right- just fucking gather attention.
What I want for you, and for anybody else
in your position, this young,
this much talent, this collective crew,
to me, it's why I always thought Drake was
playing it right and here's what's smart about
what Drake did and I have no idea if this is what
they thought, I just don't know,
the volume of projects that he put out,
speaks to my thesis, which is, when you're hot
when you've got the best hand,
keep playing it. - Right.
- To me, the thing now is to be overly thoughtful
of the next song because god-forbid
you guys can go two in a row, you guys have been around,
you're big boys, you hit a second one,
it's a whole different conversation.
And that level of attention is disproportionate.
The other thing I'm obsessed with
is who you collaborate with.
What I would spend a lot of time on the train going home on
we just did Fallon, everybody knows what's coming,
we're popping- first, who's reaching out to us
because they're a little bit tired, we're hot,
but they may be a bigger wide name and
who would you fuck with?
I love your reaction, my man.
You know that reaction right now,
when you leave, I'm going to, he's going to win,
that's a very good reaction because
you understood what I just said.
Who the fuck has big audience who's a little,
who's the Usher, the John Legend, the Wyclef,
or whomever, however, who's got real reach
but doesn't have your fucking culture,
pulse, swag right now, needs you for that
and you need, it's a fucking trade.
Why is that 67-year old going to
have a 25-year old smoke show- it's a trade.
- True, yeah. (laughter)
- Correct, I would, if I was part of this team,
in the same as agent, I would be growth consultant,
I would be like, okay, who's reached out to us,
if anybody, who does the label desperately want
to get a little pulse into and who's authentic to us.
Everybody else sucks, silly shit that
nobody would think of, you would be like,
I always loved Billy Joel,
I listen to Billy Joel all the time
and if, John Mayer, if John Mayer's being
real smart right now, I know John,
he didn't tweet about Nicki Minaj for his health,
he knows exactly the fuck he's doing
he's not fucking with Russ, exactly, and
Metro Boomin, he knows exactly what he's doing
because he's a gangster; you need to find him.
Who's your John Mayer, who do you fuck with,
who's reached out and get that song out ASAP.
The collab, disproportionally, because the streets
are fucking with you, I want Kansas Susie to fuck with you.
That would be what I would be spending all my time on.
Tonight we're going to be put on,
to that mainstream shit, who the fuck is going to reach out.
This is what I do, Louis Vuitton, and Under Armor
and Rebok everyone else, they're all in deep
fucking shit. - Yeah.
- That game is over; I'm glad your reaction.
They're all dead.
- We were just talking about that today.
- They're all dead, here's what that means.
Instead of worrying about that right now,
go deep as fuck into attention-grabbing
pop back out in 24 months, you'll get pieces of
equity in Nautica; fuck a deal.
Just a little more patience right now
at the time that it's the hardest.
Because you've been fucking eating shit and
now you're here but you're here.
You know what I mean? - I get what you're saying.
Man, that's true.
- And what's crazy, right now, everybody,
this is why most people don't win.
This is the time you go even more shit-eating
not the reverse.
It's so counter-cultural because
you guys have all been talking about this day
for the last 2,000 days in a row.
Now you're here and you think you're here
and it's no, no, no.
That's what I did!
I fucking invested in Facebook, Twitter,
Uber, everything- I'm here; I did it.
And I decided to build a client-service agency,
go into clients and eat shit in the prime of my career.
I'm giving you advice I took.
And now I'm really here. - Right.
- And I'm still not really here,
like the longer you can hold your breath,
you win but that, honestly, what I would do right now
is fucking circle up and who are we doing a song with,
who are we doing a straight collab with that
disproportionally puts you in a much bigger awareness pool
and there's some big-ass artists
that really need you right now.
Because you got the thing that they want.
Relevance- and they've got what you want- audience.
It's exactly when you fucking do a song with
Mariah Carey or whatever's authentic or
whatever you fuck with, that's on you.
Someone from D.C., I don't know,
you guys do you, I'm never going to,
I'm always going to frame it, I'm not going to tell you who.
But the biggest audience that you can fuck with
get in the studio tomorrow, that's what I would do.
That's my two sense, you know.
Because the shit you guys are thinking about
is going to be there for you.
You're going to have more leverage,
they're doing this, and what you're doing
is make sure you're going like that, not that.
Because if you're thinking about all their shit,
you'll stay flat, what you need to do is just
get more attention, more people to listen.
That's your fucking gig cart right now.
Make sense? - For sure.
- And you see it, you guys, the freshman list,
the Spotify rap caviar, we all see it.
There's fucking people that have
that moment and then they make a decision,
it's either this way, people are like,
oh, they started partying,
I hate when people do that- people are smart now.
You kids are way smarter than kids
that came up when I was a kid,
it's not that they're partying and fucking hoes,
and buying dumb shit, it's that they are
so excited about that moment, they start focusing on
what's my sneaker collab, how am I going to do this cologne,
and I get it but they didn't fucking
(fist smack) they didn't get it all yet.
And the one move no one does is the collaboration.
That's why I'm giving it to you,
I want to give new fresh stuff.
That's the move; it's audience.
People don't pay attention, people don't
understand what Taylor Swift did for Kendrick Lamar,
- [Man Offscreen] That's exactly what I was saying
- [Man Offscreen] Or when she just got on
the Maroon 5 song and Kendrick before that.
- That's real shit, man.
A hundred, a hundred- because he's smart.
Kendrick told you that his plan was
to go on people's shit and steal their fans,
he fucking told you!
He's right, that's what I do
when I go on people's podcasts.
Like, I'm coming, of course I'm coming on your show!
I'm taking your fucking people with me!
(laughter)
You're still young enough in my opinion that
you can win both within your genre and outside of it.
You still have a lot of hip-hop collecting to do.
You do! - [Man Offscreen] One thing to
say real quick before we go,
is he's a big fan of your content
so maybe it's something but he's huge in Europe
so it's not just the United States
- Oh I remember that.
- [Man Offscreen] But since he's huge in Europe,
we're doing 3500 events - That's right.
- [Man Offscreen] They're sold out.
- And Australia announces tomorrow too.
- That's what's up.
- [Man Offscreen] They're targeting other countries and
that's what we've been talking about.
- I believe it.
I don't know, man, like two songs.
Look, you fucking lived it,
you know it better than I do,
you did a bunch of projects and now
you're living through what happens when
you get a song.
That shit compounds when you get two in a row.
Like real different.
- [Man Offscreen] It doubles and triples.
- That's right and really like 10x.
That's why if you get a collab that pops,
we're spending a lot of time with the latin kids
that are like, can't even speak English,
but you get on a song with Bieber or Khalid
does this and everything's crossing.
I would really spend a lot of time looking
at the artists that are ahead of you in reach
and you would fuck with both in your own genre
and outside of your own genre and
I would be very thoughtful in anyone who reaches out
and would I fuck with you.
I mean hardcore, officially through the label
all the way through somebody giving you
love on social- best collaborations that
I know of, someone gave you love and
just tweeted some shit like,
this is fucking fire.
You just DM them and you're in studio next week.
It's a different world- patience.
This close and you know it.
There's nothing I said you don't know.
But the collab one, that's the one
I can be like, I'm so glad that happened
but that's the one I would be very thoughtful about.
It could really change shit.
You know what's crazy about that,
it's historically correct for hip-hop.
Guys, I'm old, that run DMC fucking Aerosmith thing?
That changed everything for Run DMC.
I was in a very mixed culture environment
in New Jersey and I had black friends and Indian friends
and white fans like, me and my black friends
know who Run DMC was but that Aerosmith joint
put everybody on.
You have the best part right now, though.
You can deep in Atlanta, or like collabs on the West Coast.
You're still going to benefit from
anybody who's just a bigger artist within
your genre, let alone Maroon 5.
- [Man Offscreen] Right, totally, yeah.
- You still have both to do.
- [Man Offscreen] You kind of want a remix with Khalid
- He's fucking crazy big, that's exactly right.
That's exactly right though.
Now with this song, now you could get the collab
that is Khalid today versus the Khalid you got,
now it's just exponential, you and Khalid
put out a song right now and that would be like,
- [Man Offscreen] More name recognition and
- 100% and radio play and Target wants it for a commercial.
You're in it, now you have to got to
have the real conversation, this is where
you've got to be real smart about these next two.
Cool, I don't want to hold you guys up, go.
(downbeat electronic music)
I'll get some love, I'll get some followers for you.
Take care of yourself.
Have a good time tonight, take care.
Leave your two cents to the interview-
to the meeting, I just had with Goldlink,
would love to see it, and have a great, healthy new year.