#AskGaryVee Episode 215: Krewella, Social Media for Musicians & the Business of Music

My name is Steven Gold. There’s so many good producers
out there right now getting released on labels, getting
uploads on Sheepy and Proximity all these channels. Getting blog coverage, even
charting on Hype Machine. What separates the artist that
get all this promotion and just get a little bit of royalties
here and the artist that actually get to make
a living off of music? – Anyone who isn’t afraid
to experiment and I always appreciate producers when I hear
them who step outside a certain BPM or even genre. I always love risk-taking
mentality and for me those are the people that I’ll
remember for years and years and just to name a few like
Skrillex, we’re big fans of Skrillex, of course. Everything
that Jack Q does is really cool. Panpour Nerds we’re huge
fans of them. And who else? I would say Discord love what they do as far
as experimentation. – I also think that musicians
who are able to create a song in our EDM world is amazing because
you get so used to the build up, then the drop then the break
down and the build, the drop and it just seemed so contrived
after a while but you get people like Calvin Harris who make real
songs that embody so much more than just the build and the drop
and I think that is incredible. – I think my answers going to be
slightly more in the context of how you guys know that I roll
which is I think what separates is the market decides. This whole notion that there’s
so much great music I think there probably is and I think
some of the great music of all time was never heard because the
market decided it wasn’t great. Meaning who gets to
decide what is great? And I always find
that super fascinating. It is an executive who’s got
an ear like is a Clive Davis through the years? Absolutely not. It’s the end market so a lot of
you email me and say I’ve been doing a daily vlog called
“DailyVee” and a lot of music has been given to DRock for us
and we use a lot of it and we’re getting hundreds of emails now
because they are getting a lot of exposure from people that
are watching the YouTube show and it’s helping them so a lot
of people want their music on the show and everybody writes
the same thing which is, “This is great.
My stuff is great. “Everybody tells it’s great.” And the answer is
I think at some level the market gets to decide. Everybody wants to
think they’re great. I always think about the way
American Idol when it first came out those people in that first
show of every season where they really truly not the people just
trying to get on TV later but those first two or three seasons
where you would just genuinely see somebody who literally
thought they were great. Right? Who literally thought they were
great and in that environment judges got to
decide if they moved on. I think what is so fascinating
about today’s music marketplace and the business marketplaces
with the internet being the true middleman whether you Soundcloud
or blogs pick you up or you put out YouTube stuff or Vimeo or
whatever you do I think what separates the people
that make a living or not is the paying customer. That enough people decide you
are great that it allows you to do it for a living. – I actually think the ones that
do it for hobby versus living it’s quite simply 10,000 hours. And you guys started it was very different than
what it was four or five years later and you
guys continue to get better. – Do you think that Malcolm
Gladwell like put in the work, do you really think
that really think that? For example–
– Yes. I do. – Do you think if I put in
10,000 hours of EDM skills that I could be great at EDM. ‘Cause I can tell
you right now I can’t. – Ok. – I genuinely think
that talent has been stripped out of the equation. – As an artist or as a producer? – Both because I can tell
you right now that is just not in me. – Authenticity has
to be part of it. And that’s not authentic to you. – Well, that’s right.
That’s right. But I do think the 10,000 hour
thing is very fascinating and I do think and I talk about hustle
and hard work a lot. I just am surprised that talent is
starting to get scripted out of the equation. To be a musician like you guys
are, you guys are talented and that’s a thing. – I have to interject here.
– Please. – I don’t think that I, first of
all, I don’t think that I’m up to par with certain
artist that I look up to. When you talk about Adele’s
vocals I don’t think I was born a prodigy. – But you don’t need to be the
number one singer in the world to have success. – But I don’t think I
was born with this– – Do you think you have a better
voice than the average hundred people out there? – No, I don’t.
– Oh, yes. – The reason I say that
is because I think there’s this mentality today where
people think artists on this unobtainable pedestal but if
you go back to the beginning of human civilization everyone was
sitting in a circle banging on some drums and
singing all together. It wasn’t a separate
outsider, entitled group. – I think everybody can sing,
I just don’t think everyone wants to pay everybody
to hear them to sing. – Today, I think it’s different. I think it’s vision, it’s your
voice, it’s your songwriting, it’s how you curate
your music videos. It’s everything. – The issue with your romantic
point of view right now is it’s not being executed in reality. There are hundreds of millions
of people that want to do, there’s tens of millions of
Americans that want to do what you are doing right now. And more interestingly and you
guys know this, you’re in the scene it’s much more what’s
happening in entrepreneurship, it’s what’s
happening in athletics. There are plenty of people that
have put in lots and lots of hours especially if they
come from affluence where their parents have allowed them to
be able to go to every fucking lesson 47,000 times. Sometimes talent has to
be part of the equation. – And hunger too though.
– Sure. – Sometimes people
are given everything. – Sure. The work ethic is
a big variable. Alright before we start getting
really testy here let’s go to

– Ooh, that’s a good one. – I’m going to jump into this.
(crosstalk) You don’t get this
question after the show? So, I think that that’s a great
question by Heather I think rented land has a negative point
of view here right now in the way that she asked the question. So many people are scared that
they don’t own their Facebook page, they don’t own their
Snapchat account what I don’t think people understand is
that’s the ways it’s always been about everything always. When he showed up on
television on good day, Good Morning America or on
The Ed Sullivan show you didn’t own that. You’re more than welcome to be
able to go and build your own app and things of that nature. How we got connected with
Backstage you know I’m investor in you guys where that world is
going is very fascinating to me but I don’t think it
should cripple one. Do I think that if you can own
it and execute it there and have everybody there like an email
list, like your own website, like your own app, does
that have more upside? For sure. I think there’s a chicken and
egg issue though which is if nobody’s there, why you go
on Snapchat and Facebook? ‘Cause everybody’s there. And you want to siphon and I
love how people are like I’m doing all the
stuff for Facebook. No, no Facebook’s doing
all the stuff for you. They’ve curated hundreds of
millions of people into one place that give you a chance
to be seen or heard so I think there’s a little
chicken and egg thing. I do think as you gain more
traction and have more leverage that you’re able to take a
little more control of your environment if you choose to but
I think both work and so to me rented space is very
comfortable to me. To me, anywhere where there’s
attention is a viable place for one to speak to the world and
achieve their story outwardly and I would not be crippled
by doing either or both. – Jake. – I couldn’t have
said that better. – Damn. Yeah. – I do that naturally that wasn’t 10,000 hours
of work, it was. – For me, I’m like let me let
our manager talk about that. – Alright, let’s move it. – [Voiceover] Erica says, “Talk
to us about the importance of

“knowing your fans and
owning your own platform!” – So much importance. I totally think you need to be
able to connect with the people who are paying for your music,
paying to come see your live shows, even not paying just
ripping offline and really loving your music. Those of the people who support
your entire career if you can’t connect with them either that’s
online, face-to-face at shows etc. then you have nothing. – How much time are you guys
spending and it’s okay if it’s a zero I’m just curious how much
time are you spending actually engaging with
your fans on social? Because for me
that feels scalable. You can’t be in Des Moines, Iowa
right now but if Susie says, “I love your stuff,”
you can engage. It was such a big thing for me
in my early days but I do think that it’s becoming out of fad. I think people are spending
less time today than they did 36 months ago engaging with fans. I think it’s a little
better decline in Twitter. I think if you look at all the
social networks besides Twitter they’re more push content out. Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube you
push content out whereas Twitter when it was in it’s prime was a
little more back-and-forth so I was curious, don’t forget if it doesn’t come natural
to everybody. You’re doing other things but
where you guys right now with literally like making a video
and being like, “Thanks, Sal,” or replying to Karen in a Snap
or engaging with a comment in Instagram and
actually replying to it? Tell the truth because I’m going
to double check and call you out if you bullshit me
here in my house. – I would say not as
much as we used to. What you’re saying earlier
about how you spent 15 hours responding to comments
about an event that happened. When we first started off, Jake
was saying follow every fan. Jake, you were
really, really encouraged us. Yeah, exactly. We used to, I remember being
at the airport waiting in line responding to fans. Being in the car, responding to
fans and after certain period of time–
– You have to. I felt it actually really
worked well for us as far as building our social media fan
base but I felt like it stifled my creativity.
– Interesting. – And living, not really knowing
how to live in the real world– – Yes. – in a way I felt every moment
I had to wait or every moment I didn’t have to
talk to someone. Every moment I was sitting
at a table I was on my phone. Nowadays, I actually practiced
just giving myself an allotment of time and I feel like our fan
base is really understanding of that because we’ve been
pretty vocal of that. – Interesting. – I don’t think they think they
take it personally that it takes us five days to respond. – That’s your authentic place.
– Yeah. I also feel like spiritually I’m
going one direction where I want to spend less time online,–
– Yes. – business-wise I understand that it’s so
important to engage. – Of course. – That’s why we do
have people like Jake. – What about you? – I go through phases. We just released
an EP a month ago. I was online the entire week
pretty much just responding to people consistently. Kinda went downhill after there
and I probably spend a good three hours every week just
responding to people every Monday or every Friday I
just sit down and respond. – And where?
What platforms? – Twitter mainly.
That’s the only one. – Are you guys producing
content for Snapchat? – No.
– You really, really need to. (laughter) – I just want to say as an
artist it is really important to have a marketing firm, have
management, have friends, have people to
help curate content. What we do is we sit down, we
have a meeting once a week, hey, look at all these pictures.
These are fun pictures we’ve taken, this is what we did,
here’s what we want to say about it and have someone else kind
of do that work on that and so it’s not. – I think I don’t think that’s
an artist statement, I think it’s great that you have
self-awareness to know what works for you. ‘Cause I think a certain artists
they should be doing a ton of that because it what
comes natural to them. A lot of my business friend
contemporaries are like, “You’re running all these businesses.
Why are you spending four hours a day
engaging with fans?” I’m like, “That’s
my natural state. “It’s where I get my information
from. It’s when I want to do.” But I don’t think that’s
what everybody should do. I like listening to the
way you guys answered. What I like is I just think you
guys are figuring yourselves out and putting yourself in the best
position to succeed and I think really that
ultimately is the main play. I really do. – I think fans crave an
experience, a story much more and content much more than
they crave whether or not you’re responding to them.
– I disagree. I would actually argue and you
can be right but I’m completely and I have a lot of data to
support this believe that access is the most valuable thing
an artist can now bring to the table.
– I agree. – Access meaning
that you’re accessible? – Like some sort of access.
– Like happy birthday to you. – I think you can
touch a movement. You do it with a lot of brands
if a brand doesn’t respond to questions within four hours–
– Sure. – that’s a problem.
But when you’re an artist your responsibility is
to create amazing art. – I think that’s for sure. First of all, no good
marketing solves a shit product. If you guys engage 24/7 with
everybody but your music sucked shit, you would lose. On the flip side, I do think that people
really underestimate. I can promise you right now your
top 5,000 fans would shit their pants if you reply
to them on Snapchat. – I don’t even
know how to do that. (crosstalk and laughter) – I don’t even
know, how do you reply? – We’re not going to do this
right now because we’re still in the middle of the show. What I’m going to do right
now is even more interesting. Guys this is my snap, can you
guys make a commitment to get serious about Snap? – Oh God, no.
– Please. – I’m sorry, I can’t.
– Please. – I’ll try. I’ll try. See the thing is about Snapchat
the reason it’s the one platform that I do not use
because it’s the one,– – See you’re not even listening.
– I don’t understand. – I’m listening to you. – How do you do that and
listen at the same time? – Easy.
– Your generation, man. – No, no, no. I think that it’s behavior.
Right? It’s the 10,000 hours. You put in the
work, you can do it. – You can multitask like
that for 10,000 hours. – I think you
multi-task quite a bit. – I do.

– [Voiceover] Tom asks,
“How’d you girls get hooked “up with Jake Udell?” How big of an influence
has it had on your career?” – High school.
– Yep. I graduated with Jake Udell. Jake was in my science,
what was it? Which science class?
Was it biology? All I know is I got a D. Got a D. (laughter) And Jake you were
actually if you want to talk about your music career. You were pursuing
being an artist. – I was an awful rapper.
Like the worst. DJ Khaled and DJ Drama
actually posted my mix tape. – Why didn’t you just
put in the 10,000 hours? – I did. I did.
– And become– – So here’s the thing
I gave up on my 10,000 hours as a musician– – Because you
didn’t have the talent. – Okay, I’ll admit that.
– Jake has this swag. – See here’s the thing, I made
a pivot and said okay– – Because you were smart. Because not everybody
can do anything if they put in 10,000 hours. – I actually believe, I believe
that if you put in the 10,000 hours it can happen. I’m not saying you can be
performing at the Grammys but you can it’s possible
to have a hit record. I believe that can happen. – Okay. Anything can happen. But it doesn’t
consistently happen. To me that’s the
point which is like– – That’s what’s so fascinating
about what Malcolm said though. Malcolm said he couldn’t find
people that have put in the 10,000 hours that
hadn’t made it. Of course ’cause their stores
weren’t known because he was trying to find them and
he couldn’t find them. – How many hours did
you put into rapping? – Oh my gosh.
– Exactly. – Not 10,000 though,
not even close. – But that’s impossible. If you suck shit at something
and you put 10,000 hours you’re not going to become
one of the greats in it. – Right.
– I was a better marketer. – There’s enormous amounts of
kids, every single kid that tried become a professional
athlete that didn’t become a professional athlete which is
almost everybody put in all the hours from first grade to
senior year and didn’t make it. – 10,000 though? That’s the
thing when you look at that– – I don’t know the math
on what 10,000 hours is. – Did I spent 10,000 hours for
my rap career or was I 10,000 hours in the studio? I was definitely not 10,000
hours in the studio trying to be the best rapper.
– I love Malcolm. Nobody can convince me. If that was true then we should
tell every six-year-old right now to spend every minute of
your time on the number one thing that you want to be and
you will become that and that is absolute bullshit. – I think that’s
absolutely true. – So you think if I take a first
grader right now and say you’re going to become a
world-class surfer– – If he wants to be. – if he or she wants to be than
you’ll think they’ll become a world-class surfer? – That’s so tough. I think they’ll find
their career in surfing. I think that’s a logical great
decision that six-year-old. – And you’re saying that because
you found your career in the music industry whether or not
you were trying manage or not. – The thing is the guy before,
the first question he was asking about– – Nobody wants to be a manager
when they want to be a star. – I do.
– No, now. – Oh yeah.
– When you were 11– – I believed in them more than
I believed in myself so that was the turning point. – Because they had talent.
– Yeah. They’re good. – I think that that’s the point. I really mean that because you
have to understand where I’m coming from and where my energy
is coming from. Right now we are looking to the greatest era
of fake entrepreneurs ever. Every single person that is
under 25 is coming out of school and they’re like,
“I’m an app founder.” I’m sure you talk to these
people everybody’s a fucking entrepreneur and they just think
because they’ve said it and they’re gonna put in the time
and effort that automatically makes them a successful
entrepreneur and that’s the key. Which is you can be anything. Do I believe if I put in 10,000
hours into surfing that I’d be a good surfer?
I sure do. Do I think I could
win the competitions they have in Hawaii? No, I do not. I think there is a secondary
thing that has to happen. Look at the NBA. You mentioned Adele, what
about the 12th man on the Heat. Right? He’s one of the best 300
basketball players in the world but and he’s made it but what
about a person right after that the person in the D-League that’s making tens of
thousands of dollars? That guy is literally one of 500
best basketball players in the world but hasn’t won,
hasn’t made it by the Malcolm categorization. And then you have just millions
of people, there’s millions of people that are trying to make
EDM and hip hop music right this second and so many of them
can’t succeed in the marketplace ’cause the talent is a variable. I really do believe that. I just don’t see how one
doesn’t understand that. There’s so many
people that want it. There are so many people that
put in those hours in so many things and especially in music
and sports which are very high glossy, exciting things to be in
society like I don’t know. I’m fascinated by the talent
conversation because I think it is a dangerous conversation because I was picking
and prodding. The reason I’m in a good mood
as you’re talking a lot more now about self-awareness. I think a lot of kids right
now are getting eighth place trophies and they think they are
good enough and then the world hits them in the face and that’s
what we have so much depression and other things that people
don’t everybody was a “rah-rah.” Everybody wants you can do it. Nobody understands that when
they don’t do it what happens that kid’s psyche.
– Mhmmm. – I think part of being a
successful young person is you get the opportunity
to make those pivots. You get the opportunity to say,
“Okay I’m in eighth place maybe “I should become a coach. “Maybe I should change
my career progression.” – When you’re getting the
direction that you can still do it, you can still do it when so
few can then you start getting into a place where we’re selling
a bill of goods to the youth that isn’t true and you start
dealing with what I think the mental health issues that
are not being talked about where everybody all of a sudden
after 50 years of prosperity in America thinks that they’re
going to become Adele and LeBron and they don’t and
then they’re baffled. – Do you think that when you
talk about the 10,000 hour rule that the people that are making
it, do you think part of that is the equation is
perseverance though? You should have heard the songs
we wrote back in a day and we still write to this day and I
could have checked out and said, “Hey, I just don’t have talent.” – I don’t think there is a
single person that’s successful that didn’t put
in the hard work. Which is the reverse
of the conversation. I just don’t think that if you
put in the hard work you can necessarily be successful. There’s nobody that’s achieved
what you’ve achieved or what I’ve achieved that got
there by accident and didn’t put in the work. – How many entrepreneurs or
talented people have you met that have put in the level of
work that you’ve put in in to what you do to create all of
this amazing office by the way that haven’t made it
in a significant level? I don’t know any. – First of all, nobody works 18
hours a day like I do but (laughter) the punchline is I know a lot of
kids that have been hustling for the last six or seven years
trying to build and are on the third business and
they’re never going to make it. A lot. Because they’re schlemiels. – They’re what?
– Schlemiels. They don’t have it.
– That’s a Russian word? – It’s probably a Yiddish word if I had really get to
the core of it. They don’t have the skill to be
a business person that can make a business successful. The end. There the kids on “American
Idol” who literally come, think they’re Adele sing
and we all laughed. – The fact that they’re on their
third business a lot of them being schlemiels is that
they’re kinda BS, they’re not– – Let’s go into a
different place. Are you telling me that
talent has no part of the equation of success?
– Oh huge. – Well that’s
what you’re saying. – Huge. – I just want you to
know by definition. I want you watch this–
– To achieve talent. I truly believe that and there
have been some people in our experience that have come around that we maybe met
three, four years ago. – I understand. I think people can break
through and get better. Do you think everybody can? Do you think the majority can?
– No. – But I think everybody
has a unique talent though. It might not be music or
sports but you have to find it. Part of being a successful
20-something is understanding how to maneuver in times of
change and understand that you have to sometimes
pivot to be successful. – And how many of
those 20-year-old are gonna find success? – As many that want to.
– That’s not true. – As many who are studying the
same principles and same values that you have. – Last question before
I get really burning. I feel like I’m going to burn
this table now but I love it. I love it because I love it
because I love, first of all, it’s so funny because on the most
optimistic person I know and I feel like I’m
Debbie Downer here. I do think what’s scaring me and
why I’m talking about it is I think the pendulum swinging
a little bit too much to “Anybody can make it.
Everybody can make it. “Just put in the work.” I believe in that but I think
that maximizes what you have. I think the work will maximize
what you have I just don’t think everybody has it. Especially when
you get into art. When you get into music and
sports and things of that nature I think that is a tough challenge.
Last question. – [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“How do you girls stay so

– [Voiceover] Chris asks,
“How do you girls stay so “grounded in a fake world?” – In a fake world? – Why does the
world got to be fake? – The people I surround
myself with aren’t fake. – Yeah, same. – And who says you
guys are grounded? (laughter) – Exactly.
– We might be batshit crazy, you just don’t know. If I were to answer that
question I was also say family. We are family for each other
obviously we’re sisters and we’re very close with our family and
nothing happens that doesn’t slide by our our dad or our mom
and they keep us in check and we keep each other in check. – And also not feeling entitled. I think that’s something we
really surrounded by especially in the dance music realm
there so many DJs who have this entitled aura and you could
see it online and in person. – There’s so much subtext
what you’re saying right now. – There’s like this hierarchy of
what kind of value bring and why that’s more valuable than other
careers or other realms in art. I think that’s what, even the
first question when you’re saying what made you pop off.
– Yeah. – I’ve actually never
felt like we popped off. I never really felt
that we made it. I think the day I really feel
Krewella made it is when I’m going to lose that hunger and
I think we have to constantly remind ourselves to understand
our value and our worth and to acknowledge our achievements
as artist but not to let that hinder us from having that
hunger to work every day, to go to the studio every day, to say
yes to opportunities because the second you start
saying, “Oh no, I’m good.” – “We made it.”
– Exactly. – Or “I’m too good.”
– Yeah. – What do you think?
– For them? – Or about the game? Where do you think, while
I’ve got you for another second, where is the current state
of EDM in your guy’s opinion? Obviously it was a that space,
I don’t know, eight years ago, nine years ago most people
didn’t know about. I still think there’s a lot of people who
are watching who are 40, 50-year-old marketing dudes that
have no idea what this space is and they’re going to Google it.
But obviously when you start talking to a 35 and under demo in
America and obviously in Europe and other places it’s been huge,
everybody at this point already knows that it’s so
interesting to watch. It is really to me the thing
that is most followed hip hop as a new genre that
didn’t really exist before. I’m curious for you guys who
are much closer to it, where is it in it’s lifecycle? Just starting, hitting
an interesting time? It’s become dramatically more
mainstream than it was five, six years ago. What is your
point of view on it? – I think it has plateaued. I think it’s hit the climax–
– Okay. – I don’t think it’s
going anywhere, anytime soon. It just branched off in so
many different directions. There’s so many
different sub-genres. There’s new artist coming
through every day. Guys likes Skrillex and
Diplo are doing a great job of cosigning younger talent,
bringing them up through the system and there’s the
difference between it now and what it was 15 years ago was how
much corporate backing it gets. You see with the brands
you work with all the time and how badly they want to be
involved with these entities and the biggest throwers of
festivals in the world, these biggest entertainment companies
in the world have put so much money into making sure that
it’s going to stay where it is. Keep going with it.
– Ladies? – It’s hard for me to comment
on this because I do feel like we’ve never quite
belonged in the EDM world– – Okay. – and so it’s hard for me to
look at us as even still a part of it even though I know it’s
kinda one foot in the door, one out for us.
– Okay. – We’ve always tried to maintain
our own lane while still, again, keeping one foot
in the EDM world. – I understand. – I think that that’s probably a
good thing for us because like Jake said, I agree, I think it
has plateaued and we have this amazing opportunity to take
ourselves on a completely different lane and
pave our own way. – Do our own thing.
– Yeah, it’s cool. – I just think a lot of what
were talking about when you’re talking about depression with a
lot of young entrepreneurs– – Yes. – maybe feeling let down that
they can’t really achieve the success that they been hyped up
to achieve, what do you think our society being a more and more
fame obsessed society has to do with that especially
with social media? – Yeah, I think the whole 15
minutes of fame has become everybody is
famous to 15 people. You got an entire generation of
young teens right now that take 45 minutes and take a selfie
’cause they want to get the lighting right and post on
Instagram if it doesn’t get enough likes they
take it down right away. Peer pressure, I’ve never
been more obsessed with this. I have a seven and a
four-year-old, instilling self-esteem in to them is
everything because they’re going to need it really, really big.
– Yeah. – Because the market’s gonna push back on every
one of their flaws. Yeah, I think we’re living
through a really, really interesting time.
I really do. I think there a lot of
things happening at once. This is not a very simple issue
where it’s like social media. I think parents, I’m 40, parents
of my generation that grew up during great times, you know
we’re not our parents or our grandparents, great-grandparents
generation where they fought wars and the Depression
and things of that nature. We’ve had so much prosperity
that I think if you look at every empire that when things
are good for too long people become soft. And I think that’s
what’s happening. I think we’re soft. And I think, you know, coming from an immigrant
DNA, like you guys, it’s easier for me to see it. I just think we’re soft and
I think that and I think that I don’t want to add to it. As a very positive optimistic
rah-rah, crush it, anybody can do it guy I want to also at
least have the other part of the equation which is of course hard
work, of course talent and of course look there’s so much
going on in the world right now. I think we’re all sensitive to
a lot of different things that are happening. You never know when
prosperity can end. It ends in a blink. I’m thankful for
the way that it is. I do not think kids being stuck
in their cell phones all day is a bad thing. I don’t think
that’s a ruining them. I think technology is eating the
world and I think it’s going to be more of that. I think that when you guys first
started doing shows compared to now if you think about phone
usage at your shows when you guys are standing there, I’m
curious what you think about what’s going on down there
because that’s just their norm. – Mhmmm. – I love when people think, did
you guys see that picture of the 90-year-old woman that was in
the crowd when the Pope came and everybody took a photo she
didn’t and everybody made a big deal about that? You did. Did you see this?
– Yeah. – You did you see it?
You see it? So it’s a photo like six months
ago when the Pope came to the US I think that everybody made
a big deal about which is everybody taking a photo of it
she just standing, she’s like 90 and she just standing there and
everybody’s like she’s a hero and literally I take
a reverse view on it. I feel bad for her because she’s
old and she probably already forgot about that moment where
as everybody else recorded it. I know it’s a funny– – That’s age discrimination. – Of course it’s
age discrimination. I’m trying to make a zing
joke, I’m sure she remembers it. I have no idea who she is but
I think that change is tough. In the same way that, staying to
music, both hip hop and EDM, one foot in, one foot out both those
genres had nothing but haters in the beginning saying,
“That’s not real music.” – Mhmmm. – And I just don’t like when
people impose their thoughts. Just ’cause kids are
communicating this way doesn’t mean that
millennials are introverted. I love when all my old friends
and when I said old I mean 35-year-olds say these kids
can’t hold a real conversation because their having them here. Meanwhile these same kids spoke
to the same six people their entire childhood because
they didn’t have the outlet to different people,
different things. These kids are
much more worldly. They know a lot more and so
I don’t think anything is bad. I’m pretty much and
optimist that way. But I am worried about
depression because I do think way more scary to me than living
a public life and fame obsession is parents telling their kids
things that aren’t realistic. I do think that we have to train
our generation to deal with adversity and I don’t think
getting an eighth trophy, I do not if you come in fucking last
place that your team should be cheering and
celebrating and given trophies. They should be looked at like, “You guys
suck shit. You lost.” – Don’t you think that this–
– I do believe that’s healthy. – But the advice to the
entrepreneur to push through– – These guys are
going out of business. Do you understand
what’s going to happen? 99% of these– – So they move on
to the next one. – It’s not an
opportunity to get better? – Of course it is.
– Keep going. People out there, keep going. – Of course, keep going but if
you are not self-aware, if you kept rapping, my man,
you would not be as happy as you are today.
– Agreed. – So now go that tell them to keep going
when they’re delusional. – You’ll figure it out. – That was the moment.
That’s the bottom line. You understand? You guys keep
going, keep evolving– – Yes. – but blindly going that I’m
going to be Eminem isn’t gonna work. – But if you don’t do that,
you’ll never figure it out. If I hadn’t put all the time and
energy into that I wouldn’t have understood how to
market recording artist. – That’s a very different thing
then keep evolving and being self-aware and understanding
your strengths and weaknesses to create the next opportunity
versus what people normally hear when you hear keep going which
is if I just keep putting in more hours eventually
I’m gonna put out a song. (inaudible) You didn’t keep
putting out songs– – I did until something else
but if I hadn’t kept going, if I would’ve stopped those thousands
and thousands of times people told me I couldn’t do it. – But please understand in this
conversation when you look back at it you adjusted to a different
opportunity on those learnings. That’s not what people hear– – That’s keep going though. – by your definition but I’m
telling you right now that’s what would people hear. When people hear keep going they
think they’re going to break through on the thing, do you
know that everybody wants to be a famous singer, a famous
athlete and a famous actor and if that person keeps acting
instead of becoming a director which is maybe the skill set
they have they’re gonna lose. – I think what you’re saying
keep going but stay focused but be open to reinventing
yourself all along the way. – Be self-aware. It’s my favorite part of this. It’s what I jumped on earlier. If you actually know yourself
you can win so much more. Just this blind faith that
everybody’s entitled to this level of success is ludicrous. Because most people don’t want
to work hard enough, most people don’t have enough talent and the
math has proven that that’s not the case. The bottom of the 1%, the 1%
earners in America, the top 1% earners, the bottom of
that make $400,000 a year. If you go talk every 15 to
22-year-old, they don’t even conceive anything being
short of a millionaire, of making $1 million a year. But the data shows only 1% in our US society
make $400,000 or more and that makes
them one of the top 1%. We have not had the proper
conversation for every one of you guys, there are 50,000
groups that didn’t make it and it wasn’t because they
gave up one year too early. They just weren’t
talented enough. That’s what I believe.