24 Hour Grind

Don't Sleep: SRC Marketing Head James Cruz Lays Down the Law For Keeping A Competitive Edge

2008-05-12T14:00:00Z

Brooklyn native James Cruz got his start as an intern at Mercury Records over a decade ago and has since become one of the most influential executives in entertainment and marketing today. Cruz served as National Promotions Director at Bad Boy Entertainment before spending a 7 year tenure at Violator Management, where he was instrumental in the careers of 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Missy Elliott. Cruz was also responsible for the launch of Violator Marketing Group, where he helped secure endorsement deals for 50 Cent with Pontiac, Vitamin Water and Reebok; Missy Elliot with Adidas; and Busta Rhymes with Mountain Dew and Courvoisier. He currently oversees brand management, marketing execution and content creation for SRC's corporate clients and SRC/Universal Records artists including Akon and Tami Chynn. In addition to serving as head of marketing at SRC, Cruz is CEO of his own Cruz Control Entertainment (CCE) which has an exclusive consulting deal with Monami Entertainment (Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Brit & Alex) and Unique Auto Sports.]]> No Sleeping Allowed That comes from Puff. We have a tremendous work schedule and it’s a very competitive business, whether it be marketing, branding or the music business. I take that from Puff because he had Bad Boy rules when we were on 19th street years ago when Bad Boy started. The number one rule was no sleeping allowed, because as you’re resting, someone else is gaining ground. That was something that always stayed with me. We partied every night and then were in the office at 10 am. If you weren’t, you had your pay docked. Puff wasn’t playin that shit. Greatest Moments In Cruz History: The day Puffy gave me the best advice of my career. Puffy sat me down in his office, I was leaving Bad Boy and was trying to make up my mind where I was gonna go, it was either gonna be Epic or RCA. He called me into his office and said ‘What are you going to do, what’s your decision? I hate to see you go but let me help you make the right decision for you.’ I said I have an RCA deal -- a lot of money and a signing bonus and Epic deal -- a lotta money and a signing bonus, and I had the Violator Management thing. It was the least amount of money with no bonus. Puff looked me in the eye and he said ‘Are you kidding me James? Are you really thinking about your future? You know marketing, you know promotions, you know retail, you know all these things about the music business, if you go learn management, nothing will ever stop you. That’s going to be the greatest thing you can do.’ He picks up the phone and calls Chris Lighty and says ‘Yo take care of my guy.’ That was special.

Cashmere Agency's VP of Marketing & Strategy Rona Mercado Talks About Breaking The Glass Ceiling

2008-05-09T18:35:22Z

Based in Inglewood, Ca., Cashmere Agency was founded in 1999 and is the premier lifestyle marketing agency which seamlessly integrates trends and emerging technologies into entertainment marketing and music management.The Cashmere Agency recently developed marketing campaigns for E! Network's "Snoop Dogg's Father Hood," "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" and Style Network's "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane". Cashmere Agency's diverse client roster also includes Adidas, Sprite, Coca Cola, Interscope Records, Chrysler and Disney. www.cashmereagency.com ]]> Keep Breaking Through, Don't Let Anything Stop You Rona Mercado, Vice President Marketing & Strategy, " Don't let anything be a barrier to your success. Just be motivated and if you want something map out your goals and set out a plan and be focused. A lot of my success is due to being surrounded by passionate people and they put as much as I do into everything that we’re doing. It’s important to be in a supportive and constructive environment. They always give me a voice and I’m blessed and lucky to have that." "Also, know when you hit a glass ceiling and either know how to break through it or change your game. We all push each other and we all feed off that energy --- don’t be afraid of taking on new challenges. Stay focused on the goals you set out for yourself." Greatest Moments in Cashmere Agency History: Rona spearheaded a lot of casting for "Scarface," the Vivendi video game. "Vivendi came to us and said we have this title, we know the hip hop community loves it, but what can we do to garner more attention and bring more eyeballs to this? So I asked what they were doing with all the extra characters – we call them NPC’s – non playable characters-- maybe the bartender at the nightclub or the guy crossing the street. Vivendi gave us 100 roles to cast and in each of them we put some type of celebrity, anywhere from B-Real to Pitbull to Felli Fel to Angie Martinez . All these people had an affinity group and a big audience so well before the game was even released they were promoting it on the air. You had 100 people who all have a fanbase promoting this game to the masses. I think the impressions total was in the millions. We put all these people in these roles and they were putting on their MySpace’s, announcing it on air and it help push the promotion for this game and as a result the game ended up being the number one game in 2005.

Cashmere Agency Puts In Work To Get Results

2008-05-08T06:26:20Z

Based in Inglewood, Ca., Cashmere Agency was founded in 1999 and is the premier lifestyle marketing agency which seamlessly integrates trends and emerging technologies into entertainment marketing and music management.The Cashmere Agency recently developed marketing campaigns for E! Network's "Snoop Dogg's Father Hood," "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" and Style Network's "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane". Cashmere Agency's diverse client roster also includes Adidas, Sprite, Coca Cola, Interscope Records, Chrysler and Disney. www.cashmereagency.com]]> It Takes Long Hours and Strong Work Ethic to Make Your Independent Business Successful Seung Chung, President, Cashmere Agency: "When it’s your own business or when you have a few people working it, we all take ownership in what we do. As far as the number of hours that we’re committed to this thing it’s a lot easier to stomach if you have the passion behind it. As an independent business, it’s gonna take a lot of hours, we’ve come to understand and accept this. Now we’re working smarter hours to really grow the company. As far as independent businesses on the entertainment side, you really have to differentiate yourself. There’s a lot of competition out here, particularly in the services industry – you really have to look within and know what your capabilities are, what your skillsets are, who the people are that you have within your organization, what is the potential, what’s out there and look at the landscape of what are your competitors doing, and what are your angles, what are you doing as individuals and a company that will provide you with a competitive edge. Prior to this I worked in a corporate environment doing consulting and what I learned there was standards of professionalism and structure in their approach and I was able to take those disciplines and apply them to growing this business. Things within our corporate culture that I wanted to apply is having certain standards and structures to move forward as a business. Creating a certain methodology and protocol with our clients, providing project directives for the project members involved, providing formal wrap-up reports, those are examples of how we differentiate ourselves from other companies. Greatest Moments in Cashmere Agency History: Ted Chung, Chairman Cashmere Agency: "My personal greatest moment was when we had our first company holiday dinner, Christmas 2005. When Seung and I started the company it was just the two of us, we didn’t even have an office space. A space was eventually provided for us and we’d just moved into the space we personalized and built a studio in, so to be able to eat and drink and see what we'd accomplished was really special. To go from not having an office, to having one and then to have a dinner with our friends and family -- it was a good year for us as far as growth.

Terrace Martin & Murs' Manager Russell Redeaux Stresses the Importance of People Skills to His Success at Stampede

2008-05-07T17:35:34Z

Stampede Management is one of the fastest growing artist management companies in today's music scene. Headed by industry veteran, Russell Redeaux, Stampede is quickly becoming the premiere agency for talent management. Stampede is a venture extension to the Cashmere Agency, which creates competitive advantage because of the partnership opportunities that are cultivated by utilizing Cashmere Agency's marketing muscle, talent and resources. Stampede currently houses such artists as Underground Hip-hop Legend and Warner Bros Recording Artist Murs, and Brooke Valentine. This boutique firm also represents many talented producers such as Terrace Martin (Snoop Dogg, Fergie, Quincy Jones, Talib Kweli, Lil Scrappy), Wild Animals (John Legend, Snoop Dogg, Kurupt) and Midi Mafia (50 Cent, G Unit, Fantasia, Westside Connection, Talib Kweli).]]> Artist Management Takes Incredible People Skills The biggest key is really managing their expectations, between managing the label’s expectations and managing the artists expectations, helping guild their creative minds with what is realistic in the business world. That is the biggest thing that management helps plays a part in, just helping realistically guide the artist in terms of what their creative expectations are as far as output and how that ties into financial terms and building a successful campaign to get that record out. There is no business formula to creative. Usually the management is in a position to communicate the artist’s vision to the label so everyone is satisfied and the artist getting what they need from the label, and the label is getting what they expect out of the artist in terms of being on time and being productive. It takes incredible people skills, in understanding how to deal with creative minds. You have to keep them motivated because they are the product. It’s important to keep them in a great head space to give great interviews and shows so they are holding up their end of responsibilities. Greatest Moments in Stampede History: I work with emergent production team, Wild Animals, and being called on to work on the legendary Quincy Jones’ tribute album, they accomplished an incredible song with John Legend that will be included on his upcoming record. From seeing how the guys hustle and after experiencing the highs and lows of the production game, being called on by the legendary Quincy Jones is amazing.

Cashmere Agency Connects Audiences with Snoop Dogg, Kimora Lee Simmons and Kim Kardashian

2008-05-06T15:00:27Z

Based in Inglewood, Ca., Cashmere Agency was founded in 1999 and is the premier lifestyle marketing agency which seamlessly integrates trends and emerging technologies into entertainment marketing and music management.The Cashmere Agency recently developed marketing campaigns for E! Network's "Snoop Dogg's Father Hood," "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" and Style Network's "Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane". Cashmere Agency's diverse client roster also includes Adidas, Sprite, Coca Cola, Interscope Records, Chrysler and Disney. www.cashmereagency.com ]]> Know Your Audience, Then Connect With Them Rona Mercado, Vice-President Marketing & Strategy, "It takes knowing your demographic; who you’re marketing to, knowing where they are, what they do, what they like and how they like messages being delivered to them. Cashmere has a team of thirty people spread across the country who are trendspotters for us. They can tell us what’s hot in that market, what the temperature is, etc, which helps put together strategic marketing plans.We started with street team marketing and now we’re taking it online where a lot of our target demographic is. A lot of our campaigns are a call to action, saying ‘Hey if you want to check this out here’s a website or a contest,’ basically something compelling to engage your target demographic." Ted Chung, Chairman, "For us that process is called CDC - Connect, Direct and Collect. You have to connect to your consumers and the audience you’re trying to reach and that can be through multiple mediums, it might be through online, it might be through street teams, it might be tv or print, but you have to be dynamic and as a small company that’s our competitive advantage. We’re all gadget lovers, we all stay on top of what the newest trends are and how consumers like to communicate with their brands. So we connect our promotional strategies between the brand and the consumers Then we have to direct them somewhere, a website,a phone number, a retail store and you should always retain something from them whether that’s information, opinions or sales revenue. It’s important to stay dynamic and stay in touch with how the youth is changing their decision making habits because it’s constantly developing." Greatest Moments in Cashmere Agency History: Seung Chung, President, Cashmere Agency, "One of the greatest things for me personally was working with MTV on “Volcano High.” It was basically a Korean film, we did a remix so to speak and adapted it for the MTV audience. Ted and I were co-executive producers on the project. We provided our insight, our music and A&R experience, we identified music for the project and helped with the casting. It was an Asian martial arts film, remixed with wall to wall hip hop music. They changed the voiceovers to hip-hop artists to be the voices and changed the storyline. For us to be part of that, as an Asian American who has a passion for hip hop music, to bring all those worlds together in one project was a highlight for me personally. It was Andre 3000’s first movie, Method Man, Snoop, Kelis and Mya were also in it. It was it was the highest rated original film on MTV that year. It was before Jet Li and other Asian faces were on TV so for us to be involved with this, and this to be the first Asian project MTV did was pretty landmark for us."

Marketing Master Ted Chung Talks About How His Passion For Hip-Hop Lead To His Success

2008-05-05T13:30:00Z

Cali native Ted Chung is President of Doggy Style Records, home to multi-platinum rap king Snoop Dogg, and a partner in the movie production company Snoopadelic Films. He is also the chairman of a full-service entertainment marketing firm, the Cashmere Agency. His accomplishments at Cashmere include Music Supervising the first, RIAA-certified Platinum video game soundtrack with NBA LIVE 2003, Co-Executive Producing the MTV broadcast feature ‘Volcano High’ (Andre 3000, Mya, Lil’ Jon) and founding the Hip Hop Gaming League. Cashmere is the agency behind marketing programs for Snoop's show "Father Hood," "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and Kimora's "Life in the Fab Lane". They also run an artist management agency, Stampede Management, managing hip-hop artist, Murs and several producers.]]> Build A Great Team & Let Your Passion Lead You The most important thing is to make sure you let your passion lead you because that will give you the drive to continuously pursue executing your business goal because money and materialism isn’t going to sustain that drive. It’s important to have that passion always at the back of your mind and to surround yourself with good quality people and people who are in it to work together and work as hard as you do, to achieve those goals. Surround yourself with people who also instill that passion for whatever it is that you enjoy and believe in as well. It’s better to live a life and grow slowly, but pursue it in a field that you love and work hard at that. What I’ve seen over time in my career is that those who pursue that, for some it’s faster than others, but as long as you continue to grow and surround yourself with people you respect and care about it will ultimately be a more enjoyable ride. Greatest Moments in Cashmere Agency History: We worked very closely with Snoop on the Father Hood project, he’s top dog out on the west coast, then we worked with Murs, who is the top dog in the independent world of hip-hop on the West Coast. We work closely with producers like Terrance Martin and Wild Animals who are changing the scene sonically out here on the west coast. As a small and up and coming business it’s always great to give back to your local community and to be able to achieve the success we have and making sure we’re partnering with local artists and talent in order to achieve that. Also, like with groups like Pacific Division, a lot of artists we’re connected to and do business with have been a community effort. We’ve realized the more successful our local community and scene is on the West Coast, the more opportunities for our company. You put yourself in a power position when you give back and have the community provide the outcome of that back to you. It’s a very cyclical process. That’s another thing we’ve been successful at. We stay west coast for a purpose.

ego trip "Miss Rap Supreme" Producer Elliott "YN" Wilson Serves Up Another Dose of Truth

2008-05-02T12:52:59Z

After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.]]> Be Honest That’s the biggest thing as a journalist. You’re going to get pressure on all types of ends, whether it’s your industry friends that want you to talk about something in a way that benefits them or you’re worried about saying something because you don’t want to offend anyone, but I feel it’s important to just be honest. Don’t be critical for the sake of being critical and don’t be snarky, but if you’re going to say something back it up. Whether you like it or you don’t like it you can be clever about it, you can be spicy with your commentary but don’t take a low blow, don’t take pot shots, just be honest. Personally, I always wanted to represent the hip hop fan that is talking at the barber shop. It’s not about this industry that exists it’s about what the people are really thinking and really saying. If that music is making you feel that way you need to express that and be honest about that and be critical. Be true to yourself and be honest with your voice. Being honest is what will make you stand out. It’s not about being the toughest person or you came from the streets and you’re a thug, whether you are or not. People respect honesty and you have to understand that as a journalist all you have is your word and what you’ve written down and what you say and you have to be held accountable for all of that. You have to take whatever comes with that, whether its threats or somebody wants to bring it to you or whatever comes. You gotta stand by your word, so it’s important that it be how you really feel. Greatest Moments in YN History: The next thing will be whatever I’m going to do next.I definitely don’t want to stop documenting the culture. I like doing the TV stuff, it’s cool but I’m exploring my options about what I’m going to do next and I’m still hungry to document this culture and do it at a high level. Hopefully I got more accomplishments to make that I can prove to people who are doubting me and saying he may have peaked with this or what will he do next. I’m excited because I feel like I’m the underdog again I feel like people respect me but At the same time they probably don’t think I can do something else that’s as big as what I just did. So I like that challenge. I’m up for it.

Former XXL E.I.C. Elliott "YN" Wilson Sounds Off: "RESPECT" Ya Elders!!

2008-05-01T14:00:00Z

After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.]]> Respect Your Elders People need to respect their elders in the game. Because my image is very brash and aggressive, what I run into a lot a lot of times when people are fans of my work, they’ll be like ‘Oh my God, you’re YN! You’re the shit!’ and big me up, but big me up all aggressively. Then they’ll feel there is a comfort level where they if there’s something they don’t like, they’ll come at me in a passive aggressive way like “your show sucks.” A lot of times people feel they can talk reckless right out the gate, and to a certain level you have a right to say whatever you want and everyone has their opinion. But I do think you should respect your elders in this game. You have to earn that position to really be able to critique other people if you’re going to do that in a disrespectful way. I feel like a lot of times I inspire that kind of energy where you are either fanatically for me or real critical of me and want to challenge me or engage me in something to get your standing. It’s still important to respect your elders in this game. You obviously want to reach certain levels that the people that have come before you have. That’s what I did, I studied everybody that came before me and respected them to a certain extent and I found my opening and my lane and worked hard to get to where I wanted to get. Because there was a lot more interaction with editors and people in this business, I got to have peer groups and mentors who could guide me more. Nowadays because of the internet there is less of an experience of people getting that kind of guidance, because the outlet is there to get your voice out so quick, people feel they are at a higher level than they are. I guess people need to take stock and realize they still have a way to go. Respect your elders -- that’s the old man speech. Greatest Moments in YN History: The Reign of Terror. The XXL thing. Being YN and saying I’m gonna beat The Source, and beating The Source, and being part of the history and that crazy-ass-87-issues-longest-run-ever great editor run that I had. Now that I’m not doing it, I can look back on it and say ‘Wow I really did it.’ When you’re doing it you’re cognizant of it, but at the same time you’re still doing it and you’re still trying to stay on top. Now I can look back on it and be proud of it and understand that’s a huge part of my career and in a lot of ways my legacy. It’s really big and humbling and something that is really bigger than myself in a lot of ways.

Hip-Hop Media Man Elliott "YN" Wilson Wants You To Stay Inspired!

2008-04-30T15:56:29Z

After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.]]> Stay Inspired It’s important to stay inspired when you are in a business where you are a journalist. A lot of times your job is to be critical and you can sometimes lose your desire and start thinking everything is all horrible and hip hop is dead. Even with ego trip in the mid-90’s we were talking about hip hop was dead, because we didn’t feel the music of '95 was as good as the music of 1994. You’re gonna feel that way at times, that you’re just not into this or there is just not enough good music or another album came out that really disappointed you from your favorite group. So it’s important to find what inspires you and just stay inspired. Whether its in the music itself or whether it’s just the album of some obscure group that isn’t going to go platinum, but you just really like the album, or maybe it’s not even the greatest album, maybe it’s just a good album, but for whatever reason it connects to you. You need to keep those things close and stay inspired. Staying inspired is very important. In this business more and more that gets even more of a challenge to stay in this and stay inspired. I get that old people complex sometimes like 'it’s not how it used to be blah blah blah,' but it's important to accept the situation and find what you like so you can stay inspired. Greatest Moments in YN History: I had left the Source, not under the best circumstances as everyone knows… I was the only one at ego trip that didn’t have a freelance gig, everyone else was either a writer at large at The Source or Vibe or working there, so I just threw myself into ego trip and worked on this "Book of Rap Lists" with my partners. Back then it was just five guys trying to find a way to talk about hip hop through funny lists and our memories and reflections. We didn’t have YouTube back then like ‘yo remember that episode on YO!MTV Raps?’ but nowadays you can hopefully find that on YouTube or other technology now. In some ways it makes it even more special because of the way the world and culture moved after the book came out. Quality wise I think the book still holds up, it is the best rap book, at least until I have the chance to do another one. Wee did it because there was no real guide to stuff, like how do you spell ‘Amerikkka’s Most Wanted’. It’s funny because when we put the book out it made a little noise and we’d go up to the magazines to freelance and every research person, copy chief, fact checker, had it on their desk. It was like ‘See, we’re making everyone else better!’ now they can fact check whether Too Short has a $ in the S or not. We didn’t look at it as a charitable thing helping people but it had a lot of use back then because the internet wasn’t what it is now. The book has ended up having a lot of different meaning to people which is what makes it a great accomplishment.

Study Your Lessons: Advice From Head "YN" In Charge, Elliott Wilson

2008-04-29T16:57:42Z

After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.]]> Study Your Lessons Study the game, study your lessons. It’s important to know who else is out there and who came before you. Go back and pick up old issues of the Source's, the Vibe's the XXL's, even other magazines, like the great Tupac stories from the New Yorker —especially now that we have access to so much old stuff on the internet. Really do your research and find out who these people were who used to write about the culture. Know the bylines, know the history, go back and study it. If you want to be a journalist you need to know about not just me, but the people who came before me. Really just read a lot of other people’s work. Your style develops from reading other people’s stuff and then figuring out what your perspective is. Obviously we all read each other’s work and we all get inspired by each other. You need to put yourself in that fraternity and go back, even if you are 18 or an 80's baby or whatever you are, go back and read the old magazines and really see who was out there and who wrote the things that connect to you. Don’t be afraid to go back and study your history. Study your lessons. Greatest Moments in YN History: The second big moment was getting the Source job. My only career goal was to be Music Editor at The Source. I was a big Source fan even before I met Sacha and got down with him and wrote for a magazine he had called Beatdown, then we created ego trip together. My dream was to be music editor at The Source. I used to read The Source and look at Reggie Dennis’ music editor column, he’d talk about all the new music and hear every advance cassette before everyone else. I wanted to be that guy that gives the mics out and says what’s good and bad and gets the record before everyone else. That was really my career goal and I was able to achieve it in 1996. I was 25. Selwyn Hinds was Editor-in Chief and he hired me as Associate Music Editor because at the time he was music editor and then he got bumped up to EIC and I became Music Editor. I was Music Editor from 96-98, actually that era of The Source was when it became the dominant juggernaut of selling ridiculous amounts of copies on the newsstands so I was a part of that. I was number two to Selwyn in terms of the music coverage and I’m very proud of that era of my life.

Rap Journalist Supreme Elliott Wilson Advises Media Wannabe's To Get On Their Grind

2008-04-28T14:52:34Z

After helping to launch ego trip, Elliott "YN" Wilson served as music editor for The Source before taking over as Editor-in-Chief of XXL Magazine where he reigned supreme for 87 issues. Wilson currently serves alongside the rest of the ego trip collective as executive producer of Vh1's "Miss Rap Supreme." This week YN weighs in with his favorite moments in the media as well as advice for aspiring hip-hop journalists.]]> Have a Strong Work Ethic You have to grind. When you first get in the game, you have to really pay your dues. You've got to grind it out. Being somebody’s assistant you shouldn’t be leaving before your boss leaves at the job. When you are coming up and trying to make a name for yourself, the biggest thing to do is to outwork everybody. You gotta be at work on time, you want to work long hours, you have to realize you're not really ever off. Even when things are going on during the evening or weekend, if it's an event you need to be at you should try to go to it. You should never clock out. You should just recognize you need to have a strong work ethic. Outwork everybody, especially in the early stages of your career. Become a super dependable person. That’s how you get more work and get more assignments -- your ability to meet your deadlines and turn things around quickly. It all comes out in the work ethic. If you’re going to do this, then be supercommitted. Be the hardest worker in the spot. Greatest Moments in YN's History: The first big moment of my career was launching egotrip – me and my partner Sacha Jenkins started this magazine, which wasn’t just hip hop, it was hip hop, rock, skateboarding, graffiti... We covered all the elements, really youth culture. Being 22/23 and just having that energy and the diy work ethic. Being an entrepreneur and building this brand that through the years, with the contributions of others me and Sacha have been able to create this brand that still exists today. Now we got television shows. To me the greatest album of all time is Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Who would think 20 years later I have a tv show on right after Flavor Flav, for better or for worse, tonguing down chicks all day, that's one of the biggest shows in tv history. Who would know that that was something that was gonna happen? I think that’s the humbling part, that something that two guys started, no homo, in his mama’s bedroom is still an enduring brand. It was a lot of sacrifice through the years so I’m really proud of the launch of ego trip. We started planning Fall '93 and the first issue was Summer '94.

Alicia Keys' Producer Kerry "Krucial" Brothers "Keep Your Creativity By Continuing To Have Fun"

2008-04-25T16:54:13Z

Founder and Co-CEO of KrucialKeys Enterprises alongside Alicia Keys, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers is a Grammy award-winning, multiplatinum-selling producer and writer who has played an integral role on Keys' albums Songs In A Minor, The Diary of Alicia Keys and As I Am. He has also produced, written, arranged and composed songs that appeared on the soundtracks of Dr. Doolittle, Drumline, Shaft and Ali . In addition to Alicia Keys, Brothers has also worked with Rakim, Mario, Angie Stone, Nas and Keyshia Cole, and is currently working with Anthony Hamilton, Goapele, Robert Randolph and Brandy. This week Krucial checked in to give 24Hr Grind his advice on succeeding as a music producer and songwriter.]]> Feel the Music and Have Fun Don’t get so caught up in it that it gets too serious and becomes robotic and stiff. If you’re into music you got into it because it was fun -- it seemed like something to do that made you excited, and made you feel good. Sometimes when you try to pursue it as a career the fun gets lost as you get caught up in, 'Oh I’m not making any money from it... I’m not achieving this...' or 'Oh I gotta do this this way in order to be a success,' and once that starts happening it will stagnate your creativity, so always learn to keep it fun for yourself and feel what you’re doing. Greatest Moments in Krucial History: Working with Rakim in the studio for the second album. There was a song called “Streets of New York” where we had Nas and Rakim on the same record. Rakim is like a legend to me. He’s like the father of this modern day rap style, so to have him finally come to the studio and to just have a long conversation with him and really bond with him was great. There was no ego. We were just really having a conversation about New York in general and conversing with him was like, 'Wow he has so much knowledge on how it used to be and still fill you on what’s happening now.' After having a conversation with him, he gets in the booth and has this whole rhyme ready. This guy wasn’t just talking he was gathering info. Half the conversation is now his verse. It was incredible. His delivery and everything, watching this guy put down his lyrics, he was very creative, very talented, it was an honor to work with him.

Producer Kerry "Krucial" Brothers Encourages Budding Beatmakers To Listen To All Styles of Music

2008-04-24T14:00:08Z

Kerry "Krucial" Brothers Breaks The Music Mold

2008-04-23T15:41:20Z

Founder and Co-CEO of KrucialKeys Enterprises alongside Alicia Keys, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers is a Grammy award-winning, multiplatinum-selling producer and writer who has played an integral role on Keys' albums Songs In A Minor, The Diary of Alicia Keys and As I Am. He has also produced, written, arranged and composed songs that appeared on the soundtracks of Dr. Doolittle, Drumline, Shaft and Ali . In addition to Alicia Keys, Brothers has also worked with Rakim, Mario, Angie Stone, Nas and Keyshia Cole, and is currently working with Anthony Hamilton, Goapele, Robert Randolph and Brandy. This week Krucial checked in to give 24Hr Grind his advice on succeeding as a music producer and songwriter. ]]> Break the Mold, Do Something Different Do something different. A lot of times when we’re trying to do things, we might like other people’s production or songwriting, and you’re definitely going to be influenced in how you create things. Certain things other people are doing will make you excited and inspire you, but by no means should you try to emulate exactly what you’re hearing. Take what you like and embellish, switch it up, break away from what other people are doing. A lot of times I’ll meet people who bring me tracks or songs and they will sound exactly like everyone else. If there is no originality or individuality you don’t stand out. If you want to cut to the chase and really want to make a difference and get further, you gotta break the mold so you don’t seem run of the mill. It seems like a catch 22, because it appears that work gets attention when things are is done in a certain style but I think it hurts more than it helps. Break the mold, don’t be afraid to be different, don’t be afraid to try something new, don’t be afraid to try different styles. Greatest Moments in Krucial History: When the first album came out, I was in the studio working on some other stuff and people called me like "Songs in A Minor debuted at number one!" When you are working on music, you are confident in what you and people around you like, but to see strangers and the masses gravitate as quick as they did was a real shock. Like, wow it’s really #1.

Alicia Keys' Production Partner Kerry "Krucial" Brothers Keeps His Goals In Sight

2008-04-22T15:28:11Z

ALICIA KEYS - FALLIN
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Greatest Moments in Krucial History: There is nothing like hearing a song you’ve worked on playing on the radio. The first time I heard "Fallin’" on the radio – it was an incredible moment and it wasn’t even me singing on the record! Seeing the video and hearing people's reactions, like 'Wow people really like it.' It was just great knowing 'I was there, I recorded those vocals.'