By the end of this episode of Art of the Hustle, nearly ten thousand new malware variants will have launched. Now AI can help protect your data from threats wherever it lives with IBM Security. Let's put smart to work. Learn more at IBM dot com slash Smart. You're listening to the Art of the Hustle podcast that breaks down how the world's most fascinating and successful people have hustled their way to the top. I'm your host, Jeff Rosenthal, co founder of Summit and director of Summit Action Fund in the owner of Powder Mountain UM and today we have a very special guest on the show, the man behind many of the biggest names in hip hop co president of Top Dog Entertainment, Mr. Dave Free. Dave has accomplished more by the age of thirty two than most music executives accomplished in a lifetime. Yes, he is known as one of the men responsible for bringing Kindred Lamar and his music to the masses. Uh. He also, along with t D has put out a tremendous catalog of artists from Scizza to Schoolboy, Q Jay Rock and A Z A Shod. But he and his roster are doing things that no label has ever done in the space before, from winning pulled serprises to never before seeing guerilla marketing tactics, to rethinking how live music should be packaged and experience. Dave is a pioneer, a visionary, a businessman, and I'm fortunate to call him a friend. Dave, Welcome to the show. Thank you, sir. And I must say you have a amazing radio voice. I appreciate that. I appreciate that this is this is you know, it's a new medium for me, so I'm just getting into it. Um. Well, I was really excited to get you on the show because you and I have talked a couple of times about those initial moments, and your story starts really young. Yeah, I was. I was in ninth grade high school, you know, having beat battles on the lunch tables at am my high school and here in l A, here in l A Guardina. How to be specific. Um, I always been into music. My brother he kind of got me into music. He was a producer, so he kind of like, you know, show me the ropes of how to produce and different things like that kind of sparked that love. I always had a love of music, particularly East Coast hip hop when I was super, super young, and you know, it was like, uh, it felt like something that I had to be a part of, you know. And you and Kendrick were in high school together. We didn't go to the same high school. He went to its actually like a rival type of high school. He went to Centennial High. I went to Guardena High. And it's funny because I grew up on the west side of l A. And then I end up moving to the east out of l A. And it was like, that's if anybody knows that type of scenarios, two different worlds. You know, it's so closed with us so far. We got introduced to a friend and we just hit it off. It was just like brothers from another mother, you know, from the beginning. And then you met Top at like fifteen years old, correct, I met Top Yeah, turning sixteen, I believe at What's day. When Dave refers to Top, he's talking about Anthony top Dog Tiffi, the CEO of Top Dog Entertainment. Top again his career as a record producer in the late nineties, baking his name by producing tracks for big artists like The Aim and Juvenile and similar to day if he always had an ear for talent, was looking for the next big voice in hip hop, just like he did when Dave came over to fix his laptop and the rest of his history. They used to have this thing in Watts where it was like tyrish Stow, this thing uh that he used to kind of give back to the city. Um and like those free concerts called Watts Day. And Tod was there one day. And I knew about him because I have friends that like live right around the corner from him, and I always try to catch up with him, and that's kind of where I caught up with him. It was he already making music and yeah, he was already involved in the music business. He was on from producing standpoint. He didn't really have any acts at the time, but he was cultivating talent at the time. And how did you get his attention? Just walked up to him and told him. I was like, man, my name is Dave and I do a lot of ship. That's exactly what I said to him. And he was like, what do you do. I was like, a lot of ship here, yeah, okay, and we will okay, um. And your first job for him was as a computer technician. Correct, it wasn't for him as a computer technician. I worked for the Los Ange Unified School District as a computer technic. You were actually a computer I was actually a computer technician system support analysts for the last Angreae Unified School District District eight to be exact. And uh, that's how I kind of got his attention. But during that time period, I wasn't a technician when I met him, and I was just young kid in school and I knew a lot about computers and technology at the time. Yeah, and I'm trying to pull this out of you because I remember this story. You did go and chop up his computer. I definitely chopped up his computer because after I told him I knew how to do a lot of ship, he was like, well, okay, cool, give me a number, and he he called me up one day. It was like, I got a laptop, you know that I need some working on. And I had Kendricks demo tape and I was like, cool, I'm working in a laptop, but I need you to listen to this demo tape while I work in a laptop. He was like, cool, let's do it. So I came to his house and you know, came in the room and he gave me the laptop and I gave him the CD. He put the CD in, he started listening, and I took that laptop of parts so slowly so he can get through every single song of Kendricks, you know what I mean. While I was working on it, and I didn't even know what I was doing. I didn't work on laptops. I was more of a software guy. Um, I didn't know anything about hardware and especially about you know, opening up a laptop. But it was the thing that got me in front of him at the time. Yeah, and that was that, and that was the start. That was the start, and I was a start. Um. I didn't fix his computer, but I did, you know, put him up on some music that was dope. So and then I I my brother was still in the mix at the time. I introduced them and we start using the studio and then Murder shot Worlds and here we are and it's Grammys and Oscars and Pulitzers. Yeah, that's crazy amazing. And you guys already like when you look back or listen back on the music that you're already making that Kindrick already have. It was the production already kind already had it. I tell people, and this all the time. The first, the first rap I heard from him, Um, I couldn't recite it, but if I heard it, I remember every every lyric. He had an ability to put together words at such a young age, and like we were talking about stuff like groifying, gang banging and drug dealing and all that different things, but just the way he did it was different, you know what I mean. It was just so different because that was like the hip hop of our time period. It was really it was mainly about that. Like our idols was jay Z, you know, Tupac, Biggie, um, DJ quick Snoop Dogg, like that was our idol at the time. So it was really about you know, us mimicking that type of sound and that type of that type of culture. And he just the way he did it, it was like he was a West Coast dude, but he had East Coast you know, lyrical ability. And I heard it from the first time. It was three guys. It was my boy, Antonio Di Moses and Kendrick and I met Antonio and Antonio introduced me to Kendrick. He literally told me like this. He like, if you like me, you love Kendrick. I had him come to my my mom's house. I had like a makeshift studio in my room and it really wasn't even really a studio. It was just a bunch of equipment that I just plugged together to look important. And he came through and I remember he just got on the mic and you started wrapping, and it was just like, man, this dude, like he was so much better than other guys. It was crazy, like so much ahead of them. But they were in a group at the time. They wanted to be in a group because like group was the thing back then, and um, you know, I was just like at all by him. I was like, man, you're the one, you know, And I just knew it the first time I heard him. And I love that you and Kendrick at the same time kind of folded into TV and have this rich history, this family vibe that I've always gotten from you guys, that it's totally unique and singular, you know, like, um, and to take me back a little bit, you know, so this is like early days you're making music, you have the company or in like the start up phase, well prior to being from TV. It was like me, Kendrick and my brother and it was like about four years of that of just like cryingding and you know what I mean and developing it sound. This is like what kind of before we met top. We we did like a mixtape and we were just working. Like I remember, it was crazy. We uh we would come home like every night at four am and then have to be up at seven am to go to school high school, like going to the craziest neighborhoods, like to record. My brother lived in like a really crazy neighborhood in l A And we would like, man, we would sneak into this neighborhood cause weren't from that side of town, so we really wasn't supposed to be over there, and we would like sneak in and out of this neighborhood countless nice just to go record, just to do music. And like, looking back on it now, it's like that's something I probably would never do. But when you're so young and you're so passionate, you just want to be you just want to be where the music's ad. When Dave recollects just how crazy it was for he and Kendrick to be going through those various neighborhoods in the late nineties early two thousand's to record their music. He's referring to the gang violence and turf wars and craziness occurring in south central l A and all over l A. Frankly during that time period in the area, as did mentioned such as content Inglewood Watts, it was not a stretch by he means to say that they were putting themselves in danger to go and record their music. We developed the sound, and we always had to record like at my mom's garage or my brother's house, and it was never like a stable recording scenario. And a buddy of mine, Duran, told me about the top in this neighborhood. He was like, yeah, I've seen Juvenile. It was a rapper named Juvenile from the Worse from Texas. That was like, all right, that was our elvis. Yeah, and Juvenile was big for us, Like that was super big. He was like, yeah, top Man seen Juvenile tops house. He'd be recording over the other studio on the back. And then that's when I went on, Yeah, we gotta find this dude, like you know, and uh, because he was he was near I lived in Inglewood at the time, well not at the time when we started recording. I moved to Carson when I was about twelve years old. I lived in ingle up until I was twelve, and I moved to Carson and Kindred lived in Compton, and my parents moving to the suburb, which they thought it was a suburb. It was a suburb, but it was like we thought it was better than Inglewood, but it really wasn't. It was like the same. And we had a nice at least ode of my whole room. Yeah, and that was the best thing about it. Yeah. And then I was able to get in that circle of all those guys that knew Kendrick and then that's how I Mckkendrick and then you know, took him over there top. And so when you were learning the business at that point, like you you've always crossed over, but it's directing videos. They're working with the artists themselves to like being heavily involved obviously in all the business aspects of what you guys have grown and built. At that early stage, were you doing that already where you already kind of a foot in both or what were you spending your time on. I was more sending my time on producing. I came in producing more so my brother taught me, Like he gave me full access and to to all this production equipment. He had a lot of equipment. So I came in on the producing tip. I'll produced like pretty much half a Kendrick's first mix tape. And then it went from producing to Djane because Djane was like kind of paying the bills from me at the time. Like I live with my parents, but my dad was very stern. You know, when you live in this house, you you bring revenue into the house to help the house. It was always that kind of conversation, and I would DJ to help, like bring money into the house, same money for myself so I can go do different things. That's how I initially came in as a DJ. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to be in the music business, but I really didn't know it was one of those things where I actually wanted to be like an artist. I was more like young puff at the time, like you know, I wanted to be on the song and want to wrap and didn't couldn't wrap for anything, but wanted to be in in that world, and um, you know, just as a growing up, I started realizing that I was more powerful behind the scenes. When Dave talks about young Puff, he's referring to Sean Puffy Combs, who in the early days was both managing Notorious b I G. Running bad Boy Records, and also appearing in the videos and recording his own tracks as a manager, producer, artist, everything. And there's very few people that can do both. And it's really incredible to me how much self awareness they've had to know that he couldn't do both. At the time, he wanted to be an artist and still sees himself that way, but he knew that he could push Kendrick and others further by focusing full time on the business aspects of the game. But I could say, probably like Djang was like the first round of it, then videography will start to become a passion for me because it was like, hey, nobody would do videos for us, so it's like, you know, I gotta pick up a camera, gotta do it yourself, you know. Yeah, And were there some like seminal moments for you that you remember where you realize that you needed to become sophisticated in business and understand this stuff. Yeah, it was I forget what manager it was. It had to be either. I think it was Cortez Bryant, Little Wayne's manager. It had to be him because every time I think about the story, he comes up. But I remember I went up to somebody and I was like, Hey, I got this artist k Dot. You went by K at the time, was like the artist k Dot. Now I said I was as manager. I was like, just my managers, God, just I'm He was like, nah, it's not your artists. I was like, what do you mean. He was like, that's your friend. He was like, you're not a manager until you have something to manage. It really stuck with me. It hurt me, But at the same time, it stuck with me because it meant a lot. It meant like, don't focus on the business side until you need to. It was like, focus on the music that creates the opportunity that gets you to focus on the business side. So I would think that was my first experience into knowing what I needed to grow into. You know, I was just calling myself things. You know, I'm the DJ, I'm the manager, I'm the president, and I'm you know, it wasn't until I started developing those skills and having to have those conversations and being in those conversations and probably saying the wrong thing, and like kind of learning from my mistakes. You know, that's sharpened that still when it's like you start hearing the same terms over and over again, it's like, Okay, I'm starting to understand now, I'm starting to understand what they mean by when they say this. Sor I remember some one time a guy asked me what you're writer? And I didn't know what the hell you're talking. I didn't know. I didn't want to ask him, like what do you mean? What was my writer? You know? He was like, you're writer? You don't know the writer is. I'm like, no, I don't. I get a jeep? I got a jeep. Uh you know, I didn't know what to say girlfriend. Yeah yeah, but uh yeah. Over time you just start kind of picking up. But that was probably like my first clue into like damn, you gotta like, you know, you have to grow into that space. It sounds like you're always comfortable, almost failing forward in a sense, though, like you, I know, you were getting a lot of it right too. But like the stories that you're telling are points where you're like I would screw up, or I would take a part of the computer not fit back together, like whatever. Yeah, so you're creating an opportunity, you know, and just making you a lot more smarter in the situations. I've always kind of been feelss at that standpoint. I never want to act like I know something I don't, and I used to try. I used to try to do that, but then once you start getting around people that know you don't know, it's kind of hard to fake it. So you kind of got to start asking questions. And that's when I start, you know, being a student more than a leader. Try to be a student more than a leader, you know, shutting my mouth and opening my ears, which makes you a better leader. Yeah. The scary thing now is when I feel like when I'm around people that know a lot more than I do, and then they don't tell you, let you so what you have on it and be like, oh that's yeah, sometimes you gotta do that too, so people can. I think that's a form of learning too. It's a lot of times that I felt like I knew too much and you kind of got off of you know, on your face and then you that's what opens those years a lot more, you know, I mean this this last two years for you guys been insane, and I mean the whole path, it's the timeline is it feels like an institution t D E. And like you have so many artists now that are so world renowned. And I remember when Sissa was still recording with you and you were trying to get the album out and you already knew that this was an artist that was going to be what we see today. How do you maintain creativity in your work? Like I know that there's a big family atmosphere, and I'm sure a lot of it has to do with taste, but it's one of the things that I'm inspired by the most. When I look at t d. It blows me away that you put out such incredible work. You continue to and it's getting better, which is which is what you know we can aspire to, Yes, a high standard. We have very high standards on quality. We believe that you take your time and you present the best quality and you don't have to work hard. You don't have to work you know, it's hard as all the other people make a sing like you do. You do have to work hard. It's a it's a lot of hard work that goes into it. But it's better than just like pedaling against the current and just trying to keep up. It was a lot of time that we did that that plan of like trying to keep up and doing what everybody said, make this single, make this song. You come and make this song, and then you they tell you to make this song, and then when you deliver that song, you know you're three months too late. It's a new song you have to make. And it wasn't it just like label strategy for your artists essentially, Yeah, and just like watching what other people are doing, and you know, you get influenced by that a lot of times. And I think it was the point where we, you know, start turning off everything else, like turn off the radio, turn off the TV, turn off all these devices that you know that poured into you, and just start kind of following our own voice in a sense. And I think that that kind of change the scenario for us a ton. Well, I know it changed the scenario for us a time, because we start speaking from our own voice and then you start realizing too It's like repetition is key. You have to you have to be relentless, and you have to do it twenty times to make it perfect. Ones and the time you take to like slow down and just realize, okay, cool. This first one was practiced, the second one was practiced, the third one was practiced, the fourth forms practice, and the fifth phone was good and I could put it out right now, but if I keep practicing. I practiced this long and it got to this point where I feel like I should put it out, but maybe I should go five more times. And then that was that concept of like sharpening your tools, you know, just keep sharpen them, sharpen them, sharping him until you know, you drop a paper on it and it cuts right through. This is Serena Serve or Stephen Curry's three pointer exactly. I feel like every successful person has something in common. They they're relentless, and their ability to continue to sharpen their tools, you know what I mean. And you have to have some type of story too, Like there's no I don't think there's anyone great without a story. So I feel like you kind of have to go through those up and downs and those up and downs kind of make you who you are. That personality is sharpen as that personality and the next thing, you know, you're doing an interview with you, and I want to ask more about you personally and how you do that day day. But I'm so I'm so fascinated by this concept. Like I was really listening to some of the most recently, Kendrick J. Rock says, the album's on the way over here and it's a unique idea and it's beautiful and it's enlightened, and the music is great and the content of the of the poetry is like next it's like and so I totally acknowledge and recognize what you're talking about, where like you've created the dojo or like the sound of the vibe, or you know, the set of principles that has allowed your artists to continue to create at this level. Um you ever have people that are like remarkably talented but don't really fit the culture. Yeah, there's always scenarios like that. I mean, I was on the phone with somebody today that were talented and they fit in the culture of what we do, but it's hard to recreate the same thing. And I think that's you know what people want a lot of the time from brands, and I think we were focused on kind of letting the artists be themselves and letting them develop in time. And I think that kind of what sets us apart from a lot of different labels a lot of different people, is how much time we give the artists to develop. I think the development stages have been stripped away from a lot of artists is so much focused on fame and fortune and popping right now, and a lot of times you have to forego, you know, right now the present time for the future, and you have to have that insight to do that. And a lot of artists that come into the phold have to compete with what we already did too. So it's like when you're coming in, that's a crazy amount of pressure. But for us, we're not gonna put that on you. You know, you're gonna you're gonna experience that yourself and then you're gonna have to like work through it. But we're not gonna give you this mandate to be like you have to do it by this date, you know what I mean. It's like, do what your time, and a lot of times to just even like the type of artists that we we approach and that we go after. We try to find people that have talent and hard work, because it really does take both. I know a lot of artists that are super talented, but they don't work hard enough, you know, and they can get on any song and make it great, but they don't work hard enough to do it consistently enough to get to break through. So it is a combination of hard work and talent. I would always, you know, say, I would hang my hat on artists that works harder versus art that's that's talent. I'll try to find both. But if I had to settle for artists that was just super super hard working, I would go and go for that versus rs as talented, because you're going to develop those skills with repetition, you know, over time, and you might not be the one that can just come in and drop on the drop of a dime. It might take you two weeks to do it, but you're going to still deliver, and you're gonna be dedicated to it, and you're gonna appreciate it ten times more because how dedicated you were versus a person that just like so skilled that they don't have any appreciate asition for their skill. It's just like, oh God, bless me with this so I can do it. And they don't appreciate it. They don't want to work hard to make it better. You know, well, we have to take quick ad break. We're here with Dave three. We'll bear it back to Start of the Hustle. This message comes from Art of the Hustle sponsor IBM. IBM is working with clients to put smart to work and bring progress to everyone. Together with IBM, experts are putting smart to work to help save species, increase crop yields, and make progress not just for a few of us, for all of us. Because while technology has never been smarter, smart only matters when you put it to work where it matters. Let's put smart to work. Find out how at IBM dot com slash Smart. Welcome back to the Art of the Hustle co President's TV. Thank you for being here. UM. You know you're talking about artists and the artists you work with and sharpening the store and doing it through repetition. How how do you do that? How do you manage yourself these days? Um? I think uh, the ability to to do more than one job and in the space. I think that keeps me sharper than the most because you know, I'm just not the guy that's like one dimensional. I'm not gonna do one job. I'm gonna do twenty different jobs. Every single job in TV I've had, I carried bags, I've walked around with the artists and managed them day to day. I've built production for shows. I've created the mergive you know, did accounting even to this day. Like we have a super super small office, um, super super small team on a day to day basis. I mean we probably have like seven or eight people in the office on a day to day basis. How many people are now at TD full time I would say ten full time employees. That's great, So you guys keep it pretty small. It's very small. In my the our office is my old condo. Uh it's a it's two thousand square feet and it's two offices in there. Yeah. So and it's more of a creative space. Um, it's we're looking for a bigger space now and we're looking for you know, twenty square feet space now, um, just so we can house everything. And do you see new artists as like new is it? Is? It almost like a startup, is it, like you know, it takes for me when it's like, you know, I think about starting a new company, It's like, okay, it takes one to three years. You're gonna hire an executive team, You're gonna structure, you know, the business. You're gonna figure out you know, the unit economics or however the business works, how you make money. UM, you know, like doing branding, building a website, all these things just like it. It It doesn't matter if it's you know, small, large, whatever. UM do you now have kind of like a roadmap for new artists like that we have a structure. But in the music business, UM, I think the best thing to be as nimble. Um. When you get two lighted into a structure, you stend to get dust on you and you get old because everything's forever changing, Like the rules changed so much even with streaming within the last few years. I did interview UM, and the main topic of the interview was you know, not getting locked into old ways and trying to be you know, trying not to think that just because it's this worked for this artist is gonna work for the next because it doesn't work that way. And even like trying to call in your fan base even too. Sometimes you know, like they might like this artist, they might not like this other artist, but they but then there's something that might like this other artists and might not like the main artists you thought. So I think it's a It's really based on the ability to be nimble and to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. And I told my guys all the time, challenged me, you know what I mean. Like to this day, my my main quote is I'll take information from a three year old. If a three year old has the key, I mean, stereo came to me. He was like, yeah, your shoes are whacked. And I was like, well, what the hell you three? You know what I mean? And up and I didn't wear the shoes anymore. Yeah, I didn't want to. In the moment, I felt like, uh, I'm not listening to this kid. But then when I got home and I looked at I like he that was honesty and he didn't have You know, when kids are so you know, so young, they that's the truth, Like you know, they're not They're just saying how they feel. So it wasn't from a mean place. It was just he was on his kid and I think that was like a life lesson for me. When it came to the music business, it was like, you can get information from anyone, you know, if your ears are open, you know, if your ears are closed, you can't. I've also read that you guys encourage your artists to give real critique albums. That is that something that you do, You like, bring everybody in body and play it. It used to be when we first started, it was like people were, you know, we don't want you know, artists are sensitive, so you don't want to like, you don't want to critique to the point where you hurt, but you want to be honest. And I think that's the key is, you know, complete honesty. So we were bringing all the artists in and we said, nobody has to at the name on this pad, but we're gonna pass this pad around and everybody's gonna vote on this song, and then the votes would would be the thing. But now we got to a point where we all know each other so well, you can write your name on the pad and you can say this is what I hate, this is what I don't like. And we've had, man, we've had some brutal meetings. Man, I'm talking about brutal, brutal, brutal meetings because I've always like I was I was one that was always gonna speak honestly. So it's like you have to teach people that too, because some people don't think they can be honest. Some people are like, if this is an artists craft, then they should be able to do whatever they want to do creatively. And I feel that way too. I definitely feel that way. But I feel that way for a person that's gonna the for artists that's gonna be making music in his home and not trying to put it out to a world that's gonna critique you, because that's what's gonna happen. You're gonna put out to the world, they're gonna critique you. So if you can't take critique from your brother and the person that's right next to you, then why do you want to put out to the world and have them critique you. You know. So I think, uh, it's really important for the people around you to be completely honest. And whenever I get around people, you know, I gauge it. You know, if I can't be completely honest, I won't say anything, and and if I and but in most scenarios, if you ask me for my opinion, I have to give you the truth because I don't want to leave you down the wrong path. I don't want to be the guy that says, you know, man, that was weak and then he'm like, well, you didn't tell me when when I played it for you, you know, it's like, yeah, I'm gonna tell you from the jump. And There's been times I've been completely wrong too. It's been outvoted on things and different things, or I had opinions about songs that I was completely wrong. I'm cool with that. I'm cool with being wrong too. So it just comes with the territory. This idea of radical transparency or radical candor that Dave practices religiously at t D. It draws connections to people like Ray Dalio and when he preaches about in his book Principles and how he manages culture at Bridgewater Capital, the largest head fund in the world. He's using the same practices that are used at Google and Facebook and that you know Kim Scott wrote about in the book Radical Candor. But he's bringing this methodology to the business of hip hop, which is totally unheard of, you know, really bringing the principles of art to the artists. And it's rare, and it shows his incredible maturity and poise as a business person and future leader. You know, even with videos like I'm in this space too, where where's directly connected with the artists, I could make a video for artists. I've definitely spent hundreds of thousand dollars on videos. Well, we as a company spent hundred thousand dollars on videos. And and it was my concept and it was whack, and I had to hear I have to take that and and I spent my time, my energy on it. I thought it was probably the best thing in the world, and everybody was like, no, that's whack. And then guess what, it doesn't come out. So I have to take it to even from a higher standpoint. So when you're a new artist, you gotta take it too. We all have to be in that position where we take it. If you can't handle that thing, you're in our own business. And uh, I love uh learning through osmosis. If you can be around billion people and be around people that have something special, you don't really have to think about it. You can just learn from exactly seeing your crew and like you know, getting the experience TV when y'all came out to the mountain. Um, everybody's humble, everybody and then you've made a song about it, and it seems like it's a core mantra first principle, man, I think, uh, we all have come from very humbling lifestyles and families, and you know, we're appreciative to be in these positions, and we don't take it for granted. We know this is a blessing. And if you don't treat a blessing like a blessing, you lose it. So we try to just stay grounded, stay you know, take it one one day at a time, and just be appreciative of of being able to have you know, positive, great people around you and that that instilled into you and put into you and help you grow as humans, you know, not just in business and wealth, you know mentally, um physically you know, like we we we get together and we we work out together a lot of us and just build each other up, you know what I mean, because you know, soundbody, sound mind. You know you can you can do a lot of great things. And in the concept is still to this day, it's like I never want to be the smartest person in the room. Like I never want to be the smartest person in the room. And I don't think anybody in our team wants to be the smartest person in the room. I think everybody wants to be in rooms that help them be become better, help them learn something. You know, well, I would say that like the centers of power in this town and your business humble wouldn't be the first, you know, it's a paraly that I would use to describe that culture. And then even you know, modern hip hop culture outside of your crew, it's not something that you're hearing a lot, No, not at all. Do you think that that's something that could did it? Do you see other people sort of taking that on? You think it's something that could become a cultural Yeah? I think, uh, I think now I think more people are are really waking up and starting to understanding it's all about helping each other as humans. Even to me, like this year was a crazy year for me just mentally. You know, I got a lot of success, but mentally I wasn't where I wanted to be and I had to reset and during that time, period of resetting. I've been seeing like a lot of like signs that I'm on the write path. And it's been coming from a lot of people around me that are not in my direct circle. But it's like they see the difference. They see the difference in my energy, they see the difference in my tone. I'm a very uh, relentless person when it comes to business and achieving um on on every level. I don't want to be last at anything that I do. I'm very competitive. I'm very aggressive about that. And I had to like switch gears and you know, slow down and because I am humble, but it's rooted and wanting to like leave something on histories mark, you know what I mean. Like I want to be able to like write my name and that concrete in the state and stick around for a long time. And that has a kind of ego piece of it, you know what I mean. But it's just in different ways. It might not be bragging and boasting. It might just be like shining the trophy at home when nobody's watching, you know what I mean. And that's not something you should be doing too, because you could be living in the past. And I had to learn, like you know it is about the president. It's about doing things, focusing on the future, but making sure that you don't you don't, you don't negate the president. Yeah. Well guy, you're gonna get you there exactly. Yeah. Man, So now here we are in today. There was some big news, right, I think you had some nominations for some obscars and some Grammys. Yeah, some some big news to man, my phone was very exciting morning for sure. Yeah. And what tell us, tell us what happened? Just nominations, Grammy nominations, Kendricks and the lead for Grammy nominations. But you know, it's not about that. Yeah, I mean, like, I appreciate, I appreciate any, uh, any type of recognition that we can get for what we do. But man, it's it's really about the people. It's about like changing the people, helping the people. That's what we do it for. When we get the when we get the accolades, I think that's a piece that comes with just being great. But it's not the main piece at all for us, not at all, And it's very obvious to anybody that's ever come across you. Guys. It's about the art and the impact, not about you. Know, the trophy case. Yeah, the trophy case. Man, it's that's you know, it's you get that moment. Like it's such a momentary thing for me, especially for me the way I look at it, like it's I want to win everything. I'm not gonna front act like I don't want to win everything, but I think it does. It does more for the moment than it does for yourself for the long run. I think that that fan or that person that comes to you and tell you that you helped them through something, or you inspire them out of God. Tell me. At the gym today, just dude was older than me, and he was like, Bro, you inspire me, and that's more important than any trophy that I can get because that helps me get up in the morning and want to do more. You know, I want to do more. Like damn, okay, cool. If I can inspire him, I wonder how many other people I can touch. You know, Yeah, well, I'll tell you, you you inspire me. I appreciate that you inspire me to thank you. I haven't they told me that are interested in having me host this show. It didn't take me longer. I was like, man, Dave and the CD story and just the way I'll go. And and I don't think unless you're an entrepreneur, you don't really know what it's like to have to stand all this stuff up from scratch, you know. And I think a lot of really talented organizations can take something that has been stood up. People can help, you know, take it from ten to a hundred, but one to tend man like that. And so here we are about to hit New Year. What do you what do you see for CD? Like, what's the ambition? What what? And for yourself? Man, it's ah, I'm in the time period right now where I see our influence. It's inspiring people to to to follow our path and even you know, try to take it to the next level and next step. So I think it's about us really moving into spaces that we haven't been into, like investment spaces and just things that people don't usually expect. So my whole brain has been like trying to figure out what is that? What is that concept? Like, you know, it's it's one thing to continue to be in your space, but I want to be great in our space and in other spaces. I want to move into other spaces, you know, a ton more so for me, it's like, what is that concept? And I've been wracking my brain trying to figure it out, man, trying to figure it out for sure, for me in particular, I know, film and direct thing. For me, it's like it's a way that takes me off of the books and off of the numbers and help me focus on like just creating because I like to create. I like to be in the creative space, and sometimes the numbers and the books and the meetings and you can kind of take you out of that zone. So I want to balance that out more so for myself, it's really like, how can I do both and have more time to do both and still and where it doesn't hurt anything, it just still helps it. And how do I how do I uplift the guys that are around me and the guys that that that that are that that pay attention to what I'm doing and try to like mimic it. How do I tell them don't mimic it? You know, take my concept, you see it, but make it better. You know, you can't reinvent the will, but you can damn sure make it faster, slighter, you know what I mean, Stronger, you can you can do that. So that's really where I'm at mentally. It's like, how do I inspire the people around me so I can get the more free time to to get more in a creative zone. Um, and developed that part for me because I feel like I've done some creative things, but I'm nowhere near my capabilities for sure. Yeah. And in terms of you know, the business and the and the in both the artists and TV and um, you know, one of the things that we went through also were ten years old, you know, so y'all you've been aroun a little bit longer. When when TV start, TV started, Uh, it started before I was actually there, um, but it wasn't developed at that time. It was like they top just signed Jay Rock. It was like his first art he signed. Literally since y'all have been in high school even doing this exactly. We we we started when we were like right out of college, and the family got us really far and having like family vibes gotta really far. And then at some point, you know, like we really need to become a team. You know, we need to have team accountability, not family accountability. You know, I love my family unconditionally, I shouldn't, you know, do that with a team member or somebody I work with, because if we're not all you know, like as higher as and these higher sees, like I like being on excellent teams, right, and that drives my capacity higher and higher. So is that something that you guys you know, think about or something this definitely is and you know you deal with that when you're in the business and you do work with so many family members, you know what I mean, because we are family, even though we're not blood family, you know, we care about each other in that way. So it is about like, even even in our system, we do have people that are not so much family that we have to hire outside because we have to create those parallels because you can't have those people right in the middle of the business because they're going to be conflict of interest in that in that form. So there's ways we have to do that right in this current moment. And for example, my brother used to be uh, he's he's Kindrick Mars music director, um alone alone with Tony Russell um and uh, he was a drummer and you know he's older, so he wasn't the best drummer. And it was like that conversation was a hard conversation, you know what I mean to really like because he wasn't he was a music director, and it was like, yo, you have to give up, you know, having that conversation. You have to have to find somebody that can be that person that can drum you know, for the artists on the correct standard. And that conversation was hard. But you have to have those things and you have to put people in other places where they can grow. And he grew into a a wonderful music director to the point where he he didn't understand it at first, but he understands it now clearly because we have a better drummer in there and this night and day, you know what I mean. So you have to have those conversations and you have to grow. And yeah, it's getting it's getting to that point because we have to scale to a point where you know, we have less family and more you know, more people. That's that's coming to try to pour that fuel on the fire, you know, And do you look now, I mean, I know it's part of the part of the principles is keeping the blinders on for your own creativity. Do you have external things that that you look at for inspiration or they're they're specific, you know, fields or artists or people either historically or now that everyone everyone everything. I mean, this last year has been I've canceling more content and more information in two thousand and eighteen than I have my whole life. And once you do something so good, you can get born. And I don't want to get bored. I don't like getting bored. I like to be challenged. I like to challenge myself. So for me, it's like any any idea. I was on Ted Talk the other day and it was a guy that was he was being locked up, I think in his name, man, I hate that I'm beginning his name right now. But he's been locked up pretty much since I think he was like seventeen, and he's, uh, he trade stocks from jail, and he's like really really good at it, you know, a lot of time to contemplate the market exactly. He has so much time. And I looked at his Ted Talk and he was just talking about how he's literally read every single article for the last like fifteen years in jail. He's been reading every article about stocks, so he understands when people are moving off of emotion versus like what's actually happened in the marketplace, and like my mind was never open like that two years ago. If somebody would sent me that in the text, I would like my penises and this, you know, I'm I'm I'm on, I'm on outside. But um, I'm man, I'm so I'm so open to information from any source. Like I tell people all the time. Man, if if you know me, you know, a text message about something I didn't know about, is that's like ice cream to me, you know what I mean? Like, that's what I want more so than than anything else. You know, Yeah, that you can get excited about it that you're into. Yeah, well, you're clearly a voracious learner in every discipline that you can get your hands in your mind on every thing. Yea, I know so much feelership. It's crazy, Like I know so much stuff that doesn't apply to anything and that even with benefits you in life. But it's like I just want to know so much. Man, I feel like knowledge. Like I was telling uh, I was telling unic the other day. I was like, man, it's crazy. When I used to say knowledge of power in school, I didn't believe him, you know, but oh my god, I believe it now. You know. I so believe it now. I believe as much information as you can get, you can make so many decisions just by having information, and it's like you have to go seek it, you have to go ask questions. A buddy of mine is he's going to a business venture. He was like, yeah, I'm about to start. I'm about to do this investment and and I'm about to move, and I'm like, don't move quick like you know, like you know, I think people say procrastination like people underestimate procrastination. I think procrastination can be a good thing. Sometimes it could be an indicator that you're not ready to do something and you need more information before you make that step. And I believe in you know link too, But I believe in taking your best shot to win before you fell too. So um, I just told him, like man, he was like, I gotta do this. I do this. I'm like, we'll go get the information. Well, I gotta I need to put down payment because people are jumping on And I said, if people are jumping, if it's a girl rush, it might not be for you. You You gotta you have to go get the information. You need to call. You need to go spend an hour. You know, you'd be surprised if you just took an hour out of your day, like to actively look up the information that you're looking for, that for something, how it could change your decision, you know what I mean. But some people just they just they react off impose versus you know, research and um. For me, Man, I won't do anything, Man, I won't. I won't do anything without research at this point in my life. Ever, Like I'm gonna I'm gonna go research as much as humanly possible then make the decision. Well, this is real wisdom, man, And I really appreciate you being here and sharing with us. And I know you don't do a lot of these and um, I mean throughout this entire interview, I think there's a tremendous amount of real knowledge, wisdom experience for people that are on their path and on the come up. Anything just need closing, closing wisdom or principles. There's things that you're going to be thinking about tomorrow. Closing wisdom. Man. You can get information from a three year old. That's the best advice I can give anybody. Man. The shoes is ugly, man, that that that little kid changed my life. He really did when you told me that. So and I tell that to anybody like be open, be open to be wrong, be open to receive information, be open to close that mouth, open those ears, and it would change your life. And it doesn't have to change financially all the time. Sometimes just having enough information can quiet the mind, and sometimes we just need that. You just need to cliet the mind a little bit, you know. Amazing, Thank you, Dave. Really appreciate you being here most definitely. I appreciate you having me. Of course, yes, sir, anytime, anytime you need me on this, I'll take you up on it for sure. Man, you know that, alright, all right? As always, I jotted down the things that you know I immediately take away from these conversations that really stuck out to me. And uh, you know, I love that Dave is such a humble guy. You know, I know that it comes across when you hear him talk about the things that they've built in the ease in which he holds himself. But you know, I really do look up to the guy, and there aren't many other people in our generation that have just built so much, so fast and such high quality. Clearly, Dave knew talent when he heard it. When he heard Kendrick for the first time, he didn't stop. He didn't he didn't wait, he didn't think about who else was out there. He made moves immediately and they never looked back. And of course, the three year old that told Dave his shoes are ugly, I'm curious what kind of shoes you ad on, first of all, because generally the man has very nice sneaker taste and h Two. More importantly is that you really can learn something from anyone. You know, every single person, if you're listening the right way, has something to teach you. Uh has a different perspective on whatever problem you're going through. And clearly that's something that's really important to him, closing his mouth, opening his ears, changing his life. Dave Free somebody that you can really learn from. This has been the art of the Hustle, a collaboration between we work in I Heart Media. If you like the show or have thoughts on who we should interview next, hit us up on Facebook or Twitter, and if you really like the show, do us a favor and leave us a review here or wherever you listen to podcasts. M