Join @thebuzzknight with this Classic Replay with Damon Dash and Freeway. Freeway is an American rapper, and Damon is a musician and music executive, in the news today involving his stake in Jay-Z's Rock-A Fella Records, where the state of New York says Damon owes more than 8.7 million in unpaid taxes and that proceeds of the sale of Rock-A-Fella must be used to pay down debt.
Listen to this episode where Damon doesn't mince words about his feelings about Jay-Z.
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Taking a Walk.
I don't have a beat for jay Z. My issue with him right now is that they know me with a lawsuit that was untrue. I could forgive a lot of things I don't forget. I think that we've evolved in different directions. He's become more of a businessman and I've become more of a creative. I think fundamentally our priorities are different.
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, the podcast where your host Buzz Night talks to musicians and industry insiders about their latest projects and their love of music. On this episode, Buzz talks with entrepreneur, musician, and record executive Damon Dash along with Philly rapper Freeway about their new project. Damon has a storied career. He discovered Kevin Hart and the Black Keys, he co founded Rockefeller Records with jay Z, and he's the CEO of America V Network and his project with Freeway is called three sixty five. Listen and you'll hear some provocative conversation about jay Z and the Black Keys, along with insight into their new work. All next on Taking a Walk with Buzz Night.
Damon and Freeway. Welcome to Take out a Walk. How you guys do it.
Well, we're doing it.
I'm hip right now, Hip. I just found out that we just hit twenty thousand downloads on my new television network, American News. So you got to partner Mike excitement.
Oh my god, congratulations, you just found out.
Yeah, I just you know, every day there's a you know, we get to report, and this week we were expecting to hit twenty thousand, which is a few milestone in the television network business, especially since we're not on Loku or Samsung yet. We've just been in business about a month, so it's a big deal. It's like having a hit record, but having a hit television network is a whole different kind of evaluation. So let me just put it to you like this, for every download for evaluation, that's about one hundred dollars a person. So you do the math. This is why I'm celebrating.
All right, Well, tell us more about that project. First, you got to you gotta give us more info and how folks could find it and get more downloads.
Well, it's a television network of American New. But the project that'll be talking about, the vertical, that's the content that's going to be on America. New is this project Freeway and the Black Guns. Freeway. I've known for twenty three years. We just calculated it. He's part of state property original Rockefeller and he's been going into schools with the Freedom Thinker's Academy. I've been seeing him do that and we reconnected through the OSG, which is a thousand, I mean hundreds of punciples from economically challenged areas. And we were at an OSG summit in Colombia and Freeway started to perform and I jumped on the stage and it was the first time I've been on stage with a Rockefeller in a while. And I had the rock band. He's still active, he's doing good stuff, and I have a television network, so I was like, we have a studio in Florida. So I was like, Yo, pull up to Florida five days and we arranged it because he's always on the road, and we made ten records live Vesta MISSI got the best guitar payer on the planet, cash and we made the music video which I directed, which hop we saw. We take every second, so it's the documentary a curriculum. We did all the photo shoots for all the assets, the Vibe came the shot to cover and we did all the interviews, the podcast. We did everything in five days, and we're going to go on the road. First, we're going to do a quick rock and roll for a nice intimate joint starting in La Vegas and Florida nineteen to twenty first and the twenty ninth, and then we're gonna do a biggotur and we're gonna go into schools. We're gonna teach the curriculum, we're gonna perform, and it's just a new way of teaching people and just showcasing that everything you do gotta be new and it can be better. And we could also use music as a form to teach and showcasing, and hip hop is great and all verticals, so we could jump around and teaching hip hop and teaching rock and roll and then we bring something together and making new music called rock and soul, and that's what we did. That kind of wrap, that kind of rhyme. Wow, Michelle coaus.
Well, let me ask you, Dame and Free, first of all, who motivated you at younger years to be so caring about your community and try and do this good work.
And it's just you know, of course for me. For me, you know, my earlier years I took from the community, you know, so every chance that I get, I want to give back to my community. And I've been through so much, you know, I lost my son in twenty twenty, lost my daughter in twenty one, lost my dad in twenty two. So you know, I'm all about giving back and showing love and you know, trying to better our community. And the reason why when my company, Freedom Thinkers Academy, we got stent workforce development programs in the city of Philadelphia and Delaware because it's a lot of violence and negativity going on in the streets, and I feel like we provide these kids with the opportunity to take this course, get a certification, and we assist them and getting jobs that'd be a better outcome for them than being in the streets.
Yeah. I think what happens is born into a survival mode. We were born in that ninety nine percent, and in that moment, you're around people and you do and because of that, you do things what they're doing, you know, whatever they have to do to survive. Sometimes you compromise your morals and your principles, but you know, in your heart. You just want to help. You just want You don't want to hurt that you don't know how. So as we've evolved and gotten older, we've gotten to a situation where we've learned how to help. So we've always wanted to help, we just never had the outlet. Like I never thought I could go into a school. I never thought I could get a doctor. I never thought, you know, I'd be able to teach a class full of principles. But these opportunities present themselves, and our heart is good, it's pure, and because you go through things, the trauma that you go through, and you survive that. If you really love yourself, you don't want no one you love to be going through any of these any of the pain that you felt. So we want to make sure that our culture and that's who we love, doesn't go through the pain that we felt to learn. So, you know, it's an evolution, it's just grow. What does hip hop look like in your forties and fifties. It looks like Me and Freeway. It looks like superheroes, guys that do what they love, and what they love is helping people. What we love doing is loving and we love the art and the craft of every vertical that we do. So if he's going to be a master at that, trust me. Our project in rock and roll has to be masterful because everybody that's playing an instrument is master a black belt at what they do. The drummer, the guitar player, task, everyone is a freeway in their own right at what they do. So that's what this is, just showcasing what love to do and how cool love could look, how tough love could look, you know, and how to educate people to a different voice. But it all started from our trauma, not wanting the people we love to go through the pain that we felt. But we had to go through that pain to know that we don't want the people that we love to go through it.
Well, Dame, first, I want to ask you this, and then free I'll ask you this. Tell me about the creative process that you guys go through, uh when you're creating and what walk us through you know, sort of the typical nature of that first you game, Well, it.
Depends on what vertical, but this particular one, the rock and roll, This process is we make a very comfortable environment, we go, you know, me on the lake, and we get we threw a chef in from Hawaii, put the instruments in the studio, set up all the cameras, and you'll be able to see what I'm telling you. You could actually see the making of the first single on America right now. But we just start playing. That's all we do, and you know, and we do it the old school way. We make up all of the instruments. I get a mic, Freeway get some mic, and we just start playing, literally the record three sixty five. When when Freeway says fifteen seconds, Because as soon as the record started to play, Freeway started going three sixty five. He said it, and then I took into hook and literally in thirty seconds we had a song, and in three minutes we had structure everything. It was just a freestyle live album. And that's why we document it because it's like magic. And we did like five records that night. And again that's what you said. We did five records that night. Then we did some more the next day, and then three Way just laid vocals, just laid all his vocals in like two days, and then we just tightened up the record and between that we would do our podcast and between that shot the video and between that do the interview, so I have the like the confessionals and all that, and then between that take the pictures, go get some sleep. We would work about four or five hours straight, six hours until we couldn't do it no more sleep, eat and wake up and do it again five straight days and they him back on the rope. That was the process.
How about you free talk about the process from your perspective.
I mean it was a mezing. It was the same thing, you know, the way our recording, the way I work, I get a beat and then our vibe to it, and then I create. You know, I don't use any center paper. So when we got into the space, and you know, as soon as they started playing instruments, we started eating. Just like Dame told you, I came up three sixties twenty four seven. It's the first thing that came to my head. And then we started rolling from there. And that's the way everything wents. Soon as they put on the next soon as they started playing the next beat, we started creating.
Or and if I helped, all word in the air. So we say three sixty five, I'm like, oh that sounds hard, Paul, So we sixty five call it just it just messages. It's like magic, and that's why you have to capture it, like you got to see it to believe it. So what I'm saying, go to America and download it right now and go to the blue rock section and you'll see the Making Them three sixty five and every single thing I'm saying. You'll be able to see it, and we'll be able to teach it. That's why we keep those cameras on.
I want to ask you, Dame h what do you think is the state of the music business right now?
I mean the state of the world is is you know, I've been on this planet for like fifty one years. I've been active in music for twenty at least, uh, you know, making it. I just think with AI, with the different ways to distribute with Web three, there's going to be a lot of other there's gonna be different verticals in different ways to make money that were not anticipated before. And for people that don't know how to evolve, they're going to lose. If you're mad at the evolution of the music business, then you're just going to be stuck in the box. You have to evolve with the times. So for me, there's a ying and the yang. There's some things that are problematic with it. You know, kids hurting each other and glorifying that, and you know a new form of music or not new, but like there's I'm not mad at drill because the kids have to communicate. I'm mad with people that make money off thrill, that look for kids that are talking about killing each other to make money over beat. That's problematic to me. But the fact that you know, a guy that like myself can have a television network and showcase people in their truth, forone, is a big deal. And that we could get paid through CPMs, and that we can get paid off of our data, and that if we are if we understand the new world, we can monetize the new world and not get robbed. Because right now the music business is getting robbed. So the state of music business to me is le or coing going to these kids, taking their content, making them sign their contracts, which is that policies agreement on YouTube with no lawyer watching and then getting forty dollars or thirty dollars from a CPM and only giving the kid two dollars and not giving them any accounting and not letting them benefit from their data. That part of the music business is a problem for me, and the fact that the BPMS with with respot all of that, the way you get paid is not fair. But there's so many ways to make money, but we just have to know how or we will get robbed. The middle man will rob us like they did before. So I see the opportunity for creative to get robbed in a big way, but I see an opportunity for creative not to get robbed and to make a lot of money if they understand how not to get robbed and what they truly deserve, you know what I'm saying. So not getting the full benefit of your CPM and your daddy to me is not like not owning your publishing. It's just two different ways since you're getting robbed but in different businesses, but the same person is doing. But that's what I feel.
About that free What do you think of the state of the music business?
And uh as far as create create creatively, But like you know, it's not how it was when I came up, But I still respect it because everybody is doing their version of what hip hop is. You might have a kid from down South that's doing their version of hip hop you might have from like you know, the West Coast, deep in Compton doing their version of hip hop. You know, some of it the time, some of it is not.
Dane, tell me about your experience working with those guys, the Black Keys. That was such a great project.
I mean it definitely was. I loved it. You know, it gave me a different perspective on how to approach music, you know, kicking it with them now. I would go on to the again. I would run into uh Freeway at the festival because he had done a rock project with good Talk, So you know, I liked that lifestyle. I like the uh, the the attention to detail as it relates to the instruments. Uh. You know, Dan Araback was cool that you know, they're cool. I was a little I feel away because I did Blacklock Part two and once they kind of blew up, you know that we never we never performed like the Black Wlock project. I felt like they kind of left because a lot of those hip hop like m op and the only person that knew who who Black the Black Keys were or was most deaf. Everyone else is doing it like Ray Kwan and Visitor. They were doing it on the love and I felt like, you know, we got on David Letterman and we got on Salin and I really thought it bought the Black Keys to a pop level. But I just felt like they didn't give back. So I got Todd lib Sean Price with Khalif for one part two. I got the whole tape. But you know the album, Yeah, we got that album. Like you asking me where it is right now? You gotta know what the album is. That's why Cay in the back like, where's that album? Oh yeah? Then we oh shit, I forgot. Oh sorry, we have a whole album where Visitor that we didn't put out with the Black Keys. I forgot all about that album. Damn rock and reg So, yeah, it was great working with them, but a little disappointed. Was good, A sweet you know, Dan Aback is still cool. I don't like Pact that much, but you know, it's all good now. Practice is good on my noose, you know what I mean, because he's the one that was like saying that. Like what I was trying to do was take it. It's a whole another story. But I had a good time. You know. Overall, I just wish that more people could assort they would have been more supportive after they grew up.
Also, Hey, Dame, is there is there any hope your relationship with jay Z wouldever advance?
I don't. I don't have a beef for jay Z. My issue with him right now is that they, you know, lent me with a lawsuit that was untrue. I could forgive a lot of things I don't forget. I think that we've evolved in different directions. He's become more of a businessman and I've become more of a creative. I think fundamentally our priority is a different you know, which is surprising, but it is what it is. So on a business level, we could reconnect. On a trust level, I don't know that that trust will ever be there again, but you know, I'm a human being, he's a human being. And yeah, I think if he sent over one hundred million it wou'd be cool again if he had it, if he got a gift, because I think that's how much he might have cost me. But if he makes that we didn't make things right, we could kick it. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna hang out with all his friends.
Well, I want to close with a question on advice to people who are listening to us, who might be.
Every way. If you want to see it, make it happen. So I talked to Jay at any moment, but he ducts that conversation. So anytime you want, I'll get in front of him in biggs and be very calm, But that conversation won't be added because there'll be accountability with it. But I'm down for that conversation anytime you can set it up free, I'm down. I always want to showcase the world. You know, make it happen. We can always you know what, send them over a record and tell them to jump on what we do the Rock of Gogos. Let's see what you do.
I'd love I'd love to see. I'd love to see it happen.
Culturally, I have no beef for anybody. I might not agree with people's business tactics, but forgiveness is always key with They're not convert within our community. The division is what they count on. So what they did with us divide us, and that's what It's an algorithm. So I would love to break that algorithm, you know, just to showcase an example. That year, I think it's cadding for two men not to be able to work out a difference. But when someone keeps doing something they show you and do all this stuff, they're not gonna want to stay not you notice I speak on at any time. The question is why he don't. But I'll get with him anytime free if you make it happen. We all brothers, bro, and I always say that I can't hurt my brother. I don't want to see my brothers hurt. I don't know if they feel the same about me, but that's how I always feel. Right a world for you, and it been one Rocketphlle. You put me on the phone when I didn't talk to you right, and it's always love between us. It ain't no problem. It was a business then, but I chose the love before the money. That's what I took. My choice was loved before money. This choice might have been money, Dame and free.
I'm so honored to get to talk to you. I want to congratulate you on all your success, your projects, your great work, your spirit and your collaborative process. Bless you, guys man.
Thank thanks tull you download a boverga, listen to the music and spread the word post appreciate you.
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