Relationships Worth More Than Money Podcast
Conversations about relationships being valuable and worth more than money! its a heartwarming podcast that delves into the profound value of connections, friendships, and love that transcend the monetary realm. Hosted by Tweezy & a diverse range of guests, including athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, engineers and everyday people, each episode explores the immeasurable worth of relationships in our lives. Through compelling stories and thought-provoking discussions, the podcast inspires listeners to cherish the bonds they share with others, reminding us that the wealth of a meaningful relationship is far more precious than any currency. Tune in to "Relationships worth more than money" to discover the true treasure in life.
Relationships Worth More Than Money Podcast
The Producer's Path: Faith, Music, and Serving Others
Become a Relative & send some love
L Marquee, producer, engineer, and self-proclaimed "Unashamed Christ Follower," brings his unique perspective to the podcast, exploring how faith and music production intertwine in today's complex industry landscape. From the first moment I met him in 2017, his charisma and positive energy have been undeniable constants in his approach to both life and music.
The conversation dives deep into the technical aspects of music production as L Marquee breaks down his favorite tools—UAD plugins, Logic Pro, Kontakt libraries, and more. But beyond the gear talk, we explore something more profound: the struggle to maintain quality and purpose in an era where streaming has fundamentally changed how music is valued. "When you pay for the cost of one album, you get every song ever, from Mozart to Migos," L Marquee observes, identifying how this economic shift has lowered the stakes for both listeners and creators.
What truly sets this discussion apart is the candid examination of faith's role in creative pursuits. Having grown up in the church, L Marquee shares how surrendering his musical ambitions to God transformed his approach from self-serving to service-oriented. This perspective allows him to work with both secular and Christian artists without compromising his values or authenticity. "I'm not necessarily beating people over the head with Christianity," he explains, "but whenever I'm in the studio, that's still what I'm on."
The conversation culminates with L Marquee offering two invaluable gems: find fulfillment through serving others with your talents, but establish clear boundaries to prevent being taken advantage of. His balanced approach demonstrates the wisdom gained from twelve years navigating an industry that often pushes artists toward conformity.
Whether you're a producer seeking technical insights, an artist exploring how to integrate personal values into your work, or simply someone interested in authentic conversation about creativity and purpose, this episode delivers wisdom that transcends the studio. Subscribe now and join us for more discussions that prove relationships truly are worth more than money.
Relationships Worth More Than Money by Tweezy Kennedy & Marcus Alland
available on all streaming platforms!
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All right, what we got, what we got, Live, we live. I'm back at it, man. It's been a minute because I haven't done a podcast in like almost a month. Man, it's been a minute. First off, man, I just want to introduce everybody to you, but to them, as this kid, I remember meeting you back in 2017. Yep, and like the charisma always up here, high at a high level, right, but it was great man. It was always positive energy Producer, engineer, what you call yourself the Unashamed Christ, Unashamed Christ follower, Unashamed Christ follower man, and I always love that slogan that you always said when you call yourself the Unashamed Christ, Unashamed Christ follower, Unashamed Christ follower man, and I always love that slogan that you always said when you introduced yourself and you were the first person that I knew that was on to Reels, like putting Reels together, putting content together, Without further ado. Man, everybody, this is El Marquis, El Marquis Productions. What's up, man? How you?
Speaker 2:been Doing well, living life, just blessed to be here, blessed to be alive. Yeah, got a summer finally, yeah.
Speaker 1:Blessed overall For real man.
Speaker 2:It's summertime now, finally Hot summer. It was hotter though today. Hot man Coming out from the Phil Day Festival yeah, Out there in Fairfax Burning hot, but great vibes, great energy, great music, great food.
Speaker 1:I figured that it was going to be hot because all that rain man, it's been super rainy for the past two months. But other than that, man, what's been going on with you, man, because I ain't talked to you in a while. We might run into each other at a jojo party or jojo event or something like that, but what's going on with you? I know you was going to school for engineering yeah, I mean right now, just locked in.
Speaker 2:I got a handful artists I'm working with, um, this year I've been doing a lot of engineering, a lot of mixing. Yeah, um, still doing production, of course, um, I'm for my, for myself. I'm trying to put out more like just instrumental music, just just just because, um, because I mostly work with hip-hop artists, but I love different styles of music, like I grew up listening to rock music and I like pop music and different genres like that, and now I just want to, just every now and then I'll make an instrumental that doesn't really fit within the stuff I post online yeah, so I just I want.
Speaker 2:I wanted to live somewhere, so I'll just drop them on spotify, okay, okay, but but yeah, mainly just logging in, just producing and engineering for artists yeah, just really. I want to just be creative and just explore all the creative avenues that I'm passionate about, whether it's working with artists, creating content which actually I enjoy not really normal for musicians, right. Yeah, just trying to be consistent and just keep elevating what?
Speaker 1:what is? What is something that you feel like?
Speaker 2:uh, you learn from being for how to be patient with people, and especially with creatives in particular, but just being being patient with people and learning how to really focus on getting their vision across versus only my own yeah, um. So when you hear like a lot of producers talk in particular producers and engineers when you hear them talk like they really are focused on getting their, their sound and their style across, but not all of them listen to the artists and like listen to what they're saying, yeah, no, especially when I'm working with like people in person or just people who I'm closer with and just being able to get that feedback in real time, um, it's just really helpful to get their feedback and know, like, how I can best serve them and then also just making sure I'm just listening to whose name is actually on the record yeah, what's your?
Speaker 1:what's your go-to plug like engineering uad um whenever I'm tracking.
Speaker 2:I'm always tracking through the um, uad, knee type 1073 and the la2a. Yeah, um, but I'm actually mixing, mixing vocals still heavy on uad um, a handful of waves, plug plugins, what else?
Speaker 1:Guitars, auto-tune yeah, melodyne Vocaline iZotope, you know, shout out to all of them UAD, waves, guitars, melodyne, all of them. But I've been playing around with the Auto-Tunes, the different ones, the Waves, real-tune, the what's the other one?
Speaker 2:The FabFilter.
Speaker 1:Not the FabFilter one, the one is Slate, Digital Slate yeah, yeah, their auto-tune and then, of course, anterra's.
Speaker 1:But I've just been dabbing into each one just for different feels, because when I feel like when I'm working with somebody that's more Uzi vibes, I think the Waze Real Tune can hit the tune that you want. All of them, man, I love. But Anteris is always crashing man. Oh, really Always, man, it's always crashing. I got the Apollo, so the Apollo, I don't have no issue. Uad, I don't have no issue. But something with Anteris and Pro Tools, it just never works man, I've never had an issue with it Because you use Logic, yep, you big Logic, big Logic, yeah, logic.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Logic man Because, like I always tell people, people are like what you use and I'll be like. I use all of them except for Ableton. I haven't touched, I haven't like dove into Ableton, but I've worked with a couple of my homies that I collab with like Crazy Fingers. He's heavy on Ableton, you know what I'm saying. So it's like Logic Pro Tools, fl Machine. You know what I mean? Machine.
Speaker 2:So on Machine too.
Speaker 1:Machine Machine too. Machine Machine. I'm thinking about upgrading and getting the MK3 just for the features that you can do when you like away. You can just be mobile with it. And they just came out with a new update too. That's super dope.
Speaker 2:I got it and it's cool. Honestly, there's features in it that I think they should have been in there for like four years. Yeah, like yeah the craziest one is that you can finally export mp3s for right machine 3, which is that should have been.
Speaker 1:That should have been from the jump.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like why was that? Why we wait 13 years or so? That's insane. But even the other features they you, um, they added stem splitting in there, which is cool, but I already have that in logic. Yeah, they added stem splitting in there, which is cool, but I already have that in Logic.
Speaker 1:Got that in FL. Native Instruments is my, I would say, one of the most innovative out of all of Native and Logic, because Logic is like man Logic, just keep getting better and better and better. But of course FL is innovative too. But when I say, like your plug-ins, like your stock plug-ins, man Logic is unmatched.
Speaker 2:I'm putting Logic number one.
Speaker 1:Logic and damn you know, machine Contact, because Contact is king bro, contact is fire. Because you get so many different plugins, instrumentals and plugins to add into the contact. That just makes it even more like superior to any other sound library that I've ever like worked with. That sound library would if it has a contact sound library to it it's a rap man like what's uh? What is it Orchestra? What is it Sound? What is it Orchestra sound? I'm trying to figure out.
Speaker 2:I know what you're talking about Orchestral something.
Speaker 1:Project Sound. That's the creators. Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, man, the orchestral essentials. Everything they got, that's from them fire.
Speaker 2:I just picked it up, I think last week.
Speaker 1:I'm playing with it right now and it's crazy. It's fire man, just the sounds, just you can make a whole cinematic movie off that joint man.
Speaker 2:It's crazy.
Speaker 1:And that's my thing, man, and that's why I wanted to get you on here, man, because I ain't really diving to the nerd side of being a music creator. You know what I'm saying, because when we produced, you know, we collabed a couple times when I lived in manassas and um, just watching you and I see you and I'm like man when I know I need some questions on logic, you and shot of the two people I go to man because, like you know for sure, like how to do something, but it's like man, them, them plugins, like what's, what's your go-to plugins?
Speaker 2:go to contact absolutely, um, especially for anything that just needs to feel real, whether it's like pianos or strings or orchestral instruments. Contact, without a doubt, right. Um, I'm in a sphere and I'm still on the sphere. Um, for more electronics of serum. Serum just came with a free update, serum too, they just came out with that. So anything like any like pop stuff that I'm doing like serum is my go to Serto serums fire too.
Speaker 1:I like Sam, because you can't. You can really. You got to know what you're doing, because it looks crazy when you open it up. But you gotta, like serum, got some, some gems in there too.
Speaker 2:I'm just a preset guy, like I'm not sound design at all. I'm just I know how to do like the attack, delay, delay, decay, release or whatever sustained. Other Other than that ask me to design a sound from scratch. I'm not.
Speaker 1:I've been trying to man. But my boy Crazy Finger, he's nasty with sound design and Ableton he be doing some crazy stuff. He has sent me some packs. Shout out to Crazy Finger. He has sent me some packs. I've done two beat packs. I've made my own drums and stuff, snares and things of that nature. I got like what I got some shakers over there, you know what I mean A few instruments that I made from scratch, just recording my own or just banging on the desk or something like that.
Speaker 2:But man, it's hard, it's hard, but when you dive into it, man, it's not that bad that's one of the things where, like I want to get into it one day, my main priority for skills I want to build up is just more like musicality. So like I want to get better at playing piano, better playing guitar. Um, that for me is my priority over sound design, just because, like, sound design is good to know but I can pick up a preset like a preset pack, piano or guitar. I can't, I can.
Speaker 2:Obviously I can hire like a session player if I need it, but like I want to be the the feeling though you want to get that right feeling.
Speaker 1:And that's how I am too, man, I told myself this year for my birthday I'm gonna go give myself a piano lesson. You, you know what I mean, because I want to know how to play the piano. Once I learn the piano, I feel like learning the guitar is going to be easier. You know what I mean Learning how to play the guitar. I got a pocket trumpet over there in that case, because I always wanted to be a trumpet player growing up. You know what I mean, but I was a drummer. But yeah, man, I'm trying to get real, like focused on the musicality too. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, because this is most to me if, if, you can create your own like soundtrack. Yeah, like, to me, that's like the most fire thing you can do, the dopest you can do, because then now, like you said, you still create like. I thought I was gonna stop making instrumentals. I was like why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because if you love it, then why?
Speaker 1:stop it, yeah. And then it's like you can make something Like I made that Michael Jackson joint in 2017. And I was like I like it, but I can do so much better with it. Like let me resample what I sampled, or let me just go back and resample that same where you are from Michael Jackson and Jackson 5, and then just fine-tune it to what I feel like it is now. But that was like me, on my like jazzy fade-ish, because you know, I got so many inspirations from producers. You know what I mean. It's like I always try to sound like somebody or try to mimic somebody, but I still focused on like on me just creating my own sound. So, with that being said, who's your top five producers?
Speaker 2:Or let's go 10 if you want to go 10. That's tough. There's a lot of different sounds. I'm inspired by Top 10 off the top. Dre's. A big influence Facts. I love still just like 2001. Mixes on that album are crazy. I love how the drums hit on that album. Right Um Em was and still is my favorite rapper growing up. So like hearing his production on like Em's stuff also was a big influence. Metro, because that's more like that's. When I was in high school, like that's. Um, his production was all over everywhere, yeah, everywhere, yeah, everywhere. Future Shabba Scott yeah, migos San Holo was. He was like an EDM dude. Yeah, I was big into like EDM stuff. Like in high school as well. Listened to like future bass music. So I love like his production.
Speaker 1:I still love what he's doing. Now His name's San Holo. San Holo. I gotta check him out. I never heard of him.
Speaker 2:He's um, have you ever heard of Monster Cat, this EDM record label? So he was. I don't think he still is, but he was on that label at one point. I'm pretty sure that's how it got introduced to him. And then, just I don't know, I just started listening to him more like something because he he'll mix like organic instruments like guitar and everything with Electronic music. So, like it, it's like a really good blend of electronic and organic. So we just connect you with that. Um, so, said Dre. Kanye West outside of like him as a, as a person, him sonically, he always listen to albums like dark, a beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy. Listen to albums like dark uh, beautiful, dark twisted fantasy. Um, graduation, like those albums, in particular, just hearing how like he made hip-hop so a sound and feel so dynamic, yeah like that, that was them, two was for sure.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, you got college dropout yeah, but when they went to graduation. And then my twisted, dark fantasies it was yeah, it was like. It was like unbelievable man, like the sounds that he was creating. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Kanye as a rapper college dropout might be my favorite, for just what he was saying on that record Sonically is between Twisted Fantasy and Graduation. Yeah, that's four. Who's at number five On an educational side of things? I'll say Curtis King, curtis King.
Speaker 1:Curtis King is five.
Speaker 2:I like his music too, but in particular, when I started watching his content, that helped me start learning how to sell beats. He did a tutorial on everything that you would need how to sell beats, how to market your music, how to make beats.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Curtis King too. He's definitely one of them first content creators. I definitely watched. I think I probably got him from you.
Speaker 2:I know I started sharing him around. I think I found him around 2016. Yeah, and there was stuff going on where just finding him at that specific time was just really helpful. I even did a mentorship program with him and some other producers. I don't remember what year it was, maybe like 2017 or 18. But yeah, I always gotta put him in there from both. I mean, his music is obviously fire too, but also just on the educational side of things like can't, can't go without mentioning him yeah, all right, that's five, and that you won't stop at five.
Speaker 1:I'm stopping five for right. All right, stop at five I can.
Speaker 2:I can probably think of more, but yeah, man, because it is hard man.
Speaker 1:It's like when people ask me that too, it's like my eyes change and it's not like there is no number one. All of them to me is number one. Yeah, like man, of course. Dr Dre, you know what I mean. You got Jermaine Dupri Yep. You got Kanye. You got Just Blaze. You know what I mean, got just blaze. You know what I mean. Yeah, metro. You got uh, um, what's my man? Other dude from memphis, uh, drummer boy. Yeah, I mean you got one of my detroit favorites and he to me is like without him there is no detroit. Sound, hell of a. You know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying but then you go to the west coast. You got sound wave, you know what I mean. You got, uh, what's, what's? My man from Jersey Party Hat. You know, what I mean. It's so many of them, man, like for real. I could just keep going and going and going. So it's like for me, it's like every producer that I've listened to musically in my 39 years of living so far is like fire Hit boy.
Speaker 2:I got to throw him in there, hit boy. I love the stuff he did with Nas.
Speaker 1:Man, that whole run that he had and it was like the chemistry you know what I'm saying and just watching him just create right then and there he just creating, cooking up beats, sending them to Nas, and it made me love Nas more too, because I used to always say Nas' production to me didn't hit me like I ain't disrespecting the producers, it just ain't hit me like you know what I'm saying like yo, this joint fire, he had a few on his albums, don't get me wrong, but when they got to like hit boy and you know I mean he started working with other producers and I'm just like all right, yeah, I love I'll.
Speaker 2:I still go back to like all those projects now like I'll work out to them. I'll listen to him in the car, like that's like to your point. Yeah, a lot of his now as a lyricist.
Speaker 2:Obviously he's one of the best to ever do it one of the production wise, like that's where I think jay-z, in my opinion, gets him like yeah, you can argue over like who's a better rapper, but production wise it's not even a question. Overall, jay-z's got it, yeah, but with the stuff that like uh, that now he's been doing with hit-Boy Fire.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. It's kind of like it was kind of like Jay and Ye and Hit-Boy and Nas. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, because Hit-Boy got some hits and people don't understand that. You know what I'm saying. Same thing with Boy Wonder. You know what I'm saying. And Wonder Girl, her drums are crazy. It's man, certain drums are crazy. There's so many man, there's so many Like I can just go from states and just name all the dope producers that like inspire me Street runners. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I can even go to people like outside of even hip-hop, like Jerry Finn he did a lot of stuff for like punk bands Like Bling 182 is my favorite band of all time. Jerry Finn produced them. I think he did. I might be wrong. I think he might have done some records with Alkaline Trio. He's done records with a lot of famous punk bands. He even can go there.
Speaker 1:I think too, with me traveling around the world from being in the military, it opened up my ears. My ears was turned up just because I would hear Jamaican Caribbean music. I would hear West Coast music. I would hear down South Caribbean music. I would hear West Coast music, I would hear down south music. You know me, being from Detroit, like I'm hearing all of these songs and it's like man like this is fire David Banner, like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Like all of these guys and women like are fire when it comes to production. So it's like for me, yeah, it's hard to like put five, it's hard to narrow it down, it's hard to put ten. You know what I mean, those people right now I think I can put it as in decades or five year spans. This five year, run these my five. This five year, run these my five. Because if you think about it, you gotta throw DJ Mustard.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:This dynamic album he just got produced on with Kendrick. You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying, and he saw that run. I don't remember what year it was like mid-2010s where, like every other song on the radio was, it was him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was him. If it was R&B, if it was hip-hop, he had a smash. And that's the thing. I like him too, because he bet on himself a lot. People are like oh he not in right now. Ain't nobody rocking with him? What you think for you producing how many years it's been so far? I?
Speaker 2:started in 2013, so this is year 12. Year 12.
Speaker 2:So in your year 12, how do you feel about the state of hip hop right now? Mix, for sure. I do like that lyricism seems to be coming back a little bit when we've seen, like, how excited people were over the battle between kendrick and drake, yeah, and even now with joey versus the west coast. Um, so seeing stuff like that I think is cool overall, with that, I guess, more mainstream stuff, the quality music it definitely has, like it's a mixed bag, like it seems like there's some people who are like appreciating lyricism again and also the masses are still appreciating all like the trash stuff that's out right now.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm glad you said that, because you're way younger than me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the thing is like people like it seems like artists who are closer to my age, they just don't care about it anymore.
Speaker 1:They don't care about the artistry.
Speaker 2:No, like they get like a cheap microphone, they go rip beats off of YouTube and then they just spit nonsense on a microphone and then they just upload it. You know, and it's like it has no meaning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like. What does it mean? Like, mean, like I get it. Like certain, certain young, as though that's that's coming up, are dope. But like I go every friday man, I tell people this every friday I go look at the releases, yep, and I scroll and I'll be like who's this, who's this, who's this, who's this? And I try to listen to them.
Speaker 2:I'd be like I can't I'll try and then like after like song three, I'm like yeah I can't, man, like I can't.
Speaker 1:I'm actually looking forward to the clips album.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love them.
Speaker 2:Did you the two records they have right right now?
Speaker 1:so be it. And what was the? Something trumpet right, but yeah, those two, both, both the records are hard both of them records tough.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the first trumpet a trumpet, a trumpet, a trumpet, and so be it, though my only thing is Both of them records tough. Ace Trumpet, ace Trumpet is so big Dope. My only thing is, we'll get a dope album like that and then we'll get a massive rap and so many other words. It's like yo man, what is going on? What are the labels doing? Other words, but it's like yo man, like what is going on, like what is, what are the labels doing, because I have a theory behind it.
Speaker 2:What's your theory? What's your theory? My theory is that Part of it has to do with the economy within the music industry. I think it's one of the biggest parts. The economy like with how streaming like 20, 30 years ago, when you had people who would always go out and buy records.
Speaker 2:Now I feel like on the consumer end, since people aren't buying music now one your artists are getting paid less by streaming. But then also I feel like just listeners don't care about music the same way that they used to Because, if you think about it, before the barrier to entry to get a new record was you had to go outside, you had to go to a record shop, you had to wait in line and you had to spend money per album. Now you pay for the cost of one album. You get every song ever, from Mozart to Migos, and I feel like that, on top of even like I think that's one part of it just people not the listener not valuing music the way that they used to. And then, on the creator side of things, I feel like a lot of people like realize that too, whether it's subconscious or not. So, especially for like younger artists, I feel like they, since they know like the stakes are low in terms of like people, don't really care. It's also cheaper to make music because you don't have to go to a, you don't have to go to a big studio, you can literally there are people making records on their iphone, right, you know, which isn't like bad if you're making good art with it, but would they even even with it being more accessible?
Speaker 2:I feel like when people are, when art some artists are recording. Now the stakes are lower. If you're not paying a crazy amount of money for studio time, just doing something at home, you have more freedom to just not take it as seriously. So I think some of those elements combined together I think, just make artists not really care as much about the quality that they're putting out, the listeners. They move on so quick anyways. Even the listener will consume a two-minute song, then they're on to the next one. There's a lot, I think it's just a mixture of people in general not appreciating music the same way that they did before, and then just artists just not really wanting to give it their all.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can see where. Yeah, I can definitely see where that comes from. But me I agree they're not taking it serious and the way the economy is in the music industry, they're trying to trap the younger kids so they can get them in a messed up deal, from what I'm seeing, and the older ones are educating the younger ones to hey, don't fall for this here, do it this way, go independent. But my only theory to yours is if they are doing this, how are they getting into these rolling louds? You know what I'm?
Speaker 2:saying they're still getting.
Speaker 1:They're getting. Well, I take it back. They're getting the rolling louds. You know what I'm saying? Like they still getting. They're getting. Well, I take it, I take it back. They're getting the rolling louds, but their own shows, like, for instance, what's my man from the Bay? The Russell, the Russell, the Russell. Yeah, the Russell is doing it the way I feel like every artist should. Take it in your own hands, take it in your own hands, Create your own stage, right, yeah, create your own stage and create your own sound and bring it back. Bring it to the masses, go and take it to the masses. And his content team is phenomenal. You know what I mean. His team is phenomenal, the way they move, they move and he's rapping positivity. I'm not going to lie, I'm from the streets. I get it, but nobody wants to hear that all the time. Just tell me the true rap. Give me some true rap. Give me some stories. Tell me about some chicks. Tell me about cars, tell me about parties.
Speaker 1:Just tell me about life. I think a lot of times to your theory they're rapping about something that's not them. Yeah, they might have seen it and I get that. If you can put that in words, I commend you. You can put that in your own words and talk about somebody's story cool, but be honest with it. You know what I mean. It's like hey, this ain't my life, this is what I've seen growing up, Because they'll talk about it in like the first-person perspective but it's not.
Speaker 1:He didn't experience it in the first person, and then when you see him in person, like he ain't even like that, like you know what I mean. But for the ones that are, you know man, doing what they do to hustle and ends meet. If you rap about that, cool, I'm with that. Just have some nice beats behind it and have a nice content team. But I get it. A lot of these people come from where I come from. They don't know how to market themselves.
Speaker 2:And me, being a marketing guy, you know what I'm saying, going to school for marketing.
Speaker 1:It's like I see it all the time and I'm like, bro, I can help this person, I can help this person, I can help this person, maybe if he did that, maybe if he did that. But I see it too, man, it's like they don't care.
Speaker 2:It's not even as much as like what they're saying in terms of like the actual like content, cause you can make good art about any perspective, like whether it's like street stuff, whether it's love songs, whether it's like whatever it it is like you can, you can make dope art about any subject. It's just there is just a certain quality to the writing that's like missing from certain artists, like everything doesn't need to be on like a jay-z or nas level, you know like everything doesn't need to be lyrical miracle stuff, but when, when you go on a playlist or when you go on the radio and everything is just like the same thing that's.
Speaker 1:That's what I was like. It's like man, what are we doing? Yeah, and shout out to the women. I'm never going to knock women. I like what they're doing. If it's selling and it's catchy, cool, I'm with it. You know what I mean. But sometimes I be like dang. I got daughters Like is this? Like they hear this, they know this, and it's like I, I don't shy away from it because it's like you can't, you can't hide it. Back in the day, when we were growing up, you could hide certain songs and stuff like that, like you don't have to listen to this radio station, you don't have to watch this tv channel.
Speaker 1:Yep now let's put the child's blog on yeah, now it's everywhere. You know what I mean. They got cell phones, they got ipads, they got youtube. They got cell phones, they got iPads, they got YouTube, they got everything. Yeah, and it's like how much do you want to censor your kid?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's like the thing about it too is like I mean I don't have kids, so I can't really speak to it like the same way like a parent could, but like there's a degree where, like you, I would assume you would want them to experience real life. You don't want to like overly shelter them but, also, you don't want to throw them too far.
Speaker 1:You don't want to throw them all the way out there, but you want to have them in a little happy zone.
Speaker 2:You want to know what real life is. Real life isn't the Disney Channel. But also you don't want to put them all the way on BET uncut.
Speaker 1:Right. Shout out to BET uncut boy. Yeah, hey, man, bet Uncut man, listen to me. I was up a lot of nights, man, a lot of nights, loved it, man, tip drill. It's crazy, man. Because I heard you say that they got a song out that was on BET Uncut. I ain't got no panties on, and a homegirl of mine that I grew up with was in that video and they just, I don't know how somebody brought it back out and I heard my daughter singing it and I'm like you, what, like huh, and I wasn't mad, I was just like where you hear that from, because you know what I'm saying. Like it's everything TikTok, everything is you hear it on somewhere.
Speaker 2:So I'm just like Especially with TikTok, Like I don't know if there's like a child lock equivalent on TikTok. But, like that's the thing. Like you can, it's everywhere. Yeah, you can block channels on TV. I think you can do so. Like they'll scroll through and then it's just going to, it's popping like, or whatever trending, like it's going to, they're going to scroll on it at some point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they definitely are. So I look at it, man, I just say you know what it is, what it is, I ain't knocking it. Just don't be singing that in those schools or nothing like that, or in public with people.
Speaker 2:Just doing the time and the place. Yeah, there are certain things where maybe you might do them in the comfort of your house, but you shouldn't do them in public.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was your first album you ever bought?
Speaker 2:Rebirth by Lil Wayne Rebirth, rebirth. It was crazy. So first when I was getting into music, I was heavily into rock music and then I started getting into rap and then my mom actually put me on Lil Wayne, which is hilarious. Prom Queen had come out at that time and she called me in the room and was like, hey, there's this rapper who is doing rock stuff. It sounds like something you would like. So then I went in and listened to Prom Queen. I was like, okay, this is interesting. So going back to the album Like I haven't listened To that album several years Going back to it now, I probably wouldn't like it the way that I did back then. But that was what gravitated me Towards that album Specifically was how he was combining genres. It was mostly rock, but like you could still hear, obviously you could hear the rap influence in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To this day. Like I love genre. Genre f.
Speaker 1:Genre bending, genre fusion. With that being said, have you listened to the Carter 6?
Speaker 2:Wish I didn't. I'm not going to lie. The Carter 6 let me down a lot Hurt my heart. I feel a way about that album.
Speaker 1:And I always tell people I give everybody a fair shake. I listen to it three times in three locations. So when it first come out midnight I'm listening to it. So now that's nighttime I'm listening to it. Then I go to sleep, wake up, listen to it again in the morning, fresh, I'm, fresh in my mind. Everything's fresh, right, yeah. Then I give it another listen around midday, going until, like you know, 4 or 5 o'clock around midday, going into, like you know, 4 or 5 o'clock and I said why did you call this the Carter 6? You should have called it the Rebirth 2.
Speaker 1:Because I feel like it's more genre fusion in there, you know what. I'm saying Okay, yeah, okay. To me that's not a diss, it's just that you should have called it Rebirth 2, because I feel like that's more of a. You had some of your artists on there from the new Young Money and I feel like it was more of that vibe.
Speaker 2:That or I'm not a human being.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that, or I'm not a human being. If you would have put it to one of those Volume 2 or whatever, I would have been like okay, this makes sense. But for Carter being the Carter, one, two, three, four, five, now six, and you had everybody hyped for this and I'm a huge Lil Wayne fan. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, from Block, it's Hot to Back that Ass Up, to Squad Up, like all the mixtape Wayne, dedication 3, dedication 2, dedication. I'm still a Wayne fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:But that album.
Speaker 2:We know Wayne's one of the GOATs. That doesn't mean he's immune to putting on a bad album.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not immune. But I think to me for him waiting so long, you think that tarnished, not, he's not immune. But I think to me, like for him waiting so long, you think that tarnished, like not tarnished it, but you think it harmed his release, not who he is. Do you just think like it, like him taking too long, messed up the album, I think.
Speaker 2:More specifically. I don't know about the general consensus. For me it was like he was really upset about not getting the Super Bowl. So I was thinking, okay, maybe this is going to put something in him to really give us something special. So he was bad about the Super Bowl. He was crashing out over that. Then he announced the Carter 6. So now I'm thinking this is about how crazy it's going to be. Insane album Might be some of his best music. In years he's been killing the features. He always killed the features.
Speaker 1:The features is easy for him, yeah.
Speaker 2:So then Carter Six comes out and is like there were like a handful of songs I liked but a lot of. What I just don't like about it is just how redundant it all feels, yeah, like nothing feels new, yeah, it's like we already to me like it's not like we're expecting Wayne to be the deepest artist ever, but at the same time he never really switched up his subject matter at all.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:He doesn't switch up the subject matter, he doesn't comment a lot on stuff that's going on in real time. So to me it just felt like why would I want to listen to the Cardi 6 when I can listen to Sharper the Weight and it's a better?
Speaker 1:version of what he's doing right now. And on top of that, this is when I'd be like man, like what am I doing wrong as a producer, to where I can get into these rooms and create albums with these artists, because that's my goal, like I know, that's your goal too. Like you know, you want to create albums. Me now is like more, I just want to do sync licensing, I just want to focus on sync licensing and try to still like work with artists here and there. But it's like what, what am I doing wrong? Because, like, I go and listen to a sample off of um splice that I took and then I hear it on the actual song. Somebody, like a known artist, is on that same type of sample. They just, you know, made it, bumped it up five semitones or whatever, and I'm like, okay, I'm in the ballpark. If he got it and I'm using it, I'm in the right ballpark, yeah. But then it's like I hear that and it's like man, what are we? What are we?
Speaker 2:doing. I've gone to that. That same type of emotion as a feelings to like there was on one of juice rose possum his albums, like he had a sample on there to that like gotten it from Splice and used it a long time ago. I heard the exact same sample on one of his albums. I was like You're in a ballpark.
Speaker 1:When you're doing stuff like that, that means your sound, your ear, is in the same realm. That needs to be placed on radio. So we just got to connect that dot because we're so close, we're all like, it's like right there it's like right there, man, and it's like what do I gotta do? What or what am I doing, not doing to get to this point b and I'm point a is right here, yeah, and it's just one little intersection in between what I have to do to cross, like you know.
Speaker 2:I saying I'm still trying to figure that out in real time too. My main focus has never been trying to get in the same room as bigger artists. I've always even just growing up, I've always loved just the independent scene, but at the same time it would be cool just to even if it was just a credit or just something just to build up my reputation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just building a resume. Yeah, building a resume yeah, I don't mind working with art. No-name artists. No-name artists to me listen, yeah, you know, I mean they listen more, but you also got them. No-name artists that just think they they think that they're.
Speaker 1:They think they're up there, but they have, like you know, like two listeners on spotify yeah, and they're not there and you're trying to tell them like, look man, this I'm trying to kind of show you. Hey, this is how you can get better. This is this. But you know, to each his own people gotta they just gotta bump their head, you know so. But yeah, man, it's like man, we right there, like I be hearing. I hear a lot of beats that I use, like from splice or whatever. Like you know, I mean any other um sound pack I use, or something. I'm like yo, I, yo, I know that 808. Yep, I like the way he did that. I know that sound. You know what I mean. Or I know that's from my atmosphere. Yeah, I know that flute, you know what I mean, I know. But to me, man, I think we going to get there, man. But on another note, we well, you always said that you are the unashamed Christ Father. How long have you been? You know what I mean, in having God in your life?
Speaker 2:I'd say honestly, for most of my life I grew up in the church. My parents always had me in church when I was younger and then, more more specifically, I got more into my faith around like middle school, like maybe 12 or 13, however old I was in like seventh grade, um, so I was really heavily involved in my youth group. Then I remember there was a retreat that I that, uh, that I went on where, like, they were asking like what was? They were asking like if I like what's the one thing you haven't fully surrendered over to God, and I was trying to figure that out for myself. And that's when I figured out, that's when I first really wanted to start doing music, but I didn't.
Speaker 2:It was more for selfish purposes at that point. So then at that point I was like, okay, I told God that I'm going to give everything to him, including the music. And then that just put me on the path of just like wanting to use it to serve people. Yeah, you know, just like so, and everything I'm doing in life, whether it's like music or just stuff completely not related to it, I want to be of service to people. But yeah, like there wasn't really like a like I don't have like a crazy story for like how I got into faith or anything Like it really was, just like I was put in the church as a kid.
Speaker 1:Born and raised in it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Then, as I got older, of course, like I started just using my mind to critically think and then, like I was still even just like researching other stuff and researching other ways that people view the world, like Christianity and Jesus makes the most sense to me. He feels real, I feel like I've experienced him. So that's what I roll with, that's always what I'm going to be rolling with.
Speaker 1:Since I've known you, it's always been what's up? El Marquis, the Unashamed Price Follower, you say it so fast. And I remember I asked, I said what you say, you the what the Unashamed Christ follower? Yeah, and I think to me, man, that's super, super cool, super dope, that you put it in a way that kids can understand it and adults can understand it. So it's like hey, I'm not shying away from what I do. I do music. There's nothing wrong with music. You know what I mean. But I'm just letting you know, hey, I'm a, I'm a real christ follower. I follow god. Like you know, I mean jesus christ. So, um, with that man, have you ever had any pushback from anybody, like knocking you for for being like into church?
Speaker 2:um, no, no, no one. People like in school just being stupid, yeah, not. Like I've never run into a problem with an artist saying like, oh, you're a Christian, okay, well, I can't work with you, right. Or you know, on the other side of things, we're like I put this like a Christian artist like, oh, you also work with secular artists, okay, I can't work with you. Like, never like that. It's more were like well, you can't combine Christianity and rap. Just being stupid. Other than that, unlike the actual business side of things, it's never been an issue Now.
Speaker 1:look at Christian rap and how big it is. It's crazy, right they're doing their festivals.
Speaker 2:now the actual music itself is the best it's ever been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 1k Few Fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got a record with him actually Really. Yeah, it's out. I didn't directly work with him. He featured on the record but yeah, I got a record with him on it. That's dope yeah.
Speaker 1:That's super dope, huge moment. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, man. It's like you look at it now. It's like they have we have well, everybody it. You know what I mean? That just don't want to rap about secular things, they want to rap about Christian things and they make it sound so good, like if it was just regular. You know secular music, but it's so dope that you can actually hear it and it's like the evolution of it, the evolution of Christian rap to where it was and where it is now. I think that's huge for not only the community, it's just huge to show people.
Speaker 1:Hey, you don't always have to listen to the secular side, you can listen to this side and the beat's the same, if not better, if not better. I done heard some fire. I'm like and shout out to Marcus Allen If not better, if not better, right, yeah, because I done heard some fire. You know what I mean. I'm like and shout out to Marcus Allen too. So, marcus Allen, me and him, we had well, he did my intro for my podcast, relationships Worth More Than Money, which we own right now, by the way. But yes, like me and him, we always work and I've always been in his corner Because me.
Speaker 1:I look at it as the reason why I asked you that question about have you had anybody talk bad or try to shame you for what you're doing? Because he had an issue. I thought it was lame. Don't matter what you got going on in your life, if that man want to go follow God. I thought it was lame. Like don't matter what you got going on in your life, you know what I'm saying. Like if that man want to go follow God, let that man go follow God. Right, you know what I'm saying. He has to figure out his own way. He's an adult. You know what I mean. He's a man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I respected him for that and I told him I followed God. I got baptized last year. You know what I'm saying? Yes, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And my thing was to me it was like man, I was doing everything on my own for so long, yeah, and my cousin was like yo, why you getting baptized? I'm like dog, I just been doing things on my own and I'm not getting. I'm starting to get insanity now. You know what I mean. I'm not getting. I'm starting to get insanity now. I'm doing the same things over and over again and getting the same results.
Speaker 1:So let me go talk to the man upstairs because I know he's been with me. That was my thing. That's why my cousin asked. He said, cuz he always been with you? Look where you are now? I said, yeah, but he's been with me on the outside. He's never been with me right next to me and me knowing exactly who he is like. You know what I mean, Right, and what he can do for me.
Speaker 1:So I always made sure, man, like even when I was in Iraq, I prayed. You know what I mean. But I still didn't have that full relationship with him. So when I, you know, got baptized you know what I mean. I got more into church and trying to, you know, volunteer, do things. Like I've been volunteer coaching for the last three, four years you know what I'm saying, right, and it's been a blessing, like because it's like I found my purpose through coaching. Because I always used to ask God like what is my purpose? Like you know, I got two daughters. Like what is my purpose? Like this music stuff is going to always be here, but what is my actual?
Speaker 2:purpose. What's the real reason that he?
Speaker 1:has us here. Yeah, why am I here? What's my purpose? It's to educate man, educate these girls, Educate anybody. Serve anybody I'm serving. I'm serving these girls as they cope, serving artists that I work with as their producer, as their engineer, whatever they need me to be. I'm serving people for content, like they want content for podcasting. I'm telling my truth. You know what I mean and I'm being straight up with people. You know what I mean and that's when I figured it out and it got better, it gets better. You know what I mean. It's getting better, it's getting better. But, yeah, that's why I asked. And Marcus Allen man, seeing him and seeing the growth that he has with you know him being married and you know sticking to the path, man, the right path, staying the course. Staying the course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when I do say it too, like I'm not perfect. You know, if anyone's around me long enough, you know they'll see me stumble and fall like every other human does.
Speaker 2:But, like I always say, because god's my, god's my foundation, at the end of the day, I and always, I always try to be up service to people.
Speaker 2:You know, like some people, they want to produce and they only want to. They only want to want for the money, or they wanted to look cool or want to make them look cool. Right for me is like yeah, I mean, of course, obviously I need income in order to do it, but I want to make sure that I'm actually like serving people, making the artist's vision come to life, making sure that, making sure that their sound is being presented the best way possible, making sure I'm doing it in a timely manner, because I think that's also a way to just show you know, be of service. You know, like I'm not necessarily beating people over the head with Christianity. I'm not necessarily beating people over the head with Christianity. I'm not necessarily even exclusively working with faith-based artists, but whenever I'm in the studio, like that's still what I'm on, I'm still going to be me and authentically me, and you know that's how it is.
Speaker 1:You do what you do. I'm going to do what I do Exactly. You know what I mean, unless I feel ain't the area I need to be in. Yeah, let me remove myself. And that's how people. Yeah, like you say, man, people just take, like you know what I mean. It's, it's nothing wrong to be a Christian. You know what I mean and I don't knock you for whatever you got going on. I ain't judging you. Your thing, brother, sister, like, do your thing, I ain't going to push. I'm not going to push it, like I don't push it on the girls, but I always like for me being in sports all my life. Coach Coker, rest in peace. We always did the Lord's Prayer. You know what I'm saying and I gave it to week. You memorized it. I'm like okay, but I'm not going to push it on him. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:It's good to encourage rather than push. Right right Because at the end of the day, it is supposed to be a relationship.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's a relationship when some people are born into it. For some people I can tell it's forced or maybe they don't really believe it. But when you really believe it for yourself and when you have an authentic relationship, that's a lot stronger than just having the head knowledge of oh, I'm not supposed to do X, y, z, it's one thing, just to. It's not like that's not the purpose of Christianity. The purpose of it is to have a relationship with God, not just to follow X amount of rules. Obviously there are things that we are and are not supposed to do, but at the same time it's not like this. Christianity in the Bible isn't like a rule book of hey, just don't do this, don't do that. It's hey, I don't want you to do this because I know more than you do and I don't want to see you hurt. And hey, you know more than I do. I'm going to trust you Pretty much that's what it is.
Speaker 1:Like I said, people will love it, will not understand it. But again, I'm not going to judge, we not?
Speaker 2:going to judge. You know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying we not going to judge man, but I appreciate that you are who you are. You always been you. You ain't never changed man, never. I appreciate that you are who you are, you've always been you. You ain't never changed man, never. You always happy, you always willing to help something, you always willing to collab whatever. You know what I'm saying. I hit you. I said yo, man, I need you on the pod. You was like man, let me know.
Speaker 2:Whatever, I'm here just getting day and time we was at JoJo's party.
Speaker 1:He was I'm here just to get a day in time. We was at JoJo party. He was like let me know, whatever, I'm here, and that's how you know what I mean. I get it. Everybody can't be like you, but if everybody was like you in this world, man, this would be a better place. Man. I'm telling you, man, because it's it's the energy, the positive energy that you bring, man, I've never seen you on a bad day, ever, ever. You know what I'm saying. It is great, man, when I see you and I'm like yo, what's up, yo, what's up. You're like what's up, what's up, what's up.
Speaker 2:But, um, life is short. I want to like. I mean, I'll have days when I'm down here and there, because I'm human, but I always just try. I always want to be the best version of myself, whether it's on a personal level, whether it's with fitness, whether it's with music, like whatever it is. I just want to do the best that I can, you know, because, like, if I find out like tomorrow is my last day, then like, I still want to like. You know, I want to go out with my legacy being like you know what he tried to be the best at everything that he put his mind to.
Speaker 2:So, whether it's serving people, whether it's doing the music, whatever it is, you know, always trying to be the best.
Speaker 1:The best version of myself, and that's the thing, man. But before we get out of here, we got this thing I call gym class G-E-M, not G-Y-M Gyms Gyms we always want to teach, right, right, you want to give these relatives of mine a gem or two of what you feel like, you know, like that you keep in your toolbox that you want to give to the people, to the masses. What's some gems that you can give to the people?
Speaker 2:Always being of service to people. In terms of like, a lot of people can live for themselves, live just to serve themselves, but like to like an emptiness it leads to like some. Some people maybe can find some sense of fulfillment in that. I think, deep down, like there's, I don't think that it works for everyone to only be self-serving and trying and only trying to live for yourself. So, um, if you can find something where there's a skill or a passion and you can use it to help someone else out, whether it's like it could be something small, it could be something where, like like music for example, you don't need it, you don't like need it, just like survive, but it's still a good way to for people to express themselves or even just have a sense of escape in a healthy way you
Speaker 2:know like, or some people. They fight in the military and obviously they're protecting their you know their family's lives, their country's lives, you know, like that's obviously two completely different scales, but they're serving people. You know what I mean. Doing that, serving others, but also just knowing not how to, also knowing not to be taken advantage of. Because on the other end of that too, like you, there is a level where and I've experienced it too where, like you, can be too nice and then people will just take advantage of you or walk over your things like that. Like there's obviously there's a fine line between the two. But just once you're able to define that, I think that's where, like you, get into like a good happy spot of like, of having fulfillment and also just having a really strong self, uh, sense of purpose.
Speaker 1:Okay all right, that's good man. Them are two. Two good ones, man, having having be able to serve and being be able to serve and not be taking advantage yeah, that's a.
Speaker 2:That's a big one that I've had to learn the hard way several times. But yeah, just being being able to learn that but then still having the heart to be able to serve people, like that's. It's not it wasn't always easy to get there, but, you know, once I did like that's where I just like I really felt like I locked in.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I feel you on that, man, because sometimes you're absolutely right like people will try to take advantage, yeah, purpose on purpose, like not not just like by mistake, purposely, purposely, they will try. I just tell people that's what I tell them. Hey, I need mines up front. Yep, I don't need. Nah, you can't get me after this and after that. Nope, 50% up front Always. Always and when the session starts, I need the rest. Always, I need the other 50. At all times.
Speaker 2:There's always something that's going to come up. Oh my bad, my rent's due. Oh my bad, my tire just got flat right now.
Speaker 1:That has nothing to do with me. You set up something with me and the deposit is nonrefundable.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:I had to learn that the hard way when I was first engineering.
Speaker 2:I learned that the hard way multiple times.
Speaker 1:It is. I learned that hardly multiple times. It's non-refundable. Non-refundable, dog, because you got to understand. Like I'm welcoming you into my space and you late. On top of that, I might have another session after this. Yep, you late. Yeah, whatever you late, we can knock out this other 30 minutes you got left, or you can reschedule, make another time, but that deposit is nonrefundable. You're going to have to redeposit something. You know what I mean. You're going to put another deposit down.
Speaker 2:That's how other businesses operate outside of music. So like why can't we do the same?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because you know what I'm saying. Like you don't show, no call, no show. You fired. You know what I'm saying no call, no show. Oh, you on my list.
Speaker 2:Like this is obviously like this is fun and stuff like that. But you know, but you still have to treat it seriously. Yeah, you got to. You're on people's time. You're using their electricity, everything, their equipment.
Speaker 1:Their equipment, their knowledge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. They're late nights figuring out how to record, how to EQ or how to play whatever man what?
Speaker 1:That's why I tell people like, look, man, if I give you a discount, don't try to go get another discount If I give you a discount, but you know yesterday's price ain't today's price, amen to that. You know what I mean, amen to that. I always tell people that man, we can't, we can't, but L? L. I appreciate you, man, for coming. Thank you for having me To relationships worth more than money. This is L Marquis, the unashamed Christ follower, the producer, the engineer man, the servant himself, and I'm Tweezy man Like that. We gone Peace.
