Brent Faiyaz is on fire. Over the past 10 months, the 22-year-old has melted hearts as the frontman of Sonder, burned up charts as the hook-man on GoldLink’s Platinum single “Crew,” and his newly-released solo debut, Sonder Son, is being received with admiration.
It’s an impressive feat when a fairly unknown artist begins to make noise in January and consistently remains the subject of praise all year long. Faiyaz is about to hit the road for a second time this year, this time as a solo headliner. This will be his show and people will be coming to hear his voice. And tickets are selling fast—there’s a tweet on his timeline congratulating the young star on selling out his LA show in 12 minutes. To say he’s blowing up would understate the surge of excitement burning in the underground’s underbelly.
With accomplishments and accolades come questions: How is Brent doing it all? Is he an industry plant? Is he a mindie artist, posing as an independent act while a major label like is funding the entire operation? In an era of secret signings and uncertain indie claims, everyone is under suspicion.
For insight on his current label situation, DJBooth reached out to Ty Baisden, Brent's current manager and the man credited with turning around his career, who confirmed to us that he and Brent are 100% independent.
That's not all he said, though.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Ty has worked behind the scenes for years as an artist manager, but prior to connecting with Brent all of his previous acts were based in rap. After reaching a point of exhaustion with that side of the game, his sights turned to R&B and his thoughts turned to action when he discovered Brent’s SoundCloud in 2014.
In the three years since the two connected and began mapping out how they would approach the music industry, a lot has occurred: label meetings, proposals, letdowns, and hours of studying hip-hop's greatest businessmen like Master P, JAY-Z, Diddy, and more.
This is the motherfukking gold rush, especially for black art.
Ty saw Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fella as empires that were forced into independence because no one initially cared. “We weren't forced into independence because everyone wanted to be in business with us, but their terms forced us to be independent,” he told me during our hour-long conversation.
Ty was transparent, candid, and blunt about the entire major label system, the idea of independence in 2017, ownership of black art, and treating the music business like any other business. He was also clear about his mission: the desire to educate and inform those who have career ambitions in music.
This interview has been lightly edited for content and clarity.
Yoh: Is being 100% independent the plan or have you been waiting for the right record deal?
Ty: We had a whole plan for year one. Year one was basically August 2015 to August 2016. The second year was when we were going to do the album—we were going to drop the EP, get a deal, get the label to fund it, and do the album on an island somewhere or some shyt. The label will fund it, boom boom. That was the year two plan, from August 2016 to August 2017. It wasn’t until we started the process and hit these milestones that the labels started coming. When the labels started coming, the conversations weren’t real, exciting conversations. When I say not exciting, I mean, I started asking questions they couldn’t give me honest answers to. I was like, "Hmm, this shyt not making sense now that I’m thinking about it." When I sat down with Troy Carter over at Spotify, he was the beginning of the nail in the coffin [of trying to get a deal]. He was like, "You need to do this independently."
What were those conversations with the labels like?
When we started to have these conversations with the labels, it was like, these nikkas are trying to pay me 11% out of 100%. Just because you motherfukkers give me some money early? fukk that. You crazy. That shyt don’t make sense.
We had some really great meetings. We met with L.A. Reid, and L.A. said he loved Brent. That was the only meeting we took and actually allowed Brent to sing in an office setting in front of someone. Me and Brent respect what L.A. and LaFace did for R&B music. That’s why we decided to do it. Taking the whole team up there and doing the little performance. It is what it is, I already knew how it would end. We went and we did it. L.A. was saying how special Brent was, how he was going to be so big, and how he hadn’t been excited about an artist like this in a while. All these different things. I’m just listening and paying attention.
Then I get the deal proposal and I’m like, "Wait a minute, my nikka. This is not a special deal." That’s the problem. Those types of interactions are what led us to decide on being independent. People will say that’s how it goes in the business, they send you over the contract and you gotta negotiate. Nah, my nikka, there are principles in life. If you sit down and tell [Brent] he's a special artist, you better make sure that fukking deal is special. If not, your word isn’t as solid as what you just told me. I kept seeing a lot of that in these conversations about a deal. That was the first strike.
Mind you, we had amazing meetings with everyone. No bad meetings. Everyone was excited, they were fans, and were really passionate about the music. But when those contracts came in…
First strike? What else was in the contracts?
Like I said, I’m a principled guy, [so I had] sent out a proposal of what I wanted [to the labels]. Once I met with Troy [from Spotify], we were talking about Spotify's support and Troy was like, "I wouldn’t do anything because this is real music. There’s a big resurgence of people who like this type of music. If you guys just wait, this is going to work. I’m not saying don’t do any business with a major label, but make it so the terms are favorable to you guys."
I’m like, "Damn, you're right." But since I had already sent out the proposals before the meeting, I told Brent’s lawyer, if any of the labels that we sent the proposals to give us exactly what that proposal asks for, I’ll do the deal. Like I said, principles are principles, they don’t change because you're in a different arena or business. My principles would be the same if I was a school teacher or if I was selling pencils. So, I was like, if they give us exactly what it says, we will do the deals.
So we started having conversations [with the labels] and we're not getting exactly what the proposals say. Interscope, they were one of the conversations I had on the phone about the actual contract. I was speaking with [Interscope EVP] Joie [Manda], and I've known Joie for awhile, he’s been very supportive of me in general. When I say support, I mean always responding to emails, taking meetings, and things of that nature. The moment I was on the phone with Joie, and I told him about speaking with my lawyer and the terms I didn’t agree upon that I wanted to talk out. The terms were—Yoh, you aren’t a lawyer, but when I say this to you you’ll know it doesn’t make sense—about royalties. A major label only pays you one way: through your royalty. Now, industry standards—make note of the fact that I hate the word ‘industry standards,’ I hate it—from what my lawyer told me are that generally, a recording artist who is new and gets signed to a deal is going to get an 14% to 16% royalty payout from the label. My proposal had an 18% royalty payout from the label.
18% is far from unreasonable.
I told Joie I didn’t understand how if Brent has an album [already] out that’s probably going to be a digital-only release that’s never going to stores or [being released physically], and the label is going to acquire this body of work through a deal we will potentially do, you are saying that is too high. That’s high for a new artist, but we’ll do it anyway because we really believe in it. His response was, ‘We invest a lot of money early. Being that we invested so early, that’s why we give a [smaller] percentage. We don’t want to scale it because that’s not how it works.’ That’s the last real conversation I had with a major label. I was like we going to do this shyt ourselves. This was in November 2016, [Brent's A.M. Paradox EP] was already out.
I'll commend Joie and Interscope, they were on it early. Joie was trying to sign Brent before I even put out the A.M. Paradox EP. I really believed in putting out this project independently first, though. I felt like I would jeopardize what Brent could become if I did any official, long-term business before the music was out. Joie was in the studio trying in August 2016 trying to sign the kid, before any projects were out. The project, A.M. Paradox, dropped in September.
[Senior VP of A&R at RCA Records] Tunji was early as well because he had already signed GoldLink, and Brent and GoldLink worked on the “Crew” record back in early April or May of 2016. So Tunji was already hip, I was sending him demos and things of that nature, but Tunji wasn’t putting too much pressure on it because he had so much going on and there wasn’t a body of work out at that point. I was just putting out singles here and there. Everyone was paying attention but nobody was putting a bid out. Interscope, Atlantic, and Epic were all trying
Brent Faiyaz’ Manager Pulls Back the Ugly Curtain on the Major Label Ballgame
It’s an impressive feat when a fairly unknown artist begins to make noise in January and consistently remains the subject of praise all year long. Faiyaz is about to hit the road for a second time this year, this time as a solo headliner. This will be his show and people will be coming to hear his voice. And tickets are selling fast—there’s a tweet on his timeline congratulating the young star on selling out his LA show in 12 minutes. To say he’s blowing up would understate the surge of excitement burning in the underground’s underbelly.
With accomplishments and accolades come questions: How is Brent doing it all? Is he an industry plant? Is he a mindie artist, posing as an independent act while a major label like is funding the entire operation? In an era of secret signings and uncertain indie claims, everyone is under suspicion.
For insight on his current label situation, DJBooth reached out to Ty Baisden, Brent's current manager and the man credited with turning around his career, who confirmed to us that he and Brent are 100% independent.
That's not all he said, though.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Ty has worked behind the scenes for years as an artist manager, but prior to connecting with Brent all of his previous acts were based in rap. After reaching a point of exhaustion with that side of the game, his sights turned to R&B and his thoughts turned to action when he discovered Brent’s SoundCloud in 2014.
In the three years since the two connected and began mapping out how they would approach the music industry, a lot has occurred: label meetings, proposals, letdowns, and hours of studying hip-hop's greatest businessmen like Master P, JAY-Z, Diddy, and more.
This is the motherfukking gold rush, especially for black art.
Ty saw Bad Boy and Roc-A-Fella as empires that were forced into independence because no one initially cared. “We weren't forced into independence because everyone wanted to be in business with us, but their terms forced us to be independent,” he told me during our hour-long conversation.
Ty was transparent, candid, and blunt about the entire major label system, the idea of independence in 2017, ownership of black art, and treating the music business like any other business. He was also clear about his mission: the desire to educate and inform those who have career ambitions in music.
This interview has been lightly edited for content and clarity.
Yoh: Is being 100% independent the plan or have you been waiting for the right record deal?
Ty: We had a whole plan for year one. Year one was basically August 2015 to August 2016. The second year was when we were going to do the album—we were going to drop the EP, get a deal, get the label to fund it, and do the album on an island somewhere or some shyt. The label will fund it, boom boom. That was the year two plan, from August 2016 to August 2017. It wasn’t until we started the process and hit these milestones that the labels started coming. When the labels started coming, the conversations weren’t real, exciting conversations. When I say not exciting, I mean, I started asking questions they couldn’t give me honest answers to. I was like, "Hmm, this shyt not making sense now that I’m thinking about it." When I sat down with Troy Carter over at Spotify, he was the beginning of the nail in the coffin [of trying to get a deal]. He was like, "You need to do this independently."
What were those conversations with the labels like?
When we started to have these conversations with the labels, it was like, these nikkas are trying to pay me 11% out of 100%. Just because you motherfukkers give me some money early? fukk that. You crazy. That shyt don’t make sense.
We had some really great meetings. We met with L.A. Reid, and L.A. said he loved Brent. That was the only meeting we took and actually allowed Brent to sing in an office setting in front of someone. Me and Brent respect what L.A. and LaFace did for R&B music. That’s why we decided to do it. Taking the whole team up there and doing the little performance. It is what it is, I already knew how it would end. We went and we did it. L.A. was saying how special Brent was, how he was going to be so big, and how he hadn’t been excited about an artist like this in a while. All these different things. I’m just listening and paying attention.
Then I get the deal proposal and I’m like, "Wait a minute, my nikka. This is not a special deal." That’s the problem. Those types of interactions are what led us to decide on being independent. People will say that’s how it goes in the business, they send you over the contract and you gotta negotiate. Nah, my nikka, there are principles in life. If you sit down and tell [Brent] he's a special artist, you better make sure that fukking deal is special. If not, your word isn’t as solid as what you just told me. I kept seeing a lot of that in these conversations about a deal. That was the first strike.
Mind you, we had amazing meetings with everyone. No bad meetings. Everyone was excited, they were fans, and were really passionate about the music. But when those contracts came in…
First strike? What else was in the contracts?
Like I said, I’m a principled guy, [so I had] sent out a proposal of what I wanted [to the labels]. Once I met with Troy [from Spotify], we were talking about Spotify's support and Troy was like, "I wouldn’t do anything because this is real music. There’s a big resurgence of people who like this type of music. If you guys just wait, this is going to work. I’m not saying don’t do any business with a major label, but make it so the terms are favorable to you guys."
I’m like, "Damn, you're right." But since I had already sent out the proposals before the meeting, I told Brent’s lawyer, if any of the labels that we sent the proposals to give us exactly what that proposal asks for, I’ll do the deal. Like I said, principles are principles, they don’t change because you're in a different arena or business. My principles would be the same if I was a school teacher or if I was selling pencils. So, I was like, if they give us exactly what it says, we will do the deals.
So we started having conversations [with the labels] and we're not getting exactly what the proposals say. Interscope, they were one of the conversations I had on the phone about the actual contract. I was speaking with [Interscope EVP] Joie [Manda], and I've known Joie for awhile, he’s been very supportive of me in general. When I say support, I mean always responding to emails, taking meetings, and things of that nature. The moment I was on the phone with Joie, and I told him about speaking with my lawyer and the terms I didn’t agree upon that I wanted to talk out. The terms were—Yoh, you aren’t a lawyer, but when I say this to you you’ll know it doesn’t make sense—about royalties. A major label only pays you one way: through your royalty. Now, industry standards—make note of the fact that I hate the word ‘industry standards,’ I hate it—from what my lawyer told me are that generally, a recording artist who is new and gets signed to a deal is going to get an 14% to 16% royalty payout from the label. My proposal had an 18% royalty payout from the label.
18% is far from unreasonable.
I told Joie I didn’t understand how if Brent has an album [already] out that’s probably going to be a digital-only release that’s never going to stores or [being released physically], and the label is going to acquire this body of work through a deal we will potentially do, you are saying that is too high. That’s high for a new artist, but we’ll do it anyway because we really believe in it. His response was, ‘We invest a lot of money early. Being that we invested so early, that’s why we give a [smaller] percentage. We don’t want to scale it because that’s not how it works.’ That’s the last real conversation I had with a major label. I was like we going to do this shyt ourselves. This was in November 2016, [Brent's A.M. Paradox EP] was already out.
I'll commend Joie and Interscope, they were on it early. Joie was trying to sign Brent before I even put out the A.M. Paradox EP. I really believed in putting out this project independently first, though. I felt like I would jeopardize what Brent could become if I did any official, long-term business before the music was out. Joie was in the studio trying in August 2016 trying to sign the kid, before any projects were out. The project, A.M. Paradox, dropped in September.
[Senior VP of A&R at RCA Records] Tunji was early as well because he had already signed GoldLink, and Brent and GoldLink worked on the “Crew” record back in early April or May of 2016. So Tunji was already hip, I was sending him demos and things of that nature, but Tunji wasn’t putting too much pressure on it because he had so much going on and there wasn’t a body of work out at that point. I was just putting out singles here and there. Everyone was paying attention but nobody was putting a bid out. Interscope, Atlantic, and Epic were all trying
Brent Faiyaz’ Manager Pulls Back the Ugly Curtain on the Major Label Ballgame
