We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jake Palumbo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jake below.
Jake, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
November 17th – about a week ago – marked 16 years since I have had a traditional 9-5 job. Life has a way of initiating change whether you are prepared for it or not. On November 17th, 2008 I was returning from a live performance at West Chester University in PA & was informed my day job would be closing its doors at the end of the week, a casualty of the 2008 Recession. In the next 72 hours, two things happened:
I had been interning at a recording studio for the previous year & a half, trying to be the most useful unpaid assistant I could be. One of the engineers at the studio quit, & in a bind, the owners decided I was qualified enough to record a rapper named Wyze (who I never saw again) for $40. The next day a rapper named Wally Dutch (who I also never saw again) answered my Craigslist ad selling Hip-Hop beats. He purchased 3 tracks from me for $300. Soon after I released the “District Selectman” album & left for a self-booked tour.
From November 2008 until now, I have survived entirely off the sum of the parts of my various music-related hustles (artist, producer, engineer, DIY label, etc.) I’m not sure there was anything I could have done to speed up the process – the music industry is a lengthy & grueling marathon; and the amount of time it takes to become established is usually the part that eliminates many aspiring creatives.
Something that has NOT changed between Day 1 & 16 years later, is that comfort & stability can only be found in the hindsight. What I mean by that is is – my salary is an imaginary concept, until it becomes real. Until clients hire you, & then actually pay you afterwards, you have zero guarantee of anything. Even today, my calendar is full for the next 2 months. After that I have zero idea what my financial future will hold. It’s only when you stop to reflect – hey, this has worked, & not failed yet, for a long time! – that you’re able to find a feeling resembling stability.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Jake Palumbo, & I have a lot of jobs! Some people know me as a rapper & Hip-Hop recording artist. Others know me as a producer, providing the beats. Other people know me as a studio engineer – recording, mixing & mastering music by a lot of their favorite artists. I also run the independent label SpaceLAB Recordings, which has released almost 100 titles across 18 years.
And some people don’t follow me for my music at all – they follow me for the artist advice videos I make for social media. The music industry can be a very discouraging place, so I’ve spent the last 10 years making video content that attempts to debunk the bad information that runs rampant throughout the industry. It’s sort of my way of trying to give back & help others who might get discouraged.
I think the fact I stick out like a sore thumb in most situations has worked to my benefit. I am quite literally a Tennessee-born Hillbilly who has lived in Brooklyn for 18 years, & who works in the Boom Bap sector of Hip-Hop. The moment I open my mouth to speak & a Southern twang is heard out of a Brooklyn rapper – I’m going to get some odd looks at first. What has kept me working & employed with my clients in the studio is my ability to solve problems on the fly, & the way I try to convey I am giving them 110% the same I would apply to my own music. What has kept me working on the stage is professionalism – showing up on time for soundcheck, being nice to the sound engineer or the bartender…things that should be instinctual but quite often are not. What kept me working as a recording artist is aiming for growth & giving the most intimate personal look at myself. All three of these things all boil down to one thing – the EFFORT you are making.
The thing I’m most proud of? Still being here! When I started in the music industry there was a bit of a stereotype that most hip-hop careers lasted 2-3 years…5 if you were very successful. To be in my 40’s now – still growing & being heard by more people each year, with a far better grasp on my craft from years of experience – is one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The advice that works is often overlooked because it’s very simple, & it’s not that sexy: Just show up, every day. When I started my IG account in 2012, I had about 40 followers & garnered 2-5 likes per post. Over the next 5 years I just showed up, every day, making content (before “content” was a vocabulary term). Today I have close to 10k followers – which isn’t a huge number at all, but every one of those people voluntarily signed up to here, & they are very engaged followers. You can be completely unknown to the mainstream, but I promise you if you have to reply to 500+ positive comments online in a day, it’s going to be much harder for you to feel under-appreciated.
Whether I’m giving you music to nod your head to, or humor to make you laugh by pointing out the ridiculousness, or I’m giving you food for thought to help you navigate the industry, my entire social media strategy is built on keeping you informed about what I’m doing, & on trying to provide you will value before I ever ask for anything in return.
Communities are built when the members of the audience can rely on you to keep them informed or entertained or just checking in with them on a regular basis. It takes a LOT of patience & faith to keep posting even though you’re getting little engagement. Audiences & fan bases are literally built one person at a time. So that one extra follower or extra like you gained today, will become a brick in the house you’re ultimately building.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Waking up most days excited about the possibility of what could happen today, rather than beginning my day with dread over what I might be forced to do. I hate to over-simplify that answer but that’s basically the difference. I wake up with excitement & curiosity, but more important than that I wake up feeling like I have purpose.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jakepalumbo.com
- Instagram: @jakepalumbo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jakepalumbo.spacelab
- Twitter: @jakepalumbo
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/spacelabrecordings
Image Credits
Zoi Ellis, Jay Pluto, Jack Simpson