We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elijah Rieders a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elijah, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Personally, the worst investment I’ve made as an artist is spending countless hours and money on studio time. When I first started making music, I thought the only way to record and get things to sound how I wanted was to go to a music studio. When you’re just starting out and have no equipment yourself, this feels like the only option. In the time span of about 2 years, I went to 5 music studios. The experience itself was great and made me feel like I was really doing things on a professional level. The songs sounded very high quality and I finally had actual music to promote. The only problem was, the music wasn’t very good. I quickly realized I was spending a lot of time and money on music that I ended up not even wanting to release just a week or so later. After doing some research, I found out that buying my own equipment and recording at home was much more cost-effective and productive. Once I had all of the equipment set up in my room, I was able to spend as much time as I wanted working on music. In turn, this made recording much less stressful and overall it made me a better artist. I do not fully regret spending money on studio time because it helped me make some solid connections and led me toward an easier route. For over 5 years now, I’ve been making all of my music in my room, from producing and writing to recording and mixing and it’s made me a better artist.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Elijah Rieders, aka inc mo, and I am a rapper/singer and videographer. I first got into music creation when I was a junior in high school. My friends and I would frequently put on rap instrumentals and spend hours freestyling. Fast-forward to my freshman year of college, my friend and I decided to finally start writing music which led to us eventually recording and releasing a handful of songs and an album. During this time, I realized that it was hard to find someone else to film and edit content and promotions for our music. Because of this, I decided to take matters into my own hands. As my musical career was expanding, so was my videography career. I started releasing solo singles and projects while earning some money filming and editing music videos for myself and local artists at my school. Currently, I am still making and releasing music while being a full-time videographer. While specializing in music videos, I’ve been able to hone my craft and create visually stunning projects to help my clients stand out. In addition, I work with various clients who are not in the music industry. For them, I create promotional ads, create social media content, and even help design their websites.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Since I started making music, I’ve always had a vision of starting my own record label. I felt like when I was starting out, I was completely on my own and had to learn and do everything by myself. The idea of this record label is that we’d combine all forms of media by bringing talented artists together to create cool art in any medium. By providing spaces and networks for different types of artists, they’d all be able to prosper and learn in their own fields.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

By far, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is enjoying the process. As an artist and creative I spend countless hours on my craft and the art goes through so many stages before it’s complete. For music, I love listening to an early mix of a song to get ideas of the effects I want to use and the direction I want it to go. For video editing, I love rewatching clips and edits ensuring it looks exactly how I want it to. I love everything I create even if it’s objectively bad because it makes me realize how far I’ve come and what I get to look forward to in the future of my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: worldofincmo.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/helloincmo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijah-rieders/
• Twitter: x.com/helloincmo
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE94UfpLEyYiJx4_irtrOrQ
• Other: tiktok.com/incmo