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

NoxBond, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Before I was a music executive, I was an artist. As an artist, I didn’t have any guidance or anyone helping me, and I had no idea what to do nine times out of ten. The vast majority of the time, people took advantage of my lack of knowledge or my naivety to get money out of me without ultimately moving the ball forward. I hired everyone I could think of to hire. As I hired these companies, I realized they could not do what they claimed to be able to do. In fact, the more I delved into the music industry the more I realized it’s mostly smoke and mirrors at every level. Nobody has a guarantee on their services, because they are not in the business of making you successful, in fact, I learned, they are in the business of keeping you out of the music industry!
After developing some personal relationships in the music industry, one day I was speaking to a friend of mine who is hired by several major labels to break their artists. He told me that one day he was asking what he should charge independent artist for his services, and they told him to charge as much as he could while keeping the artist in the same position so they can’t compete with the label.
That is an accurate breakdown of the independent music industry. People charging for services that ultimately don’t move the ball forward, So after hiring tons of people, buying services left and right, and being in the same position at the end of the day, I realized that the entire system is flawed and needs to be counter-balanced, and I created Next Level.

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 started out as an artist. My father told me that everyone in the world wants to be a rapper, since the 80s millions of people have wanted to be rappers. What am I going to do different? I took that as a cue to develop my business strategy : What am I going to do that other people aren’t doing?
So, there you have the evolution of an artist and the development of a strategy, and it was all very organic and a step by step process.
Follow me.

Step one, be a “rapper”. My competition is every rapper in the world. How can I separate myself? What am I going to do differently than every rapper in the world?

Step two, be a “recording artist”. The first step was obvious, record music. That automatically changed my competition level, to only rappers that record music. I just cut out 80 percent of my competition.

Step three, “build a studio”, The first cost which would prevent me from creating my product, was studio time. It was not very feasible to continue to pay other people to use their facilities. Nipsey Hussle told me I should do everything in house to make it sustainable. Now I can record for free.

Step four, “Industry production”, in creating music, and getting music out to the streets, and listening to the fans and their feedback and what they want, quality was the first factor that would have people turn my music down, the quality of the beat. So, I drew a line and decided I would only work with producers who already worked with mainstream artists. That way, people could not discount the song due to the quality of the beat, or I had a come back of them being a hater because that same producer makes beats for their favorite artists. I became vocal about this, because I had to be my own publicist. (Step 8)

Step five, “Perfect the craft”. Now the music exist. I had industry quality beats, and I used the internet to learn proper mixing techniques and find templates. I then got the music to the streets, and listened to the people. If 7 out of 10 people told me it was difficult to hear my voice, I listened and turned my vocals up. If they told me I should use a mix-tape beat to get people’s attention, I would try that, and then if someone said I should use more original beats so I could sell the songs, I tried that. If someone said they thought I should memorize my lyrics because they could hear me reading, I took that to heart and never got in the booth with a notebook again. There was a strong 8 year period of artist development where all I did is listened to what people wanted to hear, and applied it to my music.

Step six, “Image and branding”. Now the quality music exist, that when played generates a positive reaction and promotes growth. But I was burning CDs on my computer, and writing on them with a magic marker, and putting them in a paper sleeve. I upgraded to lightscribe, which etched out golden images on the disc itself, and jewel cases, so that the CDs were more secure and harder to scratch, and I started hiring graphic artists and…

Step seven “Take yourself seriously”, Everything I did had to be on par with the industry music that I personally consumed. That was the bar, it was already set, so now everything from the mix, to the beats, to the graphics on the album covers, has to be at a professional and consistent level so that I can stand apart from my competition, which at this point only includes : Recording artists, who use industry level beats, industry quality mixes, have a combination of original and mixtape records, memorize their lyrics before they record, have taken years to perfect their craft, and hire professional graphic artists.

So, after this 10 year journey, now we have the music. Now what?

Step eight “Create a promotion company.” You can have the best product in the world, if no one knows about it, no one buys it. Now this is before the big internet boom of everyone having social media, but there was MySpace, so I made profiles and got my music on myspace, and bangme.net, and cyber societies, and started posting in their forums, and I got 500,000 views there by DMing people and posting on celebritys pages. That gave me my first initial boost of fans. One of the producers I worked with also worked with Nicki Minaj, Travis Porter, Mike Jones, and many more, so when Rio Productions posted my song, Tell Your Boyfriend, on Myspace, from his page, it generated a lot of traffic, and I learned about influencer marketing. At the same time, 50 cent was doing his big mixtape campaign in New York City and it caught the attention of Eminem, and opened my eyes to mixtapes. So I started hiring DJs to put me on their mixtapes, the first major one got me a placement on Paul Wall’s mixtape, so at this point I had a steady stream of fans coming in. But it wasn’t sustainable, because every mixtape had a cost to it, from $50 to $500. This lead to the creation of my own DJ Coalition. If I could provide a service for the mixtape DJs, they would put my songs on their mixtapes without me even asking, and I no longer had a cost. So I came up with a service, and provided it, for free. And it worked. There was a big run of 50 mixtape placements back in 2008 – 2009. Marketing was now sustainable.

Step nine, “Become a publicist”. Now, I am creating industry quality music, and I am generating a consistent number of fans. I am also getting a lot of exposure on mixtapes. But it was stuck in the streets. In my local area, and on the underground mixtape circuit, where there was a buzz building. The next step was to publicize it. I didn’t know anyone in that industry, so I became my own publicist. I started reaching out to anyone who would listen to me at any news outlet or media outlet, and telling my story, and scheduling appearances and interviews so I could share my story with the world.

Step nine : “Create a radio syndication network”, At this point, I am in the industry. I am showing up on the same platforms as the major labels artists. I am analyzing the music industry and seeing the biggest platform is radio. Radio is so expensive it prevents you from participating, while at the same time payola is illegal. It’s a very confusing and dishonest minefield to walk through. I tried just paying for play, but I was turned down, as I should have been, by the honest people in radio like Greg The Hitman Williams in Wichita, KS who refused to take money to play my music, but I kept consistently building a relationship until he did play my music, and when he played it, it caught fire and became the Undefeated Champion of the “Battle Of The Fresh Jams” and left the radio station inundated with calls. So I knew my music was good enough to compete on radio. I built my own radio syndication network, and started placing djs and artists on radio stations, but it was me working for myself, so I didn’t have to pay for it, and it became sustainable. Let me paint that picture for you. I placed DJ Sean Money on Sway In The Morning and got my music played on Sway In The Morning without paying anybody or asking permission to have my music played. That’s the whole concept of having my own network. I skip the gatekeepers and conmen.

Step ten, “Build a distribution company”. Ok, so now my competition is only Recording Artist, who use industry quality beats, have spent years perfecting their craft, have industry quality mixes, use industry quality graphics, are on hundreds of mixtapes, have radio play on FM radio, and are published in hundreds of magazines and websites, and go on free interviews and press runs, and at this point, are legends in their city. The competition has drastically decreased to Major Label artists. I am no longer competing with this industry. There are no independent artists on this level. Especially when you throw in actually getting music MASTERED by real industry mastering engineers, and working with the level of producers I am working with, like Trak Atiks who has produced for Jay Z and Lil Wayne, and Jo The Hitmaker, who has produced for Lil Baby and Future. This is only major label artists or heavily funded independent artists. Now I have to distribute to ‘the masses’, the fans theirself, and I have picked up artists along the way who want to take advantage of the same benefits as me so they signed to my label, so I am distributing music for myself and others, which makes me an aggregator, so I had to start publicizing that to distribution companies, sign distribution deals on behalf of multiple people, and become an avenue to release my own music.

A lot more went into it, but that’s the basic concept of the creation of my companies.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I have learned how to buy record labels without paying anything. In other words, I am the only person I know of, who can buy companies with no money.

I provide free promotion and marketing, publicity, distribution, production, and everything an artist needs in the industry. I trade the ownership of their company in a lifetime contract if they want what I have.

I currently have signed over 100 record labels. I own over 100 companies. My acquisition cost was not monetary.

Any advice for managing a team?

Lead by example and do a lot of favors for people.

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, and then if you do it enough times, it sets a precedent, and other people come in and pick up where you left off. You have to take the initial steps. You have to be the first person that is doing the actual job, before you can delegate the job, and you have to pick it back up if it’s not getting done after it is delegated.

If you want people to help you, or want to help you, or you want people to like you, then you have to provide some form of a service, or a favor, and you have to consistently provide it until they feel obligated to return it. You also have to let it be known that the favor is expected to be returned before providing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.noxbondworld.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noxbond
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoxBondfanclub
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/noxbond
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/nldjcoalition
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/reallifemusicllc
• Other: https://www.reallifemusicllc.com https://www.nextleveldjcoalition.com https://www.linktr.ee/noxbond https://www.instagram.com/trill.bond

Image Credits
1. Google Search Results 2. Album cover for NoxBond and DJ Star – Down By Law 3. Website for NoxBond World 4. Alternate Album cover for NoxBond and DJ Star – Down By Law