We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rashad Charles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Rashad, thanks for joining us today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?
In the beginning it was just one person. I did all I could to try and find other like-minded individuals who shared that drive and passion for finding very good music. Imagine having to swap between 5-6 different Instagram accounts in order to make posts and interact with comments while also simultaneously cross sharing content in order to maximize exposure. That was my job during my 9-5. Getting the first few new team members came naturally. From interested parties who reached out based on what they saw the label was doing. We started getting messages from people who genuinely wanted to make a positive impact in the music industry for themselves and artists around them. That’s what we’re all about at Very Good Music Group. Keeping it “VG.” Over the next few months of meeting our newest A&Rs they both already had spent numerous years in the music industry so it was nothing but additional boost to what we were doing and we wanted to serve as an awesome resourceful home for their endeavors and dreams
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Rashad: I founded Very Good Music Group in 2018 as an independent label. Since then the label has grown in artists roster and recognition. Our great partners at Foundation Media have provided an ease of access when it comes to distribution for our artists and our VGMGPublishing sector handles all production in-house. The label offers artists management, artists development, marketing services, in-house production, distribution, and publication. Thanks to our relationships with media personas and other well-connected sources within the music world we are able to position our artists in very uniquely beneficial situations to allow them to shine and excel.
Our proudest moments have had to be the additions of our newest artists “Father Iconic” and “Mvnny” both exemplary musicians with their own sounds and taste. We help answer one simple question. “What is your dream?” We aim for that and don’t stop till we get there. Any artist who joins VGMG should rest assured knowing that their music and their goals are in the best hands possible and there is a dedicated team of hard-workers behind their support machine.
Biscuit: When beginning in the industry, I was hungry for opportunities. I networked for hours a day searching for any projects or artists that needed business assistance. My hard work ended up paying off with many opportunities on the table, I decided to take every single one of them. Little did I know at the time, putting all my energy in different places hindered my ability to put my best effort into each individual project. It’s always good to look for opportunities but never overload yourself with work or you’ll end up doing more harm then good in your career. Every kid has had the dream of being a star, my dream was a slight bit different, I wanted to help the stars become stars. In High School there was a prominent music scene coming up early and I wanted to be involved since music was my passion since a kid. While my friends were making their music and finding their sound, I was trying to find a way to get their work heard and pursue my dream to work in this industry. 4 years later the impact and progress of the music and listeners (100k streams and growing by the day) is what I’m most proud of.
I got into all this with my best friend, he was the rapper and I was basically everything else. This was that era of me trying to learn as much as I could to getting a song prepped for release. However after a point my friend wasn’t really as interested in it as I was so I kinda just went off and did my own thing. I got good at producing, I started to work with a team to run an instagram page, I was networking going to open mics and I eventually moved off to San Diego where I really felt like I was building some motion. But 6 months into living in SD, my best friend passed away. That shit hurt me more than anything, the person who sparked this passion in me was gone before he could even see what I was building, but also he should’ve been right here with me the whole time. So in his memory, I pieced together all the unreleased tracks we recorded, I got close collaborators to make additions to some of them, I even asked his family to send voice messages for a song to have a tribute for him. I used all the connections I had gained through out the years, connects that he would have if he’d just stuck beside me and I created one of the best projects of my life with that, it came out so beautifully that when I listen back, it feels like he made all those songs for this album. It was the most thought I had put into a project, but I didn’t over think a single thing when I made it. LLT
Jack: I found myself working alongside the music business after a few years of freelancing digital media services, and I really got a feel for the industry working with some artists on music videos and press. Seeing how much I enjoyed that type of work, and considering my musical upbringing, I got in touch and began working with VGMG where I was able to lean on the staff’s wisdom and learn more about as much as possible. Right now, I am proud to say, the learning and networking paid off. Years after the idea seeded itself in my consciousness, I have launched, with a team around me, a boutique digital agency called jolly mammoth co. I hope to offer a service for creative brands, including musicians, to facilitate creatives to collectively collaborate for branded content and other business solutions. Check out http://jollymammoth.co (http://jollymammoth.co) to learn more.
Thomas: In my first few years in the industry I was extremely hungry for opportunity, with a need of experience in the industry as an A&R and Manager. Driven by passion, I spent 3 hours a day for many weeks reaching out to artists and internships that would be able to provide me with that experience. After many weeks of networking and going through my options, I decided it was best to take all of the offers. While stacking my workload to the max hindered my ability to get solid productive work done. While having to handle over 10 Artists and 3 projects at the beginning of my career, Music has shaped reality for me since I was a kid, in high school I was very eager to get myself involved with the process of making music and what happens behind the scenes. Though my talents did not lie in the creation of music, they lied in my ability to market and build a career. 2 of my closest friends and artists I manage to this day started making music early on in high school. I wanted to be involved so without any prior experience, I made it my goal for both of them to achieve a flourishing career. Going from friends with a passion to living a lifestyle dreamed of many years ago. Our 100k streams milestone, and sold out venues from both of these artists, “MEMPHISDAYTONA” and “Bdot Bandman”. The time energy and work we have put in and being able to see the growth physically and materialistically would define what I am most proud of.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
It came from long hard hours of legal work.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
You are not owed anything. Nothing is owed and only the deserving can reap the benefits of what they sow. It took a while to realize that there are times where you must “bite the bullet” so to speak and just charge it to the game. There are always lessons in the losses. If you stay persistent than you can achieve what you put your mind to.
Jack: For the longest time I was under the impression that progress is immediately linear, continual, moving in only one direction. Moving forward was on my mind daily like the mantra says “one percent better everyday.” But life has a funny way of catching up and knocking you down. Once I realized that everyday will not be a good day—maybe not even every week, or month my whole perspective changed for the better. I look back over the years and see how my cumulative setbacks actually created other, better, opportunities that otherwise would not have happened. Now, to me, progress is gradual, as it should be. Backwards is okay.
Biscuit: Overthinking. When I started out doing all this, I was trying to learn as much as I could about how to release music and how to produce and engineer it. I got overwhelmed with so many different things that needed to be done to drop even just a single. So I became like this perfectionist who was always trying to make sure everything was perfect before I dropped, to the point I would end up not dropping at all. People would ask me like “yo why haven’t u dropped?” and my response was always “I need to do this and that” when really all I needed to do was just post it on soundcloud or distrokid. It wasn’t till I started producing and watching other producers, like Kenny Beats, that I kinda got out of this mentality. His montra was “Don’t Over Think Shit.” He said this all the time. He would be talking about regular things that prods and artists would go through for dropping or even just creating music and then be like “now stop it, ur overthinking it” He did this so much I started to listen and I change my mindset on it about everything. Now 3 years later I make music that i’m actually happy with and I can usually make something marketable off something simple. Now my biggest thing today is just trying to break down that same mindset to the artist that I manage and work with, because a lot of them don’t start thinking as hard as they do till they feel that since of urgency from having a team like VG behind them. I say just do what you’ve been doing, it got my attention.
Thomas: I had to unlearn that opportunities will always be on the horizon, and by accepting the opportunities I can handle collectively, I started to excel.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://very-good-music-group.fym.fm/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verygoodmusicgroup/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9i98bsB3QJ_AshWJgWy_7g
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/verygoodmusicgroup/popular-tracks
- Other: jollymammoth.co
Image Credits
Pictured: Jack Fentress Ruben Garza Rashad Charles Thomas Wells