We were lucky to catch up with TAG recently and have shared our conversation below.
TAG, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I started rapping at the age of 14 and grown my skills by entering freestyle cyphers and battles in highschool and college. In college, I met Eddie Mashal (Engineer for “The Eagles – Hotel California) who taught me the ins and outs of working a studio. From there, I started my own studio with some partners that eventually didn’t work out.
After that, Eddie mentored me and helped me land an internship at South Beach Studios and Skyhawk Studios for several years. I learned from working with A-list artists, producers, and engineers which honed my skills.
Looking back, I could of sped up the process by jumping into interning at a younger age and focusing fully on music instead of jumping around different opportunities. Funds were low at that time, so I thought that’s what I had to do.
Learning the studio process from beginning to end became the most essential tool I needed. Once you know that, then you can stay up to date as long as you know the process.
Gatekeepers and keeping up with life definitely stood in the way of learning more. Funds were low when I was interning so sometimes I couldn’t make it to the studio or put out projects the way I wanted to.
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
I got into the industry by building relationships with key people from working at various studios during my interning years. I’m now skilled in recording, songwriting, arrangement, mixing and mastering.
What sets me apart is that I mix and master from an artist prospective more than a technical. I’m more likely to break rules and do certain tricks that make the songwriting stand out.
Currently, I have one platinum record for “XXXtentacion & Lil Pump – Arm Around You (feat. Swae Lee and Maluma)” and a gold record with my team QST for “YNW Melly – I’m A Star”. We’re in the works of getting more placements and put out records monthly for my artistry under TAG.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I’m a 110% into NFT’s and believe it’s the future of music and other industries. We’re in the midst of putting out a highly anticipated NFT with ET (Eric Thomas) in the very near future.
We also released NFT’s on Open Sea for some of our songs. What I really like about NFT’s/Blockchain is that you can trace every transaction easily and it comes right to you. Also, the smart contract is very powerful which keeps the agreement between you and whoever else digitally.
With NFT’s, you can bypass so many sources and keep track of everything. In addition, it gives a direct customer/fan connect which is super helpful for musicians and we can also provide a lot of cool utilities which is not possible in the traditional world. Of course it’s very new and I’m still a novice to it, but I’m sure it will develop into something we cannot live without.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I think society can support artist better by providing grants to artists with a solid plan. There isn’t really anything out there to help artist or a blue print on how to do it. It takes a lot of resources and it just isn’t there for artist to easily get a hold of.
Another thing I find interesting is that people would rather support a top artist than their friend or family member who has music. All it really takes is a simple post or retweet which is free to support, but that mindset is only found in a few.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.youknowtag.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/youknowtag
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/youknowtag
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/youknowtag
- Other: https://opensea.io/youknowtag
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