We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Terrany Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Terrany below.

Terrany, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Urban Artist Alliance was a company grown from the idea of no Black owned community based educational platform to educate, motivate and cultivate an environment of inclusion in a music scene that was seriously lacking in the ways of artist of color succeeding alongside their white counterparts. As an artist i knew that knowing the business of music form the core to the stage and beyond was very important for artist to establish sustainable careers. I was blessed to have a very supportive family and musical elders who instilled in me the importance of learning your field in order to be great and long lasting within it. What i did was fill a void that was left open by other organizations not taking the lead or feeling the importance of educating this portion of the music community who at its core drive more revenue to artist than many other genres. My approach was to use my over 30+ years of failures and wins as guiding educating points for new and establish artist to follow. thus creating a platform based on proven results and trust in my long standing place in Austin Hip Hop as an ambassador to the many organizations, city councils and outside markets who need what we have but have no clue it is here. My way of thinking was to go straight to those artist directly through social media and actual hand to hand interaction to ask and then address the needs of artist of color in Austin.

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

“Terrany Johnson,One of the top 5 influential black entrepreneurs every Austinite should know about!”-Culturemap.com “Terrany Johnson AKA Tee Double is a powerhouse of entrepreneurship, talent, and drive.” – KUTX 98.9
“To borrow a line from Jay-Z, local rhyme-sayer Tee Double is not a businessman; he’s a business, man”.-Austin Powell, Austin Chronicle
“Tee-Double is nothing if not prolific. The local hip-hop kingpin has released at least one LP per year for as long as anyone can remember.”
-Thomas Fawcett, Austin Chronicle

Tee-Double was named The Cultural Ambassador of Austin,Texas Hip Hop by Insite Magazine!

From growing up on the east side of Austin Texas before gentrification with a mother who was an educator and a father who was a janitor it is truly amazing I have been blessed to have such a long and vast career without feeling the need to abandon my roots to move to a city with an already established Black arts community, I felt why not create one here.

I knew in order to propel my self I needed to invest within myself ,so early on I bought musical gear ( creating my first studio) to becoming more astute at reading music when possible and learning various instruments. As a huge fan I loved how he wrote, produced, performed, composed and mixed his own music which showed me as a youth it was possible to do the same.

I created my first demo at 7 and mailed my next to Warner Brothers records at 9. So I knew exactly what I wanted to do and that was be in the music industry. My parents supported my every move and believed I could go beyond what I dreamed if i continued to apply myself.
My main company is kinetic Global Media Group, but under that umbrella we have Teetopia recording Studios, Sync Happens ( music for film ,tv, cartoons and more)Terrany johnson Publishing/Kinetic global Publishing (BMI),Urban Artist Alliance and a very in depth and creative digital marketing arm taking shape to further assist our brand as well as artist who hire our services for their projects.

I am most proud of how my style of DIY has inspired many artist to take their careers into their own hands and become OWNERS not just work for hires or employees. We are in a new age of tech and Black creatives need to embrace these avenues to remain competitive in the market place of their choice.

I want potential clients to know we are from the roots and have seen the worst and the best the industry has to offer and our goal is to make sure you less of the worst and the most of the best by not trying to recreate the wheel but establishing faster ways to travel n your career. Be the impossible and watch things become possible.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I learned is even if you are in Austin which is a majority white city and culture you can still create a viable winning business ( Urban Artist Alliance wont the 2020 best Bootstrap Company from the Austin Chamber of businesses and the A-list awards).

in this type of city you can be surrounded by doubt and nay sayer which can drop moral and have you thinking you are not worthy to succeed and your ideas would never fly here. thats when you breaking those generational thoughts and curses and saying loudly BUT I CAN SUCCEED! Then noticing the many ways you can do just that.

Not all companies need huge investments in capital to survive many just need goo networks and friendships who believe as well and willing to put you in front of their network or give you authentic quality advice.

From 9 i knew what I WANTED TO BE and slowly discovered the path to get there. Once drive is shown and effort is realized, everything you need to further tht vision will be placed before you to utilize.

You just have to open eyed and less ego driven to spot them and know when to move on them. Ive won many awards and have released almost 40 solo albums while still going to college course to further my knowledge base and then implementing those learned tactics into my career.

Have you ever had to pivot?

A pivotal moment was whenI was sick and need a kidney transplant. I could perform or do manny recordings so I fell back upon my sync connections and kept those channels open as I have for 19 years in the sync business to create continued revenue streams while I heal. This made it easier to handle medical bills as well as keep my name out in the market place even if I am not their physically. The sync world is one based on catalog, ownership and long term returns and those also fall under my Urban Artist Alliance banner so I truly implement what I teach and am proof it works with numerous film, cartoons and other projects under my belt. I focus on creating enough catalog so it can wok even when i cant.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.teedouble.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terranyjohnson/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terranyjohnson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terranyjohnson/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/terranyjohnson
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ne5dwcoQZRLfbtdU83vOA

Image Credits
All images: Kinetic Global Media Group