Handshake Deals Ain’t Always The Best Handshake | The FYM Show

What's on my mind? What's on my mind? What's on my mind? It is, uh, summertime.

It is summertime.

The summertime. Um, man, I haven't been on it. I haven't been on Instagram, man. I don't know what's going on in the world, man. Like, people be saying stuff, I'll be like, for real? So I just been diving into like knowledge.

Let me ask you about that. How does it feel to not be on Instagram?

Um, I mean, I took the app off my phone because I got this thing now where I do like these digital wellness checks. So on my phone, I got it set that I got 9 hours of screen time a day. So that's pretty much a 9-hour workday. When I was looking at everything, like, it was like my number on Instagram. I'm like, man, I can't stop logging into this Instagram. So I took it off, took the app off my phone. It has crippled me a little when it comes to like supporting artists or on running ads and things of that nature that I usually do. But overall, you know what I'm saying, I'm, I'm not— I'm literally not thinking about it in that way. So, you know, it is what it is.

But yeah, but do you see like a wellness improvement? And I guess some— maybe the way you think, maybe Um, is there any improvement not being on an app like that that you feel throughout your day-to-day?

Well, honestly, what it feels like is I shift from being heavily consumed on Instagram, like, heavily consuming on YouTube.

Okay.

Or LinkedIn.

You change the—

and, and that's where you get your attention. Yeah, that content is a lot more long form. Um, so I might be— it might say I'm on— I'm on YouTube for 2 and a half hours. I'm like, bro, what I was watching? But then I realized, like, church might be an hour, 2 hours, right? I might be on Diary of a CEO looking at a this episode about financial literacy and investing, that's an hour and 45 minutes. So it's one of those things where I eat up my, my, my space fast, you know, in a way.

So yeah, well, let me make sure I start the episode. Welcome all to the FYM Show with Ty and Yo. That's my man Ty. I'm Yo, and you are about to hear an ignorant conversation about wellness That is what the FYM Show is about. And wellness is very important because—

do it again because I was yawning and shit.

Oh, you was yawning and shit? All right, you gotta be awake, Ty. This is the FYM Show, baby. You gotta be awake. Um, but welcome everybody to the FYM Show. That's my man Ty. I'm Yo, and you're about to hear an ignorant conversation about wellness. Now, wellness is important when it comes to all aspects of our lives, but especially in our businesses. And as you was hearing Ty talk a minute ago about kind of being off Instagram, I've always been interested in how executives and CEOs kind of balance being online and being present in that world, but also being present in the real world, because obviously that, uh, those dynamics are very important when it comes to business, especially online businesses. And it seems that it's a difficult balance to find, right? Because it's so easy to be on your phone, so easy to be on the apps, but at the same time, I guess I'm trying to figure out, are there any benefits? But it sounds like, Ty, you just kind of shift your attention to another app and kind of absorb knowledge somewhere else.

So, you know, I think doom scrolling was like porn for Instagram, because it's really hard to doom scroll on LinkedIn.

True.

Everything on LinkedIn is some level— it's a job, it's a— somebody just got a promotion, somebody just like— it's not the same content, so you don't feel like it's a doom scroll. You probably can get into doom scrolling on Instagram— I mean, on YouTube, but the content is so long form. If you're watching two podcasts, that can be 4 hours, that can be 2 hours.

Well, what if you watching shorts? What are you watching shorts? Because you can swipe shorts, you got an hour and watch 30, 45 seconds, you can get these kinds of content.

But I think people go— this whole short form thing on Instagram is new. People— YouTube, I mean, the short form thing on YouTube is new. Go to YouTube for long-form content, bro. Like, people go to YouTube to look at movies, people go to look at documentaries, to go look at podcasts, especially video podcasts, or they're listening to it. They may even go to look at music videos. Like, they go off for things that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 minutes long. It ain't really that much doom scrolling on Instagram. I think the doom scrolling happened on TikTok. I mean ain't that much doom scrolling on YouTube. Doom scrolling feels like it happens with TikTok and Instagram because even though they try to long form it out, it's too late. People see it as short form content. Instagram just trying to get into short form content. Dang, you know what I'm saying?

Yes, yes.

I mean, YouTube's just trying to get short form.

Look, that's that TikTok influence, right? TikTok kind of showed the power of the short form. Now, do you think that if you're making content right now, right, would you tell somebody to prioritize short-form content because it seems like that's like the move everyone's going toward, or would you say there's still a lot of benefit in long-form content?

Um, I think long-form content is a benefit. I think you pop up short-form content to promote your long-form content, to drive people to your long-form content. You chop up your short form, your long form content into short form content for ad assets that you can drive money into Meta, that people can click through and go to your actual, you know, podcast. I just think it's a super, super, super, super strong way on going about that and utilizing both mediums to promote each other, right? Some people don't want to sit down for 2, 3 hours. So what I've been seeing is shows like Ray Daniels does this, where they'll have a 17-minute segment that they pull from their 2-hour show, right? So it gives people like, not short form, not 2 hours, and people can kind of get engaged, and, and it's a segmented conversation that happens. But I think YouTube is still gonna be king because people are gonna go there to watch long-form content. And Instagram is kind of like, you know, promotional tool. Um, yeah, funny, you know, outrageous news media, news outlet, connect with my friends. People are not DMing and sharing DMs on Instagram, on YouTube the same way. I don't even know if people are really DMing on TikTok like that. Like that, the, the, the, the, the, the, the technology is there I think all of the DMing and all that stuff really is an Instagram control thing, you know, in my opinion.

All right, now I don't want to get you to spoil too much about what you got going on, but I know you mentioned you guys are shooting the first feature film through Kulture, right? Um, why feature film? You didn't do like a short film first, like you're going feature length. What kind of inspired that thinking?

Um, One, like, I just really, really like films. Um, we have been— I have been personally studying the TV and film business, um, since COVID Before, I just was curious about it. I was like, man, like, it's a lot of money they gotta get in to do this thing. But during COVID started studying it more intentionally. So this make, you know, the 6th year of me learning this business and testing things out, investing in this here and there. So this year, with the way that AI is growing the business and making it so that technology is easier to afford and editing looks different, so to be able to take humans You know, we're talking about 20 to 41 people on the set. It's taking those individuals to be able to build out something that's great and then use the technology to make the best edits, the best VTX, the best visions of these different things. To me, feels like a perfect match for indie studio. You know, and so when you have those different people that you still empower humans to pull that emotion out, to have these stories that we're telling, and then use that as a way to drive promotion, uh, with the music that we're going to build around it from a soundtrack perspective, it just feels like, for me, um, really, really great timing. It's almost like how we met that, that streaming platform timing. And honestly, man, I really enjoy working with artists, um, helping them along their way. But TV and film for us is, is my creative outlet because we're writing these shows, we're coming up with these ideas, and we're partnering with people to help them come alive. And it's more of an IP game and a creative game for the company and for myself. And so although we're going to keep supporting artists, we're going to find ways to build music to put in these shows, but when it's all said and done, I don't really, um, care much about, um, solely putting all of my time into managing artists. Uh, I want to diversify in a healthy way, and so TV and film is that, and I think that the time is now. I think the way that the business is growing, the way that independent world is, if you can build a catalog of, of content and direct-to-consumer release it, I think you can make your money back. I think that you can build a really substantial business around it.

I hear that, but again, you're going feature length. Like, why not do something smaller, shorter, and like test the waters? Like, what is it about going all the way for something like really long form? Right now?

Because I'm not, I'm not doing it to sell it to anybody. I'm doing it to go and put it out myself, go direct to consumer, go to theaters ourselves, go to film festivals. And if there is a buyer that want to do the right license deal— but you know, we're not testing out nothing, you know what I'm saying? We— there will be projects that will be short form, you know, short films Um, but it just wasn't this project. And those things are more so easier to produce because we got about 3, 4 of those in a can. But feature films, 50 minutes or longer, 56 minutes, 72 minutes, once a year is our overall strategy, you know what I'm saying? So by, you know, 2030, we got 5 films that we put out, you know, with reputable actors, with reputable producers. And we built our trade itself as a company.

Man, that's incredible. Is there anything that you've learned so far that you feel like you've only been able to learn because you kind of jumped into the business versus when you were studying, you were only looking at it, but now being more active, is there anything you kind of took away from it?

Um, that the unions are nosy, you know. Oh yeah, the directors— the Directors Guild is nosy. You know, Actors Guild knows it. When you're a new company, they pry. They try to know what company owns what company that owns what company that owns what company because you're new. And they're trying to protect their talent, but it's still prying. Some of the stuff don't even really matter that they asking questions for. It almost feel like you're trying to apply for an SBA loan. It's like, hey, I'm the one here.

It's like, is it that intense?

Yeah, it's not as intense as SBA, but for the fact of the matter that I'm not— you're not giving me no money. And I'm the one that's spending the money, that go through all of these red tapes. It does feel like it's a little bit too intense, but that's something that I would say off top when you're new. But it's not going to be like that for every project. It's just because you're new. We're trying to figure out like, who do we come out there if you fail to pay people?

Right?

Yeah. Man, you know, it legitimizes your project within the union. You don't get any fees or penalties. You don't get penalized. You can, you can go and book. Union actors even though it's lower budget films. Um, but that's what I've learned fast. It's like, oh, and then it's like the insurance part of it, you know, the accounting part of it. What, what it— what does it take to really get the credit? Um, the tax credit when you spend over a certain amount of dollars, you know what I'm saying? So it's been cool so far. It's been cool so far.

Now, seeing how unions work in TV and film, something that I've always heard since I was young was that music needed a union, that the music business needed a union. Do you agree?

Yeah, artists need unions, managers need unions.

But why? Why do you believe that to be true?

Because there is no fairness. There's no standard of fairness, right? Like, we do use with actors, screenwriters, with directors. It doesn't matter if your budget is $350,000 or $35 million. They have a baseline of what is fair, right? So there is no union in the music business to really standardize anything. Think about it. You're being standardized about what the record label says is gonna be standard. That's like the— that's like the studio saying this is standard with no unions involved. When the union is involved, you know, it might cause more headache to people, but they standardize what pay looks like, what rights look like. So if I'm a manager, right, think about it like this. I'm a sports agent with NBA and NFL. When we got— we basically represent the players on behalf of the union. Right. So if I negotiate a contract and that player signs that contract and they go on to play 4 years or 3 years, they have to pay me. The union is going to stand up for me unless I did something wrong, but they have to pay me or they're gonna get— or the union is gonna, you know, the union is gonna step in and be like, hey, We're not going to keep going back and forth on this. You owe this amount of money. This is what it is. This is what the bill is. You need to get that paid, right? There's nothing like that in music. It's more so people being like, man, you don't gotta pay him. Um, I can negotiate a deal in the NFL and NBA year one and they fire me 6 months after I negotiate that deal. I get paid every single year until that deal expires. That ain't like that in the music business. It ain't like that. The music business, when it comes to managers, when it comes to artists, artists need— the union need to be able to protect the manager and the artist. And the union need to sit between the record label. The union need to sit between the artist and the manager, and then the publishing company and the record label. So that way the union can represent the artists on behalf of the union, and then the managers gotta get certified to represent the artists on behalf of the union so that you can be protected when something goes left with the, with the artist. But that's not, that's not the case in the music, but it's like that in a lot of the other talent, talent cycles and industries.

Yeah. Now, would there be less like handshake deals though if you pit a union and made them kind of like that middleman between the artists and the labels?

Hey, listen, man, it's my old-fashioned business, right? Every handshake I don't gave somebody, I have kept it. But I don't like handshake deals because they not, they're not mutually beneficial to the person that wants to keep it. You know what I'm saying?

True, true, true.

I want unions, rules, like accountability. Because if I go and negotiate a $50 million deal and I'm supposed to get 2%, I want every coin. Every coin.

Yeah, I hear you, I hear you. I had, uh, I've been looking at this, uh, this case right now where Um, she said she used to manage Moneybagg Yo, right? Allegedly. And in the case of managing him or doing the process of managing him, this young lady put up a bunch of money, right? She spent money on cars, she spent money on jewelry, she spent money on, um, the appearance of a rapper in preparation for people to kind of see him as a rapper, right?

Right.

And supposedly this went on for about 2 or 3 years. And then, hey, money. Now, now she said she did not get paid, although they had a handshake deal where they had a certain kind of salary involved, a certain kind of amount in mind when enough money came in to pay her. But it didn't happen. And including the lawsuit is Roc Nation management, because to her story, they kind of came in, took over management and kind of took her out the picture. Now she's suing for $100 million. Now, 100 M's. Yeah, that's how much she, she feels like she's owed throughout the process. You know, so I'm just saying, but it was like a handshake deal, right? But from what you're saying is if there was a union, she would have to been official to be a manager of an artist, and then the union would make sure that if there was money owed, that she would have got paid. She would have to sue for $100 million. Now, I don't know if she would have got paid back $100 million, but, you know, a union would have protected her if all of this is truly what happened. I'm saying this is allegedly because I don't know, I wasn't there. This is just what is in the lawsuit.

Yeah, yeah. Listen, nobody wins in lawsuits but the lawyers. Right? Like, yeah, somebody gotta win and lose, but like, there's gonna be personal damage, there's gonna be financial damage, and the lawyers are the one that's winning, right? I try my best to avoid—

and it's a long process.

Yeah, I try my best to avoid lawsuits, bro. Like, I don't want to get— I don't want to be in court with nobody, bro. I don't want to be like— I don't want to be suing nobody, going through litigations, paying— but litigation, but that 3, 400 Ah, Honda, that money, man, that money is spent. Good as spent, boy. They gonna make sure they drill every hour, drain every hour. So it don't really, it don't really add value to it. So when it comes down to protection in the entertainment space, I think TV and film and sports have done the best job with unionizing that protects the talent and that protects the people that represents the talent. And right now, music is a wild, wild west. You can have your little homeboy Lil Rah Rah, Lil Rah Rah could be managing you and be doing a good job too. And then the bigger company come in, say, Lil Rah Rah, you know, you don't got the resources. And your mans who you've been rocking with, helping for the last 3, 5 years, you know, 3 or 5, 3 to 5 years, and all of a sudden it's like, yeah, man, I rock with you, man, but they the big dogs, they gonna help me out. And you're just like, dang, brother, I've negotiated this deal, I spoke on your behalf on this, and now I'm owed $200,000, and now you're saying that this other company is going to come in? It's unfair, but it's like that because there is no union. There is no kind of like governance body when it comes to artist management, artist representation, and labels and producers. I'm just saying that it's the artists and the managers are not protected in the music business. It's the Wild Wild West. This is what it is. So both parties can get over— both parties can get screwed over by either one.

Yeah, well, my last question is, do you feel like the Wild Wild West allows a lot of people an opportunity to try to get in the business that probably wouldn't be able to get in if there was a lot more, uh, discrepancy about how you get involved? Absolutely.

I grew up for the longest— I find this out my own by doing research— but for the longest, people would be like, oh wow, if you want to be a sports agent, you have to be a lawyer. I'm just like, and that did— that deterred me for so long until I went and did research myself and just saw like, oh, if I want to be a sports agent, I just have to have a secondary degree. So I gotta have an undergrad and I gotta have a master's degree to be an NFL agent. To be an NBA agent, I just need undergrads. But if you don't know, you're gonna automatically think, oh, agent, oh, that's a lawyer. But that's not the truth.

So yeah, so it would have been true though, if it would have been true, if you had to be a lawyer to be a sports agent, would you have went and tried to pass the bar?

No, more likely not. Nah, nah, I don't think so. Don't think so at all. So yeah, so it will— it would— it would take away opportunities for young people trying to get in the music space, um, but it also would perfect and allow the space True. And I'm for professionalism. Professionalize every space that I'm walking in, Lord. I don't want to be dealing with all this fugazi business.

I hear you, I hear you. Well, Ty, I think that's all I got for you for this particular episode of the FYM Show. Is there anything else you want to add or want to comment before we get up out of here?

No, man, you know, figure out how to be protected at all times when you're in business, baby. And Shake D's ain't always the best handshake.

There we go, that's our title right there. Oh yeah, that was another episode of the FYM Show. That's my man Ty. Um, yo, please, if you haven't got a copy, get you the Culture Playbook Volume 2. Some of this information can be found in there, even more information can be found in there, and we're just trying to help professionalize not just the music business but all businesses. We'll see y'all next time.

Peace.