S3 E320: How Future, Travis Scott, and JID Built Unshakable Personal Brands | FYM

That is an artist that's unmanageable. And the trajectory. You see it in the trajectory of their career. It's. It's not like a. And no artist is subject. Like, it don't matter if you black, white, Asian. It doesn't matter if you're unmanageable. And you can't hold your tongue on the web and complain to somebody behind the scenes or ask for understanding. That's what I really love about Tyler the creator. I love Tyler the creator. Like, Tyler, he doesn't give a. But he does. You know what I'm saying? Like, he cares so much about the art. He cares so much about how people view him. He don't give a. But he does. Like, he would be at the front row of the Sexy Red concert and, like, with his fingernails painted, dancing and. And would then go and do a music video. Maxo cream and body.

And we're back with another episode of FYM with Ty and yo, I'm. Yo, this is my man Ty. It's Sunday, you know what I'm saying? I dress like we was going to church because I know we bringing the gospel today. We're in Atlanta, Georgia, and we were having a conversation about personal branding and protecting your personal brand. And I. I really want you to first tell me, Ty, when was the first time someone used the phrase personal brand and it kind of stuck with you? Wow.

Personal brand. And it stuck with me. That actually happened, I want to say, last year.

Really?

Yeah. Because before. Before, fuck you, money and all these different things, like, I was just somewhere in the corner working for maybe 15 years. Right. So, you know, at that. At that time, my brand. My personal brand was like. Was Brent. You know what I'm saying? It was like the artists at the time that he was attached to. And so I was. I mean, I started to hear it from a standpoint of. Because of the AI conversations. Right? And with AI conversations, the conversation around personal brand was like, if you want to survive the AI, like transition, you have to really lean in on your personal brand. Because that's something that is going to be hard for the AI to manipulate or to reproduce so easily or to create.

Right.

Unless you give it access. Because your personal brand, like how you talk, how you walk, how you dress is. AI is a learning machine. Yeah. So in order for it to duplicate something, it has to have a learning curve. It's a learning. It's data that has to learn your personal brand. Nobody. What I was doing a year ago is not what I'm going to be Doing a year from now. It's very hard to not to say that technology won't get that sophisticated, but the personal brand side of it is gonna be what protects people who are in the public eye or who's in the business eye behind scenes who are businessmen and women to continue to add value onto their personal brand. As the landscape is changing with technology and facial recognition and the deep web and deep fakes and all of these different things, your personal brand will stand out and be like. Would never say that based on their personal brand and knowing them. And they're in the middle of a transition phase as well, so this wouldn't even make sense for them. But it was not something that's on the Internet yet.

Exactly. Well, it's so interesting that that, like, personal branding didn't really come into your. Your, I guess, like, your mindset until last year when it's been such a. I feel like you online. Like, I remember your. Your avatar. I guess when I started following you, you was like, you talking on the phone. It was like you shouting. And I always felt like, man, that's Ty. Ty's always on the phone. Like, he's always on the move. But I also knew you were someone that, like, people felt like, man, you won't see Ty outside. Like, the things that people would say about you always felt like was consistent with your personality, your character. Even if you did not, like, post about it. Like, you don't have to post. Like, I'm never outside. You would meet people that know Ty and be like, yo, Ty, not going to that party, or, he not doing this thing. But I would think it was almost, like, curated. How true it was to your life and how, you know, it comes to artists or when it comes to entertainers or anyone that's in the public eye. Your personal brand is how people tend to build some type of understanding of who you are. But I think that's been such a, like, Internet getting online. I think you said you was on Twitter since 2000. Oh, yeah.

Since it started.

Right. So the thing that, like, you didn't start thinking about personal branding until this period of your life.

Random fact. The. If I'm not mistaken, this is. It was either 50 cent or. I want to say it was 50 cent that put me on Twitter.

Really?

I was online or something and super early on Twitter, 50 Cent was talking about Twitter. That's how I ended up learning about Twitter. And then when I got on, I was like, telling all the artists, like, yo, y' all gotta get on Twitter. This is where the conversations be at. People be talking about shit. The bloggers are here. This is right when the blogging era were getting ready to skyrocket, right?

Wow.

You saw that I was on Twitter before I was on Instagram and all that shit. I didn't really get on Instagram until 2011.

Wow.

And I think Twitter was like, 2008, 2009, super early.

Yeah, Ludacris was the reason why I got on Twitter. My homie was like, a big fan of Ludacris. And Ludacris was doing these, like, remember the album Battle of the Sexes? He was doing battle of the sexist questions every day. And my boy was like, yo, we got to know. We got to know. We got to be on Twitter to know. But that's the thing. Like, imagine if someone was impersonating Ludacris. Imagine if it wasn't him the whole time. You just got to account, right? Doing all these tweets, and Ludacris is like, bro, I'm not on Twitter.

Right.

So I guess my question is, what makes personal branding so complicated, though? Like, why do you got to protect it so outside of just like a. Like, how do you protect it from yourself at times?

Personal brand? I mean, if we're being honest, the first person that's going to damage your personal brand is you. You know what I'm saying? Like, your actions, if you are supposed to be an expert in something, but you've, like, finesse your way past certain layers, and then when the light is on, you, you're like, well, maybe it did. And he's like, hold on. I thought you was the expert in this or you the expert in that, and that's what can strengthen or weaken your personal brand. I think this is, like, one of those things, and I might catch some slack for this, but I don't really care. But like, a lot of people, and this is before I actually met him on Wale, a lot of people would say how Wale was, like, emotional, and he would say everything online. And that would. Like, people would. He would unintentionally box himself out of conversations because of how emotional he was.

Online, how he expressed himself.

Right? How he expressed himself. And either you have to not give a fuck about it or you have to care about it, but he cared about it, so it was like you cared about it, but then you directly do it, and it just keep happening. And if you pay attention to Wale's trajectory, when Wale is not talking on the fucking Internet, he's having actually more Success with his career. The moment he start fucking talking too much on the Internet, it throws off, you know, it throws people off, throws off your partners that you could have had, throws off collaborations. It's just a lot of things, but you're talking about somebody that's extremely talented and has been a person that is, you know, a driving factor for figure for DMV area. Yeah, huge for a long time. So, like, it's sad to see that the Internet can stop that because that could have easily. That could have easily. Like, if all of the tools that Wale was using to express himself emotionally, which hurt him, was around when Lauryn Hill was putting out, you know what I'm saying? Miseducation, she wouldn't have probably turned into what she turned into out that album. So it's sad to say that, like, Wale could have been as big as Lauryn Hill if he didn't have the same tools that would damage you. Because back in the day, it was hard to fuck up your personal brand as an artist.

You couldn't just speak, you couldn't just.

Say random shit like that. You could say, like, they had an interview. The behind the scenes interview with Michael Jackson was like, I didn't like touring. I just don't like it. I don't fucking like touring. And they're like, michael, you can't say that. He's like, but I don't like it. But that was behind the scene footage that got released years and years later. The real thing was I love touring. Oh, my God, love it. And it's just like, that is what online is now. You can say some shit uninformed, and next thing you know, it's everywhere. And some stupid shit you said, and it's so hard to delete it. It's so hard to get rid of it, right? And so I think that, you know, Wale is a great case of that. And it's crazy because the DMV seems like they got the most emotional motherfucking artists. Because you have, like, the latest case, you know, of the Tommy Richmond saying stuff online that's just. You shouldn't be saying these type of things online because it's stupid.

I'm sorry, man. You were talking. I. I want to get back to Tommy. I feel like I've never told you this story, and it's like, you gotta see it, because I was. When I started writing about music, I was writing about it in my room, right? Writing my artist. I'm from the south side of Atlanta, bro. You've been to the south side. Grew up there. So, you know, bro, like, you're not really thinking about who you might reach when you're doing certain things.

No, bro.

I get hired to work for DJ Booth. In my first month, I wrote an article about Kid Cudi, and he responded to me on Twitter.

Oh, shit.

And Todd, when I say, like, he's another one. When I saw the notification, Kid Cudi has messaged you. This is the first time that I feel like an artist that I've written about had responded to something I wrote. And when I looked at my tweets, what he said to me was so unbelievable that it kind of. For a second. And this was so early. This was like 2015, man. I gotta find the tweet. He told me that my words meant nothing on this planet. He did. He did. He was like, yo, your words. Oh, my God, please read this, Ty.

He said, hey, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but yours doesn't count for shit. Mine does. So when I speak, hit the sidelines, nigga.

Another message.

Oh, like, I said, your words. Oh, no, wait here. Not anywhere on this planet. Know this about yourself. Yeah, I mean, you know, but the.

Thing was, we all can see this. Like, everyone can see it. So now you got people who know me calling me, like, why is Kid Cudi talking to you like that? And at the same time, fans are responding to this. And I'll never forget, I get a DM from someone that says, hey, bro, can you post my mixtape? So Kid Cudi could see it, I was like, bro, he just told me my words meant nothing in this world. And it was just weird. Struggling artists dynamic between. Like, I got friends that still don't listen to Kid Cudi to this day because they felt like. Because I wrote an article and obviously you don't gotta agree with it, but his response to it made you feel like, bro, like, what? What type of person.

You're not a good human.

Yeah. You know what I'm saying? To say that to somebody.

First of all, what are you doing? Aren't you supposed to be cutting some records?

You know what I'm saying?

But, like, that is an artist that's unmanageable in the trajectory. You see it in the trajectory of their career. It's not like. And no artist is subject. Like, it don't matter if you black, white, Asian. It doesn't fucking matter if you're unmanageable. And you can't hold your fucking tongue on the web and bitch and complain to somebody behind the scenes or ask for understanding that's what I really love about fucking Tyler the Creator. I fucking love Tyler the creator. Like, Tyler, he doesn't give a fuck. But he does. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, he cares so much about the art. He cares so much about how people view him. He don't give a. But he does. Like, he would be at the front row of the Sexy Red concert and like, with his fingernails painted, dancing and. And would then go and do a music video of Maxo Cream and Body.

The.

Like, that nigga, I love that N. Because he understands. And mind you, Tyler Kreider has been banned from Australia, banned from Europe for being the artist that he is. But over time, as he's grown, he has never did anything on the Internet that has damaged him long term.

Nothing. No.

Right. He'll say some shit. You'll be like, yo, what the fuck? That's kind of weird.

You've got a while, right?

But he never has said anything. And he's never bashed his fans. He's never bashed critics.

No.

He might say some shit on his interviews. Yeah, he recently. He was talking about.

The.

The white boy, Ian.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's like super white, preppy, but rap, like. And Tyler like, yo, that shit is like. That shit is like. He didn't say this, but I interpreted. He was like, yo, that shit is like impossible.

Me.

Like, that shit not real.

He's just like.

And it's like slick. Disrespectful to the art.

But this is about art, though. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He wasn't trying to tear the kid down at all. But he felt so strongly.

It's like, yo, you can't do that. That is, if you're going to. If you're going to rap, then rap like you are like your experiences. But he was just. It was. To him, it was almost like he was a art curator for a museum, a prestigious museum. And he's like, this museum is for art. Because I can buy into Sexyy Red. Cause that girl from St. Louis, and I believe what she's talking about 100%. I can buy into, you know, Pharrell. He's from Virginia. I believe what he's talking about. I can buy into Kodak Black and everybody know Kodak Black, throw it off. But I can believe him. Cause I can see where he came from. But when you start rapping about the shit that. The way that Kodak Black were rap, but then you dress like you from, like, Beverly, I don't believe you.

Yeah.

You can't come in this art museum. This art museum is about high level art from experiences that are black and brown that you can believe.

Yep.

And. And he didn't say none of that, but that's just how I interpret it.

But that's what he was presenting. And again, to your point, it wasn't like disrespectful. You weren't trying to tear the boy down. But I want to make sure people understand where I stand.

Yeah.

And I think that's okay to voice your opinion that way, but I do think there's a point where you're voicing your thoughts in a way that can be seen as detrimental to who you are. Like, the thing was, what I think about Kid Cudi, I grew up listening to all the blog rappers. Right? Right. So, like, I loved Wale, I love J. Cole, I love Drake, I love what Cudi stood for. But when he messaged me, I was like, this don't come off as the person I hear on the records. This person that wants to unify. You supposed to be like a Big Brother figure. Is this how you want people, you want your fans to talk to writers like this? Is this what you want? That's the thing. Tyler's fans, he never presents himself in a way where I feel like, this is the type of character you want me to be.

Right, right, right.

Like, no, like, Tyler loves art and everything he does represents that.

Yeah. And it ain't no person that has, I don't know any rapper that has had a career this long that has taken as many risks with his expression, with his art than Tyler. Correct. In this genre, in this generation. I always tell people in this generation, after the J. Coles, that generation has waved. There's Tyler, the creator and from. And it's kind of crazy because, like, Tyler, our future, all of that shit, that Tyler, Tyler, I want to say 2012.

Yeah.

Tyler been around for a while, so it's kind of weird to be like a generation after.

Yeah, he like, almost like 2010, 2011.

But you.

I don't know if you remember, but when Tyler first came out, the early controversy was that he was angry at the two dope boys because they wouldn't post his music. It was like the first thing he was just like angry at them. Right. But I think that's why there's a separation. He was not. He didn't get let in.

Right.

He didn't get let in with the Wale's and the car because nobody was riding with him.

Right. So that means, like he's basically like, he's a. You know how you go a student, you get left back.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's. They know you're older than what your class and generation is. That's what Tyler is. From an art perspective.

Almost got held back a year.

He got held back because t always been this talented. He just got better and better and better and better. Right.

100%.

So like literally, like this album that's coming out like these next, like it's like Travis Scott, Tyler, the creator. And I don't know who that third one is. You know what I'm saying? It feels like from a impact perspective that it'd be Playboy Carti, but I don't know if Playboy Carti is going to. I don't know. I don't know if his brand is going to be able to withstand the same way that like J. Cole Drake and Kendrick Lamar brand is. I can see Tyler the creator doing the super bowl in five years.

Yes.

I can see Travis Scott doing the super bowl in two years.

No question.

Like probably next year.

That would be insane. But I feel you, you know what I'm saying? You say Cardi, you don't know trajectory wise.

I don't know what his brand trajectory is to be in that third. Like, if anything, I probably would say Rod Wade before I say Playboy Carti because Rod Wade, it still has so much growth.

Yeah.

He don't have no international presence. For real. For real. But his domestic shit is nuts.

Crazy.

It's nuts. Like nuts.

These are all people. Travis's personal brand. Like you say the name, you know exactly who that person is. You can see him, you can hear him. Tyler, the same thing. Rod Wade is another one where like the character, but he also, he's very separate. He's not an overly online person.

No, you're not.

I do not see him post often.

No.

But man, the music moves. The music moves.

The music definitely moves.

And I remember just like his touring route, like early on he was moving, moving, moving, moving. I interviewed him at a rolling Loud and It was like 2019 before the pandemic. To see his growth from then to now, it's crazy.

Crazy. And people probably won't because Rod Wade has like Kendrick, Drake and J. Cole. J. Cole, they rap like Tyler raps.

Yeah.

Travis Scott is don't really rap. Yeah, right. Travis Scott is a one of one.

Yeah.

I don't see another artist coming around as black that don't bar for bar you, but has created a fucking massive, massive business and fan like that Shit is wild. Like, that motherfucker gonna have a Harvard case study.

But I remember when he first came out, one of the things I thought was so unique that he was the only artist I remember that was co signed by T.I. and Kanye.

Right.

I thought that was such an interesting. And I mean, it was just. I know they were trying to figure out his business and things, but just the fact that he was in the circles with two huge figures like that. And I've never seen someone go through a kind of like both homes in that kind of way. So I. I had always was like, okay, this is. This is interesting. But to your point, yeah, he was not. That was actually the thing that I didn't like about Travis at first. I thought he was going to be like a rapper.

Rapper. No, he never. Travis never came off as a rapper.

It wasn't him that did it. I'm just saying I looked at the company he was keeping and I was like, oh. And then also like you said, it was J. Cole, Wale Drake. So these was like bar, bar, bar rappers. Iron Feller comes out and I remember thinking like, he ain't rapping.

Right, right, right.

But then I think days before Rodeo comes out, Mamacita, those type of records, it start making more sense every year though. It's growing and it's like the sound is getting bigger, the audience is getting bigger.

You know what's so crazy about. About the rap shit, you know, when it comes to rap rap, like, I think after that wave of rappers that can potentially grow and blow up, that really is rapping. I think it's when you think about the Tyler creator trajectory, think, yeah, 20, 27. It's like the Russell far as a rap, it's like he's getting better and better at rapping. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can tell how much he raps. And when you think about the rappers today. Cause you got even Jid. Jid been around for a while, grinding it up. So like, you can probably put Jid in those conversations. But Jid still hasn't had the level of success from an album perspective. And it's like now starting to peak his head. But like, he could easily grow into that, you know, with the right, you know, marketing and the right protection of his personal brand, 100%.

He's also another one with a really good protection of his personal brand, in my opinion. And I say that because when we did his rap portrait, people were so excited to see him like fly home. Like they want to just see Jed do anything like, they're like, man, he has such a, like, separation between, like, his everyday life and what people see. That having that glimpse was like, man, I think that was one of our highest growths. And we did, like 30,000 views two days right with J. And I was just like, wow. I was impressed that people were just excited to watch him. Like, he's. He's. We watch him sign the papers to buy a home.

That's dope.

And people are like, I. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to see his growth like that. So I can only imagine in the next five years the type of things that could show an audience that's going to help him expand. I mean, and I. And I love talking about rapper personal brands because I feel like there is so part of their career trajectories in ways that maybe I didn't consider when it comes like rock music or pop music or country, I don't tend to get that caught up in those people. But when it comes to rappers, I feel like your personal brand builds your career.

Y why they keep forgetting about Future?

I was going to ask you about that. His longevity from racks on racks on racks.

I think that is probably what Future. Why people be forgetting about Future, because he's been in so many errors.

So many.

Like, he's having an era right now.

Right now. Three albums this year. Three number ones, I believe.

Like, he's having an. He's having an error right now. I was online looking at data on the charts in the week I looked at. Future had 205 million streams that week.

205 million.

Drake had 200 million that week. Future had 200. He had 5 million screens, more than Drake that week.

Wow.

It was. I was like, wow, this. After that M. Pluto mixtape had just dropped or whatever.

Mixtape, Pluto, he keeps dropping something about Future. Future's personal brand is a little complicated.

Future is a comedian.

You think so?

No, no, no, no, it's not. I don't think so.

Okay.

Anybody that knows Future, Future is a funny nigga. That nigga is hilarious. Funniest shit. We was in Miami at Carbone. I don't know if I told this story or not. Future tells this story about. He's in Carbone. He like, yo, y' all niggas ain't gonna believe this shit. So he goes to tell this story about a waiter at Carbones that was such a Future fan that the nigga told Future. Cause Future would go to Carbone and, like, he'll hang out there, you know, like, a lot of different rappers, right? So we're sitting there. This is the first time I meet Future. Like, in. In that way, bro. The nigga tell this story.

He said.

The waiter tells him, like, yo, man, last time you was here and y' all was blowing so much good gas and it was a blunt that you left. You know what I'm saying? And when you. When y' all left, man, I smoked that joint, man. And he said it wasn't a big blunt. He said it was like a roach. And Future was like, what kind of nigga smoking roach? Another nigga, another thing of roach. And the way he was telling the story, like the. Any. If I get a chance to do a movie the way I want to do it, it's a few roles that I would ca. I would want to cast, feature for. And one of the roles would be a ticket scalper, right? But like a ticket scalper, that's like. Like the best of the best. Like your future career was a ticket scalper. That would be the role that I would want to cast. Feature in a film where you don't matter what ticket you trying to get. A plane ticket, a motherfucking ticket to a concert. You trying to get a ticket to the White House. That's the man you go to. He's the ultimate ticket scalper. You know what I'm saying? If I ever get an opportunity to build out a film that includes a high level ticket scalper, almost like Chris Tucker. What movie was that when he was. When he was the Tippett man. Talks like Money talks. Yeah, money talks. I would fucking redo Money Talks with Future. Listen, bro, when I tell you that man is hilarious. So. But I think that he's been through so many errors.

Yes. Honestly, two albums turned 10 this year. Honest and Monster. Monster got an anniversary coming. Completely. Two different futures.

Two different futures.

But I think that I look at the Monster era that starts off the mixtape run, then it gets into the DS2, you got purple Rain. But that's what I love about Future. Someone once told me that you cannot leave your fans if wherever you're going, they have to be able to travel with you. I think he has one of the best ways of using music to move you with him through his arcs.

Oh, him and Drake.

Absolutely.

The amount of music. Yes, the amount of music.

Using a volume of music to carry people through time has been nothing like it. And I always thought one of the most interesting things. It's so crazy now, but Drake once said that the Weeknd was the one that pit him on the future.

Wow.

Cause it was Tony Montana.

Tony Montana.

And I remember hearing that and I was like, how did future get to Toronto?

Like, well, Baby King put Kendrick Lamar on the brink.

Wow. Well, see, man, you don't know who's gonna pitch you on. Like, I think one of my favorite stories is Erykah Badu. Yeah. Erica Badu find the wintertime.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Joe Georgia Smith put. Georgia Smith introduced. I can't remember if it was Brent or Sonder to Drake.

Wow.

I think it was. I think it was Brent. Like Poison. I think Jordan Smith introduced.

I said Erykah Badu. I meant Solange's son.

Yeah.

Solange put her on to wintertime and then she put Earl's sweatshirt on to wintertime.

And then Solange son also put Hovo see to wintertime.

So you just don't know who might be the person.

Music travels.

Music travel. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's the beautiful part. But also your personal brand travels with you. It travels with the music.

Because when you find out about an artist, male or female, you're gonna go look em up. They can try to find music. And if you see anything online that throw you off, especially if you're a business person, you know what I'm saying? What was so crazy is we was doing this shit we was trying to get. I was telling Brent, I was like, yo, we got to get you like endorsements, like big endorsements. We got to figure it out. Why the fuck nobody fucking with this is crazy.

You know what year this was?

This had to be 21. So we had all these different foreign car, like all these different type of shit, right, Bro, The Brent said Brennan say anything actually on Twitter. And this is probably the closest he's gotten to getting counseled on Twitter. He liked or either reposted this black man talking about homosexuality, right? But if you go to the article, the black man was like, yo, we have to stop letting white men overly glorify black men homosexuality because they're using it. And I'm paraphrasing at this point, but his underlying thing was like, why are we letting white people overly glorify black men? Where it start to what they say, desensitize, desensitize, or something about demasculate, emasculate like black men that are not homosexual, right? Nothing about when you read it was a homophobic thing comment, right? That shit followed him for a long time through brands, through everything. Because Brit's homophobic. Brit's homophobic because he Liked and. Or repost. Reposted something on Twitter.

He didn't say it.

He didn't say nothing. He just liked it. But it was. What the guy was talking about was true. It was like, yo, like, if. If you're going to be black and you like whatever you like, that's cool. But why are we allowing white men? They're not even. They're not even hyperly sensitizing or, you know, exposing black on white homosexuality. Why are we not asking this question?

Right?

And that's what the guy was overall saying, man. That shit traveled around the motherfucking Internet for probably still to this day. Reebok. We was doing some stuff with Reebok.

And.

At the time, Kirby from Pierre Moss was really helping, like, Brent, like, get in. Cause he was like the global. He was like the creative director then. And he wanted to put Brendan's campaign, and the people was giving him pushback. And he was like, what are you talking about? I met this kid. He's not homo. He's not homophobic. But it's. All of that stuff came from, like, the Internet. It was some stuff with, like, earlier, we had to intentionally go out and build things so that when you search him, you seen community work, you seen all these different things. Because it wasn't true.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? It wasn't factual representation. Yeah, it wasn't a factual representation. It was something that was started online and it took his own life.

And then it becomes a part of your personal brand.

A part of your personal brand.

It's not you saying it. It's not your words. And it's not even something that you comment on where I know how you feel about something. But to your point, man, I think Twitter, they had, like, hit the likes or something. And people were like, oh, you can't see the people's likes anymore. And I remember some people felt upset about that. I was like, oh, nah, I be lurking, right? But that's the thing. People be lurking. People pull up old tweets. You know, artists get hot. All of a sudden it's 2024. You seeing tweets from 2013.

So that's why today you. Brent's down on Twitter. Our YouTube team was. Cause the biggest conversation about R and B happens on Twitter. And they say they're like, yo, tell Brent, like, we're missing moments like, they're not having. He's not making. Like, the biggest conversations about music on Twitter is an R and B conversation. And I came to bring. I was like, hey, man, like what? Walk me through why you don't like Twitter. I'm trying to understand because I was told that we're missing impressions and the conversation. You're not in the real R and B conversation that heavily because so much of it happens on Twitter.

Yeah. And you're not there.

And he said, I don't think that it is good for society, so I don't agree with it. So I'm not gonna participate in it. And I don't wanna make. Cause we was trying to make his page like a fan page. Okay, well just do it. We'll just make it a fan page. He said, I don't want to participate in it. I think it's damaging. And I just said, I can't argue with that shit, man. I went back to our YouTube team. I was like, yo, he said that it's damaging for society, so he don't wanna be a part of that conversation. But I know it probably stemmed from all of the negative things he read about himself there. You don't really see. You gotta look in your comments on Instagram to see a bunch of negative shit. If you just google Brent Fiass, you're just gonna see photos, videos. But if you google Brent fast on Twitter, boy, you might get the most craziest shit. You gotta have really high self esteem. And when you're young, still finding yourself, growing up in front of people, the last thing you wanna read is like your flaws. You don't wanna read your fucking flaws.

Cause now you like fighting against these accounts that you don't know.

You're already fighting against this concept of like fame and how weird it is.

Yeah.

Now you got to go on and be like, wait a minute, they like me, but they don't like me.

They don't like me.

They like me, but I think they think I'm ugly. If they like me, I'm not supposed.

To be here in this space so that I don't miss out on things. But also I don't know what is actually.

So I was like, when that man, that man told me that I went back to the YouTube team, I said, hey man, it's a no go. That man said some shit to me that deal with your soul. I ain't going to be trying to convince nobody to. Goddamn right. When a person, when an artist is articulate enough to say that this platform is not good for society, that's an.

Incredible way of articulating.

I was like, hey man, I ain't finna goddamn go. That's like a person saying that's like a person telling you that the reason why they don't want to work on Sundays is because church on Sundays is what keeps them hopeful that society will become better. As an employer, as anybody, you're going to be like, man, I got to figure out how to get this motherfucker off on Sundays. I don't even want to get in the middle of being a distraction from a motherfucker. That's like articulating the word feels that way, especially when they have a certain level of presence on it. You know what I'm saying?

But to your point, I feel like you have to be able to articulate yourself properly to build a personal brand. You want to build a personal brand, you got to know who you are, because there's going to be things that I think everyone's going to tell you that you should do. But if you end up doing things that don't really align with what's inside you, you going to end up creating detrimental effects to your. To your wellness, and then that's gonna directly affect your personal brand.

Yeah, 1,000%. But, but, but I think that the personal brand conversation is so important because with freedom, you have more opportunities to fuck up. And so you got Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. Twitter's just dangerous because it's just words.

That shit fast too.

And like, that's what Threads is becoming. It's just words. It's hard for you. How do you with a picture say, I'm not a hip hop artist? Just with a photo. So hard. You know what I'm saying? But your words are too powerful. You say some stupid shit on there. How do you say, I'm not a TikTok artist with a photo?

Then they screenshot your words.

Oh, my God.

Now they might as well be on a billboard somewhere.

They are to be a board. You know, you can't delete that fast enough, man.

No, yeah, the delete button is kind of crazy because you.

When you hot, you can't delete that fast enough, man.

It's there very much there. But do you think in the 90s, building a personal brand was easier?

I think in the 90s, you didn't have to have a personal brand. Your personal brand was a representation of you, your product, you know, your art, your art. The art was the personal brand. Like I told you, like with Wale. Wale is incredibly talented. If Wale was talented like that in the 70s and the 80s, what, no Internet to fuck up your mojo? You wouldn't be able to have access to that many People to judge you. That's why a lot of this shit going on with like the Puff shit and all the damn other shit. The majority of the trajectory of what's going on happened when the social media wasn't like that prevalent, you know what I'm saying? When you start talking about the meat of it, I mean, you talk about, you know, I read somewhere like it was crazy reading this. I read like Puff's mom and his two daughters visits him in prison. I'm like, this nigga still locked up, you know what I'm saying? And it's like the thought process of how a person's personal brand has tumbled. Like a figure like Puff, it's crazy.

Never seen nothing like it.

It's crazy. It's like the. Yeah, it's crazy. Like, I don't know how much money they offered to get him out of prison, but he just kept getting denied. Like that nigga chopo boy, that nigga got something that whoever's in the high power do not want people to know, see, or even smell. Because that man can't buy his way out of prison, right? And there ain't no murder charge, there ain't no rape charge. There's a domestic like case. When you see everything on out. But like getting locked up and not being able to get out because you're a freaky ass nigga is crazy. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is crazy.

Like, and I was reading about different clothing brands like Dior in the New Yorker, you know, New Yorker is a website. I like the New Yorker because they have archive. Yeah, right. You can read the New Yorker from 1980s, 1990s, 2000s. They got a profile of Puff from 2001, when they were. He took Shawn John to Paris, right? First time seeing them running Sean John to Paris. Just reading all the different people involved and all the excitement around the brand. But that was the brand. Like the brand Sean John had. It meant something in 2001, man.

Listen, man, make sure I say this clear and cleanly for my personal brand.

Yes.

Any harm that any woman or man has suffered through that freak off shit, that baby ho shit, that shit not right. You know, I don't co sign none of that. And I just think that is very, very telling. That a nigga that ain't sold bricks, pounds got murder cases got hit, you know, you know, like YSL Woody is free.

Yeah, that nigga is.

You know what I'm saying? He's free. But Puff, they can't buy that nigga out. So whatever Daughter or whoever you offended. You know what I'm saying in that way is crazy. But I do not support any woman that was taken advantage of, any man that was taken advantage of. And I just wanted to make sure that's very clear. Cause that's wild shit.

It was so simply an example of a personal brand when you. When it's not.

When it goes down.

And I really think that's like a person, a perfect place to send off on. Because you might think that there's a place where you. You'll never have. It won't catch up to you. Oh, yeah, you might think that because of how fame might make you feel powerful, how money might make you feel powerful. But there might not be enough money, enough fame, enough power to get you out of what comes when everything tumbles down.

Man, listen, man, that's why I be going home. I ain't gonna catch time. Nobody filming nobody party, bruh. I tell niggas all the time, they'd be like, somebody asked me recently, man, what kind of big splurge you gonna make? You know, if you get a really big check? Like, what big type of big. I'm like time, man. I'm gonna go and splurge on Netflix, boy, I don't want no smoke with nobody nowhere, no how. If it's a. If it's a night, if it's 365 days out of the year and I can be in my house by 11 o', clock, 365 days, I want to do that because it gets tricky and freaky out there.

11Pm that's what my mom always told me. Yo, after 11 o', clock, ain't nothing going on outside. I'm gonna say this, and then we can rap. But 50 Cent, when I saw him at Invest Fest, he said he was like, hey, man, the closer you get to being worth $1 billion, stay in the house 1,000%. But I think at any point, you should keep that in mind. Like, things are going well. Stay in the house.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Focusing on yourself. You know, you build your personal brand, stay in the house, because that's where you can protect yourself the most and then protect your digital footprint. Like, it's that combination of just being aware. I think the awareness of who you are and what you're building is so important because that's what's going to allow you to grow and build and, like, be a Tyler and be a Travis. And I think Cardi was a great example, too, because it's like I don't really get the personal brand that he's building currently and it might change he might do a shifting trajectory and be doing a Super bowl in 2030 I.

Don'T know man the record he got out well he sound like future crazy that's just don't make no sense he's probably shouldn't did that it's going to be hard to come back and make that again man I don't know man.

Like you I I think I'm what's exciting about music is like you just never know what's going to happen next this is true so that is another episode of FYN with Ty and yo yeah like subscribe Comment Tell us about your personal brand tell us how you protect yourself tell us about you know how you feel about the changes in the digital landscaping who is your favorite personal brand who do you aspire to be like and you know tune in next time we got more yeah away.

From that bay ball.