Friday, September 17, 2010

Precedents and Standards

I'm often asked who I look up to as an artist, or who inspired my style as a poet, emcee or writer -- and that's easy to answer. I could go on for days listing singers, songwriters, emcee and poets. The tougher question to answer has been, "who did you model AG One after?" The honest answer, its simple -- I created an home for artists, namely myself, that would stand behind someone with talent that had something to say in their music but needed an avenue to be heard [of course there's more to it, but I'll save that for my first prime time interview :)]. I came to terms with the fact that I would never be signed to a major and get the type of love that I'd want to music to get -- from a business perspective, I'd be joell ortiz'd, if you will.

Mr. Notes and I often joke around saying that AG One really started as concept for an album, and grew into being a lucrative business venture. Now, in no way did I declared my mission to be that of trying to emulate a Motown -- that is a staple in music history.

...There is a lot to learn from Berry Gordy and how he built his indie label into a music empire. How their sound is so special that no one has yet come close to replicating it proves that there was more than music being made -- they set precedents which became standards for them, standards that many artist spend a career trying to attain, or live up to.

I'd have to say that at this point in my career I've really started to look up to, and am attempting to learn from, Berry Gordy and Motown. The way he built his empire from nothing, started a music revolution and made a strong presence as an Indie label..and not only did he manage the business aspect of the music game, but he was also on the creative team as a song writer, too.



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