My First Time Meeting With A Record Label
Story Time
My first time meeting with a record label (as an artist) was truly a mixed bag & a rollercoaster of emotions. As you know, I have worked independently for the entirety of my journey even now. Not only is it encouraged for musicians to go the independent route instead of signing with a record label, but I also was empowered to continue my independent grind too from this experience. I’ve shared this story with a couple of people in the past, but allow me to start from the very beginning.
This all happened back in the year 2021. At that time, I was about 1 year into my career as a rapper & had just moved back to PA after a brief living experience in Houston, TX. This year was also when I was fortunate enough to start performing live out-of-state & went on a weekend-long tour with with Reemarkable (Eazy-E’s daughter) + several other local talents in Atlanta, GA that summer. That specifically was an experience I will never forget, as it allowed me to network & establish relationships in the city. I guess through word of mouth or an A&R executive being present at one of these gigs, I was discovered by the independent record label Tailor Made Records.
I received an email from a representative in November that year about the opportunity & immediately felt like I was on cloud nine lol. The meeting was scheduled for the following month in December. I stayed with family nearby after flying out & upon arriving at the office location, I was met by the front desk associate & a handful of other artists as well. Most of them were local, but there was one that came all the way from South Carolina & another that had to travel pretty far too as well. After waiting with the other 4 artists in the lobby, we were finally escorted to a tour of the building & introduced to the label owner Mr. Tailord in his office.
The meeting started & I was sitting in this small office space with the other artists. The label owner immediately begins by introducing himself & telling the story about the label formation. Prior to Tailor Made, he was working as an executive with Univeral & has tons of relationships with people in the industry. On his wall, there are actually pictures of him at different events with people like Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Diddy (unfortunately) & many more. He was actually one of the people who helped develop Chris Brown & his career very early on back in the day.
With all of that being said, my first impression was that he came off very obnoxious & full of himself. It honestly felt like he was flexing on all of us & just taking down in a way to potentially humble our egos? Regardless, I now know that that is a common personality trait among most (if not all) powerful people in the music industry from other experiences. However at the tim, I still listened to him with everyone else respectfully. At some point though it felt like mans was never gonna stop talking lol. He did pause & allow us to introduce ourselves too. Just general questions like background, where we’re from, is our music professionally registered, etc. Everything for the most part felt like what I would’ve expected from a meeting like this.
Things took an unexpected dark tone though after Mr. Tailord began to take over the meeting again to discuss more about the label, what they do & the music industry as a whole. One of the key things Tailor Made Records focuses on is artist development & getting their roster partnered with the big 3 major record labels: Universal, Sony & Warner. However, a lot of the things said were very troubling & worrisome. Essentially, the label has complete control of everything for the artists. You can only use their in-house studios & producers, they pick out your outfits, they determine when/what songs get released, & more. Some of that stuff is at least standard practice, despite not being the most appealing
One of the first major red flags was when he explained how they & other labels would actively steal other artists’ songs to give to their artists or have producers recreate other people’s instrumentals for their artists to steal. He explained how he’ll often make his male artists wear flamboyant or “fruity” looking clothing regardless of sexuality because those styles of outfits draw attention. When their label does pitch you to the major labels for partnership, they try to sell their artists as being the "Walmart version” of bigger artists. This is because nowadays, labels are only interested in signing artists that remind them of other successful artists. An example he gave was a singer who had a very unique style, but they ultimately transformed her into a generic Aaliyah knockoff. Same with another female artist who is just a diet-Cardi B. The list goes on & on.
He explained how he & other people in the music industry prefer signing younger artists instead of older ones because “they are less likely to question you”….. which was so sad to hear in hindsight because he’s an executive who worked closely with P. Diddy. There was so much more about the industry he was just revealing & talking to us about, but all of it was awful & extremely disheartening. You hear rumors of this type of stuff & how artists sell their souls to become successful. I can personally say that when people express that sentiment about the music industry, they’re likely talking about these immoral types of practices instead of literally “signing your soul to the devil” (unless that also happens too lol who knows).
I honestly don’t even know why he started sharing all of this stuff, but he just kept going on & on while all of us artists just kinda sat there shocked speechless. After checking the time, I guess he also noticed how long he was rambling & decided that it was finally time to hear some of our music. At that point, I was already feeling so defeated & my spirit did not want me to be associated with anything these people had going on. One by one though he called us up to his desk to connect our music to his speakers. As I sat & listened, I watched him viciously tear down each song & artist that came up. Some of the music wasn’t good though & he did also give some valid criticism to people, but there were also just a lot of disrespectful things said to some of these people. I felt so bad, but was also nervous to get called up too at that point.
It was finally my turn. I walked to the desk, plugged my phone in & hoped for the best. The result was completely unexpected. He tore down & talked disrespectfully to everyone else in the room (even the ones I thought actually had good commercial-sounding music). His reaction to both of my songs was the exact opposite though. I played my R&B song Reflection & the trap song Hidden Leaf National Anthem so I could show my range & versatility. Instead of tearing me down, he was mostly mute & didn’t say much. He still didn’t like either song, but just was as overtly negative or disrespectful as he was to all the other artists. For some reason that made me feel even worse.
I think it was just the fact that he at least had something more to say about the other people’s work. But the fact that he didn’t even care enough to speak much about either song really fucked with me mentally. My music did nothing for him, even though the others were actually vibing out & giving me props lol I think mainly cause my music was also mixed at a higher quality that most of theirs too. But yeah, in the end, I didn’t like what about the label & the owner wasn’t really feeling my music at the time anyway. I was hurt & depressed about the experience truthfully. I even debated on if I should continue pursuing music at that point.
Years have passed since & I can objectively say I do make much better complete songs now due to time & experience. It doesn’t mean those 2 older songs are bad though, and Reflection is now one of my most streamed + beloved songs across the board now. In hindsight though, I also don’t think I would’ve wanted to be in a toxic situation like that anyway. My biggest takeaways were all of those secrets about the music business, and that a lot of the big artists that we know & love today are products of that process. The entertainment industry as a whole is very shady & scummy, but that’s why I continue to keep going the independent route. Finding the right audience that loves & supports your music is what’s most important in the end. I have largely increased the amount of listeners/supporters I have all on my own without having to sacrifice my morals & values. My main focus these days is continuing to build community instead of chasing fame. Forever & always!
