The Best Way for Artists to Get Discovered in 2022 | With Harry Mack

people used to be discovered on music on mtv in 1987. today it's tick-tock tomorrow it's going to be something else and that's just always how it's going to be it's just going to keep moving and it's your job to move with it this is not some nostradamus [ __ ] this is just some humble hard-working [ __ ] and i'll do that to the great we were talking earlier and you talked about third grade is when you started really realizing for everybody here so many people that i've met today really exude a lot of passion you know they're passionate about the space about their brand about their process about their homies about the macro the micro for you how were you able to take such an extreme passion and turn it into your professional career what were the two hurdles the one hurdle that actually allowed you to do something i think all of us want to do yeah great question um i mean like you mentioned i've been extremely passionate about music in particular hip-hop and freestyling since third grade since i was a little kid um and it's something i was working on my whole life i think the biggest hurdle for me as i'm practicing and developing and getting better and studying and doing this with my close companies the biggest hurdle for me was my own sort of fear and insecurity and for me that manifested in the form of perfectionism you know in my mind for so much of my life like into my 20s um regardless of what my friend said oh you're so [ __ ] dope off the top you should go do this you should make this what you do uh in my mind is that it's not good enough yet you know it needs more work it needs more development i didn't feel like i was ready to show it and uh turned out the biggest hurdle you know on that note one of the things that i really believe is that people and there's a lot of people in this room that are going to resonate with this people that say gary you don't get it i'm a perfectionist the way my brain takes that is no you don't get it you're scared to put it out and you're trying to make it look cute by saying you're a perfectionist that's just makeup for insecurity and that's what you're basically saying 100 man that's what it was for me you know because in my mind uh i'm a creator you know it's never going to be good enough for me right like it's never going to reach it's not going to actually be perfect but the biggest step forward that i ever took creatively was to just show people my [ __ ] what should i have for you um you know i i've heard you know a lot of your uh you know uh clips and content that you've made which i'm a huge fan of by the way it's so good for me to be up here with you um you've talked to a lot of young artists about the power of tiptop yes and tick tock has been huge for me too especially in the last year um we've been really diving deep on tick tock we do daily content on there um what in your mind is like the next way what's exciting to you in terms of what independent artists and creators you know like myself who don't have a label and don't have a publisher or anything like that what are you looking into the next thing that you think is going to be i think for me my the reason my career is what it is when it comes to this is that i'm always looking but i never know so many people think and position me as like seeing around corners or i see the future i don't see any of that i'm just a normal dude what i do very well though is when something pops off i move quick so four years ago when i'm talking about tick tock people's emotion about what they were building on instagram is what stopped them from seeing tick tock people having 14 000 followers on instagram and working hard for it is why they didn't want to see tick tock i have no feelings about yesterday it doesn't matter what i accomplished an hour ago everything is about tomorrow and that's why i've been able to see the next thing because i'm inherently curious i really don't get high on my own supply i don't think it matters that i've done well for the last 20 years the next day is predicated on how i do well the next day and i'm not scared to do the work i wasn't devastated that i was big on youtube and twitter and instagram when i saw tick tock and had to start at zero i'm like let's go to [ __ ] work and so for me people are way too emotional about where they're found or where they put in the work the world and technology don't give a [ __ ] that you put in that work there it's just going to keep moving and it's your job to move with it people used to be discovered on music on mtv in 1987. today it's tick-tock tomorrow it's going to be something else and that's just always how it's going to be and so for me it's based on humility this is not some nostradamus [ __ ] this is just some humble hard-working [ __ ] and i'll do that to the grave you know it's funny when biggie's album came out

i just remember when i when it got to warning and just i grew up with hip-hop and i i'm 46 so like beastie boys were huge run dmc krs one big daddy kane it was all really cool but big big e's first album i was a freshman in college ru tang had dominated the last year and had such a crazy sound and there was so much talent but i'll never forget when the song just started with like who the [ __ ] is this paging me at 5 46 in the morning and i just remember it was the first time i realized and i think it's why i liked in hindsight i'm like oh this is why i like krs-1 he paints a picture but bicky when i was done with that album i was confused i thought i was biggie's friend like it was so clear he was capable of telling stories in such a clear way as if i was like had a relationship with him on the first listen and to this day i i it really develops the way i think about music yeah i've realized i don't have i don't really think about beats i know that people love it i understand that people [ __ ] does get me to move but for me paint me a picture take me into your world which is why people's first albums really matter to me because a lot you have your whole life to write the first one that first one changed my life so one thing that i have seen as a challenge for my content um is making shifts and transitioning like if we're changing something up we decided or what about are the results not as good less likes comments all of it yeah so yeah oftentimes you know there are certain things i do that are very popular and there are other things that will sort this is the subject matter that i think affects so many people in here which is people are scared to talk about the [ __ ] they actually care about they're scared to put out the content that they actually want to put out because they're addicted to the metrics of social media because somebody knows that they normally get 500 likes or 50 likes they're going to keep making the same [ __ ] even if their brain and their soul has evolved to a new place because they don't have the humility or the self-confidence and they're deploying insecurity and it's a huge deal i see it with a lot of people i see that came up the game because they were funny but now they want to talk about some serious [ __ ] and people want them to just make them laugh i see a lot with people that are models attractive people that want to talk about other [ __ ] but they know they get more likes when they show their abs or they show skin and it's really unfortunate i think that there's a really important conversation to be had for people to make content they want to make i grew up in the game of content doing wine and when i first started wanting to show people who i really was which was i was a wine businessman i just happened to know about wine people were [ __ ] pissed the content i put out today started with almost every comment being staying your lane wine boy like stop what are you why are you talking about business just tell me if this red wine is good and there was enormous amounts of push back my biggest thing overall for people that follow me and have a sense is like the thought of living your life based on other people's opinions is a guaranteed path to unhappiness there is 0. 0 people thank you there are 0. 0 people that are happy living based on other people's opinions and we now live in a society that has so much anxiety that people spend most of their time looking to tear down other people or gotcha or razz and so you're in such a tough spot so for me the answer to your question is you have no option other than putting out [ __ ] that you [ __ ] give a [ __ ] about otherwise you're going down a path that's not going to work you're going to burn the [ __ ] out here we go so the way your [ __ ] works is you take words and you'll do it right yeah so i'm gonna ask actually ask the crowd a little bit how many words do you need uh give me three to start three words any three words wax w-a-s

flower moon bird boomers moon bird wax and flowers flower you say moon birds like a bird that goes to the moon like a lunar verse okay hell yeah one more time for this man come on appreciate it thank you how many hours of practice to get to that moment i wouldn't even venture to guess man people say that thing about something you know they're not going to about ten thousand hours i probably practiced freestyling for ten thousand hours in college alone in the four years i was in college dating back to when i was 10 i have no idea so much [ __ ] time i mean obsessive practice it's been an obsessive love for me since i was a kid there's nothing else i would rather do with my time asking as my girlfriend i'm freezing out around washing the dishes of course i'm freestyling in the car a freestyle while i'm walking around the house i'm always freestyling and i'm always trying to improve and get better to me there's no [ __ ] limit thank you man of course