I just wrapped a new podcast with up & coming artist Rachel Grae. The NY based artist is inching towards one million TikTok followers and a half of million Spotify Monthly listeners. With Rachel, a 30 second TikTok clip went viral and launched her to the next level, but she continued delivering after the viral moment and that’s what counts. It’s about the slow and steady, not the fast and easy, especially in the creative industry. In this episode we talked about how she got here and touched upon a few pop surprises.

Do you have something interesting to tell? I want to to hear about it. Maybe we can talk it through on my podcast.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3njrqdfJpY&t=1423s

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3goY7kuZEfzsd2gum5KP8q?si=ccf0de9e7e09426d

Class is in session with Lupe Fiasco. The rapper landed a new gig as a professor at Boston’s MIT. Teaching what? You got it, rap.

I been holding this for a while,” Fiasco tweeted. “I’ll put together something more sophisticated later that really captures the nuance and gravity but for now I’ll just say it straight and raw: I’m going to teach Rap at MIT.”

Fiasco said “Syllabus isn’t built yet but I’m thinking its fruit to be had in looking at neuromorphic computation through the lens of Rap as a lossless data compression model with a dash of energy efficiency via refining Landauer’s principle applied to cytoarchitectonics. And some rapping…”

Lupe Fiasco will drop a new record “DRILL MUSIC IN ZION” on June 24th.

Justin Timberlake is bringing the sexy back and sells his songs to private equity Blackstone. The deal was done in partnership with music investment company Hipgnosis. Although the deal was kept secret, sources say the deal was valued at $100 million.

Blackstone who currently has former Pfizer CEO as senior advisor has become the the world’s largest private equity firm. The firm invests through minority investments, corporate partnerships, and industry consolidations, and occasionally, start-up investments.

Tired of TikTok, Halsey said her label (Capitol Records) won’t greenlight a release “unless they can fake a viral moment on tiktok.”

“Basically I have a song that I love that I wanna release ASAP,” she said. “But my record label won’t let me.

There is so much fakery out in the world that several commentators accused Halsey of fabricating the whole story about TikTok in return for views and likes.

“Bruh, I wish it was,” the singer wrote in response to one comment. “They just said I have to post tiktoks; they didn’t specifically say ‘about what’ so here I am.”

“It’s not about making the tiktoks I already make tiktoks!” Halsey said on Twitter. “They are saying if they don’t reach some imaginary goalpost of views or virality than they won’t give me a release date at all. I’m not claiming to be oppressed! Just saying that all not all marketing methods are universal.”

“I’ve been in this industry for 8 years and I’ve sold over 165 million records” said the singer.

Still, many question the TikTok tantrum. The Kid Laroi staged a feud with former manager Scooter Braun to his three million followers. As long as you get views, anything goes, even if it’s screaming fire in a crowded theatre.

I just wrapped up a discussion with celebrity masseuse Dr. Dot, a name given to her by musical virtuoso Frank Zappa.

We both love music, and I discovered Def Leppard happened to be her first client, while The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts instructed her to go pro with her hands cementing her as the go to massage therapist for biggest rock stars.

And the pandemic topic came up and how it effected business and that’s when the discussion erupted and went deeper and harder than a deep tissue massage.

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ648CkdmdQ&t=2165s