The Intro

In their first time in the studio together, Skrizz and Adam dive into how they met, going from fan to friend, how Skrizz let down Adam in a big way, and some of their philosophies in business, music, and life.

Transcript

Adam   0:02
Talking music, building businesses, and their crit in the journey. We're Skrizz and Adam and welcome to The Rise. So it's official.

Skrizz   0:09 
I am never cross-legged because I'm not a gentleman right now. Went a long sleeve shirt actually, this is big.

Adam   0:26 
I've never seen you dressed up this fancy in 18 months I've known you.

Skrizz   0:31 
You don't really want to know in 18 months. I think so um, this is the first podcast we're doing together. And the, I'm Skrizz as you know me, you do not know Adam, Adam's a nobody that nobody cares about.

Adam   0:45
How are you assuming they don't know me?

Skrizz   0:47
Whatever. So let's think I met you. I met you because the tipping point, tipping point came out in 2016. So it's 2021, I think we met in 2017.

Adam   0:58 
Those four years flew by, definitely, it was 2017. No question about it. It was what you were performing, in Boston.

Skrizz   01:05 
I was there. So I got reached out. I definitely had a very limited fan base and a very limited listenership at the time. But I had a gig that paid well wasn't definitely proportionate to how popular I was, but it paid really well where essentially every six months I would play the lobby of a hotel. I won't say the name of that hotel.

Adam   01:26
You don't want to give any free pub now?

Skrizz   01:29
They quit booking me, no pub for them. They could but they were awesome. The guy they were super cool who did it and he was just really supportive. And it really was. It was funny because like wasn't a concert. It was just like me awkwardly standing. Me awkwardly standing in the lobby on the floor, not a stage just on the fucking floor, and around me are just couches, and then behind it is a bar. And it's just like, I think it's like a testament to Boston. Like I love Boston and so you Adam can you can tell the people where you usually from.well I

Adam   02:03 
Well, I grew up downstate Westchester in New York.  I lived in Boston forever. I went to college out there, soccer there.

Skrizz   02:10
By 18 you stuck there till what age?

Adam   02:12
27, 27 28.

Skrizz   02:15 
So you were there for like, almost eight years.

Adam   02:16
I was there for a while,

Skrizz   02:17
I think Yeah, um, I think those who don't know, people from Boston are just like, Really? I think the best word to be passionate, like people from Boston are really, really passionate. People from Boston are really, really dedicated. And people from Boston just like Get down. So even though let's say we drew just 30 people, maybe less probably the first time it was probably less. Let's say it was 15 people. I think the show I mean went maybe three hours. You know what I mean? It was a, it was a really funny thing. And I think you were distant at the time because you were wearing a suit.

Adam   02:46 
No, that was a second time.

Skrizz   02:48
Really?  Did we not make contact the first time?

Adam   02:51
No, we did. So first time. First of all, it's funny how you like recount that story. Because for me when I first, I became a just a big fan of yours. And then when I saw Spotify sent an email,  Skrizzly Adams is performing near you in the hotel. So tell us like, I've never been to this hotel, but it must be a great hotel.

Skrizz   03:09
Oh, yeah, this is gonna be a hell of an event. And you said you have 15 drunk Bostonians. Let's do it again, let's do it again.

Adam   03:14
I thought it might just be like this packed house like a hundred, 200, 500 people.

Skrizz   03:19 
The stage and lighting and it was like, literally essentially just like 20 drunk people in a lobby. Lets' do it again, which I think was I would take that over.

Adam   03:28 
It was the greatest, it was one of the most fun shows I've been to and I've been to a packed house shows at Madison Square Garden. I called my roommates. that was like Holly, John,  Yeah, they came the first night, and we just had a blast. We were, we were eating your beef jerky. We were just shooting this shit having a great time. And it was, it was a blast. But that's also when you did kind of you did let me down in one big way. You don't know? Come on. You let me down in one huge way.

Skrizz   03:57
I didn't play a certain song? I only had like six songs out like.

Adam   04:03
And you play tipping point, my favorite song at least two or three times.

Skrizz   04:05
Okay, so what does it lead out with?

Adam   04:07
With tipping point like a tipping point to me, I got, I got into you because like it was a really tough time in my business. Tipping point spoke to me. So like after the show, you know, we're all drawn. We're drawn to it. I gotta, I gotta ask you a question. Well, like Yeah, sure. Ask me a question. I was like, What is tipping point?

Skrizz   4:32 
Oh, by the way, this isn't just a one-case scenario. This is like every city I go to I tremendously let people that. What is it so this pill like everyone's hard with? I don't wanna use your exact example. But remember, I just wanna use another one should you compare alone feel like a camaraderie with someone else? I had. I had a show. I play it at college. I don't even know it was so like, like just so small, like a college bar. For like a fundraiser where they didn't even raise any money. And I drove all the way to Kansas to do it. And, and really the only thing on my calendar at the time, so I had this group of rancher fans, and like they're super cool. And wait, I'm waiting the North Carolina people I'm waiting for you to book me for your, your ranch party. They've been saying that for you a year now, they're, they're cool.

Adam   5:19 
What is it? What's a ranch party? Just like a party on a ranch?

Skrizz   5:22 
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. They were saying there'd be hundreds of people there. The thing people don't know, I don't want to make assumptions. But like, the Dakotas, Montana, like Saskatoon, Canada, like, it might be big and open, but they got money, they got oil money, they got rancher money, they have money there. So like they like it's a really fun, funny dynamic of like people with a lot of money, but not a lot to do. So it's like they're gonna have a Skrizzly party, they're gonna, they're gonna throw down exactly. But back to the thing I remember, he was just stage and I booked a bar the next night. It's just like a night was like a terrible gig. And like, the guy drove like, the guy and his friends like drove like 12 hours. I don't even know God knows how long to be there. And he was just sick day drinking all day. And then I showed up at the bar. And he's like, Hey, man, like, No, I think it was a thing of like, after the gig, he was just like someone like break your heart. Or like, he's like, we came here for that one song, for that one song. And I was like, this is like, who like, tell me the story how this happened? I'm like, Oh, no, that like it never happened. The song never happened. Like no one ever broke my heart and that type of way. I had a car, it was a Ford Explorer, and it literally died. That was it. There's something very poetic about when you remember pulling the car over to the side of the road in front of my parent's house. And I knew that once I turn the car off. It's never gonna turn back on. I thought that was a cool concept. I thought that was a cool concept for a song. So very sorry to disappoint. I remember I was in Montana in 2019. And they're asking something about the meaning of a stanza, or a certain lyric. And I remember just saying like, oh, like, it's an awful thing to say, like some biblical reference. And I was just like, Oh, well, the Bible is like the best-selling book. So like, it's cool. If you quote that book, like it's bound to sell a little better. And it did so wrong. So I wasn't wrong. Like, damn rarely, I'm like, Yeah, no, I just thought, you know, it's been some Bible in there. I love the Bible

Adam   7:15 
It makes me think about now, like how many songs we all get emotional to that we love, we think are about such deep stuff. And it's about your car breaking down.

Skrizz   7:24 
But at the same time, I will say like, I have, like less popular songs that, uh, I definitely have less popular songs that are like very autobiographical. And I think I think it is interesting, new songs that are less biographical, that are more autobiographical, but they aren't. They're not like streaming 10s of millions. You know what I mean? They're not like super high selling songs, or they're not even what I'm known for. I mean, it's a testament to the idea that sometimes the more universal it is the less specific it is and the more universal it is the better. There's a million arguments. So, yeah, I don't know how we got here. But I like it. So we were in Boston. And we did that. And then we've been friends since so you tell everybody you are an entrepreneur.

Adam   08:11
I like the way you said that. You're an entrepreneur.

Skrizz   08:14
So I'm an entrepreneur as well. I don't really.

Adam   08:17
So that's kind of how we really connected. I, I've always loved.

Skrizz   08:21
And the grand scheme of things for those of us from using Westchester County. I'm from New Jersey, Westchester right outside New York City, New Jersey, where I'm from is like right now we're right outside New York City. So we definitely bonded on that. And then being entrepreneurs essentially that we don't have bosses.

Adam   8:34 
I just liked your style of like, how you approach music even it's different than how others approach it. And I think you have a more your, your creative son of a bitch like that's, that's why you're you're out of your mind. You're creative. You're that's, that's what makes you so special but I think you have a great business avenue toom which is what I think one of the things that we've always connected with.

Skrizz   8:56 
I think we definitely bounce ideas off of each other and we've talked a lot over the years and, and then you called me and said you want to do a podcast and I drove to Saratoga.

Adam   9:06 
But that was like a year ago now.  Being in Florida, I was like we were just having a conversation about it. It was like you have such awesome fans. Your fans are second to none. Nobody is better fan than Skrizz. but like they, they love you, they ea,t sleep, drink. Everything about you

Skrizz   9:26 
We tattoed, we had a girl yesterday on IG, she has a key chain now. It was like a testament to, was using more autobiographical songs that are less popular. I have a 52nd song called stars align. And it's like such a funny thing where it's like, you remember I brought some other producers in on it and we cost a lot to make that record and it by no means made the money back not even close but I think it's such important to make that record I remember one girl has the lyric is a what is it, paradise is bound by time when you're waiting for the stars to align, and like her whole arm is tattooed that and then this other girl has a key chain on her, on her key chain, that, that if you put your phone up to it, it just starts playing it on Spotify, it's like a link, which is a cool idea. So I kind of want to start doing those are making those. Yeah. So I think it's, uh, yeah, I think the fans really, really value the B-sides and they really value the A-sides and yeah, they do a lot of creative stuff. So yeah, the fans are doing creative stuff and more creative.

Adam   10:31 
I don't even know how we got into that. But something about your fans?

Skrizz   10:34 
Yeah. And you're just kind of saying like, that was like an incentive. I mean, I don't use it. I don't wanna use exploitation, whatever. But it is a springboard. No, but it's like, it's unique, where, for sure, I think as you say, my fans were really invested in me. And it's, you know, it goes beyond the music. So we went for, and we always have fun, like I always said, like, we like when we go to Boston, I'm talking with everybody, we're having a good time, there's really no barrier in that. And that applies to every city. And it doesn't matter the size of the show. Like there's just always a good conversation to be had. And obviously, you're the face, and you're the voice of your past business and any future businesses you're working on. So you kind of share the same thing where it's like, like, if you meet, if you meet the face and the voice of it, you suddenly are more invested in it creates more of a dynamic conversation. So you want why we're here talking, we got faces and we got voices and we're talking.

Adam   11:27 
Faces and voices. We got it all and but I think that's what's interesting is like, there's, there's layers to peel with everybody. And I think just having a better sense. Like when you came up to upstate New York a couple of weeks ago.

Skrizz   11:37 
I think it was weeks ago. I did the math, I had 18 shots over the course of three o'clock we started but we ended at 10.

Adam   11:48 
Yeah, for, for right. So everything shuts down in New York at 10 o'clock. And Dan came over about three o'clock, I had to finish something. The second he walks in, he's like, I need two things. Vodka and OJ. I was like, alright.

Skrizz   12:00 
So I just started. And then yeah, but we got everything kind of figured out yet. Some funny texts, and some funny things happened during that time. But yeah, so I mean, it's cool. It's cool to be doing this. And we won't do 18 shots on the show.

Adam   12:17 
We might do that.

Skrizz   12:19
Does Joe Rogan drink on the show?

Adam   12:20
I think Joe, okay, so what I love about Joe Rogan's podcast, which we're a little ways away from getting there yet, but like, he just does what he wants to do, he has whatever guest he has, whatever guest he wants to have on. And that's what I want to do here, we talk about whatever it is that people want to hear whatever we want to talk about whatever is fun, enjoyable, new, whatever comes to mind, who cares? Let's just roll with it. If it's drinking 18 shots, I definitely won't be able to drive all the way back but.

Skrizz   12:45 
Definitely not driving back. So let's backtrack here for a sec. So right now you're doing work in the real estate field. But before you own your own company, and you sold your own company, and since then you've been soul searching. Is that a good word? Or no?

Adam   13:02 
Yeah, I think we're all soul searching, though. You know, I think like in one way or another, we all are soul searching and in some aspect, but yeah like I.

Skrizz   13:10
So like I tell people, what was, what was the first business explain it.

Adam   13:13
So we had a software platform where we help college students get connected to employers like Bank of America, Amazon, AT&T for jobs and internships.

Skrizz   13:20
So would you consider a tech business, or would you consider it as a sort of? But you're not a tech guy. You were a vision guy.

Adam   13:28
Yeah. I mean, we just kind of started it with just the good intention. Like it was me and I originally had two co-founders. And we just said we want to help college students succeed. We want to help people that want to get more out of their lives.

Skrizz   13:38
Are you saying there's an A, there's a B, they're supposed to be together? Let's make it easier to connect the individual.

Adam   13:42
Sure. So we did that.

Skrizz   13:45
I want to think, so you're not a tech person. You don't know how to code.

Adam   13:47
I don't know how to code. I've learned, I've learned enough about it now where I'm conversational and can.

Skrizz   13:53 
Say like, hey, by the way, like change this XYZ? Okay. Well, can you explain what was the first? I mean, I think about, there are so many people in music that know nothing about music, and 99% of them are trash. And some of them are just I have people I know in person that are just brilliant at guiding the process. So explain, like, when you were getting into that, like, how was it? Like, did you, did you know your blind spots? Or were you just blindly shooting?

Adam   14:20 
Blindly shooting while semi-knowing my blind spots. So like when we start.

Skrizz   14:24
As you grew, you've learned more about your blind spots?

Adam   14:26
Yeah. And now I realized how much pop I was like. For context, I did a one-year MBA three weeks before I graduated, we said fuck it, I'm gonna say no to my other, my other job opportunity. We're gonna start this business where the first year we didn't take a penny out of the company. I just, I worked at a restaurant to support myself and just build build build. A year later, we raised a quarter-million dollars from an investor, I realized how naive I was like thinking this is a billionaire, a bus type of company like we're going to change the world. This is all I'm going to do for my life, and not realizing just what actually goes into building one of these software giants which we were so, so, so far from ever had a chance of doing because of how we approach it. We didn't, we didn't know anything about the world.

Skrizz   15:06 
Are you saying that you're naive? So you're saying you're naivety at the beginning was what prevented you on level two from ever, ever thinking you could reach the billionaire bust? I've never heard that term before, but I'm not using it.

Adam   15:18 
Yeah. So I actually think being naive when you start a business just like going into music. It's like, it's a, it's a must. You must be naive because if you knew 10 years ago, what actually it was going to entail and all the shit that you've had to go through, should I have to go through from starting my business, the shit that entrepreneurs have to go through every single day? And anyone else that's building something that is, the odds are stacked against you. No one would ever do it. Like, why would you want to put yourself through that pain? So I actually think in a lot of ways, being naive to a point is a good thing.

Skrizz   15:50 
So I will, I, I, agree on a couple of things. To the point is like, the caveat, that's super fucking important. Because I think about, I don't want to say specific people, I don't want people to hear this and think I'm talking about them. But it's like, I've seen people that were just completely naive. And they got trapped in situations where it's like, it's situations where you have to go billionaire bust, or else there's nothing in between. It's like, what really are the odds of going billionaire? You know what I mean? Like in music, like, what are the odds of being a top 50? Or I mean, not Top, Top 500 it's already hard as the top 50. Like, you're only going to win if you get there. It's like, what are the odds, the odds are so slim. I think. So I think I got really lucky, I got really lucky, I got really unlucky in a million ways but I got really lucky in one way, or whatever. I really realized that 19 that I was in the music business. There was I mean, a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. I'm a huge Steven Van Zandt, who was guitar player plays Silvio on the sopranos. He's just like, coolest guy on earth. And Silvio, Alex Silvio even knew the potency of this character on this first, I don't think Steven knew the potency of what he was saying. But he had a quote, and we were like, going down to the laundry room telling my mom, like, quote him, like, this is my approach from now on. And it was like, essentially, Steven said, "the only reason I'm successful is because I was the only one left." and that's like what he always talked about. He said, like, like, he was surrounded by music, and everyone was getting older, and everyone was quitting. And he's like, I'm still here. And that's kind of been, it's funny. Like, I think of all the things I've done that I think are great, or like artistically, you know, impactful, or whatever that I think is working so well with the fans. I don't think that's ever been my victory. I think. I think I've failed so many times, in the business arena of music, that all my victories came from, he's still here, you know what I mean? Like, you can't ignore me anymore. And then I feel like I've brought people in, I do things that are just so different, and no one wants to be a part of it, but they can't. This is not the fans, the audience is awesome. Like, the audience is great. The audience always growing to what we have is super unique but I'm just saying like the outside business, it's like, it's like, you can't really ignore me. And it's like, every year it kind of keeps do I hope we do that tenfold. But um, I think it's what you said, like you keep hitting things that are like, I can't do this anymore. This is awful. You know what I mean? And I've just been like, well, tough shit is what I'm gonna do like. you probably

Adam   18:24 
You probably see it all the time. Like when an artist comes up to they're like, Oh, I want to be like you, I want to get a million streams, I want to perform at shows like this. I want to do this, this, this, and this.

Skrizz   18:33 
I want to say people that have been more successful than me, like was significantly more successful me that in that are now done with music like they're over. Like, like, I always just believed in being really steady stock like we sell more over a year. And it's like, like I you know, I went to, I went to, I went to NYU, which had a ton of people that were actually very successful in music. I can name a dozen people that were on major labels the same time I was. They all saw way more success in me toward America. I've known people have been nominated for Grammys, plummeting, plummeting. I know so many people that like, they blew me off. I'm like, they're just careers are plummeting. If not, they'd quit by now. You know, I mean? I just find out that my net worth just keeps going up. So.

Adam   19:13 
Well, you got to have, I think everybody has an ego and I think having a little bit of an ego is a good thing. But like for you, I think one of the things that makes you special and unique is like you have no problem playing at a hotel bar where 20 or 30 people or a bar mitzvah.

Skrizz   19:31 
Let's go back to that. Yeah. So yeah. Adam, Adam, and Adam and Adam a nice first social engagement, you know, that was beyond like, fan camaraderie. I do a ton of house parties and as far as free, so I'm losing money every night, literally. Well, I sell a lot of beef jerkies so I'm not losing a lot of money. I make a killing off them. That's kind of always been my forte. And then we did one, one tour with Atlantic Records, I was opening for Lissy and I was like on schedule to lose $20,000 and it allowed me like a profit of 15.

Adam   20:02
Wait, wait, timeout, timeout before, again.

Skrizz   20:05
It's called tour support. So that's how labels work. So it's like that you like, this has been going on since the 60s, like a big part of a major label deal that you get is you get access the tour with other artists and but you're not getting paid for it. And I gotta pay this guy, you know, 1200 a week, you got to pay him 12 $100 a week, you got to rent the van, they got to do that. I got to do bada bing, bada boom. And like $20,000 for like a four-week runs nothing. You know what I mean? It's expensive. You're not getting paid. So someone like me is showing up at the merch table selling the shit out of beef jerky, which has a I don't wanna say the profit margins huge, but like it's very big. And yeah, that that change. But back then we're saying yeah, that's what allowed me to do it for free. And trust me, I still do things really, really cheap. I'm currently doing a deal really, really cheap shows. But he had a bark mitzvah, which was his dog's bark mitzvah. It was actually a pretty nice party.

Adam   21:02 
It was a great party. So my roommate. I mentioned earlier, Holly, she has a black lab. And she was turning two when we're trying to think about like, Is it a sweet 16? Like, what party? Are we gonna we want an excuse to throw a party base? And because Oh, he was turning two we're like, what do we get to do? a sweet 16 I'm being a Jew, I'm like, throw a bark mitzvah. Next thing you know, we threw a bark mitzvah and it was a blast. We had you come and it was great.

Skrizz   21:29 
It was a really good time. It was a really good time. So I played a bark mitzvah. But I think what we're saying like the willingness to do, well, I have another thing I don't want to call it out but like I have an opportunity. There's someone I really, really, really, really, really, really, really idolized and music, and they have a company that's on track to be one of the most successful companies in their field right now. And while I said I would never work with a company like that, unless the money was insane. I just really liked the person running the company. And I decided I was gonna reach out this week. So I reached out and I sent the music. And they came back they said this is great. This is really, really good. And they were just like, they were like, they're like, cool, let's, let's do something. And I was like, Okay, well, let's do a phone call. And then they're like, how about you just come to Nashville next week and write music for this much smaller artists we're working with and we can get dinner afterward. And I think that's a 12-hour drive, and this is on Wednesday, and today's Thursday. So I think like most so by the way, I was just there. So yeah, so I think like, I think it's kind of like a testament that it's like, what stop it like, that's a test. That's like, that's like a really overtest. They're like, is this person going to drive 24 hours on a whim, right? That's the thing is like, so you got to do it. You know what I mean? So I didn't I didn't. Anyone else had been like, how about we just do a call instead? And I just had no, I'll be there. I didn't like didn't flinch on that one.

Adam   23:04 
So what's, what's your mindset, though, with doing stuff like that? Because it's like, for me, I'll

Skrizz   23:08
Well for me, I'd be honest. I love driving. I'm a fucking driving addict. So I love driving and I love writing songs. So that's like an easy flex for me but that goes back to the ego thing. It's like, like, they weren't asking me to, they weren't asking me to write with their church. They're asking me to write with someone who has 10,000 streams, you know what I mean? Which is guys are somewhere so you know. I don't know, I just like I think it's kind of a thing. It's like, you want to be the last one standing. You know what I mean? So it's like, if that's the obstacle in the video game, then do it. I think a big thing you learn in life and I've seen a lot of people struggle with this is sometimes you have to do almost damn near impossible tasks. I mean, I had something really really difficult the other day, I don't want to I don't want to say what it is because it was yet too damn near impossible tasks just to gain an inch and you're like, inches nothing. I got to go 10 miles. Well guess what if you don't get that inch, you're not getting the next inch and you're not getting the next you know what I mean? So like a big thing is like I was called the A to E philosophies like you got A and you got E it's like they always tell you not to focus on E like E is being the billionaire boss. You know what I mean? An A to, A to B is impossible. B to C is impossible but if you love E so much, you got to do it. You got to do it anyway. So it is what it is.

Adam   24:25
One of my favorite things one, it's kind of a stupid thing. But I think it kind of has like a good deeper point to it. Like, I love sports. So I'm watching sports teams down by 21 points in the fourth quarter and they get a touchdown. Like, are you chip, chip chipping away like?

Skrizz   24:40 
Sure, for sure. If I think those seven points mean nothing against the 21. You got to get the seven for the 14.

Adam   24:45
Exactly. And that's like with everything like if you want to become an artist that's performing in front of 25,000 people at Madison Square Garden, the hottest concert of the year, like you got to first perform at a hotel lobby with 30 friends and get those 30 people to fall in love with you. You know, you got to just keep constantly putting out music. You got to keep engaging with fans. You got to keep growing and listening and learning and studying the craft and you got to do all those little things and all of a sudden you're like, holy shit. A Madison Square Garden.

Skrizz   25:11
Yeah. We have a long way to go from there but,

Adam   25:14
Chip chip chip away.

Skrizz   25:16
Chip it away we got the podcast.