The Shocking Truth About Spotify's Major Stakeholders | LJ Fino DSH #827

Warner, Sony, and Universal, the three major labels, they all ended up getting a stake in Spotify.

And then that's what was the catalyst sort of that got them to get the licensing deals for all the content.

I didn't know they had a stake.

They have a stake.

A lot of people don't know that.

Which I think should be renegotiated, frankly, because Spotify saved the music industry.

All right, guys, LJ Fino here today.

First podcast.

First podcast.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for the opportunity, man.

Yes.

Thanks for choosing this show as the one to do it with.

Absolutely.

So you're big in the rap space.

Still am.

Formerly was a little bit bigger, but yes, definitely.

Making a little comeback?

Yeah, I've kept my ties there.

You just played some fire music for me.

I'd love to dive into that.

Yeah, let's talk about it.

That's right.

Solera and French Montana.

What a combo right there.

That is quite the collaboration.

I don't think that happened.

I don't think anybody had that on their bingo card.

Well, that happened

through mutual friends.

My boy, Jake Lecce,

or Lechie, rather,

he put on the first concert for French.

So I was talking to him about different collaborations that would make sense.

We kind of wanted to do a record that was Dua Lipa levitating kind of vibes featuring the baby, if you remember that record?

Dua Lipa and Debaby.

If I saw it, I probably would.

It was a huge smash, maybe like four or five years ago.

But it was a commercialized pop record that fit a commercial rapper it did very very well so we kind of trying to tried to channel that uh we got to french french was ecstatic about doing it he he thought it was a genius idea um

so we face timed that turned into a twitter space where they agreed to do a collaboration And then next thing you know, we're in New York City at Platinum Studios.

Shout out to Platinum Studios, by the way.

And Lisa over there.

And we're there with friends, we're recording a hot track.

I think, I think everybody's gonna be really excited to hear the quality was incredible, yeah, oh, yeah, like for someone to have that be their first song ever is like to set the bar that high.

Well, let me correct you, so that's not her first song, so okay, that would that's her first

major single that's coming off of an EP.

Like, we're releasing an entire pop EP, got it, got it, Laura and I.

Um, but maybe I think it was October of 23, she did a cover of Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down.

That's a classic.

Very much a classic.

And what's funny about it is the pettiest state, they're very aptly named, by the way, the pettiest state, sent a CND to Trump's campaign.

What?

Saying, don't play our record, or our composition, rather, because they don't own the record

at your rallies.

Was that the opening song back then?

He would play it at some of the rallies.

The opening song is always traditionally the, and I'm proud to be an American.

But, you know, every once in a while he'll play the Justice for All record, which are you familiar with that?

Yeah,

I actually produced that as well.

Yeah.

Well done, dude.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

So sometimes he'll open with that one, but traditionally it's the

Proud to Be an American record.

But he would end the rallies with I Won't Back Down sometimes or just play it throughout or play it before.

And they sent him a C and D.

And so, you know, that wasn't really the motivation behind it.

Lara's motivation behind it was, look,

and at the time, her, you know, her family was going, he was being indicted left and right.

Yes.

Tom Petty actually wrote the record.

You can look this up about legal troubles that he was going through during his time, during that time when he wrote the record in his own life.

So she felt that that fit her family's life.

So that's why we went ahead and we did a country version of I Won't Back Down, which actually debuted on the Billboard charts at number six on the digital song sales chart for country.

Wow.

And number 10 on the digital song sales charts overall all genres.

Well, Lara Trump is a billboard charting recording artist.

Yeah, well, don't get it twisted.

My bad, my bad.

No, no, you're fine.

A lot of people don't know this yet, and I think that's why we're ready to get this out there and get this out to the masses.

That's important.

So, what's the goal with your label?

Do you want to tie in politics with it?

Well, it's interesting because, I mean, I can go to the backstory.

You know, I studied at the University of Miami, political science and music business.

Two weird things that don't necessarily go together, right?

But as I sort of watched media evolve, I realized that pop culture and politics are one and the same.

I don't believe that news is news anymore.

I think that, like, for example, I'll give you CNN as a good example because they're a great example for this.

They're owned by Warner Brothers, which is owned by ATT.

Warner Brothers views CNN as an entertainment division.

That's what it is.

It's entertainment.

They want eyeballs glued to the television screen so that they can sell their advertising slots.

And they know their audience.

Their audience is people who hate Trump and people who are very progressive or just, you know, for lack of a better phrase, woke.

And that's their audience.

And so they cater to that audience in a form of entertainment that's sort of masqueraded by news, but it's really not news.

That's something that I've noticed.

And I think

will continue to be a problem moving forward, especially with these cable news networks.

You know, same thing with MSNBC.

They're owned by Universal.

I think Universal views MSNBC as an entertainment division, an additional entertainment division.

You know, they're not really reporting news.

They're reporting things that will get, you know, clickbaity kind of things that will get eyeballs glued to the television screen so that they can sell advertising signs.

Well, television is losing a lot of viewers.

Oh, absolutely.

I think, I mean, if I had to guess, I'd give it three to five years before everybody cuts their cable cords.

I already did mine three to five years ago.

Yeah.

I mean, and people are continuing to do so.

I think what the thing is that there's a lot of people, you know, people who are used to the way that it was

that they're not prepared to cut those cords yet.

Yeah.

But I think as time goes on, they're going to have they're going to have to.

And we'll see what happens.

I mean, you've got all these different streaming.

It's very different than music when you look at streaming.

You've got...

Well,

let me explain the music aspect first.

Music was being destroyed, the music industry.

Oh, yeah.

By piracy.

And then came along some Swedes who created Spotify.

And they said, look.

You know, it was Pirate Bay.

It was LimeWire, all these different things.

No one was buying physical.

No one was buying

the dollar songs on iTunes, which is the modern day equivalent of a physical sale.

No one was buying vinyl.

CDs were gone.

It was all being pirated.

And these Swedes came to the table and they said, look, we have a solution for you.

Give us all your content.

We'll stream your music all in one consolidated location and we'll pay you royalties for it.

And the labels were like, no, the hell with that.

Free music.

I don't want to hear another word about free music.

You know, they pushed back for a long long time and they negotiated and in the end warner sony and universal the three major labels they all ended up getting a stake in spotify

and then that's what was the catalyst sort of that got them to get the licensing deals yeah for all the content i didn't know they had a stake they have a stake a lot of people don't know that um which i think should be renegotiated frankly because spotify saved the music industry um But when you look at now,

what they call OTT over-the-top streaming platforms, which is the audio-visual version of a

DSP, a digital streaming platform, which is the music version of it,

you've got Paramount Plus, you've got Macs, you've got Hulu, you've got Netflix, you've got

Peacock, you've got, I mean, I'm probably missing like eight.

Apple TV, right?

You've got Apple.

Picture it this way.

Can you imagine if Spotify didn't come along and let's say Universal Music decided we're going to create our own streaming platform, but it's only going to have Universal Artists on it.

So like if you want to listen to Drake, who signed a Universal

or Taylor Swift, who signed a Universal as well,

you'd have to go to the Universal app.

But the thing is, most people don't know which artists are signed to which label.

You know, the consumer likes it in one consolidated location.

And I think people are finding themselves in that pickle today where they're like, hey, this is a great show.

You should go check it out.

And the next question is, well, what platform is it on?

Facts.

Out of like 20 different streaming platforms, like, where can I find it?

It's annoying because you got to sign up for all of them.

It's like

20 a month or whatever.

And it's becoming more expensive than what cable was.

Way more.

Yeah.

Yeah, way more.

Except when you need them all.

So what my belief is what's going to happen is that those, what they call OTT over-the-top streaming, I don't know why they call them over-the-top.

I think that's stupidly named because they're not really over-the-top.

They're pretty basic apps.

I mean, American Airlines has an OTT streaming service.

I mean, just, yeah, on the, on your, they used to have the screens

on the back of the seats, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Now you use your own personal tablet or your iPad.

But when you log in on American Airlines and you get on their Wi-Fi, you get free entertainment.

Right.

And it's all there being streamed through their Wi-Fi.

It doesn't take a genius to create these platforms.

You just have to have the content.

But what I've noticed last night is kind of funny.

I was just scrolling through Netflix and I saw a SpongeBob movie on Netflix.

Classic.

And I'm thinking, well, yeah, of course, classic.

SpongeBob is great.

But I'm thinking, why is SpongeBob on Netflix?

Paramount owns SpongeBob.

Why would they not put it on Paramount Plus?

Good point.

I think Paramount Plus will cease to exist in the next one to two years.

So you think they're selling their rights?

I think they're licensing their content because they're prioritizing revenue.

Right.

So, you think one of these companies will buy out all these?

I don't know if they'll buy out the studios, but I think what will happen is all the I call them the five families.

So, there's the three major record labels, and then there's the five major television studios, which is Disney, Universal, Sony, which is Columbia.

I'm blanking on a few.

Geez, bad time.

There's more.

Yeah, I don't know.

But

Warner Brothers, of course.

And one more.

But I think what they're going to start doing is licensing their content to Netflix and Hulu.

Not their music.

No, no, no.

Not the music.

Because the music's already being licensed to Spotify and Apple.

Oh, okay.

So it's funny.

A lot of people get this confused.

Universal Universal music has nothing to do with Universal Studios.

They're two separate companies.

They don't own each other.

Got it.

So

when it comes to the television film industry, I think the major studios are going to start licensing their content to the OGs, which would be Netflix, which would be Hulu,

and maybe Prime because they have the money, and maybe Apple because they have the money.

Yeah, Prime just bought it.

It's going to be those big.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's going to be, and Apple is doing a bunch of MLB.

It's going to be those big, big companies that have the money to buy the content because content is king.

See, that's the one genius thing.

I've got to give it to Bob Iger for this.

He bought up all the content.

Lucas Films,

21st Century Fox.

You know, the list goes on.

There's more.

Pixar.

They already had a relationship, but then he purchased Pixar.

So all of that, he got all the content.

Now it's just, well, where do you put the content?

And they own Hulu outright 100%.

Oh, Disney owns Hulu?

Disney owns Hululu.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Wow.

So that's their exclusive

platform for putting out their content.

And I forgot to mention on the music side of things, the one stipulation in the contract with Spotify was that Spotify could never become a record label.

Because can you imagine if Spotify started signing acts?

It would be over for Universal, Sony, and Warner

because Spotify could promote their own acts.

They got everyone.

They would sign everybody.

And that's the flip side.

That's the difference.

Because

that was stipulated within the contract back in 2011, 2013,

12, 2013, whenever it was done.

Those agreements were not stipulated within to OTT television audio visual streaming contracts because you had Netflix come out and they had licensed a bunch of content, but then they started coming out with originals immediately.

House of cards, huge smash.

But you know what I mean?

The list goes on and on.

Yeah, the originals saved Netflix, I heard.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Of course.

Stranger Things.

Stranger Things.

Yep.

There's a few.

What was that one where they were in the rivers?

I forgot.

It's a quiet place.

Could have been that one, yeah.

No, it was like three boys and a girl.

Oh, I forgot the name, bro.

Whatever.

There's so many.

There's so many.

The originals do save them.

Yep.

Because they lose money on the other stuff, right?

Yeah.

Well, they don't lose money, but they're spending money with the hopes of getting new subscribers.

So, you know, they've got to cut the check to get the content, but they don't own the content.

Right.

Yeah, because Squid Game, they made a killing off of that.

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

Another good original by the way.

Yeah.

Yep.

Now, you picked the music industry.

That's a tough space.

It is.

Did you know that going into it?

Absolutely.

Like the odds weren't in your favor?

Absolutely.

Oh, so you got a good game plan for how to make it successful though?

No, 100%.

100%.

Okay.

Yeah, because I don't know many labels doing well.

Aside from Universal, Sony, and Warner, they're on two.

Yeah, aside from the big independent majors.

Yeah, the majors.

Yeah.

There's a few independents that do well.

It's about relationships.

It's about knowing the right people.

It's about being able to communicate, having hit records, having artists that are talented.

You know, there's a lot of different variables that go into it.

But, you know, luckily I have a good team around me.

I have a good head on my shoulders.

I know the good guys.

I know the bad guys.

I know who to deal with, who not to deal with.

So, you know, I think I'm navigating the treacherous waters as best as I possibly can.

Yeah.

Where do you see the music industry going and evolving to in the next five, ten years?

Well, it's really interesting.

With AI, I think that could tremendously change the way that the music industry goes.

We'll have to see because

there's going to need to be some amendments to the copyright law as it pertains to AI.

And then also there's this thing called,

the bill has changed names multiple times, but originally it was the Ask Musicians for Music Act, A-M-F-M.

Haha.

But

the thing is,

I'm going to say the quiet part out loud.

Sorry, radio friends.

But

radio doesn't pay royalties to the owner of the intellectual property property of the recording.

They only pay royalties to the songwriters.

Oh.

Which is very unique.

So we're the only country,

aside from North Korea, Iran, and Russia, that don't pay master, what they call master royalties, to the owner of that intellectual property.

And I think that needs to be changed.

You know, the original argument was, oh, well, we're promoting your music, so people are going to go out and listen to your music, and they're going to buy your vinyls, they're going to buy your CDs, they're going to buy your eight tracks whatever it was back in the day that's not really the case anymore because people get into their car and what do they do they put on the radio or do they plug in their phone plug in your phone you plug in your phone you put on spotify radio is is less and less i i like to make the analogy that radio is akin to the movie theater these days it's very similar yeah it's like an older crowd

they grew up with it they're used to it well and then here's the other kicker and again i'm going to say the quiet part out loud but i don't care i mean people need to know this Their argument is, oh, well, we're promoting your music.

You have to pay radio to get your music on the radio.

Really?

Yeah.

So if you want to go on 97.1,

you have to pay them money?

Yeah.

What if you're like number one on the billboard?

Okay, so if you somehow break and you go viral on TikTok or some or Reels or some kind of app, it sort of forces their hand to play you.

And at that point, you're probably already signed by a major because they've already scooped you up.

And then they've got their promotions guys calling the radio guys and they're, you know, calling the right people and they're, they're giving, they're supplying the money.

Got it.

Now, if you're an independent artist,

you can get on radio.

You just pay.

That's why I stopped listening to radio because it was the same 10 songs, dude.

Right.

So annoying.

Right.

They put it on a rotation and it's just, yeah, I mean, I'm still hearing the same song from two years ago.

It's like, come on, I'm kind of tired of this.

Yeah, it's annoying.

Yeah.

They need to play more variety of music.

I get it because they have to monetize, but right you know right that's a weird game well it's just weird i mean to me like if you're going to use someone else's intellectual property to sell advertising slots number one why charge them

and number two i think that just am i allowed to curse yeah that's just kind of up like you're using somebody else's property to make money right yeah you're getting double taxed yeah they're making money off both ends right yeah that's that's usually not allowed in business and to be in the same name list of iran north korea and Russia, like I don't think that makes our country look so great.

I mean, it's funny, European nations out of spite, let's say, like, for example, if Ed Sheeran

gets paid or gets played over here in the US,

we don't pay him royalties.

So if Beyonce gets played over in the UK,

They're like well fuck you if you're not gonna pay our artists.

We're not gonna pay your artist So they'll pay all the other other artists that come from anywhere else in the world aside from north korea iran and russia and the united states they'll pay them master's royalties but they won't pay american artists master's royalties that's crazy i didn't know ed shearing didn't make money in the u.s yeah

from radio i mean he makes money in the u.s as a songwriter because he's a prolific songwriter i mean he's written some great songs yeah um

And he makes money in the U.S.

from touring.

And he gets his royalty rate from his label.

I think he signed to Atlantic Red Raids, which is Warner Music.

But he does not get paid from master royalties.

Which is a lot.

It's a ton.

I've seen Mariah Carey's stats on her Christmas song.

Every year she makes 10 million.

Yeah.

Isn't that nuts?

Yeah.

Well, that's largely from streaming.

And if I had to guess, she probably had a hand in writing.

I'm not sure.

I could look it up.

But she probably wrote some of that song, if not most of it.

So she probably gets a big pub, like songwriter's check.

Got it.

Because again, they do.

With music, this is where everybody gets confused there's two pieces of intellectual property on what like most people would call a song you know a music consumer would call oh yeah that's a hot new kendrick lamar song well on the song there's the two the two pieces of ip are the composition

which is like i could take a piece of paper right now and write down lyrics and a melody and some notes and that's a composition really Yeah, that's a copyrightable piece of material right there.

That's a song.

Then if you take that song and you record it in a studio, that's the recorded performance of that song.

So, when you're consuming a piece of music, you're consuming two pieces of intellectual property.

Interesting.

You have the song, the composition, which is literally just sheet music, and then you have the recorded version of said song

being consumed.

And radio pays the songwriters, but they don't pay the owners of the recordings.

I see.

That's how that works.

Okay.

Wow.

Because Because that's the artist then.

And the artist, the label, the producer.

Yep.

Wow.

No radio money.

Interesting.

I always assumed as just a casual person listening to music that the artist made the most money.

No.

No.

In fact, artists live and die basically off of live performance.

Holy crap.

For the most part.

Unless you're writing your own music.

Now, if you're writing your own music, which is rare.

And you've.

It depends.

It depends on the act you're talking to.

Oh, okay.

And it depends on the genre.

But

yes, obviously, of course, it's very common practice for people to record other people's songs.

But yeah, if you're writing your own music, you'll make a lot of money from radio.

Interesting.

Yeah, because you see all these ghostwriter memes on social media.

Right.

Right.

How does that work?

So it's a ghostwriter, so they're not named.

So the artist takes credit?

So it depends.

It's a case-by-case basis.

And this is where we can get into the intricacies of it a little bit.

So

there's a famous rapper.

I don't want to name any names or give anybody's.

start with a dart with a d okay uh there's a famous rapper that

when he has somebody make a track for him

he buys out his publishing

so let's say this guy makes a beat that's dope writes some like really cool lyrics he says all right i'm gonna pay you fifty thousand dollars flat fee take it i'm gonna i'm gonna record the track so then that artist owns the songwriters even though he didn't write it he owns it.

And that's a stick for a lot of artists.

Again, and then it gets deeper.

Wow.

It gets deeper.

There's some artists that you can have like the craziest hit song written, ready to go.

Like, oh, yeah, that's dope.

Like, that's going to be the craziest song.

And they didn't write a note, a lick, nothing.

But they'll demand a percentage of the song.

Really?

Just because of who they are.

Whoa.

Yeah.

That's like a 360 deal almost.

Well, sort of.

A 360 deal is more with the label.

Yeah.

But, I mean, if a songwriter or a publisher, for example, which is people that is the companies that, you have record labels, you have publishers.

Publishers deal with songwriters.

Record labels deal with performers and artists.

It's the publisher's job to pitch songs to artists.

So let's say, you know, you send a song to...

I don't want to name names because I don't want to give anybody a word.

Let's say you send a song to a major recording artist and they really really like the song.

Like, oh, I would love to record that, but I need 20% of the publishing without changing a lyric, without changing any melody, nothing.

Wow.

And then you, as a songwriter, this may be the first hit song you ever wrote.

You have to wrestle with the fact that, okay,

well, this A-list act wants to cut, as we say, cut, record my song,

but I have to give up 20%

of my work in order for that to happen.

and you know in in many instances it's worth it because it can it can break you as a songwriter because their name holds a lot of weight of course of course

but um

you know it's just something that's it's kind of a shame that's interesting people have to give up some of some of their work yeah to give to the artist yeah i see artists getting a lot of heat for for using ghostwriters yeah and you know as a business point of view like it makes sense to use them because if you want to scale if you want to write a ton of songs you know exactly and the thing is though on on the exam based off the scenario I just described to you, you would never know that it's a songwriter because when it comes out, that artist will be listed as a songwriter.

So you're just assuming, oh, that person wrote part of it.

And in reality, everybody behind the scenes know he or she didn't write shit.

You know what I mean?

So, yeah, music is very intricate.

It's very, it's cutthroat.

Gray area.

I've been in the clubs when I was younger trying to cut deals.

I mean, dude,

I've seen an artist get $10,000 thrown in his face.

He signs the deal.

Record label makes like $15 million off.

What?

Yeah.

Holy crap.

Because these like 17, 18-year-old kids have never seen that much money in their life.

It's like, shit, I'll take that.

Meanwhile, they're signing them for everything.

Like literally merch, publishing.

live appearances, like everything.

Damn.

And then they're flipping them to, like, so they'll sign them and they'll flip them to another label and they'll take all the profits.

Meanwhile, the guy that signed them for 10K walks away with 15 mil.

That 10K check was the biggest check the artist ever got.

And they don't even know how much the label's making usually, right?

Yeah.

Because there's no way of really knowing.

I mean, you can do the math, you know, based on like what you're getting as your royalty rate and then figure out what 100% of it would be.

But no.

Crazy.

So if you get a million views on Spotify, because I think Snoop Dogg made a video about this.

He got like no money and he had the average is six thousand dollars six thousand dollars you get a million Spotify streams you get about okay, that's actually more than I thought to be honest, but you got to split that That's where it gets well You have to split it depending on the situation So if you have a producer He usually gets a cut if you if you've got a label they get a cut

As far as I know snoop dog is independent at the moment and he bought death row records so he should be getting all of his records dude look at that video because he had like 100 million views something crazy and he got thousands.

Yeah.

I don't know if it's, does it?

Does that $6 vary per genre or is it a set $6?

It's set $6,000.

Yeah, $6,000, I mean.

It's set.

They have a set royalty rate.

Okay.

Yeah, he must have had a weird split agreement then.

Yeah.

I actually know the distributor that he works with.

It's Create Music Group throughout L.A.

They're really good guys.

They're actually doing Lara's album as well.

They did Vultures for Kanye, the first one.

That's a big one.

Yeah, they broke a lot of big acts.

Ice Spice, they're responsible for Ice Spice.

Takashi6ix9ine, when he was blown up, they were responsible for him.

Torrey Lane's.

Wow.

So,

good label.

But,

yeah, the digital era of music, I think

some laws need to be amended to better reflect that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And Trump, President Trump, hate to jump into politics real quickly.

President Trump did.

pass the Music Modernization Act, which was the first step to rectifying that issue.

It amended copyright law to better reflect the digital era of music.

But I think there needs to be some additional legislation passed, and we'll see what happens.

Should Trump change his theme song to many men by 50 Cent?

I would say so.

I think he should have capitalized that on the moment.

That was going so crazy.

I think he should have walked out to that at the RNC.

100%.

That would have broken the internet.

It would have.

It would have.

And

I don't want to say too much, but we were

working on getting something to happen.

But

I can say that Trump walked out to many men today during the Aiden Ross show.

Oh, he did?

I didn't see that.

Yeah.

Oh, I can't wait to watch that later.

So finally, he made that happen.

Dude, that's legendary.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a lot of fun.

Dude,

that's a hit right there.

Oh, yeah.

Have you ever met 50?

50 Cent?

Yeah.

I think we've crossed paths maybe once or twice, but we don't have each other personally.

Got it.

Because hip-hop, that's where you're most connected, right the hip-hop space the hip-hop space yep yeah that's a political space as well but they right yeah and those two never really mix on the republican side not until now you're you're like the bridge not until now yeah because they've always supported democrats we're changing that you know even with uh who's that rapper that just performed at kamala's thing uh i forgot mega salion mega salion yeah well she's with rock nation which is jay-z and they're very anti-trump so okay that was to be expected but yeah they get paid yeah no it's cool to see you bringing some of them to the Republican side, man.

That must have been difficult, actually.

It was.

It was a tough conversation with every artist.

But I'll tell you what, after the assassination attempt, they all started calling.

My phone was going off the hook.

Really?

Everybody.

Oh, wow.

From artists you couldn't even imagine.

That was like the final straw for people.

And people were like, yo, like,

like, because I had been...

I had spoken to a lot of recording artists priorly.

And they all told me, oh, yeah, we fuck with Trump.

Like, yeah, Trump's the guy.

We just can't say it because we're scared of cancel culture.

And I'll give you an example.

President Trump brought Chef G and Sleepy Hollow out to the rally in the Bronx.

And then maybe a week later, there were calls for them to be taken off the Hot 97 Summerfest.

Whoa.

They lost a big business deal because

I don't think they got taken off because the contract was already done, but it's like just the calls, just like people saying it.

It's like it makes people reluctant to book them again.

Right, because they'll lose a ton of money.

Right.

And again, like I said, like, like, that's the way that artists live and die off of my performance.

So, you know, it's, it's, it's a real shame.

Damn.

Yeah.

I get it from a business point of view, 100%.

Right.

But I, you know, it's funny because I had been telling a lot of people behind the scenes, yo, Sway Lee loves Trump.

Sway Lee loves Trump.

And they were like, really?

It's like, yeah, they got a song like Up Like Trump, you know, Bray Schremer.

I don't know if you ever heard it.

Yeah, yeah, I have.

And then he puts out a tweet maybe a week ago, like, do not vote for Kamala Harris.

My phone's blown up.

And they're like, LJ, how did you know?

I was like, what do you think?

I just pulled this out of my ass.

Like, I've been talking to him for like eight months about this.

And I've seen him rocking a MAGA hat.

Like, he's all in.

Love it, dude.

Lil Pump.

Lil Pump.

Yeah, he's in.

He's cool.

I'm a fan of his

Gucci Gang.

Gucci Gang.

Yeah, he's Miami, too, right?

That's where you're at.

Yeah, he lives right around the corner.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're coming out, man.

Amber Rose, she's not a rapper, but that was a big deal.

That was a big deal.

Yep.

Because she was growing up in Cali and stuff, you know, with Khalifa, Kanye.

Yep.

Trenched in that world.

Yeah, that was a big deal.

And she got a lot of heat for it.

So props to her for like sticking through that.

Big props to her.

And she's from Philadelphia.

I think Scott Pressler and myself are going to be working on some events in Philadelphia.

Oh, nice.

That she'll be involved in.

So hopefully that's going to prove.

What type of events?

Well, we're going to be doing some

canvassing, door knocking, street cleanups.

Celebrity pickup basketball games.

Oh, I'm in for that.

Come.

Hit me up.

You ball?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, I'm nice, bro.

How tall are you?

6'6.

You ball?

Yeah, I'm not 6'6, though.

I'll see.

You want to play some one-on-one?

We might have to.

We'll have to put a friendly wager down.

Yeah, maybe throw $1,000.

I'm a betting man.

Let me hear your experience first.

Did you play high school, college?

No, actually, I didn't.

I played middle school.

Okay, I played middle school, so it's even.

But then I would always play just like pick up and my friends.

Yeah, I'm the same exact format.

I picked track in high school.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So.

Okay.

How tall are you going?

6'2 ⁇ .

I think I like my chance.

Maybe pushing 6'3.

Yeah.

Okay.

Are you a shooter?

Used to be.

Okay.

Used to be.

You're going to need a jumper to beat me.

Okay.

You think so?

You're not making a layup over me.

You don't think so?

No.

I got these crazy layups.

I'm a tumbo down there, bro.

I got that Euro.

You got the Euro?

Yeah, I got the Euro.

All right.

All right.

We're going to have to run it.

We're going to have to run it, bro.

Yeah, I love basketball.

Yeah, I'd love to have you out there for one of those.

Yeah, I'd love to promote that in Philly.

In Philly or Pittsburgh.

We're working with

senatorial candidate Dave McCormick.

Okay.

That's a very left area, isn't it?

Oh, yeah.

Well, we're going into the trenches.

Wow.

For lack of a better phrase.

I don't mean it in a negative way, but we're going right to North Philadelphia.

We're registering voters there.

We're going to be doing major concerts

in Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh, in Detroit, in Phoenix, in Vegas.

Where am I missing?

I'm in Vegas, so I'll definitely help with that one too.

Oh, yeah.

It's at Aviator Stadium.

Okay.

That's going to be a big one.

Yeah.

So definitely come to that.

So you're targeting these left cities, though.

Absolutely.

What's the strategy with that?

Well, if if you carve 10 to 15 percent away of the inner city vote from the Democrats, it's a nail in the coffin.

Wow, so you really think you can convert those communities, though?

Absolutely.

I mean, look at the polling.

The polling is one thing, but you actually have to turn those polls into votes.

I never know what polls to trust, dude, because I'll see Kamala tweet one, I'll see some other ones.

Oh, you got to look at the sample sizes, you have to see where they're coming from.

You know, sometimes I see some of the internal polling coming from the Trump campaign that'll email to some people, but

don't look at national polls.

Right.

They're not indicative.

A lot of these journalists love to show off the national polls.

They're not indicative of the Electoral College.

They're indicative of the popular vote, potentially.

Which doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

That doesn't get you into the White House.

You need to be looking at Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.

I don't even consider North Carolina a swing state anymore, but North Carolina.

They're saying Georgia is a swing state.

I don't believe it's a swing state.

Arizona, Key State.

Is Nevada swing?

Nevada,

they're considering it a swing, but if you look at the polls, Trump is up huge.

Nice.

Huge.

When I found out, because I've been there three years, when I found out Vegas has left, I was like, what?

I never met any Democrats there.

Yeah.

It's weird.

Yeah, it's interesting.

Super interesting.

I mean, it's, you know, it's back and forth.

Yeah.

It's back and forth.

I guess it's just who I surround myself with, but that makes sense.

That's a cool strategy, though.

I can't wait to see that, man.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely.

Because I, you know, I think that the Democrats for too long have felt like they've had an ownership on entertainment.

I mean, they own all the platforms.

Well, there's that.

Well, you know, it's funny because, you know, a lot of people started to cancel their

Netflix subscriptions.

I forget what it was about.

What did they do?

They did something.

Oh, one of their executives donated a bunch of money to Kamala's campaign.

Oh, okay.

And

my thought was, well, if you're canceling your Netflix subscriptions, get ready to cancel every other subscription because they're all going to have executives giving to Kamala's campaign.

That's just Hollywood for you.

So you're going to be left with no entertainment.

So yeah, we need it for sure.

The only one on the right is Twitter.

You're right.

You're right.

And truth, social, and

Rumble.

And that's why I love social media.

I think social media has sort of bridged that gap between pop culture and politics where, I mean, you may as well drop the name social.

It's just media.

Right.

And I think, you know, think about it.

Maybe 10, 15 years ago,

you wouldn't have celebrity congressmen and women.

women.

No.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, you wouldn't know on the streets.

Like, you would maybe know one or two people.

All I knew was Sarah Palin.

Right.

Right.

Right.

From the SNL and all that.

I mean, you know, she was a character and she's great.

But

now you have people like AOC on the left

or Anna Paulina Luna, who I really like down here, is very popular.

Matt Gates is very popular.

Byron Donalds.

Trying to play both sides here, who on the other side is popular.

Can't think of any.

AOC is kind of the face, I feel like.

Newsome.

Oh, yeah.

Westmore from Maryland is popular.

Guys like that.

But like prior to social media, could have walked the streets and asked, hey, have you ever heard of Alexandria Orkezio-Cortez?

The answer would have been no.

Now social media,

everybody knows who she is.

Out-of-staters, people who don't even live in her district.

Oh, yeah.

Champion for the left.

You know, and same thing on the right.

Do you know Matt Gates?

Oh, yeah.

Champion for the right.

You know, so we have this situation where celebrities, I mean, where politicians are becoming celebrities.

No, for real.

I'm in Vegas and I hear about Francis Suarez.

I hear about the,

you know, Florida.

Yeah, Suarez is an interesting guy, actually.

Yeah.

What's your take on him?

Do you live in Miami?

I like him.

I've had a couple chances to meet him.

He's a nice guy.

He's pro-crypto, which I like.

I'm big in crypto.

Oh, yeah.

Yep.

He's pro-crypto.

I'm not big in crypto but i've gotten into crypto a little bit recently this week's don't look at your portfolio right now oh i know

i i know and stocks are oh man yeah everything's looking bad i know which is worrying because usually leading up to an election they're pumping the market a little bit oh yeah absolutely so i don't know if this is going to turn into something more well we'll see what happens i mean everything's down from stock to crypto to real estate's down a bit i mean so Damn, it'll bounce back.

Yeah.

Now's a good, if you have cash, now's a good time to buy it a discount, I would say.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ethereum's at almost $2,000, dude.

That's insane.

It was at $4,000 like a year ago.

Bitcoin was up to $70,000.

Yeah, it's like $50,000.

Yeah, it's insane.

Nuts.

Insane.

You need a tough stomach to get into crypto.

You do.

You do.

Have you been in Miami your whole life?

No, actually, I was born in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Oh, I'm from Jersey.

Oh, no way.

Yeah.

How close is Edgewater?

I was in Bridgewater, so maybe 45.

Okay.

All right.

Different waters.

Yeah, but I lived in Jersey City

for a couple months.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I was born in Edgewater, New Jersey, just across the GW Bridge.

Lived there for about a year, and then I moved outside of Philadelphia where I grew up.

Wow.

Went to high school.

Then I went to the University of Miami.

Never looked back.

That's a big change.

I've been here ever since.

So you were in Philly.

So you were a Democrat growing up?

Hell no.

Oh, you weren't?

Oh, no.

But you were surrounded by that.

Oh, yeah.

I was raised right.

My first vote was Mitt Romney.

Oh, wow.

Yep.

So you voted early.

Yeah, I think I was one of the only people in my grade that was able to vote at the time.

I was born born in September So it was like the early days

I was the kid who could drive first.

Yeah, I hate everyone hated that kid.

Oh man

University of Miami.

What what what was the deciding factor to go all the way there?

Well, I had a couple friends who had gone there

Came down and visited small school.

I liked the fact that it was small

Is it small?

I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's about 14,000.

Oh, wow.

When you think of Miami, you think of like 50,000 people.

Yeah, you think huge.

Just like Penn State, it's like 50,000 people.

But no, Miami's small.

It's, you know, private.

My high school had about 4,000 students.

So

to me, it wasn't like a huge leap, but also the campus is beautiful.

I really, I just really liked it down here.

I've always loved warm weather, traveled a lot as a kid.

Hate the cold.

Have you ever lived up in, well, you said you lived in Jersey?

Jersey was cold.

We had a Cali campus in high school.

You have to wake up, you have to defrost your car, you've got to shovel the snow, you got to rake the leaves.

I mean, it's just too much.

It's too much out here.

You just walk outside.

Yep.

Exactly.

I don't even check the weather.

I just walk outside.

The worst, the worst you can get is rain.

A lot of that, but it's quick here at least.

I'll take the rain over.

Like five, ten minutes.

Yeah.

Well, dude, it's been fun.

Where can people find you?

Keep up with the music label and potentially get involved with you.

Well, you can find me on, well, my Instagram is LJ Fino.

My truth social is just at LJ.

My Twitter is also LJ Fino.

So those are probably the best places to find me.

If you want to keep up with the Super PAC and what we're doing, which we didn't touch on too much, if you'd like to touch on more,

it's newgen47.com.

We have about five to six concerts planned with turning point action in conjunction with them.

Nice.

Through those swing states that I mentioned with artists that you wouldn't believe.

Not at the liberty to say yet, but I did name one.

So, yeah, those are the places to find me.

Keep up with me.

Keep up with what I'm up to.

And then the label on Instagram is First Class Label Group.

And on Twitter, it's FC Label Group.

All right.

So when and where are the upcoming concerts and who will be performing at these?

So we've got our first concert in Detroit.

The artist.

For that one, I guess I'm not really at liberty to say yet.

Actually, you know what?

I am.

I'll just say.

it's a 5e04 and 42 Doug.

Whoa.

Doug got out of prison.

Doug's out.

Let's go.

Doug's from Detroit.

That's going to be a big crowd.

So that's a big

homecoming one.

Nice.

What was the date on that one?

September 1st.

Okay.

So get ready for that one.

You're obviously welcome.

Please come.

Thank you.

I've never been to Detroit, actually.

I haven't either.

I'm excited.

I'm a big music fan.

It's Motown.

You know what I mean?

Let's do it.

Gotta go see Hittsville.

Yeah, a lot of music out there.

Absolutely.

So our second concert is in Phoenix.

We have French Montana, and I believe it's going to be Sway Lee.

If it's not Sway, it's going to be fabulous.

And we're working on getting Laura Trump out there too so she can perform her song with French

as well, which will be very cool.

What's the date on that one?

September 8th, so the following weekend.

Then we've got a couple weeks in between where I'm going to be doing some

get out the boat, boots on the ground, grassroots efforts in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh,

up until October 28th,

where we have OT7 Quanny.

Maybe you've heard of him?

I haven't actually.

Well, he's he's like, if you're in Philly, he's like the hottest rapper out of Philly.

Okay.

Me growing up in Philly, Meek Mill was the hottest rapper for

that, yeah.

OT7 Quani, if you're 20 years old, you know who he is.

He's the next Meek Mill.

Yeah, yeah.

He showed up at Trump's rally in North Philadelphia about a month ago.

I was the one who kind of actually coordinated that.

Nice.

So he's going to be at the club.

I believe we're going to try to get Amber Rose there as well.

Hell yeah.

Um,

maybe I'm giving something away, but Saquon Barkley will be in the house for the Philly one at the in Philly.

Yeah, he's on the Eagles now, right?

I'm a Giants fan that hurts, but I'm a Giants.

I'm a Giants fan, too.

Let's go.

Rough, I know, I know.

Let's see what happens this year.

The training camp videos have looked nice, though.

Yeah, but those always like deceive you.

You're right.

You know what I mean?

You're right.

Eli Manning would look amazing in training camp videos.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You never know.

So hoping for the best.

Yeah.

But

yeah, so Philly,

and then I think the other artist in Philly is going to be fabulous.

Okay.

Then we moved to Vegas on October 16th, and we have Kodak Black.

Whoa.

Yes.

That's surprising.

Yes.

I did not know he was a Trump supporter.

You didn't know Kodak was a Trump supporter?

No.

Dude, Trump pardons him.

Really?

Yeah.

I did not know that.

Dude, Kodak walks around with a ring that says Trump ties.

No way.

He's got Trump tatted on him.

Dude.

He's got this crazy chain with Trump smoke and a blunt.

That's legendary.

I have no idea.

Yeah.

Yak is

come to that one.

Yeah, for sure.

Which venue is that up?

The Aviator Stadium.

Aviator Stadium.

So the Minor League Baseball Stadium.

Cool.

Yeah.

I'll be there.

Is that all four events?

No, and then the other one is in Pittsburgh.

It's going to be late into the season.

The final push with

what we hope to be Lil Wayne.

Whoa.

Yeah.

That's big time.

Yeah.

We'll link all this below, man.

If you guys want tickets, check it out.

Thanks for letting us know about it.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Sean.

Thanks for watching, guys, as always.

See you next time.

Thank you.