TAIS: 8 Arms, 2 Brains and No Limits

Posted by Justin Boland on Nov 19, 2009 | 0 Comments

Some names, like Drake or Sarah Palin, show up everywhere because there’s a publicist making $20,000 a week to make phone calls, all day long.  Some names show up everywhere because the artist behind the name is totally committed to their career.  TAIS is a perfect specimen of the DIY CEO: running every aspect of his career and embracing every challenge that comes his way.  I caught up with him while he was traveling to New York to sprint around the city for a week promoting his new single, Too Complex.  He’s a highly energetic and focused dude with a lot to say…

I interview some busy motherfuckers but you…are…CRAZY busy.  HOW do you keep track of all your projects and promotional work?

TAIS: Well, a lot of people don’t know this about me, but I have eight hands and two brains. I hide them when I’m in public, but when it is time to work, they all work together to try and take over the world. I know what your thinking, “What the hell?” I know, I know it’s not the answer you were looking for because most people would like to think I would say something like “I have great time management skills” or “I have a whiteboard that I keep ALL my projects on, and put due dates next to each item” (I do have both and stick to both vigorously), but it is really the fact that I have eight (sometimes more) hands. You see, I have my own two, and the other six or more come from Unseen Heroes. They help me handle a lot of the day to day stuff so I can keep focused on the bigger picture. It is a complete operation that blends what a lot of other artists can’t do: Mix the music with the business.

And I also take this as serious as anyone in any other profession does, so there is no time to rest. I live by two motto’s: 1) I can rest when I’m dead. 2) Live everyday like it is your last. I’m at that point in my career where I can no longer fail. And in “I can no longer fail” I don’t mean the cliché “I’m scared to fail, so I succeed” line. What I mean is that I am living my purpose, and in living my purpose, I live on purpose. So everyday I wake up, I look at my vision board (yes, I have a vision board) and I seize the day to the fullest extent.

How does your Vision Board system work?

TAIS: The vision board is something I picked up from mentors and actually a documentary called “The Secret” (I promise I was on to it before Oparah picked it up on her show). The vision board is based of the principal of Attraction or the Law of Attraction. In the simplest form, it is a map or goals you want to achieve in your life. Most people (hopefully), have some sort of goal or something they want to achieve in thier life. What the vision board allows you to do is actually “see” your goal or what you want to obtain. You collect pictures, descriptions, or what ever it is that reminds you of your goal, and you put it in a place that you always see it, so that everytime you do, you can see exactly what you want. For me, my vision board is life specific. All of the things that is on my board are things I want in my life overall. You can get specific to a certain area in life if you wanted to get that deep, but the overall idea is still the same: What you set your mind to is what you can achieve. 

What are your biggest questions about the future of hip hop? What do you spend a lot of time wondering about?

TAIS: That’s an interesting question. I guess I don’t spend a lot of time wondering about much honestly. I just try and “DO” more than anything. I think that time spent wondering is idle time that can be used to get something done. I know it might sound boring of unimaginative, but in the time people spend wondering about things, is when I get the most done. LOL. As far as Hip Hop goes, I guess it is like Mos Def said on the opening track of “Black On Both Sides”. Hip Hop is going where the people take it because Hip Hop is US. So in the end, it is going where ever we as a people take it. As far as questioning the integrity, although it is hard at times, I try not to honestly. I might not personally agree with some of the things that are portrayed, but I try to think of things on a universal level. So with that thought, I think everything happens for a reason (even if sometimes I don’t understand). And when I center myself on that thought, I don’t get frustrated or agitated with the ways of things right now. I accept it and work in my area of effectiveness.

How do you track and evaluate your promo projects?  What tools are you using to measure what’s a success and what’s a “learning experience”?

TAIS: Right now, I take a very direct approach to tracking and evaluating projects. I use google and gmail to track every time I am mentioned anywhere on the www. It is amazing the places that you find someone talking about your music, and they only way to figure it out is by keeping up to date with what is being said about you. Once I do that, I go into part two of the measurement: feedback from real people. I spend a lot of time texting or emailing people about the highs and lows of my music. I do my best to interact and connect with anyone and everyone who mentions me or something about my music. That way, I have a real response from the people that I want to reach most.

When someone tells me how a particular song I recorded touched them, I consider that a part of success. They other part of success comes from being happy with who I am and the music I put out. When I can sit back and listen to a song and know it is saying what I wanted without compromise, I rate that successful. As far as “Learning Experience”, one thing I’ve learned is over the years is to be humble and always be willing to show love to others. My purpose is deeper than music, so I NEVER want to be the guy who thinks his shit is the flyest or illest out. That route will get artist no where fast. I would rather speak to one person who is on the same page as me, then tell one million people I’m the hottest rapper out. With reaching real people, you are able to measure your success better because people respond to sincerity and choice better than they do promo from the ego. If you are measuring your projects amongst real people, they will be real with you.

How do things work with The Righteous Movement? As you all progress into professional careers, has your system changed?

TAIS: That is a good question. A lot has changed with Righteous Movement, but a lot has stayed the same. We started out as young cats making music collectively, turned into a group, and now it is back to the collective. It has always been a progression towards a better place in life, and I think that is something that we stay true to.

I always tell people we are like Hieroglyphics more than we are like a Tanya Morgan. We were all emcees in our own right before coming to the group, so it wasn’t like we started together and started rapping when we all met. I think it was tough at first because everyone gets comfortable in a group setting, and have big dreams of making it to the top or being successful. But when you lay it out on the table, “Success” is a relevant term that changes with the beholder. So, when you get to the bare bones of things, differences occur. And instead of doing what most groups do and break up, we rebuilt from the ground up and made it work even better than before. Now, we work together and push for everyone on in their solo projects, as well as the collective album. All in all, it covers more ground, and keeps the name more relevant and moving forward.

How did you connect with 6th Sense for your recent single “Too Complex”?

TAIS: One of my homeboys actually put me on to him. He had been talking about how dope this producer 6th Sense was, and that I would sound dope over one of his tracks. I decided to check it out, and he put me on to “It’s a 6th Sense Beat Yo”. I found a couple of gems on that project that really stuck with me. I haven’t even talked to him about the track personally. I just remember that he had a disclaimer at the beginning of of the project calling for emcees to do something fresh with it, and I thought that was dope.

I recorded to a couple of different songs he had on there (emcees - you need that in your life), but the “Too Complex” track just stuck out to me for some reason. I had just been told by someone that I need to rap on more hyphy or club type music, and that is the only way I would “Blow” (whatever that means). And at the same time I was talking to radio station DJs telling me my songs were dope, but they couldn’t play it on the air and had to play the club tracks they didn’t even respect. I guess at the end of the day, they have to report to someone that pays them right? But yeah, the “Too Complex” track just took me there. And I wanted it to be a very simply written track to provoke people would think, “What is so complex”? Because that is just the thing, it’s not “complex” at all. So hopefully, people will address the real reason the media is not balanced. I also wanted it to show that I don’t really care if they don’t, because I will still be me at the end of the day.

Do you think that promoting single tracks and keeping your name out on a steady basis is more valuable than putting in a year of behind-the-scenes work on a full-length album?

TAIS: Honestly, I do both at the same time because I think both are very valuable. I joke with people and say that I live in 2011 because that is how far out in advance I lay out projects. Literally, I have it all my projects mapped out, and I continue to add to it. The “TAIS” that people are seeing now, is only about 2% of my actual life at this moment.  The “new” single to the masses, is the “old” single for me. I have already created it in my mind, then mapped it out on paper, then put it into action, packaged it, promoted it, and leaked it. And all that comes before the release date. So by the time the average person hears it, I’m already rapping up the next project. I think as an artist, you have to be able to live in the now and work on the future. With the internet and all the social media sites nowadays, one day can make a world of difference. The X and Y generations want things NOW. And once they have what they want, they want more. I think that is why record labels are in the process of failing at this point in time. They are running on the NOW time frame and trying to make the same money as they once were. It isn’t a steady climb anymore. You have to think outside the box, and figure out ways to satisfy the Instant Gratification Mentality. They pump a lot of money into these artist, and take a gamble because the artist can literally be hot one minute and a has-been the next minute. So in knowing who my market is and how they operate, I plan for both. That way, when I drop a single like “Too Complex”, I feed that NOW mentality at the same time as I’m planning for the future. Honestly, as of THIS moment, I am working on at least 6 other projects: Albums, Mixtapes, EPs, Collab Projects, Hosting Mixtapes, Features, Ect. With all that in the pot, I’m well into 2012. 

Words of Advice for Young Future Mutants

What advice do you have for artists just getting started with networking, conferences and playing gigs in new cities?

TAIS: My advice would be to not listen to anything that I’m about to say after this sentence. Seriously though, I know it is copywritten, but it is simple as “Just Do It”.

1. Follow through on connections. If you get a business card or phone number, actually use it. You never know what can come of just sending an email or calling someone. 

2. Rock each show like it is your last. You NEVER know who is watching, or who the people who are watching know. Some of my best opportunities came from shows that most would consider unimportant.

3. Connect with LIKEMINDED people (emphasis on likeminded). People like to think that connecting or collabing with anyone will get you there faster, but it doesn’t. I like to use the metaphor of fishing. People use all thier energy chasing the small fish, and fill up thier bag will the small fish. At the end of the day, when the big fish does come, thier bag is full or they don’t have enough energy to reel it in (think about it for a minute).

4. Get Up. Get Out. Get Something.

5. Think bigger than the glass box we call Hip Hop. I run TAIS like a small business. That means I read a lot of business, branding, and marketing books and apply them to Hip Hop.

6. Spend time listening instead of trying to get heard.

7. Seek first to give love, then to get it. 

FLYER SCIENCE: Learn From TAIS

Source: TAIS music

One last point: check out the flyers that TAIS was running around NYC with.  He’s co-promoting with a Sacramento-based online clothing retailer, United State.  They’re tracking the results of the promo by giving people a promotional code.  This is an all-around rock solid example of doing sponsorship right.  It doesn’t have to look like a Pepsi ad, and you’re better off working with local business than national brands who view you as a replaceable component.

Other good examples to check out: Ro Spit and his Burn Rubber store in Detroit, and the recent moves Blue Scholars made: “signing” a record label, Duck Down Records, and entering into a brand partnership with a local coffee company, Caffe Vita.

If you have other recommendations, please drop ‘em and I’ll probably write a whole damn article about it.