Interview with MegaGoneFree

4 (1m 57s): What's going on. It is Adam. Welcome back to bringing it backwards. A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieved stardom. On this episode, we had a chance to hang out with mega gone free over zoom video. If you spend any amount of time on Tik TOK, you have definitely seen mega gun-free. They have a amassed like nearly 5 million followers on the platform, 77 plus million likes and millions and millions of shares and comments as well. We had a chance to talk with mega about their music career. Mega has always been a singer since they were young mega picked up the ukulele at 16 years old, and that's the instrument still use today for all of us make us covers that are up on Tech-Talk, but mega didn't start writing songs until they joined an afterschool program for singers and lyricists and rappers and poets and spoken word where you would go and share your written art with, with a group of mega talks about the success on Tik TOK, the latest songs they put out controlled delete and thermostat and mega tells us all about being chosen as one of the creators for the black Tik TOK trailblazers list, which is only a handful of people were chosen for this. 4 (3m 16s): We hear about having the billboard in downtown LA and just all the amazing things mega gets to do for the Tik TOK trailblazers and how that's amplifying the voices of the black music creators on Tik TOK. You can watch the interview with Megha and myself on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It'd be awesome if you subscribe to our YouTube channel like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik TOK at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on either Spotify, apple music, Pandora, iHeart, wherever you are receiving your podcasts, it'd be awesome if you follow us there as well and hook us up with a five star view, that'd be amazing. 5 (4m 1s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to, 4 (4m 7s): We're bringing it backwards with mega gone free. Well, this is about you and your journey in music. And I want to talk to you about all your new music coming out and how you got to where you are 6 (4m 17s): Now. 4 (4m 20s): Sweet. I did read from Beau or you're from Baltimore area. Talk to me about growing up there. 6 (4m 29s): Well, I didn't grow up in the prettiest part of Baltimore, but I had a pretty good experience. I feel like there are a lot of misinterpretations of Baltimore city, but I would say I was pretty lucky in my upbringing. It was, I mean, it was pretty nice. 4 (4m 54s): I mean, did you come from a musical household at 6 (4m 56s): All? No, I did not. Actually. I grew up pretty normal. Just, I was pretty smart for the like area that I grew up in. So I was lucky in that aspect. I had a lot of, I had really great parents, a really great mom who really guided me through that city, but yeah, 4 (5m 27s): No, no, no worries. Okay. So mom was obviously a good guidance for you in that, in that aspect, but like how, like what about singing and stuff, but you have an amazing voice. Was that something early on? 6 (5m 41s): Yeah, so I've actually been singing like my whole life, really from as early as I can remember, I've just always had a naturally like good singing voice and I'd always participant participate like extracurricular activities and school, like the class plays or when I was in high school, I joined a club called the <em></em> club where, which is where I discovered my love for songwriting. So. 4 (6m 12s): Okay, so you would, what? Right? Write song lyrics and this in this club or class. Wow. 6 (6m 18s): Yeah, it was, yeah, it was a club. It was an afterschool club. It was called the poetic where it is the point of the club was for like students to come and have a safe space to just like share their verbal arts. They had sparkle spoken word. There was, they had rappers there and it was really where I developed a love for songwriting because it helped me get through my emotions. 4 (6m 47s): What's the interest. That's an interesting in a rad class to have it at a high school. I mean, to, to be able to go after school and really share what you cause a lot of people write stuff down, write lyrics down or poems down in and never share them with anyone. Right. I mean to have a safe space to go there and actually show the work that you've been doing and what you've been working on that 6 (7m 9s): I'm really grateful. I'm really grateful. I want to actually go back to my high school soon and visit and see what everybody's up to. 4 (7m 18s): That'd be cool. Right. You come back here, like, look it up. Well, you know, you've achieved so much, especially on the online. I mean, it's your, your tick-tock count. Even your Instagram, all that stuff is amazing. You're doing such incredible things. Thank 6 (7m 34s): You. Yeah. 4 (7m 36s): Was it hard, like showing up to those, you know, afterschool that, that, that club that you're in, was it difficult that the first few times you went in there to, to open up and show what you had been working on? I would imagine that being pretty scary. 6 (7m 49s): Yeah, definitely. I, I used to sound right all the time in my songs or just, Yeah. But like, but I was still, I became president of the club. Everybody loved me. They acted like there is a certain level of authenticity in what I created, which drew people in. And even though it wasn't the best writing itself, people heard me in it. So 4 (8m 30s): Yeah. Did you go up and sing what you had written down or was it just kind of like presenting palms or lyrics that way? 6 (8m 37s): No, I would, I would talk their ukulele in hand. Oh, wow. Yeah. And, and same for everybody. The club would actually hold a concert every year and, you know, tore him for everybody to just go up and, you know, display for school. What we had been working on. 4 (8m 58s): Was it something that happened during schools to like your whole peer group was where watching you? 6 (9m 4s): No, it was an active school event. It was something you had to like buy tickets for and yeah. 4 (9m 10s): That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well, when did you learn, obviously you play ukulele and that's something that you play quite often on your, in your videos and on your stuff. When did you learn how to play that? And was that the first instrument you learned how to play? 6 (9m 23s): Yes, that was the presentation. Then I learned how to play. I learned to play the ukulele when I was like 16, 15 or 16. I picked it up because a lot of indie artists at the time that was the instrument everybody was using and still is, and it was, it's a pretty easy instrument to pick up. And those were the only two things came together. Yeah. 4 (9m 53s): Yeah. I mean, in a sense of like learning how to play it or like in weights, because it is the light, it is easy to pick up that way and performing, walking around with, but like, or was it like the four strings that was kind of like, okay. I think this'll be a little easier than a guitar. And what in, how did that yeah, go ahead. Sorry. 6 (10m 14s): I was just saying, yeah, I'm in, in terms of like learning to play the instrument. 4 (10m 19s): Right, right. And did you, was it like a self-taught or how did you learn? 6 (10m 25s): I'm so tired, 4 (10m 28s): Like YouTube or something that you'd go on and look and watch it. 6 (10m 33s): Y 4 (10m 37s): Okay. And with the, with the ukulele, what, what drew you to that aside from, what was it? Just the fact that a lot of EDRs at the time were using like the sound of it. 6 (10m 46s): I wish there was a more dynamic story. I decided to pick up the specific when you go at it, but it was really just the, at first I wanted to pick up the saxophone, but yeah, I tried picking up the violin, but the ukulele is really what stuck. So it's yeah. 4 (11m 12s): Did you ever pursue the saxophone at all or was it just like, oh, that'd be cool to play. There's always time. There's always time to go back and learn. Okay. So you get the ukulele or you start playing it a 16. Is that when you started to really form full songs and really be able to write. Okay. And prior to that, just writing what melodies and lyrics. 6 (11m 39s): Yeah. I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? I didn't know. 4 (11m 43s): Prior to learning ukulele, you said you've been writing some for a while. So before that, were you just writing lyrics, lyrics and kind of melodies? Well, 6 (11m 51s): I kind of picked up, 7 (11m 54s): You spend a third of your life in bed. That's why we make the most comfortable sheets in the very best way. 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What was it, what changed and what made you go from doing the covers to presenting your own songs? 6 (14m 12s): I was a teenager and I had a lot of emotions and I, I just always loved the music and I just naturally drifted towards songwriting and conveying what I had. I think it's so beautiful to convey what you have to say through music. So I stuck my toe in it and Yeah, it grew gradually. Yeah. 4 (14m 43s): And from like high school, did you, what did you do after you had finished high school? 6 (14m 50s): After high school? I actually took a break from music. I was going to go to college, but I college wasn't for me. So I had moved out on my own at 18 Baltimore city. I had managed to snag some student housing. So there you go. I, I walked dogs. I just had like normal jobs, just trying to figure out how to be an adult. And eventually I started songwriting again because of like, I was going through some stuff and I had remembered how music had comforted me in high school. 6 (15m 36s): It was just naturally drawn back to it. So yeah. And then I recorded some music. 4 (15m 45s): Okay. And from there when you, was it like, did you record it? Like, in what sense? Like, did you go to a studio and were like, okay, I've got these songs. I don't want to record them. I'm going to put them out. Like how, or was it like, I'm going to go on to, cause obviously you have a massive following as far as like your social media accounts go. And was that something that kind of came hand in hand with that? Or did that come later? 6 (16m 7s): That came later. So I, I picked up, I completely like drama all music at one point. And then I picked up my ukulele again and I started, I had joined tic-tac at this point, but just, I was just using it casually. Like everybody else I would post covers. There's some way, way back. If you go to like 20, 20, 20, 19. You'll see. Since that I have been posting covers, not as much as I do now, of course, but I've always loved it. And that I picked up song writing again, and I went to the studio. 6 (16m 47s): Yeah. I have a studio that I go to RightWay studio on resi, beautiful producer. And with Daniels, Arno, I still go to him to this day, but I went to the studio and I recorded a song called UV light, which is not up anymore, but I need to re upload it and control, delete, which is out. I started promoting you realize on my, on my tick time. That's how I got my start. That's why I became a creator 4 (17m 22s): For that song. 6 (17m 24s): Well, I credit, okay. I won't say that for promoting. You'd be like, I had like a little POB phase, but in that grew my account significantly. I say that got my accounts like around 80 K and then I started promoting. You'd be like, and then my, from there, my account grew to about a and 30 K. That was a really nice experience promoting. You'd be like I, yeah, 4 (17m 59s): Yeah, no that's okay. So you, I'm sorry, what got you to ADK? I didn't quite catch what you said. 6 (18m 7s): So before, before I've gotten to the point where I was just focused on music. I had, I would just post like regular casual content and there's like the sub genre on tic-tac that are called. Like POV's people, people have been doing them since the, since Pixar first started. They're, they're very different now than what they used to be. But along with, cause I'm very, I love a lot with music. I just love visual arts and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate visual arts into my, my art as well. 6 (18m 50s): And that was another great way for me to just express myself creatively was doing these POV's people were like act out situations to certain sounds and that, and a lot of people to my accounts. 4 (19m 8s): Okay. So you started with those videos and then slowly integrated what your own music or the covers? 6 (19m 15s): I slowly, sorry. 4 (19m 19s): I just looked and then it stopped beeping. Like he looked at the, 6 (19m 29s): I started promoting UV light next. 4 (19m 32s): Okay. Okay. So you started promoting your, your song next. Got it. 6 (19m 36s): Yes. And then from there that's when the covers took off, that was like early January, 20, 21. I stopped putting new BWI and I, and pursued the cover completely because with the covers, I like to say that it was like quite literally one of those, like not overnight, overnight situations where I had posted a cover and it blew up, it got like 300,000 likes. Wow. 4 (20m 7s): Do you remember a cover? It was, it 6 (20m 9s): Was a cover of American boy by Iselle and Kanye west, but I subbed the, the pronouns in was song. I had made them, they, they, them pronouns so I can like highlight them on binary community. And that was amazing. That one video, I still have great memories of just seeing just the whole community, just, just come into my comments section and just feel so validated and loved. That was amazing. But I was like, well, that worked out might as well do it again. So I posted another cover and the next one was by mother, mother and I had gotten the same result, like the same amount of lights and everything. 6 (20m 55s): So from then on, I had just posting, I kept posting covers again and again every day. And it got me to where I am now. I did it for a whole year and I managed to curate an audience of ours. 4 (21m 11s): That is so amazing. That is so amazing. I mean, I would like, it must have within a year, a year's time to have nearly 5 million followers on there. Like, I mean, you must've been gaining thousands upon thousands of followers every single day. 6 (21m 30s): I, I used to, like when I first, first started, I used to like keep track of how many followers I gained a week. And at one point for a while I had gained like a hundred thousand dollars. That is insane. Yeah. It was crazy. It was like, once I got on people's for you page, people are like, hold on now. Yeah. It was just, I'm just eternally grateful for it. 4 (21m 59s): Yeah. Well, well then when that starts happening, I mean, how does that change your life? And that everyday sense? 6 (22m 6s): So when it first started happening, I was actually working as a manager at a nine to five, this restaurant back home. And I had recently quit my job before. So my tech talks had started blowing up, but my career hadn't like, got it. Yeah. So, but I put the job cause it sucks. I was going to pick up another job and do tick tattoo. Cause my tick-tock had grown to the point where I made a little bit of money off of it, but it, it wasn't like my career. 6 (22m 47s): Like, it wasn't like anything big yet. So I was going to pick up another job. But while I was looking for another job, my career had grown to the point where I didn't need to look for one anymore. So yeah, that was really nice. I've worked with a bunch of beautiful people and 4 (23m 10s): Yeah. Yeah. Like once that starts to say, I'm just curious. Cause once that starts happening in like your, your followers are going up and like you're getting all this traction to our people, like reaching out to you at this point, like, Hey, like, you know, you got something going on here, like let's work together. And then what does that look like? And how do you kind of pick and you know, kind of sift through the noise of who's actually there to help you and who isn't 6 (23m 33s): Of course. So, oh my gosh. 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When you download the McDonald's app, no purchase necessary. MCD app download and registration required. Visit McDonald's dot com for offer details. 1 (24m 57s): Your just a few taps away from crispy golden and delicious. A scroll from refreshment bliss of mere click stands between you and a tasty treat. Get the McDonald's app with mobile order and pay and stay connected to all your favorites. 2 (25m 13s): Give free large fries. When you download the McDonald's app, no purchase necessary. MCD app download and registration required. Visit McDonald's dot com for offer details. 6 (25m 28s): Actually, Mike, as my account grew, I started like bringing in bigger people. Like I've worked with Proctor and gamble. I've worked with, I worked with Proctor and gamble pretty early on in my career, but yeah, I think they kind of caught on to what was going on before everybody else did, because I went with them around like March of last year and I hadn't posted, I hadn't started until January of that year, but yeah, mum, for the most part, people will reach out to me through my business email. 6 (26m 9s): Yeah. 4 (26m 10s): Wow. And then, I mean, obviously you've just kept yeah. Your account kept growing. You're still putting up covers to this day. It's still doing that. And you also are releasing, you know, your own music. Is that something I want to, well, I want to talk to you about, you said you're going to bring back UV light and you've put out control, delete, and thermostat is the newest one. And is it like when you present those songs, like on your tick-tock or your Instagram account, do you feel like, is that something that like, obviously you gained reaction and traction with UV light, which then led to the covers and then you come back and you're like, okay, here's the mountain of the original song? Was that something you were worried about? Like shocking your fans or the new fans that he had generated? 4 (26m 53s): Yes. 6 (26m 53s): Yes. I had to come to the realization that tick-tock is a very neat app. And when it says for your page, it means for your page, it won't, it doesn't push, it pushes a certain type of content onto certain for you pages. So the people who are fans of my covers are not always going to be the same people who were fans of my original music. So I still I'm honestly still I've gotten to the point where it's time to figure out the algorithm on my original music itself. 6 (27m 37s): But I feel as though those are like two different entities, but yeah, there was, I, I used to be really worried about who's to be worried about everything. Cause it happened so quickly. I used to think it would like, it would just one day I was just going to post and it was just going to like disappear because it happened so fast. Yeah. But yeah, I had, I had them, one of them wasn't the case with the original music. Yeah. I'm rambling. I'm sorry. 4 (28m 7s): Okay. And it's okay. Yeah. It's just, I couldn't imagine that being get difficult because, but like you said, it is kind of split up, right? I mean, especially tick tock, tick tock, a lot of people are mainly focused on that for you page aren't they? I mean, they're not really going over to the other who they're falling and neces. I mean, I'm sure some people are, but it's what really matters is if you make it onto that for you page, but I guess like you said, how the algorithm works, if you're doing covers and then you're not doing cover, it might, they might not throw you in front of the same group of people that you usually would get put in front of 6 (28m 42s): Of course. Yeah. Yeah. That's 4 (28m 44s): Interesting how that algorithm works and I'm trying to crack that code. 6 (28m 48s): Oh my gosh. When I first started, I used my, like, I was like a fiend for trying to figure out the algorithm and, and like figuring out what worked, what didn't and why things didn't work. I still am. It's just, I'm used to it now, but yeah, I'm excited to figure out. I have, of course I have a better idea of we're doing it for a while now, but I'm excited to figure out the algorithm for some upcoming releases and I've started to expand my content to things other than like just me singing, like just some things to like show my personality and I'm excited, implement new content for my new music, I guess is what I'm trying to say. 4 (29m 50s): That's exciting. That is exciting. Well, tell me about thermostat. Was this a song that was, are the songs that are coming out? Were those written recently enough? Like or like how long have you been sitting on those songs? 6 (30m 1s): So the songs that I I'm planning to come out with, I'm actually in the process of writing them. Now I'm planning on going in March back home to Maryland to record some stuff. And I want to have I'm planning to release a lead single because I'm planning on doing like an entire project before the years out. I want to start performing live shows in New York now. So it's a bit more accessible to me, but I, yeah, that's the place right now too, 4 (30m 48s): To go record some more songs and get some stuff out and, and play some live shows. 6 (30m 53s): Yeah. I have a better idea. I started expanding like the, what am I trying to say? My audience, I started besides like people wanting to hear me sing up, started posting things about a body positivity. I started posting more about myself, my insecurities things I like, and I'm planning on implementing my new music into the new content that I had introduced my phone to. 4 (31m 28s): Okay. Well that must've been another difficult step to do, to, to be that vulnerable, especially with 5 million eyes on, 6 (31m 37s): I mean, yeah. Everybody's always like, how do you do that? I've never really thought about it. I, for me it was, it was easy. I'm always with my music. I try to be as vulnerable as possible because a large part of the reason that I write music in the first place is because I want people to feel validated and like they're not alone in things. So I, that was just natural for me. It was natural for me to just put myself out there for everybody. And I'm excited to do that even more. 6 (32m 19s): Yeah. I, I feel like, yeah, I feel like I haven't done it enough 4 (32m 26s): When it comes to, you know, having obviously the presence you do on Tik TOK that obviously turns into like a full-time gig. Right. I mean, you'd have to like keep up with what's going on and is that a difficult thing to do? Like, do you have to like wake up, like what's an average day for you look like you wake up. You're like, okay. I gotta like figure out a video or I got to figure out what song I'm going to cover. And then do you have to learn the song? Like how does, like, what does that look like? So, 6 (32m 54s): So I will usually, I have like time that I set aside to go on Tik TOK and consume as much as possible. See, what's trending, see what's happening. See what songs are trending. That, that fit my niche. That don't fit my niche because I sing specific types of songs. Like I, I, I pile a bunch of, yeah, I sing, I sing what I see on the air. I like to sing things that I like. Like, I don't want to just push out just a bunch of music and everybody's confused. I want to keep people engaged. 6 (33m 35s): I want to keep people, I guess, in the same, 4 (33m 41s): Right. You don't want to steer too far out of what you've been doing. Like you're not going to just go jump way over here just to do it. Right. 6 (33m 47s): Exactly. So I'll, I'll set aside time to go through the app and spoke your mind for you. They just see what's going on. As far as creating covers, I'll do one of two things. I'll either. Yeah. You have to sit down and like learn the song. I'll, I'll look up the chord progression and I'll, I'll figure out how I want to sing it. Like what, what not I want to hit. And I'll either just like record it in front of the camera or sometimes I'll pre-record things and put them up that way for the, for the really intricate songs that I want to get just right. 6 (34m 35s): I'll do that. Yeah. 4 (34m 39s): That's cool. I'm just curious. It gets so cold that you've like you've created this, this such a big fan base and like it, the whole idea of tick tock, tick tock fascinates me in the sense that it's like initially a, like, it could be every, it's a li it's an, a level playing field for everybody in the sense that like, I have just as much of a chance of landing on the four U pages anywhere else. And it just depends on what the content is that you're putting out. If people are willing to engage with it or they're not, and it's all a matter of opinion. And it's really, I think, such a cool thing. And even going back to what I was saying earlier about like the, for you page versus the following you page, I mean like a lot of people probably aren't on the followers page as much as they are on just trying to figure out what's on the, for you page. 4 (35m 29s): Like what's oh, tick talks already serving me all this cool stuff that I already liked. So why am I going to go mess up with it? Like, I'm just going to keep staying on here. 6 (35m 37s): Yep. I like to say that tic-tac is the app for strangers to, to engage with each other. I feel like Instagram, Instagram is for 7 (35m 50s): You spend a third of your life in bed. That's why we make the most comfortable sheets in the very best way. I'm Scott Tannen. Eight years ago, my wife Mitzi and I founded Bolin branch to create the new standard embedding. We source pure organic cotton and put workers' rights. First today, boll and branch makes the highest quality sheets in the entire industry. 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You're seeing all the people that you're already following and you're engaging with you are seeing, but yeah. And I'm curious to see like, okay, so tell me about this Tik TOK trailblazers lists that you're on. 6 (38m 10s): Oh yeah. My child, to me to be a trailblazer list. I had a lot of people haven't heard about it. I haven't heard about it before because tick-tock has a program for black creators in general and they do it. 4 (38m 26s): I was gonna say, I remember them doing something last year, but I didn't, I wasn't able to, I didn't nobody ever, like, I didn't have a cool conversation like this to have with somebody to like really learn about it. Just knows on a banner. I'm like, oh, that's awesome. They're doing that. 6 (38m 41s): Yeah, they, yeah, they don't really like, I guess I don't really try to push it too much, but they reached out to me. I was so like, it's like, they reached out to me and they, they just, they were like a bunch of people have been, have like brought to our attention that your account is like one worth noting. So I had to apply for it. And I sent him all my information. And then, yeah, I got the email that they, that they wanted me to be a part of it. Yeah. It's pretty cool. There's 12 of us. I've gotten to meet. So a great creative. Some of that I already knew about some that I recently discovered because of it. 6 (39m 26s): And yeah, it's just been a cool thing to be a part of. 4 (39m 29s): And can you tell me a little bit more? Like what, what, like, what does it entail to be part of the tick-tock trailblazers 6 (39m 37s): They have, what have we done? We've done so much. How do we start? We had, they have us make a lot of content for their socials. They that's pretty much for the most part, what we've been, we've what we've been doing. We've been making content for like Tik TOK, Instagram and gal. And they had, I know for one, for the introduction video we did, they had that as a banner ad on Tik TOK. 6 (40m 18s): So when you first opened the app, you seem like all of our faces in this one video is really cool. 4 (40m 25s): That's awesome. More people to you, right? 6 (40m 29s): That's correct. Yeah. The, I commented on the video and a lot of my followers had see the comment and engage with it. I, yeah, it was pretty cool. That was, that was, that was really cool for me. Cause those banner ads, they, they they're pretty penny. So I, I was honored to be a part of that. Again, people are like adding me in it. I'm like, guys, I know 4 (41m 1s): That is so cool. And with, with that, like, are you collaborating directly with the other people that are involved or do you guys, or they'll send the video out and, or send a prompt out and say, okay, and then mega, you're going to do, I want, we want you to try to do this and so-and-so is going to do this. 6 (41m 16s): Yeah. They'll send prompts out. So yeah, they've had us do a whole bunch of them. They had us do one where we had to write a love letter to another black creator that like to highlight. And they had us do one where like they had us do one. It was like, you had to like do an intro. Like you were in a, a black sitcom, like theme song. What am I trying to say? Like, I don't know how to explain it. Like you had to like come out of the door and act like you were in like in the sh in a show or 4 (41m 56s): TV show or something like, Do you get to come up with your own content? They just say, okay, what you're going to do is you're going to open the door and now you're on the sitcom go. 6 (42m 8s): So yeah, for the most part, yeah. They'll give us prompts and things to do. 4 (42m 13s): That's fun to try to do. I mean, that, that might, especially if you weren't like an improv, like, you know, improv comedian or improv person was that hard. I mean, you're coming off as like a, you you're like I do songs and I write songs and then there's nothing to do with music. 6 (42m 33s): That's pretty cool. I'm pretty creative. I love, I love challenging myself. So yeah. It's fun. 4 (42m 43s): Is it going to go through the end of the month or how are they going to, are they going to carry it on or how does this work 6 (42m 49s): And when black history month is over. Okay. 4 (42m 53s): Wow. What an honor to be a part of that. 6 (42m 56s): They have us on a billboard in downtown LA. Wow. Yeah. 4 (43m 4s): I was going to say again, a chance to see it. 6 (43m 8s): Oh yeah. I'm in New York, 4 (43m 10s): But they didn't put it in New York, But still LA I mean, that's huge. That's so crazy. 6 (43m 19s): Yeah. I wanted to go see it, but I didn't get a chance to, 4 (43m 22s): But it's still, I mean, now you were, you were on it. I mean, that's you, I mean, what a huge accomplishment. 6 (43m 29s): Amazing. Yeah. I can't believe it. 4 (43m 31s): That's so amazing. And the one thing that when they next respond to you, you should need it. You need to say, unless I've been, unless I'm mistaken, you're, you're kind of been verified on Tik TOK. 6 (43m 44s): No, it is not. 4 (43m 47s): Who do we have to call right now? 6 (43m 54s): I brought it up. I've been talking to my context, like the people who I've been involved with traveling programs to make that happen, 4 (44m 4s): It needs to happen. It's I mean, how many more million followers you need for them to verify your account? 6 (44m 10s): Yeah, true. My followers are asking all the time what's going on, 4 (44m 18s): But if you make, I think if you make noise on there, then yeah, I'll do it because it's, I interviewed a guy like last year and he didn't have a verified account and he does, he's a voice, he's a singer, but he's also does voiceovers on like a really popular animated television show. And he was going off about how he's not verified on Instagram and then was like posting about how he's not verified. It literally like a week later he posted. 6 (44m 52s): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 4 (44m 58s): But I guess you don't want to poke the bear. They might just be like, oh, we're not going to put your stuff on the page. 6 (45m 5s): Yeah. I've been trying to make it happen. I've been trying to not have to do that. Right. 4 (45m 13s): Right. Right. Well, I know it'll happen. And it obviously happened 6 (45m 17s): Eventually. 4 (45m 18s): That's so cool though. Well, I'm nigga, you are awesome. I really appreciate your time. This has been so awesome. I'm so happy for you. And to be part of that Tik TOK trailblazers to have a billboard in downtown LA, like those are such massive accomplishments to have, especially within such a short period of time. That's so cool. 6 (45m 39s): Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. 4 (45m 42s): I have one more question for you. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists 6 (45m 49s): For inspiring artists, as far as like in general, or like promoting on Tik TOK. 4 (45m 55s): However you want to promoting on Tik TOK, since you do a very good job at that. 6 (45m 60s): Well, I would say consistency is very important when it comes to promoting in general, you have to keep, like, there was like a study that people that came out that said like, it takes people like seeing your face seven times on, on social media too, for it to click what's going on. I would say consistency is a big thing. Just make sure people are seeing you. I would also say make sure that you're putting out stuff that you want to, and not that people want to see from you. I struggled with that a lot for a while. I would just make content that didn't really speak to me, but I know what performed well on my account.