For more than a decade, New Orleans emcee Curren$y has made himself an intergral part of the indie Hip-Hop scene. Once, a star on the rise signed to Lil Wayne, Spitta took control of his career and his life when he took a big bet on himself and broke away from the major label system.
Releasing music under his own imprint, JetLife, Curren$y was able to create not just a home for music, but a hub for everything that embodies the artist. In the process, he became the owner of his career and inspiration of many emcees behind him.
Right now, everything from music, fashion to cannabis falls under the JetLife umbrella.
Only a month into the new year and the JetLife captain has released a new album and new designs to his clothing empire.
Who says you need a machine to machine?
When it comes to business, we can all take cues from how Curren$y set himself and his JetLife brand apart from the rest. Here are three key points you can take from him.
Patience Is A Virtue
Once signed to Young Money, Curren$y was part of a four-man team that also featured Lil Wayne. It’s hard to stand-out when Lil Wayne is on every track with you. Many missed out on his talent due to being under the YM umbrella. Splitting with Wayne at a time when his star was on the rise was definitely a risk. But jumping into any new venture takes a different level of courage and a certain level of patience. In a recent interview, he spoke about making that move and that it was his mother’s support that kept him on path to becoming one of the biggest independent acts.
Learn Your Audience
Being independent, you have to do a lot more work to find out who your actual audience is. Every sale, every mention, is a way for you to understand a little bit more about why someone supports you. Spitta does an amazing job utilizing social media to test everything from new music to new drops from his JetLife clothing line to show off his weed line, JetFuel OG. Most of his interactions on social media are more like market research studies. Knowing that you might have few resources at your hand to market your brand, take advantage of the few you have and optimize it to the best of its ability.
Take Every Loss With A Grain Of Salt
Everything hasn’t always been a win for Spitta. Leaving both Lil Wayne and Warner Bros. had to be looked at like potential career suicide to those around him. In every loss is a lesson. Take time to look at each loss and see what you did wrong! As he stated in this interview with Dj Booth, everything is about learning.
“I think at this point, everything is just learning,” he says of Wayne’s situation. “He learned hella, hella lessons. I don’t think you regret anything that you learn from. I wouldn’t feel like he would regret it, because he learned it. That’s game he got now. He’s still got time left.”
Whether you’re trying to brand yourself as an influencer or your launching your own product line, take a few lessons away from one of Hip-Hop’s hardest working artists as you go on your entrepreneurial journey.