Rebel Radio

Back with my co-host Eddie Donaldson of Guerilla One, I sat down with Guerin Swing, talented artist / interior designer and longtime fixture in LA's nightlife and celebrity culture. Man, this dude has some stories! House of Pain, Pam and Tommy, graffiti battles — we cover a lot of ground. What I found most interesting is the way Guerin connects all of these different worlds, brings beauty and spirituality into the grimier parts of culture. Dig in. Check out Guerin's art here: https://guerinswing.com and https://www.instagram.com/guerinswing/ Follow Guerilla One here: https://www.instagram.com/guerillaone/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daddy Kev is the homie from way back. He's also one of the leaders of the LA beat scene and part of the reason we're bumping cats like Flying Lotus and Thundercat. He's the founder of Alpha Pup Distribution and the new club night Scenario, which replaced the longtime favorite Low End Theory. Kev schools us on how he's trying to make the industry safe for artists and at the same time build a dynasty that he can pass on to his kids. He also puts us up on some fresh new music. Peep game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pandemic changed everything. It meant the end of some companies, the beginning of others, and for still others — a pivot, or multiple pivots. Perhaps no industry was reshaped more than live entertainment. In many ways, we still haven't reached the other side, as performers, promoters, technologists, and fans continue to reevaluate how they're going to behave, with a mix of in-person and virtual experiences. Chris Korbey's Stage Pilot is one of the many companies who had to / got to rethink what business they're in. The asked themselves, "what would a VIP experience look like with no venue? So we started going to artists and saying, like, what can you not do on stage? Like, what is the thing you've always wanted to do?" Let's dig-in to Chris's journey and how he's building a team that's prepared to take on whatever the future brings us. And check out Stage Pilot's upcoming experiences here: https://stagepilot.live Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Hilton is one half of Thievery Corporation, the DC-based duo who made a big impact on the way the genre incorporates electic elements from other genres and parts of the world. They might be considered pioneers of the album format in electronic music, and were among the few artists who could make you dance, chill, and think all on the same record. Eric is now releasing solo projects, including the beautiful new project, Ceremony, in addition to his longstanding second career designing hospitality venues, plus other creative ventures. We get into all of that along with some tips on how he's maintained a successful partnership for more than 25 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artist Republik is out to democratize music distribution and marketing, part of the wave of companies supporting the idea of a "middle class" artist through a combination of technology tools and a mindset of transparency and empowerment. Founder and CEO Nick Cianfaglione gives us a bit of insight into his vision, as well as the tireless work ethic and optimism it takes to fight it out in the digital music business. He's still in his early 20s, so the tireless part should be easy, but he also brings the experience of an entrepreneur who has already founded multiple companies — from clothing to concert promotion and music marketing. Check it out to hear what he learned from those early efforts and how he keep his team motivated and engaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arrested Youth will outwork you. He writes music every day and says he approaches music the way he approached training when he played soccer growing up. We dig into the relationship between work ethic and creativity and talk about what it was like collaborating with his fans on last year's Arrested Youth & The Quarantiners, as well as being embraced by pop-punk legends Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 and John Feldmann of Goldfinger on his new project, Nonfiction. Check it out now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christie Zee is a force. She's a direct link to the underground and the origins of hip hop. Producing the world's most important turntable battles as CEO of DMC USA. Creating park jams that celebrate the essence of the culture. And more. And more. Dig the stories she shares. A masterclass in vision, passion, and will. Might just make you dust off your turntables, or at least watch a DJ get down on-screen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Swift is a turntable legend. He's been a DMC champion, a member of the X-Men (later X-Ecutioners) DJ crew, a solo artist and producer, with a new project out now called Halls of Karma featuring The Real DMT, available everywhere you stream your music. Rob has taught the art of DJing for many years and has recently opened his own school: The Brolic Army DJ School (https://brolicarmydjschool.com). He's also a philosopher, reading self-development books and constantly challenging himself, his collaborators, and his students, to stretch beyond their comfort zones and find new depths. Our interview gets into why anyone should work so hard at DJing when you can just let the machines do it all for you, and why it's so important for DJs to know the history of their craft. Join us as we explore Rob's extraordinary career. https://brolicarmydjschool.com http://www.djrobswift.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mia Martina is a real-life overnight success story. Her first time in a recording studio was to record vocals for "Stereo Love" for Edward Maya. The song was an instant hit and now has over 50 million YouTube views and has been streamed hundreds of millions of times all over the world. It was the opposite of grinding your way to success. But for Mia, that was only the beginning. She quickly had to figure out the rest of her career, and made some mistakes along the way that are completely understandable. "Read your contracts," was one of the big lessons she learned the hard way. We talk about Mia's journey, which has led her to co-author "Boss Up Your Life" with Ky-Lee Hanson to help women turn their talents into money making machines. Pick up a copy at https://bossuptips.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find out why Audiomack was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies. Founder Dave Macli gives us some insight into how he goes about competing with the world's largest companies. "If you came up with a list of companies you don't want to compete against, it would be like Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon. And that's pretty much what we're going up against every day." Hint: It's all about finding a niche. As we say, play the game you can win. We also get into some great lessons about hiring and building a team. Come on now... Some favorite tracks found on Audiomack https://audiomack.com/peruzzivibes/song/matrimony https://audiomack.com/superboycheque/song/history https://audiomack.com/richassani/song/thunder-fire-you https://audiomack.com/dave/song/titanium https://audiomack.com/zo3hree5ive/song/the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tritonal's Chad Cisneros gives us some insight into how he and his partner have stayed at the top of the electronic music game for over a decade. First, it's about productivity: "You produce when you're sad and you produce and you're mad. You produce when you're lonely and you produce when you're inspired and you produce and you're uninspired and you produce every day because that's what you need to do." It's also about purpose. Their new album, Resonance, is an hour-long meditation record. They stepped away from dance-floor bangers and trance epics to dig share a bit of the personal transformation they've been going through. Chad explains the value in taking a break from the success formula they've been following: It allowed us to slow down, go back home to roots. And now it's so fun again to really approach songwriting because we really have become better songwriters and we work with amazing songwriters. The difference now is now we have a really focused message." Check out Tritonal's Resonance here: ht

Marcus Welch co-founded Quadio as a streaming music platform for college students, and quickly found that his audience wanted much more than that. He's currently re-launching as a community around music and musicians, helping them network, learn, collaborate, and build their careers. He also created Quadio Records and Quadio Music Distribution as further outlets for helping young artists. We get into some of the details of Marcus's journey as a DJ, working at tech companies, to becoming an entrepreneur and the lessons he's taken from each of those into his business. This episode features music from: R.A.P. Ferreira (https://www.instagram.com/hipcatscience/) Nicolas Jaar (http://nicolasjaar.net) Check out the Quadio Records roster here: (https://www.quadiorecords.com) and learn about Quadio Music Distribution (https://www.quadio.com/distro) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LaRoyce Hawkins is our guest this week. For eight seasons, he's been in your house as Officer Kevin Atwater on NBC's Chicago PD. Turns out he's also a talented rapper, comedian, poet, and has a strong sense of his "assignment" in life and business. I loved his story about how he chose acting as a career path, and how he relies on mentors like his grandfather and Eriq La Salle to help him stay focused and out of his comfort zone. Some good stories and big lessons in this one. Chicago P.D. airs Wednesday nights at 10/9 central on NBC. The full series is also available on Peacock. @nbconechicago https://www.nbc.com/chicago-pd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 2 of 2. If you missed it, go back to last week's episode where we dig into the journeys of hip hop journalists-DJs-political activists-college professors Jeff Chang and Davey D Cook, authors of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip-Hop History. In part 2, we dive deeper into the political and social context that has driven the worldwide explosion of hip hop culture and how it continues to impact politics. Click now for great hip hop stories. Make sure you pick up a copy at https://cantstopwontstop.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 1 of 2. There's so much good stuff in this interview we had to split it into two parts. Jeff Chang and Davey D have written the definitive hip hop history. They should know. They're both hip hop journalists, and DJs, and political activists, and college professors. Dave has been tearing the Bay Area airwaves and the internets since like forever. As we discuss, his charts and playlists played a big role in spreading the knowledge of underground hip hop around the world. Jeff was a founder of the SoleSides Crew responsible for bringing us artists like DJ Shadow and Lyrics Born and helped Josh get his first job out of college. So there's that. Our interview tracks the development of their careers along parallel paths before converging on the re-imagining of Jeff's book — originally published in 2005 — for young adults. They may have cleaned up some of the language, and also added some pivotal stories from hip hop's evolution from then until the present day. In particular, the new version expands on wom

Joe Conzo was there — with his camera — at the very beginnings of hip hop. He was homies with The Cold Crush Brothers and became the documentarian for the group, and the scene, at a time when they were setting the pace. In our interview, we dig into the twists and turns life has thrown at Joe. They are many and severe. Might have crushed a lesser man. But Joe comes out wiser and appreciative of the lessons and opportunities this culture has shown him. You're gonna like this one. MAKE SURE you also pick-up a copy of Joe's book, Born In The Bronx while it's still available: https://www.1xrun.com/run/joe-conzo-jr-cold-crush-photoshoot-signed-book-combo/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J Boogie has been an important part of the Bay Area underground music scene for over 25 years. His DJ sets, remixes, and his artist project J Boogie's Dubtronic Science bring together hip hop, jazz, funk, soul, reggae, Latin, Afrobeats, house... and ya don't stop. Our interview touches on both the upside and downside of exploring such diverse interests. We also talk about what it means to a creative career to also work outside of his artistry. In addition to his production, DJing, club nights, and radio shows, he was previously Head of Hip-Hop and R&B Programming at Pandora and is currently music curator at fitness-tech startup www.hydrow.com. Their rowers look dope. Hit us up if you buy one and let us know how you like it. After the interview, you can learn more about J Boogie http://jboogie.com Also check out https://www.om-records.com for the 25th Anniversary compilation featuring Body Language "Start It Up" (J Boogie's Dubtronic Science Remix): https://ingroov.es/start-it-up-k Learn more about your ad

Panos Panay and Michael Hendrix are the authors of Two Beats Ahead: What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation. Through conversations with artists including Pharrell, Hank Shocklee, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and more, they explore lessons in leadership and decision making that we can all use. They should know: Panos is SVP of strategy and innovation at Berklee College of Music and Michael is global design director at IDEO. He also teaches at Berklee and makes music in his spare time (imagine having spare time). They're also founders of the Open Music Initiative which is set to change the way creators are compensated by bringing concepts from open-source software to the problem. These guys are busy and have an eye toward how creativity and technology can make things better for us all. Some of the lessons are obvious but things we never stop learning: take inspiration from everywhere, never give up. But we also talk about how to keep up with the changes. Some things get easier while others get harder. Eve

Zuli Jr. is dropping his second album — Stop It God — next month. So it gave us a great opportunity to dig into the details of how to build a career as an independent artist. In a time when there are seemingly infinite tools and channels for building your business, deciding where to focus your energies is more important than ever. We explore what that looks like in an up-and-coming artist career. Check him out at https://www.zuli-jr.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eddie and I chop it up about what it's like raising kids and how their attachment to music is different from ours, how perceptions of gay artists have changed, and what Virgil Abloh stole from him. It's a fun, short talk. Check it out and then go buy a print from his show at www.sugarpressart.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices