ACE MEDA4 Perspective on I Want
Sorry it took so long to respond ... The industry now is fragmented, layered and in the process of redefining itself. Breaking in was always hard. Now it is just a different kind of hard, particularly when you are independent. We wear a lot of hats. There is a lot of experimentation and frustration trying to find the right mix of components to market your music and get it heard. This is what it is, you just gotta fight through it.
I am Kenneth Medford aka Ace Meda4; a songwriter, gamer, and conversational English tutor. I am a lover of learning, Asian culture, and food. Also, completely anti-stress!
I'm terrible with time, but at some point, while I was in high school, my friends performed at the local PAL at a talent show. The performance was so crazy, they basically started a riot. When I saw that energy radiate from them from words they wrote in my basement, I knew I had to pick up the pen too.
A little bit of everything. I consider myself very diverse in topics. Some songs will be about stories of relationships or crime. Others will be more introspective, specifically referencing my personal life. There are tracks that I'm just talking about things I like in different ways. All in all, I never want to be just one type of artist that talks about one type of thing. I want to explore as many points of life as I experience.
It is actually an unreleased track titled, Face Melt 3.0 without question. One, it has that old school posse cut vibe to it because I had two of my people on the track with me. Two, getting the beat from a childhood friend of mine, NellzYorkCity, really meant a lot because not a lot of people were even acknowledging me as an artist. I think that was really dope of him. Three, on a very personal level, this song was done not too long after we lost a really close friend. Rook basically said he was done making music, but this track got him to come back and he tore it apart. It was just an amazing experience and it felt crazy having all of us come together to make something so dope.
Diverse. I hope that they can see the range in the music I create and the topics and themes that I get into.
Authentic. I hope that they see that I'm always myself and never do anything for a trend or clout.
Spitta. I hope they enjoy the bars most of all. If nothing else, I want my words to ring in their heads months, years down the line and they nod their head saying, "yeah, that boy can spit."
I can't front, I listen to myself in the car from time to time. One such time, my girl and I were going to the store. I hop out, run in, and grab a few things. When I came back to the car, she had one song in particular on repeat. I've never seen her put ANYTHING on repeat in 17 years of being together. That stuck with me.
My definition of success has definitely changed. I used to want to be a working artist, but I'm not so sure how reasonable that is for me at this point. I think now, I just want to continue to grow. Success would be being acknowledged for my growth now. Whether that's being on an NBA 2K soundtrack or having my music in commercials or having a million streams, I think my success now is just about being seen and accepted for the effort we put in.
Artists, to me, are examples. Now, you can be a good example or a bad one, but you are an example. Especially in hip-hop, we are who a lot of kids. . .hell a lot of people want to be but we can also be what a lot of people don't want to become whether that's because of legal trouble, relationship issues, or whatever else. So yeah, not role models, but artists are definitely examples of different points and perspectives in life.
EVERY ARTIST WOULD OWN THEIR MUSIC! Every artist would own their music and there would be a union to prevent the predatory deals record labels use to get over on artists. With that one change, we would see a shift in how streaming works, how artists get paid, and the quality of music throughout the industry.
Music is a business and you cannot separate one from the other. You can outsource the business side to someone else, but you cannot ignore it. Any artist that is looking to make money from music, make this their career or anything along those lines needs to understand that. Our motto at 1245 is that a good song just needs to be heard and that's true, but there are many a machination that goes into getting that song heard. The more you know about it, the better off you'll be.
