Antonio Reid Jr. is back on the Atlanta scene with a bird in the hand and a few in the bush. When you speak about a person who’s been in this game a while and knows the tricks of the trade the name Antonio Reid Jr. is definitely going to come up. While developing his animation project and helping his female songwriter land a gig on Lifetime’s “The Pop Game,” Reid has been spending major time with his rap artist Javar Rockamore. Rockamore is promoting his current single “99 Problems” from his newly released album The Cure.
Sitting down at 12 Music Group studio in Reid’s office after attending an amazing listening party, we spoke with Javar Rockamore and quickly learned Reid’s management skills were on point. When it comes to a new artist having the right mindset to tackle the crazy music industry, Javar’s answers to our questions show he is on his way to the top. We asked Javar about developing his single and his mindset about the music business.
Tell us about 99 problems and how the song came into existence Well, originally the beat was supposed to be for the producer Timberland but he never did anything with it. Let me start from the top. I was with my manager Antonio Reid Jr one night at Patchwerks studio and Timberland happened to be in a session with the artist Cody Shane. He allowed me to play some of my beats for them and after listening to about 5 of the songs 99 Problems was the one Timberland picked out.Since he didn’t do anything with it I kept it for myself. Now we are about to drop the video soon.
How important is humility in the music business? Being humble is extremely important in certain situations. Because sometimes people will forget and you have to get up out your character and make them remember. Humbleness shouldn’t be between you and everyone else it should be between you and God. God should be looking at you and thinking he is very humble.
What advice would you give to the next artist trying to figure it all out? I consider myself a spiritual person so I’m in prayer a lot. I would say find you a foundation of faith and then become a student of the game. Know melodies, know how to write, know the pocket, the chords, know your craft and you will be rewarded. You have to make the correlation between independence and success.
Would you say there are still a lot of politics involved in breaking into the business?Politics play a huge huge huge part in the business. Who you know will get you much farther than your talent will. You must be a likeable person and you must have a product that people are interested in.There is a blueprint in being independent and being successful.You have to make the correlation between independence and success. It’s also about relationships.
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