Indie Artist Music Hustle
Indie Artist Music Hustle Podcast with Blonde Intelligence is where you will experience exquisite cranial repertoire. The podcast (Available on your favorite podcasting platform) provides entertainment news, thoughts on celebrity gossip, independent music artists, as well as businesses that contributor to the music and entertainment industries. The purpose is to provide exquisite cranial repertoire. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button!!!! follow me @BlondeIntelligence @RRoneice. Also the channel name is That Blonde Broad.
Indie Artist Music Hustle
The Strip Club Anthems of Louisiana's Killer D
Welcome to this week’s Indie Artist Music Hustle with Blonde Intelligence. I am your host Ms. Roni and I always seek to give you exquisite crainial repertoire. What does it really take to make it as an independent artist in today's music landscape? Killer D joins us to share his raw, unfiltered journey from the projects of Louisiana to the competitive Houston music scene.
Born with natural artistic talent but initially too shy to showcase it, Killer D reveals how he transformed from writing poetry in closets with egg cartons on the walls to commanding stages with confidence. His story is one of persistent evolution—holding onto a hook for ten years until finding the perfect beat for his club hit "Pop It," which unexpectedly gained radio play across multiple states including Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
The conversation dives deep into the creative process behind making authentic strip club bangers, with Killer D explaining the cultural context that makes his Louisiana-influenced sound distinctive. We explore the crucial difference between being an entertainer versus a performer, witnessing firsthand his ability to captivate audiences even when performing acapella. His practical approach to reading crowds before determining setlists demonstrates the adaptability essential for lasting success.
Perhaps most valuable are Killer D's unvarnished insights into industry relationships. From the importance of proper collaboration paperwork to navigating local gatekeeping, he shares wisdom earned through both success and setbacks. "Artists need DJs," he emphasizes, detailing how building relationships with everyone from club owners to waitstaff creates the network necessary for independent advancement. His experiences highlight how regional scenes can simultaneously support and limit emerging artists.
Ready to hear what authentic music hustle sounds like? Listen now to gain practical wisdom from an artist carving his own path on his own terms—and catch his single "Pop It" while you're at it.
Hello everyone, welcome to season four. Hello everyone, welcome to season four of Indie Artist Music Hustle with Blind Intelligence. And we have an artist here today I want to say he lives in Houston, but he's out of Louisiana.
Speaker 3:He sounds like.
Speaker 2:Louisiana. Yeah, okay, everybody, we have Killer D here and I want him to introduce himself and tell everyone a little bit about you.
Speaker 3:I started doing music, well, I say at the age of 12. I was walking around on a karaoke machine and rapping and when I got older, after high school, I started going to the projects and recording for my cousins and stuff. And how I got a name was for my cousin. We used to just pull up instruments and stuff because we used to rap with egg cartons and stuff on the wall in the closet and everything. So when I first started doing it, I was like I don't really know Cause I always at first I was always shy and I never really just you know, opened up to really rapping. I was just writing like poetry and I took art school too, so I was just more into that and but when I did start writing rhymes and so on, I was like, oh cool. Well, you know, because I grew up listening like a lot to tupac and everything, like he's my big, you know big influence on me okay.
Speaker 2:So I want to ask this question because I know I had asked before when we were talking, I believe and I want to know what is the creative process for an artist to make a strip club song.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I guess it's different. I guess for us I mean the culture, I mean it's nothing, but I mean where I'm from it's different, like I guess for us I mean it's it's I mean the culture, I mean it's nothing, but I mean where I'm from, it's nothing but jigging and dancing, and so it's just like I don't know.
Speaker 2:I guess it's like natural to me, but the reason why I asked that is because I looked at one of your videos and I saw the women dancing in the video. And I used to date a guy I believe we talked about this. He told me that I was saying it wrong. He said it was not New Orleans. It was New Orleans and I was saying it wrong and he was showing me some videos of some dances and he said this is the Louisianaisiana dance. He said this dance do not change. He said you can look at it 10, 20 years from now and then you can tell this is a louisiana dance. He said all women and young women do it.
Speaker 2:So when you said that it was, natural yeah, I understand that it's natural from where you're from, but what makes it a strip club banger? Okay, the creative process for that, because of course you can put something together.
Speaker 2:Slap your ass, slap your ass, all that kind of stuff. But what is the creative process? How do you know? Are you going to have this size woman, or are you going to have this size woman, or you're gonna have this age woman, or could it be for, for you know how, what? What do you come up for? The creative process of? I'm gonna do this for the strip club. What do I want to show and see?
Speaker 3:okay. So it's just like when I came up with that song um, actually I was sitting on that song for like well, not the song but the hook like 10 years. So I've been I couldn't find the right tempo and beat to go with it, Like I kept saying, I kept saying I couldn't find anything. So when COVID hit Houston real bad I moved to Kentucky Because Houston shut down as far its jobs and stuff like that. So I moved to Kentucky temporarily when one of my DJ friends lives. So I was up there recording the song and one of my friends from Shreveport, Louisiana he sent me like a beat pack and I went through, literally sat there in the studio. I had like a four hour vlog, Literally went through every single beat that he sent Just to try to find the right beat to go with it, and I kept saying it.
Speaker 3:Even honestly I said it to myself Because the way I was saying it and recorded it it didn't sound right to me. But when I heard the finished product, when he sent it to me, I was like, oh, wow, okay, okay, okay, okay, all right, because I wanted to do something, while other than me need another record out. I need to do something. I want to do something like a, like a fun record. I mean I don't really put out no drill or no other like crazy type of music. I put out either real stories or basically just fun music. When I got that bag and I released it I was like, okay, cool, because I wanted to do something fun. I needed another single to get out.
Speaker 2:How is it doing in a strip club right now?
Speaker 3:It's actually good. When I did, I think I probably did a little small run like last, no year before last, something somewhere around up in there, like I had went to like a few, but it was, it was going, it was going, but and but that's not even. I got like O's on this, this sweat corset, and didn't pop it. That's the way he works. I liked it. I was like okay, yeah, okay, so it's it's. It's just I mean the whole credit process. I mean I write all of my songs anyway.
Speaker 3:So it's just like I just needed something else to come out with and, honestly, like it just took all the items and didn't even expect, expect for to do what it's doing, because I didn't honestly really test the industry clubs as much. I've probably maybe been like three or four here in eastern, like that was it. And I just because I mainly just pushed it on the radio and it was the radio, honestly, that that picked up on it. It was places that I even expect, like columbus, georgia, I think, for the media base played like 28 times and it's Corpus Christi, it was. I think Atlanta too, it was Oklahoma, it was Arkansas, like it was some places like I ain't even never been, so hey, you've never been to Arkansas.
Speaker 3:Nope, nope, nope, nope. What you should cut, yeah, and I think actually, yeah, it plays down. I forgot what station I think it's. I think it's 965.
Speaker 1:I want to say yeah, yeah, yeah, 965.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do remember running the campaign. So yeah, it did pop up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that's down the street from me oh yeah yeah yeah but tell me this I watched some snippets that you had sent me and it's kind of like a two-part question. So the first question is what is the difference? Because I know that you are a creative artist. What is the difference between an entertainer and a performer?
Speaker 2:So, I watched your snippet and I noticed that you done part of your show Acapella. After the show ended. You did not get winded and you finished it and I I like to see things like that because you hardly ever see that in a live performance. That's why I was asking that, because I saw you finish out one of your sets. Yeah, and all of us have done karaoke and got winded and and rapping is not an easy thing, it's not, it's.
Speaker 3:It's not man, it's. It's. It's very it's difficult because I mean I I've had people ask me all the time like man, how people giving no, giving no credit to even just go up there and get in front of people and a lot of people don't even know. I mean, like I said at the beginning, I'm starting to stink because I came out I was timid, I was very timid, so it's just like I didn't even want to do any of that. I don't know. I guess over time I got to go into it had to make myself.
Speaker 3:People see like it's difficult, you know getting which it is. I mean me, I ain't gonna last you. I had me a drink or two before I even decided to do my thing, you know, just so I can just get it on out. I mean I'm just being honest. It's just every show just to just like loosen up. You know, loosen up a little bit. But I mean it tastes a lot, man, because you know you gotta look at all these people. You gotta, because me I try to read people before I do my set. I'll just look around and see what's out. Sometimes I may be off as far as picking my search list, because I know, sometimes you know, because sometimes the promoters they don't even tell you what kind of crowd or who's going to be there this and that. So I try to do my mixture.
Speaker 2:You be right on that, because I remember watching Love Hip Hop Miami and I can remember all those girls' names, but I believe it was Sukiana and Hood Brad and another one. But it was some guy who had booked the show for them and it was like at a country western place and they had traveled there and got there and it wasn't even like a hip-hop crowd, Right, A country western crowd and they was there to do a hip-hop show. But they ended up doing the show and that is very important when you're booking shows and talking to different promoters to know what type of place it's going to be in. That is very important. That is something very important and very important to know this when you're making your flyers or whatever you're doing for promotion yeah, because honestly, for that last showcase it was they.
Speaker 3:They said like it was kid friendly. So I had. My DJ friend made me two versions. They obviously made me like explicit, made me a clean version too. Yeah, I know my wife she did ask you just like uh, are you supposed to be kids, are you sure? You wanted to explicit, but I was like I have to do. He said yeah.
Speaker 2:So tell me about the music scene where you are right now and how are you? Are you? Are you in unity? Because I had an artist to tell me in hip-hop it's always a competition. Hip-hop is a sport. So can you really have unity and peace? Is a unity and peace, or how are you looking at the competition right now where you're at?
Speaker 3:man, man, man, man, man, man. Okay, so me coming from a small city and, um, let's not having no studio or no place to really record it, I mean, 50 cent obviously is doing it for us now because he put everything in streetport, but I mean nothing. And coming from there and coming here, I have to actually build my name up and how to deal with people. People here, they're hang on the line, they ask us, they hop on any anything. That's like what? It was hot bro, they not going. You know what I'm saying? They ain't going to support they. Certain DJs too, promoters too, and you can tell because they book them. It'd be the same people every time. I don't know about trying to get their bread, but it'd be the same people every single time. I was like bro, I don't know nobody else, it'd be the same artist. I just be like bro, it's you, because they real cool, because they from the same hood or they just so you stand at the little gate, keeping going on.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, big time man, it's like I've been. But I always had that mindset of I'd never stay, even back in Menden and Streetport, even though we got baby. Like I always started outside of baby and I was always a bunny. Then Like it was kind of time to meet my music guy, because that's what you're supposed to do, you know, you're supposed to be up in the DJ booth, holler at them, you know, get the done, build that relationship, but like that was cool.
Speaker 3:But as far as just being on Hill, just being on the Houston, I mean being on hill, just being on a Houston, I mean being on the menu. You know he's like I always thought outside the bus, I always network with people outside of hill and even I'll be on in, like I, uh, I can't, I can't do that man, I never did see myself as just being like this, like this local guy, like nah, yeah feel about collaborating with artists and do you think there's a difference between collaborating with artists that's in a different region than where you live and then being in a different country than where you live?
Speaker 2:so how do you feel about those two collaborations, one with outside of your region and then one with outside of your country?
Speaker 3:um well, first off, I feel like both friends need to have paperwork together, because I did collaboration with people and it's just been like they ain't got that paperwork. But be mad at me, don't not?
Speaker 2:look, I've worked with a lot of independent artists.
Speaker 3:Do not want to sign a split sheet yeah they be getting mad at me because they're not getting paid. Yeah, I've had people get mad at me, bro, because like wow, I'm not getting no check. I'm like that's not my responsibility, like I can't. All I could do is just make sure, like send it, send it to you, hey, put your name down. But as far as like getting paid, I mean, it's not on me, you post that on your paperwork together. Man, like ain't nobody tell me I had to go read and find out about this stuff. I had people.
Speaker 2:I had people tell me all the time and people try to talk to me like I don't know what I'm talking about see, that's how you check your own stuff out, your blessings and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Because it's like, if you don't want to listen to anybody I mean even even me, like if I, even though somebody don't like my record, they might not just say, oh, because everybody not gonna like what you put out, okay, you don't like it, okay, cool, I'm still gonna do. I want to do anyway, though I said, because I mean that's just me, because I mean I believe the record or whatever, but I'm still gonna listen to you too. At the same time, you know, because you might, you might be something you probably hear, or you know that I'm not hearing, or and like it goes all around in circles. So yeah, the whole not listening it's not gonna get you nowhere. I mean you could be stuck, gonna be stuck in the same spot and try to wonder, like why you're not going nowhere, like why people not cause this gonna make people not wanna work with you as well.
Speaker 2:You know he don't probably don't pay, messed up a whole deal or situation just because he don't want to listen besides having all your paperwork in order, having all your accounts set up and being a, I would say, professional on paper, what other attributes, as an independent artist do you think people need besides? Because I know a part that we talked about that may not air was about being able to listen. So, besides being able to listen, what other attributes do you think independent artists need to be able to survive the music industry? Because it is very cutthroat. People will lie directly to your face.
Speaker 3:Man Boy, you gotta keep the DJs. Man. I can't preach this enough, man. Artists do need DJs. I ain't saying you gotta kiss their ass, killer D not gonna kiss your ass. I know how to. I know how to make you know what I'm saying. I know how to get even with you and like in another way. I ain't got a bad mouth and not gonna bad mouth.
Speaker 3:You, I'll go to this dj program to wrap up under you. I'll make sure it'll come full circle to where you hear about me. I'm gonna make sure you with me, like I'll make it, I'll make it, I'll make it, make sure like that. But like you need to make sure you're better than the djs, um, the, the club owners, the promoters, the waitresses, like I like all them little issues, damn man. And all of a sudden like this, so you can get yourself out there too and do what you need to do. But so I thought collaborating I never just collaborate with anybody outside the region or country, really. So it'll be something new to me. I'm not saying like I don't, I don't mind, I guess it's because I've been burnt so many times to well, you know, come time to paperwork, nobody, like nobody want to do it.
Speaker 1:So it's just like I don't care.
Speaker 3:If I have to or if it's cool, like I will, on my collaboration I collaborate, but it's like I'm not doing it.
Speaker 2:It's the right collaboration. Yeah, I've asked artists about that several times, about what do you consider to be a successful collaboration, and is it is finished product or the way you vibed, or if it was successful and yes, it's a lot, it's a. It's a lot with that too, on that, because it's like yeah, because if they don't sign up on releasing the song, then you just have a collaboration and you're just stuck with it.
Speaker 3:And then on the label. It makes it even worse if they're signed to a label too, because you got to get that clearance. So it's just like it's so much ins and outs Because actually, ok, like what's on me, me and Lou's on the cash, because he was signed like decades ago though he had a deal, but it was just on the tip to where we've been knowing each other since MySpace, Like, hey, bro, just chunk me something. But yeah, we've been cool since then, since MySpace days. So I was just like, but man, still I still want you to get your split. Hey, let me just run this split sheet by you. They'll wait. No, I'm saying like it still won't be no problems. No, I'm saying, still, at the end of the day, even though I still trust you somewhat, still I still want you to get paid.
Speaker 3:I have like now I'm currently working on trying to get him a plate just because, like, I'm just the type of too, like you know, you featured on the record. You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, I, I even with him. I was like skeptical because I was like man, like, yeah, he got a anthem forever, forever I always be a louisiana classic song from louise, and like it's always gonna be so, just like man. All right, let me just know what I'm saying take care. Take care of you, bro, but anybody else after him.
Speaker 2:I thank you for coming. I want you to plug your latest single, who you work with on it? Any last words, how your social media handles, how to get in contact with Killer D, where to find your music at everything about Killer D. Yes, you can find me on at everything about Killer D.
Speaker 3:Yes, you can find me on Instagram the real Killer D 713 underscore Sankai. I am Killer D 713. Killer D 713 on YouTube everything Killer D 713. Check out my single. Pop it. Featuring Louisiana Cass. Thank you, where's Judy? Produced by Trunk Killers. And shout out to you, man, um, shout out to guys for all the djs that's been supporting me. Man, shout out to you for this interview. Shout out to everybody, man, there's been support me since day one, um, and I know it's a lot of people proud of me right now, especially, you know, especially me at this level right now. So all my hard work is paying off alright, alright, so you can find him.
Speaker 2:It's killerd713. Everything you can find us streaming live on social media, on all podcasts and platforms and on the website. And don't forget about your merch and we will see you next week and happy season four. Bye, say bye.
Speaker 3:Bye, hey girl.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you about this podcast Girl. Everybody has a podcast these days, but this one interviews new and interesting indie artists. It's called Indie Artist Music Hostel with Blonde Intelligence. Really, where can I find it? It's on all podcasting platforms streams live on social media and on RPENTradiocom. What'd you say it was called? Again, it's called Indie Artist Music Hostel with Blonde Intelligence Girl. I'm going to have to check her out. Give it a check, girl.