S.T.L.

If you listened to the last episode of season 3 of The Polite Coolery Podcast today then you already heard some of this but I wanted to put this in writing and elaborate on the topic to give everyone a more clear perspective.

This not just a St.Louis thing. It happens in other cities also. It’s a culture thing. Maxo Kream said similar things about the Houston scene. I’ve heard numerous New York artists say the same thing about their scene. Maybe I don’t understand because I’m just a broke nigga and I don’t have a huge following but if I see someone’s art or work and I like it I tell people about it. I’m excited to tell people about it. I’m not really understanding the difficulty. If there’s something I’m missing please reach out to me so we can talk about it.

Let’s say for example an artist like Seals releases a project (He actually is releasing one on Feb 22nd. Check it out) and I have no idea who he is but I’m famous and I have 600,000 followers and his music comes across my radar. I would go to his page find the link for it and repost it to my social media audience on whatever platform I’m on and include his @ name. If it’s on twitter I would retweet it with a comment and let the world know I’m co-signing it and you should too. That would open up so much for him and knowing Seals he would take full advantage of that cause he’s one of the most hard working souls I know. It has nothing to do with me giving him a handout. I just wanna help my own. I wanna help creatives who are already helping themselves. But huge artists typically do the opposite and see unknown artists work and try to steal their style and pass it off as their own. Whether if it’s stealing an artist style, flow, marketing, they’ll take whatever they can get their hands on. There is no integrity and they don’t care how blatant their thievery is.

We didn’t pick the creatives featured on Polite Coolery because of popularity. We picked them because what they do intrigues us and they’re from where we’re from. For example we asked Tee Parks to be on our show on season 2 and she was shocked we asked because she wasn’t really working at the time. We wanted to be a show where it would feel like an honor if we asked creatives to come share their journey on our platform. Just be interesting and create cool shit and we’ll reach out. There’s no way that we could have a platform and not help artists we feel are dope from St.Louis. We built Polite Coolery for us to have a space of our own to be ourselves in. It then evolved into a space for us to have creatives come on the show and express themselves.

When Polite Coolery gets a deal to do a show on Tidal or HBO (soon come) ain’t no fucking way I’m not having creatives not be guests on the show. Regardless if they’re my homies or not. We would love to interview Kevin Hart and J.Cole. That’s dope but we’re gonna interview Rell Brodie and Jessica Page too. I don’t give a fuck what the company says. I’ll walk away from the situation if we can’t. I’m sure the argument would be “Well they’re not as big as those other 2 artists.” Well this is where it begins. This is part of getting them to that level by using our platform to get people familiar with their work. When we go on tour guess who opening up for us? YOU GUESSED IT! A STL ARTIST! I don’t give a fuck if few people know them outside of STL they’re going to open for us and people are going to get to know them. They’re going to get new fans. When I bring artists here for an event St.Louis artists will be opening up and helping me. When we go to the breakfast club, Power 106, Sway In The morning for interviews I’m dropping St.louis creatives names in our interviews. All of em. When someone ask me in the business if I have any photographer or videographer recommendations I’m mentioning St.Louis photographers and videographers. When I have a panel in New York a STL creative will be in it. St.Louis goes everywhere I go. It’s global nigga. It’s more than just saying you from St.Louis and sounding like you from St.Louis. It’s about what you do with your reach. What’s the point of having fame and a audience if I can’t help my hometown and my people? Niggas only rep this Lou shit when it’s convenient. I can’t be on that type shit.

I was listening to “Big Boy Art” by Zado for the 1000th time 2 weeks ago and I stopped the song and thought “Why doesn’t Zado have a EP with ChaseTheMoney?” This nigga Zado too cold and spit some of the coldest words on his production and it doesn’t make sense to not do a EP together and introduce Zado to more people. That’s the type of energy I wanna see. Don’t get it twisted niggas don’t owe niggas nothing especially if they worked for everything they have but I’m tired of talking about unity and no action taken towards unity. Regardless if it’s someone in the industry or someone in the streets. Quit talking and make a move. How AMR Dee Huncho and Nikee Turbo don’t have any work with Metro Boomin? That don’t make sense to me. I know he has to know at least one of those niggas cause they got buzz. If he doesn’t know them then cool but if he does why not link up with dope artists from your hometown and help? Maybe it’s just who I am but I couldn’t have that many fans and not try to come back home and help an artist who’s working hard. It’s like niggas are afraid to lend a helping hand to other creatives.

When I write about artists the best part about it is that they never ask me to and they never expect someone to say cool things about their art and they wake up and see that I posted great thoughts about their work and it makes their day and makes them work even harder. I love to lend a helping hand when I’m able to. It’s a great feeling. I love spreading love and hearing our home mentioned in positive ways. I would put my career and reputation on the line if that meant the future would be prosperous for the people I’m trying to help. I could be in the studio with Pharrell Williams and ain’t no way I’m not mentioning Matty Woods or The Domino Effect. He gone have to hear me out. I don’t give a fuck. I’ll be that guy. I’ll be the martyr for that.

Even artists here have to start sharing their peers work. We have to have accountability too. It’s not just on people who from here and are currently in high places and positions in the industry. Nobody better than the next person. Stop worrying about your fucking tweet count and retweet and share your contemporaries work. Shout out to Louis Quartorze for doing this and being literally the only consistent platform sharing all types of music strictly from St.Louis on his series called #the314 on Youtube go subscribe to his channel and check it out. That’s the type of shit we need. That’s how our scene will grow. We gotta start going to each other’s events. Wearing each other’s merch. We should be showing each other that we fuck with each other and not just saying it.

I don’t care about what other people outside of here doing. We focus on celebrities outside of St.Louis too much. We give them too much energy and none to the gems we have here. They don’t give a fuck about us and I don’t give a fuck about them and I don’t say that maliciously. It’s just the way it is. In my mind it’s STL artists first and everybody else artists second.

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Benny