Be authentic in everything you do! You get further in life being true to yourself rather than trying to be something or someone you’re not!

Thank you brother Darion!!!!!!

JOIN AT THE TOP OF THE HOUR: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89536201687?pwd=7bvHU6yqjfcvXBBajJDTERsas0LSRc.1 Family. The last two Tuesdays, people have been quoting the class all week. The Weight of the Listen. The hundred dollar story. If you were in the room, you know. If you were not, you have been hearing about it secondhand, and secondhand is not how you want tonight. Tonight I am reading a brand new piece to open class. It is called ON YOUR SPIRIT. Inside it: - The truth about what actually plays in my car, and what it did to my melodies, my pocket, and my output. It is not what you think. - You finally meet OVERTHINK JONES. The character who has killed more records than any bad mix in history. You know him. Tonight we name him. - What really happens in the room with Rihanna, with Nicki, when the artist says "this is not it" and you have four hours left. The pressure, and the preparation that makes it look like a miracle. - One question you must walk in with, and you are not allowed to overthink it: WHAT SONG IS ON YOUR SPIRIT THIS WEEK? And I am leaving one door closed tonight on purpose. There is something I have been building for years that I am opening up NEXT week. Tonight you only get the keyhole. One more thing. SATURDAY IS AUGUST 1. New music from me, everywhere you stream, and if you are in LA, the Afro-Latino Culture Fest is where I will be, on stage. This week the house makes history. Be in the room for all of it. **JOIN NOW: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89536201687?pwd=7bvHU6yqjfcvXBBajJDTERsas0LSRc.1 Real doors, not just lessons. See you in thirty. Kosine

Family, last night was one for the books. Here is what happened, for everybody who was in the room and everybody who needs to catch up. THE READING. I opened class differently. No slides, no screen share. I read you a brand new think piece out loud: "The Weight of the Listen." The short version: when you hand somebody your music, you are not asking for three minutes. You are asking for a lifetime. Piano lessons with Mr. Robertson. My mother giving up her Saturdays to drive a kid to a maybe. Saxophone in fifth grade, drums in eighth, jazz and classical training, church stages next to legends. All of that is what a real listen is made of, and that is why a real listen is never casual. The full piece is posted in the group, updated with a story I did not even tell in class: the time I wrote a full report on somebody's whole project, a paragraph on every song, for free, and a year later he asked me if I ever checked out his music. Read the piece slow. Especially the part about the hundred dollars. THE ANNOUNCEMENT. 2 TONE is real. Me and Trap Beckham. Ten years after "One Time for the Birthday Chick" went platinum, we locked in this week in LA and pulled up 22 song ideas in a day and a half. And this time the paper came before the music. That is not a side detail. That IS the lesson. Talent gets the record. Paper gets the future. THE CONVERSATION. This might have been my favorite part. Taurean broke down listening versus hearing. Zarena spoke on the emotional labor inside honest feedback, which is exactly what the piece is about. We went around the room on the songs that made us: Alexander O'Neal "If You Were Here Tonight." Jackie Wilson "Lonely Teardrops." Jacob Collier "Never Be Alone." Prince "Insatiable." And we talked legacy through the story of the great LaShawn Daniels, because the goal was never just placements. It is music that outlives us. YOUR HOMEWORK, due this week: 1. Write your IRON RULE. One sentence. The thing you will never do again for free, or without paper, or without

When I tell yall, yall gotta let me cook on this opening think piece, ima try and wait for yall to get on, but im fired up this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the words of Kanye: I GOT BARS. (remind me to tell yall that story at the end of class lol).