I don’t even know how to begin. What am I writing? This is goodbye. So long to people. I am trying my best to write this in earnest. This is my life. Money is simply a tool and we tool each other. Enough of that. Let’s get to it. The heart. That’s where the story begins. Let there be light, Für Elise.

A moment exists between birth and memory, the weeks, months and years therein shape your identity without your knowing. I call this the first draft. The ink that spills between the lines of our lives. Identifying with this record is outside of our waking boundaries; escaping us completely yet rooted in our essence. For the sum of our emotional impressions gathered during the first draft remain. Who we are is what that is. We spend our lives returning time again in search of. I found myself back home with her.

Air, the space between our thoughts, shaped mathematically is the sound of music. Patterns resulting in harmony, melody, sonic texture and more. The world today is a kaleidoscope of sound; Music Industry revenues are forecasted to grow 84% by 2030. That’s a whole lot of 000s, but let’s get to the point. Why. do. we. do. this? Für Elise. I first met her on Christmas day, before I could even remember my own name. This VHS cassette rewinder was shaped like a lambo, and when you rewinded the cassette it would play Für Elise. It became my singularity, like someone turned the lights on.

In my life, this moment defined me. I’ve even told my friend that this lambo VHS tape rewinder was my personality. It had utility, it had style. It was an instance of culturally significant technology. Most people had the normie VHS cassette rewinder. If you had this lambo VHS tape rewinder, you were for sure one of the lucky ones.

Getting Lost

School, work, love, fuck. If you’re doing alright, you’d do all four. What happened was that at some point life became vaporware and then things weren’t alright anymore. But they weren’t bad either, they were just.. okay. It happens to the best of us. When you wake up, you just get back on track. I quit my day job and chased the dream. Las Angeles, my only friend. She felt natural and I was too. A one way ticket never hurt nobody. 2017 was the year of the sofa; the same year NINETYONEMGMT was born, too. Explicitly or not, we managed an artist by the name of Riz La Vie and worked out of the SONGS Publishing office in LA to coordinate his one and only hit, Napkins.

Success ensued, but we weren’t happy. I got into the business to make massive records with artists I love and holistically champion their estate. Yet somehow, we were not incentives nor values aligned. I had to split. I got into a wreck both figuratively (2019) and literally (2020). Ask anyone close to me and they’ll tell you I am lucky to be alive, or re-alive, or rebirthed. You’re down bad when you fall from heaven and I felt cast away like Lucifer when he fell. Revenge captured me; for the last two years I’ve been working through contempt, feeling loathsome of myself and my situation. I had to remember who I was to forget who I’ve become.

Rewinding The Cassette

They say that life is like a movie, but do they mention anything about sequels? Because I’d like to get what’s mine this time. My mind had become like the lambo VHS cassette rewinder. I got back to the music with each rewind. Für Elise, a song dedicated to a muse, a maid or a love interest perhaps; reminds me of a yearning. It’s a bittersweet tune with remnants of euphoria, a fitting synchronization to the movie I had just lived. I need to outgrow myself now and that’s why I’ve got to say goodbye.

It was not without its moments, friends, and memories made. While still I act in full capacity as a talent manager, I no longer operate under this manifestation. NINETYONEMGMT had become Vaporware. Its time under the sun nearing an end. Dreamt up by a headstrong founder and creative, it is responsible for hit records, millions of streams, many dozens of shows, and lives changed. It had fulfilled what the founder had imagined, because at the time of its inception, the founder was very naive. We’ve got new dreams to dream, new songs to sing.

It’s up to *us**

Music. Music. Music. It’s always been about the Music. Remembering who I am and what I was about, that saved me. Music saved me. The first time experience of Für Elise was like my own genesis. Simultaneously, I’ve forgotten who I am and remembered who I was. This is what you call a moment of clarity. The sum of my combined experiences remain, yet my outlook, attitude, and vision are born again. This time I’d like to take it to heights never before imagined.

I borrow a piece of our old lore to explain our new direction:

“We are vanguards of creation and approach our work with a sense of exaltation and wonder.”

- NINETYONEMGMT ETHOS (2017-2022)

I’ve reached singularity again. Friends, I bid you farewell. I won’t be long, but I won’t be around much either. Now I spill my ink anew, a second draft on the way. I am back home and feeling well. I leave this text in memoriam. In honor of what we accomplished and with respect to the truth.