frameworks

*In my early 20s I had everything going for me.*

I was attending Washington State University on a full ride scholarship, had a steady job with a flexible schedule, and was dating a girl, who at the time I thought I'd be with forever. While everything appeared fine on the surface, I couldn’t get over the feeling I was on a path that wasn’t meant for me. My grandmother always encouraged me to make music, so when she passed I pivoted directions.

I chose to put my entire life on hold and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. It was the scariest moment of my life, but based on that one decision things were forever changed, and for the first time ever I felt like I had purpose.

Everything happened fast that year. I signed with management, went on tour with Mike epps, worked with the likes of 1500 or nothing, and was introduced to Nipsey Hussle, who greatly impacted the way I live my life. Nip was always a forward thinker, and from the moment I met him, he challenged the way I was thinking about the music business.

As a young artist, my main focus was to get an abundance of people to listen to my music, because from what I’d seen on television and heard from peers, that was the only way to get people to care about the art, and reach a mild level of success. Ahead of his time, Nip explained how important it was to provide value to the fanbase you already have as an artist, but also to show additional love to core contributors and supporters who go above and beyond for you, and that’s where “Proud to Pay'' enters the conversation.

Nipsey released 100 hard copies of  “Mailbox Money” priced at $1,000 each through a program he coined “Proud to Pay”. He offered an exclusive experience to patrons where they received a birds eye view into the world he was building and music that wasn’t yet available. It wasn’t the first time he conducted an experiment like this, but the message was clear to me; art is subjective so pricing should be dynamic, and flexible. Throughout my journey I’ve run with his advice and have built a career I'm proud of.

From the moment I dove into Music NFTs in mid 2021 I knew it was going to change the way people valued music forever. The conversations I had with Nip years earlier were coming to fruition and I immediately wanted to contribute. I wanted to add value in areas I excelled in, and I made it a point to gain knowledge in areas where I wanted to grow.

**Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to release across multiple platforms including:**

8 1/1s on Catalog
150 editions on Sound.xyz
25 editions on Zora
3 ETH 1/1 on glass.xyz
20 ETH crowdfund for LNRZ DAO

All of these releases have been building towards something bigger - which I’m excited to announce today.

My next EP - Frameworks - will debut with the launch of the sound.xyz protocol on September 21st.

Frameworks will consist of 5 tracks across 333 editions priced 0.033 ETH.

Here’s what you need to know.

## My Artist Journey

In 2016 I signed with 10k Projects and later upstreamed to Virgin Records.

We released the first single off of my debut project “Inconsiderate” and for the first time ever I felt heard. The song made it to the top 5 on the United States viral top 50 list and even landed inside the Global Top 50. We followed up with a few more singles before releasing the “Growing Pains” mixtape and my life was forever changed.

I signed with William Morris Talent Agency and started playing shows all over the country which led to my first tour where I was one of the supporting acts for Lil Yachty. I played 15+ dates and made it a point to really focus on my stage presence. That focus paid off because by the time I was finished writing my follow up project, I got a call stating I would be the main tour support for Billie Eilish’s “Where’s My Mind” Tour. I loved playing shows up until that point, but it was really during this run where people started singing along to my songs. We played 20+ dates together and after I got home I parted

Life’s a Trip: My Journey As a Web3 Artist Thus Far

## How Things Came to Be

For the last 6 years I’ve been operating on a fairly loose schedule. As an artist I let my creativity take the driver's seat, and I’ve lived my life on a play it by ear mentality. Today that’s not so much the case, and after getting heavily involved within the web3 community  my organization skills have improved tenfold and the music that I make has been evolving as well. During my time in the music industry I’ve literally seen it all. 

After my breakout single “Inconsiderate” received its first leg of traction in 2016 I signed a deal with 10k records and later upstreamed to Virgin Records. I HAD MADE IT… or so I’d thought. It wasn’t until I was signed to a Major Label that I realized how poorly structured everything was under the hood. I was making 16 points off of my music (16%)  and had the feeling I was slowly losing control of my future. After negotiations and an album and a half later, I was able to take back control and resume my journey as an independent artist. With that action my artist career began to flourish.

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/fSUd1CNighorVSKTFgNF9.jpg?height=633&width=1125)

## Getting Started with Web3

When the pandemic started I had just come off of a world tour with Flume and directly after got married to my wonderful wife, Alessandra. With the introduction of COVID-19 the shows I was scheduled to play began to get canceled one by one, and I slowly watched everything I’d built in the last half decade deteriorate before my eyes. I was concerned for my new family considering touring was an over leveraged part of my small business. Around this time I was also diagnosed with pilonidal disease and underwent a surgery that I have still yet to fully recover from. My newly found free time led me to freelance songwriting and my interest in cryptocurrency. I poured all of my energy into researching everything I could about the space. I bought and held Ethereum around $400 and slowly became a degen, flipping smaller alt coins for short term gains (and short term losses lol). After 1000’s of hours of reading white papers, watching youtube content, and exploring discord servers, my interests started trending towards NFTs.  
  
 I’d heard of NFTs beforehand, but after the February / March wave of 2021 I was completely sold on the fact that many things can, and probably will be tokenized in the future. For the first time ever I felt like I’d found something that the majority of the world hadn’t grasped yet, and I wanted nothing more than to build alongside the great minds in this space. As a musician, my only question was where in the world is the music? 

![](https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/RFXdj5XnLXgzVpCRa7afV.png?height=512&width=512)

## Enter Music NFTs

I embarked on a scavenger hunt that would ultimately introduce me to many talented and driven individuals who I am proud to call friends today. Before I released a single piece of music on-chain I spent 5 months chatting with strangers on twitter who I had grown to be big fans of. I was in awe of all of the exciting experiments that they were working on and wanted to be an asset however I could. I was vocal about my involvement in the space every chance I could be, and I started participating in many conversations via twitter spaces. Public speaking has never been my forte, but talking about the things I am truly passionate about has really helped me develop that skill in the last year. A few months later I built up the confidence to release my first piece through[ sound.xyz](http://sound.xyz) . That moment changed my life. The music sold out in under 30 seconds, but I couldn’t believe people actually valued my creations at the level they did. That moment no longer lived as a fantasy inside of my mind, and instead had become a reality. It activated something within me that I hadn’t felt in awhile; hope. 

Since that day I’ve released many more works via Catalog and Sound, and I’ve made