A Modern Day Look at the Music Industry with Hip-Hop Artist RG

Something we thoroughly enjoy is talking to artists and people who are out there, following their passion. It inspires both us and our readers and shows us that it is possible, with enough faith and dedication.

This week, we had the pleasure of talking to RG, hip hop artist coming out of Montreal, and founder of Friendly Neighbor Records, which he still helps manage to this day. Starting out in 2013, RG had quite a bit to say, not only about the hip hop scene, but about life in general, about goals and drive, which our readers know are big subjects for us.

“I wish I would have been more humble at the beginning, I thought I was the best and I really wasn’t. I was far from it. I wish I would have been more open to growth and experimenting with my music, like I am now,” RG tells us.

This seems to be the case with many young, starting out artists. And while we think that this sort of mentality is what drives you, to a certain extent, and gives you the confidence that you can succeed, it can also be a hindrance. There’s definitely a lot of power to this notion of learning from others.

We asked RG how important social media is for his brand, because we’re genuinely interested to see how online presence impacts people from various walks of life and different business areas.

“Social media is everything to my brand, it’s how I communicate with my fans as well as the platform that I showcase my work on. If I didn’t have social media, I’m sure that I’d still find a way to reach the people, but it would be a lot harder.”

Reminiscent of the days of yore, when artists could not connect with fans as easily as they would’ve liked and putting out music was a lot harder, this definitely reminds us how crucial social media has come to be in our lives.

But RG cautions that building a business and a brand for yourself is no walk in the park, simply because you have better outlets and it’s easier to reach people.

“People nowadays just aren’t willing to build up their platform. They just want everything right now, without putting the work in to get it.”

To us and to RG, as well, this is perhaps the biggest pitfall of our digitally driven era, that people assume it’s easy just because you have the benefits of the Internet and the online community. As such, they’re reluctant to actually work for it.

But RG isn’t. As someone who’s been consistently working at building a name for himself and for his record label for the past seven years, as well as someone who dabbles in photography and film and has worked as a fashion designer for big brands, RG definitely understands the meaning of hard work.

We had to ask him, of course, what was in his current media playlist and which artists he feels most influenced by. He credits Wiz Khalifa, Post Malone and Frank Ocean, among many others.

Finally, we asked him what he would say to someone just starting out or even just dreaming of starting out, and I have to say we found his answer very inspiring:

“Do what you love! Be smart about it of course, work a crappy job so that you can pay the bills but at the end of the day just do what you love and try to build a career out of it. A lot of people are unhappy, working jobs that they hate but it doesn’t have to be that way forever. Work at Burger King but build something up on the side until that becomes your main hustle and you’re able to pay the bills off of that. You’ll be much happier in the end!”