In today’s music industry, it seems the industry is more about business and less about the music. It’s one of the reasons brothers, SJ and AJ, have founded their own educational program and institute to aid musicians in learning more about handling the business side and protecting their intellectual properties.
We were able to speak with the brothers about how and why the founded The College of Hip Hop and what they have in store for the future.
Cotten Kandi: Who are SJ and AJ, what are your given names and tell us a little about yourselves and what got you into helping artists?
TCOHH: Our names are Antoine and Santoine Jackson, are from Inkster Michigan the home of The Marvelettes, Don Barden, Earl Jones. We decided to help artist because we see the lack of education in the entertainment industry where artist are concerned.
CK: What brought on the idea to start the organization on behalf of artists?
TCOHH: We are former artists and our gift to the universe is education.
Too often we hear horror stories of artists ending up broke and confused and we couldn’t take it anymore so we created this platform.
CK: Do you work only with Hip Hop artists or have you branched out to artists in other genres of music?
TCOHH: We provide entertainment education, so we teach the actual business side of the entertainment industry. PRO’s, Copyrights, encoding. Things like that, so no matter the genre of music, all of those aspect will apply.
CK: How exactly do you help the artists? Do you work as an agency, pairing artists to labels, or primarily online educational workshops/seminars to educate on music fundamentals, legal jargon etc.? Any in-person events?
TCOHH: It is all education based, we wouldn’t pair an artist with a label because most artist don’t understand what being signed to a label actually means. We do in person events also and we recently finished a radio tour for our latest book “10 Steps to profit from your Passion”. We are also open to onsite seminars and conference panels.
CK: How did your book, “The College of Hip Hop.org Presents: 10 steps to profit from your passion,” and its concept comes about? Is it self-published?
TCOHH: Yes the book, “10 steps to profit from your Passion” is self-published. The book came about due to the fact we knew we needed something people could hold on to and go back to. The book is based on 10 steps from the prospective of releasing an independent album, however you can add these 10 steps to anything you’re doing in your life. The book is for all entrepreneurs. It’s available on amazon for $2.99 for the e book, and $12.01 for the hard copy.
CK: Where do you see yourselves in the next year with the launch of the organization and its potential growth and impact?
TCOHH: We never want to limit ourselves by saying where it will be in the next year. We can say that in the next year we will still be here growing as business men.
CK: Beyond that year what else, let’s say the next 3-5 years?
TCOHH: We would never limit ourselves to say where we’d see the company in the next 3-5 years. What we will say is that we know it will be growth for the company in that time span.
CK: Anything else you’d like people to know about yourselves and the organization?
TCOHH: Keep the most high first and anything is possible. We live by the motto “I WANT FOR MY BROTHER WHAT I WANT FOR MYSELF,” meaning we want everyone to prosper. Also visit www.tcohh.org and become a subscriber to increase your knowledge.
Make sure to follow the brothers’ journey and discover more about TCOHH:
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