Episode 18 Title: Still Driven: Being A Black Canadian 365 Feat. D.O. Gibson

Episode Info: In this episode Durell is joined by his guest hip-hop creative and entrepreneur D.O. Gibson. Durell and D.O. begin the episode talking about the power of collaboration in music and how a collaboration can just elevate a song and take it to the next level. D.O. shares that this year marks 20 years of him being a pro in the music ecosystem. He started with his first release called “Stay Driven” and now he’s excited for his upcoming release entitled “Still Driven”. Durell shares that most people think that music is something that someone does for fun but the reality is that being a professional creative is a real career and should be treated as such. D.O. shares that his longevity and career success has a lot to do with consistency. He shares that when he talks to kids he tells them to get better each day by 1%. D.O. says that if you apply that mindset that means that in 30 days you will have gotten better by 30%, in 100 days better by 100% and a year 365% better then when they started. D.O. shares that it’s okay to have a big goal but then you need to break that down into achievable steps. He knew that he wanted to build his career and generate income that wasn’t solely dependent on him having a hit song. Durell shares that so many creatives only view success in one prism and that if they aren’t doing things at the highest level they feel they haven’t achieved success. Durell feels that’s the wrong mentality to have because only 1% of professional creatives ever achieve that kind of success and notoriety consistently. D.O. shares that creatives like Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors have never won a Grammy. He says that if you think your career is going to be defined by winning an award then you simply have the wrong mentality.

D.O. and Durell talk about the impact Candians have made and the epicenter of some of the top creatives in the industry such as Drake, The Weeknd, Shawn Mendes, and Justin Beiber. D.O shares that he and Justin Beiber are both from Stratford, Ontario. Durell shares how much of a talent Justin Beiber is and that he was worth over $150 Million dollars before the age of 21. D.O. shares that he’s the son of a preacher and that even though he’s from a small town that didn’t mean everything was always good. He says that many people from there and the surrounding areas come from a broken family who’ve had struggles with addiction, drugs, etc. Justin Beiber himself comes from that type of environment as well according to D.O. When you come from that environment and then come into that type of fame and money you will oftentimes make your fair share of mistakes, and Justin to his credit has completely owned up to all of his mistakes.

D.O talks about the fact that he is from a small town called Watrus, Saskatchewan . He shares that people travel to Watrus because there”s a pool there and that the pool has healing properties. D.O. shares that Watrus represents hard work and blue collar people for him. He often says that he’s reminded never to forget where he is from.

D.O. and Durell talk about his earliest memories and falling in love with music. He shares that it was the summer of 1994. D.O. shares that he bought a tape from the legendary Nas on the way to see his grandparents in Nova Scotia. He shares that after a few days there his cousin came to visit him and they were walking and he asked D.O. if he had ever heard of The Wu-Tang-Clan. He said after that is truly when he fell in love with hip-hop. He talks about reading a magazine called Rap Pages and that it was the first time he saw a profile on The Notorious B.I.G. He brought the album “Ready To Die” and played it from beginning to end; it was just so powerful for him. D.O. shares that he was raised on Detroit radio WKLB and that’s how he heard that Notorious B.I.G. was gunned down. Durell talks about how there’s some similarities to the impact and feeling of when Nipsey Hussle passed away and how it definitely hits different as an adult for him.

Durell shares with D.O. that one of the things he loves about Canada is the way that the government truly supports the arts and is willing to help new indie creatives because the reality is that funding is needed to build a career correctly and professionally. D.O. shares that he was awarded a $2000 grant in 2002 that allowed him to record his demo and make CD’s to get his career started. The type of grant that was given to him was called the artist development grant. This grant is given without any stipulations and the indie creative can use it how they see fit. D.O. shares the next grant he applied for was the album grant which is $15,000-20,000. In order to apply and be eligible for this grant D.O. was required to submit a business plan. He said on the creative side the committee adjudicating the grant gave him A’s across the board, but on the business side he was given F’s. He was very upset about his failing score and he wanted to know why he received a failing score so he called up the one of the women that was facilitating the grant and she told D.O. to submit the business plan again. He submitted the same exact plan but he made an adjustment to the timeline by moving it 6 months out. He was awarded the album grant in March 2006. D.O. shared that once he was awarded the album grant then he was awarded a grant for marketing. The requirement for the marketing grant was that D.O. had to sell 2,000 CD’s. He went on tour and opened for a creative label named Classified and kept log sheets that showed he was selling 30-40 Cd’s per show. He then was able to tap into funding for tour support and videos. He said the grant that was awarded initially at $15,000-$20,000 totalled up to $120,000. He shares one of the most important things to know and consider when you are new and applying for grants is to know who your writing the grant for to get funding. He shares that if you're writing to Factory (Foundation To Assist Canadian Talent On Records) they want to hear your music and see that you have a solid business plan. When he’s writing a grant to King Of The Council, they don’t care about the music but they care about what the contribution to Canadian culture will be. He told them he wants to talk about what it means to be a black Canadian 365 and they wanted to support that because it’s good for the culture.

D.O. shares that Canada works differently than the USA in terms of they would rather have 10 people make $100,000 per year than one person make $1,000,000 per year. He says that some people may call that socialism but he calls it a great place to live. Although he would love to make multi millions every year he’s thankful that he’s been able to earn a six figure living for the last 18 years and looks forward to continuing that for the next 30-40 years. Durell shares that he wishes that American indie creatives who are starting out and in need of funding had the ability to apply for government grants that cater to the arts and culture.

D.O shares that he was asked to mentor a young Drake and that he would come to the studio and have several different folders on his hard drive. One of the folders was labeled “Chris Brown” and he would have songs on there that he wanted to get to Chris Brown. He witnessed Drake’s rise happen very fast because at one point they were all on the same level and then he was outta there ascending to a major level.

D.O. talks about the racism that exists in Canada in terms of black music and the creatives. For many years Canada has been about beer, hockey, and Rock & Roll. He shared that for years he was always the darkest person in the room at many events and that’s saying something because he is a light skinned black brother. He’s thankful now to have the opportunity to be in meetings that hopefully will affect legislation that changes the narrative of color in the arts in Canada.

D.O. and Durell end the episode talking about how he’s been able to facilitate so many tours for himself in Asia, Europe, US & Canada and some of the “Do’s & Don'ts” of how to work and coordinate independently. He shares that it really starts with relationships. He was able to go to Japan in 2008 because he had a few friends that could help him get a few anchor shows locked in and because he was able to sell 2,000 CD’s the summer before the Asia tour he was able to apply for a $15,000 tour grant and was awarded the money. He shares that when you go to a new country setting up the anchor show is the first key, then you build shows and press around those shows and that’s where things take off. He shares that his dream when he started out was to be a rapper but now his dream is to help other creatives achieve their dreams.

D.O. shares that creatives must remember why they do music and the fact when you first realize you have a talent to make music you never truly think you actually can make a living so count everything you achieve as a blessing and you are doing something you love.

D.O. does his walk-off shot freestyle about some topics that I gave him. What a great way to leave the listeners wanting more.

For more info on D.O. Gibson, you can visit his website:

https://iamdogibson.com/