Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights, tips, and strategies for artist managers on how to navigate through the music business.

Ruiz’s Letter:

A LOT has happened in the last 24 hours in this week’s music cycle including UMG announcing their “Time Out” from TikTok.

I’ll get into that in a later edition of The Manager’s Playbook. Lots to digest and think about there. Will be interesting how this plays during Grammy week here in LA. 

However, in today's newsletter, let's dive into another special edition of 'KEY PLAYS' featuring Skratch Bastid, the latest signee of 8 Til Faint. 

Known globally as a powerhouse DJ, Skratch brings more to the table than just his amazing performances. He's an exceptional entrepreneur who has successfully monetized various verticals into thriving business ventures.

These ventures include ‘BASTID’S BBQ,’ a live event/BBQ experience with a global tour, ‘BASTID’S HOT SAUCE,’ recently ranked #3 in 'Hot Sauces You Need To Try' by the Food Network, 'Tuesday Morning Coffee' Live Twitch Stream, and a VIP Top Grillin' subscription model for his most feverish superfans.

In short, the man is a force! Welcome to the 8 Til Faint Artist Management you Bastid!

Read below directly from the man himself to gain insight into Skratch's innovative approach and the strategies behind building such a remarkable business.

 -Ruiz

KEY PLAYS

By Skratch Bastid

What TF Do DJs ACTUALLY Do?

Perhaps you've seen the recent viral video of a crying person asking the camera "what tf do DJs actually do?". If not, have a quick google and come back to reading this.

Better yet, I'll spare you this video's brief moment in the social media spotlight and cut to the chase: while it's a silly, naive moment caught on camera, ripe for criticism and debate (and remixing), it's actually a valid question!

And one that in many ways I've been answering my whole career, through performing live, making videos, recording music, and much more.

Oh! I forgot to introduce myself!

Hi, I'm Paul a/k/a Skratch Bastid. I'm a recent signee to 8TilFaint Management, and I'm a DJ, producer, streamer, event programmer, and hot sauce maker, among other things.

I love music, and committing my life to it has led me to perform as a DJ in over 60 countries around the world.

I started out as a kid making mixtapes with the best music I could find, eventually buying hard-to-get vinyl for exclusive tracks, which led to playing around with the vinyl, or "scratching" it.

Obsessing over that led me to local DJ competitions where I met some older professional DJs, earning the name "Skratch Bastid" from speed I would learn from new scratch techniques from them.

Honing those skills led to winning those battles and moving on to national and international competitions, which led to live ticketed shows, collaborations with MCs, bands and orchestras, and music releases.

As a DJ, my job at most times comes down to "reading the room".

Of course, as a hard-ticket selling DJ, you can use your reputation, previous performances, music production, and social media skills to put bodies in that room that will trust you to deliver what you have shown them leading up to the event.

But every DJ, no matter how big or small, at some point in the night will be challenged with the task of observing what is in front of them, and figuring out what to do next, applying the skills they've learned from previous experiences.

How is what I'm doing being received?

Where do I want to go with this set and what should I play or do next?

What should you save for later that the crowd might not be ready for yet?

What's my end goal?

These are simple, everyday questions in my line of work, but they are very valuable skills when you apply them outside of "the room" and to other aspects of your life and business.

Eventually I wanted to make my own "rooms", so I started producing my own events.

"Bastid's BBQ" is a day-to-evening event that I started in 2011 in Toronto as a way to balance out the nightlife side of what I do (and music that I play).

Growing up in a Canadian-Trinidadian household, I learned the value of a good, long, weekend gathering filled with family, friends, food, and music, and I wanted to incorporate more of all of that into my gig calendar.

The event caught on and expanded nationally and internationally, and we are now producing an average of 10 per year.

Our motto is "Good Music, Good Food, Good People,"

— and we try to fit as much of those things as possible into each of our events.

My interest in developing the food aspect of the events led me to creating a line of hot sauces called 'BASTID'S HOT SAUCE' that we've made significant strides towards expanding my product's reach that are showing promising results and we're excited about the opportunities ahead.

Is this what DJs do? I guess so!

I should pause to say that I didn't truly have a gameplan when I started.

I was 15 or 16, just interested in sharing what I do with as many people that would listen. Along the way to finding those people, I encountered and learned many things about the business side in a trial-by-fire manner.

Seeing what works, and what doesn't. Adjusting, trying again. Learning about opportunity, exposure, marketing funding, team, structure -- I'm still learning to this day.

Much like the DJ set that carries on from one song to the next, one opportunity begets another, and you have to decide how to build your set based on the results.

I've learned that in every set, there will be curveballs.

Sometimes there are minor (or major) equipment failures. Sometimes the song you play doesn't hit like you thought it would.

Sometimes the energy is off and it's just not your night. Or year.

We all know that live events came to a halt during the pandemic, and that was a tough time for just about everyone in my industry.

Through a challenging 2020, I studied what was going on with my peers and fellow musicians and tried to find a way to share what I do online that would work for me.

Through discovering (and learning to love) live streaming, I found a way to reach an audience online -- consisting not only of people who had been to my shows and followed me previously, but many who hadn't, seeing me for the first time via this new access point. People from all around the world!

While broadcasting from the comfort of my own home studio! The restrictions of the pandemic forced me to find a new way of doing things, and through consistency (including my weekly Tuesday Morning Coffee stream) this formed a new audience.

I created a VIP club called Top Grillin' (named after the hip-hop classic "Top Billin'" by Audio Two) for my biggest online supporters who receive access to exclusive content, virtual meet-ups via online BBQs, and more. Now that in-person shows have made a comeback, this new audience has added to my existing one, and is making a visible impact in attendance at my shows, and response when I shout them out on the mic at those shows ("Let's GOOO!").

This was definitely the biggest challenge to date in my career, but yes, I have cleared the dance floor (only once, I swear) with a poor selection, and through such experiences, I knew that I could build it back up and get the party moving again.

What a ride!

Seven paragraphs in, and I feel like I'm taking up enough space in this newsletter. The set could keep going, but the lights are on and we'll have to wrap this up for now.

But have I answered the question? What tf do DJs actually do?

It would seem the answer is "a lot".

Perhaps that's why it's so hard to define, or for outsiders to understand.

No two (DJ) careers are the same, but if we stay observant, curious and dedicated, we can take what we learn along the way and apply it to whatever our creative minds desire, and to whatever curveballs may come our way.

Read the room and rock the house. See you on the dance floor.

Instagram | YouTube | Twitch | SkratchBastid.com

Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, a talent management agency with 5+ billion audio streams worldwide. Past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer songwriter Jessie Reyez, Marley Bleu and more. I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Clients past include Eminem, Celine Dion, The Weeknd, and more, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard, Canon, NBA, and others.

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