Hi,

This week’s newsletter is a deep dive into the career of Curren$y - an independent hip-hop artist from New Orleans, LA who built one of the most impressive empires in music.

I recently went down a rabbit hole on Curren$y’s career and found wisdom and gems applicable to artists and creators everywhere.

Let's dive in ⬇️

This is Curren$y - originally from New Orleans, LA.

In recent years, it’s easy to think of New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Chicago as places on the forefront of cultivating and developing hip-hop but if we go back in time, New Orleans might be one of the single most important independent-music cities in hip-hop history.

Two of the biggest independent label empires were built there in No Limit and Cash Money. Both companies became proof that you could build a massively successful company on your own terms in an age where major record labels dominated the music industry.

Not to mention the talent of the actual artists coming from New Orleans.

Just to name a few:

Curren$y’s early career was basically a front row seat in how to build an independent music business. He started as a member of the rap group 504 Boyz under No Limit and was later signed to Young Money under Cash Money.

He would eventually leave those labels and in 2009, started his own brand Jet Life. I knew he released music at a prolific rate but had no idea just how prolific…after some research, I was blown away to find out he’s dropped over 100 projects.

Yes…100 lol. You read that right. 1-0-0. Absolutely insane. And he's still completely independent!

Here are some of my favorite parts to his story:

On Dan Runcie's Trapital podcast, Curren$y described how he always wanted Jet Life to grow like a “balloon”. Meaning…if you blow into balloons too fast, they fill up too quickly and pop. But if he blew into it slowly and consistently, it would grow slowly over time. Basically…a slow burn.

In an industry where so many artists, creators, and their teams are trying to go “viral” and look for that instant success, Curren$y intentionally played the long game to build something that lasts.

That one mindset shift impacted all of his career decisions and how he thought about things (more on that below).

This is one of the areas I loved most. Many artists only have 1 income source: the music. One of the biggest takeaways from Curren$y’s career is how many income sources he built and how many of them actually grew out of things that he genuinely loves.

He uses an interesting analogy of having pots-on-the-stove:

For example, he has a six-burner stove with food cooking in every pot.

Each pot is a different entity or vehicle to make money and build his brand.

Under and around Jet Life is the record label, apparel line, athlete management, a cannabis arm, film, car ventures, and more.

His love of cars is a great example: he apparently keeps a warehouse of them and built a business out of it. He restores old school cars and releases them in curated drops (for example 6 at a time) almost as if they were sneaker releases. For a fan with disposable income, being able to buy something like that from your favorite rapper is priceless experience.

I also read that he leases / rents some of his cars to studio production sets for film and TV as an additional way to earn income. In addition to monetizing, his love of cars also acts as an extension of his brand and gives people something additional to latch onto - for example, this dope piece by Esquire.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, touring (historically a huge chunk of his income) went to 0 basically overnight.

He was forced to pivot quickly and turned his attention to selling apparel.

While his manager wanted to pump the brakes on making clothes (his logic was nobody was going to buy hoodies during a lockdown) Curren$y's response, paraphrasing him on Trapital, was basically “there's no toilet paper on the shelves and people are still selling out of our stuff. Fans were buying sweatshirts to sit in the house.” He even ended up buying a few cars during the lockdown, off money he made from selling clothes, while the dealerships were closed.

The point here isn’t just about selling clothes…it’s about the power of having an ecosystem and multiple ways of making money. One revenue source turns off (touring) and another opens (apparel). Relating to his pots on the stove example…when one burner goes cold, there’s another one already going. In 2020, most artists realized they had exactly one source of income while Curren$y had multiple.

That emphasis on selling products blossomed into Jet Life having its own brick-and-mortar store in New Orleans. It still operates to this day and is one of the foundational pieces to Curren$y’s empire - it’s a place where people can physically experience his brand and engage in community.

To me, it’s super impressive and inspiring. While many artists sell products online, only a handful of artists have been able to convert those brands into successful brick-and-mortar stores.

Drake most notably did it with OVO stores across the country.

In NYC, Nems launched his FYL brand store in Coney Island while Dave East launched From the Deli uptown.

Curren$y’s ability to sell that apparel came from a focus on brand building and creating something bigger than himself.

Jet Life stands for something, it’s not just about promoting the rapper Curren$y.

This part is interesting. When I read he dropped over 100 projects, my immediate thought (besides being impressed) was “oh, he’s playing the streaming game and building his catalog as an asset”.

While that might be partially true (and there are real benefits from it), he doesn’t just look at his catalog as an asset - he looks at it as marketing top of the funnel for everything else he has going on.

For example, let’s do rough math…let’s say his catalog does around 20 million streams a month across 100 projects. That’s 5 million streams per week (I’m guessing, I actually have no idea). At a rate of about $0.004 a stream, that's roughly $80,000 a month from streaming or just under a million a year.

That’s good money but not EMPIRE money.

The money from streaming is great but the consistent flood of new music actually has a deeper purpose - it keeps the “balloon” inflating.

He stays relevant, keeps the core audience fed, keeps people walking into the store, etc.

The store, apparel, touring, ventures, etc… that's where it gets lucrative. He even talks about not chasing stream counts the way other artists do, because he understands a million streams doesn't change your life (it's a few thousand dollars) but more importantly, it’s the reason for fans to come buy the thing that does.

The takeaway for me isn't "release 100 projects" lol. It's to stop treating your music as the destination and end all be all.

For most independent artists now, the music is the whole funnel.

Curren$y built a system where music is at the top while giving his fans value at every step down.

The other engine behind his reach is doing collab projects - he's arguably run that play more deliberately than most people realize (speaking for myself).

Here are some examples of his collabs:

On streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, a collaborator is listed as a primary artist - so every joint project associates Curren$y straight into someone else's fanbase, on their profile, and in their algorithm.

Wiz, Freddie Gibbs, and Larry June fans…each project is a clean introduction to a built-in audience that already exists.

More important than the strategy though is the intentionality behind it and authenticity - these aren't feature swaps for a quick look, they're full bodies of work with artists whose worlds overlap his and genuinely great music. Larry June is a great example: two independent, prolific, lifestyle-driven artists with adjacent-but-separate crowds.

Takeaway: a strategy for growing isn’t always just endlessly releasing to the people you already have. It's making something real with someone whose audience you don't have, so you reach a new audience in an organic way.

The last big takeaway for me is the level of discipline that Curren$y and his manager Mousa have to say no to things.

On the Trapital podcast, Mousa talked about how some of the offers that come in are for real money in exchange for social media promotion.

Despite it being a quick bag, they usually say no. In their mind, the second Curren$y’s audience sees a paid post, they're going to question the authenticity of it and that doubt isn't worth compromising his brand trust. They've passed on media deals for the same reason - he doesn't want his fans engaging in something he’s promoting that he doesn’t actually believe in.

That "no" is a luxury they earned themselves. When you own your masters, your brand, your store, and your six burners…your income isn't tethered to any single yes. He has freedom over his decisions.

So…all this is well and good but what are some of the tangible takeaways?

Here’s an example:

Run a quick audit on yourself and your funnel by opening Claude or a doc and paste this in:

The idea is to stop seeing your catalog as the finish line (though there is nothing inherently wrong with this if you do) and start seeing it as the thing that points people toward something else you've built.

At that point, every release has the job of keeping the balloon inflating while the businesses underneath hold the air.

The real lesson is that Curren$y treats everything he touches like something to own and lets it grow slowly. Each business is a slow-growing, consistent entity that makes up a larger empire.

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

1) Moises — an AI practice app that lets musicians practice songs. Upload any song and it splits out the stems, finds the chords, and lets you slow or speed up songs. It can help chunk a song and drill the hard parts in isolation. More info HERE