Hi,

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about artists reinventing themselves later in their careers. Not just from a musical or sonic standpoint - moreso the medium that they’re playing in and where they take their careers.

Let’s explore a few examples below.

Let’s dive in ⬇️

1) Joe Budden

This one is no surprise - Joe Budden is one of the gold standards of artists transitioning and reinventing their careers. He went from a career as a hip-hop artist from New Jersey to creating (and more importantly owning) one of the biggest podcasts on the planet.

Budden originally launched The Joe Budden Podcast back in 2015 and has had a very public journey with its trajectory, including a massive deal with Spotify and then a change in co hosts with Rory & Mal.

Joe eventually parted ways with both parties and went the independent route, hosting The Joe Budden Podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

The podcast has since reached massive heights of success - it’s become arguably the go to hip-hop podcast and earlier this year Budden stated he was making $1 million per month on Patreon from show subscriptions.

2) Cam’ron

Cam’ron is also a great example of career transitions, particularly in the hip-hop space. A legendary rapper who greatly impacted hip-hop culture (especially in New York), Cam transitioned into sports with his show “It Is What It Is” with co-host Mase.

The show launched on YouTube in 2023 with its own dedicated channel and has since amassed over 220 million views. It’s become a centerpiece of the intersection between music & sports and it feels like almost every week moments from the show are going viral.

Cam’ron & Mase have since signed a partnership deal with Revolt TV for “It Is What It Is” and Cam’s network “Come And Talk 2 Me”. It’s unclear the exact revenue the show has produced but it looks to be in the multi-millions. Cam also uses the show as a platform to flex his freestyle chops and consistently goes viral with his random impromptu freestyles.

Not one to remain complacent though, Cam’ron isn’t content with just music, sports, and media. This October he’s entering the newest arena of his career - comedy. Next week he’ll be hosting his first comedy show in New York City. Dubbed The Killa Comedy Show, it’ll be taking place at the Beacon Theatre featuring comedians like Corey Holcomb, DeRay Davis, Rayyy Rayyy, Wil Milz, and more with performances from artists like A$AP Ferg.

The event will become another pillar to Cam’ron’s brand, a way to reach a new audience, and the ability to create a moment in New York City.

3) Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson had her own foray into the media personality space, building up the massively successful Jennifer Hudson Show. Launched in 2022, Hudson has grown the show largely in part due to the success of the viral segment The Spirit Tunnel. The Spirit Tunnel is a segment capturing show guests walking out to the show in a tunnel formed by the show’s production staff.

Recently renewed for its 4th season, the show has won Emmys and is one of the biggest day time talk shows in the world. The Spirit Tunnel segment has become so popular there it’s become something of media lore with its own rankings:

4) Gillie Da Kid

Wallo & Gillie Da Kid teamed up to launch the A Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast back in 2019. After bringing their own respective brands together, they would eventually go on to partner with Barstool Sports in what is widely reported as a lucrative deal.

With over 1 million YouTube subscribers and almost 500 million views on the platform, it’s become one of the biggest podcasts in the game and a must stop artist on press runs.

Gillie Da Kid transitioned his career from a respected hip-hop artist from Philadelphia to global media personality.

Overall

So Mike…this is all well and good but what’s the point?

The point is that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself.

To take your career in a new direction, try something new, and find success in doing it.

All of the artists mentioned above were previously known for 1 thing and then made a name for themselves doing another.

In the current media landscape, with an authentic brand and an audience, anything is possible.

Hopefully this was helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

_{The Vault}

 1) Claude - last week’s newsletter featured Claude Code, a coding tool that is part of the Claude family. Claude itself is an LLM similiar to ChatGPT. While I still use ChatGPT, I’ve found it helpful to prompt in multiple places and saw that Claude can actually provide different kinds of responses than GPT - my responses (with the same prompts), have been interesting perspectives. More info HERE