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By
Tonisha Johnson (August
2006)
After walking away from a 'local' rival label
effort, severing business ties with North Dallas'
own Gifted Tha Go-Gitta and losing 3rd
business partner Kevonte Calhoun, Vincent still
presses on with his goal of achieving mogul status
in the entertainment industry. While most would have
taken the beating and ran, Mr. Tucker continues
effortlessly to climb the ladder of success by
taking his company seriously. It’s well-known that
labels are started everyday and some end on the
exact day of conception. But not young 'V. Diddy'
nicknamed for his passion to be as successful as
Entrepreneur Sean 'P.Diddy' Combs; Vincent plans his
steps, collectively collaborating with his staff
daily. And as he may 'stumble while stepping' he's
right back on his feet determined to set the status
quo.
A lot
of things have happened to you. You’ve walked away
from a rival label; you severed ties with
Gifted Tha
Go-Gitta and you’ve lost one of your original
owners. What keeps you going?
Vincent
Tucker: I
think you have to be motivated to overcome
disappointment. Unfortunately I had to go through
some situations. Already it’s close to a year and
we’ve had to overcome some things but I think its
part of life. The industry is part of the everyday
grind.
With
the new changes in the company, how is everyone else
(staff/partners) taking that?
Vincent
Tucker: I
have an open door policy that if anyone doesn’t like
anything as far as the direction I want to go they
are free to say things. Everybody is 100% supportive
and focused on the entertainment that’s about to
come out of Dallas, Texas.
I’m
sure you knew you would hit bumpy roads but did you
think it would be like this?
Vincent
Tucker:
No. Not necessarily. Basically I think I was kind
of, naïve, so to speak. Even with the situation back
at Da’Key, I thought that was a great situation to
be offered. To come in and help this man. To be put
in a prominent position. And we got to the point
where it didn’t happen. I’d be the first one to say
I was kind of naïve. The reason why I say that is,
you hear about this stuff happening to artist’s
everyday in the tabloids, internet and magazines.
But for me personally, I never thought that it would
happen this early.
CWC
Entertainment Group’ first anniversary is coming.
Based on your experiences thus far, do you feel it’s
worth continuing?
Vincent
Tucker:
Yeah. Most
definitely. I feel like we’re gonna have bumps in
the road. Maybe the fact that it came during our
first year, we won’t have to worry about that many
going forward. It may be me being naïve about the
whole industry again but that’s kind of how I feel
about it. The time flew very fast.
Yes.
The time has moved extremely fast. By this time next
year, you’ll be all over the place with finalizing
The High School Hip Hop showcase. Let’s talk about
that?
Vincent
Tucker:
Yes. The 1st Annual High School Hip Hop
Showcase. That’s a project that I and my co-director
Ke'shun Walker have been working on since
September of last year back when we were with Da’Key.
We’ve played around with the format so many times.
We got it to where it will highlight the next
generation of talent, starting with the High Schools.
I know personally and if I could speak for Ke'shun
at the moment; I know when we were growing up in
High School, we knew a lot of talented people. And
because they didn’t have the proper environment to
express their talent, they’d sometimes get
themselves into situations they’d have no business
in. So we came up with a platform to give these
students a chance to express their talent. We
thought this would be a positive influence. This
would highlight the areas best.
Is this
only open to Dallas audiences?
Vincent
Tucker:
No. This is open
to anybody. Anyone that hears or knows about it is
more than welcome to participate.
You
actually already have added a local celebrity radio
host as one of the judges?
Vincent
Tucker: We
are very proud to have locked in Nate Quick from
K104. Very popular radio host from 10AM to 3PM,
Monday thru Friday, CST.
How did
you go about landing Nate?
Vincent
Tucker:
We were beginning
to promote the showcase. We weren’t really ready to
do promotions just raise awareness and curiosity. We
established a my space page (http://www.myspace.com/highschoolhiphopshowcase),
and he was a visitor and he leaves a comment on the
page, thanks for the add, we can’t wait for the
showcase, how can I be a judge or something? We were
like ‘Is this the real Nate Quick’? I mean, a
celebrity is not going to take time out to leave a
comment. He’s interested in the movement; in
cultivating talent. He’s like a big brother to 3 or
4 kids out here.
Well,
you donate your time too. I see you donate every last
Saturday of the month to feeding the homeless?
Vincent
Tucker: The
Salvation Army Carl P. Collins Social Center here in
Dallas, Texas. Ke'shun Walker and I started back
in May. I had a ball. Some, you can tell they hadn’t
had a meal in forever. I can’t explain the feeling
but it was a good feeling to take the time out and feed
the homeless; feed people less fortunate because
sometime people don’t just understand how fortunate
they are to just get out their bed, walk to the
kitchen, open up the refrigerator and pull out your
own carton of milk, your own box of cereal out of
the cabinet, putting it in your own bowl, your own
spoon and eating in the comfort of your own home.
People just don’t understand how good they have it.
How
fortunate are you?
Vincent
Tucker:
I sit back and
feel like I’ve had a bad childhood growing up. I can
also sit back and say you know what? It could have
been a heck of a lot worst. It could have been
totally worst.
Is that
why you work so hard?
Vincent
Tucker:
Yes. Because I
know where I came from and I am fortunate. I know I
don’t want to go back there. I want to strive to
reach the next level of success anyway I can. I want
the people around me to be successful. Some people
say they work 24/7. I actually do. Sometimes I work
too hard. I've battled exhaustion a couple of times a
year and dehydration. I do work extremely hard. My
staff works hard. I demand a lot. But my staff is
really talented and I wouldn’t ask them to do
anything I couldn’t or wouldn’t do myself.
You’ve
spoken about trials and tribulations in the last
couple of months. You’ve also spoken about being
naïve in this business. What can you advise others
that seek to be in your shoes with their own
companies?
Vincent
Tucker: I
would say…first of all anybody who strives to
succeed on their own property, company or whatever;
that’s a big move, a great move. You never know what
it feels like to own something until you have
something of your own. I would say do your research.
Study. DBA, Trademarks; get your lawyers, get your
accountants. Check out the local SBA. Do your
homework. Look out for good and bad people.
It’s
kind of hard to look out for good and bad people.
You’d have to experience them first.
Vincent
Tucker:
True. True.
So you
still think it’s not hard to make a business
decision without emotion?
Vincent
Tucker:
It is hard to
make a business decision without emotion. It is
different degrees to it.
I find
that a lot of independent artists start company’ but
don’t approach them in a ‘traditional’ manner. Is it
important to have structure in your company?
Vincent
Tucker: I
think it’s always important to have structure. It
falls in order. To have everything on paper
especially when you’re dealing with partners. When
you try to make everything a handshake agreement,
when money’s involved…hand shake agreements get
forgotten real quick. Nobody remembers they agreed
to anything. So, have your paper work. Have
everything in order. And everybody must know their
role. I’m not trying to knock anybody and this could
be happing now, yesterday….somebody is meeting, some
is planning to start a company or has started a
company and is adding their cousin or anybody that
shows excitement and now their the VP. But the
person doesn’t really do anything. Their just there.
So I think you should have structure. To know what
their position is and what is exactly expected from
them.
Before
you had an artist which determined your stay in
Dallas. But now you don’t have an artist to promote.
What makes you stay instead of going to New York to
pursue your dreams?
Vincent
Tucker:
Yes. My initial movement was to pursue my career in
New York. Even if I had to walk to Brooklyn for
cheesecake (lol), somehow I would have had to do it.
I could have left but I kind of felt selfish for
doing it because I didn’t want to disappoint
everybody that was leaving Da’Key with me. So I said
I’ll stay and it’s gonna go like it goes. 3 weeks
later we got the situation going with Gifted That
Go-Gitta. We had a talented artist with good
charisma; so now that we don’t have an artist…The
High School Hip Hop Showcase keeps us here. Once
again Dallas is wide open.
So now,
what is the new direction for CWC Entertainment
Group?
Vincent
Tucker:
The direction for the company after we stopped
working with Gifted Tha Go-Gitta, which for the
record…
Oh no!
Not the record!
Vincent
Tucker:
I do believe
with the right people around him, he will be a
dominant product. A force to be seen…I’m just saying
for the record. Because the business relationship
ended don’t mean the personal ended. I remember the
first meeting after the situation transpired. My
staff went in different directions. What’s gonna
happen? What we gonna focus on? I said we would
focus on The High School Hip Hop Showcase. Some had
questions saying how are we going to function
without an artist? I had to explain that first of
all, we are an entertainment company. I felt like we
had to kind of just sit back and handle our business
and make sure our business was taken care of. And
the aftermath of this decision that I learned much
later was, I have learned that we don’t need any
artists right now. Hopefully after the showcase,
around 2008, 2009 I can get back to my first love
which is music. There’s a local business promoter
that I had been actually dealing with since this
January. And our businesses have come together under
the name Metro Muzik: The Union. Which
consists of
Jaimeian
“Kuwn-Dalini” Pride,
Cedric
Jemmerson, Chris Panayiotou, Joe Cuesta and
myself. And what we do is weekly, every Thursday and
Sunday we hold local artist showcases. Typically
once a month we get a big named artist to come in
and perform. And we get some of the local artists a
chance to open up for the big named artist to add to
their resume.
How has
your joint venture been so far?
Vincent
Tucker:
It’s great. We’re like this
Generation’s Rat Pack. You can call me Dean Martin.
(LOL) Kuwn-Dalini, Ced and Joe has eased the
transition of our music division not having any
artists. We’ve (Chris and I) have shifted from being
record label executives to Concert/Showcase
Promoters. Without being apart of Metro Muzik: The
Union, I don’t know where we would be right now.
When anyone views our music division website (www.cwcrecords.com),
you will notice that its dominated by Metro Muzik:
The Union (www.myspace.com/metromuziktheunion).
One of the perks of being part of “The Union”, is
you get the opportunity to mingle with the “stars” a
bit. We’ve put together and promoted concerts for
Slim Thug, Dem Franchize Family, The
Legendary Houston Rapper Scarface and his new
Group The Product, Trae from
Rap-A-Lot and so many more names to list. We’re
just a collective of people wanting to lead the
movement of independent artists at this point and
provide lower priced concerts for people in Dallas
to see some of their favorite artists. I tell
everyone that can listen. Get to know Metro Muzik:
The Union, cause shortly, everything will run
through us!
(Part
1)
Copyright © 2006 Gesica Magazine |
