DJ Khaled Quotes

Musically, I wear many hats. I'm the social media director. I conceptualise the videos, write the songs, do the press. I'm not a major label act.

There are three things we need to do for a band. We need to make a great record; we need to get the record played; and we need to find an audience for the live shows.

I started writing music when I was 15 in my bedroom, and I'd post them on MySpace, and from there it shifted to doing covers on YouTube and building my Twitter.

I started rapping because I wanted people to hear what I have to say, I want as many people to hear me as possible, and I do everything in my power to make that pop.

When you're an independent artist, you need as much play or promotion as you can get.

I will always do music, and now - with where the world is going with social media and people dropping stuff for free and doing this and doing that - there's no excuse.

I someday hope to find the time and coin to invest more of my creative energy towards the visual media side of releasing music.

We had to take full advantage of the fact that we wanted to be one of the most creative bands out there that's getting backed by one of the biggest companies.

If I get an iTunes check, I take the money out and say, 'OK, with this money I'mma go shoot me this many videos, with this money I'm going to do this amount of studio sessions.'

In 2011, I released my first album called 'International Villager.' I had no support, and whatever money I had made, I put it all in the album. I shot the music video for 'Brown Rang' with one lakh dollars. I spent so much money, as I just wanted to put it up on YouTube, as I knew that my market was there, and it became a huge hit.

I don't do albums for album sales. I just do it as a conversation piece and a business card.

Before my first album 'Born To Do It,' I used to DJ.

People thought we were crazy for starting a record company. They really thought I was shooting myself in the foot.

It all started with social media, building a fan base via Tumblr and YouTube, doing covers, and releasing a project with original music. Labels started to peel interest then. It was around the same time I was applying for college.

Whatever you make from music, you invest that right back into what you want to get into in life.

With music there's so many limbs and facets. Video and touring and merchandise and all those little things require attention. They're artist things but I tend to joke around too much with those things.

It's all about how you use your social platform. Right now, I'm just using mine to empower people, get my entertainment and my news. Other people use their platform for different things.

I was a drum 'n' bass DJ at first but not any one of note.

I think that the social media space is great because that's where my bread and butter is, but I want to jump into doing traditional media and other fun things.

I used to DJ in Atlanta, and that's how I kind of got into the music industry.

I remember when I got into movies, the only way singers could be heard was to through playback singing in movies. Then gradually came the music companies promoting independent pop singers.

I really had no aspirations for becoming a DJ, and now I find myself having to campaign to be in the DJ Top 100.

I'm not with a label, so I haven't ever felt pressure to be a certain way. I've got a cool team who just love music.

I could always play the drums, so I have some musical talent, but I don't live in Atlanta or LA, so I can't just randomly bump into major artists. So instead, I started building my fan base and my name by networking through the internet. Mostly through Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.

I moved to L.A. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but I really like the entertainment industry. I started to make videos on YouTube to get more comfortable being in front of the camera. The first video I filmed was with my sister.