Kevin Abstract Quotes

I just wanted to have my own dynasty. I wanted my own Cash Money or Roc-A-Fella. Outside of that, I also wanted my own media company.

Def Jam is the reason why I started a label.

When I started Milk! Records, it was a pretty non-profit making venture.

My real life helped me sell a lot of records.

Success came to me in my late 20s. I started touring when I was a teenager, so I had already seen the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the music business. Plus, setting up my own record company taught me a lot.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

I always wanted to be a part of a New York-based label, so I've worked really hard to try and network with people that I felt would put me in the right place.

So So Def has been one of the most successful and consistent labels in the game in the last 10 years.

I don't really like meetings, I like recording and performing music. I need to set myself up for when the time does come that I need better distribution or just a bigger team behind me.

There's artists that I'm working with on a new label of mine. Foxy Nova and Supa Nova.

So there was a way for you to get promoted and survive as an artist without worrying about AM radio hits.

I can show bands how to produce themselves. In the same way, many bands think you can't make it without some fat cat in London or New York to manage you. That's just crap. All you need is someone a bit older than you with a bit of business nous whom you trust.

I had always thought of starting my own record company. I haven't regretted the decision - yet!

I always wanted to run a major label, and I feel like I got the skills to do that. The one thing about me is that I won't sit behind a desk the whole time - I'll go to the clubs and see what's hot.

There are people who are genetically made to start record labels, and I'm not one of those people. People just have it in their blood and are good at it. Corey Rusk from Touch and Go and Ian MacKaye. These are people who have made their own labels.

I'm just focusing on 'Let's Stay Together' and slowly building my production company. I'm trying to get into writing as well.

I've always treated the music business as a business.

First of all, I think that is true, if you are a musician, particularly on the come, that you do have to end up in one of these musical centers, some way, to be viable, saleable and so on.

The music business doesn't take up that much of my time. I probably should put a little more energy into it.

You make your music, then you try to find whatever audience is out there for it.

I've been part of running a label since I was a kid, so I understand how it works. But the more and more I learn about it, the less and less interested I am in it.

I know it is common nowadays for artists to start labels but this is a thoroughly constructed vehicle for inspired talent. This is a market that we've been living, breathing and eating for our entire lives - one where a huge void currently exists. Favored Nations is a long-term commitment.

Since I was 17, I had been just making records and promoting them.

I started my own record label.

I knew that it was my only shot to be taken seriously in the recording industry, because it's fast and broad.