Barbi Benton Quotes

My passion is music, you know, and music influences culture, influences lifestyle, which leads me to 'Roc-A-Wear'. I was forced to be an entrepreneur, so that led me to be CEO of 'Roc-A-Fella' records, which lead to Def Jam.

Musicians exist independent of any of the marketing terms or the categorization.

I want to continue to constantly put out great music, expand further and further with the live show and music that is attracting music fans from all over the place, not only for ravers or electronic heads.

I love music, and I loved dance music immediately. So I bought some equipment and started making my own. When I started this, I didn't say, 'okay I'm going to do this step and then this step' to become popular. I just created music that I loved.

If I make a song, and it's my song, like 'Lean On,' we're going to make money off the synchs, the Spotify, and we get to headline festivals on it. That's the model I want to explore.

Being a musician has actually surrounded and immersed me in pop culture and youth culture from a very young age. But even before I was singing in bands and creating any kind of art, I was always fascinated by pop culture.

Even in America, we're not a huge act by any means, Major Lazer.

I listen to my old records and I think, 'How did I ever get on the radio?'

I think times have changed, and there's no dearth of talent in the music industry.

I'll always work with Stones Throw, but I'm trying to start my own label to release my old material and sign new artists. I want to do everything from rock, to jazz, to electronic, to noise records and movie sound tracks. Both sampled and original music.

I like Jaykae. He's a great artist, and I absolutely love Dr. Dre's album and a bit of Calvin Harris now and then.

SoundCloud was my first break I guess. I got a little bit of a following.That whole bedroom producer genre was kind of kicking itself into gear, and SoundCloud was becoming more of a hub for producers at the time.

I try to keep track of what the kids are doing on Soundcloud, and all the new guys coming up.

There was a time when radio stations wouldn't play Gaga's music because it was considered dance. Outside of live performances, the Internet became our primary tool to help people discover her music.

I'm not a DJ, I'm not a scenester.

I don't make music for the radio. And when I was being played on the radio a lot, I didn't.

I'm a big fan of Tiesto, and Swedish House Mafia are awesome. I absolutely want to work with them.

With the 'Silly Boy' track, I mean, people knew about it, but it wasn't really like, 'oh that's Eva Simons.' But when 'Take Over Control' came out, that's when people started to get interested in me personally, which is great because it was something I really believed in.

I think basically lables were more interested in a Richard Page record than a Mr. Mister record.

The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.

I listen to everything. I love The Chemical Brothers.

I still listen to a lot of the classics from Bob Dylan and John Martin, but I love electronic music as well. I'm a big fan of an Australian DJ and producer called Flume, who I think is incredible. He should be more successful in the U.K.!

I think that's the problem in a lot of music. We've got these record labels.

When I say I don't have to write pop songs anymore, there's no way I'm going to get on the radio at 60 years of age unless I'm doing a duet with Gaga or I was on 'All of the Lights,' which was a Kanye West record that managed to get on the radio.

'Vinyl' is a good look at the music industry. The script was honest.