The CqE "Stay Tuned" blog recently had the pleasure of interviewing Louisville, Ky artist/producer/manager, Carlis Phillis, also known as Carlis P (or CP). CP is one of the brains behind the Soul LinQ imprint that promotes itself as an independent label and a production company. Let's listen in...
CqE: WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT? WHAT MAKES YOU DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THE INDUSTRY?
Carlis Phillips: Well, as a manager, I like to say that, I’m an artist manager. I’m for the artist. And it’s not like I have this big roster of artists that I’ve managed. Of course, I've managed the Klientel movement; Adrianne Archie, I'm responsible for getting her moving; you know, pretty much anything under Soul LinQ, I've pretty much had my hands on. I take the approach…. I became a manager, not really wanting to. I just had to assume the position, because we didn’t have the finances, didn’t have the budget to seek outside of our resources. And I ended up doing everything just by default. But I've always tried to instill anything I've learned into the artist. So I've never really considered myself a “manager”, maybe more like a consultant, or a big brother figure, to anybody that was working under me. So everything I’ve learned, I've tried to instill inside my artists, and almost make it a co-management situation. Like with Adrianne, it’s definitely a type of co-management arrangement. I've always made sure that everything I did, everything I was responsible for, and she had the knowledge also. Which helped me in a lot of ways, because she acted as a buffer to some of the things I didn’t have time to do, being that we all still had jobs, a 9 to 5, and things of that sort [outside of Soul LinQ]. And then, just for her to be able to control her own destiny. She got a kick out of being in control, one of those who people who got kick out of seeing people advance and be successful. So I stand out in the manager’s lane as an artist manager, I’m for the artist. Anybody I work with, I’m there to help, not there to control. There are some managers that really get a kick out of that control aspect. But that’s how I think I stand out as far as being a manager or an executive.
From the artist standpoint, everything that Soul LinQ has done has been pretty much from the heart. We've always had a soul-spirited type of movement. We've never really been interested in following a particular type pattern in the industry. We never really tried to deviate, but it just so happened to end up that way, because we never wanted to become the “industry standard”. And that kind of makes us stick out a little bit. And we really just take pride in doing us. We take pride in never really being caught up with the aspect of making money. I understand that the moneymaking people in the industry are making hit records.
CqE: RIGHT
CP: There’s really no way around it. If you're not making a hit record, then you may make some money here and there, but it’s not enough to really be a rockstar.
CqE: SPEAKING OF Soul LinQ, WHERE DID THE CONCEPT OF Soul LinQ COME FROM? LIKE, WHAT’S THE HISTORY OF Soul LinQ?
CP: Well…pre-Soul LinQ…I went to Western Kentucky University. I was in a group called Klientel, who was already a group when I came in about 1998. And from there it went from 3 guys to just 2 of us, myself and William Beason. And we were under Deep Rooted Productions, which was a Nappy Roots movement. So our first album was produced by [Grammy nominated rap group] Nappy Roots, and that whole camp. So we spent working with them, and that’s really how Klientel got started. Along with D. Mawl and Gibraltar and all them. We found ourselves writing, and once I graduated from WKU, I moved to Louisville [Kentucky], and every one in Nappy Roots was still in Bowling Green. So I found myself traveling back and forth, just to go down there and record, or go down there and write. And after a while, it became a little much. It started becoming expensive, it started becoming very difficult to do, because we all had jobs. And I always thought that I was a pretty talented guy that could pick up on anything, so my girlfriend at the time helped me buy a workstation, a Yamaha Motif. And that’s where Soul LinQ started, when I bought that first workstation, when we started making our own tracks. Myself, my brother, and D. Mawl, we all started writing from the Motif, and that was back in 2001, I believe. Back then, Klientel has just gone to the Apollo and performed there with the Doug Banks Morning Show. And that was a monumental moment for us to be able to do that. And that jump started us doing our own thing, and once we had that Motif, Soul LinQ was born.
CqE: NICE.
CP: Yeah, and Soul LinQ…the “Q” is for the bruhz [Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc]. A lot of people don’t know that. I’m a Que, my brother Cortico is a Que, and D. Mawl is also a Que. And that’s how Soul LinQ started, so we had to throw that subliminal Q in there. [laughs] And the “linq” is us being linked by soul music. “Musically linked through the soul”, that’s our motto. And then, about a year later, we met Joel Goodwin and Adrianne Archie. And we started performing at the Java House [in West End, Louisville], and we used to rock out there…. Klientel, Soul LinQ, Adrianne, D. Mawl…we used to have little sessions and just invited everyone out to watch us do our thing. And that’s where we really kicked off the Soul LinQ movement. And from there we started gigging around the community, and really sharpening our blades, so to speak, and gaining knowledge about music. We had quite a few musicians that supported us, and claimed Soul LinQ too. So our camp was about 8 or 9 people strong, back about 2002, 2003. And 2003, is when Klientel did our second album, which was the first album to be released under the Soul LinQ label. That was “Daily Trade”, and we had a lot of underground success with that. We also won a couple of awards off that one, and it was featured on a couple of international compilations. And that was cool to be able to reach people in Japan…that was our first taste of our music being sold on the retail level, and also being heard outside the country. So it was cool to experience that. And to know that we created that from top to bottom was a huge accomplishment for us.
And Adrianne, her first album, “He That Hath An Ear…” (“HTHAELHH”) 
was released at the end of 2003, and released in 2004. So that was the second Soul LinQ release. And then from there, D. Mawl got moving, and started his movement. And once that took off, he reached some heights. And he had the opportunity to do some great things, not only in the community, but throughout the country. He did BET’s RapCity and the theme for KFC Pride 360°, and had a chance to participate in the Grammys. He also had some of his songs licensed on a few sitcoms, I think “Son of Tucson” was one of them. So, yeah, Soul LinQ is definitely a grassroots movement, that started from nothing…. well not nothing, we always had something…started from low resources. We had a little knowledge and had a little drive, and created resources. And we put it together, and that was the inception. And ten years later, we’re sill doing it. And in that time you learn, and you meet people in the industry, and you hear the stories. And sometimes, you start to appreciate not being in the industry…not being in the belly of the industry.
CqE: WITH SO MANY THINGS AND AVENUES THAT YOU CAN GO IN THE INDUSTRY, WHAT MADE YOU SETTLE ON BEING A PRODUCER, OR BEING AN ARTIST, OR EVEN A MANAGER?
CP: Well, the artist part was easy. I came from a musical background, a musical family. My mother’s a jazz singer, and she’s been singing since I can remember, and she still sings. She’s on the scene in my hometown, South Bend, Indiana, and regionally Chicago and Michigan. Than I have other family, uncles and aunts that sing. And they had some success, so the artist part, that was easy. I like to perform and create songs, and Nappy Roots gave us the platform to do it at the time and I just took advantage of it and became an artist.
But everything else, like a producer, executive, manager, all those other aspects came because I didn’t have the resources. I couldn’t get beats when I wanted to at that time. I look back on how hard it was to get a good track back in 2002, 2003, and today although I still produce, I don’t have to. After a while you meet so many people in the industry, people are willing to give you stuff. So I could just write if I want to.
CqE: SO BASICALLY, BEING MORE THAN AN ARTIST CAME OUT OF NECESSITY?
CP: Most definitely. Everything else came through trial and error and just having to do it. Having to manage ourselves, having to learn the industry ourselves. After a while, you read and learn so much, and gain knowledge, you end up becoming your own manager. So why pay someone for something you have the knowledge and understanding to do? The producing…the managing…and what a lot of people don’t know, any Soul LinQ project or album, I did the graphic art for as well. Any website made for a Soul LinQ artist, I did created it. So you now, those things…I have an IT degree, so I had to use my resources.
CqE: I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. MUSICALLY, WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
CP: Man, so many!! It’s so many, but I’ll go ahead and say, uh, the Staples, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, uh…I heard a lot of Luther [Vandross] growing up. I heard a lot of Anita Baker growing up. I heard a lot of funk music, a lot of Earth, Wind and Fire, all of that whole funk era, that’s in me. Ohio Players, Zapp and Roger, just that whole funk era. And then of course, Hip Hop. So I was like a mesh of funk, R&B, jazz from my mother, and then Hip Hop.
I had an older sister, and an older cousin, and they would have house parties. And I would sneak down, and I’d be like, “What are they playing??” And I was turned out when I first heard Eric B and Rakim’s “Check Out my Melody”, I can remember hearing that and sneaking down when I in the fourth grade and hearing that. And I was sold on Hip Hop from there. I was able to create concepts from a hip hop, funk, jazz state of mind as a youngster. But I never really had a way to bring it to life until I was in college.
CqE: NICE. EARLIER, YOU MENTIONED THE INDUSTRY. WHAT ARE SOME THINGS YOU LOVE ABOUT THE INDUSTRY OR THE MUSIC BUSINESS?
CP: I like making money off of doing something I love. My first experience in the industry was probably 1999, with Nappy Roots. And I don’t think I received my first piece of cash, that I didn’t have to pay to get, until maybe 2005 or 2006. I meant we would get paid here and there for gigs early on, but the work and the resources that we had to put in it before we got paid, it never evened out, it never worked out in our favor. It was almost like, you paying to play when you make maybe $100 off of a gig and then you have to pay like 6 people and the pay for the equipment, and time for rehearsal, and buy clothes to look decent on stage, and burning through gas money…so you’re paying to play, even if you get paid. You still haven’t come out on top. So our first piece of monetary success came with Adrianne Archie. And it took her 2 or 3 years to hit that hard and really start reaping monetary benefits off of that. And that’s why her brand is created, she’s known pretty much around the world. She has a fan base, and has what many artists spend a lifetime trying to do.
CqE: DIDN’T SHE SET A RECORD AT CDBaby.com?
CP: She did. For a while, she had the #1 selling neo-soul album sold on CDBaby. She sold the most units in that particular genre on CDBaby.
CqE: THAT’S NOT A BAD FEAT AT ALL!
CP: Yeah! And that was all us, man. A huge accomplishment, looking back. And we all are humble, so we never really got caught up in all those titles and accomplishments. But now that I look back at it, that was such a huge breakthrough, man, based on our resources. And we never ever expected, or wanted a handout from anybody, even with Nappy Roots. We still have a good relationship with those guys. But that’s one thing I made sure I never did. I never gave them the impression that they owe me anything. I mean they’re Grammy nominated, they went platinum with their first album [“Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz”, Atlantic Records]. I never expected anything from them, but support.
CqE: SPEAKING OF CDBaby, HOW DO YOU PROMOTE YOURSELF OR A D. MAWL OR ADRIANNE ARCHIE?
CP: It comes from experience, man. The only true way to promote and really sell your product is, you have to hit the road. You have to get in front if people. You have to do shows. Early on, as a web designer and having some marketing savvy, I would try to do the numbers in my head. I was thinking like, “well I have an email list of about 10,000 people. So if we send out 10,000 emails to these people, I know that at least 500 to 1000 have to buy the cd, just off hearing the snippets.”
So you try to play the numbers game. And, uh, that is not true. [laughs] And, I learned the hard way with that one. Anything you do on the web, or anything you do with print and graphic, that’s just basically to reinforce or solidify what you've already established. But no is going to buy your product, just because you sent them an email. Even if you have snippets, and your music sounds great, that’s just the way the human mind works. They're not just going to buy the cd. They’ve either have to have heard about you by word of mouth…and it’s really like the 3rd time and 3rd impression. Once people have heard about you three times, then that kind of solidifies in their mind…it’s jus something psychological that triggers them to be like “ok, maybe I should pay attention, or go check this person out”.
Adrianne being such a phenomenal live performer, anytime she’s in front of people and people get the chance to hear her live, it pretty much sells them. And most of our cd sales have been through live shows with her. But the CDBaby sales, that’s nice. But most of our CDBaby sales have come from doing shows in a new market that really didn’t know about her. And we may sell 40 to 50 cds at the show, and then those people are the people that go out and play her music in the car with their friends and family. Or let their friends and family borrow the cd. And then that’s how it markets itself. That’s how it starts. That’s how you sell music. Don’t believe the hype [laughs]. It’s nothing else. You can’t sell music without doing shows.
CqE: [laughs] SO WITH THE SOCIAL NETWORKS, AND THE BIG BOOM OF FACEBOOK AND TWITTER, YOU STILL THINK THE BEST WAY IS LIVE SHOWS?
CP: Oh most definitely. Twitter and Facebook are just reinforcements. They are vehicles to spread the word of mouth. That’s not the artist’s vehicle. That’s the people’s vehicle. I mean you have to find a way to capture the people. But the best way is a live show. Or, you have to have a huge budget and pay millions to be on MTV or BET. Or you have to be on the radio, getting spins. Like 2, 3, 4 spins an hour. But outside of that, If you're not getting that, you have to get out. And with the social network aspect, your fans will touch the people for you. They're going to send an email, or a tweet, or post your stuff. The social networks are more for your fans. Like if Adrianne were to post a message or a tweet, how would people even know to go look at her, if they don’t know about her? And even some of your friends and family who have never really heard what you do, they don’t support. They don’t know.
CqE: I CAN DEFINITELY UNDERSTAND THAT. SO WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON? YOU YOURSELF, OR ADRIANNE, OR D. MAWL…. WHAT’S NEW FOR Soul LinQ?
CP: D is working on some material. He has some aspirations of releasing something here soon. So we’re just waiting to see what type of direction he wants to take with it. And then see what the resources are, and creating a budget. Me, myself, I’ve taken a hiatus. I’m rally just trying to reevaluate my entrepreneurship and my movement outside of music. So I’m taking some time to get a hold on that. But here in the last month or so, I’ve really been getting my studio back in order. You know, technology moves so fast that if you stay out of the studio for six months, you're already outdated. [laughs] So I’ve been spending time upgrading. I just bought [Apple] Logic Pro last year, so that’s a new change, being able to step outside of Pro Tools. So I’m taking time to get to know that whole engine of creating. It’s taking a little time. It’s a new experience since I’ve been in a Pro Tools mindset for like 10 years. And then getting together with Joel, just getting back into the routine of creating again, spending time with each other. Resurfacing that creativity and that drive.
So Joel is creating, and he’s working with JD Blair, world class drummer. He drummed for just about everybody. His big movement was Shania Twain. But he’s not only a pop drummer, but he’s also a big funk drummer. So we’re working on some stuff with him. So look out for that. Look out for my name or Joel’s name, but definitely Joel’s name. We’re also working with B. Scott from Nappy Roots. We've got a couple of tracks with him. He’s working on a new project. So you may see some CP on that.
But I am writing, not necessarily to release as an artist, but I have a nice little following. So I try to give my followers a little something. So whether it’s in the form of a mixtape or a few singles, then that’s what I’ll do. That was the whole reason why I released the mixtape a couple of years ago. The “Mixed Emotions” mixtape. 
Not because I anticipated making a lot of money off of it. And it wasn’t because I was trying to create a buzz for an album. I just needed to get something off my chest. I had a bunch of old music that had been sitting, and I don’t want to die with a bunch of music on my heart that’s never been heard. So I really just did that for the people. But for right now, features. I’ll definitely jump on some features right now.
CqE: AND THAT ACTUALLY SEEMS LIKE THE THING NOW. LIKE LIL’ WAYNE BEFORE HE RELEASED “Tha Carter III”, HE DID LIKE A WHOLE YEAR OR SO OF FEATURES.
CP: Yeah, features are a great way to promote. Like if you get the opportunity to smash someone else’s track and let them promote it, that’s free. Free promotion. Even if you do the track for free, even if you don’t get paid. Your name is on a hit record that someone else is pushing. And if you do several of those throughout the year…like, remember when [hip hop artist] Ludacris was on everybody’s track. It almost seemed like he was better on features than on his own music. That was good promotion for him. Drake, Nikki [Minaj], the-Dream, and Lil’ Wayne all did it.
And even locally. I’m not against being featured on somebody’s track that I don’t know, or they don’t really have a big movement but they have potential…if they have a positive movement, then no matter what genre I would be open to working with them.
CqE: WHATS ONE OF THE THINGS THAT KEEPS Soul LinQ INDEPENDENT? LIKE WHY IS IT NOT Soul LinQ/Bad Boy Records OR Soul LinQ/Def Jam Records? WHY HAVEN’T YOU ALL GONE “MAJOR”?
CP: We've always taken pride in having control over our own destiny. And even though we've had opportunities to shop our records and shop projects, we've always had someone in our ear. Like Nappy Roots, and talking to people like [neo-soul artist] Bilal or [R&B artist] Jaheim, different industry cats…they would always say, “keep doing what yall are doing.” So that would always stay in the back of our minds, “Keep doing what yall are doing”. And they would always tell us, “if I can go back, I would do it just like yall doing it. Just stay patient, and don’t feel like yall have to give it up just to be there”. If you really look at the pattern, most artists that’s gotten beat down from the industry, they're coming back and doing it themselves. And there’s really no way to avoid the “beat down” in the industry. You either get beat to a pulp by the majors and sent to the indies with your tail between your legs, or you get beat up just being independent. And when I say “beat up”, it’s the hard work that it takes as an independent, because you don’t have resources. Sleepless nights, spending all your hard earned money, doing stuff for free, going unappreciated…it takes a toll on you. So there’s really no way around that in the music industry, if you want to be successful monetarily. So we appreciate being just Soul LinQ, we were never looking for a major to help us. But that in itself made us more attractive to the big labels in the long run. Because we always had that mindset of doing it ourselves, and really now-and-days, that’s what the majors want to see. They want to be able to see an artist and a label that’s self sufficient. Because when they get behind you, they just want to be able to make money, they don’t want to have to develop you or teach you. They want you to have all that together, and they just put a little marketing money behind you. And you make them money, that’s it.
CqE: AND I’M NOTICING THAT MORE NOW. THE BIG LABELS THEY DON’T DO THE ARTIST DEVELOPMENT NOW.
CP: No. That’s like almost non-existent. You have to already be developed.
CqE: DO YOU THINK THAT CONTRIBUTES TO A LOT OF ARTISTS NOT HAVING LONGEVITY NOW?
CP: I really think the longevity aspect has to do with the music is not longevity music. It’s nothing that sticks. Now as far as longevity goes in the industry, somebody that makes good music, they don’t make a lot of money, they're not like a millionaire, but their probably always going to be in the industry…like [hip hop artist] Common. He was never really a household name in the beginning, he was never really a platinum selling artist, but he has longevity, because of the kind of music he’s always promoted and made. He been in the industry almost 20 years, and he’s still relevant to a certain point. And then there's someone like Wiz Khalifa. I don’t really see him being a stable artist for the next 20 years. He doesn’t make longevity type music. He makes big hit music, which is more trend music. Which you can make a lot of music off of if you get in, get out in like 3 or 4 years. To be able to live off music for 20 years is a very difficult strategy in hip hop.
CqE: RIGHT. AND I GUESS WHEN I SAY LONGEVITY I LOOK AT ACTS LIKE D4L OR Dem Franchise Boyz OR EVEN SouljaBoy.
CP: Soulja Boy was kind of like the first of his kind. Soulja Boy is still doing it, I don’t know how much longer he’s got [laughs]…I think he’s not the most talented. But Soulja Boy has charisma, he’s confident, and that’s kind of where he’s found his stardom and his niche. I don’t know what to call it, but he’s the first to do it. And I actually heard Soulja Boy was a ghostwriter for [Willow Smith’s] “Whip My Hair”.
CqE: REALLY? WOW.
CP: Yeah. But if he’s a hard worker, kudos to him. I can’t say anything to him.
CqE: SO SPEAKING OF WILLOW OR EVEN JUSTIN BIERBER, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE WITH DEVELOPING THEM, BESIDES THEIR AGE, AND NOT SOME OF THE OTHER ARTISTS LIKE A SOULJA BOY OR A WIZ KHALIFA?
CP: Well because, Bieber’s talented. He can sing, he can play [piano], I mean…you better develop him. You better put some resources into someone like him. But how many resources can you put into a Soulja Boy. He’s already pretty much maxed out. What more can he really do musically? Now he could maybe get into acting. But as far as his music potential, I think he’s maximized that. And that’s just my opinion. But Justin Bieber, he has raw talent, he’s an artist AND a musician. I would develop him until I couldn’t develop him anymore.
And the same with someone like Willow Smith. I mean with her parents [Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith], she’s…I wouldn’t say a prodigy. But she’s definitely a product of both of her parents. So I would take a chance on her too. She’s versatile, so she could do a lot of different things. You know, rapping to singing to dancing to commercials to acting…so it’s really no limits to someone like that. She’s cute…so yeah…develop them. And Willow, I think she kind of already developed. Her parents have probably been developing her out of the womb. So all the label really does is keep her blade sharpened, and keep introducing her to new things and new concepts. She has it naturally, and she grew up in the right environment.
CqE: AND WHEN YOU HAVE RESOURCES LIKE THAT, YOU’D KIND OF BE CRAZY NOT TO TAP INTO THEM.
CP: Exactly.
CqE: BUT SPEAKING OF BIEBER AND WILLOW, WHERE DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY GOING, AS FAR AS PROMOTING ARTISTS AND ARTIST DEVELOPMENT IN PARTICULAR?
CP: Um…I think we still have some years left in the pop era. The overly-pop era, so to speak. We still have some years of that. But what goes up, must come down. So there’s going to be…the industry is definitely going to crash one day. In order for it to start up again, it has to reach a point in rock bottom. I just don’t know when. It’s the same aspect with the government, stock market, all that.
But where do I see it going? I don’t know, man. Its fun to think about it. Just the aspects of technology. I think the industry will go wherever technology takes us. How can we continue to press the envelope, and entertain people, and for them to really get that “wow” factor at a concert or wherever? Concerts are always going to be the best way for the artists to express themselves and reach and get that full experience. Of course you have the revolution of digital music, iTunes, and all that. CDs will become obsolete in about 3 years, I think. You just have to push those cd people over the edge, and they are slowly getting with the whole digital mindset. So the industry is definitely going virtual. The entertainment is moving with technology. Just like with the 3D movement. I’m looking forward to seeing how the music industry will take advantage of the 3D deal.
CqE: THAT WILL BE INTERESTING. WELL, THAT’S ALL THE QUESTIONS I HAVE MAN. WHERE CAN THE READERS CHECK OUT YOU AND Soul LinQ?
CP: CarlisP.com…uh…DMawl.com…and AdrianneArchie.com. Those are the three Soul LinQ artists that are active and still doing it. And then from there, you can find our Twitter pages and Facebook pages, and we just folk, man. We just people. We just like everyone else, man. Can’t forget about Joel, our producer Joel Goodwin. I have yet to develop a website for him, but that’s in the works. That’s coming soon. And then my brother, Cortico. He doesn’t have a website either, but that’s another one of our producers. He’s responsible for a few tracks on Klientel’s projects, and D. Mawl’s too.
For the latest on Soul Linq & CP, follow them on Twitter @SoulLinQmusic & @SincereCreative
