ATLANTA CHRONICLES [S1, EP 1]

Art Imitates Life

The television show ‘Atlanta’ is about a guy who works at the airport and starts managing his cousin, a local rapper/trapper; and how they navigate life, society, and the music business.

It’s one of my favorite television shows. I think it’s groundbreaking, and it mirrors my life in many ways.

Let’s get into it.

LAGOS TO ATLANTA

I was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Niyi and Folahan. My father was the son of a Nigerian General, Henry Adefope who became President of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, Vice-President of the Commonwealth Games Federation, and a member of the International Olympic Committee.

Needless to say, he did a lot.

My parents decided to move to Atlanta when I was six years old. One of my earliest memories was going to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.. but then my parents split up and things got weird.

The best way I can explain it is if you read the book ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ where a rich kid and poor kid trade places.

I became the poor kid overnight.

As far as growing up, I balanced being a Nigerian, in America, amongst black and white people; and if you know anything about Black American x African relations, you know they’re not always smooth.

Sure, everybody wants to be African now because of Black Panther and Afrobeats; but it wan’t alway like det.

That’s how we talk in Atlanta.

Anyways, I was a pretty smart kid; hated school; but learned quickly, and figured out I could move between circles pretty well; but never really felt at home in either circle.

Kind of like Earn.

WELCOME TO ATLANTA

Episode 1 of Atlanta, opens up with an altercation between Earn, his cousin Alfred (pka “Paper Boi"), Darius.. (how do I explain Darius?. .we’ll come back to that); and a guy who is upset because Alfred insulted his girlfriend in a parking lot.

“You Paper Boi, you rich right?”

Alfred is upset because the guy just broke Alfred’s mirror, and Alfred wants him to pay for it.

There’s a stand off.

Guns come out, and a singular shot goes off.

Welcome to Atlanta

Next we go to an opening shot of the Atlanta skyline; followed by a conversation between Earn and Van in bed. Van is Earn’s off and on girlfriend; and the mother of his daughter; Lottie.

“Tell me you love me”

Earn laughs, and Van gets mad. This leads to one of their frequent fights.

SIDENOTE:

The show Atlanta is interesting because at the time this first season was shot, Donald Glover’s (Earn) career was taking off. Most people would have opted to play the artist, but he chose to play the struggling individual, and manager; a main character of sorts - but not the artist or “most important person” in the show.

To me, this shows a common theme we’ll see throughout the show which is Glover’s intentional disruption of traditional storylines, themes, and standards.

We later see that Earn works at the Atlanta airport. He and a co-worker are having a conversation; and Earn is worried Van is going to kick him out of the house because he’s broke.

Earn’s co-worker tells him about the new “Paper Boi” mixtape that’s blowing up and shows him the video..

“That’s my cousin!”

“You need to get in on that before he gets signed, he just got offered $7m”

“Is that a real offer?”, Earn says.

Welcome to the Music Business

Record label deals aren’t always what they appear to be. An artist might get a “$1m deal offer”, but 3/4 of that is committed to the production and marketing of the album, the artist may only see a small percentage of that; and, in either case, it’s all recoupable. The label has to make it back and will take it out of your EARNings..

but of course, at this point, Earn doesn’t know that. He’s just looking to “hit a lick” and keep his head above water.

Later, Earn goes to see his cousin Alfred (p/k/a, “Paper Boi”) who immediately peeps game.

“Come on, Earn, people ain’t just nice”

Earn asks to manage Paper Boi, which leads to a funny exchange.

Paper Boi: “do you know where the word manage comes from?

Earn: “manus, latin for hand”

Paper Boi: “probably, but i’m going to say no for the purpose of this argument”

Paper Boi: “manage, comes from the word man and uh that ain’t really your lane”

Earn: “my lane?”

Paper Boi: “I need Malcom, you’re too martin. You know what they did to him? They killed him”

Earn: “didn’t they kill Malcolm too?

The whole scene is funny. They later go out to smoke and Darius tells them about a tweet where VH1 says that they’re hiring interns.

It’s hilarious to me because these guys have no understanding of the music business or Corporate America in general. They just know that Alfred has something going and they need to capitalize.

It reminds me of when I would watch rap videos, as a kid - 106th and Park, TRL; etc. Ever since I was a kid, I was infatuated with hip-hop and the artists I saw. This infatuation only increased after my parents split up, and there was no father figure in the house. Everything I saw on TV and in these videos seemed bigger than life. I thought that every artist was “balling”; all the money in the videos and cars were really theirs, and that they were swimming in cash, opportunity, and other things.

Funny.

LIKE MIKE

As a kid, I knew nothing about taxes, contracts, managers, lawyers, touring schedules, marketing, promotion, financial investments, probability rates of success, getting shelved as an artist, non-compete clauses, recoupment clauses, sunk cost fallacies, Corporate America, skill development.. and a variety of other things.

I just knew that what I saw on TV looked cool and I wanted to be like them. To a large degree, that’s what the music business, sports and entertainment, and social media influencer circuit is about today.

Influencing young people, and people in general, to buy into someone’s brand, aspire to be like them, and buy products that remind you of them or what they stand for.

You may say:

“I’M not that impressionable"

“That’s for kids or ignorant people”

But why do you buy the clothes, watches, food, cars, homes or other products you buy?

Why do you read the books, aspire to be a part of the networks, and make the decisions you make?

Can you say that every decision you make is self-directed and not influenced at all by other people?

Nah.

If not, then at a basic level, you’re / we’re just as susceptible as the 13-year-old who wants to be like the rapper he sees on Instagram.

To a large degree, this influence is curated by media companies, executives, agents, managers, and lawyers.

Art imitates life, and life imitates art

Often.

But of course Paper Boi didn’t know that. He even says, at one point, “rappers need managers, i’m just tryna get paid real quick”.

It reminds me of a Jay Z line where he says,

“This is not for commercial usage
Please don't categorize this as music
Please don't compare me to other rappers
Compare me to trappers, I'm more Frank Lucas than Ludacris
And Luda's my dude, I ain't tryna diss”

Paper Boi was caught up in the life; and music, like it is for many rappers, wasn’t a career for him - it was a hustle - a side gig. He wasn’t worried about the business or longevity, he was just looking to make a quick flip; and didn’t care about the long-term ramifications of his decisions, for better or worse.

But as Earn said to him,

“This isn’t about rap. If we do this right, your kids can live good, my kids can live good. Darius’ kids can live good”

Darius: “I can’t have kids”

This episode is interesting to me because we see that Earn saw potential in his cousin even before his cousin saw it in himself. For all his shortcomings, Earn later goes on to get Alfred’s record played on the radio, which leads to Alfred being open to Earn becoming his manager.

Later in the episode, we find out that Earn went to Princeton but for some reason, ended up leaving (we’ll find out about that later).

“Earn trying like the rest of us, but when he wants to do something he does it”

- Earn’s dad

Earn taking the risk to get his cousin’s song played on the radio was a turning point. Up until then, Earn felt like a fuck up, and that nothing was going right for him; but he perceived his cousin’s hit song as an opportunity for him to turn his life around. Was, he concerned about himself? Yes. But did he see how it could mutually benefit his cousin?

Yes. And for that i gave him props

I can relate a lot to this journey, and, at times, it felt like I had bumped around multiple times and never got in my groove. At one point, when I hit rock bottom, my mother (a lawyer) told me to apply to law school.

I wasn’t feeling it.

She asked me what I had to lose?

Not much, so I applied.

Ended up crushing the LSAT, getting a scholarship to an Atlanta law school; and shortly after decided to focus on media, sports, entertainment and corporate law.

I saw that as my golden ticket. I remember I used to even go to clubs and pass out business cards to rappers.

I once heard a music executive say that hip hop is a trojan horse for many people because it allows them to enter industries and build businesses that they may not have otherwise been able to enter and build.

I feel that.

Going Back to Atlanta

At the beginning of the episode, Paper Boi was sitting in his car and insulted the girl who didn’t respond to his cat-calls. The girl’s boyfriend then broke Alfred’s mirror.

It was then that Alfred started to get out of the car and reached to grab his gun from the glove compartment.

Earn stops him.

“Don’t mess with the money”

Unfortunately for Earn, Alfred had another gun.

But this showed Earn’s mindset.

I think this is key for all of us. Earn had no idea what he didn’t know, but he had the right instincts and knew that keeping his cousin safe and out of trouble was the most important thing for all of them.

There are many stories of high-profile artists and athletes who get in unnecessary trouble and often have friends, hangers-on, and even professional advisors who don’t necessarily have their best interests in mind.

When putting a team together, this is one of the most important things you can do - ensure that those around you have your best interest in mind.

Lebron James’ business partners Maverick Carter, Rich Paul, Randy Mims, and Paul Rivera are all heralded (for the most part) in the mainstream, but when they were starting out, many publications ridiculed them and questioned Lebron’s judgment in bringing on people who did not have the traditional path as other professional advisors and agents in the NBA.

Some even compared Rich Paul representing Lebron, to a plumber performing dentistry. But Lebron trusted in his guys and allowed them the opportunity to self-determine their path and develop.

If this all sounds pie in the sky, Rich Paul and his agency just hit $2B in negotiated contracts.. without a college degree.

That’s a lot of pie.

Funny enough, he and Lebron first met in the airport.

Like Earn.