Curren$y Played The Long Game With His Career & Jet Life

Most artists want career growth and they want it fast — sometimes to a fault. This is where Curren$y is an outlier. From the jump, Curren$y set out to grow both his career and fanbase slowly but steadily. He successfully did that and it’s a reason why he’s not only stayed in the rap game for almost twenty years, but is now still earning more money , and at a career point where most of his peers coming up have already fizzled out.

Curren$y and his longtime manager, Mousa, joined me on this week’s episode to explain how zigging when others zagged contributed to their career longevity. One instance is leaving his hometown Cash Money Records label to create their own, Jet Life. The two have been able to morph the brand into a full-on business empire that now includes apparel, athlete management, products, and more verticals on top of the music label.

The duo built Jet Life on the back of touring and being true to their audience. To do so, they turned down more brand partnerships they can remember and even music festival appearances at times — no matter how good the bag was for each. These trend-bucking moves were covered at length in our interview. Here’s what we covered:

0:47 New Orleans folks are immune to heat
2:49 Mousa and Curren$y relationship began in 2005
7:25 Growing Jet Life business beyond a record label
11:33 Turning down non-authentic business opportunities
16:03 Emphasizing touring early in Curren$y’s career
19:20 Releasing an EP as an NFT
24:14 Curren$y’s take on streaming farms
28:36 Macro-view of Jet Life revenue streams
36:46 Touring is cornerstone of Jet Life business
39:44 Performing on own shows vs. music festivals
47:23 Festival money goes to sports car dealership
48:41 Curren$y’s partnership with NASCAR (and problems with Coca-Cola)
55:25 What’s the secret to a great artist-manager relationship?

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