PART 36: Mini Biography, Vol.13: The Conclusion, Pt.4
Now, I know these title may be starting to get confusing, but bare with me... We are getting close... The conclusion wil be complete, however, we will continue at this point for the time being. Rize & Grind Pt.4... ENJOY!
The Autobiography of Freeze Flame:
Vol. 12: 2000 & BEYOND, The Rize & Grind Era Pt.4
It was March 2003, Red started attending classes at Harris Institute for the Arts.... It wasn't long, not even a month before he realized just what he had gotten himself into.... He was seeing his vision come alive before his very eyes, all those ideas he had thought of for years now were possible...
Before long Red Brown Entertainment was born, Red had started a management company... supposed to be a school group project, but after a less ambitious partner didn't see it as real as Red did they parted ways... He was taking his industry training seriously, as one of the older students and with probably the least knowledge and experience, he felt as though he had a lot to prove among his peers...
Through an old friend, Red was introduced to an up and coming artist that was struggling to be heard and they began to work together... Red Brown & Jae Spillz now working together, began to build the vision of the company together, bringing in other artists and producers to work with... things started happening very quickly...
Red now had a subject to work with, every project & assignment was made to showcase the artist known as Jae Spillz, marketing plans, tour plans, etc... graphic design classes were used to design CD covers and other needed visuals. Red was assigned to the student run record label as the publicist, so he was able to meet and work with other talent and get some photography into the mix as well...
Red had been attending the school for at least a semester before things outside the building actually started happening... Red was able to land a volunteer internship at Toronto's Aboriginal Radio station, which happened to be only a couple blocks away...
By the second semester, with only a 2 week break, Red was full steam ahead... working full time at the radio station in the mornings, and attending classes late into the evening....
It was the second semester when Red was introduced to Music Video Production... and was given an opportunity to both have a part in writing the script for the video, and also to do a major portion of the final editing of the class project...
By this time, Red had also moved back to Toronto from Hamilton to be closer to the school and to get home sooner, etc..
With his new residence came much more drama in Red's personal life... Things that almost prevented Red from completing his program, something he vowed not to let happen...
It was during the second and third semester, that Red and Jae began a little recruitment drive of artists and producers.. A young songstress by the name of Miss Stress came into the picture for recording purposes, Jae Spills' brother D.E.U.C.E. and cousin CNS were introduced into the picture even though the process was much slower in those days... Kenjhons was a late edition to the team, but essential at the time...
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It was Early in the near new, 2004 , but late into Red's Third semester when they landed a performance gig and a Toronto venue along the Waterfront... Kenjhons & Jae Spillz in the early days had not realized what they created, but by the end of our programs, they both had decided to head back to their roots and Go hard on their musical careers...
Jae Spillz & Kenjhons left for the Philippines in April 2004, and started reppin Red Brown Entertainment on an international basis, while Red himself, and the others tried their best to keep the company and the artists in forward motion during their absence...
While trying to secure employment after his life in school, Red Brown Entertainment had to make a move... he left Toronto once more. Both to represent the name and take it across the country in a way...
Red was struggling financially by that time, had lost his apartment in Toronto, and had been more or less living in his car... By the end of the summer in 2004, Red had been in 2 serious car accidents in 2 different provinces, and worked in 3 provinces and drove across the country on at least 3 separate occasions, in 2 directions....
Still not completely recovered from the first accident in 2001, Red was also dealing with that in civil litigation trying to come to a settlement. He had been requested to attend a hearing in Vancouver, between his lawyer and the Insurance Company of BC. And during the week of Halloween 2004, Red packed up his car, fixed and returned to him with anything that may benefit his trip... still thinking of musical ambitions he even took a couple crates of Vinyl records...
Those records became a source of income on a couple occasions along the way, getting a rare opportunity to spin as a Dj in a couple strip clubs, unfortunately, the locations they were in weren't accustomed to hearing Hip Hop Records in a Strip club and those became short lived experiences... However, generating some much needed cash flow for the new trip...
Along the way he stopped again, in places and cities where he had known people and had current friends at the time. Thunder Bay, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, and some smaller towns in between... By the time he reached Edmonton, his finances had been exhausted...
Even before that, Red's lawyer had called him to let him know the hearing had been postponed, that was as Red was leaving Regina... So when he arrived in Edmonton, He had a forced decision to make and stayed there to look for work and a place to stay...
After a couple weeks of meaningless temp work, Red landed a job at the airport. Work wasn't even hard to find, accommodation on the other hand was the challenge...
Red found himself stuck in the city of his birth, not hating it, but having difficulty making enough money fast enough to live off... He was introduced to music scene in the city late one night just by chance. He spent any spare time he could attending shows and concerts at the cities many intimate venues where he was actually able to interact with the artists after their sets and shows, etc...
It was at these Venues, in Edmonton, where Red was introduced to the music of Toronto's K'NAAN as well as Edmonton's vast Somalian/African population...
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He spent the next year, in an observation type of mode, looking for talent but not being able to do much for them... his own residence was changing almost monthly, and at times really had no where to go and spent the time off in his work place... waiting for his next shift.
Red was introduced to a young Metis girl, through a friend, who happened to be a country gospel singer, with quite a unique voice and a talent of playing the guitar... Much to Red's delight she was also able to write her own songs...
Red's business mind kicked in again, and after a year of struggling to meet new artists, he had one under his nose the entire time...
It was early August 2005, when Red had been hired for a good paying job, but needed to returned to Toronto to receive his training... He decided to take the singer with him for the ride, he wanted to surprise her with some recording time in the studio with Jae Spillz...
The two collaborated on what would end up being a hidden track on Freeze Flame's first manufactured product... Jae Spillz second Mixtape of that year, first in Canada...
That was the birth of the M.O.B. Trilogy "Man of Business."
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This CD, opened up some doors, not yet explored for the company known at that time as Red Brown Entertainment still.... Red shopped that record to every Campus Radio Station he knew of in southern Ontario in the days before he had to leave to go back to Alberta...
It was the Height of Toronto's Carabana weekend, First long weekend in August, and Freeze Flame had now given birth to physical product... Red & Jae had got only 100 copies made with cover art and all... Red took them all back to Edmonton with him shopping them along the way to more campus radio stations, in Sudbury & North Bay all the way up to Lakehead in Thunder Bay as well as some small trading posts along the way...
When He got into Winnipeg he stopped at both university campuses and delivered Cds to the radio station. He did so again in Regina, Lethbridge, Calgary, Red Deer and finally in Edmonton.. He also mailed out others that weren't on the driving route...
The Cds actually paid for his return trip... He planned to go back to Toronto after his brief contract job was completed in order to get back together with his now business partner....
When Red arrived in Edmonton, with the Cds, he delivered them to the Campus Radio station, that he just happened to be working at a few time a week and preparing to audition for his own show... But he also made the effort to get out to the club nights and sell or distribute as many CD Mixtapes as possible...
One night, he passed one directly to one of the club Djs, and within a couple days, one of the tracks was being played on air, on the overnight Hip Hop show...
By the end of 2005, Red had set plans in motion to start building a studio, and allow Freeze Flame to become much more independent from having to rely on others to get studio time to record get a beat made, etc... Which at times took months longer than was really necessary...
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