Freeze Flame Productions Inc

Monday, April 25, 2011

Set Backs & Milestones: The Rizes & Falls

PART 37:  Mini Biography, Vol.14: The Conclusion, Pt.5

Rise & Grind part 5, the longer this goes on, the longer the story gets... we ain't finished yet, just keep reading and enjoy.



The Autobiography of Freeze Flame:
Vol. 13: 2000 & BEYOND, The Rize & Grind Era Pt.5




After their first performance, Jae Spillz & Kenjhons started working together full time, and soon came to a decision to head overseas in the coming months... It was around April 2004, when they left Toronto headed for the Philippines to focus on music. What happened next, nobody could have anticipated...

The Duo became Def Concept, as they networked amongst the industry they met a few key players in the country's growing Hip Hop Community, Mike Swift being one of them...

The following months North American Pinoy Artists returning to their home country began to take the industry by storm, Commercials, Radio, MTV Philippines, Benefit concerts that filled stadiums... Def Concept performed at the 1st annual Philippines Hip Hop awards, as did Mike Swift with his powerful words, inspiring the next wave of artists, home grown and otherwise...

Def Concept was signed to a short term Recording & Management contract with Universal Records in the Philippines... Due for at least one album.

Later that year, Kenjhons focused shifted to his Dance/Choreography... The Philippine All-Stars were formed soon after and took the Hip Hop Dance scene by storm competing and winning competitions all over the world...

It was during this time that Jae Spillz took his music production into his own hands, creating a New Mixtape name "All By Myself..."

It was shortly thereafter that Jae Spillz & Kenjhons parted ways to continue their current focuses, it wasn't long afterwards when Jae Returned to Toronto with the hope of building some Canadian/American presence since his new found associates had also returned...


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When 2006 rolled in, Studio was the new project after experiencing a slow production routine over the past year or so... Reunited, Jae & Red began building a studio in order to do their own work... stalled by previous attempts to work with other artists and producers.

They decided it was the way to go after doing more waiting than anything else... However...

After receiving a settlement for his 2001 motor vehicle accident, Red Brown was able to start purchasing equipment... it was also at this time, Red decided to make a long term decision to incorporate the company...

In March 2006, Red Brown Entertainment became Freeze Flame Productions Inc. He believed it would bring new life to the company and keep it going for the long term, legitimately.. Red Believed that the company would eventually be able to make money and by the time it did the books would be organized... Rather than doing everything at the last minute...

What Red didn't really anticipate was the cost of such as process... Incorporation costs plus new equipment purchases caused a significant delay to progress during the summer of 2006..

After finally paying his legal bill off, Red was forced to make some lifestyle changes; home, work, friends, focuses... again.

Red began working a summer job at The Docks, a local nightclub and performance venue... the networking possibilities were endless. Red met many people that were doing the same thing he was trying to do, and many others that had great potential to work with in the future...

A prominent Drum & Bass DJ from Halifax that had taken a hiatus to attend Trebass Institute in Toronto and had run into similar financial issues as Red... The two made quick friends and began making business plans...


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Unfortunately, The job was seasonal so Red needed to make yet another change in order to keep moving forward. It was near the end of 2006, Red decided he wanted to learn more about how to operate his business properly, as well as upgrade the knowledge he had already gained from Harris Institute...

By October 2006, Red had began working a night shift in a warehouse to make ends meet... this took him out of the mix with his nightclub friends... This also made the decision easier....

Red Decided to go back to school one more time, to see what he could learn that might be useful for his business and also to get out of the warehouses once and for all...

Red hoped that gaining an education in business might open up his options... So, from after Christmas 2006 and well into 2007, Red was on a grind... to make his money as needed, but also get another diploma under his belt...

Working a night shift, Midnight til 7am, then going straight to school at 8am til 1pm... he did this for the next 8 months. He didn't sleep much, but he was feeling good about his accomplishments and taking care of his young puppy at the same time...

It was tough, but They managed... Red had a few random 1 week breaks here and there, and with them Red and Jae began to plan the next CD Mixtape....

Recording had been completed for the most part in February 2007, but financing wasn't ready until April... with that they were able to manufacture a run of 500 Cds and some promotional posters, etc...

During the next few months, Red took to the Downtown streets, as well as work, school and wherever else he could access within his gruelling schedule... As the CD was titled, it was CRUNCHTIME!!

He was able to sell enough to break even fairly quickly which afforded him the ability to do some giveaways to the skeptics...

Along with some posters, Red was also able to get some Cds into the Record stores in Downtown Toronto, On Consignment, under agreement. Which means, the artist gets paid if the store sells it first, and if the artist checks in regularly...

It was surprising to Red that, even by 2007, many people were already downloading a large chunk of their music, only a handful of people were still using actual CD players...

This first came to Red's Attention while trying to sell Cds while riding the subway, introducing himself to a couple people with head phones and finding out they were listening to mp3 players and Ipods...

He still needed to hit up some of the local campus/community stations again... this was next... He got out to the big three in Toronto with stations; U of T, York & Ryerson...

Red's initial reaction and mental evaluation of the project's release was that the next one needed to be much more planned and better executed as well...

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