In this episode Durell is joined by hip hop artist and one half of the duo Smilez & Southstar” Rob “Southstar Campman. Durell and Rob begin the episode talking about how they’ve had a relationship for a very long time and it’s not always about speaking everyday but the fact that having a great energy and genuineness within the relationship. Rob shares that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but grew up in Los Angeles and then after the Northridge Earthquake he moved to New Jersey and then to Orlando. Durell & Rob talk about him first loving hip hop at 11 years old and how he fell in love with the culture. He shares that he’s always loved music and the first record he remembers really loving was N.W,A. “Boyz In The Hood” as well as many of the great West Coast Rap that was out at the time. He remembers at the time that there was no one in hip-hop that looked like him so he never really thought that pursuing a career in music was truly an option.

Rob shares that he was an avid music collector which started from him working in a local record store called “Peaches Music” in Orlando. He said that during that time they would allow you to open the CD and listen to the whole album before you purchased it which is much different from today’s era where as a music consumer one has instant access to the new releases that come out in the marketplace. Durell shares that during that time you would see three or four singles drop before the album was released, and really the album cuts were the ones that consumers really wanted to hear. Rob shares that he would learn the lyrics to his favorite songs by writing them down, which he actually credits with really learning bar structure for his own rhymes later on. Rob talks about him doing an open mic contest where he and a friend got on stage and rapped to a Roc Wilder beat and won the contest. He shares that after he got off stage everyone was coming up to him and saying that they didn’t know he raps and he was like neither did he. He credits that experience as his first introduction to being a performing artist.

Durell and Rob talk about him being signed to a local indie record label and one of his songs being in the indie top 10 on a pirate radio station called “95 Live”. Rob shares that he just really loved the craft of writing raps and trying to make each song better than the last. He never imagined him achieving what would ultimately happen later, especially him being an asian kid from Orlando. Durell and Rob talked about indie artists not being played on major terrestrial radio unless it was inside a mixshow. Durell asks Rob how he first met Smilez and Rob shares that he saw him during a local performance and was really impressed by his stage presence and he told him that they should do a record together. He would always see Smilez during them, both opening up for artists when they would come through Orlando. Rob shares that the big opportunity to work with Smilez didn’t happen until he met music producer Dakari who was an in-house producer with TransCon Records which was the record label owned by Lou Pearlman. He shares that Dakari gave him and Smilez a bunch of tracks and they would come back to the studio everyday to knock out songs and then one day Dakari approached them both with the opportunity to do a production deal and that is what birthed them as an official group. Durell shares with Rob that he always wondered why he would never see them both together out and about in the city and Rob said the reason that most people would never see them together is because when they would be home off the road they both wanted to do their own thing because there were many times they wouldn’t get to spend time with other important people in their lives and also quite frankly they would be tired sometimes of being around each other because of all the time they would spend together working. Rob and Durell talk about Dakari putting him and Smilez through artist development and teaching them the value of work ethic and a strong performance and always being prepared. Rob shared that Lou wasn’t really a hip-hop guy but because he loved Dakari so much he trusted him to let “Smilez & Southstar” be his baby.

Rob and Durell talk about Smilez & Southstar being signed to TransCon Records via a production deal and then being shopped and signed to Artist Direct as their official record label. Rob shares what the difference is between a production label deal versus a record label deal. He says that a production label is the entity that helps to put the songs together, and then the label is responsible for the marketing, promotion, sales etc. Rob shares that the record label also has a distribution deal that helps to make sure the album is able to be mass distributed. Rob shares that their first single was entitled “Who Wants This” and a radio DJ in Fort Myers Florida named 007 received the single on a Vinyl that was white-labeled. Rob shares that the program director was at their performance as they were the opening act for Khia, took them back to the radio station and played their single twenty times in a row. Rob said that what happened to them was extremely huge for them because they were absolutely unknown during that time. Durell and Rob talk about the single “Tell Me” which Rob said was life changing. Durell asks about the success of that single and if it helped to translate into global success. Rob shares that they released an album in Japan but they never got an opportunity to go to Europe and do a whole lot globally.

Durell talks about the impact that BET’s 106 & Park had on urban youth culture because in the early 2000’s with shows like TRL for young black and brown teens who come from underprivileged communities to see people who looked and talked like those they saw everyday was really amazing culturally. Rob shares that getting on 106 & Park and being able to perform their hit single really helped to stamp them as a group. Durell shares that they have really been the only hip-hop group to achieve that type of success. Rob shares that he still doesn’t think any group, even to this day, has come close to achieving their success of a Top 40 Billboard record. Rob shares that you have to be ready to take advantage of every opportunity that happens when you have a hit record. Success is really about everything coming together and working cohesively and that’s truly what the difference was back then and still holds true today as well.

Rob talks about music being his main source of income for about 8 straight years from 2000-2008. Rob shares that they left the Artist Direct label and signed a deal with Pure Records, which was an indie label distributed by Steve Rifkin and Universal. Rob shares that they had a second album that if it had the opportunity to be released would’ve really shown their growth because he felt they had really come into their own and figured out their sound. Rob shares that in 2008 is when the recession and the label really stopped investing into their next project. Rob feels that the whole year was the group transitioning and Smilez decided to release a solo project with Dakari. Rob shares that in 2009 is when he decided to leave music alone because he just really didn’t enjoy the business side of it anymore. He shares that doing music was never about the money for him. He released a solo mixtape in 2015 and when he gets inspired to do music is when he actually will put something together and that’s been his mindset. Rob shares that when he gives advice to artists today he often tells them that they have to love it because if they don’t genuinely love it there will be one million reasons to quit. Rob and Durell talk about in order to achieve success today you have to build a strong concentrated community of support as opposed to when Rob was coming up it was more about building a wider audience. Rob shares that artists today have to know what their goals are because even though it’s much easier to release and put music out, it's much more saturated. Rob shares that back then artists needed record companies so it really was about signing the best deal possible. Rob shares that back in the record label days artists didn’t have to come out of pocket the way they do now and when artists sign record deals they partner with the label.


Rob and Durell end the episode talking about which is better, being indie or major. Rob shares that when you look at the charts of who’s on top today it’s always mostly an artist who has a major record label backing them. Durell shares about the importance of ownership when it comes to intellectual property and how much that matters to an artist today. Rob says that when it comes to negotiation the one who has the ability to walk away is the one with the real power. Rob shares that he will gladly give up seventy percent of the pie if it means that he’s going to come out of the deal better than where he started. He feels that too many people are worried about having 100 percent ownership of something but not being set up to capitalize in the best way possible.

Durell and Rob talk about what he appreciates about the music ecosystem today is that there are way more opportunities to make a living today and he feels like that’s real dope. Rob feels that age does matter but doesn’t in a way because like basketball hip-hop is a young man’s game although the genre itself has gotten older. He shares that when he was coming up there weren't many older hip-hop fans like there are today and that’s a beautiful thing.

Rob shares that he has recently opened a mortgage office in downtown Orlando. He said that he’s been in the mortgage industry for about eleven years. He made the choice to get into the mortgage business after he decided to transition from music. He shares that he enjoys learning about finances and knowing what he knows now would’ve definitely invested much more in stocks than jerseys.