To say that TikTok has flipped the music industry on its head is a serious understatement.
There are, of course, artists who seemed to get into the TikTok game at the right time.
It must be exciting to work with a company from your hometown.
Growing up, they were always a big part of our community.
I’m really, really stoked that they decided to take these awesome cookies nationwide.
It’s an honor to be a part of it.
What about the partnership excites you?
What are you hoping your people are going to take away from it?
I hope everybody gets a chance to try these cookies.
They’re awesome, and I feel like they should be everywhere.
Now they’re starting to be everywhere.
It’s the perfect match.
I like that parallel journey that you’re both on.
That seems like a mutually rewarding thing to be a part of.
Exactly, and I get boxes of amazing cookies, so that’s probably the best part.
In what ways did you bring your TikTok-savvy skills to this partnership?
What I do on TikTok is write my own songs.
whether it was from 20 years ago or a current-day one.
We landed on “Ride Wit Me.”
you’re free to’t get much better than some Nelly.
That’s what we ran with.
The ability for people to go viral is unparalleled, it seems.
I made it my full-time job a couple years ago early on.
It is literally … it’s done everything for my career that I have.
It’s a pretty democratizing thing in the music business, which is amazing.
Let’s chat about that journey.
You’ve gone from 3,000 followers to 10 million.
That’s a wild ride.
You have to pinch yourself every now and then and take a step back and appreciate it.
I was always such an anti-social media guy.
I never thought anybody cared.
I didn’t even have an Instagram until junior year of college.
I needed something to do.
TikTok filled that lane, and my fiancee told me to get on it.
My producer told me to get on it, so I did.
I still didn’t really understand it, but we were like, “Let’s go.
Let’s keep trying this because you never know what’s going to happen.”
It’s led to organic consumption of my music.
It’s pretty awesome.
There’s any risk when it comes to social media.
What challenges have you encountered, professionally and personally, from being a TikTok-famous creator?
It’s 95% awesome.
There’s the stigma of being the TikTok artist.
Over time that’s gone away.
I could write a song today.
If I like it, I could tease it on TikTok.
If fans don’t like it, then it’s probably not worth pursuing.
If they do like it, then maybe we dive in a little bit more.
You save a lot of months of spending money and pointless meetings and all that stuff.
It’s been way more good than bad.
It’s a dry run that not a lot of musicians have gotten before.
It’s free market research.
That’s wild to think about.
Could you have ever predicted this kind of success?
I’ve been doing this for a long time.
I’m 26, but I’ve been doing this since 8th grade.
They would, because they were nice and they were cool.
But it was a big celebration when you got over that greater than a thousand streams on Spotify.
Then you multiply that by a bunch and it’s surreal.
I’m very fortunate that people connect in some way with the stuff I put out there.
I’m fortunate that people connect with that.
What’s next for you?
Is your partnership with Dewey’s going to lead to more professional collaborations?
What’s on the horizon moving forward?
[I’m] trying to continue to grow this thing and grow my business.
It was the perfect partnership.
It’s not pickiness because I think I’m any better than anything.
It really is more of a respect for the fans …
I’m already advertising so much on there, from my music to ticket sales.
I’m a walking ad, trying to constantly sell myself.
I have to be careful.
This interview was edited for clarity.
