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Today, I bring to you Malaysia’s Leading Pioneer of Hip hop, also a great friend of ours, Ahmad Alhadad (Altimet).
The guy strikingly reminds me of myself — a genuine entrepreneur who shops for more hustle. He’s currently Creative Manager for Purplenotez Publishing and A&R manager for Power Records. Industrious? Hard Working? Check.
Now, let’s cut straight to the interview and get familiar with the man who devotes himself to inflicting a paradigm shift to Asia’s streetwear and hip hop landscape.
Note: (At SXH, we keep the response raw, uncut, and unfiltered. You’ll read it how we received it)
Ya’ll twitter? Hit him up at http://www.twitter.com/altimet
Learn more about him at 1 Asia Hip Hop
1. What is the start-up story behind your pursuit as an artist?
I just wanted to make music. I put out a mixtape and bootlegged it, and sold it by hand at local hip hop gigs. then I re-upped that money with some friends to form the Teh Tarik Crew (TTC) and Teh Tarik Records. we put an EP out, re-upped the money for an album, re-upped that for an album and a compilation. I re-upped my part to start Powder and Purplenotez. and here we are.
2. Describe your music, what is it like? What are three words that best define it?
Good hiphop music. haha.
3. What is your definition of success, and how much of it do you think you’ve achieved? In music; making music that excites you and making money off it.
in life: achieveing financial freedom.
In music there’s not really a lot left I want to achieve. In life, check back in 9 years. I’m on track so far.
4. What are some recent achievements you’re proud of and would like to share?
My proudest was my single Chantek going number 1 for 4 weeks nationally. it also stayed in the top 10 nationally for 4 months. i got so many spins, my mama was sick and tired of the song and called the stations telling them to stop playing it. so my broadcast royalty check gonna be nice. I won Song of the year for that at a local indie music award.
5. What’s something that’s always running inside your mind lately?
how to make songs that say something significant and still top the pop charts. and how to re-up the mone i’;m gonna get this year. i’m also doing my taxes now, so thats pissing me off. i need to make another tax shelter, haha.
6.What would you spend you a million dollars on?
property. all rental proceeds will be split with moms.
7. What’s one incident that would serve as a turning point to your life?
my parents divorce ( which got me into music) and me dropping out of university ( which got me into business
8. What three pieces of advice would you give to others when it comes to life and business?
you gotta have balls of steel. you cant be afraid to fail. and a mistake not learnt from is a proper failure.
9. What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?
not reading some signs right and having that bite me in the ass. not speaking up in a business partnership when the time called for it. and letting emotions and ego get into my business. the third one is a cardinal sin in my book.
10. What’s a typical day in your life like?
its always different so i wold say, i wake up, work on my to-do lists, eat, network, work out, work some more and go to sleep. I got a daily, weekly and monthly to-do lists. so these lists dictate my workflow.
11. What’s one of the highlighting moment in your career? Why is it so?
I was the a&r for this group called Ahli Fiqir, and when their album dropped it’s first ship out was 12,000 copies. that was ill! cos its not my own music but i still had a hand in making that happen. that album went gold (15,000) in malaysia and did over 200,000 ringtones in Malaysia and Indonesia. its the highest selling debut album by a rap group in Malaysia ever. again, its a highlight because i was able to help another artist do those tpe of numbers. everyone thought we were crazy for signing a rap group that didnt do love songs and rapped in the Malay language.
12. What stops you from throwing in the towel and giving up during those frustrating days of being in this industry?
me. my belief that this is a financially viable industry to be in. its riskier, but still financially viable.
13. Biggest risk ever taken?
Signing Ahli Fiqir.
14. Who has influenced you most and been your greatest inspiration?
internationally? A tribe called quest!!!! if i had to pick one. locally is my boy Qumran. he’s my mentor, friend, partner, swagger yoda, brother from another, occasional producer, and former member of the rap group that got me into rhyming, Naughtius Maximus.
15.How do you go about marketing your business or yourself? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
for my business its been word of mouth, and having a good reputation. for myself as an artist, its online tools (the usual myspace, facebook, twitter,etc), dope live shoes and word of mouth.
16. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?
my senior in college got this perfume business thats blowing up in Malaysia. he sells packs of 8 different scents for cheap, via a combination of direct selling, traditional methods and network marketing. dude is crazy. i think one key factor of his success is an understanding of finance in business. that i have to learn more of. soon.
17. How do you achieve balance in your life?
I’m still trying to! i think i gotta periodically review my priorities and also utilise my religion as a way to balance all this out.
18. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
in 5 years i hope that 35-45% of my income is passive, with an investment and/or real estate portfolio thats more than 1.5 million ringgit. in 10 years time i hope all my income is passive, and all my debts paid up in full.
19. What’s the first thing you would say to the world if all attention was on you?
‘dont look at me, dont buy my fucking album.’ instant positioning.
You’ll also get chance to hear him on LUXLIVIN’s single Young Fly Famous (coming soon, our apologies on the delay).
To a great day guys!
Allurre
