Update On The Grind

It's been over two months since I last posted on here. My apologies for the long period of absence. Alot of things have occurred since then. So I'll break it down.

Headless Banger Productions

To start off I spent most of the summer improving my craft in music production. It really paid off but I was afraid to share my work because I had no tag to place on my beats. That all changed on November 2, 2011 when I created Headless Banger Productions which is what all of my beats will now be under. You can check out the page here

Performances 

I've done a few shows since my last posting. My most recent show was Sunday October 21, 2012 at Kingdom. I performed Long Time Coming, Swagged Out, Tick Tock and had Danny and Spotz to perform Playa Mentality and Unsigned Hype with me. Here's footage of Playa Mentality.

Anniversary

November 11 marked a year since the release of my debut mixtape, Long Time Coming but today is the anniversary of the public release of the mixtape. 1 year since that monumental moment in my music career. If you don't have it already then click here. I'm sure you all are saying to yourself what's the hold up on the next project. Well I have a good reason for not dropping my second mixtape and I'll explain that now. My first mixtape was mediocre in my opinion. It had stand out tracks and the guest producers did their thing but I know it could have been better on my part. The sound quality was terrible and my beats were average. So I've spent the year since then perfecting my craft. My next solo mixtape is dropping May 23, 2013 aka my birthday but I have a surprise for y'all that drops way before then. I'll explain in the next section.

B.E.T.T.A, Entertainment Takeover 2013

It's almost 2013 and B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment has been hard at work building up a solid team and we have accomplished that. Myself as President and SpotZ as President have recruited a team that we feel will get things done. Our team of 12 includes myself, SpotZ, E'Class, Slim Royale, Dena X, Bates The Boss, Hoop Mobb(consisting of SpotZ, Devy, Mig, Maserati Rad, and Whizzy), Jacinia and Danny Cassiano. With a strong team of Hip Hop, R&B and Pop artist, producers and studio engineers it was time to finally get to work. In 2013 a new project will drop every month until the B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment founding date on August 4th. That's when we will drop the label wide mixtape. The line up starts in December with E'Class releasing his 3rd solo mixtape. In January, Spotz and myself are teaming up for a collaborative mixtape entitled Step Brothers. Jacinia follows in February and Danny follows in March so be on the lookout because the #BETTAMusicMovement is about to be in full effect.

Now that you are updated on me check out some of those links to the side of the page.

New Addition to the Family

I'd like to introduce the newest member of B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment.......

Jacinia

Take a listen to her song "Can We" below. If you look then be sure to check out more of her music on Soundcloud.

About To Shine Vol. 5

My song Tick Tock was recently chosen to be on the About To Shine Vol. 5 mixtape hosted by DJ E-Dub. Click the link to check it out.

Please Vote For Me!!!!

Hey followers I need your help. Vote for me to be featured on Coast2Coast Mixtape 214. It's a simple process. c2c.fm/LxXyZ2
— Thomas T.J. Brown (@Tmoney_VA) July 5, 2012

I'm trying to get featured on Coast2Coast Mixtapes Vol. 214 hosted by Q-Tip. This is a big oppurtunity for me and every vote is appreciated. So please take the time to click this link above and vote for me to be on this mixtape.

Review: T-Money Live @ Kingdom July 12, 2012

I recently did a show at Kingdom and I can truly say I am becoming more and more comfortable with performing there. It's like a second home to me. The night was crazy. Got to hang out with fellow VSU Trojan and Christian Rap Artist Corey Goss aka P. (@dot757). Big ups to him for shutting down the stage and bringing some enlightenment to the rappers there who had their doubts about the Christian Hip Hop genre. I opened up with Long Time Coming and continued with, other Long Time Coming hits, Tick Tock and Playas Mentality and then performed some new upcoming tracks off the B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment(@BETTA_ENT) mixtape including Unsigned hype ft Slim Royale(@SlimRoyale) and SpotZ(@_SpotZ), What Is Fame ft Spotz, Ransom B.E.T.T.A. Remix ft SpotZ and Resorts and Islands by Hoop Mobb(@HoopMobb). I ended the show with a performance of High Heel Killer in commemoration of Kimani Amor's(@KimaniAmor) birthday. Big ups to my big bro Kenny(@KennyJohnsonIII)for coming out to support me. Y'all be sure to support his music as well. You can find him on Reverbnation or Blogger and be on the lookout for his mixtape, the AutoBEATography coming out soon.


SN: I am currently ranked number #67 on the Petersburg, VA Reverbnation Charts. Also I will be performing at the October 20th Richmond Royalty Concert. I will give more details at a later date.

Review: Performance at the #COAST2COAST Industry Mixer | #DMV Edition

Hey everybody here's my review of my performance at the Coast 2 Coast DMV Mixer. The event was cool. I enjoyed a good amount of the acts and the DJ Battle was live. My performance was good but I've done better. The crowd had begun to get bored with the show and when I looked out in the crowd and noticed that the crowd wasn't reacting to me like I wanted to I ended up psyching myself out. None the less it was still a good performance. Unfortunately I didn't win but big ups to the winners from last night.

Now the event venue was a decent sized performance venue and Coast 2 Coast set the place really nice with a projector at stage right showing the order of the performers and a projector at stage left showcasing a live twitter feed of all tweets with #COAST2COAST in them. It was pretty cool seeing the event attendees' tweets appear live on the projector.

Now the event itself was a bit oversold. Upon being chosen for the event they send you an email and included in the event is a YouTube link to a video of the Coast 2 Coast Philly Mixer where Freeway and a few of his artist came and performed. The video gives you the impression that these mixers are extremely live events but I get the feeling that specific mixer was the only one that was as big of an event as the video showed.

The one good thing about this event is that it taught me a few things. I wanted to burn some copies of my mixtape and get the artwork printed off and put in the case to hand out during the event but the trip itself broke my bank. The show cost me $350 to participate in plus the gas money and food expenses brought this total trip to $423.67. This taught me to stockpile things like CDs, business cards(which I never thought to use), flyers, etc. for events like this.

Upon the ending of the event they emailed us the results of the judges voting. Here are my results

After reading this I can agree with all of the scores except the marketability scores. It's been 3 years since I debuted that song at the 2009 Ape-ollo Talent show hosted by the Beta Gamma chapter of Alpha Phi alpha Fraternity, Inc. and people still request for me to perform this song to this day. I knew my stage presence wasn't the best, maybe not as bad as they judged, but that was my fault. That's it for this review. A reminder that I'm performing a Kingdom on June 29, 2012. Hmu for tickets, which are only $10.

Performing for Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes

Hey everybody. I received the GREATEST news ever yesterday. I have been chosen to perform at the Coast 2 Coast DMV Mixer next weekend and it's all thanks to this song.

I have never been so excited, scared, anxious and confused at one time. It all happened so fast especially since I had doubted I would get selected and had completely forgot I submitted songs for this. I'm just hoping and praying God gives me the strength, confidence and power to perform to the best of my abilities.

Here's a screenshot of the email to prove it.

Here's The Flyer For The Event

Here Are The Prizes

And This Is Where I'll Be Going If I Come In First Place

Click HERE to get your tickets for FREE!!!!

A Family Affair: Cousinly Love

My cousin Conci$e(Concise804) and I along with fellow artist Baby Stackz(@BabystackzBatch), Monty and Big Ass Salt had a studio session. I wasn't too happy about the recording session itself but I am happy about the final product of that session. Here's the newest track by my cousin Conci$e, Do It ft T-Money, Baby Stacks, Monty and Big Ass Salt.

Review: T-Money @ Shotz 5/23/90

I know this is long overdue but I wasn't sure to even post a review since.......it never happened. Something happened and the event was cancelled. Unfortunately I had no knowledge of this so I came to Shotz ready to shut it and get my drink on. To my surprise there was nobody there but DJ Swirv from 92.1 and the bartender. Tried to wait it out like maybe the people were late but nobody ever came and to top it off the drink specials ended at 9. I still ended up enjoying my birthday and I appreciate everybody who came out.

Shotz With The Birthday Boy!!!

Hey everybody I just turned 22. ‎22 years old!?........damn I'm getting old smh. But anyways tonight we setting it off at Shotz on 1719 E. Main St. (Shockoe Bottom), Richmond, VA for "So You Think You Can Rap" Wednesdays. FREE Admission, $2 drink specials and best of all performances by me and some of the #RVA's biggest upcoming talent so come celebrate with me tonight.

T-Money at Shotz

SN: I got an invite yesterday to come to this event. I'm definitely considering it.....Just wish I knew what time it was at lol but nonetheless I will most likely be there.

Celebrating With Shotz!!!!

My birthday is May 23, next Wednesday, and I'm going to be celebrating with Rated R Radio at Shotz in Richmond, VA as well as performing for "So You Think You Can Rap? Wednesdays" so come out and party with me and Rated R Radio at Shotz, 1719 East Main St, Richmond, VA 23223. It's FREE to get in, $5 to perform and $2 drink specials all night so let's turn up.

I'm Coming Back To Kingdom!!!!

Today I checked my email and Afton wants me to perform at Kingdom again. I am to hype. I did my thing last time and I just know I'm going ham this time. Here's the Afton site generated flyer but I'll be making my own one soon.

 

Also a little side note. I checked my ReverbNation music page today and I've gone up in the ranks in the Petersburg area from 136 to 107 in 7 days. I'm trying to make the top 100 in the next 10 days though.

#BETTAMusicMonday May 14, 2012

Every Monday my label mates and I try to put out music under the hashtag #BETTAMusicMonday. this Monday we went into the vault, which consists of old and unreleased tracks, and pulled out the B.E.T.T.A. Remix to Light Up by Drake and Jay-Z entitled Fire. Hope you enjoy.

Review: T-Money Live @ Kingdom April 29, 2012

As many of you all know I recently did a show with Afton Shows at Kingdom in Richmond, VA. I really like Kingdom because it has that raw undiscovered artist gritty atmosphere to it. It's the kind of venue that you here famous artist say "This is where I did my first show. I had some good times performing here".

It was an amazing show for me. The night started off with performances by various Rock Bands who were amazing. After them were the Hip Hop acts and that's when my time to shine to came. I performed 6 songs from my mixtape, Long Time Coming, including Long Time Coming, Swagged Out, Tick Tock, Playa Mentality, Opposites and Unsigned Hype. The crowd was participating and it really gave me a boost of confidence and energy to work the stage. This was, hands down, my best performance to this date. I wish I could have had more friends and family there to support me but it's something that all indie artist go through. I do appreciate the people who came to support me. This show also motivated me to get in the studio heavily this summer so I guess I have Afton Shows to thank for that. If you want to see footage from it then go to my Youtube Page and be sure to listen my music on my SoundCloud or my ReverbNation and like my Facebook Page. I'll keep y'all posted on more shows in the future.

To Know Me Is To Know My Music

Hey world. I decided to give you all a piece of me. I'm a 21 year old(soon to be 22) Hip Hop and R&B artist and producer from the 804 area of Virginia. I have been doing this since I was 10 around the time my aunt passed away to breast cancer. While the family was making her funeral arrangements, my cousin James "Concise" Potts(follow him @Concise804) was showing me, what would would become, my future. I instantly fell in love with it. The first thing I ever wrote was to Southern Hospitality by Ludacris. Since then I've written so much material, most of it lost to multiple thefts and misplacing of notebooks and binders with my material in it. I started battle rapping in the 6th grade against friends and anybody else who was willing to battle. I've done multiple shows in the 804 area. My first one was in 7th grade at my middle school honors ceremony. My long time friend Marc "Lyta" Payne (Follow him @Mr800and4) were asked by our Science teacher to do a remix to Nas' If I Ruled The World after hearing us rap for a science project we did earlier in the school year. After that I moved to another school system where I continued to write more songs and do more battle raps. I ended up realizing my singing talents in junior high school and since have been writing R&B songs as well as singing my own hooks. After high school I came to VSU where I ended up networking with fellow artists, performing at fashion shows and winning talent shows such as the 2009 Ape-ollo Talent Show hosted by the Beta Gamma Chapter of alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. My most recent show was on April 29, 2012 at Kingdom in Richmond. Here are some clips from the performance below.

My first mixtape, Long Time Coming was a whirlwind of trials, tribulations and emotions. My freshman year in college I began work on my debut mixtape. At the time, it was going to be titled First Encounter but after years of pushing it back and people wondering how much longer it would be before it dropped or if it even would drop so in 2011 I changed the title to Long Time Coming. I ended it up recording the entire mixtape the week of it's release while battling a growing cold and through all the hard work and late nights it was completed and put out to the public on November 11, 2011 (11/11/11). The mixtape features 15 songs with collaborations from Cedric "Chemistry" Scott(Follow him @1_LostKing) many of my B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment label mates including SpotZ (follow him @_SpotZ) and Slim Royale (Follow him @SlimRoyale) and production by myself as well as E'Class (follow him @Eclazzz), who produced the title track Long Time Coming and Make Love, and my homie Tre (Follow him @TreIII3), who produced Playa Mentality and Rock With You. You can listen to and download individual tracks off of Long Time Coming below or download the entire mixtape at www.hulkshare.com/T-Money804





On August 4th 2009, E'Class and I founded B.E.T.T.A. (Building Entertainers To Top All) Entertainment. Over the years we have picked up 4 other members including SpotZ, Dena X, Slim Royale and Bates The Boss. We are currently working on the B.E.T.T.A. Entertainment Mixtape dropping August 4th, 2012. You can listen to some of our music below and be sure to follow us @BETTA_ENT.