Keepin It Rio Podcast: Caspa Clark

What's happening, everybody? Welcome back to Keepin' It Rio Podcast!

Tonight, we're joined by independent hip-hop artist, producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Noice Recordz, Caspa Clark.

Caspa's music is built on real-life experiences, overcoming adversity, personal growth, and taking a deeper look at the world around us. His unique style blends storytelling, philosophy, humor, and raw honesty into music that resonates with people from all walks of life.

Over the years, he's collaborated with some of hip-hop's biggest names, including Xzibit, Masta Ace, Dave East, Fat Joe, Joell Ortiz, Killah Priest, Pacewon, and Grafh, while continuing to carve out his own path as an independent artist.

Beyond the music, Caspa is a father, caregiver, and business professional whose experiences inspire both his art and his mission to create music that makes people think, feel, and see things differently.

We've got a great conversation lined up covering music, life, business, family, and the journey that brought him here. Let's jump right into it.

Welcome to the show, Caspa Clark!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:01

All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. It's your favorite time of the week. Once again, it's episode 260 of Keeping It Rio. And this is going to be a good one, folks, because once again, I've kind of gone to the well. I reached out on social media and was looking for some interesting guests. And uh I had a guy that reached out to me that had a couple of artists that he's representing and asked if I'd like to have some musicians on the show. And uh the reality is I think I've only had one musician ever, which was a 15-year-old Elvis impersonator. And I thought, you know what? Yeah, that'd be kind of cool. So here we are this morning. It is Sunday. You guys are watching this on Thursday, but this is gonna be an awesome episode, and I'm very excited to welcome my guest, Mr. Caspa Clark, to the show. Welcome to Keeping It Real, my friend. How's everything going with you this morning?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Good, good. Thank you for having me, man. It's uh yesterday was my son's birthday. We're celebrating that, and uh, so I'm taking a minute to sit down with you and just uh chat it up with you, and I appreciate you having me here.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yes, sir. I appreciate you taking the time, especially on your son's birthday. And uh I know he's gonna have an awesome party today, so that's what the that's what Sundays are for. So let's just jump right in, my friend. Like I said, I got a message a couple days ago from a young man who was representing some different artists and asked me if I'd have any interest. Obviously, I had some interest because here we are. So tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll kind of roll down and and see what kind of you know what kind of conversation we can make of it.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Well, I'm originally from Maine. I grew up in Maine till I was about 12, moved to Rhode Island. Um, I lived in foster care there for quite some time. My main focus in that foster care was hip-hop. Um, I had a friend named Mikey, he made beats. Uh, I would write raps, that's what all we had to do really in the foster care. Um, so we ran those through, and then we would do talent shows and stuff like that, a lot of fun stuff. Um as an adult, I you know, I started you know creating a family. Um, realized that I needed to have something to do on the side to keep myself busy, and that's where hip hop came back into play. About about a year and a half ago, I'd say, I started really getting serious on the equipment. Um, I was buying little things like MIDI keyboards and uh you know DAWs and stuff like that, so that I could record, but I started to buy actual famous features of stuff, people that I used to listen to when I was a kid, things that inspired me. Um industry beats. I just started investing in myself every paycheck that I got. Um right now I work for FedEx as a business contact, um, that's basically a manager, um, managing about between 12 and 11 routes, depending on the day. Um, sending loading them up, sending them out for the for delivery and squishing and rapping and being a family member and being a caregiver to my sister and my mother at the same time. It's a bit of a juggle, it's a bit of a stressful uh tension of a life, but I'm doing what I love and uh living it.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Heck yeah, my friend. That is a great intro right there because it explains different facets of you as a human being and not just as a musician. And this is one of the things that I always really love to kind of get below the surface on and see, okay, the the vision is there. You've got the musician, you've got the you know, the music in you from a very young age. And like you say, this was something that kind of helped you get by when you were growing up. And as you continue to to grow as a human and as an adult, comes back around to you later on in life. And I really love that that aspect of it. So let's talk a little bit about those early days. Like you said, you were there and not a whole lot really to do. So you really embraced the hip-hop lifestyle and started, you know, writing your lyrics at a young age. And this was something that really kind of, you know, stayed with you. So I want to know a little bit more about that as a youngster. You know, you had some influences, obviously, and we all do. So tell me a little bit about who your influences were as a youngster that kind of got you into this genre and kind of you know helped you to really see that this was this was gonna be pretty cool and something that would stick with you for life.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

It really started from the albums that my dad had in his house. So he had a whole bookshelf full of albums, and I like to look at the pictures, the pictures uh the art on the albums and the the description of the artists uh really caught my attention. I started flipping through all of his albums and I would find his reggae albums, and some what some reason they would always intrigue me. And it was the drums when he put them on, but the album covers himself and the artwork and the the culture behind it really just kind of grabbed my attention, and it really kind of shifted into the group home. It was like hip-hop was the thing in the 90s, so especially being in the neighborhood I was growing up with, growing up in, I was in the south side Providence, Rhode Island, so it's all we had focused, really. Like uh, we're right next to New York, New York's where the birth of hip-hop was, so we're basically the the smaller birth of hip-hop in Rhode Island. Everybody's heads is you know into hip-hop. Um, it's kind of the way that I found my way into the hood without really being picked on, is it's the white boy that raps. And everybody would call me out to rap, and we, you know, it kind of conjugated everybody and made more of a community feel and less of like uh an aggressive tone on a day-to-day basis, just trying to travel down the street. It really kind of uplifted me instead of bringing me down, so that's why I realized I need to bring it back into my adult life because it was so important to me as a kid, and I was wondering why am I having all this anxiety? And it's because I didn't have my music in my life, and as soon as I brought that back into my life, I started to feel more like myself again.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

I love that, and that's that's a very common theme. I've spoken with a lot of artists, a lot of authors, and they all say the same thing. You know, we kind of deviate off as we get older, we kind of move into adult life. Like you said, you've got a full life outside of just your music, and sometimes you lose sight of that. And then when you realize, man, you know, that that really did make me happy. I'm gonna go back to it. It makes all the difference in the world. And I think that that is an amazing realization. And then to go back and and actually make something of that is awesome. So let's talk a tiny little bit about your your day-to-day life. You just said, you know, working at FedEx, taking care of, you know, a multitude of different routes, having a bunch of different people that are kind of looking to you for direction. That in itself is a full-time job, as I'm well aware. You've also got a family, and you're also pursuing your dreams. So tell me a little bit about what it's like to juggle these things and how you kind of find the time and prioritize things so that you're able to, you know, fit all of that into your regular workday and your regular life, and also still be able to kind of, you know, look around and and enjoy things as well. What uh what's a typical day look like as someone that's you know juggling so many different things?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Well, it's I'm like a wind-up toy. I wake up in the morning and I uh I just jump out of bed. My wife says that I'm like a I'm like a zombie coming out of a grave. I just pop up and I'm ready to go. Um, how I do that, I have no idea. Uh, it's a major juggle, man, and it is it is a lot of stress behind it, but I I do a lot of decompression where I like I I start my day with breathing techniques. I start my day where I make sure I have at least 45 minutes before I actually jump to the day where I'm doing things that I enjoy, um, paying attention to my family, you know, spending time actually looking at my kids and speaking to my kids and and making sure that that time is there. It's very important to me that I don't want my kids to grow up and think my dad was always making music, he was always working, he never had time for us. So I make sure that's the first and foremost. I want to as soon as I notice that they feel noticed, that's when I can move on with my, you know, getting ready for my morning. Um I have an amazing partner, so she's right there by my side, doing anything that'll make my life easier all the time. Um, she's got coffee ready, she's got breakfast ready, she's got my lunch made for me so that I can just walk out the door easily and spend those times that those important times with my kids and such, and not have to worry about am I gonna be late or whatnot. And then I jump in the car and head over to FedEx, and that goes until about 9:30, 10 o'clock, sometimes 11 o'clock at night, where I'm uh running a route, um, dropping boxes, I'm answering phone calls in the middle of it, I'm doing customer service. Well, I got somebody in my earbud. It's a crazy, crazy, um busy, busy life. But uh I just have to tell myself because it gets really stressful, so I gotta keep telling myself why I'm doing it and that I am learning something while I am plugging away at this job. I am still learning things for myself, for my own business, and I just have to keep that in my head. Um, it gets very tiring. I crash when I go to bed, I don't get a lot of sleep, but I am pushing on to my 40s, so I decided that this is when, and I spent nine years of my life on the road, uh hitchhiking, hopping trains, didn't have a job, didn't work for quite some time. I stayed out of the matrix for a while. So now I'm just plugging away, plugging away at the job. I want to retire early, so I've got multiple jobs going on at once, juggling them and uh just stuffing money away and pumping music out left and right, hoping that something grabs the attention of people that love music and pays me enough to be able to quit the nine to five job. And that's just investing back in myself after work.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah, man, what a great, what a great way to you know describe that hectic life. You made it sound almost easy right there, and I know it's not because you're counting the hours in the day and it's like, well, wait a minute, you know, this dude doesn't sleep, or he gets like 20 minutes of sleep and and pops right back up and is ready to go again. And that's very impressive because it takes a lot of passion. Uh, I know a lot of people that just get burned out to the point and they're just like, you know what, screw this, it's not really worth it. And I think everything in life that's worthwhile is very hard. And it's, you know, everything worthwhile is uphill, they always say going downhill, taking the easy way is never the way at the end that that ends up paying off. So your hard work is going to eventually catch back up with you, I promise, because it always does. And when you're doing it for the right reasons, that's exactly why karma and goodness exist. So can't wait to see that. I want to talk a little bit about the actual, you know, the music. Like you said, you start investing a little bit here and there. You've still got, you know, bills to pay, you've still got family to feed, you've still got all that stuff going on. But finding the way to continually invest into yourself, into your music, um, I know just from having this podcast that the stuff is not cheap. Like I've got equipment over here that's like, I don't even know what the hell I was thinking the day I bought it, but it did help keep me motivated and kept me going because if I was looking at a you know $600 microphone just sitting there gathering dust, I'd probably be a little bit upset with myself. So let's talk a little bit about number one, how you find the way to you know fit all that stuff in there budget-wise, because it is expensive while taking care of a family, while you know, living a regular life as well. Talk a little bit about how you've kind of invested incrementally into your setup, into the equipment that you've got, how you've improved it over the course of time. And I'm just kind of interested in in the type of investment that's involved in you know big time music production.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

So it really started with um, okay, I had an Android phone. I was trying to record on that with Band Lab it through a regular plug-in microphone I had bought off of Amazon, and I'm just sitting on the side of my bed. I had gone down to a goodwill and picked up like a little roll table that you can roll, you know, so they had something to set my stuff down on. Um, I've got pictures, I think, of me sitting on the edge of my bed in my pajamas, uh, rapping on beats and stuff. And then I realized that the sound was just never gonna sound good, and I didn't know what what a good uh home studio even looked like at this point. Like I was just I wanted to record music. I had been writing and rapping for years, um, didn't know how to do it. So I had to do a lot of YouTube courses. Luckily, I really understood a little bit of the dynamic of what to purchase and what not to purchase, and didn't really have enough money to actually blow it on a bunch of stuff like that would actually just sit there. Um so I started grabbing maybe $150 each paycheck, and I was saying, like, even if I have to stretch it next week, I'm going to invest in myself every time. And I got that inspiration from watching um T Pain. He's got these live YouTube videos where he's in the studio recording, and I've kind of followed his career since I was a kid because he intrigued me with the auto-tune and how he went against the grain like that. I always like people that went against the grain and what everybody was telling them, no, that's that's not gonna make it, that's not gonna work, and they still do it anyways, and it it works every time because they did something original. I really loved that. Um, I started following that, and I noticed he said something in he said, invest in yourself every time if you don't want to be a slave to the corporate world. And I decided that's what I'm doing every time. I took that and I ran with it. Um, I didn't have a lot of people to look up to as a kid, so having YouTube and having like the artists that I respect to be able to go and watch them live and be actual people is a big benefit on my end. So I started watching those things, studying, studying, studying, studying, and really spending way too much time away from my family than I should, and I had to start learning how to juggle both sides of the world because I would tap out. Um, you go into your own world when you got your own basically, it's a spaceship ran from your bedroom. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 15:41

I'm totally up. I understand 100%, believe me.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

You got your cockpit and you you got your creativity, and let's go. Um I had to learn that juggle, man, and that was the biggest part of it was making sure that I can do this music and my family doesn't feel left out of life because I work, like I said, a lot. And now that I'm home, I'm in the studio too. So it's like, are are we gonna be okay with this? I had to talk to my lady, I had to talk to my kids. Um, they love it, they actually find that it's great to watch me run for my dreams and not give up on them, and it gives them kind of a mindset of the same. So I was fine with that, and um, I just kept on every single paycheck, putting something into it, made it an LLC, then it became a tax write-off. And when you actually put money into the business, and you're not making money back, the government pays you for that, and they started paying me to buy equipment more and more equipment every year. So every year I get a big lump sum from investing in myself, and I get to invest back into myself, and that's just how it's been. And I've been buying features with um everybody from the game to Buster Rhymes to I just got a MM burst from his first album, the Slim City LP, um, Nas, you know, all the greats that I used to listen to, and I just keep stacking them and stacking them and stacking them so that way when I come across other artists or I have inspiration, I can just sit down, press go, and make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

Yes, sir. I love that, and I think that the approach of you know, taking it little pieces at a time, I think it makes you appreciate it a lot more as well. I know that there are a lot of people that just invest a ton of money on the front end and it's like, you know, I spent 30 grand on my podcast studio, and then they don't really ever get into it because it was just like, yeah, that was just money. But I think when you've got effort tied to it and it's actually, you know, hey, I have to go out and earn this money, I can't just throw it away and do that. But you do have a little bit more respect for the process and you do appreciate that work a little bit more. So I love to hear that. And I love the fact that your family is so supportive. That was one of the questions I was gonna ask is, you know, when you get into that type of scenario and you're working hard and you're constantly moving around and doing stuff, sometimes it does get a little bit like, you know, hey, dad, what's up, man? Like we want to go play catch or something. And I know for a fact your son's having a birthday party today. So it's not like you're skipping out on any of that responsibility. And I think that that really speeds volumes for the kind of man you are. And I like that because, you know, good people that are going to be spreading a good positive word are something that this world probably does need more of right now. I mean, you look around and there's a ton of negativity. There's a ton of people that just don't even understand why they hate other people and why we're mad or what we're complaining about. And I think to have someone that can come in and say, you know what, this is going to be a passion project, a labor of love, and we're gonna start to, you know, bring out some positivity. And I want to kind of talk about that next, which is your subject matter, you know, everybody's got a story in life. And when you're putting things in on paper and you're expressing yourself and telling your story the way it goes, you know, everybody's got a different way. You've chosen a very unique way to do it. And I kind of want to ask, you know, what are some of the things that you fall back on, your life experiences, the things that you're going through now, the the the struggle, you know, childhood. What are some of the things that you have used for your inspiration to create your own music and you know, and potentially inspire millions of other people? That's the goal, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:41

That is the goal. Um, I had a really hard upbringing, uh, really, really tough. Um, my mother tried to commit suicide when I was about 12 years old. Shortly after that, my best friend Kenny killed himself. I found him hanging from a box and bag chain. Um, I rebelled heavy, you know, I was an angry kid. That's hence the reason that I ended up in the foster care. It was due to my own um inabilities to understand what's right and from wrong. And I want to I'm on a mission to make music that can teach people that that don't have the family surrounding and don't have the stability to be able to understand that a lot of people are misunderstood, and people think that they're bad people, but really they just don't have anybody to teach them what it's like to be a good person, they don't even know what it is to be a good person. Um, so I want to make music that can uplift people that are going through that struggle. I want somebody to play it. When I used to play some DMX songs like Slip and Fall and Can't Get Up, it would uplift me. It would make me come from a bottom place to a feeling like I can conquer, feeling like I can do this again. And that's what that's my main goal is when somebody puts on my song, I want them to either go from a good place to an even better place, or from a bad place to a good place, somehow um bring them out of that darkness. When I traveled around the country, a lot of times I found myself like it felt like I was uh I don't want to be cliche and say a God's mission, but almost like a God's mission. Um, I would find people that couldn't make sense of something, and because I've spent so much time writing and analyzing people in the in the foster care, I basically became um a psychologist major in there, just watching people and seeing the differences in like schizophrenics and OCD and bipolar disorder, and having people having rituals they have to do where they recite something over and over again, and just the the most oddball people. In the world that are also the greatest people that I've ever met. And I wanna that's who I rap for, is those people. That's who I make songs for. Um, I want them to hear it and feel like they can do it, even though they have these things that are kind of stopping them from you know, being able to be in a day-to-day life and be and feel normal speaking to people and feel normal working a job and not feel secluded like like I do sometimes. So basically, it's me putting my insecurities down and it just slapping them in people's faces and trying to help them know that they're not alone. Here you go. Like, I'm I'm with you on that. I understand it, and I want to help you to understand how to get past it.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Yes, sir, and that's awesome. And and I love to hear a message like that because it's to inspire others, and honestly, that is the that's the purpose of music, in my opinion, is to inspire others, you know. And when you somewhere down the line, or maybe this has already happened, and this is definitely a question I love to ask any creator who comes onto this podcast. I've had authors and I've had, you know, all kinds of different people along the way. And the number one thing that I love to ask is first off, you know, have you had anybody to this point that has reached out to you and said, Hey, you know what? Your music has reached me, it has affected me. It's something that hits me personally. I've lived a similar scenario, or I've I'm going through something right now, and what you've said has really kind of ultimately helped me get through a problem or has impacted me in a positive way. Have you had anybody that's reached out to you and said, dude, you know, thank you. You've you've made me, you know, maybe stop thinking about doing something bad or see things in a completely different light. And uh, if the answer is yes, I'm gonna ask you how that felt, obviously. But tell me a little bit about those experiences.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

The first time it happened was from a work buddy, Jason. Uh, he just passed away recently. Rest in peace, Jason. Um, he told me he couldn't find any music that he liked, and he didn't know. We worked together for about two years before he even realized I was into music. And he texted me one day, or actually, it was a messenger message from Facebook, and he says, Uh, when were you gonna tell me about the music, man? And I said, I wasn't. I don't I don't just go to work and say, Hey, I'm I make music, I make music, they're two different lifestyles. And then he started listening to it, and he tells me, it feels like you're saying my thoughts and writing them down and organizing them for me. And he's the person that really kind of made me understand why I like to make music and why that when I was the only person listening to my own music, it didn't feel complete. And then once I was able to learn that I can get it out there and distribute it myself, um, that's a an availability now in this day and age that I did that, and then I started getting feedback on my music and getting people that are going, Man, you helped me through a day. Uh, I was having a hard day here, and they'll they'll DM me on Instagram all the time and tell me what steps it took or what song it took to get them through this. And I feel like almost like a savior when that happens, man. And it's it's a very good, it's an extremely wonderful feeling, and it it's literally what you strive for in as an artist, and then uh it makes it so that when you listen to your own music, you can actually really, really appreciate it because you've got that thought behind it that this is helping people, this is doing something, and that's why I don't like this murder rap and uh drill rap and all of this and stuff that's telling you how you know there's a lot of songs nowadays telling you how terrible you are as a person. That's the lyrics. It's like that's not what hip-hop was made on, and it's not what music really thrives on either.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

No, I agree with you 100% on that, and I love that because there's always that one memory, and you're always gonna have the memory, and you know, Jason is no longer even with you, but for the rest of your life, that memory is gonna stick with you, and it's gonna be like, Man, that was an inspiring moment for me that kept me moving, kept me going forward, because I'm sure, as with everything else in life, when things start to kind of get a little complicated or difficult, or you're you're running out of you know, more out more work than hours, and you know, a lot of times people question whether or not this is something that you want to keep doing. Is it worth the time? Is it worth the effort? And I always love to ask this from from you know, anybody that's a a creator of any sort along this process. Obviously, like you said, there was a span where from young adulthood to adulthood that you didn't really have the uh hip hop in your in your life, you brought it back. But when you came back and you decided this was something you were gonna do, you're gonna put it out and you were gonna really, like you say, expose your vulnerabilities and your insecurities to the world. Have you ever had any second thoughts about it? Have you ever thought about giving up or just saying, you know what, man, maybe this is a bit deep, and maybe I don't really want to go so far into it, or maybe I don't want people to know all this stuff about me. Have you ever had moments where you just thought, you know, this is cool, but I I can figure something else out that uh, you know, maybe won't be as draining on me emotionally.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yes, absolutely. Um, when I was really learning the system, I wanted to understand it fully. And it takes I have a learning disability, so it takes me a lot to kind of navigate around things at first that just seems so far from me understanding until I understand uh a part of the perspective, then I can you know really wrap my head around it. But when I was trying to wrap my head around this and not getting songs that sounded like I wanted them to, even though I felt like I put the effort in to achieve that, I was starting to really get discouraged and then feel like I was wasting my time away from my family. I'm like, I'm not even getting the songs that I want out of it with all this time spent, uh, even getting kind of grumpy with them at times when they're trying to come in my room or something, and I'm going, you can't open the door, I'm in the middle of this, you know, just things like that. And I'm thinking back and I'm going, is that wasted time? Because I don't have a lot of time in this earth, and I'll be coming to this age where I'm understanding of that that like every moment of my of my life is a precious moment and needs to be treated like that. Um, I started to think, should I keep doing this? But luckily, I'm blessed. So I have a family that tells me, yeah, you should keep doing this because you're good at it and you've been putting your head into it so much that there's no stopping you. You need to do this. This is a part of your mission. It helps us, it helps you, it helps everybody around you. And when they told me that, I uh and I knew that I had their support, it really kind of took that feeling and grabbed it. But I still have that feeling now sometimes because I I just took a big promotion at work. I used to just drive for FedEx for five years. I just became a business contact, it's quite a quite a promotion. Um, but it's a lot of effort on my part, it's a lot of focus. And granted, all the efforts I put into my record company are leaking over and helping me with the job that I'm in now, but I'm not able to focus on it and keep it rolling because of the momentum. So I do have days even still where I'm thinking about like, do I want to keep doing this? But of course I want to keep doing it. I just am a perfectionist, I wanted the momentum to keep on pumping like it's been pumping. I want to keep pumping songs out every week, reels out all week, and that'll that'll eventually form its way into the the new lifestyle with the new job. But uh yeah, just to answer your question, that's been something I've been going through recently with this new job, but had gotten rid of that feeling from the past, but it popped back up as of the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, and you know, it's just human nature. I've been through this many times myself, and I'm just anything that you take on that's gonna be worthwhile, that's gonna have some substantial result at the end, you're just gonna have to go through those moments and you're gonna have to say, damn, you know, is it worth it? And as long as you continually say yes, it's worth it, I think your conviction gets stronger with each each time you overcome that hurdle. And I think there are a lot of people in this world that had dreams and they wanted to do something, and for whatever reason, they just said, you know, this sucks, but you know, mediocrity it is, I guess. So anyone that's willing to continue to move forward, understanding how stressful, how much second guessing there is, how many times you probably have just thought, dude, you know, I could sell all this stuff and we could, you know, just do something completely different with life and it would be fine. But the winners are the ones that continue moving forward. So kudos to you for that. And I want to learn a little bit about the process that you put into your music as far as you know, the actual nuts and bolts of putting together a single or however you're you know working, whether you're putting together a full album, whether you're putting them together and kind of uh putting them out there. What is your process like as far as you know, an idea to the finished product, as far as putting together one of your songs? You just said you'd love to put put one out a week. So that's a lot of a lot of work. That's a lot of things going on in your mind. It's a lot of writing and it's a lot of execution. So tell me a little bit about the process from a thought in your head to the finished product as far as your music goes production-wise.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

It starts, um, like I said, I work a lot, so it starts in the FedEx van, that's where I write all my songs. Um, I do it through talk to text, so of course I have to go back and you know fix a lot of the wording because it comes out crazy. Um, I just kind of talked to text my songs onto a notebook, and then I had Monday and Thursdays for many, many years that I recorded. I spent the you know, I clocked in, I clocked out just nine to five with my music as well. So that day I just wouldn't be in the FedEx truck, I'd be in my studio, and I sit down with the lyrics, and I've got thousands and thousands of beats that I've invested on and features, like I said. So I go through them and I just listen and I just click and listen until I catch one that just is with the vibe that I have at the moment. Um then I'm gonna make sure that the lyrics match up. A lot of people will make a beat around their lyrics. I don't generally do that, I just kinda I'm getting I'm trying to get repetition on being able to throw a beat on, grab whatever lyrics I'm feeling, and match it up no matter what. And that's a skill set that's really tough to do. But that's how I'm doing it because it just kind of works with the time consumption that I have. I mean, I gotta really adjust my time schedule, I gotta really kind of just sit down and make a song when I can. So I do it that way. Um, for instance, last night I sat down, I started throwing beats on, everybody was playing, everybody's got something they got going on in their own worlds. I knew I could sneak off for a minute, um, just clicked some beats. I found a beat that I just really rocked with, and then found a just literally scrolled on my phone. I just hit the scroll and pressed, almost like I'm picking a name from a hat. And then I uh it matched up perfectly. It's almost like fake sometimes when I do it that way. It's like uh it's fun that way too, it's a mystery. Yeah, and then that's awesome. It was meant to be. It was meant to be, it's meant to be, and then I just lay down a song.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

That's pretty awesome. So obviously, you're doing this for love. You you have been you know into the hip hop since you were a youngster, it's a major part of your life, you've created a business around it. Obviously, the entire point of a business is to eventually make a ton of money, right? And I guess one way that we can make a ton of money as an artist would be to actually put our stuff out there to the world and have people with the availability to make that purchase. So let's talk a little bit about the availability of your music. Someone's watching this right now, and they're like, you know what, this guy's pretty cool. I like his vibes. I'd like to maybe hear a little bit of what he's got going on. What are some of the channels that people can use to find your music and then more importantly, to actually make it a profitable venture for you by purchasing?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Well, I got I have a website, um, CaspaClark.com. It's C-A-S-P-A-C-L-A-R-K.com. Um, I'm on all streaming services, all platforms. If you like your music on YouTube or you like it on Spotify, you just look up Casper Clark. I'm there. Um, I've got about 95 songs, I think it is, that I've posted. And I've got a laundry list of stuff in the vault that I'm really excited to release because my skill level has really grown. Um, I've always liked rappers and people that can really twist their tongue when they're rapping. And I've gotten to a point now where I've just been practicing and practicing and practicing, and I'm getting to where I can lay down a song that I really, really love, and that makes it easier to share with all of y'all. And so you can find it at any place. Um, know that I have music out from when I first started, and it sounded like trash, so that way you can literally listen to stuff that I would not want to share, but I do anyways, so that you can hear now and see the repetitions and the and all the work that I've actually put in to make a good song.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Yes, sir, and that that's such a cool progression. This is my 260th episode of this podcast, and July 1st of 2026 will be my five-year anniversary of episode one, and episode one's on my YouTube channel, and I tell people, go watch that, I dare you, because I watch it now and it's like, oh my gosh, that was I was about to ask you if you watch it. Oh, yeah, I only watched that episode. I have probably watched less than maybe 15 or 20 of my episodes of the 260 that I've done. Um, I guess I just I don't know, I don't have time for all that, but you watch that first one and it makes you really appreciate as you continue to evolve and some of the things that we've been able to do, the guests that have appeared on the show, and so on and so forth. And it's like, wow, you know, that was very rewarding. And in the moment, it seemed like it was a lot, and it was, you know, every single week you've got to sit down and record, and you've got to do this, and there's no time off if you want to be consistent. So that's that's been a lot, and watching it the progression has been awesome. So the next thing I like to kind of start to wind down with a little bit, we've kind of started from the beginning and worked our way to where we are now. You are also looking forward to the future, and I always love to ask about future plans. Obviously, you said, you know, this is something that you would love to eventually be able to turn into a full-time thing, not have to, you know, spend so much time doing doing different things. So let's talk a little bit about the plan for you know, three, five, ten years down the road. Everything goes according to the vision that's in your mind. What does your life look like as you start to transition from one aspect into you know making this a full-time venture and making this something that's gonna ultimately be your defining legacy in life if it if it goes that far? And you know what what does that plan look like for you if everything goes exactly according to the way that it's in your head right now, which we know it never does, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Um I'd say it'd probably look about the same as it's been going. So I've got a really good the the wheels are turning, and I've got a good system set up. So now now at this like the short term is working that system back into my life with the job that I currently have. Once I'm able to do that, it's back to the repetitions, back to every week being able to release music, being able to release quality reels to advertise my music, and then just keep pumping them out until that distribution account hits an amount that I'm able to say, uh, excuse me, boss, I'm gonna have to resonate. And then it's on to building the first space, it's called the space station. Um, I want to build a studio where people that want to really focus on music and don't have the equipment and don't have access to those things, they can come to me and they can start working on their music. Um once they're known through Noise Records, that's when I decide they need to make me an album. And that's in repaying of using my equipment. It's not like a regular label where I would front them a bunch of cash and then expect them to pay me back with their music and with their work. It would be more like they get to use the equipment and they pay me back later for it with music. Um it's it's still in the works, the blueprint's not completely, you know, solidified, but we're we've really been focusing on that, and it's gonna start off a small one and it's gonna gradually grow bigger and bigger and bigger, just like the bedroom studio did. It started with a tiny little fold-up desk, uh started with uh actually uh a dinner tray on the side of a bed, basically.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

And then everybody's got that original setup, I tell you that. My first podcast was pretty it was pretty archaic when we think back now, but that's that's the beauty of the growth, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Yes, it is. And do you have any pictures of that?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Oh, yeah, I've got pictures of the entire journey, and it's been like it's been insane. I had like I told you, I got this uh expensive equipment after like the third episode because it was like, okay, I enjoy this, I want to continue doing it, and if I continued to use the lower grade, cheaper stuff, it wouldn't hurt me so bad to quit. And I think that was my motivation was I just I needed to sound better, I needed to look better. So the reality is my camera actually sucks, it's only a $50 webcam that I got on Amazon, but it's it's all right for what I'm doing, and the audio works, and uh yeah, it looks good. It's kept me motivated, that's been the best part of it. And I always love to to kind of wind down the episode with something like this, okay? Your goal is to inspire, your goal is to create, your goal is to put out into the world. And as you put out into the world, there are going to be people that you're gonna find along the way that are gonna receive everything that you've put out there, and it's gonna really impact their lives, it's gonna make them into completely different people. Let's say that you've got some youngsters right now that are watching this, and maybe their goal is that they wanna they wanna become a musician, they want to become an artist, they want to be able to, you know, put themselves out into the world just like you are. What's some advice to someone who's maybe the young version of Casper that's just you know finding themselves understanding the influence that music is going to have on them down the road, but doesn't quite understand exactly what what they're looking for yet. What's your advice to someone who may be watching this that's a teenager and they're starting to get into that position and they want to get into this? What uh what's one thing that you've learned along the way that you think is the most valuable lesson thus far in your journey? I guess that's the question.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Do not worry about what other people think. You're not making music originally for yourself. I mean, for other people, you're making it for yourself. Um, when you can enjoy it, that means other people can enjoy it. If the people around you don't enjoy it, because a lot of times the people around you love you and they care about you so much that they don't they're scared for you to chase your dreams because they don't they didn't chase their own dreams, so they don't believe that it can work. That's why they shoot you down every time. That's why they're kind of not as supportive as a stranger might be. Um it's not for them, they're too close to you to actually understand that. Um, keep making it for yourself, you will find your crowd. Um, it's not always, it's not gonna start off good, nothing starts off good. Push past that, keep on pushing past that, and you'll eventually be good if you really want to.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Yeah, that's it. It's just it's it's understanding that yeah, there's gonna be haters along the way. And I love what you just said there because in a lot of cases, it's the people that are closer to you, and it's not that they don't wish you success, but I think they also view your success as exposing their lack of action. So a lot of people fall for that and they get stuck and they say, Well, you know, my mom and dad told me that I was gonna suck at this, so I didn't want to do it. And the reality is mom and dad might love you to death, but subliminally they realize that they didn't ever try to do anything beyond what they became, and it makes people feel better subliminally, just to keep other people in mediocrity. So that is tremendous advice. And I can't thank you enough for being on the episode today. This has been so awesome, and I've really enjoyed our conversation. Before we bid adieu to the audience, Casper, I got one thing I need to do, my friend, and that is give a shout out to my sponsor. And I'll tell you a little bit about my sponsor real quick because I love him. My sponsor is roofer.com. That's R O O F R dot com. And as I told you earlier, I own a roofing business here in San Antonio, Texas. Roofer is my all-in-one software program that I use for every aspect of that business from gathering data and instant estimations to going through the entire process of re-roofing, ordering materials, work orders, invoicing, collecting payments, everything in between. Roofer covers it all, ladies and gentlemen. And I've been saying this for three years now. If you're not using Roofer yet and you and you have a roofing company, then I'm I'm not gonna give up on you, but I'm gonna continue to hound you every week. So Roofer is awesome. I thank them for being my sponsor for the last three and a half years. Tremendous company to be a part of, and I'm proud to represent them on the podcast. And as I end every episode, I will ask you, Caspa, stick around after I uh hit this ad for Roofer. And I like to thank all my fans, the millions and millions of fans as they are. And I always joke and say, yeah, it's gonna be millions, and it may be a hundred years from now, and I may never see that, but you never know. We might just this this could be the episode that strikes it big for us. So to everybody that watches and supports the show, thank you guys. And I always love to end this is my first episode with my new energized-looking logo here. The corniest tagline in the history of the world, folks, is keep on keeping it real. And we will see you all next week. Thank you guys for being here.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

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