Q&A with Rap Legend, Spyder Hughes
Tell us a bit about Newtroit Music Group Inc.
Newtroit Music Group Inc. is a revised record label entity that I originally conceived of in 1979 as a freshman at Eastern Michigan University. It was Newtroit Records back then and it was a play on cities. New for New York City where I was raised, and troit as in Detroit, 40 something miles from where I was enrolled in college. My mother gave me the money to press up our first 1000 12″ singles of the song I recorded in Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan with a band named “Frosted”. I hummed out the bass line and the other members grooved off of that bass line to fill in the rest of the music to what would become “Big Apple Rappin'”, my ode to the city that raised me. That helped launch me as the artist/producer/executive known as Spyder D, affectionately called “legend” by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame members Chuck D of Public Enemy and Raheim of Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five.
What gave you the idea for your business and how did it start?
I went to college as an “Honorable Mention All Queens” high school basketball star out of Richmond Hill High School. However, my knees were spaghetti from all of the playground ball I had played and basketball was not going to be my future. Music was my next love but I didn’t just want to be an artist. I wanted to be an executive like Motown’s Berry Goody so I came up with the idea to start my own record label at the tender age of 19. Except I was the producer, executive and artist all at the same time. That was late in 1979.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I like the fact that I am my own boss and that I get to make all of the important decisions. By now, I have decades of experience and that experience is going to serve the company well when I get more funding to implement the skills that I have accrued over the years. The music business, (and entertainment industry as a whole), is an industry where creativity can take you as far as any college degree.
What are your keys to making yourself productive?
For me, the key to being productive is to try and stay focused and to try and think outside the box within a creative, yet corporate confine. That is easier said than done, but the very challenge of it keeps me motivated to be productive. That, and the fact that there is so much more competition in today’s market. It almost reminds of when I played basketball. there are thousands of great basketball players around the world.
Tell us one long-term goal in your career.
At this stage of my career, I want to be able to leave my company in the position to be taken over by my kids and grandkids, and be profitable enough to one day be publicly traded on the stock market.
What’s the most valuable lesson you’ve learned through the course of your career?
I have learned that the entertainment industry is as competitive as any industry in the world. Like most industries where there is potentially a lot of money to be made, there are thieves and “ne’er do wells” in extreme abundance. One must be careful and try to think two or three steps ahead at all times. Again, easier said than done.
What advice would you give to others aspiring to succeed in your field?
Believe in yourself when no one else will! There will be plenty of moments where setbacks will seem like failure. Failure is nothing more than success delayed if you really have special talent. Also, just in case, have a plan B, C and D. You must trust your instincts but you cannot fool yourself. You cannot blindly think you are great if you’re not even good. Reality sometimes escapes those in the entertainment field.
What are your favorite things to do outside of work?
I am a television and film nerd. I love to watch old movies. They teach me a lot about entertainment. From directing to music scores, cinematography, etc. It is educational while relaxing for me. It helps me build on everything I have already learned. Over the years, I have learned how to be a recording engineer so I utilize my own home recording studio to keep myself sharp with that self taught skill set.
Name a few influential books you’ve read and/or websites you keep up with that you’d recommend to readers.
When I was young, growing up in Queens, NYC, I read a book called “Hog Butcher” which later became the movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me” and starred a young Lawrence Fishburne. Because it was about basketball, I was drawn to it as a reading assignment for school. it was tragic when an aspiring basketball star was gunned down in the mean streets of Chicago. The film adaptation was fairly close to the book and reading that book had a profound impact on how I looked at life all the way to this day.
Other books that stands out to me are Peter Benchly’s “Jaws” and “The Excorcist” which both scared the he’ll out of me. These books were from my very early teens. I don’t read much now but I have written my own book and it has received some great reviews. It is titled “I Hate Being Black” by Spyder Duane Hughes.
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