A music label is changing the culture of the music industry by imparting financial wisdom on their artists and straying away from music about drugs and violence.
Better and Better Music is an independent label that plays home to five artists in the R&B, hip-hop and reggae genres. The label’s CEO, Tip Horne, has also worked to change the stereotype of the music industry.
“We’re just really steering clear of all the things that you hear on the radio,” Horne said. “What I mean by that is just the content. I think that we have a responsibility to infuse some different content into what’s popular.”
Horne has worked with his artists to create music that glamorizes financial well-being over drug usage and violence.
“So many of these kids, most recently Chynna and Juice Wrld, are dying from ingesting these narcotics and of course there’s the ever-looming presence of violence,” Horne said.
25-year-old rapper Chynna Rogers died of a drug overdose in April and 21-year-old rapper Juice Wrld died of a drug overdose last December.
“Hip hop, R&B, there’s a culture and I don’t think that culture has to be inclusive of extreme drug use,” Horne said. “But it just keeps happening… the ridiculous murders and the overdoses.”
Horne is also trying to stand out with the music on his label.
“I don’t think that we can just duplicate the same thing, we’re not trying to be quiet over here, it’s just that we want to fuse something else into the marketplace,” Horne said.
Horne has been in the music industry for 25 years and has built a label with experienced individuals to help ensure the well-being of his artists.
“Being around the music industry and being around these artists gives us credibility and an understanding of how an artist’s mind works,” Horne said. “When they’re involved in writing, we’re not writing for them, we’re just involved with their creation of a culture.”
Horne has assisted his artists in creating a culture by helping artists develop a clothing line and helping artists invest their earnings more wisely. He has also worked to give his artists a new mindset when it comes to lyrics.
Horne has also developed a new plan for artists to publish content that he believes will be more marketable.
“We’re just going to quietly trickle singles out and get them into a catalog,” Horne said.
This plan has caused Horne to build a strong team within his studio, including the company’s new vice president, Dustin Petz.
“I’ve fallen in love with the idea of seeing that growth from the ground up,” Petz said. “Once I got introduced to Tip and what he was doing here in Phoenix, I completely was on board.”
Together, Petz and Horne have created a network of six artists; Quan Jabri, Dre Smuzic, Kiid Tru, Prince Naseem Shakir, Hector Samaniego and Tyre’ the Great.
Jabri spoke on how Horne has welcomed him into the Phoenix music scene.
“Moving from Baltimore and meeting Tip and meeting these other artists that are going to be on the label as well has been an eye-opening experience,” Jabri said. “From him teaching me certain things about the business and the industry to giving me the freedom to be an actual artist and see what I can be has been great.”
Horne has seen a respectable amount of success as well off of Jabri’s latest single titled “Out the Way on the Way.”
“The only thing it’s really getting any streams on is Amazon Music and a couple on YouTube,” Horne said.
Though Horne has faced many obstacles during his more than two decades in the music industry, it was a new obstacle that brought him to Phoenix and led him to start Better and Better Music.
Horne’s wife was battling metastatic breast cancer and had just had a baby. Horne moved his family to Phoenix where his wife could receive care from a homeopathic treatment facility.
“While she was going through cancer, people would ask her ‘How are you?’ and she didn’t want to say ‘I’m good.’ She would say ‘I’m getting better and better’,” Horne said.
The saying fit Horne’s goal’s as a record label owner and the name of the label was established in her honor.
Contact the reporter at asgalla1@asu.edu.
