2006 Conspiracy Radio Music Awards preview

An Interview with JJ Chianese

by Lil' Phil

All the votes are in - now its time to hand out the awards. The 2006 Conspiracy Radio Music Awards will take place Friday night at the Gypsy Tea Room. In preperation for the big night, Lil' Phil interviewed Conspiracy Radio founder JJ Chianese:

When did you start Conspiracy Radio?

I started Conspiracy Radio in January 2003. We started broadcasting two shows on Musicians.Net, which was one of the pioneering stations in internet radio broadcasting, on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I started it with P'Nut from Phenomena Entertainment, and it's changed and grown in a lot of different ways over the last 3 ½ years.

How did the opportunity come about?

This cat they called Smallz kept callin' me about sponsoring a radio show at Musicians.Net. I wasn't even interested at first, and he was so persistent he started gettin' on my nerves and I was avoidin' dud until one day this cat just shows up at my door after two weeks or so of listenin' to my voicemail. I was like damn, and all he wanted was a $100 a month. I did some research on the station and I was workin with so many different artists at the time I saw the credibility in the station, and figured at the worst I'd get some pub and move some units for the projects I had goin'. His partners were alright, but I came to realize shortly after he started that this cat didn't know jack shit about hip-hop. The shit wasn't goin' anywhere, and Nut was like "yo, we can do this shit ourselves." Things after that basically ran it's course naturally, and I wound up with both time slots around July 2003. That's the point when Conspiracy Radio really started to catch a buzz. Steve Austin and Al Lyric came on with the show, and that's basically how it all started.

What other services do you provide other than giving artists radio play?

I do a lot of different things from a business stand point and you can check or website for all the details, but it's mostly consulting work. Financial and business analysis, creating business models, developing marketing, advertising and promotional strategies, and other project management oriented services.

Unfortunately we don't really do much work for local artists in Dallas because a lot of 'em either don't understand just how complex and detailed this business is, or, for those that do, they rarely have it in their budget. It's completely understandable, I know the grind first hand. But I have a proven track record making money for companies, and most of this comes from businesses outside of North Texas and often outside of the entertainment industry itself. I been doing this for over 11 years now, you gotta pay for that kind of experience, period.

Now W.E.E.D. 200.3 is a form of Conspiracy Radio right?

200.3 is a product of 2-3 Media Group, and we're currently discussing the exact details of how the two will mesh together as we continue working together. I've known Darius (Boogieman, owner of 23MG) since the late '90s and we work together off verbal agreements and shit like that. I'm more like a mercenary in this situation, we he needs some shit handled I get a call and we work it out from there. I've hosted a few of the mixtapes, and we stream each of the new ones as they're released on ConRadio.Com. We've talked about a lot of different ways we can expand the brand, and we just really need to sit down and make the call on exactly how we're gonna make it happen.

What made you decide to turn it into a mixtape thing?

It was always Boogie's intention for 200.3 to be a mixtape driven brand. As far as Conspiracy Radio is concerned, the internet is huge, but it still has it's limits. People are bumpin' the shit in their cars and at their parties. Hip-hop's always been about the streets...a lot of people who want it don't have access to the internet on a regular basis still. We want those listeners too. And it's just another added benefit to artists because if your shit is hot then it's gonna make the mixtape too. It's just one step in attempting to cover all the angles, and secondly, we've NEVER had a pledge drive or asked for donations. We've never even accepted a donation. But if you really wanna help out, it's a nice way to get a really hot triple disk set to ride to.

The Conspiracy Radio Awards are a couple days away huh?

Yeah, I'm ready for this ship to sail. I only do one or two shows a year, and this is a huge undertaking. What a lot of people don't understand is this show really isn't about anything more than creating a tradition of recognizing the North Texas hip-hop community. I'm not leaving Friday night with a bag of cash over my shoulder, we feel good if we cover our expenses and have money left over, which pretty much all goes to the performers, etc. And that's ok because it's really not about financial gain, it's more about the celebration of our progress as a market and as artists, no matter what your involvement in this industry is. It's a huge party, and it's a chance for some folks that are out grindin' to sell their goods and put some money in their pockets.

What can we expect to see this year that we didn't see last year?

Come out and find out for yourself. If you were at last year’s show, you know I gotta do it better than the last time, and that's what that is.

I'm waiting to see who takes "Best New Artist." Is there a part of the awards you are excited about? Who or what are you looking forward to?

I just wanna see everyone get their shine on and have a good time. We the house is packed and everyone's lettin' loose it feels good knowin' that for one night we're all gonna come together and shine together. It's a hell of a party. If you're new to the area or just gettin' started in the industry it's a good networking opportunity. If everybody has a good time and at the end of the night they're like, "yo, you did that J" then it's all good.

What keeps you going with this whole Conspiracy Radio thing?

I started this thing for one reason, and that was during a time when we (North Texas) desperately needed some sort of avenue for exposure. Major media outlets were complete dead ends no matter how you tried, they weren't hearin' it. The potential for this market is incredible though, it's a sleeping giant that a few people like George Lopez and Grifter, etc. have only begun to crack. But it hasn't even come close to seeing it's full potential, and that's a monumental task that's gonna take collaborative efforts on the parts of everyone out here who really wants to get it. I'm just doing my part in the grand scheme of things.

What can we expect from Conspiracy Radio and W.E.E.D. 200.3 in the future.

New show's on a regular basis is a top priority after the awards. That and a completely re-vamped playlist. We've parted ways with Musicians.Net, so we gotta get back all the listeners we had and also continue building on the new listener bases we're cultivating as well. The profile is gonna be a lot higher, and I've got people actually working on several projects behind the scenes right now with that in mind. Keep lookin' for us, the potential is limitless and I'm on the grind harder than ever before.

If Suge Knight, etc. was tryin' to contact you or anybody else, they can...

Hit us up at ConRadio.Com, or on Myspace at myspace.com/conspiracyradionetwork . You can holla at me personally at jjchianese@gmail.com . If you think we can do somethin' you can always holla at me, I try to work with everybody within reason.

Also, if you're an artist or producer and you want some burn, all you gotta do is send your track, preferably mastered, to conspiracymedia@gmail.com. Give us the details and tell us who you are, and if you're shit is hot, we'll play it. It's that simple. People ask me every day how they can get played. Send it to us.

See you Friday?

You know it. Show starts at 9 pm sharp! Doors open and food's ready at 8 pm, so come on out early and get some of this good food in you before we set it off like we always do.

That's what's up.