XXEL Zoom Interview With Joey Franchize
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00:00I'm chillin' busy. Interview after interview after interview.
00:02I feel you, man. I mean,
00:03the record's going crazy right now.
00:06It's going up.
00:08Oh, man.
00:09You gotta check that.
00:11One second. All my phone's going off right now.
00:13My bad. My bad. My bad.
00:14Yeah, right now. Big lit over there.
00:15Oh, you see?
00:18But yeah, man. The record's going crazy, man.
00:20All thanks to the supporters of mine,
00:22boy, and TikTok and everything, bro.
00:24It's a blessing.
00:25No doubt, man. Here with Lil' Zell. It's Joey Franchise.
00:28The song out right now.
00:29Let me know, right?
00:31LMK for the abbreviation.
00:34Yes, sir.
00:35With my follow-up record out as well called MNU.
00:38Yes, MNU is out as well, man.
00:40You just, you pumping it out right now
00:42with the singles, dog.
00:43So tell me a little bit.
00:44I want a little backstory.
00:45I want to get to know you a little bit.
00:47Man, it just popped out of nowhere.
00:48The song got big off of TikTok.
00:50I understand all that.
00:51But just tell me a little bit how music came into your life.
00:55Yo, so I'm a kid born in Orlando, Florida.
00:57Grew up in New Jersey.
00:58All around music.
00:59My whole life.
01:00Never did I ever think that I was going to become an artist, though.
01:02Because I grew up playing baseball.
01:04Get out, bro.
01:05It wasn't until, like, because I lived in Weehawk in New Jersey.
01:08And, like, that was a city where we played baseball, man.
01:10I mean, baseball and basketball.
01:12More so baseball.
01:12And it's, like, it wasn't until I skipped out on an all-star baseball game
01:18in which I was being scouted here and there for a talent show.
01:22I skipped out on a game to be in a talent show where I was, like, you know,
01:26maybe I can do music.
01:27But I didn't take it seriously until I moved to California.
01:30I graduated after dropping a diss track on my homie.
01:34And I was, like, you know what?
01:35I want to make music.
01:37And then I went to college for three days, got my financial aid check,
01:40bought a studio, didn't go to school for no more, and made music.
01:43And three songs later, LMK was born.
01:46Here I am.
01:46Look at that.
01:47Big finesser over there, man.
01:49Way to do it.
01:50You got to do it.
01:51You got to do it.
01:51It worked out, though.
01:53I mean, shoot.
01:54You got 10 million views on the video right now for Let Me Know.
01:59The single's going crazy on TikTok.
02:01Funny that you mentioned you're originally from Orlando.
02:03I'm out in Tampa right now.
02:06Oh, Tampa.
02:07Yeah.
02:08And I'm originally from Connecticut.
02:09Not out of Florida, man.
02:10Yeah.
02:10Florida's definitely holding it down, man.
02:12So salute to you doing your thing.
02:13I mean, LA is the move, man.
02:14You know, that's where all the music is.
02:16That's how you, you know, get this thing, you know.
02:19The move is wherever you're at.
02:21The move is wherever you're at.
02:22Don't let people think that a location is where it's at, bro.
02:25I mean, yes, it's good for networking.
02:26But if you got the talent, you got the talent.
02:27Let me tell you.
02:28Florida's birthing a lot of artists, man.
02:30So we can't forget.
02:32Oh, yeah.
02:32No, let's not get it twisted.
02:33Yeah.
02:34Florida's definitely got the juice.
02:35When it comes to the music.
02:36So let me ask, like, when did you, when you made this record, did you expect for it to
02:43do what it did on TikTok?
02:45Did you, like, look at TikTok or see what the wave was and kind of pinpoint it?
02:50Because it's a dance track and it's a dope dance track.
02:52Right.
02:54What was going through your mind making this song?
02:56What was the intention?
02:57How did it, you know, blow up the way it did, man?
03:00It's amazing to me how it's at where it's at.
03:02Like, so if, like, we're speaking, like, the blow up, it's like, yo, everyone says, like,
03:07if you want to make it in this music industry, it's like, you got to provide something.
03:12You know, you obviously, you got to, you got to come at everybody different.
03:15And it's like, the sound that I came out with, I feel like nobody was doing it, you know?
03:19Like, I took my R&B influences growing up, Boyz II Men, Justin Bieber, Drake, Jeremiah.
03:25And I, and I mixed them all, you know, I mixed them all together.
03:28I took my sad story, put it into my own R&B vibe and then added like a happy pop vibe
03:33to it, you know, dance and stuff.
03:35And LMK was born, man.
03:36And I call it my own drama now, to be honest, because I don't, nobody else is doing it.
03:39Yeah, I haven't, I haven't heard any of that, especially out of the new wave or new generation
03:44of artists right now.
03:45Definitely salute to you on that.
03:47Now, you know, you Boricua, have Boricua, have Cuban.
03:50I'm Cuban, Puerto Rican, yes, sir.
03:52You're Cuban-Rican.
03:54Yes, sir.
03:55You got, you got into singing also at a young age or, you know, we're dabbling in it.
04:00Your grandmother has like some singing roots, right?
04:03Yeah, it runs as deep as my grandmother, great-grandmother.
04:07No, bro, like, I'm telling you, like, I grew up, my siblings were listening to, like,
04:11were listening to, like, certain artists that stuck with me.
04:14And they made music themselves.
04:16My mom sings around the house.
04:17She's a big fan of Mariah Carey.
04:19And it's like, now I look up to these people myself, which is crazy.
04:23So it's like, I just knew some way, shape, or form that I was going to be implemented
04:28in music.
04:28And so did all my friends around me, you know, like, especially my one friend back in New
04:31Jersey.
04:32He told me, he was like, I knew, I knew you was going to be implemented in music because,
04:35like, my family makes music.
04:37And my mom's singing all the time.
04:39My dad was in the music industry himself.
04:41Oh, right.
04:42Yeah, he was working with celebrities himself.
04:44So it's like, it was bound to happen.
04:47That's cool, man.
04:48It worked out right.
04:49And I heard another little fun fact is that the ex-girl kind of influenced a lot of these
04:53songs you're putting out.
04:55Did she ever take any credit, like, on Instagram, throwing any shade, like, yeah, that's about
05:01me, you know what I mean?
05:02No, she's actually, she's, that's like, that's my best friend.
05:05Really?
05:05Yeah, I have to.
05:06Is that possible these days, man?
05:08Because I don't know why.
05:10It's not possible to society nowadays, man.
05:13It's like, guys and girls can't be friends nowadays, or I mean, like, or whatever it is
05:17that they want to be on the low ski.
05:19You know what I mean?
05:19Like, you can't, you can't do nothing without people assuming anything.
05:23Yeah.
05:23My exes can't stand me, boy.
05:25So, I mean, like, if it's an ex, like, y'all not friends.
05:32But, or if, or if you are friends, you're dating.
05:34I mean, like, it don't matter.
05:35Whatever we're doing is up to us.
05:37You know what I mean?
05:37Like, let me rock out.
05:39But no, the world we live in nowadays, they assume.
05:42They assume to me.
05:43Now, with, let me know, being as viral as it is right now, where were you the minute
05:48you saw, I feel like it's like hitting the lottery.
05:51You know what I mean?
05:52When you see a, like, when anything goes viral, like, for any, for the average person, it's
05:56like hitting the lottery, like, yo, I'm like this popping right now on the internet.
06:00So, where were you when all this got going?
06:02And when did you know that this is like, yo, like, we're on to something?
06:06So, this was, like, let's rewind.
06:09Let's rewind to August 2019, when I wrote the song.
06:12I wrote it, you know, it started out with a beat, a tempo of me just banging on the
06:18desk, right?
06:19Yeah.
06:19I had my own melody right there.
06:21And then I looked for a beat on YouTube.
06:23And that specific beat, the LMK beat, matched, like, the vibe.
06:27You know what I mean?
06:27And I kind of dished that song to the side.
06:30Because at the time, I was throwing snippets out on Instagram, TikTok, all my platforms
06:33every day.
06:34And I dished it out to the side, LMK, because I was like, I don't know, it's not fitting my
06:38R&B vibe.
06:39Right.
06:39And then I can't, we're fast forwarding now to November.
06:41And I had no much snippets to put out.
06:43And I wasn't motivated to make a new one.
06:45And I still had the LMK one.
06:47So, I was like, you know, I'm going to throw it out.
06:48And I threw it out.
06:49In less than a few hours, it started going viral.
06:51Viral.
06:52Like, and I was like, oh my gosh, maybe this is the, this is my calling right here.
06:55Right.
06:56And I waited, like, six to eight months of just straight, like, promoting LMK before I even
07:01put it out.
07:02I was gassing it.
07:03I got it to the point, like, where people were over.
07:06And that's when I dropped it.
07:08And when I dropped it, oh man, check me out now.
07:11Look at me now.
07:12I'm blessed.
07:14And it's wild because you got old girl Charlie, you know what I'm saying?
07:17From Dunkin' Donuts and all that.
07:19You know, she got the Dunkin' Donuts plug.
07:22But, you know, she's got dances to it.
07:24And, you know, her TikTok is crazy right now.
07:26Yeah.
07:27I mean, she did it.
07:28That was exciting.
07:29But I mean, like, the real credit goes to Addison Rae.
07:32Okay.
07:33She's the one who sparked the plug, to be honest.
07:35Like, it was doing, it was doing a few thousand videos a day on TikTok.
07:38And once Addison Rae did it, it started, started compounding to 50,000 videos a day, 100,000
07:42videos a day until we touched 2 million.
07:44Now, I come from a different kind of era.
07:46I call myself like a little bit younger OG, you know what I mean?
07:49Early 30s and stuff, you know what I mean?
07:51Don't judge me or nothing like that.
07:53But, like, I come from the era where, you know, songs popped a totally different way.
07:59Like, how does social media play a big part?
08:03Because you're not just, you know, you have your music, but you also have a personality
08:07too.
08:08Explain how important, you know, using social networks and things like that, you know, as
08:14a way to promote your music.
08:16Bro, for one, I feel like before the music, I feel like people got to, like, I mean, the
08:21music always speaks for itself, obviously.
08:23But I feel like having, like, an internet presence that I do, it's like, people got to
08:27like you to really even want to sit there and swipe up on the link that you said to
08:32swipe up to, you know what I mean?
08:33Like, anybody can sit there and say swipe up, but if I'm not trying to swipe up for
08:36you, then I'm not swiping up for you, you know what I mean?
08:38So I kind of built my social media presence using my music at the same time, but also
08:43displaying my personality.
08:45And that's what people stuck to because it's like, bro, I like to remind people that just
08:49because I have a higher follower count than one other person doesn't mean that I'm better
08:53than me, you know?
08:55So, like, people gravitated towards the authenticity of it because it's like, if I really took
09:00LMK off of DSPs right now, I'm just Alex, bro.
09:05I hope.
09:06And there's nothing special.
09:07Fuck out.
09:08We're here with Lil Xel, holding it down, single LMK, let me know out right now.
09:13MNU also, I mean, I got to salute you for house for having a song on deck because not
09:17many artists, when they have a song pop out like that already with another one, you know
09:21what I mean?
09:22So how do you consistently stay on top of your game or what keeps you on your toes?
09:26If I'm keeping it 100, that song was like, I had so many other songs ready and that song
09:32I recorded two weeks before it came out.
09:35I was like, yo, I recorded it.
09:37I was like, yo, I'm banging this one.
09:38Let's drop this one instead of the other one.
09:40We had another one in place that's just coming out soon, but I can't say when, yeah.
09:44But I mean, like that was the song I recorded two weeks and two weeks out, I don't know
09:50why I felt like that was the one that was the perfect follow-up.
09:53And it's like, I'm just, I live in this, my room is my studio.
09:56I record at home.
09:57So I record, mix and master.
09:59I mean, recording being a thing is kind of efficient that I can record here and, you
10:03know, everything is in-house because I have, my manager is my engineer.
10:07So everything is, everything is, you know, closely linked.
10:10I'm good.
10:11That's everything in-house.
10:12I respect that.
10:14Also too, I mean, I don't know if that's like a, you know, your studio chair, your gaming
10:17chair, what else are you doing outside of music?
10:19Like for fun, what do you do?
10:20This is my gaming chair.
10:21Hey, there it is.
10:23I be rocking the war zone.
10:25I be rocking the war zone.
10:26Okay.
10:27If not, I'm just messing around with my family.
10:29You know, I'm a jokester.
10:30I like to play with everybody.
10:32Or I'm just, I don't know, driving around, eating.
10:35I like to eat sushi.
10:37But I'm so simple, bro.
10:39Like there's really nothing special.
10:40You know, some people who, you know, put on an image for the cameras, I'm a little,
10:47I'm not supportive of it.
10:48You know, just be yourself.
10:49Copy.
10:50Respect.
10:50And speaking of gaming, let's stick on that.
10:53And you PS5 or getting the new Xbox?
10:57Man, PlayStation, bro.
10:59I'm going to be honest.
11:00When I was little, I used to play the Xbox 360, but I don't know.
11:02Once I switched over to the PlayStation 4, I was like, yeah, I'm never going back.
11:06Same here, man.
11:06I went back to being a PlayStation kid probably, like, earlier this year.
11:11Right.
11:11I already pre-owned that PS5.
11:13I'm good to go.
11:15I either just closed that door to Microsoft, or I made them want to open it even wider right now.
11:21That's crazy.
11:22For real, man.
11:23Hey, listen, yo, Zell, I got to salute to you for an amazing single, for it doing the numbers that it's doing.
11:28Keep up all the success, man.
11:29I got to salute the homies over at 300.
11:31I know Glitch ain't here somewhere chilling.
11:34But, yo, man, just let everybody know where they can follow you.
11:37Keep up with all the action.
11:38Right, man.
11:39I appreciate it.
11:39I appreciate y'all for having me, man.
11:41It's been your boy, Lil' Zell.
11:42I just dropped my second single, MAU, on all platforms, followed up by my hit single, LMK.
11:47Go stream that, all platforms.
11:48I appreciate you.
11:49No doubt, bro.
11:50Lil' Zell.
11:51Thank you, bro.
11:52Of course.
11:52Let's connect, too, man.
11:53When I get this PS5, I need that PSN, bro.
11:56Oh, yeah.
11:57Hit me.
11:57Hit me in my DM.
11:58You know how we rocking.
12:00All right, brother.
12:01I'm going to shoot you my email, and I'm going to send you my PSN, too.
12:04Let's do it.
12:05Wait, do you DM it now?
12:06Yeah, I'm going to DM you right now and send you all that.
12:08All right.
12:09Perfect, man.
12:09You take care, all right?
12:10You too, bro.
12:11All right, brother.
12:12Later.