October 1, 2014
Ex-NBA Baller Dennis ‘3-D’ Scott Talks Longevity After the Game
We also asked Scott if he still had his Florida record label and whether he still practiced music, or if his rapping and crooning days were merely expressions of youthful exuberance.
He tells us he scaled it back to more of the production side and turned to management consulting.
He says, “I try to find young producers or young artists and introduce them to my network of people, like the Ludacrises, the LA Reids, the Chaka Zulus, the Jermaine Dupris — a lot of the music scene people. I don’t know if you’ve seen that new documentary ATL – The Untold Story of Atlanta’s Rise in the Rap Game, I knew maybe 80% of the people in that documentary.”
Despite that, Scott isn’t originally from the A. He tells us, “I’m originally from Washington, D.C. My music roots is live music because I’m a big fan of Chuck Brown who, sadly, just passed away. His style was go-go music which is live percussion and has a little Spanish feel to it sometimes. But when I came down South I got a taste of what they call that Southern bounce and then I went all the way to Orlando where they had that bass music. I tell you, that was another culture shock to me which I finally adapted to and which is why I got into the business.”
Then he gets serious on us. “Listen,” he says, “I realized that if you are a young entrepreneur and your business is done correctly and your paperwork is done correctly, you can be an independent rapper and sell 200,000-300,000 copies and make $200,000 or $300,000 have an honest living. That’s the truth. ”
So naturally, we asked why more young artists didn’t choose to go that route.
He says, “A lot of what I call young entrepreneurs trying to get away from the street life see that they can make honest money, but all the young guys want to be the next Jay-Z. I tell them it’s not about being the next Jay-Z. Just make sure you get your business right and then let your business take you where it goes.”