How a Rapper’s Viral Tweet Turned Him to a Conservative Icon — The Zuby Interview

How do you build a music career without a record label? I sat down with Zuby, the British Nigerian rapper, author and podcaster who reached number 12 on the iTunes hip hop chart and grew to over 2 million followers on his own.

Zuby tells me how he wrote his first verse on an airport layover, sold his first 50 CDs in a week at Oxford, and stood in Leicester Square for 10 minutes before he dared talk to a stranger. That street hustle sold over 3,000 copies of his first album. He also shares why he quit his consulting job in 2011, why it took eight years to out-earn his old salary, and why he won't start anything he can't commit to for 10 years.

His advice for anyone starting today: treat yourself like a media company, use your music as marketing, and stop worrying about what strangers think.