689. Maximizing Time for God's Purpose with ATTAM

[00:00:00] Alright people, it's another Kingdom Building Conversation. It's been a minute. Let's see,

[00:00:03] this could be Kingdom Building Conversation, Park Corling Solution, it's all of that because the

[00:00:08] brother that's with me today goes by the name of Adam, ATTAM, all capital and he's got an interest in

[00:00:14] journey, professional accomplishments, artist, and also runs the Adam Groups. We're gonna talk

[00:00:20] about all of that bro. I'm so happy to be with you. I'm glad you're here man. So

[00:00:24] let's start here brother. What is one thing you could share with my audience that even

[00:00:29] those closest to Adam don't know about you? Closest to Adam, that's hard. Even those closest to you.

[00:00:35] It would say yo, what? I would say probably that I spend a lot of my time doubting myself,

[00:00:43] which is something that yeah I don't let even my most people around me, but I do try to

[00:00:50] carry myself with confidence, but you know I do walk around sometimes with a level of trepidation.

[00:00:57] I want to attribute it to a healthy fear of the Lord, but when not managed properly,

[00:01:04] probably can delve into a bit of just self-doubt. Yeah, thanks for sharing that man. That's a

[00:01:11] good one. Well you called me off guard. I wasn't ready for that. If I knew, that's not what

[00:01:17] I was. I watched the Family Feud and that's how very Family Feud is. Yeah, a lot of my questions are

[00:01:22] that way. You know what's interesting about that? Well one, thanks for sharing that.

[00:01:26] This time is Mental Health Month and the next month is Mental Men's Mental Health Month. So

[00:01:31] one, I think that's really healthy because I think we all sometimes have that imposter syndrome

[00:01:36] right? And it can cause you to do mental gymnastics and it can cause you to just

[00:01:41] like go into not moving. I have this phrase I'll give you sometimes like,

[00:01:45] how do you come out of the laboratory of your mind? Like you test a bunch of things over and

[00:01:50] over in your mind but then you never go out and actually give it a try because of those concerns.

[00:01:55] So thanks for sharing that brother. So you drove down from New York? I did. I drove down from

[00:02:00] New York. It's really cool because where your studio is located my brother happens to live

[00:02:05] 20 minutes away, which we figured out through conversation and saw him out this way a lot.

[00:02:12] I kind of look at this area as really my getaway because when I visit my brother and I'm very

[00:02:20] fortunate that he's only a couple hours away, I feel like I'm in a very different world out here.

[00:02:24] It's beautiful. It's farmland. It's just feels very yesteryear quite frankly. So I love coming

[00:02:32] out here and now that I know you're here, I have a dual fold where you can make it out.

[00:02:36] Nice restaurants up the street. I mean some nice little areas. I love it. I love it.

[00:02:40] I'm not a golfer but I know there's some good golf right here and that's what I'll be doing with you

[00:02:44] and D'Shane. I'm horrible, man. I always say to people that if we're not on TV on Sundays,

[00:02:51] we're horrible. I play with a lot of guys who I'm better than and they think that I'm great

[00:02:58] and then I play with a lot of guys who make me look very pedestrian. But you're probably a

[00:03:01] scratch golfer. No, no, I'm not scratch but I do play with a bunch of scratch golfers

[00:03:06] and I ask them when you get to this level and they're like, dude, they have friends who are way

[00:03:12] better than them and they're friends. So there's always somebody who's better than you at whatever

[00:03:16] you think you're good at. So it is a humbling game but I have fallen in love with it the first

[00:03:22] half of my year, really almost the first 40 years of my life was all about basketball

[00:03:28] and over the last five or six years I've kind of transitioned into getting more into golf

[00:03:33] as the body's breaking down. Golf is a beautiful game. I didn't realize that decades ago,

[00:03:37] I had to do it sometimes for sale. I mean it's the best place to sell because you get someone out

[00:03:42] in 18 holes and you talk about everything. They say the best business deals are done on a golf

[00:03:46] course. No doubt about it. You come to all the business terms because you're getting a

[00:03:49] noted person. There's a level of death in the conversation. You talk with the kids,

[00:03:53] would they like to be casein' and everything and that thing you know by 15 or so,

[00:03:58] you're kind of sealing up terms or at least talking intentionally.

[00:04:02] Well I always say that when I'm around the game 24-7, one of my main jobs is a golf caddy

[00:04:08] at a really elite golf club and I've caddied for some professional and high level amateurs.

[00:04:14] I always tell people that there's not many things on the planet that bring out more

[00:04:19] of who you are than the golf course. So if you really want to get to know what somebody's

[00:04:23] like just spend four or five hours with them on the golf course because it's going to bring

[00:04:27] out all their emotion. It's going to bring out their ability to manage their emotions.

[00:04:30] Absolutely. And as it pertains to business, people like to do business with people they like.

[00:04:37] So a lot of times the reason why these business transactions or at least relationships are

[00:04:42] billed is because people aren't there happiest when they're on a golf course.

[00:04:46] So that's when relationships are forged and I'm around some of the most influential

[00:04:53] business people in the world every day with my job and I see that these guys,

[00:04:58] they don't talk business while they're out there or if they do it's very on a secondary level

[00:05:05] but you know that ultimately they're doing a lot of business together when they're outside of

[00:05:09] the golf course. That's good. Yeah, I totally agree. It's an interesting place.

[00:05:12] I never thought about this before until we had the conversation but I feel like there's a

[00:05:16] similarity to golf and music and here's what it is. Golf is one of those games for me that

[00:05:22] you hate it until you get a good shot. Like when you hear a good shot there's something about that

[00:05:27] ping and watching it and the feel, right? Whether it's a driver or a club or even just a pitch like

[00:05:35] watching the loft when you hear it. Yeah. Even cats that are in top golf like just for entertainment

[00:05:40] of course. When they get a good one it's the best feeling. It keeps you coming back and you

[00:05:44] keep going again and again and I feel like music is that same way right now because

[00:05:48] people have to flood music sometimes to get a quote on quote hit. You could define hit

[00:05:54] any way you want to. Right. But cats will do single after single and then they get one that

[00:05:59] takes hold and that gives them a lot of momentum to come back to it. Yeah. You are in an

[00:06:04] interested position as an artist and running an Adam group and starting to manage people or what

[00:06:08] not. Does that resonate with you? Yeah well and also you know the other way that I think

[00:06:14] just in your statement of saying that music and golf there's a correlation is

[00:06:19] both of them take time to become good at. Yes. So I've been playing golf very seriously now

[00:06:25] for like six years and when I first got started I got started late so I was like I want to

[00:06:32] avoid the 20 years of frustration and learn the proper technique which I did. Yeah. But then

[00:06:37] you have to go at it with tens of thousands of reps to understand how to be consistent

[00:06:43] and how to hit different shots and all these different kinds of things. It's the same thing

[00:06:46] with music. I just made a commitment two years ago. I said I'm going to make 100 songs in two years.

[00:06:51] Now that included my own music and collaborations and features. Okay. And I was able to accomplish

[00:06:57] that. I don't know it's over 100 but doesn't matter. But it's just now that I feel like I'm

[00:07:03] starting to understand what makes a good song and the proper approach because there is an

[00:07:09] equation factor to it. A lot of people get scared of the conversation about looking at

[00:07:15] the different components that make a good song and it's like well you want it to be organic and

[00:07:19] it's like of course but to me the organic nature comes from you being who you are on a record

[00:07:25] but the formula or formulaic aspect is looking at what works and what doesn't work and what

[00:07:31] resonates especially in this generation. Yeah. You and I growing up if you didn't have an

[00:07:36] album with 15 songs it would you sure change the listener. If you made a song that didn't have

[00:07:41] three verses and three hooks and a bridge theme. Yeah right. You sure changed the listener. Now you

[00:07:47] only have them for a minute and 45 seconds and if you don't capture them in the first seven

[00:07:52] to 10 seconds you lost them bro. So totally different. Repeat that. Repeat what you just

[00:07:57] said about what if you don't have it. Yeah so you need to really capture the listeners'

[00:08:01] attention in the first seven to 10 seconds or you lose them. That's why I've come to see that

[00:08:06] a beat or a sample or somebody's beautiful voice or just an incredible bar those things are great

[00:08:15] ways to start songs because if you catch them in the first seven to 10 seconds they'll listen

[00:08:20] and if it's really good they'll stick around for the whole song. That's right. But if you

[00:08:23] don't capture them in the beginning they're just going to shuffle through so. And the piece

[00:08:27] you said about the minute 45, two minutes one of the things I've seen is some have gravitated

[00:08:34] towards that some are still in that three minutes 30 seconds close to four and sometimes

[00:08:40] we'll have to tell people man the attention span it would have to be phenomenal. Yeah

[00:08:45] it has to be prolific for somebody to sit around for four minutes. I mean just think about it

[00:08:48] like if you think about podcasts right like I'm a big I love to watch podcasts right

[00:08:53] and for me it's like if I really come across something that I'm into and I have a block of time

[00:09:01] I'll watch a 40 minute podcast but at the end of the day I really like watching the one and a half

[00:09:06] minute three minute clips that just kind of are pulled from it and if I like what I saw then

[00:09:11] I'll go to the next one or whatever. So I think that you know everything has changed less

[00:09:16] is more and we live in a day and age where everything is fast food you know I'm a healthy

[00:09:20] eater so I don't eat fast food but that whole concept of you know people want to just get what

[00:09:26] they got to get and move on because life is fast moving. Fast moving man and so um so man you

[00:09:32] committed to a hundred songs over two years yeah I know you did 60 piece. I did 60 piece in the

[00:09:38] first you know 14 months yeah simultaneously while that was happening I made two nine song albums

[00:09:44] that I'm in the process of rolling out and I did about 40 features. Wow. Yeah and people say like

[00:09:52] you know Adam you know it was brilliant how you just went and your work ethic is crazy and

[00:09:56] you know you made all these like connections and ultimately that's what I'm about I'm a

[00:10:00] relationship guy so I'm all things to all mankind I took that name because I love people

[00:10:05] but a lot of it had to do with necessity because I was getting started really late you know

[00:10:10] I'm not bashful about saying that I just turned 45 and I got started in music making I've been

[00:10:18] rapping since I was five years old so I've been rapping for 40 years yeah but in terms of song

[00:10:24] making I got started really late so I committed to a hundred songs in two years so that I could

[00:10:30] kind of recapture some time lost right exactly you got saved around 06 I got saved in 06 yeah

[00:10:36] I was working in television at the time and I was living in Denver my career brought me to Denver

[00:10:42] I had been raised in a Christian home but by the time I got to my teens I kind of just

[00:10:46] wavered away and then by the time I was in my 20s I really didn't have anything to do with the Lord

[00:10:51] then I was just living a reckless lifestyle very fast lifestyle I was making a lot of money

[00:10:56] living very fast and just really had everything that I had poured myself into for 10 years to

[00:11:02] attain and just felt really empty and so my mom had given me a bible for graduating college in 2001

[00:11:11] so it was almost six years later and it was still in the cellophane and for whatever reason

[00:11:15] the conviction I brought it with me to Denver and it was sitting and I finally ripped off the

[00:11:20] cellophane six years later and started reading and never looked back so wow wow you know that

[00:11:26] the idea of man 100 songs I'm still processing that 100 songs in two years but the story behind it

[00:11:32] I think is notable right trying to catch up build your catalog and really make up to a certain

[00:11:38] extent I guess a lost time right right like I found a lord I found where I want to be

[00:11:42] you were a basketball prolific player as well right I mean growing up in the household your

[00:11:47] dad understand was a coach yeah well known in the space how was the transition from sports

[00:11:53] maybe even going professional sports to what you're doing now yeah so I was born my dad was a division

[00:11:59] two college coach when I was born so I had a basketball in my hand before I could walk

[00:12:04] and that was everything to me um yeah I grew up watching like pistol Pete movie and yeah like just

[00:12:09] dribbled everywhere I went um and uh what happened was is you know I was always drawing the

[00:12:16] basketball but I was also always drawing the hip hop I remember the first thing I heard

[00:12:21] I think ever hip hop wise was you got a fight for your rights a party by the voice and I was in

[00:12:28] second grade I was I was I think I was cut in class quite frankly I was in the bathroom and my buddy

[00:12:32] played it for me and it felt very sinful at the time you know but I something grabbed me and then

[00:12:38] it transitioned into like LL Cool J mama said knock you out and um and I just started rapping

[00:12:45] and so I think that the two of them have always been married sports and hip hop right I mean

[00:12:50] you see it on tv now and that was just those were my two main passions was basketball and hip hop

[00:12:56] I grew up in an area that was extremely multi racial and ethnic so I was around all different

[00:13:01] cultures and because I was a prolific basketball player you know I was playing for you know teams

[00:13:08] you know in different areas and in the city and stuff so I was around predominantly black

[00:13:13] and Spanish people most of the time and so that influenced me as well and so yeah I don't think

[00:13:18] that there was ever a transition that needed to happen they've been so parallel in my life and

[00:13:23] I just feel blessed and want to encourage the listeners that if God puts passions in your heart

[00:13:28] from young that have never left even if you've drifted away from them yeah um but they're

[00:13:33] still there it's probably because he ingrained it in you to use it in some form or fashion

[00:13:38] yeah that's good so so talk about so so as an artist you are man you you're investing a lot of

[00:13:44] time in energy getting 100 songs over two years is a lot uh because writing them's one thing if you

[00:13:50] were writing them addition them off and selling them to other artists that'd be another thing

[00:13:52] but then you're performing them recording them producing them a and r-ing them if that's a verb

[00:13:58] I'm just made the verb a and r number I've noticed some of your a and r credits and you know

[00:14:03] you're involved in every stage of the process and then on top of that you launched

[00:14:08] adam group well one even before we go to adam group tell me what adam stands for yeah so adam

[00:14:13] comes from all things to all mankind from first Corinthians 9 22 I've become all things to all

[00:14:18] mankind so that by any means necessary I might save some save some and you know that it was

[00:14:23] crazy I was I had been going by B. Jensen my name is Brian Jensen I've been going by B. Jensen

[00:14:29] for a decade I just felt like I had signed a 12-year recording contract that you know I finally was

[00:14:35] out of and I just felt like it was time to reinvent and I was reading that passage and

[00:14:41] and the letters ATTM jumped out at me and and I knew that was the Lord saying this is the name

[00:14:47] because I've always been that type of person that you know I get on with everybody and

[00:14:53] so yeah I just took it and kind of ran with it and so that that's where the name is derived from

[00:15:01] and yeah so what happened was is you know first of all I only sleep two or three hours a night for

[00:15:06] the last 25 years so I'm operating 21 to 22 hours a day every day for 25 years so you know

[00:15:14] I'm able to manage the different you know my jobs and businesses and stuff and you know the

[00:15:20] music thing is just something that I'm passionate about so and what's cool about it is you know

[00:15:26] if you're an architect right you have to sit in front of a computer an architect or whatever

[00:15:31] with music you could throw a beat on and just start developing so what happened was is I kind of

[00:15:36] you know deviated away from sitting down and writing lyrics and what I would do is I would

[00:15:41] just put on beats and and rap and and just remember things that I would say that I was

[00:15:46] like oh that's kind of fire that's whatever and maybe take a couple notes down and then once I

[00:15:51] would get to the studio just you know knock out a few records gotcha you know so that was kind of

[00:15:56] the process of gotcha getting it done as dope as dope um before we talk adam group because that's

[00:16:02] going to get a little serious let me let me do something a little less serious um and one of

[00:16:05] the things when I first connected with you uh I think through paradox correct yeah and then we

[00:16:10] saw each other at the New York um Flavor Fest stop right yeah very fast right yeah yeah I love that

[00:16:16] set you did what uh you guys did with DJ Tony tone right um I'm going to ask you some questions that

[00:16:21] are much less serious I call us a lightning rent okay I try to go through about 15 questions

[00:16:26] okay in less than two minutes well I do wordle every day to work and I get and me and my fiance

[00:16:32] we we we battle and we set the timer so I'm ready you ready I'm as ready as I lighten

[00:16:37] around so right here with a lightning strike all right so um if you want two million dollars what

[00:16:42] would you buy what would I buy uh I would definitely buy a home um probably a home in New York and

[00:16:48] Florida and then I would buy a uh Ben sprinter to convert for a tour because I'm terrified I'm not

[00:16:56] terrified to fly but I'm terrified to fly moving forward for a myriad of reasons got you so I'd

[00:17:01] probably buy a sprinter and gut it out for a tour and then um you know I would uh I'd probably

[00:17:07] put together a competition um and I try to find five kids that would never have a chance to go to

[00:17:13] college and put them in through college um but they'd have to run through me which college because

[00:17:19] there's some universities they're out of control right now um I think that's where I'd start okay

[00:17:23] cool what would you where would you go if you were invisible if I was invisible um I would

[00:17:28] probably go to um I'd probably go to the masters okay fill the blank when I dance I look like

[00:17:37] I look like a white boy that has rhythm but knows his limits I mean knows his limits okay uh

[00:17:45] what is your lifelong dream in two words lifelong dream um it's honor god mm good what celebrity

[00:17:52] annoys you the most annoys me um boy that's tough um I'm gonna say uh uh lighting round uh

[00:18:03] I'm gonna pass that only because I might come back to home you wonder I understand what is the most

[00:18:07] interesting thing you have in your wallet um if you have a wallet yeah I would say that I keep

[00:18:13] summer seats that are a year past expiration and I have no need for them right favorite cj artist

[00:18:21] say lie the corner and co-camel if a movie was made about your life would jammer would it be

[00:18:27] um I would say it would be a plot twisting mystery who would play you um I would want uh

[00:18:38] I think we'll say Ryan Gosling because a lot of people tell me that Ryan Gosling

[00:18:44] he's infinitely better looking than me so I can see that what word would you add to the dictionary

[00:18:49] if you could I even know yeah pass what's your most useless talent do you have do you have children

[00:18:54] by the way I do not I have two steps on soon okay yeah so uh what do you think so far your step

[00:19:00] sons would say he is worthless at technology technology got it the last time you cry what pushed

[00:19:06] you there um typically the only time I cry is when I see something emotionally beautiful somebody

[00:19:14] doing something nice for somebody you know somebody sacrificing for another person I love that favorite

[00:19:20] movie favorite movie uh if we're talking you know uh comedy it's going to be dumb and dumber

[00:19:27] if we're talking about um I'll just go with dumb and dumb and dumber uh greatest achievement

[00:19:34] I would say my greatest achievement is twofold uh being salutatorian in my college

[00:19:40] and playing for the Riverside Church Hawks in Harlem in 97 the best AU team in the country that's

[00:19:46] good greatest failure slash greatest learning um I would say uh I failed in many ways I think my

[00:19:55] greatest achievement has come from now which is you know I just keep pick myself up and keep going

[00:20:00] that's good that's good sure you hate doing sure I hate doing um I would say I hate to have to

[00:20:10] do the dishes although I do them every day no if last one if you were superhero what would your

[00:20:15] powers be um my power would be to um I think give every person an opportunity to chase their dream

[00:20:27] good segue actually so so now with that segue uh tell them about the atom group what are you

[00:20:31] doing with the atom yeah so the atom group is just a corporation I started a couple years ago

[00:20:37] my goal was always to use the artistry as a springboard to get into things like managing other

[00:20:45] artists um to you know launch podcasts uh to um A&R projects ghosts right all these different things

[00:20:54] that you know what yeah I can't I don't want to be one of these guys that's 65 and still wrapping

[00:20:59] right um but I feel like um you know 25 years in business I've developed some acumen and

[00:21:06] I've been pretty creative so yeah the atom group was you know created so that I can kind of be my

[00:21:12] own Schrodinger horse to then sign artists and A&R projects which I've started to do over the last

[00:21:18] year yeah that's good that's good and I know you uh you've been hosting events as well I have

[00:21:23] so I started with uh something I called Kingdom Rising in May of 22 um planted a seed right in

[00:21:30] Rockland County where I'm from in New York and then I did Kingdom Rising 2 in the Bronx last

[00:21:35] January and it was really cool 619 people came out to that and a lot of people just

[00:21:42] really had a great time and a lot of incredible testimonies were birthed yeah

[00:21:46] then I did the vision in Brooklyn a couple months later um and so I kind of look at it like

[00:21:52] Kingdom Rising is my brand I'm going to take all over the country and hopefully the globe

[00:21:56] the vision is something I'm going to keep catered towards the tri-state area of New York New Jersey

[00:22:00] in Connecticut um so I have the vision the second one in New York City coming up on May 4

[00:22:05] and I'm about to announce which I'm announcing right now Kingdom Rising um Philly that's

[00:22:11] dope that's dope so all right man well tell people how they stay in contact with you follow

[00:22:16] what you're doing as an artist follow what you're doing with atom group and managing

[00:22:20] and event promoting yep so um on Instagram I'm Adam official so ATTAM

[00:22:27] OFFICIL Adam official um I have a bunch of you know really high quality music videos on YouTube

[00:22:36] if you look at my page uh that as Adam and uh I'm going to be launching a new website

[00:22:43] my fiance is building a really high level uh website that's going to have access to everything

[00:22:49] all things ATTAM and the ATTAM group um launching in the next month or so so that's the uh the best

[00:22:54] ways to reach me I'm not going to give out my phone number Verizon told me I'd send and receive 45,000

[00:23:00] text messages a month already so yeah so I need to I need to scale that back you just

[00:23:05] scale that back yeah thanks for stopping by I love it you're a gentleman and I'm so glad that

[00:23:10] you know we've connected and I just want to salute you for the efforts that you've done to

[00:23:16] push Christ through hip hop you know it's a it's a movement that's been started and I think that

[00:23:23] in my opinion the way that it's going to go to the next level is for you know collaboratively

[00:23:29] and also individually everybody to go to that next level of excellence and I think that's one

[00:23:34] thing that holy culture has really done is kind of put themselves at the forefront in terms of

[00:23:40] excellence thank you right footing um you know everybody who works for the platform I've gotten

[00:23:45] to know a few of them just top shelf people av and barred ox and so on and so forth um and even

[00:23:51] just seeing your new studio like it's just beautifully done so I just want to pray a blessing over um

[00:23:58] you know your life your family and and the platform that you built up yeah thank you brother

[00:24:02] that means a lot so thank you all right y'all till next time it's king to build a conversation

[00:24:06] right here holy culture peace