Episode 380 - Tedashii: Billboard Christian Rapper Turned Entrepreneur

**Tedashii** (0:00)
There's so much pressure on arriving to the thing you're running to, to help you battle the demons that you're running from. And now because I'm running for something, getting to the thing I'm running to, it's no pressure on it anymore. I just get excited, like, did we get there yet? No, we'll get there, and I just keep going.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:19)
Bold visionaries, faithful disruptors. Some call them crazy, but they are called to create. Under his power, for his glory, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast.
Billboard charting Christian hip hop artist and entrepreneur Tadashi shares how he evolved from missionary minded musician to intentional entrepreneur.

**Justin Forman** (0:41)
So one of the things we love talking about on the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast . This idea of entrepreneurship, I love it how Lecrae says it. He says, man, it's a funny word, but it's all around. It's in everything we do. And I think so often times at church, like we have this like narrow lens of like, oh, it must be the Silicon Valley tech, this, that, whatever, venture, blah, blah, blah. But we missed the fact of how prevalent entrepreneurship is. And when I think about music, like, it feels like it's one of those things that starts as art, it moves into entrepreneurship.
Are you artists? Are you entrepreneur? Where are you today and where did you start?

**Tedashii** (1:26)
It's really good, bro.
So I would say today I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah, I think when I first started, I was definitely more of a missionary. And I saw it that way because of where I was in my faith walk. And I really felt called to take the language of the day or a language of a culture. Hip hop is its own language in a lot of ways. And I wanted to take that language, learn it, involve myself in it, inundate myself by it or with it, and jump into the culture and start speaking the truth of Jesus. And I found myself over time because of the desire to grow, to reach more, to spread, to provide. I saw things needing to shift into more of an entrepreneurial space. Before, it was more of like a donor-based model of if you book me and bring me in, thanks, and whatever you're willing to give works.
But you start to realize, I like to say, I decided to learn how to meet the needs of people, and that made me an entrepreneur. And so, I just wanted to meet the needs of the people around me. I was like, okay, I need to provide for my family, but I also want to do something that lasts, that leaves a lasting impact, but that lasts beyond who I am. And it took capital. It took people putting me with certain programs and systems that needed money to get funded. But in addition to that, it's hard to grow when everyone is looking at it as kind of like a pastime or a hobby. And entrepreneurship is anything but a hobby. And so I found myself having to get out of those circles and get into other circles that made more sense to say, I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I'm going to grow this thing and meet the needs of others, but also find a way to do it where I can share the truth of what I believe.

**Justin Forman** (3:25)
So when you think about music, let's camp there for a little bit before we come back to it. Like when you talk about music and messaging, sometimes there's like two tracks.

**Tedashii** (3:36)
Yeah.

**Justin Forman** (3:36)
There's like, yeah, that sounds good. And then when somebody stops for a moment and they say, oh, the words, those are deep.

**Tedashii** (3:44)
Yeah.

**Justin Forman** (3:45)
Just tell us about the beauty of that. You're kind of mixing the track of something that feels good, sounds good.

**Tedashii** (3:51)
Yeah.

**Justin Forman** (3:51)
But there's such depth.

**Tedashii** (3:52)
Yes.
So I'll speak to that from a musical side and then from a faith side. But from a musical sense, musicality to me is a two-way highway. It's not just the dissemination of sound or information, but it is the receiving of and response to what you heard or what you received. So when I go do a show or when someone puts on a song and they hear it, their response is their interaction and two-way highway engagement of who I am as a creative and what the music is overall. That has been one of the most amazing moments of my life. Every time I see the relationship happening, it gives me life.
I also do know music is its own language in a lot of ways. And so if you can tap into the right sentiment for someone's life, it becomes the soundtrack. It becomes the way they can explain what they feel. It becomes the point in time for them that they hold on to, that goes with the moment they were in. So it becomes its own language and I've fallen in love with that.