Drusky's Death to Tricks, Khalifa's Birth to Fame

We all know that the entertainment industry is cut throat but Brian Drusky, CEO of Drusky Entertainment, deals in this harsh environment every day, on numerous levels. Drusky Entertainment is a full service entertainment company specializing in show production. They offer every service required to host a show including, but not limited to, booking, advertising, technical/production and settlement. Due to the fact that they offer such a wide variety of services Mr. Drusky has more business-to-business transactions than most entertainment companies. I recently interviewed Mr. Drusky to learn about some of the dirty tricks he experiences when dealing with agencies and other production companies.

I listed seventeen commonly used dirty tricks and asked Mr. Drusky to elaborate on the ones which he felt are most commonly used in the industry. The seventeen tactics presented during the interview were: phony facts, higher authority, add-ons, personal attacks, good guy / bad guy, intimidation, lock-in tactics, take it or leave it, high ball / low ball, bogey, chicken, exaggerated assertions, threats, scoundrel, scrambled eggs, foot in the door, and deadlines. Mr. Drusky immediately leaned towards two of these devious methods, intimidation and take it or leave it. Mr. Drusky said that when dealing with many individuals in the industry some sort of intimidation factor becomes present. Mr. Drusky explained this by stating that when you operate in such a saturated industry you have to be confident in your work if you are going to properly sell your skills. It just so happens that many individuals feel like one of the best ways of doing so is by trying to intimidate you, yet in reality they are simply boosting their own self-confidence. Mr. Drusky said there are several ways to handle an individual who is trying to intimate you. One way that he believes is the best, when dealing with a potential client, is to simply play into his or her attitude. In other words you let them boost their ego because at the end of the day they will enjoy your presence because you make them feel better about themselves.

According to Mr. Drusky another commonly used ploy in the entertainment industry is the take it or leave it attitude. Mr. Drusky claims that he runs into this situation daily when dealing with the agents representing the artists he uses to produce a show. For example, many agents will shoot a price to Mr. Drusky and instead of leaving room for negotiation they simply say they have flat rate and he can take it or walk away. Essentially, they are saying that they have the power to leave you in the dust and go with another production team. Mr. Drusky said that this situation is very hard to gauge and can be a deal breaker if not handled appropriately. He claimed that the most beneficial way to handle this is to play hardball with the agent to create your own buying power. For example, if an agent is telling you to take the price or walk away inform the agent that you will walk away and that you have another artist willing to perform at the rate you want. If the agent refuses to negotiate then at that point it is his loss because his client loses on a great opportunity. Mr. Drusky said that if it gets to that point and the agent walks away it is likely that the artist will hear about the situation and if he, she or they feel as if it was a lost opportunity you will be contacted again by the agent. The only difference is that the next time you will be the one holding the dice.

I want to thank Mr. Drusky for his time and informative words of wisdom. Of course, I cannot leave my readers without presenting the jam of the week so I bring you the hottest song I have heard in a while, Wiz Khalifa featuring Too Short – On My Level. We all know that Black and Yellow brought this superstar from nothing to OMG status but somehow the young rapper continues to please our ears with some delicious ear candy. His second single Roll Up is another song I recommend all my viewers download so I have posted the song below. Another note, don’t forget to grab Wiz’s Atlantic Records debut album Rolling Papers on March 29th! Stay fresh my friends. Dj Dolph



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