During his lunch break at work earlier this year, Miami native Gregory Owens checked his Instagram and saw a direct message from a well-known music executive. After five years of sacrifice and hard work as an ambitious rapper, Owens was unsettled.
“I said, ‘Would you like to stop this time?’,” Owens, 36, told the Miami Herald.
After spending 15 years with HR and recruiting at Corporate America, Owens has used his creative passion during the pandemic to record dozens of songs under the name King Tetrus and upload them to streaming services such as SoundCloud and Spotify. As an independent musician with no industry connections, Owens said he spent $28,000 a year promoting on Spotify and Instagram before landing his first major break.
“I couldn’t imagine doing this without an income (from my job),” he said.
He still works as a HR expert, but when he signed a partnership agreement with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Distribution in March, Owens began to be rewarded with bets on himself. Owens hopes that the deal will help his music reach new audiences.
“The market is much more saturated than ever because of the low barriers to entry,” Owens told the Herald.
Owens grew up in Miami’s Morningside area. His beloved hip-hop music by artists like Nasu often sampled the soulful artists his family had drawn to, like James Brown. During his time at Christopher Columbus High School, Owens maintained a New York rapper like diplomats and G-units with a skip-proof CD player.
After graduating in 2006, Owens attended Florida State University, played tennis, studied political science and economics, and then began his career in talent acquisition and human resources.
When the pandemic began in 2020, Owens just went through a breakup, suddenly finding himself 24 hours a day. To lift his spirit, his mom sent him a vinyl record – and when he heard James Brown’s “please, please, please,” his mind immediately went to work.
In the song, Brown talks about his broken heart and pleads with a love interest to return to his life. The song encouraged Owens to try hard to record music that he hadn’t done since his 20s. Using a sample of James Brown’s song, Owens writes, “Please Please.”
“In my year on this planet, it taught me a lot, frankly, as if I were and I wasn’t,” Owens raps with “Please, Please.”
In 2021 he nodded to his childhood nickname and began going to King Tetras, a reference to the 1980s Nintendo puzzle game Tetris. When many of his friends were starting a family, Owens recorded dozens of tracks, uploaded his music to streaming platforms, and focused on performing at local venues such as the Beard Brewery in Lincoln. Playing in front of a small crowd, consisting solely of family and friends, was common to Owens, but was well balanced by listening to his music on local radio stations like 103.5 The Beat.
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Hoping to find more listeners, he began spending around $500 a month promoting ads on various music and social media platforms. This made me realize that music was being streamed, tracking analytics and target markets in Atlanta and New York City and more.
In 2022, Owens collaborated with Cash rapper for the song “Black Boy Joy” and began working with Cash’s manager Mani Fuentes in 2023.
Owens estimates that he and Fuentes are currently spending $28,000 a year on digital advertising. Over time, Spotify’s King Tetras monthly listeners increased from just 55 to 13,000 to 15,000.
Earlier this year, Rel Carter, an A&R rep who brings new talent to Jay-Z’s ne and Roc Nation, contacted Owens on Instagram after becoming accustomed to music online. Owens and Carter made plans to meet up at the ROC National office in New York City shortly afterwards.
Owens said he learned how to make reservations in a high-stakes environment as he worked in corporate America for many years, and he and Fuentes agreed to visit to establish a relationship with Carter. During the meeting, Carter said he enjoyed Owens’ music, and Owens secured a contract with ROC Nation Distribution, the distribution unit of Jay-Z’s record label and management company. Owens learns that he has been on Carter’s radar for a while.
“One of the first things they said was, “We’ve been watching you for a year to see if you drop the ball and see if you don’t keep going,” Owens said. Luckily for Owens, he proved consistent delivery.
Fuentes, 47, initially surprised by Lock Nation’s interest, but said he knew it was well suited for his close work with Owens.
“Our motto is to keep working,” Fuentes said. “…I knew we were at the bottom of the totem pole, but we were at the totem pole.”
With support from Roc Nation, Owens receives support in music marketing and building a brand as a musician. From their perspective, Owens had already accumulated data and metrics as an independent artist, something like an analysis of his audience’s demographics – talking about the level of investment he had in his music career.
Even if the recent single of Roc Nation’s first single, “Feel Good,” is released, Owens is still exploring the best way to sell his music. At this stage of his career, he is focused on finding ways to connect with the audience he has built.
Owens finds his brand is now more reliable with potential collaborators and businesses backed by Roc Nation. He still does his job, but he’s approached ever to focus on music full-time.
“I was the least talented of my life,” he said. “I’m 5’8” (Nike) Air Force. I’m going to catch you and pass you.
