Miguel Martin, Lexington, KY's Premier Hip-Hop Host • Jukebox Culture

Meet Miguel Martin with Team Snap ENT. The company responsible for coordinating the No Limit Reunion Tour back in March (2020). J Cole’s after party at Lexington’s Art Bar and most recent upcoming event Three 6 Mafia Live in Lexington (December 11th – 7:00PM). Get to know Miguel and his growth from rapper to starting his very own promotional company in our full interview below.

Interview:

Where are you from and how was life growing up? I’m from the North Side of Lexington Kentucky. Hollow Creek is my neighborhood where I grew up. Which is a very different place than it is now. Pretty big family although I’m my Mothers only child. It’s been rough but it made me who I am and I’m happy with myself. Just wish a lot of people were still here with me to share the moments I’ve had lately

When did you start the business and what struggles did you face starting
out? I started Team SNAP Ent in 2012. I used to rap and needed a foundation. But being in Lexington makes it really hard to do things in the entertainment industry. It’s just not a market here. Now fast forward to 2019 and I got offered the Contract to do the No Limit Reunion Tour at Rupp Arena. I took the contract as the investor. But being that nobody in Lexington had any sort of legitimate promotion company I took on the roll as promoter as well. This being my first concert took a lot of learning on the job as well as knowledge and connections I had from when I used to record. And after all that I’ll just say nobody can prepare you for what comes with putting together a 5k to 10k person concert. When we announced No Limit the buzz was so crazy they made us start ticket sales a week early. Thing is No Limit did a horrible show in St Louis. I was there. I saw what happened. What happened was the promoter just didn’t know what all he needed to have in order for the show to run properly. And somehow he didn’t book a concert producer. He thought KLC could do it. KLC is a music producer. Totally different equipment. Not to mention he must’ve sold his whole hood backstage passes because it was about 50 people on stage during No Limits entire performance. It went viral saying Master P got Boo’d off stage but that wasn’t true. He played a bad joke on the crowd asking “Did I already do Bout It Bout It?”, which he hadn’t. The crowd yelled No but he said he did and walked off stage. They Boo’d super hard but he ran back and did Bout It and the crowd went nuts. That whole flight home I was telling my partner “That was bad bad. Like really bad.” The next day I woke up to it on TMZ. We went on sale and barely sold 500. Totally not what was projected by the numbers we had on announcement day. But the buzz was still strong. It was just split. We were the highest searched event in the region by at least 180k hits per month. From November 2019 to March 1st 2020. Then outta nowhere The Millennium Tour hit. And it hit hard. They had such a master full campaign it was just selling itself. They had they fiasco with Omarion and Fizz. The whole world was talking about that. Fizz was on a reality show about the whole thing. Then Omarion announced the tour as a solo act instead of the group. And out of all places and times where and when was the Launch of the tour? An hour away in Louisville Ky the day before my show. And how did I find this out? Through the promoter I hired to be my promoter. I had no idea what was goin on. My business partner called me off the hook like “Why is he promoting The Millennium Tour? Does he know what day it’s gonna be on? Get him on the phone we need a conference call” I was floored when he told us it was February 29th and here we are trying to promote our show for March 1st. It almost doubled our promo budget to try and compete. We went from flyers to buying billboards. We had a good turnout and a good show. The craziness behind the scenes that day….well I might have to write a book for that story.

Where did the inspiration come from to start a promotional business? Honestly it came from SXSW again in 2012. I was in Austin for the festival for the first time even hearing about it. My homie DJ Testarosa took me down. We got in town like 2 pm and just walked. It was so many venues and industry people just walking around I was in complete shock. I’m talking DJ Drama, who was actually walking with 2 friends of mine from Lexington Young Chu and Decypha. Lil Flip Rea Schrumon it was nuts. We planned to stay for a few days and ended up at an Rmbasy Suites. We rolled in about 3 am bout dead because mind u, we drove 14 hours and walked the entire day in Downtown Austin. And who do I bump into soon as I hit the Lobby? The Freakin Migos. I was like “Waddup Quavo”. “Waddup” he said. I’m like “Y’all just get here?” He like “Yea 12 hours from the A. You?” I’m like “Nah I been here all day but it was 14 hours for us from Ky. He like “Got damn man. That’s a ride” Test finally turned around from the check in desk and burst out “That’s Migos!!!!! Aye man let me get a drop!!!” Quavo like “Mannnn I ain’t doin no drops right now!!!” I’m like “leave that nigga alone he tired” I capped him up and we bounced. The very next morning we went back to the same blocks we walked the day before. And like Santa’s lil helpers they entire spot, I mean every venue had QC logos flyers stickers posters every fuckin where. I’ve never seen something like that in my life. Come to find out they were launching their Record Label. Quality control. If I ever meet Big Per I gotta ask him how the hell he did that. Because I wanna do it too

What kind of support do you get from your home town/state?
I get a lot of love from home from the people who know what’s going on. It’s just Lexington isn’t used to big events like this and the company I’m with is ready to just flood the market with all the biggest artists. It started with the Snoop concert for Lexington. They had such good reviews about it the artists are calling us to come to Lexington. We just have to figure out what Lexington wants and it will be a whole new world in Lexington Ky.

What artists inspire you the most and who do you currently listen to? Tupac has always been my inspiration along with Jeezy. I been vining to JBlocboy a lot lately. My dawg MPA Wicked and Dat Boy Dad. That’s some underground music there. Rick Ross has been a go to for that grown man feel when I’m working or something

Whats some of your favorite gigs you’ve pulled off? I gotta say the J Cole after party in 2012 at the Art Bar. We had the Anthony Davis class from UK Basketball Team in there too that night. J Cole a cool dude too. Just too bad nobody showed up because another unnamed bar was upset we got the contract and promoted that J Cole will be at their club not ours. The only reason they got away with it is because they put J Cole in big letters but put apostrophe dj in small letters. I must admit that was brilliant. I’ll make it up to Cole though. Promise

What’s your biggest goal for 2021? To learn as much as I can about the business the contracts the promotional resources and websites that are out there. And just bring life to my city and other cities I plan to hit in the future

If you could collaborate with one single artist who would it be and why?
The Weekend. I wanna do a concert with The Weekend. I do that and I’ve accomplished the impossible

Favorite Artists you’ve worked with? MPA Wicced. He a Diva if you let other people tell you but he knows his worth. And honestly the jobs I seen him turn down and left us hanging waiting on him to get on a plane ended up being some sort of busy anyway. He was really good at that. Salute

What advice would you give to inspiring entrepreneurs?
Just to know every success story has a hard beginning. Every path I’ve taken started out gloomy but ended up working. My motto is “All it takes is One”. You get that strong one you’ll end up with some. And especially to my street Entrepreneurs. It’s a lot more power on this side than you’ll ever see in the streets. Learn something worth knowing because that dope game is teaching you a lot of bullshit. It’s ok to be square