When Ann Arbor rap darling Mayer Hawthorne first moved to LA, he thought his hip hop producing and DJing was going to launch him into stardom. But some honest feedback made him realize that maybe his real strength was waiting in a completely different direction.Mayer used his musical agility to put out several smash hit soul records that didn’t sound like anything else at the time. He dared to disrupt his own sound and the result was magic. Breaking Schemas co-hosts Marcus Collins and John Branch sit down with Mayer to talk about his journey from hip hop to soul, why it’s important to bend to the opportunities that come your way, and staying true to your authentic voice.*Breaking Schemas is a production of the Yaffe Digital Media Initiative at Michigan Ross and is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:How can you make it in the music or entertainment business?03:15: My only advice that I usually give to anybody who asks me, like, "How can I make it in the music business or entertainment or whatever?" is, work hard and be different. 'Cause we already got Drake, and we already got Clinton, and we don't need another one. We don't need another Travis Scott. There's already a Travis Scott. So you're never going to be as good at doing Travis Scott as he is. Just do something only you can do and something that you can do better than everybody else. And that is the way to do it.The power of asking for help32:24: Find people who know more than you and learn from them. Try to just add, reach out, and say, "Hey, will you teach me how to do this?" It's hard. It's hard because, like, you don't want to admit that you don't know something. But getting over that is one of the craziest lessons in life. When you don't know something, don't just pretend like you know it. Go find someone who knows and be like, "Yo, how do you do this?"On embracing the fun14:49: Anytime we had a decision to make, like a big decision about a career thing, like a fork in the road, we always weighed the options and would always go with whatever choice was more fun. And that was a big philosophy. That we had from the very beginning and that we still embrace to this day. You know, we got offers for two different shows; it's whichever one is going to be the most fun. That's the one that we do.Show Links:Mayer Hawthorne official website

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