We had the good fortune of connecting with Douglas Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Douglas, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It all started when my Producer Renzy808 sent me a song that he and another partner, SnapKooln, recorded called “Like Right Now”. I thought it was a great song and could be the start of something big. I went ahead and decided to start our music label Got Ta Know Enterprizes LLC to legitimize what we were doing. My thought was that by having an actual label to promote my artists and our music would allow us to go much further then just being some guys off the street trying to push random music.
Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Got Ta Know (GTK) Enterprizes, LLC is a record label & production company founded by Vincent Maddox (@SnapKooln), )Spencer Lorenzo Fountain (@Renzy808), and Douglas Young (@ydoug02). Our mission is to set the precedence when it comes to industry standards pertaining to music, discovering and developing top talent, and creating leading songs and beat production.
Being a small independent label has a lot of challenges as we have a much smaller budget then the major labels and we have to work infinitely harder to get our music and videos out to the masses due to limited resources. Despite these limitations I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to expand our business and we built our own studio, FlyHi 808 Studio, in Marietta, Georgia. We have been able to leverage our created relationships and turn them into huge opportunities such as getting a Publishing deal with Sony ATV Songs and Sync placements on shows such as The Chi, Force, Step Up, and All The Queen’s Men.
We have also done features and collaborations with Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Yellow Beezy, Dun Deal, YungLan, and many more.
Despite being 7 years in, we still have a long way to go, but I definitely believe that we are in a great position to be successful and become a key player in this industry.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
With me being located in the Maryland and Washington DC area the first place I’d take someone from out of town is to downtown DC so that they can see the White House, State Capital, and the Monuments. We’d then have to get some Maryland Crab Cakes and then check out both the Maryland and Baltimore Harbors.
If we’re in Atlanta I’d have to take them to our studio which is locate down the street from the Atlanta Braves Stadium. We’d do some sight seeing in downtown Atlanta, and then get some good down south Soul food at a few secret locations!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
A huge shoutout goes out to my team; Renzy808, SnapKooln, YSN Hazel, Cutty Kev, PaoloATL and my wife Crystal Young who has been extremely supportive and patient with the process, late nights, late night phone calls, and last minute travel and company! Our friends and family that have helped promote us through out the years whether it was attending random shows or downloading our music and sharing publicly while in the car or on social media. Our attorney Mr. Robert Roundtree for all the help with getting the registration, paperwork, and contracts reviewed and on point.
Website: https://gtkenterprizes.com
Instagram: @gtk_enterprizes
Twitter: @gtk_enterprizes
Facebook: https://facebook.com/GTK_Enterprizes
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GTKEnterprizesLLC
Other: TikTok — @gtk_enterprizes
Image Credits
Shania Phillips aka Cole @_shotbycole