By: Dillon White

Just two weeks ago, Mitchell Bailey was feeling disappointed.

An exciting opportunity for the 19-year-old rapper to record an album in Atlanta unexpectedly fell through and it forced him to reconsider his next steps.

“They were just telling me all this stuff that I could be,” Bailey said. “Then they completely went ghost out of nowhere. I was so  depressed because I thought ‘Oh my god,  what is going to happen’?”

But for Bailey, good news was just around the corner. On Thursday, the Glace Bay native signed a distribution partnership with Forbes Music Entertainment based out of New York City.

“This came at the perfect time,” Bailey said. “Now I have a machine to pump my music into and put it in the faces of  media, bigger audiences, targeted demographics and stuff like that”

When he first got the phone call, he thought it was a scam.

“You look at your phone and you're used to seeing calls from Halifax, then you look at it and it says New York,” Bailey said. “We probably spoke for two hours the first time”

Forbes Music Entertainment marketing director D’Ron Forbes was thrilled by partnering with the Nova Scotian emcee.

“At our company, we're very focused on talent,” said Forbes. “We really felt like Mitchell had it. He has that something that a lot of artists don't have.”

The distribution deal lasts for six months and gives Bailey more freedom than a traditional record deal. His own label, Buds Entertainment, still remains independent from Forbes Music Entertainment (which is unrelated to the publication of the same name).

As opposed to a record deal, the distribution deal allows Bailey to keep control of his music and remain independent while receiving help with distribution.

“It's a distribution deal that acts more as a partnership,” D’Ron Forbes said. “Mitchell still has full control of his brand and his company. So with this particular deal, he gets to monetize his brand with the ability to walk away whenever he chooses.”

Forbes says recording deals in the music industry often leave the artist in a poor situation. That prompted the company to offer Bailey the same advantages that come from signing with a major label, but without the baggage.

For Bailey, remaining independent was important.

“People might think I signed and I’m selling out or something like that,” Bailey said. “ But it's cool because  I didn't sign away any rights. It's all me. I'm all independent. It's a partnership and we’ll both benefit from what we do”

A Brand New Audience

  An excerpt from the 10-minute documentary, Watch Out, released in 2016.

The deal offers Bailey an opportunity to reach a whole new audience. Forbes says the company’s partnerships and potential to expand his reach by millions will help take Bailey’s career to the next level.

“Right now our goal is to introduce him to the masses,” Forbes said. “Overall growth is is the biggest concern...we do think Mitchell has the kind of talent that his career can progress [to get six or seven figure streaming numbers]”

Bailey’s goal for the past several years has been to find success on a global scale and he thinks the partnership with Forbes can help with that.

“You can only go so far being in one place,” Bailey said. “Putting me in a position where influencers like radio DJs have a better chance of hearing me—it could snowball”

Over the past year,  Bailey has released three singles which have found the ears of hip-hop fans from around the globe. In August, he released Hollywood, followed by Want It All in December, and the soulful Yesterday just a few weeks ago.

Up to this point, Bailey has been doing most of the marketing and distribution for his music himself. He says handing that off to Forbes is a huge relief.

“I want to be involved in every decision but I literally don't want to write any more press releases,” Bailey said. “I love writing—that's my whole purpose—but I always wanted somebody to be a mentor. Especially around here, because the actual music industry that you make money from is totally separate from east coast thing that's its own community”

Straight Outta Cape Breton

 An excerpt from the 10-minute documentary, Watch Out, released in 2016.

“There's a lot of people that have been very successful with their careers here but I think I just want more than that” he said. “It's cool to have someone that has worked with a lot of credible artists and knows what the industry is like in the United States ”

Despite the lofty goals for global reach, Bailey has no plans to forget his Cape Breton roots.

“I want to pave a guideline that people from Cape Breton can follow,” Bailey said. “I feel like people wouldn't want to do certain things because it's too out of the box for where they're from. They just don't think it'll work  but I know it can”

If Bailey becomes an established global rapper, he plans on giving back to the Cape Breton community. He cited Drake as an example of what he’d want to do, with the OVO festival in Toronto and developing younger artists from “The 6”.

Excited For The Future

  An excerpt from the 10-minute documentary, Watch Out, released in 2016.

While many would be sceptical of achieving such goals, Forbes says they are realistic for Bailey. 

“He's coming to us as somebody that people already listen to. We're just hoping to get people listening to him more,” Forbes said.  “We have a goal—Drake did 10 billion [on Spotify]— Mitchell is starting at 19 years old and I think he can do 20”

While he hopes people will learn to love Bailey’s music, he says the true sign of success is when people hate it.

“Let's just get out here and make them hate us,” Forbes said. “Let's make them hate our guts. It's one thing to make them love you, it's another to make them hate you. That only means they love you very, very much”

Both Bailey and Forbes are hoping the partnership extends past the original six-month contract.

“I don't want this to be a thing that ends in six months and I don't think it will be,” said Bailey. “They're a relatively new company too so you know if we see the success that we're going to see, it's going to be just the beginning of a long relationship”

Bailey opens for Neon Dreams April 15th at the Highland Arts Theatre in Sydney, NS.