Episode 7 - Sarah Dope

Ashanti Adullah (00:01.498)
Sarah dope, what's going on?

Sarah Dope (00:04.662)
It's me in here in digital space.

Ashanti Adullah (00:09.754)
Exactly. I can't say that it's been a long time since we've talked because we literally talked yesterday and we talk often, but it's been a long time since we've seen each other.

Sarah Dope (00:19.464)
Very long, too long.

Sarah Dope (00:26.119)
Yeah, I mean you're here all of the time. I feel like You don't hit you know you don't hit your girl up. You don't call you don't write

Ashanti Adullah (00:28.596)
But I had to, it was my mom's birthday. So I was like on the fam, all about the fam last week. But anyways, full disclosure, Sarah and I have worked together. We worked together at Rhyme Sayers. We worked together at Soundset. Sarah's a really good friend of mine. I'm super excited to have her on just because as we talk about all these different

Sarah Dope (00:40.066)
Yeah, I guess that's an excuse.

Ashanti Adullah (00:58.868)
different things we do in the music industry. She's got a very particular point of view and excited to have you. So, I mean, let's just jump in. What do you do?

Sarah Dope (01:10.958)
This is a tough question to answer because I do a lot of different things. I always have. And even now, you know, I have like the corporate side of me, I have the gig side of me, and even the corporate side of me alone is technically probably four different job descriptions. I think the simplest...

Ashanti Adullah (01:19.858)
This is true. This is true.

Sarah Dope (01:39.252)
Way to describe it is I am a talent manager, but also work in strategy.

Ashanti Adullah (01:44.436)
guys.

Ashanti Adullah (01:48.616)
That's what I'm talking about. What do you so you what did you like? How did you get started? We've actually never even had this discussion. I mean, obviously, I know about all the different people you've worked with and some hilarious stories about that. we like how did you get started in this world? Because you came from Missouri, right? Midwest represent.

Sarah Dope (01:53.655)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (02:03.102)
I, yes, and I'm, I'm, I'm about to age myself here. back, you know, back in my day and your day too. All right. I started off as like a street team kid when street marketing was the thing and the internet barely existed. I mean, even in my early days, like it wasn't really a thing. and.

Ashanti Adullah (02:24.979)
Okay.

Sarah Dope (02:32.108)
Street marketing and being a part of these street teams that labels were putting together was like the thing to do. Right. And so I was like a Missouri representative for a handful of labels. And, and, you know, for me as like a fan of these bands, it meant like, I got free tickets to shows and I got maybe some cool swag here and there as long as I did. You know, I was, I was that person that was like passing out like demo CDs and demo tapes, like cassette tapes.

Ashanti Adullah (02:40.862)
Yeah, totally.

Ashanti Adullah (02:59.433)
Got you.

Sarah Dope (03:02.158)
and then from there, just, in a way, I kind of like lucked out where I would just start kind of keeping these relationships. I would meet the bands. would stay in contact with the labels. and then whenever I decided that, like, I actually really like photography and I want to kind of go down this concert photography path, like I had enough people that trusted me. And I was like, yeah, like if you want to get some practice in, like here you go, photo pass for anything.

and then from there, like, you know, long story short, it was just like a domino effect of whatever I was interested in. had like, kept building these relationships over the years that people were willing to help me out. Like, okay, I'm now interested social media and the internet is becoming a thing. And, know, I'm interested on maybe going down that path or even, you know, I had. At one point I had a career in like layout design, cause I had taught myself Photoshop and was kind of like doing different graphics and stuff. And it eventually worked out for me where it like.

At one point, was one of my jobs at Warner Brothers Records was redesigning everything for their street marketing department. But because at that time, the internet was becoming more of a thing. I was also redesigning newsletters and digital street teams, or E -teams as we called them back in the day.

Ashanti Adullah (04:05.428)
nice.

Ashanti Adullah (04:22.302)
The good old newsletter, boy, boy, boy. Didn't we just used to love the newsletter? Remember that thing? I hated that thing. It's funny, newsletters are still like, I don't think people realize they're literally still like print money if like done correctly. It's a,

Sarah Dope (04:29.306)
yes. yes. Ugh.

Yeah, they're so important. Yeah.

Yes, they are. Yes, they are still important. you know, but I was that person like, how can we make this look pretty, like look visually pleasing that people aren't going to just immediately hit that delete button.

Ashanti Adullah (04:55.41)
Right. Exactly. You're you're a master at it. Yeah, that's awesome. You know what? Actually, I have a question. So what are you doing? Because I don't I'm not on X or Twitter anymore. But I remember you were like you were like the OG Twitter like what are you what are you using now? Are you still on X? Are you?

Sarah Dope (05:00.694)
I try.

Sarah Dope (05:09.342)
Can't blame you.

Sarah Dope (05:17.606)
I'm yeah, I'm still listen, I'm always gonna call it Twitter. Damn it. I'm still on it. But I feel like it's, it's almost like I feel like I kind of need to be for now. Even even though like I don't work in social media anymore. It's just like, I don't know, I feel like a lot of my, my followers are still on there. So it's like,

Ashanti Adullah (05:21.588)
Yeah, true.

Ashanti Adullah (05:30.696)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (05:40.616)
Yeah, that's I was wondering if your followers like moved over.

Sarah Dope (05:43.786)
Yeah. And I mean, I think we're all trying, right? But it's like, there hasn't been anything that's really hit yet, right? Like, I think like a lot of us started Blue Sky accounts and we got in there and it's like, it's there, but it's not as active. I think there's still a lot of people who can't get in. And I've tried like Hype Social. I've tried like all of these things that started popping up whenever it started becoming X and everyone's like, okay, we got to get off of this thing. Like how, like, what is the next thing? But I don't think anything has popped quite yet.

Ashanti Adullah (05:57.256)
Yeah. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (06:08.776)
hahahaha

Sarah Dope (06:13.526)
in the same way. And even though, you know, the algorithm sucks, whatever, it just, it is, it's just there. And I kind of feel the same way about Instagram too. It's like, I, especially like for my photography side, it's like, photos don't perform as well as they used to. You know, they're trying to do that hard push of Instagram reels and trying to compete against TikTok. But at the same time, like, it just seems like.

Ashanti Adullah (06:13.906)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (06:21.362)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (06:31.721)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (06:36.798)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (06:40.534)
Even though it's worse than it used to be, it's still better than anything else that's out there right now.

Ashanti Adullah (06:46.14)
Yeah, I feel you know, it's funny. feel like I mean, you could correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like, like Instagram has become like the way that people could contact people or like connect with people. It's really weird. I'm like, it really was a photo thing. It really was at one point. I remember when it first came about and we were all about it and we check, you know, trying to and there were people like you that were amazing at it. And there are people like me that were terrible at it. But you know, it turned into like

Sarah Dope (06:55.65)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Sarah Dope (07:02.508)
Yeah. Well, yeah.

Here's the photo app.

Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (07:13.232)
Like every everybody I meet now is like, what's your Instagram? I'm like, what are you talking about? Why do you need to look at my Instagram?

Sarah Dope (07:20.322)
Well, and now there's threads, right? There is like their version of Twitter.

Ashanti Adullah (07:24.358)
Yeah, but is that really come on? Is anyone posting on threads?

Sarah Dope (07:27.498)
Yeah, mean, I actually know a lot of people who prefer threads now. It's like, but I get it. I think it's that like temporary escape from like, you know, the hellscape that was without that is Twitter, right? I will say funny enough threads for the most part, like what gets suggested to me is mostly photography. I'm like, my God, this is what, this is what I want. This is what Instagram used to be.

Ashanti Adullah (07:31.604)
WHAT?!

Ashanti Adullah (07:55.465)
nice. Nice.

Sarah Dope (07:56.782)
Every now and then, like my suggested feed gets a little unruly. And then it seems like so far, knock on wood, is that I can game the algorithm where it's like, just have to specifically go to photography profiles and just start liking a bunch of stuff. And then it kind of like readjusts. It's like, okay. Here's what you're interested in.

Ashanti Adullah (08:11.816)
Yep.

Ashanti Adullah (08:15.24)
Yeah, I gotta tell you, you know, I joined TikTok like last year against I did not want to against, you know, just not another social media. Their their their algorithm is dangerous.

Sarah Dope (08:20.995)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (08:24.918)
Mm -hmm. Yes, I felt the same way.

Sarah Dope (08:32.909)
It's scary. is. And the funny thing is, I actually interviewed for TikTok at one point. I was telling him, was like, your algorithm is really terrifying, how accurate it can be.

Ashanti Adullah (08:40.307)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (08:46.962)
Yeah, it's dangerous, dude. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. I mean, you do end up in an echo chamber for sure. like it.

Sarah Dope (08:55.104)
Yeah, that said, I'm on like the snack TikTok timeframe for the most part. And it's, it's been great, but also dangerous because now I'm like, TikTok shop. And like, now I can buy snacks. It's so dangerous.

Ashanti Adullah (08:59.86)
Ha

Ashanti Adullah (09:07.738)
You're right. Right. yeah. I'm on. I'm on dog tick tock and I'm on a couple of different tick tocks, black tick tock, dog tick tock and mainly comedy tick tock. mean, that's really what I use it for is to watch comedy. But I've noticed it's smart enough to it's smart enough to suggest music to me like musicians like not like on like not not they're not undeveloped, but like kind of like

Sarah Dope (09:16.077)
Mm.

Sarah Dope (09:21.677)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (09:30.092)
Mm -hmm.

Ashanti Adullah (09:36.11)
not there yet, but probably need a deal or something like that nature. So it's been really interesting for that. found a lot of music. mean, even some of the people that some of the artists I work with are working with are from TikTok. I've found also some people that do video work on TikTok. So that's been fun, I guess, but that's scary. It's scary that it knows that that well, knows exactly what I want to see. It's pretty wild.

Sarah Dope (09:57.588)
Yeah. And it's like, honestly, I can't, nobody can convince me that like our phones and our devices aren't listening to us. You know what I mean? Because like now, you know, I'll have a conversation like in person with like a coworker about, you know, luggage and like trying to find a new hard sell. Then all of a sudden my TikTok is just feeding me all of these influencer posts about like travel luggage and what's the best one. look at this one that has all of these pockets.

Ashanti Adullah (10:05.815)
no, they are. They absolutely are.

Ashanti Adullah (10:27.762)
My wife, you haven't met her yet. She's absolutely hilarious. But we were at the airport recently and I said, hey, do you want to go through, or, no, I had clear and I was like, I can add you to my clear. And she said, no, I don't want them to have my eyes. And I said, well, how do you open your iPhone? Like, what are you, your eyes are already there, buddy.

Sarah Dope (10:48.852)
Yeah, mean, a part of me gets it at the same time. just feel like at this point, it's just like something out there like has our stuff anyway, right? And so I have clear, I have precheck. I have both of them. just like, okay, whatever. Like, listen, I'm being probably being tracked anyway. And it's like now at least I can get through airline security faster.

Ashanti Adullah (10:55.814)
Yeah, it has everything.

Ashanti Adullah (11:02.568)
Yeah

Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (11:10.79)
I definitely am. did, I did, I did ancestry .com the like, like swab thing. I'm in there. I'm in there like swimwear. can't, I can't do anything wrong. I got, tell me about Jared Leto.

Sarah Dope (11:15.79)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (11:24.814)
I, depending on what you want know, I may may not be able to talk about it. I, you know, I was still working in social media at the time. You know, I thought that's maybe something I wanted to do for 10 years. And I had started, we actually met a long time ago whenever he was first starting 30 Seconds to Mars.

Ashanti Adullah (11:27.79)
No, you say whatever you can without getting yourself in trouble.

Ashanti Adullah (11:42.324)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (11:54.302)
and you know, again, it's like, I, as a kid, like I grew up watching him act. and I was like, I'm really interested in, you know, what this band is going to be about. And then I funny enough, I was already doing stuff for his label at that time, again, as a street team kid. And when those demos came out, I was like, okay, this is kind of cool. And I remember their first tour was with like. Puddle of mud who I, I don't lie. I was never a fan of puddle. And it was like such a weird tour. was like puddle of mud.

Ashanti Adullah (12:21.661)
haha

Sarah Dope (12:23.662)
Revolution Smile and 30 Seconds Mars was opening and it was their first ever too and I was like, let me like go and check them out. I literally only went for them opening. Like I didn't really care about the other bands and I paid for a ticket and everything. And I remember meeting some of the guys. I know, I know it's been a while since I've done that. But I went to the show and

Ashanti Adullah (12:34.548)
That's right.

Ashanti Adullah (12:40.126)
You paid for a ticket. Wow. Kidding.

Sarah Dope (12:51.278)
Like I actually made my own 30 seconds tomorrow shirt. And again, this is so long ago and I was like still a fan of music. I met some of the guys at the merch table and I was just gonna, I was like, yeah, you know, great set, like love what you do. Like, and I was just gonna leave and they were like, wait, like you're just gonna go home. And was like, yeah, I literally just came to check you guys out. And I don't really care about saying for the rest of the show. They're like, no, no, no, you have to meet the rest of them. And I was like,

okay. So we actually, like I got brought up on the bus and Madame started talking and like back in the day, they had a message board, if you remember that. And so I had started like helping them like again, doing street team stuff. So every time they came through Missouri and I was at those shows, I would be that person to help out pass out, you know, demo CDs, demo tapes. And then if they

Ashanti Adullah (13:31.368)
yeah, yeah.

Sarah Dope (13:44.226)
were doing public signings, I would be that person to try to like go through the line and be like, hey, do you want to sign up for the email list and the message board and like all of this stuff. And over the years, like, you know, we stayed in touch. And then during the MySpace days, I was, one of my mini gigs was actually designing and custom coding MySpace pages for bands. well, yeah, and not just bands, like I was doing it for comedians. Funny enough, I actually did it for Tony Hawk.

Ashanti Adullah (14:06.079)
wow.

Sarah Dope (14:13.838)
Yeah. And 30 seconds tomorrow, I asked me to do it for them. you know, at that time I was working like through some of the other band members. But again, it's like, you know, they were like, Jared was an acquaintance. And then, you know, further down the line, I'm working at a social media agency that was partially owned by WME. And I remember Jared had come in for a meeting.

Ashanti Adullah (14:14.257)
Amazing.

Ashanti Adullah (14:27.838)
Right.

Sarah Dope (14:42.176)
And my boss at the time was like, Hey, I need you to interrupt this meeting. He basically used me as like, Hey, I want Jared to see that like, he knows somebody here. but funny enough, like, you know, he didn't go with the agency, but he did end up hiring me. Like directly. And so that's, that's kind of how I started doing that. And I was doing social media for him. And then I just kind of hit this point where I was like, I don't know if I want to actually.

Ashanti Adullah (14:48.179)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (14:51.732)
Hahaha

Ashanti Adullah (14:59.122)
Nice. Nice.

Sarah Dope (15:11.15)
do social media. I mean, at that point, I was doing social media for 10 years. This was after I had left the agency that RhymeSares was also with for a little bit. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do this or at least do it full time anymore. Because it was just getting really exhausting. I think it was taking a mental toll on me. the landscape. Yeah, and the landscape back then, wasn't like, I can't even imagine still working in social media now, too.

Ashanti Adullah (15:14.846)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (15:22.206)
Mm -hmm.

Ashanti Adullah (15:31.398)
It's super exhausting.

Ashanti Adullah (15:39.016)
Yeah, it's insane. There's just too much, you know what mean?

Sarah Dope (15:41.174)
Yeah. And so I had left and I was trying to figure out like, well, this is pretty much all I've known for a good chunk of my life. Like, what do I do? What do I do next? And, you know, I was still like taking social media gigs just to, you know, pay rent. And then eventually I ended up in the current weird conglomerate of a position that I'm in now. Yeah. Well, technically Logitech G.

Ashanti Adullah (16:03.188)
Which is with Astro Gaming,

okay. Gotcha.

Sarah Dope (16:09.686)
you know, who has owned Astro and then we just did a whole like company merger reorg a couple years ago. But yeah, now I'm kind of like artists celebrity relations, but because of the reorg I've also now taken on just like what we in the corporate space say, call endemic influencers. Yeah. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (16:29.876)
Whoa, that's pretty wild. I don't think I've heard that before. you, are you still, is your heart still black?

Sarah Dope (16:38.442)
It's always gonna be black, you know? Like my soul, a goth kid. Yeah. The resonant, yes, the resonant goth of rhymes airs.

Ashanti Adullah (16:39.732)
The resident goth. The resident goth. This funny. At a rap label. So funny. Wrestling's your thing too, yeah?

Sarah Dope (16:52.268)
I just, yeah, so I, it's funny, like I've been in and out of wrestling since I was a kid, right? I used to watch it as a kid as like trying to find something to bond with my brother over. And then I fell out of it because, you know, I was like, I don't know if I'm really into this and storylines are cheesy. And, you know, there's that whole like, it's wrestling, it's fake. And I kind of fell out of it and I was like, okay, not really my thing. And then.

Ashanti Adullah (17:15.58)
Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Dope (17:21.442)
you know, still living in LA. My best friend at the time was she, well, at the time she was going through a divorce. And when that happened, I was like, okay, we're going to like run a house together. I'm going to help you get your, you know, get your bearings back. but she was really into wrestling and she was actually, she thought maybe she wanted to be a wrestler. So she was actually training. She was actually training. She knew all these people. she was going to a monthly show out there called PWG and it's one of the bigger indie shows.

Ashanti Adullah (17:40.509)
Be a wrestler, yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (17:48.777)
Hmm.

Sarah Dope (17:51.276)
And it's usually where like a lot of like WWE and AEW talent you see now started in PWG.

Ashanti Adullah (17:51.41)
Okay.

Ashanti Adullah (17:58.514)
Gotcha. So that's like their farm sort of. Sort of. Unofficial farm.

Sarah Dope (18:01.874)
Yeah. And so when she was going through that divorce, I was like, okay, she's like, you're coming with me to these shows. She's like, she's like, I have all these tickets. And I was like, yeah, let me go be the supportive best friend and see what you're into. And like, also just be there for you. But I actually ended up having a really good time where it's just, you know, those shows at that time were in this tiny little VFW hall in Rosita.

Ashanti Adullah (18:23.902)
Yeah

Sarah Dope (18:25.026)
And, but it was more about like the energy of the show, just that like, not only from the wrestlers, but from the crowd too. And you're just there with your friends and you're, they had like really cheap pitchers of beer. So it's like, we would always just go drink a bunch of beer and watch wrestling. And I had a lot of really, like, I had a lot of really good times there. And, you know, of course, you know, just naturally got to know the talent started being friends with more wrestlers. some of them, you know, would like crash on our couch all the time.

Ashanti Adullah (18:35.624)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (18:54.958)
and then I remember, like I started working for Rhymesayers directly, but I was still working out of LA. But I would, you know, I would fly back here to Minneapolis like all of the time. And I remember one day I'm at First Avenue, I think it was an atmosphere show, and I was at First Avenue and this guy, Eric Cannon, who is a wrestler and also a promoter, but also at the time was working.

Ashanti Adullah (19:05.3)
Gotcha.

Ashanti Adullah (19:19.047)
Amen.

Sarah Dope (19:20.874)
at First Avenue, we ran into each other and he was like, hey, we have mutual friends in wrestling. He's like, I'm also friends with Chris Hero. And I was like, cool, nice to meet you. And so Cannon and I stayed in touch and when I first moved here, he runs First Wrestling, which they do twice a year inside First Avenue. do our Wrestlepalooza shows. And we put a wrestling ring in the middle of this music venue and it's a mixture of wrestling, burlesque, and music.

Ashanti Adullah (19:37.459)
Mm -hmm.

Ashanti Adullah (19:43.326)
Yep.

Sarah Dope (19:50.362)
And I got, and it was like, when I first like made the move to Minneapolis, I was like, okay, I gotta find equivalents of what I'm gonna miss about living in LA, but I gotta find that out in Minnesota. And so this was like the new PWG for me, right? It like, it got me my like indie wrestling fix. And I would like, first few shows, like I would just go and I would just watch. Or I would like, if I'm taking photos, I'm taking photos like out.

Ashanti Adullah (20:00.339)
Right.

Sarah Dope (20:17.826)
by the staircases or whatever. And then finally, one day I remember asking Eric, I was like, hey, so what are the chances for the next one? Like I can shoot ringside. And I remember that text and he goes, Sarah, I have been waiting for you to ask me this. And he's like, absolutely. Yeah, and so then I just started shooting ringside for them at Russell Palooza's. And then I was like, my God, like this is such a rush to shoot. Because it was refreshing because, you know, I think at concerts,

Ashanti Adullah (20:32.284)
Nice. Nice.

Sarah Dope (20:46.978)
I got so used to like, okay, I understand. Got to watch for crowd surfers at certain, know, usually metal shows. I know how to like, you know, clamps back a little bit and like take security cues. but with wrestling, especially ringside like, no, now I have to watch for wrestlers potentially accident, like maybe accidentally kicking me in the face or like.

Ashanti Adullah (20:53.576)
Yep.

Ashanti Adullah (21:05.172)
Leg dropping you. Yeah.

Sarah Dope (21:09.186)
You know, for some of the gorilla matches, if they're using ladders and thumbtacks and nail, it gets really crazy that I feel like watch out for all of these things. And you don't always have a lot of ringside space either. Like sometimes those barricades are like, I can barely fit in them, you know? And so there's, there's like so many factors.

Ashanti Adullah (21:20.788)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (21:25.012)
I feel like I feel like I feel like your photo like I love well first of all I'm a huge fan of your photography overall you know that that's been years but I feel like you're you're this the feeling that I get from your wrestling photos are more of like I get this like death metal punk rock feel and it's a really sick like intersection and I don't know if like you think you've done that on purpose or if that's an accidental thing but they're just really cool.

Sarah Dope (21:33.855)
thank you. Yes.

Sarah Dope (21:46.68)
Kinda, yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Dope (21:53.868)
A little bit of both because the thing is, I think a lot of people who outside looking in may not know anything about wrestling. again, at one point in my life, I was on the outside looking in, where I was like, I don't know if I really get this. And I think the stereotype is that, it's just such a Midwest country folk that are into this. It's like, no, actually there's a lot of different types of people, specifically.

Ashanti Adullah (21:55.667)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (22:07.56)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (22:20.333)
No, it's huge. Wrestling is huge.

Sarah Dope (22:21.866)
especially especially like punks and goss like fucking love wrestling. Like, and it's and it's some people like it for different things. Like some people are really into the storylines. And then there's people like me who are like, I don't know, like at this point, I'm just having fun watching people do really cool shit. And there is like, listen, like we can call it quote unquote, fake all you want, but there are certain things that you can't fake. that and honestly, like some of the moves you're doing.

Ashanti Adullah (22:26.452)
Hahaha.

Ashanti Adullah (22:38.503)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (22:46.43)
Right.

Sarah Dope (22:49.58)
you you have to learn how to, in a way, like fall properly, because you can snap your neck. can like legitimately break something if you're not really safe about it. And then again, you're getting into like, if you get more into the guerrilla stuff, and you know, I've started photographing like no ring death mat shows, which is like, again, my new, rush. It's so, okay, so.

Ashanti Adullah (22:55.06)
yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (23:10.918)
Whoa. What is it? Are they like on a platform or are they just standing in a wow.

Sarah Dope (23:16.696)
So obviously like no ring means exactly that, right? Like there's no ring. And then deathmatch is like, this is where they're starting to break out like barbed wire, glass tubes, or you cannot fake, you cannot fake like taking a hit from a glass tube that's like shattering over you. Yeah, staple guns, cheese graters. Like I have some really, and there's like, there's blood everywhere. And it's one of those things like if you were going to that type of show, you,

Ashanti Adullah (23:28.142)
boy.

Ashanti Adullah (23:34.449)
Ouch.

Sarah Dope (23:46.156)
already kind of know like, okay, I might like a glass jar might fly and caught my face like, and it's, I mean, it, yeah, it's definitely a rush. I think for me, especially from the photography, photography said, like I was like, this is new. And again, it's just exciting. And it's different than what I was, what I've been so used to.

Ashanti Adullah (23:51.484)
no. no. Is there just something exciting about the possibility of getting sliced open?

Ashanti Adullah (24:14.002)
Yeah. You toured and did merch too, right?

Sarah Dope (24:17.942)
I did merch for a little bit again early on in my industry days where I thought, maybe I want to be a merch girl. I love touring. I hate doing merch.

Ashanti Adullah (24:25.682)
How was that? How was that?

wow, I hate touring and I hate doing merch, so...

Sarah Dope (24:33.974)
I mean, listen, we, you and I both know some people who like legitimately love doing March and I love those spreadsheets, right? Like Doug, Doug loves it. And I love that for him and he's phenomenal at it, right? It's, there's a reason why he gets to work with some of the artists that he gets to work with, but not my personal thing.

Ashanti Adullah (24:40.38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (24:48.967)
Absolutely.

Ashanti Adullah (24:55.24)
Yeah, so how, I mean it had to be, I assume you were traveling with mostly dudes, that's gotta be annoying.

Sarah Dope (25:02.954)
Yeah, especially back, back then, you know, it was very, yeah, a little more conscious. Yeah. So back in the day, was, it was very difficult and you know, it was also a different time. It was very much like, and not to like try to excuse it, but it just, it's what it was. It was very, definitely very misogynist, very like, sex, drugs, rock and roll lifestyle.

Ashanti Adullah (25:06.42)
before people were a little trying to be aware of how misogynistic they were.

Ashanti Adullah (25:31.87)
Right.

Sarah Dope (25:33.528)
got really annoying. I've done van tours where it's like, I'm just in a van with a bunch of dudes. There are people with like, yes, definitely sticking up the van. There's the stereotypical lead singer egomaniacal syndrome, right? It was interesting. I guess I can say it was interesting. It was definitely...

Ashanti Adullah (25:41.972)
Just stinking up the van.

Sarah Dope (26:03.618)
I think over the years I've kind of like learned my limits of what I will and will not tolerate.

Ashanti Adullah (26:08.648)
Yeah, I think a lot of people want a tour, but a lot of people don't realize like what that actually means.

Sarah Dope (26:13.386)
Yeah, it's a lot and it requires a lot of patience, that's for sure. I mean, even now, it's like I, fortunately now, at least, and maybe it goes towards like, I'm just, I've just gotten a little better about judgment of like, you know, what I, again, what I will and will not accept and what I will and will not like even try to work with. So even some of the recent tours I've done, like I've,

Ashanti Adullah (26:17.373)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (26:32.082)
Yeah, of course.

Ashanti Adullah (26:38.973)
Right.

Sarah Dope (26:42.242)
I've been fortunate where like solid band dude, like even if it is mostly guys, right? It's like solid band dude, solid crew. Everyone's like respectful. and then it just needs, it's like, sure. Like things are going to come up. There's going be some sort of fire and then, but it seems like surrounding yourself with people who can actually handle it and work on finding a solution rather than just like pointing fingers at people and

Ashanti Adullah (26:49.49)
Yep. Yep.

Sarah Dope (27:10.811)
being counterproductive and not really getting anything done is really important.

Ashanti Adullah (27:15.08)
Yeah, I mean, I was talking to Greaves about this, like, and we talked about it pretty much ad nauseum, but you know how I mean, we ran a tight ship and how you show up is super important, right? You want the people there to want you to come back. So if you're being a diva or being a jackass, it's, you know, it's not going to work out in your favor long -term.

Sarah Dope (27:31.194)
yeah. I mean, I've definitely worked with artists who have almost gotten us kicked off by tour because they're, you know, they're just acting a certain way when they're like the opener. And there have been situations where it's like, I've, you know, I've maybe known the headliner for years. And they were wouldn't even just be like, honestly, Sarah, if you weren't on this tour, like, it's only two weeks, but they're like, we were supposed to have a break.

Ashanti Adullah (27:46.492)
Right. Right.

Sarah Dope (28:00.494)
And they were like, and if you weren't on this tour, like we would just say, screw this.

Ashanti Adullah (28:00.892)
Right, right.

Ashanti Adullah (28:05.724)
Yeah, totally. like I, totally agree with you. I, how many times have you seen the opener do too much? How many times have you seen the opener? So for all you open people out there that that's a part of your career right now. Get in there. Yeah, get in there be as gracious as you possibly can get up there kill that stage and get off. You know what I mean? It's it's real simple.

Sarah Dope (28:23.5)
Listen, we all gotta pay our dues.

Sarah Dope (28:31.054)
Yeah. Yes. Definitely don't continuously go over your time intentionally, no matter how much you think you deserve it. Because listen, we've all been doing this for, you know, 10 plus years.

Ashanti Adullah (28:36.539)
No, no.

Ashanti Adullah (28:43.334)
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of not to do's and that's definitely one of them. Another thing not to do is to bring a bat on stage and swing it around, skateboard, things like that. It freaks out your managers. Your manager's got to deal with issues.

Sarah Dope (28:55.64)
Yeah, maybe, maybe don't. Yeah, don't destroy the stage.

Ashanti Adullah (29:05.012)
Yeah, maybe not jump from a I'm not going to name any names, maybe not jump from a speaker way the hell up and break someone's arm. There's a lot there's a lot of things to think about when it comes to that. You I mean, getting back to your photos. I mean, they're just they're absolutely wonderful. Obviously, you shoot like what's when you're thinking about the differences of, you know, you're shooting, mean, technically, wrestling is technically sports, you shoot music.

Sarah Dope (29:09.058)
Yes.

Sarah Dope (29:12.973)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (29:33.026)
Hmm?

Ashanti Adullah (29:34.82)
you shoot a lot of stuff you shoot art you shoot everything like what there's clearly a different approach to those things. Can you talk a little bit about how your brain thinks about that and how it approaches it?

Sarah Dope (29:37.635)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (29:46.528)
Yeah, mean, if it's concert, concert or, or wrestling, right? Of course, I'm looking for action shots, I guess to keep it in its simplest form, right? And not just, not just like the stereotypical, like, okay, like, I I do get like a lot of the standard shots, right? So, okay, you know, vocalist with a preferably not, he's not

Ashanti Adullah (29:57.129)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (30:09.362)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Sarah Dope (30:16.064)
or they're not eating the microphone, right? You want to see the face too. And making sure I try to get, I always try to get shots of the drummer, which is often difficult, especially cause I am short. So I can't really, unless I have all access or something, I can't really get good angles of the drummer. So drummers, I'm really sorry if I send over a handful of photos to your management and then you get the drop box and you're like, what the hell?

Ashanti Adullah (30:18.032)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (30:25.618)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (30:42.846)
Ha ha ha.

Sarah Dope (30:43.95)
It's not that I hate you, it's just like I am short and the only photo is like a guess. Like there's like a symbol covering half of your face. Like it's just not great. And then, know, jump shots are always fun. You know, people mid -air. I've been really trying to focus on facial expressions in both concert and wrestling. Wrestling especially have a lot of really great facial expressions from wrestlers. And then...

Ashanti Adullah (31:03.489)
Mm

Yeah.

Sarah Dope (31:13.568)
I like to play with lights and shadows. think lately in the past few years, especially if an artist has like really tough lighting, like it's all like, you know, maybe they're in a scenario where they don't have their own lights or they're opening so they don't get to use a lot. It's usually like all red, all blue, which are not camera friendly. And it's like.

Ashanti Adullah (31:37.734)
Nah, I'm sure. Probably not at all,

Sarah Dope (31:39.022)
Rather than trying to, I'm like, okay, well, I just got to sacrifice this and make the set all black and white. I've started bringing different artsy lens filters, because that way if I do catch a light in one of those, maybe some of them will create a streak or something just a little more artistic that'll make it little more interesting. I'm like, okay, I can work around this and I can edit with this rather than just be like, all right, well, let me just edit it in black and white.

Ashanti Adullah (31:51.422)
Mm -hmm.

Ashanti Adullah (32:07.826)
Right, right. mean, then that's, I guess that's the way to get out of the issues when it comes to these terrible lighting situations.

Sarah Dope (32:13.302)
Yeah, and don't get me wrong, I do love black and whites. Like when I do any sort of post -processing, it's really always dependent on like the mood that I'm in at that time. If I want to keep a color, if I want to keep it black and white, if I want to go like super high contrast, if I want to get weird with it.

Ashanti Adullah (32:22.962)
Right.

Sarah Dope (32:31.992)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (32:33.524)
Amazing. Give me one of your, give me one of your like, I'm looking for a story, something hilarious, crazy. I mean, you've got a million of them, but give me something, give me something funny and good.

Sarah Dope (32:46.639)
that's tough. I don't know.

Ashanti Adullah (32:51.068)
without blowing, you you got to do it without blowing up people's spots. You know what I mean? I do remember, I mean, there was this whole thing about Ghetto Panda with me at the label and I do remember coming back and having a bunch of pandas all over my office after, I forgot where I went. I don't know if I went to Australia or something. I don't know if that was you or Bird who did it, but somebody did it to me.

Sarah Dope (32:54.466)
Yeah, yeah.

Sarah Dope (33:11.498)
Yeah, I don't remember that. That might have been burned. There have been times I've definitely, you know, it's funny, I don't, so I don't work at Rhymesayers anymore and I haven't in a very long time, but I'm like, in a way, like the honorary former employee that's still kind of involved in some ways.

Ashanti Adullah (33:31.463)
Right, right.

Sarah Dope (33:32.278)
And there have been times where I've just been in the office anyway and if nobody else is in there other than like me or Darian or like me and Jordan, like I'll just start leaving sticky notes on people's offices.

Ashanti Adullah (33:40.98)
So out touring, what's the weirdest thing that happened to you on tour?

Sarah Dope (33:51.086)
Weirdest. I don't know if I have funny weird. I have like a lot of frustrating moments or maybe that's just those are the ones that stick out the most. just like, you know, the road again, the road can be tough, especially if, if you are the only woman or one of the only women on the road.

Ashanti Adullah (33:52.286)
funny weird yeah funny weird odd

Ashanti Adullah (34:04.902)
Right. Right.

Ashanti Adullah (34:12.732)
Yep, exactly.

Sarah Dope (34:16.717)
Let's see, I'm trying to think. Yeah, I don't know. like...

Ashanti Adullah (34:18.364)
I was thinking, I was trying to get a Rob, Rob Sonics coming up on one of these episodes. And I was trying to get him to talk about, I don't know if you remember this. man, there, the time he was like talking to this dude outside at a gas station while they're on tour and they were talking forever and ever and ever. then like, they're like, he's like, all right, I'm going to take off down the dude tries to give him money. And he's like, wait, do you think I'm homeless? And the guy's like,

Sarah Dope (34:28.574)
I'm sure he's got lots of stories.

Sarah Dope (34:45.526)
Yes.

Ashanti Adullah (34:47.732)
It's like what the hell dude? What? That's a total Rob Sonic type of type of type of situation

Sarah Dope (34:54.124)
Yeah. man. Yeah, I don't know. I'm trying to think of like, because the last like tour that I did for like a while is, was the metal tour of the year. I was out with Trivium, but it was like Megadeth, Lama God, Trivium. And then for the first leg, it was Haydreid and the second leg, the first opener was Inflames.

Ashanti Adullah (35:14.386)
What kind of were you guys playing club shows? Were you playing hall like how?

Sarah Dope (35:17.334)
now, well, because it was Megadeth, it was like, we were playing like big. Yeah, I'd say arena shows, not quite level stadium. They were like massive shows. And honestly, like I was very spoiled. Like we all were on that tour, right? Because Megadeth is headlining, so it's like, and because they're arena tours, like, we all got catering. you know, I mean, Trivium has been one of those bands where, even before I knew them, like,

Ashanti Adullah (35:20.358)
arenas

Ashanti Adullah (35:27.689)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (35:32.444)
Yeah, nice.

Sarah Dope (35:46.594)
people, mutual friends would be like, my god, like you guys would get along so well. Like all of you guys just love food and video games. And you know, they were always known as that band, like they even back in the day, like, when they were younger, they didn't partake in any in any like rock and roll lifestyle shenanigans, right? And they were like, Yeah, you know, there, you won't have to worry about yourself with them. And then

Ashanti Adullah (35:53.716)
Ha ha ha ha!

Ashanti Adullah (36:05.736)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (36:11.464)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (36:12.95)
Over time, we eventually met and became friends and I was like, yeah, like very true to, you know, what, what is said about them. and so that tour was like, was working, for them technically. And, know, again, it's like, especially now, most of them are married with kids. There's, they're settled down regardless. And I think like the only, like, there's only one of those guys who is single, but even though it's like, he's not like running around like.

Ashanti Adullah (36:31.518)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Sarah Dope (36:40.942)
trying anything is if anything it's like he's he was one of only band guys that was like up late at night like maybe having some beers. So on the bus in the front lounge like everybody else would be asleep it'd be like me. One of the band guys and then like a couple members from our crew just drinking I would be editing photos on the front you know what I mean it's like our like big rock and roll lifestyle was like editing playing Call of Duty and then on our days off finding food.

Ashanti Adullah (36:48.691)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (36:59.038)
Gotcha.

Right.

Totally.

Sarah Dope (37:10.571)
you know.

Ashanti Adullah (37:11.39)
I've, I, you know, I talk to people a lot and they're like, what's touring like? I'm like, oddly enough, most of the people I work with are pretty boring. Like it's a job. You know what I mean? We're out working. So it's like, we're hustling most of the time. You still playing video games? All right. What are you playing these days?

Sarah Dope (37:18.744)
We're just.

Yeah!

Yeah.

Sarah Dope (37:29.838)
Of course, of course. Lately I've gotten back into Overwatch 2, only because it's that little lull period between Call of Duty titles. Because that's always been like my primary game for the most part. And then...

Ashanti Adullah (37:36.774)
Okay.

Ashanti Adullah (37:45.106)
Right, right. And you stream on Twitch too, Okay. Gotcha, gotcha.

Sarah Dope (37:48.526)
I used to, I haven't had the energy to do it in the past like couple years because by the time I'm done with work, I clock out. like, I'm just exhausted. I don't, last thing I want to do is like put on a show to the internet and you know, I was like, so now I just like, I clock out and then I just play games with like some of friends. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (37:58.803)
Right.

Ashanti Adullah (38:02.228)
Right, totally.

Go play. Yeah. I know streaming was your thing there for a while though.

Sarah Dope (38:12.14)
Yeah, sometimes I miss it. And I think like a part of it was also I got a little overwhelmed because I was gonna get really nerdy. I the PC, the gaming PC that I originally built, it's quite old. And I was like, okay, I need to like start upgrading this. I don't want to. It took me like a long time. It's not well, actually, it's like, it's, it's not that bad if you build it yourself. And, but I was like,

Ashanti Adullah (38:30.244)
expensive. Yeah, and it's time and money.

Ashanti Adullah (38:36.585)
Got you.

Sarah Dope (38:40.116)
it just took me forever and do I really want to rebuild this whole thing? And I was like, I'm just going to find a pre -made one for the most part and find, you know, what I want and just buy it this time, have somebody else build it. and so I did that. But when I got that in, I was like, I'm still kind of attached to this machine that like I built myself and actually works and it didn't catch on fire. so then I was like, maybe I'll do the dual PC thing. And then realizing very quickly that trying to reroute audio.

Ashanti Adullah (38:48.648)
Mm -hmm. Right.

Ashanti Adullah (38:56.466)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Ashanti Adullah (39:09.972)
yeah, that's probably a pain in the butt, right?

Sarah Dope (39:10.028)
to get it to work for a dual PC system and not have to have like two different microphones, two different headsets is actually really complicated. And so I got really overwhelmed. so now it's, I have wires everywhere. And then one, like my old gaming PC is at this point is pretty much just like a work machine. Like I just use it for my corporate job. And then the second, the newer one I

was like my gaming one, because I just haven't had time to like really sit down and be like, okay, how do I wire this? And let me go through 5 ,000 different YouTube tutorials to try to do what I want it to do. And so that was the thing, because usually when people have dual PCs and they stream, one is like the stream machine to take off all that load and the other one is gaming. But again, it's like, you have to make the two talk to each other. And it's like really complicated. At least for me, I was like.

Ashanti Adullah (39:53.01)
right in the other oneus.

Ashanti Adullah (39:58.94)
Yep. Yeah. You better get on thumbtack or something or what's the other one where you can get people to come do it for you?

Sarah Dope (40:04.66)
god.

I mean, honestly, like I have so many friends who who still stream and they do the dual PC thing that I'm like, maybe I should just save money and be like, hey, let me fly you down here and like fix just do this for me. Just do it.

Ashanti Adullah (40:12.947)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (40:17.842)
Yeah, seriously. Just fix it. Yeah, just fix it. Yeah. Word. Well, you know, I just want to say once again, thank you so much for being on. I really appreciate it. If you had something to leave with the people, what do you want to leave with someone who's thinking about getting into either on the merch side or on the social media side or being a photographer, being with artists or any of those things?

Sarah Dope (40:30.306)
Yeah, of course.

Sarah Dope (40:37.166)
course.

Sarah Dope (40:42.037)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (40:48.08)
From your aspect, what would you give out there for some advice?

Sarah Dope (40:53.392)
I would say...

Sarah Dope (40:58.126)
There's one, as we say in the corporate world, is diversify yourself, right? It can never hurt to have different interests and have different skill sets. Again, mean, Lord knows, like in my career history, we've done all kinds of different things. And you just never know, like the landscape is always changing, and you just never know what's gonna happen, where it's like, maybe I...

Ashanti Adullah (41:04.233)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (41:14.387)
Yeah

Sarah Dope (41:22.978)
got let go from this band because they're no longer looking for this, but then, you know, this other artist is looking for this different thing that I can do. And you just kind of, again, it's the domino effect and you just kind of like work through that chaos for yourself in the long run. And then I would also say, you know, stay, stay focused on yourself and what you want to do this industry. I mean, not just music, just I think anything in entertainment.

Ashanti Adullah (41:29.981)
Yep.

Ashanti Adullah (41:37.416)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (41:52.704)
as a whole. There's definitely a lot of good people and there's a lot of very not so good people. And people always talk one way or other. I think early on when I was a lot younger, stereotypically as one of the few women in the industry, it's like the assumption was like, she's a groupie. she only got there because she's got to be sleeping with someone. And it used to really bother me.

Ashanti Adullah (41:59.976)
Yeah, true indeed.

Ashanti Adullah (42:15.006)
Yeah.

Right.

Sarah Dope (42:20.812)
And then a friend of mine actually, like one day he sat me down and he's like, listen, he was like, you got to think about like, who are these people to you? Like who's saying this and who are they to you? Because if they're just random people, who cares? And he's just like, focus, focus on yourself, focus on what you want to do. And he's like, and just as you pass them by, just wave and go about your way. And I've, I've, I always think about that even to this day is like, yeah, you know.

Ashanti Adullah (42:30.27)
Yeah.

Yeah, really.

Ashanti Adullah (42:41.118)
Yeah, I mean

Ashanti Adullah (42:46.984)
I mean, there's people that give off those vibes. There's people that don't, whether they be male or female. I never, ever, ever got that vibe from your way whatsoever, but I think that's just time and years doing the work. You know what I mean?

Sarah Dope (42:52.354)
Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Dope (42:56.982)
Yeah, thank you.

Yeah. I mean, every now and then I, I, I'm sure maybe it still happens somewhere, but again, it's like, just, I don't care. Cause if it's not, if it's not anybody in my inner circles that think that way, then why like, cool. Great. Yeah. You think, you think I do X, Y, Z you think I'm mean or, you know, I'm a bitch or whatever. Cool. Cool. Yeah. You're not in my circles for a reason. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (43:15.252)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (43:21.234)
Whatever, whatever. mean, there's a there's a reason for that. Yeah, there's a reason for that for sure. I you know, when I agree with you, I think it's just about being being flexible, but also being just going after what you want to go after relentlessly. You know, I was just talking about this with someone else and we were saying I did say to them though that

Sarah Dope (43:35.33)
Mm.

Sarah Dope (43:39.811)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (43:47.484)
Yes, go after what you want relentlessly, but also know when to fold them and when to pivot because that you might not be good at that thing. like.

Sarah Dope (43:52.82)
Yes. yeah. Yes, I will, I will say that. And, I guess to riff off of that is like, also take care of yourself. You know, this is something that I've really, like, I'm still struggling with and learning is like, you know, we hear all of these conversations about self care and it's like, no, like that's actually very important because it is very easy to start getting burnt out.

Ashanti Adullah (44:05.139)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (44:21.204)
yeah.

Sarah Dope (44:21.888)
And then it's really hard to get out of burnout, right? Because it's not just like a temporary, like, yeah, there's temporary band -aids, like, okay, I'm going to go on vacation for like a week. But then in the long run, like that doesn't really help. It's just kind of like, all right, I feel happy for a week. And then it's like, okay, well now I'm back to this mess.

Ashanti Adullah (44:25.469)
Yep.

Ashanti Adullah (44:36.904)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (44:40.264)
Yeah, I mean work -life balance is super important and it's being in these sides of the business you have a little bit more room to do that but I would say take I agree with you take that time and do it because

Sarah Dope (44:43.84)
Yes.

Sarah Dope (44:51.284)
Yeah, I mean, I really, I had to kind of start putting my foot down this year. You know, I think I just hit a point like last winter where I realized I was like, like I'm not happy and I'm in a very like not good place. And I was just like overworking and I was, you know, bending over backwards for people like making myself available, me being always on.

Ashanti Adullah (44:56.274)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (45:06.663)
Right.

Sarah Dope (45:16.91)
And then I was like, you know, 2024, if I'm going to make a new year's resolution, like that's going to be my resolution is like, you know, separate it, you know, my corporate job from like my gig life. And so with my corporate job, it's like very Monday to Monday through Friday, nine to five. and then all my gig work, it's like, got it like, fortunately I've been able to have easier conversations with people there. It's like, Hey, just so you know, like.

Ashanti Adullah (45:29.31)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (45:34.184)
Yep.

Sarah Dope (45:43.15)
I'm really exhausted, I'm going this, yeah. And we can work around that. I've started like, I've been really into baths this year, just like winding down and soaking in a nice epsom salt bath. Like almost every time I'm home, like I swear by it now, right? And that's been like really soothing.

Ashanti Adullah (45:43.304)
Yeah, I got this thing going on or yeah, yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (45:52.532)
Nice awesome

Ashanti Adullah (46:03.216)
My thing's been hiking all year. Yeah, I've been hiking like, I mean, you know, I golf, I golf like constantly, but I've been hiking a lot more and I absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. Yeah, hold on. I had one more thought. What the fuck was it? I was gonna, my God, I completely lost it. yeah. Okay, here we go. Yeah, so I was gonna say, you know, it's funny.

Sarah Dope (46:08.333)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (46:32.85)
you know, work with people at Tarnwill. And I've had a few try to like hit me on the weekend. And I'm like, no. And they're like, no, no, no. And I'm like, no, no, no. I'm like, you work, you like you work here. I'm like, you work here. I own this. I think about this on the weekend. You do not. Like you go spend time with your family. You know what I mean?

Sarah Dope (46:41.678)
You know, it's, yeah. And that's, and that is, it's like, yeah.

Sarah Dope (46:57.25)
Yeah.

Ashanti Adullah (46:58.324)
and yeah, no, people are like, I really, you know, I like that, I had to like fight them a little bit over it be like, no, no, no, I'm serious. Like you don't have to think about this on the weekend. We're not doing rocket science here. You know what I mean?

Sarah Dope (47:02.403)
Yeah.

Sarah Dope (47:08.274)
Yeah, I mean, unless it's like life or death, I... It's really not. I mean, even with my corporate job, I'm like, guys, we sell like gaming headsets. We're not saving lives, you know?

Ashanti Adullah (47:11.548)
Yeah, which it isn't. Nothing's life or death. You know what mean?

Ashanti Adullah (47:19.88)
Yeah, at the end of the day. At the end of the day. Yeah, no, mean, so yeah, I told people I work with, like, that's a big thing too. People don't work for me, they work with me. We all work together for, you know, a cause. It's not a family, I'm not gonna play that game. Do you know what I mean? Like, I pay you to do the work. It's real simple. Like, you shouldn't have to like work on the weekends or think too hard about it.

Sarah Dope (47:31.394)
Yeah. I mean.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

will say a lot of the artists and celebrities that I've been working with, for the most part, that intersect with my corporate job. It's been really cool because it's people like MERS. I've known MERS forever. We are friends at the end of the day, So it's like even this year, a lot of them have been like, they'll wait till Monday.

Ashanti Adullah (48:00.53)
Yeah, yeah, right.

Sarah Dope (48:11.85)
It's almost like they're like, no, like Sarah like really needs the weekend. And yeah, exactly.

Ashanti Adullah (48:15.014)
Yeah, yeah, also, it's just not that serious. I mean, yeah, OK, so there might be like timing things. I get it, especially when it comes to the music stuff. There might be timing things, but also like. Yeah, yeah, but like also like let's all calm down here.

Sarah Dope (48:23.087)
Yeah, sure. Sure. I mean, in product marketing too, trust me. It's been quite, quite the roller coaster. I'm like, in a lot of ways, this is similar to the music industry. In some ways it's better, in some ways it's worse.

Ashanti Adullah (48:35.22)
I find a lot of things to be similar to the music industry and then I realize it's all business at the end of the day.

Sarah Dope (48:41.228)
Yeah. It's all, it's all entertainment, you know, it's just in that entertainment bubble. we're kind of, we're kind of a mess really.

Ashanti Adullah (48:49.21)
Exactly. Well, I, you know what, thank you so much for being on. I really appreciate it. I also just want to thank you for being such a great friend. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just thank you for being such a great friend. It's been a fun, we've known each other for it's been over a decade now for sure. so yeah. and,

Sarah Dope (48:53.454)
course.

Thanks for having me to talk, like having me on and talking about like all my weird random things that I still do.

Sarah Dope (49:09.91)
Yes, which is weird to think about.

Ashanti Adullah (49:15.294)
Thanks for bringing your PSP when you came out to hang out in San Francisco. I'm just playing. Anyways, I'll let you get on out of here. We'll talk again soon. All right. Yep. Bye -bye.

Sarah Dope (49:18.134)
I think I brought my switch.

Yeah. Yes. Thank you.

Ashanti Adullah (49:33.072)
Alright