Urban Grandstand Digital Issue 11: Maleke O'ney | Page 5

way around the studio. That’s how I got my feet wet, and I ended up interning at various studios. Through that, I met a producer who showed me the ropes on shopping records. He introduced me to a few of his contacts. After that, I literally stood outside the labels in New York City and handed out my CDs to anyone who looked like they were in the industry. I literally harassed them (laughing), and that’s actually how I got on. It felt futile, an I did it about a hundred times (not exagerting). One of those times, I ran into someone who was a VP over at Motown, and that’s how I got a little bit of recognition in terms of the industry. I didn’t want to write songs; I wanted to be an artist. Me writing a song for a Chris Brown or Justin Bieber wasn’t really in the cards in my mind.

UG Digital Magazine: That’s huge when you think of it all.

August Rigo: Absolutely. I owe everything I have to my songwriting career. It allowed me the freedom to continue to do my artist career full time because I have that career and it generates a decent amount of income for me. I love to sing, perform, and write songs for myself. Songwriting has allowed me to do that.