Today we’d like to introduce you to Tasha Bethea.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Tasha. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My musical journey. When I was five years old my mom had started me in piano lessons and I immediately fell in love. I attended a few different music schools from age 5-14.
When I was a freshman in high school, I attended Mason Gross School of Music at Rutgers University in New Brunswick NJ. It was during my sophomore year that I got heavily involved in my athletics and stopped playing the piano. I knew I wanted to do something related to media so I started taking Radio, TV and Film courses at Piscataway High School. I enjoyed all of the classes. To this day I still use the binder with all my notes. It was fun but I didn’t love it like I did music.
I remember one day I was talking to my grandmother about how I missed playing piano and she told me to stop running from the music. She constantly explained how music is what I was destined to do for my entire life. I took her advice and stopped fighting it. I knew I didn’t want to be a musician for the rest of my life so I decided to study the business side of the music industry. Best. Decision. Ever. My first two years of college I was a Music Industry major with a specialization in Technology at Rowan University in Glassboro NJ (I also ended up running track at Rowan). The program at Rowan is A1!!! Having professors that are active in all aspects of the industry made my dream of pursuing a career in music realistic.
After my first semester, I felt like I was getting bored. I went to all the parties, I was an athlete and I had a boyfriend. I felt like I had done everything. When winter break rolled around, I told all my family that I only wanted money for Christmas. Little did they know, I was saving that money to throw my first college party. Over break, I booked a venue, created a flyer, team up with the two of the top DJ’s in NJ (Shoutout to DJ Iz Lit and DJ Ace for teaching me the game) and the host of the party was the Phi Kappa Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated! (Shoutout to the Mu Chapter of Omega Psi Phi, hey mike lol). It was my first college party and after that was a success, I became addicted. I love the adrenaline rush I would get from throwing the parties. I joined a party promotion team called, “Team Iz Lit”. I am no longer a member of that team but we were a family and I couldn’t thank them enough for everything I’ve learned.
I found myself throwing parties almost every other week during the second semester of my freshman year. When I would tell my mom about the parties, she thought it was 30-50 people. I would show her the videos and the first question was, “Tash, you know all these people?”. My social media following increased rapidly. Everything seemed great until the noise violation tickets were starting to add up. I was losing privileges at school because I was consistently violating the rules. My mom is an administrator so she did not play. Out of fear of getting kicked out of the school, I stopped throwing the parties.
Earlier in the year, I had asked my cousin if I could come intern for his independent label in Atlanta Georgia. Once I showed him the numbers from the parties I was throwing, he knew I was serious. I spent the summer, winter and spring break in ATL. Some would say I was obsessed and others would say it was passion. Within two months I went from throwing parties to booking concerts/festivals then from learning audio engineering in a classroom to spending countless hours in a studio session mixing for developing artist. It was like a dream come true.
When I went back to school in the fall, I was excelling in my academics. My professors and Dean were always recognizing my work ethic. (Shoutout to Prof. McArthur and Jay Sean) Classes were great but I felt stagnant.
At this point I was not throwing parties, I had moved off campus and I was not active in really anything. I felt stuck. When I went back to ATL for winter break, I knew I wanted to stay there to finish my degree. Did I mention that my mother is an administrator and so is my grandfather… oh and my sister is a teacher? Yeah, so the idea of transferring to Georgia State was a battle. They were worried about my credits not transferring and paying out of state tuition etc. I reached out to the track coach at Georgia State (Hey Coach Kyle) and he offered me a spot on the team with open arms. After crying, arguing and praying my mom finally saw my vision! She saw how living in ATL would only boost my career. And look at me now being interviewed by this magazine.
During my last semester at Rowan, I spent my time getting my GPA up and volunteering. I put together an artist showcase, helped plan a huge community service event called Back to the Boro and started managing artist! Now I am in Atlanta as a full-time student-athlete, still working with my cousin’s record label (S/o to Radar Live Music) trying to make a name for myself. My goal is to be a music mogul. A nice mix between P. Diddy, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, and Master P but a lot prettier.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being an African American woman in a male-dominated industry is an everyday obstacle. Dealing with people who didn’t understand what it is I am trying to accomplish was a challenge, family included. My grandparents didn’t understand what I wanted to do in music. My grandfather thought I was running around with rappers and my grandmother just had no clue. It was frustrating but I would keep them in the loop of everything I was doing.
As time goes by, they are starting to see my vision and believe in me. Another obstacle was within myself. I am a perfectionist. I had to learn that not everything will be perfect and to not let the things that didn’t go as planned bring me down.
Please tell us about Big Cat Records/Radar live Music.
-Throwing Parties
-Tour Support
-Artist Management
-Playing piano
-Promotions
-Making beats
-Audio Engineering
-Event Planner
Social Media
Music Supervising for films
→ I like them all but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be event planning. I love seeing everything I envision come to life. It’s a relief. There would be times that some events didn’t look how I imagined and I would have a panic attack. As I’m getting older, I realized that not everything will happen exactly how I want and that’s okay.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I was 7 years old, I had a lot of mouths (my sisters would say I still do lol). I was riding my tricycle to my neighbor’s house to get my book bag. My neighbor had my book for over 2 weeks and I wanted it back. I was not very nice when I was requesting for her to return my book to me at that moment. Karma hit me quickly!
This neighbor was known for having vicious dogs and she happily let one of them out on me. I hopped off my tricycle and started running home. My mom and sisters were on the porch laughing at me. I was traumatized for years. The distance between my house and my neighbor’s house was about 200m. The 200m has grown to be one of my best and favorite events on track. Thank you, Molly.
Pricing:
- Leasing Beats $40-$ 80; Exclusive Beats $200-$350
- Mixing Session at Capstone Studios $25-$60/hour
- Marketing and Promotion $1k+
Contact Info:
- Address: 1200 Foster Street, Atlanta GA 30301
- Website: https://aboutthemusic2017.wordpress.com/
- Email: tasha@radarlivemusic.com
- Instagram: @heytasha3_
- Twitter: @Tbethea3
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
