Kyree Hollis a 23-year-old digital marketing strategist. He’s best known for having a growing network of connections and working alongside big acts like Teddy Riley, who he assisted for several years. Los Angeles-based creative has an admirable catalog of records he’s worked on in the past, notably Cam’ron’s 2020 project Purple Haze 2.
Not to mention, Kyree is a major influence on the music streaming app Triller. He amassed thousands of views daily doing campaigns for relatively big acts, including Lil Tecca and Yo Gotti a while back.
We sat down with the music creative to talk about digital marketing, working with Diddy and Teddy Riley, and a list of other things. Check out the interview below.
Having two parents in the music industry, what were some of the artists you were exposed to at a young age?
BMF which was legendary, so that included Young Jeezy before people actually knew who he was. Outkast of course, Akon, Teddy Riley, birdman, are probably the main ones.
How would you compare living in Atlanta to where you’re currently based, Los Angeles?
In my opinion, they are totally different however they both have some really good advantages. Growing up in Atlanta I definitely got to experience that spectrum of the entertainment industry. From an artist/producer standpoint, I feel like people in the music industry in Atlanta work together more than here in LA.
It seems as if its easier to get collabs and meet other people. Here in LA people usually have some sort of mentality where they are better than one another instead of working and achieving accolades together. From a marketing standpoint, Atlanta is definitely home to urban music and LA seems to be more universal vibes.
I realized fans use Apple Music more in Atlanta and Spotify more in LA. It’s really interesting to see how that works, and I have to think about that when I’m running campaigns on different songs. To me living in LA though just works better.
Because I work with artists, influencers, and brands it’s easier to do business is that most of them live here and/or have offices based here. La is home to many creatives and it pushes me every day to better my craft, definitely motivating.
Not only did you take an interest in music, but sports as well. Tell me about your time playing football and why you eventually stopped.
I loved playing sports. I played sports from first grade all the way up until the end of my freshman year of college. I ended up going to play football at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and right after the season we got word that the football program would be shut down. That was the first time in like 30 years a D1 football program has shutdown.
I ended up transferring to Indiana University to play, at which I was only there for like 7 months. I lost my interest in the game of football, It was more “business” and politics per se than actually playing and enjoying the game. I ended up just leaving all my stuff at my apartment at IU and moving to LA. Football taught me many lessons throughout the years at which I still instill in my life today.
If it weren’t music, what would you be doing right now?
I would still be doing digital marketing however it would just be more focused on working with influencers and brands. I’m a very creative person, and digital marketing allows me to use my creativity given all the different tools online and ways to capture someone’s attention. I find Interest in challenging myself to create new ways to get an audience to react based off of something I thought of.
You’ve been able to work with the likes of Diddy and Teddy Riley over the past years. Is there anyone in the industry that you’ve become really close to?
I would definitely say Teddy Riley and Devyne Stephens. Those are two people I know I can call that will give me great advice and also help me with anything I need. Besides those two, I have been able to make some strong connections with other people in the industry such as Rahim Wright of 740 projects, who I often converse with on digital marketing topics.
Shoutout to Nelson Diaz as well who is very successful in the industry and has been able to diversify his portfolio with many business ventures. I think its good for me to specialize in something, however, I also want to expand and create many different sources of income within the industry. I want to be an entertainment powerhouse, where I can be a “1 stop shop” for my clients. What I do now is just the beginning and a small part of my ultimate goal.
What are some of your day-to-day duties as someone in marketing?
Developing digital marketing strategy plans and rollouts take up a lot of my time. I enjoy researching an artist’s social media accounts and streaming profiles and then strategizing how to build them. A lot of artists just want to see high streaming numbers and a large following on their socials, however they don’t see the steps needed to achieve those goals.
Also on a day to day basis, I source brand partnerships between influencers and brands that I work with. I strongly believe in creating different sources of revenue for my clients and utilizing their platforms to the fullest potential. There is a lot more detail into those two things such as social platform growth, artist development, branding, and many more things.
Stay up to date with all things Kyree Hollis by following him on social media @kyreedatsme .
