The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 13 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Posner: Great artistry is vulnerability and human connection, not technical skill
“Music is not about hitting the high, it's like life, it's not about hitting the perfect no or doing the run, it's about, does it, does this part of my humanity speak to that part of your humanity? I'm raising my hand, I'm taking my clothes off out here, and it…”
Posner: Labels no longer develop artists without an existing audience
“So these days of a record label are, Hey kid, you got talent. We're gonna develop you for six years. Like that doesn't happen. And now it's even more so. You only get a record deal if you already have an audience. So that, that no longer is, you know, the resp…”
Posner: Record labels cannot start fires, only pour gasoline
“And that's what labels are great at. It's not so great at starting fires, but if you could start a fire, they got a hell of a lot of gasoline.”
Posner: Artists must win Spotify before radio, reversing historical trends
“You win Spotify and get on the radio, or you win YouTube and you get on the radio. Then it was the opposite.”
Posner: Emotional pain and reluctance signal ideas worth writing about
“A huge, huge barometer of something I should be writing is that, oh, I really don't want to write this. This moment was so painful. Like, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about it. So yeah, that, that it's not the only, you know, it's not t…”
Posner: Taking on harder goals paradoxically makes life feel easier
“I'm gonna make my life harder, but then paradoxically, my life feels easier when I'm doing the harder thing.”
Posner: Early music gained traction on 2DopeBoyz, Nah Right, and Kanye's blog
“I was getting a little bit of traction on these hip hop blogs, which were important in hip hop at the time. Blogs like Two Dope Boys, Nah Right, even Kanye's blog, which is a really big deal at the time.”
Posner packed Duke classes into three days to play weekend shows
“That senior year I had set up, so I had all my classes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I leave Thursday night, rip Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night. I get three checks, come back, have a bunch of cash, go to the bank, put in the bank, come back in my…”
Posner says he is financially secure and never needs music money again
“I'm financially secure. I don't need to make another dollar from my music again.”
Posner: Benny Blanco excels at drawing peak performance from artists
“He's a master at, yeah, creating the physical space, but him, he knows how to get the best out of the best people in the world.”
Posner: Finished walk across America despite rattlesnake bite and ICU stay
“Dude, I got bit by a poisonous rattlesnake. I spent three nights in the ICU. I got airlifted. I got told by dispatch I might not live. I got told by doctors it might take me eight months to heal. I got, you know, told by other doctors I might lose my foot. It'…”
Posner: Songwriting, not singing or dancing, is my true musical strength
“I'm definitely not the best singer, definitely, you know, I can't dance or anything or do any cool runs but I'm a damn good writer.”
Posner engineers and records all his solo vocal tracks on a laptop
“My whole career, same as when I was in the dorm room, the mic's a little better now, but I have a laptop, nice mic, plugged in a nice pre, and I hit record on the laptop, I sing until I mess up, I hit stop, I engineer the thing myself, that way I can record wh…”