PERTINENCE X LIVE2

Pertinence’s story with Live2 technically goes back to February 9, 2021 when Pert DM’d the Live2 instagram account saying, “Hey! I just went through damn near every one of yall’s TikToks and boy am I stoked with what y’all are doing for the community! Shit just seems exactly liuke what the industry needs, and I can’t thank y’all enough for it. In the interest of also being an artist, of course I have to plug…” McClain and Pert did not actually talk until March 19th, 2022… just one month after Live2’s success with Em Beihold on Numb Little Bug, and we were back on the hunt for our long term artists. McClain was sitting in the Denver airport on the way home from spring break with his family and the two talked for multiple hours… by the end of that call it was clear that something was going to happen here. McClain had “Okay Okay” on repeat, and upon landing back in LA was picked up at the airport by film director Zay Mirigian (one of the OG members of Live2). McClain showed Zay many of the unreleased Pertinence songs he had just been sent and another puzzle piece for the Pertinence team fell into place. A few months passed as Pertinence, still living in his hometown in Arizona, and McClain worked remotely on creating momentum online for a song that would justify getting him out to LA for. That moment finally came with the song “TBD Freestyle” and Pertinence made his first guest appearance at the Live2 house. Pert often recalls this moment as very pivotal in his relationship with Live2 and his drive for manifesting the success necessary to move to LA permanently, because while he was out here shooting that video with Ethan Frank, McClain was mainly focused on another hot song at the time with Chasyn called “Real.” Pert says being competitive and driven by nature, he was determined to go back to LA and create a song that would cement his place in the world of Live2 for good. One weeks later he wrote “Bobby Boucher” and did just that. Within three weeks of leaving from his previous trip, Pert was back and this time became much closer with director Zay Mirigian and producer Baleigh Noble as they worked on the campaign for this song and eventually the iconic music video. McClain was also becoming closer and closer with Pertinence as it became more and more apparent that the two shared a similar mindset towards the state of the music industry and this obsession with the new possibility for independence as an artist. Soon thereafter, as Pert returned to AZ, McClain pitched to Pert that at the top of 2023 he should move into his room with him and work on a year long project that would establish enough of a base of monthly income that Pert could move into his own place in Los Angeles. The actual phone call of McClain pitching this idea is captured in the closing minutes of the first ever episode of the Live2 show. A few months passed and sure enough, Pertinence moved in to the Live2 house, ready to grind out an EP sized project each month that would become known as “Storybook Life.” In the months that would follow, the two would start a podcast together, and make an extreme amount of headway in developing a true fanbase around the core of Pertinence. We are currently 11 months into Storybook Life, and Pertinence was able to become financially stable from the project, as well as go on his first tour in this time. He is becoming recognizable as one of the most interesting movers coming up through the industry right now, and we certainly are just getting started.

“Pertinence is like a brother to me. I have very very rarely come across people who are as crazy as I am about their “thing” they are building, and I can count on one hand the number of times that I have been able to become close with those individuals as typically, extreme entrepreneurs are very particular about having small circles of friends. Incredibly luckily, our mindsets and these projects that we have launched together have created an environment that is undeniable. Pertinence treats his business and the way he thinks about building his world as his obsession. The determination to willpower his way to becoming what he has is unlike any other artist I have ever seen. He will be the first to tell you he was never a great singer, and while he’s always ha the taste and the ability to hold his own in rap… he has shaped himself into his own lane very purposefully. To me, he represents this idea that anyone can do anything, but almost no one believes in themselves enough to do it. The discipline and obsession and delusion necessary to bring him to this point are defining characteristics of who he is. He is so battle hardened and has built his base of who he is so solidly in this time period that the strength behind everything he does is unmatched. He is also one of the most thoughtful people you have ever met. He not only knows who he is as an artist, but also as a leader. One of the only reasons he has been able to maintain as much independence over his work as he has is because he is extremely gifted at making sure members of his team feel valued and supported. I very much so intend on Pertinence being one of my lifelong business partners and closest confidents throughout the decades to come, I consider myself lucky to have been building dope things with him for as long as we already have been.”

- a note from McClain