DJ Skee: Sport's least likely entrepreneur on discovering Kendrick Lamar, then selling snow to a Philadelphian

0:03DJ Skee:Hello and welcome to Worth Knowing, the sports business podcast from us here at Leaders. This is the first episode of the week this week, and it is the episode in which we talk to leaders in sport. Our guest this week is a bit of a left field one. It's DJ Ski, also known as Scott Keeley, the American artist, television host, radio personality and entrepreneur. Now, Ski made his name in the music business back in the early 2000s, discovering all sorts of artists, predominantly in hip hop. But he is most famous for having discovered Kendrick Lamar. And he now works in the weird and wonderful world of sports memorabilia.

0:59DJ Skee:And he was over in Europe recently talking to sports rights holders about the work that his company, The Realist, does to build lines of authenticated memorabilia. Ski is no stranger to this line of work. He has sold all sorts of things to all sorts of people in the past. He once sold snow for the Philadelphia Eagles. He has also made use of his musical connections by selling a, I believe it's called a blunt, one of Snoop Dogg's blunts. And he's sold all sorts of weird and wonderful things to all sorts of weird and wonderful people. Ski came into the studio with our mutual friend Steve Gera, the erstwhile leader of Grand Slam Track, to talk about the work that The Realist is doing and to talk about the memorabilia market in general.

1:59Scott Keeney:Anyway, enjoy the show.

2:01DJ Skee:Ski, thank you very much for joining us here in the leader's studio. Do I call you Ski? Do I call you Scott? Either way, whatever you want to call me is fine. I respond to both. I'm going to call you Ski. Ski, on your Wikipedia page, it refers to you as an American artist, television host, radio personality, and entrepreneur. We're going to talk about a lot of the stuff that you have done in the past and are doing right now. But my first question to you is, deep within your soul, how do you identify? What do you consider yourself to be?

2:36Scott Keeney:It's a great question. And it's tough because, you know, I've had, you know, multiple careers and there's a lot of overlap. But at the end of the day, I think I'm a creator and storyteller. And I think that's stayed consistent with everything that I've done from from DJing and introducing the world to new artists, working with brands on products, even in sport. And now with what we're doing at The Realist, right, we're storytelling through just a different means. It's changed from me talking or filming to now leveraging these physical products that resonate with fans.

3:08DJ Skee:Give us a, we'll go into the realist and your work in sport in a little bit, but give us an overview of your previous work. How did you start out?

3:21Scott Keeney:I mean, my story is insane. It's kind of a bit like Forrest Gump, right? Like, you know, I grew up in, born in New York, really grew up in Minneapolis, was always entrepreneurial by nature. uh in high school i found i thought i was going to be a pro athlete until i found djing and music and just knew that was going to be what i was going to do what sport were you baseball baseball basketball were my sports but um you know i was really good at baseball yeah but once i found music i just knew that was my foundation i got connected uh to the ceo of loud records sony at the time steve rifkin by you know the time i was flipping playstations and xboxes and sneakers and things and grew up on the internet and knew that really well.

4:02Scott Keeney:Stayed in contact with him, ended up giving him a bunch of ideas on the marketing side. One day I just put together a whole proposal. I thought if I was lucky, he'd send me a Wu-Tang Clan shirt. He said, come meet with me. So I ditched high school, flew to New York, met with him and he offered me a job and was not expecting that. Then ended up packing a U-Haul at 17, driving across the country to Los Angeles where I'd never really been. And he sat me down and said, here you go. And from that, was able to really learn the business side of the industry first, was always DJing, but it gave me a unique perspective.

4:39Scott Keeney:DJ career took off a little later on producing for a lot of the artists and I kind of got known as the person starting in mixtapes where it was the, especially in hip hop, that's how artists were introduced. That was the foundation and was fortunate to come across incredible talent you know i got known for working with game early on um you know first mixtape booked the first ever show with a young artist named k dot became kendrick lamar and through my journeys on radio tv i was fortunate where i got you know tasked with the position of powering all the new music across iheart radio and kiss fm and sirius um some of the big broadcasters in the u.s so i was really having the only music show on cable uh ski tv that started as a youtube show and just took off from there that speaking of sports, Mark Cuban actually gave me from another cold email and was like, ah, do you want to do a TV show?

5:26Scott Keeney:So just found myself fortunate to be in all these positions and take advantage of those opportunities when they came. And, you know, we were the first to have Post Malone and Lady Gaga and, you know, Travis Scott and, you know, a number of different talent kind of come through the reins first. And I kind of made my name as just being the first, like, I wasn't the one breaking, like making these artists or breaking them, I think my skill set has always been seeing where, you know, the ball is going and using the megaphone that I had to amplify and accelerate. And these things are going to happen.

5:58Scott Keeney:Like it's not because I'm not going to never take credit for any of those artists. They're all wildly talented. I did have a unique position and was able to see kind of the trends and what happened next. And I think I've, you know, kind of carried that over through everything I've done from products to even now in the collectible spaces. We're very early, but it's without a doubt happening in my mind.

6:18DJ Skee:Sticking with music for a little bit, I think you've been very modest there to reel off those names, which is great, but then say you didn't make them, you didn't break them, you just were there in the right place at the right time. But I feel like if you didn't make them or you didn't break them, you definitely played a pivotal role in massively accelerating the careers of a lot of very well-known artists. How do you talent spot in music? Like, how do you know when something or someone is going to absolutely smash? You know, did you have a lot of misses as well as a lot of hits? Of course.

6:52Scott Keeney:Of course. I mean, I think it's kind of similar to sports scouting. Like, there is some barometer. You just have a skill. And it comes from, like, if you look at the best scouts, they're real fans of the game. They grew it. They played it. They did it for me with music. I truly loved, like, especially at that time, like I love nothing more than finding what was next and listening to so much music. And, you know, I think where a lot of people in any category are scared to do is take a risk, right? For me, I always have embraced risk. And absolutely, there's been, there's actually a lot of artists where I've like, this is a no brainer, they're going to be a superstar and they're not, right?

7:30Scott Keeney:And I obviously get the credit for the ones that are big. Equally ones for a number of reasons. I still stand by some of the artists that I said are equally, if not more talented than some of the names we just mentioned. Opportunity wasn't right. And I think you could say the same for sport. They got injured. They got in the wrong situation, right? Different things happen in their lives. There's things that you can't control for that. And I think for me, it was just that passion. But I also understood, I was at the foresight to see kind of what was happening in the market and identify patterns at the end of the day, right?

8:01Scott Keeney:Like, hey, these things are happening. Like, this typically happens. And once you see it once and twice, three times, you just get better and better at it. So it becomes very clear as to like, all right, this one has a real shot. You were, if the internet is correct,

8:16DJ Skee:the first person to DJ live at an NFL game.

8:19Scott Keeney:I think that is right.

8:21DJ Skee:At a NASCAR race.

8:22Scott Keeney:That's right, because I said that.

8:24DJ Skee:At a University of Michigan sports event. 100 % right there. I know that one. It feels like that's just do or go now, right? There are DJs at major sports events. It just happens. It must have felt quite weird to go and DJ in a sports environment. And I wonder, what does a great music experience at a sports event look like?

8:44Scott Keeney:It's a great question. Yeah, it's been interesting to see. I mean, when I started doing that, it was a natural evolution for me. I never wanted to be the same. I started off in mixtapes, went to clubs, and I've been fortunate to have great experiences on every level, opening up success in Vegas, being in the biggest radio stations in the U.S., having a TV show. So and then sports was kind of the next chapter and a passion of mine. And, you know, I kind of made it to the big leagues, not the way that I thought I was, but it was my way of kind of kind of making it there. And, you know, I remember when I first talked about sports DJing, it's really funny.

9:15Scott Keeney:My first conversation about sports DJing was with a person working at Dodgers, Jerry Manuel, Jerry Lorenzo, and his father was a major league baseball manager. And he's like, man, it's so old school, like nobody will ever have a DJ in sport. Like, I get it and I want it. He went on to launch an incredible brand called Essentials and, you know, do a lot of other things. And, you know, now it's so common. But like 15, 20 years ago, it was this will never happen, which just shows how quickly things evolve in terms of operating that it's it's wildly different than than any of those other experiences.

9:50Scott Keeney:It's it's not radio. It's not a club show. You are not the star act. And you have to appeal to such a broad demographic of fans. And there's the balance of like respecting what is pure and what is known. Well, again, every franchise wants to, you know, engage new demographics and younger demographics. And then there's also the players. Like players have an entirely different request list than probably what, you know, the season ticket member that has been there for 40 years wants to hear. So how do you play that balance? And it's more prominent in American sport because there's so many like football.

10:26Scott Keeney:It's, I think, 14 minutes of gameplay. versus at least football here. There's halftime. The game goes on, so it's a different thing. So in football, the music you can make the sense, especially with broadcast being so good, it's a far better experience at home. You go for the energy and the atmosphere. The entertainment becomes a defining factor of what gets fans to the game. And also it's those nuances. I mean, one of my favorite moments was, I think it was this season or last season, maybe with the Rams. Fourth quarter, kickers going up, Coach McVay, the Rams calls a timeout. I just know the music right that's going to get rocking and intense and destroy the kicker and kicker misses it not I don't want to take credit right it's not that it's those things but in sport it's that one percent these athletes are so elite that can sometimes make the difference and it can sometimes be there so it really is important could it make the fan a little louder it could have motivated a player to make their adrenaline move that makes them jump that extra inch so it can be in those margins of defining that so keeping that in mind across all of that and And it's just, you know, taking it's different than a regular traditional DJ role.

11:31Scott Keeney:You have to take all those things into consideration. And the funnest thing, too, is like I have my dramatic folder that you're saving for the end of the game. Like it's going to get the fans pumped and energy running. And you have to know, and it's a risk. Do we play this now? Like this is the number one one. I know what this is going to do. Is now the right time? Do I hold it? Risk of holding it is that you missed the moment. Risk of playing it there is that you played it too early, right? Right. So there's all these nuances and understanding like all these layers of what's going on. So it's actually really complex and intense.

12:00DJ Skee:I was speaking to an established sort of sports DJ over here. He does a lot of the soccer events. And he was saying his secret, well, it's not a secret anymore. His top tip was to do research beforehand on what the players are listening to. Absolutely. So like go on their Instagram, go on their TikTok, just fight, get a really strong impression of the sort of palette of music that individual players are after because your holy grail as a DJ is to get the talent to respond to the music and then the crowd go after that.

12:32Scott Keeney:I agree. And a lot of teams and entertainment people don't realize that. I always say like, if the players are reacting and then you show them on the Jumbotron, and we started doing things early on because I wanted to identify like, hey, the reason we're playing this song is because of the player and then the fans appreciate it. So there's nothing better than like for in the like I'm doing that did the Rams this season. So I'll use a recent reference like Puka Nakua, incredible wide receiver in the NFL. I know what he likes and there's nothing better than when he scores or when they're in a key moment.

13:00Scott Keeney:I'm playing that song that he likes. Cut to him. Like it's all strategic. We know what's there. I'm like, hey, Puka's like, let's do this. Now is the time. Get him roaring and the crowd gets roaring behind him. So yes, playing for the players is important even though the crowd may not know that song they will jump to what the players is and victory is what's most important because that's what's going to make fans happy at the end of the day so yeah great advice and great nuance that you know it's not just hey let's play the same 10 stadium songs we've heard for the last 30 years sure you are over here in europe on a

13:31DJ Skee:whistle stop tour of um sort of sports entities uh with our good mutual friend steve gira yes Yes. Coming over to Europe to meet sports entities with The Realist, which is your sports memorabilia company. Tell us what The Realist is and how do you go from DJing, breaking sort of music, musicians, careers, DJing in stadiums to the niche world of sports memorabilia?

14:00Scott Keeney:Yeah, it's interesting. You know, what The Realist is high level is we've kind of built the operating system end to end for the next generation of memorabilia and collectibles, right? This sector is exploding. It's already quietly massive. We realized there were a lot of inefficiencies, a lot of issues with fraud, and that there was an opportunity to modernize this kind of antiquated industry. It's kind of been like dirty and uncool. And the way that I got here, because you're right, it sounds crazy, is, you know, I was very fortunate through my career in TV, like sneakers were always a big part of who I was.

14:32Scott Keeney:The reason I met and got my job was I was selling sneakers and I was actually importing like exclusive trainer colorways from the UK from retailers here that, again, people didn't realize that Europe and the US had different colors at the time.

14:44DJ Skee:That's the secret move.

14:46Scott Keeney:It was like that simple. So like I always was established in sneakers, was very fortunate to be the first investors in StockX, big sneaker, sneaker resale site and do a lot in sneaker community. When I saw like trading cards actually starting to come back and explode in America 2017, 2018, 2019, it reminded me a lot of what had happened in sneakers and streetwear. and I actually took a different approach. I launched a fund called MIT 10 with Carter and Courtney Ream in Los Angeles and we you know wanted to create a vehicle to invest in this emerging category that we we all saw was was exploding and we structured it where we made 25 venture investments including whatnot that was just you know I think valued at 11 billion dollars which is you know wild and great return for the fund to buying million dollar sports cards And it was through doing that that I saw most of the attention going into the trading card market.

15:41Scott Keeney:And we've seen like, again, kind of what fanatics did was modernize this antiquated industry that was quietly massive and just do the obvious and like go out and execute, which nobody had done. And it was really impressive. And when we saw memorabilia, she thought it was like this space that was, you know, the FBI estimates up to 90 % of memorabilia is fraudulent. But running auctions is not easy for a number of technical and operational reasons, and the technology there is dated. We realize most of these sales, when you look at a Michael Jordan jersey or, you know, a jersey selling for$10 million, it's not Michael, it's not the Bulls, it's not the NBA monetizing this.

16:20Scott Keeney:We thought there was an opportunity for rights holders to come in and, one, protect their brand, two, monetize these assets and engage their fans. And we thought there was a way to modernize the industry by not only focusing on the high end, but creating really innovative pieces that spoke to every fan, onboarding new. In order for this market to grow, we need to onboard young, diverse, you know, captive fan bases at every price point. It can't be just exclusive. Can't be shady. we've taken the hard route of, you know, by only working with the source, by creating and, you know, developing the most, you know, I guess, secure and intensive authentication system where we deploy, in essence, people to collect evidence on site at matches, and then productizing it in really elevated ways.

17:06Scott Keeney:And then for me, the natural through line is storytelling, right? Creating content. And as every sports organization is looking for new ways to engage fans and build this long-term loyalty, which collectibles are the perfect thing for, keep comes down to storytelling. And I think, again, going back to my background, that's where I really have a unique advantage. And what we're selling is things that aren't, it's not like gold or anything else. It's a dirty jersey or a piece of like, we're selling snow. But the story behind that is what's there. And it's that emotion that nostalgia triggers in your heart.

17:40Scott Keeney:And that's what we really do at

17:42DJ Skee:the realist and that's what excites me the most you mentioned snow there and having sold snow yeah i mean i'm sure there is a thing about you know selling selling what's this thing in a jay-z song

17:54Scott Keeney:isn't there about like oh yeah yeah yeah what's a big debate right does he say water to a well or water to a whale it's always like the hip-hop debate right we don't know which one it is but

18:02DJ Skee:either way like yes yeah he is a hustler yeah it seems to me selling snow you sell snow it's going to melt, you know, that's a, that, that, that, that asset is not going to exist for very long. You did actually sell some snow to who from what?