BIRD IS THE WORD

At the heart of the Internet Money collective, who’s currently breaking creative ground with a crew of young, hitmaking producers, is dealmaking executive Daniel “Birdman Zoe” Desir. Along with managing the careers of rising talents, IM founder Taz Taylor and fellow superproducer Nick Mira—the creative forces behind the biggest hits from Juice WRLD, Trevor Daniel and Lil Tecca—Birdman oversees the business of Internet Money. Zoe and Taylor’s combination of ambition and energy have made IM an unstoppable force in the hip-hop community.

While Taylor was making his mark as a breakthrough type-beat producer in 2016, Birdman reached out to him during a Twitter beef. Seeing eye-to-eye regarding the trials of getting placements and appropriately paid in the biz, Taylor and Birdman established a business relationship four years ago and never looked back.

“We move like Shaq and Kobe,” Birdman says half-jokingly. “He handles the creative/musical side and I handle the business side. We hardly ever bump heads because we just trust each other’s knowledge and decision making.”

Since 2016, Taylor and Mira’s emergence as hitmaking producers paralleled the rise of SoundCloud talent. They've worked with XXXtentacion, Trippie Redd and Rich The Kid, as well as producing Juice's “Lucid Dreams,” Daniel's “Falling” and Tecca's “Ransom.”

Before arriving to their current destination, a joint venture with Elliot Grainge’s 10K Projects distributed by Caroline, Birdman facilitated partnerships with tastemaking hubs Alamo Records and Mike Caren’s APG. “Elliot shows us a lot of respect and trusted us to get this across the finish line. From day one he has been a believer in Taz’s vision and as true partners should, wants to see Internet Money win.”

(L-R: Birdman Zoe, Taz Taylor, Elliot Grainge)

Taylor’s non-linear vision has played a key role in weaponizing IM’s creative prowess. “We don’t chase stats and trends and usually end up collaborating with unknown [at the time] artists and producers,” Zoe explains. “As the artist or producer develops, so does their creative relationship.” This organic, familial bond led to the development of Lil Tecca and Juice WRLD.

Along with managing the producers on the IM roster, Birdman has his own management company, Timeless Music Entertainment, which the Jamaica, Queens native started after his breakthrough gig with BrickSquad Monopoly.

Internet Money’s debut studio album, B4 The Storm, arrived Friday 8/24 and currently has two tracks in the Top 25 on both Apple Music and Spotify. Lead single “Lemonade” f/NAV, Gunna & Don Toliver is already over 60m streams since its release three weeks ago.

Listen to B4 The Storm here. Check out "Lemonade" below.