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Tony M Fountain is the founder of Now Entertainment. He singlehandedly built Now Entertainment while also raising two small kids as a single dad. Today he mentors other artists and entrepreneurs to avoid making some of the same mistakes he faced along his journey. With bylines in Forbes & Entrepreneur Magazine, and a new book on the way this year, recording new music, creating Snap lenses, managing campaigns for many of your favorite artists, and more, he’s a busy man. Still, I had a chance to get him on the phone for a moment and ask him a few questions. Here’s what he had to say.
Who are some of your favorite rappers?
Lupe Fiasco, Bone Thugs -N- Harmony, Kid Cudi, Tobe Nwigwe, Rittz, Dusty Leigh, Hopsin, NF, Odd Squad Family, and so many more.
What are your passions outside of the music and entertainment industry?
I like to listen to podcasts and audiobooks when taking long trips. I’m usually listening to Alan Watts, Joe Rogan, or some others like that. I guess you could say I’m big on conspiracies and things of that nature. I also like to go fishing and watch movies.
What are some of your favorite movies?
I love a good movie, man, but if I had to pick some favs, it’d probably be The pursuit of happiness, Goodfellas, Sleepers, Original gangsters, New Jersey drive, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Forest Gump, The founder, Set it off, The hunger games, Fast and furious, and Sweeney Todd to name a few.
What did you do before starting Now Entertainment?
A little bit of everything from HVAC work, trucker, mental institution guard, even worked at a car dealership for a brief moment, among other things. I didn’t really hold down a job for too long. Once I mastered whatever it was, I would get bored and move on. I also couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t where I wanted to be and doing what I really wanted to do in life.
Have you ever been scammed or faced failure in the business?
Hell yeah! There was this one cunt Michelle Magee. She goes by other names sometimes as well. She has a fake ass company named Bullz Eye Entertainment and scammed me out of over eight hundred dollars. Back before I understood PR and how it worked, I found her on Linkedin and reached out.
At first, she seemed legit and like a decent person, but I was fooled. It turned out this so-called Christian lady was a complete fraud. I found out afterward I was one of many that she got over on. I tried to locate her, but she blocked me on all socials, and when I did a background check, I found she had moved over 10 times in less than a couple of years. She had written bad checks and all kinds of other stuff were on her record. I also learned never to send money to anyone via CashApp unless you know and trust them because they will not help you get it back and instead place it all on the banks, but the banks can’t do anything either.
What’s the best method for someone to use if they’d like to reach out to you?
By email or Snapchat. I stopped responding on a few platforms simply because they monitor your messages, and I’m not cool with that at all. Plus, I like building and having fun goofing around with the lenses on Snap.
Has there ever been a time where you wanted to quit?
Many times, being an entrepreneur is hard. It defiantly has its perks but can be very stressful. Many people find it tough to deal with, and the anxiety becomes too much to bear. I’ve come to a crossroads quite a few times when I either didn’t have the funding or didn’t understand what to do or who to speak with to get the information I needed to move forward felt like giving up. But the love for it all wouldn’t let me, and with some time, research, and deep thought, I always seemed to find my way.
What’s your favorite part of what you do?
Helping others reach their goals. There are many scam artists in this business, and it can break an artist’s spirit and bankrupt many entrepreneurs. It’s nice to have failed forward and thus can guide, inspire, and play a part in others reaching success.
What’s the situation with the guys you started with; are you still a team?
It’s all love; we just kind of all went our separate ways business-wise. People grow, and visions change. There was a sit-down once with Kendrick and Snoop where Snoop said something like, and I’m going to screw this up completely, but in a nutshell, it was something like, when you start reaching success, sometimes others will try to pull you down, and you can’t let them. You can either come back down to their level or keep climbing and hope they catch up. But the minute you come down, you might miss a step and fumble the ball, so you got to keep pushing forward.
What’s next for Tony?
I’m getting ready to put out a book this year, and honestly, I’m really thinking about possibly putting out some music of my own as well. I recently did a little rap duet video on Tiktok with Kato that got a few good responses.
