Unlocking the Keys to Longevity: Rico Love on Building a Career, Community, and Creative Legacy in Music

Legendary songwriter, producer, and mentor Rico Love sits down with The MLC’s Jamie Dominguez on this episode of Taking Care of Your Music Business to share the lessons behind his remarkable journey from humble beginnings to industry icon.

Rico reflects on pivotal career moments, from breakthrough collaborations to navigating different creative environments, and shares strategies for understanding your rights and collecting royalties. He also explores the power of community and mentorship through his work with the We Love Music conference and as co-chair of the Black Music Collective.

 Whether you’re an emerging songwriter or a seasoned creator, this conversation delivers practical advice on persistence, integrity, and thriving in today’s music business. Learn how understanding the system—including streaming royalties and innovative platforms—can help maximize your revenue streams and build a lasting career.

Watch all our full episodes on YouTube here and learn more about The MLC and our mission to ensure songwriters and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming and download services in the U.S. accurately and on time here. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] INTRO:

Welcome to Taking Care of your Music Business, brought to you by the Mechanical Licensing Collective, also known as the MLC. In this podcast, we’ll dive deep into the heart of the music industry, exploring how to get paid as a creative, making sure that you’re receiving all the royalties you deserve. We’ll also dive into building a sustainable career, sharing strategies and best practices that creators can use to achieve long term success. Join us as we bring you interviews with top songwriters and music executives who share their personal journeys and professional wisdom on thriving in the business, all while making a living. So get ready for some real talk about navigating the music industry. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And be sure to catch all of our full episodes on YouTube.

[00:00:43] Jamie Dominguez:

Welcome back to the MLC’s podcast, Taking Care of your Music Business, where we explore the intersection of music business and creativity. I’m Jamie Dominguez from the MLC, and I’m honored to be joined by Grammy-nominated songwriter, producer, artist, and entrepreneur Rico Love. From writing and producing chart-topping hits for artists like Beyoncé, Usher, and Nelly, to founding his own music conference and empowering the next generation of creators, Rico brings a wealth of insight into what it really takes to succeed and sustain a career in this industry. Rico Love, hello.

[00:01:18] Rico Love:

Hello.

[00:01:18] Jamie Dominguez:

Thank you for coming and chatting with me today. This is special because I feel like we have crossed paths over the many years and normally it was just me handing you an award—handing you a songwriting award at the CSAC Pop Awards—but we’ve never really had a chance to sit down and just talk about your story and your journey. And I’ve seen your evolution from afar as a songwriter, a producer, an executive, a music executive, an educator, a mentor. It’s so beautiful to watch. Let’s just start with your roots, because roots obviously play such a big part in a story. And I know you were born in New Orleans, is that right?

[00:02:16] Rico Love:

Yeah, yeah. My mother is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My father’s from New York. My parents went to the military down in Louisiana. I guess my origin story—my roots—is the Creole. And all that energy and the soul of that has never left me.

[00:02:31] Jamie Dominguez:

Talk about the things you experienced and you saw that really must have shaped you growing up.

[00:02:38] Rico Love:

The ability to adjust in different environments is very easy and natural to me because of that. Not necessarily changing who I was or who I am, but adjusting to the surrounding—making sure that I understood where I was and how things work here and things work here and things work here. That was normal and natural for me. And I think in production it helps me because I’m able to exist in many different spaces. I’ve had success in country and pop and R&B and hip hop and bachata and merengue—different facets musically—because I had a wide palette. I think that comes from being in different settings and being able to get in different rooms to understand, to the core of who we are, we all are just people trying to find happiness and trying to find love and trying to eat and fulfill these certain natural requirements.

[00:03:30] Rico Love:

That’s what music is to me as well. So I was able to capture the fact that all of these things had a common denominator. And as I created, it was easy for me to understand and see the core and how each core matched. Because when you grow up in different spaces, you realize: the accent is different, the energy is different, but to the heart of who we are, we all want the same things. So musically that helped me inform who I am as a creator, but also as a person—being able to find good in all people.

[00:04:00] Jamie Dominguez:

Who are some of your musical heroes? Were there any mentors in each of those places that guided you or you looked up to?

[00:04:11] Rico Love:

I had a cousin named Clarence Landry. He passed away—he was murdered—and he was one of my biggest influences. He was always dressed really nice. All the girls loved him. Really good looking guy. Huge personality—one of those people you just never could forget.

[00:04:27] Rico Love:

So in Louisiana, it was Clarence. The Landry family is my heart. Clarence was everything to me. And then in different spaces… my uncle Tyrone was from Harlem, and he was one of those personalities—really in the streets, understood the streets, understood how to move—taught me a lot about how to handle myself and how to be a person, how to be a man. As well as my father. My father’s an incredible influence on who I am as a person—his kindness and his love and his ability to embrace all people and make everybody feel comfortable. And then my mom—my mom has a heart to serve.

[00:05:15] Rico Love:

Her nature is hospitality. She’s what I would call a minister of hospitality—she knows how to make sure everybody’s okay. Her first concern every day is, “How are you? Are you okay? What do you need? How can I help?” So musically and as far as big dreams, that’s something that was birthed in me. I didn’t have up close and personal people who musically influenced me, but as far as who I am as a person—my uncle Tyrone, my cousin Clarence Landry, my mom, and my dad—those people directly influenced how I see the world, how I treat people, and who I am.

[00:06:03] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s so important—to be grounded like that, to have real life influences and people you can lean on for support and guidance.

[00:06:15] Rico Love:

My dad is an incredible singer and my mother is a writer. My dad is an incredible singer—an amazing voice.

[00:06:21] Jamie Dominguez:

Wow. So you definitely inherited both those traits. Did they encourage you to write growing up?

[00:06:29] Rico Love:

I don’t think… the thing about my upbringing, I was never influenced by my parents to do. I just was.

[00:06:36] Jamie Dominguez:

You just did.

[00:06:37] Rico Love:

I just did it. I didn’t need anybody to tell me, “You should do that.” I was telling everybody, “This is what I’m going to do.” No choices, no plan B—no plan B, no nothing. I went to school, I went to college—not for a plan B. I went to college because I was in the streets.

[00:06:53] Rico Love:

So it was a way to get out of the streets. But I knew if I didn’t go to school, I wasn’t going to live a normal life like people around me. I knew I wasn’t going to just go to work. So I was like, I got to go to school. I was smart enough and wise enough to know even at 16 years old—because I graduated high school at 16. I went to school to pass the time before I made it, in a place that was positive—not because I had a backup plan. There was no backup plan.

[00:07:19] Jamie Dominguez:

I hear that a lot from creators—it’s like there’s no choice. You’re born to do it. You feel it and you’ll do whatever it takes. And I’m at the MLC now—we were born out of the Music Modernization Act. And when you say it’s a gift and a curse with the younger generation… I find the younger generation coming up really doesn’t know anything about publishing or rights and royalty income. So a lot of times I’m out there educating young songwriters about the fundamentals.

[00:07:56] Jamie Dominguez:

Like: this is what music publishing is. These are the various rights. These are the royalty streams they generate. Stripping it back down so they can be more financially savvy. It’s important to plan ahead with your money and understand how it works so you can monetize, leverage, and use that capital to fund whatever you want to do.

[00:08:24] Rico Love:

Right—what belongs to you and what doesn’t belong to you. And then find ways to make what does belong to you work and get rid of… what I mean is: if I know if I got $5, I really got 2.50, right? I really got 1.50. But if I’m smart with that $5, I’ll be able to make it so that I got $4.

[00:08:45] Rico Love:

If I’m smart and understand: everything I do is based around developing and pouring back into me, then I can use this to my advantage and not have to give most of that away. I always tell people: look at it like that. Don’t look at it as a negative to say, “Tomorrow I might not be successful.” No—tomorrow the world can stop, right? Then what are you going to do? So don’t look at it as your success will stop—the world can literally stop. So because that can happen, we gotta be wise in how we move.

[00:09:13] Rico Love:

And I think that’s important work you guys are doing. I would love to figure out ways to partner with you guys with the conference and do things like that. Because I think it’s important that people understand it from both angles. I’m coming across some of the most talented people in the world that come to these conferences. And I had a bunch of my students—literally three students from the first We Love Music conference—wrote “Good Good” for Usher and had their first number one record. So being able to mentor those people and watch them develop… we’ve had artists come through, get record deals, publishing deals, and start to grow. Getting firsthand accounts of how this business works, how the system works, and the mistakes we’ve made—the mistakes we don’t want them to make—is really important.

[00:09:58] Jamie Dominguez:

Did you break it down for them when they were having that initial hit right out the gate? Like, “All right, this is what you gotta know about publishing…”

[00:10:05] Rico Love:

Yeah, but it was different for them because they didn’t make the same amount of money that we made early on in our first hits. So they didn’t really get the big head because it wasn’t the same situation.

[00:10:18] Jamie Dominguez:

It’s a different era.

[00:10:19] Rico Love:

Different era. Once you had a huge hit, like…

[00:10:21] Jamie Dominguez:

The late 90s, early 2000s were different.

[00:10:24] Rico Love:

I wish I was there for the early 90s.

[00:10:28] Jamie Dominguez:

That was the storied music industry—writing “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Crazy.

[00:10:33] Rico Love:

All those songs. Crazy.

[00:10:35] Jamie Dominguez:

But think about the stories of the artists involved and how broke they were.

[00:10:40] Rico Love:

Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:41] Jamie Dominguez:

Meanwhile icons—huge hits, global, timeless. You go anywhere in the world and they know the lyrics. They don’t even speak English and they can sing the song to you.

[00:10:54] Rico Love:

Remember TLC winning the Grammys and getting up there and saying on the Grammys piece that we broke. That was crazy.

[00:11:01] Jamie Dominguez:

Crazy. They’ll always be the poster children for that. And Rico, your first hit was with Usher, right? That might have been one of the first songs you wrote.

[00:11:14] Rico Love:

Yeah. The first song I ever wrote was “Throwback,” which was on the Confessions album. Before that I was rapping—I was a rap artist.

[00:11:21] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s right.

[00:11:21] Rico Love:

I was signed as a rap artist to Usher’s label. And when I was there, I needed money. So I was like, “Can you give me some money?” He was like, “I could give you money and you just spend it—so let me give you an opportunity to make your own money.” He saw something special in me, so he told me to write a song. I had never written a song before—he knew that—but he saw something special and was like, “Yo, you need to write the song.”

[00:11:46] Rico Love:

So I wrote “Throwback,” and that was the first song I ever wrote. After that I tapped in. A lot of people around that space thought—well, I know they thought, because I heard the rumblings—“Oh, he got lucky with that song.” And then when I locked in, the same energy I had as a rap artist, the same energy I had as a 16-year-old kid telling everybody I was gonna make it—that energy pushed me through. I said, I gotta tap in, I gotta lock in. So I locked in and kept going. Almost 30 years of being focused and locked in—being intentional about what I wanted to do.

[00:12:22] Jamie Dominguez:

And you do have to be intentional about it.

[00:12:24] Rico Love:

Oh, absolutely.

[00:12:26] Jamie Dominguez:

So Usher was really a mentor to you.

[00:12:28] Rico Love:

Still is.

[00:12:29] Jamie Dominguez:

Was there a piece of advice he gave you that really stuck and you carry to this day?

[00:12:40] Rico Love:

Several things, but one that stood out the most was we were starting the Truth tour. I toured with him in 2004. Our first show was in Hampton, Virginia—an arena. And he said, “Are you nervous?” And I said, “No, I’m not nervous.” He said, “Yes, you are. It’s okay to be nervous. Just don’t be scared.” And that changed my life. Because that thing you feel—that’s human. Just don’t be scared.

[00:13:06] Rico Love:

Fear will cripple you. Fear will cause you not to go out that door because you’re scared what’s on the other side. Nervousness means you’re accepting the fact that you’re going through that door. Nerves are saying, “I’m going.” Fear will say, “I’m not gonna go.”

[00:13:23] Rico Love:

So right before the first performance, he said, “Are you nervous?” I said, “No.” He said, “Yes, you are—but that’s good. Be nervous. Just don’t be scared.”

[00:13:34] Jamie Dominguez:

Yeah.

[00:13:35] Rico Love:

And I was like, wow. He said, “Yeah, you are—because I’m nervous.”

[00:13:41] Jamie Dominguez:

Right. How could you not be nervous? You’re about to go on stage and perform with Usher—one of the biggest artists in the world.

[00:13:49] Rico Love:

And then when he would bring me out, he would introduce me to the world every city. It was like your big brother holding your hand, saying, “Let me walk you out.” Every night I had him as a comfort to say, “I got you.” Now you’re out here, you’re in my space. They’re going to open up their hearts to you because I’m telling them you’re my guy—but you still gotta go do your thing. That was one of the greatest lessons he’s ever given me.

[00:14:36] Jamie Dominguez:

How do you feel the industry is now—is it better, is it getting better? To me it feels like it’s moving forward in a positive way. There’s less ego. The younger generation just does their thing—they’re not trying to impress a CEO, they just do it.

[00:15:01] Rico Love:

That to me is a gift and a curse.

[00:15:03] Jamie Dominguez:

Right?

[00:15:03] Rico Love:

Because there’s almost a lawlessness I wish had more control and structure. But there’s no one way to make it anymore. It used to be a formula: get in the studio, we write you a hit, service it to radio, it hits, people love you, then we put out an album. Now you have to come into the business with a hit in order to be signed for most artists. A lot of artists get signed for talent, but for most it’s because you already have motion—something going on—and then they piggyback off it and pour into it to push it to the top.

[00:15:40] Rico Love:

But there were way more opportunities for people to make it in the business. The problem is: if your first record deal was for $5 million, how can somebody sit down and tell you that you need to do this?

[00:15:53] Jamie Dominguez:

Right.

[00:15:53] Rico Love:

What are you going to tell me? They just gave me six more.

[00:15:57] Rico Love:

I think record companies need to figure out how to break artists in this new system. I’ll tell you why: 600,000 songs are being uploaded to streaming services every single day. The door is wide open—everybody’s going through the door at the same time. Getting in isn’t the hard part. It’s being noticed. And if you’re not social media savvy, if you don’t understand how to work the algorithm…

[00:16:22] Rico Love:

Or if you’re not lucky enough to be in the right stream at the right time and something goes viral, you might miss the boat. Labels haven’t figured it out because they’ll sign an artist, put out records, and then can’t figure out why this great artist doesn’t work. Meanwhile some kid with no budget just explodes and creates a movement.

[00:16:43] Rico Love:

There’s a science to it we haven’t figured out. Labels are trying to sign people from the outside and make them go into the label system.

[00:16:58] Jamie Dominguez:

The system, yeah.

[00:16:59] Rico Love:

You need to sign them and tell them, “Just do what you do. Bring it to us and we’ll monetize.” Instead they sign tastemakers and then say, “This is how things work here.” That’s why things aren’t working.

[00:17:30] Rico Love:

Streaming is a gift that keeps giving to the record industry. And with the Music Modernization Act passing, writers are going to be compensated more. But streaming has only touched about 18% of the world. I think the industry is in a powerful space—it’s gonna take someone to open their eyes and say, “We gotta take a back seat, get our ego out of it.” Who is this kid who understands how to break acts? Let’s hire them. Bring them in, say “Do what you do,” and support them.

[00:18:10] Jamie Dominguez:

Was there a moment in your career where you really had to learn the business—where you were like, “This can’t happen again”?

[00:18:25] Rico Love:

Oh yeah. 2016, I got sued for like four and a half million dollars. Lost the lawsuit. Had to file for bankruptcy.

[00:18:34] Jamie Dominguez:

Wow.

[00:18:34] Rico Love:

Had to recover from that. It happens to the best of us. It’s all about how we recover. You can smile now, but when you go into it, you’re like, “What is happening?” Those things are important to go through. I’m blessed to get through them, but I wouldn’t want to go through that stuff. It’s difficult, but who you are isn’t who you are at your highest—who you really are is at your lowest.

[00:19:20] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s right.

[00:19:20] Rico Love:

That’s when your character shows.

[00:19:38] Jamie Dominguez:

Are there any dream collaborations—someone you haven’t worked with yet?

[00:20:00] Rico Love:

I’ve always wanted to work with Rufus Wainwright. I’m a huge fan. One One is one of my favorite albums ever, so to get in the studio and write a song with him would be incredible. I worked with Empire of the Sun—that was cool. But Rufus Wainwright is my dream collab.

[00:20:15] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s possible.

[00:20:17] Rico Love:

Hope so. I’ve wanted to for so many years. Haven’t run across anyone who could connect us, but maybe one day.

[00:20:26] Jamie Dominguez:

Is there anything you want to leave creators with—your message to them?

[00:20:37] Rico Love:

The way you do anything is the way you do everything. The attention you pay to small details dictates how you treat the big things that happen. You might think you’re dealing with a small amount right now. But when God sees it, He says, “Because of how you treated this much, I’m going to bless you with that much.” Treat what you have now the same way you want to treat what you want in the future.

[00:21:09] Jamie Dominguez:

I love that. Life is art.

[00:21:11] Rico Love:

Yes, indeed.

[00:21:11] Jamie Dominguez:

Life is art. All right—“turn the lights on.” What do you mean by that?

[00:21:15] Rico Love:

Turn the lights on?

[00:21:16] Jamie Dominguez:

What does that mean?

[00:21:17] Rico Love:

Shine.

[00:21:18] Jamie Dominguez:

Love it. Shine.

[00:21:21] Rico Love:

People are so in love with the idea of making it that they get angry at the fact that it’s not normal for them to make it in that space. When people don’t make it, their biggest story is “It’s fake.” And yeah, you’re going to meet fake people everywhere. You’re going to meet people who don’t keep their word. But my experience in the music industry has been extremely… I met amazing people who guided me.

[00:21:47] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s so true. Building community is important—and there are always bad characters anywhere you go.

[00:22:03] Rico Love:

I’m glad you said that because people focus so much on, “We don’t help each other,” but I think we do.

[00:22:10] Jamie Dominguez:

You do?

[00:22:10] Rico Love:

Yeah. We just have to pay attention to those of us who have formed community and not send all our energy to the people who didn’t. It’s like the comments section on social media. When you have talent, people want to help you.

[00:22:24] Jamie Dominguez:

Yeah.

[00:22:24] Rico Love:

A lot of times it’s usually the people with not talent, or not drive, or not consistency—people not willing to show up every day. Those of us willing to show up—even when people say no—we make it to the next level and we can tell that story. If people not keeping their word stopped me from showing up, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

[00:22:52] Jamie Dominguez:

Beautiful. And you’ve shifted into mentor and educator—that’s been your evolution. You’re still writing hits, but the “why” has shifted.

[00:23:11] Rico Love:

Yeah.

[00:23:11] Jamie Dominguez:

Tell us about what you’re doing in education—why you do it, and how you want to empower the next generation.

[00:23:31] Rico Love:

We started the We Love Music conference in 2015. One of my closest friends, Byron Trice—I told him my idea and he found a partner with me through the Indiana Black Expo. The first year we did it with the Expo. The second year I did it in Indianapolis but not with the Expo, and I kept it going. We did two-day sessions—10 hours per day, 10 to 12 hours some days. Lectures about the art of song, developing A&Rs, managers, stage performance, artists, how to develop and discover identity—real lessons.

[00:24:11] Rico Love:

Everybody I invited had to write out a lesson plan—Brian Michael Cox, Danger, Trina, Ludacris, Shaka… tons of speakers over the years, Mams Taylor—so many people. Then we branched into Songcraft courses. Songcraft is when I take 15 to 25 people in one studio and we work a full day. Five people in each room—sometimes seven or eight. I send music to each room, and we’re tasked with writing songs. Some rooms write to the same music. We go room to room—I’ll start an idea or they’ll start an idea, and I help them finish. I walk them through why I think something works and why something doesn’t. It’s a full day of creation with like-minded individuals. We’ve been doing Songcraft for two and a half years—18 cities, South Africa twice.

[00:25:17] Rico Love:

We did the Cultural Summit—I went to Abu Dhabi. We did London. It’s been incredible—across the U.S. too. Next city is Milwaukee. I’m also a music supervisor for the TV show Black Hamptons and for Family Business: New Orleans, and I did the theme song for Family Business. I use opportunities to put young writers in position—to submit their music for these projects.

[00:25:56] Rico Love:

I taught at Berklee in Boston and found a young producer from China named Dennis Wim—he’s one of my main producers now. I signed him, and he’s been an incredible addition to my team—just off teaching and mentoring. The opportunities are there. It’s about seeking them out. Even last weekend I was in Boston teaching and ran into incredible singers and artists I want to work with. I always have the heart to give back—but the gift is for me too because I discover great talent and it gives me extra push.

[00:26:34] Jamie Dominguez:

It inspires you.

[00:26:35] Rico Love:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:26:37] Jamie Dominguez:

You’re also co-chair of the Black Music Collective. Let’s talk about that—because we’re both involved with the Recording Academy. I’m a New York chapter governor. People think of the Grammys, but there’s so much behind the scenes—opportunity to impact change on such a notable platform. And yeah, it gets flack, but there’s been tremendous change. Tell us how it was created and how you got involved.

[00:27:35] Rico Love:

Riggs Morales, Jerry L. Johnson, Harvey Mason… When they put the BMC together, I was a fly on the wall observing. I had input and ideas after the fact. Riggs approached me and said, “I think you should be the chair.” I was like, wow—an incredible opportunity. As soon as I got in, I wanted to create something forward-facing—touching the community. And Valisha Butterfield…

[00:28:17] Rico Love:

Valisha is a founding member too. She reached out and I told her a concept, and she created the HBCU Love Tour. We started going to HBCUs and pouring into the youth and community. For me, it’s not just honoring creatives—it’s shining a light on the Academy and people of color and women in the Academy. We call it the Black Music Collective, but it inspired other spaces too—like the Asian community creating the Gold Alliance. And we want that.

[00:28:56] Rico Love:

Grace Baca came to me and said, “This is what I want to do.” I was like, that’s incredible—shout out to Grace. But it’s about shining a light on the importance of being there, taking a stand, and being a voice. This is my last term—I pray it continues positively and people don’t make it about personal things. Make it about the people. That’s most important.

[00:29:38] Rico Love:

It’s important that people exist outside the Academy in a strong way. Because what can happen is people get in that space and if that’s their only validity, their identity is trapped inside it—and then personal feelings get put into it instead of what’s best for the whole body. I never broadcast that I was chair. I don’t bring it up because outside of that I’m Rico Love, and without it I’m Rico Love. Title is nothing.

[00:30:28] Jamie Dominguez:

Right.

[00:30:28] Rico Love:

It’s about the work you do.

[00:30:29] Jamie Dominguez:

Correct. It’s always about the work. Titles don’t matter—you can give yourself any title you want.

[00:30:36] Rico Love:

They come and go. You’ll be in the seat for a little while and then you’ll be out.

[00:30:40] Jamie Dominguez:

Especially in our industry—there’s no barrier to entry. Anybody can say they’re a manager.

[00:30:48] Rico Love:

How many executives I see out and I’m like, “I used to be president of Universal,” right? Nobody cares. People walk right past. There was a time if he was in this room it was life changing. That can come and go.

[00:31:03] Jamie Dominguez:

That’s a great point—and a good segue. I always love to talk about the state of the industry and where it’s going. For me, a big thing is knowing that all the time I spent in this business—at this point like 25 years—I want to know I made an impact. I left it better than how I found it.

[00:31:29] Jamie Dominguez:

Thank you so much, Rico Love.

[00:31:30] Rico Love:

Thank you. Thank you.

[00:31:33] Jamie Dominguez:

Thanks so much for listening to Taking Care of your Music Business. Don’t forget, you can watch full video episodes on our YouTube channel—and make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.