TDE's Lena Franklin

You’re made czar of the concert industry. What’s the first thing you’d change?

$8 for water? It better be blessed, enchanted and able to sing backup vocals. Since it rarely lives up to that standard, let it be known: From this day forward, all water shall be $1—nothing more, nothing less. Fans came for music, not a bottled-water pyramid scheme.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

“If you make a good product, it will sell itself.” That was from Top Dawg, and it always rings true.

Name a mistake you’ve made in the biz, and what you learned from it.

I’ve always had big opinions. When I was an intern, I casually told a very famous producer that I hated an artist’s last album. Without missing a beat, he said, “Yeah, I executive-produced it.” That was the day I learned to always keep a solid recovery joke in my back pocket. You never know when humility's about to smack you in the face.