On June 27, 2026, CEO Dee turned Heartwood Soundstage into a full-day statement about what independent music infrastructure can look like when the people building it own the vision. The #iDoit4mycity Weekend began with a four-hour Masterclass for artists and music entrepreneurs, then opened into a six-hour festival for the city.

It was the platform’s first physical extension: a place where music, community, networking, education, and business could occupy the same address. The ambition was larger than producing another show. CEO Dee wanted the people who had connected through #iDoit4mycity online to meet in person, learn from working professionals, build relationships, and see those lessons carried onto a live stage.

From 1 to 5 p.m. at Heartwood Soundstage, 619 South Main Street, the festival’s purpose was established before the first evening performance. CEO Dee produced the Masterclass as an actionable, transparent room for independent artists, producers, managers, and creatives who wanted to move more strategically—not theory from a distance, but direct access to people doing the work.

The part CEO Dee is most proud of is the table he assembled. Four working professionals covered four lanes independent artists have to master: management and long-term artist strategy, promotion and artist development, engineering and professional studio standards, and entertainment law — contracts, publishing, and protecting the work.

The curriculum made the mission concrete: catalog management, ethical AI use, career funding, independent-artist marketing, managers versus investors, artist development, studio professionalism, digital growth, media training, and navigating the highs and lows of a long career.

• Catalog Management — owning, organizing, and maximizing music assets.
• Funding Your Career — grants, sponsorships, investors, and self-funding strategies.
• Artist Development — building a long-term career instead of chasing only a viral moment.
• Studio Professionalism — operating like a professional in every session.
• Digital Growth and Media Training — building an audience and presenting the brand professionally.

CEO Dee’s role was to connect the pieces: choose a venue that could support education and performance, bring together four guests with complementary expertise, frame a curriculum around independent ownership, and create a transition from conversation to execution. His presence on the panel was part host, part producer, and part bridge between Gainesville’s creators and a wider music-business network.

When the Masterclass ended, Heartwood shifted into a live independent hip-hop festival running from 5 to 11 p.m. The evening put the day’s ideas—artist development, professionalism, audience building, collaboration, and ownership—into motion in front of Gainesville.

The bill joined headliners and regional standouts with a deep field of independent artists, plus a featured live performance of “Twerk Sum.”

Artists, vendors, food, and audience all became part of one independent production—an ecosystem on display, not a collection of disconnected sets.

CEO Dee described the goal to Vinny Foo in deliberately historic terms: to bring Gainesville its biggest Black-owned independent hip-hop festival. The statement was not only about crowd size or a long lineup. It was about who controlled the platform, who had access to the knowledge, and whether the value created by the culture could remain connected to the people building it.

For #iDoit4mycity, the weekend made a digital platform physical. People who had followed interviews, stories, and local talent online could finally share a room. Artists could meet entrepreneurs. Working professionals could make the business legible. Fans could see independent talent on a serious stage. Relationships formed in the Masterclass could continue into the festival and beyond it.

That is what made Heartwood more than a venue. For one day, it became a working model of the ecosystem CEO Dee had been building: education feeding execution, ownership feeding opportunity, and a city seeing its own culture treated as infrastructure.

The performance photos hold the energy, but the speaker portraits hold the deeper accomplishment. CEO Dee did not only book a stage. He brought TJ Chapman, Bernard Martin, Evan Melville, and Ryan Schmidt, Esq. into one room and gave Gainesville’s independent artists direct access to management, promotion, engineering, and legal knowledge.

The festival showed what the city already had. The Masterclass invested in what its artists could become next. Together, they made #iDoit4mycity Weekend a statement of Black ownership, independent ambition, and the belief that Gainesville’s creative community deserves both a spotlight and a strategy.