Lyceum Recordz Is Looking for an Investor — And I'm Not Going to Sugarcoat It
Let me be real with you from the jump.
I'm Eric Leo. I am Lyceum Recordz. Lyceum Recordz is me. There's no big machine behind the curtain — it's just one person, operating on a couple hundred dollars a month, building something I genuinely believe is a gold mine.
And I'm looking for an investor.
Let Me Tell You What I've Built
I picked up my pen in 2009. I dropped my first album in 2010. Since August 2021, I've been releasing music every single month, and since 2023, every single week.
I have more than 250 tracks, ten books, and nine blogs. The music, the books, the blogs — all of it is umbrellaed under Lyceum Recordz. I have connections, contracts, IP, and hundreds of digital properties.
I have a business plan — both long and short term. I have a marketing plan, an operations plan, and a monthly P&L. I run the whole operation off a budget most people spend on groceries.
People find out what I do and they think there's some big machine behind this. There isn't. That's why you never see anyone else in the videos, the lives, or the pictures. It's just me.
Just me.
The Mission
Lyceum Recordz's consolidated mission statement is peace, love, and unity through truth.
This is intellectual hip-hop. It has depth, philosophy, sociology, and political economy baked into every bar. And it has attitude. You're going to see that by the end of this post.
The Problem Is Not What You Think
Let me head off the assumptions right now.
The problem is not my mindset. The problem is not my strategy. The problem is not my work ethic.
The problem is money.
I live on disability. I can't get a job. I can't get a loan. I've had to pay for every bit of my own education out of pocket. As I talk about constantly in my work — it takes money to make money, and you have to market your product, just like any other business.
Without a marketing budget, no one knows I exist.
Think about it this way: I've built the house. It's a beautiful house. It has rooms, infrastructure, everything you'd want. But no one is renting the house because they don't know it's on the market. There's no marketing budget to put up the sign.
Lyceum Recordz made $4,200 in 2024 and $2,500 in 2025 — all of it from around an initial $10,000 investment on my part, scraped together while struggling. That's not failure. That's positioning without capital.
If I'm not dead in the water, I'm moving very, very slowly. And slow isn't where I want to be.
What I Actually Want From You
I want a debt deal. That's it.
I know what I need to do. I just don't have the money to do it right now. I need time, strategy, and capital to execute — and I've got the first two covered. So let's talk terms.
Here's where I'll start the negotiation: 125% of your money back over four years. On top of that, a small percentage of royalties for three years after repayment, and a custom song as a thank you. Yes, a custom song. From me. That's not nothing.
I want to be completely honest with you: I don't need you. I need your money. I've gotten this far without anyone. I can keep going without you. But I can't keep going without capital — and neither can any business in America, no matter how talented, no matter how hard they work.
On Equity — If That's What You're Thinking
I'm not looking to give up equity. But if that's the conversation you want to have, here are my terms — non-negotiable.
You have to actually be in the business, not just writing a check and watching. You have to align with the ideals of the mission statement. There has to be a real financial commitment on your part. And you have to agree to a future buy-out option.
You will never have full control. Eric will always hold 51% or more. I'm not looking to give up more than 20%.
And here's one more condition for an equity investor: you would have to be okay with a minimum of 10% of profits going to charities that further Lyceum Recordz's mission statement.
Why Causal Marketing Is Smart Business
Some people hear "give to charity" and they flinch. In business school they call what I'm describing causal marketing — attaching your brand to monetary support for a specific cause or causes.
The benefits are real and measurable. It cultivates goodwill while generating marketing and PR. It helps the communities your business actually benefits from. It drives sales. And it signals to your customers that you're a business that gives a damn about something other than the bottom line.
This isn't altruism for the sake of optics. It's good strategy. It's also just the right thing to do. But I understand that in this economy, "the right thing to do" doesn't always move people — so I'm giving you the business case too.
The Narcissism Problem at the Top — And Why It Matters
Here's something that doesn't get said enough in conversations about business and investment, so I'm saying it.
Research consistently shows that successful businesspeople — particularly those at the top of the wealth ladder — score significantly higher on narcissistic personality traits than the general population. Studies published in journals like Personality and Individual Differences have found narcissism scores among CEOs and executives are measurably elevated compared to population norms, with some research indicating that extreme narcissism — the kind that crosses into clinical dysfunction — is actively selected for in corporate environments. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was built on the assumption that self-interest, at scale, produces collective good. And to a point, that's true — I believe in capitalism. But here's where the theory breaks down.
When the people making the most money become so self-interested that they actively capture the regulatory systems designed to check their power, the invisible hand becomes a fist. And that's where we are. The ultra-wealthy have poured billions into lobbying, campaign finance, and political influence — not to grow the economy, but to keep the rules written in their favor. They give themselves more because they believe they deserve it. They don't. Not at that scale. Not when workers can't live without government assistance from programs those same companies lobby to require as a condition of employment.
The market should be regulated to force businesses to be more altruistic. They aren't parasites by accident — they're parasites by design, and the design was written by them, for them.
I Believe in Capitalism — For Good
I want to make money. I have dreams, I have goals, I have other dreams I want to invest in, and money is rewarding. It also provides independence and autonomy — two things nobody who's ever been broke needs explained to them.
Music is a capital asset, and it is becoming more valuable every single day. A catalog is not just art. It's property. And property appreciates.
If you want to understand the version of capitalism I believe in — the version where profit and purpose aren't opposites — read this post I wrote over at the Socioeconomic Market blog. It digs into what businesses like Dr. Bronner's are doing right, and why that model is the future:
👉 Capitalism for Good: How Dr. Bronner's Is Rewriting the Rules
That's the version of success I'm building toward. That's the version I want an investor to believe in alongside me.
It's Personal. Let Me Tell You Why.
I want to take every dollar I've ever received from Social Security and pay it back in taxes. That's not a joke. That's a goal.
Why? So I can look a Republican politician in the face and tell them — with receipts — that programs for the poor are not handouts, they are investments. What's wrong isn't the people using the programs. What's wrong is the economic policy that makes those programs necessary in the first place.
I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to make anyone mad for the sake of it. I want to change the system for the better. But if you resist that — if you fight against the policies that people actually need to get out of poverty — I want to be able to rub my story in your face and point to it as proof. Proof that the system failed someone who was doing everything right.
I also want to give away a higher-than-required percentage of my money when I make it. Not because I have to. Because I want to show what a real leader does with resources — not hoard them, not protect them behind legal structures designed to pass wealth across generations while workers can't afford groceries, but use them. Give them back. Make them work for something bigger.
I don't care about millionaires. I don't care about the comfortable middle. I care about billionaires paying their taxes and stopping the leech behavior that keeps entire generations from building anything. I want to show them what someone with real values does when they get the bag.
Here's the Bottom Line
I'm sitting on a gold mine. I just don't have the tools to dig because of an economic system rigged against people like me. That system was built and maintained by people who have decided that their comfort is worth more than your future.
Imagine what Lyceum Recordz looks like with a real marketing budget. Imagine 250+ tracks, ten books, and nine blogs with actual visibility. Imagine what happens when the house goes on the market.
If you're an investor who believes in building something real — something with roots, with mission, with force, with a catalog that appreciates over time — let's talk.
Eric Leo is the founder of Lyceum Recordz LLC — independent hip-hop artist, nonfiction author, and content creator. For investor inquiries, reach out through contact@fiense.com
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