Event Producer Devin Cobbs Speaks On His Career Path, Why He Decided To Get Into Event Production, The Important Pieces To Throwing A Successful Gathering, 4 Lovers Only Anniversary, And What To Expect Moving Toward Summer 2021.

On November 29th, 2016, I was accepted into an internship role to help with digital marketing for 40oz Van and his traveling party tour, 40oz Bounce. I had always been a fan of Van from his days of throwing 40oz Bounce in Washington Heights, and even owned a few of his hats which contributed to his success early on. When I initially reached out about the opportunity to intern for the team, the person who was at the internship program's helm was Devin Cobbs. This is how we met and, to this day, I still have the email Devin sent me to confirm I secured the role. Fast forward to April 2017, I watched the Brooklyn native work tirelessly to put together the first few 40oz Bounces of the new year while also putting together his first solo tour project, 4 Lovers Only - A 90s R&B Experience.

The first event kicked off in Philadelphia. I still vividly remember the scene - a world where our fellow millennials were dancing, grinding, and screaming all of the words to Shai’s “If I Ever Fall In Love” at the top of their lungs. By the Summer of 2017, Devin and the 4 Lovers Only team had already done five cities in the span of two months. By late August 2017, they were ready to embark on the second leg of the already-famed R&B experience party by hitting four more cities before the Fall. I’ve had the opportunity to be front row during this entire process, from the initial plan to watching the popular event producer eventually take action upon his mission.

The reason why I’m giving the backstory to how all of these pieces come together because, unlike a lot of the amazing people I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing, I’ve actually been around Devin the last five years. We’ve had conversations about moments like this where we as entrepreneurs and creatives would be able to celebrate our wins on things we’ve built from the ground up with our friends. To see what Devin has done with 40oz Bounce is great. To transition his knowledge and strategies into 4 Lovers Only, which are two completely different parties and audiences, has been a master class of what it means to be attentive and show a sense of patience. He knew what he wanted and how to make it happen, and that is why four years later, we’re here celebrating the fourth anniversary of 4 Lovers Only, an R&B party experience that helped shape nightlife for creatives and self-starters alike.

To help commemorate the anniversary, I spoke to Devin about what it means to be an event producer, the art behind throwing a successful event, choosing R&B music as the foundation to his project, being a Black entrepreneur, and the plans he has for 4 Lovers Only as we approach Summer 2021. Read the full interview below.

1 - Let’s start from the beginning -- We’ve gotten the chance to know how you get your start in event production with 40oz Bounce. Why did you see this as a career for you to get involved in?

In terms of event production, 40oz Bounce was the thing that broke through. But, I really started back when I was 19 years old. I wanted to do a poetry event. I wanted to keep up with event production because I failed at it. In my first event, there were like 19 people that showed up. I said to myself “this shit is a failure and I flopped.” I felt embarrassed because I had all this Facebook hype for it. That’s the only social media app that I used at the time or I think was even around. There were tons of people who liked the post and I thought that would translate into people showing up. So I say that to say this taught me something valuable - a like or an impression on the internet doesn’t translate into people showing up in the building. So, I wanted to master how to get people outside of the house and physically in the building because that’s the ultimate sign of a fan or supporter.

2 - What are some things that stood out to you as to why event production fascinated you so much?

Well, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the women fascinated me. This was back in the day obviously, but most certainly the women. Before COVID, you had the opportunity to really connect with people, get up close and personal and talk to people, and have so many types of people in one room. For instance, one night at 4 Lover’s Only we had 21 Savage’s mom, an executive from Republic Records, and your average music listener all in the same spot. To be able to see that was fascinating because you never really knew who you were standing next to. So for me, it was the women, the idea of not knowing who you were going to be standing next to, and I think it was something different. You didn’t really hear too many people saying they were an event producer. It wasn’t a title people carried too often. But now, it’s become a bit cooler and people know about it more. In the end, it was cool to be able to something for people my age and have it be what it turned out to be.

3 - When it comes to producing an event, what do you feel like your strong suits are and why?

There’s a couple of things. One, I think any event that we do, thankfully has always been safe. It’s been judgment-free meaning anyone can come - black, white, gay, straight, etc. You can be whatever, come through and have a good time. Things that happen at typical clubs or events we’ve never had to deal with, thankfully. We’ve never had to worry about that, mainly because of the type of people we attract and the staff that we have. Second, it’s very niche. At the time R&B parties were happening but they were happening more so for the older crowd, like 35 years old and above. Like, you probably had to be on a Tom Joyner cruise to listen to some R&B at a party like this. I really didn’t see anything that was catered to our age demographic. You can come to our event, hear SZA, H.E.R., and Teddy Pendergrass all on the same night. I didn’t see that. That has helped us stand out and be successful as well. Lastly, most of our parties are free. We’ve never charged. We only charge the sponsors that help us put the event together. But most of the time we’ve never charged the people for it. Some people may look at that as crazy but we’ve worked our asses off to make sure the people get it free. We want the corporate people to pay for it and the attendees to actually enjoy it. That has helped us, too. We’re not always shoving a ticket price down people’s throats.

4 - As someone who has produced hundreds of events spanning over 6-7 years, what are some of the most important to a successful event?

Okay, so I’m going to speak as an event producer first. The one thing any successful event producer needs to have is an original idea. If you go into any event saying “I want to do an event just like XYZ” you’re already starting off on the wrong foot. Second, it has to be organized. People nowadays can tell when something is unorganized. There are way too many stories and documentaries that can show you what an unorganized event looks like. You have to make sure it’s organized and seamless from the minute you post it cause if not people are gonna chew you up. Lastly, doing something with love. I think that’s key. You really can’t just be out here trying to get a check. If you can get your money from it that’s great. By all means, get your check. But, I don’t think it should always be about the money. People notice that. So, to avoid being chopped up on the timeline you should always lead with love and then let everything else follow.

5 - Now, let’s get into your brainchild. You started one of the biggest R&B parties in 2017 called 4 Lovers Only. Tell me why you decided to start this and why did you choose R&B as the foundation for it?

I tweeted out this idea. I was at my ex-girlfriend’s house at the time. I realized how bored I was and I didn’t have the same connections that I have now. I couldn’t just go to Pergola and get in, I had to stand in line for however long the wait was. So essentially, I wanted to throw a party for people like me. I didn’t want to have to conform to whatever the typical New York City nightlife was. I saw and I said I wanted to do something easy and you have a guaranteed spot when you get there. All of this sounds super basic but at the time, there weren’t many events that you can buy a ticket to, go to, have a good time, and not have to deal with the idea of asking someone “can you get me in?” I started this event for the people like me who weren’t all the way plugged in and just wanted to come out and enjoy themselves without the hassle of the typical nightlife in New York City.

In regards to it being R&B, I think I was listening to Jon B at the time. I was listening to the song with him and Tupac and I said to myself “Damn, I want to throw an R&B party.” I said I want to do this party with Hennessy and an open bar. I don’t even remember why I said Hennessy at the time because at that time I didn’t even drink it but I knew it’s what people liked. It was also during the time of the “Hennything is Possible” era so I was like “let me put this on the timeline.” I knew that would increase the engagement. But, I knew the basis of this would be a free party with an open bar. Once I tweeted that out people were going ape shit. My Twitter at the time had a couple of thousand followers. I put that tweet out and it ended getting about 2,000 retweets that day. At the time the tweet specifically said New York so I knew if I had 2,000 people rocking with it here then I had to do it. That was 2015 when I tweeted this.

By late 2016 a festival by the name of Soulquarias was announced and it was the first all R&B line. This was the first time a festival was dedicated to young people with all R&B. They had everybody from Pretty Ricky, Jhene Aiko, The Internet, SZA, etc. Any R&B act you can think of that’s popping now was on that bill alongside some legends. So, I texted my OG Stacey Wade, and told him we need to do this R&B thing. I told him it was catching on like crazy and I knew people are going to fuck with it. So he said he’d do it and we set it up. He had one of his clients sponsor it and this is how the first event happened. It took me two years to try and sell this idea and it took that festival to happen for Stacey to be like “We can make it happen. Let’s do it.” Not to say he didn’t see it before. It was a matter of him seeing the reaction to something else that helped sparked the idea for us.

6 - I believed in 2017, you did five cities for 4 Lovers Only. How did you gauge which cities you wanted to take this party, considering this was your first solo project?

I used my good ol’ fashion Twitter mostly. When we fully had the idea in play I just tweeted “What cities do ya’ll want this R&B party to come to?” So in 2015 when I put the first tweet out, it was my first year working with 40oz Van. At this point, I didn’t have much of a following. By 2017, I had a good following, at least on social media because I’ve been alongside Van the last two years. We were around all these different people. I started getting notoriety and respect just based on the association. I knew I could apply the same logic that we did with the 40oz Bounces to what we were trying to do. It was as easy as tweeting out “What cities should we come to?” The specific tweet was “Throwing a 90’s R&B party with an open bar all night in a few cities this year. Free for everyone and performances by 90’s R&B legends. Where should we go?” I think just around 1,000 people replied with all these different cities. I basically went off the cities that had the responses or if someone said a city and their one tweet got like 56 likes on it I was like “Okay, I know this city might really be fucking with the idea.”

Also, we took calculated risks. We used social media to our advantage but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t already know people in these places that we were going to. I really wanted to hit the cities we had connections in. Philly got my homies over at REC Philly. L.A. and Oakland got our homie Russ who’s a Bay area and Cali-native. I was running through Atlanta at this particular time and my homegirl Sarah set that up for me. The last city was New York. What’s crazy about New York is I didn’t have as many connections in New York as I did in these other cities and I’m from here.

Quick story - the first New York party was supposed to be at Kinfolk. Hennessy came and bought the space. So Kinfolk hit me and said “You either gotta have this amount to buy the venue out or we’re moving forward with this option over here. We can’t pass up on the money.” That’s when I learned how grimey the whole event shit can be when it comes to these venues cause they can really fuck you over. And for me, it was less about what happened and more about how they approached me. This was the week of the event. I had to switch all my promotions because everything I had planned to roll out said Kinfolk on it. Fast forward a few days, Larry Gold from SOB’s hit me and told me he heard what happened and inquired about whether I was still doing the event. He told me to just come to SOB’s and I can do it there. He held it down and welcomed me. He saw the outcome and was like “Man, you want to do this again in two weeks?!” From that point on I knew we had something because of my relationship with the venue. The parties in the previous cities were dope but this is the first time I was able to build a relationship with the venue to where if I ever needed to do anything there, I was always good.

7 - My favorite 4 Lovers Only party is still the opening event in Philadelphia. To me, no other party tops that one. But, I’m sure you have a favorite. Which one would that be and why?

Seattle for sure. We went to Seattle in 2018 and it was by far my favorite. The reason why is because Black people don’t really come out to shit like that in Seattle. It’s funny because there are so many black people out there. The one question I kept getting the entire night was “Where the fuck did ya’ll find all of these Black people?!” People really had no idea that all of these Black people lived in Seattle. One of the craziest moments from that event was the day before. 24 hours before the event we only had like 100 RSVPs. Someone kept telling me that I’ll be fine and people out in the city just move really slow etc. On the day of the event, we had like 1,200 people RSVP. I said to myself “Whoever kept telling me that people in this city move slow was dead ass right!” The venue had a balcony that overlooked the front and when I stepped out there and saw the line I was amazed. The line was wrapped around the block. This is really how crazy life is. 40oz Van was there. That’s my guy. He was in the city at the same time so he came through and showed love. At the end of the night when we were cleaning up I was satisfied with the fact that we were able to do something in a city that people overlook. Just that feeling alone was priceless.

8 - You’re about to celebrate the four-year anniversary of something you created. As an entrepreneur and a fellow Black creative, how does that make you feel?

It makes me feel like I’m doing something right. I feel like we grew up in the era of the Black entrepreneurs - Jay-Z, Dame Dash, Diddy. The list goes on based on some of the people in our era. I think being able to take the lessons they tried to give us through their work and apply it to our life by having our own businesses, employing our people, and putting the money back in our neighborhoods are successes. Those are major wins. To be able to do that every single day or with every single event, that’s a big win. I want to continue to be a representation for Black entrepreneurs. Also, I’m not a self-elected representative of that. If anyone needed any advice about entrepreneurship, I would gladly give it to them. I take pride in being an independently owned event producer. We don’t have the backings of a Live Nation or any major entity. This is genuinely for the people, by the people.

Also, to me, Black entrepreneurship is about giving to others. If there was a young Black entrepreneur, around like 21-22 years old who wanted to take over 4 Lover’s Only one day, I would gladly usher them in. This game is about building, selling, and passing it on to someone else. From there, they can take it, continue to build it up, and do as they please with it cause they own it. Being a Black entrepreneur was the goal for me coming up and now I’m living it.

9 - For the anniversary, you’re doing an R&B paint ‘n sip that’ll be taking place in Harlem this Friday, the 9th. How did you come up with that as an excellent alternative to our circumstances?

I really wanted to do something different. I’ve done so many parties. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do one this year. I wanted it to be something responsible. To be honest, I probably won’t be doing any indoor parties any time soon. This paint ‘n sip idea was presented to me by KB who we all know. When she mentioned that she had the space, it was a go. She came to me with the entire idea and mentioned that it would be for the four-year anniversary. This was actually perfect for what I wanted to do - something calm and chill but still gives you that fun. I went and saw the space; it was black-owned, it was clean, and they offered the best possible scenario to do something like this. So for me, it was the fact that this is something different for the brand, and the venue is Black-owned. I’ve always wanted to work with Black-owned venues. Oh yeah, the last thing is that it’s in Harlem. Harlem is becoming one of my favorite spots to hang out and chill. So the mixture of those three things just made sense.

10 - As an independent event producer, what are your true definition of success?

Being able to have someone come up under me and give them information. My true definition of success is to have someone come to me and say “I like what you do and I want to learn from you.” It’s like, I have to feel that energy. The same sort of energy and determination 40oz Van felt in me, I want to be able to feel that in someone else and really put them in position. That’s like one of my definitions. Another definition would be to keep people coming back. I know this from my work background; I did a lot of marketing and advertising. The one thing that’s always true in any space that consists of spending money is the first spend is always the easiest. The second and third spend, you really have to want to do it. For example, I can go spend some money on a bottle of Azul one time. I don’t know if I’m going to spend that same amount of money on that bottle the second, third, and fourth time. I really have to fuck with it to do that. Now, in regards to the party, the fact that I know people keep coming back is how I know people fuck with it. So to summarize it - being able to pass information to someone and keep people consistently coming back. Above all, I have to be happy doing these things. If I’m not happy doing these things then it defeats the purpose.

11 - Do you have any fun plans for 4 Lovers Only as we start moving closer towards summer?

100%. It’s going to have to be outdoors though. The only way I feel comfortable doing something right now is if it’s outdoors. If it’s something like this then it’ll be a very small and limited type of experience. I think that’s where I’m at with it right now. I want to keep things outdoors for the remainder of the summer and if that means taking the fall and winter off then I’m cool with that.

You can follow Devin on his personal Instagram and Twitter @DevinICobbs and follow his Instagram business page for 4 Lovers Only @4LoversOnly.US to stay updated on future events.

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