DJ Khaled is an artist, and a very popular one at that. He doesn’t sing, rap, or make the beat. He makes songs by finding good instrumental tracks and hiring other artists to record over it. Some people—maybe a lot of them—take this to mean that he doesn’t make music. So what does he actually do?

There are plenty of artists who can sing or rap better than DJ Khaled can, so he focuses on the other work—which there is plenty of.

He inspires and encourages artists. He maintains relationships with a wide rolodex. He promotes music and artists. He produces and figures out finances for the music. He finds and curates sounds that resonate with him. He constantly hustles through the music business.

It turns out making music, like acting, is only 10% of a recording artist’s job. DJ Khaled focuses on the 90%.

It takes creativity to tell himself, and the world, a new story about this.