Digital Social Hour - Sky High: The YPK Raye Interview Digital Social Hour #17

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Hey there, it’s time for a new episode of Digital Social Hour and this week we have a very special guest with us, the amazing YPK Raye. In this episode, we’ll be talking to Raye about his passion for basketball and his journey to fame on social media. We kick off our conversation by asking Raye how he’s liking his new life in Las Vegas. We dive into the weather and the basketball runs there while Raye describes his talent for jumping. He has a captivating story of discovering it in high school and the thrill of his first dunk in the 10th grade. We then explore Raye’s background and his love for sports since he was just ten years old. He tells us about his highest vertical jump, almost 50 inches, and how he accomplished his first in-game dunk. Raye shares his social media success with us, talking about his videos based on his real-life experiences with basketball. We love his humor in real-life basketball situations and it’s no wonder he has over 1.6 million followers on YouTube alone! We then delve into Raye’s future goals and aspirations to expand his brand. We talk about his plans to start his own AAU team and program to allow more kids to play. Raye's ultimate goal is to eliminate the politics and pay-to-play system in basketball. We are impressed by Raye’s positive mindset and drive to create opportunities for others. We also discuss how social media has made it possible for athletes to make millions through branding and endorsement deals, and YPK Raye is no exception. This episode is definitely worth a listen, we know you’ll enjoy our conversation just as much as we did. So, what are you waiting for? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/digitalsocialhour/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

welcome back to the digital social hour i'm here with my co-host wayne lewis what up what up what up and our guest today ypk ray what's going on? How we doing? Doing good. How are you? Good. So you just moved to Vegas, right? Yeah. How you liking it? I'm loving it. I love the weather. I mean, it's been a little bit cold, not what I kind of... I kind of left the cold, so the fact that I came into the cold a little bit this winter is kind of baffling me.

But I'm all right. I'll be all right. It's heating up, though. Yeah, it's better than Minnesota and New York, so I'll be all right. So you haven't experienced the summer yet? No, I have. Okay. I was going to say you should love right now because our summers last like five months. Yeah, they're long.

Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. And it was a heat wave during the summer. I remember it was like 115. Yeah. Oh, man. It was crazy. I never come outside in the summer.

Unfortunately, you won't see me out how are uh how are the basketball runs here compared to minnesota i don't really do much runs in minnesota but they were they were trash in minnesota at least the runs that i could get myself into but out here i like it like unlv 24 i feel like it's a lot more competitive but also it's a different style of play right that i'm kind of like i wouldn't say adjusting to but it's just like i like seeing like how people play from everywhere yeah because like east coast is different from west coast and different from down south the midwest and you know what i'm saying it's all different so really yeah is it

more fast paced here you say uh yeah i would say i would say it's more fast but it's also depending on where you at like if you're not running with actual hoopers yeah everybody's just all over the place no matter where you're at so it's just like but like when i get into like gyms with like the pros and like the higher end basketball players i feel like it's more of a slower pace as opposed to you know the east coast and you know down south i feel like it's more like running slower pace as opposed to, you know, the East coast and you know, down south. I feel like it's more like running gun. You know what I'm saying? Have you hooped with Sean yet?

Yeah. We played in a celebrity game, right? Yeah, the Bulldogs game. Yeah, we dominated. Mostly him, but. Sean be on the boards and put backs. Yo, he be on the boards. He be dunking.

Man, I seen him flying high. I saw you just did a vertical jump test. How high did you get? Almost a 50. Damn. I'm not sure how accurate it is. Bro. Like, I'm not sure exactly how accurate it is.

Yo, how tall are you? I'm 5'8". Bro. When did you discover that talent? Like, when were you like, yo, I can jump? All right. So, it's weird, like, saying this, but, like, because I'm short, but I hit a growth spurt. When?

Like, what is a growth spurt? What's a growth spurt to somebody that's 5'8"? That's exactly my point. So, like, when I was, I was very small growing up. And I was like, I want to say like 4'11 in eighth grade. I was real small. So, like, I couldn't touch the rim yet. Like, I was touching backboard,

which is kind of impressive. Wait, wait, wait. What you mean you couldn't touch the rim when you were touching backboard at 4'11"? Yeah.

That's not normal. That's not, in eighth grade, that's not normal. When you think of like, oh, he has bounce, that's like,

okay, he could dunk, he could like almost dunk or something like that. So I didn't really see it as like, okay, I got bounce. Right.

And so like ninth grade, I grew to like 5'3". So that was the gross work you was home on okay okay i had a little bit right then and then like by 10th grade i was like five five that's when i caught my first dunk in the grade like 10th so five five did you actually play on a high school team yeah so i played um then the oh my life so i started when i was 10 yeah playing basketball like organized because football is my first sport oh okay i played football when i was i playing basketball organized because football is my first sport. Oh, okay. So I played football when I was five.

I was going to say football or baseball. Yeah. I started football when I was five and then I got into basketball when I was 10 organized. And then I played every year going up AAU, all of that stuff. When did you catch your first body? And for reference, it's not like dunking wise. When did you catch, like, when did you,

like, actually, like, yam on somebody? Like, in a game? Yeah, in a game.

Honestly, I wouldn't even say until recently. For real? Like, within the past few years. So, it was never,

like, in high school or nothing? Nah, I wasn't really dunking in high school. Like, I was dunking in high school, but, like,

in game, I wasn't really dunking because I got, like, I got game. So, it's not like I'm just running and trying to dunk with everybody every time. So, like, I could shoot, do a little but in game, I wasn't really dunking because I got game. So it's not like I'm just running and trying to dunk with everybody every time. So I could shoot, do a little everything.

So I wasn't really dunking. How did you get your vertical so high or was it natural? I don't know. I guess that's an answer. As crazy as it sounds, I mean, yeah, I work out because I'm an athlete and stuff like that. But it wasn't really something specific that I did to just make my vertical just increase it increase and it's crazy because um i went to college for two years and i had crazy bouncing college but even people that i went to college where it's like yo well how do you got so much more bounce like what have you been doing like nothing dude you know mj has a 48 inch

vertical right yeah so you're jumping higher than him that's five crazy yeah crazy so how was that when you caught you like when you dunked him like what happened like what was it what like was it an oop was it like i think my first real like in-game but i think it was like in a park yeah i think it was in a park and i just it might have been like one of the first plays of the game and i'm pretty sure it was on video too that was my see I consider it my first body because it was really on video I feel like I dunked on people before but this one I kind of count it so yeah it was one of the first players of the game and I just came down and people don't really expect me to jump the way I jump unless they know me yeah so he just got in the game and just tried to jump on me and I just

boomed on him but the reason why I haven't really tried to dunk on people much is because I'm light. So it's just like if somebody knocks me out the air the wrong way, and I wish I could find this old video of me like on JV. I went up for a layup and somebody like hit my arm and I did a cartwheel in the air. Damn. It fell on my head. Yeah, I can only imagine how hard it is. You're probably like 160, right? Yeah, like 152.

Okay, okay. okay yeah that's like especially in the air yeah yeah and air you zero pounds it don't matter who you are so somebody hit you the wrong way that's why i'm scared of so i don't really be trying yeah are you jumping off two feet i do both okay were you trying to uh go d1 yeah i mean that's every hooper's dream to go d1 nba but at the end of the day i feel like i'm more realistic with myself than the average hooper you know what i'm saying so it's just like my real goals and aspirations was to just play basketball to the highest level that i can personally and then just like from that just stay within the game and you know i always wanted to coach train which i was doing you know heavy before i got into um social media and stuff like that and just like

you know events all i just wanted to always do stuff so like social media has like taken that dream and like kind of just made it a reality for me yeah let's dive into the social media stuff you get millions of views on some of your skits i mean how do you come up with the ideas and execution um honestly i just feel like it's just stuff that i dealt with in real life. So it's just like, I just make it as obnoxious as I possibly can to just make it funny. So it's just like, everything happens in basketball. Just like, there's just so much situations and just thousands and thousands of situations that happen within basketball games, whether it's pickup, school basketball, college basketball. And I just take all of that stuff and just like flip it and make it into like the funniest thing possible like i blew up at first like making fun

of my dad because he was a crazy parent so i was just had this thing like hey you dad and i was just kind of making fun of him on the internet and then like people just liked it so i just kind of took that and just kind of just made trend out the train at the train the digital that's dope yeah you blew up on tick tock or was it youtube uh i blew up on tiktok first tiktok first yeah and you got like five mil on youtube now no i got i got five mil on tiktok and 1.6 mil on youtube that's impressive yeah that's and how long did it take you to grow it uh i started in 2020 so like when i got out of college um for covid they made everybody go online right that's when i had got into social media. And then... Two years.

Crazy. Yeah. What was the first viral video that blew it up? I was doing like a... It was a few different things. I was just like... I'm pretty versatile. So like a lot of my dunking videos started blowing up. And then when I was making fun of my dad at first,

a lot of that stuff started blowing up. I feel like it was unique, so people liked it. And I was just like, you know, I'm just gonna take it and run with it. So that's when I was making fun of my dad at first, a lot of that stuff started blowing up. It was just like, I feel like it was unique. So people liked it. Right. And I was just like, you know, I'm just going to take it and run with it. So that's when I kind of like put school on hold. And I was just like, let me just see what this will take me because nobody was really doing anything during COVID. So it was the perfect time for me to just experiment and just take a chance. And it worked out.

Did you know that Mack McClung was going to win the dunk contest? All right. This is the craziest thing ever. So I got called out to Utah for my first all-star experience. Did you go? Yeah. I did all-star rehearsal. So basically they work on all the camera angles.

They bring influencers out. And we go through the dunk contest. We go through the three-point. And I was reenacting Mack McClung in the dunk contest. Before the dunk contest? Before the dunk contest. Wow. And I was Damian LillardClung in a dunk contest. Before the dunk contest? Before the dunk contest. Wow. And I was Damian Lillard

for the three-point contest. Wow. And I was like, yo, wouldn't it be crazy if they actually won and they actually won? Both won. It was the craziest thing ever.

Mack McClung. He's got balance. Did you predict that? When I seen his name, I said, well, dunk contest is back. Bro, his coach is coming in after this episode. Yeah. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah, I thought he was going to contest is back. Bro, his coach is coming in after this episode.

Yeah. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah, I thought he was going to win. I definitely. Was he the first white person to win it? I think in a while. I think the last guy, he jumped from the free throw line.

Oh, Zach Levine? Yeah. No, no. Zach Levine's not white. Is Zach Levine's white? No, he's not white. No, I don't get that. I don't get that.

I don't get that. He's like, Zach Levine is um no i was i had to be over probably like nine years but mac mcclung definitely um he changed his life that day oh yeah for sure he'll probably get on a team now yeah stock is right but he has to uh be become an nba player now though yeah actually he's nice too he. He's just, he's not sizable. He's short. Yeah, yeah. So the height matters a lot. It does when you're playing against Anthony Davis and Embiid and, you know, you got Giannis

and all these other players. What's your favorite NBA team? It's been Golden State for a while now, since I was younger. Okay. I like, I kind of like, I don't want to say fell in love with Stephen Curry, but like, I kind of like. You fell in love with him. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I like this game since I was like 11 or 10 and then I just kind of stuck with Golden State. I heard they're out of the playoffs now, aren't they? Yeah, Curry's injured, so. Klay's been lighting it up though. He just dropped 13 threes the other day. Yeah. Those monsters, man. What was it like

meeting Zion and Jason Tatum at the All-Star weekend? That was crazy. Yeah, that's nuts. That was literally crazy. What's Zion's body type, bro? He's big. Like big, like tall big, buff big? He's actually shorter than I thought he would be. You know what I'm saying?

He's 6'6", right? Yeah, he's 6'6". He's not really that tall, but I feel like his body type makes him look shorter as well. Okay. Because he's big. He's built like a football-like player. Yeah. Like a D-end. He's big. Yeah.'s built like a football like player yeah like a dn

he's big yeah he keeps getting injured it's too much weight you think so absolutely what is he like 280. yeah it's LeBron's weight but he's shorter than like what four or five inches shorter yeah that's the problem it's like when you going up and he jumps he can jump high it's like when you're going up and coming down with all of that weight it puts a lot of strain and that's that's where that's how I got injured. You know what I'm saying? All of these years of like jumping and stuff like that and then just coming down, coming down, coming down. It's like now I just need to rehab and get better.

What kind of injury was it? It's somewhere within, I don't know exactly what it is. I haven't really got it checked out yet. But I don't think it's nothing more than like uh overuse injury you know what i'm saying so i just feel like i gotta rehab and build the muscle around yeah my legs to be able to handle all of the weight that i'm going up and coming down with you know what i'm saying so you never worked out to get boosies you just was born i mean i i mean it definitely was more natural than anything but me working out and working on technique and stuff like that did definitely help, though.

He's jumping higher than PJ. Yeah, I mean, he's 50-inch vertical, bro. That's insane. At 5'8". Yeah. That's not normal. That's like Spud Webb. Yeah, for sure.

No, was Spud Webb 5'8"? He was 5'8", right? Yeah, I think he was like 5'7", 5'8". He don't jump as high as I do. Out of all the basketball content creators, YouTubers, who do you think has the nicest game? There's a lot. I mean, I feel like I like and respect a lot of people's games,

but I think Frigga has a pretty pretty tough game J. Lou a lot of the Boilers lifeguards are pretty good but it's just like I feel like if I don't see you in like a real setting of playing basketball I can't like really say that you're really that good cause streetball

that really don't mean nothing none of that stuff is really gonna work on a real court in a real basketball setting. Like all of those park runs and this and that, it's like, cool, like, yeah, you're doing your thing. But it's just like, I wanna see these guys in a real basketball setting. You know what I'm saying?

Playing against like pros in these runs and these runs and see what they do. I feel that. How often do guys try to fight you? On the court? Are you like a shit talker or? Nah, I'm never a shit talker. I just like, I mean, I like a shit talker or no i'm never shit talk i just like

i mean i like having fun you know what i'm saying i feel like my game backs myself backs myself up so it's just like i feel like people feel like i come in arrogant because of the fact that there's a camera so i don't know why just people just like a switch flips in their head and they just feel like they need to prove themselves to me for no reason at all. Rob Markman, 100%. And it's like people just like, shit talk me for no reason. Rob Markman, Bro. No reason at all.

Rob Markman, I brought my videographer. First time I've ever filmed myself at a run, everyone was coming at me. Everyone, at lifetime. Trying to hurt me and stuff. Rob Markman, This past weekend. I'm not doing it again, bro, because everyone would just drive on me every time just because I had a camera on me. Yeah, and all those guys living out their hoop dreams yeah it that's what

it is it's just like their egos are so crazy and it's like if they're on my team now they're not passing the ball and if they guarding me they following me or the same for YouTube this I'm just trying to get my content but you gotta understand too they also don't want to be caught a million views that you you know catching them slipping or yeah that's true and then it's funny too because then they're like yo can you send me your send me my clips and send me no what what am i sending you clip for you know i'm saying like yeah you didn't pay like it's funny it's so funny they're like yeah guys yeah he don't be sending nobody his clips the last time i walked in the gym he's like yeah he don't be sending nobody his clips

and i was like you don't get paid to post your clips i'm making money from doing this you know what i'm saying they want to see me they don't want to see you so like what am i getting out of posting you on my youtube or my tiktok it's like yeah i just think it's funny to be honest i feel that you in any leagues out here or nah uh i was playing in uh some league in hoop city okay but it But I was averaging like 35. Damn. That's too easy. Yeah, my first game I had like 40.

It was just like. Yeah, we got to get you in the lifetime on. Yeah, I heard about that. We got Jason Richardson in it. A lot of XD1 players. Jay Rich over there? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's a nice league.

What's like your ultimate goal with what you're doing? Just honestly to expand. What does expansion look like to you? What is expansion? So when I was in college and stuff like that, like I said, I'm a realist. So my thing was, okay, I'm not making it to the NBA. So I want to stick with basketball and just do the most out of what I feel like is... How do I explain it?

So I always wanted to coach. So I want to get into so like I always wanted to coach so I want to get into coaching I always wanted to train so I want to get into training I always wanted to you know host events host dunk contests three point this and that

so just like expansion for me is just like doing that you know what I'm saying so it's just like eventually hopefully this summer I want to get my own AAU team

I start my own AAU program kind of get into that and just give back because there's a lot of, there's a lot of bullshit in the basketball scene. And I feel like there's a lot of kids that could pay to play

and do this and do that. So I kind of just want to diminish all of that and kind of make my own thing to where everybody can get the opportunity to play and do what they got to do. You know what I'm saying?

There's too much politics. Yeah, there's too much politics, and I don't like that. Especially now. The politics went from college to now, high school to AAU. Now it's political as soon as you start playing. Because now everything's a business, though. It is. And everything got a price tag on it.

Every player got a price tag on it. NIL. Mikey Williams. They're making that bag. I wish. i got three years of eligibility left i could go back for real yeah unov needs you nobody knows that i got three years ago yeah i can get some good nil money yeah yeah and you got a big following you might as well take advantage of it yeah i've been thinking about it but it's just like i don't want to i don't want

to take the time away from my content and then now it's just oh yeah that's true they wouldn't let you do content if you went back i mean i feel like they would but i don't want to take the time away from my content. And then now it's just like. Oh, yeah, that's true. They wouldn't let you do content if you went back? I mean, I feel like they would, but I would just have to find the time to do it. Yeah, I feel like they would, but it's just like, I'm not going to skip practice to go to All-Star Weekend. If I get opportunities like that, I'm going to have to pass up on those opportunities that I don't want to. Because there's networking involved, too. You never know who you might meet. Mikey's making money like that?

What? I think Mikey's already like a two, three million dollar player. What? Mikey Williams? How? And Bronny. Well, Bronny, yeah. But how Mikey?

NIL. He's getting brand deals? Yeah, Mikey's tatted from beauty. Bro, he got some of the latest whips, chains, everything. Custom pieces, diamonds, everything. What people don't know is the more followers you have, the more of a social media presence you have, the more money they're going to give you. Yeah.

So like the Cavendish twins, I don't know if you know who they are. They're two girls. They go to like Miami. Yeah, I heard something just happened with them. They made over a million dollars in NIL. Social currency, bro. It's that. Your social media.

High schoolers are making a million dollars right now? Literally, yeah. I would make a million dollars off NIL if I went back to school and got the same deals. Absolutely. Easy. Holy crap. Just because of his following. That's nuts.

He's marketable. You know, he has a following. And who brings the deals? The companies. They have console. I guess back in the day, right, there was brown paper bags, you know, kind of handing them money. That's gone now. Yeah.

It's straight up. Yo, we'll give you $800,000. And the NCAA gets a cut? Well, they're split already. It's just allowing them to actually come to you and say, hey, we'll pay you this much. But it's the right thing to do, honestly. It is. Because the kids deserve it, bro.

They deserve it. I remember, yeah. It removes them stealing. It removes them like, you know, a lot of kids coming from you know uh you know different family backgrounds you know so that money goes it trickles down you know they get a new car you know family mom rent pay for a while you know and why they're trying to figure it out yeah so it makes sense you know sharing spreading the wealth that's to some degree you know i'm sure the college is getting still with the bear cut. Yeah. Any closing thoughts

on where people can find you? TikTok, YPK.Ray. My YouTube is YPK.Ray. Instagram, YPK.Ray. I'm starting to stream on Twitch,

YPK.Ray. Okay. I'm getting my Twitch up. All right. But yeah, I'm just trying to get it right. Trying to hoop? Yeah,

I'm trying to do everything. We got to get some content soon. Of course. Hell yeah. All right. You heard it here, guys. Digital Social Hour I'm just trying to. Trying to hoop? Yeah, do everything. We got to get some content soon. Of course. Hell yeah. All right. You heard it here, guys. Digital Social Hour. See you next week.