Drink Champs - Episode 167 w/ Daymond John

Episode Date: June 21, 2019

N.O.R.E & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. On this episode the Champs dive into the "DUNK TANK" with legendary mogul Daymond John. Recently, you might know him for being on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank, but his resume goes beyond the tank! Listen as we dive deep into his journey, as Daymond shares stories about working alongside President Obama, FUBU and the moment he knew that he finally "made it" and much more! No need to hunt for treasure, Daymond gives out free gems on this episode!Follow:Drink Champs http://www.drinkchamps.com http://www.instagram.com/drinkchamps http://www.twitter.com/drinkchamps http://www.facebook.com/drinkchamps DJ EFN http://www.crazyhood.com http://www.instagram.com/whoscrazy http://www.twitter.com/djefn http://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductions N.O.R.E. http://www.instagram.com/therealnoreaga http://www.twitter.com/noreaga--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/drinkchamps/support Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Why is a soap opera Western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time,

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What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention. get your podcasts. J. Edgar Hoover was furious. He was out of his mind and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees. You can now binge all 10 episodes of Divine Intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be right back. They drink it up with some of the biggest players. You know what I mean? In the most professional, unprofessional podcast. And your number one source for drunk facts. It's Drink Champs motherfucking podcast.

Where every day is New Year's Eve. Listen, it's time for Drink Champs. Drink up, motherfuckers. What a good beat. Hopefully this is what it should be. This is your boy N-O-R-E. What up, it's DJ E-F-N. And this is Drink Champs. Yappy, I will make some noise!

Now, E, when it comes to archipenuera, is he a... Spell it. Don't know how to do that. When it comes to a person, I read that his first job was handing out flyers. I read that the man worked in Red Lobster. While he was owning a very fortunate company, he has grinded.

He has continued nonstop. Born in Brooklyn, but raised in Queens. And we in Queens, we claim him. You rep him. We claim him. You rep him. And he's relentless. He has one of the biggest shows that won an Emmy.

We got an Emmy Award winner. We got an award. It's an award. It ain't nothing like an Emmy at all. That's an Emmy. And if you don't know what we're talking about, we're talking about

David and Shark Tank. Thank you. First of all, thank you for being here. Thank you, my brother. You're definitely one of the people that when I think of entrepreneur, I think of you.

I think of how debonair you are, like, you know what I'm saying? How put together. I think that, I think it should be more of you. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think you're like a great role model for us. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that. So, with that being said, let's take it from the beginning, right?

Yeah. Because I read that, was that really your first job, handing out flyers? Handing out flyers? Coliseum Mall started 10 years old. Get the fuck out of here, the Coliseum. Who were you handing out flyers for? The Coliseum Mall was being opened up. So I was handing out flyers.

Hold on, hold on. So you're telling me the Coliseum wasn't even open and you already had a job. It used to be cut like Macy's, then they went bankrupt, so I was handing out flyers for that. I did every job I could, right? You know, like during the winter, I'd shovel snow. Wow.

In the fall, I'd rake leaves, but when I was shoveling snow, I had so many people that wanted me to get to their sidewalk that I would give the other kids in the neighborhood half the money that I would make to go and shovel the sidewalk so I could sit at home and, you know.

That's what I'm talking about. You know what I'm saying? So then I used to go and find Bike parts on the street But before you know it In about two months I'd have a fully assembled bike But everybody threw

They shit out So I mean I've been trying to hustle Ever since And then I started working At Church's Fried Chicken And then I worked

At a popcorn stand And then I worked At Red Lobster And then I All kinds of stuff Do you remember Church's Fried Chicken We still got some My fingers got greasy And then I worked a real lot. I got to stop you. All kinds of stuff. Do you remember Church's Fried Chicken?

Yeah, we had some in Miami. We still got some in Miami. My fingers got greasy as soon as you said that. My church is churning about churches. So, I've been working since day one. Man, so, what was your first successful business? Like, besides FUBU, obviously. What was the first one that you was like, you know what, this business is where I belong? Or even what's probably the better question is, what was the first one that you was like, you know what, this is business, this is where I belong? Or even what's probably

the better question is what was the first business that failed that helped you learn what you needed to learn for the first successful business? Even better question. I think those are both

great questions for two different reasons. Number one, the first business I got into was I had this idea about buying crashed cars because at that time we'd buy a crashed car,

your boys would find the parts for it, you know? And buy it at an auction. I don't know how they found those parts, that wasn't my problem. They just sold it to me here. And then you would put, so you buy the 2500, you put 2500 into it, and you sell it at 15, 20,000, right?

So I had the plan, you know, I was about 16, 17 years old, and I like to say that, you know, I did my numbers, and I looked at 16, if I keep doubling down on that, I'd be a millionaire by 20. However, Mike Tyson, you know, he has that saying, you know, everybody got a plan until they get punched in the face. Life punched me in the face in about, you know, six months, and I didn't have any money. Now, the reality of what I realized was I didn't like to fix cars. I don't know how to fix cars.

It wasn't your passion. I was so busy thinking about the money that I didn't like what I was doing. So I had no urge to get up or to want to do it again. All right. Fast forward. Now what I start to do, I get this van, this piece of crap, junky old van, a 15 passenger, and I start running up and down Guy Arbour, Merrick Boulevard, and Rockaway,

picking up people for a dollar. Dollar van? Dollar van? I was a dollar van driver. Nah, you wasn't no dollar van driver. I was a dollar van driver. I'm a dollar van driver. God damn it, you're a big, every dollar van driver in the world

should listen to this and have inspiration. Continue. And it was you that was the driver. I was the driver. No! How old were you at this point? At that point, I was about 17. So I would start off at Parsons Boulevard, go down Garver Road through Roseville all the way to Rockaway Beach 116.

So let me just explain. I'm sorry, you know what? I think we're talking just thoughts, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let me just explain. I don't know. There's a certain part, There's a certain part where the trains don't go. And there's certain parts even buses don't go. So what happens is it's these vans that they come and they'll pick up a whole bunch of people. Yeah, here we call them jinnies.

We call them dollar vans because it would be a dollar at the time. And then they would take you to the parts that the trains don't go, especially in Queens. Queens is a big borough. So just for those who didn't know. So you get a person on there for a dollar. By the time you know you have 15 people on by time people go on and off you go all the way down you can have 40 50 dollars you can have $300 during the course of the day however I'll go to areas where a lot of the van

drivers do wouldn't want to go I'm going deep into Far Rockaway right deep in it right why do you know my man had the ratchet on the side. He made sure we got paid. You're a man from the security. Let me tell you something. The first time, here's what happened. I got 15 people in the van. I pick them. 15 dudes I pick up from the subway.

They just came from a tunnel or something like that, right? They get in the van, and I get all the way to the last stop. And, you know, we all got nicknames in the hood. So one was like, gets out the van. Yo, crime got it. Yo, crime got it. Yo, crime got it. By the time the 15th one was like, guess out the bag. Yo, Crime got it. Yo, Crime got it. Yo, Crime got it. By the time the 15th guy got there,

I said, Yo, Crime, you got it. He was like, Yo, homie, Crime don't pay. And he ran. Boom. I realized I needed a cash register. Oh, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, so. You know what?

We're going to salute to you. I don't know if you know about our show. Well, our show was about saluting our legends. We like to give you your flowers while you're here. Because a lot of people want to say how great people are when they're gone and they pass away. We want to tell you how great you are while you're here. Salute.

So we're going to celebrate until nothing. Thank you. Damn, motherfuckers, you're supposed to make some noise, man. So horrible. Let's do it again. So hold on. So you did the dollar van And you got crime paid That time

So what was your next hustle after that? So that one is actually a successful one But I looked at three or four years of doing it And I realized That I didn't actually make money I didn't net anything Because after paying for It was a junkie van

After paying for it breaking down the tickets insurance I was netting nothing and I had to physically be there to make a dollar I mean that dollar wasn't ringing when I was sleeping hmm so I go back to Red Lobster I take that van I take all the seats out of it I start putting t-shirts in it. I start sleeping in it sometimes at night. You got your own printing company, right? No, no, no, I'm going to other people getting things printed. The first printing company, the first thing I ran off, really, was a shirt that said what they did to Rodney King, they would do to you.

Oh, wow. That's the first one I started selling on the streets. Wow. And I was working at Red Lobster. Now I was working in the van. Now I'm using the van to carry my clothes around and all that kind of stuff, like the Rodney King shirt. And your Red Lobster money, you're investing into what you're doing, I'm assuming. No, my Red Lobster money, I'm chilling at the moment.

And then all of a sudden the idea of FUBU comes around because I started hearing the brands didn't respect whether hip-hop, African-Americans, inner-city kids, and they didn't value them. And it was the main company at that time. They're not owned by the same one now. Now, also describe that at the time, there is no rocker wear. Yeah, there's no hip-hop clothing. No one even existed a little bit. It was cross-colored, coconut, and rocker wear.

And they had already inspired me. However, they were very West Coast. And a lot of times, growing up in our community, if you wanted to show, without saying it, that you were wearing something of African American. This is good, this is great shit. That's nothing in this track. We're gonna bring this on a shopping trip.

You used to be in the living room. We got to do this place in that house. The rooms are me and my kids, I usually blow them off. When you went to respect and show that you had love for African or African-Americans, it was always kente cloth colors. Even cross colors, it was always purple, green, yellow. And I was like, yo, man, why do we got to be that loud? It was super loud.

Why can't I wear something cool Right And then the cast know That it's us So that's when I came up With FUGO For us buyers Right

And then Okay And that was four of y'all Correct It was always five of us Originally But the fifth member Never stayed around

Oh wow That's why you see Big old five On all the jerseys But that fifth member Would never stay We'd be like Yo just work for six months

And put in Put in Ten hours a, but nobody ever saw the vision. So over five years, we ran through five separate parties. I thought the fifth member was LL. No, no. I always wanted to ask this question. Okay, so Gap has this commercial, right? It's a Gap commercial. Clearly for Gap.

Oh, yeah. But LL is rocking a goddamn FUBU app. That's right. Is that the first time? And he said in it, for us, by us, on the low. So was that the first time FUBU got national recognition? We already had a little bit of national recognition because I think a couple of people at Warden won their video sets.

Miss Jones. You said who? ODB. Miss Jones. You said who? ODB. Miss Jones, you said? Miss Jones, ODB. Who else? Method Man, and a couple of people

are already warning on Brand Nubian. So they had already, they were warning the ice cream video and a couple of other things. And I think LL Warden, the Hey Lover video, he's sitting on the rock in Queens. And then, but that's when we had already had our distribution deal. Okay. And Gap called think LL Ward in the Hey Lover video, he's sitting on the rock in Queens. And then, but that's when we had already had our distribution deal.

Okay. And Gap called up LL and he didn't really, he didn't value, he didn't like the way they spoke to him. They spoke to him pretty much like, listen, LL, whatever your name is, or whoever, whatever you, you're one of those rappers, right? So we need one, we need to get to the little hippity hopper kids, you know? And I know that, you know, I remember the dude say something like, yo, I'm white. My daughter is 16 years old and white. She's running around the house talking about fight the power and F the police. So I think we're big enough now.

Hip hop's big enough. So can you come in and do this commercial? And that's why I always say something about LL, meaning like, you know, a lot of people want influencers and brand, you know, people like that. But you can't have somebody, you're Pepsi, you can't have them drinking Coca-Cola. Elle, Elle lived. Yeah. Right. Now, how did that come, you and Elle

didn't grow up together. Was that like your person you thought of to be a model? No, no, we all grew up in the same neighborhood, so we all grew up in Hollis. Oh, okay, okay. And the funny story is that- And Elle's from Farmers, right? Huh? Elle's from Farmers. But I lived on Farmers're all from Hollis. And the funny story is that That was from Farmer's right? That was from Farmer's.

But I lived on Farmer's Boulevard in Hollis, Queens. So you had obviously L, Salt-N-Pepa, Run DMC, Spider D, Oliver's job, we all lived in the same neighborhood. And it was funny, I used to be a roadie and we used to always skip out of school or at 14 years old to go on tour and raise and hail and all and push speakers around. Yeah, you went on those tours?

I went on those tours and I had three other friends on the tour. That's crazy. Make some noise for NBA. That's crazy. That's real hip hop shit right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's crazy. We were on the tour just looking for chicks, right?

Yeah, that's crazy. But it's funny, I always say I went on tour, I had three other friends. I was like, yo, I'm going to be the biggest dude in fashion. My other dude was like, I'm going to be the biggest dude in movies. My other dude was like, I'm going to be the biggest dude in music. And my other dude said, I'm going to be the biggest drug dealer. Right. The dude who, so it was me, me other dude who said movies was Hyde Williams

The other dude who said records was earth is earth body Wow and the other dude ended up becoming the biggest drug dealer because Hyde wrote a movie about him called belly and he's still In jail So at 14 years old we kind of all had had this desire. We didn't know what it was gonna be You know going to be. But we all, you know, aspired to be the top of our industry, you know? Right. Now, you got these brands out right now, right?

It's a big controversy right now. You got Prada. Yeah. You got Gucci, who is very disappointing to me, personally, because of the Dapper Dan association. And who else is it? Moncler, I believe.

Is it Moncler? Moncler. So how does a person like you who has so much success and you could probably, a person could probably say that you can be out of touch because of how many,

how do you, how does a person, how does a coochie avoid shit like that? How do people even make mistakes like that? I guess is the best question. You know, I have two hats to put on that. One is about 15 steps to go through to make a garment and

it's hard. And normally when we make a garment, like, see the Pullman piece you're wearing? I have the same piece with the big cat on it. You make, you make what we call a capsule. There's 15 or 20 pieces. You don't just make different, you know this is the theme right now.

So the hat that I have on that said that they didn't know what they were doing is the hat saying that you know, we can't be conscious of every single sensitive thing to every single person because these people are in Italy. It's like me, if I decide to put Indians and call Redskins on something and all of a sudden because our Native Americans have been prosecuted and treated so bad, they take offense to it. Or I put something on the Aborigines or something like that. You know what I'm saying? And so the insensitive part in some aspects,

I go, I don't know what they were doing. I don't know if they knew what they were doing. Some people say, well, they only came to the Japanese. Well, I've been to Japan when I seen the Japanese kids wear blackface, wear Knicks jerseys, Yankee hats, and break dance because of homage to hip hop. But there's clubs where they go dressed like that. They go there, and they are saying, we want to be black. So I don't know on that side.

However, if you usually make a capsule collection and you only make one piece. Okay, when you say capsule I mean you want 15 pieces in it because you're going like, you know, like my line is 150 pieces this year. I got 15 capsule collections. One's going to be army.

One's going to be whatever, whatever. You know, boats, whatever. If you only put one blackface to be whatever, whatever, you know, boats, whatever. If you only put one blackface on one item, that sounds like a, I need somebody to talk about this. So I don't know really where the intent was.

Is that a company-wide issue? Is it someone that greenlit that one particular item that is the problem? Because I can't, I'll just say that question again because I just want to say something. Because I can't see Gucci as a brand that just want to say something because I can't see

Gucci as a brand that knows like you know Rakim has been you know rocking it since the 80s I can't see them being that

ignorant but at the same token why is there people on the board like well the board don't get to see it I mean

listen the board is thinking right now about how many stores are we going to open globally who else are we going to open globally? Who else are we going to acquire? How are our shareholders dealing with it? The designers are usually probably going to be young kids who are designing for a while.

Then they go to a design director. The design director sends it to a manufacturer in Italy, most likely in Japan and Hong Kong, stuff like that. You probably didn't run across African-Americans throughout that whole process if you're an Italian company. So it may have slipped through. What was you saying? Is it a company-wide problem, or is it one person that greenlit that one

particular item? When I saw it, wasn't it like a turtleneck rolled up here? Yeah, a turtleneck. How do we even know they ever saw the turtleneck rolled up here? Yeah, a turtleneck. How do we even know they ever saw the turtleneck rolled up? Mm-hmm. I don't know.

Mm-hmm. Now, however, you got Prada going down the runway with a noose hanging off a shirt. And who was that? That was Burberry. Was it Burberry or Prada?

No, that's Burberry. Burberry, okay, my bad. I don't want to brush up Prada with the wrong brush, but... It's not often contrived and really thought well out when you come into art and design.

It's really not. Right. I don't think that anybody within the hip-hop culture should be surprised at those companies making those kind of mistakes. I don't think culture should be surprised at those companies making those kind of mistakes.

I don't think we should be... I think we... I think... I got to disagree with you. My personal opinion is you should have never been showing that much love to those companies.

It should be more of your companies and companies like yours. In this day and time. I mean, you know... No, from before too. I don't know if you know, but we call ourselves...

We say we the digital fooboo. Right, right, right. We call ourselves... We've been saying that for, and why is that? Like, again, when I Googled you, I don't know if it said you guys spent six billion dollars, worth six billion dollars, but we sold,

over the course of our existence, we sold six billion dollars worth of retail sales, so. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. That helps. Got to tell you. So, why isn't there more brands? Like, why isn't there,

like, immediately, like, one thing that I did, like, not one thing, this is amongst many things that I like, is when Jay-Z went and stepped to Chris Stile. Chris Stile gave him resilience.

Chris Stile didn't want to be down with him. Immediately, Jay-Z had an alternative. Let's go with Ace of Spades. Ace of Spades is a lot out of people's budget. I realize why everybody couldn't switch from Cristal to Ace, but at least it was an alternative. Right now, what is the alternative to Gucci? What is the alternative to Prada?

What is the alternative to Montclair? Oh, what is the alternative to Gucci? What is the alternative to Prada? What is the alternative to Montclair? Oh, there is plenty. Like, I'm seeing it more and more every day. I'm seeing a lot of young people of various different shades and colors. I'm seeing them create small lines. You know, back then you have these brands with the huge numbers. You know, when I got into the business, I think Levi's was doing like $18 billion. I think they're doing now

three billion. And why? Well, you got a lot of kids that you see at home making their t-shirts, their sweatshirts, and they're doing a million a piece,

but they're doing it off their iPhones. And you got a million kids doing that. So it's there in some way, you know, in the street wear and the love,

and couture. It's still there at some level. You're just seeing a lot of the heavy advertising and marketing by the only the couple of brands that are lasting these days because look at retail retail is almost dead right where's anybody going to buy retail yeah brick and mortar it's online correct yeah yeah it's online right so you're only seeing the advertising and in the branding by them and it doesn't just happen to african-american or or or colors of minority i mean where is Benetton these days?

I don't know. I don't know. That was some throwback shit right there. We're at Lotto, LSA, La Paz Fortif, where are these? Come on, you know what I mean? Wow. Like, where are those brands? So a lot of times we want to act like, you know, it's only one way or another.

But it happens to everybody in one way or another. You know, when we look at Gucci and Louis Vuitton, we're talking about the unicorns, Nike. Right, right. We're talking about unicorns, man. But at the end of the day, it really happens. And trust me, I'm not trying to fight in Gucci's defense. I'm just laying it down so when we walk in the room and we talk to other people, we don't have that chip on our shoulder

like everything's happening to us. No, it's happening to other people too. But you just feeling it more, and I respect that. And you guys got a new deal, Puma, well who is it you got oh yeah we have a we just did some with century 21 century 21 I think we're doing also a ladies line with forever 21 Wow and these are all small collaborations you know we're just trying to get with whoever we like this cool because the resurgence all brands come back 20 years for a little while a lot of're just trying to get with whoever we like that's cool because the resurgence, all brands come back

20 years for a little while and a lot of people just want to feel the 90s and the 2000s. Right. Did you ever get slack for acquiring the Coogee brand? Because you know,

the reason why I say that, you're probably bugging me, like, why do you get slack for acquiring the Coogee? It's because everyone kind of looked at Coogee as like an Italian brand.

Right, right, right. You know what I'm saying? Because originally that's what it was like an Italian brand. Right, right, right. You know what I'm saying? Because originally that's what it was, right? Italian sweaters? Yeah, it was Italian, and it was made in Italy and Australia. Okay. No, no, they gave us love.

I mean, because initially when we purchased Coogee, it was in bankruptcy, and they only had $800 sweaters. And then we started making more affordable stuff. We still have those heavily woven sweaters because there's only two machines in the world

that can knit that sweater. However, we started making other stuff and actually, Coogee ended up becoming really, really good for us. So, we never got slapped

by any of that stuff. Okay. Oh, damn. You knew he owned Coogee? Yeah. That's all right. And what year was that? That wasn't when Biggie was wearing Coogee.

No, no, no. We wore Coogee around 2003. Right. And at first, nobody wanted to wear it, and I was doing all the product integration for these three girls named the Kardashians that nobody knew about. And I remember going around to all the brands.

I feel like you said it. I love that flaw. I love that flaw. I remember going around to all my friends at the brand like you said it too quickly. I love that flaw. I love that flaw. I remember going around to all my friends at the brand. I'm like, yo, they'll wear your clothes for the whole season for $75,000. And Cavs are like, nah, that ain't going to be nothing. So if you look at the first three seasons of. So it's when they just launched the reality show.

Yeah, when you look at the first three seasons of Kardashians, they're wearing all Coogee. Wow. Because I was like, man, I'm sorry, girls. I can't really, you know, get my other people behind you, but I got you. There you go. I knew you were going to be something. How do you, like, determine

things like that? How did you, you know, because LL is like a different type of person. Like, you know, for you to align yourself with LL, and this is a guy who's, you know, been around for 30, 35 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So how do you align with people like that? How do you see starism in a person?

Well, L was always a big star to me. He was already a huge star. So it wasn't me having an opportunity in regards to me helping him out. It was him reaching down and helping me out. Okay. And whenever we go after mentors or other people, it's what's in it for them. I had to make it very advantageous to him. So what I had to do was dress everybody around him first.

I dressed all the bodyguards, the big dudes, the five X's who nobody ever made them think fly for. So all of a sudden they wearing it now, and they wearing it more, because you dressed the little skinny kid with the funny mustache, you know, the skateboard, he throwing it away a week later. But you dressed a big dude who can't get nothing,

he wearing it for a year straight. After that, and then he always in front of the club, or pushing somebody out the way. That's a walking billboard. Yeah, so after that, El was like, hey yo, baby, what's up with me? No, I didn't want to bother you, baby, I didn't want to bother you, El.

But I got a couple shirts for you right now, you want to talk about them? So, I had to make it really fly for him and then I went after, you always go after the local lead. I went after Ralph McDaniel. Wow. Everybody always says, I'm so sorry.

You all right? You need a lozenger? You need a lozenger or something? No. Yeah, I'm here to make sure. Don't worry about it. All right, I'm going to make sure the lozenger is hanging off. Everybody always wondering, was that down? Was Al a partner? Everybody. Yeah. Don't worry about it. All right. I'm going to make sure the law of the town

you know what? Everybody always wants that down. Was Al a partner? Was he a partner? Al wasn't a partner. He was a spokesperson who got to partake

in any profits afterwards because he was a smart businessman. He was like, I don't want to be around when the losses is there. I want to only be around in the case of partnership.

So like a royalty deal? Kind of like a royalty deal on the upside of stuff. And that's why he went out and busted his ass. And that's why obviously we were very beneficial off that. Because after he wore it, everybody wanted to wear it. Everybody wanted to rock out, you know? Now was Fat Form and Russell involved at any point? Or did you ever try to get through?

Because Fat Form was a company that was out there. Fat Farm also existed first, but Russell came to us and was like, hey, man, I know the record business. I don't know this business that well. Right. And because Russell's a legend to me, we actually distributed his clothes in Europe, and then we hooked him up with a guy who would end up really helping him. And then we were obviously up with a guy who would end up really helping him. So,

so, and then we were obviously very happy about that. We always wanted to see other cats who were part of the world be able to benefit off of it. Right.

You know, so, so we would all, because you know, you know, listen man, you can't stop anybody who already got dropped.

Mm-hmm. And you know, you always want to be part of the bridge if you can. That's for all the haters out there who don't realize that. Was there any rivalries amongst these brands that were kind of competing for the same market? Absolutely, so we were able to really,

Cross Colors and Kalk and I broke ground for us. They inspired us, they opened the door. We came in and took it to another level and we came in right after they were slowing down a little bit, right before Paul and Russell really got to blast. So we had a really good run at it. But when we really started to get going and they started to get going, of course, there's only limited space in any store for any brand.

So, of course, there would be the rivalry. It wouldn't be a rivalry in the streets with us. We wouldn't have no issues. We wasn't like y'all cats who would be like, yo, man, East Coast, West Coast. I ain't have no issues. We wasn't like y'all cats who'd be like, yo man, east coast, west coast. I ain't gonna be like, extra large shirt, hold it, back up. I'm not.

But of course, it was a friendly rivalry. I mean, I introduced Puff to a guy named Jeff Tweedy who runs his company because I knew I couldn't take Jeff Tweedy on and I wanted him to help Puff. I didn't think Puff was going to be that hot.

But again, you can't stop people. But yeah, of course, it was always a friendly business. I'm sure in your businesses, who's selling more songs? This is my man, but he's killing it. You know what I mean? Or my homie, well, she's killing it. And it seemed that these brands, the brands you mentioned, they learned off of you guys because the department stores

weren't carrying, like like hip-hop clothing until like tail end of the 90s, early 2000 because I had a clothing store and I remember I had to, I went out of business once locally with Birdines

and then it became Macy's. When they started carrying it, I couldn't even compete with those more. So that's what happened. So first of all, a lot of those big stores wouldn't carry our brand.

Right. I even heard something like, yo, there's four black guys on the hang tag. People are going to come in and have shootouts. They're going to start shoplifting. But a local store like you, we would support always the local entrepreneur because the local entrepreneur,

they were our ambassador. As soon as they sell stuff in one week, they call back, I need more. Macy's are one of those big guys that are going to call back every quarter or whatever the case is. But what they found out, like two years into it, they found out the guys like you who had one store

now had six. And they were like, yo, we're missing the mark. And that's why they kind of let us, all of us kind of in at the same, around the same time, because they were like, we need this section, because we can't have the kids going down the block or staying in the hood and not coming here. So that's how, you know, everybody gets on everything.

It's almost like, what, it's cryptocurrency today and CBD today? Everybody's gonna, it's gonna take a while to bubble and then, you know, they're gonna get on it. Now, did FUBU ever do like, because you see how like, you remember Rockaway, they sold like, they say they sold it for like 200, 300 million, like, did FUBU, they sold, like, they said they sold it for, like, 200, 300 million.

Did FUBU ever sell? We never sold. We never sold. We never sold. We always, we still have the brand. Hence, you guys revamping it. Yeah, so we never sold the brand.

We sold the territory of China and Japan, I think. No, China and Korea. That's just the territory. Sold it or licensed? Sold it. Sold it. That means we can't distribute

in those just that those two areas so they can make the FUBU they can make it whatever they want they purchase that

only that specific area wow and in that area FUBU is more like a skate type of brand oh god yeah

they reinterpreted a different way over there you ever look at that and be like you look at you know the product and see

see like where it goes and be like cause essentially it's like it see where it goes and be like, because essentially it's like an album. It's like how we make an album. After we give it to the world, it's not ours no more. I never thought we would be more than maybe a little clothing store

where my friends and I, we can all work together and feed our families. I never thought we'd have anything bigger than that. What was the moment where you was like, holy shit, we here? We had just opened a couple stores in South Africa, and I remember, I didn't go on that trip. At a food booth?

Yeah, a food booth store in South Africa. I didn't go on that trip. Because I always thought the first year pop, the second year pop, be like, yo, we're done, year three, we're done year four. And it lasted probably about eight years, super hot, right? And I remember, I didn't go on that trip. I had to do something else. And I remember Mandela calling my partners. Okay, god damn, super hot, right? And I remember I didn't go on that trip. I had to do something else.

And I remember Mandela calling my partners. Okay, got that. Hold on, hold on. Yo, yo, right on. That's one of my only regrets. You know, man. Okay, all right, cool. We can slow down now.

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received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser-known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Ranella.

I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say, when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

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I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got

Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote

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and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content,

subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You going to the clubhouse with me? We're into this. Go ahead. You going to go through all those by the time I leave here? Yeah, we're going to try to. Get in the wheelchair. Get in the wheelchair and the Colossal will be back. So Mandela calls you.

He calls my boys and they go and meet Mandela. And I never got to meet him. But I realized at that point, we're making some noise. Wow. Did you ever get to meet Tupac? Nah. Nah, me neither.

When he got super hot, I was an East Coast dude. And the only time I almost got to meet him, I forgot. What happened? Oh, no. We were throwing a big party on the West Coast, I think for like Lennox Lewis or somebody,

and I was dressing, you know me, I was dressing everybody. But all of a sudden, you know, a lot of East Coast cats, I forgot if it was the Grammys or whatever, and I had to make a decision that I wouldn't allow Death Row at the party. And just because we were dressing everybody,

we didn't want the thing to be heard that something happened at a FUBU party. And that was the only time that I almost met him. Did Troy from 5001 work for FUBU, or was that? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Troy number one. He actually, Troy did work for all of us in some sense, because when we would do these seven, six fashion shows that we never had an opportunity to do,

we would need somebody to make the clothes in a week. Right. And just front, like that was the new line coming out. Right. And Troy from 5001 would make all the clothes and we'd be like, yo, that's the new line. And then we'd see who we get press off of and then we'd run the line.

We wouldn't actually be designing that line until we see how many times we get press off this one piece of that piece and then we make like I said that capsule right it's like um what me right it's like I got kind of like two different lights right I got the rapper life love the rapper life and now I have this afterlife after rap that, this podcast, like, we're doing now. And often people always ask me, like, which one you like more?

Which one you like more, the Shark Tank life or the FUBU life? The Shark Tank life. Okay. Shark Tank life. Damn, you said that mad fast. Goddamn, I thought you were going to take some time with this one. I'll tell you why, though. You know, because when FUBU was God damn, I thought you were gonna take some time with this one. I'll tell you why though, you know, when food was really hot,

I had 300, 400 employees, and then globally I had about 1,200. And I think we're supposed to make some noise for that. I think we're supposed to make some noise for that. And, but you become a shrink. A shrink, oh okay. You become a therapist. Okay, okay, I thought you said shrink.

Yeah, because a lot of you come from where we've come from. You've always been concerned with why you didn't get to make it where you thought you deserved. Right. Whether because you were a female, because you were a person of color, because you didn't have a regular education. So I would go out and I would want my employees to know if I had to fire them, I had to fire them. Or I had to give them an advance to give them an advance. But I wanted to know it was on the merit of who they were, not the color of their skin. And I never wanted to hand it down to other middle management because you don't know how they were going to convey your message. So you become a shrink, right?

You start to worry about why people are working or not working. Now, Shark Tank, I get to invest in other companies who, they already were founded a year, two years, five years before they even met me, 10 years. What the company is saying. Those companies, right? I'm a minority stakeholder. Okay. I get to just work and deal with you off your performance.

And the DNA that you had already set for your company was never my business. Also, I think that Shark Tank is one of the top shows to watch kids and parents together. That's one of the top shows to watch on network kids five to 15 years old. And we don't often see people like us who are successful and they didn't have this great education. And they didn't go out in the streets and do some crazy shit. And if I can let, if the next Daymond John, excuse me, not even Daymond John, excuse me.

If the next Oprah or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates is in their house in their little pajamas eating some Cheerios watching me on TV. Like I did my job, right? So I think that that, and I don't have any inventory. Before I used to worry about moving a million pairs of jeans. Now my inventory's right here and right here.

Right here. That's my inventory. And you in a food company right now, right? Food company? Yeah. Al Bubba Bakerers, Boneless Ribs. I got that one. That's a tongue twister. You try that after three more.

That was a tongue twister. But, so, was there ever, like, an investment? You can't brush over, like, the beginning of Shark Tank. Like, I want to know, like, how did that whole show even start? It was Mark Cuban's idea? No, no, no. Mark Burnett. Like, I want to know, how does that whole show even start? It was Mark Cuban's idea? No, no, no. Mark Burnett. Oh, Mark Burnett.

The producer. He had Survival, Apprentice, all that. And it was already a number one show in Japan, in London, and Canada. It was called Dragon's Den. And they brought the format over here. It's a Sony format. They brought it over here.

Mark is a Brit, so he loved it already from London. Right. And then he brought the show over here. Mark is a Brit, so he loved it already from London. And then he brought the show here and renamed it Shark Tank, because I think they had it in another country, I think Australia at first. They had it under Dragon's Den,

and nobody knew what the hell a dragon was in that country. And if you would have brought it here and named it Dragon's Den, it was already hard enough to name it Shark Tank. You got to think you got some Game of Thrones or some shit. Exactly. So absolutely, that's how I started.

They called me up, They saw me, I think, on Donny Deutsch or CNBC or MSNBC talking about business. And they were like, yo, you know this guy knows how to break down a pitch. He has a couple of bucks. He's an investor. I want him on the show. Again, something else like FUBU that I thought would never work.

Right. So they approached you with this idea. Now, do you guys shoot a pilot first or you guys Right So So They approach you With this idea Now do you guys Shoot a pilot first Or you guys go straight Into the season

Now we go to shoot the pilot Okay But first they tell me I can't be on any other show And I already promised The Kardashians I'd be on their show So I told them no

I wouldn't do it And then I Then all of a sudden The producer The Kardashians Like yeah We don't want you In the show no more

You don't really appeal To the people You know that we're trying to Get the hell out of So you get cut out the producer, the Kardashians, like, yeah, we don't want you in the show no more. You don't really appeal to the people, you know, that we're trying to... Get the hell out of... So you get cut out of the Kardashians. However, you know what I found out? Khloe found out that I was going to turn down Shark Tank

because of her. And then she said she would never get in my way. Aw, let's make some noise for Khloe, god damn it. I think that's noise and an aw. One, two, three. Aw. That's a sweet story, man. I'm glad

to hear a person like you of your stature come on here and speak positivity towards that way. Because I just don't hear it. I don't hear it. I don't know.

I mean, listen, there's screwed up people out here and there's a lot of foul people out here. Right. But you got to give it up when you know somebody's doing it the right way. Right. You know, and Christiana's doing it the right way and I ain't mad at them.

You know, they're getting their paper. Why are we getting mad at them? Right, exactly. Do you have an opinion on Kanye and like sometimes his thoughts being out of this world? You know, they're getting their paper. Why are we getting mad at them? Right, exactly. Do you have an opinion on Kanye and, like, sometimes his thoughts being out of this world? You know, not really. I think that, you know, I think he's already said everything he needs to say about himself. Emotionally, he goes through it.

I think the man's a genius. Has he said some wrong stuff that I've been offended at? Absolutely. Right. But you know what? If the cameras were on me all the time Of course I said some wrong stuff too

Right Right But I'm not one of the Biggest stars in the world Right You know what I'm saying So Change the zone

You got a motivational General album coming up I got a motivational track I got It's almost like spoken word I do a couple of speeches And people score them I'm not going to insult true artists or somebody like that.

And it's you? I think it's me. I'm doing my speech. Because you know what? I think a lot of times when I'm doing the tracks, when I do these speaking engagements, if you hear it once, you've heard it a million times to me. But I remember I was driving down the street one day.

It was MLK's birthday, and I heard, obviously, one of the greatest speeches that ever been written. But somebody did some crazy beat to it and I was like, I can hear that Martin Luther King speech on the treadmill, on the train, when I'm driving the car, it's getting me amped. It's doing a killer that day. So I gave a bunch of producers a lot of my speeches

and it's obviously never going to compare to MLK, but they put some stuff together and just started getting good responses and people were like, and I give them away with my books or I let people purchase them, whatever the case is, but I always wanted to add more than just my books, you know?

Now, Obama appointed you the brand ambassador? Yeah, Obama appointed me presidential ambassador of global entrepreneurship. Okay, but how did this happen? Did he call your phone and did you hang up when you say it's Obama? Because he was like, come on, nigga, Obama. I was like, come on, nigga, I'm hanging up.

Come on, Obama, you're right. I wish I could play big time like that. It was his man's man, man's man, who called me. And we were like, you know. It's not a man's remove. It wasn't you down. It wasn't you down, but I did get to go with him to Kenya. I went with him to Cuba.

I went with him to another conference in California. And my job as a presidential ambassador is to let people understand that they can pick up their iPhone and make a million dollars. Or if you're in Kenya, you need only $25 a month

to keep the lights on. If we can show you what entrepreneurship is and how to do it, then domestic violence is going to go down. If you need $25 a month, like if your wife keeps telling you, listen, I need money to take care of the baby, take whatever the case is,

and you stress you ain't got it, a lot of things are going to happen. And then also, the people are going to pray over you. They're going to be like, yo, just like they do whether it's in a gang in New York City or in California. It's like, yo,

you need some money? Take this and go down a block and do this for me. They're going to do that too to other people, right? But if you show people there's real ways to make money, then they don't become liabilities.

They become taxpayers. They become mentors in the community. We see it happen All the time So that was my job Globally to To do that For the President Obama And so you

But you got to meet him Yeah Yeah He traveled with him Yeah I traveled with him You didn't get to smoke a blunt With him or nothing like that Nah

Nah I'm fucking with you I'm fucking with you I'm fucking with you But now you're the Grand ambassador of Spotify too How you getting music money As well No Spotify Yeah That's Shopify Oh Shopify Spotify I'm fucking with you, I'm fucking with you. But now you're the grand ambassador of Spotify too? How you getting music money as well?

No, Spotify? Yeah, that's... Shopify. Oh, Shopify! Oh, Spotify! Holy shit! That's drunk facts, drunk facts. I like that.

But that's just how I wrote it. Shopify is Spotify. Oh shit, I got it definitely, I wrote it wrong. I put it Spotify. That's how you know I'm a music nigga. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I put it... But you know what?

I used all the mistakes too. When I was the president, like, yo That's how you know all the music, nigga. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I wish. But you know what? I used to always mistake it too. When I was the president, like, yo, yo, you know. But Shopify's a platform. Anybody have something, when they trying to sell something, that's like their own store. Shopify. They can open up, yeah.

Shopify, holy shit. You are just getting money from everywhere. Do you, like, how the, how the, like, cause they say a millionaire has to have seven different forms of income. Is that something you agree with? Yeah. I mean, I do. I don't ever count it like, what's the seven?

I always say, how are we maximizing what we're currently doing here? I'll give you an example. If the books are doing really well, then I'm going to come out with the curriculum that follows up with the books. Then I'm going to also put the tracks

to follow up with the books. I'm going to do, hopefully, some kind of doc or show off of it. And then, you know, I may do one or other, or other two things off of it. But we're going to try to maximize, you know. No, nigga, this is open. That brand.

Don't try to say, you know, this is open Don't forget we have some That's the brand new one go ahead go ahead god damn it we got you you ready for your pitch me I'm great. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Okay on. Okay, okay, hold on, hold on. I'm going to do a real one. This is a real one. I don't believe in these niggas at all. They're going to embarrass the whole integrity of the show right now. And we all know this. But look, this is a real one.

All right, now. Now, listen. This is something that I've been working on personally, right? Alright, now. Now, listen. Please humor us with this. This is something that I've been working on personally, right? I didn't want to go to anybody for help because I just wanted to do it on my own, just like a record deal. So, you got it, Diego? Yeah. So, what I proposed is this.

I wanted to come out with my own sneaker line, right? My own, my very own. That's my prototype. That's my very own. These are called the Hamptons. Bam! Because this is what you want. Now, it's not going to be black. It's going to be

white because in Hamptons, you know the Hamptons, that's all version of Malibu, right? But it doesn't stop here. This is obviously a Nori pair of sneakers, but I want to be like the first company. I want to be Nike, meaning I want to be like the first company i want to be nike meaning i want to give i want to give everybody who's not going to give people a deal but who has hundreds of thousands of fans right right right um uh like like like a jim jones i don't see jim jones ever in a it will be in a nike bn or with new balance but guess what what if i give jim

jones his own sneakers under my brand? Yeah, I like it You know, it's that it's like label deals in a sense Like do you think that could is this in this day and time? Absolutely. Okay, absolutely, but you know the question is gonna be you know, how how are you gonna do that? Right, like how are you gonna set up the supply chain? Okay. And who's going to fund that supply chain? Okay. Because you look at it today, if you look at the sneaker, you know, sneakers are not like T-shirts. Right.

A T-shirt, you can put, obviously, something on the T-shirt, and it really means a lot to people because they follow you. Two-part passport. There you go, right? Uh-huh. You can make that T-shirt In two days You can go print it And ship it over to you That

Can't Right That's going to take 90 days Right You don't know if you can customize it And then your inventory Is going to be massive

Because how many 8's 8 and a half 9's Against colors So now you got to look at How much inventory You're going to have to have

And that can suck up A lot of cash Because the more inventory You have The now you got to look at how much inventory you're going to have to have and that can suck up a lot of cash because the more inventory you have, the more you got to pay for warehousing and quality control and if you put out this,

because we all know the sneaker crowd, if this sneaker is hot for 90 days or one season and it gets cold, now if you paid, whatever,

$30 a unit and you got $3 million worth of units in your warehouse, if it don't become a collector's item, then when you go and try to sell them, people ain't going to pay the normal price they pay for it. They're going to pay half the price. So you just got to really set up the supply chain

in the right way where you can deliver it faster to people in a timely manner. My idea was, instead of me coming out with one, I wanted to come out with three at a time. I wanted to come out with the Nori, like a Jim Jones

and a Bad Joe. Right, right, right. So this way, I'm putting all the revenue into it. I'm buying for everything but no one knows. It's all under one company

but no one knows who owns this company or whatever the company is. But I got Bad Joe out in the Bronx promoting. I got Jim Jones in Miami and I'm in LA or something like that so so the flip side of the best way to do that because you have such a great relationship with them and they have such a great relationship with their

audience and it's a pre-order situation exactly that's what I was thinking you got don't even don't even make the product until we get down to order don't make it until but but you have to have a customer who's ready to wait for 90 days. And they're all maybe limited edition. Yeah. Listen, we only rocking out with 5,000 or 2,000. Now you already know your loss if it goes that route.

Well, you're not going to have a loss because, you know, now you just got to be able to make sure your production's good because you already got advances on pre-selling. Right. Now, here was,

now this is all serious. Like, I'm not even... None of this was... I was, like, playing around with. Yeah. But one of the things I was going... I'm actually going to L.A. this Wednesday is I got this all done in China, right? I had to go to China

because I didn't know no other route. And I didn't want no help, to tell you the truth. I wanted to do something 100% on my own. Like, for real. And Raven May and I helped me. You know what I'm saying? But not with no money, to tell you the truth. I wanted to do something 100% on my own. Like, for real. And Raven A&M helped me, you know what I'm saying? But not with no money, though. Everything was on me. So, what I thought about it was,

I had running with Kanye, and I'm supposed to meet with Kanye this week. And I think he thinks I'm going to meet with him for drink champs. But one of the things that I want to meet with him is for, yo, listen, I want to pay you the same shit. I was gonna pay China to make my sneaker I just want to make it here. Would that make a difference? If it's American made and it's made in Calabasas or some shit as opposed to China Yeah, it is. But the pricing may be different because we don't even know if they have fact too many factories set up here

Right to make to make footwear. Technology sometimes is better in those areas. Or you can get components made. You can say, I'm going to make the sole over there and I'm going to make the upper over here. You know what? When you want to really make those sneakers, they're like car builders who make those sneakers.

We own the brand Etonic and it takes us a long time to make a pair of sneakers. Etonic the sneakers? Okay wow okay yeah we were about six years ago oh okay okay got that you know money time is late oh no I do I do I don't but I do yeah okay so now shark tank right turn turn turn turn they come So now Shark Tank, right? They come to you with this idea. Yeah. And I imagine one of the things that could have been a turn off at first is they saying, you invest into your own money. Do you? All day.

Because you had to say, do I? I want to understand. It doesn't make sense to me, the financials of that. How does that work? There's no match process in it, the production, nothing. If they were, if I was spending ABC money, everybody in this room have a deal. Right, right, right.

I'm trying to pookie you on the show? Pookie what you need? A million's not enough, baby. Well, no, I'm thinking maybe it's a match situation. Ain't no match, nothing. All right, all right. Get me hot over here. Get me one of them. Give him one. match situation ain't no man so when they approach you they say we're gonna make a show and you using your own money like and I thought these was crazy but

it was it was oh eight when they approached me I 10 brands, and eight of my brands were dead. When people in 08 couldn't pay their mortgage, the last thing they was doing was buying a new T-shirt or sneakers. They didn't wear jeans. They'd wear their jeans forever. And I was like, yo, I'm only getting pitched other clothing companies because, you know, when people think who we just are, they think you know nothing else. And I was like, but, yo, the skill set that I have is not making clothes. The skill set I have is selling product.

So I want to be able to go to a department store and say, yo, you know me already. You know I'm in the men's section but I got some lotions that I can take.

Can I take some real estate up in the lotion area, in the bedding, in the kitchen area? So I said, I'm going to be able to diversify my portfolio so let me go on the show.

And that was the main reason I did the show. Wow. Are the different people that pitch, is there a vetting system that makes sure that, you know, they're just not full of shit completely? Yeah, so, but the vetting system has changed, right? You know, like, so I think there's 40,000 applicants online for the show.

I think that they end up narrowing it down to a thousand. They see them in outside castings, or we don't know anything about them, or they'll see them on the news, like, you know, Little Timmy got a lemonade stand, you know, whatever. And then they'll bring us on, and we'll finally see 200 people,

and only, I think, 100 will air. And, but the vetting process has changed. Over the years, the sharks have gotten smarter, and the casting director have gotten smarter. It's like we're doing production in here right now, right? There are a lot of smart people in here who can walk me around the block ten times when I'm talking about angles, cameras, and equipment. However, the first season, when cast was talking to us and they were like, yo, doing about $30 million in sales and I got one employee. The casting director was a casting director. They didn't know to ask the question like,

so yo, what are you selling crack? What block you got hot right now? You know what I'm saying? But after seeing all these pitches, just like America has gotten smarter and find out what the word royalties is and margin and distribution, the casting directors after seeing hundreds of pitches, now you go to distribution, the casting directors have to see in hundreds of pitches.

Now you go to them, they sound like me, Kevin O'Leary. They're like, yeah, come on, man. You know what I'm saying? So that's the real deal. And the show, you see eight minutes of a two-hour pitch. Oh, really?

Yeah, the pitch is two hours, and it takes us anywhere from six to nine months to close the deals. And we generally close about 80% of the deals you see us do. Have you ever passed on something that you was like, fuck? You know what? At first couple of years, I thought like that, right? And then I'll tell you what happened.

Lori, this guy walks in, falls on the ground as part of the skit. He gets up. He has this little pin that he puts his glasses in. And he says, I got this pin. It's $10. You put your glasses in it and you can put on all your shirts. I was like, it's garbage because I've been putting holes in my shirts, Tommy Hilfiger been doing that,

I mean that's Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Bahama. I'm like yo, that's never gonna work. Lori goes off and does a $7 million in sales in that stupid ass pen. You know what I realized? She been selling reading glasses for 15 years on her show. She had millions of people that messed with her

because of reading glasses. And that's who she sold it to. So I realized that chasing money like that is like back in the days when I was trying to chase that car game. If I don't have the customer I don't know the business how do I know if it's going to sell? And that's what I'm doing really good in baby back

ribs. Because I know baby back ribs. Right. Is there anything that you invested in that you personally believed in that it didn't work? Yeah. Every single thing that has failed. Oh wow.

But I just generally, I don't talk about the entrepreneur and why it's failed because a lot of times entrepreneurs are going through a different stage. Like, it may not be working right now and then two or three years later it may pop. But I've learned, I was behind the camera with FUBU for the most part. I learned that if I go out and say,

well yo, this entrepreneur sucked and this company sucked, that person may not get an investment or a job later on for various different reasons because my words bring them up to the top of the search. So, and most of the time, entrepreneurs who have done wrong by us, they don't have bad intent. They just don't have enough knowledge and they go out there and do wrong things.

Right. You know? Because some of them think, listen, I got five, and it didn't happen to me, but it happened to one of my guys. I think he said he invested $500,000. A woman went off and paid off all her bills

and bought herself a new car. Now, she didn't intend to steal, but her theory was, listen, I'm paying interest on all these bills. All this credit, let me pay that down, and how am I going to get around with this old piece of shit car I got? But in theory, it was the wrong thing to do for the

business. It's pretty hard when you're in business dealing with a lot of different personalities, egos. Is there anything that you ever invested in that you didn't believe in personally

like you said like I but I can see there's other people that will fuck with this like like for instance if I was an investor

like I'll give you a better example I know for a fact Nas don't eat pork but if you go to his restaurant Sweet Chick there's a lot of pork on that menu

right right right so you know what I'm saying like it's like he don't believe in that part of it, but he, is there something like that? Yeah, the two guys, they have a company called Bamba's Socks. And I like the guys personally. But the socks is trash? But the socks, I was like, no, the socks themselves are good, but I was like, yo, I got a million dollars worth of old foo-foo socks in the warehouse.

Right. You wear them, nobody can tell what you're wearing because it's on your feet. They in buckets at $5 a piece at the store. This shit is never going to work. Exactly. Wow. They doing $100 million a year now. A year in socks.

Direct sales to the customer. Customer. And the best thing about them is they're the most comfortable socks I've ever worn. But every time you buy a pair of socks, they donate a pair to the homeless shelter because that's one of the biggest challenges the homeless have or complaints they have.

And they've proven that you can take anything in the world and if you do it the right way, and listen, at the end of the day, I should have known better. I just made a t-shirt. I didn't put three sleeves on a t-shirt. They made a sock. One of the biggest companies in the world and if you do it the right way listen at the end of the day I should have known better I just made a t-shirt I didn't put three sleeves on a t-shirt they made a sock

one of the biggest companies in the world today is something that sells a sugary bubbly water it ain't another heart valve they're selling simplicity is some

of the best things ever to sell people so all these people out here trying to create you know this next heart valve sometimes they should think about the

simplistic things that everybody can acquire every single day. All right. You want to try to do a Tiger Bone? But I got another question. Tiger Bone, I want to hear Lee's pitch.

What's that, Tiger Bone? Go ahead. All right, so look, let me ask you something, right? When you see these big companies like Gucci hiring a Dapper Dan and then a Louis Vuitton hiring like a Virgil.

Like, is that something you ever wanted to do? Like with one of these higher end brands? Yeah, I would design. A Rolex Fubu watch? Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that if I felt that. Damn, I just said some fly shit. I didn't even know how fly that was.

I'm just saying. My bad, my bad. No, absolutely. If I think that it, just said some fly shit I didn't even know how fly that was I just said it My bad, my bad No, absolutely If I think that it I think it made sense And I think that it could be authentic Yeah, if they just slap Somebody's name on it Then it's not going to happen

But the way they mess with Dapper They letting Dapper be Dapper Dad Right You know what I'm saying? We've seen brands that haven't worked Right Because they slapped some name on it

Right But no, absolutely Yeah, if it was something That was sexy It would be something We've seen brands that haven't worked because they slapped some name on it. But no, absolutely. If it was something that was sexy to me... What would be something that you would be looking forward to? If someone called you... It would have to be brands I support. I love Y3. Tom Ford, but he's too talented for me, man.

Tom runs services around me, but I love Tom Ford. What? Let me see. YXL. Who? YXL. Yeah,

so Y3. Puma, definitely, I'm already. Y3 and YXL is not the same thing, right? No,

he wasn't. You said Y3? Okay, yeah. You mean you said Y3? Y3. Y3, that's not.

That's Adidas high in the line. High in the line. Oh, I didn't know. You put me on okay alright cool

cool definitely watch brands of course yeah like you ever like you ever seen like the cars like

they're like they have like the Eddie Bauer edition yeah yeah edition like that yeah so I would love

and artists have done didn't Jay do something G-Wagons and stuff like that I don't know if there's been artists that have had some signature vehicle thing. No, I don't think vehicle. I don't think we have. I think Jay designed a

Hublot or something like that. And he designed like... Were you going to do something with Pit? Pit Bull? What about with Pit? No, you were going to do something with him though, right? Yeah, that's my brother. We've done a lot together. That's my man. Oh, y'all did stuff together. Yeah, we've worked together. We've done a lot together. That's my man. Oh, y'all did stuff together. Yeah, we've worked together. We still have a working relationship.

You know, I think he's, again, like you were talking to me about artists and people that I've worked with in the past. You know, the same, you know, Elle, Pitt, and Kardashians have the same exact model. Lennox Lewis,

they wake up before everybody, they go to sleep after everybody, they overanalyze their customer, they think outside the box, they don't get related with too many things, they're super particular, and they're extremely well-versed business people. So you know when you know them.

You know when you know those type of people. I think you'll feel that way about Mr. Lee when you talk to him. Okay. All right, all right. I'm ready. Now, one thing that, because this is the second part of the show, we're going to get it. One thing that I'm ready. Now, one thing that, before we, because this is the second part

of the show, we got to, we're going to get it. But one thing that I wanted to ask you because you're a black man. I'm a black man. You're from Queens.

I'm from Queens. My wife is Latino. You know what I'm saying? And your wife is, is, is white. Right. Have you ever, like,

received any type of criticism for that because of the whole for us, by us thing? And people try to like, you know. Yeah, you know, it's a funny thing. I posted a picture of her for her birthday or I went in photos and 95% of the comments were extremely positive. We've been together 12 years, have a three-year-old little baby girl.

But, you know, I was always surprised at the negative comments because the negative comments came from people of color. Like always. It's funny, you know, you really know my history. My history is that my father left when I was 10. My stepfather came into my

life, or I call him my stepfather, happens to be of the Jewish faith. His, and it had nothing to do with this whole thing and FUBU in South Africa, but his brother was the lead attorney over here in America for helping to free Mandela. And he always told me one thing. He always said, you know,

they can always be pro-black, but never anti anything else. That's real. And I learned something about him. I learned that love doesn't come in a color or a gender, and I learned that white people are just as fucked up as all of us, right? They have the same problems, the same challenges.

So, my first wife is Dominican. I've dated a lot of females of all colors and races and religions. And when I found that people, people, they're so busy trying to fight to avoid racism, prejudice and things of that nature, but they're becoming the person they're trying to fight against. And, and I was fascinated, not because I was fat. You know why I was fascinated? Because why does that person Care about who I love? And every single thing

Every time change is happening in our country And most likely the world, it took people of all colors Yes Every march that Martin Luther Had, there was white people with him In those marches Then again, I'm trying to be the optimistic person I think the people that don't

have access to people of other colors and cultures don't know what they don't know. So whether you're carrying a tiki torch down in Charlottesville or whatever the case is, or you're hating on me online because the person that I happen to love who has now a half

colored, a child of color with them. Right, right. And they're sitting there yelling at me, I'm going, do you think that she ain't been called the nigga lover? Right. You know what she's been through as well? Right, I know shit.

Do you want that to happen? You're like, we're in a room here and there's a whole bunch of people, a lot of color here. Yup. And you probably work with them because they're the best and they work with you because they believe you're the best. What the hell does who I fuck got to do with anything?

Yup, I agree with you. So I always find it fascinating, and I learned from the people in the Army, when they said, do I really care who that man or woman prays to God or who they have sex with when I'm on the front line and I need them to have my back? So I find it fascinating.

Don't try, don't hate something and become the thing that you hate. That's real shit. You know, so. That's real shit. Absolutely. Nah, that's real shit You know so That's real shit Absolutely Nah that's real shit Because

Like um I got I got six children Five of them Congratulations brother Five of them are You know I wanna say mostly black

Multi black? Mostly Why would you say mostly? Why would you say mostly black? I mean I don't know Because you know My new wife She's very light skinned Like she's very And people get that Miscan street I mean there don't know Because you know my new wife She's very light skinned

And people get that I mean there are black Latinos Yeah but what I'm saying is And I understand that The thing is you fall in love with who the fuck you fall in love with You should never have to explain that At the end of the day I see human being And then I see asshole after that

And then I see your race So I see you as a. And then I see your race. So I see you as a human and then I see you as a person and then I see your race. You know what I'm saying? So if you're a great person, I probably don't, it probably,

your race probably won't matter. It doesn't, it doesn't, but if you're a dick, if you're a dick, your race don't matter neither. You know what I'm saying? You're just a dick.

You know what I'm saying? You also, you know, even for getting, having to be, you know, in talking about an intimate relationship, you expand, you expand your network and your access to things when you work with people of all colors. Yes. Isn't that the whole issue we're saying that Gucci's having a challenge with? Right. Isn't that the whole issue we're saying that Gucci's having a challenge with? Right I mean, so when you're open to everybody Like, we are Listen, man, I'm not trying to be all warm and fuzzy But we got more things all over the world in common than we have against each other, right?

Right We just want to feed our families and know that we don't get judged prematurely There's some shit we didn't do And work hard It's just like, you know, when I go to the airport Like, now, like with the Gucci thing And, you know, when I go through the airport, like, now, like,

with the Gucci thing and, you know, with the Trump thing, it's like, I get nervous immediately when I see somebody with a Trump hat.

You know what I'm saying? Because I know they might play for the other side. I know they might not, they might not fuck with me. I get it. You know what I'm saying? Like,

so, I immediately just, you know what I'm saying? But when you see, like, I remember, your friend, he came with me to Russia that one time

and it was crazy because me and EFN, we had to deal with this. It was somebody came and picked us up in Russia and they got buttons on their shirt and it says Russians Against Racism. Now, you know where you at. If they got to wear that

on their motherfucking shirt. Yeah. Like, we was dead meat. Mm-hmm. Like, this is how racist they were. We encountered it. Let me tell you how racist

they were. This is how you know how racist they is. When they didn't even look at me in my face. Like, at least look at me in my face and be like, fuck you.

Like, they looked away. Like, they was like, oh, shit, nigga. Just like, I was like, oh, shit, let's hurry up. Your EFN, we separated for like five minutes. I panicked. I was like, what is that?

You know, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? And this is like when the phones, like they didn't know how to like connect to overseas. We got lost in the Moscow airport. In the Moscow airport. Yo, I mean, so I mean, it's real life shit, you know, that happens. So when you see, like I mean, it's real life shit, you know, that happens.

So when you see, like, I follow you on Instagram and I got to see your daughter playing with a biracial baby doll. Yeah, yeah. And I thought that was dope because, I mean, you got to spread that. You got to spread what happens. You got to spread, you know, who you fall in love with is your business. Right. You know what I'm saying? But you shouldn't hide that at all.

No, no, no. Exactly. You be how you want to be and continue to do that. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Because Dr. Trey got a white wife. Isn't she white? Who?

Dr. Trey. No. She's mixed. She white? But she white, though. She's mixed. And he said she's mixed. But white. She's mixed. She white? But she white though. And he said she's mixed. But white.

But that is white, but what? It ain't nothing wrong. I mean, like listen man, as long as we, sooner or later, we're all going to be one race if we keep fucking each other.

I'm just joking. We're all going to be one race anyway. It's going to be called Oak, nigga. That's what the new race is going to be. You know what I'm saying? So hold on, we're going take a break because, um,

we're gonna take a bathroom break. Yeah, we should let them do their pitch. And then we're gonna let them do their pitch. All right, cool. Hold on, let me go take a bathroom break. Cut, cut. Cut, cut. Do you need to mic them, guys?

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself. And I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the MeatEater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here

and I'll say it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

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Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. We're back like a halftime ref. Your boy NRA. Yeah, fam. Shit, man. Shit's going down.

Before we get into these pitches, because I think the integrity of the show is going to go right out the window right now. I think there's a billion dollar deal. Way to happen. But we're going to be a shark, too. Yeah, yeah. But I'm going to be honest.

I'm invested. If I'm invested in the money, it's going to be my money out of the monopoly money my kids because I don't trust either one of these guys but before we get into that I want to get I want to ask about Damon on demand yeah now now what is that how could the consumers and the people be apart so so Damon on demand is as I was talking about my books I have a digital curriculum. And it's eight hours of basically

all the things you need to know about starting a business, how do you get funding, who's your target audience, and all those things you need. What do you do when you go to the bank? When do you need funding? Because the main reason why

small businesses and startups fail is actually overfunding. They raise too much money too quick. They'll sit there and say, you know what? I want to open up a bakery because my grandmother's cupcakes were the best in town

and I'm going to open up a bakery. I'm going to go get $100,000 and I'm going to open up a bakery. But they never sell a cupcake ever, right? So they go and open up a bakery. They got the register that look like a damn cupcake.

The couch looks like a cupcake. They got a whole, everything looks like a cupcake. They never sold a cupcake though. Right. Then they got software, the bad software. Now every time they open up and they try to sell a cupcake, the little kid, every time he sells a cupcake, he sticks the other one in his pocket.

They find out that there's a little kid in the preschool or down the block that got a peanut allergy, they got to close off half a block for. And they find out there's a little grandmother that work in the church that she sell cupcakes like crack every week. Now they got a $100,000 loan and they haven't figured out how to move their business. You see, because when you start a business,

whether you're in the music business, whether you're in the podcast business, you got to build a customer base first. You can't, money only highlights your weaknesses. If you got the podcast, you got to build a customer base first. You can't, money only highlights your weaknesses. If you got crappy advertising, then go buy a million dollars worth of more crappy advertising. You got shit ass shirts,

go buy more inventory of shitty ass shirts. So that's what usually happens because people think that money is the solution when it's really building an audience and people who are going to go out and fight for you. The LL who's going to put your name in the gap ad.

The people that used to come from Detroit to Queens to my shitty house in Queens and go back to Detroit and be like, yo, I'm the FUBU dude or I'm the FUBU girl in Detroit. You need that army. The same as the people who are listening right now. Those people become smarter every day after they listen to the podcast. And they share that information. They're the smartest person at the water cooler Monday morning. So that's what Damon on Demand is, is showing you how to navigate and go through those

mistakes. But it's not something you just watch. It's on a computer. So what happens is you fill out a you fill out things. So it's like, yo, you just took this test. Do you need this funding for this or that? If you'd say no, and it's supposed to be yes, it kicks you back. It makes you start all over again because it's just like, yo, you just took this test. Do you need this funding for this or that? If you'd say no, and it's supposed to be yes, it kicks you back to make you start all over again because it's repetition.

So it sinks in. It sinks in. You start to learn the mistakes. You don't just go, oh, yo, I read the book. I'm done. Because you may have interpreted that book a hundred different ways. Wrong, too.

It kicks you back. And so I'm going to end up, we're going to do something together where we give people a special access code not only for checking us out here. And we just want to empower people. Let's make some noise for that, man.

Now, again, Let's make some noise for how many, those are called blunts? Yes, yes. Let's make some noise for how many blunts that man's got. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, listen. You're putting some serious numbers with them joints right there. I totally don't know what's going on right now. I'm totally, I just know that we were big fans of Shark Tank. Huge fans, yeah. We was trying to create Drink Tank. Or Champ Tank.

Or Champ Tank. It didn't work out like that we did say you know what we go from two of our craziest to our brightest brightest so I'm gonna go with the Haitian guy's first? Sapa se! I just need the microphone right here. No, no, no, we got a place for you. You're mic'd up. You're mic'd up, buddy. Oh, I got a stand right here? Yeah, see Shark Tank?

Come on, welcome to Chin Tank. A.K.A. Drink Tank. Okay, you gotta say your name and where you from. Sunny D-V-E-T, I live right here in my... God damn it. God damndamn, you caught me. You heard me. Yes. I got an idea, it's a little...

Hold on! He asked you the question. Oh, he asked the question. You gotta relax. No, he has to pitch the idea. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. We don't even know what to ask him.

I thought you were gonna say it. All right. Hey, man. What's your idea, brother? What is the idea? My idea is a simple idea. What is your idea, brother? What is it?

My idea is a simple idea. A concept of. It's kind of like an Uber. But it's... But it's Uber. Listen. It's a dog walking Uber. I think that might exist. You travel with the dogs, no matter

what city, anywhere in the world you are, you hit the uber and there's already someone there that is ready to walk your dog and leave at your hotel. I think that exists. I don't know that it exists. I don't think so. I haven't seen it. But if it does exist, then what does it matter?

Like I said, man, t-shirts existed before I even moved. It's just how you're going to build it. It's not a bad idea, right? You're going to create a better mousetrap, but how you're going to build it? Well, I haven't thought about all that yet. You speak Creole, so you got two languages that you can work with. Creole so you got two languages. Creole. Creole Walker? Like I said, it already exists. It's called WAG.

So they speak the languages of every other country. I gotta go back to the lab. Yeah, you should walk cats. That's it. You should walk cats. Move out of the way. Give me a break. You're disrupting the industry right now.

I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab.

I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm gonna go back to the lab. I'm, move out of the way. It's disrupting the industry right now. I better go back to them. Listen, man. You got to give it up to people who stand there. And you all just gave him a lot of money. Mr. Lee. On behalf of the Dominican Republic. Yeah, representing the Dominican Republic.

Happy anniversary of the... Say your name and where you from. I'm Mr. Lee, I'm from New York but I live in Miami. What? I'm from New York but I live in Manhattan. Man, that important? I'm from New York, but I live in Manhattan. Man, that important? I'm thinking about the video right now. Because my idea is for the Latin guys.

Oh, for the Latins! You see how a lot of Latinos, like guys, they're doing their eyebrows now? So I guess there's a lot of money there to be made. You guess or you get your eyebrows done? No, I don't get my eyebrows done. Carlito does. It's true, it's true. Puerto Ricans get their eyebrows really true.

Puerto Ricans do their eyebrows. So I was like, you know, why don't I come up with something that I can, you know, for guys to come in. Like, girls go to the barbershop. I mean, go to the beauty parlor. They do, they get their hair done, they get their eyebrows done.

So I was like, let's do it for the hair done, they get the eyebrows done. So I was thinking, you still follow the Latinos, follow the guys. So is the purpose that you feel a guy doesn't want to really go into the shop, and he wants to do it at home, so simple way so he's not looking feminine when he's doing it?

Yeah. I really don't think that's what he meant. Did you know that? I'm rolling with it, I'm rolling with it. I'm assuming that, because I would think as a guy, I want to go into the shop, right? But um. I mean some of them are embarrassed to go to the shop.

No, but in Puerto Rico, in his defense, in Puerto Rico, if you go to a barbershop, that's one of the first things they do. They automatically do it to you. They automatically go to your eyebrows. Okay, so you want to do it at home. Then they were like coming to your house. Yeah, yeah.

Doing that at your house. Oh, they do it at your crib. Oh, so you really been, okay. I think that's a good idea, brother. I do, but how you gonna start it? I mean, that's just... No, no. What's the name of your business? I ain't in my own job, man.

Mr. Lee, what's the name of this business? Lee's Eyebrows? Eyebrow what? Eyebrows Latinos. Eyebrows Latinos. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. Yo man, the creativity in this room.

I tell you, it's the best and brightest thing you have. You gotta control. What's your net sales today? You know what you should have pitched to? Because look, you got hickeys on your neck. You should have pitched a hickey remover. How about that? The eyebrow shit is ill.

I'm not going to lie. No, it sounds like it's best. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking gonna lie. No, it sounds like his vest. Huh? You want to do a vest? I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it. Remember how they go to commercial break? Because I'm thinking about that.

I'm not gonna lie. That's one thing about the Latino race is they get different type of haircuts. Like they come, like if you go to a black barber shop, they're not touching your fucking eyebrows, bro. You know what I'm saying? Most of the time they don't even touch your nose hairs. You got an accent nigga, you'll come. Like, if you go to a black barbershop, they're not touching your fucking eyebrows, bro. You know what I'm saying? Most of the time, they don't even touch your nose hairs.

You're not an accident if you don't touch my nose hairs. I haven't touched these. You know what I'm saying? But usually successful entrepreneurs are people that see a need in the market that's not being fully addressed. Again, going back to when I did the car, I did the car because I wanted money,

but I did FUBU because something needed to change, and he's seeing a need in it, so I'm not being funny. It's just, you see they shit, they got fades on their eyebrows. Caesars, baby afros. Flow outs. Yeah, we'll think about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll definitely think about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We definitely won't think about that. I'm going to pass. I'm out, I'm out. Humans don't do that shit. I'll be my number one customer. Now, all jokes aside, aside from the sneaker, I was serious. But, you know, my guys are playing.

How many times a day are you walking around? Is this happening to you on a daily, like people just coming up to you? Yeah, I get it. You in an elevator and somebody. I get pitched probably about, I would say 80 times a day. Wow. That's crazy.

Probably about that much. Do any of those catch your attention? Not at all. I'll tell you why they don't catch your attention? Not at all. I'll tell you why they don't catch my attention. Because they may have good ideas, but they don't wonder how the person's going to execute. And I don't have time. If I had time to make everything hot, then three people would be Nike.

I only have a limited amount of time, so I can't do it because then I'll drown in opportunity. So, you know, it's challenging. But I don't get mad at people pitching me, because all they want to do is change their lives, man, and feed their families, you know what I'm saying? So I ain't mad at it. But yeah, I get pitched a lot. Yeah, that's funny, because I be like,

walking through Winn-Dixie and Publix, and people be like, hey, can I get a rhyme? I be like, yo, they don't even wait for me to say, I'm busy. Niggas just start spitting. I'm like, oh, you just start spitting S&C and I can imagine like people like all that you like they go big it'll be a big I got a tiny person is about 20 or 30 and then all the stuff the emails calls. Oh oh okay has has um uh has it got unbearable at one point or you you still look at it like you know this is your job and this is the night it never gets unbearable okay i know

the cameras are there i have the opportunity to leave shark tank if i want right um and again it's not like in your situation or you know somebody want to be a model or somebody want to be an artist and they just start belting out songs. A lot of people really have well-thought-out ideas. They may be good ideas. Like you were saying, how many I invested in,

I just don't have time. Right. But you have to meet some people that have, their ideas are not well-thought-out. Yeah, I meet some. Like that is frustrating to a degree. Well, no, it's frustrating

when I go, how much time or money you put into this? And they be like, no, I'm here for you to do this. Right, right. Like they just did. I don't know if he was saying, I want you to direct me. But I be like, yo, but don't you think I came up with my own ideas today? You know, that's the funny thing about even us is people think that this, they think that

putting on is a button. They think like I put you on and like I saw a button and then you did just put on. No, I can put you on and you still have to work for you to be there. You know what I'm saying? And a lot of people just don't get that. You know what I mean? Harder even when you get put on. I seen the other day, you know. I seen the other day

it was LeBron, Meek Mill and they were all talking about how they had to, like, you know, give things to certain people, or certain people felt like they deserved it. Because, it's like right now, right?

If I was to ask, if I was to ask my man right here, right? I was to say, what's your name again? I'm so sorry. Huh? Alex?

I was to say, Alex, he walked me to the store, right? Everyone, nobody, Alex doesn't give a fuck. He would never bring up me walking him to the store. But want to say, Alex, he walked me to the store, right? Everyone, nobody, Alex doesn't give a fuck. He would never bring up me walking him to the store. But I become this big popular guy. Then two years from now, Alex is like, I remember he had no one to walk me to the store.

And now I owe Alex because I'm famous, you know? Like, have you ever had, you know, that level of success where people just feel like, because you slept on a girl's couch one night in sixth grade that you know what I'm saying that like you owe that girl now like oh yeah

you know there's an old saying what's the old saying success has a lot of parents failures and often right and I hear it all the time and I

I give thanks to all those that helped me like you won't see me here in front of like there wasn't a call can I cross call before me

L didn't L reached out to help me because he didn't need me. Ralph McDaniels, I don't mind doing that. But yeah, they're the random cats. Who else? I was losing it. We was doing a Puma collection release in the Coliseum

probably about six months ago. And three dudes in there. I don't even know these dudes. And they was running around the store. So I'm like, yeah, yeah. Puma cats came out the hood. I had them shook. You know, I used to have know these dudes. And they was running around the store talking like, yeah, yeah. Ooh, cats came out the hood. I had them shook. You know, I used to have them under pressure.

So, you know, and I think you know my executive security, Grim, next Navy SEAL, look like he eat bricks for breakfast. He walked over, he was like, what'd you just say, homie? They're like, no, no, no, I don't really know the dude.

I never really met him, you know what I'm saying? But they was just walking around, it was like crazy for no reason. Right? So, it'll be a cat who'll just brush by you and say, yo, I remember that cat. But you know what, man? Listen, man.

It's an opinion. It's a theory. And I always say everybody got two things in the world, asshole and opinion. They both stink. Right? So, fuck them. They gonna say shit about you and it is what it is, you know? God damn it. Now, one know, they don't say shit about you and it is what it is, you know. God damn it. Now, one of the things is when you like Google, like, you know, you're a very successful man. Very, very, very successful. And you don't really wear a lot of jewelry at all.

Yeah. Like, is that purpose or is that because you're just not into it you know i grew up in that world and i wore it a lot and i loved it right i grew up when i saw i used to hear riding to the top playing the supreme team with the walkers with their helmets on their heads like mr t and i was like i can't wait to be in that world. And I worked for a long period of time, and then I started walking into the other rooms where there was people with substantial wealth. We're talking about Mark Cuban, talking about Bill Gates. And I noticed.

Mark Cuban dressed bumbier than everybody in this room. Yo, pancake batter on his joint and everything. I walked in and I was like, yo, I mean these dudes shoes is curled up, you know looking like Peter Pan joints, and I'm like, and you know what I'm saying, I paid a hundred thousand for this watch, and I realized that they don't care.

They don't care about that stuff. You know, I'm in a lot of room. They don't care about the panic police. Yeah, I'm in a lot of rooms where people, I've been in one room where a lot of cats that we know, and may have even more money than me, have been talking about how much money they spent at a party. When you travel with the president,

you run around with a lot of billionaires, and in a certain group, they don't say how much they spent on a party, they say how much they were able to give away this year. And it's way more than the cash I was talking about hearing on the party. I'm talking cash, talking about

giving away $500 million this year. And I'm over there talking about the chain I got on? You know, so, because they're looking at you. They're saying,

how close, you know, how are you thinking? Because I'm not saying they think they're better than you. They may even say, I like the way you're thinking. You're looking at you. They're saying, how are you thinking? Because I'm not saying they think they're better than you. They may even say, I like the way you're thinking. You're younger. You're in this world.

Why don't we talk about what we could do together? So I've just been in different rooms and it just educated me. Is relationships one of the most important things in this game, in the game that you're in?

Relationships are the most important game, period. Period. No matter what. I told you the number one reason why entrepreneurs fail. The number one reason they succeed is they all have a mentor. That's the number one, a mentor who's not part of their business.

Because mentors are going to do three things. They're going to tell you not to take in capital too soon. They're going to tell you not to spread yourself too thin. Take in capital? Take in money too soon. I'll give you an example why in a minute. They're going to tell you not to spread yourself too thin, meaning, you know, I want to make a thousand

different styles in my world. And they're also going to tell you not to scale too fast, meaning, meaning, alright, I got an order for 100, but I'm gonna go and buy 1,000 pieces. Don't jump ahead too far. Don't jump ahead, and that's exactly what mentors do. Now I said something earlier,

that I said I'm gonna get back to you on something, but the way, huh? The first three dollars. Well, not taking money too soon. Yeah. Because I'll show you an example of another way that people go, bro, if you want to open, let's say one of your guys

right there would really like the business. And I said to the guy right there, the eyebrow, yo, I'm going to give you $50,000 for 50% of that business. Alright? What? I'll give you guys. Here he spent it though. He just spent that.

He's carrying a sign right now. It's an example, it's an example. Step back, step back. I'm taking this, Sam. I'm taking gonna spend that money. It's a temple, it's a temple, step back, step back. I'm not gonna stand. I'm not gonna stand. The one who takes my vacation. He turned fully around. Sold!

Let's say, and I got 50% of the business, let's say that business, he starts to franchise it, license it out, that thing comes in the next dry bar Let's say And I got 50% of the business Let's say that business He starts to Franchise it License it out That thing comes The next dry bar For males right And now he's doing

A million dollars in business Now he wants to go And open up a bunch of locations Or a bunch of Software or an app And he needs $400,000 now Right

I ain't giving him A piece of my 50% That I just got Right So now you got to go Raise $400,000 And maybe that's another 20%

30% Before you know it After you keep raising You keep growing You own 5% of the business You work for everybody else So don't take in capital Too soon

Oh wait hold on Hold on Because you said That 50,000 Selling shares basically Okay That 50,000 Already gave you 50% Yeah

So now He took your money too soon So he raises more He's selling more shares More But if he would've went out Just did $100,000 Worth of business

Over three years And said listen I need you to help finance it Or the bank finance it He may have been able To go out and get a Get a $300,000 loan At 6% interest

Not 6% of his company. Because he already has proof of sales. So these are the things that was, we grew up in the hood, we didn't know. We were taught, listen, don't trust the bank, go over to the check cashing place, you pay six or 8% for them to cash your check. That's 8% of your salary you get, right? Tire and robbery.

Cash your check, right? Hide all your money underneath your bed. Right. Don't trust anybody with your money. Right. If you would have buried $125,000 in 1975, today, it can barely buy you a G-Wagon. Right? But if you would have taken that money and bought a diamond, today that diamond would have been worth $2.7 million.

You see, money is a depreciating asset. Unless you put it to work for you, then you're going to lose a lot, right? So these are the things we talk about in Daymond on Demand. These are the things that the hood, as we grew up, we didn't know any better. So you're saying $125,000 in the bank is always going to be worth More than $125,000

Under your mattress Of course Yes because you're going to Get interest in it And $125,000 That you went and Put on a house And now you have a house

For $300,000 or $400,000 And the mortgage on that house Is about $2,500 But somebody's paying you $3,200 a month To stay in that house Now it's going to make you Way more money

After you add depreciation to it and over the course of the year. Real people who make a lot of money and invest a lot of money, they have other people paying for their assets and making a profit off of it. Like you're in real estate

as well? I'm in real estate a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. Those are the people who instead of going and buying a big house, they buy four small houses in Airbnb or rent them out. Right.

And then they rent the house they stay in. They own what they rent out and they rent what they stay in so they can write that off. My. I got this, baby. He like,

yo, I can't wait to get that. He already spent the money. That's what he did. That's what he's doing already. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to like because I'm trying to get these properties in Vegas and Airbnb just for that because Vegas you know

I didn't know they went recreational with marijuana but the thing about it is they kind of you can't you can only smoke cigarettes indoors they're not allowing you can't, you can only smoke cigarettes indoors.

Yeah. They're not allowing you to smoke cigars. So I figured, yo, I can get an Airbnb crib and I'll allow that. Like, you, just, I'll promote it as that. Like, yo, you can smoke in this crib because it's not something I'm going to ever live in. You know what I'm saying? I'm just going to be a,

well, you are the poster child. You're child smoking this I was thinking about even saying you this is Norris crib you know like this is Norris Vegas you can smoke as much as the fuck you want in this it should be called the cataracts Inn. Now, is there anything that you ever wished, first off, before, because that was like a super Indian type of question, what do you and LL and you guys all

relationship stand at at this point? Because, we're good. My three partners, my other three partners, amazing dudes, and we're like brothers. I met my first, I met one of them when I was six years old. The other two I met when I was 12. Al, I talked to him the other day on the phone. And he was like, yo, I see the heat on the brand, what's up?

And I was like, listen, I don't need to call on the big guns yet. Right. You know, cause I know you got two TV shows. You're LL Cool J. Right. Let us get to this point, because no matter what, no matter what level you're at, you still got to prove your market.

Let us get to this point, let our following get strong enough in this day and age there's going to be a new following. And then if I need to call you in, then I'll call you in. Don't use that, don't use, let me not call that in again. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's too early.

Don't put Jordan in the game. Yeah, don't put Jordan in the game Yeah Don't put Jordan in the game Cause we still We still playing high school game We still in high school right now That's real humble of you Actually though To talk that way

Well thank God it is However Let's look at the Let's look at the other side I can't call him For no more favors Right If I screws this up

Yeah Right You know Here's where I'm at in my life Everybody will pick up The phone for me once Right I'm gonna be honest man You're being very humble People will pick up the phone for me once. Right. I'm going to be honest with you.

You're being very humble. People will pick up the phone for you five times, nigga. Now, after I mess up the bag, you know, they go. That's what I'm saying, right? Because I'm going to call for something real. Right. And I'm going to call for it, really. And you know what's going to happen?

They're going to call me back for another favor on the flip side. Is there any time you have messed up the bag? Yeah. Like you've invested in something that didn't work and you kept going? Yeah, yeah, yeah, listen, I did keep going. I messed up the bag a couple of times here and there. Okay. But thank God, the bag I messed up,

we had already made a lot of money prior in various different areas, you know? But some of them are calling me now, like, yo, I got a new idea. Remember when you had that? You got to answer that call, you know what I'm saying? Alright, alright, alright. And is it all worth it?

Is it worth it? Yeah. Absolutely, man. You know, I question myself a lot of times, you know, when my first marriage, I got two little, two baby girls. They're 20 and 25 now. God bless.

And that didn't, thank God, right? And that didn't go right. But because I was working so much on FUBU. Second marriage, too. Yeah, you know, my first marriage. And I was wilding out a little bit. You don't give a guy 30 years old a couple million dollars in the bank, you know what I'm saying? Flying over to Asia and coming over.

I ain't happy, you happy. God damn bank, you know what I'm saying? Flying over to Asia and coming over. I ain't happy, you happy, god damn it. You know what I'm saying? But then I say to myself, if I was doing a city job, if I was working at Red Lobster,

I still would work like that. Right. I still would have felt like I got to keep going to make the best, right? So, because you can't, I can't keep going forward

regretting what happened. So yeah, but is it worth it? Absolutely, man. God is good. God is goddamn good. Make some goddamn noise. Now,

do you have any horse in the cryptocurrency race? What are your thoughts on that, on that whole thing? I think crypto is going to come back. I think it had a bubble

exactly like it was going to have a bubble. I think you should buy it now. I do think so. I think, I think it will be to come back. I think it had a bubble exactly like it was going to have a bubble. I think you should buy it now. I do think so. I think it will be a digital currency. You think it's like how people said credit cards were that when they first started? I say don't bet the farm on it. I mean the theory in investing is put money up, whatever you can afford.

If the money doubles, take the money off the table so then you're playing with the house's money. And if it's affordable now, if you feel, I don't know where it's at now, straight into 4,000 or 3,000 or 2,000, whatever it is, buy a little bit of what you can, but make sure it's money that you are able to lose. Don't bet your last on it, you know?

How about, is a restaurant a good business? A restaurant is the worst possible business to get into. Everybody keeps saying that. And I need to understand. Have you invested in a restaurant? I never have, but I worked at Red Lobster. And I'll tell you something. I stole everything in Red Lobster.

Lobster! All the biscuits! Yo, like getting a box of... Yo, I got a box of shrimps out the freezer. Just throw them in the garbage out the back. Pull my beat up van around. Pick those box of shrimp up. Sell it to the Chinese restaurant for $100. Bang.

Wait, you just sell Red Lobster shrimp to the Chinese restaurant? That was hard. That was hard. That was hard. Let's get going. Let's get going. Let's go. I was not the major dude doing it.

I was like this. So, you know, when you work in that business, man, it's so many people with your hands in your pocket. Right? And everybody's not going to have a good experience on how to eat your food. You know, you can make the sake for 100 different people. There's 100 different experiences on that. So that's one of the people that I was one of the business if a person actually recommend you so that'll be number one business that fails Wow

how about a bar all right in the same area man this is the same but not as bad because you don't have all those perishables remember the food will go bad yeah yeah yeah time boozing the you on time. Booze ain't going to be there. The booze going to be there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? That's the question. Bar is not as bad. Now, like a startup company, what is probably, for a person who wants to be an investor, a person that has 100 grand or something, saved their job money or saved whatever money

they had, got 100 grand, still making money, but has 100 grand to invest. How would you recommend that they go about trying to live the life that you live? What is the first step? What do you do for free today that you can get paid off of? Okay.

And whatever that is, educate yourself in that on. Okay. And whatever that is, educate yourself in that business. Okay. If you got a crew like us, a friend that people may know, and you like to talk shit and blow your brains out like that, no problem. You want to do a podcast and people going to fuck with you. Yeah. Or invest in cannabis.

Because that's my next thing. No, because you're going to smoke everything you got. No, no, no. He's very right. By the no. He's very right. By the way, he's very right. Don't be lying. You don't supply. But that's the reason why I invest in companies

that I don't even mess with. Like, I invest in companies, I don't even want to say their name because I'm a sign-up partner on one, and then I have my other company that I couldn't, I did not sign a contract

against. But, you don't want to blow that up. Yeah, I've learned that. Yeah, I've learned that. You know, you blow, you say, yeah, man, I got a business with them. And they're like, oh, okay. And someone else come in and just, you know what I mean? I've done that. I've seen that.

You know what the craziest shit in the world is? I've done, I can't, again, I can't say these companies. I've done great business with this company for two years, but it was through a middle man. It was through two middle men. And this company, big Hollywood company, I can't say who

it is, and they contacted me direct, yesterday? I said, yo, yesterday? I said, yo, I heard you got this different show. So I said, yeah, I do. And they said, we would like to meet with you. So And said, yo, you know, I heard you got this different show. So I said, yeah, I do. And they said, we would like to meet with you.

So I said, all right, cool. And this is their big company. He was like, but we're meeting with you, not with these guys. And I was just like, I expected that from Nickus. Like, holy shit.

Like, I kid you not. I was like damn like this is some street shit like they're like yo you know what we did business they brung you us

that's basically what the conversation was they brung you us we had a successful run with them now you have something else that we're interested in but we want to deal

business directly with you and it was just so it wasboggling to me because I'm like, that's how the streets go. If you fuck with me, these guys bump into you, I don't really need these guys. Like the Kinect. Yeah, like losing the Kinect. And they did that in Hollywood just now, yesterday. But I would wonder why they want to deal directly with you because I would say, well, what is the purpose? Because I may have to say, they may go, listen, you don't know about all the stuff we've dealt with with the situation.

Then I would say, okay, well, why am I going to believe you? So let me go back to these cats over here. If we do a deal, if you don't want to deal with them no more, we got to cut them a little something, something, or do something right by them. Well, you got to find out that other side. Because they might not have representation. No, no. True, true. a little something something would do something right by them. Well you got to find out that other side of the story. Because they might not have representation. No, no. True, true.

And if they're just snakes you'd be like, nah I can't do that. The other side is that they know that they can communicate with me. And they felt like I think in the beginning I was this wild, you know, Puerto Rican black guy that, you know, smokes weed and runs around with you know 25 guys they don't understand that I have a sober life yeah I wake up in the morning and when they didn't realize that they said oh we could do with him direct yeah but if they trying to cut the guy out it's not right so Yeah, yeah. Oh, it ain't right. Oh, I never said it was right. Oh, no. Oh, I never said it was right. Oh, no. I said it was interesting. Oh, no, no, no.

Let me tell you something, man. Let me tell you something. Yeah. The corporate gangsters are way... And all of them are white. Corporate gangsters are way, way worse. Yeah, they're way worse. That's what I'm trying to say.

Way worse than the hood. That's what I'm trying to say. Yo, when I got out of, you know, when I got out of the, you know, really dealing with the hood, because, you know, so cats didn't really mess with me when I was coming up. Because in 89 or 88, you like, yo, I'm going to start being a designer. They was like, yo, you all right, man?

You know, because at that time, designers were usually flamboyant. Yes, they were usually. Cats didn't want to see, cats was like, I don't want to be around these cats. Yeah. When that Vibe article came out and said FUBU did 350 million dollars this year. God damn it.

God damn it. God damn it. They were, they were, god damn it. Them hood dudes were like, yo, we ain't get to get our claws on these dogs? So I'm just trying to escape that world, because I was never trying to be like that. Right. But yo, when I started moving to the fashion world, because I was never trying to be like that. But yo, when I saw the movie The Passion,

when I found out the Italian mob was there, I found the triads over in China, I found out all the gangsters that were in that world, I was like, yo, I'd rather go back to the street. This is worse than the street. But they don't come at you the same way. See, doing the street, come at you with a gun, and come out to you and say something.

You in that world, you find out something random. You just, argument's sake, I'm not going to say it ever happened

to me, but you got $10 million worth of clothes coming in for the season.

If somebody, you know, calls you and be like, yo, you're going to miss $2 million

worth of those clothes on the water, they're going to disappear. And I don't want you to

say nothing. You better call the insurance company. That never happened to me, but that's the stuff that happens. Wow. Because they control the ports. They control the ports. I'm the captain now. They control the shipping company. It's called organized crime

for a reason. So the corporate gangsters are way, way, and a lot of things I found out five and ten years later happened and I didn't even know that the gangsta was going on like that. Which is what we have

from President Reznor. This is why you always get this guy that comes to the hood that has a real official Givenchy and real official Gucci but this shit is $80.

I mean, so how many times in the business when they talk about advertising a promotion for a record, but you found out that advertising promotion wasn't a billboard? That was somebody had to get caked off somewhere. Yeah, it was terrible. Are you serious?

You know, I'm going to tell you something. I never knew the ugly truth until a week ago. Until a week ago? Damn. I know, I'm talking about someone emailed me something by mistake. And I'm talking about the ugly truth was so written on it.

He was emailing someone trying to blackmail someone else and emailed me wrong by mistake. And boy, did I copy and paste that motherfucker. I had never knew how to copy and paste

in that moment. That moment I copy and paste the shit out of that shit. Oh, what? Oh, wow. Shit. It made that noise, right? Choo-choo that shit. Oh, what? Oh, wow. Shit. It made that noise, right? Choo-choo.

I was like, choo-choo. I was like, oh, shit. And I got to see how most of the DJs that you know, that you have integrity for, people that you think has love and respect for this game. Oh, I'm messing up? I fucked it up? I'm zipping right there?

All right, my bad. That you have love and respect for this game. Oh, I'm messing up? I fucked it up? I'm zipping right there? All right, my bad. Did you have love and respect for this game? And when it was on that payroll list, that shit kind of fucked me up. It kind of fucked me up. I'm going to tell you

who super impressed me. No, I can't tell you who's on the list. No. Because I might need to pay that as well. I'm in. But I'm going to tell you who's on the list. No. Because I might need to pay that as well. I'm in. But I'm going to tell you what impressed me.

Flex wasn't on not one list at all. Nice. No, I'll tell you what. It was three of them, not one. And I'm looking because I'm like, you know, I'm expecting. Flex is my man. But still, I'm expecting maybe this is false documents. So if it's a false document, I'm expecting maybe this is false documents.

So if it's a false document, you would put the false guy in there. And he wasn't on none of them. That's impressive. And I was like, you know, Flex has integrity. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, at the end of the day, we may call it a hustle. It may be corporate gangster, but it's going on. And when there's a lot of money going around, or any money going around.

Someone's trying to skim it. Somebody's trying to skim it. Have you ever been approached to by street dudes like saying, yo, you know what, can you help me with my street clothing line

or something like that? What do you mean? Like trying to put me under pressure? Yeah, put you under pressure. Nah, because I had already gotten

covered and I already had the circle around me. And I also never really moved like that. You know, I wasn't that dude. So, nah, but I got a lot of people who asked me to help. I'm like, I can't help you, man. You know? But I only had, honestly,

over probably my last 25 years, I probably only had two or three people that came at me a little sideways. And then because I knew a lot of people growing up in the streets, somebody would pull their coat to him like, yo man, he good people, he part of, he family, leave him alone.

So God has been really good. And a lot of the hood had my back. God bless you. What was your favorite thing about this whole game? If you could idolize one thing and just say, you know what? If it wasn't for this, it wouldn't be here. No, I'm just joking. The people.

The people. Got that content. You know, I already said it, I kinda said it, man, being able to influence people, man, they're welcome to me, like, oh, I seen you. I didn't, you know, I wanted to start my own business. But also, I went to the Oscars, the Vanity Fair Oscars after party the other day. Let's make noise for the floor.

You have to spin that back a little bit for a second. I went up there. My name wasn't on the list, but my boy, we all know Chones. He know everybody. And they actually knew who I was. And I've been to it about three times. But every time I go up, I'm in the car. I leave the window up because I'm like, you know, as soon as they go, sorry, you know, and you're like, drive off.

I'm expecting to drive off because, you know, you've got John Travolta and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Like, everybody, everybody's in there. It's the hardest part to get into. But one of the great things, I walk into a party. The Oscar Awards? The Vanity Fair party afterwards. That means a party that only holds 200 people. That's super limited.

That's how much money you know I'm not getting. Because I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. But get ahead. Get to you. So I walk in there. There's Kobe. And there's Jade. There's Beyonce.

I see Taylor Swift. I see all these actors. And I'm walking up to him. Spike walks in with his Oscar. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the other day, a couple days ago. And he walked in and I'm like, and some of the people, you know, I love Spike, and I'm like,

yo Spike, let's take this picture, let's get this done. I like the crazy dudes that be in the commercial, I mean, or be in a movie like Operating the Fries or something like that, I'd be like, yo, I know you! And the fun thing is I walk up to other really well-known A-list celebrities and they be like, yo. Like Kathleen Zeta-Jones said to me one time,

me and Michael Douglas watch your show every night. I'm like, Wall Street? It's wreckable to Michael Douglas? You know what I'm saying? And I think that is one of the things that surprises me all the time. Oh, no, Shark Tank is huge. Yeah, it is.

Yo, but it's surprising to me because I'm just on TV doing what I normally do. I'm having a negotiation. I can't put words together. I can't harmonize. I'm not an actor or an actress. And I walk up to these cats and they're like, yo, I'm not an actor or an actress. And I walk up to these cats, and they're like, yo, I know you. I got an idea.

That's when I'm like, all right, fuck with you. But I still like your movies. That's funny as shit. Man, let me just tell you something, man. I want to tell you how real the homie is right here. I happened to come to a party. I seen them. I gave them a five.

And I said, yo, man. He said, I got you. I don't even think you let me finish my sentence because you already knew all I was asking. I was like, yo, look, I got you. We exchanged numbers. You're a man of your word, Superman of your word. Let me just tell you something. I've been in this game for going on 21 years.

Anytime I've ever reached out to FUBU, you guys have held me down. Anytime I've reached out to Kuji, you guys have held me down. So I want to personally thank you. Because not only for you being a part of hip-hop, but for you holding down hip-hop. Because it's a one-hand,

you know, wash the other, both-hand wash the face thing. Because one of the things that I admired about when I first saw FUBU was the fact that I was seeing FUBU like damn near sponsor people with videos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you guys were coming in and were, I don't know, I don't know how you were doing it, but you guys were getting the people to wear it.

And it was a part of the culture. So the culture had grown together. And the thing about it is uh what i mean by that is uh the clothing and uh the music so i'm so proud of your brand like i said we we when we me and efn this is a dj i'm a you know a rapper and we when we put this together we wanted to say you know what we wanted to control hip-hop we wanted to control the media of hip-hop when people think of hip-hop we want to you know what you hear it from two people who is legitimate to 20 years in mm-hmm peace and we wanted to do that and one of our models is we are the fool boo honey shit and I'm saying that and it's always the big you up and your brothers up, the other three, and LL, and the quiet five.

We got to do a documentary about this. We got to find out. We got to find out. But I want to personally thank you. I want to personally thank you for being a man of your word. Personally thank you for everything you did. Personally thank you for

being an inspiration for people to know that you don't always have to be in front of the camera even though a part of your job is in front of the camera. But being, you know, that clothing line,

being that brand, that buying other brands and showing people that you don't have to be on the mic is what I mean. You know what I'm saying? You don't have to rap. You don't have to rap.

And you don't have to DJ or be a producer. You can be something and be a part of the culture And love the culture And you're the epitome of that My brother When people look up the word

Entrepreneur They should see Your motherfucking face I'm calling the dictionary Myself To make sure That they do that And my brother

I'm so proud to know you I'm so proud for the Thank you man That every time I see you We always smile at each other And we always having fun And I really appreciate The fact that you pulled up I appreciate my man Big homie That always every time I see you we always smile at each other and we always having fun and I really appreciate the fact that you pulled up I appreciate my man big homie. They're always every time I see him holding me down. I appreciate a full blue period

I appreciate what you did to them for the coach. I appreciate shark tank I appreciate you not shutting down my sneakers cuz I'm really serious about my shit And I appreciate you coming to, man. Hold it there. Drink Champs, let's make some noise. Yeah! And just so you know, this Saturday, for everybody in the room, we got Drink Champs Appreciation Day from eight to 12.

We gotta do eight to 12, not six to nine. And we gotta do eight to 12 this Saturday, not six to 12. Cause we got De La Soul at six. At six, right, not 6 to 12. Because we got De La Salle at 6. At 6, right? At 6 to 8. So, yo, man, we love y'all. Thank y'all, man. Good night. Goddamn big chance. Make some noise.

Thank you. Goddamn it. Great interview, my brother. You got any drops? Yeah, yeah. Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways

in which we experience the region today. Listen to the American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on good company.

The podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi. We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content. The term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Brendan Patrick Hughes, host of Divine Intervention.

This is a story about radical nuns in combat boots and wild-haired priests trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover in a hell-bent effort to sabotage a war. J. Edgar Hoover was furious. He was out of his mind, and he wanted to bring the Catholic left to its knees. You can now binge all 10 episodes of Divine Intervention on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.