No Jumper - Milo on Selling Dr**s, Getting Raided, Starting Asaali, MoneySign Suede & More

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

Milo from Asaali talks about his early days, his come up, being in the streets, running trap houses, Desto Dubb, and more! ----- Promote Your Music with No Jumper - https://nojumper.com/pages/promo CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! https://nojumper.com NO JUMPER PATREON http://www.patreon.com/nojumper CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5te... Follow us on SNAPCHAT https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_... Follow us on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4z4yCTj... iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/n... Follow us on Social Media: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_... http://www.twitter.com/nojumper http://www.instagram.com/nojumper https://www.facebook.com/nojumper http://www.reddit.com/r/nojumper JOIN THE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Q3XPfBm Follow Adam22: https://www.tiktok.com/@adam22 http://www.twitter.com/adam22 http://www.instagram.com/adam22 adam22bro on Snapchat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No jumper. Coolest podcast on the world. And today we're on site, on location, here on Melrose. We had to do it extra big for my man, Milo of Asali. How you feeling, bro? Come on, man. I'm good. Hey, man. I'm real proud of you because we've been watching you grow this brand for the last couple of years. And it just feels like this is a big moment. Now you finally got this big ass store on Melrose. It's like a real crown jewel. I feel like a lot of people have been kind of having a hard time. they see the product, they know it's a whole thing, but they don't necessarily know. And I feel like you're doing a lot of storytelling in here that's helping to put people on. No, for sure.

Like a lot of people don't see like the numbers and shit that's going on behind the scenes. But now this kind of shows like what I'm really doing. Right. Yeah, it's something about having a retail store, even though obviously like a retail store is not as necessary as it might have been 10 years ago. But it just, I don't know, like hammers home the point of what you're trying to put out there. Yeah. And for me, it's like the culture. You know, I like to be involved with my fans and everything.

So doing the listening parties and the meet and greets. That's been super important for the brand and like people connecting with it. No, 100%. So, all right, but I want to go back to the beginning. Tell me a little bit about where you were born and what your childhood was like. Shit, my childhood was just like typical. You know, I grew up with a single mother. My dad was in prison.

And it was pretty typical, you know. Just grew up like in the streets for real. I used to skateboard and shit when I was a kid. Where did you grow up exactly? Santa Rosa. Okay. So that's Northern California. It's like an hour north of San Francisco.

Hell yeah. Definitely. And so, okay, you grew up skateboarding. That's interesting. You're talking about being in the streets and then you bring up skateboarding right away. I feel like sometimes people are laughing me when I'm like, I spent my whole teenage life riding BMX bikes in the streets. And they're like, oh, that's not the street.

The streets is like moving kilos of heroin. Ride by skateboard and that's not the streets. And I'm like, that is like 100% where I learned what the fuck was going on outside. Yeah, you got to deal with a lot of bullshit when you're out in the streets like that, you know? But as long as you got your skateboard, like a skateboard is like a weapon. You know, you're straight out there. Yeah. You could move.

Skateboard for a lot of people, like the way my bike was from me is like you're a scapeer route of like whatever your circumstances are. It's like all of a sudden you got this thing. It costs you like $100 and you can just be anywhere. You can travel long distances all of a sudden. And no one wants to fuck with you when you want to skateboard. Like everyone's like, oh, it's just a skateboarder. He's cool.

Like cops don't even look your way type shit. You out there selling dope. The cops like, oh, that's just a skateboarder. I'll be out there on the block like three in the morning. And a cop sees me. I'm like, I'm pushing on my skateboard. I ain't out here doing nothing. You know?

It felt like that really worked. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Damn. Okay, but so it started out with skateboarding or like was that really your initial introduction to the culture at large? No, like I always been a fan of hip hop. Always growing up, you know, like listening to, I'm from the Bay, so I really grew up on like a lot of Bay Area music. Mack Dre, Too Short, Messy Marv, Jay Stallon, you know, all the Bay Area greats. And that's like really where I got it from. And, you know, like, I just always been into hip hop.

So, like, when I made the brand, you could tell, like, instantly it was definitely hip hop influenced. Definitely. But, okay, when, so all throughout high school, you're doing the skateboard thing? Or what was high school like as a whole? High school was cool, man. I just, you know, I played sports. I played basketball and skated. And then, you know, when I graduated, that's when I graduated to the streets for real, like,

summer senior year right when I graduated I just started selling coke so I just graduated the selling Coke for real like was that because you were using it or no just like where I'm from is like more of a rural area out a little bit outside of Santa Rosa and it's like super low income so the only influences I had growing up were really like the drug dealers in my area a lot of like meth dealers and shit And that's who I looked up to as a kid. I was like, those are the niggas doing it. They had the cars, they had the clothes, you know, like they was doing it.

And so when I graduated, that's all I really knew. And like I said, my dad was always in prison. So my dad was a drug dealer too. I didn't meet him until I was like five years old because he got in a lot of trouble. He was in the feds and shit. So I just like, I always just like, that was all I really knew was just sell dope. And so like this clothes shit's really. been a blessing for me. So you never thought about going college or like getting a trade or anything.

It was always like hustling just seemed like a more obvious. I did try to go to college. I tried to go to college for audio engineering like doing some music shit. And I went for like three years. And then I dropped out because I realized it wasn't really shit. And I don't really like being on a computer like that. So I like to like be more creative, more visual with my art. Definitely. Like the audio engineering wasn't for me at all. like a certain personality type if you want to be involved in that kind of thing no for show for show um so so you get into selling drugs the year the summer after high school and what does that look like for you you have like a small clientele or how are you making it work yeah i just started

building off just my friends you know um everyone that i knew in the area everyone was copping that shit. Everyone knew me. They trusted me. So it was pretty easy. It didn't work out always. I had to sometimes get like little jobs here and there. I was like a server, bus driver. I did a bunch of little jobs. But it wasn't until like I was like 22 or 23 that I started taking the coke shit even more seriously. I started really marketing it and like making sure that my clients tell was on point and that I was out making sure that everything was in stock always and like I made a business out of it at that point okay but so the skateboarding left your life at some point you were just fully like trapping or what yeah no for sure um that shit was just in the past like

always with the culture skateboarding is the culture you know street where everything has to do with everything right that was just like when I was a kid and shit I can't be falling down on the cement all the time that shit you know I'm getting old now Wait, how old are you now? I'm 31. 31, okay, yeah, I feel it. Because when I do, like, go ride my bike at this point, it is like, holy shit. The second your body hits the ground, that is a weird-ass feeling you can not feel in your normal everyday life.

Never mind, even, like, scraping your arm against a cement. And you're like, oh, I'm going to have, like, a hole in my arm with some blood and shit to, like, the next week. Like, that's a strange thing normal people don't got to deal with. Yeah, when you were skateboarding shit, you just covered up with bruises and scabs all the time. It's regularly. Yeah, people don't understand that like a pro skateboarder is literally just constantly living in this state of disarray. Like they are feeling a level of pain, even when they don't have like a broken ankle. It's like just the falling down and rolling around in the dirt every day.

Like they just end up being like part athlete, part bum. Like it's just you have to be willing to accept like a certain. Clothes all ripped up and dirty. I mean, you don't see a dude do the best trick you ever did in this whole life and he'll have this whole bag of his shirt, brown, ripped up dirt, hole in the shit because he already tried the shit 10 times i mean i don't know yeah it's with that though that's like fashion for real yeah no i mean that's the real shit too because that guy could show up at the bar and like if the people around actually like know why he looks like that it's like very much respected yeah it's respected you know yeah so um how deep did you get into

the whole bay area culture within everything before you made the move to l a when do you make the move to l a i moved to l a like six years ago okay so when you're like 20 Yeah, yeah, I had like a bunch of bullshit up there. My friend had gotten rated. And it was just hot out there for me and I knew it was time. I had another brand. It's called Thuggies. It's the first underwear with a pocket for holding drugs. Which you still are doing. You never gave up on that. Yeah. So that's my original brand that kind of started everything, you know, just from being in the streets, trapping and shit. So I always like kept dope in my underwear, you know? We always rock Ralph Lawrence and there's a little pocket in there. Is there? I've been wearing that shit for years. I don't know. I don't know. You could stuff your shit in there. So I always wanted to market that and make a brand around it. So when I came out to LA, that was my goal was to make the thuggies. And once I realized how to make the thuggies, how to do the production, the packaging, all that stuff. I was like, I could make whatever I want. And I started making some clothes. Like the second design I did was the sweatsuits. And it just took off from there. Wow, that's crazy. And so the thuggies kind of. And so the thuggies kind of. have just been on back burner ever since.

Right. Damn, that's actually pretty crazy. So wait a minute. Were you already like a graphic designer? Had you already been f***ing with that or are you just having some money so you can just pay somebody to do it for you? No, I don't know. Nothing about graphic designing, but I just, I'm a hustler.

So I'm going to do anything it takes to make it work. I just download Illustrator, download Photoshop, go on YouTube and be like, how do you do it? How do you draw shit? Right. You know? So you were actually doing all that? So your way of figuring it out was like, I'm going to actually get these skills,

not just pay some dude to do it for me? Yeah. And so that's why a lot of my early designs are just simple shit, you know? Like the sweatsuits, just simple shit. Definitely. And the sweatsuit, how much has it evolved since then? You know, every drop, I kind of improve it a little bit. Okay.

So like, even like every single time we release the sweatsuits, they get a little bit better. That's why I was. I feel like the original ones that I remember seeing looked way different and that they've kind of evolved. Yeah, I honestly, I didn't even have a logo when I first started. It was just like a sally and then like I added the faces and shit later. So where did that idea come from initially? Like I want to actually just put all these famous drug lords on the shirt.

So like I said, it was just regular to me. What I see a lot of other brands do is like they'll purposely, make a brand about like trap kings you know like Lords of the Hustle or some shit like it's super corny you know what I mean yeah and those

I hate those type of brands I never wanted to make a brand that was like about hustling necessarily I just wanted to make a fly ass clothes I just wanted to make fly clothes for real and so when I drew the shit up it looked hard and it was just some regular shit to me like I don't know I never really tried or thought that it was about like drugs right you know

now we now we kind of play with it and we run off that shit but how many pieces were you producing like when you first started the first time I dropped it was a hundred and twenty sweatsuits so it made it made a cool little impact um not much but the second time I dropped was the collab with despo and we dropped 700 sweatsuits oh okay there you go so it's like a 700 hoodies, 700 pants, like 1,400 pieces. So, but before the DESO DOS shit, how were you moving it? Like, how did you even get any initial interests and shit? Especially since you're like new in town at that point.

But like I said, I was selling dope. So when I first came out here, I had to make shit wiggle, you know? I had a whole clientele back home, but I didn't know nobody out here. I used to stand on the corner in Hollywood and just ask random people, Hey, you want to buy Coke? And they'd be like, what the fuck? Like, who the fuck are you? Like, we're not snorting your Coke.

I'd be like, I'm swear it's good. I'm not trying to poison y'all. Like, it's, you know, and it was hard at first, bro. Like, I had to go get a job. I got a job as a server. And that was different for me because, like, I hadn't had a job in so many years. I was doing great up north. All of a sudden, you're answering to somebody listening to the manager.

Yeah. Somebody that normally you wouldn't be given the time of date. I felt like I was acting. like it wasn't me yeah and so after i had that job for like six months i started to get more used to the area it was over there in beverly hills and shit next to crags and uh i started to get more familiar with the area started to know a couple people and um i ended up getting in a little thing with my manager he like said some disrespectful shit to me and i remember i like called my girlfriend during the shift i used my ex-girlfriend and i'm

like, should I leave right now? And she's like, I don't know. And I'm like, bro, that nigga disrespecting me. I have to leave. So I quit my job. And I knew like I had to just make shit wiggle. Like I had no choice. So I had started to get used to the area. So every night I would go out and I had changed my marketing instead of telling people, hey, you want to buy some Coke? I would just tell people, hey, you want to, you want to have some Coke? Y'all want to try some Coke? You guys want to bump? And so then I would just go. around every night just making friends with people giving them bumps and getting their phone number and my goal was every night to get 10 at least 10 people's phone number and then I would

hit them back the next weekend hey it was nice meeting you um let me know if you're going out this weekend I got that shit you know and I would just keep doing that and eventually after like a month or two months I had so many contacts in my phone that the shit was just rolling no that's That's definitely the way to do it because like when we first got the store on Melrose, a dude came through and gave me a party pack with like some blow, some ecstasy, some ex-pills. And you've been calling him ever since. Some, uh, some Zanz, I mean, not ex-pills, the other type of ex-pill. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he had my business for years and years and years until I stopped

getting f***ed up. Yeah. And like, I mean, but then on the other hand, saying, do you want to buy some coat? Literally makes you sound like a cop. And like, almost everybody's going to be like, what the fuck? I don't know you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But meanwhile, you give somebody one bump and then try.

to sell them something they're gonna think you're all good once they try some good shit they need some more it's coke come on it's addictive yeah no it's the easiest thing to sell in the world yeah so okay that's an interesting question how does it feel selling coke versus selling clothes when clothes are a very optional purchase for most people clothes is hard to sell man but you make a lot more money yeah and you know it's a lot more growth you can't market coke like when i was a coke dealer no one no one really cared about me. As soon as I stopped selling Coke, everyone that was in my life just disappeared.

Yeah. Like, I used to have all these people at the house all the time. It was lit. And then as soon as I stopped selling Coke, everyone was gone. I was like, what the fuck?

When you were doing that out here, were you feeling like it's just totally lawless? Because, like, before when you're in a small town, it's like the cops might really have the time. You got to be way more careful out there. But out here, it kind of feels like you either need to get, like,

or maybe once in a while some kind of sting, but for the most part, the cops are not tripping about you having a personal amount of coke on you. No, for real. So when I got in trouble, I got raided. Someone had snitched on me. Out here? Yeah.

What year? So that was 2020. That was like two weeks before the death stuck the lab. Wow. So that's really what pushed me to do the clothes even more. Because, you know, like, I would have probably just falling back on the dope shit. Like, it's too easy. Like, it's too easy to sell dope.

And then the clothes when you're first starting out is so hard. No one wants that shit. And they want discounts and they want it for free. And it's really slow at first. So it was like so tempting for me to fall back on that shit. But I had just caught a case. I got raided. What they find when they rated you?

And what time was it? What did it feel like getting rated? Shit, bro. It was like six in the morning. Yeah, they always pull up early, right? It was six in the morning. I'm asleep in bed. I just hear knock, knock, knock, you know, like loud.

And I already knew who it was. Like, I was hot, you know? I was really slinging that shit, like everything too. I had Coke, ketamine, ecstasy, adderals, annex, like, you name it. I had everything is during the pandemic. So like, shit was slow. I had to get everything. Right.

And I already knew. As soon as I heard the door, I was like, oh, no, they hear. I jump out of bed. I'm like, I'm like thinking, oh, can I go stash this shit? Nah, they already bust down the door. So there's a video of it on my Instagram. I don't know if you've seen it.

Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, they all come into my house and shit. How'd you film it? It was in there barking, tripping. You were filming it on your phone or? No, I had security cameras. Oh, shit, okay. Damn.

And so what they end up charging you with? Like, possession of a bunch of shit. and then, you know, with intent to sell and shit. And then I had like a little gun charge, too. The gun with the drugs is like a big deal, right? Yeah. So luckily it was my first major, like, case. Like, so they were easy on me and I got, I got rehab.

So I was super, super lucky. But it was also during COVID, like, they weren't really locking people up. They were letting hell of people go. So I think I got a little bit lucky. That is honestly, like, great to know that you could have a full-scale 7-11-style drug dealing operation going with guns and that they wouldn't even lock you up. Thank God we live in this state. Yeah, LA's hot, though.

Like, they really ain't locking people up unless you murdered someone. And then they still let niggas out that murdered people. Right. Like, I see it on the news all the time. Like, families are like, walk that guy away. He murdered my brother and shit. And they're like, well, he's out on parole now. Yeah. So it's crazy. LA you could get away with a lot of shit, but so okay in that moment or you're like, I'm done. I'm absolutely not selling drugs anymore.

No, for real because it was serious. Like if I fucked up, they was going to lock me away for years type shit. So I really didn't have a choice. I knew like I was going all in on the clothes. And so I had just met Desto. And we put in the order for the clothes. I knew it was like 700 sweatsuits, right? But how did you really get to know him and what made him want to with you when he has a lot of different clothing companies trying to collab with them and shit? So I met Desto when he was still in the parking lot, like in the van. The Lord is. That's when he built his shit. Like, we all knew about it for a few years prior to that shit. But 2020 was when it really started going. That's when he really took it seriously.

Like when he came off tour with Lil Pump. So like Pump stopped touring. Yeah. So he was just like, I'm out here in LA. Let's make this clothes shit work. Yeah. You know? And so I met him.

That was probably a good time to try to do a collab with him because he kind of didn't know what the was going to work and what wasn't going to work. So he was just kind of doing whatever. But that was a cool dude. Like he'll collab with you. Like if you got something to offer, he's ready to work. That's the same with me. I'll collab with anyway.

I'll collab with a homeless person off the street. Like if it makes sense. Do you think that he really like saw that your brand was going to work and do you think he like believed in you as a person or do you think it was just kind of taken more of like a random shot? He saw the quality. He saw the design. Um, so how it happened.

my boy was wearing the shit actually at this gas station right here. Famous gas station. A lot of people got marked over there. So he had, Desto always like just shouts out random brands and shit, like shows love. He had tagged me and like my homie was like, oh, it's my friend's brand. He tagged me. I hit him up. I'm like, let's do a collab, you know?

I seen on his website, his hoodies were $200. I was like, what the shit? And they was all sold out. I was like, man, this thing is doing some shit, you know? And so once I linked up with him I'm like, let's do the collab. And he had a lot going on. I pull up.

He's got like, Dranko pulling up, fucking Rio the young OG, like all these people in the parking lot. I'm like, damn, he's doing some crazy shit out here. Like, he got a whole movement. And so I tell him like, let's do the collab. And he had so much shit going on. I don't think he knew I was like super serious about it. Cause like it was like a month or two later I pulled up he's doing a pop-up right here on Melrose with LB

I give him the sample piece and like everyone's over there too trippy like hell of people I'm like damn this thing is doing shit like he probably don't even care about this shit. And sure enough the next day like he puts Draco in the sample. That's that picture that we have right up there you see that's the desktop in the background so that's like the original that was the first time you tapped in that's the original sample like oh okay hell yeah yeah and so um he put drako in it he's like we're about to drop this i'm like shit all right it's up um like two months later i hit him up we don't even talk you know me and desler weren't close at that time so like two months later i hit him up i'm like the clothes is ready

and he pulls up and it's like we got you know a thousand over a thousand pieces i got like damn near my whole garage filled with clothes. And he's like, damn, this shit's dope. Like, we're doing it. Let's do a pop-up. And then I caught the case. And I knew right then I was like, shit, I started doing the math. I'm like, $200 a hoodie, $700.

You know, I started doing the math. I'm like, damn, that's like $100,000 each or some shit. I was like, damn, I might be cool after this. So I was like, damn, I need to take this clothes shit seriously. Because how much you spend on a lawyer when you got that case? 20,000 yeah, I was I was guessing yeah 20,000 they didn't be cool though that was that was worth it yeah at least it ain't 50 yeah I was thinking 50's the high and 20s alone yeah yeah but so okay it's it's kind of crazy because I always look at dub as like one of the most instructional entrepreneurs I've known throughout my life of terms of somebody who really took it from nothing and figured it out one step at a time but like a big part of it for him was that he was the juice man that's like how they introduced me to him in the first places they were like yo when quavo pull up to la when thug come out here dub is like the guy that they call and he pulls up and he uses that

like well actually that wasn't really what he was doing at the time but as time went by it became like oh he went from the guy that was just serving thug to now thug is his homie now thugs wearing his clothing line now thugs got him hanging out at his shows backstage all this kind of shit but it sounds like you and your drug dealing mostly was like with random party people and that And like by the time you really start blowing up. Actually, that helped me a lot because I was out there in Hollywood. Yeah. I met a lot of people.

Before I even met Dest though, I had blue face and certain people wearing my clothes already. So he saw that I was doing shit. You know, I was starting to have the motion already. Right. But how many times? I used to serve, like a lot of celebrities do Coke. Yeah. Yeah.

I used to serve me a goose. And if you're the- I'm not going to say no names, but yeah. If you're the dude who's down to like come through it four in the morning, for sure that'll open some doors for you. Oh yeah. I used to sleep with my phone next to my pillow. Like I wasn't missing no calls. Really? So you go to sleep for 20 minutes and somebody calls you're back up at it? If I had to, you know, like I was just trying to make shit work. I always wanted to like, I wanted to like get out of that situation. That's how I really realized that I wasn't billed for selling Coke. This is when I realized like, oh, I got to get out of bed at 3.30 in the morning.

It's so much work. It's so much work. It's not worth it. at all. No, 100%. But, um, okay, so you guys do the, the first collab and is that just like go crazy? Yeah, we do the collab on, we do the collab on Melrose. We do the pop-up. Shit went crazy, bro. Everyone wore that shit.

Everyone pulled up, you know, Draco was there. Oh, GZ, Phoenix. Hell of people were out there, man. It was epic. It's kind of crazy you even saying like, oh, like Young L.B., um, uh, Dub, Ralphie, etc. etc it's like i was there today young lb ralphi obviously rest in peace drago i'm sure he would have been there and shit but it's like dub does have that crew of people who are kind of consistently

there yeah yeah for sure but so that shit sold out like very quickly did that like kind of change your mind on like how big this could be we did good man i think we did like i want to say 60 000 that weekend wow so it was good you know we split that it was like 30k each it was a cool little Cool little check. Then when I dropped online, it was like 30,000 the first day. So it was a good little introduction to what I had coming. So then what's your perspective at that point? You're like, how am I going to take this to the next level?

Because managing to get a collab with a brand that's already popping is kind of like the cheat code. But then you're sort of like back to your brand and you're kind of like, oh, like, I really didn't know what to do it. with it at first but you know i'm a hustler so i just adapt to my situation yeah anyway i got to make this shit work how are we going to make it work i got to think well we're going to put it on the best people we're going to make the best quality we got to get the best designs and at first my shit wasn't the best but i slowly just every day i try to make it a little bit better yeah um and so were all of the collabs or all the celebrities that you got wearing it was it always organic or was it ever a

situation where you were like you know what I'm just gonna because I see a lot of bigger companies where it's like I'll be interviewing a rapper and then they're going to do a photo shoot for some clothing line and again 10k to just pull up and take some photos and I'm like okay that's that's the cheat code version of how to get into that situation yeah I don't I've never paid it artists to wear my clothes I think that's corny art like people wear clothes if they like the clothes they're gonna wear it if they don't like the clothes then your designs are probably whack So then you need to start over.

You need to come with some other shit. You got, you know? Or like, pan artists is like, yeah, you're less likely to get the genuine cosign. And you're more likely to, like, there's a thing you don't want to do, which is like ramping up too fast. You kind of want to like, in your situation, I think you want to grow at a reasonable organic level. And you want to meet artists like a suede or whoever like early with them have like a real organic relationship rather than just tapping in. with somebody who's already established and cutting my check. Yeah, yeah.

A lot of my friends, you know, we started all this shit together, you know, Swade, Peso, Bravo, you know, some of my best friends that when I started the brand, they were kind of starting their career. And we all came up together, I feel like. Definitely. How did you meet all those dudes? Those are a lot of the faces that we see really heavily associated with you guys. For sure, you know, those are some of my good friends.

I really met Swade through, kind of through Phoenix. He had given him a hoodie. You know, Phoenix, shout out to Phoenix. He makes a lot of shit happen in the city, bro. Like, it wasn't for Phoenix. Like, there wouldn't be a lot of these rappers. I'm not going to lie. Phoenix in particular, or was it where the whole shoreline

with you early on? Phoenix, for sure. But shout to O'GZ too, I f***, bro. Definitely. Yeah. But so, okay, like, so how did you and Swade connect and hit it off? Because I feel like he was rocking your shit, like, extremely consistently there. No, for sure.

Like, when me and Swade met, it was just, like, genuine energy, for real. I was a fan of him. I saw, like, he had a crazy movement. He pulls up to my house, and I'm just, like, he's like, we start talking about, like, where he's from and everything. And I just noticed, like, he was different, you know? Like, there's so. many like young Mexican kids from South Central but there's none like swayed like he was one in a

million literally he had swag he he had a taste that was different like and I noticed that early on and he was just going crazy like he was he was viral everything he touched was viral I'm looking at his YouTube numbers it's like millions of views and he just started rapping like six months ago I'm like, what the f*** is going on with this kid? Yeah. You know? He was on his own timing too because like when I first spoke to him, it was something where like somebody told me I should interview him. And I wasn't like, it wasn't like that huge yet.

And then like we kept having a delay. He kept getting locked up. Kept like random shit was coming up. And then by the time I finally got that interview, I was like so unbelievably hyped to get it. Like, oh, this guy is the dude now. Like I have to do this. And he just definitely made an impression on me. It was like one of the coolest kids out there.

Yeah, super humble. So, okay, but like, you know, he's not the only one. There's a lot of these artists that you've been tapped in with we've all kind of had some bad luck. Or I guess if you deal with rappers, it's something that you kind of got to get used to at some point. But like, what's it like meeting these people early in their careers and then seeing them lose their lives before they are able to really become what they're meant to be? I mean, bro with sway, that shit was hard, bro. Like, that shit still hurts me because, like, that was really someone that I always expected to, like, be on this journey with me.

So, like, losing Swade was, like, one of the worst moments in my life, real. It's like, you know, it's like losing Death Store or losing Bravo or something. Like, one of my best friends, like, we in this shit together. So that shit hurt me a lot, bro. I don't really know, like, I still think about it, you know, I still am upset about that shit. Hard to make sense of it. It's like happens in jail and shit. So it's like you're completely.

It was super unexpected, you know? And then, like, you just look on Instagram and you see that shit and it's just like, that, bro. And I feel like there's a party where you're used to seeing people die, like, in your hometown or, like, around that type of humble beginnings type shit. And then you kind of think that you're going to become successful or start being around these people who are, like, well known and it's going to be, like, less likely. And then, you know, in reality, if you're spending time,

around a lot of rappers and shit it becomes like damn there's actually like a real threat you know like a lot of these guys end up in situations that are a lot more dangerous than they than we would expect no for real this rap should be tricky this should be tricky i can go why yeah rappers are in a lot of danger and shit but it's part of the job i guess definitely so okay when did you really start to feel like like i don't know like after that deso collab and everything when did you really start to feel like things were going in the right direction or like things were solid. Really? Okay. Oh my God. It was like ups and downs because like I said like when you're making clothes it's expensive bro like one I may it might be one item cost you $20,000, $30,000 or

something. And it's like by the time you sell out of that item you've made a nice profit but like then you have nothing left. Yeah yeah. So it would be up down up down. It took a long time for me to bubble up where I just consistently could keep dropping and have stuff in stock. So you never took out a loan or I'm sure you had people trying to approach you to do some kind of production partnership at some point or another. Like did you have those offers or? Yeah, like people offered like to help me out and stuff, but I don't like, I don't like taking like handouts from people. And I'm just a hustle like when I first started, I would just make shit wiggle. Like I had sold all my cars. I used to have like old school cars and shit. I just started

selling them and shit like investing everything i had into the brand and i then i used to do commissions for people too and do like um designs or like production for people so i'll go and post on instagram hey um who needs designs or who who needs uh i can help help you start your brand and like after i did the desktop collab everyone wanted to work with me so it was pretty easy for me me to do commissions and just like that would pay my rent or whatever while the clothes are being manufactured in the meantime. So did you go from having no graphic design experience to feeling like very proficient in it over the course of a couple years there? Oh yeah for sure but I don't touch Photoshop or Illustrator at all anymore. Oh you leave that completely on now. Yeah like I have a

team yeah yeah I have a team and I could sit down and tweak on that shit all day but why like I have I have more shit to do like I'm trying to run the business I'm trying to meet with these artists and it's not really like important for me i know how to tell a designer what to do and like how to make a design so that's like the one skill that i always look at like i i was able to do all the social media posting the youtube uploading and all that stuff at a certain point i was doing tons of video editing obviously not like the super complicated shit but i never managed to even do a sketch or a basic graphic using Photoshop like it just never i don't know and i always kind of felt like if I start to do it, because I'm a good artist, I can take a pen and do a nice drawing for you

right now, but he just never really, like, sunk into my head that that was what I was going to do that day, even though I kind of know, even now, if I took like a couple hours out of every week and I could probably get that skill set relatively quickly. Watch a couple of YouTube videos. Yeah. It's easy, but it just take a lot of time. Like, when we do graphics, my graphic designer, he might take like two, three, eight-hour shifts on one graphic.

Really? That crazy, huh? Yeah, because I make sure this shit's finished. We don't stop until this shit's like super crazy, you know? Right. So with your brand, is it kind of like the basic sweatsuit with the portraits and everything? Is that like the breadwinner? And then with the shirts, it's like each individual shirt might work or it might not.

It's kind of like that, right? No, for sure. Like the sweatsuits, that's what brings in the money. That's what everyone wants. Like, that's the hype item. You know, you think of a sally, if you're gonna, if you're like a tourist coming into town, you're gonna get the cartel set. Like you're gonna you're gonna get the shit that everyone knows about. But like the real fans of the brand, they want those new different pieces and then like with the shirts. Yeah, we'll have hits, but like nowadays, I only make hits like when I was first starting a bunch of my shirts were bullshit.

And I had to like go back to the drawing board and see how am I gonna make these shirts. the best shirts possible. How can I sell a T-shirt for $100? You know? So what? You just have enough of a grasp on what the audience wants at this point that you feel like you're not going to drop something that the audience just doesn't connect with?

Yeah, I'm not going to drop no bullshit. Like, and I just know it looks good. And I've done it so much now. I'm like four years into this shit. So I can't drop no. It's everything's got to be perfect. I have a creative direction for this shit. and I know what looks good and what doesn't.

You know, and I could look at anything and tell you that I could look at a movie or listen to music and be like, this shit's trash or not. You know, a lot of artists be trying to work with me and I'm like, even if you got like a little following, maybe you got 100,000 followers or something, you're doing some shit with the music. But if I don't like it, I'm probably not going to work with you. See, that is a tough moment as an entrepreneur and stuff. And I remember like, this is a super random example. But like I did an interview with James Charles, the makeup dude who has been like mega canceled. You probably don't even know what I'm talking about. But like he had a brother who was like a model or some shit.

And he was really into FTP. And when I interviewed them together, I hit up Zach. And I was like, yo, this kid f*** your brand. And he's like, he's really lit. He got like a million followers. You might want to send him shit or whatever. And I remember Zach just being like, like, you know, like, I don't know, like, I don't have a million followers.

He did. I think he did send him stuff. But like, he's like. I could just tell that there was that hesitation of like, I'll take your word for it, but just know, I'm not just sending shit to anybody who's got a big profile of my mind. It's a disconnect. Yeah. Like a lot, like one of the person that always hits me up is like the like Zeus,

I think it's like Zeus network or whatever, like baddies or whatever. What they want to do with you? They always want like the baddies wear my clothes. Oh no. It's cool. It might be a little promo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My fans, they don't want to see baddies.

They want to see, uh, Polo G or like. Mexican OT or like, you know, EBK, J-bo and shit. See, that's a tough. They want the gangster guys. That's what the fans want. Because, all right, your fans probably don't watch baddies, but they probably know what it is to the extent where if they see a bunch of people on baddies rocking it, they might feel like, nah, like, does that, does it necessarily speak to me as much when I see people who are completely outside of this world rocking it?

Like, that's a big decision right there. Yeah, and I don't think it's really makes any sales. like you're really people watching baddies like oh i really need that what they're wearing maybe maybe a little bit look at all the rappers and think like oh what's he wearing that's probably hot no for sure if he's rocking it's probably don't you know for sure damn yeah that's a tough decision you know there's like another one too have you ever had a moment where a big big celebrity rocked it randomly and maybe it wasn't somebody that you loved their image and you kind of felt a little conflicted about it.

Hmm. A big, big celebrity. I didn't love the image, huh? I can't think of any right now. Because like there's been a few times over the years where I've seen people rocking Supreme that I just pictured what it was like at Supreme the next day and I bet that they were kind like, damn. But they never, they never call it out.

They'll never be like, man, this dude. Because I think as a clothing brand, you can't really do that. You kind of have to just let it be for whoever wants to wear. to wear. You can't really like denounce people. I feel like that's a line that a lot of brands won't, won't cross. No, I mean, you got to keep shit positive always. Like, I ain't, I have enough smoke with nobody, so. Yeah. So you're conscious of that because that's something I always see with Doug and I respect is that I think he, he gets it. He's like, I'm a, I'm a personality. I'm a man out here. I'm an influencer. But at the same time, I'm going to keep myself out of

the politics. I'm going to not dip my head into any of the drama. because my brand is really supposed to be appreciated by everybody exactly you know the brand's universal so but i stick to myself for the most part i don't click up with nobody i got a few friends is that ever tricky because you probably want to give clothes to people who don't necessarily get along with each other sometimes too right yeah and i will like it's cool because it's not me giving the clothes it's the brand you know i keep that separate you know i just keep everything separate for my personal life. Like, you'll never go on, like, the brand page and see, like, a picture of me.

It would never happen. You don't do that at all. Was there ever a time when you're up here with the model? No, if there's a picture of me, do not post that shit. Like, most of the time, don't even post it. If someone, like, a celebrity shouting my personal page out, don't post it on the brand page because, like, I like to keep it separate. Especially when I was first starting, like, I didn't even tell people it was my brand.

I was like, oh, I designed this for a solidly. Because people don't want to support you. They want to support a brand. Yeah. They want to support the culture. They don't want to support a person. But it's interesting because, like, we're doing what you're doing, trying to make the brand hot. It's like you kind of have to contend and compete with, like, at this point in time, everybody makes clothes.

Your favorite YouTuber makes clothes. Your favorite YouTuber makes clothes. All that shit's corny to me, though. I don't really like anyone's clothes. Well, that's the fine line between, like, merch and an actual brand. And it's like a lot of times, unless you really know. what you're looking at you can't even tell because a lot of merch kind of is designed very well it's like you know that looks good i don't really fuck with much brands at all like i'm really i only with the

homies brands like local brands and stuff i don't like none of that designer shit for real that shit's all corny to me it has no no substance to it like it doesn't tell a story it has no culture it's too disassociated from the culture yeah no i agree for the most part too it's just like TP cough syrup dead homies right nothing personal like all the homies shop gallery too I think they're super tapped in with the culture and Just local brands we kind of have the privilege of like knowing all these people who have dope brands like when I do look at Regular people I'm like okay. I guess I get why you're buying designer because you don't really have like a reference base that goes outside that but that's one thing that makes me real happy when I see somebody rocking cough syrup or your shit in a situation in which most people would rock design You know, like rock your friend's shit and try to like help them elevate their shit to a different level. Especially if you're so influential.

For sure. And I always feel like super appreciative, especially when the rappers like put my shit on in a music video or something. I'm like, damn, like, because they could have worn anything, you know, they probably they, all their other videos, they rock in Amiri and Montclair and all this other shit. But like they might throw my shit on too. And I feel super appreciative because they could have worn anything. No, yeah, 100%. So, okay, like what makes, what's your average day like? What makes the most sense for you to do with your time in order to continue to make the brand great?

I like to design. Like, I like to spend most of my time designing. I'm trying to build up my team where I don't have to do anything besides designing. Because that's what I do. Like, that's what I'm best at. You know, I'm a creative director. I'm really like a creative genius with this shit. You know, like I have a vision for for art and like clothes and and everything.

And I just try to make shit the best as possible. And so I know like my time is best used just making designs and just creating, coming up with new ideas. So the ideas you feel like are your specialty, not necessarily the promotion? Because with somebody like Dubb, I feel like his networking, ability and like him just being around people is probably his skill set i don't know how much time he spends working with the designers and everything but like but desto's also like a creative director he's he's like he's so good with the fashion he knows what looks good like you could tell by the way

he dresses like he has a really good with um creative direction and you know he's he knows what looks good so but he's also a marketing genius you know he really showed me how to to do the marketing. Yeah, because I remember seeing you guys all out in San Diego. There was some big event out there. Out there. And you guys were all out there together. Oh, yeah, yeah.

It was the jokes up pop up. Right. That was fun. And I remember looking at that and thinking like, damn, it's a Saturday night and all these fools are out there in San Diego pushing their brands at the same time. And I'm like, I'm on the couch watching this USC fight. Like, oh, maybe I need to be more on the grind. I should be out there. I should be pushing my shit.

No, but you be working all the time. already know yeah but it's it's different you know doing the interviews and shit it's like I'm on a very strict schedule throughout the day and like if I was really full-time hustle and I would be using my nights to go do whatever but instead I kind of like fell back on you got to have some free time too though yeah especially being a dad and being 40 hell yeah you guys spent time with the family and shit no it's interesting what you said about like not ever using yourself to push the shit because I feel like for me at like 40 that's so obvious like if we're pushing some no jumber clothes or some of some of shit clothes or whatever i don't want to i don't want to be

a guy on the photo but like it took me a while i get there like you you knowing that at 31 is and especially because like you're a young dude you got tattoos you look you look the part you can do all that you could fit in as a as a model for your own brand and they wouldn't necessarily think you were the owner if they didn't know right yeah maybe but it went like like i don't see it like i'm looking at it i'm like i'm the owner i see myself i'm like i can't be in the shoot looks corny are there any brands though that you love look at that have had like a longer career like for me for sure supreme throughout my life even though i like almost never wear it i just look at it and i like just really am kind of in awe of like

the business model and and and really the restraint because there's so many things that they could have done over the years that they didn't do and so like when i see them doing things i know it's so deliberate and i love seeing like that with really successful brands or artists of just like what they don't do because when you have every opportunity you offer it up to you it can be really really hard to just kind of say no yeah I mean I used to be a big fan of Supreme they they really you know created a blueprint for a lot of people I think and like that whole like hype drops and everything like selling out first day Supreme started that shit you know but it's been bought and sold so many

times I feel like it's too disconnected just got sold again and that kind of made me feel like oh shit because like the last couple years you have seen some of that shit wear off and like you see the drops come out and a lot of it gets left over online and you're like oh it's not selling out like I used to that's pretty interesting yeah I mean a lot of it's you know people are after the money they like what they want to buy Supreme they'll make some money yeah and if you're gonna spend 20 billion dollars or whatever on a brand and you're just like a big corporate holding company you're probably going to want them to make more money to sell more product and and if they're like no we're only making 4,000

of that design or whatever it is. Like, I'm sure that they're like, well, let's do $6,000. And that literally is the thing that, like, reduces the quality of your brand once everybody can get it, you know? Yeah, no facts. And so that's why, you know, I've kept this small. Like, we don't really drop too many pieces of anything. So everything we do is exclusive compared to Supreme. Yeah.

You know? Definitely. Do you have offers for, like, people that carry in stores and stuff that you have to say no to? And, like, what's that decision like? Oh, we let everyone carry it. in stores. Okay. I don't really trip. If you really, if you're ready to pay the price, you know, we charge a lot for our clothes. So if you're down to pay, come get it. I'm a hustler in the end of the day. So I'm just like,

trying to make this shit wiggle. Like if we're going to make sales, let's make sales. Definitely. I was in a store on the mall the other day and they had a bunch of fake Hellstar. And I was just thinking, I'm like, that's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy, but also like, I feel bad for those guys because they work so hard and like they're really It sucks to see that. Yeah. Like what do you even do at that point? Because it's like there's really nothing you can do besides make.

I notice in a lot of their newer stuff it'll have like weird distress shit or like the logo will be like real chunky like prints and stuff. Stuff that's harder to bootleg. Yeah. I'm sure that that's like a deliberate choice. You know they over there and trying to tweak and trying to figure out how to make it right now. Yeah. But they're going to figure it out. Like it's clothes.

It's fabric. It's ink. Yeah. like clothes is clothes you have a runway when you put something out but it's like might be a month it might be a couple weeks but somebody else is going to figure out how to make something that looks pretty close yeah how much bootlegging do you do with um how much bootlegging like yeah like how many people do with my brand yeah how often do you see it like they have it all all around the world mm because i have a lot of global artists in

south america that wear my stuff so now they got fakes in columbia fakes in mexico city and shit they will get you out there like even quick 20 14 when like my BMX shit was like really going crazy. I would see tons of pictures in South America people would be like like a whole skate park where like 10 kids all got the same fake shirt. I'm just like and you can never do anything about it. Yeah. You're gonna do. Hey man I just got to you know be humble and just like it's a it's a form of um you know it's like it's like flattery and shit like you know no they got inspired by me so I can't really be too mad. What's it like dealing with all the burglaries and people just running up in this shit.

Like, I know you had your old spot. Like, how does that make you feel? And do you feel like you're finally in a spot where that's unlikely? Because it feels like, you know, there's got to be stronger and stronger dead bolts you can put on the door and shit. But I know you've dealt with a lot of it. Yeah, you know, I don't let it bother me. We have insurance.

But if I do see them, I guess we run in our fade for show. But it's happened so many times. I don't even remember what they look like. Like I had pictures, people sending me a people and shit. And then like, I'm already over it by the next week. I don't really trip. Like I always try to stay positive. You can't do well on anything negative because it's not going to get you anywhere.

Like I said, we have insurance. We're protected. You know, I make sure everything's always, we always protected. We always got everything in line. So I can't really be super mad. It's part of the game. And I used to be a kid too trying to steal shit. I used to be out in the streets on bunk too, so I can't even be really mad at them.

Yeah, especially like when you know that a lot of people are rocking your shit, or in my case, like a lot of people watching our shit are like young people that are in the streets. I mean, yeah, that encompasses drug dealing and encompasses, you know, people flocking houses and shit like that. But some of those people are out shoplifting. Some of those people are trying to run up in retail stores at night and get a... Flocking. Yeah. Flocking.

That's what they call it out here in L.A. flocking it's a thing yeah yeah I mean I think of flock and I think of homes yeah but I guess yeah like running up in here running up in my store now but yeah but no I don't really you know I try not to dwell on just stay positive keep shit moving definitely how'd you end up doing the EBK J-bo collab what's your relationship with him like um EBK J-bo you know I was always always just a fan of his music you know I'm from the Bay area so he's pretty big out there he's probably like one of the biggest artists on the West Coast right now I have said that I feel like he's the biggest West Coast artist besides Kendrick

in terms of the rap shit and I feel like people hear that and they're like what but I mean really if you break it down like there's nobody else you could drop a video on YouTube or on streaming services and do the numbers that he does right now I don't think I don't think so and if you really listen to the streets like that's who they bump in yeah like the streets they f*** Joe tough and you know I recognize that early on too and tapped in with all those guys, EBK Young Jock and all those guys I tapped in with them early on. I noticed they had a cool movement and we just locked in with them and just we made the

collab happy. Definitely. Yeah, but that shit, that shit was cool. I definitely, I definitely like how that came out. It was good for the brand. And like no one has a collab with J-bo. I'm the only one. Yeah, do you feel like just putting the artist name big on the shit?

Is that the direction? Or is it more like you want to like allude to the artist in a little bit more of a subtle way? It's kind of like a weird decision. It kind of depends. I'm always looking at, you know, what looks good, what's fashionable. And with certain artists, it could be corny to just put their name on stuff. With the J-Bow one, I felt like he was enough of a goaded artist, like underground. Like he doesn't do, he doesn't work with a lot of people.

He doesn't do collabs with any other artists. That is true. He doesn't. He only works with his people, like people in his circle. So it was something different where I noticed like when I, when we went to go design it, It looked good with his name on it. It looked fashionable. It was crazy.

Like I seen a gay nigga wear that shit on the red carpet. And then once I seen that, I was like, damn, that shit lightweight is kind of fashion. Because in the future, like, those will be like a retro band t-shirt. You know, 20, 30 years from now. True. I remember I rocked it in a photo in the airport in Puerto Rico. And holy shit. I had everybody in Stockton going crazy on me because I was rocking it.

Like they just, I don't know. I guess that's me choosing a side right there. They just took it like, holy fucking. I cannot believe you're wearing this. That's definitely one person that's going to be crazy as fuck. Because nobody gets hotter while they're locked up. He has. He's on like the craziest streak with singles right now that I've seen in a minute.

So I don't know what it's going to be like when he gets out. It's probably going to be insane. Yeah, everything he dropped just go crazy. Yeah. Especially, you know, something I, like, really haven't really seen before. It's cool, like, coming from the Bay, like, I kind of seen him, his whole, like, development as an artist, you know, and it's been dope. No, definitely.

All right, so from your perspective, like, what do you need to do to take the brand to the next level? Like, I feel like you're growing at a nice pace. The store is a big part of it, but it feels like you are not going to necessarily have the problem of, like, just rushing into shit. It feels like you're being methodical with it. Yeah, man, I take my time. You know, I just take it day by day. I don't like the stress off shit.

So, you know, I just work on it every day a little bit. But I do want to expand. My next goal is to open a store in New York next year. Wow. So I really want to, you know, push the shit on the East Coast. Like, everyone rocks this shit on the West Coast. But we got to get even like Texas and Arizona, like the whole West Coast. Yeah.

But like we really need to get this shit out there on the East Coast now. I feel like... See, that's like one of the ultimate challenges, I think, for a brand because you have to find people that can run it that you trust, which is like a big concern. And then you got to like... You know, like, every... Like New York is such a different world that you got to then like start doing your...

I've only been out there once, but I like it. Yeah, I love it too. I lived out there for a long time, but I'm saying like, you've got to like figure out how to make it hot there too because they got their own micro-influencers. They don't necessarily care about a lot of the big West Coast artists and stuff. So then you got to, you got to understand the culture out there enough to be able to get it into the right hands and not just the people that you happen to run

into. Like, I definitely believe you could do it, but that would definitely be like the thing. No, it would be a huge challenge because I don't know anyone out there. Right. But we do have like two stores that buy our stuff out there. And we ship orders out to New York all the time. You know, it's a big city. Definitely. So, I think New York's going to be good for us. And New York's big on fashion. Yes. And they take it very, very serious.

Yeah. But you see that conversation happening about like LA street wear versus New York street wear versus, I don't know, Atlanta, whatever. Like, how do you feel about that? Sometimes, like, I look at our shit versus what's popping there and it's like, oh, okay, cough syrup or soli or whatever. It's like, it's very loud in comparison of some of the shit you see out there. You know, they do stuff a lot different out there.

But shout out to my boy, Kukai. He on the East Coast. Yeah, shout up. And, you know, he's got kind of a similar vibe, like, not a similar vibe, but like a similar design style, I think. But he's definitely a little more West Coast. But I think it's going to do good out there. You're trying to do shoes?

Yeah, we've sampled a few shoes. But my thing is, like, I don't like Nike ripoffs. Which is what so many of the brands do. I like original designs. So why would I go to rip off Nike that's, like, corny to me? Like, someone really spent time making that shoe. So, like, to just do a Nike, like, rip off, I don't want to do that. So I'm trying to come all original, original soul.

And then they're going to sue you. Yeah. We've seen that happen with a lot of people. That's legit. Like, why are you stealing people's designs? Like, a lot of people think, oh, Nike is so big. But, like, once a point of time, they were a smaller brand, and someone actually worked to make that design.

And I respect them. I fuck with Nike. And it's tough to like Nike and all these other shoe companies have done such an amazing job like coming up with so many shoes that it's like very difficult to like figure out what you're going to change, what you're going to do different, you know? Yeah, it's like they got the blueprint and now you got to figure out how to tweak it. Yeah. But like when I look at it designs, I want to come all original.

So we're working on it. I have a few samples and stuff. But nothing I'm like super set on yet. there was one time a couple months ago or shit almost a year ago where dub was at my craber going to my birthday party and I seen this mrs. trying on like five outfits before he left. He just kept trying different shit on and I've been around this dude for years and years and years so I know that this is like a new thing and I'm realizing like oh

he has completely changed his life thanks to fashion. So now he believes that fashion has like a mystical power that he like you know he must obey his like soul when it comes to his outfit like his outfit is everything because fashion is everything that has changed his whole life so like that to me in that moment and I'm a person who like is very regretfully wearing anything out of the ordinary I'm very happy just wearing a t-shirt and whatever the it is but like for your personal perspective like obviously you could be completely rocking your shit right now and be a little bit of more of an infomercial and maybe sell a couple more sets like

Like, how do you approach how you get dressed every day? I don't even get dressed, bro. Like, I used to like wear shit, but like, I'm too grown for that shit now. For real, like, I wear t-shirts and Nike's every day. Like, I'd be on my, I'd be like at the gym and shit. So it's just like I'm, I'll be more active wear, like work wear and shit. So just white teas and forces like every day. That's my uniform.

So you think that you could get to the point where you're making stuff that feels more, high fashion or is that not really your vision? No, for sure. Like we have some hoodies that are like $350. So we're starting to push that. And I wanna go even, you know, I wanna keep going with this shit, make it even more high quality,

better designs and try to push that price even higher. If somebody hit you up like a big star, Blue Face said, I'm going to the Grammys. What can I rock that's gonna really do it? We come in with a full custom, yeah, full custom everything. Like, I'll sit down with the team and we come crazy. I've done a lot of shit like that. We're starting to work on different pieces like that.

I don't know if you've seen like the ribbon set that I had. There's like a bunch of ribbons also together. With the denim one with all the big lace or like the ribbon pieces sewn on to it. Yeah, exactly. So I had actually made that thinking about like maybe like a red carpet look or something like that. So I definitely want to get into the more high-end stuff. And I know, like, I have the ability to do it. But, you know, I just do what the fans want right now.

I try to give the fans what they want. Definitely. How much of your time you plan on spending here as opposed to, I don't know if you have, like, a private office or whatever? Do you feel like you could be fully creative in this environment? I don't like to be at the store at all, for real. I like to just be on the move. like I like to be active and at home and chilling like I don't I feel like too distracted when I'm at the store people are asking me questions they want to take pictures my employees are asking

me stuff and I like to just be able to focus so it's better for me to just be like at the house or at the gym and just like focused on my goals definitely well yeah I'm real proud of you I feel like this is just, you know, like it's dope to see somebody be able to break through and like really have success because sometimes it feels like the fashion shit and street road shit is so burnt out. So it's dope to be able to see you. It's hard, man. I don't suggest it for anyone. Like, it's hard, man. And like a lot of people get bring me their stuff and they're like, you know, check out my brand. I'm not going to lie, like 99% of the people that bring me clothes, they're all trash. Yeah. So.

i don't suggest that for anyone it's a really hard industry to get into and you really got to know what you're doing like and you have to be an artist for real with this shit yeah you got to care and the brand has to like represent something somehow bigger than just like oh i'm a i'm a dude who wants to make money or whatever like we've seen that too many times everyone's trying to just make money and it's not about that it's about the clothes it's about making dope shit definitely yeah like when you said earlier you were just like you know i wake up or like when you were talking about your progression you're like I'll just wake up every day and just try to figure out like how can I do this better how can I make this better bit by bit it's like that's the mentality you got to have

and a lot of people aren't ready for like how long of a journey that could potentially be you know it's slow at first man but you got to be pacing like I remember I used to just be like sitting on my house like let me just go to sleep and wake up in six months when the brand's bigger because like I'd be waiting on a drop or you know just waiting for shit to have happen like so it takes time everything takes time but you just got to be consistent and be patient especially like when you know that you have a design that is going to change shit and you got to wait you know two months for production yeah you produce stuff overseas mostly or you do shit all out here mainly overseas but we also do stuff here so if you say we want to do the sweatsuit

in a new color how long you got to wait typically two months two months yeah it's brutal when fashion just feels like it's changing all the time. Yeah. So then by the time that shit even comes, it might be out of style. Sometimes you might feel a little different about it. Yeah, by the time it gets there, I'm like, oh, I don't even like that design anymore. Yeah, I'd be like that. But yeah, man, I'm proud of you and just keep going.

And everybody stopped by. What's the actual address? 7-829 Melrose Ave. 7-8-29 Melrose right down the street from No Jumper, an awful lot of cough syrup. Yeah, man. I'm proud of you. Yeah, man, we're taking over the block, man, taking this shit back. He said it, he said it.

Shout to no jumper, man. Adam's my fucking brother. Yeah, for real, man. I'm really the long way and I'm proud of everything you got going on here, man. Yeah. Yeah. Asali, no jumper, coolest podcast in the world. Like, comment, subscribe.

We out.