No Jumper - The TraxNYC Interview: How He Broke into The Jewelry Business, 6ix9ine Scamming Him & More

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

TraxNYC learned the business by himself, worked hard and entered every room with good intentions. Today he's calling out jewelry sellers doing bad business and try to scam him! Plus, explains how 6ix9ine and Scott Disick stole from him and how he flipped it into a marketing opportunity. ----- NO JUMPER PATREON http://www.patreon.com/nojumper CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5te... FOLLOW US ON SNAPCHAT FOR THE LATEST NEWS & UPDATES https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_... CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! http://www.nojumper.com/ SUBSCRIBE for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/nastymondayz  Follow us on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ENxb4B... 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/NOJUMPEROFFI... 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 adam22hoe on Snapchatadam22hoe on Snapchat adam22hoe on Snapchat adam22hoe on Snap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No jumper coolest podcast on the world very very excited about this interview today somebody who's taking the the jewelry world by storm the the content world by storm tracks NYC is in the building how you doing man I'm doing fantastic man I appreciate that introduction oh yeah no doubt man I'm seeing what you're putting together and I'm appreciating it yeah I'm kind of you know storming this shit real real quick you know I put in 17 18 years of business into the jewelry business I don't got any more fucking time or energy left I just got to take it out and get this over with, bro. Okay, I'm very interested in this whole story.

Let's start at the beginning, though. Tell me exactly where you were born and raised at. I was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the former Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Union at the time. Okay. And then it collapsed, and we had to come to, you know, we had the option of being

Jewish refugees, even though my father was Muslim. And as Jewish refugees, you get a choice to go to Israel or United States by some mystical Jewish program, somebody put together. Ah, okay. And so your family was like, screw it.

Let's take off to America. Yeah. You know, some different family members made choices. Some went to Moscow. Some went to Israel, but most came to New York City, Queens. Right. Where at in Queens? Forest Hills, Rigo Park is a Jewish-American community that was there.

And then the Biharian Jewish community moved in. And I don't know what happened to the American Jews. Some stayed. And then I came. Okay. Interesting, yeah, because I lived in Astoria and Sunnyside for a little bit. Right. Yeah, that's more of a hip area that area was more.

These days, yeah. This was like 10, 15 years ago, but yeah. Yeah, so we came, you know, I had to learn English. Parents had to get new jobs and things like that. That wasn't particularly easy, but, you know, it gave me a certain ambition to go make money. Right. But so you're just showing up in the middle of Queens, and how was your English at the time? Zero English.

I mean, I learned English. I was seven years old. It was 1994. So I learned English in about three months, luckily. Really? You just learned it extremely fast because you had to? Yeah, I mean, I just, I absorbed it. You know, you're going to school, you can't talk to the kids.

You're going home, you're watching cartoons. You don't understand what they're saying. And then three months later, you do. Right. So you felt like you got good at it really fast? Yeah, I got with it. I mean, this was my original language, or I could speak with no accent in English.

Yeah, I know. You have almost no accent. That's actually pretty impressive. But I guess when you learn a language, when you are that young, it really just becomes part of you. I feel like even if I studied Spanish for 10 years, I'm never going to really sound like I'm a native speaker. Probably not. But when you're young, your brain is more malleable. The information enters.

But, you know, I was like when I came to America and my first couple of days of school, I'm seeing kids with light up sneakers, lunch boxes and all sorts of shit. you know, they don't have no light-up sneakers in Azerbaijan. Right. So what was the quality of life in comparison to what New York City was like, though? Like, where were you coming from in terms of how the circumstances where you were dealing with? It was great in the sense that you had your family and that's where your happiness came from. You know, you'd go on a trip and, you know, there'd be laughs, there'd be this. You don't need any of that extra shit to be happy.

But, you know, when you come here and you see it, you know, you don't know what you don't have. There might be a spaceship that you would really, really want. But you don't see it, so you don't even worry about it. But back then, we had a fantastic family life, and it was great, even though we had no hot water. Even though there was only, you know, two types of ice cream for 12 time zones. Chocolate and vanilla. Chocolate and vanilla. You know what I'm saying?

And everything was run down Soviet style. You know, life was good. You had your family life and, you know, people were kind of happy. But when there's a choice and a leap to make, but when you get here and you see everything and people are having cars and there's homes and swimming pools, and it's a long list of shit. But so did you, was that one of your main observations right away?

Was that the family unit was far less important to society in America as opposed to where you were coming from? That seems like one of the principal elements of our culture, really, right? I suppose so. I mean, when I came here, I just realized that was a have-not. That's all I realized. I wasn't a have-not, you know, in the Soviet Union. I was kind of a half.

I had a middle-class life and a middle-class family. You know, you still have your classes or so on and so forth. My father was a homicide detective. My mother was a journalist. But over here, you know, that we were just immigrants, and I felt like I have not. And then, you know, it's a money chase. You know, I don't know what kind of family units you have here in the United States, but if you have a nice home and the family gathers, that's great.

You know, that's really what it is. Right. So did you start to really internalize that sense that you were not having all the things that other people had early on? It seems like that was a pretty important memory. Yeah, I mean, listen, it wasn't like, you know, I was a little bitch about it and I'm crying that I don't have things. It's just that it builds a fire.

You want to buy a video game. Your parents can't buy you one. You can only buy you one a year. And if it, you know, you don't even know how to read the box. The game sucks. You can't play another game for, you just want to make money, you know? And every young man has that. But for me, you know, I have a slightly big ego, you know, even as a child.

I want to be important. I want to do an interview. I want to be asked question. I want, I want, I want, I want. But I don't have shit. You're speaking my language. I wanted to be interviewed for a long time before I ever got interviewed. Yeah.

I just wanted to tell my story. I wanted to speak my truth. Right. You have something to share with the world or something like that. You won't recognize. But you don't even have sneakers. You have sandals. You know what I'm saying?

Not to indicate that that's what you're wearing. but that was me when I came. These are amazing. I got to sit here all day. I love these things. Yeah, you're chilling. You can say whatever you want about them. Well, listen, once you got a business and you got your, you know, prestige, it doesn't really

matter. You could be walking around in rags, but when you don't even have that, then, you know. I feel you. So, okay, throughout the rest of high school, like, or junior high and everything like that, what kind of kid would you say that you turned into? Did this hustle start to manifest itself pretty early? I mean, I turned into, you know, a little bit of a troublemaker. man like some of the shit that I look back at

when I was still just talking about my cousin because he was also an immigrant you know you'd go to Burger King and you know you'd fill up you know I had free refills back there in the fountain you know you'd walk out of there you'd you'd have your burger you drink your soda then you take a free refill you fill it to the top

you realize you don't want it and you pour it in a mailbox you know scumbag shit you know what I'm saying somebody's bills and letters are there when I look back I'm like what the fuck was I doing but I was a frustrated kid Yeah I got a lot of memories like that too Of like wow I was a shithead for no reason

Yeah I mean it's it's you're just working out your frustration The world is being mean to you You're being mean to the world You know but you if you have a good heart and a good family Maybe you could work all that shit out and that's really what it was I think that's kind of like establishing the hierarchy In a sense too where like young boys want to basically like Prove how callous they are and how much they don't give a fuck

to sort of like impress the other ones. I remember a lot of stuff like this. Think about it. Like teenage kids, what do they do? They drive around and smash fucking mailboxes with bats. Right. I mean, why would they do that? Just because it's like proof of like, look how badass I am.

And it's kind of like the training wheels version of shooting somebody or robbing a bank doing the stuff that adults sometimes end up doing. Or exercising some sort of a power or saying, you know what, I do have power and control over this in my. I could pour water in your mailbox. I could do some bullshit. But that's all, you know, kid shit. Yeah. And then as you become closer to adulthood and you're like, I was about to graduate high school, I realized that, you know, I bought into this American dream that people told me about.

And, you know, to when you're the shit you're thinking about on the plane right over here is, you know, to start a business and to build a happy life. And that's really what I tried to make happen. Right. As soon as I graduated high school. So you didn't have a job during high school? Yeah. I was washing dishes at the senior citizen center. My mom got me that job.

Then I was doing, making dog tags on the USS Intrepid. Okay. Stamping out dog tag. My mom got me that job as well. Sounds like jobs that give you a lot of time to sort of think about how you don't want to be doing this job. Well, the dishwashing shit was miserable. I had to clean a grease trap that was, you know, I was like, I was like, well, I don't know what the hell. I was 16, 17, 18.

And, you know, I did a couple of things and I made a couple of dollars. It got me by. It was luckily because my mom was, you know, a great person that got involved with a couple of people, got me a job. Otherwise, nobody would have even hired me. Right. You know, in the interview process, I was an awkward, you know, I don't want to say retard, but, you know, that's what people thought I was in essence. Right. How strong or how tightly knit was the Jewish community in the area that you moved into?

Like, did you still have some of that sense of community? Well, I have a Muslim name. My name is Maksud. Okay. You know, so that made me even more of a little bit of an outcast. My name is not Jacob and Isaac. A lot of people couldn't really wrap their head around what they were dealing with. Well, you know, you're in the synagogue, and the rabbi asks you your name, and you say

Maksud, and he looks at you a little awkward, and then you feel like an outcast. So that was an aspect of it. Interesting. But that wasn't a big deal, but, you know, the community was a Biharian community in Rigo Park, Forest Hills and I'm not from Buhara and, you know, they like to keep things tight-knit. Right. And, you know, I mean, but it was, and then there's, of course, all the, you know, a lot of mixed people in there.

I mean, you got India, you got Korea, you got Vietnam, you've got Jamaica, you've got African American, you've got Italian American, you've got Irish American, all in one school. Right. You know, it's, you know, but the Baharian community, the Jewish side, came from there, and that's essentially that's what that terror community went from American Jewish to Baharian Jewish community and with a mix of everybody else. And so did you always know that you were going to be the type of person who very much worked with other people and stuff that you weren't going to be sort of limited to dealing

with only your own people? Yeah, well, I didn't have my own people to begin with, so to speak. Right. In essence, you know, when I started that business. And I didn't even comprehend that type of thought. Right. You know, I got a Muslim name. I'm from other Bajan.

I'm this and that. I'm from a different place. I'm me. And everyone else is themselves. And I'm trying to start a business. I'm trying to make money. And that's it. And I got into the jewelry business through,

you know, a couple of Puerto Rican, a Puerto Rican friend of mine. So that wasn't even, in essence, anything. And then, like, I'll tell you exactly what it was real quick, right? How do you start a business from zero? That's really more important thing that people might want to know. If you're a young person watching this

and you want to make an honest fucking dollar and you don't want to be a bum for the rest of your life and you want to know exactly how to make an honest dollar from nothing, I'll tell you exactly what it was. I just graduated high school. I was hanging out. My friend asked me to install Counterstrike on his computer. And you were good with computers?

Yeah, I was good with computers. My mom bought me a computer, you know, that was like $1,500 or 733 megahertz, you know, 64 megabytes of RAM or whatever. whatever the hell it was back then. And it was a decent enough computer to use, you know, back in 2003. And I'm just sitting on it, checking out the internet back then. And I could download games, like a pirate software.

I could do all that shit. That was the first thing I started to do when I got the internet in like 97 as well. Yeah. You know. I started downloading games. I felt like a hacker. I used to use an MRI. I don't know.

You remember that shit. C++ or some shit. I was into punters where you would, on AOL. You'd be able to knock people offline by sending them like a thousand. I had one of those. I had one of those. At the same time, that was my main foray. Yeah.

When I was doing it, I was on aim, just aim, essentially. And there was one little dope punter that came out that nobody had. And I was kicking all my friends off. Right. Off of the thing until they patched it or whatever. I felt so powerful. Oh, that was the power right there. You'd get into a conversation with somebody knowing that at any time you could kick them off.

And then they start talking shit like you can't do nothing. And then you just started knocking them up. And in the early days of the internet, it was like, I had AOL and my friend's list was only other kids I went to school with. And it was only like five kids or some shit because it's like the idea of like meeting people online took a little while to click. It was like I was kicking people offline who I actually went to school with. So that felt extra good.

Wait, okay. So you go to install the video game on your friend's computer. I go to install the video game on my friend's computer. He's got viruses out the ass. As everyone did at the time. Yeah. So I have to go battle his computer for two, three hours. And I'm doing this, you know, diligently.

And his cousin sees me and, you know, he sees I'm a worthwhile dude. And he sees I'm a useful guy. So he's like, you know, why don't you come roll with me? I start rolling with him. He's moving clothing from Canal Street, which is Chinatown. And he's taking it out of state. And I find a couple of jewelry shops around downtown area. This guy that runs a Vietnamese shop.

He's like a Vietnamese or Thailand or what have you, dude. A couple of brothers. They run a jewelry shop. I meet them. I realize that I could photograph their jewelry. You know, my other boy, his cousin, whatever, the business goes sour. So I realized I could photograph some jewelry at this jewelry shop or I have a connection, put it up on eBay, which is, you know, at that time, an upcoming auction site.

Sell the jewelry, then buy it. You sell it, then you buy it. And you keep the difference. You ship it. and you put your foot, your pinky toe, into the jewelry industry right then and there. And it had nothing to do with, you know what I'm saying, the stereotypical shit that people might even think

that I'm this and I'm that, and I got into the Jewish or whatever the fuck. It had nothing to do with that. My parents had no relationship. I went. I was installing Counterstrike. On my friend's computer, who happened to be Puerto Rican,

his cousin saw me. We started doing business of clothing from Canal. And through him, I met this jewelry shop. Because people have, like, a real, resentment towards like you know people who are able to get into industries that they feel like are kind of gate kept and so it's it's like a perfect thing for people to sort of feel like they're justified and letting their anti-Semitism out with when people talk about the jewelry game because they feel like they didn't have that opportunity and but you're saying that you really kind of got lucky this this

business you know um is usually down passed on and the information is by heritage from generation a generation, you know, the knowledge of gems and who's cutting, who's sorting, and who all that shit is. But for me, I had none to do with that. And it's, you know, totally racist to for me, to look at me and say anything. And I, you know, like, be personally, I wait for somebody to press on that issue. You know what I'm saying? The nerve, you know, well, just because my mother happens to be Jewish, I got to fucking handed to me and get the fuck out of here. But that's interesting because probably most of the people that you work with in the industry, would you say that it's usually a safe bed that they got into this position through

some form of nepotism? I suppose so. A lot, a significant amount of people do because, you know, but then you still have to be good. Yeah, you got to know what the fuck you're doing. I mean, there's several ways to get into the jewelry business. You could work for free and work on a bench. And you could sit here, work with your hands, and you can work for free for somebody as an apprentice and two, three years later, you're going to learn how to work that bench and you're going to be able to take on jobs and you're in the business. You want to work in the jewelry industry? Go work behind a counter if you look like

a trustworthy person and you can work for free and you can help a sales guy and then maybe you make some sales and you become a valuable person, then you'd be able to be in the business. So you got two entry points right then and there. Work for fucking free like I did when I was installing Counterstrike. Go and work on the bench and learn how

to work with your hands and then maybe your grandson's going to own a wholesale manufacturing operation. Go, sit there. here and go behind the counter and maybe your grandson's going to be with celebrity jeweler. Those are your options. You want to do it in one generation, then you got to get your shit together in your head out of your ass. Right.

But so you're not somebody who had any particular affection for jewelry or anything like that? It was pretty much just a total. I was listening to rap music, Nas, Biggie Smalls, Wu-Tang Clan and, you know, Jesus pieces and all this other stuff. And I was just, that's really what all I knew. right you know the rap music brainwashed me as a kid right i'm saying so you thought it was cool but were you really trying to take part in it because i noticed you're not exactly wearing a ton of a bunch of goddy jewelry which some people in your position might do right yeah not anymore i mean you

know i'm 35 year old dude um you know i just want to live in an adult life i like to you know la is a dangerous place i'd like to be more iced out and be you know flashy but for what i'm i'm a flex with making one minute videos teaching you know a whole job generation of people, something that they should really know, and that's going to be my flex, man. Right. You know, and I'll wear some nice and this and that, but there's no greater flex for me than that. When I walk into the room and people have learned from me, that's it.

Right. How are you not going to respect somebody you're learning from? But to a lot of people, having the diamond grill, having five chains on, whatever, it's all just marketing for the thing that they're selling. Like literally, you know, if somebody gets a TikTok or you in the club and you get a bunch of jewelry on or whatever, that's it's a lot of. That's just advertising for your business, right? Because I sometimes feel like that.

Like, damn, if I had a $100,000 chain, I bet people would pay more attention to me. And maybe that would be good for my career. I don't know. I mean, maybe it would be a smart idea. I don't really fucking feel like doing it. Well, first and foremost, you want to be adorned a little bit

because if you take this watch off and you take everything off, and I'm just a guy in a shirt and a pants, something you get at the store. The appeal comes off. If you have a little something on, that's better. Now, if you want to look like a fucking superstar,

you want to look like like Achilles and Hercules or whatever like a Greek god then yeah you put on four or five Cubans and you're going to be very impressive sight but you got to roll with security you got to do the whole thing

and the entourage and shit and that is a dope look I mean that's my industry I don't want you to wear less fucking jewelry right you know what I'm saying that doesn't help me doesn't help other jewelers but you know I gotta be honest about it

I like to wear a little subtle something and so on and so forth and then the other head I got robbed at gunpoint in New York City. Right. You know, going to dinner with this jerk off piece of shit that I went with. So you weren't anywhere near your business at the time that this happened? No.

This is totally unrelated? They were coming for Richard Meal watches. Right. For this fucking low life that I was doing business with. Oh, so they were coming for him? This grind ball. Yeah, they were coming for the, I was showing watches on my social media. Okay.

And, well, they saw some of these watches. And these watches, 150 grand,000, 200 grand, 300 grand,000, 400 grand. Grant $400,500,000. You got to be fucking kidding me. Of course, that was their job. I mean, all these guys went to jail eventually. And, you know, this jerk off goes to dinner at 10 o'clock or whatever it is, you know, at a restaurant that only dickheads would go to.

You know what I'm saying? And then it's almost like a trap. And, you know, you go there, a recognizable restaurant, you know, in a dark area of the downtown, with Richard Meals half a million dollars. By the time I come out, you know what I'm saying? and I turned the corner to get my car, these guys are popping out or whatever. Right.

And so it just went down? Like how they didn't rough you up? They put the gun on your face and took it? Yeah, they took everything except my Jewish star, which I decided to keep because I said, you know, this is from God, let me keep it. They just didn't notice it? Well, no, they noticed it.

You know, the guy let me keep it. Really? Yeah, one guy did. The other guy was like, hell no, but he wasn't the leader of the little crew. Whatever, listen, long story short, you know, this is real life. Yeah. You know, a lot of people might not bring that up themselves or whatever it is.

But I'm not here to pretend I'm a fucking superhero or anything like that. This is real life. I just want to make an honest dollar and, you know, do well and have a fantastic business. And that's really what it was. Okay. So a lot of funny shit going on. I want to hear a little bit more about the buildup here, though. So you sort of get in in this very entry-level way.

And then how does this start to progress? Can you let me know some of the steps that you had to take in order to get to the point right now? I will break it down in the easiest way. because I lived every fucking second of it. Right. Right. So you're on Canal Street. You got your digital camera.

You got the jewelry counter. You photograph some jewelry. You sell it. You come back to the guy. You buy it. Sometimes it's out of stock. You have to negotiate with the customer. You're ripped in all sorts of situations.

Right. But you know, you start building a little bit of a business because you got an eBay store. You're listing items. They're selling this. And at one time, this guy went on vacation for two weeks. And I have a customer that I need to. fulfill this order for where I sold. And now I realize, you know, he's getting it from the Diamond District.

Right. I go up there. I turn the corner and I start finding the vendors. The first vendor I went to where that had this particular item, right away they're trying to rip me off. I'm going to do them a favor and I mention their name. You know what I'm saying? Right away.

The wholesale was divide by four. Right away, they see me. I'm a young dude. And they, you know, they look, you know, it looked like a Spanish guy, whatever. I had line, you know, goatee and all sorts of shit. Does that happen where people think you're Latin? In some cases or whatever. Before you open your mouth.

When I was dressed, rarely. But when I was dressed back then, man, I had my Walkman, CD fucking player. I had the baggies jeans you could have fucking seen. And I had a big white tee on. And I looked like, you know, I looked like a young kid, man. I didn't look like an adult. I didn't look like I look now. I looked like a young fucking kid with a buzz cut and a fade and this and that because of the culture I was in.

Right. And I mean, ripping somebody off in the jewelry game, it's kind of all in the eyes of the beholder, right? Because ultimately, everybody's charging a markup. What markup is appropriate is kind of variable? You're giving wholesale, right? You know what I'm saying? There's a price on the tag. You can't do this every day with every wholesale customer coming in and you're going up and down.

You got to have a system if you're going to get through this. Right. You don't want to go in a 7-Elemen and bargain over a soda. Right. You know what I'm saying? You're going in there. The price is divide by four. Right away, this cock sucker, I'll never forget him,

looks at me and wants to screw me and do me a divide by three. Why, bro? Why do you want to rip me off for? I came here to do wholesale. I have a shop and I want to open up a wholesale account. Why do you fuck do you want to rip me off? Right. You know what I'm saying?

Just give me the fucking wholesale. Let me get my business going. Nah, you wanted to rip me off like a jerk off. I worked with those people for years and years and years and so on or so forth. but I never forgot it. I walk in, I'm like, damn, this is where the wholesale operation is. I know that the dude that was getting it down a canal is dividing the tag by four, adding on a couple of hundred Vietnamese dude,

adding on a couple hundred dollars for me. Then I'm coming up to my own people, supposedly, and they're fucking me over by the divide by three. That pissed me the fuck off, and it still does, man. That happened 18 years ago, bro. So that whole game and that whole system really pissed me off, the griminess there and I'm struggling and you know and the long story should I open up my first office for 450 bucks a month of 650 whatever it was pulling a wall I have my printer I'm printing my

labels I'm picking up jewelry from these dirt bag pieces of shit in the diamond district who's fucking head right now I'm gonna put in a toilet bowl bro and strangle them drown them in that shit you wanted to I didn't want to I couldn't now I can and I will okay you know what I'm saying right so being this a lot of animosity I mean they took my time away from my life by doing grimy shit and I was a soft kid right you know what I'm saying you could push me and you could sit here divide by three me and this and that and they wanted me to sit here and fight and bargain well now I'm gonna fight and bargain now you're gonna get fucked over and throwing off the roof so you don't respect that business I don't respect the people that are

there because I know them so well and I know how much they love money over everything else right but you got to know your mark you know if you're selling something to somebody, I mean, the bodega that we were going to when we were staying in Brooklyn last week, one of the guys went there and I guess he seemed super out of town or whatever, and they charged him seven bucks for the sandwich instead of five. And we were all kind of laughing about it afterwards. But also me, I respect the hustle. I think you're not even allowed to legally. I don't think you're supposed to do that. But I would be doing that if I owned a bodega. I'd be trying to upcharge people a little bit if I could tell that they could afford it. Sure. That's a style of business.

But then if you get a customer that comes back and fucking takes his sandwich and throws it in because you ripped them off, then maybe you might not want to do that. I don't really know how it is in a bodega, and I don't know this, but I know I spent, I put my dues in, you know, I didn't walk in a bodega, bought a sandwich and came out. I spent 17 years of business. Right. And what do I do? I pay my bills, I buy my shit.

Don't waste my fucking time. Don't play games with me. We know what it is. It costs this much, I need to make it a routine. Just because I'm checking the bills over there, doesn't mean you get to fuck me on that bill over here. Right. Not if I spent $10 million dollars with you, bro. Not if I did serious business with you.

I'm not playing any games anymore. Would you say that your sort of like confrontational personality style is essential to this business because you just can't, I'm guessing you can't really survive in this business if you're a sheep and you're just going to let people fucking charge you whatever. And if you're just going to be kind of passive, you have to be willing to get in their face. You're right. You got to sit here and you got to pull the levers and you got to get. But that's not the way they do it.

In the Diamond District, they waste each other's time, talking, back and forth about, you know, the conversation for bargaining. Baba John, I'm giving it to you, honestly, this, that. These motherfuckers are saying honestly to dishonest, saying this, I love you, you're my brother, you're not my brother. Cut that shit out, bro. You're not my brother. We're not doing all this shit.

Let's get down to the fucking business. Make sure my shit is correct because I'm going to correct on my side of the business. I'm not going to take a bill and then you call me and I don't pick up my phone, bro. I'm going to pick up my phone, make sure you get your money. I'm not running off on the plug like these young fucking dickheads out there who think that's cool. You know what I'm saying?

I pay my bills. I handle my shit. I have a different standard of business. I'm not being aggressive. I'm not doing, I'm reforming it. I'm just not tolerating corny shit.

That's a waste of time that's not productive. I put my dues in. You guys, I did business. Like everybody else did, struggling to be me. No, you motherfucker struggled

to be you in the Diamond District. You go fuck yourself, bro. Because I'm right. I'ma handle my shit. Sorry to raise my voice. No, I love it. When I think about these motherfuckers, bro, you know what I'm saying? I fucking my blood boils, dude.

You know, bro, there's some really grimy shit. People saw me as a young kid, took advantage of me. You know what I'm saying? We could have did other businesses. They could have did business with me fantastic, but they thought it was like them. Case in point. Another example. You know, I was at, on Canal Street, there were several jewelry stores.

I'm a loyal guy I could have went to one of those jewelry stores where people speak my language Russian and the Russian immigrants and so on and so forth and they would never give me a job they would never give me a job they would never give me a job they wouldn't let me photograph the jewelry on the counter I had to fucking go to the other guy

the Vietnamese guy to photograph his shit they would be like buy it now all this ghetto corny business style you know what I'm saying they couldn't comprehend that if you take me in give me a job. I'll be able to move your entire inventory on eBay

within three years and make you millions. They still couldn't figure that. I still see the motherfucker, you know, he's a good guy, a friend of mine, whatever it is. An older dude, like 65 years old. I still see him and say, yo, bro, you know, I sell $2.5 million worth of jewelry a month.

I ask him, why couldn't you give me a fucking job for $8 an hour when I was 19 years old, bro, 18 years old when I came to you? Why couldn't you make me that offer? Because I moved $220 million. worth the inventory. We could have did that together. You could have gave me a shortcut. I could have more moved 400, 600 million. But you couldn't have the insight, could you? You had to sell it right there and push it. Buy this. Get this. Get that. Let me give you an example. A lot of young

rappers will, you know, kind of want to be in my good graces or they want to get an interview early on or whatever. And I'll be basically like ignoring them at a certain point. You know, like some percentage of them, you know, I'll see a young artist and I want to work with them. and some percentage of them, I just don't really see the vision early on. And then maybe a couple years later, they get signed or they start doing their thing or whatever. And I've kind of got to acknowledge at a certain point, oh, hey, you had it and I didn't notice it. And, you know, that's okay. And sometimes I see them sort of have this grudge where they're like, no, you didn't fuck with me when I was on square one.

So I don't fuck with you now. And then other guys have the attitude of, hey, you're proud of me? Like, look, I did it. I blew up. And, you know, I appreciate that when I see people have an attitude about that. You seem like you're kind of attached to this, you know, grievance that you feel like you've dealt with in this situation. Do you think it's entirely fair or do you kind of empathize with it? Because I'm sure that there's talented people who come to you now who want to fuck with you.

And, you know, you already got a whole staff of employees. There's probably plenty of qualified candidates that don't make it through. Listen, in your example, you know what I'm saying? You're willing to acknowledge that they came up and you're willing to. to, you know, say, hey, I was wrong in essence. You know, you are a star, so to speak, or whatever the fuck the case may be. For me, it's not about that, bro. I'm not rolling backwards and having a fucking great time and making music and fucking...

I have to run this business. I got to make sure that the diamonds I buy, the price is fair. If the price is X per carrot, don't add 20 X plus 20. I'll fucking destroy you, bro. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to come after you. I'm going to hurt your business and I'm going to make it... Don't waste my fucking time.

Don't maybe pick up the phone and say, hey, why is the price $20 more than the other guy? Just give me the fucking right price so I could pay my bill and handle my shit. I don't want to be 45 and 55 years old dealing with this problem. I got to nip it in the bud.

It's got to stop. I should have did it when I was a young fucking dude. Because all they understand is force or else they're going to keep pulling on your shit, asking for shit, give me this, do this, do that. They surround you. You're looking over there. They're fucking you from over there.

Really? It's a shysy business, huh? They're trying to get you for whatever they can, however they can. And, you know, instead of plugging all of these holes and making sure I'm this and that, I'm just going to give them a fair fucking warning. I have weapons in my mind. I will deploy against you backwards, cocksuckers, bro. And you will fucking bow your head on that instance.

Because the tactics that they're using is tactics from ancient Babylon, bro. The same old schemes and scam. They don't work. They only work for fucking idiots. They should have never worked on me. And I'm upset at wasting my time. But people took my lifetime away, you know? I could have been way more successful, way farther along,

and they took it away with their bullshit. Right. And now I want to cripple them, bro. So when does the business really start to, like, I mean, I'm sure there's many different stages of this, but when do you really start to get shit together and start calling yourself even some level of success? Here's the way the jewelry business works.

The jewelry business is an inventory. business. If you got $20 million with the high-end watches and you paid the right price, you're already in the business. Because you're going to be able to, if you need this particular Richard Meal or protect Philippe or the Rolex Submariner with the green, whatever the fuck, where are you going to get it? Not everybody got it. If you have the inventory, you have the business. Now you have to market that. If you're starting out, and whether you're bench or a jeweler and you have to raise your capital and start investing in inventory, And then you got to grow that inventory to whatever couple of millions of dollars.

And then you got to finagle and keep that going. That's what the young dudes are doing out there. And I have love in my heart. You know, I see a guy, Benny the jeweler, young dude, Eric the jeweler, whoever it is. I'll give him a shout out. It doesn't make me any money. I do it out of love because I know how hard it is to put a fucking footprint down in that shithole. So I see these guys doing this and I'm rooting for them, but you got to get the inventory.

Someone's got to get the watch. You got to do the marketing. You got to do this. You got to do that. And then you got to compete with all the other motherfuckers. What was the marketing in those early days? Because now it seems like it's largely social media. But back then, what, you're buying TV ads?

And the one thing that I want everybody to understand out there, and I'm sure you're going to understand it, is once in a while, especially now with technology changing, opportunities show up. eBay is not a big opportunity anymore. It was a huge opportunity. I was the first dude on eBay. I know a lot of people who made a lot of money in the early days of eBay just by being early on selling shit. That's it. It was a free market, all you can eat buffet. So what did I do?

I went to a vendor. I photographed a million, a couple of million dollars worth of jewelry, just to showcases. And I put the whole fucking showcase up on eBay for $2 million or $3 million. And I put the $2 million, $3 million. And so when you put, I'm not going to sell it. I'm just going to see when you put highest price. I'm number one, two, three, four, and five. Nobody had thought of this yet.

And then you click it, and then you go to my eBay store, and you shop the rest of my collection. And I would have made a fucking killing if the people I was doing business with gave me a fucking proper chance I weren't trying to fuck me over every day. You know, all they try to do is take me for everything. And then I find out that, you know, I'm 18, 19, 20 years old.

And then when you're 25 years old, you find out that the fucking $5 million, 10 million dollars you spent with somebody, you know, should have cost any other person would have cost them $5 million. So now you would have had $5 million to fucking live your own life, but you don't have shit. Because somebody fucked you over because you were too nice and too nice of a young dude. But you weren't making good money?

You weren't able to turn a profit on eBay? I was turning a little bit of a profit, but, you know, again, I was soft. I'll admit it. You know, they're raising the price on me. I'm like, fuck it, I'll pay it. They're forcing me to pay bills early. Everybody else gets 30-day terms. I'm paying it at the end of the fucking week full price.

They're getting credit. I'm not. I'm getting this. I'm getting it. They fucked me over. It's my fault. I don't hold a grudge. You know what I'm saying?

It's all water under the bridge, but don't put a drop of fucking water over the goddamn fucking bridge because you're going to go over that bridge, bro. It's all right. Water under the bridge, we did it. Right. And I lost it.

I lost, you know, 25 years old. I could have been a millionaire, but instead I was struggling, and it's all good. 28 and I lost, you know, time. Don't take a second more. You took a decade. Do not take a fucking second more.

I'm warning you motherfuckers, bro. I'm telling them, man. Really? Do you think a lot of people just sort of put their dreams off too much. And then because I sometimes I feel like that, bro, I'm 38.

And I feel like I just now I'm really getting my business going like the way that I really want it to be. And sometimes I look at myself, I'm like, God damn it, you're almost in your 40s. Like this, you know, if,

if I had postponed my dreams even more, who knows, like what's the value of discovering your shit when you're in your 50s or whatever? I don't know. Those early days, your 20s, you've got to fucking grind and you've got to discover what your passion is.

because you don't want to be figuring it out super late in the game. You got to set up a foundation in your 20s for your 30s. Yeah. You know, but I don't know. Like you tell me how you did your business. Somebody in your studio, whatever, told me that you had a bike shop or some shit. And I had a cool sign. That's all I understand.

Well, I mean, I was doing BMX content, bike content for like 10 years. So I started like the first BMX blog, basically, and, you know, posting about shit online. That sort of turns into making YouTube video. at a certain point, I decided I want to start doing a podcast and interviewing BMX companies and pros. And then all of a sudden that turns into me interviewing rappers. And then that turns into me interviewing everybody under the sun and all kinds of different people.

Yeah, there's a secret ingredient in there that made you make it happen. I mean, you look around at this studio and what you guys got going on over here. It's a dream. Thank you. Appreciate it. Somehow you pulled it off. Somehow you have a little bit of a secret sauce. Your interview number two in this space.

I appreciate that. You know what I'm saying? So obviously you could. good point to that. But what's the worth of the listener? The worth of the listener, you know, is what would warm my heart that out of this interview came? Somebody made the right choices as a young man and built a good, productive life where they could help their family, where they're not going to end up, you know, drug addicts and weighing down this society. That's for me, you know, grown adult shit. That's something I wish somebody told me when I was 18, listening to Nas and

Jay-Z and doing all this stupid shit and smoking blunts. You know what I'm saying? That was a waste of fucking time, bro. And I still smoke weed. I still listen to music. I still that. But I realize what the fuck it's all about. You got to be in a productive society. You got to be fair. You got to have love in your heart for, you know, whatever it is. I think like I spent a bit too much time on my life just hanging out and just having fun and whatnot. And when I look back at it, it's like, listen, even if you're going to fucking go out at night or do whatever it is that you're going to do, every day, make sure that you're at least taking a couple of steps, even just one significant step towards where you want to be at.

Like you should always be doing something to keep rolling that ball up the hill. I'll give a piece of golden advice and you tell me if it's good advice or not. Cool. Right. Watching a YouTube video that is productive, like it's teaching you something, Photoshop or whatever the hell is out there, you know, learning business or Warren Buffett. It's like laying down a brick. Now you watch one YouTube video.

You lay down one brick. You can't live inside that brick. That's not a fucking house. but if you lay down another brick and another brick and another brick and another brick and you watch 40 or 100 or you know over the course of years and you fill your head with the knowledge that's available on the internet

the knowledge that a that 100,000 years of your ancestors didn't have that you have, you're going to have a castle. Yeah. You, it's up to you. And that's just YouTube. That's shit that's for free online. It's all you need. Sometimes I do interviews, and this honestly comes.

Is it good advice before you continue? Yeah, yeah, I think it's great advice. But sometimes I do interviews and I even kind of think of this as one. It's like we're giving away, it's almost criminal that we're giving away this much game for free. Right. Like this is like stuff that's real actionable shit. Like they could really help you shape what you want to do with your life. And sometimes I think about how many podcasts I've done or how many podcasts I've listened to other people do

where it's just like a shocking amount of information that's available these days. When I was coming up in the 90s and shit, it just wasn't an option. You had to fuck, you would argue with your friends over shit. You know what I'm saying? Somebody would say that, you know, the moon is this far away. Or it's saying, then you'd be like arguing. Now you Google this shit and you know what it is. I mean, say you want to start a T-shirt brand in the year is 1995.

It's like, you know, you're in the middle of New York City. I'm sure that it was not insanely complicated to figure out that there's people who make t-shirts somewhere around Canal Street. But, you know, it was very difficult to just hop on the internet. And like now you could watch 100 YouTube videos that are all how to make T-shirts that are going to break down the whole fuck of business. I'm sure there's a whole podcast. about screen printing. You could go tune in and learn everything about that business.

The issue is, is now you're going to have more competition. Before, before everyone else was dumb, dumb, deaf and blind and you were the one that knocked on that door, you had an advantage. You know what I'm saying?

Because you had the balls to go to a fashion district and ask a couple of questions. Right. And then, you know, turn some corners for 15 days and look like a loser, but even though you paid your dues

and you got in, now you've got more competition, but you got a more productive society and so on and so forth. But there's advantages and disadvantages just every time and error. Back then, you'd put an ad in print and you'd get business.

Now you buy an ad in a magazine and you threw your money away. Right. But meanwhile, well, okay, but let's talk about this, is that when did you start to really affiliate yourself with celebrities and like, was that a part of the business early on or to take a while for you to get to the level where you were creating those kind of relationship? Right. Before I, you know, I had a hard time struggle putting the business together.

So before I even put the business together, before you were, you, you, you, you, Before you market a business, it's like having a restaurant. You've got to have your menu. You've got to have your ingredients. You got to have your assembly and all your ready to go. Because if I have Jay-Z, Beyonce and, you know, whoever else come and shop at my shop, and I'm not ready to do business, it's going to end up badly. Right.

So it took me a long time. And I had a blessing. I had P. Diddy when I was like 25 years old, buy something for his son's birthday. Right. And I fucked that watch up because it came up from a vendor. You know, it was an underpriced watch. It was a G-shock. out and the quality of the stones were shit.

And P. Diddy never did business with me again. Really? So you think he bought it, thought that it was cool, and then later kind of figures out that it's not as good as he thought it was? Listen, he found me through his secretary or his secretary found me and they were buying gifts for his son, Justin, I believe his name was, or what have you, birthday party. Sweet 16 was back then, it was like the Sweet 16 or whatever it was. And, you know, there was a couple of items and I'm like, wow, Pete Diddy, you know, bad boy records was the delivery and all the sun

shit like that. I'm like, damn, this is my chance. But you know, I wasn't assembling the jewelry myself and I had a shitty product and, you know what I'm saying? He looked at that product and said, I'll never do business with this fucking guy again. Even though I was like 23,

24 years old. So you don't want that. Right. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, like that's really what it was. That's why if you're in the B leagues and you... Get your ducks in a row. Yeah, yeah. Get your shit together maybe before you, you know, start shooting your shot on a, on a big time level, because, hey, that's some real shit. Like, a lot of times, you only get to be new once.

Right. You know, like if you get into your line of work, you do a couple shady things and word gets around and all of a sudden people think you're a piece of shit, you're fucking done. So it might be good for you to, you know, figure out how to operate as an ethical business person or how to do business in general before you necessarily enter into the big leagues, right? Listen, there might be a person watching this, that even if me and you follow the, you, follow them around for the rest of their life and gave them advice, they'd still fuck it up.

Oh, yeah. You got to be wise, man. You got to figure out the timing. You got to be patient. You got to be reasonable. And you got to figure out where that comes from. Because I can't hand that to anybody, man. You know what I'm saying?

I could speak till I'm blue in the fucking face, but they still won't get it. But for the people that do can absorb it, you got to be shrewd. You got to be patient with business and very, very strategic and reasonable. One mistake, like I gave an example the other day. you got a mountain filled that's got gold veins in it that you could dig you've got the tools you've got the labor

you've got this if you start digging on the wrong side of that mountain you're going to wear out your tools you're going to be fucked if you didn't take the time to check which side of the mountain yields more gold and to dig on that proper side of the mountain and you just went in there

willy nilly and started digging on the wrong side of the mountain you're going to wear out your tools wear out your energy and you could have been just a fucking couple of feet away from the big, you know, from changing your life. Right. You got to be strategic. You got to be sensible. You got to say, hey, this is a big mountain.

I know it's got gold in it, but let me try a couple of spots before I go. That works if you're panning for gold. What you're doing or what anybody else is doing has a different strategy, you've got to find that works. Right. But you've got to be right within yourself and be reasonable enough to make clear choices and you're going to do fantastically well no matter where you're at. Right.

So the celebrities in general, was the after the P. Did you have kind of a... After the P. Diddy, I had a fucking, I wasn't even in the realm. I was just building an eBay business. I was lucky that P. Did he even bought anything from me. I could have capitalized on that, but I didn't. Nobody even knew P. Diddy bought anything from it other than right now. So when I was a young dude, then I had to figure out the manufacturing process

to be able to get the materials properly from all these scumbags out there. You buy the diamonds, you get the model making and the manufacturing process down. And once you got the manufacturing process down, now you're. you were able to start marketing the business. I started marketing my business with Takashi 6-9, right? Where he, you know, he came in and they was in the gang and this and that and they were using him and whatever it is. So he's already big at this point? Yeah, that's when he was on fire. Okay. And I had the opportunity. I saw that. I jumped in. You know, I was literally trying to give him some jewelry to make sure that he could market my business, but he was such a fucking idiot that he

wanted to finesse like these other young dudes. They want to run off on the plug and I finesse somebody. think you did something fucking awesome when you finessed some shit or ran off, you're a bum. Right. You can't be trusted, bro. So what do you do? He just tried to skip out on the tab? He was trying to be a gangster, bro. He's in a shooter.

He's this. This old kid shit, you know what I'm saying? And you're throwing your life away. Sure, you could project that image and you could be hard and make, but in the back of your mind, you got to know what the fuck you're doing, man. Right. You know what I'm saying? You got to be able to understand that you're trying to build a life in the back scenes.

Like even, you know, serious rappers or whoever it is, you could see it in them, like a Gucci main or whatever it might be. Deep down inside, you see a reasonable smart person preserving their life and making sure they're going to be growing old in a mansion. Right. Not a fucking idiot. You know what I'm saying? So you could be the most gangster dope boy, whatever it is, but you can't sit here and make that your top priority. But he didn't try some tough guy shit with you. He just kind of skipped that on the tab.

You know, I gave him the bracelet. And him and his crew You know We're supposed to do a marketing something for me And then he decided to say fuck it And and fuck off with the crew That he was working with And then I used that as an opportunity

To use the images I had of him And get inside and challenge him With one video that went viral And then he tricked me Because you know he facetime me on some shit And he was acting like some shit I was all goofy looking And whatever it is

And then I realized this kid is this kid It was what it was. I got everything I wanted out of here. I'm standing here, sitting here doing an interview in L.A. Off of that shit. And his career's done. Whatever his career. I wish him the best, but, you know, he ended up putting people in fucking jail.

But so, wait, he, you were too nice? Like, he basically, like, apologized or told you he was going to pay you back. And so you publicly said, we're on good terms, but it wasn't real. They ran off with the piece, right? He was doing a business with Trayway and this whole other thing, and he was using the gangster image to make that happen. We were getting going on something, but they had the intention, right? They had two options.

Do the gangster hood bullshit of all bring this right back and fucking walk away with it and never come back and pick up a phone call or build a real business relationship and a brand. They wanted to do the hood dumb shit. Right. The retard shit. So, you know, they wanted to do that and that was cool. I saw that from a mile away. I'm like, well, if you do this, I'm going to be able to get into the jewelry business or the marketing. that way.

Because he was so big at the time that if he rips you off and you publicize it, then that could probably be big for you as well. That's enough. Yeah. It's not a great look. Right. But if you're not a fucking pussy and not a fucking little bitch boy who's scared ran off finesse, if you don't think like a fucking a gnat that's flying around, you know,

someone's garden, then you sit here and think, all right, this kid's going to be this. What a tattooed or whatever it might be, whatever it is? You know what I'm saying? He's going to grow up. He's going to have his life. but I'll be able to strategically build a brand. I got to build a future. I can't sit here and be on top of the world today

and then have my friends in jail tomorrow. I can't do any of that corny shit. I'm not going to sit here and be the number one rapper and then end up fucking in a grand jury indictment, bro. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's not smart, man. But so when you saw him catch the Fed case,

did you have a little bit of a thought of like, well, that might be some karma for all the people who treated like shit? Yeah, I mean, I already knew what was going on. I mean, you know what I'm saying? saying like you're if the eyes of the world are watching you you don't have the option of committing murder or ordering a murder or ordering a murder it's very simple bro so how to fuck if you're seeing that you're you're seeing that but you're a young dude he didn't have a dad you know he's growing up

and he wants to he doesn't know what to do that's the problem you know what I'm saying rather than rag it on this guy it's it's a societal issue because you want to have the best of success or whatever it is but you can't fuck things up man was the scott situation similarly? Yeah, it was another, you know, it was another trap for me. You know what I'm saying? In all essence, the trap is very simple.

Do fair business? Fuck me over and deal with the consequences. I'm not going to sit here and guard my shit, bro. I'm not guarding my shit. You could come and fuck with it if you want. I'm going to do something about it and I'm going to handle it. I'm going to get my marketing out of it. Right.

And I'm not going to do it like I did with 6'9 or I was a little softer or so on and so forth. I don't give a fuck about Scott Dissick. or six nine or any other celebrity cocksucker for that matter. Right. I want to build a business, make money, and get to the American dream in this country. You have seen, because jewelry I've noticed has become a lot like, you know, barbers and tattoo artists where there's a whole generation of people who are coming up in those fields who basically are just good at affiliating themselves with celebrities, you know, like if you're a tattoo artist

and you're down to pull up to some rapper's crib at 4 in the morning and tattoo them for free, then just to get a shout on on their Instagram and then all your stupid-ass fans think, oh, it's so cool that he's affiliated with this guy or whatever. I mean, that is an actual inroad into the game and I know you see the value of those cosines, but then there's also just some blatant dick riding

where it's basically like people completely debasic themselves and, you know, uprooting their entire life just to fucking service summer rapper so they can look cool to the public. It's a shame because that's what it kind of turns into a certain degree. You know, like I'll be honest. I'm an honest person.

I'm not a bullshit artist. This got this situation. I'm talking to this guy for a long, long time. And you can't talk to this guy in a normal manner. He wants you to kiss his ass. You know what I'm saying? He's leveraging all the celebrity status that he has to the maximum with no consideration for you. Right.

And I played along. And I played along thinking, fuck me over, bro. I dare you to fuck me over, bro. Right. So what happened was like he's playing for a month. I'm talking to him and this and that and, you know, the bracelet. And what really pissed me off, just not to go over the story. He shows up to the Diamond District.

He visits every fucking jeweler. And then he comes up to me. He does all the business sweeps a net through the Diamond District to collect as much jewelry. But then he comes up to me. He's like, I came here just for you. I want to fuck you telling me you came here just for me if you're fucking doing business with everybody. Do you want me in return to say, hey, but you're doing business? with everybody so you could say,

I don't like your tone. Dude, I look like a fucking little bitch boy that's gonna have that conversation with you. I'm like, oh, okay, bro, you came here just for me. Well, I appreciate that. You know what I'm saying? And I go and, you know,

and I do business, and then he doesn't follow through on one thing. And I give him, I let him have it. I'm like, yo, Scott, I'm going to talk to you man to man. This, this and that. You promised me this, this and this.

I'm starting to get fucking annoyed. I don't like, no one's ever spoken to me like that. I'm going to vlog you. Why? I'm like, all right. You got my shit and you block me? Okay, bro.

Right. Grab him by the fucking hair and hold him right here. Fuck him and fuck that all that shit and all that celebrity shit. Don't play with the money. Just do it like a girl man. And again, man, you know what I'm saying? Like the guy returned to shit and everything is great. God bless him.

Whatever it is. I don't want to sit here and be mean and have enemies, whether it's, you know, 6'9 walk through the door. I'd say, yo, what's good, bro? And I wouldn't be trying to be tough. Or Scott Dissick. or I try not to say anything at all. I want them in my life.

I want to be a genuine person. However, I got a business to market. I got shit to do. And I'm an honest, straightforward person. I'm not going to play around with you. Right. Why you want to play with me? Scott Dissick is probably not high up enough

in the social totem pole for me to, like, really give him any kind of pass. Right. You know, little baby's like, if little baby's like an hour late to our meeting, all right, that's cool. Scott Dissick's rude to me. I'm going to say,

fuck you. Who the fuck are you? not doing anything from me. Like, is that a celebrity? Would you say that would have really even moved the needle for you? I have no fucking idea. But, you know what I'm saying? I think with him, the beef was probably more valuable than just doing business.

Yeah, for sure. And I knew that from the beginning. But the thing is, I have no idea. You know, you got these people, you go and you read his comments. You know, take you back. It's a bunch of stupid shit. So it was what it was. But the guy reached out to me.

Right. I didn't reach out to him. He reached out to me and he wanted these pieces. and he wanted, he's building a collection of jewelry, sums up with him. God bless the guy and whatever it is. And God bless all these other people. I'm just laying it out that I'm a solid business person.

I'm going to come through on point 100%, bro. And I'm not going to fucking play with people. And I never have because what is that even mean to fuck? What is that to run off on somebody? What is that to take their, to do? What is that to finesse somebody? You know what I'm saying? What is that?

That's bum shit, bro. What about the Ben Baller incident? that you had in the past. Like, how did this go down? That went down. I mean, you know, Ben Baller, to hear him say it, or these guys were, you know, choosing who's the best jeweler in the world, who's the worst jeweler in the world?

And I came up as the worst jeweler in the world, believe it or not. And Ben Baller instigated this? Yeah, they were having a conversation with Greg, and they, and, you know, they decided to throw me out there. And, you know, me and him are friends now. I was just at a shop the other day or whatever it is. But initially, why would they say that about you? Why would they say that?

Because I was a punching bag, bro. I was struggling, dude. I went into debt into business, again, because I pay all my bills. I worried about everybody else before I worried about myself. And I had nothing left over for me. And sometimes I'd have debt. I'd have interest. And, you know, I was struggling.

Right. And I looked like a dickhead. And they said, oh, you know, you could kick this dickhead around or whatever it is. But that wasn't the case. I wasn't a dickhead. I was just an honest person taking care of everybody's taking care of my responsibility. So Ben said this on a podcast or something? Yeah.

And so your brain goes into, okay, what do I do with this mode? I heard this. How do I react? Yeah, I heard this. Somebody told me, you know, this is. How do I react? I said, this is a marketing opportunity. Ben Baller was, you know, a legendary jeweler, you know, with an extraordinary career.

Right. And, you know, and then you have Greg Juner there, which is a very, you know, meticulous jeweler doing, you know, beautiful jewelry work. And they're having a conversation. They have the cultural influence and so on and so forth. I'm like, okay. this is my chance to dive in and why should I you know when people do distracts

or some other shit some people say this I know how to communicate information I got to take this opportunity and rip my way into the business and it hurts when I hit it hurts you know what I'm saying when I attack somebody's character I do it in a very crafty intelligent way

I'm not doing a you know a joke of some shit about whatever it is I'm hitting people very very hard. I find the weak points. I find the points in leverage and I twist hard, bro. I don't twist like, hey, you better stop. I twist like, I'm going to try to rip this limb off. And I went in on that, you know, and I didn't do it against Ben or Greg or anything. I did it for my business. Right. And so how did you ultimately end up getting on good terms? What had to happen for that time? I mean, it was hilarious video. It was entertaining, you know, and then, you know, somehow Ben wanted me on the podcast and he realized that wasn't a piece of shit.

You know what I'm saying? I'm not a dickhead. I'm not a scumbag. I'm not another, you know, shit boy or a fuck boy or whatever to fuck it is. I'm a grown fucking man doing business. Right. And, you know, we kind of built a relationship. You know, he's a very crafty person and he's a very strategic. Right. You know what I'm saying? He's a very crafty, strategic celebrity people. What he says to one person, what he hears from one person tells another, he does it all in a strategy to develop himself and he does it very well you know he's got a brand he's got a business

he's got his fucking you know dope cars and collection and people look up to him for style but he's done a great job of really branding themselves as more than a jeweler and just being a cool rich guy in general right have you seen like a trend setter or so right and like I mean really when it comes down to it like

he's kind of viewed as like the coolest fucking agent dude on earth some people will probably resent that but I mean he's definitely in the in the conversation there's a lot of people in hip hop, let's say, view him that way. You know, in the Korean culture, if I dare may say, because I have been working, there's a lot of Koreans in the Diamond District, is a certain, you know, I'm a very well-crafted culture. You go to Tokyo, I'm in Tokyo, but you go to Tokyo, Korea, the whole city's wearing

white shirt, black pants during business days and so on and so forth. And for you to be able to break into hip-hop jewelry, L.A. style, tattooed, and still, you know, be able to pull that off with that cultural background, that shows something. some sort of an intellectual capacity that's worth keeping an eye on. Definitely. And that's what he did. And that gave him a lot of success. For sure.

Was there a eureka moment where you realized that social media was going to be such a big thing in terms of how you were putting yourself out there and how you made a name for yourself? I suppose so. I mean, there had several different moments. First, I did the 6-9 shit. Right. Which is not a good look for a business.

You know, somebody ran off of my jewelry. But I, you're starting to see the power. Right. But I see, you know, I got out there and I got into people's conversation. But then I realized, hey, I know how this industry works. I could use this to teach people how, what metals are. I could get their curiosity because I know you'll do something that's worth, that's for your own good and you'll know it. Right.

You are going to, you have a natural inclination to absorb information that benefits you. Right. You know what I'm saying? So if I'm going to tell you something about gold, about metals, that's going to give you an advantage, and it's pleasant information, and it goes over the course of just a minute, and it's interesting to hear you're going to absorb that, and that's power. And that's really how I get in. Because that's what a lot of people miss is that if you want to do social media, you need to give and give and give to your audience, and then you slip it in there and you try to take a little bit. You've got to have something to give other than your ass, though. Exactly.

You ask them to follow you. Ask them buy a t-shirt or whatever, but it's like if I'm a guy starting a YouTube channel right now I'm not asking you to buy a t-shirt until I've put out a lot of fucking videos that people love for free Because you really like you need to give before you decide to take this is a golden age you know this social media these phones the technology is just ripe to handle this shit back in 2004 You a phone wasn't worth a damn you had to use a PC and so on and so forth now you've got all this technology So you know the social media there's Instagram comedians, there's women shaking their ass, there's girls with some sort of personalities,

there's other celebrities, there's a field out there. I don't know. You tell me. Definitely. Okay, but so your peers, you've definitely seen stuff like Icebox going crazy with the vlogs and stuff. Is that kind of one thing that pushed you into, all right,

I'm going to do this content that sort of shows like a full day in my life and really like maps it out for people. Like you're doing pretty good views on YouTube and everything. Clearly people like seeing the life of somebody in this business. Right. Yeah, a little by little we're getting there. I don't really pay attention to what Icebox does. I respect their business because I know what this business is all about.

And, you know, they have a vast audience somehow they've acquired, you know, because of the little baby and so on or so forth. Just like the real, real hardcore mainstream shit. And they're able to get artists that realistically hip-hop publications like ours are really not able to. I mean, like little baby is not going in, well, I guess he did do a Vlad interview back in the day. He's not like really, he's not really doing interviews and shit, but these dudes love jewelry so much that when they're in there, they're open. They're really having fun and joking around, you know, not just there, but with you, whoever. I suppose so. Listen, bro, if you're going to spend $50,000, $100,000 with me, I'm going to, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

That's easy to do. Right. You know, that's a business. But in all reality, I know how rappers shop, what's Liddy, this and that, you know what I'm saying? They're not shopping by price and quality. and all the shit, they're shopping where it's lit. And that's okay. That's business.

That's your business style. You know, I have some elite clients that don't want to look at like they're just suckers. And, you know, athletes, baseball players, you know, they don't want to look like rappers shopping in the same spot looking to say. They have a different mentality. They're in a different environment. They're more formal. And they want a more business-minded because they want to look respectable in a certain way.

So, you know, without me sitting here, damage. anybody's businesses or so on so over. Everybody's got their business style. And mine is more, it's just a little bit more intellectually based, I'd say, the softest way as I could say it. I'm not doing something because someone else is doing it. Because you, you, by, you know,

putting out information about the medals and doing all this, you've kind of chosen to put yourself out there as a little bit more of an educator. I notice some of those videos are like 20 million views on YouTube shorts and shit. That has been gigantic for you, huh? Yeah, well, listen,

I mean, if I took 18 years to learn it and a minute to teach it, you're going to want to watch it. You're going to want to do it because I just saved you 18 years on diamonds and on gold. Right. So that's what the fuck I threw my life into. And now I share it. I'm trying to get my life back. Yeah. So that really is what it is.

But I can't, I'm not a bullshit artist, bro. I can't tell you, yeah, this fully iced. Ah, you're icy. I can't do that, bro. Yeah, because that's one thing that kind of bothers me about watching any kind of like jewelry culture is there's a lot of like, oh yeah that looks so hard that's so cool like that's dope and I'm just like where is the depth here it's just dudes telling other dudes that they look cool it's like just a little boring but that's everywhere in most cases you know what I'm saying but I don't do business like that and I'm going to

take that business style and I'm going to change it that's corny I can't compete like that I can't come up to somebody and go ah yeah that's that look you got that ah ha ha ha I can't do that bro I can't do that right you know what I'm saying I'm going to have to tell you listen this is a great piece to own 10 years from now this one might be worth less. You know, this is a, this is a good stunt. This is, you know, more prestigious than that or an end of materials and the value. Diamonds.

What's the fundamental shit? Diamonds are a luxury item. Gold is a good form of savings. If you're a rapper and you want to have, and you want to have a lot of value out of your jewelry 20 years from now, it's very simple. You just get heavy gold jewelry. If you want to stunt and inspire the young generation with your wealth, then you could go get fully iced shit, but you got to know the fully iced shit, it's not going to be worth

as much. It's a very simple thing to understand. You always hear about how the, once they ice out the Rolexes, that they're basically unsellable. Yeah, but I wear iced out Rolex. Okay. Because I want to stunt, a little. Just a little. Just a little stunt, just a little ice. I don't want to walk around with a plain Jane fucking Roley because I'm saving up $12,000. You know what I'm saying? I want to have a nice little iced out joint. This joint is about $19,000. Okay. You know, plain Jane, I don't even remember how much it is, $7,000 or whatever the hell it is. And it's a nice little piece. For some people, $20,000 is a hell of a lot of money.

For others, $20,000 on a watch ain't shit. But it wouldn't be a big deal for you to have a quarter million dollar watch, right? But is your aversion to that the fact that it forces you to be a little bit more scared moving around and stuff? Or is it more like, eh, it's just not me. It's a little too flashy. I mean, for me to have a quarter million dollar fucking watch and then live in an apartment in Queens or.

and not be able to give my workers a raise. It doesn't match. You know what I'm saying? You got to handle your priorities. I got a staff. I want to be loyal and handle my business. I got to take care of all of my responsibilities. What the fuck is wrong with this?

Yeah, I make a hundred million bucks. I'll buy a quarter million dollar watch if I wanted to and I'll wear it when I'm wearing with my armada. But don't try to go for the look without having actually being that person. But faking until you make it, that's a big part of hip-hop. That's a big part of someone else's life, I guess. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

I've never really been too much into it. I mean, I've always kind of like, like early on I felt like I would overstate how I was doing, you know, I wouldn't like, but I'm also driving a fucking Blue Honda Civic. Right. Well, you could definitely upgrade on that. And you're not a fine.

No, not right now. I mean, like, back, back. Yeah, I hope not now. Yeah, that would be cool now, too. The one thing I could tell you, man, is there should get, you know, and you're dealing with these young hip hop dudes and this and that. You just got to add a certain ingredient to your mentality to ensure long-term success.

That comes from the heart. There's certain mentalities that are backwards, ass backwards that no one's fucking telling you about because they don't give a fuck about you. You know? And that's really what it is. And that's kind of like my message.

And then educating people will be my claim of fame. You know what I'm saying? That's really what it is. I could make money. I could live. I could die. I could so on so forth.

But if I enlighten, you know what it is to enlighten somebody in this world? Do you enlighten somebody and help them ease their burden a little bit? that's a big contribution. Right. And beyond just telling you about golden diamonds,

I want you to take on a business mentality that's going to sit here and enrich you and the life of your family, the shit that no one gives a fuck about. There's a grown man shit that you're not going to hear from the suckers you fucking hang out with and the bullshit that you see

in other forms of channel and media where everyone's Liddy and ah, ooh, and all that stupid corny, pussy ass, ghetto, backwards, dumb-minded shit, which is what it is to me. I'm a fucking straight-up tell you what it is, bro. Right, because our culture, it's like, it's easier to fetishize party and have it fun, whereas, like, work is kind of boring. I guess so.

I mean, it is boring, bro. It is boring. But, you know, you got a responsibility, you got to handle shit. It is boring. Yeah, you want to be able to get a facetat and, you know, jump on a private jet and trash a hotel room. I'm sure you do. Right.

Are you going to? Or are you going to end up being on drugs? You got to figure that out on your own. Ain't nobody going to tell you that. I guess not. How much of a concern is security and, you know, like how big of a target are jewelers when it comes to a lot of these, you know, we're seeing people much more emboldened to just pull up on some guy and steal his watch and Beverly Hills and shit like that.

Has that become much more of a factor? Yeah. Well, listen, in today's world where you see the watches, you see the value and the information, we're actually dawning from common knowledge where people just knew a Rolex was a good watch to a higher knowledge where you know Rolex, but technically, Richard Meal, Otomar, you know, moon face, sun face, whatever the hell is. It's all out there.

So now you're sitting here and people are learning about this and it becomes a fucking target, period, especially with the economy crashing. You got a quarter million dollar piece of jewelry and I have a pissy mattress. Guess what, bro? I'm fucking coming for you. I get it.

It is what it is. I'm going to hunt you down, bro. You know, if I could live on this pissy mattress, you could live without your quarter million dollar watch. That's the way it works. But so do you have to move around New York in a specific way? Yeah, listen, I have a little sapphire chain and a little $18,000 Rolex, which is a lot for jerkoffs watching or whatever it is.

But, you know, I don't wear it all the time and I don't need to stunt. Right. But, I mean, also it's like do you just deal with high-priced items within the jewelry store itself where you have security? Shit's in the safe, bro. I move fast through the city on a scooter. And I don't have anything, you know, that's worth to target. Right.

And that's it. That's a simple, easy, breezy Japanese. And people appreciate me. Even the dough boys, the hood boys, the shooters. Right. You know what I'm saying? Because they know I'm speaking the truth. And I'm the last person that they want to come after on their list.

They wouldn't have never came from it came from me if it wasn't for the Richard Meal thief. You know, this one jerk off piece of shit out there who, you know, Richard Meals like a quarter million dollar watch. I have to give you a scam. Right. Right. You want to learn a diamond district scam. Sure. A great way to how to come up, how people try to take a shortcut in the diamond.

district? Yeah, sure. So you got a quarter million dollar watch. And then you have a different version of it that's worth a half a million dollars. Right. That has a small change, right? So one is, you know, a carbon fiber dial and the other one is just a plain dial and the difference in the Richard Meals and a quarter. So this motherfucker would try to find an aftermarket part and sell it as original. So now you sold a quarter million dollar watch for half a million dollars as a half a million dollar watch. You just ripped somebody off a quarter of a million dollar. And it might take them a little while to figure it out. And they might never figure it out.

You hope they don't. And this scumbag that I was doing business with is this fucking dirt ball, bro, that I fucking have a river of fucking fountain of hatred for. You know, was looking at me like a bum when he's a fucking thief. Say, you know, some sort of a freak. You know what I'm saying? So I'm going to put pressure on him. And I'm going to fucking throw him out the window when I want to, if I want to. If his boy doesn't save him first.

because you're a fucking thief you're a cocksucker you know quarter million dollars ripping somebody off now he takes that quarter million dollars and puts it in more inventory and then puts his nose in the fucking air walking around like he's the man

you ain't the man you're a fucking thief bum fuck but speaking of thieves you had like a real deal thief employee at one point right I watched this video and the guy's tucking chains away right but he's working for you how long do you work for you the judge told me not to talk about that one

so I'm still you know dealing with that so but I'm in good graces and everything is the way it is, but I'm going to respect the judge said. Let me answer to this. We were having a conversation last night on the weekly podcast about how there's certain jobs, like I already actually said this about the clout thing too, like barbers and tattoo artists where a lot of girls come with it, you know? Right.

It's just if you become a tattoo artist, you're constantly meeting chicks and you're putting your hands all over them and they inevitably end up meeting a lot of girls, whatever. As a jeweler, is it kind of like. like that where you meet a lot of women or is it kind of like guys talking to guys all it's a lot of guys talking to guys now i have a very uh female friendly business but it's professional now there's a lot of beautiful women there right but they do business and they handle a shit and uh you know that's really what it is for me okay and uh you know it's uh you got to be able to get your girls outside of your work life for the most because girls like

jewelry right but they don't like take interest in the intricacies of buying and like you know Some of them do. Their stuff, but I feel like in terms of men's jewelry, they like it when they see it, but they're not really like... Where there's money, there's girls, bro. You know what I'm saying? There's the Diamond District. There's girls there. The money's there.

And, you know, there's a beautiful woman there. And listen, it feeds the ego. You want a beautiful girl. You want to be able to have that. And they're there. Right. And it's not the best industry for that, but they're there. But, you know, the sleaze.

I'm not with the sleeves, man. I feel you. Yeah, because there's probably a lot of guys who are kind of trying to abuse their position to... Sometimes. It's nothing extreme. People keep a profession. You know, they're chasing money. But listen, go get the money and the girls are going to show up anyway.

You know, go handle your business. That's really what it is. Gotcha. Yo, man, I appreciate you coming on, honestly. It was super interesting and I really respect everything that you got going on in terms of social media. Putting the whole game out there. I feel like I learned a lot through watching a bunch of your vlogs and everything. So, yeah, much respect, man.

I appreciate you having me, bro. Anything I can do anytime I'm there, bro. For sure. That is what it is. And I have no jumper. Thank you. Adam is a fucking blessing. Yeah, no doubt, man.

Thank you for sharing the story with us. And I think people really appreciate it. Actually, one of my guys, Jason, had been telling me a little while back. Like, you should check this guy out. You should interview him. So I hit him up last night. I'm like, you know, he's coming in tomorrow. And he was fucking super high.

I'm glad after 18 years of dealing with shit in the Diamond District. I'm finally coming up. It's a fucking great feeling. And, you know, that's it. I like it, man. Tracks. No jumper. All right.

Coolest podcast of the world. Appreciate you, man. Appreciate you. Check us out on YouTube, TikTok, Patreon, Instagram, all that shit. Like, comment, and subscribe. Nojumper.com if you want to support. We out of here.