The 85 South Show with Karlous Miller, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean - #BlackMarket- Tones of Melanin w/ Karlous Miller & Chico Bean

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Karlous and Chico sit down with the folks behind Tones of Melanin (@tonesofmelanin), a clothing company that specializes in HBCU-apparel!  || Subscribe to 85 SOUTH on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/The85SouthShow || Twitter/IG: @85SouthShow || Our Website: www.85southshow.com || Custom Merch: www.85apparelco.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For My Heart Podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. But in 2014, the youngest escaped. Listen to the Turning River Road. road on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join IHeart Radio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one-year anniversary of IHart

Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting IHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital and Novartis. Just open the free IHeart app

and search IHeard women's sports to listen now. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions

and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace.

You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of Family Secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle.

On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, if you have my kid, this is kind of priceless. Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything.

To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. We have an agenda. We definitely have an agenda to push today. The agenda is black wealth and prosperity. Okay, man. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No. You got some special guests in the building. Bring it in. All the way, man. And this is very special because, you know, the HBCU connection is one that I am very fond of. And we have some lovely ladies from the illustrious

Norfolk State University. You know what I mean, and we have, I'm gonna say it right, we got Sonny Jazz, Ashley, and my home girl gravy right here. You know what I'm right here. That's Raven, that's Raven, Raven. There's me go. The black market is open, everyone. The black market, bring your black money, please. Inform us of what you lovely ladies are here for.

What do you guys do? We're tones of Melanie. We're an apparel company that focuses strictly on HBCUs. Our goal is just to amplify HBCUs. Like everybody know about the main ones, your Howard, your Hampton, your Morehouse, Jackson, Famu, but there's 107. They need to be amplified as well. And our kids need to be going there. We want to keep the doors open.

We do it through clothing. All the way. Now, white clothing. Of all the different ways you can do it, why clothing? Because as you can see. Walk a billboard. Walking billboard. She designs everything.

So the mastermind behind it all, like she sees the vision. What we're used to in the bookstores does not cater to our demographic at all. You're right. So we want to look fly, rapping our school. We walk a billboard. We filled the void. How did y'all link up and make this happen? My lion sister?

That's crazy. So everything is her. Everything is her. Like literally everything is her. She just is in good position to bring people on board and help amplify everything. I remember we were sitting on campus, North State University, and the towers. So anybody know Nobody State, the towers is like the infamous freshman building, the high-rises. But we was, and she just was like, she already had like a Christian, a parallelon and other different little things.

So we just was like, yo, we really need to do something for HBCUs that's strictly for us. Like, and like Raven had mentioned earlier, like you, we. We want to be in lit stuff, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, when you go to HBCU campuses, fashion is a huge thing, like, we want to look swaggy. We don't want to pay $40 for a t-shirt that just says your school that's purple, and your school colors are green and gold. So it was just really like, just pitching an idea and she literally, literally from there in the top when she just started going from there.

We all need friends like her. What? Yeah. All the way, especially at the HBCU, that's a boy, you come up with a good hustle like that. Oh yeah. Like, nigger, we are in the game. We ain't got to wait till Wednesday eat fried chicken now Chicken, every day is chicken Wednesday

Every day is chicken Wednesday Now question like, one of the things like I went to Winston-Settlement State Which you guys have up there, you got South Carolina state right there Like how did you guys go about getting the licensing to be able to make this stuff? Because you know it's so many different HBCUs and I'm sure Coming from your HBCU I would assume that it would probably be the easiest to get it from yours but what people don't know is when you go to a school for some reason, they treat you like you didn't go there and it'd be the weirdest thing in the world.

It's not, they sung you. It's like, you know what I mean? They just look at you differently. So did you get it from your school first or did you go out elsewhere and then your school came around? I did it completely wrong. Like I just, I bucked on it. I did it without a license. Like I was like, I'm going to make it.

Y'all just figured out later. Like I'll figure it out and I got pop and I got when I got pop, I had been a nice little car amount to get my license. Yeah, a nice little keel used one to get my license. So I paid the fee and then I applied to get licensing for 40 different schools. It's a third party company that deals with all the paperwork. So it's literally just me filling out the application, doing the due diligence, and waiting from them to say yes or no if we can make the stuff.

Okay. So you got, did you get 40 off the top? It took a little time. I got like 20 and it was like five came in and another five. But like within a year I had 40. Okay. Okay, so do you guys go to the, have you been to any of the schools? Yeah, this is our first, you get, this is our first homecoming tour.

We did our first homecoming tour, whoo, ooh, yeah, it's been nobody but God, to be completely honest. Like, we have been able to pop up on these campuses, and they have enjoyed just as much as we have meeting us. Meeting y'all! It's so crazy. like, oh, yeah, I saw y'all. They're coming up to the table saying my name. I'm like, oh, hey, cousin. We're family, yeah.

They're like gravy. Y'all got to call her gravy family. That's going to be her second name. I'm a short thing. Gray. Hey, Gray. Everything's gravy, babe. Yeah, so our first homecoming that we did was Virginia State.

Little State, but it's all right. It's a robbery. There's a rivalry. What you called? Little State. They call it. Yeah, we big state. They love, they little.

Yeah, we all got those. Yeah, we got the real HVCU. But that we y'all received their will? Of course, of course. There are cousins at the end of the day. HGCUs together. It's so many, like, it's, what is it? 11 in North Carolina alone, you know what I mean?

The 11 moves, wait. You know, you got Norfolk State, you got Virginia State, you got. Hampton. You know what I mean? There's so many different ones. So of being as though you guys all went to a HBCU, when you go to these different schools

and you see the culture is the same everywhere. Is it shocking? surprising to you it is but it isn't yeah what makes you feel like it is it is it I feel like it's cultural thing is that makes you know wherever you are similar and then different at the same thing yeah black people go black people oh yeah but it's different like I for example like if you if you go to Howard you're gonna hear a lot more of go go a lot more things that are natural to their oh you're talking about just that part of the actual student body culture but no but you're talking about you

on campus like on the yard you got different students too because some some schools they got money them they they got money like point length period was did you go to with everybody had money what was that hamper yeah they got money on the kids pulling up in billions i'm like i had a honda corn and they get dressed oh yeah the dude popped out a black card to pay for so i'm like you got you like you about 18 what you doing with a black card but that's that's one of yeah one of 106. No, I don't think. It's just even the way they care to itself, though.

It's they, yeah. Yeah, all the way. So do you feel like, have you guys been to Hampton yet? Yeah, we just did. Yeah, last week. How did y'all like that experience? It was different. It was good.

Like, it was very different. Like, because I'm from Norfolk State. I know how our homecoming is. It's, it's typical. Yeah, yeah, it's turnt. Everything is turn. It don't matter where you're going, turn. You got people with some nutcrackers.

Like, it's turk. Hanson is more like, All right, we go play some jazz. Oh, you go play some jazz. Oh, they're gonna kill you. It's love, though, but no, it was a good, like, they had, like, had in different places. So, like, jazz over here, but the younger students over there turning up. It was really jazz?

Oh, yeah, Lou Rawls was playing. You'll never find. That's all, I was like, that's crazy. But black people are not monolithic. Like, we can be multiple things. You can listen. You can listen. It don't matter.

That's because you black don't mean that you're supposed to act this way, listen to that. Like, we're not, we're not putting into a box. And it's for everybody. You know what I'm saying? Especially like homecoming. Like Saturday's for everybody. You got the kids outside. You got current students.

You got alum. You got cousins. The locals. Yeah. That's what really turned the home coming up. Yeah. The people who didn't even go to the school. Yeah.

They'd be the most excited. They'd be the most excited. They'd be the most excited. So of the apparel that you guys have made, is there a piece that you guys will like make yours, your centerpiece of your product? What would that be? A reversible jacket, it's a two and one, you can flip it, so it's two jackets in one.

We need that. Yeah, yeah. See, that's, that's an age. Yeah. He got the Jackson on. He got the Jackson on. You got the blue one and the burgundy one. Yeah.

Yeah. All the way. Two outfits. Two outfits. For the price and one. That's how you want to do it. All the way. So where do you guys see it going?

What do you want it to be? Do you want it to be something that is sold in, in the, in the price of it? stores like JCPenny's and you know what I mean you guys are being sold in we're on we're in Dick sporting goods wearing dope fanatic and we're in uh hey man this some successful break with that they tell nothing about me I think yeah we're in over a hundred stores right now and we're in a I want to say 20 bookstores on campus yeah so we go on campus and purchase our stuff yeah we're in the middle of getting an order out now for these bookstores.

So it's definitely been a learning process. Oh, yeah. I was going to be my next question. What has the learning curve been like in the pearl industry? None of us know like it's no blueprint. No blueprint. It's not like I have a mentor or anything like we figuring it out day by day. Hold on each other's hands though.

Literally. Like it's, I think this is like the moment of success because it's like you can't, it's a pivotal moment of success because you can't necessarily 100% see your. yourself all the way. You know what I'm saying? We feel it little by little piece by piece year by year. However, we still struggle. Like we still go through our hard times. We still talk about business. We still my business on the way here, like something that had nothing to do with this platform. You know what I'm saying? So it's just that we just have to keep the faith and just know that as long as we holding each other down and we're being loyal to each other.

You know what I'm saying? We ain't nobody sneaking on no weird type of energy that we're going to see each other to the top. So I think right now we just in that we're in the tunnel. We see maybe be a peak, a slither of light, but we still scared, but we still walking, though. It's so scary, y'all. Great, you have nothing to be scared of. Right, you're so, and you want to know why, because God got us. Exactly, look how far you come. Y'all went from the towers, to a hundred stores,

both of the dicks. I wasn't going to say that. It don't sound right. That's what they're at. The towers to dicks. That's what they're in, dicks, sporting good. Yeah, say that last part. Say the landscape.

Yeah, you got to say sports. Yeah, you got to say sports. You know what I mean? But no, seriously, as black women, like, I know you have a responsibility to the HBCU culture, but, you know, as black women who went to HBCUs, like, do you guys, you know, accentuate that? And when you go to these campuses

and, you know, shine a light on the young black women that are currently in school, I just recently went back to Winston-Selham State during my homecoming and talked to the mass communications department where I graduated out of. I was communications major, and I saw one of the things that I saw is that they are competing in the world, excuse me, they competing with something that we never, I never had to compete with I graduated in 2008.

I didn't have to compete with social media and everybody's highlight, you know, so now you're under so much pressure, so for them to be able to see black women make it, like, what is your message that you give when you're on these campuses? I would say it starts before then, it's getting them kids in school first, like, hey, we've come out of, like, we went to an HBCU, so if we came out of it. and we did it you can do the same thing because the narrative for years like it's just now shifting before it was like if you went to hbc u it was like less than like oh you went but now it's like look how many successful people have come out of an hbc u like exactly it's we're making it a

common thing so i think it starts there but once we get in there like we all know we all been poor eating noodles we every everything that you go through on campus we didn't have been there yeah that's what i mean about the culture yeah right yeah yeah yeah culture at HBCU right I mean my roommate got to an augment over a pack of noodle season in my freshman yeah it was serious like they go to the calf without you what yeah oh you got to you just like oh yeah don't lose your swipe oh my god don't lose your Spartan car I mean it was just different so it's like to see you guys what you guys are doing I have a you know a very special place in my heart for HBCUs we

have been to eat Lowe's didn't go to one but no I went to a historically black community college yeah we went to a black community college yeah we go we understand the culture like we didn't been in the schools like what was that school we went to in Memphis notes where they had us riding around on the golf cart going in the kit and we had to go to all the dorms and get all the they didn't believe we were coming so we had to go to every dorm and like knock on all the doors and like we here get ready the show started out I believe it though I believe it though but no they gave us a golf cart and everything they were like yeah go tell

Yeah, yeah, that's HBCU culture, that's something that we can do amongst each other that a lot of people don't see and that we use our platform to be able to shine light on like this is something that we can not even infiltrate that we can come and be a part of no matter where you went to school at. Because at the end of the day, we are still the minority and no matter which one you went to, we argue and go back and forth about, you know, who home coming the best or which school is the best, but at the end of the day, it's only 107 of them in comparison to every. one else. Yeah, we got to do a collab on something. We do. We ready. Please. You see we got the 85 percent of it. Come on 85 south. We got it. We just did a hoodie with the more house color. Yeah. Yeah. And we did a collab with the hoax. You know, Clayton got the ones with the fam you colors. Yeah, he went to fam. That's why we need that bag. FamU graduate. You know, we're going to hit y'all online and support and buy some things. Tones of melanin on all platforms. T-O-N-E-S-O-F-M-E-L-A-N-N-N-I-N-N.

Tones of melanin. Do y'all have like a... Sounds like a 90s R&B group. Exactly. You can't have the Melanette. That's all right. Like Steve Harvey going to bring them out on the Apollo. Ladies, gentlemen.

Next up, we have, from Norfolk, Virginia, we have tones of melanin. That's right, Tones and Melon. You y'all come out with the thing, but all the way. So, do you have like a place where people can actually come outside of going to the bookstores and going in the dix? Is there like a tones of melanin brick and mortar? Yeah. We work on it. We're praying on it. We're working on it. We're praying on it. We're praying on it.

Yeah, so the prayer is going to turn it to work. Oh, it's coming. Ashley, get busy. Yeah. When y'all have it, we're going to come to the Grand Open. Y'all got to. Yeah, yeah, so crazy. And y'all collab.

In the collab. Oh, man, you listen, HBCU. We're ready. I know the type of shit to make for the HBCU school. Listen. What? I'm talking about you. just the clothes and you come out with a notepad or something like that we put in

our hand in there at everything yeah shoe strings shit like a raincoat with big pockets to steal food at the cab what yeah Tupper Tupper and an umbrella umbrella case turn the cameras off we're too tall the black market is over I told you nothing like I said big pockets inside the tubbell fit in the pocket at the inside I'm aluminum for you oh come on you can just put the whole jack get in the microphone away. Thank you. Thank you all.

I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For My Heart Podcasts in Rococo Punch, this is the Turning, River Road. In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into secret life of abuse. But in 2014, the youngest escaped. Listen to the Turning River Road on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join IHeart Radio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one-year anniversary of IHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected

fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that Amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting IHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free IHeart app and search IHeard Women's Sports to listen now.

Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network.

Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of family secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On Good Mom's Bad Choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, if you have my kid, this is kind of private. Take her, feed her, make core memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.