The Breakfast Club - RAZ B - Raz's Ramen

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

On this week's season premiere of Eating While Broke, we jump headfirst into an unvarnished conversation with the magnetic Raz B. Be ready for an expose of his rollercoaster journey in the music industry as he reflects on the inception of B2K, its eventual dissolution and life after the band. Moreover, he'll share insights on his latest venture "Bad Boys Texas", now streaming on the Zeus Network. All of this Served over a modest bowl of top ramen. Connect: @wittcoline Share your recipes with us: @EATINGWHILEBROKE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know, I've been... You kind of get excited, like, oh shit, what's Raz gonna say now? I've been very vocal, and I've been holding back with a lot of restraints, because I've been doing a lot of work on myself, and I just really just... I have a lot to say.

And I'm not afraid of saying it. eating my bro eating my bro so what do you have us eating today as your broke dish? Well, you know, for me, I can only remember when it was brought to me. Like, it was either, like, my main dish was top ramen, right? And it was hard for me to choose because it was either top ramen, it was either, you know, an egg sandwich, you know what I'm saying, with some mayonnaise on the bread, or, like like a tuna sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich. But I feel like I eat Top Ramen more.

Yeah, so Top... So I chose Top Ramen today. Yeah, and we went back and forth, just so you guys know, a lot of our guests choose Top Ramen. I'm always like, vetoing Top Ramen. Are you serious? Yes. Because it's the cheapest, a cup of noodles.

It's because everyone's dish goes into a cookbook and I know that Top Ramen is a popular show. The only time I accept Top Ramen on the show is if you have tweaked it. But Raz says that he does tweak his. What do you do to yours? I mean, there's times I've put tuna in it. There's times that I put eggs in it. There's times that I just put a lot of different seasons just to try to figure out like teriyaki

sauce, oyster sauce. You just try to figure different noodles. But like for real, I would love to come back because I have a few other broke dishes now that like- Your wheels are turning, right? Yeah, because you opened up that- Let me turn this down. Yeah.

You opened up that portal of what it was like to be broke. Like what the fuck was niggas eating? Like, motherfuckers eating, like, Jack in the Box tacos for a dollar. You know what I'm saying? I still love those, by the way. I still eat them. I still eat them. Like, that's like when I go to Jack in the Crack and people are like, what do you want? I'm like, curly fries and some

two-for-one tacos, right? I'm trying to tell you, you talk about never forgetting where you came from. So, for real, for real. But yeah, that's why I chose Charlamagne. But now that I know that you're building a cookbook, you know, I would love to come back. You know what I'm saying? Because we have a bunch of other things to talk about never forgetting where you came from. Never forgetting it, yeah. But yeah, that's why I chose Top Ramen. But now that I know that you're building a cookbook, I would love to come back, you know what I'm saying? Because we have a bunch of other things to talk about. I can still get that recipe, yeah. I mean, I'm just...

Well, why don't you start us off? All right, cool. All y'all listeners, y'all know how the Top Ramen goes. You boil the hot water and you go from there. It's real simple. We're going to keep it light and simple. But let me tell you this. When your boy was... You know how many times I've seen it?

How many of y'all like tasting the seasoning just by itself? Really? Yes. The seasoning is good. It reminds you of that chicken seasoning in the cup with the little squares. You know what I mean? Oh, the bouillon? Listen.

Oh, is that what it's called? I think it's called bouillon. I don't cook, but I will tell you this. There's been many times where I just went in my mama's cabin. I'm like, yo, I'm just going to put this in here and put this in here. Are you going to do two or one? Two is always better. Two is always better.

So I had a guest one time. They said that they would save half of the, they would eat one pack and they would save half for lunch and half for later. I'm going to break y'all shit. Y'all break y'all shit too? Yeah. Don't dump that little seasoning packet in there. Oh, shit. It's in there.

What do we got to get it out? It's how you know Razda isn't in the kitchen a lot. Yeah, we not in the kitchen at all. Okay, perfect. All right. So I have another question. When you do your ramen, I like to do my ramen where it's like cooked not all the way mushy. The hell no.

And then I drain it a little bit so it's a little more dry. How do you do yours? It depends on how I feel that day. Sometimes I'll completely drain it and I'll put some butter in it. Which I'm going to put some butter in it. And some seasoning salt. Maybe we add some tuna. Probably put some tuna in there.

And maybe an egg. I typically drain it. Sometimes I drain it and I put a lot of butter butter and I just have it like really, really dry. And sometimes I just like, I leave the soup because I think the soup is pretty good too. Yeah, like I like the soup. But after having ramen like 800 million thousand kazillion times, I do the draining and I do the butter mixture. But you've seen so much success in your life. I like to go back to the time when you were eating this ramen.

Okay. So with you, you have an interesting story because I'm assuming you were broke before you were successful. And then there was a period in the middle, I'm sure, where it dipped a little bit and then it picked up again. So which part of the ramen story do we get today? Oh, that's a good question. You get the story from the ramen when I was just starting out. And I'm sure you probably get that from most people.

In this industry, if you are not financially, what's the word I want to, financial literacy is everything in this business. So I'm sure a lot of artists have took a dip in splurge and went through money, sitting down and managing it with credit and so on and so forth. So I've definitely experienced some heartaches in my life where I've ran through some money and I've been fortunate enough to be able to continue to move forward with learning

how to manage money and continue to grow with funds I get. If you get 100K, you know what I'm saying, don't just run through it. You can actually invest 100,000 and turn it to 500500,000. Turn that $500,000 into $5 million. I recall my mom always being gone at work. As a kid, growing up, you really don't know how to cook for yourself. The easiest thing you can do is you can take some ramen, heat the water up, and then you can actually cook some ramen in the microwave. But the easiest thing for me is I learned to boil the water and put the ramen in there.

And I just used to get really, really creative and eat that ramen and remember and think as a kid, what do I want to do when I get older? On top of waiting for cartoons to come on and different things like that, but there was always this sense of destiny that I had upon my life. And I feel that's for everyone, you know, that comes to this earth. Excuse me. Had a sense of destiny. It's just really all about figuring it out, figuring, you know, you got to kind of grow into your spirituality.

You have to grow into your enlightenment. You have to grow into your discipline. You have to embrace the world. But at the same time, excuse me, you have to learn how to be in the world, not out of the world but at the same time excuse me you have to learn how to be in the world not of the world so for me you know this this dish represents like humility for me it represents um it takes me back to the time when i was just a kid just cooking that thinking and dreaming you know um and even at times as i as i got older i still found myself eating ramen i wound up living in china when i was well well, I had some success.

I had a lot of success actually at 15. Yeah, before you went to China. But when you were saying that you were thinking about your destiny while making this, did you think, okay, I'm going to be a music star or a dancer? What were you thinking when you were thinking about your destiny? You know. Do you need to turn that up or no? I turned it down actually because I'm going to cook it for a little bit.

It's a really good question. I would definitely say what a child likes, faith. There was a lot of times my mind just wandered and I felt like as I got older, I finally had to kind of like dig, get back into what I used to like or what I used to think about. And that's kind of hard to remember what you used to think about and dream of as a kid. I think one of the biggest things for me, it was always having a major platform. It was always being a voice. It was always being a light.

It was always making people laugh. So, at a young age I recall being like, I learned how to drive a stick shift at like 8, 9 years old. So I would take the car to the store, to the Mexican market. But a lot of times my mom would tell me, she'd remember that there would be times that I would go to the Mexican market and I would be acting like I was singing Spanish and imitating different Spanish songs that I heard and dancing and for me that sparked a level of entertainment because I wasn't afraid to be the eyeball in the room,

per se. And to give a person a chuckle or a laugh, it brought me great joy that I was able to give them joy. So I think that's something that I actually held onto, being a class clown and different things like that. But once again, I say this actually really represents the times when I didn't know what to cook. It was the cheapest thing to buy. There was times where money was just really, really short. That's like a go-to.

But now you said that when you were when you were a child but you lacked faith like what why would you say that did i say lack faith yeah you said like lack faith i don't recall saying that but if i thought you did because i was like that's interesting that you said i mean maybe i maybe i managed maybe i did lack some faith i mean you know i mean if i did say that i would say to this that your faith is challenged and you may believe in something as a kid but you have people around telling you that you can't be a scientist oh that's gonna take you 32 years like damn thanks for discouraging me but they gave me the truth at the same time so it's like but a kid can't

process that at a young age, right? You kind of need that pat on the back and say, yeah, you can do it. And if you do see that the interest is really there for a kid, you have to continue to put those roadblocks in front of them so they can continue to elevate, if that's what it is. Because I feel like a lot of us could be, I feel like everyone should know physics to the highest level. I feel like we're all scientists.

I feel like we're all super intelligent, the way our bodies are made, the way the universe works. And I just feel like we've been taught to be dumbed down versus to be super enlightened. And I feel like when I look at countries like China and how they brought 700 million people out of poverty in 30 years, that's how you empower a culture, right? Yeah. And you wonder why the yen, the Chinese yen, is the number one currency in the world, which I knew that was going to happen eventually anyway because the way America is running their currency. Yeah. So that's a whole other conversation. That's a definite whole other conversation.

So how old were you when you started B2K, when you got into B2K? That's a good question. Probably like 13 and a half, 14 maybe. 13 and a half. So what led to that? So you're eight, so what I'm gathering is like you're eight years old. You're definitely not your typical eight year old.

I don't know eight or nine year olds driving stick shift cars and rolling down the street. Yeah. So how did that nine year old self transition into like a B2K moment? That's a good question. You know, having family in the industry, you know uh i would definitely say that was a segue that was a that was definitely a a path a bridge you know who was your family that was in the industry chris

is my cousin okay right and um my brother was i would say my brother was really more interested in the music industry per se than me so there was times where he brought me along for his talent shows and we had this little group we're called called called brothers too and you know just to give like people a little context of my life you know my mom was going through an abusive relationship at the time and i was in and out of foster homes so around the ages of 12 and a half 13 my cousin chris stokes was able to take over guardianship for me and i think it was pretty cool that just kind of like growing up and seeing different groups and different,

being inspired by some of his work that I had an opportunity to be around something that inspired me, which was as a kid with a light, right? There's a lot that comes along with being inspired

and you got to make sure you follow the right lights, right? I feel like I learned a lot of great things over there. And for the most part, I was able to grow into myself and he provided an opportunity it was a group that he was working with called melodic

that group was a consistent of four members which was Jay Boog Little Fish and Jahid which was which is Jhené Aoko's brother and our brother Trey and we you know it's kind of I felt like the oddball that joined the group, because they already had a four-man group, and I was like the fifth member. But now that I'm older, I never ask anybody about this. I would like to know, why did they accept me? I kind of felt like maybe because my cousin had, you know, previous success in the industry and had relationships,

and I don't really know the politics behind that, but they accepted me. I kind of felt like the eyeball, but I felt like I eventually fit in the group. And we went on to travel to multiple different labels, audition for them, sung for them. Nobody signed us. But we came across one label that thought the three of us, which was J Boog, myself, and Fizz. They thought we were pretty dope.

And they felt like we were just missing the right lead singer because they felt like the other two guys maybe looked a little too older for the group which i thought i didn't really think about it now but maybe maybe they did they looked a little bit more mature than we did and we had the three of us had a chemistry which those two guys went on to start another group called final four and got signed to mca so i was happy that they had that experience. But B2K actually went on to do our thing. So you three, this was prior to Omarion's sign? This was prior to Omarion getting in the group. Okay.

We went through about a good year and a half, two years before we met Omarion. So you have the three of you guys, and they're like, let's search for a lead. And then where does Omarion come in? Well, that's a good, I'm gonna give you some more context and give you some more details. So that label that actually seen the vision was Epic Records. At the time, I believe, I don't want to get caught up with titles, but I know Dave McPherson

was probably either the president or vice president or really top executive, along with Polly Anthony. Rest in peace, Polly. We love you. Thank you for everything. And Tommy Mottola was a top guy. Okay. And we were very fortunate enough to have meet with Max Goose. We love you, Max.

I can't forget Max. Max was one of the main champions for B2K, who brought in David Fitz and David Fitz assigned Backstreet Boys. So that was pretty cool, too. And so we had people with experience of boys groups. And it was crazy because the negotiations went back and forth. You know, I had one man that was interested in signing us. And they were interested, but they didn't have a fourth member.

And I remember there was an artist, don't know his name, but it was along the lines of, like, I don't know. Sorry, I don was along the lines of like, I don't know. Sorry, I don't want to butcher it. But I think Keith Sweat had a solo artist that potentially they was thinking about putting him in a group. That guy never popped up. Oh, yeah, that's looking good. So that guy never. You want to eat with me?

Yeah, I'm eating with you. Okay, well, listen. We're going to eat together. This is going to take a brother back. There was a. You don't put the seasoning in first? Well, I mean, I think everybody likes their own seasoning, so I wasn't here. Let me get your bowl.

Okay. I'm watching you. You know, I'm eating it the way you eat it. Oh, okay, then. I mean, well... So, if you can season it however you like. I mean, you know. I'm going to be nice today.

I cooked the noodles. I'm going to let you put... Okay. I do put butter and seasoned salt on. Those are like my main two ingredients. You know what I'm saying? Those nice today. I cooked the noodles. I'm going to let you put. Okay. I do put butter and seasoned salt on. Those are like my main two ingredients. You know what I'm saying? Those are my go-to. Seasoned salt, man, you put that shit on anything.

But yo, so that artist never popped up. So it was three of us just lingering around. So I remember meeting Amarion at Marcus Houston's 18th birthday party. And I thought he was dope. I think he had his Timberland boots on. He had his cornrows. You know what I'm saying? He was a background dancer for Before Dark.

Thank you. And he's like a background dancer for Before Dark. He had his cameos. He was doing his thing. And I like the fact that he was already in the industry. He wasn't afraid to get in the circle. Some people would be afraid to get in that circle when dancers be dancing and they make the circle at like a party or something like that. So I was like, yo, this guy is cool.

So I remember me and the guys, we were having a conversation. We was like, yo, we need to chop it up with him. I'm not sure if we all walked off like to the side and maybe we walked in the bathroom or we walked out. I don't remember all the fine details. But what I do remember is we had a conversation with the guy. And he wasn't opposed to joining the group, being a solo artist already, or pursuing his dreams, we thought he would be a good fit, because at this time,

we were already on the radar of the labels. Yeah. But you guys didn't have the official signature deal yet, right? No, we didn't have the official signature deal. Okay. So I typically take, I use the season, that may be too much for me,

for some people. I take this. If you need more season, so I'll take this. And of course, I take the butter. I always take. If you need more seasoning, I'll take this. And, of course, I take the butter. I always take the butter. Okay, I typically put the butter in. Oh, you put the butter in first.

Yeah. Okay, so Omarion, at the time you meet him, he's a singer slash dancer? Or is he mainly a dancer? He was actually a rapper. Omarion was a rapper? Yeah, he was a rapper. Box of Wheaties, Eat to eat to feed the greedies he had his little rapper you saw me do but Amari was lit no Amari's always been lit you know I'm saying

he had his pops commercial he had he was you know he was working with his company called I think it was called Abrams or something like that yo am I right was Abrams yeah it was Abrams nigga but uh you know Amari was Amari was dope me and Amari actually really got along. And I thought it was cool that he actually joined our group. You're right. I should have pulled him out a little sooner. Go on. So, you know, but I thought it was dope. So Amari eventually, after we had that meeting in the bathroom or in the hallway, wherever that was,

Amari wound up coming up to the house and we kind of danced for him and we did our little routines. We displayed our talents and he displayed his talents. Then we started immediately learning routines together. And as we started to look,

the chemistry was there. The chemistry was there. The chemistry was there. Whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program, demonstrating top notch security practices and establishing trust is more important than ever. Vanta automates compliance for ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, and more, saving you time and money while helping you build customer trust. Plus, you can streamline security reviews by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing trust center all powered by Vanta AI. Over 8,000 global companies like Atlassian, FlowHealth, and Quora use Vanta to

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or wherever you get your podcasts. I think the biggest thing that we lacked at that time was vocally. So it took some time for us to go on to really learn how to use our instruments. I believe everybody can sing, but you just gotta train your voice. And then find out what's good for you. And I think there's a lot of artists that came, you know, through this business that actually have, I'm going to put just a little bit on this because I forgot how thick that shit is. So how long did it take for you guys from bringing Amarion on, practicing and exploring your vocals together,

how long did it take before you guys got signed? Well, you know, just like the first group, which was called Melodic, it was about five of us in the group. Like I said, I was the fifth member. The awkward guy. I'm not. But after many people passed up on us, you know, eventually we went through that little phase, that down period, where we had our hopes up high, thinking there was a member who was going to come in,

and we got the label there kind of interested in us already, and then that just dies. Right? And is Crystal managing you yeah yeah yep and then and then we come back from what i recall we we we get amari and then we go through all the labels again geez right uh-huh they all pass there was a level of interest where airsta records and la re was courting us for some time because lua silence was involved Rest in peace to Lil Silence. And it was really interesting to the fact that they still passed on us. So now we're still

in this same entanglement with Epic Records. And we would see them at different industry events because B2K kept going and now we got the four. Even though you're on the signers, we still moving. You guys are still performing wherever you can. We still perform wherever we can. We building the buzz.

We're on Worldstar. We're on Word Up magazines. Now we're in Bow Wow's Ghetto Girls video. Now we're in... Oh, hold on. Were we signed? Max, were we signed? I'm going to have to call you after this. Were we signed when we did the Ghetto Girls video? I don't know. We got to come back to that one. That's different.

But we did so much to the label to where we did so much. So when we came back to the label, I remember meeting like Tease Williams, who managed 30W over at Soul Train. And that was set up by management because they had relationships. And they let us meet. But now that I'm older, I realize realized that meeting was led to Marvin Pearton because we've been circling around this label for a long time yeah Marvin Pearton had a little I think a higher status than maybe Max Goose and maybe was in a different lane in the company than David Pearson but somehow he had the ear of Polly

Anthony Polly's right under Tommy so somehow I don't know how it happened, but we wind up performing for the entire label inside of 550 Madison in New York. Because everybody's like, who the fuck is this group? Why are they fucking like, what is all this energy about this group? We wind up shutting the building down. So like other departments are coming over to watch? Everybody that was in Sony came in the lunch cafeteria. They set up a stage for us. They actually spent money on us.

They flew us out. And, you know, they were still courting us. You know what I'm saying? And finally, we got that opportunity to perform for Tommy Mottoli. And Tommy Mottoli was like, you know, we performed for him by ourself. And he pulled the trigger. But it was a crazy journey. Like, you know, it took some years.

But in 1999, I remember getting that deal. I it was a crazy journey. Like, you know, it took some years, you know. But in 1999, I remember getting that deal. I had tears in my eyes. It was, we were so excited because it was something that we worked so hard for, especially at the time where we felt like the label, our production company, was going to drop us. You know, they didn't really want to, you know, they didn't think it was going to be able to happen because they spent so much money to get us to where we got.

There was times where we even added a fifth member from another group called third story to be a part of the group wow you know what i'm saying you guys were really beating the pavement so when you get your deal you're you get signed now b2k what year was it that you guys you got signed in 99 but what year was the tipping point where everybody was like b B2K everywhere. Oh, nice. Sorry. Slurp them ramens. No, because B2K kind of popped on the scene and exploded. It wasn't like a gradual...

When you look at Rihanna's career, Rihanna was dropping records before Umbrella, and then Umbrella took it and it just... B2K kind of went right away. Am I wrong? I mean... Am I wrong? That's a good... I mean... Am I wrong? Well, Rihanna's story is different.

Rihanna got signed by Jay-Z out the gate. She was doing talent shows. B2K was already in the industry. But that's what I'm saying, though. Or affiliated because of the people that we had behind us. Immatures, the Chris Stokes and stuff. So we had a little bit more access. So I feel like it may appear for some people like it happened overnight, but for us it didn't.

We were lit. I'm saying from the time you signed, though. From the time you signed. I'm not talking about before because it sounds like you guys ran a marathon. I feel like when you signed, how fast did it go from signing to multi-platinum? That's a really good question. But to put you right there, in the little middle part,

because we were lit, we got offered a superstar deal, not a little development deal. So they already knew it was going to pop. Okay. So for people who just seen us in 2001

after we got our deal in late 1999, fourth quarter, 1999, we spent that whole 2000 working on an album. Okay. You feel me?

So it was already, you know, it put millions behind it, so it was going to pop. They already knew the group was dope. It was really just about finding the right records. So to give you that, between 1999, we got signed, fourth quarter, like, I don't know, October, November, December, somewhere around there. Spent that year recording our first album came out March 12 2001 and they had to put the singles number it was 13 weeks at number one it's over a half a million copies what single was that again uh-huh and it was produced by

tricky Stewart it even was a Billboard Award but they pulled that record back because I believe they put like a little special DVD with it like it was a DVD with the video attached to the single and they pulled it back because they wanted to save that for the album that was coming that single would have won probably I don't know the sound scan today but it probably

went on to be a platinum single but during that time it took us about six I could be wrong, three to six months to break that record. The visual really helped break the song, you know what I'm saying? And a lot of people don't know, even though we're an urban group, we actually had a pop record. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? We were number one on the hot 100s for 13 weeks. Yeah. So that was some big shit. And then when you got the support of a billion-dollar company spending millions behind you, you're going to get access to everything. Now, was that, so at the time, now this is, you know, the industry has been notorious for taking advantage of groups.

There have been groups that have been taken advantage of in the industry. So you guys are a young group of guys. You're teenagers, right? You get this deal, but you do come from the industry, so I'm guessing your deal wasn't, like, a terrible deal, right? I believe B2K got a good deal, but you got to understand, you know, you can't fault, you know, people perish from lack of knowledge, right? A lot of people want to fault the labels.

Like, the way math is put together, it's like math magicians, right? The way the industry has put their, you know, that old business model that is now different is evolving to change. A lot of these labels will say, hey, we spend all these millions of dollars and we make you into this, but we don't get any money from touring, merchandise, this. So that's why they started creating 360. So you got to think about the labels. Yeah. If I was spending my money as a label, I'm like, yo.

They got to recoup it. They make profit. Not only do they got to recoup it, I made this human being and I put this artist to where he's at. Yeah. Right? So some people like to complain.

You just have to look at the deal. You have to try to negotiate the best deal for yourself. You know what I mean? And take accountability for what type of deal that you signed. Don't be mad at, hey, listen, if I'm in business, you got some, I don't want to say shysty, but you got some people that's going to try to negotiate better than you, right? Negotiate. If you feel that it's not at the time, maybe you shouldn't take that deal. That's when people say, hey, you sold out, right? Maybe you shouldn't have folded so early. Maybe you shouldn't take that deal. That's when people say, hey, you sold out. Maybe you shouldn't have folded so early.

Maybe you should have just went on, like, for example, B2K. If we would have maybe held out a little bit longer, maybe we would have got an even better deal. But you've got to be grateful for the fact that we were able to get to a point, which is very rare, to get a superstar deal. Not just a development deal or a little small product, like a really major deal and have the whole label and company behind you pushing you. That's amazing. That's massive. You have to blow up.

Yeah, yeah. If you don't blow up, people are getting fired. Were you guys looking at the marketing budget going, yes, this is definitely a big deal? Well, you know, for me, I didn't see it, but I knew about it. Okay, okay, cool. Oh, yeah. But I knew it was some millions. So what was the first thing you spent your money on once you saw it?

Like, what was the first big check you got, and what was the first thing you bought with it? I think it was probably like $25,000 maybe. Mm-hmm. Probably some clothes. And what was your mom thinking at the time? You know, my mom wasn't around. She was dealing with her own, you know, trials and tribulations in life with relationships and whatnot. But she gave me the blessings to, you know, there's something that I always wanted to do as a kid.

And she gave me her blessings and she allowed for me to, you know, to move forward as an adolescent. Because I'm, you know, I'm at a young age. Like, between like 13 and, damn, I got my day when I was like almost 14 and a half. Okay, so I met you around. So it's so funny because we've had this talk when we were in Texas together. And we can't remember how we met, which is crazy. Because usually you remember how you met. And I still have no idea how we met or whatever but when I met you

I think it was it was after B2K before China. Right. After B2K. Okay so you were B2K was leveling out I would say. Yeah I believe at the time B2K was disbanded. I'll get to that later. B2K was disbanded.

When that happened. MarK was disbanded. When that happened, Mariam was solo. Oh yeah, Mariam went solo. Mariam was solo and that's around the time that we met. So at that time, so you have now reached all this success.

Now you're on the rollercoaster ride. What are your thoughts around the time when we knew each other? Oh, sheesh. Just how fast things can change and adapting to, you know, not having this machine that you were a part of that you helped build, you know, actually operating around you every day. Even though you have the brand that you are, those years, it took me time to understand what I got. Who am I? What happened to me? What's this experience?

How old were you, though? You were like 20s, right? Probably. Not even. Maybe 20s. I was in my 20s probably. But that's what I'm saying. Look how young you were. You're thinking like, that's a crazy experience. What are you saying? But that's life for you.

Yeah. You know, I try not to get so caught up in the matrix, but we're amazing human beings. Like, I always say that. Like, I just think that we're, like, amazing human beings. And I just thank God for the experiences. Because when I look back at that time, I was like, what the fuck was you thinking? Like, how did you make it through? Yeah, yeah.

Excuse me. How did you make it through? Yeah, yeah. Excuse me. How did you make it through? But it was definitely a huge transition for me because you had to adapt to the money not coming in all the time. You know, maybe getting a quarterly or a semi-annually check. You know what I mean? You can't sustain yourself over that. You know what I mean? And then you start to look back at the deal. You want to get bitter, also have to think about okay during that time how much money did you make regardless if you

feel like you can get your just do with this did you do right by that money so you have to start you have to start to say hell you know what you can't blame anybody in life you have to learn how to take accountability for yourself at a very young age even though you want to but you do because at the at a young age we're we're making our own decisions so you're you're kind of grown but you really don't have the knowledge to make that decision but was there any when you were making those decisions on spending the money were there any adults or accountants or people saying hey man don't do this or was there any training on how to handle money at that age when you i believe out of all the guys i was i was the one that people thought that yo razzle probably wouldn't blow't blow a lot of his cash.

You know what I'm saying? But yeah, I ran through like 300,000 in six months. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Without any financial literacy, you really don't know how to handle that. And you're not trying to listen to anybody as well. You know what I'm saying? You want to go buy three cars and a motorcycle and you got all these fucking bills and you just keep paying money.

And before you know it, shit's gone. Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, and I really feel like with the money that Beats UK was generating, the money that was generated from Beats UK, I don't really feel like we got our dress due.

I feel like recently, you know, the tour that we just did and I was very instrumental in putting it and producing and bringing it together. I feel like that was a good payday for all of us because the tour did over $20 million. Wow. And you had the production, well, you had put in that bringing it together. I feel like that was a good payday for all of us because the tour did over $20 million.

Wow. And you had the production. Well, you had putting that whole thing together. Well, for me, when B2K did disband, it was really hard for me just to let go. I'm like, damn, I invested my life, my time, and sacrifice not finishing school and so many different things.

It's like, how are we just alienated from the business and we can't go out there and capitalize on our success? What was the ultimate thing that disbanded you guys? Definitely it would say the fact that, you know, management and production companies were really influenced and had that opportunity to be able to tell the narrative to the labels and be able to go get that deal for Marriott. Which eventually dwindled out to, you know to whatever it dwindled to, respectfully. He had a cool run over there. But it's like when you look at the artists like the Justin Timberlakes and you look at the Beyoncés, there's no shots fired at Amar'ion.

I've always wanted Amar'ion to be that top solo artist. And I felt like how he came out, it was so much backlash that he received and so much misunderstanding that people didn't have of him in regards to how the deal was orchestrated. And I feel like Amari was probably like a pawn in that situation because if we would have all left together collectively, we would have had our NSYNC No Strings Attached album. You know what I'm saying? After leaving Lou Pearlman per se. So, I don't know.

There's a lot there. It always kind of like hunts me if I go down that lane, what if? What it could have been. But it's the way it was designed. And especially in the old, and I'll be quick about this, in the old boy group formula, groups last what, two or three albums yeah you know yeah they tend to divide and conquer and I just feel like beat to patient have been a lot stronger how many I was the B2K put out we put out a lot of product in such a in a short time span but really two studio albums a soundtrack

that was considered an album or at least counted towards an, two remix albums and some DVDs. So we kept a lot of content out, which I thought was pretty cool and pretty unique for B2K. Just to supply the demand. And I say this in closing, just growing older in the business, you have to understand the business aspect of it. You know what I'm saying? We love music, but for the most part, you have to understand the business aspect of the business.

And when you understand that, then you can really benefit from it. You know, for example, you had a company that invested, I don't know, millions of dollars, let's say over 10, 15 million, 20 million dollars into my brand. I'm still Razzby to this day. So, you know, I mean,

whether they make money off me, which they still do to this day, you know, and I still make money too from my previous work. You know, you got to be thankful for the opportunity you got. And that's why I want to encourage a lot of artists to not, you know, and I still make money too from my previous work, you know, you got to be thankful for the opportunity you got. And that's why I want to encourage a lot of artists to not, you know, not bash these investors that are part of a company that are shareholders because they don't want to

lose money either. Yeah. But they're taking a risk on someone they don't know if it's going to happen or not happen. Yeah. It's very risky. You just got to like, you know, get in the door, you know, and, in the door and work your way to the top. I mean, we've seen a lot of artists from the Jay-Z's to the Kanye's to Nick Cannon's and so on and so forth.

Bringing up Nick Cannon. I met you somehow through your magazine because somebody wanted to connect me for a fucking interview with you. And you were doing some stuff. You think it was that? I think Nick Cannon was one of your partners or something in the magazine. Yeah, he was my business partner. And I think you were, I don't know. It was definitely around the Celebrity High era.

Something around there. Okay, so I know we're going to close out this interview soon, but so you're riding the wave. I got to take you back on your roller coaster. Go, go. So now the group disbands. You blow through pretty much all your money. What? As he licks the bowl, guys, this is Raz.

By the way, in truest form, if you don't know Raz, this is Raz in his truest form, okay? Fuck you talking about. This is good, by the way. This is like probably one of the most realest and funniest people. I call him at whatever. Yes, I just poured it. I call him at whatever time and super real. I would tell you more details, but it may be too much.

So you come down off the wave, okay? B2K, Dismant, you don't have a lot of money. So what is your thinking process now? That's a good question. So during that time, you have to say to yourself, like, you have to remember who you are what you've accomplished regardless if you are still trying to figure out your business trying to collect royalties that are owed to you you don't have that money at the moment mm-hmm so you gotta go figure this shit out mm-hmm the fact that beats you can't sustain a big enough brand I was still

able to you know get bookings 10 grand here here, 5 grand here. So that was cool. So you're like an entrepreneur. You're selling yourself? Oh yeah, completely, because I'm my own commodity. So I always knew how to create opportunities that I can bring value to as an entrepreneur, as a businessman, as an executive. I always create opportunities, even if it wasn't me on the

forefront. A lot of people want to be like, well, it's either me on the forefront or not. No, if Razzby can come in and add value and help broker a deal and do this and do that, and I can slide myself in there, or whether I get a little shine or I drop here, bro, take that role. Some people didn't really take time to learn the business. I took time to learn the business, so I've always been able to sustain myself. Even on a bad year, I'm still doing six figures. So how did you end up in China? Because, by the way, I went looking for you.

You, like, disappeared. And then I was like, oh, he's in China. But this was before. That was crazy. I mean, you know, during the breakup, you know, BJK was still super hot, right? So you're still at all the parties and still connected and networking. It's all about how you handle your network. Your network is your network. Your net worth, they say, right?

There's some truth to that. NBA Entertainment League, for those that are in the industry and you know about the NBA Entertainment League, you know it was this place where us celebrities would go and we would play

in our own version of the NBA-y. Okay. Right? So there's a lot of big networking going over there. For example, one of my guys, he's like, yo, how would you like to perform at the Great Wall of China?

I said, huh? I said, what? And he sent me over a letter of intent. It was a company called BTV Communications. They wound up hooking up with Hal Uplinger, who produced the Live Aid concert. So this was like some huge shit. I tried to get the boys to be a part of it,

but they weren't really interested, or maybe they couldn't hear me, or there was just a lot of stuff going on. So that didn't go through. It fell through. They put out press releases. I was going to be a part of the show. I was the events use ambassador.

I was going to host the show. And last minute they were telling me, yo, get your deal done, get your deal done. Because they're going to they're running out of money and they're going to sell the show to another promoter. And he may not want to honor the deal that we had previously. They want him to honor the deal that we had previously they wind up not honoring that deal i wind up calling a really big lawyer and putting out a boycott letter which hit them hard which brought them back to the table to negotiate you got to play the hard ball sometime you'd play a lot of hardball by the way you got to but it got them i bought one of the biggest lawyers. He was actually Chinese and American. It was pretty cool how I did this one.

And, you know, some people, you can bring a lawyer and they can sell out or they cannot sell out. Some lawyers partner up with each other and they cash a check and they tell you whatever, right? But I felt like I found someone that really understood what I was trying to accomplish. He worked out a deal where I could still go, but I couldn't bring all the people, because I was supposed to perform, all the dancers, all the people that I promised and talked about we were going, and all the money. They didn't want to pay me. And I was like, fuck that deal.

I don't want to go. You didn't honor what you said. Kick your ball over. But I regret it, because I would have been in someone's history books 100 years from now, from hosting the first concert at the Great Wall of China. Yeah. That sparked an interest. Someone hit me up four years later about an opportunity to go to China.

Okay. As soon as it happened. Let me turn it one more time. Listen, I love you, too. As soon as it happened, as soon as I got that message, because I was sad, bro. I was on fucking 106th and Park telling everybody I was going to China. Like, that's embarrassing.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to tell you. And it don't happen. My uncle's like, yo, if it be in God's will, you'll go back. Got that message on Facebook. Went to China,

never looked back. Okay, awesome. So then, how, so, it's, what I love about you too is, Like, I was like, fuck it.

You like disappeared and then you popped up on social media and then you're already dominating on social media really fast. Like, I love when you pop into a comment section

and everybody gets all excited. Oh, shit, Raz is in the comments. You know what I'm talking about, right? You know what I'm talking about, right? You know what I'm talking about, right? You know what I'm talking about, right? Eatin' my brother. What's up, y'all?

This is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it.

Make sure you check it out. Hey, y'all. Niminy here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop. Flash, slam, another one gone. Bash, bam, another one gone. The crack of the bat and another one gone.

The tip of the cap is another one gone. Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history. Like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records. Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show,

where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run

and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, they kind of get excited. Like, oh, shit, what's Raz going to say now? I've been very vocal and I've been holding back with a lot of restraints because I've been doing a lot of work on myself. And I just really just, you know, I have a lot to say.

Yeah. And I'm not afraid to say it. But I think that excites people though. I see people get really excited. They be like, you know, the eyeball emojis, like, oh shit. Yeah, nah, I mean, you know, for real, it's like, I feel like I have the short end of the stick with the B2K deal. I feel like, you know, they decided to go on Mariano solo. I feel like I would have been the better bet.

Real talk. There's no shade on Mariano. I just feel like I would have been the better bet. You know, because there's a lot of things, a lot of qualities that I have that I feel like, you know, it takes to sustain a solo career. He's done very well for what he's been given. I just feel like I never had that opportunity. And I feel like what I've done, I took the long road to carve out the space that I have now,

which brings me to Bad Boys Season 2. Bad Boys. Which is the hottest network in town, Zoos Network. This is your baby. This is your creation. Well, no, this is not my creation. This is Natalie Nunn's creation

and Lemmy and the Zeus Network's creation. Okay, okay. I'm just happy to be able to be a producer on it and to be a star on the show. Okay. With that being said, I feel like this is a great opportunity because this show is so huge. You know what I mean? It's in everyone's face when it comes to our culture. So I feel like they'll be able to have this opportunity to be on the show.

I'm excited to see. We just dropped the trailer today, so I'm excited to see the outcome from this because it was definitely an experience in an environment that I've never experienced before. But I say to say that I'm still relevant. After I came back from China, I brought the money to the table. I brought the trademark. I created the Millennium Tour that caused this nostalgic wave that took all these Millennium

Tour 1, Millennium Tour 2. So I'm a part of that. So I'm, I don't want to say a puppet master, but I'm in the back creating and cultivating and producing deals. That's where I'm at now. I'm a modern day mogul. You know what I'm saying? I'm an executive in this industry and I'm here to bring and give opportunities to those because I understand what it's

like to not have. I understand what it's like to go through the drought. I understand, you know, what it's like to be broke. I'm going to lick my fucking plate again. Speaking of all that, one of the things I wanted to ask you is do you feel like there's added pressure? Why? What kind of pressure? Added pressure to have money

being that you are a star? I definitely think there's pressure. As a star, you're like, I would never go to work at Target. You would never go back. Boy, you put so much salaries. You put way too much lorries on that. But do you feel like there's mad pressure

on you to, like, maintain a certain level of income or to even stay relevant? Because I... Hell yeah! Even working with Nick. Nick went through a rollercoaster, too. Of course. Hell yeah! Hell yeah! Because some people

try to say they don't care about what people think, but people judge you based off of how you took care of yourself. From your nails to your hair to how you manage your money, how you move and stuff like that. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, but you always want to be solid in your own shit. You know what I'm saying? And despite what people say, they may not say it but they still they kind of move a little interesting around you based off of how they appear because you're

pulling up in a motherfucking a ventador a five hundred thousand on a car and you gotta not that you have to have this i'm not saying you know i'm saying there's a lot of very wealthy people that i know yeah that don't do none of that stuff right yeah? Yeah. To each his own, you know what I'm saying? I think you need to be wealthy and calm and whole in your spirit, and you can move and walk through anything. Yeah. Well, I've been in this game for quite some time,

and the people that continually pop up to stay relevant, like Nick or yourself, you guys work your asses off. You know what I'm saying? And I always tell people, like, whenever I'm like, you know, I think I'm working hard, I'm like, ain't nobody working hard as Nick Cannon. Because I remember people chiefing up in the studio being like, you know, I just want this from Nick. And I'd be like, that nigga has like 10 jobs. You guys are sitting in the studio smoking up. Like, what are you talking about?

You know, it depends how you want it. Like, for me, I've been very, like... I wanted B2K to happen. It took me 16 years to put the group back together. Like I said earlier, securing the trademark, securing the money. I wanted it to happen. I willed it back together. Me, the things that I felt that was taken from me,

this is life. You got to go take it for yourself. I went out and just got it. Okay, cool. Somebody did this to me or they said this or that. Cool, cool. Take the hits. So don't ever look at me as a victim. I'm just saying this is me 10 toes down, staying on my own journey. Fuck what niggas is talking about.

Guess what? You really want this smoke? You can really get it if you really, really want it. But guess what? You're really not worth it. So I'm going to focus my energy over here because you a bitch ass nigga. That's why I feel deep down inside about energies that are like, but this is directed towards any low level frequency energy

that is not high vibrational that is allowing for me to manifest and create and continue to travel with the earth. What advice, signing out, what advice would you give to anybody

that has made it dipped and they're currently in their dip state? You know, there's tons of people in the industry that are You know, be real with yourself. Be real with yourself. Transparency

is super key. Really, really understand where you're at and be honest with yourself. When you're honest with yourself, you can say, okay, this is where I'm fucked up at. This is where I need to share this. This is where I need to move this. Because you have to be able to make adjustments. Like live in your truth.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't live in like. In the fantasy world of like likes and Instagram. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example. I've been living. I make a lot of money because I just know how to hustle. Right.

So I still maintain and live the lifestyle. I splurge. You can ask my girl. I splurge and I live because I just know how to make money. But imagine if I didn't splurge. You can ask my girl. I splurge and I live because I just know how to make money. But imagine if I didn't splurge so much, right? Imagine if I, you know, maybe probably cut down on certain areas. We talk about this. And imagine if you cut down on certain areas and start applying certain things.

You just got to be real with yourself and where you see yourself. Because at the end of the day, you're the master of your own destiny, right? So you're going to either build some dope shit or you're going to fall to the wayside. It depends how bad you want it. So what are you willing to sacrifice for that? So anyone out there that's been through it, it's like, yo, nigga, you've been around. What do you want to make out of it? Yeah.

So, I mean, I had to come to that sense with myself. So that's when I started making better decisions, better financial situations. Financial situations? Not situations. Financial situations? Not situations. You have to make decisions, better financial decisions. Decisions, okay. You know what I'm saying?

In regards to, as well as better friendships. You know, who can you allow to be around you? Yeah. Who can come to your work environment? Who's going to help you?

Who's going to hinder this? Like, as much as I love my brother, you just did an interview with Orlando that I set up up for you but like for example you know my brother as much as i love my brother he's not the one that can be around my business this is my own blood yeah you understand what i'm gonna tell you right you can't have people around that's going to do what drain you or be negative. Dim your light. All of the above. Anything negative. After being rich and being broke, are you afraid of ever being broke again? Oh, I'm so afraid of being broke again.

I mean, I've made so many decisions. But your confidence is so high. No, I'm always making money. But seriously, it's better to have that cushion and have that stability. Yeah. So when the famine does come, you feel me? You can sit back and- Okay, okay.

It's cool. You can coast a little bit. Yeah. I literally just bought some glasses for a photo shoot, spent about $995 on these glasses and took them hoes back the next day. Okay? Amen. You know what I'm saying?

Okay, okay. I found my other iPads, my iPods that I was looking for that I couldn't find. The ones I just bought, you can bring them back in two weeks. I got that $3.69 back. Or was it $2.69? And by the way, I took your speaker, which I use every day. It was a gift. It was a gift.

It was a gift. Let's go. Let's just talk about Bad Boys and where people can keep up with you and catch up with you so we can close out and get you on a plane. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's about that time. Yeah. No, I'm really, really excited. We just dropped the trailer today for Bad Boys season two, Texas. Executive produced by Natalie Nunn. Shout out to Zeus and Lemmy and LJ and the whole team over there that produced a phenomenal show. Like I said earlier, that produced a phenomenal show. Like I said earlier, it was a hostile environment.

For me, it was something different. But through my mental strengthness and my anger management skills, I was able to sustain myself as much as possible. But let me tell you this. These motherfuckers is crazy. It sounded like craziness. No, these motherfuckers is crazy. And I just feel like just being Raz B, you already come in with a target on your back. You know what I mean? And I'm there to try to like, yo, how can we take this thing to the next level?

How can we build a brand? And I feel like we somewhat accomplished that. And I feel like there's more seasons to come. So, you know, I want everybody to subscribe and tune in and check out your boy Raz B, you know, and support the production because they definitely spent a lot of money over there. Yeah. And then also you can keep up with Raz online on Instagram

if you really want an entertaining day. You'll see him dipping in out of comments and you will smile. I promise you, whenever I see you in a comment section,

I'm like, let's get it. Raz B underscore B2K. It's your boy signing off. Make sure you subscribe, bad boys. You know what I'm saying? Eating while we broke.

Eating while broke. And you will, I'll get an updated eating while broke dish because his ramen is probably not going to make it in the cookbook. So we're going to get an updated dish. We got some work to do. On his dish for the cookbook. But thank you so much for coming and spending time with me. This is fun.

Thank you. And hooking up. Shout outs to Raz for our Orlando Brown interview. Hey, we're producing everywhere. Yes, yes. So I'll see you. She's determined. She's determined about her business.

Like she flew out to make sure she got her interviews. With my toddler. With my toddler. I don't know how you made that happen, but you did that. And then I'll see you in Atlanta. Hopefully. U42, let's go. Yes, U42.

Lock in. U42. U42. U42. U42 is the future of content creators owning 100% of their content and being able to monetize at 100%. It's the coolest shit you've ever seen and it's on a decentralized platform on the Ethereum blockchain.

Some shit you've never heard of. Tune in. Y-O-U-4-2.com. Check it out, guys. Peace. For more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.